The Great Smoky Mountains National Park

by Steve Cotham

Overview

Great Smoky Mountains National Park has some of the highest, oldest, and most picturesque mountain peaks and ridges in the United States. Discover its history.

Its mountains, rivers, and scenic gorges constitute a formidable barrier between Tennessee and North Carolina. The struggle to acquire the land for the park from 10 large lumber companies and hundreds of small landholders started in 1923 and lasted more than 15 years. More than half of the 500,000 acres acquired for the park had been logged before the park's dedication in 1940, but thousands of acres of old growth forest still survive. One of the most biologically diverse regions in North America-with thousands of species of plant and animal life, including 125 species of native trees-the park was designated an International Biosphere Reserve by the United Nations in 1976 and a World Heritage Site in 1983.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738543499
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	12/06/2006
Series:	Images of America Series
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	1,058,062
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.31(d)

About the Author

The most important source for the photographs included inthis book was the work of Knoxville photographer James E. (Jim) Thompson, whose photographs of the Great Smoky Mountains are credited with helping to persuade Congress to authorize the creation of the park. Steve Cotham, author of Two Centuries of Knox County, Tennessee: A Celebration in Photographs, is the manager of the East Tennessee History Center's Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     6
Introduction     7
Early Settlement of the Great Smoky Mountains     9
The Cherokees of Qualla     15
Logging in the Great Smoky Mountains     25
The People of the Mountains     37
Early Tourism in the Mountains     51
Elkmont, the Appalachian Club, and Wonderland Park     63
The Movement to Create the Great Smoky Mountains National Park     77
Vanished Communities of the Great Smoky Mountains     95
Gatlinburg     105
The Dedication of the Park and the Years After     117