Limited Construction Traffic Closed Section of Foothills Parkway
Great Smoky Mountains National Park managers are advising recreational users of the 9-mile unopened portion of the Foothills Parkway east of Walland,Tenn. to watch out for vehicles from November 12 through December 22. The section is popular with hikers, cyclists and horseback riders who have had the unopened gravel road to themselves. During the next six weeks these users can expect to encounter construction vehicles each Monday through Friday while a Park contractor does some core drilling at the far eastern end of the roadway.
Smoky Mountains National Park Electronic Field Trip
On November 3rd the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will broadcast an electronic field trip to millions of students. The 60 minute program will air via satellite, cable, and web cast from 10-11a.m. and 1-2p.m. on November 3rd.
Using technology and an interactive web site, www.smokymountainseft.org. Teachers and students can visit the web site now, to prepare for the electronic field trip through six learning modules with interactive games, video podcasts, and lesson plans. Schools can still register to participate on the web site.
Once registered, explore the park’s biodiversity of plants and animals. During the live broadcast times, students can call in or email questions to a group of experts from the park.
Local 6th through 8th grade students from East Tennessee and Western North Carolina auditioned and will participate as student talent working with Park Rangers during the broadcast.
In a downed economy, this appears to be one of the commendable uses of technology to maximize education while cutting costs to school administration participation. BRAVO ZULO to those behind this project!
Smoky Mountains National Park Closes Foothills Parkway
Great Smoky Mountains National Park plans to close the Foothills Parkway East in Cocke County, TN from I-40 to Cosby, overnight on Tuesday Sept. 22 and Wednesday Sept. 23. Closures will begin at 8:00 p.m. both nights with the road re-opened by 7:00 a.m. the folowing day. The closure is being imposed to allow an engineering consultant to drill a series of core samples through the pavement to be used to develop plans to re-pave the Road. The road will be closed with Variable Message Signs stating ROAD CLOSED AHEAD at each end of the parkway (Intersection with Interstate 40 and Intersection with 321 in Cosby).
For details contact Bob Miller, Park Spokesman, Great Smoky Mountains National Park(865) 436-1207.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
These eastern mountains are nestled in the juncture of Tennessee and North Carolina. Shrouded with lush forests they form a near constant bluish mist. Just after rains and on very cool days they present white fluffy clouds of many shapes and sizes.
Long before white explorers called them the Smokies, the Cherokee who made their home in the mountains described them as shaconage, or blue, like smoke.
In its 75th year as a national park, with a full slate of activities in and around it to mark the anniversary, it remains the most visited of all national parks, with some 9 million guests each year. It is also the Nation’s only FREE (no cost to visit) National Park.
One of only a handful of free national parks, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited of all (nine million visitors in 2008). The park, by design, is a major economic engine for the region, and many of its visitors land for a while in Pigeon Forge.
The park is one of the most biologically diverse spots in the world, with some 100 species of native trees, more than 200 species of birds, 66 mammals (including lungless salamanders), 50 native fish species, 39 varieties of reptiles and 43 species of amphibians.
Almost 95 percent of the park is forested, and about 25 percent of that area is old-growth forest – one of the largest blocks of deciduous, temperate, old-growth forest remaining in North America. More than 1,500 additional flowering plant species have been identified in the park.
Many come to drive the winding 35-mile stretch of highway linking the Oconaluftee Visitor Center on the park’s southern boundary, adjacent to the Cherokee Indian Reservation, to the Sugarlands Visitor Center on the northern edge, adjacent to the family action packed cities of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.
Several visitors to the park choose to camp or hike the park’s scenic paths and trails - including a long section of the Appalachian Trail - or trace the history of early mountain settlers by visiting some of the park’s nearly 80 historic buildings (many are located at Cades Cove). There is also fishing, biking, picnicking, photo opportunities, and more.
The Great Smoky Mountains are among the highest peaks in the Appalachian Range. Human habitation goes back more than 10,000 years. The Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation, which had moved south from Iroquoian lands in New England, long used the land for their agricultural-based lifestyle and were on hand when Hernando De Soto led an expedition through the region in 1540.
Later, white settlers arrived in ever increasing numbers, and inevitably, conflicts with the Cherokee followed; in 1830 President Andrew Jackson signed the Removal Act, ordering all Indian people east of the Mississippi River to move to Oklahoma, and the resulting forced march of some 13,000 Cherokee along what became known as the Trail of Tears led to terrible loss of life. It was not until 1889 that a reservation for about 1,000 Cherokee - today the population exceeds 10,000 - was created along what is now the park’s southern border.
Unlike in western states where parks like Yellowstone had been developed out of vast tracts of land already owned by the federal government, the land that was envisioned for Smoky Mountains National Park was largely in private hands. Settlers had moved into the mountains in the mid-19th century to log its rich forested hillsides; as many as 15 company towns and sawmills were built, while other settlers fashioned farms from the cut over land and made rough homes for their families.
As early as 1904, a librarian from St. Louis, Horace Kephart, came to the Smokies to restore his health and was appalled that large-scale logging was drastically changing the nature of the land. He began promoting the Smokies as a national park, a cause taken up by others in later years, especially when lumber companies began deserting the mountains for new forests in the West. As it happened, the National Park Service, which had been created in 1916, was looking for parklands in eastern states, and the concept of a park in the Smokies was appealing.
Still, the federal government was leery of investing heavily in land repurchases for park use, which largely left the heavy lifting to the states of Tennessee and North Carolina. In the end, the federal government gave $2 million, John D. Rockefeller Jr. contributed $5 million, and the bordering states ponied up millions more to acquire more than 6,000 private tracts to make up the park’s 520,000 acres. The land was then donated to the federal government - though some people living within park borders were given lifetime leases - and on June 15, 1934, the national park was officially established. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt dedicated the park from the Rockefeller Memorial, a stone platform built by Civilian Conservation Corps workers at the park’s Newfound Gap, at an elevation of just over 5,000 feet.
There plenty stunning views in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, though. The highest spot in the Smokies at 6,634 feet is Clingman’s Dome. Mount LeConte, the park’s third-highest peak, is a popular spot with hikers and horseback riders who come for its wilderness feel and views of rocky outcroppings. Its unnecessary to climb or ride to find scenic delights.
The park’s many historic buildings offer history lessons, from the milling of corn and wheat at Mingus Mill to the living history demonstrations found along the 11-mile Cades Cove Loop Road, where 19 stops at log cabins, churches, a working grist mill, and other buildings illustrate life for the early settlers.
At the southern entrance, Oconaluftee is home to the Mountain Farm Museum, which keeps alive 19th-century farm buildings and equipment. From spring through October, costumed interpreters demonstrate such necessary skills as blacksmithing, milling and the making of sorghum molasses.
On Sept. 2, there will be a rededication ceremony at Newfound Gap to mark this year’s 75th birthday. In addition, local communities are observing the birthday with more than 100 events throughout the year. Among other events, the historic Smoky Mountains Hiking Club will hike 75 miles of trails to celebrate the 75th anniversary.
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