Welcome to Great Smoky Mountain National
Park
The Great Smoky National Park was
authorised by the US Congress in 1926 and
was created from land in both North Carolina
and the state of Tennessee.
Unlike other American National Parks which were formed
from existing Government land, the land that formed the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park actually was comprised
of land that belonged to Private Individuals or Companies.
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The Mountainsides and Forest were a goldmine for
Logging Companies who raped and pillaged their
way across the landscape until it was calculated
that approximately 65 percent of the available
forest had been logged. The knock on effect of
this was that the farms and the farmland that
was created by this deforestation existed
primarily to support and feed the loggers.
The other hidden and not so hidden consequence
of logging was the destruction of the natural
habitat for the resident wildlife and the
absence of tress and any forest cover induced
widespread erosion which in turn clogged streams
with sediment and reduced the opportunity of the
land to replenish itself.
The bottom line in all of this is that without
the support of wealthy individuals and
benefactors such as John D Rockefeller Jr who
contributed nearly $5 million towards the
purchase of the land, the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park would not have become a reality.
Other notable supporters and “influencers /
fans” included the Historian Horace Kephart who
came up with the initial idea of preserving the
Smokies as a National park after visiting the
area for his health.
After much haggling back and fore, the Federal
Government finally obtained the land and
proclaimed a national park on June 15th 1934.
The Park comprises some 520.197 acres of land
roughly split along the 70 miles of the eastern
Tennessee – western North Carolina Border.
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Cabin Rentals |
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Smoky Mountain
Background |
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Ridge upon ridge of endless
forest straddles the border between North Carolina
and Tennessee in Great Smoky Mountains National Park |
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Accessibility |
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Great Smoky Mountains
National Park is a wild lands sanctuary preserving
the world’s finest examples of plant and animal
diversity in a temperate deciduous forest. |
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Facilities |
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Parking Permits information, amphitheatre access and
information about Autotours |
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