Watauga Democrat. [volume] (Boone, Watauga County, N.C.) 1888-current, 1925-11-05
JOIN HANDS IN
PARK MOVEMENT
States of North Carolina and Tenne-
see Get Together in Interest of
Smoky Mountain National Park.

Asheville, November 3.---With the
creation by Congress of a National
Park in the Great Smoky Mountains
of Eastern Tennessee and Western
North Carolsna as their objective
the two states primarily Interested in
the project, North Carolina and Ten
nessee, have joined hands to make
the park a reality. During the past
week, the organizations which have
been working separately toward the
same end have organized joint com
mittee, which will coordinate their
efforts. Col. D. C. Chapman of Knox
vile, prime mover in the endeavor
to save the Great Smokes from the
ravages of the loggers, has been ma
med Chairman of the Interstate Com
mittee, and State Senator Plato D..
Ebbs of Asheville, Secretary. The
immediate good of the two organiza-
tions, the Great Smoky Mountain
Conservation Association Of Tenne4
see, and the North Carolina Park
Commission, is to obtain funds to pur
chase at least part of the area to
be set aside as a park. The goal set
by the Interstate Executive Campaign
Committee is one million dollars to
be raised in the two states. An in
tensive campaign for North Caro-
lina's share is scheduled to begin
late in November. Tennessee's work
will begin intensively ON December
7th. Campaign offices have been op-
ened in each state. Asheville is the
base of operations in North Carolina
and headquarters have been estah-
lished at the rooms of the Ashevilie
Chamber of Commerce. At Knoxville
where the Tennessee campaign will
be centered, offices have been opened
in the headquarters of The Knoxville
Automobile Club.
The sponsors of the movement to
acquire the Park are speeding up thir
efforts TO have a National Park ere
ated before the mountains in the
park area ore further de-
nuded of their forests. The timber
which hold the bulk of the
park lands, are rapidly encrOaching
on the primeval forests of the Great
regarded by botanists as the
most remarkable examples of fores-
tation in the western hemisphere.
Unless these sections are soon set
aside for Park, it is regarded as
inevitable that the beauty of the
with their uneXampled va
riety of shrubs and trees will be de-
spoiled by the invading loggers.
The area of the proposed park is
minimum of 5000 acres.
The State of Tennessee through its
State Legislature has authorized the
purchase of $4,000 acres. 1t is hoped
that funds will be raised in the COM
ing interstate campaign to purchase
several hundred thousand acres more
and that the interest of the nation
can be reused to provide funds for
the balance, or that Congress may
make appropriation for that purpose.
The park area, as tentatively PLAN
ned is located within the confines OF
Sewer, Monroe, Cooke and Blount
Counties of Tennessee, and Swain,
Graham and Haywood Counties OF
North Carolina.
The establishment of the Great
Smokes as National Park has the ap-
proval of Secretary of Interior, un-
der whose direction the National
Parks are administered. A Federal
Park Commission, appointed by Sec
retarv Work to select sites for Ma
tional Park in the Southern Appala-
chians, reported that of the sections
visited the Great Smokes "easily
stand first because of the height of
mountains, depth of valleys, rugged
ness of area, and unexampled variety
variety of trees, shrubs and plants" +"
Under an act of Congress, approved
by President Coolidge Feb. Fl, 1928
appointment of commission was
authorized whose duties were to set
the boundaries of such portions of the
Great Smoky Mountains as were de-
sirable for park purposes, to receive
definite offers of land and money,
and obtain options on park lands.
An appropriation of $4,000 for the
work of the commission has been au-
thorized, and approved by the Pres
ident and the Budget Bureau. The
Commission which is at work IN
mapping the boundaries of the pro-
posed Great Smoky Mountains Park
is headed by Representative H. w.
Ton,plo Of PonnSvlvania and ic made