The Coolidge examiner., 1937-06-10


"HE l 500 species of Towering
plants that blossom before
June 1 are spreading their
color over the slopes Of the
Great Smoky mountains.
Haze -shrouded, the Great Smoky
mountains dominate the horizon OF
eastern Tennessee.
Visitors often are amazed to find
such lofty, wild, and unspolled
mountains straddling the Tennes-
see-North Carolina state line.
In 1923, when public-spirited men
and women of the two states or
ganized to encompass soaring
heights and plunging valleys in
national park, even the mountain
eers, grandchildren of pioneers who
had braved the arrows of cunning
Cherokees, had not explored the
whole area.
Adventurous hikers who did in
wade the mountains found the un-
dergrowth so thick in places that
they had to chop their way through
it with an ak.
A few naturalists and surveyors
visited parts of the Smokes. Hunt
ers sought their quarry amid the
stately trees and dense cover that
sheltered bears, deer, and numer-
Gus smaller animals.
q
tried to penetrate the wilderness,
and lumbermen, with dynamite,
axes and saws, pushed their roads
and railroads only as far as the
most recent cutting.
To business men Of eastern Ten
nessee and western North Carolina,
the Great Smokes long were a
trade barrier. No road leaped the
rugged ridge along which the state
line rambles for II miles. Com
merce east and west in this latitude
still moves around either end of the
mountains, but the barrier" now is
an asset as the Great Smoky Noun
tains National park.
Life There Was Primitive.
A few years ago it took more than
a week to go to Knoxville and re-
turn to the cabins in the hills.
In those days there was little rea-
son for the mountaineer to leave the
mountains. A few sheep supplied
wool for clothing and the mountain
woman was an adept spinner and
weaver.
When cows and oxen became use
less and were dispatched, shoes
were made of their hides. Bears,
deer, and birds, brought down with
five-foot rifles or caught in traps,
supplied the family meat platter.
"Sweetnin'" was produced from
sorghum.
Nearly all the land in the Great
Smokes was privately owned when
the park movement was initiated.
Arrangements had to be made for
its purchase before the land could
be turned over to the national park
service for development. An inten-
sive money-raising campaign was
planned. Private subscriptions ag-
gregated $1,000,000 Appropriations
by the adjoining states brought the
fund to $5,000,000.
But this was only one-half the
funds required. The campaignerS
for many months sought vainly for
the other half. Then John D. Rookie
feller, Jr., announced that the
Laura Spelnan Rockefeller Mem
orial would match dollar for dollar
any money raised in the campaign.
In 1926 congress authorized the
establishment of the Great Smoky
Mountains National park on condi-
ton that the citizens of Tennessee
and North Carolina present 427, 900
acres of acceptable land in one SOL
id tract, the acreage to be equally
divided between the two states. Of
ficials who had investigated were
enthusiastic
Mature is at her choicest there"
they reported.
Development Of the area as a
national playground began, and to-
day the thousand resident families
have shrunk to about four hundred.
Highways Are Being Built.
For six years now government
agencies under the supervision of
the national park service have been
building roads and trails and re.
stocking forests and streams.
The work is just begun. Only sew
enty miles of high-standard roads,
twenty-five miles of secondary
roads, and fewer than 600 miles of
trails have been completed. Yet
for the last three years this infant
of our national park system, not yet
dedicated, has been attracting more
visitors than any other of our 25
national parks.
Less than a mile east of Gatlin-
burg, Tennessee, a white and green
sign announces the boundary of the
Great Smoky Mountains National
park.
At the end of long curve, short
distance beyond, the highway forks.