Annually millions of people admire the Great Smoky Mountains National Park's primeval beauty - towering peaks, sparkling cascades, virgin forests, and remarkable variety of wildflowers and shrubs. One of the nation's most popular national parks did not just "come to be" a logical and natural development on federally-owned land. Instead, it was the first national park to be acquired from private owners and given by the people to the federal government. Establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park climaxed an unprecedented crusade that is a story of almost fanatic dedication to a cause, as well as one of frustration, despair, political bias, and even physical violence.

Illustrated Guide to Great Smoky Mountains National Park includes information about various sections of the park, history, caves, waterfalls, streams, trails, the Cherokee, museums, synchronous fireflies, railroads, bicycle riding, water-powered mills, cabins, animal life including salamanders, plant life including wildflowers, moonshine, camping, fishing, horseback riding, and other topics illustrated with photographs and poster art.

This special expanded third edition of Horace Kephart's classic work on the people of Southern Appalachia has been completely re-typeset and includes a new introduction by writer George Ellison. This edition also includes eight articles written by Horace Kephart and published after the previous edition on such topics as moonshiners, rifle-making, mountain culture, and the proposed Great Smoky Mountains National Park. All told, readers will find over 100 pages of new material not included in any of the book's previous editions.

Seeking a taste of unspoiled wilderness, more than eight million people visit the Great Smoky Mountains National Park each year. Yet few probably realize what makes the park unusual: it was the result of efforts to reclaim wilderness rather than to protect undeveloped land. The Smokies have, in fact, been a human habitat for 8,000 years, and that contact has molded the landscape as surely as natural forces have. In this book, Daniel S. Pierce examines land use in the Smokies over the centuries, describing the pageant of peoples who have inhabited these mountains and then focusing on the twentieth-century movement to create a national park. Drawing on previously unexplored archival materials, Pierce presents the most balanced account available of the development of the park. He tells how park supporters set about raising money to buy the land--often from resistant timber companies--and describes the fierce infighting between wilderness advocates and tourism boosters over the shape the park would take. He also discloses the unfortunate human cost of the park's creation: the displacement of the area's inhabitants. Pierce is especially insightful regarding the often-neglected history of the park since 1945. He looks at the problems caused by roadbuilding, tree blight, and air pollution that becomes trapped in the mountains' natural haze. He also provides astute assessments of the Cades Cove restoration, the Fontana Lake road construction, and other recent developments involving the park. Full of outstanding photographs and boasting a breadth of coverage unmatched in other books of its kind, The Great Smokies will help visitors better appreciate the wilderness experience they have sought. Pierce's account makes us more aware of humanity's long interaction with the land while capturing the spirit of those idealistic environmentalists who realized their vision to protect it. The Author: Daniel S. Pierce teaches in the department of history and the humanities program at the University of North Carolina, Asheville, and is a contributor to The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture.

One of the most accessible of the country’s national parks, Great Smoky Mountains NP is by far the most visited--averaging some 10 million visitors each year (for comparison, Grand Canyon NP averages 5.5 million annually). It covers 814 square miles in Tennessee and North Carolina. The park offers a wide variety of outdoor activities for the visitor: great hiking and camping, scenic driving routes, wildlife watching, stunning photography opportunities, paddling, fishing, climbing, and streamside rambling, as well as a number of historic sites. Highlights of a visit to the park include: Climbing Clingmans Dome Fabulous Vistas at Cades Cove Wildlife Watching at Roaring Fork Photographing Grotto Falls Rafting Pigeon River Exploring Elkmont Ghost Town Camping at Cataloochee Picnicking at the Chimneys Fishing Little River Solitude of Upper Tremont Road Biking the Loop Road

Cades Cove The Life and Death of a Southern Appalachian Community, 1818-1937 Durwood Dunn Winner of the Thomas Wolfe Literary Award! Drawing on a rich trove of documents never before available to scholars, the author sketches the early pioneers, their daily lives, their beliefs, and their struggles to survive and prosper in this isolated mountain community, now within the confines of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In moving detail this book brings to life an isolated mountain community, its struggle to survive, and the tragedy of its demise. "Professor Dunn provides us with a model historical investigation of a southern mountain community. His findings on commercial farming, family, religion, and politics will challenge many standard interpretations of the Appalachian past." --Gordon B. McKinney, Western Carolina University. "This is a fine book. . . . It is mostly about community and interrelationships, and thus it refutes much of the literature that presents Southern Mountaineers as individualistic, irreligious, violent, and unlawful." --Loyal Jones, Appalachian Heritage. "Dunn . . . has written one of the best books ever produced about the Southern mountains." --Virginia Quarterly Review. "This study offers the first detailed analysis of a remote southern Appalachian community in the nineteenth century. It should lay to rest older images of the region as isolated and static, but it raises new questions about the nature of that premodern community." --Ronald D Eller, American Historical Review Not only is his book a worthy addition to the growing body of work recognizing the complexities of southern mountain society; it is also a lively testament to the value of local history and the variety of levels at which it can provide significant enlightenment." --John C. Inscoe,LOCUS

Highlighted here is the most visited park in the United States. Captures the picturesque history of the region, its wildlife, its flora, and its endangered species.