News
-
Can you hear me now? Telephones in the Smokies
If you’ve ever tried to make a call from your cell phone in the Smokies, you know how nearly impossible it can be. If you don’t have the right service provider or if you’re not standing in exactly the right magical spot, you can’t get a signal for love or money. What if I told you that in the 1890s, if you were in Cades Cove at least, you could have made a phone call as simply as picking up a telephone receiver and turning a hand crank?
Read more... -
Park Superintendent Recognizes First African American Naturalist
Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Cassius Cash on Thursday, August 29,had the unique opportunity to meet and recognize Dr. Joe Lee of Jupiter, FL, for his service as the first African American park naturalist. Superintendent Cash presented Dr. Lee with a mounted ranger hat in honor of his contribution to the history of the National Park Service.
Read more... -
My first backpacking trip will not be my last
By Logan Boldon
Member Events Specialist
When I think of the ultimate backpacker, Samwise Gamgee from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings series immediately comes to mind. This stout little hobbit who’d never left the Shire made it all the way to Mordor toting a simple rucksack. With pots and pans clanging, Sam climbed over mountains and waded through swamps, camping out along the way with enough fortitude to give lectures on the goodness of potatoes and contemplate the taste of strawberries as the world turned to chaos over a silly little ring. Who can compete with that? Certainly not me.
Read more... -
Science at Sugarlands: Post-fire Plant-Soil Interactions
By Frances Figart, creative services director
Soil is the foundation of our planet. We walk on top of it every day, yet most of us rarely think about it.
Read more... -
Upcoming Winter Park Closures Due to Roadwork
Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials announced that the main access roads into Cades Cove and Cataloochee will be closed for several months this winter for road construction projects.
Read more... -
Genealogical Research Collection Donated to Park
Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials are pleased to announce the addition of a new research collection to the park archives. The Donald Bruce Reagan Genealogical Collection is now available to aid genealogists in researching their family history.
Read more... -
Sorghum-making demonstrations return to the Smokies
As the days grow shorter and the leaves begin to change, it can only mean one thing – it’s sorghum making time in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Read more... -
Family Heirlooms Come Back to the Smokies
Great Smoky Mountains National Park recently received a priceless donation of Cades Cove artifacts to the museum collections. The great-granddaughter of Dan and Sidney Lawson, Robin Derryberry of Chattanooga, TN, donated a chest of drawers, family Bible, wedding portraits, and other family photographs to the National Park Service for longterm preservation at the National Park Service Collections Preservation Center in Townsend, TN.
Read more... -
GSMA set to release its fourth album of traditional American music
Big Bend Killing: The Appalachian Ballad Tradition celebrates Appalachia’s rich legacy of songs that tell stories, a tradition traceable to the British Isles. Big Bend Killing features 32 new recordings of traditional ballads by leading UK- and American-roots music luminaries, including Rosanne Cash, Doyle Lawson, Archie Fisher, Alice Gerrard, Sheila Kay Adams, Martin Simpson, Jody Stecher, Kate Brislin, David Holt, John Lilly, Elizabeth LaPrelle, Amythyst Kiah, and Laura Boosinger with the Kruger Brothers.
“This album offers 32 remarkable ballad performances, 31 of which have never been released,” said Ted Olson, professor of Appalachian Studies and Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Country Music Studies at East Tennessee State University and the album’s producer. “Our goal with this album is to encourage people – young and old – to recognize the enduring beauty of these often overlooked narrative songs, and our hope is that more people will sing these and other ballads so that the tradition won’t fade away."
Read more... -
The Road that Led Around the World
By Mike Aday
What do Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Ethiopia, Panama and Alaska have in common? They can all boast major roads built by one man, Knoxville native John L. Humbard. Well, technically, a lot of men were involved, but Humbard supervised them all.
Read more...