News
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The Fireflies’ Last Hoorah
Just because there is no lottery event this year doesn’t mean the lights have to go out on firefly viewing
By Frances Figart with image by Radim Schreiber
What happens if a firefly flashes in the Smokies and there’s no one there to see it? You might guess, as I did, that a break from the crowds would help strengthen the firefly
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Image for the Asking: Lichen Tectonics
Rock Breaks Scissors, Lichen Eats Rock
Story and image by Don McGowan
One of the great wonders of our world is the capacity of a simple organism, lichen, to perform amazing feats.
To set the stage for understanding lichen, we need to back up, way up, to a time some 500 million (that’s half of a billion) years ago, when the oldest rocks
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After Thought: Evan O. Hall, an Original Genius
By George Ellison
Back in the late 18th century and throughout the 19th century, America specialized as a nation in producing a special breed of citizen popularly categorized as an “original genius”; that is, they were folks self-reliant, indefatigable, and exceeding clever when it came to improvising and making do with little
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Video feature: How You Can Be #SmokiesSafe
By Valerie Polk, GSMA Videographer and Publications Associate
When Great Smoky Mountains National Park asked GSMA for help with a video message about their gradual return to operations, our answer was "Yes, we can!"
If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it has been that we can work around challenges, we just have to get creative. So, in
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Writer NOT in Residence: Where Rugged and Tender Meet in the Middle
Story and images by Sue Wasserman
When my niece was a tiny tot, I could always count on her to say, “Be careful of the woots and wocks” whenever we set out on a trail. While her squeaky tones made me chuckle, her advice was sound.
One of the things I appreciate most about hiking is the often-rugged terrain that challenges me in
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The Other Horace
By Ben Anderson
Horace Kephart is remembered for being an ardent and effective advocate of a Smokies national park—an important role most recently and thoroughly explored in Back of Beyond, a Kephart biography by Janet McCue and George Ellison. But there was another Horace who was more directly involved in the actual shaping of the park:
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Permanent Camp: Fringe Tree
By George Ellison, with illustration by Elizabeth Ellison
“If the fringe tree has no economic importance, it contributes to the higher things of life: a raving beauty when in mid-spring it is loaded up from top to bottom with the airiest, most ethereal yet showy flowers boasted by any member of our northern phyla.”
~Donald
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Give it Up FOR THE BIRDS Part 2: This is an Amazing Birding Weekend—So Get Out There!
By Frances Figart, Creative Services Director
In Part 1 of this two-part series, we learned about some of the birds people have been seeing near and around the park during this amazing spring migration. Learning the calls of the birds you like makes it easier to find them.
There is a peculiar metallic squeak (“kick” or “
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Give it Up FOR THE BIRDS Part 1: Get Ready for an Amazing Birding Weekend
By Frances Figart, Creative Services Director
This time of year, I give up my last few hours of good sleep to get up before sunrise and go outside to watch—and listen to—birds. It may sound like a big sacrifice, but the dividends are great.
This past week, I was rewarded with a sighting of one of my favorites, the impossibly
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Making a List and Checking it Twice
By Emma DuFort, Publications Specialist
If you keep a bird feeder in your yard, or know someone who does, you probably know that keeping track of which birds appear is a fun and popular pastime. But it doesn’t have to stop at the bird feeder—it can be very rewarding to familiarize yourself with all the kinds of flora and fauna
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