Menu
National Park Adventures & History
-
A Sweet Harvest Tradition Returns
Not so long ago, many farming families in Southern Appalachia celebrated the long-anticipated arrival of the harvest season with a special treat: fresh sorghum syrup.
Today, thousands still flock to see the syrup-making process and get a taste of the sweet stuff when Mark and Sherry Guenther of Muddy Pond Sorghum host their seasonal
Read more...
-
North Shore Decoration Days Continue Thanks to Park Staff
Bone Valley. Bradshaw. Higdon. Proctor. Hall. These are just a few of the names that grace more than 20 cemeteries in Great Smoky Mountains National Park that are only accessible by boat. Today, pilgrims from this region and from all over the country are transported to these special burial sites — some extremely remote —
Read more...
-
Asheville Renovator Breathes New Life into Cataloochee Structures
Back in the late winter of 2016, avid cyclist Sean Perry was feeling burned out on biking. With spring just around the corner, he took a break from his Trek Superfly hardtail and began a new regimen of long runs after work into Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
“I would go in the Smokies, primarily Cataloochee, and do these
Read more...
-
Family-Friendly Walks in the Smokies: Historic Walking Tours
Great Smoky Mountains National Park offers more than a dozen family-friendly nature and historic walking trails. They’re perfect for a quick walk in the woods to see the park’s flora, fauna, and remnants of the past.
This is the third in a three-part series of blog posts describing these trails.
In my previous blogs, I covered
Read more...
-
Appalachian Studies Association honors ‘Sepia Tones’ series with e-Appalachia Award
On Thursday, March 17, Great Smoky Mountains Association’s ongoing podcast miniseries, Sepia Tones: Exploring Black Appalachian Music, was recognized with the e-Appalachia Award at the 45th Annual Appalachian Studies Association Conference.
The e-Appalachia Award is given annually in recognition of an outstanding media source that
Read more...
-
Full moon and cloudy sky can play tricks
By Charlene Shiver
Marketing and Membership Associate
Saturday, 9:32 p.m. – A dark shadow slowly made its way across the scarred floor of the old church….
Read more... -
Gatlinburg’s Artist Community in New Smokies Life
The idea for a series of stories about artists in park gateway communities came to us via Kathie Thomas of Gatlinburg’s HighLand Craft Gallery. Her objective was simple: share about the crafts of local families whose artisan heritage stretches back to pre-park days. I loved the idea and enlisted Sue Wasserman to do the research and writing.
Read more... -
Cucumber Gap Loop inspires parental guidance
By Karek Key
I had just come off of a really bad and frustrating weekend of parenting. It was Labor Day, and we had way too many plans and stretched ourselves way too thin. After a lot of stimulation and not enough sleep, it all exploded on Monday. Whining, tears and mysteriously vanished listening skills all resulted in me overreacting and yelling. All in all, we were not at our best selves.
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... -
Little Sluice of Heaven: A tiny sliver of the A.T.
By Lisa Duff
Memorial Day Monday found me with a mild case of cabin fever, which was a bit strange since CF is typically a wintertime ailment. What happened was this: I’d successfully managed to add a few at-home days to the end of my vacation to allow for ease of real-world re-entry, and Monday, as it turned out, was one day too many.
Read more...
