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Tag: History
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Trailside Talk: Boughs of Balsam
Visitors to hotels sometimes grumble about the quality of the beds in their rooms. Mattresses are too hard, or maybe too soft. Pillows are too bouncy, or too flat. Fitted sheets won’t stay put.
Perhaps surprisingly, some aspects of snoozing became an official topic of discussion in the Smokies even before the park was officially
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Trailside Talk: Words from FDR
Although there are amazing places to visit along the trails of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and visual wonders deep in the backcountry, one of the most dynamic spots to put one’s feet is only a few yards from a heavily traveled roadway.
At Newfound Gap, generally considered the “center” of the Smokies, you can stand in
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Podcast Series Reveals African American Influence on Southern Appalachian Music
By Frances Figart, Creative Services Director
“It’s not a Black music and it’s not a White music. It’s a music that was basically played together.”
This observation is one of many kernels of wisdom offered up by fiddler Earl White, who is Black, on a new podcast series produced in the Smokies that is helping to
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Trailside Talk: Reports from the Rangers
Ranger giving information at kiosk. Photo courtesy of GSMNP archives.
By Mike Hembree
How much has Great Smoky Mountains National Park changed over the past half-century?
A lot. And not much at all.
The trees are bigger. The streams are wider and deeper. River rocks grow a tiny bit smoother with each passing storm. Parts
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Mountain Time: “The Green Tunnel” Through the Smokies
By Arthur “Butch” McDade
The Appalachian Trail (AT) is an iconic American long-distance path. In Great Smoky Mountains National Park, it runs over 70 miles along the park’s high ridges and gaps, including Clingmans Dome, the highest point on the AT. For many hikers, it’s the premier trail in the park. And while the
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Trailside Talk: A Last Ride With Dad
Story by Mike Hembree
In his later years, my father showed considerable interest in things of his past: his service in World War II, the first car he owned (a Chevrolet, of course), and the cattle he raised, largely as a hobby.
For most of his 87 years, he talked little of the past, particularly avoiding the war years. Like many of his
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Anne Davis: Mother of the Park
Anyone who has studied the history surrounding Great Smoky Mountains National Park likely knows the monumental effort it took to establish the park, and the many individuals whose voices and actions made it all possible. Perhaps one of the most important—and oft overlooked—founders of GSMNP is Anne Davis, who has been credited as the first to suggest establishing a national park in the Smokies.
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Sepia Tones, A New Podcast Series Exploring Black Appalachian Music
by Ted Olson
The lockdown summer of 2020 was a difficult time in the United States. The coronavirus pandemic surged, contentious election campaigns exacerbated growing political divisions, and protests of police killings brought about a national reckoning over entrenched racial and socioeconomic inequalities.
While the first two issues
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Mountain Time: Harvey Broome
By Arthur “Butch” McDade
In his Out Under the Sky of the Great Smokies—A Personal Journal, Harvey Broome wrote: “I have never wanted to leave the top of a mountain.” That sentiment permeated his productive life as a lawyer, hiker, conservationist, and co-founder of The Wilderness Society. A guiding principle in
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Mountain Time: John Muir’s Lonely Way
By Arthur “Butch” McDade
Renowned conservationist John Muir never set foot in the highlands that became Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but he made an epic trek through the Unicoi Mountains south of the Smokies in 1867, and he visited the highlands of Roan Mountain along the TN/NC border in 1898. So, he’d seen the
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