The Asheville, North Carolina Chamber of Commerce NATIONAL PARK SERVICE AS In an effort to appease both wilderness advocates and DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF promoted construction of a "Skyway" along the crest of road proponents, GRSM Superintendent George Fry Highways in Harmony the Smokies in 1932. The proposed road would run along MEDIATOR proposed six smaller wilderness areas rather than the two GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS Q 1 US 5 Si^tS § < -s sit J the ridge of the mountains much like Shenandoah's The debate between road proponents and wilderness larger ones promoted by the Smoky Mountains Hiking ROADS & BRIDGES Skyline Drive. In July of that year GRSM officials advocates continued to influence road building in GRSM Club. Most importantly, Fry situated these six tracts so as Thousand of years of geological change and erosion have Grant Siijui: y announced that the Park would go ahead with this project, during the post World War II era. This is most evident in to leave a swath of undesignated land running up and over shaped the Great Smoky Mountains, which are and in November and December the Bureau of Public the controversy over the proposed Northshore Road that the crest of the Smokies to allow construction of a 32-mile characterized by high mountain peaks, steep hillsides, Muiiniiiinz Roads inspected the proposed route. was to run along Fontana Lake from Bryson City to motor road connecting Townsend, Tennessee with Bryson deep river valleys, and fertile coves. This difficult terrain Fontana Dam. According to a 1943 agreement, the City, North Carolina. This "Transmountain Highway," and underlying bedrock presented numerous challenges i Jaiiau&l Fart In response to such actions, in 1934 a local lawyer named National Park Service agreed to construct a new road Fry believed, would not only relieve congestion along for the designer of the roads in Great Smoky Mountains Harvey Broome invited Marshall and McKaye to within park boundaries along the north shore of Fontana Newfound Gap Road but would also appeal to North North Carolina, Tennessee National Park. J. Ross Eakin, the park's first Knoxville, Tennessee to organize opposition to the Lake in order to replace North Carolina Highway 288, Carolinians by serving as a substitute for the troubled Superintendent, once wrote, "to secure good [road] construction of several proposed highways along the portions of which were flooded when the TVA Northshore Road project. Although this attempt at alignment along our mountain sides will require likirpi IJ-S Sill** Above: Bear Jam in the Great Smokies, ca.1950 (GKSM) Appalachian divide, including the Skyway. At the meeting constructed the dam near Fontana during World War II. compromise between wilderness advocates and road tremendous cuts and fills, "thereby creating " a terrible the three men agreed to mail an "Invitation to Help In October of 1947 the Park Service began building a proponents never got off the drawing board, the mediating KSrHiiS I'ill 1^.:* WILDERNESS HALTS PARK ROAD scar" on the roadsides. Organize a Group to Preserve the American Wilderness" short section of this motorway. influence of the Park Service continued to guide the »- sS ^ o^t •§•§•* I 3 S o = & CONSTRUCTION to those known to be concerned. This mailing resulted in development of GRSM motor roads right down to the Attempting to avoid as much scarring as possible, While the National Park Service was making Newfound the founding one year later of the Wilderness Society, one When Congress passed the Wilderness Act in 1964, the present. Similar controversies between the environment designers like Charles E. Peterson employed the use of Gap Road more scenic, others advocating the of the nation's leading environmental organizations, and it completion of the Northshore Road was thrown into and park access continue to delay the completion of tunnels, bridges, and retaining and revetment walls. preservation of wild areas also began influencing the also led to the defeat of the proposed Skyway along the doubt. According to this law, the federal government Foohthills Parkway, begun in 1951, to relieve park traffic. Tunnels cut through ridges, bridges spanned the numerous motor road system of GRSM. The notion that wilderness crest of the Smokies. could protect public land from all future development, Above: from left; Superintendent .1. Ross Eakin. streams and rivers, revetment was worth preserving emerged in the United States including road construction, by designating such land Arthur P. Miller. Charles E. Peterson. O.G. Taylor, and retaining walls were during the 1920s, largely due to the efforts of Aldo "wilderness" and adding it to the National Wilderness and John Needham on a survey of the park's contracted to hold back Leopold. As an employee of the U.S. Forest Service, Preservation System. Wilderness designation could thus boundary. 1931 (GRSM) fill and prevent stream Leopold worked tirelessly to convince both his superiors kill the Northshore Road project. erosion and the and the nation at large that wilderness was essential to Left: Drawing of the construction stages revegetation of roadsides American culture and thus should be protected from In 1965 GRSM became the nation's first testing ground used to build the Elkmonl Vehicle Bridge. controlled erosion and development. for the Wilderness Act. In that year the federal government held public hearings in Gatlinburg, Tennessee reduced visible road scars. Using all of these methods, Leopold's wilderness philosophy soon found advocates to assess public opinion concerning wilderness designation designers were able to create within the federal government and society at large. Robert in GRSM. Two factions dominated the local hearings. some of the most pleasurable Marshall, Director of the Forestry Division of the U.S. On the one hand were hikers, conservationists and and scenic roads in the national Office of Indian Affairs, and Benton McKaye, a regional Above: Protest sign erected at outdoor enthusiasts represented by the Smoky Mountains the beginning of uncompleted park system. planner for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the Hiking Club. This group proposed the designation of two Northshore Road. 1996 (HAER) Below: Elkmonl Vehicle bridge during originator of the Appalachian Trail concept, both promoted large wilderness areas covering approximately three- Right: Rock slides continue to fourths of the national park. The other contingent hailed construction by the Civilian Conservation the preservation of undeveloped areas during the early plague Foothills Parkway and Corps, ca.1934 (GRSM) 1930s. Such ideas also spread to the Smokies during this from the North Carolina side of the Smokies and opposed other roads, illustrating the Above: The Gatlinburg Spur of Foothills Parkway period, just as the Park Service proposed additional road any wilderness designation for fear that it would end once fragile environmental conditions runs along the Little Pigeon River. 1996 (HAER) construction projects in GRSM. of the area. (GRSM) and for all construction of the Northshore Road. Timeline continued ... &1 Work began on the President Franklin D. U.S. enters WWII. The Fontana Dam is Park Service begins Construction of the National Park Construction of the Wilderness Act Park Service Foothills Parkway Great Smoky Loop Over on Newfound Gap Road from Chimney Tops. Laurel Creek Road in Roosevelt officially National Park Service completed and begins constructing the Foothills Parkway Service begins signed into law recommends all work incomplete, but Mountains National Roaring Fork Motor 1937 (GRSM Monthly Report) October which runs dedicates Great withdraws the CCC operation. Northshore Road and began when Mission 66, a Nature Trail begins. by Congress. on the Foothills planning continues Park Roads and fromTownsend Wye Smoky Mountains from the Great Smokies. completes a one mile engineers broke program to improve One of the major Parkway be halted in for completion. Bridges are to Cades Cove. National Park. section at Fontana ground on the park infrastructure. projects of Mission order to review documented by NPS Dam. "Gatlinburg Spur." 66 in Great Smoky environmental Historic American Mountains National concerns. Engineering Record. Park. had followed into the region. Soon they also began AUTO TOURISM IN GREAT SMOKY While many present-day visitors recognize that PRE-PARK TRANSPORTATION SYTEMS ROAD BOOSTERS PROMOTE A PARK South. Believing that improved motorways would finally SCENIC MOTORWAYS AND Although the Park Service constructed several mountain motorways greatly influence their park experience, most The motor roads of GRSM did not simply materialize with constructing new wagon roads throughout the Smokies so MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK The movement to establish a national park in the Great propel the region into the national economic mainstream, roads during the early 1930s in eastern parks such as are unaware that the history of GRSM has always been the establishment of the park in 1934. Long before they could visit with neighbors, attend school and religious NEWFOUND GAP ROAD Smoky Mountains was intimately linked to road Southerners, including members of the Knoxville Skyline Drive in Shenandoah and Cadillac Mountain Road intimately linked to the history of its roads. Not only was tourists began motoring over Newfound Gap and causing services, and transport herds of cattle and wagon-loads of In 1926 the National Park Service entered into a Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GRSM) has boosterism. The so-called "father of the park movement," Automobile Club, advocated numerous road-building in Acadia, none posed the technical challenges of the campaign to establish the park led by road boosters, traffic jams in Cades Cove, American Indians, European produce to distant markets in Maryville, Knoxville, and cooperative agreement with the Department of always been famous for its biological and scenic Willis Davis, was not only on the board of directors of the projects. Although particularly appealing to those living in Newfound Gap Road in the Smokies. BPR engineers but the debate over road construction in the Smokies settlers and logging companies created sophisticated beyond. The present-day road system in the Cades Cove Agriculture's Bureau of Public Roads (BPR), to develop a diversity. Yet rather than experience this natural Knoxville Automobile Club but first promoted the idea of the regions of Western North Carolina and East Tennessee reconstructed large portions of the existing road, originally became the pivotal issue influencing subsequent park transportation networks throughout the mountains that area dates from this era. systematic approach for future road building in the abundance first hand, most visitors see much of it from a national park in the Smokies at an Automobile Club with primitive roads, the high cost of constructing roads built during the 1920s by Tennessee and North Carolina, development. Visitors can enhance their park experience would greatly influence the future motor roads of GRSM. national parks. Under this agreement, BPR engineers their automobiles for only short periods of time. For meeting in 1923. Members of the car club responded by through the Smoky Mountains kept road building in this to make it safer for motorists. For instance, to eliminate by better understanding the very motor roads they are provided technical expertise for road construction while example, more than 70 percent of the recreational creating the Smoky Mountains Conservation Association area at a minimum, even during the height of the "Good sharp curves and steep grades the Bureau constructed a driving upon. Early on, Indians blazed an intricate system of footpaths Park Service landscape designers ensured the roads' activities undertaken in the park are pursued within a to publicize and coordinate the campaign, and elected Roads" movement. loop-over structure in 1934 to replace two switchbacks, across the Great Smokies. This process continued when aesthetic qualities. The result was a naturalistic method of stone's throw of a roadway. For every hour spent Willis Davis as its president. and added a second tunnel and several bridges in 1936. the Cherokee, a branch of the Iroquois nation, migrated to construction, often called "rustic," that involved the behind the wheel, visitors spend only eight minutes Left: Visitors enjoy the view Along with wanting to protect the Smokies from the at Cling/nans Dome parking the region more than one thousand years ago from the careful positioning of road alignments in relationship to outside their cars. Approximately 16 percent, or one in Knoxville road boosters were not alone in their desires or onslaught of loggers, Willis Davis and others As important as the technical improvements made by area, 1959.(GRSMI Boucher) upper Ohio River. To link their two principal trails running natural topography and scenery and minimizing scars six visitors, never even turn off their engines during their actions. The local campaign was part of national and also viewed the national park as a Bureau engineers to Newfound Gap Road were the Below: Automobile on parallel to one another on either side of the Smokies, the caused by construction. Such an approach ideally suited visit to the Smokies. regional trends taking place during the 1920s that also means of encouraging tourism through aesthetic changes undertaken by the National Park Clingmans Dome Road, Cherokee cut three footpaths directly across the the needs of park road designers, making it possible for encouraged the creation of GRSM. Nationwide, the road development. For many park Service's landscape designers. In general such changes 1952. (GRSM/Rowe) mountains. The Cataloochee Trail, the Tuckaleechee-and- them to uphold the twofold policy of the National Park development of mass-produced automobiles was resulting promoters tourism, road took two forms. First, the road was reconstructed so as Southeastern Trail, and the Indian Gap Trail were each Service: to provide public access to national parks while in cheaper prices and a correlating increase in automobile construction, and the creation to provide motor tourists with even better access to the used for hunting, for socializing with kinfolk, and, on some preserving their resources and scenery. ownership. During this time the need for good roads of GRSM were three Park's breathtaking mountain scenery. Park Service occasions, for making war. All three footpaths also laid became one of the primary political and civic issues in the aspects of the same landscape architects accomplished this through a variety the foundation for future park roads including the desire for economic of means, the most important of which was the scenic Cataloochee Valley Road, the Laurel Creek Road near Above: Locomotive No. 145 steams up the Little River Gorge. expansion in the Smoky parking area or overlook. The second set of scenic Cades Cove, and Newfound Gap Road. ca. 1909-1914. The present Little River Road was constructed Mountain region. improvements were aimed at making Newfound Gap over this right of way in 1952. (GRSM/Joe Murphy, Jr.) Road itself more aesthetically pleasing. By using native construction materials and extensively landscaping road Unlike early settlers, loggers sought out the more cuts and shoulders with native flora, the Park Service inaccessible land within the Smokies. Here, where no was able to blend Newfound Gap Road in with its natural farmer had cleared, sown or harvested, they found one of surroundings. the greatest virgin deciduous forests on earth. Timber firms such as the Little River Lumber Company began cutting in Above: Mountain Road 1901 and by the mid 1930s had logged approximately 85 Left: A popular through the Great Smoky percent of what would become the national park. To tourist attraction Mountains, ca. 1936. Above: Drawing illustrating present day road system in transport this timber from forest to mill, timber companies in itself, the Loop (GRSM/Grant) Cades Cove. relied on an elaborate system of logging railroads, some of Over on Newfound Gap As did their predecessors, early white settlers also traveled which eventually became park motor roads. The Little Above: Park boosters attending a meeting on March 6, 1925 Right Motorists in Cades Road replaced a extensively throughout the mountains. Those settling River Road on the Tennessee side of the park and the when a $5 million gift for the Laura Spellman Rockefeller Cove capture their auto Balsam Mountain-Heintooga Road in North Carolina were Memorial was announced, Willis P. Davis is second from left dangerous tour on film, ca.1950. during the 1820s and 1830s in Cataloochee and Cades Above: President Franklin D. Roosevelt officially Above: View of the Newfound Gap Parking Area from switchback. both constructed atop old railroad beds. in the front row. 1928 (National Park Service) (GRSMIBoucher) Cove first widened the Cherokee footpaths they dedicates Great Smoky Mountains National Park at the Laura Rockefeller Memorial, 1952. (Rowe) (GRSM. 1950s) Spellman Rockefeller Memorial. 1940. (GRSMIWhile) Timeline and development of Great Smokv Mountains National Park Roads and Bridaes MM North American Cherokee settle in Louisiana Purchase. Oconaluftee Turnpike ovei The construction of North Carolina Little River Lumber Little River Lumber Willis Davis launches Congress passes the Tennessee begins its Tennessee constructs First CCC camp in Great Smoky Wilderness Society continent strikes southern Appalachia Indian Gap constructed Parson Branch Road was Legislature authorizes company establishes company builds a promotional campaign bill authorizing the part of the road over Little River Great Smoky Mountains National established in part by African continent connecting the north and authorized by the county the continuation of the the first major logging standard gauge rail for a national park in the creation of Great Smoky construction of the Railroad right-of-way Mountains National Park offically Harvey Broome, Robert and uplifts the south sides of the Smoky courts Cataloochee Turnpike operation in what would road from Townsend Smokies at Knoxville Mountains National Park. Indian Gap Highway. to accomodate Park developed established. Marshal and Bernard Appalachian Ridge. Mountains. throuth Mt. Sterling become Great Smoky up the west prong Automobile Club board NPS, Bureau of Public automobile traffic along Laurel Creek Frak. Contruction of the and Davenport gaps Mountains National of the Little River to meeting on October 22. Roads cooperative between Townsend in Tennessee. Loop Over completed. down to Big Creek Park. Crib Gap. agreement signed. and Elkmont. and Cosby, Tennessee.