#1 Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The first national park we will explore is the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is located within the states of North Carolina and Tennessee at the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains and sees more visitors every year than any other national park—9 million.

HISTORY

This region was originally inhabited by the Cherokee people, but they were forced west in the 1830s. This event is known as "The Trail of Tears."

Those European settlers who lived in the area in the late 1800s and early 1900s lived off the land. They built their houses from the trees in the region and hunted for and planted their own food.

When the logging industry came to the area in the early 1900s, it didn't take long before those living there were heavily reliant on things that were manufactured and food bought in grocery stores instead of being self-sufficient. The industry, also, was decimating the forests. In 1934, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established to preserve the remaining woodlands from destruction. Those living here were forced to move. (Does anybody else notice the irony?)

More than 70 structures that were left behind when the inhabitants were evicted have been preserved. Great Smoky Mountains National Park has the largest collection of historic log buildings in the eastern part of the country.

Some of the folks responsible for championing the cause of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park were David Chapman, Ann Davis, Paul Fink, Horace Kephart, George Masa, Ben Morton, Mark Squires, Jim Thompson, and Charles A. Webb.

View some historical photos here.

Learn more about the people responsible here.

NATURE

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park covers 800 square miles. There have been more than 17,000 documented species, including 66 kinds of mammals, 67 fish species, 39 reptiles, 43 amphibians, 200 types of birds, and 100 native species of trees. One species of mammal present in the park is the American Black Bear. This is actually the symbol of the Smoky Mountains. This area is also home to white-tailed deer, coyotes, foxes, bobcats, bats, deer mice, otters, wolves, shrew, and more.

If you want to find out more about the specific animals and plants that live in this park, visit the National Park animal page.

ACTIVITIES

If you are able to visit the park, there are numerous programs available. However, if a visit is not in the near future, consider participating in one of the distance learning programs. These include learning about current research projects and electronic field trips.

Park visitors can participate in the Junior Ranger program, if they are between the ages of 5 and 12. Booklets can be purchased in person and online. Kids can complete the activities in the book to earn a badge.

Other activities that the whole family can enjoy include touring the park in your car. The visitors' center has inexpensive booklets that help to guide the way, as well as numbered posts and landmarks along the way. You can also purchase them online before your trip. Bicycling is a wonderful activity in the park. There are many trails and roadways that allow for a view of the landscape and historical structures that are present throughout the park. There is a road within the park, Cades Cove Loop Road, that is closed to vehicular traffic on Wednesday and Saturday mornings until 10 a.m. so that bicycles need to be concerned with cars. There are no trails specific to mountain biking here, however.

If you're looking to spend some time in the park, camping is an option. If your idea of camping is hiking to a remote location and sleeping under the stars and using the nearest tree as the necessary, Great Smoky Mountains National Park has some rules and regulations. Permits are also required. They want to know you are out there, but they don't want to know you've been there. In other words, they want you to leave the park in better shape than what you found it. The same goes for those who choose to pitch a tent or drive their RV to the front country where there are electric hookups and bathrooms with showers available. There are 10 separate campgrounds located within Great Smoky Mountains National Park. View a map to see where they are located in relation to other points of interest within the park. Each campground has a different number of sites, a slightly different elevation, a different season length, and different restrictions on RV length.

Consider fishing, hiking, picnicking, and watching the wildlife. From mid-March through late November, horseback riding is available at four different locations within the park. The guided trail rides last 45 minutes to a few hours and start at a rate of $30 per hour. You can even bring your own horse. Hayrides and wagon rides are available as well.

Besides the beautiful panoramas that are offered throughout the park, visitors can trek inside to view one of the many waterfalls. The park receives an average rainfall of 85 inches per year. That means that this rain flows down the mountainside and fills the rivers and streams, creating an abundant flow of water to spill over the falls. There are a couple of waterfalls that can be reached by car.

The park offers various workshops and classes for grade-school kids through adults. Some of the programs have a fee associated with them. Call the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont at 865-448-6709 or the Smoky Mountain Field School at 865-974-0150 to find out what classes are being offered and how much they cost.

I hope you have enjoyed this look at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The number of activities and beautiful scenery make this a wonderful vacation spot for a weekend, a week, or just a get away for the day.

If there is something else you'd like to see in these national park posts, please let me know. If you have pictures you'd be willing to share, please also let me know that. I haven't been to too many of the parks to share my own photos.



BOOKS

Your Guide to Great Smoky Mountains National Park'

Great Smoky Mountains National Park (National Geographic: Trails Illustrated Map #229) (National Geographic Maps: Trails Illustrated)

Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Thirty Years of American Landscapes

Top Trails: Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Must-Do Hikes for Everyone

References:

http://www.nps.gov/grsm/historyculture/people.htm

50 States: North Carolina

NORTH CAROLINA

Explored by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1587, North Carolina became our 12th state on November 21, 1789. The colony was named to honor King Charles I, and the very first English Colony in America was Roanoke.  It vanished, leaving behind only the word 'Croatoan' carved into a tree.  The capital of NC (postal abbreviation) is Raleigh, named in honor of the explorer.  

North Carolina is the 28th biggest state with more than 9.7 million people living here as of 2012.  People who live here are called North Carolinians.  Some famous people born in NC include John Coltrane, Howard Cosell, Dale Earnhardt, Billy Graham, U.S. President Andrew Johnson, Chales Kuralt, Sugar Ray Leonard, Dolley Madison, Thelonious Monk, Richard Petty, Kelly Pickler, U.S. President James Polk, William Sydney Porter (O. Henry), Randy Travis, and Thomas Wolfe.

North Carolina's nickname is the Tar Heel State.  This comes from the fact that the state's forests supplied tar and pitch for Navy ships in the 1700s.  A number of different sources called the people 'tar boilers,' but this was used in a derogatory sense.  During the Civil War, these people were called 'Tar Heels,' again in a derogatory sense.  By 1893, the people of the state were beginning to take pride in the name, and a group of University of North Carolina students entitled their newspaper, "The Tar Heels."

The major industries are tobacco and poultry farming, textiles, and furniture.  High Point, NC, is called 'The Furniture Capital of the World.'  NC is also the largest supplier of sweet potatoes in the U.S.

This state's motto is "Esse Quam Vederi" and means "To Be Rather Than to Seem."  

The state symbols are as follows:

Bird - Cardinal

Mammal - Gray Squirrel

Dog - Plott hound

Reptile - Eastern Box Turtle

Fish - Channel bass

Flower - Flowering dogwood

Tree - Longleaf Pine

Vegetable - Sweet Potato

Rock - Granite

Precious Stone - Emerald

Colors - Red and blue

Beverage - Milk

North Carolina adopted its flag in 1885. There is a white star on the left with the letters, NC, to the sides of it.  The date of May 20th 1775, which is on a yellow ribbon above the star, commemorates the signing of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.  This county is where, it is said, North Carolinians met to declare their freedom from Great Britain. The date on the lower banner, April 12th 1776, is in remembrance of the Halifax Resolves.  This document authorized delegates from North Carolina to attend the Continental Congress.  It was the first official action by a colony in the quest for independence.

Some other interesting events in North Carolina's history include the Wright Brothers making the first successful powered flight in 1903 near Kitty Hawk.  Krispy Kreme Doughnut was founded in Winston-Salem.  Miniature golf was invented in Fayetteville.  Pepsi was first invented in New Bern in 1898.  Wendell Town was named in honor of Oliver Wendell Holmes, the famous American writer.

North Carolina is a southern state with a beautiful coastline and majestic mountain ranges.  Many of the forests have become national parks and can be visited year round with different activities each season.  Some places of natural beauty that can be visited are The Outer Banks, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Grandfather Mountain, Chimney Rock State Park, Crystal Coast, and Cape Hatteras.  Attractions and historic landmarks are prevalent as well, such as Carowinds Amusement Park, USS North Carolina, Tweetsie Railroad Theme Park, NASCAR Hall of Fame, Ghost Town in the Sky theme park, Billy Graham Library, Fort Fisher, and the Biltmore Estate in Ashville.

Play some games and test your North Carolina knowledge.

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13 Colonies: North Carolina By Roberta Wiener & James Arnold / Heinemann Raintree What were the "Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina"? When did North and South Carolina officially become two separate colonies? Why was North Carolina's coast favored by pirates? This book details the history of the colony, beginning with the decisions made in Europe to explore and settle the Americas, followed by a description of the land and its inhabitants as they appeared to the first Europeans arrivals. Each book in this series includes: maps, timeline, glossary, index, and sources for further research. Softcover, 64 pages. Ages 4-8.

Voices from Colonial America: North Carolina 1524-1776 By Matthew C Cannavale / Random House, Inc

Orville Wright: The Flyer By Janet Benge & Geoff Benge / YWAM Publishing The Heroes of History series chronicles the true stories of fascinating men and women who changed the course of history.  When Orville Wright and his brother, Wilbur, set out to solve the problem of flight, they recognized that success would come with careful observation, perseverance, and ingenuity. From experiments in their Dayton, Ohio, bicycle shop to test flights over the beaches of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the amateur aviation enthusiasts risked their lives and worked tirelessly to solve the problems that had stumped the world's best scientists. For ages 10 and up.

Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs / Penguin Classics A haunting, evocative recounting of her life as a slave in North Carolina and of her final escape and emancipation, Harriet Jacob's classic narrative, written between 1853 and 1858 and published pseudonymously in 1861, tells firsthand of the horrors inflicted on slaves. In writing this extraordinary memoir, which culminates in the seven years she spent hiding in a crawl space in her grandmother's attic, Jacobs skillfully used the literary genres of her time, presenting a thoroughly feminist narrative that portrays the evils and traumas of slavery, particularly for women and children. Now with an introduction by renowned historian Nell Irvin Painter, this edition also includes "A True Tale of Slavery," the brief memoir of Harriet Jacob's brother, John S. Jacobs, originally published in a London periodical in 1861.

Cape Hatteras: America's Lighthouse By Thomas Yocum, Bruce Roberts & Cheryl Shelton-Roberts / Cumberland House Publishing For centuries the dangerous waters of North Carolina's Outer Banks have grounded or sunk hundreds of ships. Seafarers needed a strong point of reference to navigate the area successfully, and for the last 130 years, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse has been the most-recognized, most-photographed, most-painted, most-visited, most-read-about, and most-admired lighthouse in North America. One of the most daunting engineering tasks imaginable has been undertaken to save the lighthouse and move it safely to a new foundation 1,600 feet inland from its original site. To commemorate this event, the authors have prepared Cape Hatteras: America's Lighthouse as a tribute to the stone sentinel, describing the vast history of the lighthouse and investing it with texture and depth. The text is illustrated in full color and with more than 100 black-and-white photographs and historical diagrams.

Exploring Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout National Seashores By Globe Pequot

Exploring Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout National Seashores By Globe Pequot

Smokey Mountain High: The Consuming Passion of Cecil Brown By Frank & Duracher / Crest Books Cecil Brown, a missionary from Hurricane Creek, NC, was a legend in her own time. Against all odds, she brought the gospel to the backwoods of the Tar Heel state, where many people had never read the Bible or heard a sermon preached before.

Making Bent Willow Furniture By Workman Publishing It's easy to make rustic bent willow furnishings for indoors and out. Brenda and Brian Cameron share techniques and instructions for projects, such as a quilt ladder, plant stand, hanging basket, chair, porch swing, headboard, and more. A Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club's Country Homes & Gardens Club. Paperback, 139 pages.

Daily Devotions for Die-Hard Fans: North Carolina Tar Heels By Ed McMinn / Extra Point Publishers Daily Devotions for Die-Hard Fans: North Carolina Tar Heels combines the passion of the Tar Heel fan with the passion of the Christian life to create a unique 90-day devotional. Researched and written by former pastor and journalist Ed McMinn, you'll read stories about your favorite team and players and learn spiritual lessons at the same time.

The Outer Banks Cookbook, 2nd: Recipes & Traditions from North Carolina's Barrier Islands By Elizabeth Wiegand / Globe Pequot

Food Lovers' Guide to North Carolina's Outer Banks: The Best Restaurants, Markets & Local Culinary Offerings By Elizabeth Wiegand / Globe Pequot

Coming Home: The North Carolina Outer Banks By Sally Nixon Haines & Sally Nixon Haines / Tate Publishing & Enterprises

The Reason for My Hope: Salvation By Billy Graham / Thomas Nelson For more than 70 years Dr. Billy Graham has shared the Gospel with the world. He's presented the truth about Jesus Christ to millions and sought to draw hearts closer to faith.  Now, in what may be his last book, he shares this same life-changing message. In The Reason for My Hope: Salvation, Graham calls the world back to its spiritual priority, to consider our lives now and the hereafter with sober reflection. Filled with new stories and enduring truth, Graham invites all who will to follow the Savior and discover a faith that saves.

Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well By Billy Graham / Thomas Nelson Explore the realities of growing older with the renowned evangelist and look at your later years from God's perspective! In what could be his most powerful message, Graham discusses the importance of facing life's transitions, making wise decisions, and understanding our glorious hope. You'll learn how to face your limitations and grow stronger in the midst of difficulties. 192 pages, softcover from Nelson.