Trouble was, the cost of the land had now doubled, so the campaign ground to a halt. But buying the land was difficult, even with the money in hand. There thousands of small farms, large tracts, and other miscellaneous parcels that had to be surveyed, appraised, dickered over, and sometimes condemned in court.
The timber and paper companies had valuable equipment and standing inventory which required compensation. Worse, in some ways, were the emotional losses to people who had to walk away from their homes. A later survey of the displaced people showed that about half took the money and ran and were glad to have it; while the other half expressed feelings from mild inconvenience to outright hostility. Some people were allowed to stay under lifetime leases, particularly if they were too old or too sick to move.
Younger ones were granted leases on a short-term basis, if they wanted to try to stick it out. With the money in hand, the state-appointed commissions faced the daunting task of buying land from people who did not want to sell.
The large lumber companies pulled out all stops, first to derail the project and, when that failed, to get the best possible price for their land. The Champion Fibre Company, owners of the largest land holdings in the proposed park, hired famed attorney Charles Evans Hughes to represent them—it lost his services when he was named chief justice of the Supreme Court—and even bribed a lawyer hired by the Tennessee Park Commission to influence jury selection in a condemnation hearing.
The process of taking all five of the major timber companies to court—in the case of the Suncrest Lumber Company to the U. Supreme Court—delayed the purchase of land until the late s. Litigation costs and loss of pledge money due to the Great Depression quickly used up the available funds for land purchases. With land purchasing bogged down in the courts and insufficient funds to complete the project, the New Deal administration of Franklin D.
Roosevelt came to the rescue. Although the original park bill declared that no federal funds would be used to purchase park lands, the Department of the Interior and its head, Harold Ickes, found ways to circumvent this proviso. Education was valued, and schools could be found in communities throughout the mountains. Though their early years in this wild land were primitive, by the s there was little difference between mountain people and their contemporaries living in rural areas beyond the mountains.
The agricultural pattern of life in the Great Smoky Mountains changed with the arrival of the logging industry in the early s. Within 20 years, the largely self-sufficient economy of the people here was almost entirely replaced by dependence on manufactured items, store-bought food and cash. Logging boom towns sprang up overnight at sites that still bear their names: Elkmont, Smokemont, Proctor, Tremont. At the same time, loggers were rapidly cutting the great primaeval forests that remained on these mountains.
Over time, the people—more than 1, land-owners—left the park. Behind them remained many farm buildings, mills, schools, and churches.
Over 70 of these structures have since been maintained so that Great Smoky Mountains National Park now preserves the largest collection of historic log buildings in the East. In the Great Smoky Mountains, history is as deep as the sheltered coves and valleys where farms and families once thrived. It passes beyond recorded history to the earliest groups who made their way through this wilderness. And it owes much to a distant history when these islands of green survived the Ice Age and produced a diverse abundance of life capable of supporting eventual settlement by humans.
Great Smoky Mountains Association is proud to partner with the National Park Service in support of their mission to preserve and protect this historic and treasured place. We offer a broad range of informative, quality materials available in our bookstores and online. Your membership and purchases support the education, interpretation and research activities of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Becoming a national park was not easy for the Smokies. Joining the National Park System took a lot of money and a lot of work by thousands of people. Establishing most of the older parks located in the western United States, such as Yellowstone, was relatively easy.
Congress merely carved them out of lands already owned by the government—often places where no one wanted to live anyway. Getting parkland in this area was a different story. Joining the National Park System took a lot of money and the hard work of thousands of people. Read about some of the individuals involved in founding the national park Establishing most of the older parks located in the western United States, such as Yellowstone, was fairly easy. Congress merely carved them out of lands already owned by the government—often places where no one wanted to live anyway.
But getting park land in this area was a different story. The land that became Great Smoky Mountains National Park was owned by hundreds of small farmers and a handful of large timber and paper companies.
The idea to create a national park in these mountains started in the late s. A few farsighted people began to talk about a public land preserve in the cool, healthful air of the southern Appalachians. A bill even entered the North Carolina Legislature to this effect, but failed. By the early 20th century, many more people in the North and South were pressuring Washington for some kind of public preserve.
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