KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — As we come to the end of the year, take a look back in time at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Bringing a national park to the Smoky Mountains was not a short process. The idea began in the last 1890s according to the National Park Service.
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park through the years
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Nov. 20, 1931: NPS preliminary survey personnel, seated on a hand driven railcar, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. (This image was taken during a photo documentary survey of the Great Smoky Mountains.) -
1937: Old Cable mill at Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. (Photo via National Park Service) -
April 23,1947: Hatchery and service building, with rearing ponds in foreground, Fish Cultural Station, Kephart Prong. Locality: Great Smoky Mountains National Park(Photo via National Park Service) -
1950: Heintooga Camp. Arriving at campground in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. (Photo via National Park Service) -
The way it used to be — park visitors in museum featuring pioneer exhibits, in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. (Photo via National Park Service) -
1959: Building with visitors coming out of it and sign that say Information and an arrow to the door in Great Smokey Mountains National Park.(Photo via National Park Service) -
Native American standing outside of a teepee in front of a store in Cherokee, North Carolina, in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. (Photo via National Park Service) -
August 1973: Fee collection. Visitors around the Sugarland Visitor Center at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. (Photo via National Park Service) -
NPE employee on stage at Elkmont Campfire Talk in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. (Photo via National Park Service) -
Visitors camping in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. (Photo via National Park Service) -
1973: NPS employee talking to visitors on bike hike before leaving from Sugarland Visitor Center at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. (Photo via National Park Service) -
Mission 66 structure in front of mountains in Great Smoky National Park.(Photo via National Park Service) -
1975: NPS staff repelling down a mountain in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. (Photo via National Park Service) -
NPS staff being taught different knots. (Photo via National Park Service) -
1975: Helicopters taking off in Great Smoky National Park. (Photo via National Park Service) -
Person squishing sorghum in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. (Photo via National Park Service) -
Visitors standing on an overlook with a parking lot behind them at Newfound Gap in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. (Photo via National Park Service) -
Charging bear at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. (NPS Office of Information file copy).
In May 1926, a bill was signed by President Calvin Coolidge that provided for the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Shenandoah National Park. By 1928, enough money had been raised to purchase the land for the park. However, buying the land was difficult.
The creation of the park meant that hundreds of families were asked to move out of their homes. According to the National Park Service, some went willingly, and others fought against it, but most families moved immediately.
Those who were too old or too sick to move were granted lifetime leases. This includes the Walker sisters, who lived in the park until their deaths in the 1960s. Others were granted leases on a short-term basis. However, they could not cut timber, hunt and trap at-will as they had previously.
The park was formally dedicated in September 1940. President Franklin Roosevelt spoke from the Rockefeller Memorial at Newfound Gap astride the Tennessee-North Carolina state line.
To learn more about the history of the park, click here.