History Of The Great Smoky Mountain National Park
Great Smoky Mountains have very long historical perspectives. The history depicts that humans have been inhibited here for more than 11000 years. The earliest civilization that lived here was the breakaway group of Cherokees who lived in New England. Cherokees had very sophisticated approach towards the agriculture. Europeans were the first who discovered the Smoky Mountains and the people living here in 1540.
European settlers soon started to take hold of the area in late 18th and early 19th centuries. At first the Cherokees were friendly with the settlers but many confrontations between them ignited when settlers became aggressive in their approach (Saferstein, 76). In order to stay put with the control of the area they passed some treaties and formed Supreme Court in order to provide justice. However, European settlers when took over the mainland in early part of 19th century nothing was able to stop them. This also led them to suffer under the Indian Removal Act of 1830 which required them to move to the west of Mississippi River into now called state Oklahoma (Tilden, 22). This Act was also passed because of the discovery of gold in the Northern Georgia, neighbor state of Tennessee and North Carolina where the Smoky Mountains exist. The growing tensions between the Cherokees and European settlers left Smoky Mountains place for continuous violence. Most of the Cherokees then left the place but some of them hide in the Smoky Mountains in order to fight with the foreign settlers, led by Tsali. The Trail of Tears march started in this area in 1838 by the government enforcement in which more than 30000 Native Indian died en route to Oklahoma (Campbell, 21).
In 1889 Qualla Indian Reservation was chartered at the southern part of Smoky Mountains where Indians were allowed to live with freedom (Campbell, 217). At first there were only 1000 Indians who inhibited this area but now currently more than 10000 Native Indians are living at the Qualla Indian Reservations.
As the Europeans poured in, they took over the fertile land that was not currently under hold of Cherokees. Soon all the fertile land was covered and there were no more places to build houses. When the Cherokees left, more and more settlers started to migrate to Smoky Mountains which made residential construction even more difficult. This allowed people to build houses on the steep slopes of the Smoky Mountains.
With the insurgency of the settlers, the logging became an important aspect for the building of houses, fuel and furniture. All the settlers were quite reluctant to build houses from wood and timber and used them to develop their tools for agriculture. For early years, all the wood was for the consumer use but in the middle part of the 19th century it became a profession and the wood was then sold in various parts of the country (Tilden, 56). There was an abundance of trees in and around the Smoky Mountain area which soon made logging as its major economical business. This was true until the end of 19th century because with the advancements in the field of science and technology, railroads were created which eventually finished whole of the trees in the area. Even the farmers of the area became attracted to the logging of trees because it was continuous income stream and had much less risk that was involved in the cultivation of land until 1930 when the trees of the area were diminished and the lumber companies started to move to other places. The labor force of Smoky Mountain area then moved back into farming, textile mills and mining occupations that were established in this area. The cutting of trees, however, assisted Smoky Mountain area economically for a quarter of a century and provided financial security.
In 1904 a librarian named Horace Kephart came to Smoky Mountains in order to heal his health in natural environment. He saw the impact of logging on the people and environment of the area and emphasize on the stoppage of this tree cutting. Soon after he left the area he started voicing this issue in the nearby towns and cities in order to gain support. In order for a movement to become successful it is important that either the motive is powerful or some influential persons are involved in the movement. The movement started for the area having both elements luckily. In 1923 Mr. Willis and his wife, from Knoxville, Tennessee started the movement in order to provide a park status to Smoky Mountains as only that could stop the logging of trees. Mr. Willis was very wealthy and had strong influence in the politics, so his words had worth (Saferstein, 121).
The elements that didn’t want Smoky Mountains to become a park were mostly businessmen who were trying to build a road that would pass through the mountains and provides the ease of transportation. Even more opponents were the lumber companies that had owned lands in the Smoky Mountain area for their logging business. In 1925 the fundraising began for purchasing the land from the residents of the area. There were descendents who didn’t want to leave their home as well but the government was able to enforced buying for better cause. However, fundraising started in order to minimize the burden on government which might also refrain from making it a park if the budget increased. The state governments of Tennessee and North Carolina passed $2m each in order to purchase the land but it was not enough. Some healthy families were confronted in order to raise fund and Dr. Rockefeller gave the grant of $5m.
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