97 Fun Facts About Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Great Smoky Mountains National Park straddles the border between which two states?

Tennessee and North Carolina share the park almost evenly: the state line runs northeast to southwest along the crest, with Gatlinburg on the Tennessee side and Cherokee on the North Carolina side.

Among US national parks, the Great Smoky Mountains holds which record?

Great Smoky Mountains is the most visited national park, drawing about 12 million visitors in 2024, more than double any other; no entrance fee and a day's drive from much of the eastern US help.

The park's highest peak officially got its Cherokee name back in which year?

The US Board on Geographic Names approved Kuwohi, meaning mulberry place, in September 2024 after the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians petitioned and the Park Service backed the change.

The name Clingmans Dome honoured Thomas Clingman, who later became what?

Thomas Clingman, a US senator when geographer Arnold Guyot named the peak for him in 1859, went on to serve as a Confederate brigadier general in the Civil War.

Measured from its base at Gatlinburg, Mount Le Conte rises about how many feet?

Mount Le Conte's summit is 6,593 feet and Gatlinburg sits near 1,300 feet, a rise of about 5,300 feet that makes it the tallest peak east of the Mississippi from base to summit.

How are supplies carried up to LeConte Lodge, which has no road access?

Llama pack trains haul fresh supplies up the Trillium Gap Trail several times a week, and a helicopter airlifts the season's bulk goods each spring; llamas replaced horses in the 1980s.

Which Cherokee word for the range means place of blue smoke?

Shaconage, the Cherokee name for the range, means place of blue smoke; the haze is largely natural, from volatile compounds released by plants that scatter blue light.

How many of the world's nine salamander families live in the park known as the Salamander Capital of the World?

Up to 31 species live in the park; the red-cheeked salamander is found nowhere else, and the hellbender can reach 29 inches long.

Roughly how many black bears live in the park?

The Park Service estimates about 1,900 black bears, roughly two per square mile; most adults weigh 100 to 300 pounds, though bears over 600 pounds have been documented.

Crowds gather near Elkmont in the Smokies each mid-June to watch which insect put on a natural light display?

The synchronous firefly, Photinus carolinus, flashes in unison for about two weeks each late May to mid-June near Elkmont; waves of light and dark roll across the forest as thousands of males blink together.

What is the busiest spot in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a cleared valley ringed by an 11-mile one-way loop road?

Cades Cove's preserved cabins, barns and churches show old-time Appalachian life; bikes can be rented, and the loop is closed to cars on some mornings.

The park's busiest valley was named after which figure?

Abrams Creek in the cove was named for another chief, Abraham of Chilhowee; a theory that Kate, Abraham's wife, gave the cove its name has been discredited.

Who were the first permanent European settlers in the park's busiest valley, arriving in 1818?

John and Lucretia Oliver settled Cades Cove in 1818 and survived their first winter on dried pumpkin given to them by Cherokees; their 1820s cabin is the first stop on the loop road.

Where did Franklin D. Roosevelt formally dedicate the park in September 1940?

Roosevelt dedicated the park at Newfound Gap on 2 September 1940, speaking from the Rockefeller Memorial on the state line to a crowd of about 10,000.

How much did John D. Rockefeller Jr. donate in 1928 to rescue the land-buying campaign for the park?

The Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial gave $5 million in 1928, roughly matching what the two states and private donors had raised, so buying out farms and timber companies could go ahead.

Which Knoxville woman first proposed a Smokies national park in 1923 after a trip to Yellowstone?

Anne May Davis, later a Tennessee state legislator, urged a Smokies park after seeing the western parks in 1923; her husband Willis P. Davis and Knoxville boosters founded the Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association that year.

Which travel writer, author of Our Southern Highlanders, was a key champion of the park?

Horace Kephart, a former St. Louis librarian who reinvented himself in the Hazel Creek backwoods, wrote Our Southern Highlanders (1913) and Camping and Woodcraft; Mount Kephart carries his name.

In which year did Congress officially establish Great Smoky Mountains National Park?

Congress formally established the park on 15 June 1934; Coolidge's 1926 act had only authorised it once the land was bought from thousands of farmers and timber firms, and FDR dedicated it in 1940.

The Smokies were the first national park to have what?

It was the first national park whose land was bought partly with federal money: after state, citizen and Rockefeller funds ran short, the Roosevelt administration put in about $1.5 million in 1933 to finish the purchases.

Roughly what fraction of the Smokies' virgin forest had loggers removed by the 1930s?

Timber companies had cut about two-thirds of the Smokies' virgin forest by the time the park was created; even so, 20 to 25 percent of today's park is old growth, one of the largest such blocks in eastern North America.

What was the largest logging operation in the Smokies, working Elkmont and Tremont from 1901 to 1939?

The Little River Lumber Company cut some 560 million board feet between 1901 and 1939, hauling it out by rail and building the company towns of Townsend, Elkmont and Tremont; its boss later promoted Elkmont as a resort.

How many miles of the Appalachian Trail run through the park?

About 72 miles (71.6) of the Appalachian Trail cross the park along the crest and the Tennessee-North Carolina line, mostly above 5,000 feet, with 12 trail shelters along the way.

What is the tallest waterfall in the park, dropping 100 feet near the base of its second-highest peak?

Rainbow Falls, at 80 feet, is the tallest single-drop fall; the park has more than 100 notable waterfalls in all.

Which US highway crosses the park between Gatlinburg and Cherokee via Newfound Gap?

US 441, the Newfound Gap Road, crosses the crest at Newfound Gap (about 5,046 feet), the park's lowest drivable pass, midway between Gatlinburg and Cherokee; snow often closes it in winter.

A section of US 129 along the park's western edge is nicknamed what for its extreme curves?

The Tail of the Dragon packs 318 curves into 11 miles of US 129 at Deals Gap on the park's western edge, a magnet for motorcyclists and sports-car drivers.

Which Tennessee county, home to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, anchors tourism around the park?

Sevier County holds Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville, plus Dollywood, Ober Gatlinburg and Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies; park visitors spend well over $1 billion a year in its gateway towns.

Which Pigeon Forge theme park draws about three million visitors a year?

Dollywood, co-owned by Dolly Parton since 1986, draws about three million visitors a year; it opened as Rebel Railroad in 1961 and traded as Silver Dollar City Tennessee before her partnership.

The park borders the Qualla Boundary, home to which federally recognized tribe?

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians descend from Cherokee who stayed behind during the 1838 removal, many with the help of trader William Holland Thomas, who bought the Qualla Boundary land on their behalf.

What was the only known permanent Cherokee village inside today's park boundaries?

Oconaluftee, along the river of the same name near today's visitor center, was the only known permanent Cherokee village inside the park; most Cherokee towns lay in the valleys on the range's fringes.

Thomas' Legion occupied the town at the Smokies' north entrance to protect mines of what?

Thomas' Legion, largely Cherokee soldiers, held Gatlinburg in 1863 to guard the saltpeter mined at Alum Cave for Confederate gunpowder; most Tennessee-side communities were Unionist while those over the crest leaned Confederate.

Which large mammal was reintroduced to the park in 2001 and 2002 and now thrives in Cataloochee?

Elk, gone from the region by the mid-1800s, were reintroduced in 2001 and 2002 with 52 animals from Land Between the Lakes and Elk Island, Canada; the Cataloochee herd has since grown into the hundreds.

Which introduced animal does the park pay hunters to kill because it roots up plants?

European wild boar, descended from animals released at a North Carolina game preserve in 1912, root up wildflowers and foul streams; park hunters shoot and trap hundreds a year and leave carcasses for bears and scavengers.

Which is the only member of the trout family native to the Smokies?

The brook trout, actually a char, is the only trout-family fish native to the Smokies; introduced rainbows and browns crowd it out of lower streams, so most survive above 3,000 feet in the coldest water.

With over 1,500 kinds, the park leads North American national parks in which plant group?

That includes 35 orchids, 27 violets and 58 lilies; a spring wildflower pilgrimage celebrates them every year.

Which invasive insect killed roughly 90 percent of the park's mature Fraser firs after arriving in the 1960s?

The balsam woolly adelgid, a European insect first found in the park in 1963, killed about 90 percent of mature Fraser firs; ghostly dead stands crowned the high summits for decades before young firs grew back.

Which beloved tree of the mountain settlers was wiped out by blight in the 1920s-30s?

The American chestnut, prized for nuts, timber and split-rail fences, was killed by an Asian fungal blight that reached the Smokies in the 1920s and had wiped out nearly all the mature trees by 1940.

About how many species are known to live in the park, with tens of thousands more thought undiscovered?

More than 19,000 species have been documented through the park's All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory, and scientists estimate 80,000 to 100,000 more may live here; no temperate area of similar size is known to match it.

Roughly how many miles of streams flow through the park?

About 2,900 miles of streams flow through the park, every one of them eventually draining to the Tennessee River; roughly 1,000 of those miles are large enough to support fish.

The 2016 wildfires that swept from the park into the town at its north entrance killed at least how many?

They were the deadliest fires in the eastern US since Maine's Great Fires of 1947, burning some 17,900 acres and 2,000 structures.

The largest 2016 blaze was named for which park landmark where it started?

The Chimney Tops 2 Fire burned more than 10,000 acres and closed the popular trail; the Cherokee called the peaks Duniskwalgunyi, forked antlers.

A 2004 report by the National Parks Conservation Association gave the Smokies what unwanted title?

The NPCA's 2004 report ranked the Smokies the most polluted national park, citing acid deposition, ozone and haze; sulfur dioxide cuts at regional power plants have since greatly improved visibility on the haziest days.

What must vehicles display to park for more than 15 minutes anywhere in the park?

Since March 2023 any vehicle parked more than 15 minutes needs a Park It Forward parking tag, sold daily, weekly or annually; it is not an entrance fee, which the park has never charged, and funds trails and rangers.

In which year did UNESCO designate the park a World Heritage Site?

UNESCO inscribed the park as a World Heritage Site in 1983 for its old-growth forest and biodiversity; it had become an International Biosphere Reserve in 1976 and joined the Southern Appalachian Biosphere Reserve in 1988.

What is the second-highest peak in the park, at 6,621 feet?

Mount Guyot, 6,621 feet, is the park's second-highest peak, named for Swiss-born geographer Arnold Guyot, who surveyed the range in 1859; the park holds 16 of the Southern Sixers above 6,000 feet.

Who became the park's first African American superintendent in 2015?

Cassius Cash came from Boston National Historical Park to lead the Smokies in February 2015, the first African American superintendent in the park's history.

The park's Mission 66 improvements included a new observation tower and which visitor center?

The concrete tower with its spiral ramp opened in 1959 and was criticised by some as too urban; two similar towers followed at Look Rock and Everglades.

Which ice-age relic forest type on the park's highest ridges is closer to Canada's woods than the valleys below?

Spruce-fir forest of red spruce and Fraser fir caps the ridges above roughly 4,500 feet; climbing from the valleys to the crest passes through forest types much like a trip from Tennessee to Canada.

Which pair of venomous snakes, both pit vipers, are the only ones found in the park?

The timber rattlesnake and the northern copperhead are the park's only venomous snakes; the rattlesnake turns up at all elevations while the copperhead keeps to lower ground, and the other 21 of 23 snake species are harmless.

Roughly how big is Great Smoky Mountains National Park?

The park covers about 522,000 acres (816 square miles), one of the largest protected areas in the eastern United States, with some 850 miles of trails and unpaved roads.

Roughly how many inches of precipitation fall on the park's highest peaks each year?

The high peaks receive over 85 inches of precipitation a year, against about 55 inches in the lowest valleys, which is why the Smokies are often described as a temperate rainforest.

Which Tennessee town, besides Gatlinburg, hosts one of the park's three main entrances?

The three main entrances are at Gatlinburg and Townsend in Tennessee and Cherokee in North Carolina.

Which scenic road running south from Shenandoah National Park ends on the edge of Great Smoky Mountains National Park at Cherokee?

The Blue Ridge Parkway runs from Shenandoah National Park down to the Smokies at Cherokee, North Carolina.

Which park scenic drive, authorized in 1944, has been built only in sections?

The Foothills Parkway, authorized in 1944, has been built only in pieces; a 16-mile missing link opened in 2018, and it follows ridges with views of the mountains to the south and the Tennessee Valley to the north.

The Appalachian Trail enters the park atop which dam?

The Appalachian Trail crosses the top of TVA's Fontana Dam, at 480 feet the tallest dam in the eastern United States, then climbs past Shuckstack to Doe Knob on the Tennessee-North Carolina line.

Which waterway, impounded by four dams, runs along the park's southwestern border?

Chilhowee, Calderwood, Cheoah and Fontana dams all impound the Little Tennessee along the boundary.

Which trail to Mount Le Conte passes through Arch Rock and beneath its namesake bluffs?

Alum Cave Trail, the shortest route up Mount Le Conte, passes through Arch Rock, a natural tunnel, and beneath Alum Cave Bluffs, an 80-foot concave overhang mined for Epsom salt in the 1800s.

Which old-growth stand on the Smokies' Maddron Bald Trail, between Gatlinburg and Cosby, holds some of the range's oldest and tallest trees?

Albright Grove is one of the most accessible old-growth forests in the park, with some of the oldest and tallest trees in the entire range.

Which hotel was built at Elkmont in the Smokies to cater to elite Knoxvillians seeking summer mountain getaways?

The Wonderland Hotel and the Appalachian Club followed within a few years of Little River Lumber's Col. Townsend advertising Elkmont as a resort in 1909.

An unfinished drive near Bryson City that ends at an unused tunnel is nicknamed what?

The Road to Nowhere, officially Lakeview Drive, was meant to replace the highway drowned by Fontana Lake; work stopped in 1972 after six miles and a tunnel, when crews hit acid-leaching Anakeesta rock.

In 2010, Swain County took what cash settlement instead of its promised north-shore road?

In February 2010 the Interior Department agreed to pay Swain County $52 million in place of the North Shore Road promised in 1943, and the final installment was paid in 2018.

In which year was the concrete observation tower atop the park's highest summit completed?

The $57,000 concrete tower on Clingmans Dome was completed in 1959; its modern look was criticised as too urban, yet the same design was reused at Look Rock and in the Everglades.

Visitors reach the top of the observation tower on the park's highest summit via what?

A 375-foot spiral ramp at a 12 percent grade winds up to the deck of the 45-foot tower; the Park Service director had first wanted a spiral staircase instead.

Which long-distance route to the Outer Banks begins atop the park's highest summit?

The Mountains-to-Sea Trail starts at Kuwohi and runs about 1,175 miles across North Carolina to Jockey's Ridge on the Outer Banks; it follows the Appalachian Trail for its first few miles before turning down the Fork Ridge Trail.

Cherokee legend made the park's highest summit home to the great chief of which animals?

In Cherokee lore Kuwohi was the home of the White Bear, great chief of all bears, who held council there; the enchanted lake Atagahi, whose waters healed wounded bears, lay nearby.

Which guide's sore foot gave Charlies Bunion its name on a 1929 hike?

Guide Charlie Conner pulled off his shoe to show a swollen foot during a 1929 hike with Horace Kephart, who promised to get the name Charlies Bunion onto a government map.

What stripped Charlies Bunion to bare rock in the late 1920s?

A 1925 fire fed by logging slash baked the soil sterile, and a 1929 cloudburst then washed it off the slope entirely.

What structure tops Mount Sterling in the park's northeastern corner?

A 60-foot steel fire lookout tower built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s tops Mount Sterling, 5,842 feet; it is one of the few fire towers left standing in the park.

Which flowering shrub draws hikers to Gregory Bald each June?

Flame azaleas on Gregory Bald bloom in orange, red, yellow and pink around mid-to-late June, a hybrid display botanists rate among the finest anywhere; the bald is named for Cades Cove settler Russell Gregory.

The park keeps only two grassy summits clear of trees: Gregory and which other?

Andrews Bald, reached by the Forney Ridge Trail from the Kuwohi parking area, and Gregory Bald are the only two the park mows and clears; former balds such as Silers and Spence Field are growing back into forest.

Rocky Top, a knob on Thunderhead Mountain, shares its name with what?

Rocky Top, the 5,441-foot knob on Thunderhead Mountain, shares its name with the 1967 bluegrass hit that became a Tennessee state song in 1982; it is the only Thunderhead summit with a 360-degree view.

Silers Bald takes its name from Jesse Siler, who used the summit for what?

His brother William and nephew Albert lent their names to Siler Bald and Albert Mountain in the Nantahalas to the south.

The Jumpoff, a roughly 1,000-foot cliff, drops from which peak's northeast side?

The Jumpoff drops some 1,000 feet from the northeast side of Mount Kephart (6,217 feet), named for writer Horace Kephart, who campaigned for the park; a short spur off the Boulevard Trail reaches the brink.

During World War II, a former Civilian Conservation Corps camp at Kephart Prong in the Smokies housed whom?

Conscientious objectors doing Civilian Public Service lived in the old CCC camp at Kephart Prong from 1942; a chimney from the camp survives near the trailhead, close to the remains of a 1936 WPA fish hatchery.

Until 1872, which pass was believed to be the lowest crossing of the Smokies?

Indian Gap, on the old Cherokee trading route, was assumed to be the lowest crossing until Arnold Guyot's 1872 measurements found a lower notch two miles east, which is how Newfound Gap got its name.

Why is the park's crest highway cleared only with plows and a gravel-sand mix in winter?

When the pass closes, the snow detour loops around the east end of the park on US 321 and Interstate 40.

Most of Elkmont's restored Appalachian Club cottages stand in a section nicknamed what?

Daisy Town, the cluster of Appalachian Club cottages along the road past the clubhouse, holds most of Elkmont's restored cabins, among them the Adamless Eden playhouse and the 1830 Levi Trentham cabin, Elkmont's oldest building.

Elkmont old-timer Lem Ownby sold what to passing hikers for decades?

His visitors included a Tennessee governor and two sitting US Supreme Court justices, Harry Blackmun and Potter Stewart.

What was the "Elkmont Special", launched in 1909?

The Sunday service ran on a logging railroad whose owner began marketing the stripped valley as a mountain getaway.

Which geared locomotive type was the workhorse of the Smokies' logging railroads?

Shay locomotives, with vertical cylinders driving geared trucks, hauled logs on the steep, twisting temporary track of Smokies loggers such as the Little River Lumber Company, which pulled up each line as a drainage was cut.

Which magazine's 1940s profile of the Walker sisters of Little Greenbrier drew crowds to their farm?

The Saturday Evening Post's 1946 article 'Time Stood Still in the Smokies' drew so many visitors that the two surviving sisters, Margaret and Louisa, asked the park to take down the sign pointing tourists to their farm.

When the Walker sisters sold their farm to the park in 1940, what did they get in return?

The sisters sold their 122-acre farm for $4,750 on condition of a lifetime lease; the park commission had refused to condemn the land for fear of bad press, and the last sister, Louisa, died there in 1964.

Mingus Mill, built in 1886, is driven by what instead of a big wooden wheel?

A cast-iron turbine fed by a long wooden flume drives Mingus Mill; less photogenic than an overshot wheel but more efficient, it produced about 11 horsepower and needed less water.

A settler named Enloe in today's park was locally rumored to be which president's father?

Local legend held that Abraham Enloe of Oconaluftee fathered Abraham Lincoln by a servant girl, Nancy Hanks; Enloe's grandson built the barn at the Mountain Farm Museum, roofed with over 16,000 hand-split shingles.

In 1906, Cataloochee residents got a bigger school by doing what to the old one?

After county officials refused a new school, three men emptied the furniture, set the building alight and re-petitioned for a replacement.

Which predator's 1991 reintroduction to the park failed, with the animals removed by 1998?

The wolves were relocated to Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge on the North Carolina coast.

Which giant salamander of the park's swift streams can reach about 29 inches long?

The hellbender, North America's largest salamander, hides under flat rocks in cool, fast streams and can reach about 29 inches; it breathes largely through loose, wrinkled folds of skin.

The park's rarest lizard, the eastern slender glass lizard, is often mistaken for what?

The eastern slender glass lizard is legless and usually mistaken for a snake, though its movable eyelids and ear openings give it away; it is one of nine lizard species in the park alongside fence lizards and skinks.

Which turtle, the state reptile of both Tennessee and North Carolina, is the commonest in Great Smoky Mountains National Park?

The eastern box turtle is mostly land-dwelling but usually found close to waterways; the park counts eight turtle species in all.

Stands of which fast-growing species mark former homesteads in the park?

Tulip trees, fast-growing pioneers, fill abandoned fields in even-aged stands; along Roaring Fork, patches of young tulip trees outline the old Clabo and Ogle farms cleared before the park.

Grotto Falls, on the Trillium Gap Trail, is the only park waterfall you can do what?

At 8.9 miles one way, Trillium Gap is the longest of the five routes to the top of Mount Le Conte.

Which 80-foot plunge on LeConte Creek is the park's tallest single-drop waterfall?

Rainbow Falls drops 80 feet in a single plunge on LeConte Creek, the park's tallest single-drop fall; the Rainbow Falls Trail passes it at 2.7 miles and climbs on to the summit of Mount Le Conte.

Gracie's Pulpit on the route up Mount Le Conte honors a woman who hiked it at what age?

Gracie McNicol climbed Mount Le Conte 244 times, the last at age 92; the outcrop named for her on the Alum Cave Trail marks roughly the halfway point of the climb with a view of Le Conte's peaks.

Who performed at the park's 75th anniversary re-dedication on September 2, 2009?

Dolly Parton, the anniversary's ambassador, sang at the Newfound Gap ceremony; both governors, four senators and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar attended, 69 years to the day after FDR's 1940 dedication.

In 2023 the park appeared on which kind of US postage stamp?

Dan Cosgrove's artwork shows a scene near the crest where FDR dedicated the park in 1940.

Which Cherokee warrior famously evaded removal by hiding in what is now the park?

Tsali escaped with his family during the 1838 roundup and hid in the mountains; by tradition his surrender and execution let other fugitive Cherokee remain, the nucleus of the Eastern Band on the Oconaluftee.

Fontana Village, now a resort south of the dam, was built in the 1940s as what?

First called Welch Cove, it housed a workforce that hit 5,000 by 1943 despite wartime labor shortages; some original buildings are still in use.

Ordered to play before his execution on Mount Sterling, fiddler Henry Grooms chose what?

Henry Grooms played the fiddle tune Bonaparte's Retreat before Confederate captain Albert Teague's men shot him and two other suspected Union sympathizers they had marched up from Cataloochee during the Civil War.