Although I have not been able to go as much as I like, one of the short trips I enjoy taking is to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
And during the winter, visiting what is the most popular national park in the United States has several advantages over going in the summertime. The first, of course, is that fewer visitors can be found.
As a result, one can more easily feel the serenity that is so easy to see.
A visitor also enjoys better vistas across mountains and through woods in winter, and the numerous streams and creeks seem to have more tumbling water. Ticks or snakes are also not a worry.
The park does get more ice and snow and closed roads than the rest of Tennessee, so one better check with a meteorologist in addition to a travel agent when wanting to visit while the trees are barren.
The part of the park I enjoy visiting the most this time of year is Cades Cove. Anytime there is nice, but I particularly enjoy going on those winter days when the sky is perfectly blue and the air is just a little crisp.
The cove is a large open space of valley pastureland within the park, and I love driving around the loop looking at all the old homes and barns and bucolic meadows. Besides enjoying all the scenery, I also start visualizing the hard-but-romantic life many of the settlers there must have experienced a century ago.
I also enjoy visiting all the cove’s quaint churches and walking through the adjacent cemeteries.
Cades Cove is a nice contrast to the rugged-but-also-beautiful mountains that make up most of the rest of the park.
I had always assumed that preserving Cades Cove and the Great Smoky Mountains as a national park was an idea that had been supported by most people. But I recently learned otherwise after reading the book, Birth of a National Park in the Great Smoky Mountains, written in 1960 by early park supporter Carlos C. Campbell.
In fact, the initial efforts were met with plenty of resistance from all types of people.
Although previous efforts had been made to get a park in that area, the successful one began in 1923, when Mr. and Mrs. Willis P. Davis of Knoxville visited some of the national parks out West, Mr. Campbell wrote.
Despite the beauty they found, they realized the Smoky Mountains were just as beautiful. So, Mrs. Davis reportedly asked her husband, “Why can’t we have a national park in the Great Smokies?”
Mr. Davis, a manager with the Knoxville Iron Company, was inspired by her question and began sharing the idea with some of his friends in Knoxville. Although talk of putting a road through the area had been discussed, most had not considered the Smokies’ aesthetic value. As a result, most of his words fell on deaf ears.
One of those who did not believe in a park initially was a Knoxville civic leader named Col. David Chapman. But by chance, he happened to read a copy of former President Theodore Roosevelt’s report on the Southern Appalachians.
He was amazed to learn of all the species of flora and fauna and other distinctive features the area had, so from then on he was sold on the park idea. He eventually took over the leadership efforts from Mr. Davis and became a tireless advocate.
But getting a national park would be figuratively as challenging as climbing the park’s Mt. LeConte, and would take several years.
Federal government leaders and Tennessee and North Carolina government leaders were not easy to convince initially, and buying land from some of the timber and paper companies that were property owners there was also challenging. Condemnation of land also had to be enacted in some areas, including Cades Cove, and many of the residents fought it.
An initial debate on where to put the park also ensued, with many in North Carolina pushing for the area around that state’s Grandfather Mountain.
But early on, the park effort received valuable editorial support from some of the newspapers in the region.
And proving to be as valuable as any convincing words by pen or mouth were numerous photographs of the Smokies taken by Knoxville photographer Jim Thompson, which greatly highlighted the area’s natural beauty and significance.
Through much effort and with the help of governmental funds -- and a nice donation by John D. Rockefeller Jr. and smaller contributions from numerous other people -- the Great Smoky Mountains National Park came to fruition, despite seemingly difficult initial odds.
It was established as a national park in 1934 but was not officially dedicated until Sept. 2, 1940, when President Franklin Roosevelt spoke at a marker at Newfound Gap, one of the high spots in the park.
That date may be familiar to Chattanoogans, because earlier that day he had dedicated Chickamauga Dam in what was one of the most important events in the Scenic City’s history.
Since then, plenty of others have beaten the path from Chattanooga to the Great Smokies.