Great Smoky Mountains National Park Podcasts & Blog » History http://www.thegreatsmokymountains.org/blog Enjoy the Smokies Courtesy of the Great Smoky Mountains Association! Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:38:38 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 Elkmont Homecoming http://www.thegreatsmokymountains.org/blog/elkmont-homecoming/ http://www.thegreatsmokymountains.org/blog/elkmont-homecoming/#comments Thu, 01 Sep 2011 16:55:19 +0000 admin http://www.thegreatsmokymountains.org/blog/?p=2182 Rocking chairs on the Appalachian Club porch   The June 25 open house at the newly-renovated Appalachian Club in Elkmont brought together former summer residents of the vacation community and folks who grew up in the area or descended from Elkmont area families. Imagine what it would have been like to grow up or at least spend summers in this cool mountain paradise and hear from the folks who experienced it first-hand in this new video.
]]> http://www.thegreatsmokymountains.org/blog/elkmont-homecoming/feed/ 5 Smoky Mountain Old-Time Music http://www.thegreatsmokymountains.org/blog/smoky-mountain-old-time-music/ http://www.thegreatsmokymountains.org/blog/smoky-mountain-old-time-music/#comments Tue, 09 Aug 2011 19:26:21 +0000 admin http://www.thegreatsmokymountains.org/blog/?p=2167 Old-Time Music   Old-time mountain music is an important part of the rich cultural history of the Great Smoky Mountains. Come listen to some of this historic music at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center in this new video with guest video blogger Walter Wuthmann.
]]> http://www.thegreatsmokymountains.org/blog/smoky-mountain-old-time-music/feed/ 5 GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK Cool Digs http://www.thegreatsmokymountains.org/blog/cool-digs/ http://www.thegreatsmokymountains.org/blog/cool-digs/#comments Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:17:58 +0000 admin http://www.thegreatsmokymountains.org/blog/?p=28 I used to dream about discovering Incan gold when I was a little kid… and then I took an archaeology class during high school and realized there was NO WAY I had the patience to slowly scrape dirt away and meticulously record where it came from. In six weeks of excavating, I also found nothing, and suffered from a lot of poison ivy.

But filming archaeologists is pretty fun, and they seem to enjoy what they’re doing… especially when they’re actually finding interesting Cherokee artifacts! Click the photo below to hear about the major dig site of the summer!
digging

]]> http://www.thegreatsmokymountains.org/blog/cool-digs/feed/ 1 GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK “An Unimproved Work of God…” http://www.thegreatsmokymountains.org/blog/an-unimproved-work-of-god/ http://www.thegreatsmokymountains.org/blog/an-unimproved-work-of-god/#comments Thu, 29 May 2008 16:47:51 +0000 admin http://www.thegreatsmokymountains.org/videoblog/?p=7 Back in the 1920′s, logging companies were stripping these mountains bare and one of the motivations for creating a national park in the Smokies was to save what was left of the ancient forests east of the Mississippi.

Horace Kephart, a local writer and avid supporter of a national park, called the old-growth in the Smokies a “last stand of splendid, irreplaceable trees… a real forest, a real wildwood, a real unimproved work of God…”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Click the photo below to see my encounter with one of these ancient trees. Special thanks to Ian MacQueen for camera assistance.
tulip_tree movie

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