Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (20) View all

Beginning of history in the Great Smoky Mountains

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  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-11273.jpg
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  • •eeond-growth woods with ithieh we nowadays are familiar, second-growth is low, squat, Branching out a short distance from the ground} whereas la that original forest the trees towered to a hundred, a hundred and fifty, a hundred and eighty feet, ftal 'their trunks rose in SEoeta oolutans sixty or eighty foot to the first limb., la the glooa of the ancient woods there wa» a marvelous undergrowth of shade»loving shrubs and vines, herbs and wild-flowers, mosses and ferns and fungi, the like of which now is never sees, in full luxuriance, save la those rare sanctuaries .v:.*s;re a remnant of the- firittll fiHMWl is still preserved. it is fitting that a iiflHiHih of the early bfetfe } tit &§ 8»tfHMf£ Appalaenian region should open s&tfe ..i^reuiation of the superb forest that onoe covered all of it. We have her© in the flMite&ta Kfc0 richest surviving example of what the continental forest was; and it is this precious heritage, in particular, that has set the Great Saoky Mountains apart as a unique MgiOS* HWMBI out o; 1} eastern America for a national park* There mm otter »§«Htaine, oh,or trout ■tyjii|yi| other gorges and waterfalls oafi soonio vistas.i but tinai is no other forest so noble in years and so rich in variety or species •§ tfcU rescued tract in the Smokies. And as we have here the last noteworthy survival of ancient Appalachian flora, so, too, by a happy coincidence, we have here some of the most interesting survivals of pioneer human life— the 8®ut Mountaineers, ..-.he eastern wilderness la also our last frontier. No one hitherto seems to have called attention to the fact that
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).