Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (21) View all

Black Mountains near Deep Gap

  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-15270.jpg
  • Paul M. Fink (1892-1980) of Jonesborough, Tennessee, was an early advocate for the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This collection of photographs from 1914 through the 1930s was taken while Fink thoroughly explored the Great Smoky Mountains and surrounding area. A banker and a conservationist, Fink kept a journal of his explorations and published his entries in Backpacking Was the Only Way (1975). This photograph was taken on June 19, 1920 during a ten-day exploratory trip through the Black Mountains. Present were lifelong friends Walter S. Diehl and Paul M. Fink. On the back of this photograph of Cane River Valley, Fink wrote: As the clouds were lifting near Deep Gap Black Mountains.