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WCU - Great Smoky Mountains - A Park for America

Editorial: Appalachian Park

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  • In promoting a national park in the southern Appalachians, Chase Ambler wrote dozens of editorials, including this one sent to The Asheville Citizen in 1901. These editorials were submitted to newspapers and magazines throughout the east coast. After the editorials were published, the Appalachian National Park Association often reprinted and circulated them as part of their promotional campaign. Chase P. Ambler (1865-1932) was a founding member and long-time secretary of the association.
  • WILL THE EDITOR PLEASE USE AS MUCH OP THIS AS HE CAN. A copy of the paper giving- such notice will be appreciated. C. P. AMBLER, Secretary. Asheville, N. C. From The Asheville Citizen, December 15, 1901. , APPALACHIAN PARK. THIS BEAUTIFUL REGION SHOULD BE PRESERVED. Prom the Raleigh Post. The legislatures of Georgia and Tennessee, we believe, have passed resolu- , tions urging the government to purchase the lands in the mountains of those states and North Carolina to preserve the timber thereon, and thus the water sources therein. Mr. Gudger, senator from Buncombe, has introduced a measure having a similar purpose m our state senate, which we have no doubt will pass the legislature. To carry out such object, Senator Pritchard, as already published in the Post, has introduced a bill authorizing the government to purchase two million acres of the territory mentioned, to be owned and protected and Improved by the government, and to be known as the Appalachian park. The secretary of agriculture, knowing the great import ■ ance of and immediate necessity for such action, will actively support Senator Pritchard's measure. Speaking of the measure the Richmond Dispatch of yesterday says: "Senator Pritchard's bill making an appropriation for the purchase of a region in "the Appalachian mountains in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama^ for a national forest reserve ,to be known as the Appalachian National park, is a commendable measure. As matters stand, the wonderful and beautiful region in question is rapidly being despoiled by the timber hunter and other irrespecter of the merely aesthetic. It Should be preserved in its native grandeur and picturesqueness as far as possible, and this preservation would tend to the material benefit of all contiguous regions in the arrest of the process of denudation now going on In the proposed park area. The federal provision of national park lands in the west has proved a good investment, from the general business point of view, as well as otherwise. Thei'e is every reason to believe that a similar venture in the Appalachian region would prove equally wise, from the standpoint of the principle of the greatest good to tho largest number."

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Great Smoky Mountains - A Park for America

This digital collection was created to contribute to the public's understanding of the forces and ideas that led to the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1934. The most vi...

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