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Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

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  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-2759.jpg
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  • HISTORICAL SKETCH This country was an almost unbroken wilderness when America was discovered. Vast forests, virgin and magnificent, spread westward from the Atlantic coast to the prairies °t the Middle West. 'The only breaks in the forest wilderness were the rivers, lakes, and occasionally some small clearings made by Indians, and [laths trodden by the buffalo and used by the aborigines. Following the discovery of America, the white man began Ins work of carving a new civilization out of the wilderness, destroying the forests as he went. 'The superb forests that once covered the eastern portion of the United States have wen devastated, and there remain only a few examples of the primeval forests of the time of Columbus. I he richest surviving example of what the continental forest Was is found jn the Great Smoky Mountains. It is this v,rgin forest that sets the Great Smokies apart as a unique natural museum. Hernando De Soto and his soldiers were the first white ""-n to see the beauties of the Southern highlands, which he termed the Appalachians. Landing on the west coast of Florida in May, 1539, he, with 600 soldiers and 213 horses, traveled for four years through the wilderness on an exploring and gold-hunting expedition. Traveling north, they reached 'he foothills of the Blue Ridge at the head of the Broad and Catawba Rivers. In May, 1540, they crossed the Blue Ridge ;md reached the French Broad River. They then traveled through the heart of the Cherokee Indian country, gazing with awe upon the ancient peaks. Turning southwest ward :i'°ng the headstreams of the Little Tennessee River they ' n,ssed into Georgia, probably at Rabun Gap. It was centuries, however, before white settlers went into ''"-' Great Smokies. Very few white people lived in the Great Smokies until about the time of the War Between the States :in«l even to this day a large part of the area is quite uninhabited. 71
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