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Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-2761.jpg
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  • and Clingman's Dome, in memory of General Thomas Lanier Clingman. Arnold Guyot (1807-1884), a native of Switzerland, professor of geology and physical geography at Princeton, made the first really scientific exploration of the Appalachians, including the Great Smokies. He performed the feat of exploring the Appalachian system from one end to the other. "Arnold Guyot," writes Myron H. Avery, Washington, D. C, one of the moving spirits of the Appalachian Trail Conference, "was the most extensive and exhaustive explorer that the Appalachian system has ever known." Guyot climbed each peak of importance, from north to south, his purpose being to record the elevations of the various peaks ol the ranges and to develop a general systematic geographic outline of the mountain system of the eastern United States. He left a record of his findings with the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, including what is believed to be the first comprehensive map of the Great Smoky Mountains in existence. Guyot's figures, in spite of physical difficulties and lack of proper instruments, varied only a few feet from the present measurements. His journeys in the Southern Appalachians were made in 1856, 1858, 1859, and 1860. Following In- exhaustive studies he declared that "The Smoky Mountain chain proper, which by the general elevation both of its peaks and its crest, by its perfect continuity, its great roughness and difficulty of approach, may be called the master chain ol the Appalachian system. For over 50 miles this forms a high and almost impervious barrier between 'Tennessee and the inside basins of North Carolina." The findings of Guvot gave conclusive prool to the theory <«f U. S. Senator John C. Calhoun that the Southern highlands were the highest of the Appalachian system. Until 183*- the mountains of New Hampshire were regarded as the highest in the Appalachians, In that year the attention of Calhoun 73
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