Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (21) View all

Hikers on fallen chestnut tree

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  • Standing on a dead chestnut tree are (L to R) Robert (Red) Reid, Ann Morris, Tom Duncan, and Benton McKaye. The tree, laying beside the Walnut bottoms-to-Low Gap trail, was about seven feet in diameter at three feet above the ground, and five feet thru at thirty feet above the ground. They are on a hike that is part of a series of Labor Day weekend day hikes in the Mount Sterling area with the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club. The photographer, Carlos C. Campbell (1892-1978), was a founding member of the Smoky Mountain Hiking Club (est. 1924) and a charter member of the Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association (est. 1923). Campbell was an avid hiker and often assisted Jim Thompson with his camera equipment. When Campbell won a folding camera in 1935, he began his own photography journey, taking thousands of photographs and jotting down information about each one in small notebooks. His granddaughter, Rebecca Campbell Arrants, donated this collection of photographs and notebooks from 1934 - 1940 to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.