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WCU - Great Smoky Mountains - A Park for America

Horace Kephart

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Horace Kephart

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Horace Kephart

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  • Horace Kephart NO MORE will the cool, leaf-covered slopes of the Great Smokies know his sure step. No more will "he guide "furriners" into the beauty of the mountains. No more will he sit and quietly talk" with,' friends of high 'and low degree. No more will he take up his pen to .write truthfully of things as they are, to. fight for those things he conceived to be most worth fighting for. For Horace Kephart is dead And in his passing from life the entire nation has lost a pioneer who contributed toward making life today, and in coming generations, more worth living. Broken in body and spirit, Kephart left the book-lined walls of a St. Louis library more than a quarter of a century ago for the tree-lined walls of a mountain fastness. There he found healing,—peace, faith, and a philosophy that brought- with them a new zest for life. Kephart was not the first man to Vision a great park, to preserve for future generations the glory of uncut forests upon majestic mountainsides. But he was the first to bring that vision into the realm of the practical. It was he, more than any other man, who convinced the nation that a park in the Smokies could and should be more than an Idle dream. As a result of his writings, the nation learned of the unique beauty of the Smokies; as a result of his writings, a park actually began to be discussed; and as a result of his writings, the park today is an about-to-be accomplished project. Others might grow discouraged, might lose interest, but Kephart—never. Calm, philosophical, he was nevertheless a fighter—and every blow he struck with that truth-telling pen of his went home. What, do Western North Carolinians owe this shy, retiring man with his quiet sense of humor? Those who knew him intimately are indebted to him for the inspiration of &n understanding friendship. The people of the mountains have him to thank for one of the first attempts to write truthfully from knowledge about a little-understood people. And W33t- ern North Carolina—and the state ana nation—owe to him, more than to any other Individual, the fact that tte Great Smoky Mountains National Park is on the way.to becoming an actuality. He did not live to see his dream come true. Instead, on the eye of his death he heard doubt expressed. Hs heaid a few say the park was not wortn the price; he heard the sound of battle over land acquisition in the courts; he heard it said that the funds for the park were inadequate; he heard th* Park Commissions of both states criticized. In short, as he died ne knev the entire park project, to which he gave more than a third of his lifs. was endangered. We give honor to the man who ruthless?;7 aco.i'ires power and fame. But here was a man who, for a quarter of a ■ century, labored quietly but well, without thought of self, for the conservation of the indescribable, beauty of the mountains, so that future generations might know the Smokies as he came to know them. Shall his dream come true? If there is any one attribute that sharacterizes the. people of the mountains it is loyalty. And today, as the people of the mountains sorrow over the
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  • This article is a memorial to Horace Kephart (1862-1931), a noted naturalist, woodsman, journalist, and author. In 1904, he left his work as a librarian in St. Louis and permanently moved to western North Carolina. His popular book, “Camping and Woodcraft” was first published 1906; the 1916/1917 edition is considered a standard manual for campers after almost a century of use. Living and working in a cabin on Hazel Creek in Swain County, Kephart began to document life in the Great Smoky Mountains, producing “Our Southern Highlanders” in 1913. Throughout his life, Kephart wrote many articles supporting the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

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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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