Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (20) View all

Indian Gap: transmountain road, N.C.

  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-6982.jpg
  • Indian Gap was the original pass through the Great Smoky Mountains. Sometimes called the transmountain road because it cut through the Smokies, in the mid-1930s the original road was replaced by Newfound Gap Road two miles to the east. Newfound Gap Road is also highway 441. This photograph was made by George Alexander Grant (1891-1964), first chief photographer for the agency. Grant began work in 1929 under Horace Albright, second NPS director, who hired him to create a documentary file of images for use in reports, interpretive projects, education, and public information. Considered an Eminent Photographer, many of Grant’s photographs were published without his name, instead, being credited as an “NPS photo.” Before his retirement in 1954, Grant created approximately 30,000-40,000 images for NPS.