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Last of the Eastern Wilderness: An Article on the Proposed Great Smoky National Park

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  • WHERE ISOLATION IS A FACT 621 on the other side of the earth or somewhere remote in tropic or arctic solitude: they are midway between the Atlantic and the Mississippi, midway between the Great Lakes and the Gulf, and nearer the center of population of the United States than any other mountains that have scenic attraction. And they are the mountain climax of eastern America, the master chain of the Appalachian mountain system. From eastern Canada to the southwestern boundary of Virginia—three fourths of the length of the Appalachian zone — there is only one summit that rises as high as six thousand feet above sea-level: it is Mt. Washington (6,293 ft.) in New Hampshire. In the Great Smoky Mountains, within the proposed boundary of the new national park, there are eighteen peaks and many miles of divide that are six thousand feet or more above sea-level. In the Black and Craggy ranges, northeast of Asheville, there is a similar uplift; but these two ranges togelher cover only eighty-five squaremiles, whereas the Smokies cover more than seven hundred square miles with their giant ridges and profound gulfs. Elevation above sea-level is, of course, no adequate measure of a mountain's majesty. It is the "relief," or height FALLS ON THE TIGEON RIVER above the surrounding country, that impresses a beholder. In this respect the Great Smoky Mountains worthily compare with any in our far western parks. The Rockies rise from an elevated plateau
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).