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

  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-11053.jp2
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  • oenter of population of the United States than any other mountains that have scenio 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 together cover only eighty-five square miles, 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 above the surrounding oountry, that impresses a beholder. In this respect the Great Smoky Mountains worthily compare with any in our far western parks. The Rookies rise from an elevated plateau and not many of them exceed in visual height the ohief peaks of the Smokiest Clingman Dome, Mt. Guyot, and Mt. LeConte, which tower a mile in air above base level. The scenery of the Smoky Mountains is typically Appalachian! steep-sided ridges gradually rounding off toward their crests, the tops gently undulating in outline like billows of the sea, and every mountain oovered with a forest mantle. There are no bare rooks rising ooldly above a timber-line. There are few jagged peaks, few jutting crags. The Smokies -h-
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