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

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  • are among the oldest mountains in the world and the erosion of untold ages has worn off the sharp pinnacles that originally rose above the rounded tops that now remain. Because of this peculiarity it will be no great engineering feat to build along the top of the main divide a skyline highway from the Indian Gap to the Tennessee River, about thirty-five miles, most of which would be from four thousand to five thousand feet above the adjoining country. It is the intention of the Appalachian Park Commission to have this road constructed and to connect it with three transmontane roads running from the Tennessee border to the Carolina border of the park. From many points on the skyline road there will be vistas of a hundred miles out over the Appalachian Valley to the blue Cumberlands on the western horizon, while to the eastward the visitors will behold a sea of wooded mountains as far as the eye can reach. At times the touring parties will be above the clouds; at times they may witness the strange phenomena of thunderstorms or rainbows far below them in the mountain gulfs. East of the Indian Gap, on the way from Mt. Collins to Mt. Guyot, there is a different formation. Here is the roughest and wildest mountain region in all eastern America. The divide here is saw-toothed and so sharp-edged that an adventurous mountaineer is dizzily poised above slopes so steep on either hand that a misstep might plunge him down hundreds of feet into Tennessee or North Carolina, according to which way he slipped. So rugged is this part of the Smokies that no road will ever be built over it, nor even a bridle path. It is better so. Let its crags and peaks remain forever inviolate for the enjoyment of those hardy and daring olimbers who wield the alpenstock and oarry their bed and board upon their own backs. -5-
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).