Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Memorial to the Congress of the United States

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  • TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA : The petition of the Appalachian National Park Association respectfully shows : That your petitioner is an organization composed of citizens from many States in the Union and was formed for the purpose of bringing to the attention of the Congress of the United States the desirability of establishing a National Park at some place in the Southern Appalachian region. That the facts which led to the organization of your petitioner, and which are presented as reasons for the establishment of such a National Park, are as follows : L The Rare Natural Beauty of trie Southern Appalachian Region. In Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee (or, more definitely, in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains, the Balsam Mountains and the Black and Craggy Mountains) is found not only the culmination of the Appalachian system, but the most beautiful, as well as the highest, mountains east of the lofty Western ranges. Forty-three mountains of six thousand feet and upwards in altitude, as well as a great number of inferior height, all clothed with virgin forests and intersected by deep valleys abounding in brooks, rivers and waterfalls, combine to make this a region of unsurpassed attractiveness. Standing upon the summit of one of these sublime heights the eye often seeks in vain for the bare mountain side—the evidence of the devastating axe— and before one stretches out a view magnificently beautiful. If the National Parks already established have been chosen for their unusual natural beauty, here is a National Park, conspicuously fine, awaiting official recognition as an addition to the number. II. The Superb Forests of the Southern Appalachian System. No other portion of our country displays a richness of sylva equal to that found in the high mountains of the Southern Appalachian region in the variety of its hardwoods and conifers. Professor Gray, the eminent botanist, is authority for the statement that he encountered a greater number of indigenous trees in a trip of thirty miles through Western North Carolina than can be observed in a trip from Turkey to England, through Europe, or from the Atlantic coast to the Rocky Mountain plateau. Here is the home of the rhododendron and the kalmia; here is the meeting place of the mountain flora of the North and of the South, and the only place where distinctive Southern mountain trees may be found side by side with those of the North. Here, too, are found trees of from five to seven feet, and even more, in diameter, which tower to a height of an hundred and forty feet, and, occasionally, much higher, and these patriarchal trees, though innumerable, are but the greatest in a dense forest composed of many other large, beautiful and valuable varieties. In fine, here is the largest area in the South Atlantic region of virgin forest and the finest example of mixed forest (by which is meant a forest of deciduous and evergreen trees) in America. There is but one such forest in America, and neglect of the opportunity now presented of saving it may work irretrievable loss. The forest once destroyed cannot be restored. Reforestation is a slow process; it is for subsequent generations. The experience of the old countries in this matter stands as a warning. The increasing scarcity of timber is causing the large areas of forest in this part of our country to be rapidly acquired by those whose one thought will be immediate returns from a system of lumbering utterly reckless and ruinous from any other point of view, and in a few years this forest will be a thing of the past. The National Government, and it alone, can prevent this destruction and, by the application of the methods of scientific forestry, preserve the forest as a heritage and blessing to unborn generations. r
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).