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Nature Magazine: Carolina number

items 45 of 78 items
  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-10387.jpg
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  • ASHEVILLE PHOTO CO. THE LURE OF THE SMOKIES—THE GREATEST PEAKS OF THE EAST Magnificent distances, great rolling peaks, warm sunshine, but best of all, the clean, fresh air that brings new life to a man OLD SMOKY BY ROBERT LINDSAY MASON When De Soto, first tourist to the Great Smokies, entered the Savannah River in the early summer of 1540 and made his tedious way northwestward through the almost impenetrable bush of the Blue Ridge Mountains and Toxaway to the western part of North Carolina, the hospitable redskins made him presents of great baskets of serviceberries. He declared them to be "the best mulberries he ever ate!" The Cherokees had picked them up under Kuwahi or "Mulberry Place"-—the present Clingman Dome. In addition they offered seven hundred "gallinas", or wild turkeys, to the great Spanish explorer's famished men. Twenty- five years later when Juan Pardo retraced De Soto's wanderings, the red men proffered the bloody hatchet and the scalping knife; they had learned their lesson from the terrible fowling-pieces of the invaders that belched flame and slaughter. De Soto, a stern man of few words, was driving his cavalcade hard in search of gold which he heard the simple savages gave away for a few worthless trinkets. Old Smoky's impressive scenery and remarkable flora did not interest the Spaniard beyond the serviceberries, nor her wild life except in so far as roast gallina appeased hungry soldiers. The same indifference was shown by those who came after, and it is true, although it seems incredible, that this gigantic mountain mass of thirty-two peaks, towering more than a mile above sea-level and uncut by a single stream for sixty-five miles, with its connecting gaps more than five thousand feet at every point, remained for centuries in the very heart of our civilization practically without discovery by ordinary human beings. Naturally, a rugged monolith of such phenomenal geological composition could not escape attention by scientists like LeConte, Bartram, Audubon, and Michaux; nor long hunters like Boone of the lower Yadkin, and Crockett; nor such hardy explorers as Guyot, Clingman, and Dr. Elisha Mitchell; but the general public passed by its serrated, cloud-cleaving skyline with but a transient exclamation of wonder until three years ago when things began to happen. In 1927 North Carolina and Tennessee, sister states across this rugged state-line watershed, impelled by public enthusiasm, began the work of purchasing more than four hundred thousand acres of untamed wilderness to be presented to the Federal Government as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. U. S. Foresters are already in charge of nearly half of the required acreage necessary for permanent operation. It is the first instance of two states joining hands to create a National Park saddled astride their state line. This important movement typifies the trend of our modern civilization to preserve natural educational museums retaining within comprehensive bounds their ideal specimen representations of Nature's encyclopedia. In this one immense Great Smoky volume the knowledge-seeker, or the scenic thrill-hunter, may have his field from Maine to Florida within one compact scope by merely climbing a mile up Nature's bookshelves into the clouds. If he^an do this without gasping at her immensities on the way, he would be dull indeed. The camper, or hiker, bent upon conquering the terrors of a startling wilderness, may also have his innings 321
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).