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Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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WCU - Great Smoky Mountains - A Park for America

Newfound Gap loop and Chimney Tops

  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-7700.jpg
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  • Newfound Gap is located near the geographic center of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. State highway 441 passes through the gap. In the mid-1920s, before the park was established, North Carolina and Tennessee agreed to build a road through the center of the proposed park. The road was built in the mid-1930s and included a 360-degree loop that replaced steep switchbacks. This photograph was made by George Alexander Grant (1891-1964), first chief photographer for the agency. Grant began work in 1929 under Horace Albright, second NPS director, who hired him to create a documentary file of images for use in reports, interpretive projects, education, and public information. Considered an Eminent Photographer, many of Grant’s photographs were published without his name, instead, being credited as an “NPS photo.” Before his retirement in 1954, Grant created approximately 30,000-40,000 images for NPS.

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Great Smoky Mountains - A Park for America

This digital collection was created to contribute to the public's understanding of the forces and ideas that led to the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1934. The most vi...

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