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WCU - Great Smoky Mountains - A Park for America

Nomenclature notes

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Item 1 - Nomenclature notes
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Nomenclature notes

GSMNP_13150_31_01
Item 2 - Nomenclature notes
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GSMNP_13150_31_02
Item 3 - Nomenclature notes
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GSMNP_13150_31_03
Item 4 - Nomenclature notes
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Item 6 - Nomenclature notes
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GSMNP_13150_31_06
Item 7 - Nomenclature notes
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Nomenclature notes

GSMNP_13150_31_07
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Item’s are ‘child’ level descriptions to ‘parent’ objects, (e.g. one page of a whole book).

  • At the time of the removal of the Cherokees the War Department directed Philip Harry to map a part of the Cherokee territory. Harry’s map, of excellent topography for the time, is dated 1837-38. It was never published, but the origi- nal is in the library of the Chief of Engineers, U. S. A., Wash- ington. It does not include the Smokies; but on one margin is the legend “Great Iron or Smoky Mountains.” It should be understood that very few whites lived in the Great Smoky Mountains until about the time of the Civil War, and that to this day a large part of the area is quite un- inhabited. The first really scientific exploration of this region was made in 1861 by Porf. Arnold Guyot, of Princeton College, N. J.. Rather amateurish attempts had previously been made by Clingman and Buckley; but the results were inconclusive. Guy- ot called the range, extending from the Big Pigeon to the Little Tennessee rivers, the Great Smoky Mountains. This has been its official and local designation ever since he mapped it. There is need of a general term to include the whole north- western escarpment of the Southern Appalachians from the Vir- ginia to the Georgia lines, forming the boundary between North Carolina and Tennessee. This particularly to distinguish it from the more of less parallel Blue Ridge that front on the Pied- mont, and from the transverse ranges connecting them. The massive all of mountains fronting toward Tennessee and the Great Appalachian Valley has, indeed, for convenience sake, been commonly called by geographers of our time the Unakas. But it is cut into segments by rivers flowing westward; each seg- ment (with one exception, soon to be noted) has a name of its own; and the embarrassing point is that two of these segments are alike named Unaka. It seems to me that the best way out of the difficulty is to adopt the geographers’ practice, call the whole system Unaka, and give new names to the short segments that at present bear that designation. Confusion would thus be avoided. There is, however, one segment, that bears no name, of- ficial or local, that is commonly accepted. This is the one from the French Broad to the Little Pigeon rivers. In western North Carolina we generally refer to it as the Max Patch section, after the name of its principal peak. Certain parties interested in real estate projects have lately been including it, in their literature, with the Great Smoky Mountains; doubtless for interested reasons, owing the proximity of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. But with equal logic it might be attached to the Bald Mountains on the other side of the French Broad. This segment certainly should have a name; but I have no suggestion to make as to its nomenclature. Very sincerely, (signed) Horace Kephart.
Object
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).

  • These notes on place names in the Smokies were made by Horace Kephart and were collected by George Masa. George Masa (1881-1933) was active in the Appalachian Trail Club and in the movement to establish the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In 1931, he was named to the three-person nomenclature committee for the North Carolina Park Commission and had the responsibility for accurately naming the peaks, streams, and other features. Mutual interests fostered Masa’s friendship with Horace Kephart (1862-1931), a noted author and promoter of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Kephart and Masa often hiked together with park officials on inspection trips and provided information to stir public interest. Kephart wrote many articles promoting regional conservation and the park movement.

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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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