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Great Smoky Mountains - A Park for America
WCU - Great Smoky Mountains - A Park for America

Petition for the Establishment of a National Park and Forest and Game Preserve

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  • The Appalachian National Park Association drafted a number of petitions and resolutions favoring the establishment of a national forest reserve and/or a national park in the southern Appalachians. This petition was circulated among citizens and then presented with a resolution to various state legislators. Records indicate that 5,000 of these petitions were printed and distributed.
  • ^^ C~)T^IC~* F" To the ReciPient : Please secure as many signatures as possible to the * petition following, and as the sheets are filled return promptly to the secretary of your local committee having the agitation for the Appalachian National Park and Forest Reserve in hand. Should there be no organization in your locality to receive these petitions, kindly forward at your earliest convenience to the Secretary of the Appalachian National Park Association, Box 368, Asheville, North Carolina. PETITION For the Establishment of a National Park and Forest and Game Preserve in the southern Appalachians. To the Senators and Members of the House of Representatives of the United States in Congress Assembled : The undersigned citizens and voters represent that in the Mountain regions of Western North Carolina there are great tracts of timber lands, blessed with a salubrity of climate that renders the country admirably adapted for health-seekers and tourists. This region is threatened with the denudition of its forests, by lumbering and other enterprises. The exceeding beauty of the region and its numerous springs and waterfalls, is dependent largely on the protection of its trees. The increased activity in the various leather and woodworking industries has, however, given an impetus to the lumbering and tanning trades, and the destruction of these mountain forest lands is proceeding to a degree which makes it but a question of a short time when the ruin will be completed. Despoiled of the trees, the land will be comparatively useless. The resulting drying up of the springs and water-courses with attendant destructive floods will mark the irreparable damage done to this region unless legislative interference comes to its aid. The advantage to the nation at large in the establishment of a National Park in these mountains would be incalculable, from the fact of its readiness of access from all the large centers of trade, being within twenty-four hours journey, approximately, of New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Indianapolis, etc. Your petitioners, undersigned, therefore, urge that measures be adopted looking to the protection of the region by the establishment of a National Park and Forest Reserve. Name. Town or City. State.

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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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