Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Report of the Secretary of Agriculture in relation to the forests, rivers, and mountains of the southern Appalachian region

items 335 of 386 items
  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-8809.jpg
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  • SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. 163 THE TITLE TO THE LAND CAN BE EASILY ACQUIRED. A site for the park can easily be chosen where the land is held in large areas and where the settlers are few. The land now sells for about $2 an acre, so that a comparatively large park could be secured at what would be greatly less than its value to the nation. SUGGESTIONS REGARDING LOCATION OF PARK. V That the foregoing are the considerations which your petitioner deems of the most imperative nature and which it respectfully suggests should have the early attention of the Congress. That your petitioner does not consider that it would be proper for it to suggest in anything more than a general way what should lie the area or the boundary lines of a park in the Southern Appalachian region. In the opinion of your petitioner, this is a matter which could well be left to the decision of the forester of the Government. Your petitioner is, however, of the opinion that it would be proper to express its conviction that whatever may be the decision respecting the area or exact location of such a national park, it should contain the highest mountains and the finest scenery in the whole Appalachian system, arid this is found in the heart of the Great Smoky and Black mountains; and that the park should also embrace the largest area of virgin forest and the finest example of mixed forest in America, and this is found in the heart of the Balsam Mountains, and all of these are embraced within the limits of the tract hereinafter described. The tract of land will be found to comprise two areas of land, each lying partly in Tennessee and partly in North Carolina, connected by a narrow strip extending along the line dividing those States and embracing land in each of them. In the eastern end of this tract will be found, with others, the following-named mountains: Altitude in feet. | Altitude in feet. Mount Mitchell 6, 711 Cat Tail Peak 6,611 Balsam Cone 6,671 Black Dome 6,502 Deer Mountain 6,283 Mount Gibbe 6,591 Roan Mountain 6,313 Mount Hallback 6,043 BigCraggy 6,068 j Hairy Bear 6,691 Potato Top 6> 393 ! Long Ridge - 6,259 Black Brother 6,619 In the western part of said tract will be found Mount Guyot (altitude 6,636 feet), Clingman's Dome (altitude 6,650 feet), Bald Mountain (altitude 6,220 feet), and many other high mountains, as well as the untouched tract of virgin forest hereinbefore referred to. Your petitioner therefore states that, in its opinion, by far the best land for the Appalachian national park lies between parallels 35 and 37 of north latitude, and between the lines 82 and 85 of west longitude, and within the tract described as follows: Beginning at Joanna Bald Mountain, in the State of North Carolina, on the line dividing the county of Graham from Cherokee and Macon
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).