Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Senate 5518 report

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

  • FOREST RESERVE IN SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. 7 escape the rigors of a Northern winter this plateau has been a place of favorite resort. It has one of the best all-year climates in the world. The existing national parks can only be visited in summer; snow and ice bar the way at all other times. If a national park were created in this favored mountain region it could be visited and enjoyed at all seasons of the year. LOCATION IS CENTRAL. This part of the Appalachian Range is but twenty-four hours from New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Toledo, and the Gulf States. It is, therefore, within easy reach of millions of people, and a park there could be in fact, as in name, a national park. EASTERN STATES ARE ENTITLED TO A NATIONAL PARK. There is no national park of the character of the one suggested east of the Yellowstone, which is considerably more than 2,000 miles from the Atlantic coast, nor is there even a forest reserve east of western Dakota, which is but a few hundred miles nearer. The Chickamauga battlefield, though called, it is believed, a "national park," possesses none of the characteristics of such a park as is now under consideration, and was created because of the historical interest investing its locality and is of very limited area. PARK WOULD PAY AS A FOREST RESERVE. It is confidently asserted that no forest reserve of the country, with possibly one exception, would yield a larger return to the Government. The forests are very dense; the timber of valuable species, such as tulip (poplar), oak, chestnut, hemlock, and pine, and of great size. The undergrowth is still to a large extent uninjured by fire, and the forest, when made accessible by Government roads and managed in a scientific manner, would yield an immediate, a constant, and a comparatively large revenue. The Government is now about to institute methods of scientific forestry. No better place in the United States can be found for the institution on a governmental scale of forestry operations, and because of the fine climate, summer and winter alike, it would be the only forest reserve of the country where such operations could be carried on uninterruptedly throughout the year. The forests and the climate, both incomparable, ordain this as the place for the commencement of forestry operations, and, perhaps, as the location eventually of a national school of forestry. 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. 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 be the area of 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, and 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. This 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
Object
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).