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Senate 5518 report

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Item 1 - Senate 5518 report
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Senate 5518 report

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Item 16 - Senate 5518 report
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Senate 5518 report

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  • FOREST RESERVE IN SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. 13 mountains of over 6,000 feet in altitude, and a great number of inferior height, clothed with virgin forests, intersected by deep valleys, and abounding in brooks, rivers, and waterfalls, making the region one of unsurpassed attractiveness. The superb forests of the Southern Appalachian system are superior to those of any other section of the United States. Professor Gray, the Harvard botanist, says he found a greater number of indigenous trees in a trip of 30 miles through western North Carolina than can be discovered in a journey through Europe, or from the Atlantic coast to the Rocky Mountain plateau. In view of the constantly increasing demand for timber, even the forests of western North Carolina will in time be denuded unless their destruction is prevented by the National Government. There are hundreds of thousands of acres of land with vast primeval forests which can be purchased by the Government for a mere trifle when the sum involved is compared with the immense expenditures lavished upon other and less worthy objects. The Government maintains the Yellowstone National Park in the Far West. Why should not one be established in the Appalachian region for the benefit of the South and East? An appropriation by Congress not exceeding the cost of a battle ship would buy all the land that is required. Comparatively few persons in the East can make the long journey to the Yellowstone National Park, whereas a trip to western North Carolina would not involve half as much time or expense. Moreover, the climate of the Southern Appalachian system is fine all the year round—in winter as well as in summer. It is even now a favorite resort with those who desire to escape the rigor of the Northern winter. It is only twenty-four hours' ride by railroad from New York, Chicago, St. Louis, and the Gulf States, and a park located there would be national in fact as well as in name. The Appalachian National Park Association deserves success in the movement which it has inaugurated. Congress should investigate the project, and if it finds, as it doubtless will, that the movement is one which should be supported, legislation ought to be enacted at cnce to secure the establishment of a national park in western North Carolina. As an opportunity for conferring on the people of the most populous section of the country a means of great enjoyment, this chance for Congressional action is unique. In addition to this phase of the subject the preservation of immense tracts of woodland and primeval forests and of the multitude of clear springs delivering water to the Atlantic coast would be in itself sufficient reason for early and favorable action upon the Appalachian national park project. [The Hartford Courant.] The wildest and most naturally beautiful part of this country east of the Rocky Mountains is that region where North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia approach each other. It is a mountain country with an average elevation of 4,000 feet and peaks running up to thousands of feet higher. The tallest mountain east of the Rockies is in North Carolina. This wild region abounds in timber, and is still a natural and unbroken wilderness except as the lumbermen invade its quiet. They have come. Already traffic in forest land is on and the railroads of the vicinity are loaded with lumber for the market. Let the American people sit by with their accustomed optimistic apathy and before long the forests will be gone, the water courses left to dry up, the bears, deer, and other wild animals killed off, and nothing but a fading memory remain of what now is a great natural park. The General Government ought to step in, before it is too late, and take possession of the whole region. The Yellowstone Park, far away and to all but a few inaccessible, should be supplemented by this natural reservation, which is easily reached by the great majority of the people of the United States. Take your map and you wall find that from Boston on the east around by Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis to New Orleans, Jacksonville, and so on up to Washington every city on the imaginary circuit has railroad facilities bringing it within not more at most than one night's ride of Asheville, the central point in the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky country. Establish a park there and people from every large city this side of the Mississippi would be visiting it in large numbers at all seasons of the year. As an opportunity for conferring on the citizens of the country a means of great enjoyment, this chance for Congressional action is unique. But that really would be only an incident of the work. In this elevated land are multitudes of clear, sweet streams delivering water to the Atlantic coast and to the Mississippi River. The divide is in the possible park. If the timber is all stripped from these hills, the streams will dry up and the ultimate loss will be serious and widespread. Leading citizens of North Carolina and other States adjoining have recently held a meeting and formed themselves into the Appalachian National Park Association to push the
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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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