Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Strategies for supporting the Appalachian National Park movement

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  • J. A. HOLMES, State Geologist. NORTH CAROLINA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. I v Chapel Hill, N. C, July 7, 1900. i Dr. C. P. Ambler, , j App. Nat. Park Association, Asheville , N, C. My dear sir: I am just in receipt of your letter of July 4. I beg to submit the following statement in regard to the work now in progress with reference to the park and forest reserve, which information had perhaps best not be published at the present time in this form, but you are at liberty to make any u se of it you may think best among the friends of this movement. It was found necessary before getting the appropriation through Congress to abandon the idea of a commission and the enitre investigation of the forest areas was placed under the direction of the serretary of Agriculture, who is heartily in accord with this movement. The cooperation of the U. S. Geological survey was also secured and its special effots are being used in connection with the examination of the streams and the measurement of the amount of water which runs out of this mountain country. The plans for work during the summer season have ben quite thoroughly matured and a considerable portion of the work is already under way. About June 10 one engineer and three assistants began work near Morganton, measuring the tributaries of the Y< dkin and Catawba, rivers which flow from the Blue Ridge, and their work as the summer advances will be continued around northward to include the head waters of New river and Northward along the west slope of the gre t Smoky Mountains so as to include the tributaries of the Holston in Tennessee. Another party, consisting of one engineer and three assistants, are beginning at the southern end to measure the streams which flow out of this mountain
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