Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (20) View all

View from Chimney Tops

  • gsmnp_208328_0147.jpg
  • The view from Chimney Tops shows the Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s first campground, built to accommodate 110 cars and tents. Newfound Gap Highway and West Prong Little Pigeon River meander through the area. The photographer, Carlos C. Campbell (1892-1978), was a founding member of the Smoky Mountain Hiking Club (est. 1924) and a charter member of the Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association (est. 1923). Campbell was an avid hiker and often assisted Jim Thompson with his camera equipment. When Campbell won a folding camera in 1935, he began his own photography journey, taking thousands of photographs and jotting down information about each one in small notebooks. His granddaughter, Rebecca Campbell Arrants, donated this collection of photographs and notebooks from 1934 - 1940 to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.