Why Is The Great Smoky Mountains National Park Essay

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Home to over 1,500 species of wildflowers, 100 species of trees and the hundreds of different types of animals, the Great Smoky Mountains is the place to be. The beauty of this park even inspired singer/songwriter Boudleaux Bryant to write a song about it called Rocky Top. “Rocky Top, you'll always be, home sweet home to me. Good ole Rocky Top, Rocky Top Tennessee”, those lyrics can now be heard all throughout Tennessee as is has become one of the official state songs. Good ole Rocky Top has been named the busiest national park averaging about 9 million visitors a year. Since there is no entrance fee, an average summer weekend brings in 60,000 visitors alone (National Geographic). It was even named an International Biosphere Reserve by the United Nations in 1976 (“Great Smoky”).
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is located on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee. Its forests are filled with a wide variety of wildflowers, plants, and animals and of course, mountains. It is 521, 896 acres large and contains eight hundred miles of mountainous terrain (National Geographic). The park is intertwined with 384 miles of mountain roads. This enables visitors to pull off the side of the road and meander the abundance of walking trails this park offers.
Not only is the park filled with trees, it is full of ancient history. The park was established in 1934 but it was not an easy process. Since is it located in a prime location in the Appalachian, many people fought against the creation of the National Park (“Great Smoky”). Many small farmers and few timber and paper companies who did not want to give up their shares owned the land. Since it is such a large area, they did not want to give up the lumber opportunities that came fr...

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National Geographic Society. "Great Smoky Mountains National Park - National Geographic." National Geographic. N.p., n.d. Web. . .
Stern, Marc J., Robert B. Powell, and Karen S. Hockett. "Why Do They Come? Understanding Attendance At Ranger- Led Programs In Great Smoky Mountains National Park." Journal Of Interpretation Research 16.2 (2011): 35-52. Education Research Complete. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
"Great Smoky Mountains National Park (U.S. National Park Service)." National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, 8 Apr. 2014. Web. . .

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