The Great Smoky Mountains National Park has some of the highest, oldest, and most picturesque mountains and ridges in the eastern United States. One of the most biologically diverse regions in North America--with thousands of species of plant and animal life--the park was designated an International Biosphere Reserve by the United Nations in 1976 and a World Heritage Site in 1983.

For centuries, the majesty and mystery of the Great Smoky Mountains have lured mankind. The Cherokee were among the first to build thriving communities here, and backcountry frontiersmen were next to put down roots. In time, visitors arrived, eager to take in the cool mountain air, and returned home with stories of hillbillies. Then came those who used the mountains for their own advantages, such as lumber barons, armed with steam shovels and skidders. Eventually, civic boosters from western North Carolina and east Tennessee took note and began advocating for the protection of the Great Smoky Mountains. Before a national park could be established, though, there were competing interests to be sorted and a consideration of the lives affected.

Learn about the Great Smoky Mountains National Park's history and varied attractions, as well as its resident wildlife.

This is Max Davis reporting from the Great Smoky Mountains. It’s the summer of 1940 . . . The Parkers, an intrepid family of four, are back for another exciting adventure, this time at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. With their great-grandfather’s journal as their guide, ten-year-old twins James and Morgan and their parents backpack twenty-six miles along the Appalachian Trail, spotting synchronized fireflies and North America’s largest salamander species. But will the adventure end when Morgan comes down with a mysterious illness? Each book in the exciting Adventures with the Parkers series for kids 8–13 explores a popular national park and is packed with adventure as well as engaging and educational facts about nature, outdoor safety, and much more. Vacation has never been this fun! Books in the Adventures with the Parkers Series: Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks: Danger in the Narrows Glacier National Park: Going to the Sun Grand Canyon National Park: Tail of the Scorpion Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Ridge Runner Rescue Mount Rushmore, Badlands, Wind Cave: Going Underground Olympic National Park: Touch of the Tide Pool, Crack of the Glacier Rocky Mountain National Park: Peril on Longs Peak Yellowstone National Park: Eye of the Grizzly Yosemite National Park: Harrowing Ascent of Half Dome

Looking beyond the Highway is an examination of road history and roadside attractions specific to the South. Focused in part on numerous aspects of thematerial culture landscape of the Dixie Highway, the essays consider the politics of roadbuilding, roadside entertainment, the buildings and businesses one might encounter along the road, and regional adaptations to the needs and desires of northern tourists. Following the Dixie Highway from southern Illinois to Florida with sidetrips down other southern roads, the essays cover a wide variety of subjects, many of which will resonate with anyone who has ever lived in or vacationed in the South: Harrison Mayes's “Get Right With God” signs; the park-and-pray craze of outdoor drive-in church services; the rise and demise of brick highways; the fierce political battle over the route of the Dixie Highway; beach music and the evolution of motel architecture in Myrtle Beach; Florida's early tourist towers; and the commercial development of Tennessee caves as tourist attractions. Covering a landscape that includes Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Indiana, Virginia, Arkansas, Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama, and Illinois, the anthology shows that there was and still is a distinctive southern culture and how roads have influenced that culture. As lively as they are diverse, thearticles provide a solid background for understanding roadside ephemera that have disappeared or are quickly disappearing. Ranging from the serious to the light-hearted and including descriptions of American road and roadside icons to kitsch, the book will appeal to anyone with an interest in road history and roadside architecture.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is one of America's most beautiful and popular national parks. Located in the southern Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina, it is home to more than 100,000 species of plants and animals. The grandeur and sheer scale of the park has been captured in Donald W. Linzey's new book, Natural History Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is the most extensive volume available on the park's natural history. Written from the perspective of a naturalist who has spent over fifty years conducting research in the park, this volume not only discusses the park's plant and animal life but also explores the impact that civilization has played in altering the area's landscape. Linzey, who has been a major contributor to the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory, a concentrated effort to identify every species of plant and animal living within the park, draws from this deep reservoir of research. His book provides a thorough overview of everything a visitor to the park would need to know, without complex jargon. Both casual readers and those more interested in the ecology of the Great Smoky Mountains will find this book an enlightening and educational guide. Donald W. Linzey, a wildlife biologist and ecologist, is professor of biology at Wytheville Community College in Wytheville, Virginia. He is an authority on the mammals of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and its environs.