Great Smoky Mountains
The Great Smoky Mountains are a prominent subrange of the Appalachian Mountains located in the southeastern United States, straddling the border between North Carolina and Tennessee. Renowned for their striking natural beauty, the mountains are characterized by the distinctive fog that often envelops them, a phenomenon created by volatile organic compounds released by the area’s diverse plant life. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, established in 1934, covers over 816 square miles and includes notable peaks such as Clingmans Dome, the highest point in the range at 6,643 feet. The park is celebrated for its rich biodiversity, housing more than 19,000 species of flora and fauna, with ongoing efforts to catalog even more through initiatives like the All Taxa Biodiversity Initiative.
The region has a significant historical context, having faced extensive logging pressures in the early 20th century before conservation efforts led to its protection. This conservation legacy is reflected in its designation as both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an International Biosphere Reserve. The park also features extensive river systems and is home to various wildlife, including black bears and elk. However, visitors should be aware that about 20 percent of the iconic smoky haze is attributed to air pollution. The Great Smoky Mountains attract around 11.3 million visitors annually, drawn by their natural splendor and diverse recreational opportunities, such as viewing the synchronous fireflies during peak season.
Great Smoky Mountains
Located in the southeastern United States, the Great Smoky Mountains are a subrange of the larger Appalachian Mountains chain. Famed for their natural beauty, the Great Smoky Mountains derive their name from the wispy fog banks that frequently develop within them. Generated primarily by vaporous volatile organic compounds released by the diverse flora that lives in the mountains, these fog banks often appear like plumes of blue smoke when viewed from a distance.
The mountains are also the namesake of a popular destination in the US National Park system. Established in 1934, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is about 195 miles (314 kilometers) east of Nashville, Tennessee, and 37 miles (60 kilometers) west of Asheville, North Carolina. It spans more than 816 square miles (2,113 square kilometers) and encompasses the chain’s best-known and tallest peaks including the fabled Clingmans Dome.
Background
The Great Smoky Mountains are part of the larger Appalachian Mountains, which rank among the longest and oldest mountain chains in the world. According to the National Park Service (NPS), the Appalachian Mountains began forming 200 million to 300 million years ago from collisions between Earth’s continental plates. These collisions buckled long, horizontally oriented deposits of sedimentary rock, forcing them into upward positions. They created a continuous chain of highlands and mountains spanning more than 2,000 miles (3,219 kilometers) from the present-day states of Maine to Georgia.
After forming, the Appalachian Mountains continued to evolve over millions of years. Erosion reshaped the chain as eons of exposure to wind, rain, and seasonal cycles displaced existing rock. During the Pleistocene Epoch, which began about two million years ago and ended about 12,000 BCE, glacial movement in the Earth’s directional extremes triggered climate changes that affected the Great Smoky Mountains. At the chain’s loftiest elevations, alpine conditions marked by short, cool summers and long periods of cold, snowy, and windy weather became the norm.
The Great Smoky Mountains have long occupied a high-profile position in US culture, but their thick forests and rich biodiversity left them vulnerable to resource exploitation prior to the modern environmentalist movement. According to National Geographic,80 percent of the land that now comprises Great Smoky Mountains National Park had been essentially clear-cut by the logging industry by the early twentieth century. A coordinated conservation movement emerged to protect the mountains’ biodiversity, which was led by the US Park Service, philanthropic donors, and the state governments of North Carolina and Tennessee. These groups cooperated to buy out the logging companies and 1,200 individual landowners with claims in the Great Smoky Mountains. Great Smoky Mountains National Park then opened to the public in 1934.
After rehabilitation efforts succeeded in fully restoring the hundreds of tree and shrub species native to the chain, the mountains’ iconic blue fog reemerged as a regular feature of early mornings in the local valleys. Great Smoky Mountains National Park was added to the United Nations’ (UN) International Biosphere Reserve program in 1998. It is also a UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site and home to multiple listings in the US National Register of Historic Places.
Overview
The Great Smoky Mountains, informally known as the “Smokies,” span the state line dividing Tennessee and North Carolina. They are among the tallest natural peaks in the Appalachian Mountain chain, with sixteen mountains rising to elevations of more than 5,000 feet (1,524 meters). The highest point in the Great Smoky range is the summit of Clingmans Dome at 6,643 feet (2,025 meters). Clingmans Dome is also the third-highest mountain in the United States east of the Mississippi River. Only Mount Mitchell and Mount Craig in western North Carolina, which are considered part of the Appalachian Mountains but not the Great Smoky Mountains, are taller. Notably, the famous US folk song “On Top of Old Smoky” is believed to have been inspired by Clingmans Dome.
Mount Le Conte is another noteworthy feature of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Reaching a height of 6,593 feet (2,010 meters), Mount Le Conte ranks as the park’s third-highest elevation. Its scenic hiking trails and historic lodge accommodations combine to make it one of the most popular destinations among the park’s approximately 11.3 million annual visitors.
Scientists have cataloged more than 19,000 flora and fauna species within the Great Smoky Mountains. Significant populations of black bears, deer, and elk live in the range, which are also home to approximately one hundred native species of trees and more than one hundred native species of shrubs. Biodiversity within the park is actively tracked through an initiative known as the All Taxa Biodiversity Initiative (ATBI). Launched in 1998, the ATBI has directly led scientists to catalog approximately the thousand species that had not previously been identified in the park and about one thousand that had never before been seen anywhere in the world. These discoveries hastened the Great Smoky Mountains’ inclusion as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an International Biosphere Reserve site. Researchers believe that tens of thousands of additional flora and fauna species may exist within the national park, potentially elevating the number of distinct life forms living there to the one-hundred thousand range.
The Great Smoky Mountains are also well-known for their extensive river and stream networks, which combine to cover about 2,900 miles (4,667 kilometers). Conservationists are actively working to restore these waterways’ native fish populations, which can be found in about 800 miles (1,288 kilometers) of the chain’s rivers and streams as of 2021. These bodies of water combine to house about fifty catalogued varieties of fish.
Conservation efforts are led by the NPS, the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), and the Great Smoky Mountains Association (GSMA), among other agencies. While the chain’s ecological profile has vastly improved since the 1934 establishment of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, researchers believe that about 20 percent of the chain’s defining smoky haze results from air pollution. Particulate matter lingering in the atmosphere as a byproduct of coal combustion has been identified as a specific aggravating factor.
In 2006, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Service began a lottery to view the sychronous firelies. The lottery began in an attempt to combat overcrowding during peak synchronous firefly season. Peak viewing season is typically between the end of May and the beginning of June. The park issues around 120 vehicle tickets a day. Displays typically begin around 9:30pm and last throughout the night.
Bibliography
“About GSMA.” Great Smoky Mountains Association,2021, www.smokiesinformation.org/about-gsma. Accessed 16 Sept. 2021.
“Clingmans Dome.” U.S. National Park Service,2021, www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/clingmansdome.htm. Accessed 16 Sept. 2021.
Conners, Valerie. “An Insider’s Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains.” Visit the USA,2021, www.visittheusa.com/experience/insiders-guide-great-smoky-mountains. Accessed 16 Sept. 2021.
Cuthbert, Lori, and Joe Yogerst. “Everything to Know about Great Smoky Mountains National Park.” National Geographic,28 Mar. 2019, www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/national-parks/article/great-smoky-mountains-national-park. Accessed 16 Sept. 2021.
“Great Smoky Mountains.” Gatlinburg Convention and Visitors Bureau,2021, www.gatlinburg.com/great-smoky-mountains/. Accessed 16 Sept. 2021.
“Great Smoky Mountains.” U.S. National Park Service,2021, www.nps.gov/grsm/learn/nature/index.htm. Accessed 16 Sept. 2021.
“Great Smoky Mountains: A Wondrous Diversity of Life.” U.S. National Park Service,2021, www.nps.gov/grsm/index.htm. Accessed 16 Sept. 2021.
“Great Smoky Mountains: Natural Features and Ecosystems.” U.S. National Park Service,2021, www.nps.gov/grsm/learn/nature/naturalfeaturesandecosystems.htm. Accessed 16 Sept. 2021.
“The Great Smoky Mountains Firefly Viewing Lottery, Great Smoky Mountains National Park.” Recreation, www.recreation.gov/ticket/facility/233374. Accessed 22 May 2024.