Chapter III: Part 3: Guide and Adviser 98 (2)

On top of the Smokies and other high mountains of the Southern Appalachians, tundra (treeless areas) may have developed as winter climates became too cold and windy even for spruce and fir, which is the situation today on high peaks of the Adirondacks and White Mountains in New England. Accumulations of blocky boulders in higher parts of the Smokies resemble block fields in the northern Appalachians that probably were formed above timberline in late stages of glaciation. From the location of block fields, geologists postulate a treeline in the Smokies somewhere between 900 and 1,500 meters (3,000 and 5,000 feet) elevation during the last glacial period, some 15,000 to 25,000 years ago. If islands of tundra did exist in the Southern Appalachians, it is not likely that tundra mammals would have migrated from the tundra bordering the ice front through the intervening forest to reach such Arctic pastures in the sky. But some birds might have. Water pipits, which today nest in the Arctic and above timberline on our Western mountains, might have bred on these patches of southern tundra. And the few snow buntings which have been seen wintering on Southern Appalachian balds may have been returning to ancestral nesting grounds of the species.

Although Pleistocene tundra in the Smokies is a rather speculative notion, it seems certain that spruce-fir forest existed below today's 1,400-meter (4,600-foot) limit. This supposition is supported by the fact that fossil pollen and other fragments of spruce and fir have been found in several lowland bog deposits of the South.

During the last Ice Age the Southern Appalachian spruce-fir forests and their animals must have been a richer version of the plant-animal community that exists in this zone today, for at the peak of the ice advance northern plants and animals probably could migrate along a continuous avenue of this boreal forest in the Appalachians. Bones from cave deposits at Natural Chimneys in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley indicate that such northern animals as porcupines, snowshoe hares, pine martens, fishers, spruce grouse, and gray jays, as well as the now extinct longnosed peccary and giant beaver, roamed that area 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. The still existing species mentioned above now live farther north in the forests of New England and Canada. If such animals could live during the late Pleistocene at 450 meters (1,500 feet) in Virginia, many and perhaps all of them might well have lived at higher elevations in the Smokies. In the case of porcupines, archeological records from nearby regions in fact support this idea.

After the retreat of the last ice sheet a warm, dry period set in and caused the development of grasslands as far east as Ohio. To what extent this change in climate may have affected the Smokies is not known. But it may have been responsible for the development of the beech gaps: as the spruce-fir forests were forced ever higher, beeches and yellow birches followed in their wake. The once continuous band of spruce-fir forest through the Southern Appalachians would then have been broken into patches as it migrated to higher elevations--and disappeared entirely on the lower mountains. Today such forest is restricted in the Southern Appalachians to the highest parts of eastern West Virginia, southwestern Virginia, western North Carolina, and areas in and just north of the Great Smokies. During the warmer, drier period following glaciation, boreal forest must have been even smaller in extent.

Another consequence of warming was the northward migration of plants and animals into territory vacated by the ice sheet (north of the Ohio River and Long Island). The result today in northeastern United States is a broad patchwork of forest types, each type dominated by a few species, as in beech-maple or beech-birch-white pine forests. This stands in contrast to the diversity of the cove forests from which the migrants extended. Cove forests still harbor individuals of all these species.

What happens next? Has the Pleistocene epoch really ended or are we merely between glaciers, awaiting the next invasion of ice? For the Smokies the question implies others: Will the forest zones move up or down the mountainsides? How will this affect animal life?

While terrestrial life in the mountains flourished during the continent's climatic swings, aquatic life fared equally well. Within Great Smoky Mountains National Park live some 70 species of fish. Contrast this with the number in Shenandoah National Park in the Blue Ridge of Virginia, which has only about 25 species. Why so many in the Smokies? The answer parallels the situation for plants and terrestrial animals: diversity of environments and plenty of time. All the streams of the Smokies lie within the Tennessee River drainage, which is part of the Mississippi River drainage. The Tennessee River has more species of fish than any other river in North America, because of its many environments (lowland, plateau, and mountain); the vastness of the Mississippi drainage; its existence for many millions of years; and its Pleistocene history. During glacial periods many species of fish were forced southward by ice and cold glacial water. The Tennessee River system offered them a refuge just as Southern Appalachian coves offered a refuge for plants. Even the Mississippi itself was a less favorable haven because it received most of the meltwater. In the headwaters of the Tennessee, the streams of the Smokies thus benefit from their contact with an ancient, relatively undisturbed river system. Within the park, stream environments range from cold and fast to comparatively cool and slow, with large, deep pools.

While most of the present plant and animal species of the Smokies have ranges that extend far beyond these mountains, and while many of these have spread here from other areas of origin, a few are restricted solely to the Smokies. This suggests that they may have evolved here. One such plant is Rugel's groundsel, a member of the Composite family that grows to about 28 centimeters (11 inches) high and bears large, cylindrical clusters of tiny golden flowers. This plant, abundant in the park's spruce-fir forests, has not been found outside the Smokies. This suggests that it evolved in the Southern Appalachians and that after the last glacial period, when connection with other sections of spruce-fir forest was broken, it persisted or survived only in the Smokies. By comparison, the Fraser fir, though most abundant in the Smokies, also occurs north to southwestern Virginia on the highest mountains, indicating that it evolved at some earlier, colder time when spruce-fir forest was more nearly continuous. The red-cheeked salamander, a striking creature, is probably the sole vertebrate found exclusively in the Smokies. Many other species of salamanders, however, are restricted to parts of the southern end of the Appalachians and probably evolved there, where the cool, wet climate and diverse topography provide ideal conditions for this group of animals. How many other species of plants and animals evolved in the region and subsequently spread far beyond this point of origin we can only conjecture.

Natural History Sampler

These eight pages sample the abundant life of the Smokies, from
flowering plants and shrubs to birds, mammals, reptiles, and
amphibians.

Species are shown for various reasons. You may want to identify the
common species you see in the wild. Other species are uncommon and you
are not likely to see them. Still others are uncommonly beautiful, and
we don't want you to miss seeing at least their pictures.

Information, drawings, and photographs of bears and wild boars are
found in the Bears, Boars and Acorns chapter.

Bears, Boars and Acorns

As frosts touch the earth and the reds and yellows of fall creep down the mountainsides, oaks, hickories, beeches, and other trees shed their fruits. Many animals will join in the harvest of this fruit, but several, especially bear, deer, wild boar, gray squirrel, chipmunk, turkey, and ruffed grouse, are particularly dependent on this mast, as it is called, for their autumn and winter welfare. With the chestnut gone these animals must rely mostly on acorns. Oaks, unlike the chestnut, do not produce consistently, but fruit abundantly some years and fail in others. In the poor years, when competition for mast is keen, the effects are starvation, wandering, and mass migrations. The appearance and multiplication of European wild boars in the park have only added to the pressure on the native animal species. Acorn shortages bring into sharp focus the life styles and survival systems of the mast-dependent animals. From among these the wild boar emerges as an ecological villain, although we should perhaps cast man, who introduced the boar here, in that role.

The loss of the chestnut illustrates how a change in one element can irrevocably alter an entire ecosystem. As the chestnuts of the Smokies died, their place was taken primarily by chestnut oak, northern red oak, red maple, hemlock, and silverbell. The annual mast crop suffered from this change in two ways. First, only about half of the replacement trees were mast-bearing oaks. Second, oaks are not dependable mast-bearers. Mast failures seem to result mainly from spring freezes during the pollinating and fertilization of oak flowers. Chestnuts bloomed in the first two weeks of June when the danger of frost was slight and so they bore well nearly every year. This difference in flowering time has had reverberations throughout the animal world within these mountains. By looking into the life histories and population dynamics of some of the acorn eaters we may get some idea of the nature and extent of those reverberations.

Whitetail deer prefer young forests and mixtures of forest and field because in these areas an abundance of shrubs and herbaceous plants provides ample food. The mature forests of the Smokies have relatively little forage near the ground and so they support only small numbers of deer. In the Cades Cove area, however, the lush meadows and second-growth forest feed several hundred deer. In the fall deer join in the mast harvest, but they do not depend on it as do the bears, gray squirrels, wild boars, and chipmunks. Deer have the option of eating twigs, buds, and herbaceous plants. They eat acorns, however, and this nutritious food will help them enter winter in good condition. Deer mating takes place from September to November in the Smokies, as the mature males each run with a female for several days, then hunt for another. In winter the bucks shed their antlers and join the does and yearlings. In May or June the does give birth to their spotted fawns, usually twins. The summer bands you see in Cades Cove are again separated by sex as the bucks once again grow antlers in preparation for the autumn battles.

Now that wolves and other large predators are gone from the Smokies, starvation and disease are the principal checks on deer numbers. Late in 1971 a disease that causes massive bleeding struck the herd in Cades Cove, killing many of the deer and a few cattle. But by the following spring an increase in the production of offspring and the influx of deer from nearby areas brought the herd back almost to its former number.

Gray squirrel numbers fluctuate even more dramatically, as populations build up and then collapse, but these oscillations occur even when food is adequate. Until recently, some observers thought these oscillations were amplified by mast failures, but apparently they are not. In the Smokies, gray squirrels are found mostly in the oak and beech forest of the lower and middle elevations, while their smaller cousins, the red squirrels, stick more to the upper elevations. In years of extreme low population swings such as 1946 and 1968, many migrating squirrels have been killed on the highways; others have even been seen attempting to swim Fontana Lake. The loss of gray squirrels in 1946 was estimated at 90 percent for some watersheds.

Turkeys and ruffed grouse both feed heavily on acorns in the fall, although they, like the deer, have other possibilities. Turkey and grouse also feed on the fruits of dogwood and wild grape; beechnuts in good years; seeds; and buds. A statewide study in Virginia found that acorns supplied about one-quarter of the annual diet of wild turkeys, and this proportion is much higher in fall. Acorns are also a top food item in fall for ruffed grouse.

We come now to the two chief antagonists in the annual mast hunt, bears and wild boars. The arrival of wild boars in the park has meant added competition for bears, as well as many other disruptive ecological effects. By considering the population dynamics and seasonal activities of these two species, we get a clear contrast between their roles. One fits in with the forest "establishment" and one clearly does not.

How many bears live in the park? This is difficult to determine because bears are secretive and tend to wander. The National Park Service estimates that numbers usually range from about 400 up to about 600, depending on reproduction, food availability, extent of poaching, and other factors. The estimates are based on intensive research by the University of Tennessee in the northwest quarter of the park.

From about December to March black bears sleep, although they occasionally come out for brief periods. During the University of Tennessee studies it was learned, to the surprise of many, that bears in the Great Smokies had a preference for denning in hollow trees, sometimes as much as 15 meters (50 feet) above the ground. Typically, such a tree has been broken off by storms and provides an entrance and some sort of platform within that supports the bear. In such a den, or one in a protected place on the ground, the female in alternate years gives birth to tiny cubs weighing about a half-kilo (18 ounces) apiece.

Most bears leave their dens in late March or April and from then until early summer, when berries begin ripening, they find food scarce. Black bears are primarily vegetarians, though they eat almost any animal matter they can find, from ants to large mammals, as well as carrion. In spring they graze grasses heavily. Squawroot, a fleshy, conelike, parasitic plant, is a favored food then, so much so that local people call squawroot bear potato or bear cabbage. Roots and insect grubs also help to see the bears through spring, a time so lean for them that droppings are seldom seen on the trails. At this season bears roam widely at all elevations. Mating occurs in early summer.

From late July until early September the bears concentrate on berries, especially the blackberries growing in open places such as ridgetops and balds, and the blueberries most abundant in open oak-pine woods. Since insects and vertebrate animals are most numerous in summer, bears harvest them more frequently then than at other times. They especially seek beetles and nests of yellowjackets. With throngs of campers in the park bears investigate this source of food, too. National Park Service management practices are aimed at ending such scavenging--which makes bears both dependent on and dangerous to people--and ensuring that the animals live out their normal lives in the forest. Being deprived of garbage will work no hardship because, for bears and most other animals, summer is the season of abundance.

As fall progresses blackberries, blueberries, and beetles diminish in the diet and acorns and beechnuts increase until they become the primary sustenance. Bears are particularly fond of white oak acorns, the sweetest. In their eagerness the huge animals, which sometimes reach 200 kilos (450 pounds) in weight, even climb trees and crawl out on the branches as far as they can to eat the fruits or break off and drop the branch tips for consumption on the ground. They also relish black cherries and serviceberries. A park naturalist told me of watching a very large bear climb a 5-centimeter (2-inch) thick serviceberry on Spence Field, bending the tree double. Throughout the Southern Appalachians you can see small serviceberries broken down like this by bears in their quest for the fruits.

In most years the mast crop is adequate for all the animals dependent on it, but in the years of failure bears are hard pressed to find enough to eat. They wander down out of the mountains in search of food. In such years many are killed by hunters outside the national park. The loss of bears in some of the poorest mast years may be one-third to one-half of the park's bear population.

Enter now the European wild boar. Its history in the Smokies is another classic example, along with the chestnut blight fungus, balsam woolly aphid, Norway rat, Starling, and a host of other pests, of the damage that can be done by introducing an organism to territory outside its normal range. The wild boars in the Smokies are believed to be descendants of animals, purportedly of stock from Germany, that escaped from a game preserve on Hooper Bald, southwest of Fontana Lake, in the early 1920s. They were first detected in the park about 1950. By the early 1960s wild boars, now with some admixture of domestic pig blood, had spread east to Newfound Gap and, in the lower country, to Cosby and possibly Cataloochee. Their occupation of the entire park seemed imminent.

So now the Smokies have a wild counterpart of the domestic hog, the staple livestock animal that mountaineers once ran year-round in these woods. Horace Kephart's vivid description of the hog in the 1920s applies almost as well to today's European wild boar: "In physique and mentality, the razorback differs even more from a domestic hog than a wild goose does from a tame one," Kephart wrote. "Shaped in front like a thin wedge, he can go through laurel thickets like a bear. Armored with tough hide cushioned by bristles, he despises thorns, brambles, and rattlesnakes, alike. His extravagantly long snout can scent like a cat's, and yet burrow, uproot, overturn, as if made of metal."

The hog's long legs, thin flanks, and pliant hoofs fitted it to run like a deer and climb like a goat, Kephart claimed, calling it "a warrior born" who was also a first rate strategist.

The European wild boar sometimes attains a height of nearly a meter (three feet) at the shoulder and a weight of 100 kilos (220 pounds). It is built rather like a bison, the hindquarters sloping down from the shoulders. The long, hairy-tipped tail and, in the male, well-developed tusks also distinguish it from its domestic counterpart. Obviously, this is a formidable animal, as numerous boar hunters who have been treed by it or watched it cut up their dogs can attest. Normally, however, wild boars are not dangerous and run at the sight or scent of man. One evening, standing in a yard where a boar had rooted the night before, I asked a long-time boar observer about the animal's pugnacity.

"They won't attack you unless they're wounded or hemmed," this observer related. "I've tried to get them to charge me. Even picked up a squealing piglet once, but the sow didn't attack."

Wild boars feed mostly at night. Campers near balds in the western section of the park sometimes see them or hear their grunts and snorts as they run away. The females and young travel about in family groups but the males are loners. Though the animals are elusive, spending their days resting in dense cover, the signs of their rooting are very obvious on balds, in beech gaps and open fields, and along trails in moist woods.

Wild boars move seasonally in quest of food. In spring they eat a lot of grass, as well as succulent roots and the upper parts of wildflowers, which are especially abundant in cove forests and high-elevation beech forests. In summer they continue eating grass and other herbaceous plants but also seek huckleberries, blueberries, and blackberries. When acorns, hickory nuts, beechnuts, and other tree fruits start falling, they turn their attention to these, which in abundant years can carry the boars through winter. When the mast fails they feed heavily on tubers of wild yam and the outer layer of pitch pine roots. Throughout the year they supplement this vegetable diet with whatever invertebrates, salamanders, snakes, rodents, and other small animals they can root out or catch. Carrion and garbage are always welcome, too. The wild boar, as classic an omnivore as his domestic cousin, will eat almost anything.

Aside from the competition they give other masteaters in the critical fall season, wild boars upset the ecological balance in additional ways. Susan Bratton, research biologist with the National Park Service's Uplands Field Research Laboratory here in the Smokies, has made detailed studies of boar damage. She found that in some areas boars had greatly reduced the numbers of certain wildflowers, such as spring-beauty, yellow adder's-tongue, and wake-robin. Many other kinds of herbaceous wildflower species in the park are known to have been eaten, uprooted, or trampled. Wild boars also damage tree roots and seedlings, but apparently avoid beeches, thus favoring the root sprouting of this species. They root up grass sod on balds, which speeds the invasion of balds by other herbaceous plants and trees and they cause soil erosion by removing the plant cover. They also harm native species by preying on those mentioned above and destroying the nests and eggs of ground-nesting birds such as grouse and turkeys.

With such a list of black marks against the non-native wild boar, it becomes readily apparent why the National Park Service is concerned about its numbers in the park. Conventional methods of trapping and directly reducing the boar population have limited their impact in certain areas of the park. Unfortunately, because of the animal's tremendous reproductive capability the efforts are not successful in reducing the total park population. The technology to completely eradicate the boar from the park is not available at the present time. Park Service research is now aimed at control methods. Estimates of the boar population have ranged upward to 2,000. But no reliable method of counting the boar in the park has yet been devised. University of Tennessee research has indicated that there may be at least 1,000 boars in the national park. Other estimates suggest there might be twice that many. Wild boars can reproduce any month of the year and most females bear a litter of from one to twelve piglets each year. And the wild boar has few enemies in the park, although bears and bobcats may occasionally take the young boars. With such a high reproductive potential, and so few controlling agents, the wild boar population has reached a size that severely alters and damages the park's natural environment.

Contrast these population dynamics with those of a competing native species, the black bear: Bears reproduce every other year, typically giving birth to only two cubs. When the mast fails they may not reproduce at all, apparently because the embryo does not implant, or is resorbed, or the mother has insufficient milk to keep the young alive. In some years, when bears wander out of the national park, many are killed by hunters. Each year poaching within the park takes several more. Hunting aside, bear populations became attuned to the supportive capacity of the environment through centuries of adaptation. Wild boars have been here only a few decades, far too short a time for the species to be integrated into the total forest community.

As the wild boars multiply unchecked in the park, they damage ground cover, inhibit tree reproduction, increase erosion, and decrease the native animals with which they compete for food. Perhaps hardest hit are black bears, squirrels, and those other species that in the fall depend on the all-important acorn.

Boars

The wild boar came to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
uninvited in the early 1920s. While its population remained small, the
boar was not thought a menace. Since the 1960s however, it has become
obvious that the boar constitutes an ecological disaster of great
proportions. In feeding, the animals move together and root up the
ground or a stream bed with unbelievable thoroughness.

After boars have tackled a stretch of trout stream, it looks as though
a bulldozer had churned it up. Presumably they seek aquatic insects,
salamanders, and even a few small fish. Salamanders are among the
park's chief biological treasures, so the boars have not endeared
themselves to those who are responsible for managing wildlife here in
the park.

Another biological prize in these mountains is the grass bald habitat.
These energetic porkers were not slow to find balds a food source,
ravenously digging for June beetle larvae. The grass bald survives
only by the turf's resistance to tree invasions, so the boar and its
plowing threatens the existence of these unique, and as yet
incompletely understood, grass balds that are both prizes and puzzles.

Over the years it has been suggested that diverse species are directly
threatened by the expanding boar population. These include
ground-nesting birds, yellow adder's-tongue and other wildflowers, and
possibly deer and bear.

Studies are underway to determine the extent of the boar's damage, and
hence the real threat they pose. But we have no good comparative
figures on the populations of other species for the years before boars
arrived. Despite this lack, it has not been difficult to brand the
boar a villain. But to control them has not been so easy. In good
years they thrive--and gobble up more park resources.

There is a food preference relationship between turkeys, deer, bear,
and boars in their mutual dependence on annual acorn and hickory nut
crops. The widespread chestnut blight wiped out this dependable annual
crop of nuts on which bears, deer, turkeys, and other animals fed in
preparation for winter before the boars arrived. Now all these species
compete--and the prolific boar is a lusty competitor--for a more
uncertain acorn/hickory crop.

Some would cast the boar as pure villain. Others would say that people
are at fault for introducing the boar into this region as an exotic
species. The sport of hunting was anticipated with relish but the
consequences were not considered at all. The boars have now bred with
domestic pigs to such an extent that the markings vary from animal to
animal. Some show definite spots, others few or none at all. Wildlife
artist George Founds, who drew the boars and bear on these pages, was
once a guide in this region.

Bears

Many admire the bear above all other park animals, associating it
intimately with wilderness scenery. Not seeing a bear can be a
disappointment. But bears are shy and secretive; about 95 percent
never come near the roads here. You might be surprised that bears,
classed as carnivores, are about 80 percent vegetarian. But they will
eat almost anything.

The sow will usually have two cubs every two years. They are born
blind and hairless, no bigger than a young rabbit. In two months they
will leave the den under the watchful, if indulgent, eye of a fiercely
protective mother who is a stern disciplinarian. It is good training,
for bears live by stealth and cunning as much as brute strength.
(Scientists think bears may be almost as bright as primates.) Bears
feed in summer on berries. In autumn they forage on hickory nuts and
acorns to build fat reserves for the long winter they spend in the
den.

Bears are tree climbers (see note on denning below), especially if
climbing brings food within reach. Bears have been observed bending
small trees double. Many they will break to get at the fruit. They may
climb out on branches to get at fruit, or break the branches off and
consume the fruit on the ground.

The Tracks of Our Predecessors

Rocks rose out of the sea and became mountains. Plants clothed them and animals lived among the plants, all evolving and changing over the millions of years. A few thousand years ago, a dense green mantle of giant trees covered the Smokies. Bears roamed the forest and bison followed their ages-old trails across the mountains. Beavers built dams across lowland streams, and meadows followed when the beavers moved on. Elk and deer came out of the forest to feed in the meadows and cougars and wolves hunted the elk and deer. It might have gone on this way for even more thousands of years.

But then people came. First Indians, then settlers, then the lumber companies. What was the impact of this new element, this two-legged animal? How did the forest and its life change? Is it now returning to its former state? In trying to answer these questions we may learn something about the ecological role of people not only in the Smokies but also in much of eastern North America, most of which resembled the Smokies in its forest cover when people first arrived on the scene.

For at least several thousand years groups of humans have lived in the lowlands around the Great Smokies. Use of the highlands themselves by these earlier groups was probably limited, however. Our history of peoples in the mountains begins with reports of explorers who visited the Cherokees in the late 17th and 18th centuries. They found this tribe, which is thought to have left the ancestral Iroquoian territory and moved southward about the year 1000, dispersed in small villages along foothill streams in a great arc around the Southern Appalachians. Primarily an agricultural people, the Cherokees tended fields of corn, squash, beans, melons, and tobacco around their thatched log cabins. But they also hunted and fished, and gathered wild plant materials for both food and trade. Although the mountains harbored spirits that were not entirely friendly, the Cherokees camped in coves and gaps to hunt bear and deer, to gather nuts and berries, and to gather stone for implements. Early reports from the Smokies noted the large numbers of deer, bear, and beaver skins being traded by the Cherokees. Quite possibly, they set fire to attract game and promote the growth of berry bushes, thus creating some of the mysterious grass balds atop the Smokies. For purposes of trade and warfare they established trails through the mountains. Such a trail across Indian Gap remained the principal cross-mountain route until early this century.

What effect did all this have on the tapestry of life in the mountains? Undoubtedly the Cherokees increased the area of open land, although some of their cropland might have been established on old beaver meadows. They may also have reduced the numbers of game and fur animals, although 18th-century travelers in the region still could be amazed at the abundance of deer, bison, beaver, cougars, and other animals. No species except the bison is known to have disappeared during the years the Cherokees had sole dominion over the land, and they may have contributed in some way to this one loss. With relatively small numbers in the Smokies, and a lack of highly destructive implements, especially guns, the Cherokees apparently changed the ecological picture only slightly in the days before contact with Europeans.

In the 1790s settlers, legally or illegally, began taking over former Cherokee land in the Smokies, beginning with two of the broader lowland valleys, the Oconaluftee and Cades Cove. As the Cherokees yielded more and more land, by treaty or to theft, settlement by the new Americans proceeded up other valleys, until by 1826 almost every watershed was occupied by at least a few families. Clearing and occupation of land continued through the 19th century, the largest concentrations developing in the Sugarlands (along the West Prong of Little Pigeon River), Greenbrier Cove, and Cataloochee, in addition to the earliest areas of settlement. In 1926, when land buying for the newly authorized park began, there were 1,200 farms and 7,300 people within the park boundaries. By this time, however, farming in the Smokies had passed its peak.

By contrast with earlier Indian inhabitants, the farmers had considerable impact on the land. Most obvious was the removal of forest to make homesites, cropland, and pastures. By 1902, eight percent of the land on the Tennessee side of the Smokies and seven percent on the North Carolina side had been cleared. As settlement proceeded up a hollow farmers were confronted with steeper and steeper slopes. The inevitable results of trying to raise corn on the sides of mountains were rapid loss of fertility and then of the soil itself, as the heavy rains leached out nutrients and washed away first the humus and then the mineral soil beneath. In this wilderness where virgin land was still abundant, many mountaineers simply cleared a new patch when the old one gave out. Horace Kephart, a midwesterner who lived among such farmers on the North Carolina side early in the 20th century, recorded their approach to cultivation. They would clear land and get out two or three crops of corn.

"When corn won't grow no more I can turn the field into grass a couple of years," Kephart's informant says.

"Then you'll rotate, and grow corn again?" Kephart asks, a bit ingenuously.

"La, no! By that time the land will be so poor hit wouldn't raise a cuss-fight."

"But then you must move, and begin all over again." Kephart counters. "This continual moving must be a great nuisance."

Kephart overstates the case, however, because most stayed in one house for two to three generations, or about 50 to 75 years.

Clearing and the erosion that sometimes followed were relatively local and distinct effects of settlement. Uses of uncleared forest land had widespread, but more subtle, effects. Selected white pines and yellow-poplars were cut for lumber; oaks for shingles; and hickories mostly for firewood. Other species were put to less important, miscellaneous uses. Many plants were collected for food and dyes or for medicinal purposes. Ginseng, which has a forked root highly prized in China for its supposed medicinal and aphrodisiac values, was nearly eliminated by eager "sang" diggers who sold the roots for export. Probably even more pervasive was the influence of livestock. Hogs, and sometimes cattle and sheep, were allowed to roam the forests, grazing, browsing, and rooting for a living. Mast--acorns, chestnuts, and beechnuts--formed an important part of the diet of hogs, but these omnivorous creatures ate all sorts of plants and small animals. As anyone knows who has observed a grazed woodlot, livestock can quickly impoverish the ground and shrub layers of a forest. Grazing and browsing, along with use of fire, prevented the return of forest to the grass balds. All these uses of the forest undoubtedly changed the proportions of many tree and lesser plant species in the total forest composition. Precisely how much they did so cannot now be determined.

The impact of settlement on certain wildlife species is more easily seen. Elk disappeared about the time the earliest pioneers moved in. The beaver, an easily trapped animal, was nearly gone by the end of the 19th century. Wolves and cougars, hunted because they sometimes killed livestock--and uncomfortable in the presence of people--followed soon after. Deer, bear, and turkey persisted but in much-reduced numbers, with the bears retreating to rough, wild country in the central heights. Smaller animals fared better, although such hunted species as raccoon, opossum, and gray squirrel perhaps suffered some reduction.

About 1900 a new era began, bringing the greatest shock yet to Great Smokies ecosystems. Large lumber companies, having logged off the big timber of New England and the Great lakes states, turned their attention to the virgin stands of the Southern Appalachians. Setting up sawmills at the fringes of the mountains, they rapidly worked their way up the coves, just as Cherokees and settlers had done before them. Railroads, built to carry logs to the mills, were extended upstream as cutting progressed. In some watersheds, such as those of the Little River, Big Creek, and the Oconaluftee, nearly all species of trees were taken. In others, such as Abrams Creek, West Prong of the Little Pigeon, and Cataloochee, cutting was selective. By the late 1920s, logging, added to settlement practices, had at least partially cleared more than 60 percent of the land in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Though for a time it proved an economic boon, logging was easily the most destructive form of land use the region was ever subjected to. The removal of forest cover and the skidding of logs down steep mountainsides caused widespread erosion. This weakened the foundation for regrowth and clogged streams with sediment, thereby reducing their quality for sustaining aquatic life. In the wake of logging came forest fires, probably the worst these mountains have seen. Heaps of dried branches trimmed from logs made perfect tinder for fires started by engine sparks, careless matches, or lightning strikes. In the 1920s disastrous fires roared up the East Prong of Little River, up Forney Creek to Clingmans Dome, and over the slopes around Charlies Bunion. Scars from some of these fires have still not healed today.

What was the net biological effect of the presence of people in the mountains in 1926, the year Congress authorized Great Smoky Mountains National Park? Broadly speaking, the forest and its animals had been diminished but the plants and animals of grassland and brush had increased. The gray wolf was gone but the meadowlark had arrived. In 1930 the American people inherited lands that were still about 40 percent virgin forest, the largest such chunk of forest left in the East. The rest of the park was a patchwork of uncut forest, young second growth, and openings dotted with houses and barns and fringed with stone walls and fences. The park therefore preserved much of the primeval splendor of the Smokies, but the activities of people would long remain visible in it, and some of these would deliberately be maintained as part of the region's historical heritage.

Today most of the former fields, except those such as Cades Cove that are purposely kept open, have returned to forest. But it is still easy to recognize these grown-over fields by the types of trees on them. Many bear a nearly solid stand of straight-stemmed yellow-poplars. Others are marked by a dense growth of pines. Dr. Randolph Shields, who grew up in Cades Cove and became chairman of the biology department at nearby Maryville College, has watched the plant succession on old fields in the Cove since about 1930. He has found there that pines usually are the first trees to spring up among the grasses, herbs, and blackberries and other shrubs that follow field abandonment. On moist ground, yellow-poplars usually come up under the pines, but sometimes hemlock and white pine form a second tree stage under the pioneering Virginia or pitch pines. Where yellow-poplars come in, they usually shade out the light-loving pines in about 40 years. Gradually the many species of the cove forest become established under the yellow-poplars, presaging the mixed stand of big trees that will complete the cycle initiated by clearing the land. On the drier slopes it may take about 100 years for the pines to be shaded out by the red maples, oaks, and hickories that eventually become dominant in such areas.

As you might expect, animal life changes with the progression of plant succession. Meadowlarks, bobwhites, woodchucks, and cottontails are replaced by red-eyed vireos, wood thrushes, chipmunks, and white-footed mice as grassland and shrubs give way to forest. With age and woodpecker activity, tree cavities develop in the forest, providing homes for an additional complement of animals such as screech owls, flying squirrels, raccoons, bears, and opossums.

Under the protection accorded by its designation as a national park several animals have made a dramatic comeback in the Smokies. Bears once again roam the entire mountain area. Turkeys are frequently seen in such places as Cades Cove, where openings break the mantle of forest. In recent years sporadic beaver activity has been noted in the park. Even cougars are occasionally reported, although their presence has not been conclusively established. But wolves, elk, and bison--animals that symbolize the Indian's America--probably cannot be brought back.

Nature again reigns supreme in the Smokies. We may never see here the numbers of wildlife that surprised the first explorers, but we can see remnants of the giant-treed forests that greeted them, and we can marvel at the undulating expanse of green, a beautiful suggestion of the vast hardwood forest that once cloaked eastern America.

Mountain Lifeways

A great part of the Great Smokies story is the story of men and women
making their homes in these wooded eastern mountains. With few tools
and even fewer manufactured fixtures and fasteners, pioneers settled
in and became mountaineers.

Industry--hard work, that is--and ingenuity came in handy. Many
aspects of these traits are illustrated in this section through
historic photographs of men and women going about their business in
the Smokies. It was not all hard work, but even the play often
exhibited these folk's ingenuity in turning the things of field and
forest into implements of recreation.

For more insight into the lives of Smokies people, see the National
Park Service book, _Highland Homeland: The People of the Great
Smokies_, by Wilma Dykeman and Jim Stokely. It is sold in the park
visitor centers and by mail (see "Armchair Explorations" on page 125).

Oconaluftee

What kind of people were the Smokies pioneers? Part of the answer
awaits you at the Pioneer Farmstead next to the Oconaluftee Visitor
Center on the North Carolina side of the park. The farmstead buildings
suggest an independent people who were hardworking, laboring spring,
summer, and fall to prepare for the coming winter.

This is a typical Southern Appalachian pioneer farm. The life style of
earlier years is demonstrated by people in period dress here from May
through October. A few animals roam the farm-yard and the garden
produces traditional crops. In the fall sorghum cane may be pressed to
make sorghum molasses. Inside the cabin--you can poke your head
through its open doors and windows--traditional breads may be baking,
or a quilt be patching, or wool a-spinning. And don't forget to notice
the fieldstone chimneys, the squared logs' careful notchings, and the
handsplit wooden "shakes" up on the roof.

Just up the road is Mingus Mill, an excellent example of a turbine-powered gristmill. A miller is often on hand May through October to answer your questions about how waterpower was used to produce cornmeal and flour. You might even be able to purchase some of the cornmeal or the flour ground right at the mill. Wheat is harder than corn and requires harder stone to grind it. Millstones for grinding wheat in this area were imported from France. The stones used for grinding corn were cut domestically.

A commercial mill the size of Mingus Mill would generally be built by a specially skilled carpenter known as a millwright, a term which has taken broader meaning today.

Cades Cove

Cades Cove preserves the image of the early settlers' self-sufficient
life style in the Smokies. It was not all romance. Cades Cove itself
is expansive, level, idyllic farmland, which hardly describes most of
the Smokies. Cades Cove is today an open air museum. Here are the
beautifully restored and picturesque Elijah Oliver cabin; the
still-operated Cable Mill grinding flour with water power; and
numerous churches, houses, and cabins. At Cable Mill are many
artifacts of past agricultural practices from throughout the Smokies.
The largely self-sufficient agricultural economy here came to an end
with the advent of logging about 1900.

By 1920, most Smokies residents were linked to a cash economy, to manufactured items and store-bought foods. But Cades Cove preserves glimpses of the pioneer ingenuity that wrested a living from the landscape. Preserved with the cabins here are many ingenious devices such as effective door latches simply fashioned from local wood.

In 1850 Cades Cove supported 685 people in 132 families. Most originally came from Virginia via routes followed today by Interstate 81 and U.S. 411. A treaty in 1819 transferred the Cades Cove from Cherokee to State of Tennessee ownership. Settlers traded in what is now Townsend, and in Maryville and Knoxville.

A delightful 18-kilometer (11-mile) one-way loop road unfolds the quiet pleasures of Cades Cove to you. This is a popular route with bikers because it is so scenic--and not so arduous. Periodically the loop road is closed to motor vehicles for the sake of bicyclists. Early farmers were quick to appreciate the same level aspect of the cove that appeals to today's cyclist.

Cherokee Indians

The Cherokee nation was settled in the shadow of the Smokies. "The
place of the blue smoke," they called the mountains in their
heartland, and so the Smokies have become named. Myth, ritual, and
religion bound the Cherokees closely to the land. Ironically, they
enjoyed a sophisticated culture very similar to the white culture that
would so cruelly supplant them. They were agrarian and democratic, and
they believed in one god. They lived in mud-and-log cabins, women
sharing tribal governance, and men sharing household duties.

The Cherokees rapidly adopted governmental features of the invading culture. They adopted a written legal code in 1808. Within a dozen years they had divided their nation into judicial districts with designated judges. Two years later they had established the Supreme Court of the feat. Within just two years of its adoption, _The Cherokee Phoenix_ newspaper was published and most Cherokee-speakers could read and write! But the white people had an insatiable appetite for land. Treaty after treaty was made and broken. The fatal blow was the discovery of gold in 1828 near the Cherokee villages in northern Georgia. Within a few years all their land was confiscated. The infamous "Trail of Tears" came with passage of the 1830 Removal Act.

Some 13,000 Cherokees were forced to march to Oklahoma: 25 percent died en route. Not all left, however, and some soon returned. Today the eastern band of Cherokees lives on the Cherokee Reservation on the park's North Carolina side.

3 Guide and Adviser

Guide and Adviser Topical Reference

Going to the Great Smokies 101
Map 102
Visitor Centers 104
The Smokies by Car 107
Wildflowers and Fall Colors 110
Activities 112
Hiking and Backpacking 114
Accommodations 118
For Your Safety 120
Nearby Attractions 122
Books to Read 125
Index 126

Going to the Great Smokies

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park straddles the North Carolina-Tennessee boundary for about 110 kilometers (70 miles). It is accessible by car from the Interstate highways encircling it as they connect the Tennessee cities of Knoxville and Chattanooga with Asheville, North Carolina; Greenville, South Carolina; and Atlanta, Georgia. The Blue Ridge Parkway reaches its southern terminus here on the park's North Carolina side. Major gateways to the park are Cherokee and Bryson City, North Carolina, and the cities of Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Townsend, and Cosby, in Tennessee. These urban areas with their tourist services are connected by Newfound Gap Road (U.S. 441), the only park road that crosses the mountains. It is closed to commercial vehicles.

The National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, is responsible for the management of the park. The superintendent's address is Gatlinburg, Tennessee 37738. Telephone (615) 436-5615. Park headquarters is located 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) south of Gatlinburg, on the Newfound Gap Road.

Maps, guides, and information on routes, points of interest, accommodations, and services are available from several sources. For a Tennessee highway map write to the Department of Transportation, Nashville, Tennessee 37243-0349, or telephone (615) 741-2331. For Tennessee vacation information write to Department of Tourist Development, P.O. Box 23170, Nashville, Tennessee 37202, or telephone (615) 741-2158.

For a North Carolina highway map write to Travel and Tourism Division, 430 No. Salisbury, Raleigh, North Carolina 27603, or telephone (919) 733-4171. The division distributes several brochures on North Carolina vacations, recreation, and special events; specify your interest in the Smokies. The _North Carolina Outdoors_ booklet lists areas and facilities, including private campgrounds, keyed to the official highway map.

Park Map

Chambers of commerce offer trip information:

Pigeon Forge Chamber of Commerce
P.O. Box 1390
Pigeon Forge, Tennessee 37868
800-251-9100 or (615) 453-8574.

Gatlinburg Chamber of Commerce
P.O. Box 527
Gatlinburg, Tennessee 37738
800-822-1998 or (615) 436-4178.

Townsend Chamber of Commerce
Townsend, Tennessee 37882.

Cosby Chamber of Commerce
Cosby, Tennessee 37722.

Cherokee Chamber of Commerce
P.O. Box 460
Cherokee, North Carolina 28719
(704) 497-9195.

Bryson City Chamber of Commerce
Bryson City, North Carolina 28713
(704) 488-3681.

Lodging and supplies are available in Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Sevierville, Townsend, Maryville, Bryson City, Cherokee, and other Tennessee and North Carolina towns surrounding the park. No public transportation serves the national park. Major airlines serve Knoxville, Tennessee and Asheville, North Carolina, where cars may be rented.

Visitor Centers

National Park Service Visitor Centers are located just inside the park on both the North Carolina and Tennessee sides. On the Tennessee side the Sugarlands Visitor Center is 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) south of Gatlinburg. The Cades Cove Visitor Center (closed in winter) is located in the Cable Mill area of the Cades Cove Loop Road. On the North Carolina side the Oconaluftee Visitor Center is 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) north of Cherokee.

If you plan to be in the park just a few hours or up to several days, you will do yourself a favor by checking out a visitor center. Museum displays give you a quick and interesting insight into both nature and history in the park. At Sugarlands there is a free movie. Books, maps, and other publications are offered for sale in the visitor centers and free park folders are available. These resources--and the people working the information desks--can help you plan your stay in the park within the time limits you must meet.

The Great Smokies is a large park whose diverse features are separated by significant driving times. Park employees can help you use your time to best advantage.

Visitor centers also offer restroom facilities, drinking water, and a mail drop and they sell film for your convenience. Here you can get backpacking information and apply for a backcountry use permit. (See section on Backcountry Use.) Visitor center bulletin boards carry information on road conditions, urgent contact requests, and interpretive programs.

Visitor centers are open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. during the winter, with extended hours of operation in the spring, summer, and fall. The Cades Cove Visitor Center is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from mid-April to late November.

Interpretive Programs

Guided walks and evening programs are conducted by the National Park Service throughout the park. Most of these start or take place at the visitor centers and at campground amphitheaters. The uniformed park employees who render these services are trained in the natural history and/or history of the Great Smokies. They give you excellent vignettes of the park's nature and its historical period of Indian and mountaineer life and the opportunity to ask questions. You, for instance, might enjoy a short nature walk up a burbling Smokies stream and so learn about the more than 1,100 kilometers (700 miles) of streams in the park. Schedules of these activities and programs are posted at the visitor centers and on campground bulletin boards. A copy of the schedule is in _Guide to Great Smoky Mountains National Park_, which is available free at any visitor center, ranger station, or campground.

Live demonstrations of mountain life skills and folkways are also provided periodically (spring through October) at places such as the Pioneer Farmstead beside the Oconaluftee Visitor Center and the nearby Mingus Mill, or at the Cable Mill in Cades Cove. You even might be able to buy cornmeal freshly ground just as it was a century or more ago.

Self-guiding nature trails have been laid out throughout the park. Look for these marked trails near campgrounds, visitor centers, and picnic areas. Most are easy walks of 1.5 kilometers (a mile) or less which take you through former farmsteads now returning to forest, groves of the world-famous cove hardwoods, reclaimed logged-over lands, or other aspects of the park. Trails are well marked and seldom difficult. At the trail's start look for a container offering a descriptive brochure for sale on the honor system.

Two self-guiding motor nature trails lead you through impressive areas of the park in the comfort and convenience of your own vehicle. Near Gatlinburg, off the Cherokee Orchard Road, is the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. Its scenic route takes you by several restored pioneer buildings. The Cades Cove Loop Road is an 18-kilometer (11-mile) drive through the pleasant scenery of Cades Cove. Here you get pleasant vistas out across the cove where you may well see deer grazing against a mountain backdrop. The fields recall the rural scene of many years ago. A brochure available at the start of the loop describes points along the way that are designated by numbered signs. At several points you can park your car and visit preserved farm structures, both log and frame, and churches and cemeteries. Partway through the loop is a small visitor center and the restored Cable Mill. Associated restored buildings here display farm implements once used for valley and mountain farming in this region.

Guided interpretive programs are offered largely in summer. Check the current schedule at the visitor centers or on campground bulletin boards.

Evening campground programs offer interesting free family entertainment. Try the many interpretive programs offered at park campgrounds in the evenings throughout the week. Check bulletin boards for the schedules.