When smoke gets in your eyes / John Robert Spielman

WHEN EVOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES

The Eastern part of the United States is
srenerally considered as a thickly populated area,
with "barely space to turn around, yet within five
hundred miles of the Nation's Capitol is one of
the most impenetrable forests in the United States.
This tract of land is now known as The Great Smoky
Knuntains National Park and it is the newest in the
National Park System. In 19P3 public spitited ciV
izens of the states of ijorth Carolina and Tennessee
started a drive to have this vast tract made into
a National Park. In 1926 pongress authorized the
creation of this park, which, when completed will
be fifty -four miles long, and from fifteen to
nineteen miles wide, containing 436,000 acres*
The park itself contains only a small portion of
the rugged mountain beauty lying between Knoxville,
Tennessee and Ashville, North Carolina. In recent
years a parkway has been partially completed, ex-
tending from the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia

to the Smoky Mountain Park, a distance of 430
miles, along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains,
through some of the most primitive mountain com-
munities .

To the South lies the beautiful Hantahala
Gorge, TTbile not a part of the park, it contains
a beauty of its own. At first sight it seems im-
possible that the little streak of white thousands
of fe<=>t almost beneath one in a chasm barely wide
enough for a stream, is the road that you will be
driving on within the next fifteen minutes. This
road winds for fifteen miles through the gorge,
first between sheer rock walls and then up over
some high crest .

At the eastern entrance to the park is the
63,000 acre Qualla Indian Reservation. This is
the home of 3,200 Cherokee Indians. .Except for
their color and features there is little about
them to indicate their race. Very seldom is native
costume in evidence and once drawn into conversa-
tion, the younger Indians can talk enougb for any-

one. As a whole the people are very shy. If you
drive into one of these back roads and an Indian
family is working around a home, they will not be
there when you return in half an hour. Many of the
older generation do not speak English, and in spite
of the fine settlement school, where all kinds of
trades are taught the houses are slovenly kept.
Early in October the Indians hold their harvest
festival when they display their products of agri-
culture and crafts, some of which are really amaz-
ing. Fost of the Indians are still experts with
the bow and arrow and blow gun. An Indian with bow
and arrow is not an uncommon sight. Rome of the
Indians obtain a college education, but it seems
that most of them return to the ways of their fore-
fathers .

The park area contains nothing but primeval
forests penetrated by roads and numerous trails.
From the In ctt an Reservation a continuous grade
of seventeen miles takes one to TTewfound Gap ■ at
the backbone of the ridge and the Tennessee -Worth

Carolina state line. This road is a real feat of
engineering. It ascends nearly one mile in seven-
teen, and yet in spite of the steepness, the mod*
em car ascends with ease. The view during the
ascent is magnif icent I In late June when the az-
aleas and rhododendren are in bloom, the peaks
look like a rumpled carpet set ablaze in spots
by carelessly dropped matches. It is the usual
thing to begin the ascent on a beautiful, sunny
day, run through a cloud-burst half the way up,
and finally reach Uewfound Gap above the clouds.

From Newfound Gap to Clingman's Dome runs
the highest paved road east of the Rockies. Most
of it is more than a mile above sea level. First
on one side of the range and then on the other,
one sees more of Korth Carolina, Tennessee, and
Georgia than could be seen in months. When
Cllngman's Dome is reached on a clear day, the
immediate reaction on stepping out of the car
is to fall flat on the ground. The gray and
white clouds hang so close overhead that they

seem ready to fall and crush the earth. Watching
them for awhile makes one dizzy . As they rise
and fall axound one, the whole world seems un-
steady. Descending the western slope is just as
marvelous as the ascent* Finally, Gatlinburg ,
Tennessee is reached, the western entrance to the
park .

The people inhabiting the park area are still
~arly American pioneers. Their homes are log, or
frame cabins with a corn patch against the almost
vertical mountain side. These patches furnish the
mountaineers' staple food, corn bread, and their
enjoyment, powerful, white "corn-llkkerS The corn
is ground in water power "tub" mills holding a ttb
of grain at a time. These people have retained songs
that have been traced back directly to the time of
Chaucer. They have given the mountains their queer
names such as "Charlie's Bunicn" and "Camel Humpl.
"Bote Fountain 11 obtained its name from a meeting
called to decide which ridge *. road should follow.
A mountaineer broke the tie vote by exclaiming