• Great Smoky Mountains National Park Development - Gatlinburg TN
    Great Smoky Mountains National Park occupies large areas of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. The park’s creation was a decades-long process, including advocacy in the late 19th century; legislation signed by President Calvin Coolidge in 1926; and donations and land acquisitions from small donors, the governments of North Carolina and Tennessee, and charitable organizations, such as the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Fund. Once the park’s existence was firmly established, funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) and labor from the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) made it both accessible and accommodating to the public. President Franklin Roosevelt dedicated the park on...
  • Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Chimneys Picnic Area - Gatlinburg TN
    The CCC built comfort stations out of rustic stone at the Chimneys Picnic Area.
  • Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Elkmont Bridge - Gatlinburg TN
    The multiple arch steel and stone masonry bridge spanning the Little River at Elkmont Campground in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (Historic American Engineering Record, 1996). The bridge is stone veneer and multi-plate corrugated metal arches constructed on top of concrete piers. It originally was surfaced with crushed rock, but was later paved with asphalt. It is located on Elkmont Road, 1.95 miles from the intersection of Elkmont Road and Little River Road. The full bridge is 201 feet long and 22 feet wide. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees began construction in...
  • Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Rockefeller Memorial - Gatlinburg TN
    Rockefeller Memorial, in Newfound Gap, honors a $5 million gift from the Rockefeller Foundation to complete land acquisitions for the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), as were the roads, trails, and other structures in the park, the memorial was the site of the dedication of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on September 2, 1940 by President Roosevelt. National Park Service Director from 1933-1940, Arno B. Cammerer is credited with convincing John D. Rockefeller of the "urgency of protecting the Smokies from the lumber companies and the value of a...