Great Smoky Mountains National Park Sites

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...

The CCC built comfort stations out of rustic stone at the Chimneys Picnic Area.

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...