February 2019
Happenings from
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
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From Our Superintendent:
“On behalf of the employees of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, I want to express our heartfelt gratitude to our partners and communities for their unwavering support over the last five weeks. In addition to the monetary support offered by our partners to provide basic visitor services, we were moved by the number of people and organizations who stepped up to organize litter pickups and the outpouring of generosity expressed to our employees through meals and gift cards.” –
Park Superintendent Cassius Cash, January 28, 2019
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Longest government shutdown in history could delay services
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With the conclusion of the longest partial government shutdown in our country's history, we at Great Smoky Mountains Association want to thank our members and park supporters who stepped up to help in so many important ways during the 35-day event.
Whether you shopped in our open visitor center bookstores, visited our online e-retail site for ranger-approved merchandise, became a new member, renewed your support, or donated to our Legacy Fund, you made a difference. Each act of support on your part made the challenges we were facing here in the Smokies a little bit easier.
Thank YOU!
As we face the potential for another shutdown later this month, we encourage you to make
your voice of support for the Smokies heard in Washington, D.C. If the differences that led to the most recent shutdown are not resolved by February 15, our national park and all public lands should not be made to suffer.
As it stands now, "visitors may experience delayed openings this spring at some park campgrounds, picnic areas and seasonal roads due to a reduced timeline for seasonal staff hiring and project planning," according to the park's Pu
blic Affairs Office. Another shutdown would only exacerbate these delays in services.
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When NPS personnel are told not to report to their duty stations due to a government shutdown, these resources and many more programs and services are put at risk, as are visitors who cannot access the information they need to safely enjoy a national park experience.
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🎶
Going to the Smokies &
we're gonna get married
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With Valentine's Day just around the corner and spring less than 50 days away, brides and grooms considering Great Smoky Mountains National Park for their wedding day venue are probably already well into logistics planning. Now is the perfect time to ensure you've considered all that goes into a national park wedding.
According to Park Service Spokesperson Dana Soehn, in 2015 about 350 couples chose the park as their wedding day backdrop due to its many picturesque iconic locations. New this year is access to the
'Missing Link' section of Foothills Parkway, which opened to the public in November 2018.
Due to the recent government shutdown, couples should factor in longer approval time periods than the ones mentioned in this video from 2016.
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Many spring, summer and fall brides are already thinking about how incredible it would be to get married in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Click above to learn more about how to make your park wedding dreams a reality.
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Creature Feature
A new Cub segment
from Emma Dufort
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Editor's Note:
Please welcome to The Cub Report, Emma Dufort, GSMA's newest graphic designer and animal lover. Emma is hard at work on a new project that will feature our park's widely diverse fauna. In the coming months, Emma will share with us her original drawings and research, starting with this month's groundhogs.
By Emma Dufort
Groundhog Day is February 2, but you’d be hard pressed to see a groundhog (also known as a woodchuck or regionally as whistle pigs!) in the Smokies in early February. These animals fatten up and hibernate for the winter, with internal body temperatures dropping as low as 35-40 degrees F.
When alarmed, they’re known to stand up on their hind legs and emit a sharp “whistle” sound to warn their companions of danger.
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They then retreat into a complex network of burrows, which, when abandoned, can be repurposed by anything from foxes to box turtles.
America’s largest ground squirrel prefers open grasslands bordering forests and was most commonly sighted in the park in Cades Cove prior to the arrival of the coyote. Still, you may see one in areas like Oconaluftee’s Mountain Farm Museum.
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Test your knowledge of famous photographers
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Thank you to those of you who shared Smoky Mountain quiz ideas with us in December. We had some good suggestions, from the history of Mount Le Conte to specific areas of our park's cultural history, your suggestions have us thinking...
While we conduct more historic research, this month's quiz will test your knowledge of the photographers whose work supported the creation of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Pictures for a Park tells their stories.
Our winner will be chosen from all those who correctly identify the photographers from their images by 5 p.m. Friday, February 15. Good luck!
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Locally Grown
Moving forward after EYS
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By Peyton Proffitt
For my last Experience Your Smokies, our class visited the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont and the National Park Service Collections Preservation Center in Townsend, TN. Appropriately, the focus of our day was on the value of experiential and outdoor learning.
We began our day at Tremont, where our class was split up into groups and given one of two assignments: identify trees or search for salamanders. As my group navigated West Prong Trail in search of a salamander to observe, we felt like, and at times acted like, young learners. My classmates shouted across the stream when they saw something moving, and all at once everyone huddled around trying to see what was there....
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Great Smoky Mountains Association's
Reptiles and Amphibians of the Smokies
guidebook came in handy during Peyton's last Experience Your Smokies class, during which she and her classmates were challenged with identifying one of our park's iconic creatures. The Smokies are, of course, the Salamander Capital of the World. – Photo by Jessica Hill with Shutterfox Photography
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Little Sluice of Heaven
Fighting Creek Nature Trail
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By Frances Figart
Editor's Note:
The following was originally written and posted in January 2014 on Frances' personal website. It is being reposted here with permission from the author.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park was my hiking destination yesterday. Leaving Asheville at 9 a.m., I traveled to Gatlinburg for a meeting with Todd Witcher, executive director for
Discover Life in America, a non-profit organization that manages a thorough scientific inventory of all the park’s species that has been going on for the past 15 years.
After talking with Todd about the project and viewing the park’s LEED Certified Twin Creeks Science and Education Center with its vast collections room, I was excited to get out into the woods and see if I could spot some live specimens...
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Click above and be sure to turn up your sound to experience the deafening sound of frog love. Any minute now, our park's frogs will rise up from the mud and turn their thoughts to expanding their families. Once that decision is made (or, in actuality, when their mating instincts kick in), you'll know it because you'll be able to hear the results when you approach a wetland in the Smokies.
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Editor's Note: We call our hiking column
Little Sluice of Heaven
in honor of Dry Sluice Gap: Named for a small hollow or valley called a sluice, which has a spring-fed stream that sinks beneath the surface for several hundred yards before re-emerging. Hence, the upper part of the sluice is generally dry.
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From
Place Names of the Smokies
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Plan to Branch Out
with GSMA in 2019
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By Dana Murphy
As a Cub Report subscriber, you’ve probably uttered the following sentence in one way or another: “I want to be in the Smokies!” Am I right?
Great Smoky Mountains National Park encompasses 522,427 acres, including 850 miles of maintained trails and 384 miles of roads. It was designated an International Biosphere Reserve on October 26, 1976, and a World Heritage Site on December 6, 1983. Our park includes 730 miles of fish-bearing streams, 97 historic structures, and we’re closing in fast on cataloging 20,000 known species that call our park 'home.'
“The creation and preservation of such a great natural playground is in the interest of our people as a whole is a credit to the nation. It has been preserved with wise foresight. Good things for the surrounding communities and most importantly: This park was created and is, and now administered for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.
..."
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The author with her dog, Jazzy, at the Yellowstone Arch in 2014. If your New Year's resolution includes opening yourself to adventure and learning more about the Smokies, give our
Branch Out programs
a try in 2019.
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Take a 'chance' on
National Park Monopoly
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This game is just like the traditional Atlantic City real estate version, only with national parks instead of Boardwalk, Park Place, etc. Buy Yosemite and Yellowstone, pitch some tents and charge outrageous rent. Build a ranger station in the Smokies, then hike over to Go and collect $200. Buy, sell, wheel and deal. Click on the video image (right) to see more game features!
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Fun, playful, iconic:
Ferguson Bears
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Pigeon Forge Pottery was founded in 1946 by artist Douglas Ferguson. These black bears were his signature pieces. Daughter Jane D. Ferguson continues in her father's footsteps making these bears from his original design. Collect all three:
Sitting Bear
,
Walking Bear and
Bear on his Back
.
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Did you know... Approximately 1,500 black bears live in the Smokies and inhabit all elevations of the park. Bears are excellent tree climbers, capable swimmers and can run up to 30 miles per hour. Did you know that when you turn their image into a
550-piece puzzle most of the pieces are black and that you may loose your mind putting it together?
🤣
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*Member Pricing Information
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Member pricing above is based on a 15% discount offered to GSMA members at the entry level; additional discounts are available at higher membership levels.
Member discounts are not available on clearance items.
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Website Note for Members
When using our website, GSMA members have access to
two login
areas. Your membership portal sign in is separate from your web store sign in, which is found in the tan bar at the top of our website. Your membership portal sign in is found
only
after accessing these areas:
- Membership Signup
- Program Registration
- Legacy Fund Donations
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ALL sales of all ranger-approved products support the national park.
If you experience difficulty using our website, please
EMAIL
us and we'll do our best to help.
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All purchases support the park!
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I had no idea!
Someone built a swing
RR bridge in Elkmont?
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By Michael Aday
Librarian-Archivist
Collections Preservation Center
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Anyone who has spent time in the Great Smoky Mountains can appreciate the rugged beauty of this Southern Appalachian range. Steep mountainsides, craggy gorges and boulder-strewn waterways are part and parcel of the landscape.
Visitors and locals alike may even know the history of the area’s lumber and pulpwood industry. Beginning in the late 19th century, commercial logging interests moved into the region and began cutting stands of ancient timber for use in construction, ship building, tanning and paper manufacturing. Within a few short decades, much of this area was clear cut, leaving only the most remote and inaccessible old-growth forests untouched, while other areas were filled with slash and other logging detritus.
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If you think hiking in rugged landscape can be hard, just imagine the difficulty involved in extracting logged timber from an area as rugged as the elevations around Elkmont, where the Little River Lumber Company worked in the early 20th century.
Steep terrain and natural features like waterfalls made access to the Meigs Creek drainage and the unlogged timber it protected difficult to say the least. But with the increasing likelihood of the establishment of a national park in the Smokies, and with other areas yielding fewer logs of sufficient size, it became more and more necessary for the lumber company to access isolated timber stands. The problem was gaining access to such isolated terrain. A traditional railroad grade couldn’t reach this craggy area, and other logging techniques were impractical. The solution to accessing this pristine timberland was the construction of a massive swinging bridge...
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Swinging railroad bridge at the mouth of Meigs Creek, Elkmont, TN - Photo courtesy NPS Archives
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How much do we LOVE our park supporters?
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We
LOVE our park supporters so much, we're sharing with you our delicious recipe for Chocolate Cherry Hand Pies. Give them a try. That special someone in your life will love that you were inspired to create a gift from the heart this year.
Chocolate Cherry Hand Pies
Ingredients
Hand Pies
Glaze
- 1/2 C powdered sugar
- 2-3 tsp hot water
Directions
Hand Pies
Preheat oven to 350°. Let both pie crusts sit out at room temperature for 15 minutes. Unroll crusts and cut out shapes (like the hearts in the picture for Valentine's Day). Transfer half of the hearts to a greased cookie sheet. Spread about 1 tsp of Nutella on the pie crust heart shapes on the cookie sheet. Do not spread all the way to the edges. Top Nutella with 1 tsp
Cherry Preserves
. Feel free to add a little extra filling but don't go overboard or the pies will burst while cooking.
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For the egg wash, mix egg and 1 tsp water with fork until combined. (If you don't have an egg, heavy cream works just as well). Brush inside edges of the crust hearts with the egg wash. Top the filled crusts with the remaining pie crust shapes. Use a fork to crimp and seal the edges. Brush the top of each pie with egg wash. Bake at 350° for 10-13 minutes or until golden brown. Allow pies to cool for about 5 minutes before glazing.
Glaze
Add hot water to the powdered sugar 1 tsp at a time and mix with fork. Use 2-3 tsp until desired consistency. Drizzle glaze over hand pies.
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Love us back?
Share your love for Great Smoky Mountains National Park by making a gift to our Legacy Fund today! If your love is meant to last 'FOREVER,' consider making a recurring gift of $5, $10 or even more. (Since 'forever' is a really long time, you can choose to forestall payments whenever you're ready.)
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National Park visitation to date
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Will Great Smoky Mountains National Park retain the title of 'Most Visited National Park' in 2018? Only time will tell...
January - 320,864
February - 399,156
March - 689,235
April - 820,657
May - 985,145
June - 1,414,241
July -
1,468,273
August - 1,195,360
September - 1,369,637
October - 1,263,665
Total for 2018 = ??
Year-end visitation calculations have been delayed by the recent 35-day government shutdown.
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Last Year's GSMNP Visitation
through December:
11,338,893
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Shop Our Lookout League
Business Partners
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Lookout League
Partner Update
Gatlin County Leather
marks their seventh year supporting GSMA and the national park we love. One of 102 businesses that make up the
Great Smoky Arts & Crafts Community
, Gatlin County Leather provides a touch of the past with handmade Native American-inspired clothing made from deer and elk hides. Enjoy Native American music as you browse their collection of books, flutes, drums, knives, purses, original Poppen moccasins, silver and beaded jewelry.
New Businesses
Cove Mountain Level ($1,000)
Shuckstack Level ($500)
Rotary Club of Pigeon Forge, TN
Look Rock Level ($250)
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Renewing Businesses
Shuckstack Level ($500)
Look Rock Level ($250)
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Named for our park's fire tower lookouts, our
Lookout League
business and community partners are found mostly in Tennessee and North Carolina; most offer discounts and deals to
GSMA members
. Click
HERE
for discount details.
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The most recent issue of
Smokies Guide
, Great Smoky Mountains National Park's official park newspaper, is available to read online and can be mailed to you for free (S&H charges apply). Call 865.436.7318, Ext. 226 for mailing details.
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Great Smoky Mountains Association's Cub Report e-newsletter is published on or about the last Wednesday of each month, with the exception of January.
Laurel Rematore, Chief Executive Officer
Lisa Duff, Cub Report Editor
_____
Writers and contributors to this issue include Michael Aday, Emma Dufort, Frances Figart, Karen Key, Charley Mathis, Breckenridge Morgan, Dana Murphy and Peyton Proffitt
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In addition to our web store, Great Smoky Mountains Association operates 12 visitor contact stations in and around Great Smoky Mountains National Park, including in Townsend, TN (pictured right).
GSMA team members are available to help you find educational materials designed to enhance your park experience and deepen your appreciation for this special place.
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Save with our card when you visit other
national parks, too.
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