Great Smokey Mountain National Park
Having grown up in Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee, I have a love for nature and the mountains. With this love, comes a fascination for and desire to learn more about the areas that I adore the most. The Great Smoky Mountains Nation Park is one of those places. The park is a chain of preserved land that stretches from Gatlinburg, Tennessee to Cherokee, North Carolina, along Highway 441. In the midst of reading Dorie: Woman of the Mountains by Florence C. Bush, I was interested to learn that Dorie grew up in what is known today as The Great Smoky Mountains National Park. To dig deeper into the topic, I found a photograph of a town called Elkmont and records from the park’s commission during the early 1900’s. An analysis of the Photograph of Elkmont and records from the Tennessee Great Smoky National Park Commission of 1931 reveals a town’s time when lumber companies were king and the time before and during the establishment of a national park.
An old black and white photograph, of what looks to be a town or community nestled in a valley of mountains, is weathered and damaged. In the photograph, over a dozen buildings are scattered across a small piece of land; what looks to be the equivalent of about four blocks in today’s terms. A railroad runs through the middle of the town, disappearing into the mountains beyond. The land is bare. There are no trees on this land aside from the ones outlining the town. The buildings are cabin like and made of wood. There are a few barns and some bigger buildings that could have been trading posts or a type of storage building. Two of the buildings at the bottom of the photograph look the same. They have one glass pane window on one side, which can help you to imagine how small these are. Both houses are fenced in. They also have porches and chimneys.
Analyzing the picture and piecing together the fact that these particular buildings have glass pane windows, a fenced-in front and back yard, a porch and fire
An old black and white photograph, of what looks to be a town or community nestled in a valley of mountains, is weathered and damaged. In the photograph, over a dozen buildings are scattered across a small piece of land; what looks to be the equivalent of about four blocks in today’s terms. A railroad runs through the middle of the town, disappearing into the mountains beyond. The land is bare. There are no trees on this land aside from the ones outlining the town. The buildings are cabin like and made of wood. There are a few barns and some bigger buildings that could have been trading posts or a type of storage building. Two of the buildings at the bottom of the photograph look the same. They have one glass pane window on one side, which can help you to imagine how small these are. Both houses are fenced in. They also have porches and chimneys.
Analyzing the picture and piecing together the fact that these particular buildings have glass pane windows, a fenced-in front and back yard, a porch and fire