Great Smoky Mountains National Park got its start 100 years ago | Georgiana Vines

The Knoxville History Project is launching a celebration of the movement to establish the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee, which began 100 years ago this month in a law office in the Burwell Building on Knoxville's Gay Street.

Ken Burns’ documentary in 2014 on the establishment of the park focused on individuals in North Carolina to the dismay of Knoxvillians, and the Knoxville History Project’s focus is “partly corrective” of that narrative, said Jack Neely, the project’s executive director.

The first report of the formation of the Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association in the law office of Judge Hugh Lindsay on the top floor of the Burwell Building at the corner of Gay Street and Clinch Avenue was in the Knoxville Journal & Tribune on Dec. 22, 1923. The association’s mission was to establish a park in the Great Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee. The organization still exists. Neely and Paul James, the project’s publishing and development director, discussed the birth of the Smoky Park at a History Happy Hour program Oct. 14.

Only men were at the meeting in the Burwell Building, although Anne Davis, wife of Willis P. Davis, an industrialist, came up with the idea after the couple took a western summer trip in 1923. She was the first woman in Knox County to run for the legislature with the sole goal of getting the state’s support for the park, and was a Republican. She is considered the park’s founding mother and her portrait hangs in park headquarters in the Sugarlands area in recognition.

Even with the backing of prominent citizens and other organizations in Knoxville and Asheville, North Carolina, the park wasn’t established until 1934. Its existence became assured in 1928 when Arno Cammerer, later a National Park Service director, announced the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Fund would make a gift of $5 million on condition that her name be memorialized.

And it was, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the park on Sept. 2, 1940, at the Rockefeller Memorial at Newfound Gap at the Tennessee-North Carolina border.

“There can be 17 years of celebrations,” Neely quipped in discussing the park’s birth from the organizing stage to the president’s visit.

Research by Neely and James show the first leaders in the Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association were Davis, who was president; David D. Chapman, chairman; Cowan Rodgers, treasurer; Judge D.C. Webb; Forest Andrews; James B. Wright, all of Knoxville, and T. Wylie Brownlee of Gatlinburg.

Besides writing narratives, the History Project also plans to host some programs and events focusing on Knoxvillians’ role in the park’s establishment. These will begin in 2024, maybe as early as the spring, James said.

It should be noted that Anne Davis’ first name often is misspelled as Ann. That’s common, according to Robin Goddard of Maryville, a park volunteer extraordinaire who often portrays Davis in park and other historical settings.

(Disclosure: I serve on the board of directors of the Knoxville History Project.)

LATE JUSTICE VISITED THE REGION: Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, who died Dec. 1, is being remembered locally as someone who had fun and was a serious judge and role model.

She came for the dedication of the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy on Oct. 31, 2008, almost three years after she retired, and then was back in the area as a member of the National Parks Second Century Commission, which met in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in June 2009. Baker, after he retired from the Senate and other federal duties, was the commission’s co-chair.

At the dedication of the Baker Center, she spoke about the need for civic education and cited three problems with what she called “civic illiberty”: the lack of time schools spend teaching civics, a static approach to civics education, and the lack of modern teaching methods such as computer programs.

“It was wonderful of her to come,” Knoxville businessman Jim Haslam II, who has served as board chairman since the center was established, said in a statement. “She was very impressive. It really meant a lot to have the first woman member of the Supreme Court be at the dedication of the Baker Center. It was another reflection of the national stature Sen. Baker earned during his career.”

As of this fall, the center has become the Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs.

Among those who met O’Connor were Knoxville lawyer Mark K. Williams in his capacity as chairman of the board of Friends of the Smokies, a national park support group. He taught her how to clog at an event on June 3, 2009, at Buckberry Lodge in Gatlinburg.

In an email, this is how he said he remembered the day: “Justice O’Connor was visiting our park as a National Parks Second Century Commission member. I met her at an event held in the commission’s honor at Buckberry Lodge in Gatlinburg. She and other members of the commission, including Co-Chair Howard Baker, mingled with guests and enjoyed John Rice Irwin and his band performing on the terrace. After Justice O'Connor and I were introduced, she told me she wanted to learn how to clog. I told her she was in the right place for that and showed her a few steps.

"Justice O'Connor mastered the clogging steps quickly and said it was like the Spanish Two Step. We had a great time dancing and chatting. She created a special memory for me, and thanks to Jack Williams, we have a photograph capturing it all!”

When the Second Century Commission made its report in September 2009, it recommended that the federal government increase funding of national parks to preserve them for future generations. The need for funding for preservation and maintenance of national parks remains a problem today despite some efforts to find more money.

Retired Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Sharon Lee of Knoxville said she met O’Connor several times in Nashville, Memphis and Washington, D.C. She said she was a role model for women, especially lawyers and judges.

“When Justice O’Connor was appointed in 1981, she gave women hope and validation at a time when there were few women in the profession,” Lee said.

“She was humble, down to earth and an excellent judge. She was a moderate on most issues. She was a consensus builder, and being a former state legislator and state court judge, she had a good sense of the mood of the country as to social changes. She was very often the deciding vote in important cases,” Lee said in an email.

The national news media has reported that O’Connor will lie in repose at the Supreme Court on Dec. 18 with a funeral service at the National Cathedral the following day.

KNOXVILLE OFFICIALS TO BE SWORN IN: Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon and other city officials will be sworn in at 10:30 a.m. Dec. 16, in the main assembly room of the City County Building, 400 W. Main St. The public is invited.

Besides Kincannon, who will begin her second term, city council incumbents Lynne Fugate, Amelia Parker and Charles Thomas; new councilmember Debbie Helsley; and newly elected City Judge Tyler Caviness will take their oaths of office.

A special city council meeting will take place following the ceremony, where the council will select the next vice mayor, Beer Board chair and Council’s Knoxville Transportation Authority representative.

A reception, with light refreshments, will take place in the breezeway at the conclusion of the meeting.

Georgiana Vines is retired News Sentinel associate editor. She may be reached at gvpolitics@hotmail.com.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Vines: Idea for Great Smoky Mountains National Park goes back 100 years