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Location:
USA,
Tennessee,
Great Smoky Mountains
Category:
National Park
Description:
View of the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park
Location Information:
The
Great Smoky Mountains are a mountain
range rising along the
Tennessee-North Carolina border in
the southeastern United States. They
are a subrange of the Appalachian
Mountains, and form part of the Blue
Ridge Physiographic Province. The
range is sometimes called the Smoky
Mountains or the Smokey Mountains,
and the name is commonly shortened
to the Smokies. The Great Smokies
are best known as the home of the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park,
which protects most of the range.
The park was established in 1934,
and, with over 9 million visits per
year, it is the most-visited
national park in the United States.
The Great Smokies are part of an
International Biosphere Reserve. The
range is home to an estimated
187,000 acres (760 km2) of old
growth forest, constituting the
largest such stand east of the
Mississippi River. The cove hardwood
forests in the range's lower
elevations are among the most
diverse ecosystems in North America,
and the Southern Appalachian
spruce-fir forest that coats the
range's upper elevations is the
largest of its kind. The Great
Smokies are also home to the densest
black bear population in the Eastern
United States and the most diverse
salamander population outside of the
tropics.
Along with the Biosphere reserve,
the Great Smokies have been
designated a UNESCO World Heritage
Site. The U.S. National Park Service
preserves and maintains 78
structures within the national park
that were once part of the numerous
small Appalachian communities
scattered throughout the range's
river valleys and coves. The park
contains five historic districts and
nine individual listings on the
National Register of Historic
Places.
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