Latest / Wildlands Podcast — National Parks, Public Lands & Survival
#017 - Great Smoky Mountains, Part 1: The History | The Cherokee, Tsali & the Park That Was Bought
Twelve million people visit the Smokies every year — more than Grand Canyon and Yellowstone combined. But unlike almost every other major park, the federal government didn't set this land aside from territory it already owned. It had to be bought, farm by farm, from thousands of families, with schoolchildren donating pennies and Rockefeller closing the gap. This kicks off the Wildlands Great Smoky Mountains trilogy.
Host Shawn Spainhour, a former Army officer, traces the full arc. The Cherokee homeland — Shaconage, the place of blue smoke — and twelve thousand years of presence in one of the…
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