This is a page designed to provide a resource for the hardcore Great Smoky Mountain history junkies, bringing together as many links to other sources of historical information as possible. It's a group effort, involving sources provided by the regulars at the Wild Country Forum. I'll be adding links as they become available and as time permits.

Horace Kephart's Photo Album: This one is a real treasure from the Hunter Library collection at Western Carolina University. In addition to many photos taken both of and by Horace Kephart, it also has images of a lot of pages from the journal that Kephart kept of his travels and life in the Great Smoky Mountains region.

Albert 'Dutch' Roth Digital Photographic Collection: This fellow is one of our favorites. Though he was an amateur photographer, and his work was never widely distributed, the photos illustrate a slice of life from the early days of hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains. Many of his photos were taken before the Park was created. This is another site where you might end up spending a few hours browsing the collection.

The Cherokee Phoenix: Here's one from way, way back in the early 1800s. It's a collection, part of the Hunter Library Collection at Western Carolina University, of copies of The Phoenix, the newspaper of the Cherokee Nation. The articles on the site were published in the years between 1828 and 1834. They reflect the prevailing opinions and prejudices of that time in history, and the casual hatred and racism is a real eye-opener at times. It's a really sharp look at a dark chapter in the book of American history.

Maps of the Great Smoky Mountains: A good collection of maps of the Great Smoky Mountains dating all the way back to the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. One of my favorites is the topo map from 1931, divided into two sections. It shows a lot of the old paths used by the settlers inside the mountains that would later become part of the National Park. I liked that one so much that I ordered the hard copy edition from a map store in Knoxville, Tennessee.

George Ellison writes a column for the Smoky Mountain News in Waynesville, North Carolina. This one is a link to a google search page for his articles that focus on the Smokies. He's one of the best and there are hours of reading available in the Smoky Mountain News archives...

W. O. Garner Digital Photograph Collection: Some great shots from the University of Tennessee of the Great Smoky Mountain and other eastern Tennessee region.