1()0 SOUTHEKN APPALACHIAN REGION. 



to the attention of the Congress of the United States the desirability 

 of establishing a national park at some place in the southern Ayjpa- 

 hichian region. 



That the facts which led to the organization of your petitioner, and 

 which are presented as reasons for the establishment of such a national 

 park, are as follows: 



RARE NATURAL BEAUTY OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. 



In western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee (or, more definitely, 

 in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains, the Balsam Mountains, 

 and the Black and Craggy Mountains) is found not onl}^ the culmina- 

 tion of the Appalachian system, but the most beautiful as well as the 

 highest mountains east of the lofty western ranges. Forty-three 

 mountains of 6,000 feet and upward in altitude, as well as a great 

 number of inferior height, all clothed with virgin foi^ests and inter- 

 sected b}' deep valleys abounding in brooks, rivers, and waterfalls, 

 combine to make this a region of unsurpassed attractiveness. 



Standing upon the summit of one of these sublime heights the eye 

 often seeks in vain for the bare mountain side — the evidence of the 

 devastating ax — and before one stretches out a view magnificently 

 beautiful. 



If the national parks already established have been chosen for their 

 unusual natural beauty, here is a national park conspicuously fine, 

 awaiting official recognition as an addition to the number. 



SUPERB FORESTS OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN SYSTEM. 



No other portion of our country displa3^s a richness of sylva equal 

 to that found in the high mountains of the Southern Appalachian region 

 in the variety of its hard woods and conifers. Professor Gray, the 

 eminent botanist, is authority for the statement that he encountered a 

 greater number of indigenous trees in a trip of 30 miles through 

 western North Carolina than can be observed in a trip from Turkey 

 to England, through Europe, or from the Atlantic coast to the Rocky 

 Mountain plateau. Here is the home of the rhododendron and the 

 kalmia; here is the meeting place of the mountain flora of the North 

 and of the South, and the onh^ yjlace where distinctive Southern moun- 

 tain trees may be found side b}^ side with those of the North. Here, 

 too, are found trees of from 5 to 7 feet, and even more, in diameter, 

 which tower to a height of 140 feet, and, occasionally, much higher, 

 and these patriarchal trees, though innumerable, are but the greatest 

 in a dense forest composed of many other large, beautiful, and valuable 

 varieties. In fine, here is the largest area of virgin forest in the South 

 Atlantic region, and the finest example of mixed forest (by which is 

 meant a forest of deciduous and evergreen trees) in America. 



