The Terra Incognita Reader

Early Writings from the Great Smoky Mountains

Anne Bridges, Russell Clement, Kenneth Wise

• Publisher: University of Tennessee Press
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781621905035
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

This reader is an essential companion to Terra Incognita: An Annotated Biography of the Great Smoky Mountains, 1544-1934 and represents a significant contribution to scholarship on the Smokies and the region at large. Anne Bridges, Ken Wise, and Russell Clement have selected some of the best pieces from a rich repository of literature written about the Smokies prior to the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1934.

Based on years of research, the diaries, memoirs, literature, and journalism collected here shed light on various historical and cultural aspects of the Great Smokies, from Smoky Mountain folkways and religion, to the Civil War era and the Cherokee Indians. All together, the writings pay tribute to the diverse inhabitants of the Great Smoky Mountains.

Each section gathers writings under a single topic heading and progresses chronologically. The readings can thus be taken to document the slow progression of change up until the eve of the large-scale disruptions that would be wrought by the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1934. This reader represents a significant contribution to scholarship on the Smokies and the region at large.

Table of contents

• Contents
• INTRODUCTION
• THE CHEROKEE IN THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS
• EARLY TRAVEL AND EXPLORATION
• THE FORMATION OF THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK
• MOUNTAIN HISTORY AND CULTURE
• MOUNTAIN WAYS
• LITERATURE OF THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS
• RECREATION AND TOURISM IN THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS
• NATURAL HISTORY OF THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS