Great Smoky Mountains National Park
America’s first National Parks were created out West. By the early 20th century, Easterners who feared the loss of nature in their rapidly industrializing region wanted their own park. Businessmen and outdoorsmen in Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina, led...Pisgah National Forest
Pisgah National Forest, founded in 1916, covers much of North Carolina’s northwestern mountains. Pisgah was the first national forest created from purchased land rather than from the public domain. Many of its half-million acres were purchased from the widow of the Biltmore Estate’s creator, George W. Vanderbilt.