Timber, Capital, and the Establishment of Great Smoky Mountain National Park

Keywords: protected areas, human-environment, Great Smoky Mountain National Park, southern Appalachia, timber industry
Session Type: Virtual Guided Poster Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 05:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 06:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 40

Abstract

The prevailing narrative of national parks and forests in the United States centers on the establishment of protected areas in the West, where federally owned lands were set aside for conservation, preservation, and public enjoyment. This is commonly portrayed as a government intervention to rescue the environment from the ravages of late 19th and early 20th century capitalism experienced elsewhere in the country. This research utilizes archival material and current literature in analyzing and questioning this narrative in the context of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Nantahala National Forest, and Pisgah National Forest in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina. In contrast to Western lands, these lands were privately owned, and their timber resources exploited prior to inclusion the federal system. Their inclusion in the National Park and Forest Systems was a matter of remediation rather than protection, and it was not until the overexploitation of these forests left them nearly useless for the accumulation of capital that they were designated for protection. In this way, the federal government’s establishment and management of these public lands can be understood as bringing the over-exploited and unproductive lands back into the capitalist mode of production. In the instance of national forests, this was done through the application of progressive era forestry expertise to ensure the sustainable yield of timber. In the instance of the national park, the preservation of a remarkable but degraded and unprofitable landscape allowed for the commodification of the experience of nature.