NANTAHALA GORGE AREA HISTORY

The human history of western North Carolina is as old as the first native Americans. The Cherokee Nation, who interacted with William Bartram for example, carry a rich heritage in the area, evident through the Museum of the Cherokee Indian and legends, like that of Tsali. However, for centuries this area was a remote, isolated environment with rugged mountain people who lived in loosely knit communities. With the growth in technology, loggers moved in and sheared the mountainsides, removing 'old growth' forests and leaving a scarred earth in their wake.
However, with the environmental movements of the early 20th century, the Great Smoky Mountain National Park was created in an effort to preserve some of the few remaining wild locations in the southeast at the time.

The building of a dam, especially the tallest east of the Rockies, in the remote area of western North Carolina, was not high on the Federal Government's list of priorities until the threat of WW II. The need to provide aluminum factories and the newly created facility at Oak Ridge with electricity, to assist in the war effort, motivated a great sweeping change in that area and the government began building Fontana Dam less than three weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Almost overnight, a large town was formed in the middle of nowhere, to provide shelter, entertainment, education and supplies for the men who worked three shifts, over a 24 hour period, 7 days a week. Initially, the residents of this town were almost exclusively men. However, quickly women began to move into the area, at a great relief to the men. Once the Dam was finished, very few residents remained, turning a town of thousands into a group of fewer than 50 families.

A monument to human effort remained, though in a faulty form. Almost immediately, Fontana Dam developed a crack, first noticed in 1949. The crack has continued to grow throughout the years, working upstream into the dam. Many methods of retardation have been attempted to slow the cracks development. However none with great success and the crack continues to be monitored.

The Dam is a portion of the Appalachian Trail (The section of the trail from Fontana Dam to Wesser / Nantahala River) considered to be the most difficult section of the AT. The southern mountain portion of the trail in its entirety is considered the most arduous, due to the extreme elevation changes.
The Great Smoky Mountain National Park's creation, though a great accomplishment, was not without it own conflict, such as the road to nowhere, a road the government promised to create to provide access to the homesteads and family cemeteries of the multitude of families who were displaced in the process of acquiring the land tracts which now, as a block, form the Great Smoky Mtn. National Park and are submerged beneath the waters of Fontana Lake.

Smoky Mtns NP History
Forest Heritage National Scenic By-way
Cradle of Forestry Trail Guide
Forest Discovery Center at the Cradle of Forestry