Tag Archives: Great Smoky Mountains

Officials have released their findings in the investigation of the death of Jenny Bennett, an avid local hiker who was found dead in Great Smoky Mountains National Park earlier this year. Susan J. Bennett, known as Jenny, of Sylva, N.C., was reported missing to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office on June 6, 2015. A frequent hiker in the Smokies, park ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park rangers remind visitors that graffiti not only detracts from the natural beauty of the park, but can also permanently damage irreplaceable resources. Park resources including one of the best collections of log buildings in the eastern United States, backcountry hiking shelters, live trees, stone walls, bridges, and tunnels have all suffered from a range of ...

Sevier Solid Waste is planning to build a biomass gasification plant, its second major project this year in an effort to become a zero waste facility. Sevier Solid Waste has hired PHG Energy to build a new biomass gasification plant capable of cleanly converting more than 30 tons of composted material daily into thermal energy while producing a valuable high-carbon biochar. ...

Friends of the Smokies raised $202,351 Thursday through its 21st annual Friends Across the Mountains telethon thanks to hundreds of callers, online donations and help from sponsors Dollywood, Mast General Store, Pilot Flying J, and Tennessee State Bank. Since 1995, Friends of the Smokies’ telethons have raised more than $3.2 million in support of America’s most-visited national park. The Friends ...

The National Park Service is turning 99 years old on August 25, 2015 and Great Smoky Mountains National Park invites you to join the party! Park visitors are encouraged to participate in one of the many ranger-led programs at park visitor centers or enjoy exploring the park along a scenic roadway, trail, or river. “We invite everyone to join us ...

Something big is about to happen behind a plain picket fence on the Parkway in Gatlinburg. A new hotel is planned for the two-acre parcel across the street from Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies and it will have a unique aerial lift system that transports guests to a 55-acre mountain adventure park. The Anakeesta Village and Lodge on the Parkway ...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is recruiting volunteers to help provide visitors with historic information at Mingus Mill located one half mile north of the Oconaluftee Visitor Center near Cherokee, N.C. Mingus Mill, built in 1886, offers visitors a unique look into the inner workings of the turbine-wheel operated mill that custom ground a variety of grains including corn, wheat, ...

Great Smoky Mountains Association’s “Carroll Best and the White Oak String Band” has been named among the best of the year by earning an award nomination in the International Bluegrass Music Association’s annual competition. GSMA’s compilation of old-time Smoky Mountain music, first recorded more than 60 years ago just outside the national park, has been nominated along with four other ...

On August 20, Friends of the Smokies hosts the 21st annual Friends Across the Mountains Telethon to benefit Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The event has a long history as the only telethon for a national park, and has raised more than $3 million. “As we celebrate the 99th year of the National Park Service and look ahead to its centennial in 2016, ...

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – A North Carolina man has been sentenced to six months in jail for illegally harvesting a significant amount of American ginseng from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, marking his fifth conviction for ginseng poaching. Jill Westmoreland Rose, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina announced today that U.S. Magistrate Judge Dennis L. Howell ...