Native Americans had likely been hunting in the Great Smoky Mountains for 14,000 years. Numerous Archaic period (c. 8000–1000 B.C.) artifacts have been found within the national park's boundaries, including projectile points uncovered along likely animal migration paths.[1] Woodland period (c. 1000 B.C. - 1000 A.D.) sites found within the park contained 2,000-year-old ceramics and evidence of primitive agriculture.[2]

The increasing reliance upon agriculture during the Mississippian period (c. 900–1600 A.D.) lured Native Americans away from the game-rich forests of the Smokies and into the fertile river valleys on the outer fringe of the range. Substantial Mississippian-period villages were uncovered at Citico and Toqua (named after the Cherokee villages that later thrived at these sites) along the Little Tennessee River in the 1960s.[3] Fortified Mississippian-period villages have been excavated at the McMahan Indian Mounds in Sevierville and as well as mounds in Townsend.[4][5]

Most of these villages were part of a minor chiefdom centered on a large village known as Chiaha, which was located on an island now submerged by Douglas Lake. The 1540 expedition of Hernando de Soto and the 1567 expedition of Juan Pardo passed through the French Broad River valley north of the Smokies, both spending a considerable amount of time at Chiaha.[6] The Pardo expedition followed a trail across the flanks of Chilhowee Mountain to the Mississippian-period villages at Chilhowee and Citico (Pardo's notary called them by their Muskogean names, "Chalahume" and "Satapo").[7]

In the latter 17th century, the Cherokee began migrating into what is now eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina from what is now Virginia, possibly to escape expanding European settlement and diseases in the north. By the time the first European settlers arrived, the Cherokee controlled much of the region, and the Great Smoky Mountains lay at the center of their territory. They called the range Shaconage, meaning "place of blue smoke".[8] One Cherokee legend tells of a magical lake called Atagahi hidden deep within the range but inaccessible to humans.[9] Another tells of a captured Shawnee medicine man named Aganunitsi who, in exchange for his freedom, travels to the remote sections of the range in search of the Uktena.[10] The Cherokee called Gregory Bald Tsitsuyi ᏥᏧᏱ, or "rabbit place," and believed the mountain to be the domain of the Great Rabbit.[11] Other Cherokee place names in the Smokies included Duniskwalgunyi ᏚᏂᏍᏆᎫᏂ, or "forked antlers", which refers to the Chimney Tops, and kuwahi ᎫᏩᎯ, or "mulberry place", which refers to Clingmans Dome.[12]

Most Cherokee settlements were located in the river valleys on the outer fringe of the Smokies, which along with the Unicoi Mountains, provided the main bulwark dividing the Overhill Cherokee villages in modern-day Tennessee from the Cherokee Middle towns in present-day North Carolina. The Overhill town of Chilhowee was situated at the confluence of Abrams Creek and the Little Tennessee, and the Overhill town of Tallassee was located just a few miles upstream near modern Calderwood (both village sites are now under Chilhowee Lake).[13][14] A string of Overhill villages, including Chota and Tanasi, dotted the Little Tennessee valley north of Chilhowee.[15], The Cherokee Middle towns included the village of Kittowa (which the Cherokee believed to be their oldest village) along the Tuckasegee River near Bryson City. The village of Oconaluftee, which was situated along the Oconaluftee River near the modern Oconaluftee Visitor Center, was the only known permanent Cherokee village located within the national park's boundaries. Sporadic or seasonal settlements were located in Cades Cove and the Hazel Creek valley.[16]

European explorers and settlers began arriving in Western North Carolina and East Tennessee in the mid-18th century.[17] The influx of settlers at the end of the French and Indian War brought conflict with the Cherokee, who still held legal title to much of the land. When the Cherokee aligned themselves with the British at the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1776, American forces launched an invasion of Cherokee territory.[18] The Middle towns, including Kittuwa, were burned by General Griffith Rutherford, and several of the Overhill towns were burned by John Sevier. By 1805, the Cherokee had ceded control of the Smokies to the U.S. government. Although much of the tribe was forced west along the Trail of Tears in 1838, a few—largely through the efforts of William Holland Thomas—managed to retain their land on the Qualla Boundary and today comprise the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.[18]

In the 1780s, several frontier outposts had been established along the outskirts of the Smokies, namely Whitson's Fort in what is now Cosby and Wear's Fort in what is now Pigeon Forge. Permanent settlers began arriving in these areas in the 1790s. John Mingus, who built the Mingus Mill, and Ralph Hughes settled on the Oconaluftee in 1795. Other settlers soon followed and began clearing land and farming. In 1801, the Whaley brothers, William and John, moved from North Carolina to become the first settlers in what is now the Greenbrier section of the park. In 1802, Edgefield, South Carolina, resident William Ogle arrived in White Oak Flats where he cut and prepared logs for cabin construction. Although Ogle died shortly after returning to Edgefield, his wife, Martha Jane Huskey, eventually returned with her family and several other families to White Oak Flats, becoming the first permanent settlers in what would eventually become Gatlinburg. Their children and grandchildren spread out southward into the Sugarlands and Roaring Fork areas.[19] Cades Cove was settled largely by families who had purchased lots from land speculator William "Fighting Billy" Tipton. The first of these settlers, John and Lucretia Oliver, arrived in 1818.[20] After 1821, more families settled in Cades Cove including the Jobes, Gregorys, Sparkes, and Cables. As the community began to grow, the Cades Cove Baptist Church was established in 1827.[21] Two Cades Cove settlers, Moses and Patience Proctor, crossed over to the North Carolina side of the Smokies in 1836 to become the first European American settlers in the Hazel Creek area.[22] The Cataloochee area was first settled by the Caldwell family, who migrated to the valley in 1834.[23]

Like most of southern Appalachia, the early 19th century economy of the Smokies relied on subsistence agriculture. The average farm consisted of roughly 50 acres (0.20 km2), part of which was cultivated and part of which was woodland. Early settlers lived in 16 feet (4.9 m) x 20 feet (6.1 m) log cabins, although these were replaced by more elaborate log houses and eventually, as lumber became available, by modern frame houses. Most farms included at least one barn, a springhouse (used for refrigeration), a smokehouse (used for curing meat), a chicken coop (protected chickens from predators), and a corn crib (kept corn dry and protected it from rodents). Some of the more industrious farmers operated gristmills, general stores, and sorghum presses.[24] Religion was a central theme in the lives of the early residents of the Smokies, and community life was typically centered on churches. Christian Protestantism—especially Primitive Baptists, Missionary Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians; dominated the religious culture of the region. Particularly because of their pressure to acquire land in the Deep South, in 1830 President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, beginning the process that eventually resulted in the forced removal of all Native American tribes east of the Mississippi River to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. Most of the Cherokee were removed in an event that became known as the Trail of Tears. For a period some Cherokees, led by such warriors as Tsali, evaded removal by staying in the area now part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A band on the Oconaluftee River acquired land and also remained. Their descendants make up most of the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, based in Cherokee, North Carolina, and their Qualla Boundary reserve to the south of the park.

While both Tennessee and North Carolina joined the Confederacy at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Union sentiment in the Great Smoky Mountains was much stronger relative to other regions in these two states. Generally, the communities on the Tennessee side of the Smokies supported the Union, while communities on the North Carolina side supported the Confederates. On the Tennessee side, 74% of Cocke Countians, 80% of Blount Countians, and 96% of Sevier Countians voted against secession.[25] In the North Carolina Smokies—Cherokee, Haywood, Jackson, and Macon counties—about 46% of the population favored secession.[26] This was largely due to the fact that slavery was rare in these regions, as the geography did not allow for large plantation complexes dependent on slave labor that came to dominate the economy of the antebellum south.

While no major engagements took place in the Smokies, minor skirmishes were fairly common. Cherokee chief William Holland Thomas formed a Confederate legion made up mostly of Cherokee soldiers.[citation needed] Thomas' Legion crossed the Smokies in 1862 and occupied Gatlinburg for several months to protect saltpeter mines atop Mount Le Conte. Residents of predominantly Union Cades Cove and predominantly Confederate Hazel Creek routinely crossed the mountains to steal one another's livestock.[27] Residents of Cosby and Cataloochee did likewise. One notable Civil War incident was the murder of long-time Cades Cove resident Russell Gregory (for whom Gregory Bald is named), which was carried out by bushwhackers in 1864 shortly after Gregory had led an ambush that routed a band of Confederates seeking to wreak havoc in the cove.[28] Another incident was George Kirk's raid on Cataloochee, in which Kirk killed or wounded 15 Union soldiers recovering at a makeshift hospital.[29]

While selective logging occurred in the Great Smoky Mountains throughout the 19th century, the general inaccessibility of the forests prevented major logging operations, and lumber firms initially relied on the lowland forests in the northeastern United States and the Mississippi Delta in the southeast. As timber resources in these regions became exhausted, and as the demand for lumber skyrocketed after the Civil War, entrepreneurs began looking for ways to reach the virgin forests of southern Appalachia. The first logging operations in the Smokies, which began in the 1880s, used splash dams or booms to float logs down rivers to lumber mills in nearby cities. Notable splash dam and boom operations included the English Lumber Company on Little River, the Taylor and Crate operations along Hazel Creek, and the ambitious operations of Alexander Arthur on the Pigeon River. All three of these operations failed within their first few years, however, after their dams and boom systems were destroyed by floods.[30]

Innovations in logging railroads and band saw technology in the late 19th century made large-scale logging possible in the mountainous areas of southern Appalachia. The largest logging operation in the Smokies was the Little River Lumber Company, which logged the Little River watershed between 1901 and 1939. The firm constructed the Little River Railroad to haul timber out of the remote regions of the area,[21] and established company towns at Townsend (named for the company's chief owner and manager, Col. Wilson B. Townsend), Elkmont, and Tremont.[31] The Little River Railroad set an example for larger companies to also purchase land in the Smokies for logging. The second-largest logging operation was the Ritter Lumber Company, which logged the Hazel Creek watershed between 1907 and 1928. Ruins of Ritter's lumbering operations are still visible along the Hazel Creek Trail.[32] Other lumbering operations included Three M Lumber and Champion Fibre, both of which logged the Oconaluftee watershed.[33] Logging in the Smokies reached its peak in 1909, and by the time all operations ceased in the 1930s, logging firms had removed two-thirds of the virgin forests from the Smokies.[citation needed] According to the National Park Service, 80% of the Smokies was clear cut in the early 20th century.[34]

The idea for a national park in the southern Appalachians first reportedly arose in the late 19th century.[35][36] In the early 20th century, locals began banding together to raise money for the preservation of the land, as its natural beauty was being destroyed by the cut-and-run-style clearcutting employed by the timber companies. Wilson B. Townsend, the head of Little River Lumber, began advertising Elkmont as a tourist destination in 1909. Within a few years, the Wonderland Hotel and the Appalachian Club had been established to cater to elite Knoxvillians seeking summer mountain getaways.[37] When the National Park Service was established in 1916, they wanted a park in the eastern United States but did not have the funds to establish one at the time.

In the summer of 1923, Knoxville resident Anne May Davis envisioned a national park in the Great Smoky Mountains while visiting Yellowstone National Park.[38] Davis shared her idea with her husband, Knoxville businessman W. P. Davis, who shared the idea with then-Secretary of Interior Hubert Work.[39] Davis initially encountered difficulty in gaining support for the movement, but by the end of the year, worked with several Appalachian Club members, among them Knoxville businessman Colonel David C. Chapman; and the Knoxville Automobile Club to found the Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association (GSMCA).[40] In 1924, Secretary work established the Southern Appalachian National Park Committee to study the feasibility of a national park in the southern Appalachians. On July 30, 1924, a delegation from the GSMCA met with the Park Committee in Asheville, and presented a series of photographs of the park to the committee. This convinced members of the committee, many of whom favored a national park in the Grandfather Mountain–Linville Gorge area, to visit the Smokies and begin pursuing the range as a candidate for a national park.[41][42] Knoxville Mayor Ben Morton, travel writer Horace Kephart, explorer Paul M. Fink, and photographers Jim Thompson and George Masa were also instrumental in fostering the development of the park.[43][44] The movement was backed by automobile clubs, most of which were chapters of the American Automobile Association.[36] In addition to preservation, supporters of the park also stressed the economic benefit of tourism.[42]

On December 13, 1924, the Park Committee recommended the establishment of national parks in the Smokies and the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, the latter of which would become Shenandoah National Park.[45] In 1925, Tennessee Governor Austin Peay signed legislation authorizing the first land purchase for the park, and appointed Colonel Chapman chairman of the Tennessee State Park and Forestry Commission. He was largely responsible for raising funds for land purchases and coordinating park efforts between local, state, and federal entities.[46] That same year, a lodge was established atop Mount Le Conte by hiker Paul Adams to entertain visiting dignitaries from Washington, D.C.[47] President Calvin Coolidge signed legislation on May 22, 1926, which authorized the park, but there was no nucleus of federally owned land around which to develop it. In 1927, both states' legislatures established commissions to orchestrate land purchases and agreed to provide the first appropriations for these purchases, contingent on the remaining funds being raised from other sources. North Carolina provided $2 million (equivalent to $27.3 million in 2022[48]) from the state's general fund, and Tennessee provided $1.5 million (equivalent to $20.4 million in 2022[48]) which was funded by a special gasoline tax.[49] Private citizens raised approximately $1 million (equivalent to $13.5 million in 2022[48]), but struggled to raise the necessary funds until businessman and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. contributed $5 million (equivalent to $67.7 million in 2022[48]) to the effort in March 1928.[50][51]

The creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park proved much more complex than its predecessors in the west, which were largely concocted from federally owned land.[42] Along with convincing logging firms to sell lucrative lumber rights, the park commissions had to negotiate the purchase of thousands of small farms and remove entire communities. Slowly, mountain homesteaders, miners, and loggers were evicted from their land. Farms and timbering operations were abolished to establish the protected areas of the park. Ben W. Hooper, who had served as Governor of Tennessee from 1911 to 1915, served as the principal land purchasing agent for the park.[52] The park commissioners also had to deal with the Tennessee and North Carolina legislatures, which at times were opposed to spending taxpayer money on park efforts.[53] In spite of these difficulties, the park commission had completed most major land purchases by 1932. During the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Works Progress Administration, and other federal organizations hired workers to build trails, firetowers, roads, and other infrastructure in the park. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park was officially established by Congress on June 15, 1934. On September 2, 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt formally dedicated the park in a ceremony at the Rockefeller Memorial at Newfound Gap to a crowd of approximately 10,000 people.[54]

The park saw a massive increase in visitors as part of a tourism boom during the Post–World War II economic expansion. The federal government first began a program to improve roads within, and leading to, the park, at the end of the war.[55][56] Later, a number of new facilities were constructed to handle the influx in visitors as part of Mission 66, a nationwide effort to improve park services by the NPS' 50th anniversary in 1966. These included a new observation tower on Clingmans Dome and the Sugarlands Visitor Center. A number of tourist attractions began to develop in Gatlinburg, Cherokee, and other nearby towns in the mid 20th century to cater to park visitors. The celebrity status of country music singer and actress Dolly Parton, who grew up in nearby Pittman Center, Tennessee, brought further attention to the park in the latter 20th and 21st centuries. In 1986, Parton cofounded the theme park Dollywood in Pigeon Forge with Herschend Family Entertainment. Dollywood resulted in a further tourist attraction boom in Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville that continues to the present day. These attractions, combined with the increasing adoption of the automobile, have brought additional visitors to the national park. This increase in tourism has greatly strained the infrastructure of the park and surrounding areas, necessitating additional road and transportation improvements.[57][58]

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park was designated an International Biosphere Reserve in 1976, was certified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983, and became a part of the Southern Appalachian Biosphere Reserve in 1988.[59] A 75th anniversary re-dedication ceremony was held on September 2, 2009. Among those in attendance were the four U.S. senators from Tennessee and North Carolina, the three U.S. Representatives whose districts include the park, the governors of both states, and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. Dolly Parton also attended and performed.[60] In 2015, Cassius Cash became the first African American superintendent of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He is also the 16th superintendent of the park.[61] In late November and early December 2016, a series of wildfires engulfed a total of 17,900 acres (72 km2) in the park and surrounding areas. The wildfires killed at least 14, injured 190, and forced the evacuation of more than 14,000 people.[62] The fires also damaged or destroyed at least 2,000 structures. The fires, which were initially suspected to have been caused by arson, occurred during a period of unusual drought, which accelerated the fires. The wildfires were the deadliest in the Eastern United States since the Great Fires of 1947 and comprised one of the worst natural disasters in the history of Tennessee.[63] In 2023, the national park was featured on a USPS Priority Mail Express stamp depicting a scene near Newfound Gap. The stamp was designed by USPS art director Greg Breeding, with art from Dan Cosgrove.[64]