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This map presents the results of a Historic Resource Study (HRS) conducted for Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Great Smoky Mountains NP). Great Smoky Mountains NP is one of the nation’s most important recreational resources and is a designated International Biosphere Reserve (1976) and World Heritage Site (1983).  Each year more than nine million people visit the park, which occupies more than a half a million acres of land in portions of Blount, Sevier, and Cocke counties in Tennessee and Swain and Haywood counties in North Carolina. 

The HRS was conducted to assist the National Park Service (NPS) in meeting its obligations under Section 110 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 as amended, which requires that federal agencies establish a program for the identification and protection of historic properties and ensure that such properties are maintained and managed with due consideration for preservation of their historic values. The HRS report was prepared in accordance with the requirements and standards set forth in Cultural Resource Management Guideline (NPS-28). Its purpose is to provide an overview of the park’s history, identify and evaluate historic resources within their appropriate historic contexts, and update the status of historic properties already listed in the National Register of Historic Places (National Register). By identifying significant historic contexts and related historic properties, the HRS serves as a planning and resource management tool that guides the park’s preparation of National Register nominations, completion of Historic Structure Reports (HSRs), development of a List of Classified Structures (LCS), and preparation of interpretive programming. While the HRS does not evaluate historic landscapes specifically, its contexts and recommendations concerning historic properties are intended to provide a basis for future NPS park-wide identification and evaluation of cultural landscapes through the Cultural Landscapes Inventory (CLI) and preparation of Cultural Landscape Reports (CLRs).

The goals of this HRS were to expand an existing draft of the HRS (prepared in 1998) into a final version that identifies and makes recommendations for the park’s historic resources. The HRS encompasses all resources over 50 years of age and addresses any resources less than 50 years of age that are exceptionally significant. The following resource types were excluded from the study: archeological sites, minor elements of the road system, trails, cemeteries, remote ruins, and constituent features (such as vegetation) of cultural landscapes (although recommendations for the future study of cultural landscapes are provided). The NPS identified the following six themes as a framework for the HRS evaluations:

• Settlement and Community Development in the Great Smoky Mountains, 1790–1933;

• Extractive Industries in the Great Smoky Mountains, 1820–1944;

• Recreation and Tourism in the Great Smoky Mountains, 1900–1942;

• The Initial Development of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 1926–1942;

• Early National Park Service Preservation Philosophy, ca. 1930–1960; and

• Mission 66 Era of National Park Service Planning and Development, 1945–1972.

With the exception of excluded resource types, the completed HRS inventory represents a comprehensive listing of historic properties in the park. The HRS evaluates over 400 park resources, including 5 historic districts and 9 individual properties currently listed in the National Register, and 15 historic districts and 9 individual properties that are determined or recommended eligible for listing in the National Register. Additionally, four potential archeological districts that incorporate buildings, structure, or visible ruins are identified for further study. The information contained in this HRS will be used to prepare a Multiple Property Submission under which historic resources in the park will be nominated for listing in the National Register.

Historic Resources are differentiated between resource types such as structures or buildings. 

Structures are a functional construction made for purposes other than creating shelter, such as a bridge. These resources would include features such as: fortifications, earthworks, roads, fences, canals, dams, engineering features, barns, outbuildings, arsenals, ships, manufacturing facilities, etc. These resources represent sites that do not function primarily as dwellings, however they may serve temporarily to house humans, although their primarily purpose is not a permanent shelter. The point may represent the location of a culvert, while a line may represent a fence or road, and a polygon may represent the circumscribed boundary of a manufacturing plant.

Historic buildings are a resource created principally to shelter any form of human activity, such as a house. These resources would include features such as: farmhouses, homesites, mansions, churches, museums (if the building is historic), courthouses, offices, prisons, train depots, etc. Historic buildings most often function primarily as dwellings. The point may represent the center of the building, an entrance, a corner, etc., while the polygon may represent the building footprint.