Media Room

Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) has chosen Alternative A as its preferred route for the proposed Pellissippi Parkway Extension (State Route 162) in Blount County.

Kick up your heels and put on your hiking boots to enjoy the peaceful outdoors of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. More than 130 trail segments make up 800 miles of hiking trails throughout the park

Just about half of the plant and animal species living in North America reside in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. More than 70,000 plant and animal species thrive in the 500,000-plus acres of forest in the park.

A tunnel of foliage hugs the roadway as it winds its way up to Cades Cove, one of the best nature-viewing spots in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and among the top five in the United States. Described as an open air museum, Cades Cove is 1,800 acres of open space nestled along the base of the Appalachian mountains in East Tennessee.

TOWNSEND, Tenn. – After returning from a visit to the United States’ western national parks, a wealthy and influential Knoxville couple, Mr. and Mrs. Willis P. Davis, decided they wanted to create a national park in the Smoky Mountains. In 1940, after 17 years of controversy, the Davis’s dream came true and 500,000 acres of continuous ridges of forests between North Carolina and Tennessee became the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Foothills Parkway in the Townsend, Tenn. area is the gateway of unparalleled beauty of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Just about half of the plant and animal species living in North America reside in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. More than 70,000 plant and animal species thrive in the 500,000-plus acres of forest in the park.

In August 2007, Senator Lamar Alexander and John L. Nau III, co-chair of the Preserve America Steering Committee and chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, which administers Preserve America programs for the White House in cooperation with the Department of the Interior, officially recognized Blount County as a Preserve America Community.

WHAT: Townsend and Blount County, Tennessee will once again explore the history, heritage and the spirit of the Great Smoky Mountains with the Second Annual Winter Heritage Festival, which was awarded the “Award of Distinction” from the East Tennessee Historical Society, in its first year (2007).

Blount County is home to a new kind of log cabin-one that was designed by 4.2 million votes on DIY Network’s companion Web site, DIYnetwork.com.