Media Room

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.

RIDE TEXAS Magazine, a prestigious travel magazine with a circulation of more than 30,000, announced that US 129-Deal’s Gap, Robbinsville, North Carolina to Maryville, Tenn., was named one of its “Top 10 Roads Outside Texas” in its reader’s choice poll. More commonly known as “The Dragon,” this route climbs through 318 “S” curves in 11 miles, with the majority of the ride in Blount County.

The Little River Railroad Museum is a non-profit organization that preserves the history of the railroad and lumber company.

The Joint Operating Committee of the Blount Partnership has named Bryan Daniels as the new president & CEO.

The backlit sign came on as planned just after sunset, the politicians kept their speeches short and Buddy’s barbecue was consumed in mass quantities.