National Park Is "Ours for the Taking," Says Asheville Citizen, Sept. 23, 1925

The Park Ours for the Taking

Asheville Citizen

There are so many different ways of financing the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park that delay in accomplishing it is unconceivable. Back of the project is, first, the nation-wide campaign to enlist moral and financial support for the two parks, one in the Smokies and the other in the Shenandoah region of Virginia. This will be started October 1 by the Bankers’ Service Corporation, employed for the purpose by the joint efforts and contributions of North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Secondly, there is the North Carolina campaign to raise funds and arouse public sentiment for the park in which this State is primarily interested. This also, it is announced, will begin October 1.

The State money can be raised entirely by voluntary contributions from the citizens or by purchase of any given number of acres in the park area and presentation of them to the government. Or a part of it may be appropriated by the North Carolina Legislature, the remainder being given by private citizens. Or, a third possibility, the sums secured from individuals and the legislature may be augmented by an appropriation by Congress from the Federal Treasury. It has been argued that the Federal appropriation is improbable because the United States has never before bought land for a national park. It has, however, donated for park purposes land which the government already owned; and in the long run, there is no real difference between the donation of land that is worth money and the donating of money to buy land.

All this relates to detail. The main thing now is that the people of all North Carolina shall show by their words and their works that they appreciate the stupendous opportunity offered them in the park proposal. It is particularly essential that the people of Western North Carolina prove their enthusiasm for the project with our people making a convincing demand for the park, with sentiment in support of it aroused throughout the country, with the State Legislature and the Congress impressed with the people’s desire for it, there is no doubt of the outcome. The Great Smoky Mountain National Park, certain to bring to our people an additional income of $40 million, is ours for the taking.

From the front page of the Jackson County Journal, Sylva, N.C., Wednesday, September 23, 1925

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