With the backdrop of the Smoky Mountains behind her, Dolly Parton stood atop the state line of Tennessee and North Carolina, right in the middle of the Smoky Mountain National Park. Both states are rededicating the creation of the Smoky Mountain National Park - it's been in existence for 75 years. Theodore Roosevelt dedicated it's creation back in 1934.
The beautiful mountains and Dolly Parton caught my attention. I've been a Dolly Parton fan since I was a child. I grew up listening to her songs and admire her for being real, true to her roots and the fact that she doesn't take herself seriously. Dollly is just good folk. Dolly is a product of the Smoky Mountians - she is as real as these mountains are in beauty, culture and tradition. Dolly is the ambassador for the Smoky Mountain National Park this year and has been on a quest to raise money for this beautiful park.
This part of the country is new to me. I made my first drive-thru the 'Smokies' just last October. I drove that winding road from North Carolina to Tennessee with my mouth open at the utter beauty of this mountain range and at the God-created vivid colors of the leaves changing. If you don't believe in God - drive through the Smoky Mountain National Park during the Fall and you will.
Being a Texas girl - mountains are something I'm not used too. Gee what I've been missing all these years - these majestic mountains roll and flow over the horizon like an elegant sculpture. The range is home to an estimated 187,000 acres of old growth forest, constituting the largest such stand east of the Mississippi River.
The name "Smoky" comes from the natural fog that often hangs over the range and presents as large smoke plumes from a distance. This fog, which is most common in the morning and after rainfall, is the result of warm humid air from the Gulf of Mexico cooling rapidly in the higher elevations of Southern Appalachia. There is no doubt the Smokies are majestic - proof that there is heaven here on earth. These mountains were created over a BILLION years ago.
How small they make one feel. No wonder the Cherokee people revered these mountains, fought to keep them, hide in them and ultimately most of them were forced to move from them in the "Trail of Tears." Little did I know when I moved here over a year ago - did I ever contemplate I was moving to an area where my forefathers came from...............I never in a million years would have fathomed my ancesters intertwined with these great mountains.
As sure as I took a journey in my car through the Smoky Mountains last year - I also started a journey of tracing back my ancestry. God put me here for a reason, I would find out later after my journey through the Smokies. Through my ancestry research, I found out I was the 7th Great-Granddaughter of Cherokee Chief Attakullakulla (on my mom's mom's Rowe side believe it or not) - Little Carpenter, Peace Chief of the Cherokee, 1699-1797. For more information on my great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather see the link below:
http://www.aaanativearts.com/cherokee/little-carpenter.htm
Attakullakulla was born around 1712 on what is known today as Sevier Island in the French Broad River of Tennessee. His father was a minor chief in the "Overhill Towns" of the Cherokee Nation. The towns were so named because they sat over the rolling hills of the lower Smoky Mountains along the Little Tennessee River. The infant’s given name was Ookoonaka and he spent his earlier years in the Cherokee towns learning the ancient ways of his people. He would become a legend among his people and a voice of reason that would help his people carve out a permanent existence for themselves in a new era of North American history.
This world we reside in is small - little did I know last October, that I was crossing the paths of my ancestors. I was walking on the land where they lived, fought and died. It makes me even prouder of these mountains - even though I'm not a Tennessean or North Carolinian, my family was a part of the land and a part of American history. We are all connected somehow - whether that be in blood, by the land or by our causes.
The Smokies are over a billion years old - God created them before I was even a thought in the universe. The Smokies were here in the 1700's for my ancestors to dwell on, before I was a speck in the future. Now, I'm here in the present and the Smokies still stand grand and regal - they will remain tall and proud long after I'm gone and forgotten..............
Who knows maybe Dolly and I are related??? One never knows........
View from the top of the Smoky Mountain National Park - March 2009
Appalachia View from North Carolina
View from Cades Cove / Tennessee
Another view from Cades Cover Park near Gatlinburg, Tennessee
