Great Smoky Mountain Mingus Mill Volunteer Opportunity

Great Smoky Mountain Mingus Mill Volunteer Opportunity. National Park officials are asking for volunteers to provide informational tours of the historic Mingus Mill.

The mill is located one half mile north of the Oconaluftee Visitor Center near Cherokee, North Carolina. Participants will assist in educating national park visitors about the general role of milling in the Smoky Mountains. The unique turbine wheel at Mingus Mill is a special feature of interest. Instead of turning a wheel like the Cable Mill in popular Cades Cove. The mingus mill funnels water into a race which rises nearly forty feet in the air. From there it plunges down a box shaft and turns the turbine, which “in turn” powers the mill.

Mingus Mill, built in 1886, offers visitors a rare look into the inner workings of a mill that custom ground everything from corn to wheat or rye. This turbine-driven mill would custom grind cornmeal or flour in a fraction of the time needed by other types of mills. The efficiency and central location of the mill made it into a popular meeting place for local communities like Bradley town.

Volunteers will work closely with Great Smoky Mountains Association employees. Each volunteer is asked to work at least one, four-hour shift per week from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. during the peak visitation season from April through November. Interested persons will be provided orientation and training before beginning at the mill.

New volunteers are required to attend training on Friday, March 23, 2018 from 9:00 am until 3:00 pm. The training will be held at the Oconaluftee Administration Building near Cherokee, NC. A lunch break will be in the schedule. Please plan to bring a bag lunch.

If interested in this exciting volunteer opportunity please call to reserve a space for training. For questions or to receive more information, please contact Park Resource Education Ranger Florie Takaki by phone at 828-497-1906 or by email at florie_takaki@nps.gov.

Dolly Parton Donates 100 Million Childrens Books

Dolly Parton Donates 100 Million Childrens Books! Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library’s 100-millionth book placed in Library of Congress.

Not even Dolly Parton herself could have imagined in 1995 that her idea of giving free books to children around the world would one day surpass the 100-milionth mark and make its way into the halls of the Library of Congress. Parton was on hand on March 8th to enshrine the milestone book, her own “Coat of Many Colors”, adapted from her song of the same name, into the nation’s archive.
Indeed it seems as if Parton’s coat of many colors transformed into a magic flying carpet that, through the pages of books sponsored by her imagination library, transports children into a magical world of literature. Sevier County’s, and indeed Tennessee’s, favorite daughter’s example of overcoming a humble childhood and her amazing rise to an incredible career encourages children to look beyond superficial appearances and into the heart and character of others.
Parton is an accomplished songwriter and it could be that her love of stories and books paved the way to her stellar career.

“I always like to say that 100 million books have led to 100 million stories,” Parton said, adding that she was honored that “our little program has grown to such a point that we can partner with the Library of Congress to bring even more stories to children across the country.”

And partner she has. A special Story Time is scheduled at 10:30a.m. on the last Friday of each month from March to August in the Great Hall of the Thomas Jefferson Building. Children up to the age of 5 can enjoy a book reading, music and special guests. Live streaming will make the event accessible to children and parents around the globe.
The Imagination Library distributes 1 million books free of charge each month to children from birth to age five in participating communities in the United States, Belize, United Kingdom Canada and Australia. Recent studies suggest participation in the Imagination Library is significantly associated with higher measures of early language and math development.

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden offered praise for Parton and deemed the program “awe-inspiring, and an extraordinary gift to humankind”, adding, “there is no way to truly quantify the impact this program has had on developing young readers across America and in other parts of the world.”
Hayden said reading is a passion that the Library of Congress in pleased to share with Parton and expressed her excitement about the cooperative programs that will provide and an opportunity “for children anywhere to connect with a fun, engaging reading experience.”

Story times take place at 10:30 a.m. on the last Friday of each month, March through August in the Great Hall of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. SE. The events are free and open to the public. No tickets are required.

For more information on Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, exclusively published by Penguin Random House, visit dollywoodfoundation2018.

The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States as well as extensive material from around the word. It is accessible both on site and online and is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and home to the U.S. Copyright Office. For more info visit loc.gov or access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Increases Frontcountry Camping Fees

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Increases Frontcountry Camping Fees.  The increase for frontcounty campgrounds and picnic pavilions became effective March 1, 2018. Over the past year, officials reviewed public comments, operating costs, and projected budget levels to determine the rate of the increase from a range of 10% to 25%.

Park officials report the rate increase is necessary to meet the rising operational costs, reduce a growing backlog of maintenance on park facilities, and begin much needed improvements. Park officials are also working to improve the efficiency of campground management by adding three campgrounds to the national reservation system through Recreation.gov.

“Park visitors have long enjoyed camping and picnicking across the park in spectacular settings that offer space for relaxation and renewal,” said Superintendent Cassius Cash. “Maintaining and servicing these facilities in the mountains presents a unique set of challenges and, with increasing costs, these fee increases are necessary to ensure the continual care and operation of these special places.”

The park operates nine open campgrounds, seven group campgrounds, six picnic pavilions, and five horse campgrounds. The current fees have not been increased since 2006 or earlier at any facility aside from Cataloochee Campground which had an increase in camping fees in 2011 when it was added to the reservation system. The park is also adding Abrams Creek, Balsam Mountain and Big Creek campgrounds to the National Recreation Reservation System to improve operational efficiency. Beginning in early March of 2018, all sites will require advanced reservation and payment prior to arrival in the park through Recreation.gov either online or by phone. By placing these three geographically remote campgrounds on the reservation system, the park can reduce campground operation costs by eliminating the need for staff time for the collection of fees. The reservation system also provides a more efficient process for visitors to secure an overnight stay without traveling to the remote locations to check for vacancies.

By law, the park retains 100 percent of the camping and pavilion fees. The fees are used primarily to operate these facilities. This includes maintaining buildings, grounds, and utilities, providing visitor services, and funding rehabilitation projects, such as road resurfacing and replacing picnic tables and grills. Some revenues are also used to maintain park infrastructure and other special projects beyond these sites. Over the years, the park has had to compensate for rising costs from inflation by reducing visitor services, delaying maintenance repairs and improvements, and, at many sites, shortening the length of the season when facilities are open, having a particularly adverse impact on visitors during the shoulder seasons.

The park completed a 2016 comparability study with campgrounds in the surrounding communities and the study revealed that, while camping fees in the park have remained mostly constant since 2006, campgrounds in the surrounding communities have continued to rise. Even with the fee increase, park campgrounds will remain among the least expensive in the area.

For more information about campground facilities in the park, please visit the park website at NPS.gov.

Great Smoky Mountains Clingmans Dome Volunteer Opportunity

Great Smoky Mountains Clingmans Dome Volunteer Opportunity. This is a once in a lifetime chance to spend an entire season enjoying the sweeping vistas and high elevation forest of the Smokies. National Park officials are recruiting volunteers to help provide visitor information at Clingmans Dome. The information center sits at 6,300 feet in elevation providing a unique opportunity for park volunteers to assist in educating visitors about high-elevation spruce-fir forests, while also providing recreational, trip planning, and directional information.

The information center, constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps, originally served as a comfort station, but was converted into a seasonal information center in 2010. The center also includes a bookstore area managed by the Great Smoky Mountains Association (GSMA). offering visitors the opportunity to purchase topographic maps, hiking guide books, hiking gear, and more. Volunteers will work alongside GSMA employees. Each volunteer is asked to work one four-hour shift per week from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. April 1, 2018 through November 30, 2018.

At this time, there are openings for new volunteers on each day of the week except Thursday. New volunteers must attend two orientation sessions focusing on resource interpretation and working with the public. At each training, guest speakers will share unique biological and historical information to help volunteers learn more about the Clingmans Dome area.

The first training session will be held at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center training room near Cherokee, NC on March 16 from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00

p.m. The second training session will be held at the Sugarlands Visitor Center training room near Gatlinburg, TN on Friday, March 30 from 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Volunteers must RVSP for training sessions and bring a lunch.

To sign up for this volunteer program or receive more information, contact Park Resource Education Ranger Florie Takaki by phone at 828-497-1906 or by email at florie_takaki@nps.gov.

Blue Ridge Parkway Closure

Blue Ridge Parkway closure at the Linn Cove Viaduct, the most visited and recognized stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway, is scheduled to close for three months beginning March 1 according to the National Park Service. The area, which includes trail areas below the viaduct, will also be off limits to cyclist and hikers. Park officials said the closure is necessary to allow for resurfacing roads and bridge repairs, adding that the seven-mile stretch will reopen in time for Memorial Day weekend. According to reports from various media outlets, crews will replace asphalt pavement, joints and water-proofing membranes on the bridge as well as repairing support structures, curbing, railing and essential drainage features.
Located 18 miles southwest of Blowing Rock, N.C., the viaduct is one of the parkway’s most popular tourist draws and was the last part of the 469-mile road to be completed. Designated a national civil engineering landmark by the America Society of Civil Engineers, the 1,234-foot viaduct, consisting of 153 segments that weigh in at 50 tons each, was built at a cost of some $10 million.
It was a project that almost did not happen. According to accounts, the original plans for that stretch of the roadway included carving out parts of Grandfather Mountain. The plan sparked an immediate and intense opposition, especially by Hugh Morton who had inherited Grandfather Mountain from his own grandfather, Hugh MacRae. Preserving the mountain was a primary focus for Morton (who died in 2006) prompting him to donate easement for some 3,000 acres to the The Nature Conservancy whose focus is preserving land and water worldwide. Additional acres and easement were later sold to the conservancy. A compromise route, negotiated by Gov. Dan Moore, partnered the National Park Service’s landscape architects and Federal Highway Administration engineers who proposed that the road should be elevated wherever possible to eliminate cutting into the historic landscape. According to Park Service officials, the result has been called “the most complicated concrete bridge ever built.” The viaduct’s sweeping ‘S’ curve appears to hover in mid-air offering spectacular mountain and valley views and is often referred to as “a ride in the clouds.”

Although the viaduct is a direct route to Grandfather Mountain and its state park hiking trails, Frank Ruggerio of the Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation was philosophical about the closure. Ruggerio said that he was sad that people will not enjoy the whole high country experience this spring, but agreed that it was a necessary step to make the repairs.
Grandfather Mountain and the state park is still accessible from U.S. 221.