ROAD BOOSTERS PROMOTE A PARK

The movement to establish a national park in the Great Smoky Mountains was intimately linked to road boosterism. The so-called "father of the park movement," Willis Davis, was not only on the board of directors of the Knoxville Automobile Club but first promoted the idea of a national park in the Smokies at an Automobile Club meeting in 1923. Members of the car club responded by creating the Smoky Mountains Conservation Association to publicize and coordinate the campaign, and elected Willis Davis as its president.

Park boosters attending a meeting on March 6, 1928 when a $5 million gift for the Laura Spellman Rockefeller Memorial was accounced. Willis P. Davis is second from left in the front row. 1928 (National Park Service)

Knoxville road boosters were not alone in their desires or actions. The local campaign was part of national and regional trends taking place during the 1920s that also encouraged the creation of GRSM. Nationwide, the development of mass-produced automobiles was resulting in cheaper prices and a correlating increase in automobile ownership. During this time the need for good roads became one of the primary political and civic issues in the South. Believing that improved motorways would finally propel the region into the national economic mainstream, Southerners, including members of the Knoxville Automobile Club, advocated numerous road-building projects. Although particularly appealing to those living in the regions of Western North Carolina and East Tennessee with primitive roads, the high cost of constructing roads through the Smoky Mountains kept road building in this area at a minimum, even during the height of the "Good Roads" movement.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt officially dedicates Great Smoky Mountains National Park at the Laura Spellman Rockefeller Memorial. 1940. (GRSM/White)

Along with wanting to protect the Smokies from the onslaught of loggers, Willis Davis and others so viewed the national park as a means of encouraging tourism through road development. For many park promoters tourism, road construction, and the creation of GRSM were three aspects of the same desire for economic expansion in the Smoky Mountain region.

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