George Masa and the birth of Great Smoky Mountains National Park

In 2015, more than 4 million non-local visitors flocked to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, reaffirming its place as the system’s most visited location. Yet how many of those visitors had ever heard of the diminutive but energetic Japanese immigrant whose remarkable photos and tireless exploration of the Smokies played a key role in the park’s creation? And how many understood the chain of sacrifices and dislocations triggered by the decades long campaign to bring this national treasure into being?

From the beginning, the park was seen as an economic engine, and as the National Park Service celebrates its centennial this year, the success of that vision is much in evidence. Until the 1920s, however, the idea of a large Southern national park was little more than a dream. And it took 15 years of fundraising, legislative wrangling, legal battles and tireless promotion by advocates in both North Carolina and Tennessee before the 522,427-acre Great Smoky Mountains National Park was officially dedicated in 1940.

Near the center of this movement stood Masahara Izuka, a hiker and photographer with a mysterious past and a dubious grasp of the English language. Better known as George Masa, his adopted name, he was responsible for mapping, surveying and documenting the future park’s features, as well as promoting its value both to surrounding communities and the country at large.

Relentlessly egged on by Masa and many others, residents of Asheville and other cities around the region enthusiastically supported the project. Meanwhile, those actually living within the park boundaries were forced off their ancestral lands in the name of a prosperity and progress they may not have shared in. 75 years later, those efforts and sacrifices have left an enduring legacy of scenic beauty and environmental conservation in Western North Carolina.

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