This Land, Your Land

Nanci Bompey of the Asheville Citizen-Times wrote about Great Smoky Mountains National Park's new Oconaluftee Visitor Center, which opened Friday and is the "first structure built specifically as a full-service visitor center on the North Carolina side of the park."

The 6,300-square-foot center was announced in December 2009 as a replacement for the 1,700-square-foot building originally built by the Civilian Conservation Corps as a magistrate court. The new building was built with $3 million in private money.

The original plan for the park called for a visitor center at the Cherokee, North Carolina, entrance and near Gatlinburg, Tennessee, but the eastern center never was funded.

The center's exhibits will focus on the human and cultural history of the area - including the Cherokee, local farmers, lumber companies and the Civilian Conservation Corps - and present $550,000 worth of interpretive information bought by Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park mainly through sales of their specialty license plate.

The visitor center also has 1,700 square feet of accessible restrooms, Bompey noted.

The Oconaluftee Visitor Center is on U.S. 441 near Cherokee and open 8 a.m.-6 p.m. daily. A formal dedication of the building is scheduled for 11 a.m. April 15.

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy reports in its e-mailed newsletter that the historic Wayah Bald lookout tower restoration is complete and the tower has officially re-opened.

Wayah Bald (elev. 5,385 feet) is near Franklin in the Nantahala National Forest. The Appalachian Trail and the Bartram Trail cross the day-use area, which features the lookout tower first constructed by members of the Civilian Conservation Corps. The 50-foot tower, below, affords views of the Smoky and Unicoi mountains of the Nantahala and Little Tennessee valleys.

The tower was closed in November 2009 for safety concerns due to its deteriorating condition. Not only has the tower had a makeover, the ATC says, but there are new pathways, a new restroom and new accessible parking as well.