This Land, Your Land

The volunteers crucial to operating and maintaining Great Smoky Mountains National Park are often descendants of the 1,200 landowners forced to move for creation of the park, says The Charlotte Observer.

The article specifically cites Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, whose 1,000 volunteers invested 115,000 hours last year; Great Smoky Mountains Association, which contributed $1.8 million to the park in 2008; the Bugle Corps, which helps tend reintroduced elk; and area residents who join biologists as part of a project to identify all of the estimated 100,000 species of plants and animals in the park.

In all, 2,777 volunteers reported for work last year, the park tells the newspaper.

The Washington Post looks at the nearly 80 cabins, churches and other historic buildings in the park that are reminders of the people who once called its 800 square miles home.

Great Smoky Mountains, the most-visited park in the National Parks system with more than 9 million visitors a year, will celebrate its 75th anniversary June 13-15.