Blue Ridge Country Jan/Feb 2025 - 72
" The national parks belong to everybody. "
SHARING THE
SMOKIES
M
BY NANCY HENDERSON
PHOTOS BY NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MICHAEL SMITH'S
TOP 3 THINGS
TO DO IN THE SMOKIES
ountain Farm Museum. " It's
about sharing the history and
the culture of the area, like the
African American experience in the
park, or Cherokee stories. I do love
the farm for that aspect. "
Roaring Fork Motor Trail in
Gatlinburg. " It's kind of overlooked
a little bit. People drive around it,
but getting out and walking to a log
cabin or some of the waterfalls is just
a really cool experience. "
The town of Cherokee, North
Carolina. " There's a Cherokee
museum. There's a drama that
they do in the summertime in the
evening, 'Unto These Hills.' There's a
botanical garden. There's just a lot to
see and do in Cherokee. You get an
idea of how they stewarded the land
before people moved into the area
from other places. " -NH
M
Interpretive park ranger Michael Smith loves chatting up
the mountains he calls home.
ichael Smith was studying
animal science at Alabama's
Tuskegee University-he'd
been attached
to critters ever since his dad gave him
a pet hamster in a little purple box for
his birthday-when he started to change
his mind about being a veterinarian. It
was there that he realized he couldn't
bear the thought of advising pet owners
to put their aged, injured or seriously ill
animals to sleep.
So when park rangers visited one of
his classes to talk about jobs with the
National Park Service, he knew exactly
what he was meant to do.
" I was a Boy Scout, " says Smith, 37,
an interpretive park ranger who celebrates
his 10th anniversary with the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
this year. " So I was kind of used to being
outdoors and hiking trails and kayaking
and canoeing. None of that was foreign
to me. "
RIGHT: Michael Smith:
" It's like being an
elementary school
teacher. I know a little
bit about a lot of things
in the park, but I don't
dive deep into any of
those. "
BELOW: The Mountain
Farm Museum is a
favorite of Michael
Smith for its sharing of
African American and
Cherokee history in
Great Smoky Mountains
National Park.
After a summer stint as a park guide in
the GSMNP, where he manned the visitor
center desk and led hikes in his greenand-gray
uniform- " I really didn't know
much about the Smokies, to tell you the
truth, but they had housing available " -
72 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
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Blue Ridge Country Jan/Feb 2025
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country Jan/Feb 2025
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Blue Ridge Country Jan/Feb 2025 - Cover2
Blue Ridge Country Jan/Feb 2025 - 3
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Blue Ridge Country Jan/Feb 2025 - Cover4
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