Cut and Run

Cut and Run (HM217L)

Location: Bryson City, NC 28713 Swain County
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Country: United States of America
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N 35° 31.447', W 83° 18.292'

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Inscription

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

You hardly ever left a tree of any size standing and all the little 'uns was torn down.
Raymer Brackin

Standing her in 1910 you would have seen a far different landscape than today. You might have seen the Champion Fibre Company logging the mountainside opposite you. Railroads crisscrossed the nearly cut-bare slope. Steam engine smoke clouded the view, and the screeching, clanging, and banging of timber and rail operations echoed across the hills.

Champion was just one of many companies logging these mountains. In fact, lumber companies owned 85 percent of the land that later became Great Smoky Mountains National Park; about 65 percent was actually logged. Wood from these slopes served many uses: spruce went into World War I biplanes,
hemlock bark was used to tan hides, and chestnut paneled staterooms in steamships that sailed the world's oceans.

(captions)
Huge chestnut, hemlock and oak trees stood tall on the mountainsides. With seemingly inexhaustible timber resources, loggers in the early 1900s held a cut-and-run attitude—quickly cutting trees so they could move to the next stand. Soil erosion and forest fires added to the devastation. Soon national park proponents decried the destruction and helped buy the lands for the new park.

Champion Fibre Company Mills,
1920s

Skid roads and railroads left their scars on the mountain slopes.

Loggers, some with families, often lived in rail-portable housing known as "set-off houses."

In the 1920s, lumber companies dominated the Smokies' landscape.

(map legend)
Lumber
Private
Mining - Other Commercial
Champion Fibre Co

Details

HM Number	HM217L
Tags	Industry and Commerce, Horticulture and Forestry, Environment
Placed By	Great Smoky Mountains National Park, National Park Services, US Department of the Interior
Marker Condition	No reports yet
Date Added	Tuesday, August 29th, 2017 at 10:02am PDT -07:00

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Locationbig map

UTM (WGS84 Datum)	17S E 291008 N 3933611
Decimal Degrees	35.52411667, -83.30486667
Degrees and Decimal Minutes	N 35° 31.447', W 83° 18.292'
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds	35° 31' 26.82" N, 83° 18' 17.52" W
Driving Directions	Google Maps
Area Code(s)	828
Which side of the road?	Marker is on the right when traveling North
Closest Postal Address	At or near US-441, Bryson City NC 28713, US
Alternative Maps	Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap