Parking fees coming to the Smokies Park?

[35 Whelen]

Same here only a different location. My maternal grandparents and their 13 children had a farm and were forced to move for the Oak Ridge facility, part of the Manhattan Project. The next farm the government "helped" my grandparents acquire, TVA built a dam on the Tennessee River and the water covered all the good bottom land for farming and split the farm into two parcels.

 

[Buck70]

Trust the government, sure remember the Road to Nowhere?

 

[NCHillbilly]

Trust the government, sure remember the Road to Nowhere?

I'm actually glad that never happened. It would have been an environmental disaster, and ruined the only sizeable chunk of the park that isn't already horribly overcrowded. They killed half the formerly productive trout streams with acidification in the corridor where they cut 441 through the Anakeesta Formation between Cherokee and Gatlinburg. They would have been cutting through hot rock across much of the Forney, Hazel, and Eagle Creek watersheds.

 

[Woodshound]

Eagle and Forney are some of the quietest, most remote sections of the park.

Is "the problem" the feds are trying to solve the 8.9m visitors from 6+ hours drive away doing a stopped-in-traffic Cades Cove loop before heading back to Gatlinburg?

 

[4HAND]

To charge any fee to enjoy a National Park is so wrong.

 

[acurasquirrel]

To charge any fee to enjoy a National Park is so wrong.

Nothing is free. I’m not saying I agree with charging entrance fees, but you are paying for them somehow. Either higher taxes or entrance fees. I tend to lean toward higher taxes as National Parks are real American assets.

 

[4HAND]

Nothing is free. I’m not saying I agree with charging entrance fees, but you are paying for them somehow. Either higher taxes or entrance fees. I tend to lean toward higher taxes as National Parks are real American assets.

I know that. Our taxes support the parks.

 

[NCHillbilly]

Nothing is free. I’m not saying I agree with charging entrance fees, but you are paying for them somehow. Either higher taxes or entrance fees. I tend to lean toward higher taxes as National Parks are real American assets.

I think you're missing the point of the agreement that NC and TN made with the federal government when they evicted thousands of their citizens and turned over a sizable chunk of their states-no entrance fees, ever. That ain't FREE. It was paid for already in not only money but human suffering.

 

[NCHillbilly]

Eagle and Forney are some of the quietest, most remote sections of the park.

Is "the problem" the feds are trying to solve the 8.9m visitors from 6+ hours drive away doing a stopped-in-traffic Cades Cove loop before heading back to Gatlinburg?

Yes, I think so. Or just greed. Or both. There are places on the TN side near Gatlinburg where the roadsides are lined with cars for over a mile near popular trailheads to waterfalls and such.

 

[lampern]

To charge any fee to enjoy a National Park is so wrong.

But most of them do.

The Smokies is a rare exception

 

[treadwell]

It's all about $$$$$$$, to heck with the rest.

 

[Taxman]

I don’t mind a parking fee. I despise splitting hairs and charging parking fee to avoid calling it an entrance fee. Especially when the original agreement clearly didn’t charge wagon parking fees.

Also, Particularly sad for the less fortunate families who go walk in the park for exercise.

 

[OwlRNothing]

I'm actually surprised they've gone this long without implementing a Yellowstone type entrance pass.
As for fees to use parks, etc. - see my post on "phrases you hate" about the misnomer "public land."

But don't be too upset about the fees - one day your grandkids will be completely banned from going there altogether. #agenda21 #greatreset #econutliberalism

 

[lampern]

I'm actually surprised they've gone this long without implementing a Yellowstone type entrance pass.
As for fees to use parks, etc. - see my post on "phrases you hate" about the misnomer "public land."

But don't be too upset about the fees - one day your grandkids will be completely banned from going there altogether. #agenda21 #greatreset #econutliberalism

They can't establish an entrance fee at the Smokies

 

[NCHillbilly]

They can't establish an entrance fee at the Smokies

Just a de facto one. Not many folks walking into the park.

 

[Clarksville snit]

This isn't a Georgia state park. This is a national park that was created by forcing out the tens of thousands of people who lived there, who had farms, lives, and homes. People's families are still resting in the ground there and are visited regularly. Part of the original agreement deal that the states of NC and TN made with the federal government when giving up the land was that there would never be a charge to enter the park. Yes, this is a very, very, very big deal, and a direct slap in the face to the local people of TN and NC whose families were forced to give up their homes and land and legacy.

You missed my point. The government is doing the same thing they’ve always done, whether state or federal. I’m confident that many of the state park lands and national forests were taken by way of emanate domain.

 

[NCHillbilly]

You missed my point. The government is doing the same thing they’ve always done, whether state or federal. I’m confident that many of the state park lands and national forests were taken by way of emanate domain.

Yep, but exactly none were obtained the way the Smokies were. And none of them except the Smokies had a no-fee clause in the paperwork when the states turned it over to the feds. John D. Rockefeller provided $5,000,000 too, and signed off on it.

If you aren't connected to it and don't know anything about it, just don't reply. The Smokies aren't every other national forest or state park.

 

[RedHills]

https://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/whyfree.htm

It seems the NPS side of the story may be at odds with some statements made here concerning "why" no fees have been charged....and whether they "could" access other fees if so inclined...which they have.

 

[lampern]

No its not.

The state of Tennessee did not want tolls or fees on US 441 between Gatlinburg and Cherokee as the NPS stated at the link

That used to be a major route between TN and NC and still is.

 

[NCHillbilly]

No its not.

The state of Tennessee did not want tolls or fees on US 441 between Gatlinburg and Cherokee as the NPS stated at the link

That used to be a major route between TN and NC and still is.

That's the only route between NC and TN in a 100-mile stretch of border along the Smokies from I-40 on the east side to 129 AKA Tail of the Dragon on the west end.