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North Carolina State Parks Centennial

North Carolina State Park Centennial

Chimney Rock (Photo by Wendy Olsen)

Outdoors: North Carolina State Park System Celebrates Hundredth Anniversary

By James Ledgerwood

North Carolina’s state park system welcomes more than 17.3 million visitors each year to enjoy more than 230,000 acres. Its centennial celebration this year provides an opportunity to recognize the visionary leaders who set the wheels in motion.

It all started with Elisha Mitchell, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who set out to prove that what is now known as Mount Mitchell was the highest peak in the eastern United States. Using barometric pressure calculations, he successfully determined its height to be 6,684 feet—and the U.S. Geologic Survey agreed with him in 1882.

When Mitchell was visiting the area, Mount Mitchell and the other mountains in the Black Mountain Range were still a relatively untouched wilderness. That changed in the late 19th century, when loggers arrived. The peak was being laid bare, and erosion was sending soil into mountain streams and rivers. Citizens wrote letters, which reached the ears of visionary politicians.

Enter Governor Lock Craig, who visited Mount Mitchell in 1913. Horrified by the unsound environmental conditions, he made a deal with the loggers to temporarily halt their work, giving him the chance to return to Raleigh and garner support for protecting the mountain.

The General Assembly authorized the purchase of land for a state park at Mount Mitchell on March 3, 1915, and by the end of the following year, 795 acres on the summit were acquired, establishing Mount Mitchell State Park, the first state park not only in North Carolina, but also in the southeastern United States. North Carolina had set a standard for the nation in protecting its natural resources.

At the same time other visionary leaders were working in Hickory Nut Gorge, among them Jerome B. Freeman and Dr. Lucius B. Morse, who dedicated Chimney Rock on July 4, 1916, the first time the American flag was raised there. On July 4, 2016, exactly a hundred years later, the North Carolina state flag joined Old Glory on the top of “The Rock” for its centennial celebration. For the rest of this year, Chimney Rock will fly both flags on the dates of other scheduled state park centennial celebrations.

“We are celebrating our centennial throughout the year with a series of special events, which are being held at 41 different state parks,” says Charlie Peek, public information officer for the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation. “These events will also serve as a springboard to renew our commitment of our mission to protect North Carolina’s natural diversity, to provide and promote outdoor recreation, and to encourage good stewardship of North Carolina’s natural and cultural resources in the next century.”

Mount Mitchell’s centennial celebration will be held August 27–28. The centennial is an opportunity for North Carolinians to celebrate their achievements and rediscover our state parks as places to relax with family, reconnect with nature, and learn about what makes our state so naturally wonderful.

A complete list of events can be found at ncparks.gov/100/centennial-events. James Ledgerwood is superintendent of the Division of Parks and Recreation at Chimney Rock State Park.

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