The Environmental Journal of Southern Appalachia

Displaying items by tag: sevier county

Monday, 03 November 2025 15:11

Updated 11/3: Great Smoky Mountains National Park gets shutdown reprieve through Jan. 4

unnamedThe crest of the Great Smoky Mountains is seen from the Foothills Parkway looking east. Thomas Fraser/Hellbender Press

Local and state partners will continue funding park during shutdown; some critical work will be suspended

Jim Matheny is Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park communications director.

GATLINBURG — Amid the ongoing federal government shutdown, the nonprofit Friends of the Smokies will continue to provide funding to ensure Great Smoky Mountains National Park remains open with basic visitor services and limited staffing from through Jan. 4, 2026.
 
The latest agreement allows the popular Cades Cove Loop Road to remain open to the public along with all visitor centers and picnic areas that are normally open this time of year.
 
Friends of the Smokies joined a partnership of state and local entities that funded the reopening and full staffing of the national park from Oct. 4 through Nov. 2. During that time, all furloughed park employees returned to work, received paychecks, and continued their efforts to serve visitors and protect the park during the busiest tourism month of the year. Great Smoky Mountains National Park attracts an average of more than 1.6 million visitors each October.
 
As the national park transitions to a relatively slower visitation season, the latest agreement from Nov. 3, 2025, through Jan. 4, 2026, will reduce the funded staff positions to those directly related to basic visitor services. Many park employees will still be furloughed. 
 
The official agreement to keep the park open is specifically between Sevier County Government and the National Park Service. Under the arrangement, Sevier County pays the federal government directly and the other partners pay their share to Sevier County. The funding effort has been supported by Sevier County, the cities of Gatlinburg, Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, Blount County, the State of Tennessee's Department of Tourism, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and Friends of the Smokies.
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Sunday, 31 July 2022 11:37

Has the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians lost its ‘right way’ at Exit 407?

Will West LongCherokee tribal council member, historian and ethnographer Will West Long holds a traditional Cherokee mask, which he often recreated. He was an active chronicler of Cherokee custom, heritage and tradition and died in 1947 on the Qualla Reservation in Swain County, North Carolina. WikiCommons

As plans gel for massive new developments, has the Eastern Band lost its ancient way?

SEVIERVILLE — The Tennessee Department of Transportation is eyeing a second interchange for exit 407 at Highway 66 along Interstate I-40 in Sevier County. 

Exit 407, already one of the most congested interchanges in Southern Appalachia, accesses the main highway to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited national park in the nation. The park reported a record 14 million visitors in 2021.

The exit also serves crowds flocking to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.

But the new interchange would primarily serve a 200-acre development to be called Exit 407: The Gateway to Adventure.   

Scheduled to open spring 2023, and fully operational in 2024, it’s expected to attract 6.7 million people annually. The first phase includes a theme park and a 74,000-square-foot convenience store with 120 gas pumps, making it the world’s largest such store.

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Wednesday, 17 February 2021 14:18

Three bears rescued from cabin crawl space

The Daily Times: Three little bears rescued from Sevier County crawlspace

Tennessee Wildlife Resource officers responded and chased the adult bear off with an air horn. Three cubs were soon discovered under the house. 

The cubs were placed under the care of Appalachian Bear Rescue in Townsend. The center has adopted and rehabilitated hundreds of bears, most of which are eventually returned to the wild. TWRA said it would monitor whether the adult bear — originally surmised to be a male because of its size — returned to the cabin in search of the cubs.
UPDATE: Wildlife officers were eventually able to reunite the cubs with their mother.
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