FThe park preserves a rich cultural tapestry of Southern Appalachian history. The mountains have had a long human history spanning thousands of years-from the prehistoric Paleo Indians to early European settlement in the 1800s to loggers and Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees in the 20th century.
For thousands of years prior to European settlement, these mountains were the home of people who fished the swift rivers, hunted on high grassy meadows, and gathered food in forested coves. The Cherokee mark their place of origin as a valley tucked between the river and the shrugging shoulders of hills outside Bryson City. The remaining Cherokee today live in what became the town of Cherokee, North Carolina, the community at what is now the south entrance to the park. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt came to the Great Smoky Mountains in a presidential parade to dedicate the land as a new park on September 2, 1934.