History of Timber Harvesting

“At the turn of the 20th century, technological advances and the need for lumber in the eastern United States eliminated almost all the southern Appalachian forests. Lumber companies turned to southern Appalachians after exhausting timber supplies in the Northeast and around the Great Lakes. Railroads were the key to large-scale logging operations. Railroad tracks reaching deep into the mountains made the timber readily available (Stenzel and others 1985)." By the mid-1880s, after railroad lines had fully penetrated the mountain interior, much of the southern Appalachians had become the domain of a dozen or so large timber companies, owned almost exclusively by northern or foreign investors. The timber boom that resulted lasted more than 40 years, leaving a legacy of environmental change that is still visible today.

"By the 1920s, some 15 company towns were constructed in what is now Great Smoky Mountains National Park, along with a like number of sawmills. Mountain people who had once plowed fields and slopped hogs began to cut trees and to saw logs for a living, abandoning their farms for company towns. They were attracted to logging by the promise of security and the stability of a steady paycheck. Their security was short-lived, however. By the 1930s, the lumber companies had logged all but the most inaccessible areas and were casting their sights to richer pickings out West. Some of the mountain people returned to farming, while others left to seek jobs in mines, textile mills, and automobile factories" (Stenzel and others 1985).