North Carolina’s relationship with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has never been better, and nothing personifies this current state of affairs better than the Purchase Knob Science and Education Center.

The culture and history of the counties in the Smokies are closely intertwined in the past and future of the national park. Feuds sometimes simmer for decades, and disagreements often bear more resemblance to family infighting rather than the clash of government entities. The current Road to Nowhere debate between Swain residents and the park is a good example.

But Purchase Knob is a completely different kind of example. This is a case of the park and its surrounding communities opening a new avenue of cooperation that will provide direct, tangible and immeasurable benefits to all involved. As this venture flourishes, this entire region will benefit.

Purchase Knob is a 530-acre tract of land and house that straddles the border of the park and Haywood County. The parcel — which is close to the old Cataloochee Divide Trail — was donated one year ago to the park, the largest single contribution of land since the park’s creation in the 1930s.

The land and home have become one of five “learning centers” created by the National Park Service. The idea in the Smokies is to invite school children, elderhostel participants, public school teachers, professors from regional universities and others to visit Purchase and conduct experiments on the environment. The hands-on experiments will be created by education coordinator Susan Sacks and science coordinate Paul Super.

The goal is to blend education and science. As Sacks said recently, this won’t be “Boy Scout jamboree” type learning. The data gathered by public participants will be used by park scientists. It will be real, scientifically sound research that will help protect the park in the face of air pollution and habitat degradation. In other words, the work that goes on at the Purchase will help save the park’s pristine state, and the information will also help other mountain counties.

There will be other benefits as well. School children from this area will be exposed to a kind of education that may inspire them for a lifetime. They will witness the wonders of nature and the challenges of population growth and ecosystem management. Our universities, given this type of lab, will be better able to attract some of the world’s top experts.

The opening of the Purchase Knob center is just one of many recent developments on the North Carolina side of the Smokies. A few years ago Deep Creek Campground received a multi-million dollar upgrade. Since then Cataloochee has undergone a similar improvement and is now home of one the park’s most popular attractions — a reintroduced herd of elk.

Much of this has been facilitated by the Friends of the Smokies, a park advocacy organization that raises money and volunteers for needed projects. Last week the $50,000 donated by CP&L to help upgrade the Purchase Knob center was actually given to the Friends. The group acts as a go-between for corporations, grant-making foundations and individuals who want to help the park. The North Carolina “Friends of the Smokies” license plate is an ongoing source of funding and one way individuals can help the effort.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park will always define this region. As we grow and change, the park remains a living repository of the what this region once was and what it can be. The Purchase Knob Learning Center will help us succeed in accomplishing both those goals.

 

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The Smoky Mountain News