181 East Wears Valley Road
Pigeon Forge TN 37863
Phone: 800.204.5169, Matt Naas
Email: reservations@patriotgetaways.com 

 

By now most of you have heard about the changes we recently implemented on our website. Other than a few password questions (OK, more than few), we're getting positive feedback from our visitors. Thank you! We appreciate your kind thoughts and words of encouragement. Mostly, thank you for your patience as we work to enhance your digital access to the Smokies.

Now, about your login, password and exclusive access... 

 

- Login: The email address you gave us when you became a member

- Temporary Password: "smokies" (Be sure to change it soon)

While anyone can access our site at any time for the latest information about the Smokies, members should always login when visiting. That way you're sure to receive the discounts you're entitled to when shopping, find our Fall Foliage Report and Wildflower Reports and gain access to all the great Members-Only items we sell to support this national park.

As always, if you have any access questions or want to know more about how to become a member, you can email us HERE.

Here's a brief description of where to find your favorite features using the top row navigate area on our new website:

Official Park Store - where you'll find all our national park service-certified merchandise. All purchases support this national park.

Become a Member - where you'll learn all about our membership program, including levels of membership, benefits, monthly programs and our annual Members Weekend.

Smokies Insider - where members will find our Fall Foliage Reports, our Wildflower Reports, the Bear Paw newsletter and shopping discounts. No link is provided here because it only appears once you've successfully logged in as an active member.

About GSMA - where you can meet our board of directors, connect with our staff, learn how we fund programs and services in this national park, read archived Cub Reports and annual reports, find out about job opportunities at GSMA and browse through a list of our organization's awards and honors through the years.

Experience the Smokies - where you'll find maps and directions, a something-for-everyone list of park activities including camping and hiking, a list of park visitor centers and copies of "Smokies Guide," the national park's official newspaper. 

What's New - where you'll find the latest news from GSMA, including new publications and products, as well as a calendar of park activities.

Business Sponsors - where you'll find more than 150 North Carolina and Tennessee businesses that not only financially support this park through their GSMA membership, but many of whom support our visitor members with discounts on things like lodging, meals and local crafts.

If you're still stumped by where your favorite features have landed on our new site, please let us know HERE.

Doing what he does so well, N.C. Team Manager Barry Hipps helps a park visitor plan a day hike in the Smokies.

GSMA members, park visitors and all other brand of well-wishers are invited to say a fond farewell to long-time North Carolina team manager Barry Hipps at this year's Clingmans Dome closing party.

As in years past, the Dome closing event is scheduled for the last weekend in November, 28-30. Significant to this year's event is that it will mark one of Barry's last weekends as a GSMA team member.

"We've all greatly enjoyed working with Barry, first as a GSMA board member, then as the Carolina Team manager. We hate to see him go but wish him well in retirement," said GSMA Executive Director Terry Maddox.

In addition to celebrating Barry's upcoming retirement, visitors are invited to enjoy refreshments, special Clingmans Dome sales items and hike to the top of the mountain one last time in 2014.

For those of you who cannot make it to the Dome the weekend after Thanksgiving but want to wish Barry well, please send him an email HERE.

"From the high divide that marks the state line between North Carolina and Tennessee I heard the snort of a locomotive, one of those cog-wheel affairs that are specially built for mountain climbing. With a steam-loader and three camps of a hundred men each, it was despoiling the Tennessee forest. Slowly, but inexorably, a leviathan was crawling into the wilderness and was soon to consume it."

 

With these words and many more like them, Horace Kephart took his place in history as a supporter and swayer of opinions on the subject of creating a national park here in the Smokies.

 

A third edition of "Our Southern Highlanders" has just been released by GSMA. It includes eight stories not included in earlier editions, a comprehensive index and an introduction by Bryson City author and naturalist George Ellison. Learn more HERE.

 

"Our Southern Highlanders" in its expanded 3rd edition is available online HERE, as well as at all GSMNP visitor center stores. All purchases support this national park.

"Mountains for the Masses: A History of Management Issues in Great Smoky Mountains National Park" has been written with a specific audience in mind - those who possess a deep desire to know all there is to know about this national park's history.  

 

Be the dessert hero at this year's Thanksgiving  gathering when you put this tasty treat in the center of your family's holiday table.

Sweet Potato Pie with

GSMNP Ranger Julianne Geleynse enjoys a piece of sweet potato pie Heaven!

Honey Walnut Topping

 

Ingredients:

For pie

• 4 C cooked and mashed sweet potatoes
• 4 TBSP softened butter or margarine
• 4 eggs
• 2 C sugar
• 2 TBSP Foods of the Smokies whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 C buttermilk
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 unbaked 9-inch pie shells

For topping

• 1/2 C light brown sugar
• 2 TBSP canola oil
• 4 TBSP Foods of the Smokies sourwood honey
• 1 1/4 C coarsely chopped walnuts

Combine sweet potatoes, butter, and eggs, then mix well. Combine sugar, flour, and salt and stir into potato mixture. Combine buttermilk and baking soda, then add to potato mixture and mix well. Stir in vanilla extract. Pour filling into pie shells and bake and 350° for one hour and 10 minutes or until set.

 

When pie has about 15 more minutes of baking, in a medium non-stick pot, combine sugar, canola oil, and honey. Cook over low heat until sugar dissolves, stirring constantly. Add walnuts and stir until well coated. Remove pie from oven and spread honey walnut topping evenly over top. Return to oven and broil until topping is bubbly and golden brown, but watch closely!

Valerie Polk and her daughter, Emily, outside the Walker Sisters' cabin in Little Greenbrier.

Q: Where do you hail from, Valerie?

A: The "Peaceful Side of the Smokies," Townsend, TN. After college, I lived in Nashville, Clarksville, and Knoxville before I settled back down in Townsend. There's no place I'd rather be!

 

Q: How did you learn the craft of videography and documentary film making?

A: I graduated from the graphic design program at UT Knoxville. Videography wasn't even on my radar, but I enjoyed my photography class. I worked several years as a graphic designer for a large corporation, and still photography became a fun hobby for me. Then I got involved with Great Smoky Mountains National Park as a volunteer and ended up assisting with some video work. I went from volunteer to teaching myself video editing and videography techniques, and then a job with Great Smoky Mountains Association. I believe I'm still using skills I learned as a graphic designer, working in a visual medium to communicate a message or story to the viewer. (All of Valerie's GSMA video projects can be viewed on our YouTube Channel HERE.) 

 

Q: Are you related to anyone who lived in the Smokies before the park was established?

A: Oh, yes. A lot of people know about my great-great-aunts, the Walker Sisters, who were granted a lifetime lease after the park was established. The cabin where they lived still stands in Little Greenbrier. My great-grandmother Caroline was their sister and the only one of the girls to marry. There was an article about them in the Saturday Evening Post in 1946. It brought them a lot of attention because these sisters were in their 50s, 60s, and 70s, had never married, and were still farming and living using old tools and techniques in a place that seemed quite isolated well into the twentieth century. Rose Houk has written a lovely book about the Walker Sisters that was published by GSMA called Walker Sisters of Little Greenbrier. I think everyone in my family has a copy!

 

Q: How does that make you feel about the national park today?

A: That's a tough question. I have great respect for the Walker Sisters and their resistance to moving out of their home. I feel very sad for what residents lost when the park was established. Their way of life was completely changed, even if they were able to stay in their homes. Their communities were gone. At the same time, I respect the work of the National Park Service. Preserving these natural and cultural treasures is important for our nation. Over the past several years, I believe the park leadership has sent a clear message of appreciation towards our ancestors who sacrificed so much.

 

Q: What is your favorite thing for you and your family to do in the park?

A: Hiking, definitely, although the last hike I took I ended up carrying my 3-year-old the whole time. We'll have to work through that. 

 

Q: What are the most important things GSMA does for the Smokies?

A: Our publications are top-notch! GSMA works closely with the park, and the result is an array of GSMA-produced materials that provide great information specific to this park that is both relevant and reliable. And what's even better is that the proceeds of our sales support the park. Also the construction of Oconaluftee Visitor Center was an amazing achievement that I am happy to have seen completed and so proud of GSMA for the major role we played in that project.