Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, TN - Philatelic Photographs on Waymarking.com

Mount Le Conte is not the highest peak in the Smoky Mountains, but it is the highest mountain in the park as measured from its base to its highest point (over 5300 ft.). It was named for late nineteenth-century geologist Joseph Le Conte, or maybe it was named for his older brother, physicist John Le Conte - no one knows for sure anymore.

The stamp was issued in 1934 as part of a set of ten stamps commemorating America’s national parks. The Great Smoky Mountains had only just become a national park earlier that same year. The stamp’s design reproduced a photograph (c. 1920s) of Mt. Le Conte from an area that is now part of Gatlinburg TN. The picture was taken by the Thompson Brothers who operated a photography firm out of Knoxville. They spent a lot of time hiking and photographing the natural beauty of this area and many of these photographs were instrumental in helping to set aside the land that was to become the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

In the 1920s, Gatlinburg was little more than a handful of log cabins. There were no hotels, moonshine distilleries, scenic chair lifts or Ripley’s Believe it or Not! like there are today. The view from the Gatlinburg Skylift is almost identical to that portrayed on the stamp though most of the tall pine trees have been lost to development. Similar views can also be seen from an overlook on the Gatlinburg bypass road as well as from the developments along Cliff Branch Rd.

Today, the Great Smoky Mountains is the most visited national park in America, attracting over 11 million visitors per year.

Stamp Issuing Country: United States Date of Issue: 8-Oct-1934 Denomination: 10c Color: gray black Stamp Type: Single Stamp Relevant Web Site: Not listed

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