Scholar, Author and Outdoorsman. Early champion of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Leaving his family and his job as chief librarian of the St. Louis Mercantile Library, Kephart journeyed to the southern Appalachians in 1904, eventually settling near Bryson City in Swain County, North Carolina. He spent most of the remainder of his life traveling the southern mountains, researching the area and its inhabitants. In 1913 he authored "Our Southern Highlanders," which became the definitive work on the area. He also published "Book of Camping and Woodcraft: A Guidebook for Those Who Travel in the Wilderness," which was the "bible" of outdoor living in its day. During the 1920s he contributed his significant influence to promoting the formation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. His death occurred as result of an automobile accident, and he did not live to see the National Park come to fruition in 1940.
Actual burial here
Actual burial here
Scholar, Author and Outdoorsman. Early champion of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Leaving his family and his job as chief librarian of the St. Louis Mercantile Library, Kephart journeyed to the southern Appalachians in 1904, eventually settling near Bryson City in Swain County, North Carolina. He spent most of the remainder of his life traveling the southern mountains, researching the area and its inhabitants. In 1913 he authored "Our Southern Highlanders," which became the definitive work on the area. He also published "Book of Camping and Woodcraft: A Guidebook for Those Who Travel in the Wilderness," which was the "bible" of outdoor living in its day. During the 1920s he contributed his significant influence to promoting the formation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. His death occurred as result of an automobile accident, and he did not live to see the National Park come to fruition in 1940.
Actual burial here
Actual burial here
Bio by: Robert
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