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L.L.com. Be an outsider. I'm Jason Epperson and it's time for the latest in National Park news.

Rising along the Tennessee North Carolina border in the southeastern United States.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established in 1934.

And with over 14 million visits in 2021,

it's the most visited of the 63 national parks in the United States by far.

For comparison's sake, Zion came in second last year with only 5 million visitors.

The name Smoky comes from the natural fog that often hangs over the range

and presents as large smoke plumes from a distance.

This fog isn't weather. It's caused by the vegetation emitting volatile organic

compounds, chemicals that form vapors at normal temperature and pressure.

The creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park proved much more complex than its predecessors such as Yellowstone and Yosemite, which were on land that was already federally owned.

Along with convincing logging firms to sell lucrative lumber rights, the Park Commission in the Smokies had to negotiate the purchase of thousands of small farms and remove entire communities.

The Commission also had to deal with the Tennessee and North Carolina legislatures,

which at times were opposed to spending taxpayer money on park efforts.

In spite of these difficulties, the Park Commission had completed most major

land purchases by 1932, and the National Park officially opened in

1934 with President Franklin D Roosevelt presiding over the opening ceremony at New Found Gap.

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