File:Newfound Gap, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Swain County, NC - 52392990867.jpg

English: Great Smoky Mountains National Park straddles the border of Tennessee and North Carolina in the United States, and was established in 1934, and formally dedicated by president Franklin Delano Roosevelt at Newfound Gap in 1940. The park was designated as an International Biosphere Reserve in 1976, a UNESCO World Heritage site, designated in 1983, and as part of the Southern Appalachian Biosphere Reserve in 1988. It also contains multiple historic resources, including historic structures and archaeological sites, many of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The park also contains many natural wonders, including three of the tallest mountains in the eastern mainland of North America's Appalachian Mountains - Clingman's Dome (Kuwahi) at 6,643 feet (2,025 meters), Mount Guyot at 6,621 feet (2,018 meters) and Mount Le Conte at 6,593 feet (2,010 meters). The park is one of the largest uninterrupted forest ecosystems in the Eastern United States, a temperate old growth forest that spans two climatic zones - subtropical humid and temperate oceanic. The forest is home to many endemic organisms, including many species of trees, animals, and a very high level of biodiversity due to the climatic variations, largely created by the park's topography. The park receives over 14 million guests annually, being the most-visited National Park in the United States, and attracts tourists to the surrounding region. It is crossed by the Appalachian Trail and US Highway 441, and sits adjacent to several National Forests, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and Lake Fontana. The land that now comprises the National Park was historically occupied by the Cherokee tribe prior to white settlement in the late 18th Century and early 19th Century, and some areas of the park provided refuge to the Cherokee people during the Indian Removal Act under Andrew Jackson in the 1830s. The Qualla Boundary, home to the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians, whom are mostly descendants of those who sought refuge in what is now the park, sits immediately south of the boundary of the park along the lower Oconaluftee River.