Ground broken on Smokies Preservation Center
Work on a new National Park Service Collections Preservation Center is underway following a Nov. 13 groundbreaking at the site in Townsend, Tenn.
Once finished, the facility will house 418,000 artifacts and 1.3 million archival records documenting history of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and four other NPS areas in East Tennessee.
“This is not just a success story about preserving our cultural heritage, whose stories are told at these five national parks, it is also a testament about partnership and what we can accomplish by bringing together public and private interests towards a great purpose,” said Acting Superintendent Clay Jordan.
Swain County leaders and descendents of Swain County families who gave up their land for creation of the park previously protested the repository being built in Tennessee, since it will house thousands of heirlooms and cultural artifacts from families on the NC side of the park.
The $4.125-million facility will occupy 14,000 square feet on a 1.6-acre land parcel. The project is a public-private partnership, with Friends of the Smokies and the Great Smoky Mountains Association donating $1.9 million toward the project.
