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story by meghan mcDonald by its 20th anniversary last year, this trips to the mountains while he served as
Photography by bryan allen
nonprofit organization had raised more mayor of sevierville in the 1970s and ’80s.

than $44 million and enlisted more than but when trotter volunteered both their In 1990,
tennessee
4,500 active members and numerous services to Park superintendent randy

volunteers to offer support to the smok- Pope for restoring the fire tower, Wade Chief Justice
ies. the friends’ leaders, volunteers, and took on a new connection to the park—a gary Wade and architect tom trotter

donors are giving back to a place they leadership role.
hiked the smokies’ Mount Cammerer,

cherish, but they’re also giving forward, the friends officially started in 1993. on the northeastern side of great smoky
making sure that this national treasure is Wade has credited superintendant Pope Mountains national Park, to see the view

ecologically healthy, fun, and available to and Management assistant (“spokesper- from its fire tower, an octagonal, stone-
all in the future.
son”) bob Miller with the idea of forming pedestaled structure built by the Civilian

as Wade once wrote, the unofficial a nonprofit that would raise money
Conservation Corps in 1930. graffiti and

start of the friends ambles forward from for park projects such as restoring the 60 years of weather had beaten them
the 1700s, when his ancestors farmed in fire tower. together, they assembled a to it—and, as the two men learned, the

the mountains. all the way down the line board of directors, with Wade as the first park lacked funds to repair the damage.
to him, his family has had a connection chairman. each of them then rounded up the tower’s need sparked the eventual

with the land. he grew up swimming, donors by word of mouth. “the friends creation of friends of the smokies, an
fishing, and hiking with his broth-
got started one contact at a time,” says organization dedicated to “preserve,

ers around the family cabin near the Wade, who lists their early fundraising protect, and provide” for great smoky

greenbrier area, and he was still enjoying
principles: “Make friends (of the park)
Mountains national Park.

tennessee chief justice gary

wade’s family connection to

the land stretches to the 1700s

when his ancestors began

farming in the mountains.

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