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Paying it Forward
An Exclusive Interview with Cassius Cash, Superintendent of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Interview by Christine Copelan • Photography by Bryan Starmer
Memphis native
Cassius Cash, 46, never
anticipated a career in the great outdoors. Growing up in an
urban environment gave him pre-med ambitions—but that changed during a fateful interview during his junior year of college with a U.S. Forest Service representative. Now, with 23 years of government service under his belt, Cash returned to his home state as the super- intendent of the Great Smoky Moun- tains National Park. Since his appoint- ment in February, he has focused heavily on outreach and inclusion. Here, Cash discusses his childhood, his career, and his plans as the Park Service approaches its centennial—as well as some hopes for the next hundred years.
Cityview: You grew up in Memphis and you were a Boy Scout—were you Order of the Arrow?
Cassius Cash: No, but I made it to First Class in Boy Scouts, and my mom, coin- cidentally—I just went home two weeks ago—was able to find my Boy Scout belt, which still has all of my skill badges. The belt has awards for hiking, camping,
community service, all those activities that I never would have thought—as I was getting those badges—would play a major part in my career. It’s amazing how life works.
CV: What’s the biggest lesson you learned in scouting that’s influenced your life?
CC: Working as a team with other scouts, getting projects done, and discipline— because you wouldn’t get a merit badge or skill award unless you finished every- thing. That’s important—and I talk to my daughter about that almost weekly.
CV: What’s your most memorable moment from scouting?
CC: Setting up my first tent: Just knowing how to do it and where to put a tent and where not to put a tent. And then starting a fire—with flint.
I was able to build my community: Build my place to sleep and start a fire—in order to cook! That was my first experience of finding my human comforts outside of a home—and I was responsible for setting that up.
CV: Do you have a favorite wildlife story?
CC: Well, it wasn’t my favorite at the time, but I remember when I was hiking through the woods, and I came upon an elk. He was just as afraid of me as I was of him—we startled one another—and we took off in different directions.
That was maybe 15 or 20 years ago. Since then, I’ve seen elk all across the country. Elk were reintroduced to the Smokies, too.
CV: How does being superinten- dent of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park compare to your pre- vious position as superintendent for Boston National Historical Park and Boston African American National Historic Site?
CC: The Boston sites are more cultural. There is information about the founding and building of this country—the Battle at Bunker Hill, the Paul Revere House, Old South Meeting House—and also informa- tion about extraordinary people. How do you tell that story? One of my goals was to make sure that we were inclusive. For
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