Cherokee to break ground on new Oconaluftee Visitor Center next month

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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From a KnoxNews.com story here:

About 2 million visitors a year enter the park through the town of Cherokee. The National Park Service’s Oconaluftee Visitor Center is adjacent to the southern terminus of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The visitor center hosts nearly 350,000 people a year, though in the mid-1990s visitor totals reached a half-million.

“In the summertime when you get anywhere between 1,500-2,500 people a day going through the building, there are times you can barely move. And that’s one of the reasons why our big project right now is trying to get a new facility. It is going to enable us to tell more of the historic stories, more of the cultural stories,” says Doucette.

The Great Smoky Mountains Association has pledged $2.5 million for the construction of the facility. The Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park has promised $500,000 for interior exhibits. A ground-breaking ceremony for the new building is June 15, the 75th anniversary date. (www.GreatSmokies75th.org,www.nps.gov/grsm)