Great Smoky Mountains

Unlike the parks of the American West, carved out of federal public land, Great Smoky Mountains had to be bought parcel by parcel from thousands of private owners and timber companies through the 1920s, funded in part by a $5 million gift from John D. Rockefeller Jr., before it was finally declared in 1934. Its name comes from the bluish haze that usually hangs over its ridges, produced by the volatile organic compounds its extremely dense vegetation gives off. It is now the most visited national park in the United States, with over 12 million visitors a year, and holds the greatest diversity of salamanders on the planet, with more than 30 species.