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Look Rock Tower View at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. NPS Photo

There is so much rich history across the National Park System, from chapters of the Revolutionary War held in parks in the eastern half of the country to stories from the gold rush that stampeded through Alaska during the late 1890s.
 
This is Kurt Repanshek, your host at The National Parks Traveler. I’ve always been fascinated with history. And when you look at parks in the eastern half of the country, the reservoir is so much deeper than in the western half if only for the reason that more was written down.
 
Michael Aday has a similar passion for history, and has a great job to soak in it. He is, after all, the archivist or librarian at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Recently he came out with a book, Letters from the Smokies, which is built around 300 years of written down history that’s held in the park’s archives.

0:02 National Parks Traveler introduction
0:12 Episode Intro with Kurt Repanshek
0:32 Sieur De Monts - Nature’s Symphony - The Sounds of Acadia
1:09 Smokies Life
1:32 Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation
1:54 NPT Promo
2:10 Episode 278 - Letters from the Smokies
51:15 Shenandoah - Randy Petersen - The Sounds of Shenandoah
51:30 Episode Closing
51:59 Orange Tree Productions
52:30 Splitbeard Productions
52:41 National Parks Traveler footer

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National Parks Traveler Podcast Episode 312 | The Ghost Forest

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National Parks Traveler Podcast Episode 310 | Parks Under Pressure

Here we are, a week into the second administration of President Donald Trump. It’s certainly a time of change, some of which is expected, and some perhaps not. Do we really need to rename North America’s tallest mountain, Denali in Denali National Park and Preserve?

There is much going on in the federal government, and not all is good. Hiring freezes are underway. There’s much talk about reducing the federal budget, which requires cutting agency funding.

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National Parks Traveler Podcast Episode 309 | Yellowstone Wolves at 30

There are sounds that wake you up out of a deep sleep, only to be dismissed as you fall back to sleep. And then there are sounds that rivet you, make you sit bolt upright.

That was the type of sound that woke us while we were deep in the backcountry of Yellowstone National Park. Sunrise hadn’t yet come, yet we were wide awake, listening to one of the most mesmerizing sounds you can encounter in the wilds: The melodious rising and falling howl of a wolf.

January 12th, 2025 Read More

National Parks Traveler Podcast Episode 308 | Threatened and Endangered Parks

We’re five days into 2025, and already there’s a lot of news concerning national parks and the National Park Service. Traveler Editor-in-Chief Kurt Repanshek is joined today by Contributing Editor Kim O’Connell to discuss the Traveler’s 4th Annual Threatened and Endangered Park Series and other recent park-related news. 

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