Each year, more than nine million hikers and adventurers visit the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, making it the most visited national park in the states -United. There are many reasons for this, but many popular reasons include more than 150 hiking trails spanning 850 miles, much of the Appalachian Trail, sightseeing, fishing, horseback riding, and biking. The park is home to approximately ten thousand species of plants and animals, with approximately 90,000 undocumented species likely to be present. It is clear why there was a pressing interest in making all of this land a national park. My research began by asking the question: How has the transformation in tourism due to the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park affected surrounding cities such as Gatlinburg and Sevier County, and in turn, its effect on the popularity of the park? Gatlinburg, Tennessee is located in Sevier County, located on the northern edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The town received the appropriate nickname "Gateway to the Smokey Mountains" due to the fact that it is at one of two main entrances to the park served by a main road through the park. Today, Gatlinburg is considered a quaint, romantic getaway that's also full of tourism and even an amusement park; however, this was not always the case. Gatlinburg didn't start from scratch with what we see today. From 1870 to 1900, the population of Sevier County increased from approximately 9,000 to 20,000 due to the Industrial Revolution and reached a plateau in 1910, lasting for about fifty years (graph of population growth of East Tennessee Counties, 1820-1980). In 1960, Sevier County's population began to skyrocket. In just two...... middle of paper ......vilian Conservation Corps. Internet. March 24, 2010.. “East Tennessee Counties Population Growth Chart, 1820-1980,” Marian Moffett and Lawrence Wodehouse Collection of Cantilever Barn Research, MS-2059. University of Tennessee Libraries, Knoxville, Special Collections. March 17, 2010. Great Smoky Mountains National Park Project, North Carolina-Tennessee. Map. Sl, 1926. Mapping of national parks. Lib. of Congress. March 15, 2010. “The Early History of Gatlinburg: A Lecture by Rellie Dodgen to the Gatlinburg Rotary Club,” May 22, 1959, February 3, 1971 [Article 2], Carson Brewer Papers, MS-2048. University of Tennessee Libraries, Knoxville, Special Collections. March 17, 2010. “Annual expansions.” Dollywood. Internet. March 27 2010..