Smoky Jack

In 1925, Paul Adams was appointed custodian of Mount Le Conte, the third-highest peak of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. His job was to welcome tourists, give guided tours, and establish a camp that would become known as LeConte Lodge, which still stands in what has become America’s most popular national park. Adams had everything he needed for the job: a passion for the outdoors, a love of hiking, a desire to preserve the native habitat while welcoming visitors, and the companionship of a remarkable dog.

During his time on the mountains, Adams trained Smoky Jack to be a pack-dog–not just carrying supplies but actually making the four-hour trip to a store in Gatlinburg and back alone. Over the next nine months, Adams and his dog would become inseperable. Smoky Jack became his assistant, bodyguard, and best friend. Throughout Smoky Jack, readers will also gain a unique glimpse into the early days of the Great Smoky Mountains region during the decade before it was name a national park in 1934.

Adams describes the trials and triumphs he and the indomitable German sherpherd faced as they exemplified the ancient relationship between man and dog on Mount Le Conte, building trails, guiding visitors, and making a life in nature. Paul Adams’s faithful Smoky Jack stays by his side until the end.

Paul Adams (1901-1985) was a well-known Tennessee naturalist. Anne Bridges and Ken Wise are codirectors of the Great Smoky Mountains Regional Project. Bridges is associate professor at John C. Hodges Library at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. With Ken Wise and Russell Clement, she wrote Terra Incognita: An Annotated Bibliography of the Great Smoky Mountains, 1544-1934. Wise, professor at the John C. Hodges Library, is the author of Hiking Trails of the Great Smoky Mountains and coauthor of A National History of Mount Le Conte.