Nearly a century later, George Masa’s legacy nonetheless shapes the Smokies

CHEROKEE, N.C. (WLOS) — Nearly a century after George Masa walked the paths of western North Carolina with a digicam and a ardour for the mountains, his work helps a brand new era see the Great Smoky Mountains in a different way.

A brand new exhibit on the Oconaluftee Visitor Center in Cherokee highlights Masa’s life, pictures and position within the effort to ascertain the nationwide park. The exhibit is a part of a broader effort to inform the story of a person whose contributions prolonged far past the pictures for which he’s greatest identified.

Paul Bonesteel, writer and filmmaker of A Life Reimagined: The George Masa Story, has spent years researching Masa’s life. What started with {a photograph} revealed in a newspaper finally turned a decades-long investigation right into a Japanese immigrant who turned deeply linked to the Southern Appalachians.

“When you see a picture of George Masa, for me, there was just something fascinating about him and his experience here in the mountains of Western North Carolina,” Bonesteel mentioned. “I just wanted to know more.”

That curiosity uncovered a extra difficult and expansive story. For Bonesteel, these discoveries assist clarify why Masa appeared to discover a second dwelling within the Southern Appalachian mountains.

“We now do understand that mountains were really who he was,” Bonesteel mentioned.

More than a photographer

Masa’s images stay a number of the most recognizable historic pictures of the Smokies, however his contribution to the area went effectively past the digicam.

He was additionally a mapmaker and performed a job in documenting the largely unmapped terrain that may turn into a part of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He labored with figures together with Horace Kephart and others as efforts to ascertain the park gained momentum.

Maps had been significantly essential as a result of geographic names and routes all through the mountains weren’t at all times standardized.

Masa additionally contributed to efforts surrounding the Appalachian Trail and its route by means of the Smokies.

“The Appalachian Trail needed to get routed through the Great Smokies up to Tennessee,” Bonesteel mentioned. “And all that was unclear. And George Masa was one of the guys who was called on.”

His work helped doc a panorama that may finally turn into probably the most visited nationwide parks of the nation.

Capturing the Smokies

Masa’s pictures was each creative and sensible.

He carried his tools into distant areas, typically reaching locations that had not often, if ever, been photographed. His pictures helped present individuals exterior the area the great thing about western North Carolina.

Bonesteel mentioned Masa was additionally technically expert and have become an skilled photographer comparatively shortly.

Photographing the Smokies introduced its personal challenges. The dense forests, mountains, climate, altering gentle and atmospheric circumstances made the panorama significantly troublesome to seize. Masa, nonetheless, discovered the best way to work with these circumstances.

His images had been finally revealed in newspapers and different publications, serving to promote the area to individuals who had by no means skilled the mountains themselves.

A narrative nonetheless being uncovered

Perhaps probably the most outstanding components of Masa’s story is that researchers are nonetheless studying about him greater than 90 years after his dying.

Bonesteel and his colleagues have uncovered details about Masa’s life in Japan and his years on the West Coast that beforehand wasn’t broadly identified. They additionally found Masa’s delivery identify was Shoji Endo and clarified particulars about his id and youth.

For Bonesteel, each discovery provides one other layer to a narrative that was as soon as largely outlined by images.

“We’ve learned a whole new perspective of his life and his story,” he mentioned. “And it just keeps getting better.”

Bringing Masa’s story to right now’s guests

That connection between previous and current is strictly what Smokies Life hopes guests expertise after they stroll into the Cherokee customer middle.

Jacqueline Harp, chief government officer of Smokies Life, mentioned the nonprofit works with the National Park Service to help customer facilities, academic applications and retail operations all through the park and its gateway communities.

Smokies Life operates eight places in and across the park and serves because the official publishing companion of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The group’s publications cowl all the pieces from mountain climbing, crops and wildlife to the cultural and historic tales of the Smokies.

Harp mentioned the purpose is to offer guests alternatives to be taught, ask questions and join with the park in several methods.

“We want to make sure they have an opportunity to get questions answered,” Harp mentioned.

The customer middle in Cherokee affords that have by means of its info companies, academic displays, publications and different supplies.

The Masa exhibit is likely one of the middle’s newer additions. Harp mentioned the exhibit got here collectively as researchers continued uncovering new details about Masa’s life.

“As the biography was written about George Masa, I think the authors, Paul Bonesteel and Janet McCue, just continued to peel back these fascinating layers about this individual and learn more and more about his life,” Harp mentioned.

The result’s an exhibit designed to offer guests a number of methods to interact with the story.

Visitors can view Masa’s pictures, find out about his life and his connection to Asheville, and discover his position in conservation and the institution of the nationwide park.

Those who wish to go deeper can buy the 2024 biography or watch the documentary A Life Reimagined: The George Masa Story.

“No matter form of how you want to absorb info, whether or not you wish to learn a bit bit in an exhibit, you wish to go deeper with a biography otherwise you wish to watch it on movie, there’s one thing right here so that you can be taught extra about George Masa’s life,” Harp said.

A gateway to the Smokies

The Oconaluftee Visitor Center also serves as an important entry point for visitors approaching Great Smoky Mountains National Park from the North Carolina side.

Beyond the Masa exhibit, visitors can learn about early settlers and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, explore the nearby Mountain Farm Museum and speak with National Park Service rangers and Smokies Life staff.

Harp said that combination allows visitors to understand that the park’s history stretches far beyond its designation as a national park.

“We’re really proud to be part of this village,” Harp said, referring to the many people and organizations that contribute to the park’s operation and preservation.

That idea also echoes Masa’s story. His work was part of a much larger community effort to preserve the mountains for future generations.

A legacy that survived difficult times

Masa’s path was not always easy.

As a Japanese immigrant living in Asheville, he faced discrimination and was accused of wrongdoing in circumstances that Bonesteel said were connected to people who wanted him out of town because he was different.

Masa persevered.

“He was resilient, extremely resilient,” Bonesteel said.

He continued working and remained connected to the mountains and the people who appreciated his contributions.

Masa died at age 48, before the creation of Great Smoky Mountains National Park was fully completed.

His friends, however, continued to honor his role in the conservation movement. Masa Knob, a mountain along the Appalachian Trail, was named for him decades after his death.

His grave at Riverside Cemetery in Asheville also tells part of the complicated story. The original marker contains an incorrect birth date, while a larger marker was later placed by the Carolina Mountain Club.

For Bonesteel, those details are reminders that history is not always complete or straightforward.

“More stroll, much less discuss”

Visitors can even take home a piece of Masa’s philosophy.

Smokies Life has developed a line of merchandise inspired by the biography and Masa’s approach to the outdoors. Hats, shirts and mugs feature one of the phrases associated with his enthusiasm for hiking.

“More stroll, much less discuss”

The phrase captures one thing Bonesteel believes stays related right now.

Masa understood the significance of getting exterior, exploring the mountains and experiencing nature firsthand.

“He knew he needed to get out into the high country at times and get away from the city and the work,” Bonesteel mentioned.

More than 90 years later, that message nonetheless resonates.

Preserving the story for the longer term

For Harp, Masa’s story represents one thing bigger than one photographer.

The institution and continued operation of a nationwide park requires a neighborhood of individuals, she mentioned, from the National Park Service and nonprofit companions to guests who help conservation and schooling.

“I think if George Masa were here today, he would also express pride in the role that he played in the village that got this park established,” Harp mentioned.

She hopes guests depart with a larger appreciation for the historical past behind the panorama — and an understanding that the Smokies’ preservation can’t be taken without any consideration.

Bonesteel hopes the identical guests will go one step additional: get exterior and expertise the locations Masa liked.

“Come to the mountains and see what he loved,” Bonesteel mentioned. “Get on the trails.”

For guests coming into the Smokies by means of Cherokee, the brand new exhibit affords a chance to do precisely that — to pause earlier than heading into the mountains, find out about one of many individuals who helped protect them after which stroll into the panorama he spent his life documenting.

Nearly a century later, George Masa’s images stay. But his story, researchers say, continues to be coming into focus.