This book, "The Great Smoky Mountains - Recapturing the Past", tells the story of the people who settled and lived in the mountains along the Tennessee and North Carolina border. It describes the introduction of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and its historical sites. Also included is the history of the region from the early Cherokee days to settlement by hardy pioneer families and their will to survive in the beautiful but rugged mountains. Renewed interest in the 1970s of the folklife of these mountain people inspired songs and books describing a way of simple life that still becomes an enchantment to all who read the history of the Great Smoky Mountains.