Everybody that don’t want the road, to tell the truth, nobody don’t show up because they don’t think it’s going to be built anyway. And they don’t show up at these places and make everybody mad. But just about everybody don’t want the road and we ain’t got nowhere left to get back away from everybody, and I’m going to say me, I’ll stick to this to the bitter end. I don’t want no road to be built. I hope you don’t build it.

I strongly support any alternative other than extending the road. I think it would be a grave mistake. We need to protect the land and area and more roads just create more distraction in many ways. Please add my support against extending the road.

Children deserve an area left intact and they do not deserve to have to be burdened with the cost of a real road to nowhere, the proposed North Shore Road.
To fulfill a promise made in the midst of World War II by a nation hungry for electric power to fuel the war effort seems irresponsible. The people of Swain County need to be commended for their sacrifice during that war. This road will do nothing to honor that sacrifice and will in fact desecrate the hallowed ground upon which their ancestors farmed and made their living.

If the decision is made to build the road it will be challenged to the full extent of litigation. It is unlikely that any road will ever be built.

Our mountains are already polluted to the degree that people's health is being affected. If what I hear is true, that the people of Swain County do not want this road, then please don't build it!

There is increasing pressure with the current administration to open up new tracts of land for oil exploration (e.g., Arctic National Wildlife Refuge), and some of these moves may be necessary to alleviate our dependence on foreign oil. However our national parks are another matter. Do we need to damage what little we have left in the form of such a massive construction project? The answer is a clear "no."

Since the park service will take cemetery visitors on a regular basis over to the isolated cemeteries to see their ancestors - then one has to ask what is the reason behind some locals still wanting to build a 600 million dollar road.

I believe that the construction of the road will change forever the atmosphere of the park. It will significantly impact the campsites and trails. It will no longer be "peaceful." It will be noisier and dirt trash. I believe it will be a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars to build the road.
I don’t believe the road should be built because there is wildlife there and plants and different things that are there that isn’t anywhere else in the world, and they are very limited and there’s not very many of those around here, and they should be protected.

I believe it would be a travesty to go ahead with this project. The development of such a road through a national park would only reinforce the fear that we are on a sinking ship, seeing and knowing places that the generations to come will only hear stories about. How tragic and how preventable. We have become our own worst enemy. I am sincerely hoping that the force of reason and right action, not politics or economics, will dictate this decision.

Swain County is a gorgeous but impoverished (financially) part of North Carolina. The money would be better spent with programs designed to improve the quality of education and life for the people in those communities that would be impacted by the wasteful North Shore Road project. There are so few areas left in this country with the old growth forests and wildlife that Swain County is blessed with; we do not need this concrete monstrosity when there are other roads that already serve the purpose of this one. I know you probably don't care, but I do and I suspect the citizens of Swain County, dead and living, would prefer that the serenity and natural beauty of their landscape not be further polluted.

Many months ago I saw that public opinion was quite strongly opposed to building this road. Why is it still being discussed?

Let this park be an example of saying no to the increased requests of more development and roads in our national parks.

We strongly oppose this project and hope that common sense will preserve this jewel of nature. Let's leave something for our grandchildren other than asphalt.
Please, implement a less evasive method of getting the people to their ancestral grounds. Please don't destroy the east coast’s largest and most pristine park quite simply for the love of money.

Bottom line is, think hard about wanting this road because what you get may not be what you expect, and it may not fulfill the dream that you want.

As an individual with asthma, I would applaud an effort by the government to reduce the amount of vehicle traffic in the GSMNP by not building the road.

I have yet to hear any argument for its construction (road) which do not center on either emotion “our heritage” or some “economic” benefit for Swain County.

At this point in the development of the United States, where such a road is not vital to our economic success or the welfare of our people, I cannot see any justification for further degrading the best remnant we have the incredible forest that once covered the southern Appalachians.

I know that locals feel that they are owed the road but that was before this area (east coast) became and will become more crowded. I know that the park is for all citizens but my idea of a national park is not Gatlinburg, Cades Cove, and so on. I think that if you want to see it, then hike it. I for one am sick of hearing Harley Davidsons, like on the parkway and 441.

Before we know it, all of God's creation will be covered in black top.

I’m familiar with the environmental impact of the North Shore Road, so I'm adamantly opposed to it anyway; however, if nothing more than to have ridges without roads.

This road proposal can and will have a terrible and dramatic effect on the cold water fisheries in GSMNP which are an important recreational resource for me and my family.

To complete the North Shore Road Project to meet a 1943 Agreement borders on the nutty--not to speak of being irresponsible. I am not sure the Park Service owes the county and the state anything, but it would be far better to pay them off than ruin yet another wilderness area.

Why anyone would want to destroy this beautiful wilderness area is beyond me. More than likely the motive for doing this is money.

All the people who were buried off Lakeshore Rd have been buried so long there are no relatives left to visit them. The people who take the boats across the lake are trying to drum up people to use them to prevent their stopping them. The road is obviously not needed at this late date.

The GSMNP is already under threat from air pollution, climate change, invasive species, etc. The Appalachian forest region in general is one of the richest areas of the country biologically, and much of it is threatened by logging, mining and other development.

Please quit messing with my tax dollars and let’s stop this ridiculous road on Lake Fontana's North Shore.

The road project should be stopped. Already, too much national forest land is being sold and lumbered. Not enough pristine cold-water fisheries are left. This road would harm by construction, erosion, and unsustainable visitor overflow, and headway for logging interests.

Obviously, the government has good reasons not to follow through with the construction of this proposed road. There are numerous wetlands and forest residing animals and an ecosystem in general that would be demolished. We as a human race have lost sight of what true richness entails. This richness is the inheritance of one of the most ecologically diverse places in the world. We are losing this rapidly enough. This community would benefit more in the long run from their natural inheritance rather than another Pigeon Forge being built. Along the old town of Proctor, the grave sights of these loved ones would be protected more in the quietness of nature, where they belong.

Put the welfare of our planet at the top of project lists.
The North Shore Road was a bad idea then - an even worse idea today. The park is already feeling the steady encroachment of development.

The road seems to have no value other than as a "make work" project for the already bloated road building industry.
It is irresponsible and wasteful to be constructing this road because of commitments made in 1943, partially fulfilled by 1970 and abandoned since then. 62 years have passed and nobody misses the road. Go to the courts and find an alternative method to resolve your obligations.

I think there’s ways to get the people to the cemetery and accommodate their needs, without doing this incredibly destructive multi-multi-million dollar road. And I’d like to consider some other alternatives to try to get the people access that they need.

Given their stated mission, I think that NPS needs to contemplate the environmental ethics of engaging in any activity within a national park that would result in the loss of so many native vertebrates. In my opinion, the loss of hundreds of thousands of vertebrates cannot be justified given the perceived benefits of the principal park road alternative.

While I am sympathetic to the Swain County developers who would like to turn Swain County into another Gatlinburg for their personal profit, I think the North Shore roadless area is a rare gem owned by all Americans and the proposed road would destroy it's scenic, wild value for the profit of a few.

I realize promises were made to Swain County residents several decades ago. The actual people to whom the promises were made are now dead however. No such promises were made to current road advocates. I think they need to be told "no, we are keeping this land and watershed unspoiled." There are huge opportunities for a very profitable eco-tourism industry (as long as the land and watershed remains unspoiled).

I am a Republican and when one of my left wing friends brought this to my attention I figured he had to be joking. He wasn't. This is the kind of stupid project that I as a small business owner hate to pay for.

Go to the hundreds of thousands of acres destroyed by mining and abandoned factories and pile more toxic filth there, and let everything alive stay that way!

We need to stop promoting the automotive industries. I can taste organic solvents already with every breath I breathe. Stop promoting pollution.

The North Shore Road Project is about money. If there is a Federal liability to Swain County, it should be settled in another manner, and the North Shore Road Project should be eliminated from all future planning.

Road through petroglyphs monument, another road through the Smokies, drilling in ANWR, oil spill on caribou migration routes in Prudhoe. Where will it stop? What will we leave our children. The GSMNP is overused as it is. Why don't we just sell it and cut down the trees. Congress actually showed some backbone against Bush. Some of you surely are environmentalists. Stand up for wilderness.

Please don't do this! The present administration has tried its mightiest to savage the last of our dwindling natural lands. This is an area that harbors life, wildlife, in a relatively insulated area. The parks are not for industrial access. A big part of your job is to protect the wild world from that sort of craven indifference and acquisitiveness. Please don't cut the heart out of the Cumberland Plateau!
The GSMNP is one of the centerpieces of our national park system; indeed, there is simply nothing like it east of the Rockies. The area boasts a stunning variety of flora and fauna, many of which, outside Canada, are found only along the spine of the Appalachians in the eastern US, and some of which are unique to the Smokies. This fragile and increasingly isolated ecosystem is already under serious assault from nearby development, and is particularly threatened by acid rain. On recent hikes up the Alum Cave Bluffs trail to Mt. LeConte, I have been shocked and saddened by the change in the boreal forest at the summit, as I recall vividly the firs that grew there in profusion in my youth.

We urge you to weigh the necessity of constructing a new road through the park against the potential harm to the ecosystem, and we count on you to make a decision which we can be proud of and which reflects the value that America places on its priceless and irreplaceable natural treasures.

Please read Edward Abbey's book "Desert Solitaire" before you consider building another road through a national park. What this country, and the world, needs much more than another road is to stop polluting the air, get out of the automobile, and learn to see and respect the natural world without having to drive through it.

This road would introduce pollution and litter very directly into one of the last unspoiled places in Appalachia. In order to safeguard this Park for our children and grandchildren, I urge that you oppose the North Shore Road EIS Project and any similar theft of public lands.

Much time has passed and people today recognize that the benefit of a priceless area like the GSMNP comes from its unique natural qualities and its integrity as a whole. These qualities have already been well-exploited through the tourism industries surrounding the park. Vehicular access to places like Newfound Gap and Clingmans Dome is in fact already in place and well-used. So the cost-benefit judgment must weigh the increment of additional access against the reduced integrity of the park environment and the impacts associated with road construction and operation. I think this balance at the margin tips heavily to the impact side. The improvement of a new roadway would actually work against the objectives for which it was conceived.

The recently completed environmental study by the NPS, DEIS, clearly outlines the negative environmental impact of the “road to nowhere” on this pristine wilderness. I urge the state and federal agencies involved in this matter to place our children’s and grandchildren’s wilderness heritage ahead of special interests. This road proposal would have a terrible and dramatic effect on the wilderness area and cold water fisheries in GSMNP.