Displaying items by tag: smokies funding partnership

The crest of the Great Smoky Mountains is seen from the Foothills Parkway looking east. Thomas Fraser/Hellbender Press

Local and state partners will fund $61,703.18 each day; no indication of what happens next during height of tourist season

Jim Matheny is Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park communications director.

GATLINBURG — The nonprofit Friends of the Smokies will help pay to fully reopen Great Smoky Mountains National Park for one week during the ongoing federal government shutdown. The park will be fully open and operational from Saturday, Oct. 4, through Friday, Oct. 10, 2025. 

Closures have been in effect since the start of the shutdown Oct. 1 for Cades Cove Loop Road, visitor centers at Sugarlands and Cades Cove, and picnic areas at Chimneys and Cades Cove. All will reopen Saturday.

Friends of the Smokies joins the State of Tennessee, Sevier County, Blount County, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and the cities of Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville to fund the resumption of full operations by park staff.