Photo & Story – Joseph Boyle
Bucket LIst – Ride The Blue Ridge Parkway. I did it. The Parkway runs for about 469 miles up on the crests of the southern Appalachians linking two national parks — Shenandoa National Park and Great Smoky Mountains National Park located in North Carolina and Virginia. The views are beautiful. The drive is spectacular. You can enjoy this trip in a car too.
Check it out at www.blueridgeparkway.org. Check out video.
Though millions of people have visited the area, I, Joe Boyle, am the first known wordsmith to notice that Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s name is misspelled. It is missing the letter “e” in Smokey making it Smoky. While it is commonly pronounced “Smokey”, like Smokey the Bear, based on how it is spelled, it should be pronounced Smoky like “smockee”. Smockee is the same short letter “o” sound as the word smock like an expectant mother might wear.
Having a keen sense of observation along with a curious mind, I got to wondering where the missing letter “e” might be. Looking around, I found the missing letter “e” in the small town of Asheville, North Carolina. The locals mispronounce the name of their own town as Ashville, but spell the name Asheville, with a superfluous letter “e” they stole from the Smoky Mountains. Based on the misspelling they should pronounce the name “Asheeville” with a long “e” sound.
If you get out that way, the Blue Ridge Parkway and the national parks are worth experiencing. Be certain to stand up for your language arts rights and give it the correct pronunciation, Smockee Mountains and Asheeville.
I might try talking Asheville into giving their stolen “e” back to Smoky Mountains National Park.
Happy travels.
Thank you, Joe, for your interesting but erroneous wordsmithing. I grew up in Asheville and have many happy memories of many trips in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. My online dictionary defines the adjective “smoky” or “smokey” (they are the same) as “emitting, containing, or resembling smoke”. And if you do a little research, you find that the area around Asheville was incorporated in 1792 as Buncombe County. The county seat was named Morristown in 1793. In 1797, Morristown was incorporated and renamed Asheville in honor of North Carolina Governor Samuel Ashe. You really should do a little research before you disparage and accuse people of not knowing how to spell.
Mr. Michael Doctor,
Thank you for your thoughtful response. I truly appreciate your having shared the information you provided.
While I lack intellectual depth, I was focussed on making an effort to bring a smile to those who might read my article regarding the Smoky Mountains, Asheville and the slippery letter “e”.
Had I written my article around your well researched information, I would have significantly altered the direction of my article and lost my chance to make people laugh. No insult intended to those of the Smoky Mountains or Asheville.
Joseph Boyle