The Smoky Mountain National Park, unlike our western parks, was once in private ownership. The very large tracts were owned by lumber companies but there were approximately 1,200 individual owners as well. The land was gradually expropriated by the states of Tennessee and North Carolina and deeded to the Federal Government for park purposes. Walking the woods even today one frequently comes across signs of old homesteads that dotted the land: piles of rock indicating where a chimney and the base of a log cabin once stood, a rock fence that once bordered a field of corn and bits of metal covered in rust. Every spring daffodils bloom in the fields or in the forest followed by yucca. Boxwoods and primitive roses are here as well. These ornamentals are not native. They date back to the time when people lived here, worked their land and tried to add a bit more beauty to this garden wilderness. This yucca is here today because its ancestor was planted by these folks. The individual plants die out after a few years but the root system can live for over a hundred years.