Online Exhibit: Dick's Creek: Diary & Album

When Horace Kephart photographed a view towards his "Pantry Tent" he carefully arranged his possessions for the camera as well as his distinct well ordered lifestyle. In the corner of this photograph sits his simple desk with an open book displayed. The quality of the photograph has deteriorated over time preventing identification of the book. This may be an early version of his personal photograph album. Or it may be one of the books Kephart used to recognize the wilderness potential of the Smokies. He did add many of these clippings to his album. Photographs of Camp Toco are on page one of this personal album and available for viewing through this current project.

Kephart maintained a diary following his arrival in the Smokies. While these diaries were not included with Kephart's materials donated to Western Carolina University, Kephart did create an index to the pages which remains available as part of Journal 1. The topics in volume one and the first portion of volume 2 match many photographs and research journal notes from his stay at Dicks Creek. In Kephart's lifetime of reorganizing his research material, some information from the diary seems to have found its way onto many the research journals pages such as the weather observations found on page 39 of Journal 1.