Proposals for a park and forest reserves in the Southern Appalachian Mountains can be dated to the 1880s and early 1890s. Stimulus for this movement came from both the tourist industry and from the conservation movement-with the latter especially concerned about flooding in deforested areas and decreasing lumber supplies in many areas.

Increasingly, lumbering around tourist and recreational areas drew concerned comment. In 1892, Charles S. Sargent published a plan for a Southern Appalachian forest reserve in the influential journal, Garden and Forest. During that time, Joseph A. Holmes, State Geologist of North Carolina, recommended the establishment of a reserve in the North Carolina mountains. Also significantly, the North Carolina General Assembly and the North Carolina Press Association began to emerge as supporters of an a national park in the state. In 1894 the press association petitioned Congress for the establishment of such a park.

Crucial impetus to this movement came in 1899, when former Secretary of State William R. Day of Ohio was on a fishing trip in western North Carolina with his friend, Asheville physician, Dr. Chase P. Ambler. Apparently, at both Day's and Ambler's urging, a parks and foestry committee was organized by the Asheville Board of Trade. Day especially envisioned the formation of an organization that might bring the effort to the attention of Congress. Then,in November of 1899 a meeting was held at the old Battery Park Hotel in Asheville. The meeting drew a large attendance from seven southeastern states. Sentiment in favor of a national project was unanimous, and the organization formed from this meeting was named the Appalachian National Park Association. George S. Powell was the association's first president. Dr. Chase P. Ambler, to whom credit is given for subsequent accomplishments of the group, was named secretary. In 1900 there followed a joint survey by the [U.S.] Bureau of Forestry and the Geological Survey of about 9,600,000 acres of forest land to determine its suitability as a national forest reserve. The survey report received favorable response in southern newspapers. During the same period, the impetus grew to establish a national park in the region, particularly in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

In 1903 the Appalachian National Park Association was renamed the Appalachian National Forest Reserve Association. Within two years the association had disbanded. However, in 1905 the notion of a national park and the effort to establish forest reserves in the East and in the Appalachian region was taken up by the American Forestry Association (AFA).

During the early years of the twentieth century, there was continued resistance in congressional circles to the shared goals of the Appalachian National Park Association and the AFA. However, continued pressure on Congress led to the passage of the Weeks Act of 1911. Under terms of this law, the U.S. government was empowered to acquire private lands as needed for the protection of "the headwaters of navigable streams." The Weeks Act made it possible to establish national forests in the East, including the Pisgah Forest Reserve in the Asheville area. During this period, however, Congress proved unwilling to purchase lands from private owners in order to establish a national park in the Appalachians.

By the 1920s there was a renewed movement for the establishment of a national park in the Southern Appalachians. In 1924 the secretary of the Department of the Interior formed the Southern Appalachian National Park Committee to study the issues. In 1926 Congress enacted a bill authorizing the creation of two parks in the Appalachians: the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. There followed a long period of land acquisition and political conflict. Dedication of the latter park occurred in 1936, followed by the dedication of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1939. The former dedication is considered by many as the result of activity that began forty years earlier when the Asheville Board of Trade founded the Appalachian National Park Association.