Horace Kephart
| Horace Kephart | |
|---|---|
Kephart in 1906
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| Born |
September 8, 1862 East Salem, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Died | April 2, 1931 (aged 68) Bryson City, North Carolina, United States |
| Resting place | Bryson City Cemetery Bryson City, North Carolina |
| Occupation | Librarian |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Lebanon Valley College, Boston University, Cornell University |
| Genre | Outdoor literature, Travel literature |
| Spouse | Laura (Mack) Kephart |
Horace Sowers Kephart (September 8, 1862 – April 2, 1931) was an American travel writer and librarian, best known as the author of Our Southern Highlanders about his life in the Great Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina and the classic outdoors guide Camping and Woodcraft.
Kephart was born in East Salem, Pennsylvania, and raised in Iowa. He was the director of the St. Louis Mercantile Library in St. Louis, Missouri from 1890 to 1903. In these years Kephart also wrote about camping and hunting trips. Earlier, Kephart had also worked as a librarian at Yale University and spent significant time in Italy as an employee of a wealthy American book collector.
In 1904, Kephart's family (wife Laura and their six children) moved to Ithaca, New York, but Laura and Horace never divorced or legally separated. Horace Kephart found his way to western North Carolina, where he lived in the Hazel Creek section of what would later become the Great Smoky Mountains National Park:
Later in life Kephart campaigned for the establishment of a national park in the Great Smoky Mountains with photographer and friend George Masa, and lived long enough to know that the park would be created. He was later named one of the fathers of the national park. He also helped plot the route of the Appalachian Trail through the Smokies. Kephart died in a car accident in 1931, and was buried near Bryson City, North Carolina, a small town near the area he wrote about in Our Southern Highlanders. Two months before his death, Mount Kephart was named in his honor.
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