Newfound Gap is the lowest drivable pass through the Great Smoky Mountains, at 5,046 feet, and the Tennessee and North Carolina line crosses it. US-441 climbs to the gap from Sugarlands, the park's northern gateway near Gatlinburg, and the Appalachian Trail crosses the road at the top. The pass is "newfound" because Indian Gap, two miles west and named for an old Cherokee trail, was long thought to be the lowest crossing. The geographer Arnold Guyot found this one lower, and a highway replaced the old Indian Gap road in 1932.
Beside the lot stands a terraced stone memorial to Laura Spelman Rockefeller. In 1928 her son John D. Rockefeller Jr. gave the last $5 million toward the park's land purchases in her memory, and Civilian Conservation Corps crews built the Olmsted Brothers' design, finishing in 1940. On September 2 of that year Franklin Roosevelt dedicated the park from this spot. More than 4,000 residents had to leave the land that became the park, and some families leased their land back.
Kuwohi, the park's highest peak at 6,643 feet, rises farther along the ridge. Its Cherokee name means "mulberry place." For more than 160 years it carried the name Clingmans Dome, after Thomas Clingman, who later became a Confederate general. In September 2024, after a grassroots effort led by members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the Cherokee name was restored.
The closest stops worth working into your route
Roadside plaques and monuments within a short detour