Harvey Broome
"In the late afternoon, before the pigs had to be fed and the milking done, if we were lucky we could persuade Father and Grandpa to climb the wooded ridge to the east, whence five long miles away we could just make out the red standpipe on the hill above our house in town. I was astounded that one could see five whole miles." — Harvey Broome
The beauty and grandeur of the natural world amazed Harvey Benjamin Broome, even as a child. Born to George W. and Adeline Broome on July 15, 1902, in Knoxville, Tennessee, most of Broome's outdoor experiences took place on his grandparents' farm. Here, five miles outside of Knoxville, he experienced livestock, an orchard, and clear, fresh springs–and a view of the Smoky Mountains 40 miles to the south.
The view from the farm may have been his initial inspiration, but it was a weekend with his father on Silers Bald, a peak on a Tennessee-North Carolina section of the current Appalachian Trail, that anchored his deeply rooted love of the outdoors. This first camping trip, at the age of fifteen, began 50 years hiking and exploring the forests, creeks, and crags of Broome’s beloved Smokies.
Broome graduated from Knoxville High School in 1919, the University of Tennessee, 1923, and Harvard Law School, 1926. While in his first position in law as a clerk, Broome and seven others, including Aldo Leopold, Bob Marshall, and Benton MacKaye, officially founded The Wilderness Society in 1935. Broome and MacKaye became good friends as they worked together in The Wilderness Society and establishing the Appalachian Trail.
Wedding bells tolled for Harvey Broome and Anna Pursel in June 1937. The two shared not only careers in law (Anna as a Harvard Law School secretary) but passion for the outdoors. They found not only a spouse in each other but hiking partner and fellow wilderness advocate. They married in MacKaye’s Massachusetts home.
Broome later joined a private practice in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the law firm Kramer, Dye, McNabb and Greenwood. Perhaps he was sitting at a desk covered in papers with the world outside his window or enjoying a rare moment away from the desk and in that outside world when he realized how much more time he’d had in the outdoors, focusing on wilderness issues before he joined the Kramer, Dye, McNabb, and Greenwood. That settled, he left the law firm.
With more time––as a clerk again––Broome and Anna explored the natural world from their cabin in the Smokies, a house they relocated from Broome’s grandfather’s farm to a ridge top in Tennessee. There, they enjoyed the mountain view.
Broome developed a talent for writing about what he observed and experienced in the natural world. 1841 marks the earliest record of Broome's journal writing. His books Broome: Earth Man, Faces of the Wilderness, and Out Under the Sky of the Great Smokies: A Personal Journal, were all published posthumously by Anna. Almost half a century later, they give us the gift of vicariously experiencing the world through Broome's eyes.
In 1957, Broome was elected president of The Wilderness Society and remained so for eleven years. On September 3, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Wilderness Act into being. This hallmark piece of legislation created the National Wilderness Preservation System, which now contains over 800 wilderness areas.
Although Broome worked for much of his life to preserve wilderness, the Smokies were often his first priority. When a section of the mountain range was threatened by a plan for road construction, Broome organized the “Save Our Smokies” hike in October 1966. Thirteen hundred people answered the call with boots on the trail. An active member of the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club, Broome regularly contributed works to different periodicals including Living Wilderness, National Parks Magazine, and Nature.
Broome's accomplishments continued. He became a trustee of the Robert Marshall Wilderness Fund, a trust fund set aside for the preservation of wild lands. He was appointed a member of the Advisory Council of the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission as well as director of the Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association and an elected president of the East Tennessee Historical Society.
Today, the Appalachian Trail Broome helped establish is officially named the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. It is our National Park System's narrowest, yet longest piece of protected public land, spanning 2,175 miles over 14 states and 250,000 acres from Georgia to Maine. Spread throughout its path are no less than 60 federal- and state-run parks and forests.
The Wilderness Society still works to protect wilderness and roadless areas, holding to the passions and hopes of its founders with its mission: "Deliver to future generations an unspoiled legacy of wild places, with all the precious values they hold: Biological diversity; clean air and water; towering forests, rushing rivers and sage-sweet, silent deserts". Were it not for the vision and foresight of Broome and the other founding members, many of the nation's wild lands may not have been protected for today's generation and the generations to come.
On March 8, 1968, Harvey Broome, after a life of passion and dedication, passed away from a heart attack shortly after working on his last contribution to the natural world: a sawed log he planned to make into a wren’s birdhouse.
"And thus flowed the current of life. The seeds of the silverbell were converted into squirrel; and squirrels were converted into foxes. Everything edible, from mice and chipmunks to roots and berries and apples was converted into bear. And bear and his tracks are converted into wonder and adventure for man." — Harvey Broome from Out Under the Sky of the Great Smokies: A Personal Journal
References
Appalachian Trail Conservancy.
Broome, H. (1972). Faces of the Wilderness. Missoula, MT: Mountain Press.
Pierce, D. (2003). Out Under the Sky of the Great Smokies: A Personal Journal.
The Backpacker. (2000). Silers Bald Shelter.
The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture. (1998). Harvey Broome.
The Wilderness Society.
Tumblin, J.C. (2002). Fountain Citizens Who Made a Difference: Harvey Broome.