The first name change happened in 1859, when Arnold Guyot, a geographer and professor, named the area after Clingman.

The renaming caps an effort begun in 2022 by two enrolled members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Lavita Hill and Mary Crowe. Principal Chief Michell Hicks submitted the formal name-change application last January, including more than 150 pages of background materials and letters of support from local governments and others.

One of the most visited national parks in the country and a major tourist attraction for Middle Tennesseans now has a new name.

The effort to change the name was led by Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians, who first settled the mountain in the Smokies and consider it sacred.