In 1915, a Japanese immigrant George Masa moved to Asheville; his photographs later helped build the campaign for Great Samoky Mountains National Park

In 1915, a Japanese immigrant arrived in Asheville, North Carolina, without knowing that the mountains around the city would eventually become the center of his life. George Masa found work at the Grove Park Inn, learned to navigate a new world and eventually turned photography into far more than a livelihood. His pictures became a powerful way to show others what was worth protecting, as per a report by Appalachian Mountain Club and KFDM News.

Alongside his friend and conservation advocate Horace Kephart, Masa photographed, mapped and documented the Smoky Mountains as the campaign for a national park gathered momentum.

Years later, the park was established. Masa never lived to see it, but the mountains he worked so hard to preserve still carry his name.

How did George Masa come to Asheville?

George Masa was born in Osaka, Japan, around 1889 and likely entered the United States in the early 20th century. The supplied material identifies his birth name as Masahara Iizuka, while later research mentioned in the material identifies Shoji Endo as another name uncovered by researchers.

In 1915, Masa traveled east from San Francisco and arrived in Asheville, North Carolina. His reasons for making the journey remain unknown.

He found work in the laundry room of the Grove Park Inn and was soon promoted to a valet position. The job brought him into contact with wealthy and influential guests. Masa began developing film for them and sharing his own photographs, giving people an early look at his growing photographic ability.

His life in Asheville was not always easy. Anti-Japanese sentiment was already present in the United States, and in 1916, when Masa told Grove Park Inn manager Fred Seely that he planned to leave for a larger city, Seely became suspicious.

Masa was reported to the U.S. Department of Justice on claims that he might be involved in espionage. The allegations proved baseless, and Masa remained at the inn despite mistreatment.

Away from work, however, he was finding something that would eventually define his life. He joined a hiking club and began spending more time exploring, surveying and photographing the peaks and valleys of the Smoky Mountains.

Why did photography become so important to the Smokies?

In 1918, Masa left the Grove Park Inn and began working with local photographer Herbert Pelton. The two formed a business partnership and opened The Photo Craft studio. When Pelton moved to Washington, D.C., less than a year later, Masa became the studio's sole owner.

His photography quickly became important in Asheville. The Chamber of Commerce used his images to promote the area, while Masa himself increasingly turned his attention toward the mountains.

He sometimes disappeared into the backcountry for days or weeks, carrying heavy photography equipment and carefully recording what he encountered.

Those journeys brought him together with Horace Kephart, a journalist, author and nature lover who had already written two books about the Smoky Mountains. Kephart had seen the damage caused by industrial-scale logging and wanted the region protected as a national park.

Masa joined that effort.

The two men became close friends and worked together in complementary ways. Kephart wrote articles while Masa provided photographs and detailed documentation of the landscape they wanted to preserve.

Together, they recorded streams, mountains and valleys within the proposed park boundary. They consulted Cherokee people about place names, measured trails, made sketches and carefully labeled their photographs.

Masa even created his own odometer from the front half of a broken bicycle. He used it to measure distances along mountain trails while keeping meticulous notes about the landscape.

According to the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, his firsthand surveys eventually made him one of the trusted authorities on the region's trails and geography.

How did Masa’s photographs help the national park campaign?

Masa's photographs were more than beautiful views of the mountains. They became a way of showing people outside the region what was at stake.

The Great Depression brought another major setback. In 1929, Asheville's banks closed and Masa lost his savings. Yet he continued his work, spending time in the backcountry and photographing and mapping the southern portion of the Appalachian Trail.

He used connections made during his years at the Grove Park Inn to send photographs of the proposed parkland to people who could help the conservation campaign, including former first lady Grace Coolidge and John D. Rockefeller Jr.

Rockefeller Jr. was moved by the photographs and donated $5 million toward purchasing land for what would become Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Janet McCue, a biographer of Masa, said, “the park might have never happened” without the donation.

Masa's work also extended to the Appalachian Trail. In 1935, conservation hero Myron Avery selected one of Masa's photographs for a Scientific American article that helped convince authorities to complete the southern portion of the trail.

The photographs gave the campaign something people could see. The maps and measurements gave it detailed information about the terrain.

What happened to George Masa?

Masa never saw the national park he helped campaign for.

Horace Kephart died in a car accident in 1931. Two years later, Masa became ill. Having lost his savings during the Depression and unable to afford adequate medical care, he died alone in a county hospital in Asheville in 1933 at age 48.

In 1934, one year after his death, Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established.

Today, the park encompasses more than 800 square miles and has more than 19,000 documented species. Scientists believe another 80,000 to 100,000 species may live there. The park also preserves the cultural history of the Southern Appalachians, including the stories of the people who lived and worked in the mountains.

Masa's own story continued to emerge long after his death. Researchers, including Paul Bonesteel, author and filmmaker of A Life Reimagined: The George Masa Story, have spent years piecing together details of his life from photographs, journals, records and accounts from people who knew him.

“When you see a picture of George Masa, for me, there was just something fascinating about him and his experience here in the mountains of Western North Carolina,” Bonesteel said. “I just wanted to know more.”

That research has revealed more about Masa's early life and his years in the United States.

“We now do understand that mountains were really who he was,” Bonesteel said.

A new exhibit at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center in Cherokee now highlights Masa's photography, life and role in the campaign to establish the national park. Smokies Life, which works with the National Park Service, helped bring his story to visitors through exhibits, publications and educational material.

Jacqueline Harp, chief executive officer of Smokies Life, said, “We want to make sure they have an opportunity to get questions answered.”

The exhibit gives visitors several ways to learn about Masa, including his connection to Asheville and his conservation work. Visitors can also explore his story through the 2024 biography or the documentary A Life Reimagined: The George Masa Story.

For Bonesteel, the best way to understand Masa may still be to experience the mountains themselves.

“Come to the mountains and see what he loved,” Bonesteel said. “Get on the trails.”

Masa's friends and fellow hikers eventually secured another lasting tribute. In 1961, a 5,685-foot peak in Great Smoky Mountains National Park was named Masa Knob.

More than nine decades after his death, the photographer who arrived in Asheville in 1915 remains part of the story of the Smoky Mountains. His photographs captured the landscape, his homemade measuring wheel helped chart its trails, and his work with Kephart helped give the conservation campaign a visual and geographic record.

As Bonesteel put it, “He was resilient, extremely resilient.”

FAQs

1. Who was George Masa?
   He was a Japanese immigrant, photographer and mapmaker whose work supported the campaign to preserve the Smoky Mountains.
2. What is Masa remembered for?
   His photographs and surveys helped document the landscape that became Great Smoky Mountains National Park.