The Great Outsiders: Clingmans Dome Observation Tower
The strange building at the top of a mountain that started it all.
Welcome to the first in a monthly series sharing work from my ongoing project; The Great Outsiders, which explores the forgotten modernist architecture of the US National Parks. Each month, I’ll be sharing stories and images from a location featured in the project and I thought the best place to start would be where I started on this journey; the otherworldly Clingmans Dome Observation Tower.
Sat upon the summit of the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Clingmans Dome Observation Tower was completed as part of the Mission 66 program in 1959 by Bebb and Olson Architects.
I unexpectedly came across the tower on vacation in the Smokies back in 2021. After driving along the winding road towards the summit of Kuwohi (formerly Clingmans Dome) and walking the final half mile along the trail, I remember being taken aback at the otherworldly sight appearing before me as the tower came into view over the tree line.
At this point I was already well into working on LIGHT/MASS, looking for alien-like expanses of concrete in the cities of the US. The last place I had expected to find one of these was on top of a mountain, yet here was this UFO-like tower overlooking the vast wilderness as though it had dropped out of the sky.
Of course, my camera came out and I started making images of the tower, trying my best to capture the sense of scale and wonder of this very urban object colliding with the natural landscape.
Once I got back to New York, I wanted to know more about why the tower was there: Who had commissioned it? Why was that style chosen over a more traditional timber frame design? How on earth did they get all that concrete up a six-and-a-half thousand foot mountain?!
My research led me to discovering the billion dollar Mission 66 program and its impact on the National Parks system. It was also the catalyst to me beginning work on what would become The Great Outsiders, which once completed will document 30 Mission 66-era structures in NPS locations across the United States.
I find unexpected moments like this some of the most rewarding (and equally amusing) as a photographer. To stumble on a long term project whilst on holiday was the last thing I was expecting to happen, but I think it proves that inspiration can come at any time, in any place. You just have to be ready to respond to it!
A Slight Return
I revisited The Smoky Mountains in the spring of 2024 as part of a trip to continue work for The Great Outsiders (stay tuned for those!) and wanted to stop by Clingmans Dome to make some more images. Now that I had a clear idea of what the project was, I had intended to make some more purposeful work on the tower that I hoped to add to the existing photographs.
Unfortunately the weather had other ideas:
I guess expecting clear skies in the Smokies in spring was naive on my part. I had to make do in the very changeable conditions, including spending a very cold and wet 30 minutes huddled under the tower’s shelter waiting out a rain storm.
Eventually the weather cleared enough o get a few images that I’m happy to add to the project. A lesson in perseverance!
So that’s the first of many locations I’ll be sharing with you over the coming months. Thank you for reading and I’d love to hear what you think about this structure and Mission 66 in general - let me know in the comments.
Additionally, if you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, please consider telling your friends and/or sharing it on your socials. Any further attention I can bring to this fascinating slice of post-war history is greatly appreciated!
Next time, I’ll be sharing images from an awe-inspiring structure perched on the top of a dizzyingly high desert canyon. See you then!
For those of you too impatient to wait for next month’s installment, you can skip ahead and take a look at the images of all the locations I’ve documented to date, over on my website.
This is remarkable Owen, what a fantastic project to stumble upon. I live in a national park here in the UK and always find it interesting how new ideas for attracting visitors are arrived at and how the money is spent. Safe to say we have nothing on this scale or as far out there as this. I look forward to seeing the project unfold, I know I could visit your website but I’m a fan of delayed gratification. Thank you for sharing. D
Hey Owen, thanks very much for sharing something which, in the UK, we would never see. It’s fascinating to view that structure. I have to say, though, that some of the images in the fog actually added really well to the project. The atmosphere adds to that other-worldly feel to the scene. Lovely work.