Name: Ranger of the Lost Art
Start: 2026-04-07T18:00:00-04:00
Location: Anna Porter Public Library

Retired Smokies Park Ranger and writer Arthur “Butch” McDade will give a free talk about "THE RANGER OF THE LOST ART AND THE VANISHED SMOKIES POSTER" at Anna Porter Public Library in Gatlinburg, TN on Tuesday, April 7, 2026, at 6:00 PM. The event is free to the public.
McDade recently wrote an article titled The Ranger of the Lost Art, and the Vanished Smokies Poster, published in Smokies Life Journal’s Fall edition last year. He gives a detailed account of a fellow park ranger, Doug Leen, and the mission he has carried out for over 40 years.
In the period 1938-1941, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) employed a group of artists in a lab in Berkeley, CA, to produce public artwork under the Federal Art Project. As part of their works, these artists and illustrators produced a series of 14 remarkable National Park posters for some of the most iconic National Park sites, including Great Smoky Mountains National Park, using a silk-screen process that provided stunning color and texture. Each of the participating national park sites reportedly received 50-100 copies of their respective poster to be used to promote park programs and activities
In the mid-1970s, a seasonal park ranger named Doug Leen at Grand Teton NP found a discarded copy of a WPA poster related to the Tetons, which led him on a forty-year research quest to find original copies of all 14 WPA posters. To date, he and others have located copies of 12 of the original 14 posters. Posters for the Wind Cave National Park and the Smokies have not been located. But in his searches, Leen discovered a black and white negative of the Smokies WPA poster, which he reproduced into a stunning piece of artwork that is sold today in the visitor centers in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Leen is currently offering a $10,000 reward for anyone who can donate an original copy of the Smokies poster. If you want to learn more about Leen’s quest before the program, stop by the library and check out the Smokies Life Journal Issue 19 #2.
McDade has written articles for noted magazines that include Smokies Life Journal, Park Science, The Tennessee Conservationist, Encyclopedia of Appalachia, Smoky Mountain Living, Blue Ridge Country, and America’s Civil War. He has also written two books titled The Natural Arches of the Big South Fork and Old Smoky Mountain Days. In 2021, McDade donated a collection of his writings and books to the library, which are available for access.
For more info call the library at 865-436-5588.