Rockefeller Monument:

In 1940 President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for the "permanent enjoyment of the people." He spoke from the Rockefeller Monument at Newound Gap. The monument was erected for Rockefeller's generous donation of $5 million dollars, in memory of his wife Laura Spelman Rockefeller, that helped purchase the land for the park.

Rockefeller Monument is a two tiered stone-structure thats sits on Newfound Gap. There is a plaque comemerating Rockefeller's genrous donation. The inscription reads, "For the permanent enjoyment of the people. This park was given one-half by the peoples and states of North Carolina and Tennessee and by the United States of America, and one-half in memory of Laura Spelman Rockefeller by the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, founded by her husband John D. Rockefeller."