Our Story Series: The Ranger of the Lost Art and the Vanished Smokies Poster

Retired Smokies Park Ranger and writer Arthur “Butch” McDade returns to the library as a guest speaker for the successful program, “Our Story” series. Butch will give a talk about the "vanished" Smokies poster at Anna Porter Public Library 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…