MEDIA ADVISORY

Secretary Norton Travels to Great Smoky Mountains, Nov. 12
- Tours Great Smoky Mountains National Park's Restoration Projects -

(WASHINGTON) - Interior Secretary Gale Norton will tour a recently completed tunnels restoration project in Grand Smoky Mountains National Park and examine a current plan to reconstruct crumbling walls along historic Highway 441 on Tuesday, Nov. 12. Norton praises the projects as examples of several important Administration initiatives to restore America's parks.

"These are just a sample of hundreds of maintenance and natural resource projects critical to our mission to protect America's parks for future generations," Secretary Norton said. "The Bush administration is committed to fixing the nation's parks, so American families can better enjoy these great national, cultural and historic treasures."

Following brief remarks, Norton will host a media availability and take a bus tour of the maintenance projects.

Who: Gale Norton, Secretary of the Interior

What: Brief remarks and media availability, followed by a bus tour of newly reconstructed stone walls and tunnels as well as failing walls along Highway 441.

When: Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2002;
Remarks at 10 a.m., media availability and bus tour immediately following

Where: Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Sugarlands Visitor Center Auditorium
107 Park Headquarters Road
Gatlinburg, Tenn.
(2 miles south of Gatlinburg on U.S. 441)

- DOI -