SmokyStreams.com - About Our Maps and Us

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About Our Maps

Saint Clair Mapping’s Great Smoky Mountains stream and trail maps are our enhancements of portions of one or more of the digitized United States Geological Survey (USGS) 7.5 Minute-Series topographic maps of the twenty one quadrangles in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Enhancements include scale adjustments, shaded relief, 30 second latitude and longitude coordinates, Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinate system grid overlay, highlighting of trails, trail names and distance markers, backcountry campsites, pictograms of landforms and facilities, stream crossings descriptions and game fish species color coding.

Certain boundaries, trail routes, locations, names of facilities, etc., that appear on the quads may have changed, or partly or fully vanished from sight since the time the quads were produced by USGS as early as the mid-1940s. In general, these have been left as is on our maps. In cases in which such might cause confusion, we have placed masks over the out of date items. An example of this is a quad designating a trail as a “Bridle Path” that has subsequently been made inaccessible to horses. Recent man-made feature changes or additions are not necessarily reflected in our illustrations. Any features shown outside the park boundary could be significantly out of date. The unavoidable variation in the color and clarity of the backgrounds from one map to another is due to a number of factors including differences in the original publication and how they were scanned by USGS and, to a lesser degree, the variation in printers used to produce our maps.

Latitude/longitude and UTM coordinates are located along the maps borders. In addition to the border coordinates, a 1000 meter UTM grid, Zone 17 S is located throughout the map. When used with map datum NAD 27, these enhanced coordinates provide a location fix with an accuracy approaching that of the digitized USGS quads from which it they were manually derived. Visitors to the park should use our maps in conjunction with, at the very least, the official Great Smoky Mountains Trail Map and Guide available through the visitor centers and online via www.nps.gov/grsm. Before planning a backcountry trip, read through the trail closures and warnings page of the park web site.

Our maps are all large scale, none over 1:24,000 and averaging approximately 1:20,000. Compare this to that of Great Smoky Mountains National Park Trails IllustratedMap™* No. 229 at approximately 1:70,000. The average scale of our maps is roughly twice that of even Trails Illiustrated's new set of two maps (No. 316 & No. 317) covering the park. They have a scale of approximately 1:40,000.

All our Park stream maps are species color coded indicating waters known to, or thought to, hold, depending on the stream, bass, brown trout, rainbow trout and the native Southern Appalachian brook trout.

Due to a successful brook trout restoration program, in 2006 and for the first time in 30 years, anglers were enabled to fish for brook trout in Great Smoky Mountains National Park streams. Source: www.nps.gov

Product Endorsements
“...maps of Park waters, logically organized by watersheds, which are a flat-out bonanza for the Park fishermen...” (read more)
- Jim Casada

“...Fred uses the USGS maps as a basic ingredient, but goes far beyond that...” (read more)
- James Marsh

Please read all the Endorsements below.

Our Kind of Fish Finder

The original basis for our color coding begun in 2009 was solely the trout distribution graphic provided to us from data collected by the National Park Service fishery biologists work done primarily in the previous decade. Because of the ever changing range of the trout species due to drought and wet weather year extremes, we now rely on information from:

books, articles & blogs by noted authors we know personally
“flyrod data” sources with whom we are personally acquainted (and our own)
recent National Park Service Fisheries Management news releases and comments at public meetings

Acknowledgments

Considerable resources for our maps and this web site were provided in the public domain by the National Park Service and the United States Geological Survey. We have in no way sought to be endorsed by either of these agencies.

We also acknowledge valuable insights gained from, but not limited to:

Jim Casada's Fly Fishing in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park: An Insider’s Guide to A Pursuit of Passion
H. Lea Lawrence's The Fly Fisherman's Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Russ Manning's 100 Hikes of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Ian Rutter's Great Smoky Mountains National Park Angler's Companion
Jimmy Jacob's Trout Streams of Southern Appalachia
Don Kirk's Smoky Mountains Trout Fishing Guide
Waterfalls of the Smokies by Hal Hubbs, Charles Maynard & David Morris
Contributors to the Little River Outfitters Message Board
Richard Sellers, an active member of “Friends of the Smokies” and a Smokies stream names researcher.

About Saint Clair Mapping
by Owner & founder, “Joe” Fred Turner

I am a retired professional engineer, self-taught illustrator and a cartographer wannabe. Although not necessarily influenced by my being born in close proximity to the Smoky Mountains, my nickname in infancy was “Smoky Joe.” The Joe part stuck.

My bride Dianne comprises the company’s very capable and cheerful staff.

My interest in small streams began in the 50s as a kid swimming, fishing and crawdad stalking in the diminutive Roberson Creek on the family farm in Saint Clair in Hawkins County, Tennessee. My first intimate knowledge of aquatic life was from observing and listening to the family's pet (no joke) raccoon feeding on said crustaceans.

Inspiration for creating SmokyStreams.com and our exclusive maps came from: 1) the recent decision by the Park Service to open up numerous Park native brook streams previously closed to fishing, 2) the lack of readily available detailed stream maps, 3) an interest in how streams were named and other historical information surrounding them, 4) a relatively recent introduction to fly fishing by my brother Al and 5) my underlying passion for the Smokies that grew out of childhood memories.

While growing up, my parents and five siblings got to escape the farm and heat for a week of camping in Chimneys Campground (now a picnic area) and later on at Cosby. This camping tradition continued into the '60s. It was on my last visit to the Cosby family campsite that I met Dianne, a really cute redhead from Nashville camping with her family just across the road. It was obvious from the family's head scratching that their tent, which was coincidentally the same model as ours, was either new or borrowed. At the urging of my brother-in-law, Chuck, I agreed we would offer to assist. In exchange for putting up her tent, Dianne has been putting up with me for over forty years now. I owe much to my beloved late mother for making the camping trips possible and my dear late father for allowing me to drive the family ’57 Chevy from Saint Clair to Nashville for weekends of courtin'.

During my early days at Eastman Chemical Company, then part of Eastman Kodak, I was interested in nature photography and active in the Camera Club. From our print shop Dianne ran in the ‘90s, I became to learn and enjoy computer graphic arts. Those influences, and my engineering background, made designing web sites and maps into yet more hobbies. Although I am a retired mechanical engineer, I became interested in civil engineering and mapping from working with a highway surveying crew during the summers.

Many times as a kid perched on boulders in the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River I was mesmerized by the small trout holding in the speedy current below. I’m thinking, “Man! How would you ever catch one of those? I mean the ‘floater’ is not going to stay in place long enough for anything to bite!” It was not until nearly fifty years later that I first caught a trout on a fly.

After a seven year hiatus in Nashville, Dianne and I returned to East Tennessee in 2007. In 2010 I caught my first native speckled trout… fittingly on Cosby Creek.

Enjoy your maps and your waters,
“Joe” Fred

We are honored to have received the following endorsements...

“...maps of Park waters, logically organized by watersheds, which are a flat-out bonanza for the Park fishermen...”
“Any Smokies’ angler who is serious about sampling and savoring the trout waters of the Park needs to be willing to do his homework. That means reading, learning the whereabouts of backcountry campsites, studying remote areas and “blue lines,” and pondering means of access to promising places. All of this translates to the fact that cartographic knowledge is critical. USGS maps are a starting point, but they weren’t produced with the fisherman in mind. Fred Turner has remedied that situation with his ongoing production of maps of Park waters, logically organized by watersheds, which are a flat-out bonanza for the Park fishermen. Whether you are a tyro visiting the Park for the first time or an old hand in this piscatorial paradise, you need to obtain his maps. I wholeheartedly endorse them, and some indication of what I think of Fred’s efforts is provided by the fact that I’ve encouraged him and even provided a suggestion or two along the way.” – Jim Casada Jim's Web Site: Jim Casada Outdoors		Buy Jim's book online at his Web Site or Little River Outfitters or at select Park Visitor Centers
	Jim is a native son of the Smokies and author of numerous magazine and newspaper articles and columns on hunting, fishing, and other outdoor-related topics and the hugely popular book, Fly Fishing in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park: An Insider’s Guide to a Pursuit of Passion.

“...maps are rich in details like where trails cross the streams, footbridges, backcountry campsites, and access points...”
“As a local fisherman, I have collected almost all of Fred’s maps and they have provided me with so much enjoyment. I have fished miles of streams filled with beautiful brook trout that hardly ever see a fly thanks to Fred and his maps. These maps are rich in details like where trails cross the streams, footbridges, backcountry campsites, and access points, which is invaluable information to me. I can tell Fred does this because he loves it and that shows in his work. His maps are so well done and so much fun to look over that I usually spend hours at home or at camp pouring over them planning future trips.” – Adam Beal, Maryville, Tennessee Adam's Blog on GoSmokies.com	Adam on a backcountry footbridge in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Read in this message board post how Adam recently used one of our maps on a long off trail excursion in the Smokies catching lots of fish in waters rarely touched by others.

“...Fred uses the USGS maps as a basic ingredient, but goes far beyond that...”
“Before I go to any fishing destination, I get the best map of the area I can find and study it in detail. When I arrive, most of what I see just confirms what I already knew was there. This isn’t something new for me. I’ve done that for years fishing lakes, rivers and streams in 49 states and dozens of foreign countries. I wouldn’t think of fishing a trout stream that I wasn’t very familiar without first studying the best map I could find. In fact, I prefer to have one along for reference even on the streams I’m quite familiar with. Take a look at the hundreds of streams I’ve fished in the stream section of my Perfect Fly web site. Every trip started on a map. A map is just as essential for a fishing expedition as a floor plan is for constructing a home or building. In most cases the best maps are the USGS maps but that’s not the case with the streams of the Smokies. Fred uses the USGS maps as a basic ingredient, but goes far beyond that by increasing and improving the information provided to meet the angler’s best interest and needs. The maps cover streams that are logically organized by watersheds and in my opinion, are by far the best and most useful maps available.” – James Marsh Web Sites Include: Fly Fishing the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Fly Fishing Yellowstone National Park and Fly Fishing DVD		To James, shown fishing the Smokies, having a good map of a stream is just as essential to success as having the right flies and gear.
	James' many credentials include: Hosting over 200 national syndicated TV fishing programs, fishing hundreds of saltwater tournaments, SKA Pro Circuit and Big Game tournaments, writing for national publications such as Sportfishing, Marlin Magazine and others, producing/hosting 46 saltwater fishing videos (more sold than anyone else in the World), 18 Fly Fishing DVDs and 500 GPS operation DVD/videos.

“These (maps) are very useful for fly fishermen new to the area. We had already visited Little River last year and if we had this map our success would have undoubtedly been better. We plan to visit other areas in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the South Holston. I expect I'll be ordering more of your maps.”

– Ed - Sorrento, Florida

“...maps have made my limited fishing time more productive...”
“I left Ohio for the Dallas, Texas area for ten years after college, and really missed the park. Now that I am back in Ohio, I visit the park as often as possible. When fishing Great Smoky Mountains National Park, I often feel like I am the only person for hundreds of miles around – after just a very short hike. I have been able to visit the park (a record) seven times this year and on each trip Fred’s maps have made my limited fishing time more productive. If the park isn't your home water, having Fred’s maps will give you an edge.” – Matt Blickensderfer, Springboro Ohio Matt's Blog Blick's Picks where he “shares his adventures and vices.”		Matt fishing Deep Creek
	Matt started fly fishing for trout in 1992 on the Clear Fork Branch of the Mohican River in central Ohio while earning his BS in Natural Resources at the Ohio State University. He currently lives in Springboro, Ohio with his wife and two children. In 2011 Matt took his eight year old son fly fishing in Great Smoky Mountains National Park for the first time.

*Trails IllustratedMap is a trademark of National Gepgraphic.