The order applies to national-park icons such as Yellowstone, Yosemite and Grand Canyon. With 12 million visitors a year, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited national park in the United States. Under terms of the executive order, the park has until July 4 to remove the signs. WUOT reported that the order affects multiple park-service units in the state.

The following Smokies “wayside” signs are included on the list, which is hundreds of lines long and includes the signs’ titles, verbatim language and material description:

• Signs describing the views from Kuwohi, known as Clingmans Dome until 2024, when the name was officially changed to its Cherokee designation by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.
• “Blue, Like Smoke,” a sign describing the natural phenomenon that gave the Smokies their name. It includes a reference to air pollution obscuring views.
• “What Was It Like?,” a sign on Look Rock tower describing the extent of historical views from Chilhowee Mountain and the subsequent effects of air pollution. Look Rock hosts a sophisticated air-quality monitoring station.
• “Fish Tales,” which references the effects of acidification on Smokies stream ecology.
• “Working and Serving,” a Cades Cove interpretive sign that mentions the role of the Civilian Conservation Corps in establishing the infrastructure of the national park, which was dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940.

In keeping with the administration’s aversion to mentions of air pollution, a sign accompanying pollution indices at Sugarlands Visitor Center is also on the list.

The antipathy toward the unsavory elements of American history is evidenced, as in Philadelphia, by the targeting of an interpretive historical sign at the Enloe Cemetery, which is the site of numerous unmarked graves of those who were enslaved by mountain families in the 1800s. 

Former Superintendent Cassius Cash, who guided the national park from 2015 to 2024, was a vocal proponent of telling the stories of African Americans and their connection to the area before it became a national park. He led visitor hikes in the Smokies with the stated purpose of discussing race relations during the convulsions following the murder of George Floyd and rise of Black Lives Matter in 2020.

Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, at the request of the national park, funded the sign, ground-penetrating radar and construction of a walking path at the cemetery as part of the “African American Experience in the Smokies: Making the Invisible, Visible” project spearheaded by Cash. A link to the project’s website no longer functions.

Friends spokesman Jim Matheny said the group had no comment on the leaked dataset.

The National Parks Conservation Association said the Trump administration, which cut more than a dozen jobs and the park’s operating budget a year ago during the DOGE cuts across the federal government, should cease its censorship efforts. 

“The administration’s orders to censor history and science at America’s national parks continues to cause confusion and should alarm every American,” said NPCA Southern Appalachian Director Jeff Hunter in response to a request for comment from Compass. 

“This database makes it clear that our dedicated national park staff are under enormous pressure to report any materials that the administration seeks to hide from the American people. 

“These actions are forcing the national park staff to remove or censor exhibits that talk about factually accurate history, climate science and the country’s connection to and treatment of Tribal people and robs millions of park visitors of valuable information. Already down a quarter of their workforce due to administrative cuts and targeted buyouts in 2025, this censorship campaign is widely unpopular with the American people and must stop.”

Resistance to the administration’s attempts to downplay history and science continues to emerge.

Groups such as Resistance Rangers and Save Our Signs are assembling their own databases of targeted signs for posterity’s sake.

NPCA, which points out that two-thirds of national park units are “devoted to protecting history and culture,” and a coalition of scientists and advocacy organizations in January filed a lawsuit against enforcement of the executive order. The Association of National Park Rangers, the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, and the Union of Concerned Scientists are parties to the suit.

In a statement accompanying the dataset, which covers all park-service units and was released via a torrent file, the apparent leaker wrote: “This data belongs to the American people, who need to know what is being done in their name. Donald Trump, (Office of Management and Budget Director) Russell Vought, (Interior Secretary) Doug Burgum, and the rest of this corrupt administration are trying to use your public lands to erase history and undermine science.

“Look at what they are censoring. Study it. Save it. Find other people who care, and organize to fight back. Build community around the science and history they want to erase.”