In a world of sprawling parks and spacious landscapes, the designers of the 0.7 acre plot of Jimmy Smith Park chose a humbler path to fame.
Surrounded by four lanes of college-town traffic and wedged between two crossroads and the babbling Boone Creek lies Jimmy Smith Park: a thin strip of grass with an ambling sidewalk, three benches and three rocks that has stirred a cult following.
A Google search yields no shortage of mockumentaries and exaggerated travel reviews, which poke fun at the size of the area. The most viewed example is a 2007 music video from the YouTube channel “schmoyoho,” with over 150,000 views.
In the video, a group of college students dance and sing, “Frolick down the winding path, leave some breadcrumbs so you can find your way back.”
The students and locals who visit the park don’t seem to mind its size.
“Jimmy Smith is my little tranquil area away from everyone and every responsibility,” said Julia O’Brien, a sophomore electronic media and broadcasting major. “It’s something pretty sacred to me.”
The town of Boone’s director of cultural resources, Mark Freed, refers to the park as “a little gem in our community.” He said it plays a role in making “our community greener, more vibrant and a better place to live, work, study and play.”
The park’s land formerly housed the Linville River Railway “Tweetsie” and the Boone Depot, both constructed in 1919. A large plaque at Jimmy Smith Park details their unfortunate fate; the rail service was destroyed in a flood during a 1940 hurricane, and the depot building was split in half and later torn down in 1976. The two sites were eventually replaced by Rivers Street and Depot Street.
Dedicated in 2005, the area now honors the late James “Jimmy” Smith, a prominent App State teacher, community leader and state-champion tennis player.
In his time on the Boone Town Council and as the Planning Commission chair, Smith played a large role in the fundraising and construction of the town’s highly accredited wastewater treatment facility.
Freed said when Smith eventually retired, the town wanted to dedicate a location to him.
Smith requested that this location be the treatment plant. Freed said he was “rightfully proud of the facility.” The town agreed, yet “also wanted to name something more public-facing and beautiful” in his honor.
According to Freed, Smith wanted a modest location, and Jimmy Smith Park was chosen.
At App State, Smith was heavily involved in the school’s 1967 transformation from a teaching college to a comprehensive university.
Professor Emeritus Mike Perry arrived at the newly expanded school alongside Smith in 1968. Both men had a Ph.D. in mathematics and took their initial jobs as assistant mathematics teachers.
According to Perry, Smith was a “dedicated and effective teacher” who had “made a significant contribution” to App State by creating new courses and curriculum, such as App State’s freshman seminar class.
Fellow math professor Eric Marland said Smith was someone who “made life in the department welcoming, supportive and alive with energy.”
Smith went on to serve as math department chair and leader of the faculty senate. After successful campaigns within the school and town, he set his sights on being the mayor of Boone.
“He approached campaigning as if it was a prize-fight,” said Perry, who had aided Smith’s campaigns at App State. “I am confident that he would have become mayor if he had lived.”
Smith died in 2000 at the age of 58 from a brain tumor before he could campaign.
Despite Smith’s long list of accomplishments, Perry said, “tennis better describes who Jimmy Smith was.” He was a “fierce competitor” who went on to win state championships in his age category doubles, despite his small stature of “only about 5-foot5-inches.”
Smith’s community service and modesty are well represented by the existence of the park. It sits directly across the street from the classrooms he taught in, around the corner from his contribution to Boone’s government and adjacent to a creek meandering its way to the town’s treatment plant on the New River.
