Wilderness Wildlife Week began 19 years ago as a half-day program held in a conference room at a Pigeon Forge motel.

The event has since mushroomed into a full week's worth of activities ranging from wildlife seminars and photography exhibits to daily field trips to neighboring Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

More than 25,000 people attended last year's Wilderness Wildlife Week. They included 1,000 hikers from 19 states and four foreign countries who logged 3,920 cumulative miles in the Smokies.

This year's event Jan. 10-17 promises to be even bigger, largely because it will be the first major program of 2009 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Music Road Convention Center is headquarters for the event.

"Wilderness Wildlife Week is totally centered around the Smokies," said Deanna Sorge of the Pigeon Forge Department of Tourism. "It keeps getting bigger and bigger, but the park is always the center stage."

The park's 75th anniversary will be commemorated throughout 2009 with events hosted by the park and neighboring communities.

This year's Wilderness Wildlife Week will feature more than 150 experts in fields such as photography, biology, raptor rehabilitation and park history. There are more than 220 programs and activities on the agenda, and consistent with past years, the week is extremely flexible.

Each day, participants can choose whether to attend a lecture, take a hike or perhaps do both.

Wilderness Wildlife Week won the International Festival and Events Association's Pinnacle Award for Best Environmental Program and Educational Program in 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2005.

The event has been recognized 10 times, including for 2009, by the Southeast Tourism Society as a Top 20 Event in the Southeast.

Despite its exponential growth over the last 19 years, Wilderness Wildlife Week has stuck close to its original mission of using guest naturalists and historians to educate people about the Smokies.

Also in keeping with tradition, all activities are free to the public.

Ken Jenkins, a professional photographer and naturalist who started the event in 1989, said none of this would have been possible if not for unwavering support from the town of Pigeon Forge, and the fact that the event's guest speakers and outdoor experts donate their services free of charge.

"My philosophy has always been, the more people that understand this park, the more likely they'll be to return and be sensitive to its needs," Jenkins said. "The core idea is to develop education around people who are at the top of their field."

This year's topics include bears of the Smokies, the elk reintroduction project, the Smokies' logging history, close-up photography, trout fishing and birding by ear.

Several programs are designed especially for children.

Organizers of this year's Wilderness Wildlife Week have added several new events in recognition of the park's 75th anniversary.

Three historical figures central to the development of the park and the National Park Service will be on hand for the event. Bill Landry will portray William Bartram, America's first native-born naturalist and artist; Lee Stetson will portray John Muir, the father of America's national parks; and Mark Klemestrud will portray Theodore Roosevelt, who pioneered conservation during his presidency.

A special exhibit titled "Textiles of the Smokies" will feature the clothing, quilts and items used by the Walker sisters, longtime park residents. Many of these items, such as the sisters' sewing machine, have been in park storage and have never been on display.

A Jan. 17 fundraiser for Friends of the Smokies will feature an exhibit of black and white photos of the park in its early years paired with color photos of the park today. Photography will be courtesy of Thompson Photography of Knoxville and Ken Jenkins Photography of Gatlinburg.

In a special effort to connect with young people, this year's Wilderness Wildlife Week will offer more than 20 classes pertaining to wildlife and the environment for students of all ages. For more information, call Leigh Ellington at 865-429-7396.

A few of the Wilderness Wildlife Week classes have a participation capacity. An information table in the lobby of the Music Road Convention Center will be open 1-5 p.m. Jan. 9 and at 7 a.m. all other days, for attendees to register for classes with limited space.

Smokies anniversary: The News Sentinel is marking the Great Smoky Mountains National Park's 75th birthday in an ongoing series that will publish through September 2009. So far we've examined the land's ancient beginnings, Native American heritage and settlement by Europeans. The series continues in January with a look at the painful and triumphant effort to establish the park in the 1920s and 1930s. Other topics in 2009 will include arts and crafts traditions tied to the Smokies, a view of the park from the North Carolina side, and perhaps some tales and legends about the park you may never have heard.

Information courtesy of Knoxville News Sentinel