Straddling the North Carolina-Tennessee border, the lofty mountains that form the centerpiece of the nation's most visited park are named for the ever-present shroud of blue-gray mist that inspired Cherokee Indians to call them Shaconage, or "place of blue smoke." Today Great Smoky is a UNESCO World Heritage site and an International Biosphere Reserve; it preserves the world's best examples of eastern deciduous forest and provides habitat for more than 60 mammals, including the black bear, more than 200 species of birds and some 1,600 types of flowering plants.