The Mystery of George Masa - Full Story Description

In 1915, a small Japanese man named Masahara Izuka came to the mountains of North Carolina. His name was changed shortly after his arrival and the mountains he adopted as his own were forever changed shortly after his death.
The Mystery of George Masa is a documentary film told through interviews with a few living acquaintances, historians’ accounts, Masa’s own words from personal letters and journals, subtle re-creations, and a wonderful collection of the subject’s own photographs. Our film uncovers many of the secrets that surround this magnetic man, with time and myth keeping the others.

In 1933, at the age of fifty four, George Masa died of the flu virtually penniless. A year later, after more than ten years of his efforts the Great Smoky Mountains National Park became official.

While he is called "the Ansel Adams of the Appalachian Mountains" by Photographer and Historian Gil Leebrick (who worked closely with Adams) Masa’s work is largely unknown. For a variety of reasons after Masa’s death his photos were and continue to be uncredited to him.

When and where George Masa first arrived in America is uncertain but he traveled the U.S. and then came to North Carolina to be employed as a valet at the famous Grove Park Inn. He then began a small photography business for guests of the Inn.

Masa was taken in by a local family, the Creasmans, and lived with them for many years. What is known about the private life of George Masa is pieced together from a few surviving acquaintances and hiking companions. Mrs. Jeanne Creasman Lance remembers fondly his unmatched kindness to her family. The Creasman family photo album features many Masa photos, along with candid shots of a man equally happy at play with the family’s children as with his work.
His blossoming post card business sent him further into the mountains in search of more scenic vistas and George Masa fell in love with the smoky blue mountains that surround Asheville. He discovered a world filled with endless subjects, many destined to become entries into his amazing body of work.

George Masa suffered continual business setbacks, culminated by the Great Depression and its effect on Asheville. His poignant letters to friends express his optimism and resolve despite bankruptcies and the sudden death of his closest friend, Horace Kephart.

The two objects he was seldom without in the woods were a bicycle wheel he configured with an odometer, and his camera. With his head wrapped in a red bandanna he’d spend weeks at a time measuring, mapping and photographing. There is an often told story about the exhausted hiker who claimed he saw "an Indian riding a bicycle up in those woods". There are other stories of Masa spending the night in the cold and rain while his camera slept dry in his tent. And long days on cold ridges waiting for the perfect light or cloud configuration. He befriended the noted author and outdoorsman Horace Kephart, and travelled extensively with him in the Smokies. Some of the music that accompanies the film is selected from Daniel Gore's Ways That Are Dark, the musical companion to Horace Kephart's Our Southern Highlanders.
He was a founding member in a hiking group called the Carolina Mountain Club. Much of what we know about George Masa was recorded by members of this group in photo books, letters and journals. Lead by Masa, the Carolina Mountain Club assisted in the Appalachian Trail development in North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. George Masa scouted and marked the entire North Carolina portion of the AT.

In 1961, after almost thirty years, a group of his closest friends lobbied successfully to finally pay tribute to their friend with the naming of "Masa Knob", a peak in the Park he worked so hard to create. But since this distinction, the man who knew the southern Appalachian Mountains as well as any person was hardly remembered and little appreciated for his contributions or his photographic artistry.

To the people who knew him he was extraordinary. The memories of the people he was closest to all echo the same tones; his gentleness, his energy, his wisdom, and his passion for wanting to convey the beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains to as many people as possible.