Thanks for getting in contact with them, MoorleyMan.

The link to which Ms. VanLunen references is here, page 99 of Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (1933) by George M. McCoy and George Masa. Unfortunately, the reference here is still to a place, and not a plant. And perhaps more frustratingly, the reference still seems to originate with Mr. Kephart -- it's not so direct here as in other places, but it's pretty clear from the numerous references to him that the writers relied on Kephart a good deal for place names and guidance; additionally, I know for a fact Masa and Kephart were close acquaintances. Here's an excerpt from pages 97-99:

"Dr. Cain says that there seem to be three catastrophic factors influencing the formation and maintenance of heath balds in tin Great Smoky Mountains. They are: Windfall, landslide and fire. Of these factors fire, he says, is by far the most important. Horace Kephart of Bryson City, with many other woodsmen and mountain people, believed that fire is a very important if not universal factor in the initiation and maintenance of heath balds.

Huggins' Hell, one of the largest of these heath thickets, is in the Hazel Creek section. It contains possibly four or five hundred acres of rhododendron and laurel thickets. Irving Huggins, who lived in the Hazel Creek section, was herding cattle on Siler's Bald one day and wanted to reach another knob. He thought he could cross the intervening "slick" but was trapped there for a number of days before he could find his way out. There is another heath thicket called "Hug- gins' Hell" in the Alum Cave Creek section.

The slicks have interesting names. There are Devil's Race Path, Devils
Court House, Woolly Ridge, Gunstick Laurel, Rip Shin Thicket, Wooly Head Slick, Big Slick, Cage Drive Slick, Ivy Stalks, Little Slick and many others.

PS: George Masa is a very fascinating character to look into if you ever get the chance. I just bought a book showing his photography of the region, and it provides what is known of his biography.