In the early 1900s a Japanese man with a mysterious past came to North Carolina, championing the Great Smoky Mountains National Park through his photography. Shortly after his death, his name was almost completely erased from history and thousands of the photographs he had taken were lost. On Wednesday, May 28 at 9:30 PM, UNC-TV uncovers the story behind this nearly forgotten man in The Mystery of George Masa.

Airing on UNC-TV and produced by Bonesteel Films, The Mystery of George Masa chronicles the life of Masahara Izuka, a quiet, unassuming Japanese man who came to Asheville, North Carolina, in 1915. The documentary unveils the shroud of obscurity about Masa's life through interviews with living acquaintances, historians' accounts, Masa's personal letters and journals, subtle re-creations and an astounding collection of his photographs. In addition to recapturing many interesting details about Masa's life, work and friends, the film also reflects on his lasting impact on the preservation movement and the gradual removal of his name from many of his works.

Masa blended in with his surroundings and kept his personal matters away from the public eye. After settling in Asheville and working as a photographer and valet at the Grove Park Inn, he fell in love with the mountains and the residents, changing his name to fit in with his new American friends. His popular photography business eventually took him into the mountains in search of scenic vistas, and he discovered a world filled with endless subjects, many destined to become entries into his vast body of work.

With a red bandanna on his head and a bicycle wheel calculating distances, Masa mapped out what would eventually become the Appalachian Trail. With his friend Horace Kephart and a group of hikers he dubbed the Carolina Mountain Club, he snapped photographs and collected information on the topography and mineralogy of the area that now is the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Despite his eventual successes in helping to found the national park and develop the Appalachian Trail, Masa's life was riddled with misfortune. The Great Depression and a series of other financial setbacks left Masa with massive debts, and after his death of influenza in 1933, other people began receiving credit for his work. Relatively few of his mounds of photographs remain.

The Mystery of George Masa reveals a man who not only touched his companions but reached out to touch the world at large, as expressed by a Carolina Mountain Club bulletin following his death: "To those who have spent hours on the trail with George, climbing into the less accessible places of the Smokies, there is left the memory of a genius whose love of beauty was so intense that a hard hike of ten or twenty miles was not so great a price to pay for a photograph capturing some of the beauty to be found at the end of the trail."

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