Monday, August 22, 2016

Devil's Courthouse is a Popular Destination

Devil’s Courthouse is a popular sightseeing stop along the Blue Ridge Parkway but it is much more than just a nice view. 

The highest point is 5720 feet above sea level and offers a 360 degree view.  The large rock outcropping with steep cliffs flows into a mix of bare rock and shrubby areas and then spreads into spruce-fir and northern hardwood forests, all home to rare plants and animals.

In An Inventory of the Natural Areas of Transylvania County, North Carolina Edward Schwartzman states that there are “eleven rare vascular plant species and nine species of rare bryophytes and lichens” at Devil’s Courthouse.  It is the only place in Transylvania County where Appalachian fir-clubmoss, sticky bog-asphodel and deerhair bulrush are found.

Schwartzman also identifies the Carolina northern flying squirrel, brown creepers, hermit thrush, and Southern Appalachian black-capped chickadees as rare animals living there.

The site lies in the heart of the early Cherokee tribal territory and has a significant role in their ancient story of “Tsul’ Kalu’, or Judaculla, The Slant-Eyed Giant.”   

Devil's Courthouse at Milepost 422 on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Judaculla is a mysterious superhuman giant who lives and farms high in the mountains.  He is the owner of all game and it is here that he sits in judgement of how animals are treated.  In his book, Seven Cherokee Myths, Transylvania native Keith Parker explains, “Judaculla would consider how persons dealt with game.  Did they take only what they needed?  Did they do the right ritual before taking down an animal, with apology and thanksgiving?”  Punishment would be given to those who violated the rules.

In the late 1800s travel adventure books where popular reading.  It is from one such book that the name Devil’s Courthouse and the story of the devil holding court in a cave within the rock cliff derives.  With the completion of that section of the Blue Ridge Parkway after WWII Devil’s Courthouse became much more accessible.  Early publicity passed this sensational but erroneous tale of Devil’s Courthouse on to visitors.

Parker’s book provides readers a look at the Southern Appalachians from the perspective of Cherokee traditions and beliefs.  Schwartzman’s book details the land, flora, and fauna of Transylvania County.  Both are available at the Transylvania County Library for anyone interested in learning more.
                               

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library.  Visit the NC Room during regular library hours (Monday-Friday) to learn more about our history and see additional photographs.  For more information, comments or suggestions contact Marcy at marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-3151 X242.

Monday, August 15, 2016

Cradle of Forestry Preserves History

The Cradle of Forestry in America was officially dedicated in October 1964.  The goal was to show the role of forestry in the Appalachian Mountains and throughout the U.S., both today and in the past.  For 50 years the Cradle of Forestry’s interpretive exhibits have allowed visitors to experience and learn about our forests in the Forest Discovery Center Exhibit Hall and along the Biltmore Campus Trail and Forest Festival Trail.

It all began when George Vanderbilt started purchasing land southwest of Asheville in the 1890s.  Noted landscape architect Fredrick Law Olmsted developed a plan that included the house surrounded by a park-like setting with formal and informal gardens, farms near the French Broad and Swannanoa Rivers, and commercial forestry covering the mountains.  

Dr. Carl Schenck at the Biltmore Forest School marker
erected in his honor in 1950.
In 1892 Vanderbilt hired Gifford Pinchot to manage his vast property.  At the time planned forestry management was new to America.  Pinchot was American but had studied forestry in France.  The Pinchot family would later endow the Yale School of Forestry and Gifford would become the first Chief of the U.S. Forest Service.

In 1895 Carl Schenck replaced Pinchot and changed the direction of managing Vanderbilt’s forestland.  He worked to restore the forest that had been heavily logged.  Schenck established the first school of forestry in America which operated from 1898 until 1909.  The school combined traditional classroom learning and hands-on experience in the heart of the forest.

In 1914 Edith Vanderbilt sold over 86,000 acres to the U.S. Forest Service and in 1916 the Pisgah National Forest was created.  Fifty years later the Cradle of Forest would recreate the experience of forest education begun at Biltmore Forest School by Carl Schenck in George Vanderbilt’s forest.

Jesse McCall family outside of their home, one of the ranger lodges.
Original structures along the Biltmore Campus Trail include a lodge and the Hiram King House.  The lodge is a frame structure with heavy timber beams and has a high peaked roof in the Black Forest architecture style.  Originally there were 12 lodges for Vanderbilt’s Rangers who patrolled the forest for fire, poachers and timber thieves.  This lodge was moved to the current location.  The Hiram King House is a typical 1880s wooden frame house.  It was later used to lodge forestry students.  The trail also includes a reconstructed one-room schoolhouse, general store, blacksmith shop, and cabins.

Hiram King House at the Cradle of Forestry, photo taken in 1991.
Biltmore’s Landscape and Forest Historian Bill Alexander will discuss “Vanderbilt’s Forest” during the August 16 Bag Lunch at the Transylvania County Library.  On September 8, “America’s First Forest:  Carl Schenck and the Asheville Experiment”, a documentary film produced for the Forest History Society by Bonesteel Films will be presented at the Library.
                               



Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library.  Visit the NC Room during regular library hours (Monday-Friday) to learn more about our history and see additional photographs.  For more information, comments or suggestions contact Marcy at marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-3151 X242.

Monday, August 8, 2016

Boarding Houses Vital to Local Economy

The Darlington Inn, a boarding house on East Main St.,
operated from about 1910-1955.
Boarding houses were a vital part of the local economy from the late 1800s through the mid-1900s. 

Tourism brochures dating from around 1907 through 1929 invite “vacationists” to relax in the small-town comforts of Brevard and Transylvania County.  Although there were several larger hotels including the Aethelwold and Franklin Inn in Brevard and Lake Toxaway Inn, many visitors choose to stay at the less expensive and homier boarding houses.  Rates ranged from $5.00-15.00 per week and included meals.
 
Boarding houses provided a home-like atmosphere with fresh, wholesome meals in settings ranging from stately town homes to quiet country places.  The houses were large and had large rooms.  Families could stay in one room or have a suite of rooms depending on their needs.  Many also offered sleeping porches to enjoy the cool, fresh mountain air at night.  Amenities included electric lights, modern plumbing with baths, and telephone service.  The emphasis was on healthy living.  Most of their time was spent outdoors or at social gatherings.

Changing lifestyles and improvements to the roads and transportation introduced new expectations for the ideal vacation by mid-century.  Tourists were looking for more privacy and freedom.  Tourist or motor courts provided a room with a private bath and parking.  Guests set their own schedules for meals and could come and go at their leisure. 

Beginning in 1940s Brevard saw a boom of tourist courts and roadside motels.  Tourist courts were a group of small separate cabins for travelers.  They typically included a bedroom and bathroom, and sometimes a kitchenette.  The Pisgah Motor Court on Hendersonville Highway opened in the mid-1940s and was among the early tourist courts in Transylvania County. 

Other local tourist courts during the 1950s and 1960s included Cascade Cabins on Cascade Lake in Little River, Flamingo Motel on the Asheville Highway, Mt. Toxaway Lodge and Cabins, Rockwood Motor Court in Penrose, and White Swan Motor Court on the Asheville Highway.

Today the only local mid-century motel still operating is
the Sunset Motel on South Broad St.
Motels offered the accommodations of tourist courts under one roof, typically rooms were accessed from the outside.  Many motels also offered air conditioning, television and heated swimming pools.  The Deerfield Motel (later Brevard Motor Lodge) on N. Caldwell St. opened in 1954.  This was followed by the Sunset Motel on S. Broad St., Forest Gate Motel in Pisgah Forest and the Imperial Motor Lodge on the Asheville Highway.

Today Bed-and-Breakfast inns, which combine the home-style atmosphere boarding houses and privacy of motels, are popular with many tourists and a vital piece of the local economy.  According to the Transylvania/Brevard Chamber of Commerce there are currently nine B&Bs in the county with  rates from $85-225 per night.
                               
Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library.  Visit the NC Room during regular library hours (Monday-Friday) to learn more about our history and see additional photographs.  For more information, comments or suggestions contact Marcy at marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-3151 X242.

Monday, August 1, 2016

Airstrip at DuPont Has Had Multiple Uses

Last week Picturing the Past shared the story of the Summit Camps airstrip, this week continues the airstrip’s story after the camps closed.  A special thank you to Kent Wilcox and the Friends of DuPont Forest (www.dupontforest.com) who allowed us to reprint these articles.  Wilcox interviewed Ben Cart Sr., Ron Hubbard, Kit Garren, and Chet Meinzer for memories of the Summit Airstrip. Bruce MacDonald also supplied information.

In the mid 1980's, Mr. Cart decided to close the Summit Camps and sell his properties. At that time the DuPont Corporation, located immediately west of Summit Camps, was using the Little River to supply water for its employees and for the production of X-ray film. One consequence of amendments to the Clean Water Act in 1987 was that the Little River could not be used for drinking water when local rains increased the turbidity above permissible levels. In addition, increased nitrate levels in the Little River from fertilizers used by farms, homes, and a golf course upstream of the DuPont plant were causing blemishes in the X-ray film. The plant manager decided that the solution to these problems was to purchase the portion of Summit Camps that included Lake Julia and use the lake water for drinking and film production. In 1990, DuPont hired Kit Garren to drive a film crew around Mr. Cart’s property as they documented the importance of Lake Julia and the surrounding watershed. The resulting video must have been effective, because in 1991 the DuPont Corporation purchased all of the 1,400 acres that Mr. Cart had purchased in 1967, including Lake Julia, the facilities of the Summit Camps, and the Summit Airstrip.

Aerial view of the airstrip with the three
large Xs marking it as closed.
Photo by Dallam Oliver-Lee posted on
www.airfields-freeman.com.
The DuPont Corporation owned the airstrip from 1991 to 1996. During this period, the airstrip was used by DuPont executives who flew in from Wilmington, Delaware for meetings and recreation (trout fishing in well-stocked Lake Imaging was popular).  The airstrip was also used by the DuPont Employees Recreation Association (DERA) for picnics and parties.

In 1996, the DuPont Corporation transferred ownership of 2,472 acres (including the Summit Airstrip) and the manufacturing plant in Cedar Mountain to Sterling Diagnostic Imaging. The President of Sterling flew his plane from Houston, Texas to the airstrip several times in 1996. Unfortunately, in that same year, an inebriated driver raced a car down the runway and plunged off the end. He survived the crash, but the presence of illegal drugs in the car raised suspicions by the local sheriff that the airstrip was being used by drug traffickers. In addition, officials at Sterling were concerned because its manufacturing facility was located approximately 40 seconds flying time from the north end of the airstrip. Consequently, in 1997 Sterling requested that the FAA remove the airstrip from its approved list. Chet Meinzer, property manager for Sterling Diagnostic Imaging, painted large white Xs at each end and near the middle of the airstrip. He also dumped piles of soil on the asphalt to discourage use. The soil was removed a year later, but the Xs remain.

When Sterling Diagnostic Imaging (SDI) merged with the Agfa Corporation in 1999, approximately 440 acres including the manufacturing facility were retained by Agfa while SDI sold 2,223 acres, including the land around Lake Julia and the airstrip, to a real estate development company called Waterfall Investment Group LLC. The developer immediately began construction of roads for a gated residential community to be called The Cliffs at Brevard. It is conceivable that the developer intended to reactivate the airstrip for use by members of the community, but all development came to a halt in 2000 when the property was acquired by the State of North Carolina. The acquisition, which includes High Falls and Triple Falls, is now the most highly visited portion of DuPont State Recreational Forest. 

NC Forest Service firefighting training at the old airstrip in DuPont State Forest.
Photo courtesy of Bruce MacDonald.
Although no longer on FAA maps, the airstrip has been used since 2000 for numerous training exercises, such as US Air Force pilots learning to fly Russian Mi-17 helicopters before delivery to the Afghan Air Force, pilots with the NC Helicopter and Aquatic Rescue Team getting experience with Sikorsy UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters, and NC Forest Service pilots practicing their firefighting skills. Hospitals in Spartanburg, Greenville, and Asheville use the airstrip to transport patients by medevac helicopters. In the summer of 2011, the airstrip was used to film a segment for The Hunger Games in which Katniss and Peeta are traveling by train from District 12 to the Capitol. A low-flying helicopter with a wide-angle camera on one side was flown along the airstrip while images of the forest on each side were captured. These images were used to create the views from the windows of the train as it sped through the forests of District 12.

Recently the airstrip has also become an important component of the local ecology.  A corn field near the north end provides food for deer, birds, squirrels, and other fauna. A Monarch Way Station that provides nectar sources for migrating butterflies is at the south end of the airstrip. And of course, the airstrip is a scenic portion of the one mile long Airstrip Trail that is a favorite of mountain bikers and hikers.

Visit the NC Room during regular library hours (Monday-Friday) to learn more about our history and see additional photographs.  For more information, comments or suggestions contact Marcy at marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-3151 X242.