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.