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Creating the Land of the Sky
Tourism and Society in Western North Carolina
By RICHARD D. STARNES THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA PRESS
Copyright © 2005 The University of Alabama Press
All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-8173-5604-0
Chapter One
Sanitariums, Railroads, and the New South
On July 21, 1886, the Charleston News and Courier announced that "[t]he dream of the dwellers by the seaside and of their friends by the snow line has at last been realized." For the first time travelers enjoyed unfettered rail access from the South Carolina low country to the mountains of western North Carolina. In a pamphlet issued to commemorate the completion of the Asheville and Spartanburg Railroad, recent economic development in this mountain town and in surrounding counties was held up as an example to be emulated by other southern communities. According to the News and Courier, economic growth in the North Carolina mountains had been "rapid and stunning" since the arrival of the Western North Carolina Railroad in 1880. The large expanse of virgin timber and abundant mineral resources had begun to attract industrialists from across the South and beyond. A lucrative tobacco processing industry spurred the expansion of tobacco cultivation in Buncombe, Yancey, Haywood, Madison, Henderson, and neighboring counties. Between 1884 and 1885 the amount of regional tobacco processed more than doubled from 1,500,000 pounds to 3,400,000pounds, with predictions for future crops reaching still higher.
But industrial development and progressive agriculture, the classic formula for southern economic development emphasized by Henry W. Grady, Henry Watterson, and other pundits, was not what prompted the editor to label western North Carolina "a conspicuous example of what is termed the New South." Instead, this pronouncement rested on the popularity of the North Carolina mountains among tourists. Since the Civil War, large numbers of people seeking a healthy climate, rugged and beautiful scenery, and respite from daily life flocked to the region. And who could blame them? The region provided a compelling mix of modern amenities, traditional culture, and beautiful landscapes almost sure to attract visitors. Asheville offered an orchestra during the summer season, as well as balls, receptions, and mountain excursions to entertain guests. At nearby Hot Springs, the Mountain Park Hotel offered accommodations of "the first-class order," including "billiard rooms, pool rooms, reception rooms, smoking rooms ... all done up in the most elegant of modern styles" (figure 2). While staying in these luxurious accommodations, tourists could enjoy the natural beauty of the region through hiking, fishing, and hunting, followed by a therapeutic dip in one of many mineral springs. Those prone to respiratory diseases enjoyed equally the mild winters, the cool summers, and the invigorating mountain air. The railroad, according to the editor, opened this area for the delight of all people, regardless of economic means. Resort hotels catered to the elite, and "boarding houses at which modest people may be accommodated at a very modest expense" catered to the less affluent. Regardless of the status of the visitor or the activities enjoyed during the visit, the mountains of North Carolina were guaranteed to leave "a thousand happy memories." Clearly, the New South ideas of economic progress and prosperity rested on the development of the tourism industry in western North Carolina.
During the years immediately following Reconstruction, the southern economy experienced a tremendous transformation. Although staple crop cultivation remained important, fresh capital and a new economic ethos set the stage for southern industrialization. The South had always claimed an industrial sector, but it paled in comparison to what was to come. Antebellum manufacturers, such as iron forges, cotton gins, and small factories, served local and regional markets but were faint shadows of the North's industrial base. After the Civil War, northern investment, favorable state government policies, and a new spirit that emphasized industrialization and diversification as the solutions to long-standing southern economic problems changed the shape and nature of the region's economy. But whereas traditional industry was the major thrust of the New South's economy, in some areas other businesses took center stage. Tourism emerged as an important part of the social and economic reality of the New South in Florida, areas along the Atlantic coast, in the Arkansas Ozarks, and in communities along the Appalachian range. Like textile production in the Piedmont, coal mining in Kentucky and West Virginia, and iron production in north Alabama, tourism became the New South industry in the North Carolina mountains.
Several factors allowed for the development of a lucrative tourism industry in western North Carolina, but geography was the foundation of the region's tourism industry. Of the Appalachian Mountains, which run from the hill country of north Alabama northward to Canada, the North Carolina section is the highest and most spectacular range in eastern America (see figure 1). The Blue Ridge chain, which extends from foothills in South Carolina north into Virginia, contains Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi. Further west, the Great Smokies or Unaka chain make up much of the border between North Carolina and Tennessee. Clingman's Dome, named for the fiery Whig political leader Thomas L. Clingman, is the most famous peak in the Great Smokies and second only to Mount Mitchell in elevation. The North Carolina mountains claim forty-two peaks exceeding six thousand feet in elevation, and eighty-two peaks between five thousand feet and six thousand feet. A number of other chains, including the Balsams, Cowees, Nantahalas, and Snowbirds, enrich the region's topography and give the casual observer the impression of one continuous series of ridges. The rich chestnuts, before they were killed by blight in the late nineteenth century, and the oaks, hickories, locust, poplars, and other hardwoods treated observers to a panorama of color in the fall and each spring reinforced the season of rebirth by gradually extending a carpet of green from valley floor to mountaintop. The flora and fauna, including mountain laurel, trilliums, and wildflowers, deepened and enriched the region's natural splendor. Mountain valleys provided good soil for cultivation; it was less rocky than soil in higher elevations and was enriched by silt washed down by frequent floods and snows. Valleys also were natural avenues for transportation, allowing access and trade between communities. Rivers were the defining characteristics of these valleys, providing a reliable, clean-water supply, food, and in some cases, transportation and communication. In this way river valleys served as the basis for community development in western North Carolina. In short, the region's natural wonder was the cornerstone of its tourism industry.
As with other New South industries, tourism in western North Carolina had antebellum roots. Although explorers and traders traveled through the North Carolina mountains in the seventeenth century and before, the region did not see active settlement by whites until the eighteenth century. Missionaries and traders came first, followed by permanent white settlers who gradually entered the region after 1720, attracted by the rich soil, mild climate, beautiful topography, and cheap land. By the 1790s several towns had formed, and western North Carolina developed important links to the southern economy. Agriculture, primarily subsistence in nature, was the mainstay of the regional economy, but several changes on the horizon would alter the social and economic character of the region.
During the early nineteenth century, Americans began to enjoy leisure travel like never before. Although people traveled for pleasure in earlier decades, changes to the nation's society and economy made such journeys more common. As American culture changed, a process one historian termed the "commercialization of leisure" took place. By the second decade of the nineteenth century-some scholars would say even earlier-resort regions such as Niagara Falls, the Catskills, and other sites in the Hudson River valley emerged as the earliest American tourist destinations. Recognizing the success of these resorts, other entrepreneurs took advantage of the growing interest in leisure travel, promoting mineral springs in Virginia, New York, and elsewhere and building fashionable hotels to cater to the traveler's every need. This emerging travel industry grew out of what scholars have termed the "Market Revolution," a process of economic change and expansion in the early republic fueled by innovations in transportation, increasingly sophisticated business practices, and a growing and increasingly prosperous upper class. The travelers who visited these early resorts were almost without exception the cream of the nation's political and economic elite. Other Americans did not possess the ability in terms of time and money to spend weeks or months in pursuit of leisure. In the nation's antebellum travel industry the affluent mingled with one another, took in the scenery and climate at some of the nation's most beautiful places, and reinforced their own sense of status. Western North Carolina played an important, if lesser known, role in the development of the antebellum travel market, a fact that laid the foundation for the development of a vibrant post-Civil War tourism industry.
By the early 1800s, low-country planters began seasonal migrations to foothill communities in upstate South Carolina. Although the temperature, flora, and fauna were often more pleasant than on their plantations, these patricians were not on a quest for pleasure. Instead, they were driven to these higher elevations and milder climes out of fear. During the 1790s, summer fevers that had been part of life in many areas of the South began to strike fear bordering on paranoia in the South Carolina aristocracy. As mosquitoes and climate were blamed on spreading the fevers, the obvious solution was to leave humid, infested plantations annually in late spring and return in early fall. These pilgrimages did seem to prevent summer fevers, but the nature of the migration soon developed a more important social significance. The families who populated upstate communities during "the sickly season" were some of the most affluent in the South, the only people financially capable of leaving their homes with caretakers and their s laves in the charge of overseers to live one quarter of the year in a second home. The annual presence of the low-country gentry in the upstate changed the social and economic structure of communities like Greenville and Spartanburg, bringing a cosmopolitan air to these towns on the edge of the frontier. As time passed, the fear of summer diseases faded, but the seasonal migrations continued, driven more by pleasure than by health. In their quest for leisure these planters soon cast their eyes to the loftier elevations to the north.
Lack of an adequate road network prevented planters from extending their travels into the North Carolina mountains. Although visitors could travel on foot and on horseback, mountain paths were not adequate for transporting the baggage and slaves that accompanied the migrations. The Buncombe Turnpike changed this. Chartered in 1824 and opened three years later, this new road was the most important avenue of transportation in western North Carolina until 1880. Extending north from Saluda Gap and eventually completed to the Tennessee state line, the turnpike saw extensive use by these seasonal visitors almost as soon as it opened. Charles Baring, a wealthy planter from near Charleston, was the first of his station to take up seasonal residence in the North Carolina mountains. In 1827 he built "The Lodge," a grand country estate set on about four thousand acres, complete with decorative gardens and slave quarters. Dozens of prominent families followed Baring to the community of Flat Rock, located in present-day Henderson County. There they established a vibrant seasonal community but one that was socially and economically isolated from the native-born population.
Low-country visitors during this period included leading families of the low-country aristocracy. Christopher G. Memminger, future Confederate secretary of the treasury, summered in Flat Rock. South Carolina governor Wade Hampton and his family owned a large summer estate further west near Cashiers, and countless other prominent families took up seasonal residences in the North Carolina mountains. By the early 1830s the village of Flat Rock was known as "the Charleston of the Mountains," a reflection of the grandiose lifestyle of elite seasonal visitors. From May to September each year, the social schedule in Flat Rock and the surrounding area was as vibrant as in any antebellum southern city. Grand balls, barbeques, receptions, dinner parties, and even summer weddings were frequently held in these summer homes. Yet the presence of southern patricians did little to improve the lot of most native residents. Summer estates did not employ large numbers of locals, as slaves provided most of the household workforce. A small number of young women found work as domestics and some men as caretakers, looking after the residences through the winter months. But most natives lived lives completely separate from those who would soon be called "the summer people." Although most locals attended Baptist or Methodist churches (or both, depending on which had a minister available), low-country visitors built Episcopal churches to serve their spiritual needs. Servants purchased groceries and other items from local stores, and the slaves that planter families brought with them performed most chores. On social occasions visitors hosted visitors, with few locals granted access to the same social circles as seasonal residents. Because most native whites were simple farmers, planters treated them much as they did common whites back home, as racial equals and economic subordinates.
Relatively quickly, this second-home movement evolved into a more conventional tourist trade. Visitors themselves were among the first to see the economic promise of this emerging seasonal trade. In 1829 Judge Mitchell King arrived from Charleston, purchasing a large tract of land and several local businesses. Realizing the potential profits to be made catering to visiting elites, he agreed to rent a tavern to William Murray, who promised to make improvements to the building and surrounding grounds in order to make it more attractive to seasonal boarders. This endeavor proved profitable, and many guests eventually purchased summer residences in the local area. King himself recognized the economic potential of the region, generally, and of tourism specifically. In the years before the Civil War he campaigned for a railroad from Charleston to east Tennessee to aid in the economic development of western North Carolina. In 1841 he donated fifty of his seven thousand acres for the Henderson County seat, Hendersonville. Other seasonal residents took interest in the region's economic future, but most simply came with the summer heat and returned to their plantations in the fall.
Locals also realized the potential profits that stood to be made by catering to visitors. These entrepreneurs capitalized on the mountain climate and the trapping of wealth to further commercialize leisure in western North Carolina. These two components shaped the future of mountain tourism in important ways. Relatively few people came to the region for health reasons a lone during the antebellum period. One scholar noted that in 1850 Asheville attracted only about five hundred health seekers, but other wealthy seasonal residents and visitors increased the overall number of tourists in the local area. A successful tourism promoter entered the business gradually, viewing tourism as an ancillary form of income, hoping other businesses, improvements in transportation, and a solid economy would boost the number of visitors over time. The experience of the Patton family, although perhaps not typical, gives some idea of the route followed by many antebellum resort owners.
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Excerpted from Creating the Land of the Sky by RICHARD D. STARNES Copyright © 2005 by The University of Alabama Press. Excerpted by permission.
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