We have come to the famous region in Western North Carolina, the
resort for health and pleasure, the "Land of the Sky," sought both in
winter and summer on account of its pure, bracing atmosphere and
equable climate, and where eighty thousand visitors go in a year.
Between the Unaka and Great Smoky range of mountains which is the
western North Carolina boundary, and the Blue Ridge to the eastward,
there is a long and diversified plateau with an average elevation of
two thousand feet, stretching two hundred and fifty miles from
northeast to southwest, and having a width of about twenty-five miles.
Various mountain spurs cross it between the ranges from one towards
the other, and numerous rivers rising in the Blue Ridge flow westward
over it and break through picturesque gorges in the Great Smoky
Mountains to reach the Tennessee River, the most noted of these
streams being the French Broad. From any commanding point along the
Great Smoky range there may be seen stretching to the east and south a
vast sea of ridges, peaks and domes. No single one dominates, but most
all of them reach nearly the same altitude, appearing like the waves
in a choppy sea, the ranges growing gradually less distinct as they
are more distant. The whole region seems to be covered with a mantle
of dark forest, excepting an occasional clearing or patch of
lighter-colored grass. Very few rocky ledges appear, so that the
slopes are smoothed and softened by the generous vegetation. The
atmosphere also tends to the same result, the blue haze, so rarely
absent, giving the names both to the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky
Mountains. This haze softens everything and imparts the effect of
great distance to peaks but a few miles away. Thus the remarkable
atmospheric influence produces more impressive views than are got from
greater peaks and longer distances in a clearer air elsewhere. The
most elevated peak of the district, Mount Mitchell, rises four hundred
and twenty-five feet higher than Mount Washington in the White
Mountains. It was named for Professor Elisha Mitchell, who was an
early explorer, a native of Connecticut, and Professor in the
University of North Carolina, who lost his life during a storm on the
mountain in 1857, and is buried at the summit. From its sides the
beautiful Swannanoa River, the Indian "running water," flows eighteen
miles westward to fall into the French Broad at Asheville, the centre
and chief city of this charming region, whose fame has become
world-wide.
"Land of forest-clad mountains, of fairy-like streams,
Of low, pleasant valleys where the bright sunlight gleams
Athwart fleecy clouds gliding over the hills,
'Midst the fragrance of pines and the murmur of rills.
"A land of bright sunsets, whose glories extend
From horizon to zenith, there richly to blend
The hues of the rainbow, with clouds passing by--
Right well art thou christened 'The Land of the Sky.'
"A land of pure water, as pure as the air;
A home for the feeble, a home for the fair;
Where the wild roses bloom, while their fragrance combines
With health-giving odors from balsamic pines.
"The pure, healthful breezes, the life-giving air,
The beauteous landscapes, oft new, ever fair,
Are gifts that have come from the Father on high;
To Him be all praise for 'The Land of the Sky.'"
In the early days of Congress, a North Carolina member, who was making
a long speech for home consumption, observed that several of his
colleagues, becoming tired, had gone out, whereupon he bluntly told
those who remained that they might go out too, if so inclined, as he
"was only talking for Buncombe." This member, whose remark has become
immortal as the title of a certain type of Congressional oratory,
represented the county of Buncombe, which embraces a large portion of
the "The Land of the Sky," and Asheville is the county-seat. This town
has a permanent population of twelve thousand, and is one of the most
elevated towns east of Denver, being at a height of nearly
twenty-three hundred feet above the sea. It is built in the
attractive valley of the French Broad River, surrounded by an
amphitheatre of magnificent hills, and commands one of the finest
mountain views in this country. The Swannanoa unites with the French
Broad just above the town in a charming locality; there are various
pleasant parks; and the tree-shaded streets are adorned by many fine
buildings. To Asheville come the Northerner for equable mildness in
winter and the Southerner for coolness in summer, the climate being
dry and bright, and most restorative in lung and other similar
troubles, while the whole surrounding region has had its scenic
attractions made available by improved roads and paths. About two
miles to the southeast is George Vanderbilt's noted chateau of
Biltmore, the finest private residence in the United States, built
upon the verge of a princely estate covering a hundred thousand acres
of these glens and mountains. The house, which commands magnificent
views, stands upon a terrace seven hundred feet long and three hundred
feet wide, and cost $4,000,000, while nearly as much more is said to
have been expended in constructing many miles of drives over the
estate and in landscape gardening and improvements, which in time will
make this one of the world's greatest show places. The building is an
extensive French baronial hall of the days of King Francis I.,
elaborated from the chateaux of the Loire, exceedingly rich in every
detail, and having the general effect heightened by the free
employment of decorative sculpture. From the grand esplanade the
outlook is upon the "wild tumult of mountains stretching away in every
direction." There are various other fine houses in the Asheville
suburbs, and the locality is steadily improving through the
attractions it has for men of wealth who love a home amid the grandest
charms of Nature. Routes have been opened in various directions from
Asheville to develop the mountain district. One railroad goes for a
hundred miles through the gorges and valleys southwestward along the
base of the Great Smoky range. Another route is southeast through the
romantic pass of the Hickory-nut Gap, where the Rocky Broad River
penetrates the Blue Ridge, a splendid canyon of nine miles, with
cliffs rising fifteen hundred feet and having the remarkable Chimney
Rock built on high alongside the gorge, where it stands up an isolated
sentinel. Bald Mountain, rising opposite, is celebrated in Mrs.
Burnett's _Esmeralda_. Cæsar's Head, to the southward, is an outlier
of these mountain ranges, bordering the lowlands; and standing on top
of its southern brow, upon a precipice rising almost sheer for fifteen
hundred feet, one can overlook the lower regions of South Carolina and
Georgia for more than a hundred miles away.
The French Broad River, the chief stream of this charming region, got
its name from the early hunters who came up from the settled regions
of Carolina nearer the coast, and penetrating the mountains explored
it. The Cherokees called it Tselica, or "The Roarer," a not
inappropriate name. The hunters who came through the Blue Ridge by the
Hickory-nut Gap in colonial times followed down the Rocky Broad that
flowed out of it into this river, which was much larger, and as the
region beyond the mountains was then controlled by the French, they
named it the French Broad. It rises in the Blue Ridge range almost on
the South Carolina boundary, and nearly interlocks its headwaters with
those of the Congaree flowing out to the Atlantic. Its upper waters
wind for forty miles through a beautiful and fertile valley, but in
approaching Asheville the scenery changes, the hills press more
closely upon the stream, its course becomes more rapid, and after a
swift turmoil it plunges down the cataract at Mountain Island. Here a
knob-topped rock rises fifty to seventy feet high, the stream forcing
its way on either hand by a channel cut through the enclosing ridge,
and it descends a cataract of forty-five feet, running away through a
deep abyss. The river passes Asheville and flows in a most picturesque
gorge through the high mountains, everywhere disclosing new beauties,
the water rushing and roaring over ledges and boulders, going around
sharp bends, receiving gushing tributaries coming down the mountain
side or trickling over the face of some broad high cliff. Massive
rocks rise on high, and the road is often on a shelf cut into their
face, the river boiling along far down below. Then the valley
broadens, and here, in a lovely vale surrounded by the mountains, are
the North Carolina Hot Springs, a popular resort, with a climate even
milder in winter than at Asheville, as the Great Smoky range protects
it from the northern blasts. The curative properties of these springs
are efficacious in rheumatic and cutaneous diseases. Beyond, the bold
precipices overhang the road and river that are known as the Paint
Rocks, where the rushing torrent forces its way through a gorge
between the Great Smoky and Bald Mountains and then emerges in
Tennessee, to finally fall into the Tennessee River at the junction
with the Holston just above Knoxville. These rocks received their name
from Indian pictures and signs painted upon them. William Gillmore
Simms, the Carolina author, tells in _Tselica_ the legend of this
spot, founded on the tradition of the Cherokees that a siren lives on
the French Broad who allures the hunter to the stream and strangles
him in her embrace. Thus have the American aborigines reproduced in
their way on this beautiful river the romantic legends of the Lorelie
Rock on the Rhine, where, the ancient German legend tells us so
interestingly, there dwelt another beautiful siren whose seductive
music lured her lovers to the rock, when she drowned them in the waves
washing its base.