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On the map
It’s a good week for history in Jackson County. This newspaper is marking the end of its 79th year, Southwestern Community College is celebrating four decades and four longtime tourist attractions are on the map – National Geographic’s Geotourism Map/Guide to Appalachia.
We’re proud of the tourism boost the magazine’s recognition of the four local landmarks will bring the county, and we salute Chamber of Commerce Director Julie Spiro for her role in earning them their spots on the full-color map that’s inserted as a bonus in National Geographic’s Traveler magazine.
The four – Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, the Jarrett House, Balsam Mountain Inn and Riverwood Shops – are also linked by history.
The Murphy Branch of the Western North Carolina Railroad arrived in Dillsboro in 1882, seven years before the town was incorporated. It carried passengers until 1948, and freight traffic until 1985, when the state purchased the Dillsboro-to-Murphy tracks to keep them from being destroyed. In 1988, several entities came together to form the Great Smoky Mountains Railway, which was purchased by American Heritage Railways in 1999 and now carries more than 200,000 riders each year.
The railroad made it possible for Dillsboro founder William Allen Dills to open the Mount Beulah Hotel for travelers in 1884. Ten years later, the hotel was bought by Frank Jarrett, who renamed it the Jarrett Springs Hotel after discovering a sulphur spring on the property. Jarrett’s wife “Miss Sallie” made the hotel’s cuisine famous for her fried ham, redeye gravy and buttermilk biscuits – food traditions carried on by later owners including W.B. Faw, who rechristened the inn “The Jarrett House” after buying it in 1950. The hotel passed through several hands before present owners Jim and Jean Hartbarger bought it in 1975.
In the early days, the passenger train from Asheville would stop in Dillsboro for 20 minutes at noon, and travelers were known to telegraph their lunch orders ahead from the previous stop at Balsam. At 3,100 feet, Balsam’s depot was among the highest of any railroad in the eastern United States, and it was there in 1908 that two brothers from Georgia opened another guest house – the Balsam Mountain Springs Hotel, which fell into disrepair after the railroad closed to passenger traffic. Veteran innkeeper Merrily Teasley restored and reopened it as the Balsam Mountain Inn in 1991, and former Topsail Island innkeepers Kim Shailer and Sharon White now run the establishment after buying it last summer.
Before Dills opened the Mount Beulah, he lived in the house he built that sits above historic Dillsboro – the home he sold to early entrepreneur C.J. Harris that now houses Riverwood Shops. Dr. Ralph Morgan and his wife, Ruth, bought the house in 1957 for their pewter business, which had been their source of income while Morgan was in medical school. The Morgans then added other working craft shops – weaving, pottery, glass, jewelry and leather – while Dr. Morgan served as one of the county’s leading physicians. One of the Morgans’ daughters, Ruth McConnell, took over the pewter shop in 1988, and her sister Susan Leveille, another of the Morgans’ daughters, operates adjacent Oaks Gallery.
Congratulations to the owners of the four local landmarks for their efforts to preserve our county’s past and to SCC for its myriad contributions to its future. We at The Herald are grateful for the privilege of reporting on both.
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