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An early view of our ‘Land of the Sky’
How interesting that a column planned three weeks ago should provide a tie-in to a feature story (page 10 C) that arrived unexpectedly this week from Western Carolina University.
It seems that WCU professor Richard Starnes has written a book, “Creating the Land of the Sky: Tourism and Society in Western North Carolina,” which traces the early rise of the tourism industry. My subject this week – and probably for several additional pieces during the fall – is a 1929 booklet titled “The Land of the Sky (and Great Smoky Mountains National Park),” which is on loan to the Cafe library by longtime Sylva resident and indispensable local historian Rachel Phillips of Sylva.
An obvious early Chamber of Commerce-type regional promotion tool, the booklet is filled with charming photos of Western North Carolina as it looked almost eight decades ago. The copy is shamelessly self-promoting, terming WNC “one of Nature’s most highly-favored spots.”
The introduction notes that “because of the altitude of the entire region and the height of numerous peaks of both the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains rising above the clouds there,” the region “was very properly named ‘The Land of the Sky.’”
The authors, who are not named, wax poetic about the Great Smoky Mountains, which reach their highest altitude along the North Carolina-Tennessee border, are said to be “covered with virgin forest and hundreds of varieties of wild flowers, rising and falling in an unending panorama of peak, plateau, ridge and valley, where streams and lakes and enchanting views have attracted visitors from all over the world.”
It seems to be the Blue Ridge, however, that really captivates the authors.
“The Blue Ridge traverses ‘The Land of the Sky’ with some of the most noted of its world-renowned scenery, presenting such points of worldwide interest as Chimney Rock, Blowing Rock and the Royal Gorge.”
Royal Gorge? That’s a new one on us. Our newsroom consensus is that the authors are perhaps referring to the Linville Gorge, but we’d appreciate hearing from any readers who might be familiar with the term.
From the introduction, the booklet moves on to brief descriptions of WNC towns. Asheville with its “improved highways and railroads radiating in all directions,” rates five pages. After all, according to the authors, it is “a city of charm and attraction unsurpassed anywhere else in the world.”
Sylva, like Andrews, Waynesville, Murphy, Brevard and others, merits but one of the booklet’s 80-odd pages. Also highlighted are schools – including “The Appalachian School for Little Children” at Penland and Cecil’s Business College in Asheville – and summer camps such as Camp Carolina in Brevard.
It even devotes an entire page to describing the “perfect” mountain view – from Mt. LeConte, in September.
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