The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-08-14

There is now a great movement for
a national park in the mountains OF
Western North Carolina. This had
it's origin in George Vanderbilt's
two great development ideas, as
shown first in his Biltmore estate
and next in his Pisgah forest. The
latter is q true forest. He was so
fortunate as to discover a place
where nature had been well nigh I'M
molested and then to secure this and
allow her to work her own sweet
will. And it is of a pilgrimage to
Piggah that this is to be a story.
There are some 10, 900 acres in Bit
more of which all the world knows.
There are 100, 900 acres in Pisgah
forest, of which few know anything.
The latter is about forty miles in
length, and takes its name from its
dominating peak, bit. Pisgah, which
is a true cone, and which is a land
mark even amid all the peaks in that
vast, irregular and lofty plateau be-
tween the Blue ridge and the great
Smoky Mountains. East and west
this plateau is walled in by the lof-
test mountains east of the Rockies.
Going from Raleigh to Asheville,
which is the gateway to the glories
of the mountain region which the
Cherokee Indians in their not unmu-
steal tongue called the Overhills of
Ottolay, the train climbs to the Swan
nanOa Pass, through the Blue Ridge
and pierces the crest of the great
divide through SwannanOa tunnel,
$3.50 feet above sea level. The Stream
flowing out of the eastern portal of
the tunnel runs into the Atlantic
Ocean that out of the western pOr-
tai into the Gulf of Mexico via the
Swannanoa, the French Broad, the
Tennessee and the Mississippi. In
the tunnel is the source of the Swan
nanOa, famed in story and song,
which at AsheviIle mingles with the
French Broad, loved of the CherOkees,
and by them called Tab kee-os-tee,
the Racing River"
Going by railfrOm Asheville to Hen
Jacksonville, and thence to Davidson's
River station on the Hendersonville
q Brevard Railroad, the pilgrimage
to Pisgah begins in earnest. A light
wagon, drawn by a pair of small
mules, driven by a mountaineer, car
ries a tent and such provisions as
will supplement the mountain fare.
The pilgrims, like those of old, walk,
and find the twelve miles to Pisgah
forest a succession of pictures. Along
the clear French Broad River runs
the road, then turns along Davidson's
riveF-clearer still-and then leads
beside Avery's creek-as pellucid as
d dew drop to the very source of
chat stream.
To all the native folks near and
far Pisgah forest is "Mr. Wander
bits place" A wire fence, merely
three strands barb, outlines it and
forms its boundary. Only a quarter
of a mile outside this fence is the
the last house, a tiny cottage, nest
ling in a little cove, it's jewellers an
aged couple. The old man, in his
rude but kindly fashion, said he
liked Mr.. Vanderbilt well, and added.
He is a mighty common man real
common" By this hOmely phrase
he meant that the multi-millionaire
did not put on airs, but was friendly
and .sociable.
All the way from the boundary
fence to the gap, which opens the
way to the valley of the forest, there
Is the sound of falling water. This
Is the one sound which is ceaselessv
heard all over Pisgah-the rush or
the fall of the mountain streams
which most of the time are them,