I had fourteen postcards and a couple of brochures of Gettysburg as we headed to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the capital city of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, that Friday night. We spent two nights, Friday and Saturday, June 20-21, 1985, at the Days Inn off exit 18 on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, about 40 miles from Gettysburg. Thus, it would be easy to get on the turnpike on Sunday to head home. With a population of about 50,000 people on 12 square miles, Harrisburg is only the ninth-most populous city in Pennsylvania, situated on the east bank of the Susquehanna River, 83 miles southwest of Allentown and 107 miles northwest of Philadelphia. Yet it was within a two-hour drive of the metro areas of Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and a three-hour drive to New York City and Pittsburgh. Harrisburg played a role in American history during the Westward Migration, the American Civil War, and the Industrial Revolution. In the mid-to late 20th century, this city had a 50% reduction in population from 1950 to 2000, characterized by industrial decline and the population shift from the city to the suburbs. However, the region is now seen as financially stable, in part due to the high concentration of state and federal government agencies. In 1719, John Harris, Sr., an English trader, settled here and 14 years later secured grants of 800 acres. In 1785, John Harris, Jr., laid out a town on his father’s land, which he named Harrisburg that he incorporated in 1791. The Pennsylvania state legislature selected this small town of Harrisburg to become the state capital in 1812, partly because of its strategic location. In 1822, the impressive brick capitol was completed for $200,000. In 1839, William Henry Harrison and John Tyler were nominated for President and Vice President of the USA at the first national convention of the Whig Party, which was held in Harrisburg. During the first part of the 19th century, Harrisburg was a notable stopping place along the Underground Railroad, as persons escaping slavery used the Susquehanna River to access food and supplies before heading north towards Canada. Harrisburg today has Blacks 42%, Hispanics 26 %, Whites 23%, and Asian 4%. The six largest ethnic groups in the city are: African American (52%), German (15%), Irish (7%), Italian (3%), English (2%), and Dutch (1%), one of the largest Dutch communities in the country. The Pennsylvania Farm Show, the largest indoor agriculture exposition in the USA, was first held in Harrisburg in 1917, and has been held there annually ever since. This city also hosts the annual Great American Outdoor Show, the largest of its kind in the world. Harrisburg also experienced the Three Mile Island accident on March 28, 1979, in nearby Middletown. In October 2011, Harrisburg filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy when four members of the seven-member City Council voted to file for bankruptcy. However, Bankruptcy Judge Mary France dismissed the petition. Thus, a state-appointed receiver took charge of the city’s finances. Harrisburg may be one of the few USA state capital cities in receivership. Have you ever heard of a bankrupt state capital city?
The Abraham Lincoln Gettysburg Address
On November 19, 1863, USA Union President Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865) delivered dedication remarks for the Gettysburg National Cemetery. This famous American two-minute speech was a ceremonial consecration, a carefully crafted 271-word address. I remember as a middle school student in the early 1950s that I had to memorize this whole speech. I still remember some of the lines. This was the ideal unfinished America that I have never seen come to fruition during my long life of four score and seven years. The USA was the same age as I am this year, 87, when Lincoln gave this presentation.
“Four score and seven years ago
Our fathers brought forth on this continent,
A new nation, conceived in liberty,
And dedicated to the proposition
That all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war,
Testing whether that nation,
Or any nation so conceived and so dedicated,
Can long endure.
We are met on a great battle-field of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field,
As a final resting place for those
Who here gave their lives that that nation might live.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate,
We cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here,
Have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here,
But it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here
To the unfinished work which they who fought here
Have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated
To the great task remaining before us
That from these honored dead
We take increased devotion
To that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion,
That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain
That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom
And that government of the people,
By the people,
And for the people,
Shall not perish from the earth.”
What do you think about this Gettysburg address?
The Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
That Friday afternoon, June 21, 1985, we headed to the Gettysburg National Military Park, about two hours away, a hundred miles from Front Royal, Virginia. Gettysburg is a borough in Adams County, Pennsylvania, and its county seat with a population of only 7,106 people. In 1760, Irishman Samuel Gettys settled at the Shippensburg-Baltimore and Philadelphia-Pittsburgh crossroads, in what was then western York County. He established a tavern frequented by soldiers and traders. Thus, his son James Gettys purchased 116 acres of his land, and then divided it up into 220 lots and sold them, as the founder of Gettysburg. The Battle of Gettysburg was fought over three days between July 1 and July 3, 1863, on two square miles, during the American Civil War. This Battle of Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle of both the Civil War and of any battle in American military history, claiming over 50,000 combined casualties, 27,000 Confederate and 23,000 Union soldiers. I think we tend to forget how brutal war is, but Gettysburg is a continual reminder. This National Park has been a highly symbolic venue for memorials and remembrance. Annually, two million people visit this park. I found it highly emotional to walk the fighting fields and see all the graves. The battle, which was won by the Union army, also proved the turning point of the war, leading to the Union’s victory two years later and the nation’s preservation. At the 50th anniversary Gettysburg reunion in 1913, at least 35,000 Union veterans, but only 7,000 Confederate veterans, took part. President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1960) has a National Historic Site, which preserves his home and farm. On July 1, 1863, General Robert E Lee (1807-1870) hoped to destroy the Union army of 100,000 with his 75,000 men. However, the Union army was expecting this attack. On the second day of battle, on July 2, the Union line was laid out in a defensive formation resembling a fishhook. On the third day of the battle, July 3, fighting resumed on Culp’s Hill, and cavalry battles raged to the east and south of Gettysburg. Pickett’s Charge featured the main military engagement, a dramatic Confederate infantry assault of approximately 12,000 Confederates troops, that attacked the center of the Union line at Cemetery Ridge, which was successfully repelled by Union rifle and artillery fire, leading to great Confederate losses. The following day, on the Fourth of July, Lee led his Confederate troops on the torturous retreat from the North. Many died because of lack of medical treatment. Lee executed an orderly withdrawal and escaped across the Potomac River without being drawn into another battle. General George Meade (1815-1872) was heavily criticized by President Abraham Lincoln for his cautious pursuit and his failure to destroy Lee’s retreating army. A proposal by Lee for a prisoner exchange was rejected by Meade. For the North, the results of this victory were priceless. In fact, the Confederates had lost militarily and politically, because on that same day, July 4, 1863, General Ulysess S Grant (1822-1885) won the Siege of Vicksburg, costing the Confederacy an additional 30,000 men, along with all their arms and stores. Gettysburg was the end of the Confederate use of Northern Virginia as a military buffer zone. Prior to Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee had established a reputation as an almost invincible general, achieving stunning victories against superior numbers. Some asked, “Did his generals fail Lee?” Many historians have written about this battle. Some even think that maybe the northern soldiers had machine guns. What do you know about the Battle of Gettysburg?
On the road to the Shenandoah Valley
On Friday morning, June 21, 1985, we set out to finish our journey on the Blue Ridge Parkway. At milepost 84, we stopped at the Peaks of Otter, where three mountain peaks have been popular viewing sites since the days of Thomas Jefferson, as well as the Fallingwater Cascades. At milepost 56, we saw Otter Creek that runs 10 miles down the Blue Ridge to the James River. The Bluff Mountain Overlook was at milepost 52. At milepost 34, was Yankee Horse Ridge, where supposedly a hard-riding Union soldier’s horse fell and had to be shot, near Wigwam Falls. We also passed milestone 29 at Whetstone Ridge. Milepost 16 was Sherando Lake, a recreation area in George Washington National Forest. At milestone 10, Ravens Roost offered vistas of Torry Mountain and the Shenandoah Valley to the west. We did not stop at milepost 9 at Humpback Rock, a collection of old Appalachian farm buildings, nor at Greenstone at milepost 8. We finally reached our destination, milepost 0 at Rockfish Gap near Waynesboro, Virginia, the northern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We were going to continue north to the parkway that connected directly to the Skyline Drive, milepost 105, which went through the Shenandoah National Park. The northern part of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia was long and narrow, with the Shenandoah River and its broad valley to the west, and the rolling hills of the Virginia Piedmont to the east. Skyline Drive was the main park road, traversing along the ridgeline of the mountains. Almost 40% of the park’s land, 79,579 acres, has been designated as wilderness areas. The highest peak is Hawksbill Mountain, but at only 4,051 feet. This Shenandoah Park encompasses parts of eight counties in north-central Virginia. Some of the rocks in the park are over one billion years old. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt formally opened Shenandoah National Park on July 3, 1936. After the 1960s, park operations broadened from nature-focused to include social history. Pines predominate on the southernmost hillsides. In contrast, some of the northeastern areas are most likely loving hemlocks and mosses in abundance. Somehow Shenandoah National Park is one of the most dog-friendly parks in the national park system, while the streams and rivers in the park are very popular with fly fisherman for catching trout. There were many waterfalls within the park boundaries. Jones Run Falls was at milepost 84. Doyles River Falls was at milepost 81. South River Falls was at milepost 62. I know we stopped at Lewis Falls and Lewis Mountain at milepost 57, and then again at milepost 50, Dark Hollow Falls, which had the closest waterfall to the Skyline Drive. We also stopped at the Byrd Visitor Center, since the Rose River and Fishers Gap Overlook was there also. At milepost 42, Whiteoak Canyon had a series of six waterfalls. Overall Run at Hogback Overlook at milepost 21 had the tallest waterfall in the park. Finally, we arrived at Front Royal, the northern Virginia entrance to the Skyline Park in the Shenandoah National Park. I think that we had seen enough scenery, about 600 miles from Cherokee, North Carolina. Have you ever driven on the Virginia Skyline Drive?
Roanoke, Virginia
We spent the night of Thursday, June 20, 1985, in Roanoke, southwest Virginia, along the Roanoke River, in the Blue Ridge range of the greater Appalachian Mountains at the Holiday Inn. Roanoke is about 50 miles north of the Virginia–North Carolina border that we had passed earlier in the day, and 250 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., where we were in 1984, with a population of about 100,000 people, on 43 square miles. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Scotch-Irish and later German American farmers gradually drove the Native Americans out of the area as the American frontier pressed westward. In 1882, the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W) chose this small town as the site of its corporate headquarters and railroad shops. Within two years, this small town became the city of Roanoke, as the population grew from under 700 residents in 1880 to over 16,000 in 1890. During the 20th century, Roanoke’s boundaries expanded through annexations of surrounding Roanoke County, as it became Southwest Virginia’s economic and cultural hub. Roanoke is known for its Roanoke Star, an 88-foot-tall illuminated star that sits atop Mill Mountain within the city. Thus, it has become known as “The Star City of the South.” The current site of Roanoke lies near the intersection of the Great Wagon Road and the Carolina Road, two branches of a network of early colonial roads that developed from Native American trails in the Appalachian region. While the name Roanoke is said to have originated from a Native American word for shell beads used as a currency, that name was first used 300 miles away, where the Roanoke River emptied into the Atlantic Ocean near Roanoke Island. Before the beginning of the Civil War, in 1861, Roanoke County voted 850–0 in favor of secession, but lost many of its men fighting in the Civil War. Roanoke was among the first to adopt the Jim Crow laws that were becoming increasingly popular in the South after the Civil War. In September 1893, tensions boiled over when a white woman was allegedly robbed and beaten by an African-American man. A shootout left eight dead and thirty-one more injured. The racial makeup of the city today is 56% White, 27% African American, 8% Hispanic, and 2% Asian. Historically, flooding has been the primary weather-related hazard faced by Roanoke. The former Norfolk and Western Passenger Station has two museums there. Today, Roanoke is one of the few Democratic pockets in the otherwise heavily Republican southwestern Virginia. While Roanoke is known for its rail history, low ridership numbers led Amtrak to discontinue passenger rail service to the city in 1979. We did not stay long in Roanoke, since we were going back to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Have you ever been to Roanoke, Virginia?
The Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway in North Carolina and Virginia
Late Thursday morning, on June 20, 1985, we entered the Blue Ridge Parkway at mile marker 382, as we headed to Virginia. I remember all these stops because I have a brochure with all the places that we stopped at marked off. Our first stop on the road was at milepost 363, the Craggy Gardens in the Great Craggy Mountains with the Craggy Pinnacle Trail. Then it was on to milepost 355, Mount Mitchell State Park, where we just stopped for a look and a potty break. Up the road at milepost 316 was the Linville Falls Recreation Area, overlooking Linville Falls and the Linville Gorge. We then also stopped at milepost 305, because Linn Cove Viaduct, the last segment of the parkway built, around the side of Grandfather Mountain was not yet complete, but there was a visitor center there. We made a short stop at milepost 292, Moses H. Cone Memorial Park, the former house of Moses H. Cone, now used as the Parkway Craft Center, as well as milepost 285, the Daniel Boone Trail, and milepost 272, E. B. Jeffress Park, which has an old cabin and church. At milepost 238, was the Martin Brinegar Cabin, still standing today, that was built in 1880, and lived in until the 1930s when it was bought for this parkway, purchased from his widow. At milepost 218 was Cumberland Knob, the centerpiece of a small parkway recreation area and Fox Hunters Paradise, where hunters could listen to their hounds baying in the valley below. Finally, we reached the border between North Carolina, as we passed into Virginia on this Blue Ridge Parkway at milepost 216. The original state boundary was set in 1749, surveyed by Peter Jefferson, the father of Thomas Jefferson, and some of his friends. Around milepost 188 was Groundhog Mountain, with a variety of rural rail fences. At milepost 176, the E.B. Mabry Mill operated from 1910 to 1935, while at milepost 174, the Rocky Knob Recreation Area overlooked Rock Castle Gorge. Smart View was named for having “a right smart view” at milepost 154. Then we hit milepost 129, the Roanoke Valley Overlook, the largest city along the parkway. At milepost 120, we crossed over Roanoke Mountain on a one-way 3.7-mile loop road, with steep grades. Finally, at milepost 114, we could see the Roanoke River Gorge. We were heading to Roanoke, Virginia, to spend the night at the Holiday Inn in south Roanoke on routes 280 and 581, that is still there today. We were back in the Commonwealth of Virginia, where we were the preceding year of 1984. Have you ever traveled on a scenic road all day?
The Vanderbilt Biltmore Estate
The morning of Thursday, June 20, 1985, we visited the Biltmore House on the Biltmore Estate, the largest private residence in the USA at 178,926 square feet. This historic house museum was built for George Washington Vanderbilt II (1862-1914) between 1889 and 1895. Still owned by Vanderbilt’s descendants, it remains one of the most prominent examples of the Gilded Age mansions, assessed today at $157.2 million. Biltmore Village, located at the entrance to the famous estate, showcases unique architectural features, since it was here that over 1,000 workers stayed during the construction of this estate. George Vanderbilt II loved the scenery and climate of Asheville so much so that he decided to build a summer house in the area, which he called his “little mountain escape.” His older brothers and sisters had built luxurious summer houses in places such as Newport, Rhode Island, the Gold Coast of Long Island, and Hyde Park, New York. We had seen the Newport houses the year before when we were in Rhode Island in 1984. Vanderbilt named his estate Biltmore, combining De Bilt, his ancestors’ place of origin in the Netherlands, with mor, Anglo-Saxon for “moor,” an open, rolling land. Vanderbilt eventually bought 125,000 acres. This Gilded Age mansion reportedly cost $5 million to construct over six years in the nineteenth century. Many famous guests came to his estate. He married and had one child, Cornelia Stuyvesant Vanderbilt (1900-1976), who was born at Biltmore and grew up at the estate. George Vanderbilt opened his opulent estate, on Christmas Eve of 1895. After Vanderbilt’s unexpected death in 1914, of complications from an emergency appendectomy, his widow sold some of the land. Even though this Biltmore House is within the city limits of Asheville, it is not part of any municipality. The estate was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963, and remains a major tourist attraction in western North Carolina, with around 1.4 million visitors each year. We were part of that on a June Thursday morning in 1985. It seemed bigger than the Hearst Castle in California, and much bigger than the Newport estates in Rhode Island. The grounds were gorgeous with many gardens. You could see the Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance. Biltmore House has 250 rooms with electricity from the time it was built. The first floor has the principal rooms of the Winter Garden, The Banquet Hall, the Music Room, the Tapestry Gallery, and the library. The second-floor balcony is accessed by an ornate walnut spiral staircase with the Master bedroom, the second-floor Living Hall, the gilded bedroom, and a suite of rooms all decorated with famous art works. There is also a third floor with many more guest rooms and a fourth floor for the domestic help. He even had a Bachelor Wing with a Billiard Room, and a bowling alley in the basement, along with a heated indoor pool. Vanderbilt envisioned a park-like setting for his home and employed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) to design the grounds. Vanderbilt’s idea was to replicate the working estates of Europe. This estate has been used on numerous occasions as a filming location for movies and television shows. The Hallmark Channel movie, A Biltmore Christmas, was filmed at Biltmore House in January 2023, being the first movie to be set at the Biltmore House. However, the estate was temporarily closed after Hurricane Helene in September, 2024, but reopened in November, 2024. What is the best mansion you have ever seen?
A night in Asheville, North Carolina
We stayed overnight on Wednesday night, June 19, 1985, at the Day’s Inn, in Asheville, the county seat of Buncombe County, North Carolina. Asheville is the most populous city in Western North Carolina, with 94,589 people. Milepost 384 on The Blue Ridge Parkway has a Asheville Visitor Center. European Americans began to settle in the Asheville area in 1784, after the American Revolutionary War. The USA census of 1790 counted 1,000 residents in the area. Buncombe County was officially formed in 1792. The county seat, named Morristown in 1793, was established on a plateau where two Indian trails crossed. In 1797, Morristown was incorporated and renamed Asheville after the North Carolina Governor, Samuel Ashe. Buncombe County had the largest number of prominent enslavers in Western North Carolina. However, Asheville remained relatively untouched by the battles of the Civil War, until April, 1865, when the “Battle of Asheville” was fought at the present-day site of the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Later, the federal troops returned and plundered Asheville, burning Confederate supporters’ homes in Asheville. Asheville had the first electric street railway lines in the state of North Carolina in 1889. In 1900, Asheville was the third-largest city in the state, behind Wilmington and Charlotte. Since the late 20th century, there has been an effort to maintain and preserve the South Asheville Cemetery, the largest public black cemetery in the state. Mount Pisgah was part of the Biltmore Estate that became the home of the first forestry school in America in 1898. The Montford Area Historic District and other central areas are considered historic districts and include Victorian houses. The YMI Cultural Center, founded in 1892 by George Vanderbilt in the heart of downtown, is one of the nation’s oldest African-American cultural centers. The racial composition of the city today is 74% White, 10% Black, 8% Hispanic, 2% Asian American, and 3% Native American. The city of Asheville claims a clear focus on sustainability and the development of a green economy. The Asheville City Council’s goal is to reduce the overall carbon footprint 80% by 2030. Asheville is recognized by the Green Restaurant Association as the first city in the USA to be a Green Dining Destination. Following President Donald Trump’s decision to remove the United States from the Paris Agreement, Mayor Esther Manheimer was one of the original 61 mayors to commit to uphold the agreement in Asheville. On July 14, 2020, the Asheville City Council voted unanimously to approve reparations to the city’s black citizens. What do you know about Asheville, NC?
Driving the Blue Ridge Parkway
Thus, on Wednesday morning, June 19, 1985, we set out to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway from the Great Smokey Mountains National Park Mile milepost 469, the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Cherokee, North Carolina, towards Virginia and milepost 1. This All-American Road National Parkway, noted for its scenic beauty, is the longest linear park in the USA. It runs for 469 miles through 29 counties in Virginia and North Carolina, linking the Shenandoah National Park to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, along the spine of the Blue Ridge, a major mountain chain that is part of the Appalachian Mountains. This parkway has been the most visited unit in the National Park System every year since 1946. The National Park Service owns and maintains the land on either side of the road, with no fee for using this parkway. However, the roadway is not maintained in the winter. The speed limit is never higher than 45 mph, and lower in some sections, as it is an undivided two-lane expressway for most of its route. Access is controlled via interchanges that largely avoid major population centers. This parkway uses short side roads to connect to other highways, and there are no direct interchanges with Interstate Highways. This road and its vistas are designed to be the attraction itself, rather than merely a means of efficient travel, making it possible to enjoy wildlife and other scenery, without stopping or worrying about cross-traffic. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, began construction in 1935, but it was not completed until 1966. with one notable exception, the Linn Cove Viaduct around Grandfather Mountain that did not open until 1987, so that it took 52 years to complete, a couple of years after we were there. On this road, 25 of the 26 tunnels are in North Carolina, because of the rocky terrain. We spent all our time on Wednesday, on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. I have a newspaper and three booklets about this drive from our trip. I even circled the mileposts that we stopped at. Our first stop was milepost 451 at Water Rock Knob with a great view of the Great Smokies. Next up was milepost 431, Richland Balsam Overlook, the highest point on the parkway at 6,053 feet. Then it was on to Mount Pisgah at milepost 408. Then we went through the Pine Mountain Tunnel, the longest tunnel on the parkway at milepost 401. Finally, we exited at milepost 384 to spend the night in Asheville, North Carolina. We had not gone that far, but we had great views and a nice visit in Cheroke, NC. Have you ever been on the Blue Ridge Parkway?
North Carolina
The state of North Carolina is in the Southeastern region of the USA, bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia to the southwest, and Tennessee to the west. With a population of 10,439,388, Raleigh is the state’s capital. Charlotte, one of the fastest growing cities in the USA, has just under a million people, but the Charlotte metropolitan area has almost three million people with the largest banking center in the nation after New York City. The Research Triangle, established in 1959, is home to the largest research park in the USA. North Carolina consists of three main geographic regions, the eastern Atlantic coastal plain with its Outer Banks, the central Piedmont region, and the Appalachian Mountains in the west. More than a thousand ships have sunk in these Atlantic waters off Cape Hatteras since records began in 1526. Today, the North Carolina population is 64% White, 22% African American, 11% Hispanic, 4% Asian, and 3% Native American. North Carolina residents have historically been overwhelmingly Protestant, first Anglican, then Baptist and Methodist. The Southern Baptist Convention is the single largest Christian denomination, with 1,513,000 members, followed by the Roman Catholic Church with 1,300,000, the United Methodist Church with 660,000, and the Presbyterian Church with 186,000 members. In 1584, Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter to Sir Walter Raleigh, for whom the state capital is named, for land in present-day North Carolina, but then part of the territory of Virginia. Virginia Dare, the first English person to be born in North America, was born on Roanoke Island on August 18, 1587, so that it is called Dare County. King Charles II (1630-1685) granted eight lord proprietors a colony they named Carolina after the king in 1670, with the first permanent settlement at Charles Town. Because of the difficulty of governing the entire colony from Charles Town, this colony was eventually divided between North Carolina and South Carolina in 1712. North Carolina was established as a royal colony in 1729, one of the Thirteen Colonies. North Carolina, on April 12, 1776, had the first formal call for independence from Great Britain among the American Colonies. On November 21, 1789, North Carolina became the 12th state to ratify the USA Constitution. In the run-up to the American Civil War, North Carolina declared its secession from the Union on May 20, 1861, becoming the tenth of eleven states to join the Confederate States of America. Following the Civil War, this state was restored to the Union on July 4, 1868. On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright successfully piloted the world’s first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Thus, North Carolina often uses the slogan “First in Flight.” In 1988, North Carolina gained its first professional sports franchise, the NBA Charlotte Hornets. The NFL Carolina Panthers were based in Charlotte also, in 1995. The NHL Carolina Hurricanes moved to Raleigh in 1997, with their colors being the same as the NC State Wolfpack, who are also located in Raleigh. College sports are also popular in North Carolina, with 18 schools competing at the Division I level. Charlotte also hosts the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Numerous tracks around North Carolina host NASCAR races. Have you ever been to North Carolina?
Gene Finnegan Remembers Living Eighty Wonderful Years 