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?
Cherokee, North Carolina
On Wednesday morning, June 19, 1985, we said goodbye to Tennessee after our nine days stay there. 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. Thus, we went to Cherokee, that is in both Swain and Jackson counties in Western North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the small population was only 2,195, although it was the capital of the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, one of three recognized Cherokee tribes and the only one in North Carolina. The community also serves as a tourist destination, with numerous campgrounds, motels, and hotels serving visitors to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, with a major entrance to the park. The Cherokee Historical Association runs the Oconaluftee Indian Village, a living-history museum, as well as the popular outdoor drama Unto These Hills, and is associated with the Museum of the Cherokee People. Cherokee serves as the southern terminus of the Blue Ridge Parkway. In the 1870s, the Eastern Band purchased the land for what is called the “Qualla Boundary” to continue the heritage of the Cherokee in the town. Several signs for Cherokee’s streets and buildings are written in both Cherokee and English. The population is 75% Native American, 9% White, 7% Hispanic, 1% Asian, and 1 % Black. In 1997, Harrah’s Cherokee Casino for gaming opened. It has generated jobs and revenue for the tribe. In 2005, nearly four million people visited the casino and generated a per capita profit of roughly $8,000 annually. Each member of the tribe is paid some annual income, while the tribe reinvests other monies for health and related services, and long-term development. Thus, Cherokee has become a tourist-oriented area. Have you ever visited a Native American town?
Great Smokey Mountain National Park
On Tuesday, June 18, 1985, we drove through the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, with parts in North Carolina and Tennessee, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are a division of the larger Appalachian Mountain chain. This national park contains some of the highest mountains in eastern North America. 72 miles of the Appalachian Trail passes through the center of the park on its route from Georgia to Maine. With 13 million visitors annually, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited national park in the United States, encompassing 522,419 acres or 816 square miles, internationally recognized for its mountains, biodiversity, and forests. This park was chartered by the United States Congress in 1934 and officially dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940, and has since been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 and an International Biosphere Reserve in 1988. This park borders an Indian reservation to the south that is home to the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians. Native Americans have been hunting in the Great Smoky Mountains for over 14,000 years. This park is home to over 1,500 species of flowering plants, more than in any other national park in North America, more than 4,000 species of non-flowering plants, 2,700 fungi, 952 algae, and over 130 species of trees. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is home to 65 species of mammals, over 240 species of birds, 43 species of amphibians, 67 species of fish, 40 species of reptiles, and 43 species of amphibians. The American black bear is perhaps the best-known animal that resides within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Smokies are also home to 27 species of rodents, and 12 species of bats, with one of the world’s most diverse salamander populations. There are many reptiles found within the park including 8 species of turtles, 9 species of lizards and snakes, with more than 9,000 species of insects. There are 850 miles of trails and unpaved roads in the park for hiking. I was not interested in all these species, but Margaret was into the various flowers. We visited Cades Cove, the most frequented destination in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, that provides dramatic views of the surrounding mountains. I have a brochure of Cades Cove that talks about 15 different places to stop on this 11-mile one-way loop road that encircles Cades Cove. You could get a sense or a glimpse into the way of life of old-time southern Appalachia. I also have four postcards from there. Other historical areas within the park include Roaring Fork, Cataloochee, Elkmont, the Mountain Farm Museum, and the Mingus Mill in Oconaluftee, but I am not sure if we went there. That Tuesday late afternoon and evening, we went to Ober Gatlinburg, a ski area that was established in 1962, about three miles from downtown Gatlinburg. A tramway ski lift opened in 1973, while an upper mall opened in 1982 that had a mini-amusement park with a large mall and an indoor ice-skating rink, snack bars, a restaurant, and stores. This aerial cable car tramway connected Ober Gatlinburg Mountain to downtown Gatlinburg. We spent some there on late Tuesday afternoon. Have you ever been on a tram ski lift?
Silver Dollar City, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
On Monday, June 17, 1985, we spent the day at Silver Dollar City, in Pigeon Forge, about five miles from Gatlinburg, like the Silver Dollar City in the Ozarks that we had visited in 1979. This amusement park originally opened in 1961 as a small tourist attraction owned by the Robbins brothers named “Rebel Railroad,” inspired by the centennial of the American Civil War. The train ride let visitors experience “attacks” by Union soldiers, train robbers, and Native Americans, protected by Confederate soldiers. In 1964, the park was renamed “Goldrush Junction.” In 1970, Art Modell, who also owned the NFL Cleveland Browns, bought Goldrush Junction, and added an outdoor theater and a chapel. In 1976, Jack and Pete Herschend bought Goldrush Junction and renamed it “Silver Dollar City, Tennessee,” a sister park to their original Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. Thus, we were familiar with this park from our 1979 experience in Branson. In 1986, the following year, Dolly Parton, who grew up in the area, bought an interest in Silver Dollar City. As part of the deal, the park reopened for the 1986 season as “Dollywood.” Today, Dollywood is jointly owned by Herschend Family Entertainment, the people who own Silver Dollar City in Branson, and the country singer-songwriter Dolly Parton. Dollywood has nearly three million guests annually, the biggest ticketed tourist attraction in Tennessee. That Monday in June, 1985, Pigeon Forge Silver Dollar City had three main sections, Craftsmen’s Valley, Village Square, and Fun Country. Craftsmen’s Valley had fifty different shops or houses with various crafts, including a chapel and fast-food places. Village Square had about twelve different shops and stops for the train that ran around the perimeter of this city. In Fun Country, there were about twenty different rides, games, food snacks, and a large Barnwood Theater, for music shows. It was not as big as Opryland, and maybe a little less interesting than the Silver Dollar City in Branson. However, Joy, who was eleven, probably enjoyed it as much as Opryland in Nashville. We headed back to our hotel in Gatlinburg just a few miles away to do some swimming in the pool. Have you ever been to a Silver Dollar Amusement Park?
Gatlinburg, Tennessee
That Sunday afternoon, we headed to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, from Chattanooga, 154 miles, about a three-hour drive. We were going to stay three nights at the Quality Inn in Gatlinburg, which is still there near the entrance to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park, Sunday night, June 16, Monday, June 17, and Tuesday, June 18, 1985. They had a nice swimming pool. Gatlinburg is a city in Sevier County, Tennessee, with a small population of 3,577 on 10 square miles, but it is a popular mountain resort town. For centuries, Cherokee hunters, as well as other Native American hunters before them, used a footpath known as the Indian Gap Trail to access the abundant game in the forests and coves of the Smokies. In 1856, a post office was established in the general store of Radford Gatlin (1798–1880), giving the town its name of Gatlinburg. On the eve of the U.S. Civil War, Gatlin, who became a Confederate sympathizer, was at odds with the residents of the flats, who were mostly pro-Union, so that he was forced out in 1859. Despite its anti-slavery sentiments, Gatlinburg, like most Smoky communities, tried to remain neutral during the war. In the 1880s, the invention of the bandsaw and the logging railroad led to a boom in the lumber industry. Andrew Jackson Huff (1878–1949) was a pivotal figure in Gatlinburg at that time. He erected a sawmill in Gatlinburg in 1900. Extensive logging in the early 1900s led to increased calls by conservationists for federal action, and in 1911, Congress passed the Weeks Act to allow for the purchase of land for national forests. With the purchase of 76,000 acres in the Little River Lumber Company tract in 1926, the movement quickly became a reality. Andrew Huff spearheaded the movement in the Gatlinburg area, and he opened the first hotel in Gatlinburg, the Mountain View Hotel in 1916. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park opened in 1934 that radically changed Gatlinburg. In 1934, the first year the park was open, an estimated 40,000 visitors passed through the city. Within a year, this number had increased over twelvefold to 500,000. From 1940 to 1950, the cost per acre of land in Gatlinburg increased from $50 to $8,000. While the park’s arrival benefited Gatlinburg and made many of the town’s residents wealthy, the tourism explosion led to problems with air quality and urban sprawl. There were two major fires in Gatlinburg, 1992 and 2016, both after we were there in 1985. U.S. Route 441 is the main traffic artery in Gatlinburg, running through the center of town from north to south. The population is 75% White, 18% Hispanic, 2% Asian, but less than 1% African American. As the gateway community for Great Smoky Mountains National Park, many man-made attractions have developed. The Gatlinburg Trolley caters to area tourists. The Gatlinburg Sky Lift takes visitors up 1,800 feet to the top of Crockett Mountain. Ober Mountain is the only ski resort in the state, that also provides views of the Smoky Mountains in the summertime. We were going to spend three nights in Gatlinburg. Have you ever been to Gatlinburg?
Chattanooga Choo-Choo
Chattanooga was a crucial city during the American Civil War due to the multiple railroads that converged there. After the war, these railroads allowed for the city to grow into one of the Southeastern USA’s largest heavy industrial hubs. By the 1930s, Chattanooga was known as the “Dynamo of Dixie,” inspiring the 1941 Glenn Miller big-band swing song “Chattanooga Choo-Choo.” In the downtown area is the Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel, housed in the renovated Terminal Station, where we went to have lunch on June 16, 1985. Trains have a pride of place in Chattanooga’s former Terminal Station, as I have three postcards from there. The 1941 Glenn Miller song that catapulted Chattanooga to international fame, “Chattanooga Choo-Choo,” was first performed in the 1941 film Sun Valley Serenade, featuring the Glen Miller Orchestra. This song was written by Mack Gordon and composed by Harry Warren, and then recorded as a big band/swing tune by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra. It became the first song to receive a gold record for sales of 1.2 million copies, the number one song for nine weeks on the Billboard Best Sellers chart. The opening verses, after a big train introduction were,
“Pardon me, boy, is that the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?”
“Yes, yes, Track 29!”
“Boy, you can give me a shine.”
“Can you afford to board the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?”
“I’ve got my fare, and just a trifle to spare.”
This song won the Academy Award in 1941 for the Best Song from a movie. In 1996, the 1941 recording of “Chattanooga Choo-Choo” by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. This song has been recorded by numerous artists, including the Andrews Sisters, Ray Anthony, Asleep at the Wheel, Willie Nelson, the BBC Big Band, George Benson, John Bunch, Caravelli, Regina Carter, Ray Charles, Harry Connick Jr., Ray Conniff, John Denver, Ernie Fields, Stephane Grappelli, Marc Fosset, the Harmonizing Four, Harmony Grass, Ted Heath, Betty Johnson, Susannah McCorkle, Ray McKinley, the Muppets, Oscar Peterson, Spike Robinson, Harry Roy, Jan Savitt, Hank Snow, Teddy Stauffer, Dave Taylor, Claude Thornhill, the Tornados, Vox, Cab Calloway, Carmen Miranda, Bill Haley & His Comets, Floyd Cramer, the Shadows, and Tuxedo Junction. The reputation given to the city by this song also has lent itself to making Chattanooga the home of the National Model Railroad Association since 1982. Have you ever been on a train to Chattanooga?
Gene Finnegan Remembers Living Eighty Wonderful Years 