Lake Junaluska in the Land of the Sky;

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In the Land of the Sky

A booklet describing the Lake Junaluska Assembly of the Methodist Chu rch in the Mountains of Western North Carolina

Lake Junaluska Assembly Dr. F. S. Love. Superintendent Lake Junaluska. >«>rlh Carolina

IN THE LAND OF THE SKY

The entrance to the Lake Junaluska Assembly, showing the Mission Inn

e story of the Lake Junaluska Assembly of The

f the great Chief of the Cherokees whose of the matchless Smoky Mountains coun-

ts located. While it serves mainly the Southeastern

Lake Junaluska is a connectional institution, the the whole Church, under the control of and sup- General Conference,

ibly consists of 2,500 acres of land and a lake of 250 acres in Western North Carolina, twenty-eight miles west of

Asheville, near the eastern entrance to the Great Si tains National Park and the Qualla Reservation

near Lake Junaluska

Lake Junaluska takes its name from a famous chief of the Cherokees, who inhabited all the southern mountain area from prehistoric times until they were dispossessed in 1838. The Cherokees were a lordly people—the largest, most important, most cultured, and proudest of all the tribes. One of their chiefs, Sequoyah, invented the alphabet which made Indian litera- ture possible. Junaluska and his braves fought with Andrew Jackson in the

War of 1812 and saved the life of that General at the Battle of Horse- shoe Bend, But when Jackson became President of the United States he ordered the Cherokees removed to the Indian Territory. That

was in 1838. The Cherokees were rounded up like cattle and driven westward, 4,000 of them dying on the road.

A little handful of Cherokees in the Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina escaped. Their leader was Tsali and his sons; they

were all murdered but their resistance enabled a few of their com- rades to hide in the mountains and elude the searching soldiers. Junaluska was one of the exiles of 1838. He was then an old man. He could find no peace in exile. His soul cried for the mountains of his fathers. The small band of refugees who remained in the Smokies had secured amnesty and Junaluska went back to them. There he lived and there he died. In 1847 the State honored him in a striking way. By special act of the Legislature he was made a citizen and given a sum of money and a tract of land in the Cheowa Indian settlement near Robbinsville. Here is peace and beauty typical of the Lake Junaluska environment

He died in 1858. His grave is surrounded by a neat iron fence,

and above the gate is the single word, Junaluska. His monument is a great stone in which is set a bronze tablet bearing this inscription:

"Here lies the body of the Cherokee Chief, Junaluska, and

Nicie, his wife. Together with his warriors he saved the life of General Jackson at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. And for his bravery and faithfulness, North Carolina made him a citizen and gave him land in Graham County. He died

November 20, 1858, aged more than 100 years. This monument was erected to his memory by the General Josephus Winston Chapter, D.A.R., 1910."

The Cherokees still live in the Smokies. Their central village is Cherokee, at the eastern gate of the Great Smoky Mountains Na- tional Park, and travelers passing that way are attracted by the "trading posts" filled with souvenirs, the drab Indian farmers, and the more spectacular red men gaily arrayed in the traditional

feathered headgear for the benefit of the tourist.

Near Waynesville the highest mountain bears the name of their

great chief, as does the shining lake that lies at its base. This is "The Land of the Sky," famed in song and story for beauty surpassing that of any similar phenomenon in eastern America.

A dashing little river in "The Land of the Sky." The Great Smoky Mountains are here and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park—visited by more people than any other in America.

Here are the highest peaks east of the Rockies. Clingman's Dome towers

6,644 feet, Leconte 6,612 feet, and many others lift their heads above 6,000 feet.

The Lake Junaluska Assembly itself lies 2,600 feet above the level of the sea, an altitude which gives a delightful temperature without humidity.

This is the land of the pioneer, of Daniel Boone, and John Sevier, and Abra- ham Lincoln, and Andrew Jackson, and Andrew Johnson, and many like them.

It produced the men who conguered the savage tribes, turned the tide of the

Revolution at King's Mountain, and performed the most notable feats of per-

sonal valor both in World War I and World War II.

Yet Horace Kephart could not find in any library a scrap of information

about it. "Had I been going to Teneriffe or Timbuctu," he wrote, "the

libraries would have furnished information a-plenty; but about this housetop

of eastern America they were strangely silent; it was terra incognito."

It is terra incognito no longer. In normal times a guarter of a million people each summer seek the restful beauty of this paradise of places.

Here is the home of the mountaineer, who, according to popular fancy,

The Atkins Memo- rial House, home of the Superintendent of the Lake Juna-

1 u s k a Assembly. Formerly the home of Bishop James At- kins, one of the founders of the As- sembly; it was presented to the institution by Mrs James Atkins —

speaks the tongue of Chaucer and Spenser and Shakespeare, lingers in the eighteenth century, and lives in a log cabin. He is "more

English in speech than Britain itself, more American by blood than any other man in America." In his veins flows the purest Anglo- Saxon blood of the nation. His people are 100 per cent native born of native born parents.

Here, too, is the natural wealth of America. It has been a land of coves and cabins, of poor land and primitive methods, of much food but little money, of sorry roads and isolation. Yet fabulous riches are in the Appalachian area.

There is here "a greater variety of indigenous trees than could be found in a trip from Turkey to England or from the Atlantic to the Rockies." The hardwood forests elsewhere have been decreasing for forty years; the Appalachians contain seventy-five million acres of hardwood, half the country's supply, which yield more than three-fourths of the annual cut of the whole nation.

The region has one-sixth of America's potential water power easily worth a hundred million dollars a year if harnessed and used. It produces one-fourth of our bituminous coal and employs one- fourth of the miners. The United States Geographical Survey de- clared that the southern Appalachians could supply the country's coal for 2,360 years.

Appalachia has been backward, but it will be flourishing when

other sections are effete.

It is the home of the rhododendron, the azalea, the mountain laurel. In the spring millions upon millions of the gorgeous blos- soms cover the mountains with mantles of white or lavender or pink

or flame. Persons have been known to weep as they glimpsed the vista from Newfound Gap or Clingman's Dome.

The coves and dashing streams are easily accessible now. Mag- nificent highways that wind around and across the mountains

have been built. Bridle trails, footpaths, and camping places have

been provided. Still the improvements continue. They modify the

unspoiled customs of the people, but they permit the outside world

to enter, and they bring isolated communities in touch with the markets, the schools, and the general culture of the nation.

Looking through "The Narrows" to- ward the golf club at Lake Junaiuska 7 HE Lake Junaluska Assembly is the gift of laymen to The Methodist Church. More than a thousand men met at Chattanooga in April,

1908, in the first general meeting of the Laymen's Missionary Move- ment of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and they adopted a resolu- tion of historic importance:

RESOLVED, That it is the sense of this Conference that it would be well

for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to have a great assembly

ground on the order of Northfield, Massachusetts, for the gathering to-

gether of our forces at stated times, and that such grounds be so located and so improved as to make them suitable for the various confer-

At New Found Gap, "Brenner Pass" of eastern America Panorama over Lake Junaluska.

ences of our Church when desirable to hold them there, and for Bible

institutes and such other organizations for the help of the preachers and laymen and the general upbuilding of the Church and her forces as may-

be decided upon in our onward movement for the evangelization of the world.

RESOLVED, That a committee be appointed consisting of John R. Pepper,

John P. Pettijohn, Gen. Julian S. Carr, B. M. Burgher, R. S. Schoolfield,

R. B. Davenport, and A. D. Reynolds, with the request to take this matter

in hand and to take such steps as they may think best with the approval

of the Executive Committee.

Various sites were considered for the location of the proposed assembly, and the decision was made in favor of a spot on Richland Creek about three

miles east of Waynesville, North Carolina. It was stated that this spot "has in

it the rarest combination of beauties and conveniences to be found in a similar

compass anywhere," and that "the mountains which surround it are without

that ruggedness which is forbidding, and rich in that beauty which so grace-

fully glides into the sublime as to rejoice the timid child and inspire with

the loftiest impulses the strongest man." It was also pointed out that "it is the most wholesome climate on earth" and "above the mosquito line!" The institution was called The Southern Assembly. The place was named Lake Junaluska.

The Assembly was officially opened on June 25, 1913, with the

meeting of the Second General Missionary Conference, which attracted many notable persons and was marked by the largest pub-

lic collection ever made in the Church—when $152,000 was given for foreign missions. After that the growth was steady. Improvements were made,

homes were built, the official boards and agencies of the Church established headquarters, the conferences were annually attended

The Book Store, owned and operated by The Methodist Publishing House Friendship, the home of Bishop and Mrs. Paul B. Kern. Bishop Kern is the resident Bish- op of the Nashville Area

by increasing throngs. Lake Junaluska became known as "the summer capital of Southern Methodism."

Its history was marked by troubles, too. Its greatest hotel burned

—to be replaced by the noble Mission Building on the same site. Some men ridiculed the idea, and some disparaged those who gave

it their thought, prayers, time, and substance.

Most serious were its financial difficulties. It went into bank- ruptcy once.

It was, in a sense, a private enterprise at first. The laymen built

it and owned it —because the Church could not accept it while

burdened with debt. But it was for the Church, and it was a require- ment that three-fourths of the capital stock must be owned by Methodists.

To transfer it to the Church free of debt was a difficult matter.

First it was turned over to a body of trustees appointed by the con-

ferences east of the Mississippi. But this could not save it. The Assembly was put in charge of a receiver in 1932. Then a campaign was launched to raise the indebtedness and turn the institution over to the Church. Dr. W. A. Lambeth was the director, and under his leadership the necessary funds were se- The Bell Tower and Lake Junaluska

cured in 1936. The Assembly was turned over

to a "holding committee," and it officially became the property of the Church by action of

the General Conference at Birmingham in 1938. The name was changed to Lake Junaluska

Assembly. It passed to the united Methodist

Church as a connectional institution. The finances were stabilized and in the years following the Assembly was placed on a permanently successful basis.

Its popularity increased and its usefulness expanded. During the war years,

in spite of difficulties of travel, larger crowds have visited the grounds and A Cherokee Indian farmer and his oxen.

attended the conferences than ever before. Lake Junaluska is a "going con- cern."

Many hundreds of outstanding Methodists have shared sacrificially in the development of the Assembly, and many continue to share. Among those to whom honor and gratitude are due the following should be mentioned: Bishop

James Atkins, Bishop James Cannon, Jr., Dr. George R. Stuart, Mr. John R.

Pepper, Hon Josephus Daniels, Mr. W. H. Stockham, General Julian S. Carr,

"Private" John Allen, Mr. J. B. Ivey, Mr. A. E. Cole, and Mr. B. J. Sloan. All

but three of these owned homes at the Lake.

The Superintendents have been Bishop James Cannon, Jr., Mr. J. Dale

Stentz, Mr. Ralph E. Nollner, Mr. James Atkins, Jr., and Dr. F. S. Love. Lake Junaluska is twenty-eight miles west of Asheville, North

Carolina, and three miles east of Waynesville, on a branch of the

Southern Railway. Its area is 2,500 acres. Its Lake has 250 acres.

A magnificent highway passes the gate, along which run thirty buses each day, connecting with all the lines radiating through the nation.

It is near the eastern gateway of the Great Smoky Mountains Na- tional Park. The highway from Lake lunaluska leads, in a short drive, to Soco Gap, Cherokee and the Indian Reservation, New Found Gap, "the Brenner Pass of eastern America," Clingman's Dome, the peak of the Smokies, and Gatlinburg at the foot of the mountain on the Tennessee side.

The trip through the Park, over New Found Gap, and down the mountain again is one of the most interesting in America, on a high-

Shadows play- across Comfort Cot- tage, the home of Bishop and Mrs.

Arthur J. Moore of Atlanta The Rock House on Amen Corner, home of Dr. Elmer T. Clark, New York.

Dr. Clark is Editor of World Outlook and Editorial Secre- tary of the Beard of Missions and Church Extension

way that is a marvel of engineering, with breath-taking views every inch of the way.

One sees the wild bears of the Smokies, the lavish beauties of

nature, and the trails, bridges, picnic grounds, and camping places which Uncle Sam has provided.

This way comes the great Sky Line Drive, which traverses Virginia and North Carolina and the Smoky and Blue Ridge Mountain area.

It joins the National Park highway at Soco Gap, the eastern edge of the Qualla Indian Reservation, midway between Lake lunaluska and Cherokee, twelve miles from each. Shackford Hall, headquarters of the Board of Education

Within view from any point on the Assembly grounds are the peaks of Junaluska, Lickstone, Balsam, Sugar Loaf, and numerous other mountains.

Within a short drive are Cove Creek, Heintooga Bald, Cataloochee, Pisgah, and many other interesting and romantic places.

Those so disposed may see the colorful pageantry of the Cherokees, the

mountaineers and their cabins, looms, and rifles, the ancient water mills still

grinding their grist, and the intricate square dances of the hill people. The dancers from the Lake Junaluska neighborhood, the Soco Gap teah, are the national champions and were invited by President Roosevelt to dance before their Majesties, King George and Queen Elizabeth of England.

Those with other interests may play golf, swim, catch trout in Lake Junaluska or cast for the mountain or rainbow variety on Cataloochee, climb the moun-

tains, follow the trails on horseback. Others may go boating on the Lake, play tennis, soft ball, ping-pong, or

shuffleboard on the courts or in the recreation rooms, or eat the finest food in a

hundred farmhouses open to visitors or in the numerous hotels and boarding houses.

Or they may lounge on the broad porches and enjoy the unsurpassed beauty

of the scene.

Whatever the visitors' interests may be, if they are wholesome and cul- tural in nature., they are likely to be gratified at Lake Junaluska. Many ad-

vantages are offered, but nothing is compulsory. In addition to the attractions

of nature there are inviting social, intellectual, and spiritual prospects for well-disposed persons.

The fellowship of congenial spirits at Lake Junaluska is widely known. During the summer there are courses and conferences in nearly every phase

of religious life and activity—open to all who care for such things. Great preachers and lecturers appear daily upon the platform, and various angles of truth are freely presented and discussed. Music and movies and fun abound on the programs.

To all these things men and women of good-will are cordially invited.

The boat "Cherokee" on Lake Junaluska jj and (fJuHj/tamt

When the visitor approaches the lovely stone entrance to Lake Junaluska he sees a great white domed building with wide galleries and large colonial pil- lars standing on the highest point on the grounds, overlooking the Lake and the whole Assembly. This is the Mission Inn, property of the Board of Missions and operated each summer as a combined hotel and educational center. Here are held the schools of missions and missionary conferences of the Southeastern Jurisdiction.

It has accommodations for more than a hundred guests, with a chapel,

classrooms, and parlors, and many other groups take advantage of its facili-

ties. The Southeastern Jurisdictional Council, the District Superintendents' Conference, the Salvation Army officials of the southeastern states, and other groups meet here. On a high point over the lake in front of this building stands the great white Cross, always visible from every point on the Assembly grounds, and at night, electrically illuminated, seen from afar over a wide area.

Far across the lake is another large white building. It is Shackford Hall,

property and headquarters of the Board of Education. Its halls are nearly al-

The Queen of Junaluska in her boat pageant A typical missionary conference

ways crowded with young people and their leaders, for here are held during the summer the youth conferences, leadership schools, and various educational gatherings of the Southeastern Jurisdic- tion. at the Lake Junaluska Assembly

On the grounds of the educational building, but separate there-

from, are the dormitories and cafeteria operated as a part of its

facilities.

Midway between the headquarters buildings of these two greatest Ivey-Crest, home of

Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Ivey. Mr. Ivey is President of Ivey's, great department stores at Charlotte

1 and A s h e v i 1 e , North Carolina, and Greenville, South Carolina

boards of the Church, in the middle of things, is the Book Store, the beautiful little log building of the Methodist Publishing House, with its broad reading gallery overlooking the lake.

Here also are the Terrace Hotel, the largest hostelry, property of and operated by the Assembly corporation; the boat house, gift shop, tea room, recreation room, and library, all under one roof; the drug store and Assembly offices; the Ivey Playground for children, the gift of the Methodist merchant prince, Mr. J. B. Ivey; and the central auditorium.

The great steel auditorium is the center of Junaluska's public programs. On its platform, morning and evening, are the sermons, lectures, musical presentations, and forums for which Lake lunaluska has been famous for a third of a century. Most of the outstanding Protestant religious leaders of the country have preached in this auditorium.

Among the regular features of the program each summer are Haywood County Day, lunaluska Day, missionary conference, leadership training schools, young people's conferences, pastor's conference, young preacher's conference, school of missions, music week,

evangelistic meeting, district superintendent's conference, laymen's conference, and many others. These suggest the wide range of the programs.

In the auditorium the Queen of Junaluska is crowned each year, motion pictures are shown weekly, and various programs in lighter

vein are featured at intervals.

Near this auditorium, where the blue waters will gleam through

its colonnades, in a spot surrounded by flowers and trees, will stand the Memorial Chapel which the churches of the Southeastern Jurisdiction are erecting in honor of their members who served in the armed forces of our country.

Close at hand are numerous privately-operated hotels and inns, the Cherokee, Colonial, Sunset Cottage, Lakeside Lodges, Provi-

dence, and others, which at various rates offer hospitality to the

visitor.

Winona, the home of Dr. and Mrs. Ludd M. Spivey. Dr.

Spivey is President of Florida Southern College at Lake- land, Florida —

Lake Junaluska is more than an Assembly ground. It is a community.

One hundred and fifty Methodist families own homes on the grounds including several bishops, editors, connectional secretaries, college and university presidents and professors, ministers, and outstanding laymen.

Several retired ministers live at the Lake the whole year through and many others plan to do so. An ever-increasing number will make Lake Junaluska their permanent home.

In the instrument of incorporation and in each deed there is a protec- tective clause which gives the assembly a virtual option on each property to be sold, at the price offered by the prospective purchaser. By the exercise of this right the assembly may determine the type of its resi- dents. The Memorial Chapel at Lake Junaluska, being erected by the churches of the Southeastern Jurisdiction in honor of the Methodist men and women who served in the armed forces of the country. This Gothic stone structure will be as beautiful and well appointed as architectural genius can make it and in perfect har- mony with its surroundings. It will be used exclusively for religious purposes. In a great volume perpetually maintained in the Room of Remembrance at the left will be inscribed the names of all the service men and women from the churches which cooperated in providing the funds for the erection of this chapel. Rev. F. S. Love, Superintendent

Trustees

Bishop Clare Purcell, Chairman, Charlotte, N. C.

Bishop Paul B. Kern, Nashville, Tenn. Bishop Walter W. Peele, Richmond, Va. Dr. Elmer T. Clark, New York Mr. H. A. Dunham, Asheville, N. C.

Dr. R. L. Flowers, Durham, N. C.

Mr. Edwin L. Jones, Charlotte, N. C. Dr. W. A. Lambeth, Greensboro, N. C. Judge Benj. A. Littleton, Washington

Dr. G. L. Morelock, Chicago

Dr. C. C. Norton, Spartanburg, S. C.

Dr. W. F. Quillian, Atlanta, Ga. Dr. Guy E. Snavely, Washington

Mr. W. S. F. Tatum, Hattiesburg, Miss.

Mr. L. W. Wells, Richmond, Va. AN INVITATION

The trustees of The Lake Junaluska Assembly invite you to its ground each summer and assure you of a cordial wel- come and a profitable and joyous sojourn in the Land of the

Sky. They especially invite you to come and live among the Junaluskans—to build a home in these matchless mountains for summer or permanent occupancy. You will receive all possible encouragement, aid, and cooperation in the erection or purchase of a home by these quiet and beautiful waters. Write to the Superintendent about it.

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