History on the Road ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA, and the CRADLE of FORESTRY by Bill Alexander
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History On The Road ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA, AND THE CRADLE OF FORESTRY By Bill Alexander he region com- forest management at Biltmore Estate in of vast areas of the southern Appalachian prising Bilt more 1888 as a model for the country. Gifford region. Led by Chase P. Ambler, its secre- T Estate and Pis - Pinchot, the first American-born trained tary and treasurer, the association turned gah National Forest in forester and Biltmore’s first forester (1892– a regional interest into a national move- the Blue Ridge Moun - 95), created and implemented at Biltmore ment that culminated in the passage of the tains of western North the first comprehensive working plan for Weeks Act 100 years ago this year. Ashe - Caro lina is deservedly sustainable forest management in the ville is indeed where the forest preservation known as the Birth - United States. Carl Alwin Schenck, chief movement took root. place of American For - forester at Biltmore (1895–1909) and estry. Its reputation is due in large part to Pinchot’s successor there, expanded the for- BILTMORE ESTATE the vision and conservation-mindedness of est management program to encompass The Biltmore House is America’s largest four pioneers of forestry in the late nine- 125,000 acres and founded the Biltmore private residence and attracts more than a teenth century who saw the need for pro- Forest School, the first in America to train million visitors a year. Located near Ashe - tecting large areas of forestland for public professional foresters. The majority of ville in the heart of the Blue Ridge Moun - benefit. George Washington Vanderbilt, the Vanderbilt’s land would become the core tains, the 250-room structure, designed by founder of the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, of the first national forest established in the architect Richard Morris Hunt in the style North Carolina, embraced and invested in eastern United States. of a French Renaissance chateau, and the sustainable forestry at a time when it was Across town from the Biltmore Estate, world-class gardens and grounds, designed not yet an accepted business for large land - a group of concerned citizens drew inspi- by America’s preeminent landscape archi- owners. Frederick Law Olmsted, America’s ration from Vanderbilt’s successes and in tect, Frederick Law Olmsted, are the main “Father of Landscape Architec ture,” con- 1899 established the Appalachian National attractions to most visitors. Generally less ceived and established the first program of Park Association to lobby for protection known is that Biltmore and the former part FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY PHOTO COLLECTION, FHS798; U.S. SERVICE 498547 View of the Biltmore Mansion, from the entrance. George Vanderbilt’s home in Asheville, North Carolina, is open to the public, as are the gardens and surrounding estate. FOREST HISTORY TODAY | SPRING/FALL 2011 103 islation that would allow the federal gov- ernment to establish forest reserves in the East by buying up private land. Olmsted, meanwhile, was advocating a halt to the thoughtless destruction of the nation’s forests and promoting long-term, scientific management of forests as a wise investment for landowners, and Vanderbilt was buying up lands that had been slashed, burned, and overgrazed for more than a century, in the expectation that their con- dition could be improved over time. In Vanderbilt and his dream of a gentleman’s country estate, Olmsted could realize his own dream. Vanderbilt’s initial thoughts were to turn most of his land into an extensive park like those he had seen in France and England. Olmsted, having made a thorough inspec- tion of the land, told him much of it was too rough and poor for a proper park: You bought the place then simply because FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION, FHS298 you thought it had a good air and The Pisgah Forest’s Pink Bed area, seen here around 1900, was purchased by George Vanderbilt because, from this point, it had a good and was the summer home of the Biltmore Forest School. More than 100 years later, the area, distant outlook. If this was what you which is now a national forest, provides excellent recreational opportunities for thousands of wanted you have made no mistake. visitors annually. There is no question about the air and none about the prospect. But the soil of the estate known as Pisgah Forest are sanitariums in Asheville and surrounding seems to be generally poor. The woods the “Cradle of Forestry” in America. The towns. Asheville’s rapid growth brought are miserable, all the good trees having forest that covers more than two-thirds of one of the country’s first and finest electric again and again been culled out and only the estate’s nearly 8,000 acres today con- street railway systems, which connected runts left. The topography is most tinues to be managed according to the the town to major resorts and attractions. unsuitable for anything that can properly same principles established at Biltmore by By the close of the nineteenth century, the be called park scenery. It’s no place for Vanderbilt, Olmsted, Pinchot, and Schenck. city boasted two light companies, a gas a park. You could only get very poor When Vanderbilt first visited Asheville company, a telephone exchange, excellent results at great cost in attempting it.1 in 1888, eight years after the Western North public schools, and well-known finishing Carolina Railroad had penetrated the schools for girls and college preparatory Olmsted advised him, rugged mountains into Asheville, the town schools for boys. was booming. Both the city and the sur- But the same railroad that brought Such land in Europe would be made a rounding area had a national reputation as tourists in was hauling logs out, thus con- forest; partly, if it belonged to a gentle- a resort locale with the most healthful cli- tributing to the destruction of the very man of large means, as a preserve for mate in the country. The region, with its scenery that helped make Asheville an game, mainly with a view to crops of picturesque mountain scenery, hot springs, appealing destination. A desire to preserve timber. That would be a suitable and and grand hotels boasting the latest in mod- the area’s scenery and clean air moved a dignified business for you to engage in; ern conveniences and recreational ameni- group of mostly local men to form the it would, in the long run, be probably a ties, was widely promoted in large cities in Appalachian National Park Association in fair investment of capital and it would both the North and the South. Newspaper 1899. Joined by representatives from seven be of great value to the country to have advertisements, magazine articles, and neighboring states, the association pushed a thoroughly well organized and system- other publications promoted Asheville and for the establishment of forest reserves and atically conducted attempt in forestry western North Carolina with appealing slo- national parks in the southern Appalach - made on a large scale. My advice would gans like “Health-seeker’s Paradise,” “Poet’s ians to protect the region’s greatest asset, be to make a small park into which to Dream,” and “Madonna in the Mountains,” the land. Directors of the association look from your house; make a small and “The Land of the Sky”—one that has included Schenck, estate superintendent pleasure ground and garden, farm your endured to this day. Charles McNamee, and local newspaper river bottom chiefly to keep and fatten Exploring the countryside, Vanderbilt publisher and former state senator Charles live stock…and make the rest a forest, found the air “mild and invigorating” and A. Webb. As secretary and treasurer, improving the existing woods and plant- the climate to his liking. Such natural attrib- though, Ambler was the primary force ing the old fields.2 utes spurred the building of resorts and behind its efforts. The group sought leg- 104 FOREST HISTORY TODAY | SPRING/FALL 2011 COURTESY OF THE BILTMORE ESTATE ARCHIVES ESTATE COURTESY OF THE BILTMORE George Vanderbilt (far right) on an outing in Pisgah Forest, c. 1892. Seated, from left, are George’s cousin-in-law Walter Rathbone Bacon, estate forester Gifford Pinchot, and George’s cousin Virginia Barker Bacon; standing are nieces Emily and Adele Sloane. Pinchot, the son of a wealthy New York merchant, fit in comfortably with Vanderbilt and his guests. After surveying Vanderbilt’s land hold- Forestry would make the best use of the the overall health and condition of a ings, Olmsted prepared reports in 1889 and greater part of the wealthy man’s property, degraded forest. Pinchot also conducted 1890 describing the condition of the forest provide him with a useful occupation and an assessment of some large tracts of and offering detailed suggestions for a source of satisfaction for himself and his forested mountain land near and beyond improvement cuttings. One of the reports, friends, and would also with time provide Mount Pisgah, which Vanderbilt then pur- “Project of Operations for Improving the a return on his investment. Even more chased. The Pink Beds and other large Forest of Biltmore,” may be one of the importantly, by demonstrating forestry on tracts increased his land holdings to earliest written forest management pre- such a large scale, Vanderbilt would be approximately 125,000 acres, or nearly 195 scriptions in the United States. In it Olm - “doing the country an inestimable service.”3 square miles. sted noted, Olmsted realized, however, that the In 1895, Pinchot left Biltmore to pursue long-term success of the forestry program his career as a consulting forester and was The management of forests is soon to be would depend on professional guidance succeeded by Schenck, a young forester a subject of great national, economic by a trained forester.