Background History of Cedar Mountain

Background History of Cedar Mountain The purpose of the following section is to River. Micajah Smith Thomas owned much of the provide a brief history of the Cedar Mountain area acreage along the Little River in today’s DuPont and highlight land use patterns and traditions that State Recreational Forest and lived there with his have shaped this community into what it is today. family. By 1860 he had built the large Buck Forest Located north of the South Carolina and Hotel, the Little River Turnpike to the hotel and North Carolina state line, Cedar Mountain lies established the first Cedar Mountain Post Office in roughly 10 miles away from downtown Brevard. the hotel. This area was known as Cedar Mountain Arrowheads, pottery shards and marker until the post office was moved after the Civil War. trees are evidences that the forests of Cedar A grist mill was built at Hooker Falls and families Mountain were hunting and gathering grounds for with names of Moore, Hamilton, Heath, Hefner, the Cherokee into the early 1800s. The deer and Jones and McGaha are listed on the 1840 census. 2 turkey were plentiful. European pioneers began moving through Cedar Mountain in the late 1700s and building homes in the early 1800s. They, and the area known as Cedar Mountain, became entangled in the boundary dispute known as the Walton War. Cedar Mountain was a part of the 12‐mile wide strip of land known as the Orphan Strip. The land was given to Georgia by the FederalApproved government in 1802 Other families arrived in Cedar Mountain, but by 1811 North Carolina governed the area after traveling up the Green River Road and establishing an independent survey of the 35th parallel a settlement in the Blue Ridge area, at the end of confirmed that the land was a part of NC. 1 Reasonover Road. Blue Ridge Baptist Church, Land grants from the 1830s reveal7/28/2020 the according to church records, was established in names of settlers living along the waters of the 1836 on land donated by James Burns, an early upper Little River and the headwaters of the Green 1 McCrary, Mary Jane. Transylvania beginnings: A History, Southern Historical Press, 1984. 2 Tinsley, Jim Bob. Land of Waterfalls: Transylvania County, NC, self‐published, 1988 7 landowner. Schools were built, at different times, the mid to late 1800s, providing income for local near Laurel Creek, Burnt Mountain, Mine carpenters, farmers, cooks, guides, contractors, Mountain, and the etc. Newspapers in SC Little River Bridge. 3 often shared the reports of The Jones these trips. The Branson Gap Turnpike from Business Directories of SC was built in the these years report that 1840s and became farming was the main another conduit occupation in Cedar into Cedar Mountain with the Mountain and to occasional merchant, the Caesar’s Head blacksmith, wheelwright, Hotel. The grist or saw mill operator Johnstone or French Broad Turnpike offered and postmaster listed. 4 travelers and drovers access from Brevard and The general stores, post offices, churches, through the Dunn’s Rock and Loftis communities. schools, and chapels were located on or near the Drovers from Tennessee and NC traveled these turnpikes that brought traffic through Cedar turnpikes, as well as the Little River Turnpike and Mountain. After the Civil War, families from SC Green River Road, with their pigs, cattle, sheep, came to Cedar Mountain seeking the clean air and turkeys, and other animals on their way to the SC water for health issues such as tuberculosis and markets. Travelers came to the Caesar’s Head many of them built summer residences that are Hotel and then on to the DeGower Hotel on the still visited in the summer by their descendants. Johnstone Turnpike about two miles from the state Hwy 276 or the Geer Highway was built in the late line. This VictorianApproved style hotel was built in 1884 1920s and early 1930s, leaving only glimpses of the and was destroyed by fire in 1891. Parties that had old turnpike road. It provided faster and more traveled from Caesar’s Head to the DeGower comfortable travel through the community, over would then often continue to the Buck Forest or Caesar’s Head to Greenville, SC and into Brevard. 5 Thomas Hotel and enjoy the waterfalls7/28/2020 of Little Nestled along U.S. Route 276, Greenville River. This tourism benefitted the community in Highway, Cedar Mountain has long been 3 Stinson, Vera Jones. Stumbling Blocks Were Stepping Stones in Appalachia, self‐published 4 Branson, L. (Levi), (1890). Branson’s NC business directory, Raleigh, NC, 1890 5 Stinson, Vera Jones. Interviews, 2011 8 recognized as a convenient retreat from the rural roads. The homes built in the community harsher piedmont area weather for upstate South were traditionally smaller than those vacation Carolina residents. 6 homes found in Lake Toxaway and other vacation Transylvania County has always hosted communities in Transylvania County. Owners of seasonal visitors due largely to the favorable these homes would often leave the residences in climate and pristine natural recreation alternative, their families passing the properties down and Cedar Mountain traditionally served the generation by generation.9 community in a similar fashion. While not as popular as the Lake Toxaway or Dunn’s Rock areas before the Civil War, following the War Between States summering in Transylvania County become a popular vacation alternative again and Cedar Mountain began to draw its fair share of visitors.7 As a result of its proximity to North Carolina’s southern border, most of Cedar Mountain’s visitors, and part‐time residents where from Greenville, Spartanburg, Aiken, and Being established as a true summer Charleston, South Carolina.8 With an elevation destination, the community became an optimal above 2,000 feet, these South Carolinians found location for those interested in opening summer the summer climate of the quaint mountain and seasonal camps of all kinds. Evidence of the community much more hospitable than the harsh earliest documented campers to the area comes in South Carolina summers. an issue of the Sylvan Valley News dated August The communityApproved continued to grow, 20, 1909. Organizations such as the Boy Scouts of catering to their visitors and part‐time residents America and Upstate South Carolina Y.M.C.A through the 19th and early 20th century with the branches would use the area for organized construction of smaller homes along Greenville camping trips through 1910s and 1920s. The first Highway as well as along the highway’s7/28/2020 subsidiary 6 Laura Phillips‐Deborah Thompson ‐ Transylvania County Joint Historic Preservation Commission in Association with Marblehead Pub. – 1998 7 Thompson, Marcy. “Cedar Mountain: A True Summer Community – Cedar Mountain NC.” Picturing the Past Blog. April 7, 2014. Accessed June 13, 2020. http://nchistoryroom.blogspot.com/search?q=cedar+mountain+ 8 Thompson, “Transylvania County” 9 Thompson, “Transylvania County” 9 traditional summer camp, Camp Comfort, in the throughout the early 1950s and Camp Reasonver, area operated from 1922 through 1926.10 owned by Victor Monaghan Mills, would eventually be sold to the South Carolina Education Association in 1954 to serve as a camp for teachers and students up until 1969.11 One of the well‐known boys and girls camps in the community, Summits Camp, sat on 1,400 acres and would eventually be purchased by DuPont to serve as the location for the largest industrial growth seen in the small mountain community to this date.12 At its peak production DuPont employed more than 1,500 hundred people and sat on 10,000 acres that spanned into neighboring Henderson County.13 The property for the plant was originally Other traditional camps to the area purchased in 1956 to serve as the location of the included Camp Burgiss Glenn, the Elks Camp, first full‐scale silicon plant in the United States, the Harmony Farm, Camp Socareda among others. climate and clean fresh air was ideal for the Other camp establishments that would not be materials production. Unfortunately, demand for considered traditional to today’s standards that silicon dropped drastically shortly after the plant were popular in the area included those that were opened, so ownership transitioned the facility into provided by employers for their employees. The the production of photographic materials, such as owners of textile mills such as Vitor Monaghan x‐ray film, in the mid‐1960s. Making these products Mills, Piedmont Mills,Approved and Judson Mills would the plant prospered for more than two decades, acquire property to establish a cost‐effective but as the digital age changed the world, the need retreat for their millworkers and families. These for the products the plant produced became more mill camps operated from the mid‐1920s7/28/2020 sparce.14 10 Thompson, Marcy. “Cedar Mountain Has Been Home to Several Camps.” Picturing the Past Blog. July 6, 2015. Accessed June 13, 2020. 11 Thompson, “Cedar Mountain: A True Summer Community” 12 Thompson, “Cedar Mountain Has Been Home to Several Camps” 13 Thompson, Marcy. “DuPont Started As Silicon Plant.” Picturing the Past Blog. April 14, 2014. Accessed June 13, 2020. http://nchistoryroom.blogspot.com/search?q=cedar+mountain+ 14 Thompson, “DuPont Started As Silicon Plant” 10 With the drop in demand, DuPont sold the high‐end residential community that would limit Cedar Mountain facility to Sterling Diagnostic access to the popular natural attractions to Imaging in 1996. Sterling’s ownership of the plant residents of the gated community.16 was however short lived, being sold just a few Urged on by local conservation groups, years later to the Agfa Corporation and the doors local political figures, and members of the to the plant were closed for good in 2002.15 Transylvania County community to protect this property and maintain public access, Governor Hunt entered negotiation with The Cliffs.

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