Perennial Problems with “Land of the Sky” History Since it first appeared in 1875, the “Land of the Sky” descriptor for Asheville has been perennially present, enticing and marketable.…
Read moreMid-Course Correction: Ella Goes to (Mid-Course) Asheville, 1907
A previous post explored Ella Austin’s and Asbury Whisnant’s lives during the post-Civil War years–before they both took jobs at the State Hospital at Morganton around 1894. Another focused on the…
Read moreHow Did 1900 Asheville Happen?: A Retrospective in Four Parts–1850-1900
This post is a Table of Contents guide to what–from time to time over the next while–will become a series of four retrospective posts, each focusing on a topic central to…
Read moreAsbury’s Asheville: 1900-1907
For Starters: Some Guesses as to Why Asbury Chose Asheville Although the romantic designation as the Land of the Sky was bestowed upon Asheville in Christian Reid’s 1875 novel, this…
Read moreInto the Asheville Bowl: Channels and Streams
Having in the previous post delineated some major features of Asheville’s geophysical situation (elevation, rings of mountains, rivers, gaps), the eradication and removal of the Cherokees, and early land speculation,…
Read moreToward the Asheville Bowl: The Geophysical Context and Greed for Land
In summer the winds prevail from the southern points of the compass; they come to Asheville cooled by passage over the high mountains, and slightly tinctured with balsamic odors gathered there-from. In winter,…
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