Swannanoa, such a beautiful name.
Along the river is written Western North Carolina’s history from its earliest years into the future. Archaic era people lived by the river on Warren Wilson’s campus 4,000 years ago. The raging flood of 1791, five feet higher than the record flood of 1916, convinced Buncombe County’s first commission to locate the court house up on a plateau rather than where the Swannanoa joins the French Broad. Utterly brutal abuse of Black Americans as convict labor drove rails through Swannanoa Gap in 1879 bringing prosperity to the valley. Train transportation and cool clean water drew industry ranging from Beacon Blankets revered for quality and community citizenship but also Chemtronics, now a brownfield site. Trains also introduced tourists. And once the world became aware of this sublime valley from Ridgecrest to Biltmore Village, the communities we so enjoy today blossomed.
On July 7 from 5-6pm John E. Ross, author of Through the Mountains: The French Broad River and Time (UTenn Press 2021), will take us on a tour of the French Broad watershed summarizing its natural and cultural history from the origin of the mountains, through the evolution of the river and the populations who’ve lived along it, and into the future. Through the Mountains was a finalist for the 2022 Reed Environmental Writing Award sponsored by the Southern Environmental Law Center and the 2022 Thomas Wolfe Literary Award from the Western North Carolina Historical Association.