I hope everyone can squeeze in a field trip to Asheville, NC. My childhood stomping grounds. Loaded with quite the collection of extraordinary architecture that came with the Vanderbilts when they chose Asheville to build a summer home, Biltmore Castle. The grounds were scaped by the extraordinary Edward Law Olmstead, creator of Central Park, NYC. The NC mountains are the home to an amazing collection of talented artists, writers, musicians….and cool summer nights! West coasters may especially enjoy the luscious greenery everywhere. There is pretty much no such thing as flat land at that altitude, so wear comfy sturdy shoes.
Charles Frazier of Cold Mountain fame, based his main character Pinkney Inman, on an actual family from my hometown of Waynesville,NC. Inman was gunned down by the Home Guards as he tried to cross Big Stomp mountain, literally my childhood backyard. We used to hike up to the Stomp (a bald) on sunny days from our back yard, walking through cross creeks, passing ancient wooden cabins inhabited only by cattle huddling around the delicious fresh water springs burbling out of the mountainside. Pinkney was shot for desertion, after he almost made it from the horrendous Civil War hospital conditions in Raleigh,NC to his famiy in Haywood County. His great grandson has Pinkney’s personal diary (Pinkney’s father was also killed) and is considering options now. All of us Waynesvillians were shocked at the outrageously non-Appalachian movie cast (as one does) and locations. The final scenes were shot in Bavaria (as one does) using the Bavarian soldiers as extras. Not remotely close to the beauty of a North Carolina mountain bald like Big Stomp. Location scouts claimed they tried to climb to Stomp. It is extremely steep…but to us it was just home. The Home Guard were mostly comprised of nasty dudes more dreaded than the invasions of the Union troops coming from Tennessee. Waynesville is named after General ‘Mad Anthony Wayne’, who was famous for stormy brazen maneuvers. The Union decimation of Waynesville, a town mostly comprised of only women, children and elderly men during the war, drove him into a frenzy. Almost every state in the union has something named after Anthony Wayne. (Bruce Wayne aka Batman, was named after Mad Anthony).
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
From: Patricia Savage
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2017 5:48 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [SCIART] Chocolate Restaurant In Asheville NC
I thnk a field trip is a must. I will have my car with me.
Patricia Savage
Mayapple Studio
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On Apr 21, 2017, at 1:01 PM, Liz Lockett <[log in to unmask]> wrote: