The Heart of the Alleghanies; or, Western North CarolinaZeigler, Wilbur Gleason
History
The Heart of the Alleghanies; or, Western North Carolina
Zeigler, Wilbur Gleason
Allegheny Mountains; North Carolina -- Description and travel
From Hendersonville to Cæsar’s Head is twenty miles. There are two
roads--one up the valley of Green river, and the other to Little river,
thence up that stream through Jones’ gap. Cæsar’s Head is also reached
by stages from Greenville, South Carolina, on the Air Line railroad,
distant twenty-four miles. The Little River road leads through the
picturesque valley of the upper French Broad region. After traversing
wide and fertile alluvions, the road enters, between close mountain
slopes, a narrow gorge, through which the river, for a distance of four
miles, rushes and roars in a continuous succession of sparkling cascades
and rapids. The most noted point is Bridal Veil falls, so named from the
silvery appearance of the spray in sunlight. It is not a sheer fall, but
an almost vertical rapid with numerous breaks. On a bright day the
colors of the rainbow play between the cañon walls.
Cæsar’s Head is a place about which much has been written, but no pen
can describe the overpowering effect of the view from that precipice. I
shall attempt to give only a few outlines to enable the reader, by the
aid of his imagination, to form some idea of the bold and broken
character of this part of the Blue Ridge.
One evening in August I crossed the state line through Jones gap, and
rode along the backbone of the spur. A dark cloud had mantled the
mountain tops all the afternoon. So dense was it, that the deep gorge of
Little river had the appearance of a tunnel, reverberating monotonously
with the sound of falling waters. On the south side of the ridge the
cloud clung to the ground, making it impossible during the last three
miles of the ride to see ten feet in any direction. No rain was falling,
yet drops of water were soon trickling down the saddle and the chill of
moisture penetrated my clothing. It was fast growing dark when a sound
of laughter signaled the end of the journey. The indistinct outline of a
large white house appeared a moment later, and on the long veranda sat
numerous groups of men and women.
My thoroughly dampened condition must have appealed to the sympathies of
the manager of the hotel, for I had scarcely entered my room when a
servant appeared at the door with a tray of needed stimulants, after the
fashion of the hospitable southern planter. Every attention was bestowed
upon me, and a short time after I was in as agreeable a condition as I
have ever been before or since. In the journal for the day, written up
that evening, is this concluding sentence, which I had no inclination to
change afterwards: “This establishment is managed by a man who knows his
business, and is liberal enough to give his guests what they have a
reasonable right to expect.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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