Love Letters to Lost Places As we reflect on the changes we have witnessed in WNC over the last seven months, we must also acknowledge some hard losses. The awful reality is that, despite our best efforts, not every beloved historic structure can be saved following a...
by Dale Wayne Slusser “Governor -elect Locke Craig within the next few weeks, will begin the erection of a modern country home on his property on the Swannanoa River.” -Asheville Citizen-Times, January 9, 1913. In 1949, North Carolina erected a historical marker...
by Dale Wayne Slusser Gone forever from thy borders, But immortal in thy name, Are the Red men of the Forest! Be thou Keeper of their fame! Paler races dwell beside thee, Celt & Saxon till thy lands… – poem, “Swannanoa: Nymph of Beauty” All the...
by Dale Wayne Slusser It all started with a cottage by the river. One day in 2013, I was driving on the road that runs along the north side of the Swannanoa River, near the historic Biltmore Village, when I noticed an abandoned shingle-styled cottage, sitting at the...