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Thursday, September 1, 2011 |
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Saturday, September 10th:
Hike to Alexander Farm Ruins & Samuel Davidson Grave
Hike
with us to see the ruins of the Alexander Farm and the grave marker of
Samuel Davidson, the first settler west of the Blue Ridge, who was
killed by Cherokee Indians in the 1780s.
The hike is easy, with lots of historical interpretation by Bill Alexander, a descendant of Samuel Davidson.
Meet: 1:00 PM in parking lot of the Swannanoa Ingles, near State Road 70 in front of the store.
Cost: $15 for Museum members; $20 for non-members.
Registration: Reservations are required. To register please call 669-9566 or click here. | |
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Saturday, September 17th:
Swannanoa Valley Rim Hike--Walker's Knob
We have a few spots on our next Rim Hike on Walker's Knob that will take place on Saturday, September 17th.
Recommended for experienced hikers, the hikes in this series will be strenuous and at times will require bushwhacking.
Meet: 8:00 AM in the Black Mountain Savings Bank parking lot, 200 East State Street, Black Mountain, NC.
Difficulty: Moderate
Pack
List: Please bring your lunch and plenty of water. Wear good hiking
shoes and socks and long pants. You will probably also want sunscreen,
bug spray, a hat, hiking poles, rain gear, and any personal medications
you may need. Please have all gear you are not wearing in a day pack to
keep your hands free while hiking.
Cost: (for each hike) $25 for Museum members, $45 for non-members.
Registration:
Reservations are required as spaces are filling up fast. Participation
in each hike will be limited to 30 hikers plus the Museum team. To
register please contact Carolyn Johnson, our Rim Hike coordinator at
713-2675 or email her at cwjohnson1@charter.net or click here.
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Saturday, September 17th:
Swannanoa's Mill Around the Village
We
will have two booths at this year's Mill Around the Village Festival in
Swannanoa on Saturday, September 17th. Come by and visit us!
One
booth with have information about the museum, our history, and our
events. The other booth with have travelling exhibits about the
Swannanoa River, Beacon Blankets, Grovemont, and Riceville.
Along with our Riceville exhibit, we will also have the newly-released book Images of America: Riceville on sale for the first time. The book's author, Anne Chesky, will be on hand to answer questions and sign copies of her book.
Riceville
the western-most portion of the Swannanoa Valley and has a long and
interesting history. Riceville's first white settler, Joseph
Marion Rice, alledgedly shot the last buffalo in western North Carolina
in 1799.
The
book is filled with almost 200 vintage photographs and stories from the
area's founding families. For more information call the museum at
669-9566 or click here. | |
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Tuesday, September 20th:
Bike the Virginia Creeper Trail
Back
by popular demand! On Tuesday, September 20th, we'll travel to
Damascus, VA, for our third Virginia Creeper bicycle adventure along the
famous bike path. The Virginia Creeper is a 17-mile downhill bike trail
established along the "retired" railway corridor of the
Virginia-Carolina railroad, with a gentle slope and well-groomed
surface. The bike rental vendor has bikes for all sizes, ages, and
abilities.
Details: Meet at Black Mountain Saving Bank at 6:00 am to carpool to Damascus, VA, an approximately 2 hour drive.
Cost:
$50 for Museum members; $65 for non-members, and includes bike rental
and safety gear. (If you wish to bring your own bike, cost will be $30
for Museum members; $45 for non-members.) We will stop for lunch at a
small cafe along the way. Participants are responsible for their own
lunch.
Registration: To register please call 669-9566 or click here.
For this one, we'll need paid reservations. Please make your check
payable to the Swannanoa Valley Museum, and mail to P.O. Box 306, Black
Mountain, NC 28711. Your registration will not be complete until we
receive your payment.
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Saturday, September 24th:
National Museum Day
Celebrate National Museum Day at the Swannanoa Valley Museum.
In the spirit of Smithsonian Museums, who offer free admission everyday, Museum Day is an annual event hosted by Smithsonian
magazine in which participating museums across the country open their
doors to anyone presenting a Museum Day Ticket...for free.
Read about Museum day and how to get your free ticket here: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/#ixzz1WSibAQQ7
We will be open from 12 - 4 on Saturday, September 24.
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Saturday, September 24th:
Rim Hike--Cherokee Boundary Make-Up
Join
us for a 3.5 mile strenuous hike on the Swannanoa Rim. We will
pass many historic sites on the way, including prominent Grey Eagle Rock
(one legend says this symbolic rock gave our town it first name). Much
of the time we will be looking down on the Swannanoa Valley and many
extraordinary geographical features and famous historic sites. Some of
the trek will be along traces of the celebrated 1840 Mitchell
Trail. We will plan on eating lunch at our walk-in cabins (6,500’)
near Clingman’s Peak. We will finish the hike at Stepps Gap (entrance
to Mt. Mitchell State Park).
Recommended for experienced hikers, the hikes in this series will be strenuous and at times will require bushwhacking.
Meet: 8:00 AM in the Black Mountain Savings Bank parking lot, 200 East State Street, Black Mountain.
Pack
List: Please bring your lunch and plenty of water. Wear good hiking
shoes and socks and long pants. You will probably also want sunscreen,
bug spray, a hat, hiking poles, rain gear, and any personal medications
you may need. Please have all gear you are not wearing in a day pack to
keep your hands free while hiking.
Cost: (for each hike)$25 for Museum members, $45 for non-members.
Registration:
Reservations are required as spaces are filling up fast. Participation
in each hike will be limited to 30 hikers plus the Museum team. To
register please contact Carolyn Johnson, our Rim Hike coordinator at
713-2675 or email her at cwjohnson1@charter.net or click here.
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Sunday, September 25th:
2011 Historic Home Tour of Black Mountain
We will host our annual Historic Home Tour this year on Sunday, September 25th
starting at 2:00 PM. The 2011 tour will featured four historic homes in
the Black Mountain, North Carolina area—the Bella Luna Inn, In the
Oaks, the newly renovated Monte Vista Hotel, and the Red Rocker Inn.
The
first stop on the tour, the Bella Luna Inn, is a beautiful 1920 Cape
Cod Arts & Craft style house, now run as a Bed & Breakfast by
owners Brad and Cynthia Brasher. The tour will begin here with some hors
d’oeuvres and a tour of the house by Cynthia Brasher who is in the
process of listing the Inn on the National Historic Register.
The
next stop on the tour is just across the street from the Bella Luna
Inn. The Manor House, also known as “IntheOaks” is now owned by Montreat
College and used as classroom space for special programming. Franklin
Terry and his wife, Lillian Emerson Terry, commissioned the Manor House
in 1922. The same architects and landscapers who worked on the Biltmore
House designed much of the house and grounds of the Terry Estate.
After
leaving “In the Oaks” visitors will carpool to the Monte Vista Hotel on
West State Street in downtown Black Mountain. The Monte Vista, recently
renovated by new owners, Sue Conlon and Barney Fitzpatrick, was
originally the Black Mountain School. Guests will have a chance to stop
in the new bar at the hotel for an afternoon drink before or after the
hotel tour.
The
last stop on the tour is the historic Red Rocker Inn, only a short walk
or drive from the Monte Vista, where visitors will hear the history of
the inn, tour the historic structure, and then eat a gourmet, southern
dinner on the glassed-in porch. Now owned and operated by Doug and Jenny
Bowman, the inn was originally called Dougherty Heights and was built
as a boarding house by Mr. and Mrs. S.F. Dougherty.
All
dinner and hors d’oeuvres are included in the price of the tour. All
alcoholic beverages are the responsibility of the participant. Advance
registration is required. To register you may call 828-669-9566 or click here. Cost is $60 for museum members and $75 for nonmembers.
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Saturday, October 1st:
Historic Old Toll Road Caravan
Join
us for this popular 4-wheel drive caravan up the historic Old Toll Road
to Camp Alice on Mt Mitchell. Parts of the trip are on the old Mt
Mitchell R R bed. It is very rough hence the four wheel drive vehicles.
We will make several stops for historical presentations and arrive at
Camp Alice for a late lunch. This is a fund raiser for the museum.
Details:
Meet at 7:30 am in parking lot of Black Mountain Savings Bank, 200 E.
State St. Drinks, snacks and lunch are provided, and there is historical
interpretation throughout the trip. Lunch will be at the old Camp Alice
lumbering camp.
Drivers
with high-clearance 4-wheel drive vehicles who will carry 3 passengers
are free. Cost is $75 for Museum members; $100 for non-members.
Reservations are required. To register please call 669-9566 or click here.
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Wednesday, October 5th:
Daycation--Cataloochee Ranch and Valley
Join
us on a trip to Cataloochee Ranch, where we’ ll enjoy a barbeque lunch
and historic presentation by the daughter of the ranch’ s founder. After
lunch we will continue on into the Cataloochee Valley of the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park to tour the remaining homes of early
settlers and view the elk that have been reintroduced into the park. The
elk are best viewed in late afternoon, so the return to Black Mountain
will be near dusk.
Details:
Meet in parking lot of Black Mountain Savings Bank, 200 E. State St. at
10:30 am to carpool to the Cataloochee Ranch in Maggie Valley.
Cost is $40 for Museum members; $50 for non-members and includes lunch. Reservations are required. To register call 669-9566 or click here.
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Our Sponsors
Since
the days when the buffalo and elk roamed the age-old migration routes
between the piedmont and mountains of North Carolina, our Valley has
been celebrated for its broad, fertile river plain, incredible
geographic beauty and yes, a rich history of wildlife.
In
fact, before our earliest settlers crossed the Eastern Continental
Divide in the 1780s, the Swannanoa Valley with its abundant wildlife was
a prized hunting ground used by the Cherokees and neighboring Catawba
tribes.
Later,
near the end of the eighteenth century, many of the world′s leading
botanists and geographers traveled to our Valley and surrounding
mountains. They declared the environment to be home to the most unique
and diverse flora and fauna that they had ever studied. Well, today
those of us who reside here can easily understand what was in the hearts
and minds of those earliest inhabitants, explorers, and pioneers.
We
are so fortunate to call the upper Swannanoa Valley and the encircling
Swannanoa Rim our home. As Black Mountain′s oldest continuing business
(since 1908) and its only locally owned community bank, we are very
proud to be the sponsor of the Swannanoa Valley Museum′s e-newsletter.
Cheers!
M. Wendell Begley, President
Black Mountain Savings Bank
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"The upper Swannanoa Valley as seen from Craggy Knob on the Great Craggy Range"
Black Mountain Savings Bank, 200 E. State Street, Black Mountain, NC 28711/Phone (828) 669-7991/Fax (828) 669-6974, Email: mwb_bmsb@bellsouth.net
_____________________________________________________________
Special thanks also to our Gold Level Corporate Sponsor:
To find out how to become a Corporate Sponsor please click here | | |
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| The
mission of the Swannanoa Valley Museum is to preserve and interpret the
social, cultural and natural history of the Swannanoa Valley, a pathway
to Western North Carolina, by developing dynamic programs and engaging
exhibitions for the education and enrichment of the community, its
children and future generations.P.O. Box 306, Black Mountain, NC 28711 •
828-669-9566www.swannanoavalleymuseum.org • swannanoavalleym@bellsouth.net |
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