 |
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 |
|
|
|
|
|
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
between 11:00am and 5:00pm!
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. | |
 | |
|
|
|
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 8:00 am (new later time, hooray!) 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.
| |
 | |
|
|
|
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.
| |
| |
|
|
|
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.
| |
| | |
|
|
|
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
|
"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 | | |
|
|
|
| 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 |
| | |
