A Flood Runs Through It

The Swannanoa Valley Museum will open for its 21st season on Saturday, April 10, at 10 am with a dynamic new exhibit, "A Flood Runs Through It."

The Swannanoa River watersheds at the far eastern end of Buncombe County have a major impact on Asheville and the entire county. As most people know, they are the source of Asheville City Water. What many don’t know is what happens in the Swannanoa Valley when a heavy rainfall occurs at Mount Mitchell and along the Black Mountain Range.

That’s when “a flood runs through it” and on into the more densely populated City of Asheville.

Each year the Swannanoa Valley Museum participates in a region-wide themed exhibit in collaboration with Friends of Mountain History and Museums In Partnership. This year's theme is "Our Natural Scenic Beauty,” but the Museum is doing a variation on the theme with an exhibit titled, “Protecting Our Natural Scenic Beauty: A Flood Runs Through It."

The exhibit includes visual, hands-on, and take-away components focusing on historic floods and storm tracks in the Swannanoa Watershed (with special emphasis on the 2004 flood caused by Hurricanes Frances and Ivan), as well as potential projects that would decrease future flood damage. The exhibit is brought to the Swannanoa Valley Museum by Buncombe County, the City of Asheville, the Town of Black Mountain, and RENCI at UNC Asheville. The Museum is located at 223 West State Street in Black Mountain, in the former Black Mountain Fire House, designed by Richard Sharp Smith, supervising architect at the Biltmore Estate, and built in 1921. It is open April through October, Tuesday - Friday, 10 am to 5 pm, Saturday noon to 4 pm and Sunday 2 to 5 pm. Closed on Mondays. Admission $2, Museum members and children under 12 are free.

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