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" The mountains that shield from the rude northern blast—
mute monitors, they, of the ages long past—
Like sentinels watch o'er the valley below
where the swift crystal streams unceasingly flow. The pure, healthful breeze, the light-giving air,
the beauteous landscape, oft new, ever fair.
Are gifts that have come from the Father on high;
to Him be all praise for 'The Land of the Sky.' "

VOLUMES have recently been written, many more are being and will be written about  the "Land of the Sky" in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina treating of the beauties of these glorious mountains, enchanting valleys, virgin forests, sparkling streams and beautiful waterfalls. Any description of the territory is trite and ina­dequate that pictures it merely as grand, beautiful, healthful, restful, and "famous as a tourist resort station." These adjectives, however, may be truthfully applied to the "Land of the Sky," but they cannot possibly convey to anyone the real impression of this glorious mountain section. It is softly beautiful, yet ruggedly picturesque; it is a region of sweetness and balm, of sunshine and glory, of sublimity and inspiration unsurpassed in their marvels of combination in all the world. The crisp dry air of winter and summer makes the joy of living each day greater than for the day before.

Splendid motor roads of macadam and sand-clay network this exquisite mountain country, meandering through valleys, over hills and mountains, affording views unsurpassed, perhaps, on the American Continent.

The Grove autoway to the summit of Sunset Mountain, 31 miles exclusive autoway, 5i miles from the center of Asheville, reaching an altitude of 3117 feet, and the Pisgah Motor Road, 17 miles long, across the great Mt. Pisgah, at an altitude of 5200 feet above sea level, are special features that attract the attention of the tourists and visitors.

Asheville, with a population of 34000 including suburbs, is the social and business center of this most beautiful region, while Hendersonville, Waynesville, Brevard, Tryon, Saluda, Black Mountain, Montreal, Canton, Dillsboro and Marshall are thriving and prosperous mountain cities that charm the visitor and tourist with many advantages.

On July 4th, 1584, when Sir Walter Raleigh's first expedition landed on American soil, they settled upon the coast of what is now North Carolina.

Asheville situated on a hill and commanding a wealth of scenic environment of mountain and valley. Is a modern cosmopolitan metropolis, possessing the advantages of modern city life with a beautiful environment of mountain scenery.

The Grove Park Inn is absolutely unique—unique in conception, in design, in construction, in furnishing, in decoration and in equipment. It is one of the notable monumental structures of this country. It was built, not for the present alone, but for ages yet to come, and it probably will be an object of wonder and admiration of generations yet unborn.

Its location, on the side of Sunset Mountain, two miles and a half from the center of Asheville. was made possible by acquisition of the mountain and of hundreds of acres of that part of the plateau now known as Grove Park.

The "Big Room" or lobby is one of the most wonderful rooms in the world.  It is 120 ft. long by 80 ft. wide and can comfortably entertain 1,000 people.

It is built up of the most unique collection of native boulders, flint and mica, and at night is illuminated by indirect lights which are reflected against the ceiling and give over 12,000 candle-power of illumination in this one room.

The "Big Room" or lobby is one of the most wonderful rooms in the world.  It is 120 ft. long by 80 ft. wide and can comfortably entertain 1,000 people.

It is built up of the most unique collection of native boulders, flint and mica, and at night is illuminated by indirect lights which are reflected against the ceiling and give over 12,000 candle-power of illumination in this one room.

The Grove Park Inn is absolutely unique—unique in conception, in design, in construction, in furnishing, in decoration and in equipment. It is one of the notable monumental structures of this country. It was built, not for the present alone, but for ages yet to come, and it probably will be an object of wonder and admiration of generations yet unborn.

Its location, on the side of Sunset Mountain, two miles and a half from the center of Asheville. was made possible by acquisition of the mountain and of hundreds of acres of that part of the plateau now known as Grove Park.

The eighteen-hole golf course of the Asheville Country Club is among the foremost in the south.  It is a short distance from the terminal of the Charlott street electric line.

Sunset in the "Land of the Sky."  Asheville justly boasts of more perfect days than any resort in America.  When Sunset-time comes in "The Land of the Sky" the heavens seem to arrange themselves into a galaxy of color and feeling that is a perfect benediction to the hours just passed.  Hours that have afforded a health giving and heart gladdening day to those fortunate in being in Asheville, N.C.

Pack Square, Asheville, N.C., looking east.  City Hall in center background.  Dome of County Court House, a block away, shown to left of City Hall.  Vance monument in center foreground, erected to the memory of Zebulon Baird Vance, War Governor of North Carolina and a citizen of Asheville.  Legal Building, "fireproof," in rear of monument, on top of which is located in the United States Weather Bureau.  At right, the George Willis Pack Memorial Library, 12,500 volumes; building presented to the city by Mr. George Willis Pack of Ohio and Asheville.

Showing Monument erected in memory of the famous War Governor, Zebulon Baird Vance.  This square is the center of commercial and business life in Asheville.

City Hall and Fire Department, on east side Pack Square, showing Fountain in foreground.  The Fire Department is splendidly equipped with new and modern fire fighting appliances, including three powerful motor trucks.

Pack Square in the center of Asheville commercial live.  The Fountain in the foreground is supplied with water brought from the slopes of Mount Mitchell, an contains a large number of Mountain trout.  Battery Park Hotel seen above the buildings to the right is on a hill almost in center of the City.

Asheville Club to the left.  Riverside Park, located on French Broad River, is reached by car line over Haywood Street and Montford Avenue.

Swannanoa-Berkeley Hotel to left.  The three-story building in foreground with porch over side walk was the Eagle Hotel, and in the early days of Asheville was considered one of the very fine hotels in the South.

Langren Hotel, "fireproof," to the right.  Asheville School for Girls at background of picture where North Main Street veers slightly to the west.

Patton Avenue is one of Asheville's most important business streets.  Four of the five uptown banks are located on Patton Ave.  Some of the retail stores are as handsome and well equipped as like stores in towns many times the size of Asheville.

The famous and romantically situated hotel, was the first building of magnificence and magnitude for the accommodation of wealthy people with discriminating tactics to be erected in Asheville.  Its location is unique, in that, while within one hundred yards of the postoffice, in the heart of the city, it stands on an oak-clad hill covering twenty-five acres, and enjoys the advantage of perfect seclusion.

The continued popularity of The Manor has been a potent factor in the life at Asheville during the four seasons of the year.  The Manor is of English Architecture, an operated in connection with a group of commodious cottages.  This little estate is known as Albermarle Park, and is ideally located and is an ideal resort for the entertainment of tourists and families; and very few resort hotels have so endeared themselves to their patrons as has The Manor.

the phenomenal success of The Langren Hotel since its completion has placed it in the front rank of the commercial and resort hotels of America.  Situated within a hundred yards of Pack Square, where all lines of street railway meet, is located this modern up-to-date, luxurious, fireproof, eight-story concrete building.

In the very heart of the city of Asheville, at the intersection of Haywood and North French Broad Avenue.  Margo Terrace commands a beautiful view of the surrounding mountain landscape, and no hotel has a prettier environment of grounds and building than this ideal family resort.

Mountain Meadows Inn, located in the hearts of the mountain, six miles from Asheville and is one of the most popular hotels in the mountain.  The drive to this Inn is one of the most picturesque to be found in any land.

The scenery from the Mountain Meadows Inn is unsurpassed.  The Inn is located high on the mountain side and commands a splendid view of the surrounding country.

This group of views represents some of the most important of Asheville's public buildings. In size and beauty, the public buildings of Asheville are among the foremost in the country.

Asheville is well supplied with large and beautiful churches.  This group shows some of the most important of these, all of which are centrally located and have a very substantial membership.

Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Association [YWCA] of Asheville are both strong well funded institutions and are nicely furnished and equipped with gymnasiums, comfortable and home-like reading rooms, etc. All Soul's Church is located on the Vanderbilt estate at Biltmore near Asheville. Trinity Episcopal Church on Church street two blocks from Patton Ave.

Asheville has a goodly number of large and well appointed public schools. Among the most important of these are the Orange St. and Montford Public schools, the High school and the Park Ave. and the Ashland Public schools.

Asheville School for Girls ; Asheville School for Boys ; St. Genevieve College ; Normal and Collegiate Institute ; Among Asheville's most important institutions of learning are numbered the Normal and Collegiate Institute, St. Genevieve College and the Asheville School for Girls and the Asheville School for Boys.

Riverside Park and Lake are situated on the bands of the French Broad River and reached by electric cars on 7 1/2 and 15 minute schedule.  This park is the place of many amusements during the summer months.

The Automobile Road on Sunset Mountain leading past Grove Park Inn is one of the prettiest and best constructed auto roadways in the part of the country.  The view of the surrounding landscape from points along this drive is very beautiful.

A trip over the exclusive automobile road, seventeen miles long to Mt. Pisgah, built by Mr. George W. Vanderbilt at a cost of $51,000, is one of the rarest treats afforded the visitors to Asheville. The distance from Asheville to the entrance of this great automobile highway is twelve miles over a fine improved road, seven miles of which is macadam with five miles of sand-clay.

Biltmore House, the home of George W. Vanderbilt, is probably the finest country place in the world, and is noted for its elegance of design and splendor of location.  Commenced in 1890 and completed five years later, costing three million dollars.  The estate comprises over one hundred thousand acres and includes Mt. Pisgah.

Home of the late George W. Vanderbilt, four miles from Asheville. View as seen from vista of rampeduce. This estate comprises over 133,000 acres of forest and field. The 12,000 acres surrounding the mansion are known as Biltmore farms. Hunting Reserve and forests contain one hundred thousand acres.

Little need be said here of Hendersonville's importance as a resort, or of the city's natural charm.  It is the junction point of two railroads, the gateway to Lake Toxaway and the beautiful Sapphire Country.  Hendersonville resting peacefully on a wide and level plateau on the top of the mountains, 2,252 feet above sea level, possesses one of the finest all-year-round climates in the world.  The golden mean of altitude and latitude, freedom from fog, malaria, dampness, a percentage of sunshine days surpasses by few resorts in the world.

The entire side of the mountain is of solid granite, white at one point of view the rocks appear to forma perfect profile of a man's face.

Toxaway Inn, located on Lake Toxaway near Asheville, N.C., is a large and splendidly equipped hotel of modern design and construction.  It accommodated a large number of tourists and is build in the center of one of the most beautiful and picturesque localities in the "Land of Sky."

The view on Lake Toxaway by night, is one of rare beauty.  the moon casts soft shadows on the surrounding mountains and its silvery beams on the clear sparkling expanse of the Lake make a scene of rare and surpassing magnificence.

Throughout the "Land of the Sky," numerous water falls and huge rocks of various shapes and sizes make picturesque scenes abundant.

Chimney Rock justly deserves its name, as it looks like a huge chimney on the mountain side.  This is one of the popular points visited by many tourists.

Esmeralda Inn, P.O. Bat Cave, N.C., is in the Hickory Nut Gap County and this region furnishes some of the most natural scenery of western North Carolina.  The Gap is about nine miles long, and walled on all sides by lofty bluffs, except for the gateway which, is about half a mile wide.  In this section is the famous Chimney Rock picture, which is found on opposite page.

Chimney Rock Falls, which drops 900 ft. down the sheer side of a huge precipice, is one of the most remarkable sights in the "Land of the Sky."

Bird's Eye View of Waynesville, N.C. Copyrighted 1910 by H.W.P.
View of Plott's Balsam from Waynesville, N.C. Copyrighted 1911 by H.W.P.

Waynesville, aptly named "The Beautiful" is noted not only for its beauty of mountain scenic environment, but also for its progressive community.  It is the home of the Southern Assembly and a little over a mile from the Court House is Lake Junaluska, where is being made one of the most beautiful and extensive assembly grounds.

Lake Junaluska on the Assembly Grounds of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, is located one mile from Waynesville, N.C.  southern Methodists are spending a large sum on developing and beautifying the grounds of this religious Assembly.

Mt. Mitchell is the hightest peak east of the Rocky Mountains.  It is, 6,711 ft. above the sea.  In the foreground of picture is red Rhododendron blossoms, a color of this flower found no where else in the United States, except a few places in "The Land of the Sky."

Mitchell's Monument on the summit of Mt. Mitchell, erected in memory of Rev. Elisha Mitchell, D.D., who, in 1857, lost his life by falling over a precipice near the summit of the peak which now bears his name and which he proved to be the highest point east of the Rockies.

The Craggy Mountains near Asheville, N.C., in the "Land of Sky," contains some of the highest and most picturesque peaks of the Appalachian System.

The Robert E. Lee Hall, the Blue Ridge Y.M.C.A. conference building, which is situated within a short drive of Black Mountain in the midst of a splendid domain, was erected by the Young Men's Christian Associations.  The Southern States convention of Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. student bodies are held here during the summer.

There are five tunnels between the top of the mountain, the Great Divide and Old Fort at the foot of the mountain.

Some of the most marvelous feats known to rail road engineering are to be found near Round Knob, in the "Land of the Sky."  The rail road in winding and rewinding, and making its numerous loops in order to reach the summit of the great Blue Ridge, can at one place in the line be seen at seventeen points.

Mt. Pisgah, to the south west of Asheville, is one of the most interesting mountain peaks of the Blue Ridge.  The mountain that rises to the south of Pisgah is shaped so much like a rat that the two are commonly referred to, as Pisgah and the Rat.

Buck Spring Lodge near the summit of Mount Pisgah is on the famous automobile road from Asheville to Pisgah. (altitude 5749 feet) This is part of the Vanderbilt Estate that comprises over 100,000 acres.  [See the Stephen Holladay Collection of John B. Robinson Photographs, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections.]

Lover's Leap, on the banks of the turbulent French Broad, has romantic Indian history.  A beautiful Indian legend of two Indian lovers, members of different tribes, leaping from its height on account of opposition in their tribes to their marriage, is associated with the naming of this precipice.

The French Broad River has its source in the Mountains of Western North Carolina, and flows west, entering the Tennessee River.  The old Indian name for this stream was "Tahkeeostee, the Racing River."  This river has a fall of 865 feet from Asheville to Hot Springs, a distance of 23 miles.  The Southern Railway follows this river to the west of Asheville, crossing and recrossing from bank to back many times, and furnishes the traveler some of the prettiest scenes of Western Carolina.

The railroad through the "Land of the Sky," continually winds its way through numerous cuts and around countless mountain sides.

Bailey's Bend is one of the pretty scenes on the French Broad River, near the Tennessee State line.  along the banks of the river, huge bluffs and cliffs rise majestically above the railroad and give the traveler a powerful impression of the grandeur of the country he is entering.

The rough French Broad in cutting its way among the hills, has in some places made typical Mountain Islands.  In traveling along the Railroad on this stream, these islands add much beauty to the scenery.

The "Land of the Sky," is noted for its beautiful cloud effects and Sunsets. Clouds can be seen to boil forth from behind the distant mountain ranges as shown in this picture.

Swannanoa 'Nymph of Beauty'
I would woo thee with my rhyme
Brightest, Gladest, Sunniest
River of our Sunny, Southern Clime"
-- Sidney Lanier

The old mills and large water wheels that years ago were so common in the "Land of the Sky," are fast disappearing.

The Rhododendron is the king of shrubs; for beauty of form and foliage, profusion and variety of blossoms, none other can equal them.  It seems to particularly seek Alpine heights and mountain glens, being very common in the mountains of the Middle States along their watercourses as far south as Georgia.  The flower appear on the Asheville plateau in June and July.

This is one of the many pretty scenes along the Swannanoa River.  This River is unusually clear, and a trip along its banks is abundant with beautiful scenes like the one here shown.

The soil and climate are well suited to fruits.  Of all the fruits, however, that thrive so well here, the apple is rapidly becoming the greatest revenue-producer.  In an official statement, the Board of Agriculture does not hesitate to declare that this region Is the home of the apple, and is destined to become the greatest apple-growing region in America."

The Blowing Rock Country is often referred to as "America's Switzerland." The famous "Blowing Rock," in this region gets its name from the winds that continually blow around the rock. A hat or handkerchief, dropped from the rock is often blown right back by the wind.