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VANISHING STORM CLOUDS VIEWED FROM MOUNT MITCHELL, NORTH CAROLINA.

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RIDGECREST, the home of the Southern Baptist Assembly, is located on a lovely plateau in the Black Mountains, 17.8 miles east of Asheville, at an altitude of 2,500 feet.

ATTRACTIVE FACILITIES—The Southern Assembly provides every facility for religious Community Life. The principal buildings are a fine auditorium, and administration building and a hotel with accommodations for 250 people. Eight other buildings are owned by the assembly, while nearly a hundred cottages have been erected by individuals from fifteen different states.

The Ridgecrest community has the enthusiastic support of the Baptists of the South. It already has become the largest Baptist Assembly in America and is accomplishing wonderful results. Located, as it is, practically at the summit of the Blue Ridge, with a climate noted for its salubrity and environed by magnificent scenery, it has become, naturally, the summer home of hundreds of people from all parts of the country.

OBJECTS OF THE ASSEMBLY—In the minds of the promoters of the Southern Assembly, its purposes were:—

To establish a Christian community in the mountains, where, free from the ordinary annoyances of the average summer resort, people might find a restful summer home in a moral atmosphere helpful to the Christian life

To provide meetings and conferences for the discussion and consideration of all phases of denominational life.

To provide a training school for Christian workers, the sessions of which should be held during the most delightful part of the year.

SUMMER CONFERENCES—Ridgecrest has become for the Baptists, not only of the South, but of the entire country, a place where they may obtain inspiration and renewed enthusiasm for their religious work. Great assemblages of Christian people are held here each summer for special study ot the Bible. Conferences are held on the subject of Christian Education, Baptist Young People's Union Work, Baraca and Philathea, and on other phases of religious activity. In the auditorium lectures upon various timely and interesting subjects are delivered by the foremost platform speakers in America. The Southern Baptist Conferences will be held at Ridgecrest, June 11th to September 10, 1922.

Lake Junaluska, North Carolina

A GREAT METHODIST CHAUTAUQUA

The Rallying Point of the Methodist Episcopal
Church South

IN the midst of the Balsam and Great Smoky Mountains, which constitutes a scenic setting of unequalled splen­dor, is the Southern Assembly, the Methodist Chautau-qua of the South. This great religious and educational institution is located, for the most part, on an undulating plateau surrounded by some of the loftiest peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The tract of land controlled by the Assembly comprises twelve hundred and fifty acres. Its average altitude is twenty-seven hundred feet. The climate is ideal. The air is dry, crisp and invigorating, with all the mildness which characterizes the southern mountain country throughout the year. The days are bright and baling and the nights are always cool. Exces­sive humidity in the atmosphere is unknown.

Lake Junaluska is a beautiful sheet of water of two hundred and fifty acres.

AUDITORIUM AND COTTAGES—On the shore of the lake is the great Auditorium. It is 150 feet in diameter and will seat 4,000 persons. The stage alone has a seating capacity of 500. The structure is provided with sliding sides, so that it may be thrown open or kept closed, as conditions require.

OBJECTS OF THE SOUTHERN ASSEMBLY— The Southern Assembly originated several years ago in a movement on the part of both the laity and ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, to find a permanent community equipped with the facilities neces­sary to meet the requirements of the Church for conference, training, inspiration and recreation. Through the medium of summer conferences it was proposed to promote Ep-worth League, Sunday School, missionary and educational work; and through the community organization, to provide summer homes located in a beautiful, healthful spot, and in surroundings ideal for the training of children. In a word the idea was of life in a community where the at­mosphere and the associations would be helpful and uplifting. That idea has developed into the great Southern Assembly of today. It has a breadth to its work and a representative and an official relation to a great Church.

ACCESSIBILITY OF THE ASSEMBLY—The Southern Assembly is accessible to the great body of Southern people. Its location, two and a half miles from Waynesville, and twenty-eight miles from Asheville, on the Murphy Division of the SOUTHERN RAILWAY, places it within easy reach of every part of the South. [See  32.]

AS a pleasure resort, and in population, commerce and industrial pursuits, Waynesville is one of the most important little cities in Western North Carolina. Its location 2,655 feet above sea level is beautiful and picturesque.     The  climate is delightful  throughout the year; fine accommodations for visitors are provided by several excellent hotels and numerous boarding houses, and the scenery in the surrounding country is wonderfully attractive. The town was one of the first white settlements in this section and was named in honor of General Anthony Wayne, of Revolutionary War fame. Light and power are furnished by a complete and modern electric power plant; the buildings, both public and private are well constructed and handsome; the streets are paved and admirably maintained. Quite deservedly, the town fre­quently is referred to as "Waynesville, the Beautiful."

SEE FULL LIST
 

Photograph  with camps matched to list.