Bascom Lamar Lunsford

Bascom Lamar Lunsford

One voice seized me more than the rest. Over a simply picked banjo, the voice sang mournfully about a mole in the ground. Elsewhere, the same voice preached, over that same simple banjo, about dry bones. Like so many folk tunes, these told strange, elliptical stories, dense with images, exploding with emotion.

Thomas Wolfe

Thomas Wolfe

Thomas Wolfe was born to Julia and W.O. Wolfe in 1900. The youngest of eight children, he grew up living in the boardinghouse operated by his mother in Asheville, North Carolina. His childhood experiences influenced him greatly and aided the development of his future literary topics.

Wilma Dykeman

Wilma Dykeman

Wilma Dykeman of Asheville, North Carolina, was a major Appalachian author. Her novels “The Tall Woman,” “The Far Family,” and “Return the Innocent Earth” vividly evoke life in the region as it experienced rapid change between the Civil War and the 20th century.

Buncombe Turnpike

To truly appreciate the value and impact of western North Carolina’s historic Buncombe Turnpike it is useful to have a basic geographic understanding of the region it served. Today’s Buncombe County looks much different than it did over two hundred years ago when it...
Grove Park Inn

Grove Park Inn

We have pure air, common-sense, digestible food, quiet in the bedrooms at night, the finest orchestra outside of New York and Boston, a great organ, and an atmosphere where refined people and busy business men with their families find great cofort and a good time.” ~From the 1916 Maps and Road Book of Western North Carolina.”