{"id":6146,"date":"2014-01-30T00:16:36","date_gmt":"2014-01-30T00:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/digitalheritage.org\/?p=6146"},"modified":"2023-06-20T13:20:52","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T13:20:52","slug":"cradle-of-forestry-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/2014\/01\/30\/cradle-of-forestry-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Cradle of Forestry"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ custom_padding=”11px|0px|54px|0px|false|false”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.48″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” custom_padding=”0|0px|27px|0px|false|false”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.74″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”]\"King<\/a><\/p>\n

In the early 20th century, the Appalachian forest was subjected to devastating large-scale commercial exploitation for the first time. At the same time, pioneering conservationists were devising reforms for forest management. \u00a0In 1889, George Vanderbilt hired a young European educated forester, Gifford Pinchot, to care for the vast woodlands around the Biltmore Estate. When Pinchot left to pursue his work at the national level, Vanderbilt hired a German forester, Dr. Carl Schenck, to replace him. \u00a0Schenck created the first school of forestry in America, the Biltmore Forest School. Though the school closed after 14 years, its influence endured. In 1968, Congress established the Cradle of Forestry in Pisgah National Forest as a National Historic Site to tell the story of America\u2019s efforts to preserve its great forest<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 
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Audio Moment<\/h1>\n

[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_audio audio=”https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/CradleForest60Mx.mp3″ title=”The Cradle of Forestry” image_url=”http:\/\/digitalheritage.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/King-House-1024×682.jpg” _builder_version=”3.11.1″] 
\n[\/et_pb_audio][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.48″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_accordion _builder_version=”3.9″][et_pb_accordion_item title=”The Cradle of Forestry ” open=”on” _builder_version=”3.9″ title_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”0em” title_text_shadow_vertical_length=”0em” title_text_shadow_blur_strength=”0em” body_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”0em” body_text_shadow_vertical_length=”0em” body_text_shadow_blur_strength=”0em”]Planning his Biltmore Estate in the late 1800s, George W. Vanderbilt hired Frederick Law Olmstead to create several acres of magnificent gardens and to design the terraces and grounds adjacent to the main house. Olmstead is also well known as the person who designed New York\u2019s Central Park and the landscape around the Capitol Building in Washington D.C.<\/p>\n

At Olmstead\u2019s recommendation, Vanderbilt next hired Gifford Pinchot to manage the estate\u2019s additional acreage \u2013 approximately 125,000 acres of rugged Appalachian forestland. At the time there were fewer than ten individuals in the nation with any formal forest-management training \u2013 and they had all received that training in Europe. Pinchot\u2019s arrival in Western North Carolina marked the beginning of \u201cscientific forestry\u201d in the United States. Soon after beginning his employment at Biltmore, Pinchot was selected to become the director of the newly formed USDA Forest Service. Pinchot suggested Vanderbilt hire as his successor Dr. Carl A. Schenck, of Germany\u2019s University of Darmstadt. Schenck\u2019s arrival in 1895 began a tradition of regional scholarship, preservation, and conservation that eventually evolved into the Pisgah National Forest\u2019s Cradle of Forestry.<\/p>\n

With Vanderbilt\u2019s support, Dr. Schenck founded the Biltmore Forestry School in 1898. Classes first met in the village of Biltmore, upstairs in what is now the headquarters of the Biltmore Company, a building now registered as a National Historic Landmark. Eventually classes were moved to the Biltmore Estate. As the season warmed, classes were conducted within what would become the Pisgah National Forest. There was a community deep in that forest named \u201cPink Beds.\u201d Many of the old mountain cabins and farm homes within this community became the \u201ccampus\u201d of the Biltmore Forest School. One building, a single-room community school and church, served as the forestry school\u2019s classroom.<\/p>\n

At the school, students were taught the management methods needed to utilize and conserve forest resources in order to create a continual supply of goods. It was Vanderbilt\u2019s vision that the Biltmore Estate develope and maintain a high degree of self-sufficiency. At the Biltmore Forest School, science and nature combined to satisfy this vision. Some of the nation\u2019s first examples of controlled logging resulted from the school\u2019s efforts and successes. One observer called the process a beautiful illustration of how the Industrial Revolution could coexist with great forests. However, the school\u2019s existence was about to change.<\/p>\n

George Vanderbilt died in 1914. Soon after, his widow sold over 100,000 acres of timberland to the United States government. Consequently, the Biltmore Forest School lost its \u201cnatural classroom.\u201d After more than a decade of training students in timber and water management, the school closed. During its life, the school had graduated over 350 students. By the time the Biltmore Forest School closed over 60 universities in the nation offered classes in silviculture (the cultivation of forest trees).<\/p>\n

In another way, the huge land sale proved beneficial. The federal government used its purchase of the Vanderbilt tract to lay the groundwork for the eventual establishment of the 500,000-acre Pisgah National Forest. In addition, a 6,500-acre site was set aside to commemorate the beginning of forestry conservation in the United States. Today, that site is the home of the Cradle of Forestry.<\/p>\n

The Cradle of Forestry enables visitors to experience Appalachian mountain life as it would have been at the turn of the 20th century. Local crafters recreate the skills that would have been required for survival by the residents of the rugged region during that period. Along a one-mile route called the Biltmore Campus Trail visitors can interact with spinners, weavers, woodsmen, quilters, toymakers, basket makers, and blacksmiths.<\/p>\n

The Cradles\u2019s other tributes to its heritage include an 18-minute movie that tells the story of the birth of scientific forestry management. It acknowledges the activities and contributions of Vanderbilt, Pinchot, and Schenck. In addition there are an interactive exhibit hall, a gift shop, and a caf\u00e9. Seven historic buildings remain standing on the site, nestled beside an old sawmill and a 1915 Climax logging locomotive. An excellent reconstruction of the first building that housed the field school for the Biltmore Forest School is located along the historic trek. The Cradle of Forestry is a designated National Historic Site. Recently, it conducted a special event celebrating 100 years of forestry education in the United States, 1898-1998.
\n[\/et_pb_accordion_item][et_pb_accordion_item title=”If you would like to visit” open=”off” _builder_version=”3.9″ title_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”0em” title_text_shadow_vertical_length=”0em” title_text_shadow_blur_strength=”0em” body_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”0em” body_text_shadow_vertical_length=”0em” body_text_shadow_blur_strength=”0em”]The Cradle of Forestry Historic site is located on US Hwy. 276 in the Pisgah National Forest in Transylvania County only 14 miles above Brevard, NC. It is between 30-45 miles away from the towns of Asheville, Hendersonville and Waynesville. It is only four miles off of the Blue Ridge Parkway near milepost # 411. (Look for signs to Brevard)
\n[\/et_pb_accordion_item][et_pb_accordion_item title=”Additional Information” open=”off” _builder_version=”3.9″ title_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”0em” title_text_shadow_vertical_length=”0em” title_text_shadow_blur_strength=”0em” body_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”0em” body_text_shadow_vertical_length=”0em” body_text_shadow_blur_strength=”0em”]<\/p>\n