A Short History Of A Remarkable Place

Long before settlers discovered western North Carolina, Native Americans roamed these mountains, as several Cherokee settlements extended from eastern Tennessee and north Georgia to the Carolinas. In fact, popular legend has it that the word “Toxaway” is the anglicized version of the Cherokee phrase “ta ha wey” meaning land of the red bird.

Prior to the Revolutionary War (1775-1783), white explorers were rarely seen in this southwestern portion of North Carolina. Trappers and hunters passed through but seldom stayed. The Cherokee usually visited only during their hunting season (summer and fall), then returned to their communities in what is now upstate South Carolina for winter and spring.

On November 25, 1775, the Continental Congress ordered North Carolina to provide sufficient troops to assist the Continental Army. Like other colonies (eventually states), North Carolina was also required to organize, equip and appoint leaders; oh, yes, and eventually pay their regiments. North Carolina, like some other states, chose to entice men to join by granting land in areas of the state not previously settled by white men. These areas came to be known as “bounty land.”

Land was based on two things – rank and months of service.  A private received 7.6 acres for each month. If that private served 84 months (in other words, the entire war), he would be eligible to receive 640 acres. The higher the rank, the more acres per month of service. For example, a captain serving 84 months was eligible for 3,840 acres. A major serving for 84 months was eligible for 4,800 acres. Colonels and chaplains serving for 84 months were eligible for 7,200 acres while brigadier generals were eligible for 12,000 acres.[1]

After the war, these soldiers returned to their homes, packed their families and set out for their bounty land. Primarily of Scots-Irish descent, the first land grant was given on Cathey’s Creek, a few short miles east of Toxaway in 1783. Trappers and fur traders also began to arrive in larger numbers, including Canadians who saw our mountains and were reminded of home. The names of the nearby communities of Quebec and Little Canada speak to this heritage.

Generations of families established a foothold in the numerous coves and hollows: subsistence farming, damming rivers to create millworks, mining, trapping, hunting and small metal works were the ingredients that nurtured a modest, but sustainable living.

    The Railroads Crest The Blue Ridge

    The arrival of the Western North Carolina Railroad in Asheville in October of 1880 rapidly accelerated the pace of change. In 1895, a rail line was completed from Hendersonville to Brevard, setting the stage for two important new industries: timber and tourism.

    Visionaries

    In 1890, J. Francis Hayes, a native of Newcastle, Pennsylvania, moved to western North Carolina for health reasons, but his entrepreneurial instincts were stoked by the beauty of the Appalachian mountains and their vast virgin stands of timber.

    In 1895, the Toxaway Company was formed and Hayes built the first of several resort hotels, the Fairfield Inn and its adjoining Fairfield Lake. The next year, the Toxaway Company built Lake Sapphire and the Sapphire Inn.

    Realizing that his dream of building more resort hotels depended on rail service, Hayes purchased the failing Brevard-Hendersonville Railroad and petitioned for a bond to extend the railroad to Old Toxaway (what is now present-day Rosman). To convince the county board of commissioners to issue the bond, Hayes promised to build a hotel in Brevard. The Franklin Hotel opened in Brevard in July of 1900, ushering in a new level of comfortable accommodations that included in-room baths, all for the price of $12.50 a week.

    Hayes and his ambitions continued to expand. The Toxaway Company next built the Lodge atop Mt. Toxaway. Soon after, Hayes and his wife purchased twenty thousand acres of land in the vicinity of Hogback Mountain and construction began on the largest lake ever built in the Appalachians. The resulting Lake Toxaway was one mile wide, three miles long and boasted a shoreline of over fifteen miles. A 500-foot long earthen dam bolstered the south end of the lake.

    “The resulting Lake Toxaway was one mile wide, three miles long and boasted a shoreline of over fifteen miles.”

      The Golden Era: Toxaway Inn

      By the time of Lake Toxaway’s construction, the largest shareholder in the Toxaway Company was another Pennsylvanian, Edward H. Jennings, a Pittsburgh banker.

      Jennings oversaw the building of a vast five-story resort hotel, the Toxaway Inn, which was completed in 1903. Wood from 40 species of trees appointed the interior and exterior of the Victorian showpiece, which included a wide veranda that wrapped around almost every side of the building. Today, there are differing accounts of the Toxaway Inn’s size, but a 1912 Southern Railroad travel brochure stated that the inn could host 500 guests.

      In 1904 a spur line from Old Toxaway (soon to be renamed Rosman) was completed, and thus began the golden age of Toxaway.

      The Toxaway Company set about promoting the Toxaway Inn to the rich and famous up and down the eastern seaboard. Promotional materials referred to Lake Toxaway as “The Switzerland of America” and “The Beautiful Sapphire Country.”

      A special Pullman car parking lot was created to handle the many private railcars that arrived bearing such famous families as the Carnegies, the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts. Other distinguished guests included Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, R.J. Reynolds and many others.

      For the next thirteen years, Toxaway Inn served as a veritable Shangri La for affluent vacationers, offering fishing, swimming, hunting, tennis, horseback riding and golf on a nine-hole course completed in 1912. Other diversions included billiards, dancing and bowling. Orchestras regularly played in an ornate ballroom and outdoors on a lake island connected to the Inn property by a rustic wooden bridge.

      Despite its popularity, the Inn struggled financially, and in 1911 the Toxaway Company declared bankruptcy. Jennings, the largest shareholder of The Toxaway Company, purchased the Inn and 27,910 acres of land. In 1913, The Toxaway Company ceased to be, yet under the direction of Jennings, the Toxaway Inn continued to attract affluent guests and employ a significant number of local residents in every capacity.

      “Other distinguished guests included Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, R.J. Reynolds and many others.”

      Toxaway Inn blue print circa 1902

      Disaster Strikes

      In July of 1916, a series of storms hit vast areas of western North Carolina. Asheville, forty miles to the northeast of Toxaway, experienced the worst flood in its history, receiving more rain on July 16, according to the Weather Bureau, than anywhere in the United States ever before. In Marshall, north of Asheville, over 53 souls were swept away.

      These rains filled Lake Toxaway to its limit. And later, when a hurricane came ashore from the Gulf of Mexico and moved inland in mid-August, the stage was set for a disaster of unprecedented proportions. On August 13th at 7:10pm, Toxaway’s earthen dam gave way. A geologist from Georgia later calculated that “5,376,548,571 gallons changed hands” when the dam broke and the torrent poured down the Toxaway River gorge. While there was only one physical casualty – a blind mule – the economic damage was complete. The lake emptied, and with it the community’s bright economic hopes drained away.

      Repose

      For the next 45 years, it was as if Toxaway was preserved in amber. An attempt to reopen the Inn was made by some Asheville businessmen, but their plans were thwairted with the arrival of the Great Depression.

      During those years, local residents returned to the livelihoods that had sustained them prior to the Toxaway Inn: farming, timber and perhaps some “private distilling.”

      During the years after it closed, the Toxaway Inn was maintained by a vigilant caretaker, Tolvin T. Miller. The Inn, bereft of its namesake lake, stood as a lone reminder of its glorious past.

      Finally, in late 1946, a Tennessee businessman bought the Toxaway Inn for $20,000, and in 1947 razed the once iconic building and sold its contents, fixtures and salvageable building materials.

        Renewal

        In 1960, R.D. Heinitsh and D.W. Boyd formed Lake Toxaway Estates, Inc. and set about recreating the lake that had been disastrously emptied forty-five years earlier. After clearing land and creating a dam with a solid granite spillway, construction crews began filling the lake in the spring of 1961. Instead of a grand hotel, these business visionaries created forty miles of roads around the lake and began selling lots to interested buyers.

        A nine-hole golf course was also built and was soon expanded to a full eighteen-hole course. The clubhouse and pro shop for the course was a mansion built in 1913, during the area’s heyday. But there was a greater purpose in store for the Swiss-inspired mansion. In 1985, it reopened as The Greystone Inn, which has gone on to become one of the most venerable vacation destinations in North Carolina.

        In 1973, near to Lake Toxaway Estates, Mr. Boyd began development on another 1,450 acres astride the wild and scenic Horsepasture River. The same clean air, marvelous climate, and beautiful mountain scenery which has drawn settlers since the turn of the century continues to attract those who are lucky enough to discover Sapphire Lakes. As ownership of this community has passed through different hands, the name was ultimately changed to Burlingame.

        Today the greater Toxaway community has become home to many couples and families who’ve discovered its unrivaled natural setting and welcoming sense of community. And the residents who have made Toxaway their home for multiple generations continue to nurture the traditions that make the Appalachians so unique. Every Friday night, residents gather at the Lake Toxaway Community Center for a jamboree that includes music, food and fellowship – echoing the very traditions established by Toxaway’s first settlers.

        Sources: Treasures of Toxaway by Jan C. Plemmons; statelibrary.nc.org, laketoxaway.com, A Brief History of the Sapphire Lakes Area

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