Stories

Each of our blog features stands alone as a story of its own, and some of the collected stories create a chronological series. If you prefer to read all of the stories on a particular subject, see the blog series information below.

“Out of shared telling and remembering grow identity, connection, and pride, binding people to a place and to one another.”

— Tom Rankin, folklorist


INDIVIDUAL BLOGS

Postcard, The Lodge at Mount Toxaway NC

The Lodge at Mount Toxaway: Then & Now

The Lodge at Mount Toxaway is no more - replaced by an unmanned fire lookout tower - but you can read about its resort heyday here.
Sapphire Lake, Sapphire NC

The Sapphire Inn & Cottages: Then & Now

Sapphire Inn and Cottages were built in 1897 on Lake Sapphire by the Toxaway Company and enjoyed a decade of lively operation. Unfortunately a fire in the summer of 1906 destroyed the inn.
Revolutionary war soldiers claiming bounty lands

Settling of Bounty Lands in Western North Carolina

How do you pay someone for a service rendered when you have no money? The leaders of the Continental Congress offered land grants or bounty lands to Revolutionary War soldiers as payment for their service.
The Fairfield Inn, Sapphire NC

The Fairfield Inn: Then and Now

The Fairfield Inn was the first great resort built by the Toxaway Company. Its storied history began in 1896 and ended after a fire in 1986 forced its closure and eventual demolition.
Toxaway Inn, view through trees

The Toxaway Company and the Great Resort Era

Just how did Western North Carolina become “the” resort venue in the late nineteenth century? It was largely due to the efforts of the Toxaway Company, a collection of industrialist entrepreneurs who built five great inns of the time.
1880s camera

Life & Work of Early Area Photographers

We explore the life and work of three photographers who preserved turn-of-the-century Transylvania County life with their images: R.H. Scadin, E. H. Glover, and Joseph Stokely Wilde.
Logging Industry, log pile with people for scale

The Logging Industry (1900-1920)

By the early twentieth century, western North Carolina’s economy was dominated by two industries: tourism and timber. Here we take a look at the turn of the century logging trade in western Northern Carolina.

BLOG SERIES

Turn of the Century Toxaway

Postcard, Toxaway Inn, Lake Toxaway NC

The Toxaway Company and the Great Resort Era
The Fairfield Inn: Then and Now
The Sapphire Inn & Cottages: Then & Now
The Lodge At Mount Toxaway: Then & Now
The Franklin Hotel: Gateway to the Sapphire Country
The Building of Lake Toxaway and the Toxaway Inn
Opening Day at the Toxaway Inn
Early Success at the Toxaway Inn
Financial Foibles in the Sapphire Country
The Lake Toxaway Dam Burst
The Lost Years of Lake Toxaway

RELATED
Life & Work of Early Area Photographers
A 1900s Transylvania County Home: R.H. Scadin

The ’60s Rebirth of Lake Toxaway

Boyd and Heinitsh

The Revival of Lake Toxaway
The Return of Lake Toxaway: Part 1
     Clearing the Lakebed and Rebuilding the Dam
The Return of Lake Toxaway: Part 2
     Refilling the Lake and Building Roads
The Return of Lake Toxaway: Boyd and Heinitsh
The Return of Lake Toxaway: A Video Documentary

RELATED
Neighborhoods: Burlingame

The History of the Greystone Inn

Moltz Mansion

A Biography of Lucy Camp Armstrong Moltz – Part 1
A Biography of Lucy Camp Armstrong Moltz – Part 2
Local Historian Showcases Lucy Camp Armstrong Moltz
The Evolution of The Moltz Mansion
The Birth Of The Greystone Inn
The Greystone Inn: The Lovelace Years
Re-Imagining The Greystone Inn

RELATED
A European Grand Tour Diary (3-part series)
A Greystone Inn Extended Family Story (4-part series)


WHAT A TIME…

And don’t forget to check out our What A Time… stories in issues of The Quill Newsletters—featuring smaller historical bits you might also find of interest!