THE QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER OF
THE HISTORIC TOXAWAY FOUNDATION
AUTUMN 2020
IN THIS ISSUE
- NEW! Historic Toxaway Visitor Center At Mountain Cafe
- Our State Magazine Features ‘A (Local) Porch With A Past’
- So How Will 2020 End?
- What A Time: Postcards From The Past
NEW! HISTORIC TOXAWAY VISITOR CENTER
It’s time! We’re so pleased to announce the opening of the Historic Toxaway Visitor Center at Mountain Cafe. It’s a great place for newcomers to stop, order a delicious treat, and learn more about our storied community. We’ve collected local and regional marketing materials so we can share the latest news and events about area businesses and activities.
See the map at left for the Mountain Cafe. The address is: 15866 Rosman Highway, Lake Toxaway, NC 28747.
Next time you’re going by, stop in and take a look—we’d love to hear what you think about our new space (and we hear the offerings at the Cafe are pretty yummy, too!).
OUR STATE MAGAZINE FEATURES ‘A PORCH WITH A PAST’
The August issue of Our State Magazine features the story of a porch overlooking Lake Toxaway that has seen perhaps more than its fair share of history over the last century or so.
“John L. Nichols III would give anything to know the whole truth about this porch, his porch, wide and unscreened, its floorboards painted a light gray. On his porch, a coffee table — big enough for six pairs of feet hoisted from two wicker couches — is laden with boxes containing documents, postcards, and photographs from Lake Toxaway’s history. But no deed or drawing attesting to the house’s original build date exists. Nothing but an interior board etched with the date 1896.”
SO HOW WILL 2020 END?
Even in this time of COVID-19, when it sometimes seems as if new conversational topics may be in short supply, there’s one you can always fall back on: The weather. We’re happy to bring you the 2020 Fall Foliage predictor, and a smattering of info from the Farmer’s Almanac about the winter to follow. Enjoy!
Ever Wonder Why Leaves Fall in Autumn?
The Ultimate Smoky Mountains Guide knows the answer to that: “In order to cope with the grueling winter temperatures, trees slowly close off the veins that carry water and nutrients to and from the leaves with a layer of new cells that form at the base of the leaf stem, protecting the limbs and body of the tree. Once the process of new cell creation is complete, water and nutrients no longer flow to and fro from the leaf – this enables the leaf to die and weaken at the stem, eventually falling gracefully to the ground.”
The same website answers other seasonal musings and also features a pretty slick interactive 2020 Fall Foliage Map to predict week to week color changes across the United States. Try it yourself in the coming weeks and see how accurate it is!
According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac…
Will it be a snowy winter? Will it be an exceptionally cold winter? How bad a winter is it going to be?
The Old Farmer’s Almanac has been a trusted resource since 1792, and it uses the following scientific disciplines to make its long-range predictions:
1) solar science, the study of sunspots and other solar activity
2) climatology, the study of prevailing weather patterns, and
3) meteorology, the study of the atmosphere.
So what do they have to say about the 2020-2021 season? Check it out here.
WHAT A TIME: POSTCARDS FROM THE PAST
According to a 2015 Washington Post article, “We (no longer) wish you were here.” That is, you’re much less likely to see that friendly message scrawled across a printed postcard today than you are to receive a similar message digitally, via social media or email. Now, postcards are more often used as an advertising medium than for the short, sweet personal notes they once were.
But at the turn of the century, when America was in the midst of a “golden age” of postcards, nearly everyone who traveled purchased them to send a brief note home to loved ones. Luckily for us, these postcards helped preserve images of many long-gone sights, including many of the area’s famed Toxaway Inn.
If you’re into postcard collecting, or “deltiology,” you may want to check out this brief history of the postcard. And if the pandemic has you itching for more connection, check out PostCrossing, a website whose sole purpose is to hook up random people around the world through sending and receiving postcards.
Happy posting!
Thanks for sharing a few minutes of your day with us!
Please let us know if you have questions or comments about any of these stories, or about our foundation; and if you have stories and photos to share of local people, places, and events, please share them here, and you may see them in a future blog or newsletter, or on our social media channels.
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