AUTUMN 2019
THE QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER OF
THE HISTORIC TOXAWAY FOUNDATION
IN THIS ISSUE
- Don’t Miss It: Gorgeous Gorges Colors
- Part II: The Rosman Tracking Center To The Learning Center at PARI
- What’s New With The Toxaway Business Alliance
- What A Time: When Thomas Edison Was Here
DON’T MISS IT: GORGEOUS GORGES COLORS
Although it’s literally right in our own backyard, many in Historic Toxaway have yet to visit Gorges State Park. If that’s you, mark your calendar now for Gorgeous Gorges Colors, an annual event hosted by the Friends of Gorges State Park. This year’s event will be held on Saturday, October 19 from 9 am to 3 pm.
Rainbow Falls
This free event is family- and pet-friendly, featuring hayrides, a food truck, live music, s’mores, face painting, a pet adoption tent, demonstrations by Western Carolina University’s pottery department, and a raptor show at 2 PM. Watch a short video with highlights from last year’s event.
Begin your exploration at the expansive, Gold Level LEED-Certified visitors center which features educational exhibits, a retail center, a beautiful stone fireplace, and unbeatable vistas. The center is surrounded by picnic areas that are perfect for a family pit-stop before hitting the trails.
A visit to this wild and beautiful area will thrill you with its plunging waterfalls, rugged river gorges and sheer rock walls. The area also boasts a high concentration of rare species.
Don’t forget to grab a map and get trip advice at the visitor center before venturing further; in particular, be safe near the waterfalls, which can be slick and trickier to navigate than you may anticipate.
PART TWO: THE ROSMAN TRACKING STATION TO THE LEARNING CENTER AT PARI
A previous issue began the story of the Learning Center at PARI – first a federal government asset, now a public champion of science education.
Our once active NASA facility and Department of Defense asset has transformed into the Learning Center at PARI. Where space communication and satellite tracking were once the order of the day, now students come from all over to learn and get inspired by science.
Secretive research and communications have been replaced with a new level of outreach and sharing knowledge in hopes of encouraging the next generation of scientists. Of course, there is something for everyone at the Learning Center at PARI not just the up-and-coming scientists. Educators and those young at heart are sure to find new ways to love the sky and all the possibilities it holds.
So how did the Rosman Satellite Tracking and Data Acquisition Center become the Learning Center at PARI? The site was turned over to the US Forest Service after the federal government decided to merge existing efforts in other locations. The plan was to simply let mother nature take back what was once hers.
Enter Don Cline of Greensboro, NC. Don, in his retired years, became an enthusiast of science education. He wanted the youth of America to understand that astronomy and science careers were exciting, meaningful and attainable. His efforts led him to the
PARI’s Exhibit Gallery showcases a spectacular collection of gems, minerals, and rare meteorites.
For the star-struck among us, the Learning Center at PARI is the place to spend your evenings.
retired site in the Historic Toxaway Area where he saw tremendous potential as a place of learning, inspiration and exploration.
In 1999, after almost five years of quiet at the site, Don bought and gifted the tracking station to a recently formed not-for-profit foundation. The Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute was born.
PARI opened to the public and became a center for research. It also offered STEM opportunities for students of all ages. Just last year in 2018, the site evolved once again. PARI transitioned to the Learning Center at PARI and now hosts numerous summer camps and provides field study opportunities. Research fellows are given the opportunity to learn in a beautiful setting. Internships and small group projects are taking place as you read this article. Planning for 2020 summer camps is in full gear. The Learning Center at PARI is an active campus full of opportunity.
The Learning Center at PARI has a fascinating history but has always been a champion of science and exploration. The Historic Toxaway area also has had a compelling past but it we feel it is partners like the Learning Center at PARI that make our future so bright. Please support this phenomenal program by visiting with your kids and grandkids or contributing financially.
Learn more about the astronomical opportunities provided at the Learning Center at PARI by visiting https://www.pari.edu.
WHAT’S NEW WITH THE TOXAWAY BUSINESS ALLIANCE
This collective of local businesses, formed as an offshoot of the Historic Toxaway Foundation in late 2018, has really come into its own over the past year. The group first began organizing when learning that our area would be in the path of the 2017 eclipse. Starting as a small core of enthusiastic volunteers, participants today include approximately 50 local businesses.
With a little assistance from grant funding and a lot of elbow grease, a number of initiatives were put into play to better connect and promote area businesses, including:
Networking and Workshop Events
Six events have been held to date, with an average attendance of 12-25 people.
Monthly Guide
This attractive calendar of events has been printed monthly since MAR 2019, with 1,000 copies distributed locally at the Brevard/Transylvania Chamber of Commerce, the Cashiers Area Chamber of Commerce, and a number of local businesses. The guide is also emailed to 250 subscribers and appears online at the Historic Toxaway Foundation website.
Social Media
Facebook and Instagram accounts have been active since spring of this year, with over 100 followers each. Posts highlight individual businesses and/or reasons to “Play Stay Toxaway.”
Community Building and Local Events
In a unique partnership between the Southern Highlands Reserve, the Lake Toxaway Garden Club, Whistlin’ Dixie Garden Shop, and McNeeley’s Hardware, planters featuring a red spruce pine and red and white flowers are being offered at a discount to local businesses. These displays will help to develop a common look and feel across the area. Other initiatives being executed include Red Feather Days, a community-wide weekend event with special events and promotions; and the circulation of a Red Feather banner to feature individual businesses for a period of time.
A successful, vibrant community depends on its citizens, their visions, and financial and human resources to execute those visions. Your support and involvement, both financial and through volunteer work, are essential to the future of the historic Toxaway community. Please help us grow!
WHAT A TIME: WHEN THOMAS EDISON WAS HERE…
From The State, 50th Anniversary Issue, January 1984
And we can prove it! Besides newspaper accounts recounting the Wizard of Menlo’s appearance in our area, the Transylvania County Library actually has his signature on a 1906 Toxaway Inn guest register.
The Sylvan Valley News was delighted to later report that, “A representative of the News had quite a conversation with Thos. A. Edison on last Monday while he was in Brevard. and he expressed himself as greatly pleased with this particular section of the country. Mr. Edison is traveling in a party of four with two large automobiles and has been all over the state nearly. He has come by automobile from New York City. Although the roads were very muddy, he found no difficulty in traveling, and went from here to Lake Toxaway and from there to Webster. In speaking of Brevard, Mr. Edison was greatly surprised that a town with so few inhabitants should have the many conveniences that we have such as water, sewers and electric lights. He said that the valley of the French Broad from Penrose up to Brevard was as beautiful and fertile looking a valley as he had ever seen, and he thought we had a most ideal country, both as to scenery, climate and farming prospects.”
Older members of some of the local families who have been here for generations have told stories of the visit, as evidenced by Mr. Grimshawe’s remembrance in The State magazine, at left.
Jimmy Moss also relayed an amusing encounter with Edison to author Warren Moore in her book Mountain Voices: “Well, you know Granny Moody died at about ninety-two or ninety-three, and she never would ride with anybody. She was a real little, feisty woman, and she’d literally get out — and her in her nineties — and walk from one family to another, three, four, or five miles. She would head out early in the morning and walk to visit Grandfather. She’d walk all day long and never would ride with anybody. People would stop and offer her a ride, and she’d say, “Ain’t got time for such automobiles.” And she’d walk off.
But, one day they said Henry Ford and Thomas Edison came through. (You know they came through this country touring and were probably in one of the first cars ever seen around here.) When they came along and stopped, she rode with them. I guess she figured that was a time in history, so she got in and rode with them.”
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, we’d love to hear from you!
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