Mountain of Legend
to Become a Resort
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By RUSSELL II. RILES
Little more than a century ago, three
Confederate soldiers, posing as bota¬
nists. followed the movement of Union
troops with powerful field glasses from
their vantage point atop Big Bald
Mountain on the Tennessee-North
Carolina line.
They ticked out their messages over
telegraph wires, running through the
underbrush to Sam's Gap where pres¬
ent-day Highway 23 crosses the state
line. From there, the messages were
carried on horseback to Asheville.
Sam's Gap was a strategic pass and
Big Bald, at its 5.618-foot elevation,
a center of espionage. Today. Sam's
Gap is a strategic pass for tourists and
Big Bald Mountain may become the
center of a great recreation area.
The Edwards interests in Kingsport.
Tennessee, have acquired a 6.000-
acre tract surrounding the Bald and
currently surveyors arc chaining the
heights where once the disguised Con¬
federates encamped and where, earlier
in the nineteenth century. David
Greer, storied hermit of the Bald, had
scared away all trespassers for 32
years.
The tract, more than nine square
miles in extent, was acquired two
years ago by Edwards Enterprises, and
since the acquisition, consulting engi¬
neers and economists have been study¬
ing land utilization.
A sheaf of plans was unrolled in
the Kingsport office of
С.
P. Edwards.
III. president of Big Bald Mountain
Development Corporation, to disclose
details of the $3,000,000 develop¬
ment.
First item on the timetable is a dude
ranch, already well under way. Several
ancient log houses, discovered in the
vicinity of Mountain City, have been
transported and reconstructed at the
ranch. Timbers of others from Virginia.
Kentucky, and North Carolina are on
the site. Laurel Creek has been
dammed to create a series of ponds.
already stocked with rainbow trout
from Edwards' fish hatchery at Hamp¬
ton, Tennessee.
Eight hundred acres surrounding the
cabins will be fenced to contain game.
Every step in the development is
planned to preserve the native beauty
of the area.
In another section, bulldozers puff
their way through the coves and up
the rugged terrain as trails are opened
to future cabin sites . . . sites for fam¬
ilies who want to gel away from the
main-stream of tourist travel and hot-
dog stands.
Big Bald Mountain, bisected at its
wind-swept crest by the Tennessee-
North Carolina line, is reputed to be
one of winter's coldest spots in the
Smokies. Here the snows linger longer,
and here, near the Bald, plans call
for a ski-slope and a 150-room lodge.
Still another area will be set aside
for campers from which hiking trails
will spin off. The famed Appalachian
Г
rail itself traverses the Bald. An 18-
hole golf course is included in the
plans.
Naturalists love the area, and the
Confederates who posed as botanists
THE STATE.
Млу
IS. 1966
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