C arolina's Seven Wonders
••If you were asked lo iiunie Ihe Seven Won¬
der* of North Curolinsi. wliat would you
offer?" we asked Mr. Lawrence recently.
Hero is liis reply: it will lie inter€kstiiif£ to
uofe whether you agree with him.
Til
К
sewn wonders of I lie niicienl
world were the Pyramids of
Egypt, Ihe Hanging Gardens of
Babylon, t lie Temple of Diana at
Ephesus, the statue of .lupiter at
Athens, the Mausoleum at llclienr-
uassus. the Colossus of lthodes. and
the Pharos, or light house at Alex¬
andria. To these I think there should
lie added the wonder of the great
Rook of Gibraltar.
There are some wonders here at
home. If you had to select seven from
all the wonders of Carolina, what se¬
lection would you make? Few would
make the same choice, but from the
wonders of coast and plain and moun¬
tain. I select the following from the
many wonders of our Carolina home:
(!) The State Capitol
Eighteen thirty-one was an unfor¬
tunate year for our state. In January
of that year most of the city of Ra¬
leigh was destroyed by lire. In May a
large part of Raleigh’s rival city of
Fayetteville went up in smoke. On
June 21 the State Capitol was de¬
stroyed in a great conflagration, and
not only the building, but most of its
contents was lost, including Canova’s
statue of Washington.
In 1832 the legislature authorized
the construction of a new eapitnl. All
the materials used therein came from
Carolina, but a Scotch architect. Da¬
vid Patton, designed the present
building, and alien artisans fashioned
it from our native stone. The first
railroad in our state was the “Ex¬
perimental Railroad." chartered in
18.42, and used primarily to haul the
stone for the cnpitol from the quarry
owned by the stale and located near
the presell! Federal cemetery on the
eastern outskirts of Raleigh, This
railroad used wooden rails covered
with thin strips of iron plating, and
its ear* were drawn by horses. Patton
designed and. in the eight years ensu¬
ing 1832. his artisans executed one of
the finest examples of architecture to
By R. C. LAWRENCE
be found anywhere in the 1'nited
States. Its winding stone stairways,
its curious rotunda, the massiveness
of it walls and |M*rticos. the harmony
of its colors, the symmetry of its lines,
the Ideality of its ensemble, make it
the most lieniitifiil building in Caro¬
lina, and one of the tiuest specimens
of architect lire in the nation.
(2) Chimney Rock
Situated near Lake Lure, in scen¬
ery of picturesque beauty, on the
headwaters of Broad River, this
great monolith of stone rears its head
toward the clouds. As we approach it
we see that some mighty hand has
covered the river's bed and banks,
and the entire terrain, with great
boulders, whereon the lingers of the
flood have written their signatures in
the indelible ink of nature. The great
пк-к
itself is fearful evidence of some
great cataclysm of the geologic past,
for it is
“A towen-d citadel, a pendant
пик."
And close by, on a small confluent
of the Itroad, are the twin so-called
“bottomless pools." the depths
whereof have not yet been plumbed.
The swirl of the waters has polished
their granite sides to glossy smooth¬
ness. and they are no doubt connected
in some subterranean way with the
great cavern of Bat Cave but a few
miles distant, where the rooks have
formed a lodgment in such a way as
to create a great cave, the innermost
recesses of which have not yet been
explored What mighty convulsion of
nature shook the stony heart of these
mighty hills llinusauds of years ago.
and formed these wonders of nature?
Did a great volcano spend itself
finally in a tremendous eruption,
whose tires smouldered through eons
of time and finally cooled Probably
the scientist and the geologist have
an answer to this inquiry, hut in the
meantime we of the laity can but
think hack in silent awe to a time
when the “earth was without form
and void, and darkness moved on the
face of the waters."
(3) Blowing Rock
Close by the village of that name,
deep in the heart of the beautiful
mountains, we suddenly chance upon
this great outcropping of the stony
heart of these mighty mountains. As
we stand upon its slanting summit
and gaze down upon the valley hun¬
dreds of feet below, we feel in our
faces the steady upward rush of air
which gave the great n»ek its name.
It is located amid scenery as beauti¬
ful as Carolina affords, and recalls
to our mind the Indian legend of
the maiden whose father refused his
consent to her marriage with the
brave of her choice. In her disap¬
point, she sought self-destruction by
jumping from the high precipice, but
the wind blew her back and debited
her body, unharmed, upon the sur¬
face of the rock. Her father taking
this as a sign of the favor of the
Great Spirit, gave his consent to the
marriage, and so the Indian maiden
and her lover lived happily ever
after,
(4) Biltmore House near Asheville
Here in the heart of the lovely
mountains, the millions of Vander¬
bilt were lavished to produce an es¬
tate famous throughout the nation.
Thousands «if acres were purchased,
and a vast preserve created, the cen¬
ter of which was the beautiful man¬
sion house. Hundreds of miles of
roadway and bridle paths were built,
the cunning of the landscape artist
transformed natural ruggedness in¬
to scenes of pastoral beauty. It has
l*een said that the Taj Mahal is
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