The Henderson Plateau
Concluding a section of ‘"In tlie
Heart of the Alleghenies,” pub¬
lished in 1881.
Bi/
/л:о!Ж
& crosscup
Above Buncombe, in the French
Broad valley, are Henderson and
Transylvania counties, embraced with¬
in high mountain chains, and formed
of a basin-like territory, which bears
some evidence of having once been
з
lake. It is a surprise, to most people,
to find, within a few miles of the crest
of the Blue Ridge, a marsh of such
extent as exists in Henderson county.
Ihc French Broad changes its
character at Asheville, below which
place it is a torrent, and above a
placid, almost immobile stream, rising
to the slightly higher altitude of the
upper valley, in terraces, rather than
by gradual ascent. Its shallow channel
is bordered by alluvial bottoms — de¬
posits carried from the mountain
slopes — varying in width from a few
rods to five miles, making, with a back¬
ground of mountains rising massively
in the distance, a landscape of sur¬
passing beauty. A conservative esti¬
mate places the number of acres of
first bottom land along the upper
valley of the French Broad and its
tributaries at 20.000, and twice that
number of acres could be cultivated
with sulky plows and harvested with
self-binding reapers. Cane creek, fol¬
lowed by the Henderson and Bun¬
combe county line, drains consider¬
able low land — at places near its
mouth almost marshy. On the opposite
side of the French Broad there is a
wide expanse of alluvial land, cut by
Mill’s river, and extending for a dis¬
tance of two miles up that stream,
where the valley becomes second bot¬
tom and slope.
Ochlawaha (Mud creek, locally
named) emptying into the French
Broad from the cast, like its Florida
namesake, is a lazy, sluggish stream.
Its headsprings arc in the crest of the
Blue Ridge, all the way from the high
Pinnacle and Hebron range to Sugar-
loaf and Bearwallow. The immediate
basin of the stream from a short dis¬
tance below Flat Rock, to its mouth,
bears a unique character, being the
only marsh in Western North Carolina.
Its width varies front one-fourth to
two miles, and its length may be es¬
timated at ten miles. A rank growth of
vegetation is annually submerged. A
soil of vegetable mold several feet in
depth has been formed. Recent sur¬
veys show that the decline is sufficient
to admit of perfect drainage, which
would make this one of the most valu¬
able agricultural and grazing tracts in
the country.
The crest of the Blue Ridge, in
Henderson county, is an undulating
plateau, which will not be recognized
by the traveler in crossing. The Saluda
mountains, beyond Green river, arc the
boundary line of vision on the south.
The general surface features of the
central part of this pearl of counties
will be best seen by a glance at the
pictorial view from Dun Cragin, near
Hendersonville.
Above the mouth of Ochlawaha the
bottoms of French Broad gradually
widen. The foot hills being the farther-
csl distance apart above the mouth of
Little river, Boylston crcck, Cathey’s
creek, Davidson's river, Little river and
both forks of French Broad all have
tempting valleys. It should be re¬
marked that a large per ccntagc of
the land in these fair and fertile bot¬
toms has been badly worn by much
poor farming, but very little is w'orn
out, so that there is yet not only hope
but certainty of redemption by proper
management. The expense of rcinvig-
orating exhausted tracts is materially
lightened by the presence of limestone
outcrops.
As a grazing district the upper
French Broad has advantages over any
other section of equal extent, though
there are elsewhere small localities
which surpass any portion of it. These
advantages arc, extent of level tillable
land for hay and grain, altitude which
insures low temperature and healthful-
ncss, and third, proximity to the best
wild range in the Balsams and Blue
Ridge. The scientific agriculturist will
be able to draw conclusions from the
following recapitulations of conditions:
abundance of rain, perfect drainage,
warm sun, cool breezes, and an al¬
luvial soil with occasional outcrops of
lime rock.
All the good grains produce well.
Vegetables grow- to a large size. Ex¬
periments in the culture of tobacco
have been successful in the main, and
the industry may become an impor¬
tant one. The population is more in¬
telligent than in most rural districts.
The one great thing needed is ade¬
quate and cheap transportation facili¬
ties. One railroad taps this territory at
Hendersonville, but more arc needed.
There remain large tracts of unim¬
proved lands which might be reduced
to a state of cultivation. What is locally
known as the Pink Beds, in the north¬
western part of Transylvania, a dense
forest plateau, is an absolute wilder¬
ness in which a lost traveler might
wander for days before finding his
way to a settlement. Among the spurs
of the Balsam range and Blue Ridge,
and in the valley of Green river there
arc many thousand acres of forest.
Jnst A Moment, Please
While the Operator Changes Reels
She: I certainly don’t like all these
flics.
He: You just pick out the ones you
like and I’ll kill the rest.
The youngster from an indulgent
home turned his nose up at the army
stew and complained to the mess ser¬
geant. "Don’t I have any choice, here?”
"Certainly, my boy," replied the ser¬
geant. "Take it or leave it.”
The will of a wealthy eccentric was
being read. His relatives all listened
with poorly concealed impatience
through page after page of bequests to
the Society for the Prevention of Purple
Parrots, the Foundation for Restoring
Gas Light to Public Buildings, and the
like. Finally, the lawyer reached the
part they were all waiting for:
"To all the relatives I promised to
remember — Hi. there!" — Ties.
Job Applicant: "That’s right, no
vices — I don’t smoke; I don’t drink; I
don’t like women."
Personnel Manager: "That’s amaz¬
ing. You have no vices whatever?"
Applicant: "Oh. yes. I tell lies."
to
THE STATE. SCPTEMOCR 6. I9SS
