Excerpt from Touring the Western North Carolina Backroads, Third Edition, by Carolyn Sakwoski

8/4/2019 Excerpt from Touring the Western North Carolina Backroads, Third Edition, by Carolyn Sakwoski

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The Valle Crucis Tour

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Te our begins in he own o Blowing Rock where U.S. 221, or he Yonahlos-see rail, heads oward Linville. Approximaely 0.6 mile rom Main Sree on U.S.221, a road on he righ leads o he Bass Lake parking area, which gives access omany o he 25 miles o carriage rails on he Moses S. Cone Esae. A walking railencircles wha was ormerly one o Cones well-socked rou ponds. Te rail is

especially popular in he summer and all.Te rou ponds are jus a small par o he 3,516-acre esae once owned byMoses and Berha Cone. Te eldes o 13 children born o a Bavarian immigran

who achieved success as a dry-goods merchan, Moses Cone sared ou as a drum-mer, or raveling salesman, who solicied orders or he amily business. He discov-ered Blowing Rock on one o his sales rips.

He and his broher Caesar began o amass a sizable orune when hey swichedheir ocus o he growing exile indusry. Moses sared buying land in BlowingRock when he was 36 and coninued o add o his esae or 35 years. He purchased

mos o his acreage beween 1893 and 1899.In 1899, he Cones began consrucion on heir Vicorian Neocolonial manor

house aop nearby Fla op Mounain. An impressive gabled home wih ianywindows, i now houses he Blue Ridge Parkway Cra Cener. Te Cones buil asel-sucien esae on which hey raised sheep, hogs, chickens, and milk cows.Teir dairy was he rs classied as Grade A in Waauga Couny. Te esae was so

This tour begins in Blowing Rock and travels along Shulls Mill Road to

the area known as Valle Crucis. It continues to Banner Elk, follows the

Elk River to the town of Elk Park, and ends at scenic Elk Falls.

Total mileage: approximately 35 miles


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large ha i suppored 30 amilies. In an eor o inroduce an alernae economyor local armers, he Cones even experimened wih apple orchards. A is heigh,he Cone esae had 10,000 apple rees o approximaely 20 varieies.

When Moses Cone died, he le he esae o he hospial in Greensboro hanow bears his name. His will specied ha Mrs. Cone would have use o he esaeunil her deah. Te hospial laer discovered ha he money se aside or upkeep

was insucien, so i arranged o donae he house and surrounding land o heederal governmen. In 1949, he Naional Park Service ook over he developmenand mainenance o he esae as a recreaion area and public park.

o our he Cone manor house on Fla op Mounain, coninue on U.S. 221or 1 mile, hen urn righ, ollowing he signs o he Blue Ridge Parkway. A he

Trout Lake on the Moses S. Cone Estate

Bass Lake on theMoses S. ConeEstate


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View o GrandatherMountain fom theMoses S. Cone Estate

Manor house on Moses S. Cone Estate

Grave site o Moses and

Bertha Cone


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218 parkway, urn righ and go approximaely 1 mile o he enrance o he manorhouse parking lo. A popular and easy 2-mile round-rip hike leads rom he park-ing area under he parkway o he Cones grave sie. I you wish o add anoher 4miles o he hike, you can coninue o he re ower on op o Fla op Mounain.

Aer visiing he manor house, head back oward U.S. 221. Jus beore he

juncion, urn righ ono Shulls Mill Road, which ravels under he Blue RidgeParkway. Jus beyond he overpass, ollow Shulls Mill Road as i orks le. I is lesshan 0.1 mile o an unmarked road on he righ. Tis is a one-way roue o he park-ing area or rou Lakeanoher lake in he esaes sysem.

From rou Lake, reurn o Shulls Mill Road and urn righ. Te road windsis way hrough he woods and oers occasional visas o Grandaher Mounaino he le. Abou 2.3 miles pas he rou pond, i runs hrough he cener o a re-sor developmen buil on he ormer sie o Camp Yonahlossee, one o he areasrs summer camps or girls. Camp Yonahlossee began in 1922 under he direciono Dr. and Mrs. A. P. Kephar. Te developers o he new resor have preservedmuch o he camps original rockwork and many o is rusic buildings, includinghe barn, on he le, and he dam wih is waerall, around he curve on he righ.

Aer anoher 1.5 miles, you will see he rs signs o he Hound Ears Club.Te airways and greens o he clubs gol course are visible hrough he rees on hele. Shulls Mill Road leads hrough he cener o he propery. Te clubhouse andhundreds o expensive summer homes cover he surrounding hills. Aop one o hehills is he rock ormaion local residens were ond o comparing o a hounds ears

beore he deciduous ores grew up o cover i rom view.Jus beyond he enrance o he Hound Ears Club and pas Old urnpike

Road is a building across he road rom Shulls Mill Bapis Church. Tis srucurehoused he communiys general sore. Te ormer sore and he church, boh o

which were buil around 1850, are all ha remain o a once-prosperous commu-niy ha claimed a populaion o more han 1,000 a is peak.

Hound EarsClub


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219Shulls Mill began around 1835 whenPhillip Shull, he grandson o a Germanimmigran who had moved o Valle Crucisin he 1770s, buil a grismill near his arm.I was during hose days ha some o he

communiys mos colorul residens begano leave heir mark on local olklore.Around 1820, a man named James Al-

dridge arrived in he area and persuadedBesy Calloway o marry him. Tey hadseven children. All apparenly wen wellunil 1836, when anoher Mrs. James Al-dridge appeared on he scene. I seemsha Aldridge had desered a wie and vechildren when he le he Big Sandy area in

wha is now Wes Virginia. A ur peddlerraveling hrough Waauga Couny had rec-ognized him and passed along his where-abous. As o Besys reacion when her husbands rs wie showed up, John Pres-on Arhur recorded ha she was sulky, bu ha [Aldridge] himsel was reaing

boh women exacly alike, and had no doub bu ha Besy would soon ge over i.Sources disagree on wheher or no she really did ge over i. Te rs Mrs.

Aldridge reurned o he Big Sandy. Shorly hereaer, hree sons and a daugherrom Aldridges rs amily came o live in Waauga Couny. Aldridge spen henex ew years bouncing back and orh beween Shulls Mill and he Big Sandy un-il boh wives grew unrecepive, a which ime he sared living wih a hird woman.Besy sruggled bu managed o raise her children, and occasionally he childrenrom her husbands previous marriage as well. She died in 1900 a well-respeced

woman. No one remembered much abou James Aldridge by ha ime.In 1859, anoher ciizen o Shulls Mill enered he hisory books. John Preson

Arhur described David Colver Cobb McCanless as a srikingly handsome manand a well-behaved, useul ciizen ill he became involved wih a woman no his

wie, aer which he ell ino evil courses. Arhur didn supply he womans name,bu oher sources idenied her as Sarah Shull. Tose sources also suggesed i mayno have been wholly Sarah Shulls aul ha McCanless urned ou he way he did.

In 1856, Cobb McCanless was eleced sheri. One o his duies was ax collec-ion. In January 1859, he and Sarah Shull absconded wih he unds he had gah-ered. Several monhs laer, McCanlesss broher ook Cobbs wieMaryher

children, her aher, her moher, and his and Cobbs sisers wes o join he ugi-ives. How Cobb managed o balance lie wih Sarah Shull and Mary is no clear, bu he apparenly achieved some measure o success unil he Civil War, whenword arrived ha he had been killed in Kansas.

I wasn unil 1883 ha locals learned Cobb had acually been killed in a shoo-ou wih Wild Bill Hickok. Te McCanless gang had allegedly been impressing horses

View o Grandather Mountainfom Shulls Mill


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220 or he Conederae cause. Hickok, known o side wih he Union, disagreed wihhose acions. In an inerview in HarpersNew Monthly Magazine, Hickok oered adescripion o Cobb McCanless: You see his MKandlas was he capain o a gango desperadoes, horse-hieves, murderers, regular cu-hroas, who were he erroro every body on he border. . . . I knew hem all in he mounains, where hey pre-

ended o be rapping, bu hey were here hiding rom he hangman. MKandlaswas he bigges scoundrel and bully o hem all, and was allers a-braggin o wha hecould do. In December 1861, a shooou occurred beween 10 o Cobbs boys and

Wild Bill and his men. All bu wo o he McCanless gang were killed. Sarah Shullreurned o Waauga Couny.

Shulls Mill was a regular sop on he oll road ha ran rom Lincolnon, NorhCarolina, o Abingdon, Virginia. Beween 1855 and 1861, a nine-passenger sage-coach named Old Albany made daily sops a Joseph Shulls place. Bu by 1893,rac was bypassing own, and he secion o he urnpike rom Blowing Rock oShulls Mill was urned over o Waauga Couny o be mainained as a public road.In 1914, some local ciizens, dissaised wih wha hey considered couny neglec,esablished he Valle Crucis and Blowing Rock urnpike Company. Tis our ol-lows he roue o he original oll road.

Shulls Mill began is nes hour in 1915, when William Scot Whiing, heowner o he Whiing Lumber Company, seleced i as he sie or a band mill. Tesame communiy ha had lised a populaion o 25 in 1910 claimed 1,000 resi-dens by Augus 1917. Tough he own had previously boased only a ew sores

(including he building on he le), a hoel, and a pos oce, he Whiing LumberCompany helped bring a rain depo or he new railroad spur, a barbershop, amovie heaer, a hospial, and housing or hundreds o workers.

By 1918, he lumber company had sawed over 1.6 million ee o lumber rom1,436 acres in he area. By 1925, imber close enough o he mill o allow he com-pany o make a pro was growing scarce, and William Scot Whiing began mov-ing his operaion o alernae sies. He invied his workers o relocae a one o hisoher mills. Mos acceped he oer. Te food o 1940 desroyed he majoriy o

he buildings ha remained.

Former store at Shulls Mill


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221Coninue on Shulls Mill Road. A he sop sign jus pas he bridge, urn righono Old Shulls Mill Road, which parallels he Waauga River, on he righ. In hesummer monhs, his par o he river is a popular swimming hole and shing spoor local residens. I is 0.8 mile o an inersecion wih N.C. 105. urn righ and go0.8 mile. A he rac ligh jus beore he bridge, urn le ono Broadsone Road,

heading oward Valle Crucis.

Documents

Excerpt from Touring the Western North Carolina Backroads, Third Edition, by Carolyn Sakwoski