Big Blend Radio
Women of the Rivers and Forest in Western Northern Carolina
Celebrate Parks & Recreation Month and National Forest Week with this episode of Big Blend Radio that was recorded onsite with Steve & Karen Wilson, owners and innkeepers of the The Lion & The Rose Bed & Breakfast in the heart of the Montford Historic District in Asheville, North Carolina.
Hear about author Wilma Dykeman and Jean Webb who worked to protect and preserve the French Broad and Swannenoa Rivers and the Asheville parks connected with the rivers on a 17-mile green path. Learn how Edith Vanderbilt honored her late husband's wishes of selling an 86,000-acre tract of the Biltmore Estate to create Pisgah National Forest, one of the first national forests east of the Mississippi River. And, find out about the Daughters of the American Revolution who planted 50,000 Spruce Trees to create the Jubilee Memorial Forest within the Pisgah National Forest on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
RESOURCE LINKS:
* The Lion & The Rose B&B: https://www.lion-rose.com/
* Wilma Dykman Legacy: https://www.wilmadykemanlegacy.org/
* Wilma Dykman Greenway: https://www.ashevillenc.gov/news/park-views-wilma-dykeman-greenway/
* Jean Webb Park: https://www.ashevillenc.gov/news/park-views-ashevilles-riverfront-parks/
* Asheville Greenworks: https://www.ashevillegreenworks.org/
* Biltmore - America's Foresty Legacy: https://www.biltmore.com/blog/biltmore-the-birthplace-of-american-forestry/
* Jubilee Memorial Forest: https://www.ourstate.com/north-carolinas-forgotten-forest/
This episode is featured on the following Big Blend Radio channels: Adventures in Asheville; Parks & Travel; Nature Connection; Women Making History; Big Daily Blend. Check out all of Big Blend Radio's Channels here: https://www.podbean.com/podcast-network/bigblendradionetwork
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Duration:
- 29m
- Broadcast on:
- 11 Jul 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
Welcome to Big Blend Radio where we celebrate variety and how it adds spice to quality of life. Hey everybody, Nancy and I are back at our friend's place What is the line and the Rose Bed and Breakfast Inn, which is in the Montford Historic District in Asheville, North Carolina And we just couldn't leave North Carolina and drive across to Tucson without coming to see you a little hurricane Said you're not driving yet, and then we thought Steve, Karen, we're coming to see you, and they're like good. Come. Lucky you come on No, no, it's been awesome fun. It's been awesome fun So we recorded our August episode of Adventures in Asheville with you which we do every First Tuesday of the month and now here we are doing one that's gonna air tomorrow So, you know, that's it. I think this is perfect timing, right? spontaneous fun, so last night we sat up and discovered that there are a lot of women involved in the history of Conservation and environmental work in Asheville and Western, North Carolina And we thought well, it's in National Parks Month, Parks and Rec Month, excuse me, National Forest Week that goes from July 8th through 14th So we're on time with this podcast Because this is the birthplace of U.S. forestry the American Forest Service from birth here in Asheville Thanks to the vendor built in the built more mansion and Olmstead. That's a whole story So today's podcast we're gonna dedicate this to the women of the rivers and forests of Asheville and Western North Carolina So Parks and Rec Month is kind of looking at parks that are maybe urban or not But when we look at urban parks, they are crucial to the health of a community the well-being of nature Often preserving the history and the stories of the cultures of a community and often have art And I think you have all of that here in these stories today So the first thing we did was we went downtown to the River Arts District, right? So we're gonna talk about four different stories We're gonna keep it brief because we're not the historians But we're gonna tell you our experience and a little background story of these ladies stories And then we're gonna follow up this podcast with some in-depth conversations And we're gonna call some historians because these women rock, right? Yeah, so tell us a little bit about the River Arts District a little bit and where that it's is it kind of downtown? So it's a little bit outside downtown. It's in the city limits. It's about over 200 artists down there So anything and everything you can find, painters, potters, jewelry makers, has it all? Over a few miles on each side of the river Nice area that they've cleaned up and then they've added the Greenway and the Riverwalk and Yeah, all those other parks. Yeah, so did the Greenway that you're talking about and this leads to our first lady Wilma Dykeman Greenway, excuse me Wilma Dykeman, she's the one this Greenway is You know honoring her because she really started a movement She this is a 17 mile green path connecting the Swannanoa. Did I say that right? Yes, you did. Swannanoa and the French Broad Rivers Yeah, so I did a little research on this and it turns out the French Broad River is believed to be one of the oldest rivers in the world An ancient water trail that has been an inheritance to plants animals and humans And it's been a site of recreations for thousands of years becoming a floating mass of sewage and pollution by the mid 20th century And this is when Wilma said we can't have that Yeah, and so her Wilma is the one who said We're not doing this and she wrote a book about this and it's her book that really kind of led this movement of greening up I mean like cleaning up the water but making it a place where hey, you want to recreate on the river. Let's have it be cleaned, right? So the actual Green path is named after her. She also has a nonprofit that was created by her her youth her grandkids And children and so her family I should say and you can go to Wilma Dykeman legacy.org to learn more about it I'm gonna give you links everyone in the episode notes. So you can look up the parks There's all these articles with that has way more information than we can Espue out, but we're just gonna tell you about the experience But she really Wilma is amazing and so the link to that nonprofit which we want to call now because they do all kinds of programs They do publishing they have it's all about the arts. She was really big on the arts and the environment So this is what was up on a sign When we went to actually we went to Jean Webb's Park Our next lady. This is what they said to him. Remarkable. Well, but excuse me Two remarkable women have played major roles and restoring the natural beauty and building the facilities You see on the French Broad River today Wilma Dykeman who was born in 1920 and passed away in 2006 Griffin Asheville after completing College in Illinois and marrying poet James Stokely And you guys have a lot of writers here. Yes, she settled back in the area Over her lifetime. She wrote 16 books numerous poems and magazine articles her most famous book was the French Broad Published in 1955. It provides a mix of history legend biographies and life ways of this mountain region Wilma was an early advocate of Riverlink supporting clean-ups recreation and redevelopment on the river the Wilma Dykeman Riverway acknowledges Wilma's contributions to the region her introduction to the French Broad states Dwellers of the French Broad Country are learning an ancient lesson in all their natural resources It is easy to destroy overnight treasures that cannot be replaced in a generation Easy to destroy in a generation that which cannot be restored in centuries. Mm-hmm. She's a bit writer. Yep. Definitely. She's got her own Wikipedia page and all No, she's really amazing. So, um where we went today we we started off at the gene web park And we'll talk a little bit more about her, but this pathway I mean this we saw this huge map is 17 mile map that really does follow the rivers And you are on the map we are the line and the roseband and breakfast on the map. I don't know why or how It's down the road. You have another park that connects with it, right? We do we do down the road. We have the other uh greenway there. Yep. We have month for park down there All that stuff definitely is connected. So a lot of cycling Do you think that people are sure definitely cycling walking jogging. You see a lot of dog walking And dog parks. I think there were dog parks where we were today, too And some of the park areas. I'm sure but yeah, most everything's dog friendly. Mm-hmm. So Nancy wanted to play with dogs. She did. Yeah. She did. Well, if there was birds we saw I mean, we even saw caterpillars and flowers and we we I mean we were dodging thunderstorms today. Yes. Yes, which is good But on the riverfront to me, that's what it was amazing is you're in an urban setting Yes, you're in this arts district that is like an overtaken what industry had. Mm-hmm, right? You've got insects and everything. Old warehouses and breweries, right new belgian brewery. Yeah, some breweries area. Yeah, so you can go to a brewery and then Just get right in the water. Like literally. Yes There would I mean where we were people just putting their kayaks and their rafts. Exactly. Several launch points And you said there's fishing too. People are fishing. Yeah, people will fish in there. Yeah. Wow. Wow So speaking of fish, there is this giant fish sculpture that we saw today. And a pond. Did you like the pond Nancy? Of course With all the frogs. That was awesome. Do you think there were toads or frogs? There's probably both, but the toads are not going to be as close to the water as a frog. What do you think that is? I don't know if it sounds but it's probably just there's at least making noise with a gray tree frogs because they've been making noise all around town and video a lot of those But I'm sure there's both frogs at times and spring peepers Yeah, and probably the toads usually come out more towards the end of summer. You'll start here and then trolling Around water and then you'll find them Playing around the water and in groups and doing their thing. That's what was amazing today I mean just to be in this urban setting and there's frogs. There's lily pads and bull rushes and people rafting down the river You know, it's like, oh, there's a brewery over there, which you are, you know, beer city USA, right? And then there's a public art which seems to go really hand-in-hand with these Community parks or urban parks and greenways, which keeps it interesting and we looked at this big fish Fish what's going on? Well, this is a sign the sculptures created by David Earl Tomlinson an ashville artist and it contains So it's filled this big thing is The sculpture contains trash collected by volunteers Over 60 tons of trash are collected each year from ashville streams So this is all collected and and it's through a non-profit organization Greenworks trash trout program and so they're doing this and they tell you how When you get on the water keep your trash secured in the bags We have dry bags and all of that and then if you see people dump stuff in the river like column So um everyone i'm going to put their link ashville greenworks.org is a website, but i'll put that link out there, but see these are the things that I think The art impact has something. What do you guys think about that living here? The impact of art and the environment and nature. I think they kind of just Work off of each other. Mm-hmm. Definitely. I do think they go together Um, yeah, you've done that all your life. Mm-hmm. Yep being an artist. Yeah, but then I Concentrated on paintings of nature and animals and wildlife for a reason because I wanted to take the trash out Yeah, as artists I could do that and I can put things where I want them And you know was this is what it should and could be And then here's what we're doing Just to remind people that there's a consequence to everything that we do Right and it does come back to haunt you. For example, if you throw Your trash in a river or a stream or a lake And then you spend a thousand dollars or so to go take your family to the coast for Let's go to the beach for the holiday. Welcome to your trash. Yeah, it just hollowed you. Mm-hmm. Yeah, very true So this is what will math started, which I think is pretty amazing Um, we were at gene web park, which is one of the parks and that is right at the river arts district And she served as executive director of quality Ford from 1978 to 1983 And and everyone this is um, I'm reading this off of the city website again. That link is also on the website Through these critical years. She set up a river rebound Guided by her love by of the french broad And I hope that it could be the clean center for vibrant ashville So that she felt like everyone the city builds up around the river. We keep the river clean Um, she was a president of french broad river foundation And she helped to organize river fest to support its mission And worked with the city of ashville and buncombe county. Did I say is buncombe? Oh buncombe Okay, okay buncombe, okay um leaders to develop safe access to the river and also organize stream watch groups to monitor pollution All these efforts were basically made what is now river link that is connecting the river As being in the hospitality industry How important is this to you that that river is clean for your guests and for tourism? It should be clean for everyone not just our guests just everyone. I agree with everything I mean if we don't protect the natural resources What kind of life do we live? Yeah, we need it guess wanting to get out there and they do a Tube floats down the river and just a relaxing little float in Good three hours of your day I'm getting some sun and having a few cocktails or beverages on the end like there's a winery He said you told nancy if you walk a few more steps you can pick up a white And people do the tubing and then they end their day To put their ice chest on top of them. Yeah, tie their tubes together and It's having fun all the time Well, I was I said we went to a couple of parks along the green pathway And one thing I loved is that they have a pollinator garden Especially a gene web park has a beautiful pollinator garden, and that's where we saw caterpillars Well, I mean, that's a thing and so there's art. There's rest areas. There's lawn spaces So as we get into this world, I mean in the northeast you guys don't have you in the northeast? You're in the north south east south east But you're up But anyway, you're up there. Okay. Anyways You know, another area is we're tearing out lawns and putting in native plants Like you guys have a certified backyard habitat or wildlife habitat Through the national wildlife federation, right? Yeah, like everything is lawn mowing and like Chemicals and stuff like that. That doesn't help the native species And then waters and issue if you go out west, it's like tear it up and then people start putting rocks nancy your favorite thing gravel No, Nancy the gravel thing is so bad. Not good. It raises the temperature of the ground by 15 degrees It's insane and during the summer. That's not a good thing because it's killing whatever is underneath Which is usually your native plants and and also killing you know, it's actually heating up your house And if you really want to test it get in the middle of summer and take your shoes off and walk on it. Yeah, yeah No, no, it's won't yeah Exactly. Yeah, so it's it's interesting with with these kind of places where they're showing pollinator gardens But then you could have a lawn space. So if you don't have a lawn This is a way where your kids and dogs can go and roll around and have fun, right? Yeah And it's cool for your dogs to walk out there Have that there was picnic areas too. Yeah shaded ones and little what I liked is all the little outcroppings where you could go out And look out over the river. Yeah little steps that can walk down the river and kick back There's tons of parks and all the signs and all the public art and So a lot to enjoy and experience. So we've talked about the ladies of the rivers. Yes, we're going to go to the forest next All right, so into the forest we go All right, so the forest, you know, this is like we were saying the early beginnings of american forestry started here And that was with the built moors Um, not with the built moors with the vendor builds at the built more mansion And that's really kind of the interesting thing because it also brings in frederick law homestead It was pretty interesting. Yes. So today we went after we did the green parkway the river link and all of that area We went on the blue ridge parkway. Yes, which is national park service And there was an area we went to the cradle of forestry and that is set aside to commemorate the beginning of forest conservation in america And the lasting contributions of george fender built frederick law homestead gifford pincho Pinchot Excuse me. Am I pronunciation? I don't know you can you can do all you want and dr. Carl should shake So i'm sorry if we don't pronounce your names correctly, but anyway, um, what they did was pretty incredible. So we were there today Yes. Yeah, the overlook anyways over the trail. Yeah, it's a Beautiful spot though. It is. Oh, yeah, it really is so green. Yeah, everything is so green So many different colors are green Right. I agree. I agree. It's not old. It's green. No, absolutely. Which is interesting So what we want to talk about is the piscan national forest This is where we were it's a big part of so that that's where the national forest You know joins hands with the national park service, right? It happens everywhere like Sequoia national park in king's canyon national park are part of Sequoia national forest and giant sequoia national monument They're all connected. They're not part of each other, but they're connected And so one day you guys will go there and you'll see that's very nice But piscan national forest is amazing. So, um, what happened is that? Okay, so The largest home in america, right? This is the built more and so you've been to the built more I wonder why the name built more I always thought the built more because he couldn't stop building he can't build more Good one, good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. Very good. She gets 10 points. Yeah She gets 10 points. When you see the mansion you don't understand what the mansion is. Yeah, true I'll give her extra wine at one time. Okay, stop. Okay, well done. She did good. She got points All right, so the pelts can you give everyone a little overview of that experience? Because you can either do the whole mansion tour or the gardens, but Nancy now have not done it yet and When we were driving on the parkway, you're like look you can see the mansion. It is stands out like a like I was gonna say like a bloody British castle It's a massive So, I mean, that's that's bonkers Like when you think Like where it was like it's still massive, but it's still like the dot over there from the parkway, right? They donated their land. So, but let's go. Let's go to the mansion experience because yeah Whoo, like I wonder why it's a bit more. We're gonna have to do that. That's another story Honestly, do not remember. I'm guessing that they have told us on the tours. Yeah It's a lot of information Are there different tours when you go there? There are The general one will be the audio tour self-guided But they do have several behind the scenes type of tours where you go with a guide and you dive deeper into the history See some other parts of the house Uh, there's a rooftop tour so you can go that very top of the roof. Oh, cool So there are multiple and they make wine. Yes, they do their own wine. So wine tasting is included So that's bonus from every tour Yeah, you can do when you when you pay for your ticket You get the one We missed out No All right next time. Next time. We'll have to do that. We'll have to do that. And the gardens have to be awesome, too Always That's our favorite part. Yeah, we go back for the gardens more in the house. Yeah, just the gardens are phenomenal Yeah, the way they plant things every few months to have a difference Yeah, they have really nice rose garden that we just got last time we were there We get towards the end of the rose blooms there, but there's still plenty of beautiful blooms Yeah, and then they get the sunflowers. I remember you think about it Some flowers will be in august Um, that's beautiful too. So we go back certain times for certain flowers for sure. Well, I love the the arboretum here The azaleas we always talk about we've got to get to the azalea garden, but in a film study Helped with the arboretum. Yeah, so this is when we talk about forestry and forest month I mean he was amazing and they've got a wonderful sculpture of him there and yeah, I mean he's just he He he's amazing of what he did because he wanted everything to work with nature. So he's kind of like Frank Lloyd Wright. Mm-hmm. But of landscape, but yeah, I don't know if he was temperamental like frank Lloyd Wright Like frank Lloyd Wright was kind of like the john mackenrow of architecture in that way Apparently, yeah, apparently but anyway going to the lady's story Don't let me that let me let me say this um in may 1914 edith vendor belt Completed her late husband's wishes of selling an 86,000 acre tract of built more to be managed by the us government as public lands Creating one of the first national forests east of the Mississippi river piscan national forest So this is pretty amazing. Yeah, and an excerpt from a letter to claim. This is from the built more's website So I'll put that link into Boy, we got a lot of links on this podcast. Oh my gosh Well, and then like I said, we're going to have to do like in-depth interviews on all of this because this is just incredible Of what you know a few hours of joy today. Yep created all these stories. Well, we didn't create the stories But we get to travel through them. So this is an excerpt from a letter declaring her family's interest in preserving the property Edith stated Mr. Fender built was one of the first of the large forest owners in america to adopt the practice of forestry He has conserved pisca forest from the time he bought it up to his death a period of nearly 25 years Under the firm conviction that every forest owner owes it to those who follow him to hand down his forest properly To them unimpaired by wasteful use I make this contribution towards the public ownership of pisca forest with the earnest hope that in this way I may help to perpetrate Perpetuate good one perpetuate my husband's pioneer work in forest conservation And to ensure the protection and use of enjoyment of pisca national forest as a national forest by the american people for all time Now if you can get the word perpetuate correctly, that's a good letter That's a good statement When you think about how we write emails now, I feel like gosh, we need to go back to like some thought and while we write things But um, that's pretty amazing. So let's see large donation Oh, yeah, so the other one is the jubilee memorial forest This story is insane. It starts that starts back in the days in the 1930s Um, the u.s. Forest service and there was the civilian conservation corps and then there's a whole other organization That started the pennies for pines program and it was a way to reforest areas that had been over logged Um excessively in the early 20th century And so a lot of groups purchased trees of penny a piece. So there were a lot of different non-profits I know when nancy when we lived in julian in up in the mountains in san diego the women's club did pennies for pines And they went through a lot of wildfires like most california and they helped to reforest Yeah, so it's so interesting when we think about think it was at lincoln. You said I'll still plant an apple tree even you know, even if i'm dying you still plant a tree as martin luther or him I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Someone talks about I do a lotion like apple tree. Not tree trees Yeah, I know I don't know one of them said i'm still gonna plant an apple tree no matter what Basically, if everybody planted a tree a year whether it's on your property or somewhere where someone else can't care for it if you can It's a good friend. Well, it's a good thing of like you may think everything's going to hell in a handbasket But still plant that tree right home, right? Yes, and this is what they did you think reforestation is what we saw today Right, um, we went to devil's court house. Um, so before we get into this story give us an overview of devil's uh court house That's a beauty. It's on the bluish parkway. It's on the bluer park. It's gorgeous. Oh, it's higher elevation So you start seeing different trees for sure a lot more evergreens evergreen. So it's different landscape It's just very different out there Different landscape and different flowers and plants beautiful views Um, and it's a good hike and there's falcons there. Yes. Well, see there's some falcon nesting um last we heard though that a lot of them had uh vacated because of some dummies going down there trying to take selfies with them and I'm rocking rassing them. So they don't do that. Don't get back. I don't know if that's true or not But we've never seen the thought of it. We've never seen them up there. We've been at their several times It would be wise if people could stand back. This is why you have cameras and telephoto lenses So you can close up observe, right? That's what you're After without disturbing that's the whole idea of being A watcher of nature instead of a disturb her Now and just to stand back and you will find out how much you Have missed if you're a disturber. You don't know anything about nature. You really don't And it shows in your behavior. If you're a student of nature, you understand how the system works Once you understand nature, you actually understand humanity better Makes sense. Mm-hmm. So where we were standing It was that huge light cliff, right? The devil's courthouse that people can hike up or walk up It's a paved trail and it's just very steep Not very long, but it's highly recommended to get a chance It's like you can rest a long way. There's a few benches along the way. So you can catch your breath Yeah, yeah, but it's beautiful. I mean what we saw the clouds moving in and everything was gorgeous But across the street from the parking lot Is where the jubilee memorial forest lies And back uh, this is after, you know, the 1930s program came to be right. Um, so at that point There was the north carolina daughters the daughters of the revolution, right? Um, so they They responded to the call of duty and raised enough funds and this is in the forties um To plant 50 000 red spruce trees over a three-year period To cover 50 acres across the parkway from devil's courthouse That's a lot. That's right. Cool. So it was dedicated may 15th 1940 as a jubilee memorial forest And they had a bronze tablet and the recognition was short-lived because that marker was misplaced and the war happened Everything grew over everything the forest was forgotten And they went back to task and um, a few years ago The daughters of the revolution came back and found it Uh, they did this whole thing. It's at the milepost 422.4 And i'm going to link the article there, but they actually It's a few minutes walk across the street from the big climb up there um They actually got it back and now people know where it is They they found about this was the first history society And they found it and the lady went and she she's really, um, another lady found it They said, okay, you're going to go do it Um, the daughters of the american revolution and they rededicated it and I think it was 2018 or 19 And it is back and this is kind of new history in a weird way from old history So isn't that cool You have cool forest parks and river history in your backyard And we are only scraping the service So I want to apologize to the audience that we're not know-it-alls on this But we're just finding this and we're excited about it And we wanted to share it with you and hope you come out and experience it yourself And you know, so And everyone go to lion-rose.com If you come to ashwell and you don't come stay at the bed and breakfast Well We'll be searching for you. I'm just getting you searching for you in the woods I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Yeah, well, thank you guys for taking us around today Oh, tell oh tell everybody about the lilies that we saw today before the turf camp Tell them Those are one of our favorite ones that we go looking for every season usually in july About this time early to mid late july depending on the elevation Um, but they're beautiful. I'd say upside down Pointing down flowers. It looks like a daily that curls. That leaves curl back up Like a tiger lily. It's supposed to look like a turkish old turkish soldier's hat. I guess Exactly. I can see that orange And we saw a lot we saw all kinds of wild flowers and we saw the beginning of the butterfly season Yeah, a few of them coming out. Yeah, yeah What was the one that I saw today that it was a great smangled fertility. Yeah, fertility Well, there it is. That's it. That's it Well, thanks for listening everybody. I hope you get to ashwell. Don't forget We air our podcast every first Tuesday on big blend radio.com With as steve and karen where we talk about ashwell adventures in the next one We talk all about august holidays from picnic. No, not picnics. What we did at american adventures We talked yeah, we talked about we talked about everything you can do in in the month of august in ashwell. So enjoy Thank you for listening to big blend radio. Keep up with our shows at big blend radio.com (upbeat music)