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, which 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 on, lucky you. Come on." Now, now 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 going to air tomorrow. So, you know, that's it. I think this is perfect timing, right? Spontaneous fun. 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 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 the birth here in Asheville, thanks to the Vanderbilt and the Biltmore Mansion and Olmstead. That's a whole story. So today's podcast, we're going to 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 going to talk about four different stories. We're going to keep it brief because we're not the historians, but we're going to tell you our experience and a little background story of these ladies' stories. And then we're going to follow up this podcast with some in-depth conversations when we're going to call some historians because these women rock, right? So tell us a little bit about the River Arts District a little bit and is it kind of downtown? 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 all those other parks. So 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 honoring her because she really started a movement. This is a 17-mile green path connecting the Swannanoa, did I say that right? Swannanoa and the French Broad Rivers. 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 mess of sewage and pollution by the mid-20th century. And this is when Wilma said, we can't have that. Yeah, and so 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 cleaning up the water, but making it a place where, hey, you want to recreate on the river, let's have it be cleaned. Okay, so the actual green path is named after her. She also has a nonprofit that is created by 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. And give you links everyone in the episode notes so you can look up the parks. There's all these articles that has way more information than we can spew out, but we're just going to 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, two remarkable women have played major roles in 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, grew up in Asheville after completing college in Illinois and marrying poet James Stokely, and you guys have a lot of writers here, 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 river link, supporting cleanups, 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. She's a bit brighter. She's got her own Wikipedia page and all. No, she's really amazing. So where we went today, we started off at the Gene Web Park, and we'll talk a little bit more about her. But this pathway, I mean, we saw this huge map, a 17 mile map that really does follow the rivers, and you are on the map. We are 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 greenway there. We have Montford Park down there. All that stuff definitely is connected. So a lot of cycling. 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. But yeah, most everything is dog friendly. 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 were dodging thunderstorms today. Yes, yes. Which is good. But on the riverfront to me, that's what was amazing is you're in an urban setting. Yes. You're in this arts district that is like an overtaken what industry had, right? You've got sex and everything. Breweries, right? New Belgian brewery. Yeah. So you can go to a brewery and then just get right in the water. Like literally. Yes. There were, I mean, where we were, people were just putting their kayaks and their rafts. There were several launch points. And you said there's fishing too. People are fishing. Yeah. People are fishing there. Yeah. Wow. Wow. Cool. 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. What do you think? I don't know if it sounds of it. 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 of those. But I'm sure there's both frogs at times and spring peepers. 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. Right. You know, it's like, oh, there's a brewery over there which you are, you know, a beer city USA. Right? Yeah, absolutely. 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 like this big fish. What's going on? Well, this is a sign. The sculpture is created by David Earl Tomlinson. An Asheville 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 Asheville Streams. So this is all collected and it's through a nonprofit organization. Green Works Trash Trap 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, light column. So everyone, I'm going to put their link. It's www.AshvilleGreenWorks.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. Definitely. I do think they go together. Yeah, you've done that all your life. 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. As artists, I could do that and I can put things where I want them. And you know, 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 $1,000 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 followed you. Yeah. Very true. So this is what Wilma started, which I think is pretty amazing. We were at Jean Webb 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 everyone, this is, 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 of the French Broad. And I hope that it could be the clean center for vibrant Asheville so that she felt like everyone, the city builds up around the river. We keep the river clean. She was a president of French Broad River Foundation, and she helped to organize Riverfest to support its mission, and worked with the city of Asheville and Buncombe County. Did I say it's Buncombe? Buncombe. Oh, Buncombe. Buncombe. Buncombe. Okay. Okay. Buncombe. Okay. 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 a 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? Yes. Guess what? I'm getting out there, and they do a tube floats down the river. I've been relaxing a little float in three hours of your day. I'm getting some sun and having a few cocktails, or beverages. Then, like, there's a winery. He said you told Nancy, if you walk a few more steps, you can pick it up a winery. And people do the tubing, and then they end their day at a parade or something. They'll run an extra tube to put their ice chest on top of them, tie their tubes together and have fun all the time. Well, I'll say 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 June web park, has a beautiful pollinator garden. And that's where we saw caterpillars. That's a thing. And so there's art, there's rest areas, there's long spaces. So, as we get into this world, I mean, in the Northeast, you guys don't have... Are you in the Northeast? You're in the Northeast. But you're up. But anyway, you're up there. Okay. Anyways, you know, in other areas, we're tearing out lawns and putting in native plants. Like, you guys have to certify backyard habitat or wildlife habitat through the National Wildlife Federation. Yeah, like, everything is lawn mowing and, like, chemicals and stuff like that. That doesn't help the native species. And then water is an issue. If you go out West, it's like, tear it up. And then people start putting rocks, Nancy, your favorite thing, gravel, as much. 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 also killing, you know, it's actually heating up your house. And if you really want to test it, get in the middle of the summer and take your shoes off and walk on it. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, that's what. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So it's interesting 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 and have that. There was picnic areas too. Shaded ones. And what I liked is all the little outcroppings where you could go out and look out over the river. Yeah, those steps that you can walk down the river and kick back and watch. Yeah, access. 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. We're going to go to the forest next. All right. So into the forest, we go. Yeah. 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 more's not with the built more's 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 Olmstead, who is pretty interesting. 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, 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 Vanderbilt, Frederick Law Olmstead. Gifford Pinchot. Excuse me. Am I pronouncing? I don't know. You can do all you want. And Dr. Carl Schink. So I'm sorry if we don't pronounce your names correctly. But anyway, what they did was pretty incredible. So we were there today. The overlooking is over the cradle. It's a beautiful spot. It really is. It's so green. Everything is so green. So many different colors are green. I agree. It's not all green. Absolutely. Which is interesting. So what we want to talk about is the Pisscon National Forest. This is where we were. That's where the National Forest joins hands with the National Park Service. It happens everywhere. Sequoia National Park and 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 Pisscon National Forest is amazing. So what happened is that, okay, so the largest home in America, right? This is the Biltmore. So you've been to the Biltmore. I wonder why the name Biltmore. I always thought the Biltmore was there. Because he couldn't stop building. He can't build more. Good one. Well done Nancy. She gets 10 points. When you see the mansion, you'd understand what Nancy is. I'll give her extra wine at one time. Well done. She got points. All right. So the Pilts, 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 stands out like a bloody British castle. It does. It's like the middle of the forest. It's massive. It's massive. So I mean, that's bonkers. Like when you think, it's still massive, but it's still like a dot over there from the parkway. They donated their land. So, but let's go to the mansion experience because I wonder why it's a Biltmore. We're going to 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. There's a rooftop tour. So you can go to the very top of the roof. 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 garden and you get the one. We missed out. I know you. Alright, next time, next time, we'll have to do that. We'll have to do that. And the garden is up to be awesome too. That's our favorite part. Yeah, we go back for the gardens. Yeah, just the gardens are phenomenal. Yeah, the way they plant things every few months to have different. 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, then they get the sunflowers. I remember you take the sunflowers will be in August. 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 you know, some said helped with the arboretum. So this is when we talk about forestry and forest met. I mean, he was amazing. And they've got a wonderful sculpture of them there. And yeah, I mean, he's just, he, he's amazing. What he did, because he wanted everything to work with nature. So he's kind of like Frank Lloyd Wright, but a landscape. I don't know if he was temperamental like Frank Lloyd Wright. Like Frank Lloyd Wright was kind of like the John McEnroe of architecture in that way. Apparently. But anyway, going to the ladies story. Let me let me say this. In May 1914, Edith Vanderbilt 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. And an excerpt from a letter to claim, and this is from the Biltmore's website. So I'll put that link into boy, we've got a lot of links on this podcast. 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 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. A person served Pisca forest from the time he bought it up to his death appeared 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 perpetrate 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. And that's a good statement and he meant it well. Now, 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 that's pretty amazing. So the other one is the Jubilee Memorial Forest. This story is insane. It starts back in the days in the 1930s, the US 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 excessively in the early 20th century. And so a lot of groups purchased trees at Pena P, so there were a lot of different nonprofits. Nancy, when we lived in Julian 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. So it's so interesting when we think about Lincoln, he said, I'll still plant an apple tree, even if I'm dying, you still plant a tree. It's Martin Luther or him. I don't know, someone talks about it. One of them said, I'm still going to plant an apple tree, no matter what. I think 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't. Well, it's a good thing of like, you may think everything is going to hell in a hand basket, but still plant that tree at home, right? And this is what they did. You think reforestation is what we saw today. We went to Devil's Courthouse. So before we get into this story, give us an overview of Devil's Courthouse. It's on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's gorgeous. It's higher elevation, so you start seeing different trees, which are a lot more evergreen. So it's different landscape. It's just very different out there, different landscape and different flowers and plants, beautiful views, and it's a good hike. There's falcons there. Yeah, supposedly there's falcons nesting. Last we heard though that a lot of them had vacated because some dummies going down there trying to take selfies with them, and I'm rocking or asking them. So only the falcons never came back. I don't know if that's true or not, but we've never seen the falcons out there. We've never seen them out there. We've been at their several times. It would be wise that people could stand back. This is why you have cameras and telephoto lenses so you can close up and observe. That's what you're after without disturbing. That's the whole idea of being a watcher of nature instead of a disturbance. Just to stand back and you will find out how much you have missed. If you're a disturbance, 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. So where we were standing, it was that huge, like cliff, right? The devil's courthouse that people can hike up or walk up. It's a paid trail and it's just very steep. Not very long, but I highly recommend it if you get a chance to do it. You can wear it so long away. There's a few benches along the way so you can catch a breath. 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 after the 1930s program came to be right, so at that point, there was the North Carolina daughters, the daughters of the revolution. Right? So they responded to the call of duty and raised enough funds. And this was in the 40s 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. Right? Cool. So it was dedicated May 15, 1940 as the 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 a few years ago, the daughters of the revolution came back and founded. They did this whole thing. It's at the Malpos 422.4. And I'm going to link the article there, but it's a few minutes walk across the street from the big climb up there. They actually got it back. And now people know where it is. They found about this. It was the first history society. And they found it and the lady went and she's really another lady found it. They said, "Okay, you're going to go do it." 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 surface. So I want to apologize to the audience that we're not know it all 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. Absolutely. And everyone, go to lion-rose.com. If you come to Asheville and you don't come stay at the Bed and Breakfast, well, we'll be searching for you. I'm just kidding. Yeah. Well, thank you guys for taking us around today. Oh, tell everybody about the lilies that we saw today before the turf camp. Oh, tell them all these things are beautiful. 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. But they're beautiful, I'd say upside down, pointing down flowers. It looks like a day relief that girls that leaves crawled back up, like a tiger relief. It's supposed to look like a Turkish old Turkish soldiers hat, I guess. Oh, I can see that orange. And we saw a lot. We saw all kinds of wildflowers and we saw the beginning of the butterfly season. Yeah, a few of them coming out. What was the one that I saw today that I felt like? It was a great smangled artillery. Yeah, artillery. Well, there it is. That's it. That's it. Well, thanks for listening. Everybody. I hope you get to Asheville. Don't forget we air our podcast every first Tuesday on biglinradio.com with Steve and Karen, where we talk about Asheville adventures. And the next one, we talk all about August holidays from not picnics, but we did American adventures. Yeah, we talked about everything you can do in the month of August in Asheville. So enjoy. Thank you for listening to Big Blend Radio. Keep up with our shows at bigblendradio.com. (gentle music)
