As the sun slowly rises over the mountains of western North Carolina, one is overcome by the natural beauty that abounds. There is also a sense of wonder that rises like the hazy mist that gave these mountains their unique name. The Smoky Mountains are some of the oldest in the world and definitely some of the most beautiful. There are crystal clear, bubbling streams and creeks that flow down the hillsides into rivers and lakes. Within the forest’s live many different kinds of animals from bears, deer, and elk, to rabbits, opossums, and wild turkeys, and so many more. When George Washington Vanderbilt visited Asheville, North Carolina, in 1888, “because of its reputation for a healthful climate,”[1] he fell in love with what he saw and decided to purchase some land and a build a home, now known as the famous Biltmore Estate.
Vanderbilt came from a very well-known and wealthy family and had become quite a successful businessman in his own right. When he came to western North Carolina, he became so captivated with the area that he “began buying land south and southeast of Asheville in 1889. Eventually his holdings amounted to 130,000 acres, including Mount Pisgah,” which is the highest peak in the area, towering over fifty-seven hundred feet high.[2] Initially, Vanderbilt was looking at building a modest farm. His friend who was known as “the first and greatest of American landscape architects,” Frederick Law Olmsted, convinced Vanderbilt that purchasing land in and around Asheville was a good idea.[3] Olmsted persuaded Vanderbilt that “the best use of the land…was a scientifically managed forest with a view of crops to timber.”[4] He went on to “assure Vanderbilt that the forest would be a fair investment of capital and be of great value to the country.”[5]
The property Vanderbilt purchased had originally been made up of over fifty farms and “the trees had been killed by incessant forest fire by the owners to improve the pasture in the woods.”[6] To bring his vision of scientifically managed forestry to fruition, Vanderbilt hired Gifford Pinchot as the head forester. Pinchot was quite familiar with the area and the local people and had been well-educated in forestry at the French Forest School in Lorraine, France. Pinchot said of the mountain people in the area, “These people dwelt and slept mostly in one room cabins…an open fireplace was cookstove and furnace…glass was rare, and windows were closed by solid board shutters. Homespun was the common wear.”[7] This was Pinchot’s way of explaining why the land was in such rough shape, it was how things had always been done over the years because the local people did not know any other way.
Vanderbilt was, after all, a businessman and even though he had grand ideas of conservation and scientific innovation, he also wanted to make a profit. He wanted the land managed by removing the old and dead trees first and replanting trees as an area was cleared. Vanderbilt sold the rights to harvesting the timber in and around Mount Pisgah to Carr Lumber Company in the early 1900s. He sold the rights “for $12 and acre, the contract extending over a twenty-year period. During those years the estate netted about $870,000.”[8] For Vanderbilt, the managing of the forest was more than just a business venture, it was a true passion. He once said, “[I] stuck to forestry from the beginning and I shall not forsake it now. For me to impair the future usefulness of Pisgah Forest in order to somewhat increase present revenues, would be bad business policy. But apart from that, it would be bad citizenship, as I see it, no man is a good citizen who destroys for selfish ends a good forest.”[9] Vanderbilt expanded his financial endeavors into other areas besides lumber such as breeding pedigreed hogs and highly productive dairy cows. He also had a plant nursery “featuring trees and plants of the Appalachian region.”[10] All of these ventures created substantial earnings for the estate over the years. These were just some examples of Vanderbilt’s entrepreneurial creativity where he aligned good business with good citizenship.
When all is said and done, Vanderbilt’s keen business sense and vision helped to put the city of Asheville and western North Carolina front and center in America’s conservation movement. He created the first school of forestry, and the lessons taught on sustainable forestry are still impactful today, influencing “forestry practices on both private and public lands.”[11] For a man once described as, “a quiet man who loved the arts and the outdoors…a delicate, refined and bookish man, with considerable humor,” Vanderbilt built a legacy on par with any other entrepreneur of his generation.[12] Unfortunately, Vanderbilt died on March 6, 1914, and never saw his dream come completely to realization. If only he could see his Biltmore today – his home is a shining star in the center of lush hills, mountains, and valleys that he helped restore to their natural magnificence.
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