Heart of the Blue Ridge Highlands, North Carolina

On March 6, 1875, Sam Kelsey and C.C. Hutchinson paid $2.00 an acre for just over a square mile of the Sugartown Highlands in the Blue Ridge Mountains and began building a town 4,000 fett above the the clouds. This is a history of the origin and growth of a town with a Northern climate set high in the South, including the ever-continueing struggle between those who would preserve and those who would exploit its unique appeal to year-round residents and summer visitors. In its attempt to be all-inclusive, this book contains much detail, but it also embodies a collection of matchless characters and personalities and their stories that have given the town and its history remarkable color and enduring interest. In short, the big world is here mirrored in the small world where little things that happen are not less important but more so.