Exploring Asheville


Book Description

Mystery writer, Tom Collins, departs from his usual genre to explore Asheville–the city they call the Weirdest, Happiest, Quirkiest, and Most Haunted Place in America. It’s a book that tells visitors everything they need to be Asheville Smart–things to do and see, but also the city’s secrets and mysteries along with its ghosts, if you believe in such things. If you don’t, you still might want to take care. Strange things happen in these quartz laden mountains. Oh, I also threw in a hardy dose of Appalachian Mountain tall tales, folklore, and legends, some alleged, some exaggerated and some hard to believe at all! Award Winning Book for Getting The Most Out of Visits to Asheville and the Western North Carolina: Asheville History—important monuments and people in the city’s history Attractions—things to do and to see in Asheville and neighboring areas Mysteries and Ghosts—stories at the heart of vortexes and hauntings Tall Tales—in the Appalachian Mountain tradition The book’s cover depicts the view down Patton Avenue toward City Hall painted by Asheville River Arts District’s artist Jeff Pittman. 2022 winner of Independent Press Award for its literary category.




Cold Mountain


Book Description

A wounded Confederate soldier treks across the ruins of America in this National Book Award–winning novel: “A stirring Civil War tale told with epic sweep.” —People Sorely wounded and fatally disillusioned in the fighting at Petersburg, a Confederate soldier named Inman decides to walk back to his home in the Blue Ridge mountains to Ada, the woman he loves. His journey across the disintegrating South brings him into intimate and sometimes lethal converse with slaves and marauders, bounty hunters and witches, both helpful and malign. Meanwhile, the intrepid Ada is trying to revive her father’s derelict farm and learning to survive in a world where the old certainties have been swept away. As it interweaves their stories, Cold Mountain asserts itself as an authentic odyssey, hugely powerful, majestically lovely, and keenly moving.




Haunted Asheville


Book Description

"A beautiful young woman dies from a fall in Asheville's greatest hotel ... and the Pink Lady is said to still wander the massive halls of the Grove Park Inn. A building is constructed on the grounds of a miserable, ancient cemetery ... now they say you can still hear strange noises at night in the halls of Clyde A. Erwin High School. In 1908, a group of prisoners finally comes to Christ ... after being terrorized at night by a spook in the Buncombe County Jail. A distraught mother hangs herself from the rafters of a looming Beaucatcher Mountain bridge ... and the legend of Helen is born. These stories and more can be found within the pages of this remarkable book. A surreal mixture of history and myth, it searches for the fading morsels of truth while examining the feasts of folklore. These are the tales that linger in the minds of Asheville, as old and flavored as the mountains themselves. From secret chambers in aged castles to cryptic etchings on forgotten tombstones, this mountain town is filled with the lore and intrigue of the mysterious side of life."--Publisher description




Exploring North Carolina's Natural Areas


Book Description

North Carolina boasts a natural environment of exceptional richness and diversity. From the mountains to the coast, the state is home to an extraordinary variety of publicly accessible sites that showcase aspects of its ecology, geology, biology, and natural history. This book leads the reader on thirty-eight field trips to some of the most interesting and instructive of these natural landscapes. Written by leading naturalists from across the state, this collection of "eco-tours" includes excursions to each of its four major regions: the coast, the Coastal Plain, the Piedmont, and the mountains. Each trip traces a thirty- to seventy-mile driving route that connects preserved areas, hiking trails, scenic overlooks, nature trails, and other sites of interest. All entries provide a map of the route, describe what can be seen and learned along the way, and discuss especially noteworthy features. An essential resource for anyone who treasures North Carolina's natural heritage, this book will inspire and inform travelers throughout the Tar Heel state.




Asheville Food


Book Description

Thirty years ago, the mountain city of Asheville was known for little more than the Biltmore Estate. Since then, the sleepy town has become a nationally recognized food mecca, a hot spot for food celebrities and a bustling hub of microbreweries. Food historian and author Rick McDaniel traces the rise of the Asheville food scene from its early eateries to the pioneering chefs who put Asheville on the culinary map and the new generation of stars who command the kitchens at the city's hottest new restaurants. A founding city of the farm-to-table movement, Asheville is proud of its local food and drink, appearing on creative menus throughout the city and in the pages of the national food media. Join McDaniel as he embarks on a mouthwatering journey to explore the farmers, chefs, markets and history that have shaped Asheville's rich food heritage.




Amazing Asheville


Book Description

Amazing Asheville by Lan Sluder is the new guidebook to Asheville and the beautiful North Carolina Mountains. It candidly covers all the best places to stay, eat and explore in Asheville's exciting Downtown and surrounding neighborhoods, and elsewhere in the North Carolina mountains. In more than 150,000 words, it also covers the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Biltmore House and Biltmore Estate and the hundreds of thousands of acres of national and state forests in Western North Carolina. This is THE guide that gives you the ins and outs of enjoying the mountains and saving money on your Asheville and North Carolina mountains vacation. Written by an Asheville native and award-winning author of more than a dozen books on travel and retirement, Amazing Asheville provides readable, easy-to-use information on Asheville's many B&Bs, mountain lodges, resorts and vacation cabins. It tells you where to find great food and drink -- from bistros where locals go to five-star splurge places. It explains where to go for the most amazing experiences for your vacation. Amazing Asheville doesn't just stick to the city of Asheville. It covers many interesting small towns and villages in the mountains around Asheville. It details where to go for the best outdoor activities in the Blue Ridge Mountains -- hiking, scenic drives, camping, wildlife spotting, birding, river rafting, boating, gem mining, fishing, rock climbing, exploring waterfalls and the backcountry, and more. Whether your interest is outdoor adventures, art and crafts, clubbing and nightlife, music and culture, architecture, outdoor adventures or just having fun in the highest, coolest mountains and most-visited national parks in the East, Amazing Asheville is the guide for you.




Exploring the Geology of the Carolinas


Book Description

How were the Appalachian Mountains formed? Are the barrier islands moving? Is there gold in the Carolinas? The answers to these questions and many more appear in this reader-friendly guide to the geology of North Carolina and South Carolina. Exploring the Geology of the Carolinas pairs a brief geological history of the region with 31 field trips to easily accessible, often familiar sites in both states where readers can observe firsthand the evidence of geologic change found in rocks, river basins, mountains, waterfalls, and coastal land formations. Geologist Kevin Stewart and science writer Mary-Russell Roberson begin by explaining techniques geologists use to "read" rocks, the science of plate tectonics, and the formation of the Carolinas. The field trips that follow are arranged geographically by region, from the Blue Ridge to the Piedmont to the Coastal Plain. Richly illustrated and accompanied by a helpful glossary of geologic terms, this field guide is a handy and informative carry-along for hikers, tourists, teachers, and families--anyone interested in the science behind the sights at their favorite Carolina spots. Includes field trips to: Grandfather Mountain, N.C. Linville Falls, N.C. Caesars Head State Park, S.C. Reed Gold Mine, N.C. Pilot Mountain State Park, N.C. Raven Rock State Park, N.C. Sugarloaf Mountain, S.C. Santee State Park, S.C. Jockey's Ridge State Park, N.C. Carolina Beach State Park, N.C. and 21 more sites in the Carolinas! Southern Gateways Guide is a registered trademark of the University of North Carolina Press




The Language of Excellence


Book Description

This book is simple. It will help you start a conversation that can lead you and your team to greatness. It will give you the tools to empower others with the confidence to take the right action while they are on the front line?when they are confronted with a decision to make, a problem to solve, or an opportunity to pursue. You will be able to move the know-how for achieving excellence from the back of the brain to the front. You can make doing and saying the right things?making the right decisions and avoiding the wrong ones?a habit. It is the best gift one could give to a young professional. It can be invaluable to the entrepreneur starting a new business or seasoned executive frustrated by the difficulty of steering an unresponsive corporate ship.




The French Broad


Book Description




Asheville and Buncombe County


Book Description