{"id":2044,"date":"2016-12-30T09:09:22","date_gmt":"2016-12-30T16:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=2044"},"modified":"2016-12-30T09:12:11","modified_gmt":"2016-12-30T16:12:11","slug":"the-enduring-mountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=2044","title":{"rendered":"The enduring mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Dillon, journalist and outdoorsman, reviews a new book that’s full of information about North Carolina’s beloved tourist attraction and state park.<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Tom Dillon<\/p>\n

GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN: THE HISTORY AND GUIDE TO AN APPALACHIAN ICON. By Randy Johnson. University of North Carolina Press, 290 pages, $35.<\/p>\n

\"grandfather-mountain\"<\/a>Mention Grandfather Mountain near Linville, and the face of the late super-promoter Hugh Morton inevitably springs to mind. It was Morton who promoted North Carolina\u2019s \u201ctop scenic attraction,\u201d as it was known, came up with the idea of the Mile-High Swinging Bridge (only 80 feet above the ground, but a mile above sea level), and eventually became one of the best-known North Carolinians of the 20th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n

But Morton isn\u2019t the only name one should associate with the mountain. A more obscure name is that of Randy Johnson, a hiker, cross-country skier and backpacker who set up Grandfather Mountain\u2019s self-sustaining backcountry trail permit system in the 1970s and 1980s. It was that system that really saved what at the time was a decaying trail network, as well as laid the groundwork for what is today Grandfather Mountain State Park.<\/p>\n

As Johnson tells it, he and some friends had come to the mountain sometime in the 1970s hoping to do some winter camping and hiking \u2013 looking for \u201cthe snowiest, most spectacular summit in the South\u201d \u2013 only to find the trails closed. There had been a death from hypothermia on a poorly maintained trail, it turned out, and Morton, ever averse to bad publicity, had closed the trails. To him, it had seemed the only option.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t imagine the possibility that the mountain\u2019s highest peaks would be off-limits to hikers,\u201d Johnson writes here, \u201cso I set out to meet Morton. Luckily, he was receptive to a hiker fee-funded, safety registration program I devised to keep the trails open.\u201d Johnson ran that program for more than a decade, reopening old trails and blazing new ones, teaching cross-country skiing, promoting backcountry management, and all the time, writing about it.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s still a writer for a several outdoor magazines, as well as author of a number of hiking guides, but this is the book he was destined to write, and it\u2019s a good one. His history follows that of northwestern North Carolina through the travels of the early botanists, on through settlement (yes, there\u2019s stuff about Tweetsie Railroad), the logging years, then into the development of resorts (some good, some bad) and finally through to the emergence of a conservation ethic.<\/p>\n

The book reliably follows the battle between Hugh Morton and the federal government about the route of the Blue Ridge Parkway in the region. That\u2019s the fight that ended with the agreement to build the Linn Cove Viaduct over a part of the delicate high-altitude environment. It was a definite battle, and Johnson says Morton\u2019s feelings are probably one reason the mountain\u2019s backcountry is today a state park, instead of parkway land.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the inevitable information about the swinging bridge and other tourist attractions, which remain under the control of the Morton family and friends. That was one of the compromises that had to be worked out when the backcountry was sold to the state for a new state park. It\u2019s a tourist attraction, but it has been done with more care than a good many others.<\/p>\n

One caveat: Don\u2019t expect to tuck this into your back pocket for a hike. It has information about all the trails, old and new, as well as some Johnson would like to see that don\u2019t exist yet. There are also handy tips on photography. But at 9-by-12 inches and loaded with color photography, this is a coffee-table special. It\u2019s a coffee-table special with a lot of information and history, but it\u2019s still a coffee-table book.<\/p>\n

But the main point is Johnson\u2019s optimism about the future of the mountain now, with new state protections against development and new state support for the trails. \u201cMy hope,\u201d he says, \u201cis that the wild beauty still found on the mountain\u2019s peaks \u2026 will open a door to appreciation and inspiration for whoever finds their way to our great, evergreen Grandfather.\u201d<\/p>\n