The Globe Project?

Forestry experts say its just a good woodlands plan based on significant study and proven management techniques. Tourism officials and cliffside homeowners say it is destruction of the landscape and a detriment to tourism.
And the battle lines have been drawn and the war wages back and forth. Sometime after the first of the year, once all have been heard, by letter, by phone, by e-mail - bye gum, a decision will be reached and it won’t sit well with one group or the other.
Only time will tell who was right.
Speaking of time, another project recently brought us back to some old Blowing Rockets from 1933, and this particular headline on the front page of the Saturday, July 8th issue caught our eye. While the subject of our woodlands was a headline makers seventy-three years ago, it was interesting to note in this article, a reference made all the way back to 1794 that calls for federal protection for this specific Appalachian valley.

Rufus Gwyn Says

Forests Can Yet Be Preserved
Lenoir Man Urges Public Interest in Preservation of Remaining Forests Recently Sold For Cutting; Believes Government Should Take Over Mountain; Grandfather And Globe Valley Have An Interesting Past And Rich Future Possibilities.

By A.T. Robertson, Jr. - The Blowing Rocket
July 8, 1933

Rufus L. Gwyn, of Lenoir, has for a lifetime known and loved the mountains of the Blowing Rock country. The instigator of the Eastern National Park-to-Park Highway, whose opening will be celebrated next Saturday with the completion of the Blowing Rock-Linville road, he has been a practical benefactor of the tourist business in the mountains, as well.
“The cutting of the remaining timber on the Blowing Rock side of the Globe and Grandfather Mountain valley will be a serious loss to this region,” says Mr. Gwyn. “I understand the Champion Fibre Company has purchased the timber rights for the two or three thousand acres of spruce and balsam left standing. These trees stand along the Yonahlossee Road, whose opening will be celebrated next Saturday. If the mountain is deforested the scenic value of this road, which has been planned and built at great expense as a scenic highway, will be definitely marred. The appearance of the mountain, even as seen from Blowing Rock will be changed. I have not yet given up all hope that the Federal Government will add the Grandfather Mountain to the Grandfather division of the Pisgah National Forest.”
The Pisgah National Forest at present includes in its Grandfather division some ninety thousand acres lying at the foot of the mountain. The four or five thousand acres of the mountain itself could be added to the national forrest at a very reasonable cost, says Mr. Gwyn, and would be a great recreational asset as well as a scenic landmark for the entire section. The present national administration is deeply interested in the conservation of forests for their recreational as well as their commercial value, and it is still possible, Mr. Gwyn believes, that the Government may purchase the mountain with this end in view.
Other Values At Stake
“Grandfather Mountain and the Globe Valley stretching beyond to the east is a sort of rain factory for this entire region,” he says. “The cool slopes of the mountain catch the warm winds from both directions. There is no estimating the effect which the complete denudation of the forests will have on the precipitation and general climactic condition of this section. The change since the north slope was cut, and the east end burned over, is already noticeable.”
Also Mr. Gwyn points out that the mountain controls the watershed of three rivers - the Linville, the John’s River and the Watauga, the latter a major tributary of the Tennessee. Already the springs of the mountain have been greatly affected by the lumber operations.
Present Condition of Grandfather
The Grandfather Mountain is nearly all owned by the Linville Improvement Company. Unable to support the expenses of taxes on the vast property, which returned no revenue, the Linville company has offered it for sale to the State of North Carolina as a State park. The State, however, has not been interested, and the company was therefore forced to dispose of the timber rights on the mountain. Cutting of timber began four or five years ago, and has been followed by several forest fires, which have burned over much of the east end and other portions of the mountain. At present, the north, or Tennessee side, is covered with a deep layer of trash, and the deforestation is being followed by thick growth of chokeberry and blackberry bushes, which render any early reseeding very unlikely, if not impossible. There is no telling how many years will be required for the trees to come back, says Mr. Gwyn, nor what sort of trees they will be.
The present urgency, in his opinion, is to save the remaining forests on the mount, and in order to accomplish this, to arouse public opinion. No sensible person, says Mr. Gwyn, ‘blames lumber companies for the necessary and legitimate conduct of their business. It is entire up to the public, if it wants any particular forest preserved. to bring pressure to bear on the Government to save it.
Special Claims of Grandfather
Grandfather Mountain is no ordinary mountain. It has the following claims to consideration:
It is the highest peak in the entire Blue Ridge, from Maryland to Georgia. The elevation is 5,964 feet.
It is, in the opinion of many geologists, the oldest of all mountains in the Blue Ridge, and one of the oldest in the Appalachian system.
No mountain peak anywhere in eastern America surpasses or equals the Grandfather Mountain in scenic grandeur. From its base in the John’s River Gorge, it sweeps up four thousand feet on the south, or Blowing Rock side. Rising two thousand feet above the plateau on the north, or Tennessee side, it is equally impressive. The Yonahlossee Road, connecting Blowing Rock and Linville which lies under the black peaks of the west end, is one of the most beautiful scenic highways in the world and owes its beauty to the fact that it is cut into the side of Grandfather Mountain, and passes under its forests.
The noted naturalist, Andre Michaux, sent over by the French government in 1785, made an enthusiastic entry in his journal for August 25th, 1794: “Started for Grandfather mountain, most elevated of all those which form the chain of the Alleghenies and the Appalachians; on August 30th: “Climbed to the summit of the highest mountain in all North America, and with my companion and guide, sang the Marseillaise...”
Allowing for Gallic temperament and inaccurate information, it is to be remembered that Michauxz was a scientist of international note, who introduced a number of valuable plants to America; and a world traveller who had seen the Alps and many parts of the Appalachians. The Grandfather impressed him, as it has countless others, with its dignity and grandeur.
The mountain’s forests of spruce, hemlock and balsam were, before their partial destruction, called “The most beautiful, the most bewildering and the most extended evergreen forests in the whole South.”
Its many peaks can be made easily accessible to hikers, horseback riders, and campers, once it is taken under Federal protection.
It is more easily accessible to a tremendous city population than any comparable mountain in the Southern Appalachians.
It adjoins the Grandfather division of the Pisgah National Forest, and the Boone State Game Preserve, which should be extended to include America’s most magnificent mountain.
Two Civilian Conservation Corps camps are already at work in the Johns’ River Gorge, at Globe and Mortimer. They could easily extend their work to include the mountain itself,which is far more important for the protection of rainfall and the source of streams, and the development of good timber stands than the country where the camps are now working.