Author: J. Timothy Cole

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2008-01-02

Total Pages: 136

ISBN-13: 1439619468

From the opening of Chimney Rock Park by Jerome Freeman in 1890 to Dr. Lucius Morses dreams for Lake Lure in the 1920s, the development of tourism in the Hickory Nut Gorge area is one of the untold stories of the regions history. For much of the 19th century, the area was remote and known to few; Freeman was perhaps the first to truly appreciate Chimney Rocks potential, but it took the invention of the automobile and the completion of the Charlotte to Asheville Highway in 1915 for that potential to be fully realized. By the 1920s, Chimney Rock Park and the gorges hotels and summer camps were known to thousands. In 2007, the State of North Carolina purchased Chimney Rock Park from the Morse family, and a new chapter began.