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Luray Caverns
On August 13, 1878, five men from Luray, Virginia, discovered a tiny hole in a big hill in the Shenandoah Valley. After working many hours pushing loose rocks aside, they had cleared an opening large enough to slide a rope down into the unknown. They found a remarkable world of stalactites and stalagmites below. -
Biltmore Estates
George Vanderbilt enriched the fortunes of Asheville when he chose the city’s surroundings as the site for his “country home,” Biltmore House, a 250-room French Renaissance chateau. Biltmore Estate opened to friends and family with party on Christmas Eve, 1895, following six years of construction that brought hundreds of the world’s premier artisans, craftsmen, and architects to the mountains of Western North Carolina. Biltmore validated Asheville’s status as a leisure destination for the elite. -
The Switzerland of America
The Toxaway Company embarked on their boldest mission: to dam the Toxaway River and create Appalachia’s largest manmade lake. Soon after the dam’s completion in 1903, the five-story Toxaway Inn opened on the new lake’s shores with luxuries such as long-distance telephones, private indoor plumbing, a billiard parlor, bowling alley, and dinners prepared by French chefs and served on fine linens. -
Battle of Blair Mountain
This battle erupted in West Virginia over miners’ attempts to unionize. It resulted in the largest civilian rebellion since the Civil War. -
TVA Act
Act signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It established a regional agency to promote electricity and economic development. There were thousands displaced by hydroelectric projects. -
Appalachian Trail
The idea of the trail came about in 1921. It was completed 16 years later and extends 2,190 miles from Georgia to Maine. -
Manhattan Project
The town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee forms as a secret government city where workers create the first atomic weapons. Project was completed on December 31, 1946. -
War on Poverty
The unofficial name for the legislation first introduced by President Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address. The war on poverty was in response to a national poverty rate of around 19% and was focused on Appalachia. -
Knoxville hosts World’s Fair
“You got to be there” proclaimed ads for the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee. From May through October, some 11 million attended the fair, this included President Ronald Reagan, comedian Bob Hope, and Jordanian Prince Hassan bin Talal. The fair introduced the world’s first touch-screen computer displays, Cherry Coke, and the Sunsphere. Knoxville is widely credited with hosting America’s last successful World’s Fair even after the profits added up to just $57. -
Cold Mountain
Asheville-born writer Charles Frazier immortalized Western North Carolina’s Cold Mountain with the 1997 publication of his debut novel, a Civil War epic by the same name. The novel made publishing history, topping the New York Times best-seller list for a record 61 weeks and receiving the 1997 National Book Award for Fiction.
