This article originally appeared in the Rosicrucian Digest,
September/October 1988, and is reprinted here with permission.
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A long time ago, 230 million years before there were men to give
the land a name, the Appalachian Mountains were formed. Youthful
giants on the distant Paleozoic horizon, these great mountains,
stretching from Canada to Alabama, were well worn and lined with
age long before paw or foot traced the first trail across their
forested slopes.
On September 11, 1935, foot pushed shovel into the rough soil
of the Blue Ridge—an older segment of the Appalachians—several
hundred yards south of the Virginia-North Carolina border.
There, at Cumberland Knob, on a cold morning in a rolling
forest of white pine and scarlet oak, a construction crew
began the first twelve-mile section of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
When the road was completed in 1987, the dream that began as a
depression-era public works project was finally realized as a
469-mile scenic passageway through Virginia and North Carolina,
connecting the Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountain national
parks.
The parkway winds through a world of sharp ridges and deep
hollows, graceful hills and meadows, and mixed forests of
conifers and hardwoods. Spring and summer wild flowers, followed
by the blazing colors of fall leaves, gentle the land like a
Highlander's patchwork quilt wrapped around the family patriarch.
The road travels through a region rich in American folklore and
folk-craft, past small farms in out-of-the-way hollows, log
cabins amidst freshly ploughed fields, streams and waterfalls
dashing through hardwood forests. Mileposts mark overlooks,
trails and exhibits, including Humpback Rocks (5.8), James
River (63.6), Mabry Mill (176.2), Linville Falls (316.4),
the Folk Art Center (382), and Looking Glass Rock (417.1).
Moments before the parkway's final section was dedicated at
Grandfather Mountain, the sun emerged from a foggy morning sky.
It was an auspicious sign in this haunting land of valley and
knob, mysterious lights, forgotten fences, wood smoke and blue
haze, dulcimer music, and extravagant configurations of stone.
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