Overview

"Traveling across the treacherous and diverse landscape of western North Carolina is a challenge historically met with human ingenuity. Mountain traces of Native Americans, dusty stagecoach routes and vital railroads lined the region. Asheville installed the state s first electric streetcars. Intrepid young men and women continued North Carolina s aviation legacy. The Buncombe Turnpike helped tame the Blue Ridge Mountains, allowing livestock drives to reach markets in South Carolina. Author Terry Ruscin reveals the visionaries and risk-takers who paved the way to the Land of the Sky in a wondrous examination of western North Carolina transportation history."""

Full Product Details

9781540200518

Table of Contents

Reviews

In A History of Transportation in Western North Carolina, Ruscin comprehensively and exhaustively covers all aspects of transportation in our region, from former cattle trails and river boats, to street cars and early airplanes. Blue Ridge Now The book s informative and interesting foreword was written by Robert Morgan, North Carolina poet laureate and bestselling author of Gap Creek, Lions of the West and Chasing the North Star. It s back cover blurb offers insight into Ruscin s work which, true to this author s established form, makes learning about history a lively and entertaining adventure. WHKP Among the book s coterie of memorable characters are Valentine Ripley, one of the county s earliest entrepreneurs, who owned the largest stagecoach company in the area and who was instrumental in bringing the first rail lines to the mountains; Solomon Jones, the mid-19th-century surveyor of many of the roads still in use today; and Colonel Sidney Pickens, who organized the first mule-driven trolley service in Hendersonville. In more recent times, Oscar Meyer Jr. (no connection to the cold-cuts empire) was the driving force behind Hendersonville s airport, and taught many of the county s earliest aviators to fly. Bold Life Magazine Travel isn t always easy, even today, in our rugged mountain homes of Western North Carolina. But, as author Terry Ruscin reminds us, travel came about here as an evolution. From stagecoach routes, Native American trails and the state s first electric streetcars in Asheville to what would become our aviation legacy, Ruscin s work, in this examination of Western North Carolina transportation history, centers on those who dared to chance the climate and terrain. Watauga Democrat

In A History of Transportation in Western North Carolina, Ruscin comprehensively and exhaustively covers all aspects of transportation in our region, from former cattle trails and river boats, to street cars and early airplanes. Blue Ridge Now The book s informative and interesting foreword was written by Robert Morgan, North Carolina poet laureate and bestselling author of Gap Creek, Lions of the West and Chasing the North Star. It s back cover blurb offers insight into Ruscin s work which, true to this author s established form, makes learning about history a lively and entertaining adventure. WHKP Among the book s coterie of memorable characters are Valentine Ripley, one of the county s earliest entrepreneurs, who owned the largest stagecoach company in the area and who was instrumental in bringing the first rail lines to the mountains; Solomon Jones, the mid-19th-century surveyor of many of the roads still in use today; and Colonel Sidney Pickens, who organized the first mule-driven trolley service in Hendersonville. In more recent times, Oscar Meyer Jr. (no connection to the cold-cuts empire) was the driving force behind Hendersonville s airport, and taught many of the county s earliest aviators to fly. Bold Life Magazine Travel isn t always easy, even today, in our rugged mountain homes of Western North Carolina. But, as author Terry Ruscin reminds us, travel came about here as an evolution. From stagecoach routes, Native American trails and the state s first electric streetcars in Asheville to what would become our aviation legacy, Ruscin s work, in this examination of Western North Carolina transportation history, centers on those who dared to chance the climate and terrain. Watauga Democrat

"""In A History of Transportation in Western North Carolina, Ruscin comprehensively and exhaustively covers all aspects of transportation in our region, from former cattle trails and river boats, to street cars and early airplanes.""Blue Ridge Now ""The book s informative and interesting foreword was written by Robert Morgan, North Carolina poet laureate and bestselling author of Gap Creek, Lions of the West and Chasing the North Star. It s back cover blurb offers insight into Ruscin s work which, true to this author s established form, makes learning about history a lively and entertaining adventure."" WHKP ""Among the book s coterie of memorable characters are Valentine Ripley, one of the county s earliest entrepreneurs, who owned the largest stagecoach company in the area and who was instrumental in bringing the first rail lines to the mountains; Solomon Jones, the mid-19th-century surveyor of many of the roads still in use today; and Colonel Sidney Pickens, who organized the first mule-driven trolley service in Hendersonville. In more recent times, Oscar Meyer Jr. (no connection to the cold-cuts empire) was the driving force behind Hendersonville s airport, and taught many of the county s earliest aviators to fly."" Bold Life Magazine ""Travel isn t always easy, even today, in our rugged mountain homes of Western North Carolina. But, as author Terry Ruscin reminds us, travel came about here as an evolution. From stagecoach routes, Native American trails and the state s first electric streetcars in Asheville to what would become our aviation legacy, Ruscin s work, in this examination of Western North Carolina transportation history, centers on those who dared to chance the climate and terrain."" Watauga Democrat """

Author Information

Terry Ruscin, an author, columnist, photographer, researcher and retired advertising executive, is a member of the Henderson County Genealogical and Historical Society, Inc.; Historic Flat Rock, Inc.; and DRAC (Design Review Advisory Committee, overseeing the city s historic districts for the Hendersonville Historic Preservation Commission), as well as a commissioner with HRC (Henderson County Historic Resources Commission). Ruscin has served on the boards of the Henderson County Heritage Museum and the California Missions Foundation.

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