Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

February 1, 2007 issue

It’s Ours! North Carolina To Buy Chimney Rock

Story by Kathleen McFadden

After nearly 2.5 years of discussions and negotiations, Chimney Rock—the privately owned popular tourist attraction southwest of Asheville—will soon become the property of the State of North Carolina. On Monday, Governor Mike Easley announced that the state had agreed to purchase the landmark in Rutherford County from the Morse family’s Chimney Rock Company for $24 million.

Last August, the future of the park was uncertain. The Morse family had listed the property with Cape Fear Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc. for $55 million, and Jim Proctor, the mayor of nearby Lake Lure, contacted representatives of several local governments to ask for expressions of support for the state to purchase of the property.

According to Proctor, Chimney Rock attracts more than 250,000 tourists per year and he was concerned about “the very real possibility exists of the park falling into the wrong hands.” Proctor wanted to ensure that the park remained accessible to tourists instead of being locked behind the gates of a private community and contacted Watauga County Commissioner Keith Honeycutt, asking if the board would consider passing a resolution endorsing the state’s purchase of the park.

At their meeting on August 7, the Watauga County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution that strongly urged and encouraged the state “to do all that is possible and necessary to acquire Chimney Rock Park and add that acreage to the planned Hickory Nut Gorge State Park.”

Chimney Rock Park has been a tourist attraction in western North Carolina since a stairway was built to the rock’s summit in 1885. In 1902, Lucius B. Morse of Missouri bought the site and began developing the park. Its facilities include a tunnel and elevator to the rock summit, a visitor center, nature center and a network of hiking trails to geologic points of interest and the 404-foot Hickory Nut Falls. Todd B. Morse has been president and general manager of the park since 1986. The park has 28 full-time employees and employs about 20 seasonal employees.

The centerpiece of the 996-acre property is the 315-foot, 535 million year old “chimney” that towers over Hickory Nut Gorge.

Chimney Rock Park adjoins property the state acquired for Hickory Nut Gorge State Park, a new state park slated to open in 2008. The state parks system has acquired 2,264 acres on both sides of the rugged gorge for the state park. The gorge has been considered a premier state park site in the system’s New Parks for a New Century initiative that examined areas throughout the state as potential state parks or state natural areas and found the gorge to be a significant center of biodiversity and natural heritage with 36 rare plant species and 14 rare animal species. Natural resource specialists have found no fewer than six separate natural communities.

Funding for the purchase will come through a direct appropriation of the General Assembly (2006), the three state conservation trust funds and private sources in the following amounts:

• General Assembly Appropriation – $15 million

• Parks and Recreation Trust Fund – $1.51 million

• Natural Heritage Trust Fund – $1.80 million

• Clean Water Management Trust Fund – $1.54 million

• Donated Funds – $2.35 million

• Anticipated additional funding from Natural Heritage Trust Fund – $1.80 million

The anticipated closing is in May 2007. Under the terms of the purchase agreement, Chimney Rock Company, under Todd Morse’s leadership, will continue to operate the park at least through the 2007 tourist season. Any interruption in public access will be limited to a brief transition period beginning at the end of November.

Crae Morton, president of Grandfather Mountain, is happy about the news. “The purchase of Chimney Rock by the state, plus the fact that it will continue to be operated as a nature park, is the best possible outcome. Chimney Rock will be preserved in its natural state and the people who have grown to love and enjoy it will be able to continue to enjoy it,” Morton said. “This is the situation that’s benefiting the most people.”

Some news reports have indicated that the park could potentially be operated through a public-private partnership, and Morton commented that such an arrangement is “conceptually a great idea,” because it would couple the advantages of a private organization, including resources and oversight, with state protection. “Operating a nature park takes a lot of resources,” Morton said. “You can’t just leave it there and let it take care of itself. It has to be monitored and there have to be reasonable controls. It takes a lot of attention and financial resources.”