Images of America: Beech Mountain Book Captures History of Mountain

Copies Selling Well, Historical Society Reports

Story by Corinne Saunders

Much as the Beech Mountain community developed in conjunction with the dream for a ski resort in the 1960s, the Beech Mountain Historical Society came about as its members decided to create a book chronicling the history of Beech Mountain.

“The whole purpose was to get information down before we lost it,” said Becky Wheeler, member of the Beech Mountain Historical Society and charter member of Beech Mountain Club.

Fifteen people were involved in the creation of the book, which was released on September 8, said Ann Iles, member of Beech Mountain Historical Society and editor of the book.

“It was a real organizational feat to get everyone working on it,” Iles said, adding that as chair of the group, she sketched an outline and divided information into segments that would become chapters.

“Beech Mountain Historical Society developed when the idea for the book did,” Wheeler said. “Being an English teacher, I was interested in it. Ann and I were the skiers of the group, so it seemed logical we would do the chapter on skiing.”

“Groups of two chose a chapter to work on,” Iles explained. “It worked so well because people were working on something they really cared about.”

The historical society held a book release reception at Beech Mountain Club on September 11, and the historical society also sold copies at Heritage Day at the Banner House Museum in Banner Elk on September 19 and at Land of Oz in early October.

“The response to the book has been very positive,” Iles said. “We have sold 430 copies ourselves, but then there are a lot of outlets in the area as well, and online bookstores. I have no idea how many they have sold.

Pictured are members of The Beech Mountain Historical Society. Sixteen people contributed their time and talents to Images of America: Beech Mountain, which was released this September. Photo courtesy of Arcadia Publishing

“It has not been hard to sell books,” Iles continued, adding that Images of America: Beech Mountain is available locally at the Lees-McRae College bookstore, Black Bear Books, Mast Store, Fred’s Mercantile, the Beech Mountain Chamber of Commerce and the Banner Elk Book Shoppe.

The book is also available online by clicking to www.amazon.com or www.barnesandnoble.com.

Additionally, the historical society will sell copies of the book, along with Beech Mountain postcards, at the Mistletoe Market, which is held at Buckeye Recreation Center the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Iles said.

“I think anybody who’s had any connection with Beech Mountain at all would be interested in the book,” Wheeler said, adding that those interested in mountain towns and fabulous pictures would also appreciate the book.

The book explores the development of Beech Mountain, along with the main players in its history, through pictures, picture captions and short introductions at each chapter’s beginning.

A portion of Highway 184, also known as the Beech Mountain Parkway, is called Grover Robbins Highway and, “until they read about it, people said they didn’t know why it was called that,” Wheeler said. “People should know things like that about their town.”

The vision of Beech Mountain as a ski resort is credited to Dr. Tom Brigham, a dentist from Georgia who was raised in Vermont and wanted to bring skiing to the South. Brigham partnered with Grover Robbins, a Blowing Rock native who, along with his brother Harry Robbins, founded Appalachian Developments—which was later renamed Carolina Caribbean Corporation—and sought to develop a year-round resort.

The book skims over pre-development history and really focuses on the mountain from the time a skiing resort was conceived up to the present, Wheeler said.

“I think [the book] tells our story through pictures very well, from the history with Carolina Caribbean to today,” Wheeler said. “Lots of people never knew there was a circus that came to Beech Mountain.”

At the time when the historical society was forming and decided to pursue making the book, “Mayland Community College had a one-night class on writing local history [and] we all went over,” Iles said.

Michael Hardy, the professor, had written a number of local history books and encouraged the group that the project was feasible and that it was important to write local history, she added.

After the writing process was finished, copy editor Jerry Shinn, a current resident of Beech Mountain, made the necessary changes to the document to maintain a consistent editorial voice throughout.

“He wrote for the Charlotte Observer for a number of years [and] was editorial page editor,” Iles said. “We were fortunate that, being one of the people who love Beech Mountain, he was willing to volunteer.”

The historical society worked on the book for about three years and, once they decided upon Arcadia as the publisher, they “changed directions and worked one year very intensely,” Iles said.

“We had interviewed and researched with the intent of a straight history book, [but] had to go back and find pictures,” Iles said, adding that a number of Beech Mountain residents and other locals were generous with lending pictures for the project.

“High Country Press and Ken Ketchie lent us pictures from the magazine; we’re really appreciative of him,” Iles added.

Beech Mountain resident and professional photographer Ralph Miller became involved as the photography editor for the project. “He has all kinds of equipment to scan photographs,” Iles said. “We did not understand at first the quality it takes [to get pictures up to standard].”

Miller spent 42 hours scanning, organizing and redoing pictures to get them to Arcadia Publishing standards, Iles added.

Proceeds generated from the book will go toward the historical society’s next goal, creating a small museum. To achieve this, the group will need help from the town and will write grant applications as well, Iles said.

“We have quite a few artifacts, and promises of more if we have a place to put them and keep them safe,” Iles said.

The historical society also has several promotional videos made by Carolina Caribbean Corporation and two videos made by the ski area, Iles said.

“I think people would enjoy seeing those,” she said, adding that they could also have a continuously running slideshow of pictures of Land of Oz in its early days.

The Beech Mountain Historical Society plans to keep the interviews conducted for the book in the museum and accessible to the public for research, Wheeler said.