High Vistas: An Anthology of Nature Writing from Western North Carolina…

Ellison, George (2008). High vistas: an anthology of nature writing from western North Carolina and the Great Smoky Mountains, Volume 1, 1674 - 1900. The Natural History Press. ISBN 978-1-59629-355-7.
Review:
This regional essay collection focuses on a mountainous area of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina; the Great Smoky Mountains, parts of the southern section of the Appalachian chain. The anthology contains selected historical travel perspectives written before the twentieth century; twenty-one writers provide glimpses of the plant and birdlife, encounters with animals, explorations of a cavern, scaling cliffs and mountain peaks, traversing rivers and forests, and more - - descriptions of wilderness explorations and adventures of a bygone time. Each author is introduced with a brief biography adding greatly to the reader’s understandings.
Having hiked on trails on Mt. Pisgah and Mt. Mitchell, climbed the tower on Clingman’s Dome, biked and driven around Cades Cove several times, visited some of the spectacular waterfalls in the area, walked on parts of the Appalachian Trail, and traveled the Blue Ridge Parkway, I can understand the allure of this beautiful region which remains one of the most popular travel and recreation destinations in our country today. Giving a unique view of what it was like in previous centuries, this volume provides insights into this region at times when European immigrants were first exploring and moving into the area. The air was cleaner, and the land was more open and wild.
These chosen texts from primary sources provide a nice introduction to nature writing in this region.
lj 4/9/2009 ( )

I like travel writing, historical fiction, and hiking, so I was pleased to get this book through LTER. It's a non fiction book, but each excerpt is like a little story about the author's experiences in this region. It's an area that I've traversed on the interstate, but now I'd really like to go camping and hiking on the mountains described. The stand out essays for me were the one talking about climbing Grandfather peak and the one lyrically describing a huge storm attacking the peak on which the group was camped. Botanists and bird watchers, surveyors and naturalists are all represented in this collection, and it's a fascinating glimpse into the history of the region. The bibliographic sketches of the authors that precede each selection are illuminating as well. ( )