History of Roan Mountain
Standing 6,285 feet on the Tennessee-North Carolina border, Roan Mountain has been a popular destination for hundreds of years. Indians came to the top of the Roan, legend has it, to wage a great battle, and so much blood was spilled that the rhododendron turned from white to red.
Spanish explorers came in search of gold, while world renowned botanists came looking for exotic plant species. The rich and the infirm came to the magnificent Cloudland Hotel in the late 1800s and early 1900s to take the invigorating air of the high mountains.
Even today some 200,000 visitors come to see the Rhododendron gardens in bloom in late June.
From Andre Michaux, the world famous botanist, to General John Wilder, a Union Army General who built hotels in the village and on the top of Roan Mountain; from the Roan’s inexplicable “balds” to the lush forests of its “Canadian zone,” Roan Mountain remains one of the most beloved places in the southern Appalachian highlands.
EXCERPTS FROM “ROAN MOUNTAIN, A PASSAGE OF TIME”
BY JENNIFER BAUER WILSON