Hollywood Comes to Cashiers

Written By: Jane Gibson Nardy - Cashiers Historical Society | Issue: 2016/03 - March

Thompson Roberts Zachary, known as T. R. or Tom, wrote his will in 1916, and part of his instructions to his executors can still be observed today.  

Section IV of the will reads, “It is my will and ardent desire that all my children can so divide my real property so that each of them can have a home thereon, including my wife, Mary, but in case they cannot have homes then, and in that event, a part of them or one of them may buy out the others, so that my old home place may remain in my children’s ownership and also in their lineal descendants’ possession forever and ever.”  At that time, T. R.’s real property consisted of 60 acres and he was the father of six children, five by his first wife, Julia Beazley of Virginia and Georgia, and one child by his second wife, Mary Rogers of Macon County, North Carolina.

Now, 100 years later, some of the descendants of T. R.  Zachary still own almost 50 acres of the original 60 acres including the old home place built in 1882.  The several other homes on the property belong to either the descendants of T. R.’s eldest child, John Alexander Zachary, or descendants of his youngest child, Howard Zachary, and T. R’s ardent wish is being honored.  This generous swath of commercially undeveloped land, just a stone’s throw from The Crossroads, is referred to by the family as “Zachary Estates.”

In December 2015, several sites in and around Cashiers, including High Hampton Inn and The Church of the Good Shepherd, became movie sets for a Hollywood film crew.  The entrance to Zachary Estates, with its lovely canopy of trees and large rhododendrons, and moss-covered verges was chosen to portray the entrance to a mountain outfitter. 

 For parts of two days that spot buzzed with activity as a crew of workers transformed the simple entranceway into a realistic portal to a fictitious “Cherokee Mountain Outfitters” with a banner that said “Welcome Buck Ferguson” hanging below.  The archway that contained the writing rose from two impressive stone pillars – pillars that were actually made from foam rubber of some kind.  Excellent photographer Jon Zachary, who lives at T. R. Zachary’s old home place, took pictures the first day during the set-up.  [see photo above] The second day, during the actual filming, there was a crowd of people, large cameras positioned on the bed of a truck and for good measure, two police cars.  By lunch time the show was over and the scene dismantled and returned to normal.  Wouldn’t T. R. be pleased that some of his trees and rhodos will be in a Hollywood movie?