High Times

Written By: Stuart Ferguson | Issue: July 2024

A 60th anniversary: “High Lands” by T. W. Reynolds was published in 1964, the first book devoted to the history of this area, and covers Highlands, Cashiers, Glenville, Sapphire, and Lake Toxaway.

Thurlow Weed Reynolds was a retired journalist who spent his summers near Mirror Lake, and his winters in Riviera Beach, Florida.

“High Lands” was the first of his five books about the Southern Appalachians. In his 70s when he compiled his research, Reynolds interviewed folks in their 80s and 90s, who remembered the 19th century. He arranged his book according to his pet obsessions of cartography and etymology—maps and word origins.

Tracing the derivations of area family and geographical names, he used Highlands as his starting point, providing detailed tours stretching from Sylva to Walhalla, recounting what he learned of the inhabitants, notable events, and the natural surroundings.

His prose is wry, yet full of admiration for the mountaineers. He is a combination of Thomas Wolfe and A.J. Liebling.

Of earlier accounts, Reynolds says, “Most other books on the mountains only generalize and leave much untold with not enough information for one to ever find the precise locale of the related event. As with Heaven and Hell, only the general direction is pointed out…but as for just where the revenuer was shot, the skeleton found, or the dog fell off the mountain, the reader would like to be told enough to find the spot, and not just read about it.” Reynolds takes you there, with exact mileage, as in the old Depression-era WPA guides. Books by Reynolds are hard to find, but both the Hudson and Albert Carlton libraries have copies available for reading, as does the Highlands Historical Society.

Mr. and Mrs. T.W. Reynolds

There’s another classic guide to our area that’s still in print: “The Summer Times” by Glenville resident Nancy Turner (another journalist and historian), first published in 1979 and periodically updated. Like Reynolds, Nancy arranges hers by driving tours, but centered from Cashiers. It’s the single best guide on everything to see and do in our neck of the woods today, whether it’s hiking, rafting, finding wildflowers, visiting historic sites, churches, etc. Her tours go all the way to Brevard and South Carolina. You think you know everything to see and do here? I thought I did – and I was wrong.

Nancy will sign copies of her “Summertimes” and “Wings” (astounding aerial photos of the Plateau taken by Gil Stose) at the Highland Hiker in Cashiers on Wednesday July 24, 2:00 to 4:00 P.M., and at the Highland Hiker Cabin in Highlands on Saturday July 27, 2:00 to 4:00 P.M.