Protecting Horse Cove

Written By: Lance Hardin - Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust | Issue: October 2024 | Photograph By: Andrew Renfro

The Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust protects many acres within picturesque Horse Cove.

Once a broad wetland valley, the cove continues to shelter pockets of rare mountain bogs that provide habitat for endangered plants such as Cuthbert’s Turtlehead, Flat-Top Goldenrod, and Virginia Chainfern. Peat cores indicate that these bogs may be more than 3,000 years old.

The secluded vale may seem a world away from the bustle of Cashiers’ crossroads or Highlands’ Main Street, but that wasn’t always the case.

Relics indicate that Horse Cove was used by the Cherokee for seasonal encampments and hunting until their forced dispossession in the 1830s.

One of the first subsequent settlers was the Barnes family in 1838 who, lured by reports of gold, received land grants along Walkingstick Road. Soon the cove was dotted with small “placer” surface mines worked by men with pickaxes. Helen Hill Norris recalled that three Georgia miners reportedly found a vein yielding $60,000 in gold, a monumental sum for that period. These small mines soon played out, however; in the 1960s local historian T.W. Reynolds humorously noted that an old gold mine tunnel on Bull Pen Road had attracted little attention until a “danger” sign was installed – which of course only served to incentivize even more unsafe activity!

In 1855 Horse Cove opened its own post office, which remained in operation until 1911.  Drovers used Walkingstick and Glade roads to drive turkeys and livestock to the markets in Walhalla, no doubt resulting in a commotion that would be unimaginable today. A series of schools dotted the landscape until consolidation in 1932.

Bishop Hugh Thompson began purchasing land in Horse Cove in 1878, eventually amassing more than 2,300 acres. He constructed an extensive tourist resort that included an inn, thirty guest cottages, stables, and even a horse track and winery.  Lured by these amenities, the summer population of Horse Cove swelled with tourists, including future president Woodrow Wilson. Nearby, Captain Piroleau Ravenel constructed a factory in 1901 to manufacture the wooden locust pins necessary to attach wires to poles for the build-out of the nascent telephone industry.

Eventually, however, improved roads shifted commercial activity to Cashiers and Highlands, and Horse Cove returned to a more natural state. The Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust is proud to help conserve the natural resources and cultural history of Horse Cove. For more information on HCLT, see hcltnc.org and follow on Instagram and Facebook.