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ESEEOLA INN

From booklet "The Land of the Sky,"[lots028] Ramsey Library Special Collections, UNC Asheville.

"This is a mountain resort which begun at the other end from most of them. Usually the public builds them from a spring and cabin to a fountain and a town.  In this instance, capitalists bought a dukedom so far as territory goes, laid it out for country and city, farms and gardens, with a picturesque town plot on the river, at the junction of Grandmother creek, cleared undergrowth, opened forest glades, views and groves, cut paths, built bridges and best of all 'Yonahlossee' pike from Blowing Rock along the southern slope of Grandfather. Built an inn, cottages and then called the Nation's attention the fact that at Linville, with ten miles of trout stream and thirty miles of graded driveways, was a town ready made, a watering and breathing place without mark of wear and use, which by the magic of money, taste and foresight, had sprung up as yet untenanted, all fresh, sweet and new, ready for guests.

From points here, one hundred and fifty miles of mountains can be traced, more than a score of peaks rivaling its own monarch, Roan and Yellow, Otter and the giant brood of Blacks, all in a country where reigns summer almost like spring or fall and where winter is not much more than a joke and an excuse for roaring fire places in a cosy inn."  [North Carolina and Its Resources. State Board of Agriculture. Raleigh: Winston. M.I. & J.C. Stewart, Public Printers and Binders, 1896.]