122 THE CAROLINA MOUNTAINS 
thirteen colonies. As the people increased in num- 
bers, the bolder and more independent spirits 
among them pressed farther into the wilderness, 
finally reaching the mountains where their energies 
found vent in fishing, trapping, and fighting the 
Indians. The people of the Old North State from 
the mountains to the sea have always been noted 
for their fearlessness and independence, these quali- 
ties in no degree decreasing as the pioneer element 
of the early settlers pressed towards the dangerous 
mountain wilderness. 
Beyond the Blue Ridge, in the very centre of the 
vast unbroken forest that covered the high unknown 
mountains. Buncombe County was erected in 1791, 
so large in area that its people proudly called it the 
"State of Buncombe," but which in course of time 
shrank to its present dimensions of about four hun- 
dred square miles, keeping, however, its most pre- 
cious gem, Asheville, as well as the noblest of its 
scenery, its ancient pride, and its name, which latter 
has made it the best-known and most exploited 
county in the mountains, in the state, and indeed 
in the country at large, a county name seldom reach- 
ing the fame of Buncombe. 
Asheville, if not actually old, is at least old rela- 
tively, for here stood the first settlement of white 
people in the mountains west of the Blue Ridge. 
This settlement was started soon after the Revolu- 
tionary War, as prior to that time the Indians 
had not learned to respect their neighbors' scalps 
sufficiently to make life among them agreeable, 
