XXXII 
BLOWING ROCK 
THE noble Grandfather towers head and shoul- 
ders above the sea of mountains that surrounds 
it. It is the giant of the Blue Ridge, and in a sense 
dominates the whole Appalachian uplift, not be- 
cause of its superior height, — we know how many- 
higher mountains there are, — but because it is so 
commanding. For Nature fashions mountains as 
she does men, here and there one so striking that it 
becomes a landmark for its era. 
The Grandfather was believed to be the highest 
mountain in the eastern half of the United States 
until, not so very long ago, the surveyors came with 
their instruments and told the people there were 
forty mountains in North Carolina and Tennessee 
higher than the Grandfather. But of course nobody 
believed it : the people who had always lived under 
the shadow of the great mountain knew better than 
those men who flew in one day and out the next. 
The surveyors were doubtless right in a way, but 
theirs was that mere scientific accuracy that proves 
nothing but the fact. Beyond that lies the real truth 
of the matter; forty mountains may measure higher, 
but to those who know the Grandfather, not one is 
really quite so high. In 1794, the French botanist, 
Andr6 Michaux, wrote of the Grandfather Moun- 
