May 5, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 


Rattlesnake Lodge. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Since reading the article by Mr. Brown, in 
Forest AND STREAM a year or two ago, describ- 
ing his cabin in the Vermont mountains, the 
writer has thought that your readers might be 
interested in the description of a somewhat simi- 
Jar plan in the southern Blue Ridge. 
As a busy man of the world I have never grown 
weary of the woods. My fondest recollections, 
my most enjoyable days from childhood to the 
present time, are always associated with the for- 
est and stream. Tracking rabbits as a child, trap- 
ping as a boy, hunting with rifle and shotgun as 
a young man, fishing, camping, wandering and 
dreaming my vacation days in the most inacces- 
sible haunts of the deep and unfrequented forest 
depths, were a good preparatory school for the 
extended hunting trips of later years into Canada, 
the Rockies, the Everglades and across the plains. 
The “hunt fever” annually returned, and has 
only been satisfied after killing almost every wild 
animal found in the country, from the moose to 
the chipmunk. Like other boys, I commenced 
with the small game, and each year, even after 
manhood was reached, went after larger and 
more difficult game. As each recurring year has 
added trophies and experience of greater hard- 
ship, danger, excitement and pleasure, I have 
come to realize that far more pleasure can be 
derived by other methods than killing. 
Having a large family of small children and a 
wife who is equally as fond of the woods as my- 
self, we decided several years ago to build a cabin 
in the mountains, far from neighbors, where our 
vacations could be spent. Having tramped and 
hunted every portion of the mountains near and 
about Asheville, and desiring the most inacces- 
sible, the rockiest and the best wooded section 
within fifteen miles of the city, we chose what is 
known as the Bull Gap Range, one of the spurs 
leading west from the Craggies. Here a large 
boundary was purchased at a nominal figure. No 
road had ever been built; no lumbering, no tan 
bark gathering and no clearing of land had ever 
been done. The tract varies in elevation from 
2;500 to 5,000 feet, is well watered with numerous 
springs, abounds in cliffs and gorges, is well 
wooded with chestnut, oak, hickory, walnut, 
birch, gum, locust, and contains large tracts of 
rhododendron and laurel covering hundreds of 
acres, so thick that one can only get through by 
cutting his way. 
At an elevation of 4,200 feet is a natural amphi- 
theater with a few acres of comparatively level 
land, while upon three sides the mountain ridge, 
500 feet higher, extends around, leaving the 
southwest open. On this flat are seven large 
springs, all situated well above the house site. 
Standing on the edge of the flat, the mountain 
breaks away a thousand feet at an angle of 60 
degrees, and then another thousand less abruptly. 
As far as the eye can carry, one can see out over 
Asheville to the southwest, across the Vanderbilt 
estate of 160,000 acres, to the Junulunka Range 
thirty miles west, to the Pisgah Range to the 
south. From here the eye is greeted by an end- 
less forest canopy extending to the horizon thirty 
to fifty miles away. The nearest neighbor lives 
in a one-room cabin so far distant that his clear- 
ing away below looks no larger than your hand. 
Here was a house site, at an elevation sufficient 
to insttre coolness in summer; abundant water of 
the finest quality; a site well sheltered from 
storms by the wall or ridge on three sides; a 
nook while not giving the extended views in all 
directions that can be had from many nearby 
points, yet was secure from storm; a place that 
could be developed; where the possibilities were 
great. 
Once seen the place was immediately selected 
as the ideal. The smaller question of how it was 
to be reached from the public road, some miles 
distant, presented a serious difficulty but was left 
to decide itself later. It was realized that a car- 
riage road was well-nigh an impossibility; but 
what was all the better, a trail could certainly be 
wound among the cliffs and zigzagged around 
and over the precipices, A few miles away is 
beautiful Asheville, the most attractive resort 
place in America to-day, a view covering the 
whole Asheville plateau. At your back an un- 

“THE SWIMMING HOLE,” 
broken forest, extending over range after range 
for a hundred miles and more into Virginia and 
Tennessee—four miles from the top of Craggy, 
with an elevation of 6,100 feet; ten miles from 
Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Rockies, 
6,711 feet—an unbroken country, woods, rocks, 
cliffs, thickets, streams, and practically unknown 
except to the wildcat, the turkey and an occa- 
sional bear or deer and many smaller animals, 
Here among the mountain tops, with the clouds 
frequently spread before you, away below, like 
the sea, with occasional peaks projecting up like 
emerald isles in a sea of white; here, at the birth 
place of the streams that feed the Atlantic and 
the Gulf; here where the eagle, the raven and 
the snowbird rear their young; here where the 
hand of man has not marred the earth, the tree 
or the landscape; here is the place where one 
who has traveled and tramped, hunted and 
camped, fished and carried from one end of the 
land to the other, can bring’ his mate, his brood 
of “‘little savages,’ and feel that they are as free 
and as secure as the wood can be. 
Here the children could receive each year that 
month or two of practical woods knowledge 
which can only come from close contact with 
nature in her virgin state. Here the day is 
ushered in by the music of the wood robin or 
sweet Joe, and vespers are sung by that beautiful 
singer ‘‘Evening Bell,’ as the mountain people 
call him. Here the first lessons in botany, in 
geology and insect life come as a matter of 
course; also the use of the ax and the gun. The 
child realizes what wonders can be brought about 
by the woodsman’s few tools; he learns to impro- 
vise; the inaccessibility of stores results in the 
wide application of such means as are at hand; 
he acquires self-assurance and, like the young 
animals about him, unconsciously learns the 
rough laws of nature; learns them, too, in a way 
néver to be forgotten; he lives out of doors, 
sleeps out of doors, eats such food as he should; 
forgets sweetmeats and pastries, and starts a bone 
and muscle growth which will never come in the 
city. 
Here, then, was the place where vacations were 
to be spent for the next few years, until the chil- 
dren are able to go further afield. 
The first trail was merely a path tramped out, 
made by the workmen who were employed. 
The house plan was adopted to fit the location. 
A large stone chimney in the center, three fire- 
places on the ground floor, two on the second. 
Five rooms on the ground floor and three above 

FED BY SPRING WATER. 
with plenty of porch room, both covered and un- 
covered. The plan was to make everything pos- 
sible on the ground; to bring nothing in from 
the outside that could be avoided. The house 
was built, as shown in the photograph, from ma- 
terial hewn out in the woods, with the exception 
of the sash, flooring and lime in the chimney; 
these had to be packed in on the back of mules. 
All logs were hewn, ceiling joist left exposed; 
chimney built rough with stone at hand, the 
mantel in the living room being one large rock 
trft. x 3ft. 6in. thick. The fireplace in the living 
room is 6ft. across. The rooms are 16ft. square. 
The roof is covered with white oak boards, rived 
and shaved by hand, the work being done by men 
who have lived all their lives in the woods. The 
walls were chinked with clay, lime and hair; each 
log in the wall, as placed, was bored every aft. 
with a I-inch bit and the hole filled with crude 
creosote; inside walls left same as outside— 
hewed logs. Nothing was done hurriedly; the 
idea being strength and permanency. Doors are 
of chestnut plank, double, and studded with large- 
headed hand-wrought nails; main door made as 
a Dutch door; kitchen door provided with the 
old-fashioned latch string. .Porch rail made of 
rhododendron and locust; fireplaces provided with 
cranes and andirons. 
The first season framed the building and put 
it under roof. It was then left to season; neces- 
sary grading completed; orchard set out; woods 
erubbed for several hundred yards; loose rocks 
removed and built into walls. A log barn, corn- 
crib and tenant’s house followed. 
The following spring the house was completed 
and the furniture made on the premises—chairs, 
bedsteads, tables, cupboards; in fact, everything 
possible being well made from material cut in the 
woods. Even coat hooks were made rustic from 
laurel. 
The cliffs near the house were protected with 
rustic fences; swings, merry-go-rounds, stave 
hammocks, and seats constructed with material 
from the woods, , 
When moving time arrived, springs, mattresses, 
bedding, cooking and dining room necessities with 
provisions were all that were required, During the 
winter a four per cent. four-foot trail was built 
from the main road several miles away. This 
was built zigzag and winding, around cliff and 
bluff, through deep woods and over bare ridge, 
and was eventually located where many prophe- 
sied that it could never go. The surveying was 
done by an ordinary level, tape-line and rod. 
