Peeling Back The Bark
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Honoring America’s First Forester on His 150th Birthday
By James Lewis on August 11, 2015The following is an op-ed piece by FHS staff historian James G. Lewis that appeared in the Asheville Citizen-Times on August 9, 2015, in honor of Gifford Pinchot’s 150th birthday on August 11.
Born just after the guns of the …
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A Visit to the Carl Alwin Schenck Redwood Grove
By James Lewis on January 20, 2015The silence, once I recognized it, struck me as odd, but then it made sense. I’ve been in louder empty churches, an apt analogy because I was here to pay my respects to the late, great man. I stood alone …
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Schenck Documentary Now In Production!
By James Lewis on August 14, 2014What began as a millionaire’s dream, a genius’s vision, and a forester’s labor is now being captured in a Forest History Society documentary film. This spring the Forest History Society joined forces with Bonesteel Films to produce First in Forestry…
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Dash for the ‘Stache Recap
By James Lewis on June 13, 2013A flash of light woke me around 3 am. I thought someone had flicked a light in the bedroom and left the water running in the bathroom. But then I remembered. I was in a tent. The running water was …
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Fundraising for Carl Schenck Film Project Now Underway
By James Lewis on March 28, 2013The Forest History Society is excited to announce that we’re developing a new documentary film. First in Forestry: Carl Schenck and the Biltmore Forest School will be the first documentary film to examine the pivotal role that the Biltmore Estate’s …
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"On April 5, 1895, I passed the Statue of Liberty…"
By James Lewis on April 5, 2012On this date in 1895, Carl Schenck arrived from Germany to the United States to replace Gifford Pinchot as forester at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. Three days after arriving in New York, Schenck met with Pinchot, then …
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Back to the Future, Part IV: “Where we’re logging, we don’t need roads”
By James Lewis on October 22, 2010The 25th anniversary of the iconic film franchise Back to the Future and the Blu-ray release of the trilogy on October 26 got us thinking about what forestry and logging were supposed to look like today as predicted by the …
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November 26, 1908: The Biltmore Forest Fair
By Eben Lehman on November 26, 2008One hundred years ago today, Dr. Carl Schenck, resident forester at George W. Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate and founder of the Biltmore Forest School, opened a three-day forestry fair on the Biltmore grounds. At a time when forestry work in America …
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October 20, 1964: Cradle of Forestry Dedication Ceremony
By Amanda T. Ross on October 20, 2008On this day in 1964, foresters, government officials, and others gathered near Asheville, North Carolina, at the site of the historic Biltmore Forest School. At this joint annual meeting of the American Forestry Association and the North Carolina Forestry Association, …