Peeling Back The Bark
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The Early Career of John S. Holmes, North Carolina’s First State Forester
By Eben Lehman on May 31, 2019John Simcox Holmes—born on this day in 1868—was a pioneer of forestry work in the state of North Carolina. The state’s first professional forester, he was hired in 1909 to survey and protect North Carolina’s forests, though he had little …
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A Look Back at George Washington’s Birthday Trees
By Eben Lehman on February 22, 2018“Ten million monuments to a great man!” So went the call out from Charles Lathrop Pack and the American Tree Association to the American public. The “great man” was George Washington and the year was 1932 – the bicentennial of …
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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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"How Could We Lose This Forest?" – Searching for the DAR Memorial Forest
By James Lewis on July 24, 2015“How could we lose this forest?” It’s a history mystery we’d been working on for more than two weeks when Molly Tartt, a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution in western North Carolina, asked me that in an …
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Korstian Forestry Education Lantern Slides Now Viewable
By Eben Lehman on December 17, 2014From the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, lecturers often used glass lantern slides to illustrate their topics. Photographs were copied onto glass plates to make the slides, which would then be used with a projector to cast images onto walls …
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Mt. Mitchell, Where Mystery, Intrigue, and Forest History Meet!
By James Lewis on October 16, 2012At this time of year the mountains of North Carolina are a great place to go view the leaves changing colors. One popular destination is Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Rocky Mountains, found just off the …
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NC Forest Service Photo Gallery Now Available
By James Lewis on August 1, 2012Between 1891 and 1938, forestry in North Carolina saw many changes. The state government hired its first state employee to carry out forestry work in 1891; its first professionally trained forester, John Simcox Holmes, in 1909; and its first fire …
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Coweeta Hydrologic Lab Celebrates 75 Years
By Eben Lehman on November 3, 2009In 1934, the Coweeta Experimental Forest was officially established on the Nantahala National Forest. Occupying nearly 4,000 acres just north of the North Carolina-Georgia border and renamed the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in 1948, the site would prove to be the …
