Cradle of Forestry in America

Congress designated this 6,500-acre tract in Pisgah National Forest in 1968 to preserve the birthplace of forestry education in America. Dr. Carl A. Schenck opened the Biltmore Forest School here in 1898 — the first school of professional forestry in the United States. Over fifteen years, it trained more than 300 foresters in techniques that would eventually shape the U.S. Forest Service.

The Forest Festival Trail runs 1.3 miles through the site, passing seven historic buildings from the school's era and a 1915 logging locomotive. The Forest Discovery Center holds interactive exhibits — one teaches visitors to fight forest fires from a helicopter. Out front stands a mature American sycamore grown from a seed carried to the moon aboard Apollo 14 in 1971 and planted here after the astronauts came home.

Asheville sits in the shadow of mountains that were once stripped bare by logging and poor farming. This site is where American forestry learned to bring forests back from ruin. The trails are paved, the interpreters are in period dress, and the lesson is still live: forests are not inexhaustible, but they can be restored if you know what you're doing.