U.S. 70 road trip departs Asheville and is headed east

Movin’ on down the road along U.S. Route 70 in North Carolina…we’re headed east out of Asheville.

Motorists quickly encounter the Beaucatcher Tunnel that takes them smack-dab through Beaucatcher Mountain. The 750-foot-long tunnel opened in 1929.

 

Beaucatcher Mountain was named in jest in the mid-1800s by James Washington Patton, a successful Asheville merchant. He observed his sister-in-law, Charlotte Kerry of Charleston, S.C., strolling the mountainside with her beau, seeking a bit of privacy. 

Patton referred to the mountain as Charlotte’s “beau catcher.” The name, at least the “beau catcher” part, stuck. (What’s uncertain, however, is: Who was Miss Charlotte casting her web to catch and did it work?) 

Asheville author Thomas Wolfe’s 1929 novel “Look Homeward Angel” referenced Beaucatcher Mountain as a “barrier that hemmed him off from the world’s adventures.” 

At the very tip-top of the mountain is Helen’s Bridge leading to Zealandia Castle. The whole place is “ultra-haunted,” locals say.

 

All the more reason to skedaddle along U.S. Route 70 eastward to Swannanoa and Black Mountain, charmingly quaint and walkable “postcard communities.” Just beyond is Montreat, a special hideaway worthy of “pulling over.”

In 1897, a group of interdenominational religious leaders acquired 4,500 acres of land here to build a Christian settlement – a “mountain retreat” shortened to “Montreat.” 

The property was purchased in 1906 by the Presbyterian Synod of North Carolina. In 1911, Dr. Robert Campbell Anderson came from Gastonia and was put in charge of “everything” at Montreat. He started a women’s school in 1916 with eight students. By 1934, the institution was known as Montreat College.

Today, Montreat College is a thriving private, Christian, coeducational college with an enrollment of about 1,200.

The Montreat conference center is enormously popular, hosting youth and adult groups (both small and large) in “one of the most beautiful, unspoiled, mountain locations in North Carolina.” 

Montreat’s “most famous” citizens were the Rev. Billy Graham, and his wife, Ruth Bell Graham. She grew up in Montreat. In 1943, Billy and Ruth were married in the Montreat College chapel.

The Grahams chose to make their home and raise a family in Montreat. “Their mountaintop home became a peaceful refuge from Graham’s increasingly busy schedule of evangelistic crusades,” wrote Professor Benjamin Brandenburg, a member of the Montreat College faculty. 

College president Dr. Paul J. Maurer said: “The impact that Billy Graham had on Montreat College and the local Montreat community cannot be overstated. He and Ruth were tireless advocates for the college, giving of their time, resources and spiritual guidance over the course of more than 60 years.” 

“Even as Billy rose to the level of a national and international figure, he and Ruth maintained deep roots in the local Montreat community as loyal friends, neighbors and civic leaders,” Dr. Maurer said. 

Montreat’s population is less than 870, and the community cherishes its unique brand of community character, “secluded unto itself, surrounded by pristine mountains and wilderness, lush green vegetation, scenic ridges and tranquil vistas” that enhance “the spiritual experience of Montreat.” 

The next Route 70 landmark is Ridgecrest, where the old highway “disappears,” becoming a part of Interstate 40 to “come off the mountain” at Swannanoa Gap on the Eastern Continental Divide. 

The elevation is 2,786 feet when vehicles begin their winding descent on a 6% grade that extends for 5 miles down through Royal Gorge into McDowell County. At the “bottom” is Old Fort, where the elevation is 1,447 feet (a drop of 1,339 feet).