Moses H. Cone Memorial Park

 

On Memorial Day, I found myself walking a carriage road in Moses Cone Memorial National Park. Located at milepost 294 along the Blue Ridge Parkway, in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, the land once belonged to the Cone, who had amassed a fortune making denim and other textiles during the Gilded Age. Eventually, he would supply denim to the Levi Strauss company for the iconic their blue jeans.

Since it was a holiday, the traditional beginning of summer in the US, the park was quite busy. The parking lot was overflowing, and people were parking on the berm of the Parkway. I walked the carriage trail to the Flat Top Tower, a watchtower for fires. Once I got about a quarter of a mile away from the parking lot, there were substantially fewer other hikers. I overheard a young man query to his female companion, “I guess a five-mile walk is out of the question?” Looking at the flipflops she was wearing, there was no doubt as to her answer. I made the short side trip to see Cone’s gravesite, a noticeably big stone marked his grave and those of a few relatives. If the goal of a gravestone is to be remembered after you are gone, then I would say that the family’s site was successful. Many people made the quarter mile journey to see it. A horse drawn carriage make a side trip to take visitors to do the same.

The trail going under the Blue Ridge Parkway

I did not bring a camera to photograph birds; in fact, I had decided not to birdwatch but concentrate on the mountain scenery instead. As I neared the top, as if fate was chastising my decision, a scarlet tanager flew right at me. Arriving at the watchtower, many people who had struggled to make the 900-foot ascent, were resting after their successful climb. The atmosphere was jovial and communal.

The destination

When Cone died in 1908, he and his wife were childless. She would continue to live in the estate built on Flat Rock until her death, nearly four decades later. She left the estate to the local memorial hospital that bears Cone’s name, which in turn, was given to the National Park Service which the provision the park would use his name.