THE HIGHLANDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
GIFT SHOP

This commemorative pewter plate was commissioned in 1975 to honor the town's centennial and again in 2000 to celebrate the reactivation of the Highlands Historical Society. Embossed on it are a rifle, a log cabin, and the legend of the town's founding, as follows:
  "One beautiful winter morning in Kansas, a Mr. Samuel Truman Kelsey and a Mr. Clinton Carter "C. C." Hutchinson took a map in hand and drew a line from New York to New Orleans. Then they passed another between Chicago and Savannah. These lines, they predicted, would be the great trade routes of the future and where they crossed would someday be a great population center. The lines intersected at what is now Highlands. "We will go forth and found that town," they said, and they did. In 1875 they believed that Highlands would become one of the great attractions of the world."

This is a history of the origin and growth of a town with a Northern climate set high in the South. It embodies a collection of matchless characters and personalities and their stories that have given the town and its history remarkable color and enduring interest.
  "Packed with archival photographs, this well-written narrative chronicles the development of Highlands and evokes the town's charm. With the author's exhaustive attention to all details, from the smallest to the largest, the book will undoubtedly become the definitive history of Highlands, N.C."

  In 2002 the North Carolina Society of Historians gave the first edition of this book its History Book Award, and in 2005 the second edition won the American Association of State and Local History's Annual Award

This is the story of one man's lifelong relationship with Whiteside Mountain. Located on the southern escarpment of the Blue Ridge Mountains, its sheer granitic cliffs towering two thousand feet above the Chattanooga River valley, Whiteside is one of the most remarkable mountains in all of eastern North America. This is the poignant history of the men and women who have loved the mountain and others who exploited it.
  "A memorial to the mountain almost as beautiful as the mountain itself . . . and eminently readable."

  Randolph Shaffner,
Highlands, N.C.

The cover of the 2010 Calendar shows the oldest house in Highlands, a living history museum of the Highlands Historical Society. The 12 photographs accompanying the months are Tanner Cobb in 1889, a quilting party ca. 1915, Highlands ca. 1908, Barak Wright herding sheep ca. 1908, Tennis ca. 1910, Washing Clothes ca. 1915, the Davis House (Lee's Inn) in 1910, the Kelsey Monument in 1929, Circus Crowd in 1923, Circus Elephants in 1923, Bear Hunters ca. 1910, and construction of the Franklin Road in 1929.

Highlands, North Carolina . . . The Early Years
Angela Lewis Jenkins

This coffee-table book contains 227 black and white photographs with brief captions. Drawing from the Highlands Historical Society archives but also from personal and family photos, the book reaches back nine generations to show street scenes, buildings, hotels and inns, churches, homes, recreational activities, roads, and settlers of early Highlands. Its author is a 7th-generation descendant of one of the first pioneers of the region.

Randolph P. Shaffner

This book, illustrated with 35 photographs, narrates the history of one of the oldest public libraries in North Carolina. It focuses on the community leaders who founded and sustained the library and on the changing literary taste of its patrons through the years. The old library building now houses the Highlands Historical Museum and Archives.
  "The original and delightful addition to Shaffner's history is his skillful interweaving of local and world events. The small community is not isolated from the larger world."

  Wilma Dykeman,
Asheville, N.C.

“I know of nothing else quite like this. Into the history of a town library, Ran Shaffner has woven in stories of the town and its growth, as well as many of its people and all manner of evidence of books—books, good, great, famous, not-so-famous books. I think book lovers of all types will love the memories it evokes.”

  John Ehle,
Winston-Salem, N.C.

Randolph P. Shaffner

This little book, in Arcadia's Images of America series, focuses on the 55 years before and after the founding of the village of Highlands, North Carolina, that is to say, from 1820 to 1930. Every effort was made to provide a representative cross-sampling of the extraordinary variety of people who contributed to the early history of the town and its surroundings. Many of the 265 black and white photographs were supplied by generous families of the town and the surrounding area as well as relatives and descendants from across the U.S. The accompanying historical texts were distilled from oral interviews and family scrapbooks, photo albums, memoirs, diaries, documents, deeds, histories, genealogies, and letters. The author hopes this volume encourages the rediscovery and sharing of forgotten photographs in family closets, attics, and basements throughout the Highlands plateau. In 2009 the North Carolina Society of Historians gave this book its History Book Award.

Helen Major, Pat Benton, and Sabrina Hawkins

This is a reissue of an indispensable collection of recipes featured by Highlands' first hotel, listed on the National Register as built in 1880. It was published in 2005 to celebrate 125 years of hospitality service at Highlands Inn and includes narrative 'Memories of Highlands Inn,' as well as old photographs and 'Timeless Tastes' recipes concocted primarily by Helen Major during the two decades that she established the Inn's reputation for serving the finest in family style meals. One of the specialties of her kitchen was her famous apple crisp, which she served daily.

Isabel and Tony Chambers

Join sixth generation Highlands native Isabel Hall Chambers and her husband, Overton Chambers, as they share charming tales of old Highlands, from lazy summer days playing "town ball" to ice skating and celebrating Christmas. Woven into this collection of articles from The Laurel magazine are true stories of some of the area’s grand old homes, its traditions, and an array of interesting residents and visitors through the years, as told by fathers and grandfathers, old postcards, letters, deeds, and even tombstones.

Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust

This lovely coffee-table book was produced by the Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust to celebrate the centennial of its first land purchase in 1909. The book is a photographic essay, by a number of photographers, of landscapes, flora, fauna, and viewscapes of the Highlands-Cashiers plateau that have been preserved for the perpetual enjoyment and benefit of the public. Proceeds from the sale of this book help support the mission and goals of the Land Trust.