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A peak deal is in view for N.C. - it will pay $12 million to buy Grandfather Mountain
Journal File Photo
The flag near the entrance to Grandfather Mountain's Mile High Swinging Bridge was at half-staff upon Hugh Morton's death in 2006.
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Published: September 29, 2008
LINVILLE
North Carolina will buy Grandfather Mountain and its about 2,600 acres of backcountry wilderness, preserving one of the state's natural treasures.
Gov. Mike Easley and family members of the late Hugh Morton are expected to announce the purchase today.
The $12 million deal will not include state ownership of the 600-acre tourist attraction that includes the Mile High Swinging Bridge, the nature museum and animal habitat, but North Carolina will have a conservation easement on that land. The agreement ensures that the scenic attraction will continue and can't be developed for other use.
A private nonprofit corporation will be established for Grandfather Mountain, and Morton's heirs will be on the founding board of directors.
Crae Morton, Hugh Morton's grandson and the president of Grandfather Mountain Inc., said that people will still enter Grandfather Mountain as before, and then have access to the hiking trails to the backcountry area that will be in the new state park.
"For the state, it's an opportunity to protect, to have control over, one of the state's most important natural treasures," Morton said. "They protect Grandfather Mountain, and they have a neighbor whose sole point of being there is to assist and celebrate this piece of land. For the Mortons, it's an opportunity to protect the mountain in perpetuity from one end to the other."
The Morton family unanimously supports the deal, he said.
Hiking trails run for miles over rugged terrain, where wooden ladders and cables help hikers climb steep rock faces to arrive at Calloway Peak -- at nearly 6,000 feet, the highest point in the Blue Ridge range. The peak, and areas such as Attic Window, Indian House Cave and Shanty Spring will be part of the new state park. Grandfather is also home to 70 rare or endangered species.
The Grandfather Mountain Highland Games are expected to continue in MacRae Meadow, where today's announcement will be made.
Hugh Morton inherited Grandfather Mountain in 1952, cut a road to the top, and built the Mile High Swinging Bridge and the visitors center. He established the tourist attraction while also staving off development offers and fighting the federal government when it tried to run a portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway through part of the land.
Because of Hugh Morton's emphasis on conservation and his promotion of the state and Grandfather Mountain, many people already have considered Grandfather Mountain to be a public place, even though it has been owned by the Morton family.
When Hugh Morton died in 2006, the question about what would become of the mountain was raised. Most of the land was already in conservation easements. Family members said they didn't intend to ever sell to developers.
But the land was still the family's to sell or otherwise do what they wanted to do with it. It's not clear exactly how many family members own stock in the company that controls the mountain. Directors declined to say yesterday.
Crae Morton, 36, likened the situation to figuring out what to do with a family farm once a patriarch or matriarch dies.
"All my family that are alive and participating today has known the influence of my grandfather, and we are going to put the mountain first," he said. "We need to do something like this while everyone is enthusiastic about this opportunity. If you leave this kind of thing to chance in any family, you don't know what the dynamic will be like in a decade or 100 years from now."
The family has been exploring the creation of a nonprofit organization for the past couple of years, while the state has been working on its deal for at least several months.
Final details on the Grandfather Mountain purchase, including exact surveys, are still being worked out.
This isn't the first time that the state in recent years has purchased a high-profile geographic attraction.
Last year, it bought Chimney Rock, then a family-owned park of nearly 1,000 acres, for $24 million.
Harris Prevost, the vice president of Grandfather Mountain, had worked with Hugh Morton for about 30 years. He said he once introduced Morton as the owner of Grandfather Mountain.
"When he took the podium, he immediately corrected me and said he was not the owner, he was the caretaker," Prevost said. "He felt his job was to preserve it for future generations to enjoy. I think he would be very proud of his family."
Catherine Morton, Hugh Morton's daughter and the park's marketing director, said that her father would "be real happy to recognize that the mountain is permanently protected."
"He certainly in his lifetime did everything he could do to make sure there would be no roads, no buildings in the backcountry," she said.
Both she and Crae Morton said that the nonprofit organization will help the mountain get grants and other sources of money, opening up many more opportunities for research and education. Crae Morton said that his grandfather would be "all for" the deal to be announced today. For nearly 60 years, thousands of people from North Carolina and beyond have crossed the Mile High Swinging Bridge on shaky legs and fed marshmallows to the bears, hiked the trails and scrambled up rock faces on the land that Hugh Morton owned.
Mildred the Bear is buried at Grandfather Mountain, and Hugh Morton's ashes were scattered here and at other places he loved in North Carolina.
"He made people feel it was their mountain, and really it was as far as he was concerned and we are concerned," Crae Morton said.
"Ownership was a technicality. A couple of generations of North Carolinians have felt like it was their mountain. You know what, they were right. And when this deal is done, they'll be right all over again"
■ Monte Mitchell can be reached in Wilkesboro at 336-667-5691 or at mmitchell@wsjournal.com.
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