| My first memories of the Cashiers area are from
driving through Cashiers to get to Western Carolina
University where I went to college in the 60s. We would
stop at the corner service station to buy rum balls. Since I grew up in a non-alcohol house, eating rum balls
was like eating the forbidden fruit. Also, there was a
wonderful jelly house in Sapphire. I fell in love with
the area the first time I cut off US 64 to see what was
at the end of the tree-lined road and discovered the
Fairfield Inn. This is where I would return to work in
the 80s. Cashiers is a beautiful village in the southern Blue Ridge Mountains. With its tall trees, waterfalls and scenic peaks, Cashiers is at the Center of the Western North Carolina Resort District. From here you can go in any direction and find extraordinary beauty. Cashiers is formed by the intersection of US 64 and NC 107. Once just a corner stop for gasoline, the Cashiers Crossroads now has a park, a hiking store, the Exxon gas station and convenience store (where almost everyone ends up at least once a day). Jackson County is nestled among the Great Smoky, Balsam, and Blue Ridge Mountains. It offers the quintessential North Carolina vacation. Hike scenic trails through remnants of ancient forests past cascading waterfalls, shoot the rapids on the Tuckasegee River, or ride the rails on the Great Smoky Mountains Railway. A normal sight in Cashiers is an SUV with a canoe or mountain bikes on top. Many of our residents, both full and part-time, discovered the area through the many wonderful camps. One of the few places left where you can set off without a destination and always arrive somewhere beautiful. There are delightful resorts, inns, and restaurants noted for their excellent cuisine, and quaint shops of all kinds. The shopping is fun: toys, antiques, art, made in Carolina crafts, apparel, gourmet foods, and homemade goodies. It is a crossroads of sorts that offers up a rather modest assortment of one-story commercial buildings in the straight-from-the-sawmill style of summer camps. Yet inside are art studios and galleries, sophisticated outdoor outfitters, and makers of specialty furniture. In the early 1900s, several inns were established in the Cashiers area to serve Southern gentry who visited the mountains in the summer to escape the heat of the Lowlands. Many of these families built summer homes, and their descendants still return with others to enjoy the excellent golf courses and tennis facilities, as well as a multitude of natural resources. Set your own pace; that's the beauty of it. Cashiers is an outdoor holiday. You can play golf on one of Cashier's famous courses, stroll along a forest trail, hike, snow ski, or water ski. You can hit a tennis ball or cast a line into Cashier's famous trout waters. Wendy's of Cashiers opened in June, 2008. It is one of the most tastefully done Wendy's in the world, I'm sure. It opened in The Shoppes at CreekSide on Highway 64 just west of the Crossroads. Our new office, Silver Creek Real Estate Group, will open there in early July. The Shoppes at CreekSide blend into the natural beauty of Cashiers. Still a village with no neon lights, mammoth malls, or theme parks. The Cashiers area is beautiful...by nature. For a Time Line with a
personal touch |
