Swannanoa, North Carolina

Swannanoa lies in the valley of the same name about ten miles east of Asheville, and its name comes from a Cherokee phrase, though scholars debate the exact translation: likely something in the range of trail of the Suwali people. The valley became one of the main corridors through the Blue Ridge for the Western North Carolina Railroad in the eighteen eighties. What set Swannanoa apart from the nearby towns that grew up around it was the arrival in eighteen ninety-four of the Asheville Farm School, a Presbyterian mission school that combined education with farm labor to serve mountain boys with limited means. That school eventually merged with others, became a junior college in nineteen forty-two, grew into a four-year college in nineteen sixty-six, and is now Warren Wilson College, now known nationally for requiring all students to work on the college farm, in the forests, or in campus operations as part of their degree.