When this was Fred Burnett’s Valley

Wendell Begley
Guest contributor
The Valley Echo
April 18, 2024

This photograph of Fred Burnett was taken in the 1950s. Fred is perched on a high crag atop the summit of his beloved Blue Ridge Pinnacle on the Swannanoa Rim. At his side are his wife, Ann and sister Della. Blue Ridge Pinnacle, at an elevation of 5,665 feet, is located just west of Fred’s ole’ log cabin. The summit of Mount Mitchell can be seen in the background. *Photo courtesy of the Wendell Begley Collection*

My “all time” favorite read as a young boy growing up in the Swannanoa Valley was “Big Red” by Jim Kjelgaard (1945). Staged against a rugged backwoods, it is the story of a champion Irish Setter and a trapper’s son who grew up together, roaming the wilderness. As I reflect back, that book and the special companionship shared by a young boy and his loyal dog resulted in a lifetime’s passion for the great outdoors … And, with my families ties to North Fork’s Laurel Branch and the earliest Burnett land this week’s series is a natural …

Over the years, for those history intoxicated folks that thrive on early North Fork history (especially yours truly), I recommend two well-written books. One of the hardbacks was authored by North Fork-bred, Frederick McLoud Burnett (1882-1961). Sometimes Mr. Burnett was referred to as “Fred” or “Mac.” Fred’s book was published in late 1960 and called, "This Was My Valley."

The other must-read book was edited in 1997 by our own Joan and Robert Goodson. Their book was called "On the North Fork of the Swannanoa River.”

In this series, I have included a description of “This Was My Valley” as reviewed by Doug Reed in the Sunday’s November 13, 1960 issue of The Asheville Citizen Times. Interestingly, Mr. Burnett finished "This Was My Valley” just a few months before his untimely death on February 4, 1961 at his Ridgecrest home. So here goes …

The North Fork Valley of the Swannanoa River is a secret place. It lies above the impounded lake of the city of Asheville’s storehouse of waters, cut off from human contact. Buried in the silence is much of the important history of the early days of Western North Carolina – It forever holds a chapter in the enduring tale of the mountains.

Unknown to most today, this story finds fascinating resurrection in a new book, written by a son of the North Fork. “This Was My Valley” is the recapturing of those fresh, unhindered years by Fred M. Burnett of Ridgecrest. In writing his book, Mr. Burnett has not only fulfilled a deeply personal wish to set down history that he cherished, he has also preserved for others a narrative that should not be forgotten. The story is most often the Burnet (the original spelling) story, for the lives of the Burnets gave life to the North Fork. It concerns their settlement of the valley, the quiet heroism of the years in which man wrestled with nature and the manner in which he won without transgressing against the native forest deeps. But it concerns most interestingly and with sure-handed authority the great hunts of those early years.

The author retells them from a storehouse of knowledge open to few others.

And he brings those heart free, happy days alive as though they were happenings of only yesterday, though some go back across the centuries. This is a book for the sportsman, the outdoorsman and the huntsman. It sets forth to recount the saga of the famous hunting dogs of a famous hunting family, of Tige and Cry, Ketch, Lead, Rock, Mike, Ring, Vene and “old Blue.” The great hunts and the great dogs were a natural part of the life in the North Fork Valley.

They become a natural part of this story woven into the fabric of the tale. The book is not dominated by this feature alone, and encompasses many other facets of life as well.

Mr. Burnett has tapped that tried and true source of historical narrative, the family tree. He delves amongst its roots where it all began. He has followed it along its simple, majestic line and traces all its branches. This happily results in no mere genealogical ruminating. The reader actually becomes aware of the whole only after he has met its parts: Frederic Burnet, Sr. and his wife, Granny Else, are alive, full-bodied, warm and fascinating in and of themselves, and not merely as the ancestral pair who began the Burnet story of the North Fork in the 1760s.

Mr. Burnett’s memory is amazing, and he adds to it the documented details of those early years, passed down in care to his keeping from his father and his father’s father. “This Was My Valley” is a personal tribute to those pioneer forbearers.

It is broader than family history, however, for few men lived and few things occurred in the mountains with which they were not concerned, or were not a part. This, the book unfolds tales of many others as well. Out of the close association of the family with the ranges of the Black Mountains comes the story of the search for the body of Dr. Elisha Mitchell, who died on the peak which he measured as the highest in Eastern America.

There are tales of the Civil War, recounted from the lips of “Fate” Burnett (Marcus Lafayette Burnett, the author’s father), who fought in it. Moving through these stories are such well-known figures as Colonel Thad Coleman, John Lyda and others.

There are stories of Locke Craig, who became governor of North Carolina, and who in the 1880s lived in the Burnet home for some three years and was an intimate friend of the author of this book. There are stories of Zebulon B. Vance, who built his home on land neighboring the Burnetts.

These and others-these are stories which any reader, be he native or no, will find absorbing.

In the author’s own words, “to trace the story of the Burnett family from the arrival of the first in America, migration to North Carolina, setting in what is now Buncombe, and the progress of the generations, would be to write a partial history of this mountain section and would require talents of both novelist and historian. Needless to say the picture would be a kaleidoscope of adventure, romance and hardy living.”

After scores of years exploring the Swannanoa Rim … many with my Irish Setter, Tex. It’s easy to understand why Fred so loved his mountain cabin (Mile-High) and his cherised nearby mountaintop (Blue Ridge Pinnacle). His book, "This Was My Valley" is truly a testiment to the stature of those rugged, hardy and fiercely independent “mountain folks” and family dogs that came before us ... Cheers!

Black Mountain's Past

When this was Fred Burnett’s Valley