Flat Rock of the Old Time: Letters from the Mountains to the Lowcountry, 1837–1939 ed. by Robert B. Cuthbert (review)

As any resident of western North Carolina knows, summertime invariably brings an influx of visitors and tourists, who are drawn to the region due to its cool mountain air. Flat Rock of the Old Time: Letters from the Mountains to the Lowcountry, 1837–1939 reminds us that this yearly migration has a long history. The edited collection is a compilation of letters from the South Carolina Historical Society that details the lives of the Charlestonians who escaped sweltering Lowcountry summers by traveling to Flat Rock, North Carolina, roughly halfway between Asheville, North Carolina, and Greenville, South Carolina.

Many of the letters concern the various activities of the residents as the writers discussed the cool climate, related their rambles in the woods, and noted the comings and goings of other members of the summer community. The letters also capture changes in Flat Rock such as transportation improvements, the construction of George Washington Vanderbilt's nearby Biltmore estate, and a spike in land prices and outside investment in the 1920s. In addition to providing the letters in full, editor Robert B. Cuthbert reconstructs the community through careful genealogical research, and he often notes the modern location of many of the letter writers' summer homes. The letters and Cuthbert's editorial commentary attempt to paint a picture of a bucolic, peaceful mountain retreat.

But just as the Civil War shattered the alleged romance of the plantation, the war revealed the hidden tensions within Flat Rock. During this conflict, the mountain region was divided in its loyalties, deserters ransacked vacation homes, runaway slaves passed through the area en route to Union lines, and local mountain people clashed with their Lowcountry guests, whom the mountaineers blamed for causing the conflict. The Charleston tourists were torn between their desires to flee encroaching Yankees on the coast and the various dangers of the irregular war in the mountains. The tensions unleashed by the war suggest that Cuthbert'smaudlin remarks about how the letters speak to the "grand years of the old time" miss the mark (p. 217). These years may have been grand for the vacationers, but not for their slaves, who are barely mentioned by Cuthbert in his commentary.Thereisa rich literature on the lives of South Carolina planters and on Appalachian tourism, yet none of these works appear in the book to help contextualize the very exceptional experience of the elites of Flat Rock. Visitors to Appalachian getaways easily slip into romanticizing these areas and creating a false idyll that ignores a rich local history, and it is a shame this volume slips into this trap at times.

It falls to the reader to pick out some of the more tantalizing hints of conflict in the placid world that Cuthbert seeks to present. But as this is a primary source collection, these limitations are understandable, and surely future scholars can use these letters fully. Despite some editorial shortcomings, Cuthbert has tapped a rich vein of source material that surely will be a treasure trove to any local historians in the Flat Rock area.