In 1888, George Vanderbilt began building a vast North Carolina estate; 26 years later, his widow sold 86,700 acres for $433,500, helping create the core of Pisgah National Forest in 1916
A major property deal that began more than a century ago with a grieving widow turned a huge private wilderness in North Carolina into one of the most important public conservation achievements in American history. In May 1914, Edith Vanderbilt agreed to sell 86,700 acres of valuable mountain forest from the private Biltmore Estate to…
