Part 1
I am so blessed to have been selected for a writing residency at Wildacres (www.wildacres.org). I will be working on a non-fiction book about my great, great, great grandfather, "Big Tom" Wilson, whose claim to fame was finding Dr. Mitchell's body on Mt. Mitchell. This residency is very competitive, so I feel very, very, blessed to be here. It is a beautiful area and I encourage you to visit.
Little Switzerland is gorgeous, and it isn't exactly at the end of the earth, but you can see it from here.
The Owl's Nest cabin is lovely, but I have to confess, the interor of it reminds me of the cabin that Johnny Depp had in the movie "Secret Window" (about a writer who goes crazy.) So while it is beautiful, I do sometimes find myself finding it just slightly intimidating.
Tomorrow I head to Mt. Mitchell, where I have an interview with some rangers. I was hoping that someone would take me to the waterfall where Mitchell's body was found, but that is on private property, so I need to find out who owns it and get permission, etc.
They have a whole display on Big Tom at the museum on top of Mt. Mitchell. This should be very interesing. I am hoping to get a book proposal completed by the end of this week to start shopping it around to agents...
Here is a photo of Big Tom.
Long story short, Big Tom was a bear hunter (he had killed over 100) and trapper in the mountains. There is a nature preserve named after him. Dr. Elisha Mitchell had determined that Mt. Mitchell was the highest peak east of the Mississippi and was confirming his findings when he went missing. After many failed attempts to find him, they sent for Big Tom, who found him at the bottom of a waterfall.
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