Hendersonville, NC Travelogue

Discover why Hendersonville was granted status as an American Viticultural Area (AVA) and is so well known for grape growing (and produce in general). Learn from both the NC Wine and Grape growers association and a local Hendersonville winemaker their take on wine making in WNC.

Discover Hendersonville's summer overnight camps. What makes this region so perfect for summer camps? How do the camps benefit the local economy? What is a camp experience like for a child in 2021? And what is the benefit of spending summer at a camp for a child or even young adult counselor? Learn all of this and more on this episode of the Hendersonville Travelogue!

Discover one of downtown Hendersonville’s most unexpected attractions, the Aquarium & Shark Lab by Team ECCO. In this episode, dive into (pun intended!) what makes this small aquarium so special, how the 130+ year-old building was retrofitted to house the heavy salt water tanks, and some of the funnier stories the staff and volunteers have experienced while working with the animals.

Uncover the tale of the real live bear of Main Street back. These days, Hendersonville is obsessed with bears, and has an annual public art display featuring bears, but to find an actual bear, you will need to visit a more remote area. However, back in the 1920s, an actual black bear cub grew up on Main Street! Hear his story!

Discover Hendersonville’s beer and brewery scene. This week, we are joined by brewer, instructor at one of the area's fermentation schools and beer enthusiast, Bryan McMahan, who walks us through the area's history of brewing, tells us what makes the area so unique and attractive for brewers, discusses where brewing in WNC may be headed, and how the brewing school fits into and supports that.

Discover Hendersonville's great outdoors! With tens of thousands of acres of public land in the county, there are many options for hiking, biking and exploring. This week's episode digs into the story behind some of those trails, how they are designed, constructed and maintained, and what makes some of them so special.

Discover the story of why Hendersonville and the Western North Carolina region are so rich in fine arts and crafts, and how the region became so popular for artists. This week's episode is told from the perspective of the Tryon Arts & Crafts School, which at 61 years old, is the youngest of the three schools in the region! 

Discover the history of Hendersonville, North Carolina’s St John Hotel, an opulent, 150-room, palatial establishment that served many of the visitors that streamed into Hendersonville from the passenger railroad until the building burned down in 1915. This was one of 5 downtown hotels at the time, and was a favorite of many people, including George Vanderbilt, who stayed here often while his Biltmore Estate was being constructed.

Discover the story of Hendersonville, North Carolina’s "Underground," a below Main Street shopping area turned teenage hangout space. We dig into what Hendersonville was like when the area was built in the 1920s, how Hendersonville changed over the decades, and hear a first-hand account of what made the Underground's Teenage Canteen so special during the 1950s.

Discover Western North Carolina’s Park at Flat Rock! This 66-acre park transformed from a stark, lightly used golf course into one of the region's most popular local parks in just a few short years. Learn the history of the park and why it is so well-loved.

Discover the Western North Carolina Air Museum, located in the heart of Hendersonville, NC! This free museum is home to many planes, scaled plane replicas, and flight artifacts and memorabilia, both from private planes and the history of planes used during war time. Join us as we take a guided tour around the hanger to learn about how the museum got started, and some of the interesting things you will find and learn there.

The Blue Ridge Parkway, America's Favorite Drive, runs across the northern edge of Henderson County, just minutes from Hendersonville, North Carolina. Discover the Parkway’s interesting and complex history, including how it was conceived, why it almost didn't comes through this part of North Carolina at all, the difficulties in constructing it and learn what makes it such a unique and beloved National Park.

Discover Hendersonville, North Carolina’s Mineral & Lapidary Museum, a place that helps you to discover what's hidden underground, both minerals and fossils! In this episode, you will hear from an expert in both fields, learn what sort of gems you might dig up around Hendersonville, and hear about North Carolina's interesting history in both areas.

Discover Hendersonville, North Carolina’s Carl Sandburg Home, a property situated on hundreds of acres and with miles of trail to explore. The home itself was built in the 1800s, meaning the property has a lot of interesting features to discover. Learn more about the grounds and the of the rare plant life found here from one of the Home's park rangers.

Discover the story of Hendersonville, North Carolina’s 3 different trolleys! Around the turn of the 20th century, when train travel into Hendersonville was booming, before Main Street was paved and cars became something most families owned, the best way to get from the train station down to the shops, hotels and attractions on Main Street was to take the trolley. Learn how it developed from a mule-drawn car to a gasoline powered engine.

Discover Hendersonville, North Carolina's Historic Johnson Farm, a summertime getaway from the early to mid 1900s, where city-folk spent their time enjoying the slower pace of farm life. Learn about how the children who spent their summers here filled their days, from swimming, to hayrides and eating ice cream on the porch.

Discover how Hendersonville, North Carolina’s favorite drink, fresh apple cider, is made. Farmer and cider maker, Danny McConnell of McConnell Farms explains the process of making cider for his own orchard as well as quite a number of other orchards and farm stands throughout the region.

Discover how Hendersonville, North Carolina’s best known food, the humble apple, is transformed into delicacies like apple cider donuts and fried apple pies. See how far Justus Orchards has come, through the help of their bakery, since they got into the agritourism business in the 1990s.

Discover Hendersonville, North Carolina's family friendly fall harvest activity, the corn maze, which isn't quite as simple as it sounds to create. Hear a little about how corn mazes got started and eventually made their way to Hendersonville's own Stepp's Hillcrest Orchard, and how the corn maze plays into the larger picture of the seasonal operation at Stepp's.

Discover Hendersonville, North Carolina's unique history of train travel on the Saluda Grade as told by model railroad and train history enthusiast, Larry Morton. This was the steepest mainline stretch of tracks in the country, which posed a challenge both in the creation of the railroad and in steam engine trains safely traveling in and out of the Western NC mountains. Hear about the runaway trains and crashes that took place on the Saluda Grade over the years.

Discover Hendersonville, North Carolina's apple country. Learn why apples grow so well in this part of the world and hear stories from some of the farmers who have apple growing in their family history.

Discover Hendersonville, North Carolina's Dahlia Garden at Bullington Gardens. Here, you'll find 600 dahlia plants blooming from early August until the first frost, around mid-October. The flowers range in size from 2 to 12+ inches across, the plants from 1 to 8 feet tall. People love these dahlias because they're beautiful and the gardens are free, but also because of the memories this ancient flower can evoke.

Discover the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge, located just a few miles down the road from Hendersonville. What used to be a motorist bridge was transformed into a pedestrian bridge with lush gardens and lots of artwork. This free attraction offers peace and serenity close to town, educational opportunities, and has become an attraction in its own right in recent years.

Discover Hendersonville, North Carolina's long history of summer camps. For more than 100 years, overnight camps have been a big business in America, and one of the largest concentration of them is right here in the Hendersonville area! Learn about this interesting history from Ed Bell, whose family owned an operated multiple camps, and who actually grew up on one!

Discover Hendersonville, North Carolina's McClintock Clock. This huge, ornate clock has helped keep Hendersonville ticking since its installation in 1927. Though it saw a time when it wasn't running properly, restoration projects in the 1990s and 2010s helped to return this huge clock to its former glory, and it now serves as a fine example of this high-end brand of clocks, which were popular in small towns all over the USA in the 1920s through 1940s.

Discover Hendersonville, North Carolina's unique, smalti style mosaic, which is one of many free, public art installations you'll find in the downtown area. This 18 by 18 foot piece of art is called "Nature in North Carolina," and was designed and installed by Ukrainian artist, Vasiliy Polevoy in 1993.

Discover Hendersonville, North Carolina's history of tourism as told through the memories of Betty Jackson Baker, who spent much of her childhood at her family's Hendersonville Tourist Home, The Jackson House. She tells listeners of a time when people came to Hendersonville on the train, there was a downtown horse stable, and folks dressed in their Sunday best to attend the evening's auction for entertainment.

Discover Hendersonville, North Carolina's rivers, which range in difficulty from easy Class I rapids on the French Broad River up to the extremely difficult Class V rapids on the Green River's world-renowned section, "The Narrows." The wide variety of difficulty levels and proximity to rivers throughout the region make Hendersonville a paddler's paradise.

Discover Hendersonville, North Carolina's Farm Market Trail, a guide to the 100-year-old Curb Market and four farmers markets. Immerse yourself in the fresh produce, baked goods, fresh flowers and sense of community you're sure to find at each location.

Discover Hendersonville, North Carolina's Blue Ridge Craft Trails, organized by the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area. The Southern Appalachian region is rich in an arts culture that stems from when the Cherokee roots native to the area collided with African and European influences that were brought here. Many of those historic skills and styles are still practiced today, and these trails lead you to many talented artists throughout the area.

Discover Hendersonville, North Carolina's Quilt Block Trail, a collection of barn quilts or quilt blocks that adorn homes, barns and businesses throughout the Hendersonville area. These blocks pay homage to the area's agricultural and art roots, and are a fun, free way to explore Hendersonville.

Discover Hendersonville, North Carolina's Holmes State Educational Forest, the home of the Talking Trees. Whatever your age, rediscover your love for the outdoors at this excellent state forest.

Discover Hendersonville, North Carolina's Bearfootin' Pubic Art Walk, a collection of bear sculptures that showcases this town's fascination with black bears in a way that brings together man, nature and art, to be a part of one community.