View of Pisgah National Forest near Brevard, North Carolina, USA

© Adam Jones/Danita Delimon

Fog above the forest

Today we’re looking out over Pisgah National Forest, which was established on this day in 1916. One of the first national forests in the eastern United States, it’s comprised of more than 200,000 hectares of mountainous peaks, cascading waterfalls, and heavily forested slopes. With hundreds of kilometres of trails, Pisgah is a popular place for hiking, backpacking, road biking, mountain biking, fishing, and rock climbing.

The land here was first set aside as a public forest with approximately 35,000 hectares that were previously part of the Biltmore Estate owned by George Vanderbilt II. But when he passed away in 1914, his wife, Edith Vanderbilt, sold the land to the federal government for US$5 an acre (about 0.5 hectares), fulfilling her husband's wishes to create the core of the Pisgah National Forest.