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VOL. XXVIII
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MARCH 7, 1925
Entered as second class matter at the post office at PINEHURST, N. C. Subscription, $2.00 per year.
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Number 12
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The Development of Roaring Gap
(Bion H. Butler)
3
The handsome new hotel which is now in course of erection at Roaring Gap
mHAVE watched the development of Pinehurst from
the day when James Tufts, some thirty years ago,
writing from Southern Pines to his wife in Boston,
told her that tomorrow the carpenters and the well drillers
would be arriving at the new site to begin work. From that
day to the present Pinehurst has been a steady move forward
until it is pretty widely known all over the United States and
is heard of in many sections abroad. But I don’t recall any
thing that is connected with Pinehurst that interests me more
in a moderate way than the story that is told by the picture of
a new hotel building up in the mountains of this State. The
place is Roaring Gap. The hotel site is practically oa the roof
of the Southeastern section of the United States. For on the
two square miles of property that the hotel corporation owns
are two springs, one of which feeds the Yadkin river, the
water finding its outlet down through North Carolina and
South Carolina to the Atlantic ocean, while the other spring,
being just across the summit of the Slue Ridge, is tributary
to the New river which feeds the Ohio and Mississippi and
reaches salt water at the Gulf of Mexico below New Orleans.
Two thousand miles the water of these springs journey from
each other in opposite direction before reaching tide water,
and they wash the shores of thirteen states;
A state highway leads to the mountain top from the cen
ters of civilization, and there on the summit, where in all di
rections is an unbounded picture of nature in its most rug
ged and primeval majesty, a group of men have secured a
large acreage and are building a summer vacation center mild
ly patterned after Pinehurst with this fine big hotel built of
stone from the mountains. A golf course by Donald Ross, a
large artificial lake, and other things that will make the sum
mer there interesting to j)epple from everywhere. ;
Roaring Gap is the well chosen location. The distance is
not great, about 180 miles from Pinehurst, the roads leading
through the cities and villages of the Piedmont far enough
away from the commotion of existence so that all the pro
moters of the scheme had to do was to find the place and ga
to work. The men who planned this venture are a group of
the big business men of the Piedmont and mountain section..
What interests me most in the scheme is that when they, got
into their heads what they wanted they, proceeded to come
down and talk it over with Leonard Tufts. By an intelligent
process of reasoning they figured out that he had built up a
highly successful resort enterprise at Pinehurst, and that a
man of his calibre would be a valuable factor in carrying out
the idea they had in their heads of a popular plate up in the
mountains. Mr. Tufts did not care to. add to his responsibili
ties at Pinehurst any further financial commitments, but the
sincerity of the men behind the movement at Roaring Gap
and the importance of their project in broadening the oppor
tunity presented for the further development of the state im
pelled him to join with these men in carrying out their pur
pose and in putting Roaring Gap on the proper footing.
To that end Mr. Tufts assumed the post of managing-di
rector, and those who miss him from Pinehurst every few
(Continued on page 9)