Driving up the Blue Ridge Parkway from Mount Mitchell towards Little Switzerland, you hardly notice the tiny sign pointing up a gravel road: Wildacres. Follow the twisting, narrow gravel track to the top of Pompey Knob, and you emerge amid a scattering of wooden buildings framed by rhododendron, and a welcome sign: Wildacres Retreat.

In 1936, Charlotte businessman I.D. Blumenthal visited this mountaintop with a promise: if Divine Providence meant him to have it, he would devote the land to the betterment of humanity. “God wanted something done on that mountain,” Blumenthal said, “and I was selected as his servant.” When his low bid on the property turned out to be the only bid at the tax auction, the owner sent someone to investigate the land. Unaccustomed to the mists and clouds of the high Carolina peaks, the Texan visitor took one look and, as local legend has it, said “who would want this God-forsaken land anyway?”

Blumenthal set to work. Within a decade, he’d shaped the mountaintop as a retreat. In 1946, he hosted the first ever North Carolina B’nai B’rith Institute. An inclusive thinker and philanthropist, Blumenthal encouraged interfaith groups to retreat to the peak of Pompey Knob. Artists, musicians, and writers followed.   

“We never have a week without something going on,” said Mike House, resident manager at Wildacres. Each retreat or workshop is coordinated by an outside organization, which uses the splendid setting of Wildacres to present it to the public. From April to October, groups occupy the lodges: from private retreats for the National Park Service and United Way to public offerings of week-long workshops in the fine arts and humanities. Representative of the many groups that meet on this mountaintop, the Southeast Federation of Mineralogical Societies started holding classes here in 1976. Although their focus was once strictly lapidary arts – working with metal, gems, and stone – they’ve expanded their reach to classes on glassworking and pottery. Two weeks each year, they offer an intensive immersion into a single facet of craftsmanship, led by volunteer instructors with a love of their art.

Spread over 1,600 acres of forest, Wildacres comprises a handful of buildings—two lodges, a dining hall, an auditorium and adjoining library, studios for lapidary arts and pottery, and a cabin for writers in residency. Everywhere you look, you see works of art. In the main lodge, expanses of glass bring the mountains indoors; intricate floral stained-glass windows catch the afternoon light. A wrought iron table, tiled in shades from the ocean, sits against one wall; a grand fireplace, surrounded by comfortable leather couches, dominates another. Peacock feathers and dried grasses sprout from an urn the color of a soap bubble on river rock. The auditorium entrance showcases an expansive mineral collection; the dining hall lounge is decorated with unique dioramas depicting mining scenes in North Carolina.

Sitting here in a workshop, joining in delicious group meals, rocking in the chairs on the patio, you commune both with nature and with folks who share your artistic interests. Hale Sweeney, a long-time Wildacres alumnus, summed it up best. “You need to understand why this place is so special,” he says. “Look around. Take it in.” Around  him, a sweeping panorama of mountains—the tallest mountains the East Coast has to offer, their peaks silhouetted at sunset. “Can you feel the power here?”

It’s the power to connect, to create. It’s the power of inspiration. And that is why people come to the mountain, year after year. Sweeney smiles.

“This place restores my soul.”


SIDEBAR: Learning at Wildacres
Tune a bassoon. Carve a gem. Write a novel. At Wildacres, you can tap into your artist’s soul. Sign up for a week-long session with one of the many groups that offer workshops at Wildacres to the public. These organizations include:

·    Eastern Federation of Mineralogical Societies
·    Florida Society of Goldsmiths
·    Glickman-Popkin Bassoon Camp
·    Hickory Humanities Forum
·    James Houlik Saxophone Retreat
·    Ringling School of Art and Design
·    Southeastern Federation of Mineralogical Societies
·    Wildacres Flute Retreat
·    Wildacres Interfaith Institute
·    Wildacres Writers Workshop
·    University of North Carolina Charlotte Writing Seminar

Visit the Wildacres Retreat website <www.wildacres.org> for the current schedule of workshops, along with detailed course offerings and contact information for the groups listed above. Workshops vary in duration and cost, although prices tend to be reasonable: for example, less than $300 for a week of intensive instruction in the lapidary arts, including all meals and lodging. Contact each individual organization for registration details.

If your group is interested in meeting at Wildacres, you are welcome to contact the staff about hosting your retreat or workshop. The lodges contain 57 rooms, accommodating two guests per room. Contact resident manager Mike House at:

Wildacres Retreat
P.O. Box 280
Little Switzerland, NC 28749-0280
Phone: (828) 756-4573    FAX: (828) 756-4586
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

This article originally appeared in Blue Ridge Country in 2002
Reprint rights available