"Tapawingo," the first summer home in Valle Crucis, was built in 1925 for the parents of I. Harding Hughes, Jr. The family enjoyed long vacations here throughout the 1930s - the decade of the Depression and the last decade before World War II.

After wartime Navy service the author went on to a career as a city manager in North and South Carolina. In retirement he researched the past of Valle Crucis and published Valle Crucis: A History of an Uncommon Place (available below). Now he sets down his own warm memories - and the interesting and varied memories of numerous other people - of Valle Crucis in the decade of the 1930s.

$20.00 (includes shipping)

"There is a dreamy spell which hangs over this little valley." - John Preston Arthur

This book, published in 1995, gives you a detailed early history of this "uncommon" place. Mr. Hughes comes from a family who built one of the first summer homes in the area many years ago. His father and his grandfather were Episcopal priests who had connections to this sacred valley.

$20.00 (includes shipping)

"High in the Blue Ridge Mountains, between the shrouded peaks of Grandfather Mountain and the town of Boone, you must cross the Watauga River. Here, you will come upon two road signs. One reminds you that you are on an official Scenic Byway. The other simply invites you to turn onto a narrow road - the road to Valle Crucis."

This new book, published in the Fall of 1997 and reprinted in December 2004, invites you through photographs and words to explore our sacred valley. The pictures, photographed by William Bake, a student of Ansel Adams, will take your breath away. The text will transport you to this special place and, hopefully, will leave inside of you a feeling to keep this place forever how it is today, unspoiled and sacred.

$26.00 (includes shipping)

"Simple, earnest, and peculiarly kindly in countenance and manner, there was something winning about him which attracted a warm regard from his companions, while his uprightness, sound practical judgement, his skill and experience, soon placed him at the head of the working department."

This 1889 book (republished in 1992 by the Valle Crucis Conference Center) by the daughter of James Fenimore Cooper, journals the life of a remarkable man, William West Skiles. Mr. Skiles was brought to this valley in 1844 by Bishop Ives. Brother Skiles was the first man in the Anglican Church to take monastic orders since the Reformation. Through his work and life, he exemplified what it means to "walk the walk" and "talk the talk" of Jesus Christ.

$15.00 (includes shipping)