(Altitude 2,207) The Old Flat Rock while remote and apparently indifferent to the new bustle, was as responsible as anything for modern Henderson. Its sophisticated settlers formed a continuous and ever-renewed link between the mountain folks and the world of business and ideas. The historic settlement of Flat Rock is the center from which there have grown the ties which so inseparably bind Western North Carolina to the low country of South Carolina.

It was just after the War of 1812 had closed, when pioneer life in the Blue Ridge Mountains had not progressed beyond its frontier stage, that the 1st summer visitors discovered the vacation land which lay in the highlands beyond its crest. The culture, manner of living, economic development and business of its entire section was lastingly affected the day in early summer, when the original little group left the coastal region from Charleston and its surrounding plantations and started the long trip to the mountains of Western North Carolina. The procession on horseback, in carriages and coaches with wagons carrying beddings, furniture, groceries and supplies an an escort of slaves bringing up the rear, toiled along the narrow rough road, to its stopping place at the plateau which lay atop of the Blue Ridge Mountains. There, the little colony which for more than 1/2 a century has inspired writers with many tales of romance, formed the 1st settlement, Flat Rock, which has grown through the years to make Western North Carolina a playground for the nation.

The Farmer Hotel, now Woodfield Inn, which was completed some time around 1850, proved to shape a small settlement of Low Country Estates into a famous summer resort section of this region, The Little Charleston of the Mountains.