ASHEVILLE

city, seat of Buncombe county, west-central North Carolina, U.S. Asheville lies in the Blue Ridge Mountains, at the junction of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers. It has a mild climate and is built on an uneven plateau averaging 2,000 feet (600 m) in elevation. Asheville is the eastern gateway to Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Cherokee Indian Reservation and is the headquarters of the Croatan, Nantahala, Pisgah, and Uwharrie national forests. Mount Mitchell (6,684 feet ), the highest peak east of the Mississippi River, is nearby. Settled in 1794 by John Barton, who named it Morristown after Robert Morris, a financier of the American Revolution, it was renamed to honour Governor Samuel Ashe. The Western North Carolina Railroad arrived in 1880, and Asheville developed as a market for livestock and tobacco. Asheville's manufactures include textiles, furniture, and electrical products. Asheville has long been the cultural, resort, and economic centre of the western part of North Carolina. It is a vacation headquarters for the Blue Ridge Mountains. Biltmore estate, the vast house and gardens established by George Vanderbilt, is located there. The University of North Carolina at Asheville was founded in 1927 as Asheville-Biltmore College. The birthplace of novelist Thomas Wolfe is preserved as a memorial, and a collection of his writings is in the Pack Memorial Library. His grave and that of short story writer O. Henry (William Sidney Porter) are in Riverside Cemetery. Inc. town, 1797; city, 1883. Pop. (1992 est.) city, 63,598; Asheville MSA, 198,220.