Beloved Asheville author and historian Lou Harshaw once observed that Asheville has always been a place apart. It is not really a southern city, but always of the South. Its differences make for a fascinating whole. In this time, more than two hundred years after the first Europeans came over the eastern escarpment of the Blue Ridge to take up land and make new homes, the concern for the future has never been greater. Asheville, she opined, is absorbing new human values, new technology. There are new ways in which to live, and to relate to one another. In later years, she continued, the decades over the turn of this century will be very important in Asheville history - a time of seeking control of destiny. As she so aptly noted, looking back at Asheville’s rich history can enrich what lies ahead–and it should.