As the pandemic begins to wane and the percentage of those vaccinated increases, we have the ability to foray out of the enclaves in which we have been cocooned for over a year. For me, travel to the mountains of North Carolina has been a true panacea, and, as I write this, I am enjoying another magnificent setting in this part of the state. Personally, there is nothing more serene than spending time in the North Carolina mountains. Especially during the past year, ventures of two to three hours’ duration from Charlotte have afforded rejuvenation and a reset from all of the issues swirling around us. As I write this editorial, I am once again in the cool, crisp air of western North Carolina. I am in Cashiers.
Cashiers, known for its beauty and solitude, is the home of the High Hampton Resort. This pristine land also conjures up an important epoch in our surgical history, for in the late 19th and early 20th century, this was the property and home of Caroline Hampton and her husband, Dr. William Halsted. The imprint of the Halsteds, even now, continues to enhance this property. There is the Halsted Lodge, the magnificent Champion Trees (those deemed largest and best of their variety) that were planted by the Halsteds 100 years ago, and the lake where the Halsteds fished for trout. The Cashiers Valley lies in a triangle bordered by Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia. The elevation of 3,600 feet creates, at this time of year, sunny days and cool nights with more than 80 inches of annual rainfall, making for a wonderful respite from the summer heat of Baltimore where the Halsteds resided.
After marrying in Columbia, S.C., on June 4, 1890—Dr. William Welch, a colleague, served as Halsted’s best man—the couple left for their honeymoon trip to the Hampton family lodge in the Cashiers Valley of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The newly married couple went by rail to Lake Toxaway and then traveled the final 20 miles by wagon to High Hampton. Caroline had spent much of her youth roaming this beautiful estate. While Halsted was not known for his hunting or fishing acumen, he immediately fell in love with this beautiful place and extended their honeymoon in Cashiers by several months! The old hunting lodge would become a traditional destination in their lives. In 1895, Halsted arranged to purchase the Hampton family lodge and the remaining 450 acres from Caroline’s aunts. In the years that followed, Halsted annexed contiguous lands and small farms until the estate grew to more than 2,000 acres.
Although Halsted was not an experienced horseman, he enjoyed telling a story involving a ride through their High Hampton property. While riding, Caroline stopped her horse, turned to William and said, “William, there is a rattlesnake. Get down and kill it.” Halsted related, “There I was alone in the mountains with this comparatively strange woman, and she wanted me to get off my horse and kill a rattlesnake. She was terribly disgusted when I refused” (quoted in “Genius on the Edge,” by Gerald Imber, MD).
This place, both Cashiers and High Hampton and the surrounding properties, is important in our surgical heritage. The view of the mountains is dramatic, and, no doubt, the Halsteds spent many hours enjoying the granite peaks and waterfalls of Whiteside and Chimney Top mountains. For Halsted, High Hampton was a place to read, relax and indulge in activities he had little time for in Baltimore. Throughout their married life, Caroline would arrive in High Hampton in early spring and depart in November. Halsted was away from Baltimore and Johns Hopkins from May to October each year, spending usually two months at High Hampton. During that time, both Caroline and William would tend to Halsted’s prized dahlia garden that ended its growing season with the first frost each year.
William Stewart Halsted died on Sept. 7, 1922. In that same year, the High Hampton Inn in Cashiers opened for its first guests. Throughout the past 100 years, thousands have walked the hallowed grounds of High Hampton, but only a relative few have realized the true significance of this location in surgical lore. What a privilege it has been to visit this very special place. I urge you to do the same.
Dr. Greene is a surgeon in Charlotte, N.C.
This article is from the June 2021 print issue.
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