Named for the great expanse of rock where the Cherokee Indians used to spend their summers, Flat Rock, North Carolina, is beautifully situated near the Continental Divide in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Flat Rock is known as "the Little Charleston of the Mountains," thanks to the pioneering Lowcountry settlers who flocked to the area after the Revolutionary War. These prominent South Carolina families, drawn to the refreshing cool mountain air that offered relief from the steamy Charleston summers, purchased vast quantities of land and built grand estates for their residences or summer getaways....

The story of North Carolina's Carl Sandburg Home, "Connemara," began in the early 19th century when Christopher Gustavus Memminger, noted lawyer and first secretary of the Confederate treasury, built "Rock Hill" as his summer home. After Memminger's death, the property was owned by William Gregg Jr., son of textile giant William Gregg, and later by Ellison Adger Smyth, dean of the Southern textile industry, who renamed it Connemara. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Carl Sandburg and his family purchased the property in 1945 and then lived there for 22 years. Connemara is a National Historic Site...