Despite its smaller size, the Western North Carolina Air Museum ranks high, when it comes to reliving the “Golden Age of Aviation” with a collection of different airplanes dating back to WWII and earlier. There are no ropes preventing visitors from getting up close to these planes, peaking inside or even having the opportunity to sit in a cockpit.
With over 100 miles of trails DuPont State Recreational Forest is a prime destinations for nature lovers, hikers and mountain bikers alike. The park has wonderful forests and some of the most beautiful waterfalls in Western North Carolina. It is no surprise that the park served as setting of the movie The Last of the Mohicans and more recently of the 2012 movie The Hunger Games.
“A poet of the people”, writer, editor, three-times Pulitzer Prize winner, Carl Sandburg and his wife Lilian lived in this house from 1945 to 1969 along with their three daughters. During this time Carl Sandburg published more than a third of his works and won the second Poetry Pulitzer Prize. The 264-acre park offers many trails, where you can enjoy the wonderful landscape with its picturesque views.
Model train enthusiasts of all ages can spend hours here and admire the wonderful work of the Apple Valley Model Railroad Club. Located in the beautifully restored Historic Hendersonville Railroad Depot, the club’s passionate members have built an H0-model railroad of enormous proportions. Covering an area of 22 feet wide and 100 feet long, the model railroad has been placed in a Western North Carolina setting.
With the arrival of the railroad in 1879, trade and tourism brought prosperity to Henderson County. Built in 1905 by architect Richard Sharp Smith, who had been the resident architect of the Biltmore Estate, the Henderson County Courthouse is also part of the National register of Historic Places. Today, the Henderson County Heritage Museum is located in the courthouse.
