Hugh Morton - Grandfather Mountain

Grandfather Mountain

Morton's great-grandfather, Donald MacRae, bought the development rights for the 16,000 acres (65 km2) around Grandfather Mountain in 1885 from William Lenoir. Morton inherited this property from Hugh MacRae, his grandfather, in 1952 and immediately set out on making the property more accessible to tourists. In his first year, he built a vehicle road to the top of the mountain and built the now famous Mile High Swinging Bridge. The Mile High Swinging Bridge is a 228-foot-long (69 m) bridge that spans a chasm at more than one mile of elevation. In 1968, Morton bought two black bears, one male and one female, to release back into the wild; however, the female bear, named Mildred, could not readapt to the wild and was required to be recaptured and given an enclosed habitat, which was finished in 1973. It now contains bears, deer, eagles, river otters, mountain lions, and other animals. After Hugh Morton died in 2006, his family sold the mountain and surrounding land to the state of North Carolina for $12 million. It was turned into the state's 34th state park, officially receiving that status in April 2009.