LAKE TOXAWAY

"We saw through the trees the gleam of blue water, and hastened to alight and start toward the lake.  There in the midst of her green hills she lay, broad and bright, and smiling in the sunshine; for Toxaway is the queen of the mountain lakes.  Some of them, I confess, I have been tempted despite their charm of clear waters and gently caressing wavelets, to dismiss from the catalogue of lakes, because of their trifling size; but Toxaway, even though belittled by her surrounding mountains, is really a lake.  Twenty-four miles must one tramp if he would go around her, and at that, a twenty-four miles that do not lie in the compass of every day's march.  For while green meadows and lovely dales and open woods cluster around and cling to her like gentle maids and loving children, behind her tower, like stanch men-at-arms, Big Hogback and Little Hogback and Cold Mountain and Panhertail. (How the crude Saxon loves to slap his side of bacon down upon the fair linen of poesy!  Hogback against Toxaway!  Cannot some one soften it into Gaelic or Cherokee?)"  (1921, Spalding, p. 159)

"For here it must be confessed of Toxaway, as of all the lakes of the mountain country, that they are made by the hand of man.  In the Southern Appalachians there are no natural lakes, though such pools as Lulu on Lookout Mountain have received that name. But when a hundred-yard dam between projecting hills can create such a lake as Toxaway, neglect to throw it across is a reproach to the genius of the hills.  Nowhere perhaps, is the opportunity better or more frequent than here in the 'hills o' Ca'liny' for the easy construction of lakes that rival in charm the best of Scotland or of Switzerland.  And who cares whether the cause be the ancient forces of nature, or the recent exertions of man!  Out on the blue expanse the waves roll just as lustily; deep in the narrow straits and inlets the water weeds uplift their graceful forms, and the fishes play in the shallows, just as well as if their home had been there four thousand years.  Long life to the new lakes of the mountain country, and (since there can ) may there be many more of them!" (1921, Spalding,Arthur. The Hills O'Ca'liny.  Pp. 162-163)