Thomas Wolfe came from Asheville, the seat of Buncombe County, as did the expression "bunkum" (nonsense). A local congressman, when asked why he had been so evasive during a masterful oration in which he said nothing, replied, "I did it for Buncombe." Wolfe wrote often of his hill-rimmed home, shrewdly observant of the people and life of Asheville.

Asheville is a vacation headquarters in the Blue Ridge Mountains, as well as a marketing and industrial city. It is the North Carolina city closest to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and attracts many of the park's visitors with its annual mountain fetes, local handicrafts, and summer theaters. It is the headquarters for the Uwharrie National Forest, Pisgah National Forest, Nantahala National Forest, and Croatan National Forest. The Blue Ridge Parkway brings many travelers to Asheville on their way south from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

For further information about Croatan, Nantahala, Pisgah, and Uwharrie national forests, contact the US Forest Service, phone 828/257-4202.