Beauty 'Neath Cold Mountain
From the Early Spring 2004 Issue
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There’s something about the mountains that renews Robert Graves. Something so strong he set out to find a retreat there for himself. Once a preferred builder who helped create Sea Pines in Hilton Head, S.C., he was hardly fazed when he and his wife discovered a broken-down, overgrown camp on the Pigeon River near Cruso, N.C. In the rot and overgrown weeds, he saw something wonderful. Its name: East Fork Ranch. 



It’s fair to say Robert Graves has a romantic side.

For years he and wife Manelle vacationed at her family’s second home near Hendersonville, N.C., an experience that left the couple yearning for their own piece of mountain paradise. And while Graves acknowledges the couple had different ideas – she wanted a small house in town while he wanted acreage to ride the cutting horses he raises and shows all over the country – there was an almost poetic bent to his desire for the simple life.

The wide and beautiful gathering porch makes a perfect setting where friends and family can congregate in the evening above the picturesque Upper Bass Pond.

“I thought maybe I’d build a place for my children to walk out in the mountain streams, look under a rock and see what’s there, or watch the way the shadows fall from the mountains,” he says. “I wanted them to have the true mountain experience, the true country experience.”

For months, the couple scouted the North Carolina Smoky Mountains until one day, while crossing a bridge, Graves spotted a road the pair hadn’t investigated. It led to a long-deserted camp where even the For Sale sign was half-hidden, a place rumored to have been built around the 1930s for underprivileged Northern boys to come and learn farming. Set at the foot of Cold Mountain in Haywood County, it covered 70 acres with 1,500 feet of Pigeon River frontage at its east fork. 

It was the perfect location, only four and half hours from Hilton Head, 18 miles from Asheville, 11 from the Blue Ridge Parkway and four from Pisgah National Forest. To top it off, the little town offered shopping, dining and a roots-deep heritage of multi-generational families. 

Now a combination Gathering Room, this cheerful location is outfitted for leisure conversation, television or eating around the massive table built by owner Robert Graves.

“The setting was unspoiled, with cooler temperatures but a relatively mild climate year-round, plus access to town for shopping and dining, and the Springdale Golf Course next door to the property. As for the camp itself, it had lots of potential,” says Graves, a Bluffton, S.C. native raised next to Hilton Head before it became a destination area, and whose roots include a father who served 28 years in the state legislature and owned the first motel at the famed resort. 

A self-made success with seven children and 14 grandchildren, Robert Graves often spent childhood summer holidays in mountain locales such as Gatlinburg, Tenn., Maggie Valley, Cherokee and Blowing Rock, N.C. Having started his building company with “one hammer and an apron,” he was fully aware of the problems and possibilities of the campsite, abandoned 15 years before, yet almost totally devoid of vandalism except for a single broken window. 

One of the ranch’s strongest points 
is its dramatic grounds, shown here from the porch facing Cold Mountain and overlooking tennis courts and fishing ponds.

Still, it was a good news-bad news situation. 
On one hand, existing structures needed massive repair or gutting. On the other, there was acreage aplenty for a natural, unspoiled environment. As the Graveses talked about the project, they found allies in another couple who shared their love of small-town life and a desire to create a family vacation retreat for generations to come. They were land developer John Reed, who was raised in Tennessee, and his wife Sandy, who soon became equal partners in the endeavor. After walking the property in October 2001, the partners made an offer and closed in January 2002. 

Given first choice of land, the Reeds opted for an existing cabin and high ground with the panoramic view they loved as their future building site. The Graveses stuck to the low land with the riverbank for riding, and a big decision: whether or not to raze the main building, a massive 4,000- to 5,000-square-foot complex that had originally housed the camp offices, boys’ bunk rooms and dining hall. 

Graves chose to gamble on a transformation. 

“I decided to bring it back to life,” he says. “It had so many good things… chestnut framing, walnut paneling… woods that were native to the area, though chestnut is now extinct. All it needed was some TLC. I elected to work with what we had. I wanted to see what we could resurrect, and unlike most people, the project didn’t scare me.” 

The renovation began in January 2002, designed by noted architect Al Platt of Brevard, N.C., with interior decorating spearheaded by Graves’ daughter, Pam Sewell. It was completed that December, in time for the Graves family to celebrate with a holiday open house. 

“My wife and I both share a strong sense of hospitality and we wanted this to be a place where we could welcome anyone to relax, rejuvenate, enjoy themselves and feel comfortable,” says Graves, who often entertains large groups of family and friends, sometimes treating them to cuisine from a professional chef. “It’s something we could give and share.” 

When the dust settled, the renovated lodge was everything they’d imagined: a spacious living room, large family room with dining area and kitchen, three guest rooms and laundry to one side, a girls’ room and master suite to the other. In all, there are now five bedrooms and four and a half baths, plus three cabins – all restored – two barns, tennis courts, four stocked fish ponds, a three-acre island used as a bird and wildlife habitat for small creatures, and a gathering porch where friends and family can congregate in the evenings to talk, chat and tell stories, a pastime they enjoy around the fire pit in winter. 

Completing the project was the work of many hands and many talents.
Pam Sewell shared her father’s vision, personally executing much of the painting and all cabinet faux finishes, as well as overseeing the team of interior designers, Char McNamara from Waynesville, N.C., an expert in lodge décor, and Catherine Long of Asheville, a specialist in small spaces and cabins, and the Graveses’ daughter Laura Lee. While dedicated to maintaining the camp-lodge feeling of the house, their objective was to permeate it with happy mountain colors. To get that effect, Sewell and team chose a palate dominated by yellow, gold, red and all shades of green. The result: a rustic combination of good, sturdy furnishings that are comfortable and relaxed with just a hint of softness, exactly in order with the Graveses’ lifestyle. 

“I didn’t want anyone to worry about coming in with muddy shoes,” he says, “and with lots of kids in the family, fussy furnishings were simply not an option.”

Warm and welcoming, the Main Hall living room is a natural spot for relaxing around a massive stone fireplace or playing at the game or pool tables.

In a fanciful touch, each room has a name and theme of its own. 

There’s “The Main Hall” living room, the camp’s original gathering spot with rollout front windows, giant stone fireplace, butter leather sofa, and game and pool tables; the “Gathering Room” kitchen, dining and sitting area, a sunny location with windows on three sides, leather sofa and chairs, wood stove, TV, huge dining table built by Robert Graves himself and beams re-created from salvaged wood, and the covered “Gathering Porch,” now serving as the main entrance and filled with an assortment of rustic rockers, odd chairs and benches.

In addition, there are the “High Valley” guest room, dominated by a four-poster bed with wood canopy frame; the “Red October” guest room, small and cozy with a natural branch bed; “The Big Wood” boys’ bunk room, sleeping eight, and brimming with stuffed animals, sport equipment and wall art by local and regional artists; “River Bend” girls’ room, in calico and chintz with iron beds and cottage feel, and finally, “Horsefeathers” master bedroom, the original office reconfigured for a large master bath and separated from the main room by double French doors. The décor centers on gold walls, and red leather chairs positioned below a picture window with views of Cold Mountain and the Graveses’ new, 200-acre property across the East Fork stream. 

There are, of course, more improvements.
Two quaint log cabins, sitting up the hill from the main lodge, have been restored and decorated by Catherine Long, each ready for guests with small living room and fireplace, galley kitchen, breakfast nook, two bedrooms and baths plus a loft bunk area for kids that sleeps four, has its own sink and commode, and is easily closed off from the lower area by large shutters. Graves has also installed fences for his horses, which he plans to keep on-site as he spends his first full summer there. 

“I wanted to get back to nature in a mountain community and I always liked old family spots with some history behind them. This place was built in the ’20s or ’30s and has a lot of history as a summer camp, a one-time college, a home…” he says of his decision to find a retreat there. “East Fork unplugs me from the norm, gives me an outlet and helps me learn how to retire.” And, while he consulted with suppliers and business contacts in Hilton Head during construction, he felt a need to interact with local and regional craftsmen and resources. 

“It was important to me that we fit into the community and the environment. We did not come here to change it.” 

After bringing the ranch back to life, Robert Graves and daughter Pam Sewell are now able to enjoy riding along the flat riverbank on the lower section of property.

That commitment to sustain the natural environment is important to Graves and Reed. Both wanted lots of open space and have agreed with the concept of keeping much of the property intact as a preservation easement. That’s fine with Graves. 

“I envisioned six or 10 acres, and ended up with 70,” he says of the initial purchase, “of which about a dozen acres are used while the rest is filled with hardwood and pine forests, wild turkey and deer. In fact, I liked it so much, I bought 200 more acres across the street.”
And while Graves has gotten the mountain home he wanted, his daughter has gotten even more. 

An active wife and mother of three, Pam Sewell found the ranch a totally absorbing, creative project that left little time to dwell on more serious issues. A good thing. At the time, she was successfully undergoing diagnosis and treatment for cancer. 
For her, the whole East Fork project was a blessing.
“And,” she says, “great therapy.”

--Norma Lugar

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