A chinquapin (CHING-kuh-pin) is a kind of shrub or a small tree about 15-30 feet tall. Its lower branches are bushy and spreading while its upper branches reach upward. It's related to the chestnut that succumbed to chestnut blight between 1904 and 1940, but is resistant to the blight. Chinquapins have nuts with a hairy, outside covering and provide food for woodpeckers and bluejays, bears, turkeys, small mammals, and white-tailed deer. And, they're scattered throughout the neighborhood. https://www.southernliving.com/food/nuts/chinquapin-nut https://www.indefenseofplants.com/blog/2016/7/5/meet-the-chinkapin-chestnut
sites viewed 8/30/2022
Chinquapin, our community, was so named for the plant that's found all over the property by Dr. Barbara Carlton whose family owned these acres prior to its role as a mountain neighborhood. Albert and Barbara Carlton of Florida discovered Cashiers in 1960 when they escaped Hurricane Donna's stormy effects and sheltered at High Hampton Inn. They fell in love with these NC mountains and returned every summer since that first visit, Albert and the children staying in the mountains while Dr. Carlton traveled back and forth to continue her medical practice out of their Florida home.
Their Florida citrus and cattle properties provided Barbara with opportunities to pursue her passion of turkey and quail hunting and training bird dogs. Albert wanted her to have only one dog, so she farmed her other dogs out at various friends and neighbors so he wouldn't know she had more than one. On the Chinquapin property,Barbara hunted turkeys for about 10 years, setting up a turkey feeder strung between Double Knob trees to avoid feeding the bears.
In 1977, the Carlton family sold some Florida property and were looking to purchase more Cashiers-area property in addition to their High Hampton home. Liberty Life Mutual Insurance Company had just timbered the 2000 acres and put it up for sale. The Carltons bought the land which also included Wolf Lake and the land that High Hemlock is on. They built their log house in High Hemlock in 1980 and developed the rest of the approximately 150 acres High Hemlock sits on. As the family explored the acres now called Chinquapin, discovered waterfalls were named for each child and bridges built, with Barbara's supervision, were named for grandchildren. Hiking along the trails today, you pass shelters, campfire rings and outhouses.
Albert died in 1992 and around 2005, Barbara and the four children made a decision to sell the property to Trillium which planned a 9 hole golf course and 200 home sites. Remnants of the golf course are in Nature's Walk. At this time, the family also decided to place 700 of the acres into a conservation area and partners with North American Land Trust (NALT) today to maintain it as such. Trillium sales people and each Carlton family member wrote their name suggestions on slips of paper--Dr. Carlton's suggestion, Chinquapin, was selected.
Fish Shack, or the Ritz Carlton as some know it, was built by Barbara's nephew by marriage, Mitchell Betty. He and several banker friends who fly fished gained her permission to build Fish Shack to use when fishing on the creek banks. Built prior to 2005, it has been remodeled several times and the Carlton family and employees enjoyed using it.
Streams were monitored for the brook trout, the only native trout in western North Carolina. Wolf Lake's waters were monitored to protect a trout farm its waters supported further downstream, off the Chinquapin property.Working with retired surgeon Joe James of Seneca, SC, Barbara planted about 40 blight-resistant chestnuts near the Outpost, the stables, and another area. She estimates about half have survived and hopes they are left to stand. https://edibleupcountry.ediblecommunities.com/things-do/preservationist-joe-james-chestnut-return-farm https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/32939 sites viewed 8/30/2022
Trillium and the Carlton family planned to appeal to folks interested in nature; prospective buyers could enjoy an experience in the woods at Fish Shack.
More cabins were needed, so Trillium worked with the Barn Wood Builders, before their fame struck, to build the two Wilderness Cabins from cabins in West Virginia. At the time, Trillium members enjoyed a cross-membership with Chinquapin and could use these amenities.These cabins and Fish Shack sit on property adjacent to, but separate from, the conservancy land.
The Great Recession of 2008 affected Trillium's development efforts, and the Carlton family took the property back into its hands. Later, in 2015, the Waterfront Group purchased Chinquapin and began its development efforts.
"Your footprint is the future of this property. This is your land. You're the heritage now," Dr. Carlton said at a gathering in August 2022. Her charge to us who are Chinquapin now: "It's up to y'all to keep their feet to the fire. You don't realize it, you have a legacy, an investment, a history, a stewardship feeling...if all had that feeling, I'd have a good feeling about Chinquapin."
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