Transylvania County, North Carolina

by Jim Bob Tinsley

Kingsport Press, Kingsport, Tennessee, 1988.

Jim Bob Tinsley was an aerial photographer for the U.S. Navy during World War II. Most of the pictures he took for this, the definitive book on Transylvania County waterfalls, were taken from the ground.

Tinsley self-published this book. It contains very general maps of the county with 61 waterfalls specifically identified. You wouldn't want to use his maps to find most of the falls, but that's not the value of this book, anyway.

As you turn the pages you'll find black-and-white photographs of each of the 61 waterfalls, taken mostly from a fisherman's perspective.

On the pages opposite the photographs, Tinsley tells each falls' story. For example, on page 34, about Windy Falls, Tinsley was the originator of the oft-cited section: ". . . He stated that his Green Berets had trained in some of the most rugged and remote parts of Southeast Asia and South America, but the Horse Pasture was one of their most perilous and bone-bruising assighnments."

Tinsley recounts all the local legends, frequently following the exploits of Arthur Middleton "Chucky Joe" Huger (1942-1925), "a picturesque South Carolinian of French descent [who] sketched and described plant life, revived Cherokee names from ancient charts, and gave 'fitting' names to waterfalls when they had none" (p. 3).

I learned most of the history of the area I know from this book, including the various legends of Jocassee and Toxaway.