On weekends during the summer season you may hear the sound of a hammer pounding on metal, ringing along the trail. Crafts people in period attire make the Biltmore Campus Trail come alive as they recreate the skills that were needed for survival by the homesteaders of the area. The Blacksmith travelled from the town of Pisgah Forest with his equipment, making emergency repairs along the way. In his modest shop, he sharpened tools for the woods workers. Horseshoeing and wagon repairs were done at the blacksmith shop in Pisgah Forest.

Students were told to "find yourselves a place to stay". And they did, in abandoned mountaineer cabins, farms, homes, or with one of the Rangers.

The students named the five cabins which they inhabited; "Hell Hole", "Little Hell Hole", "The Palace", "Little Bohemia", and "Rest for the Wicked".

Inside the building you will see rattle snake skins, "winning" poker hands, and pin-up pictures mounted on the walls.

Many of the 300 graduates of Biltmore Forest School became successful in forestry and other fields.

Before Vanderbilt bought this land, the Pink Beds was a small, largely self-contained, mountain community. They grew or raised their own food, including cattle, hogs, geese and turkeys and they needed a market for their flocks and herds. They "drove" or herded their animals to Greenville, SC, which was the closest large market, although some walked as far as Charleston.

Near the community garden is the wash place. Here the clothes were boiled over an open fire and washed with lye soap. Then the clothes were rinsed in Looking Glass Creek and hung to dry. Mrs. Case and Mrs. Gillespie would have used this site. Schenck left Vanderbilt in 1909 and took his school with him. Students travelled and studied in such places as Sun Burst, North Carolina, Cadillac, Michigan and Germany. The Biltmore Forest School graduated it's last class in 1913.