The beautiful and mountainous area of Blowing Rock, North Carolina, has a rich history dating back to the days when the Native Americans passed through on the Nickajack Trail, which led into Tennessee. The town derives its unique name from a rock outcropping near the town, where the winds defy gravity and have the ability to blow light objects thrown from the rock back to the rock. During the 1790s, several families settled the area, and by the mid-1850s, inhabitants of Blowing Rock along with summer visitors from Lenoir enjoyed the beauty and comfort of the mountainous area. The construction of the Lenoir-Blowing Rock Turnpike after 1845 provided easier access to "America's Switzerland," and visitors or "cottagers," as they were called, soon began building second homes in the area.