New in the collection: A pennant for ‘Prohibition Sally’

Pennant that reads "Point Lookout, N.C., Altitude 2877 feet"

“When, in the 1920s, Route 10 became Highway 70 (now Old U.S. 70), Point Lookout, just east of Ridgecrest, became a major tourist stop, with a view of Royal Gorge. The site was fully developed in the 1930s by H.A. Ragle of Old Fort, with a retail shop, gas station and motel. Motorists came up from Old Fort and stopped to rest their engines and nerves and visit the stop’s most famous attraction, Sally the Bear, also called ‘Prohibition Sally,’ chained to a cage and enjoying soda pop.

“ ‘Presumably, the Point Lookout viewpoint and parking area became the model for overlooks built along the Blue Ridge Parkway,’ Mary McPhail Standaert and Joseph Standaert write in ‘Swannanoa Valley.’ Ragle sold Point Lookout in 1947. The section of Old U.S. 70 between Old Fort and Black Mountain was closed off when Interstate 40 was constructed in 1968. In 2008, public and private partners created Point Lookout Trail for hikers and bikers, without any tourist attractions, except for the view.”
— From “Portrait of the Past: Point Lookout” by Rob Neufeld in the Asheville Citizen-Times (Feb. 9, 2016)
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