Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site
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Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site | |
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Location: | North Carolina, USA |
Nearest city: | Asheville, North Carolina |
Coordinates: | |
Area: | 264 acres (1.07 km²) |
Established: | October 17, 1968 |
Visitation: | 26,640 (in 2005) |
Governing body: | National Park Service |
The Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site, located in near Hendersonville in Flat Rock, North Carolina, United States, preserves Connemara Farms, the home of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and writer Carl Sandburg (1878-1967). Though a Midwesterner, Sandburg and his family moved to this home in 1945 for the peace and solitude required for his writing and the more-than-30 acres of pastureland required for his wife, Lilian, to raise her champion dairy goats. Sandburg spent the last 22 years of his life on this farm, and published more than one-third of his works while living here.
The site includes the Sandburg residence, a dairy goat farm (home to the Connemara Farms goat herd), sheds, rolling pastures, mountainside woods, 5 miles (8 km) of hiking trails on moderate to steep terrain, two small lakes, several ponds, flower and vegetable gardens, and an apple orchard.
Visitors to the site can tour the Sandburg residence, as well as visit the dairy barn housing Connemara Farms' goat herd, representing the three breeds of goats Lillian Sandburg raised at Connemara. From June until mid-August, live performances of Sandburg's Rootabaga Stories and excerpts from the Broadway play, The World of Carl Sandburg, are presented at the park amphitheater.