The historic resource study and historic structures report has been conducted under the rubric of a cooperative agreement between the National Park Service and the Appalachian Consortium which was executed July 9, 1986. Data contained in this report will be used in interpretation, preservation/restoration, and management needs at the site.

Born in the Wallingford Clinic in 1949, Barry Buxton called the town of Blowing Rock home during his childhood. The youngest of seven children, he grew up in the mountains attending Blowing Rock elementary school and looked towards the nearby college, Appalachian State University, for his undergraduate studies. Graduate school took Dr. Buxton to the midwest, however he returned to Blowing Rock in the 1980s to assume a position at the Appalachian Consortium Press. It was during this time he was approached by Judith Burns to write a complete history of Blowing Rock. Published in 1989, A Village Tapestry is the result of a three year intensive study completed by Dr. Buxton. This book is the history of a small town in the mountains; however, for Dr. Buxton it is also an extension of his story in the village in which he was born.

The very ancient Eastern forest of North America is characterized by an extraordinary variety of plants, animals, and human communities. Barry M. Buxton refers to this diverse area as the Great Forest in his book A Great Forest: An Appalachian Story, published in 1985. Buxton examines the natural and cultural landscape of the Appalachian region, and provides a detailed history of the area. In order to study the ecology of the forest, he includes a narrative of the people behind the forest and how they have impacted and changed the landscape.

Published in 1985, the Blue Ridge Parkway: Agent of Transition is a compilation of papers presented at the conference. Intended to be a celebration of the Parkway, the conference was a way for people to come together and examine the road's impact on the region and its people. Promoting unity and the idea of regional cooperation, the conference and its organizers invited a variety of speakers including landscape architects and civil engineers to talk about the parkway's natural impact on the environment, construction, and employment for thousands of mountain people. The parkway's 469 miles provide unparalleled views of the Blue Ridge and a look into the culture and traditions of the Southern mountaineer.

The proceedings from the 1983 Appalachian Studies Conference includes contributions by Melinda B. Wagner, Allen Batteau and Archie Green; William Philliber; Susan Emley Keefe; Loyal Jones; Richard Drake; John H. Mongle; Michael Henson; Nancy Carol Joyner; Sally Ward Maggard; Phillip A. Grant, Jr.; Phillip J. Obermiller and Robert Oldendick; John L. Bell, Jr.; Russell D. Parker; George B. Bay; Howard Dorgan; James M. Gifford; Jean Haskell Speer; Stanley Taylor and Arthur J. Cox; Erin J. Olson; William H. Tallmadge; Marcia F. Barron and John G. McNutt; Edgar Bingham; Thomas R. Shannon; Rosemary Carucci Goss; Barbara Matz; Myra jones; Judy Martin; George Ella Lyon; and Nellie McNeil and Joyce Squibb.