Arboretum

Yesterday I visited the JC Raulston Arboretum with Madison (of Madison's Flowers) and Scott. It's a beautiful place, nestled off Hillsborough in one of those large chunks of land that NCSU owns due to the grace of fortuitous foundation.

Aside: NCSU is remarkably lucky, as far as land ownership goes. Founded in 1889 between Raleigh and Durham, NCSU basically took what UNC considered theirs when it opened, getting Land Grant money because of some skilled lobbyists:

Then there was only one hurdle left to cross; how to get the Land Grant funds that were presumably going to UNC-Chapel Hill. Governor Alfred Scales, along with the Swift Creek Farmer’s Club of Wake County, Polk and the Watauga Club, pressured the legislature to allocate Land Grant funds to the new college. A wealthy real estate developer named R. Stanhope Pullen donated 60 acres west of Raleigh to serve as the college’s location.

The location west of Raleigh was farmland at the time: undeveloped, relatively uninhabited. So, NCSU was in the unique position among UNC schools of being able to buy massive tracts of land for low, low prices. Useful, because now the school owns approximately 107,000 acres of land, much of it in the thick of Raleigh.

The arboretum is larger than I expected. It was a beautiful spring day, sunny and warm, and lots of stuff was in bloom. Madison brought her cockatiel, Icarus, who rode on my shoulder for a while. He was very popular with the other visitors.

I've posted a bunch of photos on Facebook (probably Flickr too, later), and feel free to check out Scott's photostream and Madison's photostream!

By my hand,
~Michael Akerman