Many of our guests returned from day trips in DuPont State Forest last summer to tell us they ran into film crews at the magnificent waterfalls that make that area our favorite hiking spot. Little did we know that the movie in the making would be the biggest cinematic event around here since Baby high-stepped out of her corner in “Dirty Dancing.”

The crew was filming “Hunger Games,” a sci-fi thriller about a life-or-death contest in a post-Apocalytic world.
Jennifer Lawrence plays Katniss Everdeen, one of those chosen to compete. Much of the filming was done in DuPont State Forest, and in Pisgah National Forest near Barnardsville, a short distance from here by the Navitat Canopy Tours attraction. Some of the movie cast rode the ziplines while they were in the neighborhood.

We’re hoping that fans of the Hunger Games book series will make Inn on Main Street their base camp when they make a pilgrimage here. We know the best hiking, biking, rafting and general adventure sites around Asheville and Weaverville. There’s nothing like coming home to bed and breakfast with a hot whirlpool bath and comfy bed after a day of survival in the woods or on a river.

One or two years, the tree even produced a bumper crop of acorns in an effort to reproduce itself. But more than one guest who knows about such things warned us that the oak was a liability, probably rotten in the middle and likely to fall someday.

ABOVE: Our 200-year-old oak tree is gone, a victim of old age.

As it turns out, the middle was not rotten. I started counting the rings on the trunk, pondering on decades when the rings were wide and healthy, then a cycle of tight bands so narrow they seemed to run on top of each other. What did that say about eras of flood, drought, heat and cold? Which years were the brutal ones, and did they correspond with tough times in human history? I gave up counting the rings at a little over 100.

Instead of grinding the stump, we decided to memorialize the tree by making a bench out of it. Two wedges of trunk form the back rest. It’s the perfect natural resting spot for a smoker or someone who wants a private chat after quiet time, several yards from bedroom windows on our Victorian home. We hope to create a little garden around the stump seat, a burst of beauty in tribute to a majestic tree.

We’re already working on replacing the oak. I like the idea of getting one of the newly developed blight-resistant American chestnuts, but I learned there’s a waiting list just to get a seed. Maybe a hickory would do. We welcome suggestions.

On your next visit to the Asheville area, come by our bed and breakfast and see our newly light-filled yard with our memorial oak bench. Enjoy the feel of history.