Explore the Legacy of One of America’s Great Poets

Carl Sandburg started life as a milk wagon driver and bricklayer but went on to become a major figure in American literature. He won three Pulitzer Prizes – two for poetry and one for an autobiography of Abraham Lincoln. In his later years he settled near Hendersonville, North Carolina, and that home and estate are now preserved as the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site.

Here, Sandburg found the solitude he needed for his writing, and his wife used 30 acres of pasture to raise her champion dairy goats. Today, the 264-acre site includes the stately Sandburg home, the goat farm, sheds, rolling pastures, woods, hillsides, two small lakes, several ponds, an apple orchard, and flower and vegetable gardens – and you can see the historic goat herd, too! Walk through the home to see historic furnishings or trek on the eight miles of hiking trails that visit Front Lake, rock outcroppings, hardwood forest, and the property’s buildings like the garage and chicken house. The trail to Glassy Mountain is just 1.2 miles long and gives a great tour of the grounds. Visitors can also walk around the horse barn, goat barn, and farm manager’s house.