Vanderbilt's $5-an-acre sale in 1914 became Pisgah National Forest in 1916

A major property deal that began more than a century ago with a grieving widow turned a huge private wilderness in North Carolina into one of the most important public conservation achievements in American history. In May 1914, Edith Vanderbilt agreed to sell 86,700 acres of valuable mountain forest from the private Biltmore Estate to the United States federal government for $433,500. The deal was made at $5.00 per acre and moved the huge forest area into public ownership. The land later became the foundation of Pisgah National Forest, which was formally established in 1916. The sale carried out the conservation plan of her late husband, George Washington Vanderbilt. He began buying worn-out farmland and mountain slopes near Asheville, North Carolina, in 1888.