Pine Knot
By 1905 Sagamore Hill with all its visitors was no longer a refuge. That May Edith investigated a small wooden shack in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains 125 miles outside of Washington in Albermarle County, Virginia.
The shack belonged to an old Carow family friend Will Wilmer. There was one big room downstairs on the 1st floor and two upstairs on the 2nd floor. Wilmer said Edith could have it with 5 acres for $195. She named the hut “Pine Knot.”
Edith would later name one of her horses Pine Knot. It was Pine Knot that threw her from the saddle to the macadam road near Cove School that temporarily took away her sense of taste and her permanent loss of smell.
Pine Knot was perfect. It was rustic and secluded. Edith jumped at the chance and bought it on the spot. Thursday June 8th, 1905, Edith and TR spent their first night at Pine Knot.
For the rest of TR’s presidency Pine Knot would replace Sagamore Hill as the ideal get-a-way. John Burroughs was there for a weekend and one night before bed he found flying a nest of squirrels in his bedroom. Burroughs spotted 75 different species of birds and TR could name all but 2.
