The perceptions among "locals" regarding what has grown over time into Appalachian State University always intrigue me.  I am thankful for the educational, cultural, and employment opportunities that the university has provided us with, each of which I have personally benefitted from.  At the same time, I acknowledge the frustrations brought on by excessive growth without a corresponding infrastructure to support that growth.  Certainly, life in any college town has its pros and cons.  This is not necessarily meant to be a post about that debate, but I found this excerpt from the July 4, 1912 edition of the Watauga Democrat to be quite interesting:

"The work of Prof. B. B. Dougherty has covered that period yet unsung, in which the town of Boone, North Carolina, has grown into a center of education.  He has builded in a region whose resources and possibilities are no doubt great in many ways not yet thought of.  He has developed and is developing a people whose opportunity, possibility, and necessity is unlike that of any other people in the country.  In spite of difficulties insurmounted to most men, he has founded in these mountains an institution with endorsement, purpose and plan such as to command universal scholastic approval, and such as to claim the patriotic sanction of every citizen within its reach.  Fortunate indeed for these people that Providence placed him in this locality to do his great work....  Prof. Dougherty has seen the great realization of his hopes for a greater and nobler community.  He has seen the streets out through farmland and forest, he has seen the marshes drained where now stand large dormitories, he has seen a field blossom into a city of education - he has beheld it all with the vision of one who knew the change could be made...."

Certainly a lot of change has occurred since 1912 (almost 110 years), and the school's growth and development have brought on both legitimate concerns and less favorable opinions over time, but I believe there is still much to be appreciated and that we should be temperate in our assessments.  I wonder if Dr. Dougherty envisioned where the educational institution he helped found would be today and what he would think of it all.  Would he be proud or have any regrets?  Maybe a bit of both.