Why March 4 Matters in Black Mountain
- Lindsay Nichols
- 1 day ago
- 7 min read
Once a year, Black Mountain marks a date most towns quietly forget.
March 4 is the day the town was officially incorporated in 1893. For generations, it existed largely as a line in the record books. In recent years, it has become something else entirely: a reason to gather, reflect, and acknowledge the continuity of life in a place that values steady presence over spectacle.
The celebration of this day is now known as "March Forth." It isn’t built around a rigid schedule or a headline act. Neighbors cross paths downtown. Music drifts through shared spaces like the Chamber of Commerce and Blue Mont Manor. Conversations stretch longer than planned. The town recognizes itself, simply and honestly.
March Forth exists because it fits Black Mountain. It’s local in scale, intentional in tone, and shaped by the people who live here rather than by an audience passing through.
What March Forth Is & What It Isn’t
March 4/March Forth is Black Mountain’s birthday, but it doesn’t operate like a typical civic celebration. There are no vendor rows, no branded attractions, and no attempt to turn the day into a destination event. The gathering exists first for the people who call this place home.
The focus stays deliberately simple: neighbors reconnecting, live music present but unforced, and public recognition of people who contribute to the town’s daily life — often without much notice. In recent years, the day has also supported local nonprofits, linking the celebration to shared responsibility and mutual care.
Just as important is what March Forth resists. There’s no fixed arrival time or prescribed experience. People drift in and out. Conversations overlap. Some stay for hours; others stop briefly and move on. Participation is unstructured by design.
In that way, March Forth functions more like a breath and a pause. Once a year, the town slows itself down long enough to acknowledge where it has been and who is here now. That restraint — the choice not to overproduce or overexplain — is what gives the day its weight, and allows everyone to enjoy each other and celebrate 'The Little Town That Rocks.'
A Town With a Longer History
Black Mountain’s story didn’t begin in 1893, though. Long before incorporation, the area was known as Grey Eagle, an Indigenous settlement whose presence is still acknowledged with historical markers downtown. That accumulated history shapes how the town relates to its past — not as a single origin story, but as a complex tapestry of people, paths, and moments. March Forth doesn’t attempt to simplify that history. It simply marks one moment within it, while recognizing that place is always more complex than a date.
A Personal Relationship to the Date
Growing up in upstate New York, winters were long and isolating for Scott. Like many people, he set intentions on New Year’s Eve only to watch them quietly unravel before spring ever arrived.
Early in adulthood, he began marking March 4 as a personal checkpoint. What drew him to the date was its simplicity: it is the only day of the year that functions as both a date and a command: ”March forth!” Roughly two months into the year, it offered a moment to reassess without the pressure of starting over, and recommit annual goals.
What began as a practical mental framework gradually became a personal tradition. March 4 became a checkpoint about continuation for Scott. To celebrate what endured. Adjust what didn’t.
Scott returned to the date year after year as a quiet marker rather than a public ritual. Even now, people from across the country — some he hasn’t seen in more than 20 years — reach out on March 4 to share well-wishes and a renewed sense of forward motion, the kind usually reserved for January.
The tradition was never meant to be symbolic. It was simply useful and a way of measuring time that made room for reflection without spectacle.
Finding Black Mountain
The move to Western North Carolina came through a mix of necessity and timing. Scott’s mother was ill, and their children were attending the University of North Carolina at Asheville. While the mountains had always been part of the long-term plan, circumstances accelerated the timeline.
After a six-month search and two Asheville properties falling through during the due diligence phase, they returned to the region in the fall of 2018 to view several homes over two days — an all-hands-on-deck moment for the family. The first house they walked into, now known as Harmony House, made the decision immediate.
“I think we’re going to have to learn how to spell rhododendron,” Scott said at the time, referring to the street name the cozy house sits on.
They closed a few months later and began the transition to living full-time in Black Mountain. That transition included weekly visits, long walks through town, and a deliberate effort to learn its history.
The Moment Everything Aligned
During one of those walks downtown, Laurie and Scott came across a plaque honoring Grey Eagle and learned that the town now known as Black Mountain was officially incorporated on March 4, 1893.
The date stopped them cold.
The coincidence was not framed as destiny or invention. It was recognition. A personal marker that had quietly guided one person’s way of measuring time also happened to be their new home's official beginning.
The Secors have rarely shared that story publicly. It can sound improbable. But they understood what it meant to them and why the town’s birthday felt worth honoring together.
A Habit of Gathering
What followed felt less like a decision and more of a continuation. The impulse to bring people together didn’t belong to a single place or moment. It was something Scott carried with him through different chapters of life, well before Black Mountain entered the picture.
Before Blue Mont Stays existed, Laurie and Scott had already made a practice of gathering people on this date. Living far from family for much of their adult lives meant building community intentionally by opening their home, hosting overnight guests, planning meals, and creating space for people to come together. It wasn’t a role they set out to inhabit. It simply became how they shared their love for life with others.
Over time, friends gravitated toward Laurie and Scott as hosts, turning to them for holidays, milestones, and moments when connection mattered most. People didn't want anything elaborate. They wanted gatherings to feel easy, welcoming, and sincere.
Seen in that light, March Forth isn't really a new idea in Black Mountain. It's an extension of a long-standing pattern: marking time with people, creating reasons to gather, and treating hospitality as a way of living rather than an event to manage.
This personal history helps explain why honoring March 4 has never felt like work, or something to brand or promote for Laurie and Scott. It just feels like something worth sharing.
From Private Meaning to City-Wide Celebration
For a time, the idea of celebrating March Forth in Black Mountain remained in the background. That changed in the wake of Hurricane Helene, when the town experienced a period of disruption that reshaped daily life and strengthened the sense of community.
By centering the day on gratitude — for town leaders, volunteers, and everyday contributors — and by tying it to fundraising, enough momentum built for a public gathering.
The result was sincere: music, conversation, shared space, and a sense that the town was marking something meaningful together.
Why March 4 Matters in Black Mountain
The city-wide celebration of March Forth matters because it reflects how Black Mountain operates. This is a town that values continuity over performance. Celebrating a birthday may seem small, but it becomes meaningful when it's done with care and consistency. This day is now a reminder that a community does not sustain itself automatically. It requires attention, shared rituals, and people willing to show up.
What This Means for Blue Mont Stays
Blue Mont Stays exists within all of this context. Laurie and Scott are not absentee, out-of-town hosts or short-term operators passing through. They live here. They walk downtown. They volunteer. They support local businesses and community organizations because they are part of the town, not just adjacent to it. March Forth is one expression of that involvement.
For their guests, it shows up quietly — in recommendations shaped by lived experience, in a sense of place that feels real rather than curated, and in genuine hospitality that reflects how Black Mountain treats its own.
Looking Ahead
March Forth will continue to grow carefully, shaped by community participation and guided by what feels true to the town. It's not owned by any one person or business. It belongs to Black Mountain as a whole. Each year, March 4 is a day that now offers a simple opportunity: to acknowledge where this place has been and to recognize the shared effort required to keep it moving forward.
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