Carl Sandburg bought 245-acre estate for wife's goat farm; it became a poet's NPS site

In 1945, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Carl Sandburg and his wife, Lilian “Paula” Sandburg, left Michigan for a 245-acre estate near Flat Rock, North Carolina. The move was driven in large part by Paula’s expanding dairy-goat operation, which needed more pasture and suitable farm buildings. Carl also wanted a warmer climate and a quieter place to write. The property, known as Connemara, offered both. More than 30 acres were available as pasture for Paula’s champion goats, while the surrounding landscape gave Sandburg the solitude he wanted. The couple and their three daughters lived there for 22 years. After Sandburg died in 1967, Paula sold the estate to the National Park Service, and Congress had already authorised it as the first NPS unit to honour a poet.Why the Carl Sandburg moved to North CarolinaThe move was not simply a literary decision. Paula’s dairy-goat herd on the shores of Lake Michigan had been growing rapidly, and she needed a property better suited to running the farm. NPS records that she visited Connemara in 1945 and was impressed by its pastureland, farm buildings and setting. Carl later visited and agreed to the purchase. The estate also offered a warmer climat...