By Mark Schmerling

If Saluda designated an official ambassador, Cathy Jackson would probably earn the title.

The annual Saluda Arts Festival, efforts to purchase the historic Saluda Railroad Depot and turn it into a museum, Saluda Lifestyles newsletter and plenty of visitor information, all have Cathy Jackson’s handprint on them in some fashion.

With all of this, Jackson, who comes from a sales and marketing background and who moved to Saluda in 2001 from Knoxville, Tenn., has had time and energy to build a successful real estate business in Saluda and Polk County.

“I’ve been here 15 years,” Jackson stated. “I came here to find a sanctuary and a slower pace of life. I discovered Saluda about 30 years ago.”

 

Once here, Jackson met local business owners.

 

“They invited me to the SBA,” she said, referring to the Saluda Business Association. Jackson said she had wished to connect with business owners.

 

“I came from a marketing background. I saw so many opportunities that were not tapped into, things that could be done to attract more people to Saluda,” she noted. For instance, the brown “Historic Downtown Saluda” signs on Interstate-26 near the Saluda exit, are one of Jackson’s ideas.

 

In part because Saluda owes much of its core to the coming of the railroad in the late 1870s, restoring the historic Saluda Railroad Depot and converting it to a museum, is a pet project of Jackson’s and of others in town.

 

In 1983, the depot was moved to its current location on Main Street, and converted to retail space. It was occupied as such until 2015.

 

“The Saluda Grade is what makes Saluda, and the depot is a symbol,” Jackson noted.

 

“We are working diligently and persistently to purchase that building, which we hope to do in May,” she said. In 2015, through her realty business, Jackson had the building listed for sale.

 

It was the first time she had seen it empty. The building’s history captivated Jackson, who was put off by what some prospective buyers suggested they might do with it.

 

“It bothered me. It’s part of the city’s history, and should be preserved,” she remembered.

 

Others agreed. In 2015, a group of concerned citizens formed the Saluda Historic Depot, a 501c3 nonprofit, of which Jackson is vice-chair.

 

The Saluda School, Jackson noted, has been “tremendously supportive” of the efforts to preserve the facility.

 

For a time, Saluda’s annual Garden Tour was a fundraiser for the Saluda Business Association, but homeowners were unable to make the time to show off their gardens.

 

Meanwhile, Jackson had started connecting with some of the artists in town, and suggested an arts festival. She pointed out that fine artists were among the first to summer in Saluda when the railroad stopped there from the steamier lowlands of South Carolina.

 

From 18 artists taking part in 2003, the annual Saluda Arts Festival, held the third Saturday of May, has grown almost exponentially. Organizers today have limited the applications to about 185.

 

“I realize,” Jackson remarked, “that artists don’t know how to promote themselves. I have a giving nature. Nobody asked me,” she says, an understated rationale.

 

While the Saluda Grade, railroad history, and downtown shops attracted their share of visitors, Jackson also realized what a bonanza lies here in outdoor recreation.

 

Thus came into publication the Saluda Adventure Guide, through the SBA, to highlight hiking, bicycle riding, whitewater and other outdoor activities in the Saluda area. “Suddenly,” she said, “people were recognizing Saluda for its outdoor adventures.”

 

Recently, Jackson resigned from the Saluda Business Association (her term was up), as vice-president of promotions, feeling it was time for “fresh energy and spirit” to help lead the group.

 

Now, Jackson serves as promotions chair for the Saluda Downtown Foundation, affiliated with the North Carolina Small Town Main Street initiative. Saluda Downtown Foundation is similar to the SBA. Though she continues in fundraising for the group she hopes to “continue as a member, not a leader.”

 

Saluda Lifestyles, a monthly hard copy and twice monthly on-line publication that highlights events and local residents, was a “team effort” funded by 13 businesses in town.

 

Currently, some 300-400 copies are printed each month. They are available at no charge, at many local businesses, and at Jackson’s office at 153 Main Street, or online at saludalifestyles.com.

 

Part of the impetus for Saluda Lifestyles came from the end of production of Ruth Anderson’s Saluda Signal, for which Jackson had written.

 

In 2006, Jackson began her realty business, and Anderson stopped publishing Saluda Signal. At first Saluda Lifestyles was only available online, “with support and encouragement from Ruth Anderson,” Jackson noted.

 

When, in 2015, Jackson’s realty office merged with the larger real estate firm of Beverly-Hanks, Jackson recalled that so many people’s first question was whether Saluda Lifestyles would continue. It had become that popular and well received.

 

How does Jackson find the time produce Saluda Lifestyles, along with all her other contributions, including running her successful realty business?

 

“When you love something, you always have time for it,” she responded.

 

“I’ve been in sales and marketing for 35 years,” Jackson noted. “You give value before you ask for something.”

 

Along with Saluda Lifestyles is the smaller Saluda Service Directory, a sort of Angie’s List, which helps area residents to find service providers.

 

“I love helping to promote Saluda to a target audience,” Jackson said. “We have a larger-than-normal younger generation moving into Saluda. That’s the future of Saluda. We have such a good mix here.”