Step Inside the Story
Want to see the restoration firsthand? Watch the video here to step inside their historic cabin, discover the full journey of how it was moved, and catch a rare moment of Zack playing the banjo. Some places you simply visit, but this is a home that draws you in and makes you want to stay.
Finding Home: How an Asheville News Anchor Rescued a Forgotten Log Cabin
As a child, Maggie Palmer spent her summers under the shade trees of her grandfather’s cow pasture in Avery County. She and her cousins swung from long vines, playing Tarzan and Jane, tag, and hide-and-seek. Amid the laughter, Maggie made a silent promise to herself: one day, she would build a home and live in this pasture forever.
As she grew older, that dream evolved. While driving the back roads of Western North Carolina to help her grandmother locate an old log cabin for historical restoration, a new vision took shape. Maggie decided she would rescue a deteriorating log cabin, move it to her grandfather’s pasture, and make it her permanent home. Later, when her grandmother gifted her a handful of flower seeds, the final piece of the puzzle fell into place. Maggie now dreamed of a historic log home surrounded by a vibrant, self-planted flower garden.
A Detour from the Mountains
Life, however, had other plans. Following high school, Maggie left the mountains to attend UNC. Marriage, a family, and a busy career in journalism followed. She worked in the newspaper business across Rutherfordton and McDowell Counties before becoming a reporter for the Asheville Times. Eventually, she became a familiar face across Western North Carolina as a news anchor for WLOS Channel 13 in Asheville.
A Bequest and a Second Chance
Decades later, following the passing of her mother, Maggie inherited eleven acres of mountain land. To her amazement, the acreage included the exact cow pasture from her childhood.
As retirement approached, her childhood dreams came roaring back. However, she faced a major obstacle: most of the authentic, historic log cabins in Western North Carolina had already vanished.
The Hidden Cabin
Like all great stories, fate stepped in. While attending a Palmer family reunion in Cleveland County, her cousin Jim grabbed her by the arm. “Come with me,” he said." Jim led her off the main road to a hidden, rapidly deteriorating log cabin. The owner, a relative living in Pennsylvania, had no interest in saving it. Jim turned to her and said, “Maggie, nobody wants it. You’re the only one I know who can save it.”
Walking Onto a Magazine Cover
Today, that rescued cabin stands proudly in Grandfather Dellinger’s cow pasture, enveloped by a sea of blossoms. It is home to Maggie and her husband of forty years, Zack Allen. Driving through the dense woods toward their property, the anticipation builds until you clear the tree line. As my companion Jason remarked on our drive up, “When you reach the end of that driveway, the whole scene looks like it walked straight off the cover of Country Living magazine.”
The transformation was a monumental labor of love. About thirty years ago, Maggie and Zack transported the cabin up into the mountains, cleared a flat clearing, and bulldozed the foundation. Every corner of the homestead carries a piece of history. Their kitchen, for instance, is housed in a separate, historic outbuilding that once stored her great-grandfather’s thresher and seed corn.
A Living Landscape of Memories
The breathtaking grounds are entirely Maggie's own creation. Two decades ago, her cousin John showed up on the Fourth of July to help dig and landscape a beautiful fish and lily pond right outside the front door.
But it is the vibrant daylilies that hold the deepest emotional weight.
“The daylilies,” Maggie explains, “came from Mr. Weatherman over in Spruce Pine, a man who went to school with my father. He planted and tended a hillside of them in remembrance of his wife until he died at age 100.”
Standing in her yard among the endless blooms, Maggie smiles and says, “I want to be just like Mr. Weatherman.” Watching her surrounded by the paradise she built from a childhood dream, you believe her completely.