The Beech celebration was started in 1884 by Alfred Marion Penland (1833-1898.) He killed a beef and invited the community, who all thought Alfred quite generous since they mostly had pork and poultry on their plates. The Beech 4th of July parade is the longest consecutive parade in the county and probably in the state–this
Beech is a community in north Buncombe County six miles up Reems Creek Road — 14 miles from Asheville. It is formed by the junction of Maney Branch and Reems Creek and was named after the beautiful grove of Beech trees growing there. A resident back in 1894 wrote to the editor of the Asheville newspaper saying