Editor’s Note: Western North Carolina is rich with untold stories—many resting quietly in local cemeteries. In this Tombstone Tales series, we explore the lives of people from our region’s past whose legacies, whether widely known or nearly forgotten, helped shape the place we call home.
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — At Riverside Cemetery in Asheville rests the modest grave of George Masa, a man whose camera captured vistas that helped redefine how America saw the wilderness of the southern Appalachians. Born Masahara Iizuka in Japan around 1881, he arrived in Western North Carolina in the mid-1910s and over the next two decades transformed from a hotel valet into one of the region’s most influential photographers and conservation advocates.
Masa came to Asheville about 1915 and took a job at the Grove Park Inn, first working in the laundry and then as a valet. His fascination with photography began there, developing film for wealthy hotel guests and borrowing a camera from the inn’s manager. Within a few years, he opened his own photography business, Plateau Studio, serving Asheville’s growing tourist community. His landscape postcards and prints became popular keepsakes for visitors exploring the Blue Ridge…