Old Growth Forests

Old Growth Forests

Old-Growth forests conjures up visions of the great forests that once covered most of eastern north America, and of towering trees undisturbed by logging and human settlement. They provide a vital link to our environmental past and are the preferred and sometime only habitat of a number of species.

Flat Rock

Flat Rock

Flat Rock, North Carolina, the home of one of the nation’s top ten summer theaters, is a wonderful place to enjoy a play. Begun in a tent by actor/director/producer Robroy Farquhar in 1953, it presents about ten Broadway musicals, dramas, and comedies each year.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

America’s first National Parks were created out West.  By the early 20th century, Easterners who feared the loss of nature in their rapidly industrializing region wanted their own park.  Businessmen and outdoorsmen in Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina, led...
Ghost Towns

Ghost Towns

Towns do not survive forever. Western North Carolina has a number of its own lost towns. They disappeared for a number of reasons.

Floods of 1916 and 1940

Floods of 1916 and 1940

Many people in the mountains of Appalachia vividly remember September, 2004. During that month, the rains and winds of Hurricanes Frances and Ivan combined to swell the French Broad, Catawba, and Pigeon Rivers to record flood levels. Several fatalities and millions of...