Woolly Worms

Not too many generations ago, before snow plows, central heat, and supermarkets, winters in Appalachia were a much different experience than they are today. Many basic necessities such as mobility, heat, and food were not taken for granted. . .

Junior Johnson

Back in the 1930s and 1940s, when moonshining was a means of survival in the mountains of Western North Carolina, a young man emerged who would go on to become one of NASCAR’s founding fathers. He reinforced the romanticized, cultural stereotype of a “noble rogue.” His name was Junior Johnson.

Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual

Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual, located on the Cherokee Indian reservation in North Carolina, was founded in 1946. Its goal is to preserve Cherokee arts and crafts, and provide Cherokee people with a means to sell their crafts year-round. Today, Qualla Arts and Crafts...

Horace Kephart

In 1934, the United States Congress officially established what is today the most popular National Park in the country, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. As a result, over 500,000 acres of scenic. . .

Cornhusk Crafts

A Corn husk Family from Allenstand, part of the John Parris Collection Appalachian people, of Cherokee, European, and African origin, all share a long history of making useful and decorative items from the outer leaves of ears of corn, known as cornhusks, or corn...

Culture

F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald was the famous author of The Great Gatsby and other novels chronicling fast life in the Jazz Age. Scott, an Army officer, met Zelda, a Montgomery, Alabama debutante, at a dance in 1918. . .

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Craft Guild

Craft Guild

In 1892, Frances Goodrich, a New England educated Presbyterian Missionary, moved to the Madison County community of Allanstand. Her goal: to improve the quality of life for mountain families. Her means was the promotion of traditional crafts to a growing American market for authentic handicrafts. . .

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Economy

Brown Mountain Lights

  Since the early 1700s, travelers have reported seeing the mysterious Brown Mountain Lights on clear, moonless nights. According to local folklore, the lights are actually the spirit of a slave searching for his lost master across ridges and through the valley....

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Linville Falls

Linville Falls

The Linville Falls area is located in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains at Parkway Milepost 316.4. The Linville is a wild and scenic river and the massive gorge it has created is home to a variety of plants and animals. These extensive lands, which for the most...

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Land

Blue Ridge Parkway

Blue Ridge Parkway

  Essay By Timothy N. Osment History, M.A. WCU 2008 The Blue Ridge Parkway, stretching 469 miles between the Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks, has offered visitors breathtaking vistas, wilderness access, and a reprieve from fast-paced...

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Logging

Logging

Industrial logging came to Appalachia with the railroad in the late 19th century. As timber supplies in the Northeast and the Great Lakes regions dwindled, National Lumber Corporation shifted to the vast hardwood forests of the Southern mountains.

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People

Penland School of Crafts, 1985

Penland School of Craft Honored By WCU John Parris Asheville Citizens Times 9/29/85   CULLOWHEE - Western Carolina University’s 1985 Mountain Heritage Award went Saturday to the Penland School of Crafts, a mountain institution founded by a mountain woman for mountain...

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John B. Battle, 1983

  WCU Honors Battle Asheville Citizens Times John Parris 9/25/83   CULLOWHEE - Western Carolina University’s 1983 Mountain Heritage award went Saturday to John Bascomb Battle, an 86-year-old native of Jackson County who has spent a lifetime putting together a...

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Institutions

John C. Campbell

In a time of turbulent change in Appalachia, John C. Campbell helped define America’s understanding of this great mountain region. Campbell was born in Indiana in 1867 and studied theology at Union Theological Seminary.

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Mountain Heritage Center

The Mountain Heritage Center was created by Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina, in 1975. Combining a museum with a research center, it preserves the history and culture of western North Carolina in a time of rapid change.

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