Culture
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. . .
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. . .
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....
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...
Land
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...
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.
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...
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...
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.
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.