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...
Penland School of Crafts

Penland School of Crafts

The widespread poverty that the Great Depression brought to Appalachia led to the founding of one of the area’s most valuable treasures: the Penland School of Crafts. Nestled deep in the hills of western North Carolina’s Mitchell County is the small community of Penland. . .

Little Switzerland

Little Switzerland

The Grassy Mountain area of Mitchell and McDowell counties was long a traditional settlement of Scotch-Irish families. In the summer of 1909, Charlotte lawyer Heriot Clarkson discovered the Alpine-like setting and laid plans for a resort colony.