Smoky Mountain Living Aug. 2013

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING

MAKING MOONSHINE | LOUIE BLUIE FEST | FRIED GREEN TOMATOES AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2013

Celebrating Southern Appalachians THE

RIVER NAMES • ANCIENT FISHING TECHNOLOGY • A COMMUNITY’S SACRIFICE • WASHED CLEAN OF SIN

Rivers through

Cherokee Country

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AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2013 • VOL. 13 • NO. 4

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Water as Redeemer Talking Honky Tonk with Jay Farrar of Son Volt Float On Down: Take the Family River Tubing

we lco m e :

FROM THE MANAGING EDITOR Anyone who has ever spent any time at a

There’s a certain element of physics about a boat turning at mountain lake has, at one time or another, found him or herself high speed and what happens to the terrified skier behind it that I intimately and perhaps precipitously acquainted with three don’t quite understand. As the boat arced left, I was slingshot things—red clay banks, gnarled tree roots, and unforgiving, around, out from behind the boat wake, into the glass slick water. cringe-inducing rocks.

I picked up speed. The shore approached with an alarming These natural water hazards are evidence of the lakes’ certainty of solidity. There was a cow. I let go of the rope. intrusion upon the landscape, as rivers were dammed to form That trip around the lake was my last on skis, and my last trip them and valleys flooded, water met mountain, creating steep angles rather than softly sloping shores.

Over the years, boat wakes and the rise and fall of water levels have eroded the banks, making the water’s edge inhospitable. Boats must dock or drop anchor in deep water, such that an adventurous crew bound for the lake’s rope swing, tucked away in some cove known only to those frequent visitors, must jump overboard and swim to shore, and clamber up the frictionless clay while clinging to the overhead trees’ exposed roots like mountaineering spider monkeys.

There was just such a rope swing at Chatuge Lake. The Tennessee Valley Authority constructed an earthen dam across the Hiawassee River in 1942, creating the sprawling Chatuge across the North Carolina-Georgia state line. My Sarah Kucharski at Juneywank Falls, located in the Deep Creek area outside of Bryson City, N.C. DONATED PHOTO friend, her little sister, her mother, and stepfather had a shiny, vintage Airstream set up at Ho-Hum Campground, just on the North Carolina side of the line. I spent many a summer day at Chatuge with them. There was a mini golf course, and the campground loop was perfect for riding bikes. We had access to a canoe with which we snuck out into the water one night and paddled across the cove to a grassy hill where we climbed giant hay bales and stared up at the stars. There was always a campground-wide potluck on the Fourth of July, and I, more than anyone else, loved one fine Southern cook’s banana pudding, served up like a bushel barrel of softened Nilla wafers and meringue.

Chatuge was where I attempted to learn to water ski—an exercise in wasting gas, as my overly dominate right foot meant that I never could quite balance myself against the force of the water pushing back. Repeated face plants and the ingestion of to the lake was not long after. We grew up. Things changed. several gallons of lake water did not deter my stubborn refusal to What hasn’t changed is my love for water, which makes these let go of the tow rope—despite the fact that I often was Smoky Mountains a great place to be. From Deep Creek to the completely underwater. Persistence finally paid off one year. I got Davidson, the Clinch to the Cherokee, Fontana Lake to French up—sort of. My legs were straight but my torso bent forward, Broad, the Nantahala to the New, I’ve been in them all. arms outstretched, and I was screaming. But, by golly, that didn’t This edition of Smoky Mountain Living is dedicated to the stop the boat. I hung on. I hung with the tenacity of a bug on a region’s waterways. I hope your memories float on like mine do. windshield. I hung on from one end of the lake to the other. And then … we turned.

— Sarah E. Kucharski, managing editor

“As the boat arced left, I was

slingshot around, out from behind the boat wake, into the glass slick water. I picked up speed. The shore approached with an alarming certainty of solidity. There was a cow.

I let go of the rope.”

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 4

About our writers VOL. 13 • NUMBER 4 Publisher/Editor . . . . . . . . . . . Scott McLeod editor@smliv.com General Manager . . . . . . . . . Greg Boothroyd ads@smliv.com Advertising Sales Manager . . Hylah Smalley hylah@smliv.com Managing Editor . . . . . . . Sarah E. Kucharski sarah@smliv.com Art Director . . . . . . . . . . . Travis Bumgardner travis@smliv.com Graphics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Micah McClure Finance & Admin. . . . . . . Amanda Singletary Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Greg Boothroyd, Whitney Burton, Amanda Bradley Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Scott Collier Editorial Assistants . . . . . . . . . . Colby Dunn, Glenda Kucharski Contributing Writers . . . . . Mark Berryman, Jim Casada, Don Hendershot, Joe Hooten, Becky Johnson, Don McGowan, Anna Oakes, Rebecca Tolley-Stokes, Bill Studenc, Lee Whitehead Contributing Photographers. . Linda Barden, Jeffrey S. Burcher, Andy Drinnon, Victor Ellison, Diana Gates, Michael J. Giamatti, Mark Haskett, Gary Heatherly, Margaret Hester, Jesse Adam Holsinger, Becky Johnson, JoEllen Mason, Sherry Shook, James Sweeney, Lee Whitehead, Garret K. Woodward Contributing Illustrator . . Mandy Newham Smoky Mountain Living is published bi-monthly

by SM Living LLC. Smoky Mountain Living has made every effort to insure listings and information are accurate and assumes no liability for errors or omissions.

For advertising information, contact Hylah Smalley at 828.452.2251 or hylah@smliv.com.

For editorial inquiries, contact Sarah Kucharski at sarah@smliv.com.

Smoky Mountain Living assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. Queries should be sent to Sarah E. Kucharski at sarah@smliv.com. ©2013. All rights reserved. No portion of this magazine may be reprinted without the express, written consent of the publisher.

Smoky Mountain Living is published bi-monthly (Dec/Jan, Feb/Mar, Apr/May, Jun/Jul, Aug/Sep, Oct/Nov) by SM Living, LLC, 34 Church Street, Waynesville, NC 28786. Periodical Postage paid at Waynesville, N.C., and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: please send address changes to Smoky Mountain Living, PO Box 629, Waynesville, NC 28786.

Mark Berryman is an award-

winning columnist from rural Georgia and a managing editor for The Elberton Star.

While he has lived just south of the Smokies most of his life, his grandparents were raised in those mountains, and he still has family there. He is a U.S. Navy veteran who also has spent time working as a camp cook for ranches in Montana, Colorado, and Arizona.

Jim Casada is a son of the

Smokies, born and raised in Bryson City, North Carolina. A selfdescribed “recovering professor,” he describes the region as “the home of my heart and the primary inspiration for my literary endeavors.” A full-time freelancer for the past decade and a half, his writing focuses on fishing, hunting, natural history, Appalachian folkways, and cooking nature’s wild bounty, along with history.

Don Hendershot is a freelance

writer, naturalist and biological consultant living in Waynesville, N.C. He has written in magazines including Our State, Native American Journal, and Smoky Mountain Living. His weekly column, The Naturalist's Corner, appears in The Smoky Mountain News.

Hendershot was nominated by the Roosevelt-Ashes Society for Outstanding Journalist in Conservation 2010, yet his most beloved title is “Daddy” to daughters Izzy and Maddie.

Becky Johnson grew up in

Raleigh, raised by parents who instilled in her an appreciation for the outdoors and wild places, which in turn gave rise to a strong environmental ethos. She graduated

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from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1999 as a double major in journalism and anthropology and a creative writing minor. She worked as a park ranger on the Blue Ridge Parkway for a year before pursuing journalism in Western North Carolina. She has been with the Smoky Mountain News, based in Waynesville, since 2003, where she is a reporter and news editor.

Scott McLeod is editor and

publisher of Smoky Mountain Living and its sister publication, The Smoky Mountain News. Originally from Fayetteville, N.C., McLeod has made his home in Western North Carolina for more than 20 years. He enjoys exploring the region with his family including camping, hiking, and skiing.

Bill Studenc is senior director of

news services at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, N.C. Studenc, who grew up in Black Mountain, has worked as a reporter and editor at The Mountaineer in Waynesville, editor of The News Record in Marshall and sports reporter for the Asheville Citizen-Times. He lives near Lake Junaluska with wife Margaret, daughter Neva, son Will.

Lee Whitehead was born and

raised in the heart of Knoxville, Tenn., and is majoring in journalism at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville where he plays golf for the TTU Golden Eagles. His alltime favorite job was the summer he worked as a fly-fishing guide at Blackberry Farm in Walland. Whenever Whitehead is able to break away from the demands of a Division I student athlete, he can be found wetting a line on the trout streams of the Smokies and Western Carolinas. Whitehead also is a talented artist and chef.

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Contents

FEATU RE STO RIES

FONTANA A small community gave up its past to make way for the future, as a dam built to provide power for secret World War II operations flooded a mountain valley with water and workers.

BY BECKY JOHNSON

PAGE

54

THE NAMING OF THINGS

SOULS OVERFLOWING

BEFORE HOOK, LINE & SINKER

Replete with vowels that roll off the tongue, the Cherokee names of regional rivers whet the imagination.

The tradition of baptisms in natural bodies of water traces back to John the Baptist and acts as a public profession of faith.

Fish weirs, made of natural materials such as rocks and tree limbs, once were used to trap fish with ease.

BY JIM CASADA

BY BILL STUDENC

BY DON HENDERSHOT

PAGE

32

PAGE

38

PAGE

46

Contents MOUNTAIN VOICES

DEPA RTME N TS

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A muse inspires watery adventures and passes it on to the next generation.

MOUNTAIN MUSIC

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Jay Farrar of Son Volt talks about his band’s new album “Honky Tonk.”

OUT & ABOUT

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

14 18

Chattanooga commemorates the Civil War’s Sesquicentennial through 2015.

OUTDOORS

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Outsmart the trout with fly-fishing tips from a Knoxville angler.

MOUNTAIN LETTERS

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

An onslaught of rain in 1913 brought about great change in the Great Flood.

ON THE COVER

ARTS

Lower Cullasaja Falls in the Nantahala National Forest near Highlands, N.C. Cullasaja comes from a Cherokee word meaning “honey locust place.”

CUISINE

PHOTO BY JAMES SWEENEY

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Celebrate English ways with a cup of tea in Abingdon, Va.

MOUNTAIN VIEWS

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Making moonshine makes waves for a few eager lawmen.

Good Living

26

Chimney Rock State Park features Appalachian storytelling and song on stage.

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Toccoa, Ga. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Waynesville, N.C. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Eastern Tennessee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Crossword Puzzle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Select Lodging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

The mountains’ ecological diversity relies on the region’s rivers, streams, lakes, and waterfalls, all fed from groundwater supplies and copious rainfall. In the Smokies, the average annual rainfall varies from approximately 55 inches in the valleys to over 85 inches on some peaks— more than anywhere else in the country except the Pacific Northwest.

During wet years, over eight feet of rain falls in the high country. Smoky Mountain Living’s readers share some of their images of the water.

JoEllen Mason • Big Creek, Mt. Guyot Watershed, N.C.

Jeffrey S. Burcher • Cedar Rock Falls, Brevard, N.C.

Victor Ellison • Price Lake, Blue Ridge Parkway, N.C.

Michael J. Giamatt • Great Smoky Mountains National Park, N.C.

“All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.”

—Toni Morrison

Linda Barden • Lake Sequoyah Dam, Highlands, N.C.

Diana Gates • Leicester, N.C.

“The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time.”

—Henry David Thoreau

Sherry Shook • Biffle Grist Mill Wheel, Weaverville, N.C.

Jeffrey S. Burcher • Linville Falls, N.C.

Victor Ellison • Elk Knob Mtn. Overlook, N.C. James Sweeney • Wesser, N.C.

Andy Drinnon • Blue Hole Falls, Tenn.

For our fall edition, Smoky Mountain Living will be focusing on trade.

Send your images of borrowing, working trades, or trading off one thing in order to gain another to photos@smliv.com by Aug. 19, 2013. For more information, visit facebook.com/smliv or smliv.com.

department:

MOUNTAIN VOICES

Answering the siren’s call

BY SCOTT MCLEOD

“Aw, come on. It’s just water.

You won’t melt.”

bread and bowls of hot soup. Still soaked but re-energized for the last leg of our journey, we got back on our backs and peddled onward through the downpour.

This little adventure is typical of life with my wife, especially the part that includes getting wet—and also the part about finding refuge just before the fun turns potentially dangerous. Lori loves the water, whether it’s an icy mountain waterfall or a chilly sprint into the ocean. She grew up in Raleigh, N.C., swam competitively, and she started sailing on the Carolina coast with her father while a teen. Remember that overwrought, futuristic thriller “Waterworld” in which the ice caps have melted, the world is underwater, and Kevin Costner has mutated to have gills? Lori doesn’t, but there’s been a time or two when I’ve wondered.

She attributes her zest for fun in the water to her father. She says it’s his example she’s following when migrating toward whatever body of water may be nearby. I remember when we were still dating and some of Lori’s relatives would visit Raleigh each summer and

We were in Switzerland, in a mountain town called Interlaken.

It’s a gorgeous tourist village at the foot of the Alps and between two large lakes (hence the name). Like the Smokies where water seeps from rock faces and moisture-laden clouds envelop mountains, it’s one of those places that can be just full of water—in addition to the lakes, mountain snow and glacier runoff feed the rivers, creating waterfalls that tumble from huge green cliffs. And it rains in sheets.

We had planned a cycling trip around one of the Lori and Scott’s daughter, lakes. Lori and I would lead some of the younger Hannah, learned folks who were traveling with us on the daylong early from her jaunt. We had rented bikes the night before, mother the joys packed lunches, prepared proper clothing, and of water, whatever the were ready to roll early in the morning. temperature and The day began cloudy, precipitously teetering wherever the between breaking up or building up. A sprinkle setting. turned to a steady rain that became a torrential FAMILY PHOTO downpour. By the time we were about a third of the way around the lake, our clothes couldn’t take on any more water, the rain laughing at our socalled waterproof gear.

As the rain came down even harder, Lori turned a deaf ear to my suggestions that we turn back— not an option. Instead, what I got was the line above, a line that is an all-too-familiar part of life with Lori. stay at the same Ramada Inn. Along the route there was a While visiting the hotel, Lori’s short trail that led up to a waterfather had forgotten his swimfall that promised to soak those ming trunks, but no worries. He who got close. Already drenched, was down to his boxers and in Lori took the kids and hiked up the pool without a second while I watched the bikes. The thought. The first time that hapgaggle returned all smiles and pened I was a bit surprised, but giggles, wet and wetter. over time I learned it was a sort We rode on, smiling and of family tradition. laughing like crazy kids as the cool summer rain turned to a boneMy children can attest to the fact that their mom inherited their soaking chill. Just when I feared hypothermia might actually set grandpa’s genes and has added her own nocturnal twist. After dark in, we peddled up to a restaurant where the most delightful Swiss at the beach? No problem, Lori’s in for a quick swim. Pitch dark waitress, Rebecca, put our ragged, wet crew in a private dining in some quiet anchorage after dinner on her father’s sailboat? She’s room—smart girl—and we ate and warmed up. She cranked up “rinsing off” with a quick jump overboard. Freezing mountain the electric wall heaters and we ordered platters of fries, warm stream in a month when one shouldn’t go near the water because

Already drenched, Lori took the kids and hiked up while I watched the bikes. The gaggle returned all smiles and giggles, wet and wetter.

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 4

it’s just too damn cold? Yep, she’s in, at least for a few seconds.

Once we had sailed into Beaufort, N.C., and had to anchor in the river because all the boat slips in the town dock were full. We cleaned up, put on nice clothes, and I made two trips rowing the tiny dinghy in order to get the whole family over to a dockside restaurant for a sunset dinner.

When we finished, I was taking Eight months pregnant in midthe kids back to the boat while September, Lori McLeod tries to coax her Lori waited on the dock for my rehusband, Scott, into a cold mountain turn. We heard the splash, and the swimming hole. FAMILY PHOTO kids and I knew before turning around what it was. mountain morning after nighttime rain. It always Impatient, dress still on (thankfully), Lori had starts out with “Aw come on, Scott” and then, dedove in and suddenly surfaced beside our little pending on the situation, just fill in the blanks: boat. “I didn’t want you to have to make two “It’ll feel great. Just for a minute,” or, like the time trips,” she said, laughing, stroking toward the anin Switzerland, “It’s just water, you won’t melt.” chored sailboat ahead of my clumsy rowing That “Aw come on, just for a minute” is like while I imagined the dozens of surprised dockthe sirens’ call, but instead of leading to a shipside diners standing and clapping at her bravado. wreck it has been quite the opposite—25 years Many times those quick, spur-of-the-moment of wonderful married life together. From the dips have been preceded with that plea to me, time we first started hanging out together as stuand I can hear it in my head clear as a summer

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dents at Appalachian State University in Boone, she always used that same imploring line. Many of our early dates were simply trips to one of those mountain swimming holes only locals frequent. Lori was usually the one heading up the adventure, the one who knew how to make the most of an otherwise run-of-the-mill excursion.

And now it has passed on to the next generation. This summer our daughter Hannah has been trying to round up friends for a nighttime trip to one of the mountain swimming holes around Waynesville.

Like her mom, water equals adventure. I was traveling with her and a school group last spring, and I found out later that Hannah had led a midnight excursion down to a Spanish beach during a bit of a squall. And yes, she headed right into the water.

I was a chaperone on that trip to Spain and should have been upset at Hannah’s daring.

But how could I? Instead, I imagined that line, only this time with a twist: “Aw come on, Dad; it’ll be fun.”

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department:

MOUNTAIN MUSIC

Giving Nashville the finger

DONATED PHOTO

BY JOE HOOTEN

Dust Bowl refugees made their way across the Great Plains into the promised land of California in search of a better life, the music brought with them began a transformation of sorts. Migrants from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and the South began playing a style of country music with different rhythm, fiddle and steel runs, and artists like Buck Owens, Bob Willis, and Wynn Stewart created the “Bakersfield sound,” combining heartache with heartfelt lyrics and a juke-joint swing, distinguishing themselves as creators of genre.

It’s easy to understand why Farrar would gravitate to such a spirit, one that embodied rock n’ roll ideals with country sensibility. The Bakersfield sound was indeed a giant middle finger to the polished, overly produced music that Nashville started putting out during the mid-20th century. With that in mind, Farrar and the rest of Son Volt recorded an album that sounds fresh and inventive while also timeless and enduring. Son Volt’s beautifully arranged songs—with pedal steel-tinged accents and dueling fiddle shuffles—swings about on topics of love, heartbreak, and redemption, ultimately making Honky Tonk required listening.

If golden-hue lighting cast across a smoke-filled dusty barrelhouse dance floor as songs like “Wild Side” and “Tears of Change” swayed beautifully in the background, it would be transcendent. “Seawall” and “Bakersfield” rev the tempo just enough to get your boots tapping, while “Down the Highway” and “Barricades” come across as some of Farrar’s more superior work in several albums. Farrar does his best to pay homage to his predecessors within this carefully crafted record without sounding like a Fridaynight cover band, and the results pay off. The optimistic tone on many songs is a welcomed departure from his typically ponderous, downtrodden style. “I did set out to celebrate that music, I didn’t want to be limited by it, so when it came to finding a little more upbeat tempo or lyrical content I went with it,” Farrar said.

O

n May 1, 1994, the seminal alt-country group Uncle Tupelo performed its final show before a standing-room-only crowd at Mississippi Nights in St. Louis, Mo. The band, burdened by infighting between the two uniquely talented songwriters from Belleville, Ill., Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy, parted ways at the height of their success, after four critically praised albums and years of endless touring. Both musicians rebounded just fine— Tweedy went on with Wilco, as Farrar formed y jayfarrar.net SML: The new album, Honky Tonk, feels kin to its predecessor, Son Volt and subsequently American Central Dust, with more acoustic elements. You really got released the irreplaceable into the Bakersfield sound. Was that a guilty pleasure for you? debut, Trace, in 1995, a record that remains a touchFarrar: Over the course of the last year and a half, I just became stone for many music fans, critics, and bands today. immersed in honky tonk music and the Bakersfield sound in particular Recently Farrar has begun to draw from the early because as I was learning the pedal steel I was listening to Ralph Mooney, country sounds of the 1940s and 50s and recorded who was on Wynn Stewart and Buck Owens’ records. When it came time Honky Tonk, a throwback to the classic Bakersfield to write songs for this Son Volt record, it was pretty much second nature sound. When American popular music began to to write these songs that wound up being in that context. I wanted to take hold in the early 20th century, country music acknowledge and pay homage to honky tonk music but not feel limited by was among the genres that blossomed in the rural its parameters. Some of the songs are a bit outside of honky tonk, like parts of the Southeast, springing up from European “Hearts and Minds” which has a Cajun feel, but Hank Williams established and Appalachian styles and instruments. Economic that early on—that it’s all connected as elemental American music. and political matters further influenced country music during the years of the Great Depression, The Bakersfield sound seems like it was the antithesis of the Nashville sound from the 1940s and 50s. I’m wondering if that was shaping the content of most songs of the time. As

online:

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Q&A with Jay Farrar

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 4

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 4

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the beginnings of the outlaw-country genre that sprang up in the 1960s.

I think you have a good argument there.

Bakersfield was essentially an incubator where there was not a lot of industry there, not a lot of industry folks coming into their recording sessions saying, “We gotta have these back-up singers on here, we gotta have these strings on here.” That’s essentially what happened in Nashville whereas in Bakersfield, they were allowed to evolve and develop on their own, and they really came up with some great ideas, and along the way they brought more of the rock n’ roll intensity and sensibility that was not really there in Nashville.

The working-class characters that come out in your lyrics seem to be reminiscent of these post-Depression folks; Woody Guthrie has certainly influenced you on some level.

Yeah, it’s something I’ve certainly noticed. My family comes from southcentral Missouri, Woody came from Oklahoma, and most of those folks that migrated to California in the 30s and 40s came from Oklahoma, Texas, and even Missouri. I was struck by how similar Woody Guthrie’s dialect was to my father’s.

Was there anything you wanted to avoid when writing and recording Honky Tonk?

No, not really. That’s why I didn’t hesitate to go off in different directions.

The idea was to revisit the fiddle and steel guitar aesthetic that’s on the first Son Volt record, on the first song, but we didn’t want to be limited to that, so along the way we experimented with the Cajun sound. There’s even a little bit of a soul, probably inspired by Solomon Burke, on songs like “Livin’ On,” a little bit of an Irish sound on “Down the Highway,” and ultimately a song like “Shine On” is a little more contemporary sounding.

You’ve allowed your writing to evolve on Honky Tonk and include words like “heart” and “love” throughout. It seems like you’re bending your own rules a bit on this new record. Have the results been worth the risk?

Yeah, I think so. I also realize that after this CD I may not ever use the words “heart” or “love” again…perhaps, I don’t know. I used them a lot, particularly writing within the honky tonk realm I just got into it, using words they used, within that lexicon.

What inspired songs like “Barricades” and “Wild Side?” They have such an

department:

MOUNTAIN MUSIC

It wasn’t hard; it was cathartic in a way. It was nice to take stock and review. The fact that I’ve never written anything before could have been an impediment. I look at this writing as being more along the lines of “folk-writing.” I’m not trained to write, but I just found it was something that I wanted to do.

overtly optimistic tone.

I think so much of the lyrical content that’s found within that particular period of honky tonk is almost like a culture of commiseration: so much heartache, so much heartbreak. I think it was just a natural part of the process on this recording that it would not be that way. I did set out to celebrate that music. I didn’t want to be limited by it, so when it came to finding a little more upbeat tempo or lyrical content I went with it.

You write a lot about your dad. Was he the impetus for your musical career?

In a lot of ways, yes, he was.

My mother took charge of the nuts and bolts of actually teaching me how to play the guitar. My father, he was a character. He was eccentric. Even when I was a kid, there were other kids coming over to my house just to be around my father, to learn from him. A lot of the inspiration for starting the book was born out of conversations with my brothers. My father seemed different than everyone else’s father. He allowed a lot of childhood freedom, and we were allowed to roam—probably the way kids grew up in the 40s and 50s.

There have been themes in other Son Volt albums, but not quite like Honky Tonk. Is it easier to create a conceptual album or a collection of singles?

I think this record, lyrically and sonically, was more conceptual and thematic than anything I’ve ever done, yet it still winds up being a group of singles I would say. It depends on what instrumentation and approach makes each song work ultimately.

One of the stories from the book, Falling Cars, gives your side of the story behind the end of Uncle Tupelo. Was this by design? Did you want to make sure this piece of your history was included in the book from the onset?

I did. A central question after the dissolution of Uncle Tupelo was always: Why? And that central element of trust was broken by that particular experience that I put in the book.

Mark Spencer (member of Son Volt) said that after a long day of recording, the reward was to sit around, listen to some classic country with a few beers, and enjoy hanging out. Sounds like heaven to me.

(Laughing) It’s an essential part of being a musician—drawing inspiration from the perseverances of other musicians and where they’ve been, but it’s also important to go out and sing music every day. There’s something about that that’s good for the soul.

Was that your way of putting the nail in the coffin and calling it done, concerning that moment?

Of that moment, for sure. Basically I’m here to tell my story, and if I don’t tell it, no one else will.

How hard was it to disclose some of your more personal life events in your book, Falling Cars and Junkyard Dogs?

WWW.SMLIV.COM

I asked you in 2005 if you weren’t playing music, what was the alternative and you told me truck driving. Would that be your response in 2013?

No, I don’t think so; I’d say I’d be a writer.

I definitely like the process and the lifestyle to be able to sit down every day and have some creative output and have your exact thoughts put to paper. It’s something I could do a lot more of.

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department:

OUT & ABOUT

Reenactors at Chattanooga, Tenn.’s, Point Park. DONATED PHOTO

Chattanooga plays its part for Civil War symposium

T

ennessee's Civil War history is rich and complex, with staggering effects of total war felt in every part of the state.

The Tennessee Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission is the sponsor of a series of symposiums, which began in 2010 and continue through 2015. The 2013 Signature Event will be held Oct. 9-12 at the Chattanooga

Convention Center. Presenters will discuss the battles, events and stories of the Civil War, as well as offer educational workshops, brief dramas, and musical performances. Highlights include Associate Professor of History at the University of Kentucky Amy Murrell Taylor’s keynote on Oct. 10 and The Chattanooga Musicianers performance on Oct. 11. On Oct.

12 there will be ticketed tours of Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, Point Park on Lookout Mountain Battlefield, Orchard Knob and Missionary Ridge Battlefields, Chattanooga's National Cemetery and Confederate Cemetery.

For more information or to register, visit tnvacation.com/civil-war.

RESCUING JEFFERSON’S MOST PERSONAL LEGACY

which he had read and visited. The home’s exterior is an equal-sided octagon with an interior divided into four equal-sided rooms surrounding a two-story central square with light provided by a large skylight. Orchards, kitchen gardens, and at least fourteen species of trees surrounded the house.

Following his presidency, Jefferson traveled to Poplar Forest three to four times each year for stays that would last for up to two months. He turned the plantation and home over to grandson Francis Eppes, who sold it to a neighbor.

Over the years, the home was ravaged by fire and fell to further disrepair. A nonprofit foundation with a goal to restore and preserve the home and grounds acquired the site in 1983 and has been working on restoration ever since.

Guided tours are offered from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. from mid-March through midDecember with additional special

programs throughout the season. For more information, visit poplarforest.org.

Thomas Jefferson, governor of Virginia, author of our Declaration of Independence, and third president of the U.S., was a man in need of a place to relax—and he found that in Poplar Forest, located in central Virginia, approximately 10 miles southwest of Lynchburg.

Poplar Forest was constructed on a 4,800-acre plantation that Jefferson’s wife, Martha, inherited from her father in 1773. Jefferson was Poplar Forest’s absentee plantation manager during his working years as a lawyer and public servant. It was not until three years prior to the end of his presidency that he traveled to Poplar Forest to supervise construction. Jefferson gathered ideas for the home and landscape designs from his experience at Monticello and European and American homes and gardens about

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 4

POUND THE CLAY AT TOCCOA SPEEDWAY The legendary Toccoa Speedway in Toccoa, Ga., is the oldest and fastest 5/16mile, high banked, clay, tri-oval raceway.

The raceway is open every Saturday night from April through October and features eight divisions Super Late Model, Limited Late Model, Crate Late Model, Hobby, Modified Street, Stock 4, Front Wheel Drive and Young Guns.

Drivers travel from all over the states of Georgia, North and South Carolinas, Tennessee, Alabama, and Florida to race at Toccoa Speedway. Gates open at 5 p.m. with a drivers’ meeting at 6:45 p.m. and hot laps at 7 p.m.

For more information, call 706.677.2158.

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department:

OUTDOORS

Never doubt a trout

BY LEE WHITEHEAD

Trout are smart fish.

Having said that, the trick to catching one is simple: you’ve got to outsmart them.

The majority of fly fishermen out on the river don’t take the time to think from a trout’s perspective. They are too determined to catch the fish and therefore completely overlook a very important process of flyfishing, which is to think like a trout.

So what do trout see when they look up from their cool, comfortable stream home?

Think about it—better yet, think like a trout.

TIP # 2 - STAY LOW Most of trout’s predators come from above, such as birds and small mammals, so they are always looking up, which is why it is crucial to maintain a low profile, or stay low to the ground. Also, staying low will help eliminate the shadows your body casts onto the river.

TIP # 3 – THE THREE CAST RULE Sometimes when we are out on the river, we make several repeated casts to one spot with no results. It’s frustrating—believe me. Most of the time, there are either no fish in that area, or they have been spooked and refuse to eat. The Three Cast Rule is very simple. Cast a maximum of three times to a specific area, and if you don’t get a strike move on. This will save you time and allow you to cover a lot more water in search of fish.

TIP # 4 – MATCH THE HATCH Trout, especially wild trout, are very selective when it comes to food. Anything that seems out of the ordinary to them, they won’t touch. For example, if yellow stoneflies are hatching and you are using a fly that imitates another insect, more times than not fish will ignore your fly. This is why it is important to be a “Fly Spy.” When you match the hatch, you are choosing your fly based on what is hatching on the river. One might ask, “But how do you know what insects are hatching?” There are two ways that I determine what the trout are feeding on. If the insects are hatching on the water’s surface, it is usually easy to see what size and color they are.

This little trick will give you a good idea of what fly to choose. If LEE WHITEHEAD PHOTO the trout are feeding subsurface, it usually Most of the time trout see nothing unusual to their world, until means that trout are feeding y Spring—Blue-Winged Olive some unaware fisherman comes along stomping through the river on nymphs, which are insects y Summer—Yellow Stimulator draped in thousands of dollars’ worth of the latest fishing gear, slipthat have yet to hatch. To find y Fall—Never-Sink Caddis ping and sliding around like snot on a rock while waving around a these, select a decent sized y Winter—Bead-Head Pheasantlong stick and slapping it on the water’s surface.

Tail Nymph rock in the river and turn it Although this may seem like an exaggeration, this is exactly over.

Usually there will be what most of us look like to a trout. And simply put, it is a big trout several nymphs clinging to the bottom of the rock that you can obturn off. serve to make a selection.

Here are five simple tips that will increase your fly-fishing success wherever you go.

fly selections

TIP #1 - OBSERVE THE RIVER Before you decide to make a beeline to the water’s edge, find a good vantage point of the river and observe what the trout are doing. This is a crucial part of being a good fisherman and will drastically improve your overall success rate. You will be surprised what information you can gather just from watching a trout’s behavior.

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TIP # 5 – HAVE FUN, KEEP IT SIMPLE Fly-fishing can be frustrating. Between the slippery rocks and abundant amounts of rhododendron to get tangled in, it’s a wonder why we even fool with it. But for me, it’s an escape from the hustle and bustle of city life. Just remember, when you keep it simple you keep it fun.

Without a doubt, it pays to be sneaky when dealing with trout.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 4

A DVERT ISING SEC T IO N

Fresh From the NC Smokies Places like Maggie Valley, Waynesville, Canton, Clyde and Lake Junaluska do not appear overnight. It took some time to get everything just right. Bits and pieces, all mixed together, to create a very fresh blend of pure mountain bliss.

The mountain music. The craft breweries. Arts, crafts, and cozy little main streets. The fruits, vegetables, and trout-to-table entrees. Even the outdoor adventure is unique. We're proud of our one-of-a-kind Appalachian culture, where nothing is imported.

In Haywood County, things are Homegrown.

AUGUST • 8.02-03 - 4th Annual Popcorn Sutton Tribute Festival • 8.02-03 - Canton Mater Fest, Canton • 8.02 - Art After Dark, Waynesville • 8.02 - Brigadoon, HART Theater, Waynesville • 8.03 - Haywood’s Historic Farmers Market, Waynesville • 8.09 - Mountain Street Dance, Waynesville • 8.09 - Pickin’ in the Park, Canton • 8.09 - Fines Creek Bluegrass Jam, Clyde • 8.15 - Canton Farmers Market, Canton • 8.16-18 - Maggie Valley Summer Rally, Maggie Valley

• 8.17 - 4th Annual Blue Ridge Breakaway • 8.30-9.02 - Canton Labor Day Celebration, Canton • 8.31 - Block Party, Waynesville • 8.31 - Waynesville Craft Beer Fest SEPTEMBER • 9.06 - Art After Dark, Waynesville • 9.06-07 40th Annual Fall Regional Shelby Mustang/Ford Meet.

• 9.13-15 - Thunder in the Smokies Fall Rally, Maggie Valley • 9.20 - Avenue Q, HART Theater, Waynesville • 9.21-22 - VW’s in the Valley, Maggie Valley • 9.27-29 - Maggie Valley Swap Meet & Car Show, Maggie Valley

For detailed information connect with us on Facebook at www.Facebook/SmokyMountainsNC or call 800.334.9036

WWW.SMLIV.COM

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TOUR N.C. DURING WEEK-LONG RIDE

LOVE LO VE WATER? WATER? TE We W e do, do, too!

The 15th annual Cycle North Carolina "Mountains to Coast" ride will take off Saturday, Sept. 25 from Spruce Pine for a seven-day ride to Atlantic Beach.

Those unable to ride for the entire week also have daily, three-day and two-day options, which are accompanied by a transportation option. The ride is limited to 1,100 riders.

Visit ncsports.org for more information and to register.

HIGH-ELEVATION HABITAT PRESERVED

Whether it’s swimming, fishing, boating, rafting or anything in between, we have something to dive into. And when you’re looking for fun on dr y land... enjoy the sites, histor y, food, shopping and more.

F R E E U P C O U N T RY RY VISITORS GUIDE: 80 0.849.47 76 66 | UpcountrySC.com

A man full of grits is a man full of peace.

Grown, harvested, and milled in North Carolina using slow grind traditional methods. t All natural t No chemicals t No preservatives t Gluten-Free Available at stores throughout North Carolina and www.bearbranchmilling.com.

www.bearbranchmilling.com 855-TRY-GRIT 22

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 4

Migratory birds throughout the Western Hemisphere have received a boost from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act grants that will help conserve more than 250,000 acres of migratory bird habitat, stimulate research into declining bird populations, and fund outreach programs to raise local awareness of issues and solutions.

In North Carolina grant and matching funds will go toward the protection of the 600-acre Grassy Ridge property that has been the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy’s highest conservation priority since the organization's founding in 1974. The property is located within the Roan Massif Nationally Significant Natural Heritage Area and is adjacent to a 24,000-acre network of high-elevation protected lands. Protection of this tract forms a critical wildlife corridor connecting the Roan Mountain Massif to the Yellow Mountain State Natural Area.

“Birds provide millions of Americans with enjoyment and a real connection to nature. They also pollinate our crops and protect them from pests, and generate $11 billion in local, state and federal tax revenues each year through the birdwatching industry,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe.

The 600acre property

is located within the Roan Massif Natural Heritage Area.

department:

OUTDOORS

PHOTO COURTESY OF RIVERGIRL FISHING COMPANY

Tubing: Go with the flow

BY ANNA OAKES

T

here exists no other activity more quintessentially “summer” than plopping one’s rear down in an inflatable ring and surrendering oneself to the river, exerting little to no effort as the cool, lapping waters steer one along a meandering, leisurely journey.

It’s true—one hasn’t fully immersed oneself in the mountain way until one has been river tubing, and nowadays, there’s more than one way to dive in.

Plenty of folks still hit up their local mechanics for the old truck inner tubes—we’ll call this the “vintage” tubing experience. The tire shops will part with the tubes for about $10 to $15 a pop, inflate them, and send tubers about their way. But if wrestling with a lopsided black tube isn’t one’s idea of a good time, there’s no reason to rough it. Area department stores and drug stores have wised up to mountain pastimes, offering a variety of river tubes for sale and an even greater assortment of tubes online. Look for tubes made from heavy-duty vinyl and with

Boston valves for easier inflating and deflating.

While the locals can likely point out safe and popular put-in and take-out locations on area rivers, one might save some trouble or anxiety by visiting a local tubing outfitter—and save the cost and maintenance of a tube, too. From the Smokies to the Blue Ridge, a host of outfitters have made affordable river fun their life’s calling. Kelly McCoy of RiverGirl Fishing Company in Todd, N.C., is one of them.

“I grew up in Alabama—I grew up with those inner tubes, and you would get scraped up. Back then you didn’t have outfitters that helped transport you; you had to figure it out yourself,” recalled McCoy. “Nowadays, what we use are really comfortable tubes that have backrests, cup holders, ropes, and carabineers.”

The carabineers allow tubes to be tethered together, say with tubes with bottoms in them for the younger kids or special tubes for coolers that will float along one’s picnic lunch, water, and other beverages.

RiverGirl is located in a historic train depot in Todd, where Elk Creek flows into the South Fork of the New River. In addition to tubing trips, RiverGirl offers fly-fishing excursions and boat and bicycle rentals. “Out of everything that we do…tubing is the number one thing that we do out of the shop,” McCoy said. “You sit in a tube and you float; you literally just go with the flow of the river. It’s absolutely the best way to de-stress.”

Thought to be the second oldest river in the world after the Nile, the New, with its slow, calm and shallow waters, is perfect for tubing, with sections from North Carolina to West Virginia safe and suitable for floating. And if you’re quiet or with a small group, you might catch a glimpse of the diverse fauna that inhabit the river: a mother duck with her row of ducklings, an otter swimming from one bank to another, or a heron fishing downstream.

Of course, the North Carolina High Country hasn’t cornered the market on river tubing; in the mountains there’s always a good float within driving distance. There’s the Holston River system in southwestern Virginia and east Tennessee. The French Broad, which flows from North Carolina’s Transylvania County, through Asheville, and into Tennessee. Deep Creek is just outside of Bryson City, N.C., while the Oconaluftee flows through Cherokee. The Davidson River outside of Brevard, N.C., is another popular run, and near Chattanooga, Tenn., are the Hiwassee and Ocoee Rivers. Remember that some sections of mountain rivers are better suited for whitewater rafting or kayaking and may not be safe for tubing, so always follow the guidance of experts in selecting a location.

Bring water shoes to wear, as well as a change of clothes for after the trip.

In the mountain summers, the water temperatures are perfect—not too cold, not too hot.

“We get tons of people from Charlotte, Raleigh, Wilmington because it’s so hot down there,” McCoy said. “I think there is a general consensus that tubing up in the mountains— it’s a cooler place.”

In the mountain summers, the water temperatures are perfect—not too cold, not too hot.

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department:

MOUNTAIN LETTERS

How the 1915 flood changed America

BY REBECCA TOLLEY-STOKES

B

efore the Great Flood of 1913, “it had already been a month of frightening weather.” Blizzards covered the Midwest, Tampa suffered a cold spell, and a hurricane hit Georgia and Alabama. So when weather forecasts predicted severe storms passing over the East from North Carolina to Maine nobody knew what to expect, not tornadoes, and certainly not flooding.

Williams’ book chronicles a week that the Great Flood decimated the United States. While the flood is remembered locally, Williams’ research reveals tragedy on a scale that killed more than a thousand across several regions. Stories of the Great Flood remain observable within our national narrative, though the stories die as each generation ages and memory fails. Williams’ seed for his research came from his experience growing up in Ohio and hearing his uncle tell about the 1913 flood, which his uncle was too young to have experienced. He gathered most of his information from

newspaper stories printed at the time of the flood and interviewed relatives of flood survivors. “These are tales of bravery, selflessness, tragedy, and even cowardice, and greed, although this is mostly a story about Americans at their best when Mother Nature was at her worst,” Williams says.

Williams structures the book chronologically so that readers get omniscient 21 century coverage of the disaster as it is happening. As tornadoes and cyclones wind down in the Midwest readers meet Miss Theresa Hammond, a schoolteacher. Williams sets the scene by reporting about her life, her monthly salary, where her trolley deposits her—Main Street being four feet underwater—how Hammond lost her father, a railroad worker, and that she taught orphans because she was orphaned young. The problem in this scene, as Williams outlines, is the St. Marys River in the orphanage’s back yard. The epilogue wraps up each person’s story and compares rescue efforts during the Great Flood to those after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Washed away: How the Great Flood of 1913, America’s most widespread natural disaster, terrorized a nation and changed it forever, by Geoff Williams. New York: Pegasus Books, 2013.

Book lover’s tale a great read

K

eeping Peter Byerly out of a bookshop, or a library, is no easy task. Given his problems with social anxiety, he’d rather be at home solving a crossword puzzle alongside a cup of tea, but his profession as an antiquarian bookseller propels him in and out of bookshops, libraries, and, as one might guess, a good deal of mischief. Upon entering a new bookshop Byerly sniffs each shop’s air of cloth, dust, and leather, operating much like a wine enthusiast inhaling a pinot grigio’s nutty bouquet, though in his case he recalls an emotional jolt from each book, not grapes.

The Hay-on-Wye bookshop is across the ocean from Ridgefield, N.C., his home

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and where his wife, a Welshwoman, Amanda, lies buried in the red clay. The couple met as students at Ridgefield University, where Byerly worked in the academic library. An experience with a wounded book, the Royal Academy catalog, and a peek at the Conservation Room focused his calling and transformed his life: “He felt like an addict who has just discovered an endless supply of the perfect drug.”

Back at the bookshop, a Victorian-era painting bearing eerie resemblance to Amanda falls out of a study of Shakespeare forgeries. As Byerly copes with depression, anxiety, and loss from Amanda’s recent death, solving the mystery of the image’s origins gives him a focus for his energy. He is drawn across Wales to London where he becomes embroiled in answering the age-old academic question of who really authored Shakespeare’s plays?

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 4

With its universal themes of loss and isolation readers can easily identify with Byerly as he embarks upon his adventure.

Keeping up with the storylines poses a small issue, as readers bounce between The Bookman’s Byerly and Amanda in Tale: A novel of 1983 and “currently” in obsession, by 1995. The storyline Charlie Lovett. also concerns a copy New York: Viking, of “Pandosto,” a 1588 2013. work of prose by English author Robert Greene and the source for Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale.”

Lovett’s knack for dialogue, historic details, social context, and personages from the era lend a hearty “plague and tavern” atmosphere to the sixteenth century portions. The work is undoubtedly a pleasurable summer mystery for the bookish.

— Rebecca Tolley-Stokes

“Moving to Deerfield is one of the best things we’ve ever done!”

- Jane & Starbuck, Deerfield residents

It’s a comment we hear often from new Deerfield residents. They delight in our location and their new-found friends, love our state-of-the-art amenities, and feel safe, secure and well cared for by our expert staff.

Call to schedule a visit and learn how you can thrive at Deerfield – in body, mind and spirit.

A N E P I S C O PA L R E T I R E M E N T COMMUNITY

1617 Hendersonville Rd. Asheville, NC (828) 274-1531 press 1 www.deerfieldwnc.org

department:

MOUNTAIN ARTS

Mount Airy, N.C.’s Museum of Regional History explores the traditional arts of fiddle, guitar and banjo making in Southern Appalachia and the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Featured craftsmen are guitar maker Wayne Henderson, fiddle makers Audrey Hash Ham and Chris Testerman, and banjo maker Johnny Gentry.

The exhibit, on display through the end of 2013, offers visitors a hands-on, interactive exploration of the rich history of this traditional craft. Additional exhibits at the museum include a turn-of-the-century general store, a 70-foot scale model railroad that travels from Sanford, N.C., to Kibler Valley in Virginia, and exhibits on Andy Griffith and his heritage, Model T Fords, tobacco barn, textile, moonshine, and winemaking among others.

For more information about the Luthier’s Craft exhibit and the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History, visit northcarolinamuseum.org or call 336.786.4478.

COURTESY BLUE RIDGE NATIONAL HERITAGE AREA

A story of strings

Festival honors the vision of Howard ‘Louie Bluie’ Armstrong

Knoxville actors ensemble Carpetbag Theatre performing selections from their play about Howard Armstrong, “Between A Ballad And A Blues.” PHOTO BY GARY HEATHERLY

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The seventh annual Louie Bluie Music & Arts Festival celebrates the legacy of musician, artist and raconteur Howard Armstrong.

Howard “Louie Bluie” Armstrong (1909-2003) grew up poor in Campbell County, Tenn., and became one of the nation’s finest black string-band musicians as well as a painter, storyteller and master of foreign languages.

“It’s important that we learn about Howard and remember what he achieved,” says says festival co-founder and co-chair Jocelyn Griffo. “His beginnings were humble, but his imagination and his drive led him to succeed in amazing ways which serve as inspiration for all of us and our children today.”

The Sept. 28 festival features three stages of live music, food and craft vendors, children’s entertainment and activities, an art competition for amateur and professional artists, and a juried quilt exhibit. For more information about becoming a vendor, submitting art or quilt entries, or the festival in general visit louiebluie.org or call the Campbell County Chamber of Commerce at 423.566.0329.

The festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Cove Lake State Park in Caryville, Tenn. Admission is free, but a $2 per person or $5 per family donation is requested.

For more information, visit louiebluie.org or call 423.566.0329.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 4

MOUNTAIN HERITAGE DAY RETURNS TO WCU The 39th annual Mountain Heritage Day, held on Sept. 28 on the campus of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, N.C., is a combination oldfashioned mountain fair and showcase for Southern Appalachian music, arts, dance and song, with the atmosphere of a big family reunion.

The free festival features three stages of live music and other performances, more than 100 booths of crafters, Cherokee stickball demonstrations, shape note singing, a chainsaw competition, and antique car show among other activities.

For more information, visit wcu.edu or call 828.227.3193.

First Friday each Month 6-9 pm May-December WAYNESVILLEGALLERYASSOCIATION.COM

DONATED PHOTO

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Funded in part by Haywood County Tourism Development Authority 1.800.334.9036 • visitNCsmokies.com

John Fowler will present traditional storytelling and song at Chimney Rock State Park.

CHIMNEY ROCK WELCOMES ‘THIS OLD PORCH’ PRODUCER Chimney Rock State Park, located near Lake Lure, features authentic Appalachian storyteller and musician John Fowler Aug. 31 and Sept. 1-2.

Fowler presents a rich anthology of Appalachian stories and songs collected from generations of Carolina old-timers and storytellers.

On stage, his performances for all ages are hilarious, creative, energetic, and historically informative. He is a master harmonica player, has won awards at national banjo and guitar competitions, and co-produces the popular old-time music show, “This Old Porch” on N.C. public radio WNCW 88.7.

Visit chimneyrockpark.com or call 800.277.9611.

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Put the kettle on

department:

SARAH E. KUCHARSKI PHOTOS

MOUNTAIN CUISINE

Comfort food in the Secret City Jackson Square was the town center of Oak Ridge, Tenn. During the Manhattan Project, workers lined up for their paychecks, went to the movies, and shopped. In more modern proportions, Jackson Square seems small and quaint, but during World War II it was a gathering place open around the clock.

Dean’s Restaurant and Bakery is a cornerstone of today’s Jackson Square.

From outside, it’s not much to look at, but inside wooden floors give the space a warm, homey feel that permeates through the restaurant’s square meal menu.

Expect to pay $10 for the traditional “meat and three” style dinner, which features made from scratch, Southern cooking

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They say that a good woman is like tea—the longer she’s in hot water the stronger she gets. At Camella’s Remember When tea parlor in Abingdon, Va., women of all kinds and tea connoisseurs in general are invited to sip from an interesting selection of fine teas while enjoying afternoon, cream, or sandwich tea service.

Tea service includes the choice of two pots of tea.

There are standards such as English Breakfast Black and Jasmine Green, but don’t shy away from trying the more unique blends. Frank Sinatra inspired Camella’s signature tea, Blue Eyes, which carries a blend of apple, hibiscus, and caramel flavors and a rosy hue. Night of the Iguana Chocolate Chai is sweet and spicy, while Earl Gray de la Crème is a truly exceptional variation on the bergamot-scented brew, and Versailles Lavender Earl Gray is heralded as one of Camella’s favorites.

Afternoon tea, served from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., also brings a three-tiered tray with warm scones, Devonshire cream, lemon curd, finger sandwiches and canapés, a petite soup de jour or salad, and finally dessert. Cream tea and sandwich tea, served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., are lighter services, splitting sweet and savory tastes.

The parlor is small, so reservations are recommended. Service for private parties and special occasions can accommodate up to 20.

In addition to tea service, Camella’s also has a shop with loose leaf teas, tea pots, spices, and a small boutique with Victorian era inspired wares.

Shop online at camellasrememberwhen.com or call 276.676.0089.

including barbecue, fried catfish, turkey and dressing, country-fried steak, and specials such as chicken pot pie and steaks on the weekend. Dishes are seasoned and cooked well with an occasional twist—the grilled broccoli alone is worthy of asking for second servings.

But don’t forget about the bakery side of Dean’s, though it would be hard to miss the pie bar. The bar is exactly what it sounds like—a bar, for pie or perhaps cake, meant to be eaten while standing up.

Dessert will cost at least half as much as dinner, but it’s worth it, as evidenced by the steady stream of customers who come in just for a little something sweet.

Dean’s is open every day except Sunday, and it’s a great Saturday lunch spot, given that the Oak Ridge Farmers Market is just across the street.

865.481.2071.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 4

A very good night for Frog’s Leap Public House COURTESY OF FROG’S LEAP PUBLIC HOUSE

Frog’s Leap Public House in downtown Waynesville, N.C., took top honors at the 2013 Mélangé of the Mountains culinary competition with first place awards in the salad, seafood, and dessert categories, as well as overall Culinary Excellence.

Frog’s Leap is chef Kaighn B. Raymond’s first solo restaurant—he and wife, Toni, relocated Following are directions for assembling and plating FLPH’s to Waynesville after 20 Fried Green Tomato Sandwiches. It is advised that each years of running fine component of the recipe be prepared prior to assembly. dining establishments in Slice Green Tomatoes ¼ inch thick. Soak in Buttermilk. Heat Georgia, Tennessee, and frying oil to 350. Coat tomatoes with corn flour mix very well, beyond. let sit in mix for a few minutes.

Fry tomatoes until golden brown, if breading is not sticking, Chef Kaighn shares his coat them in plain cornstarch then buttermilk again before winning recipe for Fried flour mix. Place 1 tbsp (or more) pimiento cheese on a slice of Green Tomato fried tomato and cover with another slice of fried tomato, use “Sandwiches.” skewers to keep together.

Technique

visit:

44 Church St., Waynesville, N.C. frogsleappublichouse.com or 828.456.1930.

Parmesan Grit Cake

4 cups Logan Turnpike grits ½ gallon whole milk ¼ gallon water ½ lb butter Place grit cake on plate, place piquillo-Tabasco sauce as 1 cup cream desired on plate. Place two “sandwiches” leaning on grit cake.

1 /8 cup salt Corn Flour Mix Dress arugula and place between sandwiches on grit cake.

2 tsp white pepper 1 lb self-rising corn flour Garnish with shaved Parmesan and green onions.

1 cup grated parmesan 4 oz. corn starch Rinse Grits. Place in medium 2 tbsp corn meal sauce pot with milk and 2 tbsp granulated onion water. Cook on low heat until the grits soak 2 tbsp granulated garlic Piquillo-Tabasco Sauce up most of liquid, at least an hour. Stir 4 tbsp blackening spice ½ pound salted butter, softened often. Add cream, butter, salt and pepper, 2 tbsp kosher salt ¼ yellow onion, rough chopped mix in well. Cook until grits become soft 1 tbsp ground black pepper 2 cups minced, roasted piquillo and begins to thicken like oatmeal. Remove Combine all and mix well. peppers, or roasted red from heat, add parmesan. While very hot 1 tsp kosher salt pour into ½ sheet pan, spread with spatula.

Pimiento Cheese ½ tsp white pepper Place a sheet of parchment on top. Smooth 1 lb cream cheese ½ teaspoon smoked top using a second ½ sheet pan, refrigerate 1 cup mayonnaise (Duke’s or Hellman’s) sweet paprika until set completely. Cut into squares and 1 lb smoked white cheddar, shredded 3 tbsp red wine vinegar sear in very hot saute pan with additional oil. ¾ lb yellow cheddar, shredded 1 tbsp chopped garlic 1 lb piquillo peppers or roasted red peppers 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce 2 tsp mustard powder 1 tsp Tabasco 1 tsp garlic, granulated 1 tsp onion, granulated 1/2 tsp ground black pepper ½ tsp smoked salt 1 tbsp red wine vinegar 1 tsp smoked paprika (sweet or hot) Warm cream cheese to room temperature.

Combine all ingredients except cheddars and mix well. Carefully fold in cheddars.

2 tsp Tabasco, or more 1 tbsp oil, canola/olive blend Heat a small sauce pan and add oil, heat to smoke point. Add onions, cook for 2 minutes, reduce heat if necessary. Add garlic, cook 30 seconds. Do not burn. Add peppers, cook until hot. Add vinegar, cook 1 minute, remove from heat. Place mixture in blender while hot. Add all ingredients except butter, put top on blender and turn on. While running add butter in small pieces, work quickly. Check seasoning, add sugar if you want it sweeter. Use at room temperature.

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Baby Arugula Salad French Vinaigrette ¼ cup Sherry vinegar ¼ cup red wine vinegar 2 tbsp Dijon mustard 2 tsp garlic 2 tsp shallot 1 ½ cups canola/olive oil blend 2 tsp kosher salt 1 tsp ground black pepper 1 tbsp water Combine all but oil in blender, blend. Slowly add oil while running to emulsify.

29

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DON MCGOWAN PHOTO

Romance of Mountain Rivers

BY JIM CASADA

32

SMOKY SMOKY MOUNTAIN MOUNTAIN LIVING LIVING VOLUME VOLUME13 13••ISSUE ISSUE44

T

he life’s blood of the high country, rivers wander across the mountain landscape like laughter lines etched on an old man’s face. Theirs is a storied past, for major waterways form sparkling threads woven through the entire fabric of human history in the southern Appalachians.

For the Cherokee, rivers were the center of life not only in an economic sense but culturally and spiritually as well. “Going to the water” was an integral part of the Cherokee lifestyle, with daily cleansing being a ritual for children in their first two years of life and for those of all ages on a regular basis. Similarly, the myths and tribal lore of the Cherokee, not to mention their history, revolve around rivers.

Streams provided sustenance in the form of fish, mussels, and eels; an ideal place to hunt game; and fertile bottomlands for corn and other crops. Their banks were logical gathering places for prehistoric Americans. The Cherokees built their towns along major mountain rivers and later European settlers adopted a similar practice.

Rivers also provided passageways to distant, alluring places, and one of the grand mysteries of Appalachian streams is the fashion in which so many of them—notably the Little Tennessee, Pigeon, French Broad, and Nolichucky—seem to run the wrong way. That is to say, they course downstream towards and through mountains of higher elevation than the ones in which they originate. Whatever their direction though, rivers provided a means of passage for war, trade, expansion, and discovery.

Although there was some travel along the lower reaches of Appalachia’s larger streams in canoes, homemade flat-bottomed boats, and even small barges, rapids resulting from rivers’ courses through rugged terrain generally discouraged navigation. Rivers did, however, float untold millions of board feet of timber to downstream mills during the logging boom in the period from about 1890-1930. For the most part, though, it was hunting and trading paths, marked by the Cherokee in their distinctive manner long before Europeans resorted to blazes, which defined river-based travel. This foot traffic, in turn, led to the selection of primary routes for early roads and railways.

In the highlands of the Appalachians there is no clear dividing line or definition between what constitutes a creek and the size necessary to attain river status. Some, such as the lower reaches of the Little Tennessee (now flooded by reservoirs), the Nolichucky, and the French Broad, were powerful, expansive flows. Others, such as the Oconaluftee and Nantahala, were boisterous upstarts, relatively small in width but fast of flow with rapids and runs as their hall-

marks. All had charm and their own distinguishing characteristics, and all have tales to tell of the humans who lived along their banks. The beginnings of such stories lie in the actual names of the rivers.

THE ENCHANTMENT OF STREAM ETYMOLOGY Rich in vowels, mountain streams bearing Native American names roll musically off the tongue like rivulets running over rocks. Compare, for example, the linguistic beauty of Nantahala, Watauga, Hiwassee, Tallulah, Tuckasegee, Ocoee, Nolichucky, Little Tennessee, and Oconaluftee with the comparative blandness of Pigeon, French Broad, or Linville. Anyone with an ounce of soul, a scintilla of spirit, has to prefer the Cherokee names given to streams.

The appeal of names derived from the Cherokee language involves more than the magic of their sounds. In many cases their etymology and origin are as enjoyable as they are expressive.

Also, if a moment of personal intrusion is permissible, how sad it is that modern anglers, kayakers, and businesses are inclined to use trite and tasteless shortening of the originals such as Tuck and Luftee. Who can deny the loss of wonder in those truncated, emasculated words? Where’s the romance or appreciation for linguistic loveliness in such terseness?

The appeal of names derived from the Cherokee language involves more than the magic of their sounds. In many cases their etymology and origin are as enjoyable as they are expressive.

Probably the best-known is Nantahala, which means “mid-day sun.” As anyone familiar with the stream’s flow through a deep gorge shouldered by steep mountains will know, even in the height of summer heavenly rays penetrate its mists and mountains for only a few hours, providing but a fleeting kiss of warmth before disappearing behind dark ridgelines.

Of all mountain rivers, the Tuckasegee WWW.SMLIV.COM

means the most to this writer. Growing up within a few hundred yards of its banks, and with the home of my paternal grandparents resting right alongside its flow just outside of Bryson City, it was the playground of my marvelously misspent youth. Whether sitting on its shady shoreline in summer waiting for a bobber to bounce; setting traps for muskrats and ‘coons in spots at river’s edge in winter; skipping rocks at Devil’s Dip; wading its shoals, pole in hand, in search of catfish; or running riot with other boys on one of its islands, the Tuckasegee provided me countless moments of joy. It lent itself to a relaxed, easygoing lifestyle that is the special preserve of youth.

In that context the Cherokee etymology for this stream, which flowed endlessly through my boyhood dreams, is singularly apt. Tuckasegee means “crawling terrapin” or “moves slow, like a turtle.” By the standards of mountain rivers that description is an apt one, and merely pausing to ponder along the river brings to mind a ponderous mud turtle easing off a rock or slider turtles slipping from logs into the safety of water when they first sense danger.

The word Oconaluftee derives from a Cherokee expression meaning “by the river,” and the stream was (and remains) an integral part of tribal culture and folkways. There were major settlements in the bottomlands known as Birdtown, which 18th century naturalist William Bartram described in his Travels, near the river’s confluence with the Tuckasegee; in the Big Cove region on Raven Fork, the largest feeder of the Oconaluftee; in what became known as Enloe/Floyd Bottoms where today the Cherokee school complex is situated on one side of the river and the North Carolina gateway to the Smokies, complete with its visitor center, museum, and pioneer village, on the other; and of course today’s town of Cherokee. The Oconaluftee and its feeders were always places of abode, along with areas to fish and hunt in the more rugged headwaters, for the Cherokee. Even today, the adventurous soul who penetrates the remote fastness of “The Gorges” on Raven Fork or the region known as Three Forks can’t help but sense a linkage with the peoples for whom this was the original highland homeland.

Other place names have their own charm.

Watauga means “beautiful water,” and the river definitely meets that standard. Ocoee comes from “wild apricot,” the term which both Indians and European settlers used to describe the fruit of the lovely passion flower (also known as maypops). Nolichucky means “spruce tree place,” and there was a Cherokee settlement near the present-day Tennessee town of Jonesborough which also had that name. Hiwassee 33

Ocoee Whitewater Center, home of the 1996 Olympic whitewater events. U.S. FOREST SERVICE PHOTO

was the word for “meadow,” and there were two Cherokee towns bearing the name of the river where they were located. The origin of Tallulah is shrouded in the mists of time but quite possibly comes from “talulu,” the word for the croaking of a frog. In short, to gaze at a gazetteer while delving into the origin of place names for mountain rivers is to be transported into realms of wonder.

THE RENAISSANCE OF MOUNTAIN RIVERS Historically clear and clean, the pristine nature of mountain rivers changed dramatically for the worse over the course of two generations spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Most of the damage was associated, in one fashion or another, with logging and use of a goodly

portion of that timber in production of paper. Cut and slash logging, splash dams, denuding of vast areas of forest, raging fires in the detritus left behind after the timber was harvested led to erosion, the warming of coldwater streams, fish-destroying siltation, and general devastation. To be sure, a growing human presence and far too little attention to environmental damage from factories, human waste, and other sources also figured prominently in the ongoing degradation of the region’s streams.

Perhaps the sorriest and saddest of all the stream sagas was what happened on the Tuckasegee and Pigeon rivers. The paper plants operated

by Mead in Sylva and Champion Fiber in Canton belched acid-laced pollutants in quantities which overwhelmed these modest-sized streams.

As a result, once clear, lovely rivers ran blacker than a hundred midnights.

Worse still, their Stygian darkness carried deadly toxins. So bad were matters that one small town on the Pigeon River came to be locally known as

River stories abound in Appalachia There is a surprisingly rich literature associated with the rivers of Appalachia. That sparkling sage of the mountains, Wilma Dykeman, immortalized her beloved French Broad in a volume in the “Rivers of America” series. Husband and wife team Alberta and Carson Brewer’s Valley So Wild: A Folk History (1975) chronicles the human history and rugged grandeur of the Little Tennessee watershed in a fine book which deserves to be better known. The tragic environmental tale of the Pigeon River is told in persuasive, deeply researched fashion by Richard Bartlett in Troubled Waters: Champion International and the Pigeon River Controversy (1995). That grand chronicler of the Smokies, John Parris, includes a wealth of river legend and lore in his books (all of which comprise collections of columns which originally appeared in the Asheville Citizen-Times). They include Roaming the Mountains (1955), My Mountains, My People (1957), Mountain Bred (1967), and These Storied Mountains (1972). Although of the dry-as-dust genre one expects of bureaucratically generated reports, The Fontana Project (1950) provides a wealth of information about the area flooded by this reservoir built during World War I. Duane Oliver’s Along the River: People and Places (1998) is an impressive photographic history of the area flooded by Fontana Lake (lower Nantahala and Tuckasegee Rivers near where they joined the Little Tennessee as well as a score and more miles of the latter stream). Many of the books devoted to the life of Daniel Boone and other pioneers of westward expansion delve deeply into the role rivers played in breaching the mountainous barrier which is the main spine of the Appalachians.

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 4

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Did you know? y The French Broad River was given its name as a way of distinguishing it from the English Broad River, which today is known simply as the Broad. The two Broads flow in opposite directions, with the French Broad bound for the Mississippi River and the English Broad for the Atlantic. y John Sevier, the first governor of Tennessee and the founder of the first European settlement in that state, was widely known as Nolichucky Jack.

A near contemporary of his, Davy Crockett, was born on the banks of the Nolichucky. y Over its course, the Little Tennessee River in its early stages flows almost due north for scores of miles, it then takes a westward turn, again for many a mile, before once more turning north to join the Tennessee River. In other words, it is a “wrong way” river both in the traditional sense of rivers seldom running north and also in terms of breaching mountains higher than those in which it originates. y Fontana Dam, which impounded the Little Tennessee during World War II, is the highest dam in the eastern United States. Its waters inundated a number of towns and villages including Bushnell, Forney, Judson, Japan, Fontana, and Little Stecoah and occasioned the removal of thousands of residents and gravesites. y All of the biggest rivers in the Southern Appalachians are wrong way streams which seem to defy geographical logic in trending westwards against the main spine of that mountain chain.

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Viewers gather on the Nantahala River for a kayaking competition. NOC PHOTO

“Widowville,” and studies left no doubt about the presence of polychlorinated biphenyl—a toxic fluid used in transformers, capacitors, and electric motors—and the disappearance of fish species requiring clean water to exist, leading to general stream deterioration. Exacerbating matters in these rivers, and others, was the release of raw or partially treated sewage from everything from privies to public “treatment” plants.

Growing public awareness of pollution, together with tightened federal standards, eventually led to major clean-ups. As early as the mid-1950s, Wilma Dykeman had brought attention to one afflicted river in her landmark book, The French Broad. That publication, along with growing general awareness of the manner in which humans were fouling their own nest, led to widespread changes. Creation of a federal entity, the Environmental Protection Agency, hastened needed changes. On the Tuckasegee the Mead plant ceased operation and was replaced by the far cleaner, more efficient Jackson Paper.

Today the Tuckasegee, while still prone to siltation after heavy rains, flows far cleaner than once was the case. The Tuckasegee Watershed Association (there are similar groups for the Little Tennessee, French

Broad, and other regional rivers) offers protective oversight, removal of a dam at Dillsboro means a greater length of free-flowing stream, and fish such as smallmouth bass, redeyes, muskies, and brown trout have returned to cleaner, healthier waters.

The saga of the polluted Pigeon is even more striking, inasmuch as it involved major political fights, and bitter controversy that divided citizens in the town of Canton into adversarial factions. Eventually though, paper-making giant Champion International pulled in its horns, and locals exhibited mountain gumption at its finest in saving jobs and salvaging the natural world with the advent of employee managed Blue Ridge Paper Company now known as Evergreen Packaging.

Today both the Tuckasegee and pigeon offer striking examples of nature’s ability, given half a chance, to heal. Thousands of rafters and kayakers run their courses each year, local guides earn a livelihood from visiting fishermen, their waters have changed from coal black to clear blue, and the Pigeon has become a world-class smallmouth bass destination.

Elsewhere, raw sewage is no longer a factor, and rivers throughout the mountains have become

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 4

cleaner, although steep slope building and associated problems with erosion and persistent local resistance to environmental regulations mean ample room for improvement still remains. Closely paralleling this welcome change has been growing recognition of the economic value of ecotourism, and today recreational use of the rivers figures significantly in the livelihoods of many local residents. The Nantahala and Ocoee offer world-class kayaking as well as being renowned whitewater rafting destinations, The Tuckasegee and Nantahala were part of the venue for the national competitive fly-fishing championship a year ago, and in the warmer months watercraft adorn mountain rivers like a massive, brilliantly colored hatch of giant-sized insects. Reborn from an environmental perspective, these rivers have also been reinvented in terms of what they mean to mankind.

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TIDBITS FROM THE PAST As we have seen, the region’s history has, from the earliest nomadic presence on through Native American settlements, the arrival of the first European inhabitants, and on down to the present, been inextricably linked to its rivers. In large measure it is a tale of countless generations of hardy folks, first Indians and then those of European origin, living in harmony with mountain waters. They found not only physical but spiritual sustenance from their waters, and in light of that the fact that land in proximity to rivers has always been cherished is readily understandable. Talk with mountain folks who are tied closely to the land about what features of the Appalachians move them most deeply and invariably, once they pause to ponder a bit, their response will focus on two features of the landscape—high mountains and rivers in the valleys below.

Thus it is and always has been, and maybe a suitable way to conclude comes from offering a sampling of the manner in which rivers loom large in the history of the high country and its people. Individually these tidbits of trivia do little other than capture our attention. Collectively they serve as exemplars of the manner in which rivers are the soul of the southern Appalachians and its many ranges—the Black Mountains and the Blue Ridge, the Unicois and the Unakas, the Smokies and the Nantahalas.

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37

Rev. Kermit Reese, then the pastor of Saluda Hill Baptist Church in South Carolina, about to baptize young boy Steve Hardin and Bunk B. Hendricks in the Saluda River.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MISSY HENDRICKS YOUNG AND TONYA VICKERY.

Called down river TO THE

BY BILL STUDENC

G

eorge Frizzell has more than just a professional interest in the photographs of river baptisms that are part of the assortment of historic artifacts he oversees as curator of Special Collections at Western Carolina University’s Hunter Library. That’s because Frizzell himself was immersed in the cold waters of the Tuckaseegee River as a young boy growing up in Jackson County in the 1960s, and he has written about the subject of baptism as an adult for a historical record of Little Savannah Baptist Church that he authored in 1994 for

38

the church’s 80th anniversary.

“I was baptized in the Tuckaseegee River near Rolling Green community where the Ashe Bridge, which is now gone, crossed the river from the old two-lane Highway 107 to Old Settlement Road,” Frizzell recounted.

“For some reason I recall wearing a white shirt. Never having learned to swim, it was a startling experience to suddenly be submerged. My most vivid memories are of being totally under water while being held by the pastor and another church member and the bright light of the sun coming through the river water and my closed eyelids.”

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 4

THE SUMMER BREEZE MADE RIPPLES ON THE POND,

RATTLED THROUGH THE REEDS AND THE WILLOW TREES BEYOND. DADDY IN HIS GOOD HAT, MAMA IN HER SUNDAY DRESS WATCHED WITH PRIDE, AS I STOOD THERE IN THE WATER UP TO MY CHEST. AND THE PREACHER SPOKE ABOUT THE CLEANSING BLOOD, I SANK MY TOES INTO THAT EAST TENNESSEE MUD. — “Baptism,” by Kenny Chesney

Frizzell would have been 12 or 13 years old (he cannot remember if it occurred before or after his birthday that summer) at the time of his baptism in 1967. That was the same year that the Beatles released their groundbreaking record Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, an album whose track “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” with its imagery of rivers and dazzling lights, incidentally has nothing to do with baptism, unlike the lyrics of country music star Kenny Chesney’s song “Baptism.

Baptisms in outdoor bodies of water once were commonplace.

In fact, they were the only game in town in the earliest days of the Christian faith, long before the development of such modern trappings as large church buildings with often-ornate baptismal pools, not to mention prior to the onset of indoor plumbing.

Outdoor baptisms have remained fairly common in the American South, in part because of the slower rate at which those modernizations came to the region, and in part because of a more traditional mentality when it comes to religious beliefs and practices. And, outdoor baptisms seem to be making somewhat of a comeback in popularity—especially in the Smoky Mountain region, where the wide varieties of rivers, creeks, lakes and ponds combined with the spirituality that can be found in natural surroundings of the mountains readily lend themselves to baptisms in the great outdoors.

BAPTISM 101 In the Christian faith, baptism is a sacred rite in which water is used to symbolize the religious purification or consecration of an individual and to represent that person’s admission as a member of the church. Traditions and beliefs about baptism vary greatly, depending upon the denomination. The act of baptism washes away sin, according to some denominations, while others treat baptism almost like an exorcism that casts off evil spirits. Some denominations believe that the act of baptism alone does not wash away sin or eradicate evil spirits, but that it is an important public profession of one’s personal faith and salvation. Baptisms come in several varieties, including by submersion in a large body of water as the candidate is totally immersed—or “dunked”— beneath the surface, by partial immersion as the candidate kneels or stands in water while water is poured over his or her head, or by the sprinkling of water on the candidate’s forehead.

Scholars believe the Christian tradition traces its roots back to the baptism of the prophet John the Baptist, whose own baptism is recorded in all four gospels of the Bible, said Jeffrey Vickery, instructor of religion at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, N.C. John most likely was influenced by the practices of ascetic Jewish communities such as the Essenes at Qumran, who practiced ritual immersion in water as an act of religious cleansing as early as the second century B.C. Most scholars agree that John baptized Jesus in the Jordan River, and all four Christian gospels record Jesus’ baptism as the initial event of his public ministry. “For Christians, baptism then became—and still is—an act of obedient imitation of Jesus’ baptism,” said Vickery, who also serves as co-pastor at Cullowhee Baptist Church along with his wife, Tonya Vickery. “It gives affirmation publicly that the one being baptized is beginning a life of following God’s new way of living through the teachings of Jesus.”

Because John’s baptisms were carried out in the deep waters of the Jordan, scholars believe he was practicing “immersion baptism.” In fact, scholars say the New Testament refers to no other mode of baptism beyond immersion. Different methods of the rite began to develop and, by the second and third centuries, various church manuals contained guidance on baptism that includes instructions for baptism by “pouring.” Immersion baptism, however, has remained the preferred method of baptism for the Baptist denomination, Vickery said.

Denominations such as the Disciples of Christ and various Anabaptist traditions—Society of Friends, Mennonites and Moravians, among them—also practice immersion baptism, which often is referred to as “believer’s baptism,” he said.

Over time, the practice of conducting baptism outdoors in natural bodies of water has become less commonplace, and today the rite is performed predominantly indoors. The historical movement away from outdoor baptism likely occurred in conjunction with the construction of the first buildings as “churches,” the earliest of which is traced to A.D. 250, said Vickery, who typically performs river baptisms only when requested by the person being baptized. “As the grand cathedrals of Christendom took center aisle in most cities, the practice of baptism moved into these centers of worship,” he said.

“Architecture, then, made it a natural movement and perhaps inevitable, although its practice may have been confined to

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urban Christian settings. By practice, as infant baptism by sprinkling became the normative mode of baptism by the late fourth century, less water was necessary for baptism and this aided in bringing the sacrament indoors.” Some “fancy” urban churches even have heated and chlorinated water in their baptismal pools, as well as changing rooms for those being baptized.

Howard Hanger, pastor of Jubilee Church in Asheville (which caters mostly to people who do not particularly enjoy traditional organized religion), has performed only one river baptism in his years as a minister. “At Jubilee, we see baptism as a welcoming into the world and into our lives.

We do not see it as a cleansing of original sin or anything that gets you into heaven. We see it as a blessing for the child and an encouragement to live as he or she is created to live,” Hanger said. “We always tell Parker Arrington prepares to be baptized. DONATED FAMILY PHOTO the story of when Jesus was baptized and when he came up out of the water, saw the heavens opened and heard a voice that said, ‘This is my beloved child in whom I am well pleased.’ In our baptisms, we express the hope that the child will hear that the rest of their lives.”

In some quarters, however, outdoor baptism has remained an active practice, sometimes out of necessity because the relatively smaller size of rural churches left little room for indoor baptistries, sometimes out of the “believer’s baptism” preference for moving water. In fact, for some merely being outdoors was not sufficient.

In his history of Little Savannah Baptist Church, Frizzell quotes from Annie Hoyle’s “Historical Highlights” of Little Savannah Baptist Church, which described the church’s baptismal pool: “The ‘pool’ referred to a number of instances in the minutes was the concrete baptismal pool built near the creek — Howard Hanger, Jubilee Church where it could be filled with water flowing from the stream when it was needed for baptismal services…It is said that some who River and the pool did not measure up to this were baptized in the pool had some requirement. However, their faith was so misgivings about the complete fulfillment of strong that they did not let this doubt keep all the Biblical requirements since Jesus was them out of the baptismal waters.” Records baptized in the flowing waters of the Jordan from 1918 indicate that the church’s finances

“We always tell the story of when Jesus was baptized and when he came up out of the water, saw the heavens opened and heard a voice that said, ‘This is my beloved child in whom I am well pleased.’ In our baptisms, we express the hope that the child will hear that the rest of their lives.”

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 4

included $50 for construction of baptismal pool.

Fast-forward nearly 100 years, and the recently formed Summit Church, a nondenominational church that serves “the spiritual needs of a postmodern generation” (primarily 25 to 39 years old) in Jackson County, N.C., is conducting baptisms the old-fashioned way. The church, founded seven years ago, has a membership of about 200, said Jim Dean, pastor.

“Most of our members have been baptized outside. This is their choice. We meet in the gymnasium at Cullowhee Valley School, so we do not have the facilities needed. Cullowhee Baptist has allowed us to use their indoor baptistry for those wanting to be baptized in calmer or warmer waters,” Dean said.

“I think most of our members enjoy the outdoors and like the natural setting of an outdoor baptism. It is beautiful. It is natural. It is more reflective of our young adult population.”

Dean has conducted baptisms in a private lake and at several places along the Tuckaseigee River, most often at East LaPorte.

People from outside Western North Carolina are amused and amazed that the church performs outdoor baptisms, Dean said. “Their assumption is that our practice is quaint or outdated. Most churches today have a built-in baptistry in their building, but outdoor baptism is more common in our area.

Several churches do outdoor baptisms, so there is a social custom to it. For our church we will probably continue to do them outdoors,” he said. “Our congregation sees it as the desired method and practice. Baptism is a testimony of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. It also reflects our death to our old self and a resurrection to a new life and new beginning, so we baptize most people by full immersion. Some of this also reflects getting back to the earliest Christian practices of baptism in the early church.”

C’MON IN, THE WATER IS FINE One of American pop culture’s most enduring images of immersion baptism is found in a pivotal scene from the classic 2000

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41

reminds Delmar and Pete that while the preacher and the congregation might have forgiven them for their transgressions, baptism alone won’t do it in the eyes of the law: “Even if that did put you square with the Lord, the State of Mississippi’s a little more hard-nosed.”)

“Oh Brother, Where Art Thou” to the contrary, outdoor baptisms are not just a “Southern thing,” however. They take place around the world. During his 27 years as a U.S. Air Force chaplain, the late Ray Riddle conducted baptisms in numerous exotic bodies of water, said his son, Weaverville resident Tim Riddle. “He did them off the coast of Iceland near the Arctic Circle, off the coast of Vietnam in the shark-infested China Sea, in the Ganges in India, in the Swift River in Massachusetts, in the Cane and South Toe rivers in Yancey County as a teenaged minister (he first preached at the age of 14), off the coast of South Carolina near Charleston, in the South Pacific near Brisbane, Australia,

film “O Brother, Where Art Thou.” Ulysses Everett McGill (played by George Clooney) escapes from prison in the post-Depression Deep South, literally dragging two of his chain-gang with him—Pete (John Turturro) and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson)—to find $1 million that Everett stole and buried on land about to be flooded for a hydroelectric project.

On the lam, they stumble across a mass baptism in a Mississippi river. Delmar is moved to join in, pushing his way through the congregation to the front of the line, where the preacher immerses him beneath the water. A sopping-wet Delmar returns to the river’s edge. “Well that’s it, boys. I’ve been redeemed. The preacher’s done warshed away all my sins and transgressions. It’s the straight and narrow from here on out, and heaven everlasting’s my reward,” Delmar says, to which a skeptical Everett retorts, “Delmar, what are you talking about? We’ve got bigger fish to fry.”

“I think people getting baptized outdoors feel a bit more adventurous, bold or maybe even sacrificial and maybe more memorable.”

— Erin Miller, Foster Seventh-Day Adventist Church associate pastor

Baptism near Asheville, N.C., circa 1920s.

PHOTO COURTESY OF WCU SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

“The preacher says all my sins is warshed away, including that Piggly Wiggly I knocked over in Yazoo,” Delmar responds.

“I thought you said you was innocent of those charges?” Everett asks.

“Well I was lyin’,” Delmar says. “And the preacher says that that sin’s been warshed away, too. Neither God nor man’s got nothin’ on me now. C’mon in boys, the water is fine!”

And Pete, also wanting his sins absolved, rushes forward into the water. (Later, Everett 42

and in the Pacific Ocean off Guam,” said Riddle the younger. Incidentally, Riddle himself was baptized neither outdoors nor by his father. His baptism occurred at Mountain View Baptist Church in Black Mountain, N.C., with his father as a spectator rather than a participant. “I was 18. I was resistant to the formality, the ‘have-to’ of it all. My true belief is that salvation comes through a spiritual decision between you and God, so I consented to baptism out of the need to SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 4

confirm my decision to others, not to myself,” he said, adding that he does not regret not being baptized outdoors. “I don’t believe there are any valid issues with natural baptism, except for those who don’t like cold water, mud and all the things that can float around in a natural body of water. Hopefully folks can weigh the natural factors against the spiritual and make the right choice.”

The right choice for the individual is important for baptisms at Foster Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Asheville, said Erin Miller, associate pastor at the church for 15 years who now works as a hospice chaplain.

“During my years as a pastor, most of the baptisms I did took place in the baptismal tank in the church,” said Miller, who volunteers at Foster on weekends. “We were very intentional about these being unique and special. Every once in a while someone would want to have their baptism in a certain outdoor place. Foster has always been very flexible about accommodating a person’s preferences for baptism. If someone got baptized outside and would share pictures, they would be shared during the worship service the next week so the whole church family could celebrate with the newly baptized person.”

FEELING CLOSEST TO GOD And it seems that a growing number of people are making the choice to be baptized outdoors, at least in Western North Carolina.

“I do think the postmodern generations, who do not like traditions for traditions’ sake, are wanting to get back to the original practice and mode of baptism,” said Dean, of the Summit Church. “Our area is conducive to this because we have easy access to lakes, creeks and streams and most of our folks like the outdoors and natural setting to begin with. Outdoor baptism just more adequately reflects who our congregation is.”

The warmer Southern climate also helps accommodate outdoor baptisms, he said. “We have had a few hardy souls who wanted to be baptized immediately after becoming a

Baptism ceremony in rural Jackson County about 1940, possibly taken at Blackwood Lumber Company’s operations in East LaPorte.

PHOTO COURTESY OF WCU SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

Christian and we have been in the Tuckaseigee in February and March,” he said.

“Others felt like they would wait until the summer and the water was warmer.”

Miller has participated in the baptisms of twin boys who wanted to be baptized on their 12th birthdays at a nearby lake where they spent most of their summers, the recent baptism of a teenage girl at a farm pond in Leicester, and the baptism of her own son, Jake, at age 10, at a small lake where the family hikes frequently. “Jake is 13 now. When I asked him recently why he wanted to get baptized outside, he quickly replied, ‘I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love the outdoors,’” she said. “I think more and more people will choose an outdoor baptism in a place that is special to them. So many of us feel closest to God when we are in beautiful nature, so that makes sense.”

Miller agrees that outdoor baptisms are making a comeback, of sorts. “I think it may

be part of the feeling that your baptism is a personal, spiritual choice that needs to reflect who you are, rather than a church or denominational statement,” she said.

“Outdoor baptisms are less ‘comfortable,’ there is no heated tank or immediate bathroom available. I think people getting baptized outdoors feel a bit more adventurous, bold or maybe even sacrificial and maybe more memorable.”

To be sure, outdoor baptisms can be memorable. Frizzell’s history of Little Savannah Baptist recounts the story of one baptismal service where the candidates for baptism ventured too close to the edge of the pool and fell in before it was their turn. “The pastor did not let this ‘ducking’ take the place of the regular service; so, they were once again immerced (sic) in the cold water.” Frizzell also described services conducted during weather so cold that church members first had to break open the ice on the impoundment of the WWW.SMLIV.COM

manmade outdoor baptismal pool so that the candidate could be immersed.

It’s not just winter weather that can come into play with outdoors baptisms. Vickery, the religion instructor who also is pastor at Cullowhee Baptist, recalls a summer thunderstorm rolling in as he was baptizing a young woman at Standing Indian Campground; she had selected the site because of childhood memories there with her grandfather. Dean said he typically has a deacon assist with the baptisms he conducts, because of the running water and slick rocks beneath the surface of the Tuckaseigee. “One baptism, I slipped on a moss-covered rock while baptizing a young lady and I ended up spinning around and falling down into the water. The assisting gentleman was able to finish the task as I was under water,” he said.

“We have also encountered a curious snake.”

Fortunately, the snake swam on by, Dean said.

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45

Cherokee fish weirs Portals to the past with promise for the future

BY DON HENDERSHOT

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F

ish weirs are structures built within a stream or river or at the edge of tidal lagoons designed to route fish either to a particular area, like shallows or into a trap where they can be captured. Paddlers, fishermen, or those who have enjoyed a cool swimming hole, have probably seen a fish weir—though they may not have recognized it.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 4

By the late 1800s, native peoples were less transient (right), and many villages were established close to water sources that allowed for fishing.

FROM THE BOOK BY THE NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, NORTH CAROLINA AND ITS RESOURCES (RALEIGH: WINSTON, M.I. & J.C. STEWART, 1896)

Lamar Marshall (facing page), Cultural Heritage Director of Wild South, has mapped prehistoric fish weirs across Western North Carolina, which are detectable to the discerning eye particularly during low water, like this one along the Little Tennessee River in Macon County. BECKY JOHNSON PHOTO

Cultural Heritage Director for Wild South and a regular paddler Lamar Marshall said he had paddled the Little Tennessee numerous times and had never seen a fish weir until he took a trip with Brent Martin of the Wilderness Society in North Carolina. Martin pointed out a couple of weirs to him, and he was hooked. “We located thirteen weirs within a seven-mile stretch of the Little Tennessee,” Marshall said. He is in the process of plotting the coordinates onto a topographic map. “These are places where people can connect to their heritage, and they need to be documented.”

There is not a river in the region without weirs, says Mark Cantrell, a fish and wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and author of the booklet “Fishes Gathered in Cherokee Country.” Many larger creeks and/or streams in the area also contain weirs.

Some of the rivers in the area with documented weirs include the Little Tennessee, Tuckasegee, Hiwassee, and Nantahala in Western North Carolina; the Etowah River in Georgia; and the Clinch and Holston rivers in Virginia and Tennessee.

The most common form of fish weir in the Southern Appalachians is a “V” shaped rock wall. The V-shape starts near the shore on either side, and the tip points downstream. Often in normal or high water the rocks or boulders are not readily evident—the observant may only notice watery ripples showing the weir’s pattern.

“The fish regularly occurred in abundance, and often a family or community would take a large catch and then not have to return to the weir for months.”

— Russell Townsend, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Tribal Historic Preservation Officer

In the summer when the water ran low, the Cherokee would catch fish by herding them into the weir, where a trap made of baskets or cane would be waiting at the apex of the “V” headed downstream. Cherokee oral tradition notes that women and children—and likely anyone else wanting to get wet— would enter the weir and, splashing with hands or canes or sticks, scare fish towards the trap. Connaway noted in his book that settlers would drag ropes with stones tied to them through the weir to scare fish towards the trap. In Cherokee lore the predecessor to rope was grapevine.

“These weirs speak of a large population of fish in the streams of Western North Carolina,” Cantrell said.

“Those weirs would not have been built unless the take was worth it.”

The advent of modern game laws made weirs and other traps illegal and led to the abandonment of fish weirs in North America. Despite the widespread and sustained use of fish weirs up until

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that time, they remain an archaeological and historical conundrum.

Weirs are built from different materials like wood, reeds, bamboo and stones—generally whatever material is convenient to the site. Fish weirs were prevalent around the world dating back to the Mesolithic Era in Europe and the Archaic Period in North America. One of the oldest weirs in North America is the Sebasticook fish weir in central Maine. It is estimated to be more than 7,000 years old. And fish weirs in North America were sustained and used well into the 20th Century. John Connaway, author of Fishweirs: A World Perspective with Emphasis on the Fish Weirs of Mississippi, noted that the Bear Creek fish weir in Mississippi was still in use commercially until 1925.

Locally there are many reports of the Allman family using a fishweir near Webster, N.C., into the 1940s.

Allen Lutins addressed the scarcity of archaeological data regarding fish weirs in his master’s thesis in anthropology at

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 4

the State University of New York. According to Lutins, “One can point to three basic deficiencies as the cause: A lack of archaeological data, a shortage of historical references, and a paucity of contemporary research on the subject of weirs.”

Where there has been research, evidence points to weirs as highly successful in terms of capturing fish. Middens, or trash heaps, in proximity to weirs tell stories of many successful harvests over a span of time. And when Europeans arrived in America their accounts corroborated the archaeological data.

In a paper titled “Fish Weirs as part of the Cultural Landscape,” Anne Rogers, professor of anthropology at Western Carolina University, noted that when John Lawson visited North Carolina’s coast in 1700 he recorded the use of fish weirs. “I once took

“I believe the weirs are a postcard from Cherokee ancients showing a pristine environment abundant with fishes.”

— Roger Clapp, executive director of the Watershed Association of the Tuckasegee River

out of a Ware [weir] above three hundred of the Fish, at a time.” And according to author and columnist George Ellison, 18th century historian James Adair wrote about the results of huge Cherokee catches in his book History of the American Indians. Adair noted that when the harvest was particularly good, “… they make a town feast, or feast of love, of which everyone partakes in a most social manner, and afterwards they dance together.”

Cantrell can’t remember if he was first introduced to weirs recreationally, as an avid fisherman, or professionally, as a biologist dedicated to preserving and enhancing the aquatic fauna in the region. Cantrell says that there are likely hundreds of weirs (or at least what’s left of them) across the Southern Appalachians. “I have been able to detect them by sonar on Fontana Lake,” Cantrell said. He wonders how many have been flooded by other similar impoundments.

Cantrell and other fisheries biologists believe weirs were designed to catch fish in two directions, upstream and downstream. In addition to the V-shaped weir, another common shape, especially in wider coastal

This trap-like weir was built for a demonstration of ancient fishing ways in Cherokee, N.C. BECKY JOHNSON PHOTO

Important fishes

Brook trout

From Fishes Gathered in Cherokee Country

by Mark Cantrell. a-tsu-di – Brook trout: Loves cold headwater streams like Snowbird Creek u-no-ga - Smallmouth bass: Cool and warmwater streams like the Little Tennessee

Smallmouth bass

oliga – Redhorse: The name seems to apply to all the redhorse (Moxostoma) – river redhorse, sicklefin redhorse, black redhorse, golden redhorse, shorthead redhorse, white sucker, silver redhorse and northern hogsucker. Redhorses are large fish of larger streams and lakes and often migrate in large numbers during spawning season. usgwohli egwa – Flathead catfish: found in sluggish pools of larger rivers like the Tuckasegee. Cherokee elders call them “big belly.” They are good to eat and are often cleaned and smoked with the skin on.

Sicklefin redhorse

Flathead catfish

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Cherokee youth re-enact a fish weir harvest annually with the help of Tuckasegee Watershed Association.

Moving downstream, a line of people with nets strung across the river push fish toward a giant funnel-like weir made of stones, where a trap awaits.

BECKY JOHNSON PHOTO

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rivers where anadromous fishes (fishes that spend most of their lives in saltwater but return to fresh water to reproduce; like shad and herring in the East,) is the “W” with both downstream and upstream openings.

The V-shaped weir also is functional for catching fish headed upstream to spawn. In the areas of Western North Carolina where redhorse (genus Moxostoma) are still common, spring migration upriver to spawning grounds is impressive. “They are large fish and they move in large numbers,” Cantrell said. “The walls of the “V” force them in, closer to the shore where they can be caught, with spears, baskets or even by hand.”

Aquatic biologist, Daniel Perlmutter and some of his students from Southwestern Community College recently studied a Cherokee weir in the Tuckasegee River and found no difference in the number or condition of benthic organisms (those that live in the water column or at the bottom of streams, etc.) before the weir, in the weir or after the weir, suggesting that the ancient

Seeing Cherokee fish weirs Getting good looks at weirs in Cherokee country generally means getting in the water but there are a few places in Western North Carolina that weirs are pretty evident from land.

There is a well-defined weir (Allman weir) in the Tuckasegee near Webster in Jackson County, N.C. There is another prominent weir on the Little Tennessee in Macon County, N.C., along Hwy. 28 about .8 of a mile north of the junction of Sanderstown Rd. and Hwy. 28. There is a pull-off at a vegetable stand, at the intersection Mason Mountain Drive. One can view the weir from the roadside. Remember that these weirs are most easily seen

Cherokee had already mastered the art of sustainability.

There is a little “chicken or egg” dilemma involving prehistorical fish weirs. Charles M. Hubbert and Richard A. Wright wrote in the Journal of Alabama Archaeology back in the 1990s about weirs in the Harris Reservoir.

They documented a series of weirs and noted significant take of fishes. However there were

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during periods of low water.

Actually getting in the river is probably the easiest way to see some of these ancient fishweirs. Floating the Little Tennessee below the Lake Emory Dam is a good way to spot weirs. Thirteen weirs have been documented within a seven-mile stretch of the Little Tennessee here.

Weirs are common throughout Cherokee country. A thirteen-mile float down the Etowah River in Cherokee County, Ga., offers good looks at Cherokee weirs. The put-in for this float is along East Cherokee Drive and the take-out is in downtown Canton, Ga. at Boling Park.

There are also at least three weirs along the Lower Holston River in Tennessee. Put-ins for the Lower Holston can be found at Cherokee Dam, Indian Cave and Nance’s Ferry.

no permanent camps or villages near the weirs.

They deduced that the indigenous peoples would send groups to the weirs during known “run” times and fish would be collected and smoked there on the banks and then transported back to more prominent sites.

However in the Southern Appalachians there appear to be a lot of town or village sites in the proximity of rivers and weirs. Weirs 51

“To me those weirs speak of a different environment—before dams, before pollution—a time when fishes, large fishes like sicklefin redhorse were abundant. It presents a goal, from a restoration perspective, to try and find ways to repopulate regional watersheds.”

— Mark Cantrell, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist

were common all across North America by the end of the Archaic Period. It seems hunters-gatherers built and attended them.

“The fish regularly occurred in abundance, and often a family or community would take a large catch and then not have to return to the weir for months,” said Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (ECBI) Tribal Historic Preservation Officer Russell Townsend. By the Woodland Period native peoples were becoming more settled and it comes as no surprise that many villages were associated with rivers and streams.

The traditional Cherokee “V” weir funnels a lot of things downstream. For the ancient Cherokee at Kituwah or Nikwasi or Coweeta Creek or Birdtown, the funnel points to the past. It points to a time before the “Trail of Tears” when native peoples were forced to either hide in the mountains or “march” to Oklahoma. It points to a time when native people lived on the land and lived from the land in a sustainable pattern.

“I believe the weirs are a postcard from Cherokee ancients showing a pristine environment abundant with fishes,” said Roger Clapp, executive director of the Watershed

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Association of the Tuckasegee River (WATR).

WATR has partnered with the ECBI Extension Service, EBCI Tribal Departments, Southwestern NC RC&D Council, US Fish & Wildlife Service, Cherokee Preservation Foundation and the Cherokee Youth Council to connect people and cultures, in part through an annual “Traditional Cherokee Fish Harvest.” Such events aim to provide a hands-on lesson in traditional Cherokee community life; enhance deeper understanding by the Cherokee Youth Council leadership; provide conservation lessons about the historical abundance of fishes; and hopefully provide a stone bridge connecting past, present and future communities of Western North Carolina.

Cantrell sees the weirs as a blueprint depicting the past rich and abundant aquatic fauna of Western North Carolina with the promise of what could be. “To me those weirs speak of a different environment—before dams, before pollution—a time when fishes, large fishes like sicklefin redhorse were abundant. It presents a goal, from a restoration perspective, to try and find ways to repopulate regional watersheds.”

ONGOING

Saturday Evening Music Concert Series, Unicoi State Park. Every Saturday through October. 1-800-573-9659 www.GeorgiaStateParks.org First Fridays August & September: Music Pickin’ on the Porch, 6PM-9PM, Sautee Village. All proceeds go to the Charles Smithgall Humane Society.

706-878-0144 Youth Fishing Days at Buck Shoals, 8AM-12PM, third Saturday of each month through September. No registration required. 706-878-3087.

Swinging in the Vines Music Series, Sautee Nacoochee Vineyards. Third Saturday of each month. 706-878-1056 www.sauteenacoocheevineyards.com

AUGUST

17 • Floating River Parade beginning at 1 p.m. Celebrate Helen’s Centennial! For more information, call 800-858-8027 or visit www.helenga.org 24 • Helen Centennial Musicfest at the Helen Festhalle. Gates open at 5 p.m.

Celebrate Helen’s Centennial! For more information, call 800-858-8027 or visit www.helenga.org 24 • Gold Fever, 9AM – 12PM, Smithgall Woods. Register in advance.

706-878-3087 24 • Cabbage Patch Tea Party, Babyland General Hospital. Reservations required.

706-865-2171, www.cabbagepatchkids.com 30 • Labor Day Weekend Kick-Off Music Pickin’ on the Porch, 6PM-9PM, Sautee Village. All proceeds go to the Charles Smithgall Humane Society.

706-878-0144.

31 • 5th Annual GarlicFest, 10AM-4PM, Loganberry Heritage Farm. 706-3486068 www.loganberryheritagefarm.com

SEPTEMBER

7 • Lumberjack Competitions in Riverside Park & Street Dance with Live Music in Downtown Helen. Celebrate Helen’s Centennial! For more information, call 800-858-8027 or visit www.helenga.org 12-15; 19-22; 26-Oct. 27 • 43rd Annual Oktoberfest, Festhalle. Helen’s biggest celebration! German music, dancing, food & drinks! Oktoberfest will run from September 12–15, then again on September 19-22, then will reopen again on Sept. 26 and continue daily through October 27.

706-878-1908 or 706-878-2181 www.helenchamber.com 14 • Fall Fest/Birthday Party/35th Anniversary of Babyland General Hospital/30th Anniversary of licensed Cabbage Patch Kids, Babyland General Hospital. 706-865-2171, www.cabbagepatchkids.com 14 • Oktoberfest Parade, 12PM, Downtown Helen. 706-878-1908 www.helenchamber.com 27, 28 • Sautee Jamboree Music Festival, SNCA. 706-878-3300 www.snca.org 28 • Agri-Fest/Country Market & Pottery Comes to Town, 9AM-3PM, Downtown Cleveland. 706-865-5356 www.whitecountychamber.org

All events subject to change. Call the White County Chamber for new or changed information.

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From waterfalls to beautiful mountains, our natural surroundings are breathtaking!

52

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 4

These adventures burn at 1800 ° Fahrenheit.

Providing Nationwide Charter Bus Services for Western North Carolina since 1969

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53

Construction of Fontana Dam began in early 1942.

It took 36 months to build, and another 36 months to fill the lake. It started making power for the war effort in early 1945. This nighttime view of the dam was photographed on July 23, 1946.

PHOTO COURTESY OF FONTANA VILLAGE

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 4

For a few mountain communities, the ultimate wartime sacriďŹ ce was their sense of place

BY BECKY JOHNSON

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I

t’s an idyllic sight, the thin slip of water lacing and threading its way through a maze of mountain coves, always searching for a way out but never seeming to find one.

Fontana Lake is 30 miles long, but has 238 miles of snaking, twisting shoreline. Its rim follows some of the most rugged, warped topography in the country. From the air, its hooked appendages look like an elaborate fractal.

PHOTO COURTESY OF TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY

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Fontana Lake looks at home here, a silent echo to the soaring peaks, the horizon awash in blues where the lake, mountains and sky interlock like praying hands.

But nature never intended this lake. A manmade dam buttresses Fontana in place, its water, like so many other mountain lakes, filling the landscape’s crevasses.

Fontana Dam is the granddaddy of them all.

The largest dam in the eastern U.S., it stretches half a mile and looms 480 feet tall.

“The building of Fontana Dam is an epic story that is both intensely local and personal, but also one with national and international implications during World War II,” said Pam Meister, curator for the Mountain Heritage Center at Western Carolina University. The Mountain Heritage Center will unveil a major exhibit on Fontana dam in early summer of 2014. With Fontana as

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 4

a backdrop, the exhibit will chronicle the life of early settlers—and how the dam’s arrival forever altered their physical and cultural landscape.

Fontana Dam was a cog in the American war machine.

The massive concrete bulwark—rocksolid, impenetrable, and unrivaled—proved a powerful image. It was an engineering marvel, a testament to the country’s strength and determination, and a symbol of what man could build when united for a higher cause.

A campaign to summon thousands of workers to the remote and rugged reaches of the Smoky Mountains to build what would be the world’s fourth tallest dam at that time appealed to the patriotic duty of a nation at war.

“We need workers NOT shirkers,” proclaimed one billboard recruiting a Fontana labor force.

Lured by the promise of jobs during scarce times, workers showed up in droves—as many as 5,000 by some counts from 48 states worked seven days a week around the clock.

“We were told it was going to be for electricity to Alcoa Aluminum for the airplanes, which they needed for the war,” recalled Harvey Welch, 87, who worked at the dam when he was 17. “We didn’t know that eventually, why part of that electricity went to Oak Ridge—for the atomic bomb.”

Not far away, the secret city of Oak Ridge, Tenn., was sprouting up, fabricated from scratch seemingly overnight, much like the bustling company town erected to house dam workers and their families at Fontana. Cadres of scientists toiled under a cloak of silence, enriching uranium needed for the atomic bomb.

Fontana Dam was able to provide for Oak Ridge’s insatiable appetite for electricity. But, like the Manhattan Project itself, Fontana Dam’s true purpose was kept secret until the war’s end.

Building the dam meant flooding the land—30 miles of the Little Tennessee River Valley through Swain and Graham counties. The water swallowed fields and farmhouses, one-room schools and country churches, post offices and general stores. Whole communities slipped away, forever lost in a watery tomb at the bottom of the cold, dark, deep water.

“These people gave up their culture, not just their land and homes. Their culture was demolished,” said Judy

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A class of third-graders works at the village school greenhouse.

PHOTO COURTESY OF FONTANA VILLAGE

Raising more than a dam

W

ith a population of about 30, the tiny town of Fontana Dam is but a spec on a map. It’s a far cry from the days of dam construction, when more than 5,000 people lived at Fontana during the wartime push for power.

To support and house the army of dam workers, the government built a bustling town from whole cloth, with a hospital, two schools, stores, a movie theater, pool hall, cafeteria, and hundreds of living quarters and dormitories. There was also infrastructure to erect: streets, phone and power lines, water and sewer lines, and a water — Harvey Welch, 87 treatment plant.

“They built a whole village in a matter of months,” said Jeannie Stewart, general manager of Fontana Village Resort, whose grandparents were among the dam workers. “They knew to get people here to work they had to provide what people needed.”

A ready-made town meant even more jobs to fill.

“They had schools, so they needed school teachers. They had a hospital, so they needed nurses,” Stewart said. It even had a police force—all run by the Tennessee Valley Authority, the government utility that built the dam.

“Just about anyone who is from here has a Fontana story in their family,” Stewart said.

Harvey Welch was 15 when his dad moved their family of five to the Fontana complex in early 1942. It was an exciting time, he recalled.

“We were going to be working on something important for the war effort,” said Welch, now 87, who is among a dwindling number of so-called “dam kids.”

After a childhood in the flatlands of Missouri, simply being in the mountains was exhilarating in itself, Welch said.

“I was up there in those hills all the time. The first day we got to Fontana and drove up in front of the house where we were going to stay, they took off into the house and I took off up the

“We were going to be working on something important for the war effort.”

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mountain,” Welch said. “I spent many, many, many hours and many, many, many nights up in the mountains.”

Thanks to an after-school job delivering the Knoxville News and Sentinel in the camp barracks—a separate section of the village for men without families—Welch saved up enough money to buy a ground cloth and sleeping bag for his overnight forays into the hills.

Fontana was a fabulous stomping ground for kids. There were square dances and movie nights, pool and ping-pong, and plenty of friends. Baseball was huge at Fontana—there was a litany of baseball teams, with two leagues no less.

The dam was ever-present and inescapable, looming over every aspect of life at Fontana, however.

The rock for the dam was quarried from the side of a mountain next to the dam. It was crushed, mixed into concrete and then carried on conveyor belts, tracks, trestles, cables and pulleys to the section of dam being poured. But first, the rock had to be blasted away from the mountain, and the earth-rattling dynamite charges were just a routine reminder of the work at hand.

Welch said the kids would sometimes gather on a hill above the dam site to watch the blasting or simply get a view of the dam going up.

“Watching this was really, really, really interesting,” Welch said.

His final year, Welch got a part-time job after school as a gopher, running parts and supplies and messages around the dam construction site. Welch also unloaded railroad cars, which rumbled in and out of Fontana constantly with supplies. From dynamite for blasting to 300-pound tires for quarry dump trucks, the supply chain for the massive dam was never ending.

Of course, a manual labor job of that scale came with inherent danger. The exact count of how many died or were injured is a matter of debate. Welch said his dad witnessed one worker die.

“He was working on the face of the dam when a guy working up above on the trestle fell. He said, ‘I could hear the wind whistling through his britches as he went’,” Welch said.

Welch and others relive the memories, good and bad, during annual reunions of “The Dam Kids” held at Fontana Village Resort since the 1980s.

“Some of these stories have been told 3 or 4,000 times,” Welch quipped. “It, of course, has dropped off and dropped off as everybody has gotten older and we have lost people.”

Down from some 150 dam kids at reunions in the 1980s, there were fewer than 40 at the one this spring.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 4

By the numbers y 6,000 people evacuated to

make way for the lake y 4,000-5,000 laborers working

24/7 to build the dam 36 months to build 480 feet high 2,365 feet long 50 stories high, if the dam were a skyscraper y 36 more months to fill the lake y 238 miles of shoreline y 10,000 acres of lake surface y y y y

* Sources include Tennessee Valley Authority and Fontana: A Pocket History of Appalachia by Lance Holland.

Andrews Carpenter, who traces her lineage back seven generations in Graham County— including ancestors on both sides who lived under what’s now Fontana Lake.

Families had pens of livestock and chickens, root cellars lined with canned goods and potato bins, and lean-to shacks stacked with firewood. Fields were planted with crops supposed to last them through the winter.

Families faced a particularly tough decision when it came to old graves—to exhume their loved ones and move them to a new cemetery on higher ground, or leave them buried.

Buildings were taken apart, hauled off and reassembled. Sawn wood and nails were worth too much back then to waste. Old-

timers can still point out houses that came from what is now under the lake. They remember what they used to be, can still see the houses where they once sat—memories that serve as constant reminder of a place that no longer exists. The government paid people for the homes and land they lost, but money could not buy what was left behind. The exodus, while painful, was borne nobly.

“Most of the people didn’t protest. People were patriotic back then, and it was certainly pitched as part of the war effort,” said Lance Holland, a retired lake tour guide at Fontana Village and movie location scout in the N.C. Smokies. “If they could do something to help the war effort, they’d do it.”

Workers are lowered down Bushnell Bluff in saddles to prevent them from falling as they work. An aggregate plant provided crushed stone for various construction projects around the site.

Once felled, trees were hauled out by workers using mule teams. After being logged, once wooded valleys were left stripped and cleared up to the water line of the future lake.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF NANTAHALA VILLAGE

WWW.SMLIV.COM

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Workers numbered between 4,000 and 5,000. Most lived in a company town near the site of the dam, built from the ground-up in a matter of months, including a hospital, schools, churches, stores and row upon row of tract houses for laborers and their families. The town built for dam workers is now Fontana Village Resort, where guest cabins are the original workers’ homes. The old school, stores and hospital are still intact. COURTESY OF FONTANA VILLAGE

Workers traveled an hour or more on snaking gravel roads, standing on the running boards or sitting on the fender—even straddling the big, humped headlights typical of that era. One man from nearby Bryson City, N.C., got a bus and went into business “haulin’ them work ants,” Rainey said.

The influx of workers spilled beyond the borders of the company town and camp barracks.

“They slept in their cars all up and down BECKY JOHNSON PHOTO

Keith Crisp, 82, recalled the stoic acceptance of the dam that stole his boyhood home.

“We didn’t argue ag’in it,” Crisp said. “We needed it. We were having a war.”

Crisp’s father, born in 1895, had fought in World War I. He understood war meant sacrifices, at home and abroad.

“If this dam had not been built and these people had not made that sacrifice, the war would not have ended when it did,” Carpenter said.

For Gene Rainey, born in 1928, the coming of the dam was a welcome diversion for a rural Appalachian boy raised on a more or less subsistence lifestyle.

“We hardly ever went to the store. We raised what we ate,” Rainey said. “I didn’t know they made bread in a loaf ‘til I was 17 years old.”

Few people had cars to get to the remote work site, so they simply lined the main road waiting to hitch a ride, piling on any car going that way for 10 cents a lift. Rainey would sometimes wait by the road, and talk the driver into letting him ride down to the work site and back.

the creek,” Rainey recalled. “Some would stretch tents and take baths in the creek.”

Rainey’s mother took in boarders working on the dam. For $5 a week, she gave them a bed plus and three meals a day—a hot breakfast and supper and a packed lunch.

One boarder gave Rainey’s mother $14 to buy the boy his first pair of glasses.

As the years wore on, however, those who lost their land and heritage to Fontana Dam became hardened, even bitter about what they lost. Rainey saw a growing resentment toward the government fester and boil during the intervening decades.

“All the old people hated the government by the time they died,” he said.

While the communities beneath Fontana and along its now isolated shores may seem lost forever, in some ways, they actually may have been saved. Fontana was locked in a time capsule, spared the slow evolution of society. Its memory has survived uncorrupted from one generation to the next, suspended eternally just like it was on the last day that the last person moved out.

Walt Larimore, author of historical fiction set in the logging boomtown of Proctor preFontana, wagers that must be one of the things that intrigued him about the place.

“I think part of it was the echoes and ghosts,” Larimore said.

After the lake came, those who remained did the best they could with the resulting changes.

Carpenter’s grandfather, Oliver Bradshaw, built

“These people gave up their culture, not just their land and homes. Their culture was demolished.”

— Judy Andrews Carpenter

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 4

Mountains National Park along the north shore of the lake—the most remote of the Smokies’ backcountry, it’s the largest roadless area in the Eastern United States. Hike in from trailheads at the east or west end of the lake, or better yet, take a boat shuttle across the lake and then pick up a trail.

The dam: A tourist attraction in itself, the dam has been a destination since its construction. The Tennessee Valley Authority has a visitor center with exhibits and a video chronicling the construction of the dam.

Visiting Fontana

Getting out on Lake Fontana is a favorite way to enjoy the surrounding scenery. GARRET K. WOODWARD PHOTO

The scenery: The Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Nantahala National Forest surround almost all of Fontana Lake. “There’s no houses, no roads, no telephone lines, just natural beauty,” said Jonathan Peoples, recreation director for Fontana Village Resort. The lake has two nesting pairs of bald eagles, plus the regular wildlife known to the Smokies, Peoples said.

The lake: It’s 29 miles long but has an astounding 238 miles of shoreline due to its many snaking coves. There are no designated swimming beaches, as the steep shore makes it hard to access the water’s edge, but anywhere one can make his or her way to the water, one can swim. There are two marinas on the lake, which rent everything from fishing boats to kayaks. (Fontana Marina, 828.498.2129. Almond Boat Dock, 828.488.6423.)

The trails: There are literally hundreds of miles of trails radiating from the Fontana area. The Appalachian Trail even crosses over the top of the dam en route through the region. The most unique hiking experience is to venture into the Great Smoky

rental cabins, bought a fleet of boats and put a sign by the road to capitalize on the new breed of lake tourists that began arriving after the war.

For three decades, Lance Holland plied the new tourist trade as a lake tour guide for Fontana Village Resort. His tours always imparted the lake’s impressive size—450 feet deep and 30 miles long. This bit of trivia perplexed one woman from Kansas.

“She asked, ‘What did they do with all that dirt when they dug out the lake?’ I said, ‘Well ma’am, what do you think they built all these

The history: Remnants of life before the dam riddle the north shore of the lake in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, from old houses and cemeteries to the site of lumber kilns and copper mine entrances leading deep into the earth. History tours traversing the lake by boat and then hiking to key historical sites depart from Fontana Village Marina. Meanwhile, a drive through Fontana Village reveals the story of the government village for dam workers that sprang up in the middle of nowhere.

The resort: When the dam was finished in 1944 and workers emptied out, Fontana Village Resort moved in, converting the onetime work camp into a vacation destination. Tennessee Valley Authority, the federally-run utility company that built Fontana, leases the property to a private company that runs the resort.

Three-bedroom cabins on the 400-acre resort rent for about $200 a night in peak season. There are also hotel rooms in the main lodge.

At first blush, it seems like any other resort. There’s a pool, dining facilities, live music and entertainment, putt-putt and tennis. But look closer, and the backbone of the dam worker’s village shows through. The 120 cabins are the original houses once lived in by dam workers and their families, although they are just a handful compared to the several hundred homes there once were.

The resort still pays homage to its company town roots in its activity line-up. Guests are enlisted in pick-up softball games, roped in to weekend square dances or regaled with doses of history during an evening “ghost tour” of the village.

mountains out of?’” Holland recounted.

There’s few men alive who know as much about Fontana as Holland. Holland spent years talking to old-timers while they were still alive, learning about life before the dam and how it all changed with the coming of the lake. He knows the lake in a literal sense—a map of its crooks and coves, its snaking arms and twisting shoreline etched in his memory from 30 years of running tours with Fontana Village Resort.

And when it comes to Fontana history, Holland wrote the book—literally.

WWW.SMLIV.COM

“When I led the trips across the lake, quite a few people would say, ‘you should write a book about this,’ so I did,” Holland said. It’s simply named “Fontana: A Pocket History of Appalachia.”

The unique story of Fontana is gaining recognition, thanks in part to Carpenter tirelessly talking it up. With the mission of preserving and sharing the heritage, she has formed an organization called Proctor Revival, named for the biggest of the Fontana towns before the dam came.

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COURTESY OF FONTANA VILLAGE

Housing war effort workers As the operations grew at the Manhattan Project site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the community also grew, and more houses were needed to accommodate workers and their families. The Tennessee Valley Authority made available drawings of one-story single family prefabricated units that were used for families who moved in to help construct Fontana Dam. These units, called Flat Tops, were transported in 8-foot by 24-foot sections and assembled on site. Though the design was simple, the quality was considered top notch for both the units and the furniture inside them. One of Oak Ridge’s original Flat Top houses is on display at the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge. The house, a type B-1, two-bedroom unit formerly located at 68 Outer Drive, has 576 square feet of living space for its kitchen, living room, two bedrooms, and single bathroom. The AMSE is continuing efforts to preserve the Flat Top house through fundraising and solicitation of items to furnish the house.

To donate or learn more, email flattop@amse.org or call 865.574.8453.. SARAH E. KUCHARSKI PHOTO

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“We must give credit where credit is due,” she said. “If it weren’t for these people’s contribution, WWII would not have ended when it did.”

Chip Carringer of Robbinsville, N.C., suspects the dam saved his father’s life.

The Japanese captured Carringer’s father, Wayne, during the war. Assuming he was dead, the military presented his parents with a flag, and a service was held.

Wayne actually was being held in a prison camp where conditions were so brutal he weighed only 75 pounds when the atomic bombs were dropped, forcing Japan to surrender.

Tragically, Wayne’s brother back home was killed working on Fontana Dam when a crane backed over him. He gave his own life building a dam to help rescue his brother from prison camp.

“You hope that something you did there along the line had a part in it,” said Harvey Welch, who worked at the dam site as a teenager 70 years ago. “So many people don’t know the part that Fontana dam played in bringing that war to an end.”

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62 Church St. Waynesville, NC

crossword:

ACROSS THE MOUNTAIN

Across First river in Southeast designated as a National Wild & Scenic River (see photo) 6 Lake found on Ky.Tenn. border or a member of the Pteridophyta species 9 July 4th is celebrated here 11 Computer photo, for short 13 They were used historically to route fish into shallows and traps (2 words) 14 Fish 'n Chips fish 15 Large water body 16 Remove water from a boat 18 Did freestyle 20 Northeastern state, for short 21 Want to a lot (2 words) 22 Catch 25 Native species featured on new Ga. wildlife license plate, ____ Trout 26 Tallest concrete dam east of the Rocky Mountains 28 Complete 29 S.C. lake meaning "Place of the Lost One" in Cherokee language 31 Dry bed of an intermittent stream 33 Frog’s amphibian relatives 34 Running waters

3 4 5 7 8 10

Answers can be found on page 71.

12 15 16 17

18 19 23

Down 1 2

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1

Frozen water Bushy plant Fresh water stream N.C. resort named after Cherokee word that also means nearby river _____ Village Narrow sea channel Mother, for short Sea shores

24

Waterfall higher than Niagara Falls found on a Ga. college campus 26 Provides sustenance to 27 Latish lunchtime 29 Rapid outpouring of water, as form a hose 30 Cry for help 32 Alternative word

Water container Tennessee company that made planes during WW II Not flowing, like a faucet Pouring out Large tree Teacher of Samuel in the Bible Eagle homes Amaze

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MOUNTAIN HIGH LODGE Mountain High Lodge in Highlands, N.C., offers a variety of accommodations, featuring fireplaces, balconies & complimentary breakfast. Pet rooms available. Visit our website for special deals.

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NANTAHALA VILLAGE Nantahala Village offers a variety of lodging, restaurants, and activities within minutes of Bryson City, the Nantahala Gorge, Fontana Lake and other area attractions.

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OAK HILL ON LOVE LANE BED AND BREAKFAST Awarded Best in the South by BedandBreakfast.com, Oak Hill on Love Lane features “The service and amenities of a fine hotel in the quiet comfort of a B&B.” Each luxuriously appointed room in this historic 19th century home is equipped with hypo-allergenic bedding, fine linens, fireplaces, flat screen TVs, private en-suite baths and wireless internet access. Enjoy 24-hour access to the Butler Pantry, daily maid service, nightly turn-down service and a full 3-course gourmet breakfast.

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Open year ‘round; pet friendly.

Lake Toxaway, N.C. 828.877.6333 • sevenfoxes.com

SMOKETREE LODGE Smoketree’s cozy atmosphere and prime location allows its visitors the choice of enjoying the peace and solitude of the Blue Ridge Mountains or the opportunity of partaking in the many activities available in the High Country!

11914 NC Hwy. 105 S. • Banner Elk, NC 800.422.1880 • smoketree-lodge.com

THE SWAG COUNTRY INN Chosen by readers of Conde Nast Traveler magazine as the #2 Best Small Hotel in the Unites States, the secluded hideaway itself consists of 250 private acres. The main lodge and cabins, consisting of 15 rooms, are built of 17th and 18th century hand hewn logs and local field stone. Join us for our 30th season to experience just how remote, rustic, refined and remarkable it can be at 5,000 feet. 3 gourmet meals are served daily, with turn down service each evening.

Waynesville, N.C. 800.789.7672 • theswag.com

# Discover the magic of Blowing Rock, NC in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains # Walk to downtown shopping and dining # Easy driving to many area attractions # 18 uniquely designed and decorated rooms

77-34

134 MORRIS ST. BLOWING ROCK, NC 828.295.7987

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www.HemlockInn.net 77-16

THE WAYNESVILLE INN GOLF RESORT & SPA This resort has been welcoming visitors to the mountains with southern hospitality since the 1920s. Traditional resort amenities include historic and mountain view lodging, 27 holes of championship golf, restaurant and tavern, plus outdoor event space and pro shop. The location provides convenience to shopping, skiing, fishing, hiking and more.

176 Country Club Dr. • Waynesville, NC 800.627.6250 • thewaynesvilleinn.com

Offering a variety of lodging, restaurants, and activities within minutes of Bryson City, the Nantahala Gorge, Fontana Lake and other area attractions.

828.488.9000

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Overlooking the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains.

112 Guest Rooms, 2 Restaurants, Spa, and 27 holes of Championship Golf.

Perfect for Vacations, Meetings, and Weddings.

800.627.6250 | TheWaynesvilleInn.com

176 COUNTRY CLUB DRIVE | WAYNESVILLE, N.C. 69

ca le n d a r :

UPCOMING

BRISTOL RHYTHM AND ROOTS REUNION

AUGUST Mountain High Barbecue Festival and Car Show

Mountain Street Dance This Waynesville tradition puts the spotlight on Appalachian dance, with a healthy dose of crowd participation. You’ve probably seen the fast feet and flouncing skirts of Appalachian cloggers, but the town’s summertime dances also allow you to put on your dancing shoes and learn some traditional square dances. A great opportunity for dancers of all levels, the dances are a good mix of dancing, live music and good food against the backdrop of a quaint little mountain town. The August dance will close the series for the summer.

August 9, 6:30-9:30 p.m., Downtown Waynesville, N.C. downtownwaynesville.com or 828.456.3517.

JESSE ADAM HOLSINGER PHOTO

This festival is celebrating its fifth year of teaming up tasty barbecue with classic cars (and of course some good old live mountain music) to put a delicious bookmark on the end of summer. The competition is fierce, as it’s not only backyard barbecuers facing off against each other; the professionals are also in it to win big money in this official state competition that’s a culmination of contests held across the region over the summer. Visitors, however, are the lucky ones, who get to sample top notch fare at the tasting tents while perusing a fine selection of classic cars.

August 9-10, Wayne Proffitt Agricultural Center, Franklin, N.C. mountainhighbbqfestival.com or 828.524.3161.

Bristol’s got more than racing going on this fall. In September, the town plays host to big names like Lucinda Williams, Deer Tick, Keller Williams and Blitzen Trapper at the Rhythm and Roots Reunion. This three-day festival is a celebration of the city’s musical history, and pretty much turns the entire downtown into a walkable concert for the weekend. It’s smorgasbord of the many derivatives of Southern music, from bluegrass to blues to alt country and of course, country itself. You can come to see the big names and talented regional acts as well, and as with any good festival, food and crafts will be on hand.

Sept. 20-22, Downtown Bristol, Tenn. bristolrhythm.com or 423.573.4898.

of short-line railroad in the mountains at this autumnal celebration. The festival offers guests a taste of railroad food, memorabilia, storytelling, dance, music, special excursions and events that happen only once a year, including a special collection of motorcars and a special trip to Andrews on Sunday.

Sept. 13-15, Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, Bryson City, N.C. gsmr.com/2013-railfest.

Dahlonega Wine Trail Weekend Who says Georgia isn’t wine country? Well, most people probably, but north Georgia’s regional vintners are out to prove them wrong with this winefilled weekend. Dahlonega boasts five wineries, and they’re out to showcase their season’s finest, as well as give visitors a gander at their wineries. So come, throw back some regional flavors and get that relaxed, weekend-in-wine-country vibe.

August 17-18, Dahlonega, Ga. dahlonega.org or 800.231.5543.

Carolina Mountains Literary Festival

Smoky Mountain Relic Show A couple centuries on, Civil War artifacts are becoming increasingly rarer finds, which makes this two-day sale and show an exceptional opportunity to have a gander at collections of uniforms, photos, weapons, regalia and other artifacts from the period that have survived the years, all in one place. Though the focus is on the Civil War, the exhibition accepts artifacts up to World War II, so visitors can stick their toe into 100 years of military memorabilia. It’s also a sale, so budding history buffs will also get the chance to take home a piece of history.

August 24-25, Smoky Mountain Convention Center, Pigeon Forge, Tenn. smokymountaincivilwarshow.com or 865.908.3015.

High Country Beer Fest Since Asheville was dubbed Beer City USA a few years back, Western North Carolina has been knee deep in beer festivals. While the city hosts its own, which we’ve lauded in these pages before, other, smaller fetes have their own charms. Boone’s addition to the beer scene is staged against the backdrop of the more rugged high country in the crisp, pre-fall, and the university town’s back-to-

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Regional brewers converge on Boone, N.C., for Appalachian State University’s beloved High Country Beer Fest. MARGARET HESTER PHOTO

This weekend-long homage to literature is interesting in its focus: not really book sale, not really academic conference, but rather the aim is to highlight small presses and their authors, and to bring readers, authors and aspiring writers together.

Listen to writers reading their own work, meet local and regional authors face-to-face, and maybe hone your own literary skills.

Sept. 12-14, Burnsville, N.C. cmlitfest.org or cmlitfest@gmail.com.

HoLa Festival school atmosphere adds to the youthful, autumnal character. Plus, it’s no paltry deal – more than 50 local, regional, national and international breweries offer tastings of old favorites and new concoctions.

And of course, there will be good old mountain music and some food to wash down all that beer.

Aug. 31, Broyhill Inn at Appalachian State University, Boone, N.C. hcbeerfest.com or 828.262.7847.

SEPTEMBER Railfest Celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad and learn about the storied history

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 4

Throughout the summer, the mountains are dotted with events celebrating mountain music, but HoLa is your chance to throw in a little Latin vibe. The Knoxville festival is a celebration of Hispanic heritage, and there will be musicians, dancers, and performers from Latin countries across the globe. There will also be a range of Latin cuisine on offer, so you can take your tastebuds on vacation without even leaving the Smokies. With events for the kids, heritage crafts and a parade of nations, this one day event is a colorful celebration of Latinos in the Smokies.

Sept. 21, Downtown Knoxville, Tenn. holafestival.org or 865.335.3358.

Quilting in the Carolinas In keeping with the theme of mountain heritage, if you’re an avid patchworker, have fond memories of

MARK HASKETT PHOTO

Big Stone Celtic

MOUNTAIN HERITAGE DAY The annual Mountain Heritage Day is a combo of old-fashioned mountain fair and showcase for Southern Appalachian music, arts, dance and song.

Live stages, juried arts and crafts booths, children's activities and heritage demonstrations will be on hand. Plus you can see some chainsaw artistry for the thrill seekers and a rare peek into a few dying arts such as shapenote singing and Cherokee stickball (an ancient game akin to modern-day lacrosse).

Sept. 28, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, N.C. wcu.edu.

The Virginia mountain town of Big Stone Gap gives a nod to its Celtic roots each year with Big Stone Celtic. It’s a day filled with Celtic food, music, crafts, dance and history. In past years, the fete has hosted a ceilidh (Celtic predecessor of the square dance pronounced kay-lee), British car display and sheepdog demonstration, along with the expected Celtic music performances and samplings of traditional food.

Sept. 28, Big Stone Gap, Va. bigstoneceltic.com or 276.523.5097.

OCTOBER Leaf Lookers Gemboree

If you’re looking for an unusual (and unusually sparkly) way to spend a weekend afternoon this autumn, the “gemboree” will let you gaze longingly at a room full of bling mined right here in the Appalachians. A selection of rough cut and polished gems will be on display, and vendors will be hawking all the goods you need to turn some of it into jewelry yourself. You can also pan for your own mineral treasure in many nearby mines that are open to the public. As an added bonus, it takes place during the height of Franklin’s gorgeous leaf season, so the gems aren’t the only colors on display.

Oct. 25-27, Macon County Community Building, Franklin, N.C. franklin-chamber.com or call 828.524.3161.

your Nana’s handiwork, or just admire the complex geometry that goes into these old-time masterworks, this quilt show is worth a look in. You can enter your own quilt in one of the cash-prize competitions, peruse the handmade works, or take home a quilt of your very own. The weekend-long event is put on by the Asheville Quilt Guild and it’s a good chance to meet some of the artisans keeping this art alive, and buy some supplies to get stitching yourself.

Sept. 26-28, WNC Agriculture Center, Asheville, N.C. ashevillequiltguild.org.

Louie Bluie Festival Howard “Louie Bluie” Armstrong was an East Tennessee legend, who came from humble beginnings to be an accomplished bluegrass musician, artist and linguist. Armstrong passed in 2003, but the seventh annual Louie Bluie Music & Arts Festival keeps his legacy alive with three stages of music, food and craft vendors, and exhibits of amateur and professional art.

Sept. 28, Cove Lake State Park, Caryville, Tenn. louiebluie.org or 423.566.0329.

Mountain Moonshine Festival The wink-and-nod tradition of moonshine has been granted some legitimacy recently, with a starring role on reality TV and legitimate shine distillieries popping up around the South. You can get a taste of the stuff, plus glimpse its history and role in the birth of stock car racing, at this Dawsonville festival. It’s a family friendly affair that benefits a local children’s’ charity, and a gathering place for a wide range of vintage race cars and moonshine haulers that you'll be hard pressed to find elsewhere. Plus, if you’re after a brush with fame, two of the stars of TV’s Moonshiners will be grand marshalling the parade.

Oct. 26-27, Downtown Dawsonville, Ga. kareforkids.us/festival.html or 706.216.5273.

NOVEMBER

MARK HASKETT PHOTO

home, community atmosphere that can get lost at other big summer bluegrass festivals.

Sept. 28, Burnsville Town Center, Burnsville, N.C. tradnc.org or 828.682.7215.

WNC Pottery Festival and Clay Olympics

Handmade pottery is a staple of the traditional crafts scene, and this festival is your chance to see the works of artists from around the country. But what really sets this festival apart is the so-called clay Olympics. Part demonstration, part competition, part speedpottery, it’s a rare chance to see 20 master potters at work simultaneously.

Nov. 1-2, Dillsboro, N.C. wncpotteryfestival.com or 828.631.5100 or 828.586.3601.

Civil War Expo It may be two centuries past, but the clash of grays and blues can be seen in live action once again at this weekend event that memorializes the War Between the States. Many battlefields across the south see renewed action each year, but this event offers the chance to see a range of battles and period scenes in one place. Reenactors will come from around the country to stage a number of the war’s most interesting battles, along with troop camps, demonstration and general information about the nation’s bloodiest domestic conflict.

Nov. 9-10, Helen Riverside Park, Helen, Ga. helenga.org or aplatt0021@aol.com.

Crossword answers Puzzle is on page 67.

The Inspirations.

DONATED PHOTO

Music in the Mountains Folk Festival The annual festival is dedicated to the preservation of mountain music and culture and includes bluegrass and traditional music, ballad singers, storytellers, and dancing. You'll hear the classic instruments such as fiddle, dulcimer and guitar, but the inclusion of esoteric mountain tunes is also a fun opportunity to see some more unorthodox music makers, like the zither. Thanks to its little locale, this festival—now in its 28th year—keeps the down-

Singing in the Smokies There are a lot of bluegrass festivals dotting the mountains every summer, but if gospel is your jam, you won’t want to miss this fall event that brings together some of the region’s best gospel acts, hosted by Bryson City’s own, The Inspirations. It’s also a good chance to dip back into the hymn book yourself and sing along.

Oct. 18-19, Inspiration Park, Bryson City, N.C. theinspirations.com or 828.497.2060.

WWW.SMLIV.COM

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department:

MANDY NEWHAM ILLUSTRATION

MOUNTAIN VIEWS

Shine on

BY MARK BERRYMAN

F

orget gold. There’s nothing more precious to humans and nothing brings more pleasure to people than water. It doesn’t even have to be water we actually touch or even see. Just the sound of rain on a tin roof fills the soul with a kind of contentment like no other sound I know.

Regardless of what facet of life one may think of, somehow water is involved. Water sustains life; it cleans our bodies and even holds strong symbolic messages in our faith—from the flood, to baptism, to Jesus turning water into wine. While I’ve never known anyone who could change water into wine, I have known a fella or two who turned water and corn into something a little stronger.

Of course, making moonshine isn’t really illegal. Until you sell it that is.

There was a moonshiner down the road from where I grew up and pretty much everyone in the area knew about him. Bobby was rumored to make some of the best moonshine there was and that must have been true because he was never lacking for customers.

I knew Bobby not because of his ‘shine, but because he had three daughters. I must admit to being especially fond of one of them, but there was only one problem. She did not have the same feelings for me. I know. Awww. That’s what I said, too.

Bobby worked a regular job down at the factory every day, and after work Bobby would stop by the still and work some more.

One day, he stopped the truck, walked into the woods, and as soon as he approached the still, was surrounded by lawmen. Yep. Busted—both Bobby and his still.

He hired a good lawyer who was rumored to have been paid partially in cash and the rest of his fee Bobby paid with “goods.”

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In court Mack told the jury of Bobby’s selfless patriotism, his dedicated work ethic, his devoted family life, and his Godfearing church-going ways. He laid it on thick and by the time Mack was finished building Bobby up, the jury was almost in tears. (Some say the tears were actually from jury members who also happened to be “regular customers” and were afraid of losing their supplier, but there’s no proof that any of it is true.)

Then came the part where Mack earned his keep. He told the jury Bobby had just finished a shift at work (which he had) and on the way home had an urgent need to relieve himself (which he didn’t). He told the jury Bobby pulled the truck off the road (which he did) and stepped into the woods to get a little relief (which I guess he could have). Mack said as Bobby did, he noticed the still and was simply standing there looking at it when he suddenly was surrounded by lawmen who arrested him as if it were his still (which it was).

It was kind of a funny thing for everyone except those lawmen.

They had pounced on poor ol’ Bobby so quick none of them gave him a chance to even stoke the fire, much less operate the still.

Since not one of them could testify they actually saw Bobby operate the still, the jury (much to the relief of some) had no choice but to find him not guilty.

Some of the folks around here still wonder how the law could have made such a careless mistake. Others probably wonder why it took so long for the law to arrest him in the first place. It’s not like Bobby’s side job was a very well-kept secret. I think the local sheriff felt he had more important things to do than put a stop to something that gave pleasure to so many voters—and probably himself as well. Whatever the reason, Bobby continued to turn water into white lightning until his dying day, and I do not recall the law ever bothering him again.

I grew up, joined the Navy and saw the world. By the time I returned Bobby had crossed the River Jordan, taking his Mason jar elixir with him. Bobby’s daughter had moved to North Carolina and I haven’t seen her since, although I still think of her fondly.

As for me, my best memories of water were of swimming in Uncle Bill’s fish pond after family reunions, fishing for hornyheads in a small creek using a stick, a string, a rock for a weight and a hook (or sometimes a safety pin), and taking baths in a large galvanized washtub on my grandmother’s back porch.

In those days there was nothing but woods and lightning bugs surrounding Meemaw’s house so it was highly unlikely anyone would ever see our shiny hineys as we played in the suds under the lone light bulb hanging overhead.

I know some parents have a tough time getting their children to take a bath, but that could be because they do not own a galvanized washtub. Rather than be threatened with our life if we did not take a bath, we quite often had to be ordered out of that washtub. By the time we were finished there was more water around the tub than there was in it.

I eventually outgrew that old washtub, and the innocence that allowed me to bathe on my grandmother’s back porch unashamed. It’s probably a good thing, too. Much newer houses now surround Meemaw’s old house, and I’m pretty sure my hiney isn’t as cute or as shiny as it was back then.

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The Virginian, an acclaimed 538-acre private country club community in the rolling hills of Southwestern Virginia, is about to unveil its newest neighborhood. Named Grandview, it consists of 30 carefully contoured homesites overlooking the 9th and 18th holes of the Tom Fazio championship golf course.

The name is apt because each homesite provides spectacular view corridors of meadows, forests, fairways and the faraway Appalachian Mountains. This mature, successful community, named as one of the ďŹ nest and best planned in America, is already home to more than 100 families residing in charming estate homes.

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A private golf club community of 250 homesites on 538 acres of some of the most breathtaking highlands in North America.

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