Smoky Mountain News | June 5, 2019

Western North Carolina’s Source for Weekly News, Entertainment, Arts and Outdoors Information FREE

June 5-11, 2019

The Smoky Mountain

Volume 20, Issue 1

Elk return to the Smokies after being absent from North Carolina since the late 1700s.

Page 8

Park strong despite concerns

Rudolph captured Suspected bomber was found by law enforcement officers dumpster diving behind a Save-A-Lot grocery store following a five-year manhunt. Page 10

Recession rocks WNC real estate The economy of Western North Carolina took a major hit in 2008 when the real estate bubble finally burst, resulting in thousands of foreclosures. Page 16

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER It’s no coincidence that the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was the subject of The Smoky Mountain News’ first-ever front-page story in the paper’s inaugural issue June 2, 1999.

In many ways, the park and the mountains surrounding it are the lifeblood of the region.

Their beauty inspires pride, appreciation and adventure among residents, and their allure draws the tourists around whom much of the regional economy is built.

SMN’s original front-page headline “Park strong despite concerns” points to a time when many feared the park wouldn’t be able to retain its place as the region’s crown jewel.

In the mid-1990s, park leaders saw visitation rise steadily even as federal budget increases stalled — at one point in early 1997, the paper reported, the park feared its budget could be cut by as much as 30 percent. Meanwhile, visitation was increasing, with an additional 1.7 million people coming to the Smokies in 1999 versus 1994. That influx represented a significant strain for a national park that is not legally allowed to

See Smokies, Page 6

Smoky Mountain News

Since the mid-1990s several groups have been working to return the GSMNP to solid footing in WNC’s outdoor recreation and tourism-driven economy.

Twenty years later, another edition done

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Contact Us

The Smoky Mountain News is located at 144 Montgomery St. in downtown Waynesville, NC. Phone: (828) 452-4251 Fax: (828) 452-3585 Mail: P.O. Box 629, Waynesville NC 28786 www.smokymountainnews.com

n the beginning, one doesn’t even think about the long run. When you’re fighting every day to survive, there’s no time to look over your shoulder. Slow down long enough to take in what’s in the rearview mirror, and you’re all too likely to get eaten alive by those who would love nothing better than to chew up and spit out the upstart.

Now, though, 20 years after the very first edition of The Smoky Mountain News rolled off the presses, we made time to try and put things in perspective. It’s been entertaining looking back at some of the big stories. Perhaps more entertaining is processing how the media landscape has evolved. Looking forward, I’m left somewhat dumbstruck to even try and imagine what this business — our company and the media industry as a whole — will look like 20 years from now.

So let’s start at the beginning.

Sunlit Sky — Waynesville photographer Jon Bowman captured a typical early summer Western North Carolina skyline.

See 20 Years, Page 4

CONTENTS On the Cover: In celebration of The Smoky Mountain News’ 20th anniversary, we wanted to highlight the top 20 story from each year and update our readers on where those stories are today. From covering the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to the continued growth at Western Carolina University, SMN staff looks forward to another 20 years of bringing in-depth regional news to our Western North Carolina communities. This week’s cover is a throwback to The Smoky Mountain News’ original design from the first issue printed in 1999.

STAFF EDITOR/PUBLISHER: ADVERTISING DIRECTOR: ART DIRECTOR: DESIGN & WEBSITE: DESIGN & PRODUCTION: ADVERTISING SALES:

CLASSIFIEDS: NEWS EDITOR: WRITING:

News National park works to overcome hurdles ..................................................................6 Elk return to North Carolina ..............................................................................................8 The end of Eric Rudolph’s run ......................................................................................10 Floods ravage Western North Carolina ....................................................................12 Journey from the Road to Nowhere ............................................................................14 Real estate takes major hit during recession years ................................................16 Ghost Town comes crashing down ............................................................................18 Hospital finances stabilize with for-profit purchase ................................................23 Wildfires ravage WNC ....................................................................................................24 Cherokee impeaches its chief ......................................................................................26 WCU sees a year of change ........................................................................................28

Opinion When the universe offers gifts, unwrap them ..........................................................35

A&E

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June 5-11, 2019

How the craft beer industry impacted WNC ..........................................................38

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ACCOUNTING & OFFICE MANAGER: DISTRIBUTION: CONTRIBUTING:

Scott McLeod. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . info@smokymountainnews.com Greg Boothroyd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . greg@smokymountainnews.com Micah McClure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . micah@smokymountainnews.com Travis Bumgardner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . travis@smokymountainnews.com Jessica Murray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . jessica.m@smokymountainnews.com Susanna Barbee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . susanna.b@smokymountainnews.com Amanda Bradley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . jc-ads@smokymountainnews.com Hylah Birenbaum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . hylah@smokymountainnews.com Scott Collier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . classads@smokymountainnews.com Jessi Stone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . jessi@smokymountainnews.com Holly Kays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . holly@smokymountainnews.com Cory Vaillancourt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cory@smokymountainnews.com Garret K. Woodward. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . garret@smokymountainnews.com Amanda Singletary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . smnbooks@smokymountainnews.com Scott Collier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . classads@smokymountainnews.com Jeff Minick (writing), Chris Cox (writing), George Ellison (writing), Gary Carden (writing), Don Hendershot (writing), Susanna Barbee (writing).

CONTACT WAYNESVILLE | 144 Montgomery, Waynesville, NC 28786 P: 828.452.4251 | F: 828.452.3585 SYLVA | 629 West Main Street, Sylva, NC 28779 P: 828.631.4829 | F: 828.631.0789 INFO & BILLING | P.O. Box 629, Waynesville, NC 28786 Copyright 2019 by The Smoky Mountain News.™ Advertising copyright 2019 by The Smoky Mountain News.™ All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. The Smoky Mountain News is available for free in Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain and parts of Buncombe counties. Limit one copy per person.

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Twenty years later, another edition done 20 YEARS, CONTINUED FROM COVER

MAPPING THE START

Smoky Mountain News

June 5-11, 2019

Scott McLeod

Starting a business is tough, that’s a given. Lori and I had three small children — ages 11 months, 3 years and 6 years — when I stopped just talking about it and told her I was quitting my stable job as editor at The Mountaineer to start a newspaper. For some reason, she didn’t toss me out the door, tell me to sleep on the porch and say I’d better get back to work in the morning.

Instead, she totalEditor ly bought in. She says now that she figured it was my mid-life crisis — I was 39 at the time — and that starting a newspaper was better than some of the other mid-life crisis choices men make. Indeed.

Without that support I wouldn’t be writing this now. She was a stay-at-home mom taking time off from teaching, but I enlisted her as our bookkeeper. More truthful is to say she served a period of indentured servitude. For about four thankless years she worked for no salary behind a computer, which is a version of hell for someone who thrives on personal interactions. Our kids would ride the bus to downtown Waynesville after spending days at Central Elementary, come in the office and play games or do homework.

Greg Boothroyd, Neil and Rachel Torda, Don Hendershot, Lori and I spent those early days slaving away in a tiny two-bedroom apartment on Main Street that we turned into an office. It worked well for a while. I was, like most start-up business owners, working crazy hours. One day our son, Liam, was in his car seat as Lori was driving to the office. “Are we going to daddy’s house?” he asked mom. He was learning to talk, and in his mind my office was my house. I was there more than I was at home.

That was, as they say, the straw that

broke the camel’s back. Lori said I needed to find a bookkeeper. She vowed to get back to spending more time with the kids since I wasn’t able to. Her resignation likely saved our family and the business, allowing me to keep going full steam ahead at the newspaper.

As luck would have it, when Lori resigned we found Amanda Singletary, still the star bookkeeper, office manager, human resources director and one of the people who helps keep this ship afloat. She’s been here since June 2003.

I remember the day we hired Micah McClure, now our art director. As he left the office and was walking down the hall, we heard him whoop with joy at landing a job so soon after graduating from Southwestern Community College. We burst out laughing, the very thought that anyone would be excited to work with us.

That was 19 years and 9 months ago, and Micah is still doing great things with design and keeping all the products we publish running through the system as smoothly as possible. With the wise and dry Travis Bumgardner as a cohort for 19 years and the recent addition of Jessica Murray, we’ve got the best design and graphics teams in the region, hands down. They have adapted as the technology has changed, and their smarts are part and parcel to our survival.

We live in a region of mom-and-pop businesses, so a lot of people around here know that the small companies that survive are like families. Co-workers and employees are much more than just colleagues. You have your real family at home and your work family, and you celebrate triumphs and tragedies together, you disagree one day and then you go to battle for that same person the next.

That’s what families do. We take great pride in working hard and playing hard.

When that first edition published in June 1999, we were like proud parents. We borrowed a flat-bed trailer and started putting out our blue boxes around the region. We had worked almost two months to get that first 28-page edition on the streets. By Friday, we were in a sweat. We had less than five days to do what originally had taken

This 1999 photo is of (from left) Neil Torda, Greg Boothroyd and me, the three founders of The Smoky Mountain News. Torda was a jack-of-all trades who did all the IT work and was a graphic designer. He now works in IT at Western Carolina University.

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20 YEARS almost 60 days. We made it, but not without some worrisome late nights and not without hassling some advertisers who somehow remained loyal.

READERS, ADVERTISERS AND RETENTION Newspapers and media companies are strange beasts. You have the back end, the business side of trying sell enough advertising to turn a profit; and then you have the public side, the newspaper that readers pick up and peruse each week. That’s our product, what we are selling.

And that side of it is so personal, the storytelling, the design. Every writer and designer knows that.

Report a relatively simple story about a county board meeting, and the next day while you’re thoughtfully squeezing avocados at Ingles to test their ripeness, a reader

READ. RECYCLE. REPEAT.

who takes issue with what you wrote interrupts. By the time the conversation ends, my phone is buzzing and Lori wants to know what’s taking so long. Go deep into a story about a victim of child abuse, a story you think will change the world, and no one mentions it. Not a comment, after pouring your heart and soul into it.

So while it has to be a for-profit business, it’s also an ongoing give-and-take with readers. Perhaps some weeks you put the paper down disappointed in the content. That happens too often, we go out of business and 16 people who depend on us for a living don’t have a job. In the early days I recruited writers many were already familiar with — George Ellison, Don Hendershot, Gary Carden. Jeff Minick has been writing book reviews for 20 years. I think that convinced some people to give us a try. Award-winning columnist Chris Cox came on eventually.

We’ve been fortunate enough to have recruited reporters from all over the country.

We’ve had those with Harvard degrees and Western Carolina University degrees, people from Wisconsin and writers from Nepal. Even now, our news staff of

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DISRUPTION IN THE MEDIA

So what’s a newspaper/media outlet to do?

For one, more of the same — just make sure you’re doing it well. I’m not sure whether it is the region we live in or the people who live here, but our distribution numbers have continued to rise since we started.

Our staff of writers, designers, ad sales people and others work their tails off to produce a quality product that provides useful and interesting information about a wide region, and distribu-

Ever heard the saying “necessity is the mother of invention?” When the recession hit us hard, we were left looking for money.

We were forced to take on more niche publishing. Now the magazines we produce for a few dozen entities around the region account for almost half our annual revenues.

Sales people like Amanda Bradley in Sylva have to be smart enough to know which products work for which clients, and when she succeeds it’s a win for us and a win for the advertiser.

And, like all media outlets still playing the game, we’ve embraced the digital world.

All facets of our online presence are growing rapidly. We get up to 80,000 unique visitors a month to the SMN website. Smoky Mountain Living and Smoky Mountain News have a combined following of 120,000 on Facebook. Mountain South Media, our digital marketing agency, is growing at a breakneck pace.

THE FUTURE

tion manager Scott Collier is out there in snow, rain and summer heat to make sure readers get their In the first edition of The Smoky Mountain News, we shame- papers. We’ve found it still lessly used my 11-month-old son as a marketing gimmick, put- goes off the racks and into ting him in the blue boxes we still use to distribute our papers. people’s homes and busiThe updated photo is of him last week at 20 years, 11 months, nesses. We started 20 from a surf camp in Costa Rica where he’s doing a photography years ago with a 10,000 weekly press run, and now internship. That’s how I count the years. we go as high as 16,500 some weeks. Most of them disappear off our racks, and we have an rural communities. The vast majority — audit to prove it. around 5,500 — have a circulation of less Diversification is key. We purchased than 15,000.”

And from the same report: “Print readers Smoky Mountain Living magazine in 2008.

Under the leadership of General Manager are disappearing even faster than print Hylah Birenbaum, Editor Jonathan Austin newspapers, and the pace appears to be and Associate Editor Susanna Shetley, our accelerating. Over the past 15 years, total nationally distributed magazine is gaining weekday circulation — which includes both print and digital subscribers, along with ad dailies and weeklies — declined from 122 revenue. million to 73 million.”

It’s been a wild 20-year ride, to say the least. We had a pretty clear idea of what we wanted this newspaper to be before the first edition ever hit the street: something of interest to locals and visitors, a welldesigned paper that relished long-form journalism and one that didn’t shy away from controversy, not a traditional community paper but more of a news magazine, more focused on quality than quantity.

As mentioned earlier, though, where the media will be in 10 or 20 years is just too difficult to predict. But as I talk to people in health care, banking, music, insurance, the car business or even the grocery business, they have the same uncertainty about the future. I tell co-workers and others that we have to maintain an uneasy edge, able to pivot immediately as the industry morphs, act as if we had just opened our doors yesterday, always embrace change instead of fighting it.

In the end, our business is similar to hundreds of others in Western North Carolina.

We value our workers, our entire staff has a deep connection to this community, and we know that working hard is a virtue. We try to do right by our friends and family.

As for me, I’m lucky. You do something you love, it really doesn’t feel like work at all.

(Reach Scott McLeod at info@smokymountainnews.com)

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June 5-11, 2019

The naysayers predict Facebook and Google and their ilk will eventually drive us and everyone else — newspapers large and small, along with digital-only media sources — out of business. We’ve been hearing that since that first issue hit the streets in June 1999.

Consider this: in 1997, just two years before we started, online advertising’s share of total advertising spending was less than 1 percent. By 2010, that percentage had jumped to 16.7 percent of the total. In 2018, Vox reported that the tables had finally turned, and probably for good. For the first time, digital ad spending accounted for more than 50 percent of total ad spending, with Facebook and Google gobbling up most of that.

As digital advertising exploded, newspa-

pers around the country have closed.

According to an October 2018 report by University of North Carolina journalism professor Penelope Muse Abernathy, the U.S. has “lost almost 1,800 papers since 2004, including more than 60 dailies and 1,700 weeklies. Roughly half of the remaining 7,112 in the country — 1,283 dailies and 5,829 weeklies — are located in small and

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Jessi Stone, Garret K. Woodward, Holly Kays and Cory Vaillancourt represent North Georgia, upstate New York, Maryland and Chicago. I’ve always had the philosophy of hiring really smart people and letting them own their beat or their job. We never wanted the old-school top-down, inverted pyramid style of writing throughout the paper.

Sometimes it’s necessary, but we’ve always embraced creativity and long-form work.

Make no mistake. This is a cut-throat business. We may be collegial with news folks from the other papers and other media organizations and respect their products and abilities, but we are all chasing the same dollar. The amount of money spent on advertising in any given market is limited and finite. If we don’t get our share, our people don’t eat.

We’ve been fortunate to have had coowner Greg Boothroyd all these years running the advertising side. He’s a born salesman and has developed long-standing relationships with dozens of business owners and managers. He’s community-minded and volunteers his time with many community organizations. From the beginning, he preached to our sales staff that their job was to help small business owners succeed. You don’t sell one ad and run out the door clutching a check. You help owners market their products. If we can help them do that, we will be doing business together for many, many years. Thankfully, that has worked out in too many cases to name.

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1999: Smokies works to overcome hurdles S MOKIES, CONTINUED FROM COVER collect entrance fees. An increase in visitation did not necessarily translate to an increase in revenue.

ENVIRONMENTAL THREATS

Smoky Mountain News:

20 YEARS Carolina’s nitrogen oxide emissions in 1990, in 2014 that share was only 13 percent.

Meanwhile, total emissions were nearly halved.

But air currents don’t mind state boundaries, and North Carolina was still struggling with air pollution caused by Tennessee Valley Authority plants in neighboring Tennessee. In 2006, North Carolina filed a lawsuit claiming that TVA’s pollution was a public nuisance that threatened the health of North Carolina residents.

The question wasn’t settled until 2011, when TVA agreed to invest $3 to $5 billion on new pollution controls, as well as $350 million in clean energy projects to reduce pollution, save energy and protect public health and the environment. The settlement affected power plants in Alabama, Kentucky

June 5-11, 2019

At the same time, the Smokies was facing environmental threats such as air pollution that restricted its famous views and damaged its plants and animals with ozone and acid rain. In 1998, on the 20 percent haziest days in the park a visitor could expect to see only 9 miles into the distance. In 2002, the park made the National Parks Conservation Association’s list of the 10 most endangered national parks — for the fourth year in a row.

“Air pollution continues to be the biggest threat that the park and its visitors face,” Greg Kidd, who at the time was southeast associate director for the NPCA, told SMN in 2002. “But a series of development issues along with inadequate funding are also put-

ting park resources at risk.”

A lot has changed since then, especially when it comes to air pollution, and the difference is not hard to detect. That 20 percent haziest days measure has more than quadrupled, with the visual range up to 39 miles in 2017 compared to the 9 reported in 1999.

State and federal regulations, as well as a 2011 settlement with the Tennessee Valley Authority, have had a lot to do with that.

In 2002, North Carolina passed the Clean Smokestacks Act, which required coalfired power plants in the state to significantly reduce their emissions. By 2009, the act said, the plants had to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 77 percent and sulfur dioxide by 49 percent from 1998 levels, with the sulfur dioxide reduction ramped up to 73 percent by 2013. State residents would foot the bill for these upgrades by paying higher electricity bills.

The act made an impact. Where power plants had comprised 33 percent of North

Smoky Mountain News

Volunteers smile for a photo during the 2013 Friends Across the Mountains Telethon, an annual fundraiser for Friends of the Smokies. Over the past 24 years, the event has raised nearly $4 million to support the park. Donated photo

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and Tennessee, with settlement funds paid to all three of those states in addition to North Carolina, which received $11.2 million for programs to reduce electricity demand and promote energy efficiency.

GENEROUS PARTNERS The park has also seen hopeful developments on another front that was troubling in 1999 — funding.

Federal funding for the park has increased from $12.28 million in 1998 to $18.81 million in 2015. While the increase is quite modest in real terms — that $12.28 million would be worth $17.9 million in 2015 dollars — the park has also seen an increase in engagement from nonprofit partners.

The Smokies has two major nonprofit partners that work to raise money for all manner of projects not covered with federal funds. The Great Smoky Mountains Association, which has been around since 1953, has raised more than $44 million over the course of its life.

But the much newer Friends of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, formed in 1993, is also making an impact. In its 26 years of existence, Friends has raised $65 million, with $2.7 million pledged toward park projects in 2019 alone. Meanwhile, GSMA gave $2.4 million in 2017.

Together, the groups have worked to fill the gap between what the federal government will fund and what the park needs to thrive. Friends has funded rehabilitation of four major trails in the park through its Trails Forever Program, and the groups together paid for roughly half of the $4.3 million National Park Service Collections Preservation Center that opened in 2016, with GSMA funding the $3 million Oconaluftee Visitor Center, completed in 2011 — Friends chipped in $550,000 toward exhibits and visitor orientation for the building. Other programs the groups fund range from bear bag cables at campsites to staff salaries to prescribed burns.

That’s not to say that the funding issue has been solved. The park still has $235.9 million in deferred mainte-

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Hikers walk Alum Cave Trail during the 2019 government shutdown. Despite the lack of visitor services during the 35-day shutdown, visits to America’s most-visited national park actually increased over January 2018. Holly Kays photo

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Because of an agreement that goes back to the park’s creation in 1934, the Smokies can’t charge entrance fees like most other national parks, so it gets no additional revenue from this extra visitation outside of fees like campground reservations and backcountry camping permits.

“The park bases its visitor counts on the assumption — tested out regularly for accuracy — that from June to September vehicles contain an average of 2.8 people and from October to May the average is 2.5,” SMN reported in a December 2015 story on park visitation. “Even bumping that average a bit to say that each car has three people in it, if the Smokies charged $30 for each vehicle like Grand Canyon National Park — the next most-visited national park — it would have been allowed to keep $80.8 million for its budget in 2014, the last complete data year. Of course, that supposes that annual passes don’t make the per trip cost cheaper for repeat visitors and that the price doesn’t prevent some people from coming, but it’s a high number compared to the 2014 federal allocation of $18.5 million.”

The park is certainly still in need of the

volunteer hours and donated dollars that have helped sustain it in the past 20 years, but despite those challenges it’s seen plenty of positive headlines where biodiversity and economic impact are concerned.

Following a sevenyear brook trout restoration project, the park opened Lynn Camp Prong to fishing in 2015, the first time since the park’s creation that fishing had been allowed in all streams. The All Taxa Biodiversity Index, started in 1998, has since documented an astounding 19,972 species in park boundaries, 1,006 of them new to science.

Elk have been reintroduced successfully, the herd growing significantly since the first animals were released in 2001.

And, while increased visitation might not have a direct impact on the park’s revenue, it certainly does on the nearby communities that serve those visitors. According to a recently published National Park Service report, in 2018 the park had an estimated economic impact of $953 million on the communities surrounding it. That’s up from $923 million in 2017, and the figure has grown every year since 2013.

Environmental concerns do remain, including human visitation impacts and invasive species such as the hemlock wooly adelgid, though overall, it’s good news compared to the situation 20 years ago. But it pays to remember that any situation can change in the blink of an eye, Supervisory Park Ranger Lynda Doucette told SMN in 2015.

“Unless we educate the younger kids about the fact that you can’t take this for granted, they’re not going to realize until it’s too late that you can’t take this for granted and this is something unique and special and amazing,” she said. “The foresight our ancestors had in saying, ‘This is a really incredible place that we need to make sure is still here for future generations’ — I don’t know that we in the last 50 years have done such a great job of conveying how fragile that can be.”

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nance as of a report published Sept. 30, 2018. That number seems to be growing. In 2017 the figure was $215.5 million and in 2016 it was $211.2 million.

And, just as was the case back in 1999, visitation is rising. After first topping the 10 million mark in 1999, it was back down in the 9 million range in 2001 and stayed there until 2014, when it crossed the 10 million threshold once more. In 2016, the park reached a new milestone when it logged 11.3 million visitors — and visitation has increased every year since, reaching 11.4 million in 2018.

Clear views like this abound in the Smokies, where 20 years ago they were filled with haze.

GSMNP photo

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June 5-11, 2019

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2001: Elk return to Western North Carolina

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER “A large herd gathered last week on a remote, historical farmstead maintained by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, in Cataloochee Valley,” Don Hendershot wrote for The Smoky Mountain News on Feb. 7, 2001.

“The herd, however, were bipeds — nearly 900 people were in attendance for the first of three scheduled elk releases.”

It was a big story for the fledgling newspaper, and a pivotal event for the region as a whole. Elk, various subspecies of which once roamed nearly the entire country, had been absent from North Carolina since the late 1700s — the original populations had disappeared from the rest of their range in the eastern U.S. as well. But after more than 10 years of planning, the first representatives of the species returned to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Starting in 1990, the park began consulting with other agencies about the possibility of reintroducing the huge animals — bulls can weigh up to 1,000 pounds — to the Smokies. By 2000, a study had been completed and returned with a finding of “no significant impact,” clearing the way for elk to be released in Cataloochee Valley.

That brings us to 2001, when 25 elk captured from Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area in western Kentucky and Tennessee were released Feb.

2 amid what Hendershot described as a “carnival atmosphere” that attracted politicians, park supporters, Cataloochee settler descendents and community members with ages ranging from toddler to senior citizen.

The American elk is the second-largest member of the deer family, and there once used to be six subspecies of it in North America. The Appalachians’ native eastern elk is extinct, so it’s Manitoban elk that now reside in the Smokies, as they’re thought to be most similar subspecies to the extinct natives.

When the elk were first released, the project was envisioned more as an experiment in the species’ ability to survive in the Smokies than as an actual reintroduction. The park was planning a fiveyear intensive study that would include release of about 75 animals over the first three years of the project. Park staff would monitor the population closely to determine the animals’ ability to adapt to their new surroundings and their impact on the park’s ecosystem.

That approach had a significant impact on the mix of animals released back in 2001.

While a reintroduction project would release mostly female elk, field researcher Jennifer Murrow told The Smoky Mountain News at the time, the original 25 elk represented a “general mix” of sexes — similar to what you’d see in a natural herd.

The elk made it through their first year

Smoky Mountain News:

20 YEARS with panache. The herd numbered 28 healthy elk by the following January, when the park was revving up to secure a second installation of elk for Cataloochee. These 27 elk would endure a much longer trip — they came from Elk Island National Park, near Edmonton, Canada — and receive a much quieter homecoming, entering the 3-acre acclimation pen in a valley devoid of the crowds of spectators that had awaited the release of the original crew.

It wasn’t a painless adjustment for the elk, which had to learn how to survive in their new environment and keep their young

safe from unfamiliar predators like coyotes and bears. But the animals ultimately cleared those hurdles better than wildlife managers had expected — by October 2002 the elk population had grown to nearly 60 animals and the park had decided to forego a third release that had been planned for 2003.

“Overall we are very pleased with the progress of the elk project, including the reproductive success, especially since none of the elk brought in had been exposed to bears or other predators in their former homes,” Kim DeLozier, the park’s wildlife biologist at the time, said in an Oct. 12, 2002, SMN story. “And we would expect that, as they have more experience with predators, these cows will get more savvy about how to conceal

Adult male elk can weigh up to 1,000 pounds, though 600 to 800 pounds is more common. @bigrromantic photo

We are proud to say we have been with SMN since the first issue!

Here’s to the next 20!

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case of the Ross family, who keep dairy cows in the Jonathan Creek area. In January 2016, seven elk were shot on the farm for allegedly feeding on winter wheat being grown to feed the cows.

“We’ve worked really hard to try to resolve some of these issues so people can live with elk,” Mike Carraway, the nowretired regional supervisor for the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, told SMN in 2016. “The Wildlife Resources Commission is working with landowners to try to resolve some of these issues so we don’t get to the point where people are shooting elk anymore.”

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The elk’s draw for tourists is heightened by the fact that they often hang out in fields, making for easy viewing. Donated photo

ELK TOURISM SKYROCKETING

and protect their calves in years to come.”

That prediction seems to have proven true. It’s hard to say exactly how many elk now reside in Western North Carolina, as conventional techniques for calculating herd sizes rely on flyover counts made possible by the less tree-covered habitats of the western states, where wild elk populations more commonly occur. But there are at least 150 elk around, and probably more, with herds having formed in Harmon Den and Cherokee in addition to the original group in Cataloochee. Individual roaming elk have

been found as far away as Hendersonville, Cashiers and Franklin.

For many, the success of the elk reintroduction is a dream come true. But for others, it’s an inescapable nightmare.

The park’s original reintroduction plan used a zone management philosophy for areas outside the park boundary. Lands directly adjacent to the park would be in the buffer zone, with elk allowed there so long as they caused no significant conflicts.

Sensitive areas like agricultural land and populated areas within the buffer zones

A PROBLEM FOR SOME But ask around, and it’s not hard to find landowners — especially farmers — with less-than-laudatory words about the elk.

Like deer, they’re browsers, and they love tasty treats like the uniform rows of crops farmers painstakingly coax from their fields.

“I haven’t had any damage yet, but it’s coming. It’s increasing,” Jonathan Creek farmer William Carter told SMN in 2016, standing in the shade of a large cherry tree as he packed baskets full of that year’s harvest of greasy beans. “I’m seeing more elk, more elk. As of yet I’ve kept them harassed off, and that’s a job in itself. It takes time and effort for me to do.”

It’s not fair, Carter said, that he has to use his scant resources of time and money to deal with the elk issue when it’s an issue the government knowingly created. To a layperson, an elk munching a little grass might not seem like that big a deal, but if you’re a farmer trying to grow enough hay to get your cattle through the winter, it really is.

These tensions have turned violent on more than one occasion, most notably in the

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Jonathan Creek farmer William Carter shells beans as he discusses the problems elk pose to growers like himself. Holly Kays photo

would be “No Elk Zones” — elk entering these areas would be removed.

While the elk have created hardship for some area residents, they’ve opened up opportunity for others, especially those whose livelihoods depend on tourism.

In 2000, the year before the first elk were released, the Cataloochee area of the park saw a total of 65,432 visits. The next year, that figure nearly doubled to 124,844. In 2003 Cataloochee saw its highest visitation ever, with 214,000 visitors. In recent years, Cataloochee’s popularity has moderated somewhat to hang mostly between 90,000 and 100,000, which makes sense — Cataloochee is one of the more difficult park entrances to reach, and with the success of the herd elk can now be seen at the much more easily-accessible Oconaluftee Visitor Center.

But that hasn’t stopped Haywood County from working to capitalize on its status as the elk’s first home in North Carolina. The county’s Tourism Development Authority prominently features a bugling elk on its logo, and this September it will hold the first-ever Smoky Mountain Elk Fest in Maggie Valley.

Legislation currently in the General Assembly seeks to christen Haywood County Elk Capital of North Carolina — it’s awaiting a vote from the Senate after the House gave a unanimous yea.

“To see my first elk, I drove 2,200 miles,” Joyce Cooper, co-chair of the Great Smoky Mountains Chapter of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation told SMN for a story published Feb. 13 of this year. “Now I can drive 5 miles and see an elk. I’ve had elk on my property. They’ve been grazing on my hayfield, which I never dreamed would happen in my lifetime.”

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2003: The end of Eric Rudolph’s run

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT STAFF WRITER e was a seasoned dumpster diver by now. For the last three summers, he’d regularly swoop down in the dead of night to go “shopping,” collecting fruits and veggies to preserve for the winter.

It was just another summery Saturday night and he knew the Murphy cops would be more plentiful than usual, but he also knew that the box of bruised bananas he’d snagged days earlier heralded a forthcoming cornucopia of discarded produce ripe for the picking.

He’d dodged those squads a hundred times — now a hundred and one, as he watched one from afar cruise slowly behind the Save-ALot grocery store.

Minutes later, within moments of his harvest, he was shocked to see that same car, headlights off, whip back around the building and catch him out in the open.

Ducking for the first available shelter, a stack of milk crates, he found himself backed into a corner against the loading dock, hoping he hadn’t been spotted by the 21-year-old rookie, whose spotlight said otherwise. He briefly thought to flee, until he heard a voice inside his head.

“Stop running,” it said.

June 5-11, 2019

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A MILITANT’S MINDSET

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Eric Robert Rudolph was born in Merritt Island, Florida, in 1966. In 1981, upon the death of his father Bob, an aircraft mechanic, Rudolph and his mother moved to Macon County. After dropping out of the Nantahala School upon completion of his

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freshman year, he worked around the region as a carpenter and handyman with his older brother, Daniel.

Around 1984 he left to Schell City, Missouri, where his mother was living at a compound run by the Church of Israel, an anti-government, anti-vax Christian Identity group that espouses Biblical justifications for white supremacy.

Their stay was brief — just a few months — but would prove pivotal in helping shape who Eric Rudolph was, and who he’d soon become.

Three years later and after earning a GED, Rudolph enlisted in the U.S. Army, ultimately becoming a rifleman in the 101st Airborne Division before his discharge for marijuana use in 1989.

Rudolph’s expansive, self-penned 154,000-word 2013 tome Between the lines of drift: memoirs of a militant, reads as much as a prepper paean as it does a political manifesto; in it, he lays bare how he did what he did, and why, albeit with some significant gaps.

By the early 1990s, Rudolph had developed substantial disdain for what he called the progressive policies of President Bill Clinton.

In language eerily reminiscent (prescient?) of today’s Overton window, Rudolph decries socialized medicine, multinational corporations, feminism, homosexuals in the military, the purportedly imminent mass confiscation of firearms and an impending new world order. He invokes the

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20 YEARS John Birch Society, philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, the incidents at Waco and Ruby Ridge and, most pointedly, what he sees as a federal government far too permissive of abortion.

“I was convinced that an illegitimate government controlled our country. And if all peaceful efforts to remove it had failed, then the only alternative was to remove it by force. Naturally, I couldn’t do it alone. I had no delusions on that score. I had to somehow encourage others to help,” he wrote. “In the spring of 1995, I decided to embark on a mission. I’d carry out a series of high profile attacks against symbols of the regime: abortion mills, Sodomite organizations, left-wing interest groups, and agents of the Washington government. Because it is the most egregious of Washington’s many crimes, abortion would be the main focus of my attacks.”

THE BOMBINGS BEGIN Around 1:20 a.m. on July 27, 1996, a massive 100-pound pipe bomb concealed within a backpack exploded in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park, where many thousands had gathered in conjunction with the events of the 26th Olympiad. It wounded 111 people, killed one spectator and led to the heart attack death of a television cameraman hustling to the scene.

Rudolph said that when he planted the bomb and initiated the timer, he intended to make a 911 call from a pay phone and give an hour’s notice to authorities who would then hopefully clear the park and thereby minimize casualties, but logistical problems delayed that call for 40 minutes.

About 10 minutes before Rudolph made the call, AT&T security guard Richard Jewell saw something glaringly out of place — an unattended backpack — and contacted the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Although his discovery saved many lives, Jewell went

on to become a suspect who was tried viciously in the media until formally cleared by a U.S. Attorney months later. Jewell would go on to file several libel suits, settling with the New York Post and CNN for an undisclosed amount and with NBC for $500,000.

Meanwhile, Rudolph had high-tailed it home, stopping briefly at his trailer south of Murphy to pick up the gear and grub he’d cached, and hid out near the Tennessee border in his truck, listening to the radio.

During that time, he expressed frustration that what he thought would be a bold and sophisticated political statement against “global socialism” that was meant to embarrass Washington for its sanctioning of abortion instead ended up looking like an arbitrary attack on innocents.

He probably learned on that radio that his attack “paused” the Olympics for exactly one day, and he also may have at some point heard the theme song of the 1996 Games — “Imagine,” by John Lennon — performed at the closing ceremonies Aug. 4 by Stevie Wonder.

After three weeks, when no one came calling, Rudolph went home.

ON THE RUN The Olympic bombing was only the start of Eric Rudolph’s foray into domestic terrorism; after spending six more months making preparations, he bombed an abortion clinic near Atlanta in January 1997, injuring six. A month later, he did the same at an Atlanta bar frequented by lesbians, injuring five. A year later, in January, 1998, it was another clinic in Birmingham, killing one.

Two weeks later, two men who’d seen Rudolph depart the scene gave authorities his license plate number. He was named as a suspect in the Birmingham incident, and added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List three months after that. In October 1998, he’d also be linked to the three Atlanta attacks.

But by then, Rudolph had already started running. After hearing a radio news report about a grey truck

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that crossed too many peoples’ minds,” Hendershot said last week. “He was thought of more as a fugitive who was going to hide, scared that someone would recognize him.”

With a $1 million reward offered for information leading to his capture, Rudolph kept a low profile and changed locations often, even as some foolhardy adventurers went out in search of him.

So did the FBI’s Southeast Bomb Task Force, which soon set up shop in Andrews and went on to spend $25 million looking for him, just as he watched their comings and goings from a nearby ridge top.

How he was able to last so long remains a subject of great speculation.

On one hand, he was a well-prepared, zealous survivalist with military training who was operating on his home turf — a rugged scrap of isolated, mountainous ter-

rain home to a people with a long history of dogged independence.

“Especially where he was, in 1998, the old iconic Appalachian mountaineer doesn’t care what you’re doing,” Hendershot said.

“You mind your business and I’ll mind mine.

CAUGHT

If they saw somebody walking down the road, only thing they would probably do is offer him a ride.”

On the other hand, those isolationist leanings made Rudolph something of a folk

After more than five-and-a-half years on the run, Rudolph had finally backed himself into a corner.

“Stop running,” said the voice in his head, a stack of crates the only thing standing between him and Murphy Police Officer Jeff Postell’s cruiser. “You can take whatever they throw at you.”

In exchange for taking the death penalty off the table, Rudolph pled guilty to charges stemming from the bombings in Birmingham as well as all three Atlanta attacks, including the one in Centennial Olympic Park.

What they threw at him was four life sentences plus 120 years in Florence, Colorado’s Supermax — possibly the world’s most secure prison — where he spends 23 hours a day in a 7-by-12 cell. No more running, and probably no more free than he was while hiding out in the mountains of Western North Carolina.

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linked to the bombing — his truck — he loaded up for remote Fires Creek, northwest of Hayesville. He’d go on to spend the next five years stealing from grain silos, residential gardens and dumpsters around Murphy while using Fires Creek as a base camp.

Longtime Smoky Mountain News contributor Don Hendershot didn’t know any of that before he penned his story for the June 4, 2003, edition of the Smoky Mountain News, the cover of which prominently featured Rudolph’s mug along with just one word — “Caught.”

Hendershot has long been a familiar face to SMN readers as the author of a recurring column called “The Naturalist’s Corner” wherein he shares his knowledge of and adventures throughout Western North Carolina’s majestic outdoors with all the guile and grace of an award-winning outdoors writer, which is exactly what he is.

As such, he was familiar with the area in which Rudolph was hiding out, and also with the opinions of other local outdoors enthusiasts at the time.

“I don’t think anyone actually thought, ‘If I go into the Nantahala Gorge, I might run into Eric Rudolph.’ The idea that you’re going to go on a hiking trail and run into Rudolph hiding in the woods, I don’t think

hero to some; bumper stickers and T-shirts began to appear with the words, “Run, run Rudolph!” — a play on an old Chuck Berry Christmas tune.

“He was kind of an enigma, as someone who was out there, but when you get to Murphy and Andrews, the story changes a little bit,” said Hendershot. “I remember when I went over there and stopped in Andrews and talked to some people, the idea was, well, Eric Rudolph may have done some bad things, but it’s not any worse than what the government does.”

Two men even shot up the FBI’s command post in 2000, reportedly grazing one agent’s hair, but the FBI still maintains that Rudolph was far too paranoid and distrustful of others to seek or accept help, from anyone. Others, though, disagree.

“The idea that Eric Rudolph spent five years in the woods alone, I think there are a lot of people that would argue the point that he had a lot of help,” Hendershot said.

One theory is that there was a specific person who was helping Rudolph, but that person passed away at some point, making things more difficult for Rudolph, perhaps even leading him to get risky, to get sloppy, to take chances — like the one he took behind the Save-A-Lot in Andrews on Saturday, May 31, 2003.

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Law enforcement officers set up roadblocks throughout the region the day Eric Rudolph was captured on June 3, 2003.

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2004: Floods ravage Western North Carolina

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT STAFF WRITER he tiny central Haywood County town of Clyde lies more than 270 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, more than 400 miles from the Gulf of Mexico and more than 2,500 feet above both of them, so it must have seemed like a cruel joke when back-to-back hurricanes over the course of about a week caused unprecedented regional flooding.

“The floods that ravaged Canton, Clyde and Asheville are no laughing matter,” wrote Smoky Mountain News Publisher Scott McLeod in his Sept. 15, 2004, opinion piece.

“The best news is, no lives were lost.”

And that was about the best of it — as category 4 Hurricane Frances degraded to a tropical storm after grinding its way across Florida, the massive storm then entered the Gulf briefly before making a second landfall, pounding the Panhandle for good measure.

From there, Frances slowly moved north through Appalachia, dumping more than 7 inches of rain on Haywood County as it drifted northeast, directly over Western North Carolina. Mount Mitchell received more than 23 inches of rain before Frances plodded back out to the Atlantic, by way of Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario. All told, the storm killed 49 and caused more than $10 billion in damage.

Right in the middle of it all was former Smoky Mountain News Staff Writer Becky Johnson, who chronicled in extensive and agonizing detail the oft-futile local attempts to stave off casualties and property damage.

Around dinnertime on Sept. 7, workers at Blue Ridge Paper in Canton silenced the mill’s mighty smokestacks for the first time in 99 years. Students and parents at downtown Canton’s Bethel Christian Academy helped move belongings to higher shelving, and laid down sandbags that would do little to stem the 14 feet of water that eventually flooded the school.

Local videographers Daniel Hart, Nathan Ledford and Joel Noland had spent much of the day atop the concrete bridge that spans the Pigeon River near Iron Duff. When the water reached the bottom of the bridge they remained undaunted, but soon wisely retreated to higher ground after midnight.

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Many, including these residents of Clyde, lost everything. File photo “We sat on the porch all morning and just watched stuff floating by,” said Hart, who with his friends saw bales of hay, washing machines, a goat, someone’s front porch, vehicles, propane tanks, stuffed animals, coolers, toys, grills, lawn chairs and a 50-foot truss bridge.

Johnson went on to provide another two dozen anecdotes of flooded homes, wrecked businesses and ruined lives, but also a few shining examples of neighbors helping neighbors in need.

Around noon that Thursday, a man was reported “clinging to a branch” in the Pigeon River near Clyde; he’d been in a canoe, using a snow shovel as a paddle, and was trying to check on an elderly resident whom he hadn’t been able to reach by phone.

When his canoe approached a bridge, he bailed, just as his vessel was dashed to pieces.

Once rescued, he “took off running through town” and arrived at the home of 84-year-old Virginia Sanford, who’d been evacuated to the Folkmoot Friendship Center in Hazelwood the previous night by the Red Cross.

Canton native and then-Duke student Zeb Smathers remembers his dad Pat Smathers, mayor of Canton at the time, contacting him.

“Getting that phone call, and hearing the

tremble in dad’s voice, the pictures and the stories and the chaos, it was unbelievable,” Zeb Smathers, now Canton’s mayor, told The Smoky Mountain News in 2017. “And then a week later, the second storm hit.”

That’s right — Frances was only the beginning of the muddy mountain misery.

Right about the time McLeod’s opinion piece was hitting newsstands across the region, category 5 Hurricane Ivan was making landfall near Gulf Shores, Alabama, packing winds of 120 miles per hour.

Retracing Frances’ path, Ivan gutted the Heart of Dixie before moving onto a region where the previous week’s storm had left soils saturated and rivers swollen.

“We were ready, but we still didn’t anticipate the level of damage from this second storm,” said Greg Shuping, who was then and is still head of Haywood County’s emergency operations. “Ivan affected not just the major waterways but the tributaries and smaller streams.”

Ivan would eventually drop 17 inches of rain in parts of Haywood County, cause more than $26 billion in damage across its path and kill 92 people, including an elderly Crusoe resident who drove into the floodwaters. Several residents of Peeks Creek, near

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20 YEARS Franklin, also perished when a half-mile long, 20-foot wide landslide tossed large boulders “like bowling balls,” according to Cullasaja Fire Department volunteer Mike Bryson.

Recovery was slow, but steady; Pat Smathers advocated for a relief bill on the floor of the N.C. General Assembly even as well-known politicos like senators John Edwards, D-South Carolina, Elizabeth Dole, R-North Carolina, and Rep. Charles Taylor, RBrevard, joined N.C. Gov. Mike Easley in visiting the area to survey the damage.

Today, the floods remain a cultural touchstone for the region, especially in hard-hit Canton and Clyde. Most people remember where they were and what they did, what they lost and who they lost, but most importantly, how they rebuilt with an eye on the future.

Perhaps emblematic of that spirit is Clyde’s River’s Edge Park, which only just reopened to the public last month; in actuality, the park — which sits on the banks of the Pigeon River just off Thickety Road — is a flood control measure first, and a park second.

“It’s been a task, to say the least, but we’re really pleased with how it’s turned out,” Clyde Town Administrator Joy Garland told SMN last month. “The design is working — it’s holding. It is not washing away.”

20 YEARS projects based on the unconventional formula. Haywood and other school officials in the region wrote letters to state legislators calling for equal funding based on student capita.

But Rep. Phil Haire, D-Sylva, who represented Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties in 2006, said it was too early to change the new law without knowing what kind of revenue would be rolling in from the lottery.

“Anytime you start something up, you’re going to have perhaps a few little glitches.

That formula — it’s not set in concrete,” Haire said during a 2006 interview with SMN. “I think it’s hard to fix something before we know what the problem is. Let’s wait and see.”

Aside from the funding formula, school officials were wary of creating the lottery because they didn’t want to see legislators use that additional revenue to supplant the state funding already dedicated to public education. Haire assured voters that the lottery revenue would be “icing on the cake”

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The state decided to distribute money based on each county’s tax rate instead of on a per pupil basis. It would stand to reason the state might try to help supplement the school budgets in counties with a low tax rate or small tax base but instead the idea was to give a smaller portion of lottery proceeds to counties that had a tax rate below the state average. With a statewide tax rate average of about 66 cents per $100 of assessed value at the time, all of the western counties in Smoky Mountain News’ coverage area fell well under that average.

Dr. Anne Garrett, superintendent of Haywood County Schools at the time, said Haywood and other western counties could miss out on hundreds of thousands of dollars when it comes to school construction

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BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR early 15 years after the North Carolina General Assembly narrowly passed a bill establishing an education lottery system, state legislators and local school districts are still arguing over how the revenue should be spent.

Before 2005, North Carolina was the only state on the East Coast without a state-run lottery system. When the legislation came up for a final vote in the Senate, it was tied 24-24, and then Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue broke the tie with her affirmative vote.

When you start off without much consensus, chances are building consensus around how the money will be spent is also going to be a challenge. Other states seemed pretty pleased with how their lottery had rolled out — Georgia and Florida both decided to use a majority of the money to pay in-state tuition for students who maintained a B average in high school and into college — but it was obvious N.C.’s funding formula wasn’t going to be so simple.

Touted as an education lottery, the reality was that only one-third of the lottery revenues was slated for education with half of that going to pay for teachers and staff to reduce class sizes and the remainder going to school construction and college scholarships based on the student’s financial need.

Today, the lottery generates more than $2 billion a year — about 62 percent is returned to lottery players through prizes while another 11.4 percent goes to administrative costs and retailer commissioners. That leaves about 26 percent — or $516 million — of the revenue for education each year.

Even as the first day of lottery sales approached in late March 2006, state and local officials were still debating how the money should filter down to local school systems. When The Smoky Mountain News was reporting on the issue in 2006, the funding formula did not seem to give western counties a fair shake when it was the western county school systems that perhaps needed the funding the most.

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State passes education lottery system

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2005: Taking a gamble

for capital projects through the ADM (average daily membership) allotment, but now that money has disappeared.

“ADM is what the state used to give us, but that went away and they supplanted that with lottery funds,” Dr. Bill Nolte, superintendent of Haywood County Schools, said in 2016. “In an ideal world they would have not supplanted the ADM and they would have given us the lottery funds. And as sales increased across the state, funding would increase, but instead it’s been cut in half.”

The funding levels are also more unpredictable, making long-range planning for school systems nearly impossible.

Haywood County started out getting $373,459 in 2007 from Sales tax vote will appear on Jackson’s June ballot lottery funds and received just Joe Lasher Jr. sets sights on Nashville over $1 million in 2011 when the state was receiving federal stimulus dollars, but that allocation was cut in half the next year.

Haywood County only expected to get $179,000 in 2016.

Legislators on both sides of the aisle have been disappointed in how the lottery has played out. Rep. Kevin Corbin, RFranklin, a former Macon County school board chairman and county commissioner, told SMN in 2016 that the lottery was sold to the public based on the fact that 40 percent of the revenue was supposed to go to schools for construction costs.

“The fact is the current year that we’re in right now, it’s not 40 percent of the proceeds but 17 percent of the proceeds are in addition to the current levels of state going into education, so that needs to be corfunding. rected,” he said.

“It specifically states in the bill that it will Rep. Joe Sam Queen, D-Waynesville, said not supplant [current state education spend- it’s a fairly easy problem to fix since legislaing],” Haire said. tors have the authority to change the lottery Despite Haire’s assurances, that’s exactly funding formula. what happened, and school systems have “Lottery monies have been moved said they receive less funding each year for around, but we need to put a lockbox on it,” school construction. Before the lottery was he said. “I’d be OK with the lottery if it still created, the counties received state funding went to education like it’s supposed to.”

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2005: Journey from the Road to Nowhere

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR f you can’t understand why people in Swain County are distrustful of the federal government, then you are among those unfamiliar with the history of the infamous Road to Nowhere.

There’s probably not three other words that can incite such disappointment in those Appalachian communities — an instant lowering of the eyes and shaking of the head before an old-timer begins to tell you how the government stole their land and didn’t keep their promises.

“They told big fibs to be honest with you because they promised paradise saying you people need to move — you can have better electricity, which we didn’t have down there.

Of course we didn’t care. We gave and we gave and we gave,” said Christine Cole Proctor, a descendant of a North Shore family, in a 2018 interview.

Proctor was referring to the alleged lies the federal government and the Tennessee Valley Authority told families living in homesteads along the northern end of the counties to get them to give up their land in order to build Fontana Dam in the early 1940s. This was during a time many people were already resentful over losing land when the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was formed in 1934.

Then the government came back for more in 1941 when President Roosevelt authorized federal funding to build Fontana Dam on the Little Tennessee River and the TVA began land acquisitions. The hydropower was needed by Alcoa, which was producing sheets of aluminum for wartime airplanes.

“Most people in Western North Carolina were very patriotic,” said another descendent, Henry Chambers. “Part of them had already volunteered to enter into the service and they were gone. WWII needed more aluminum and more power to generate it. The TVA was designated to do this for the federal government so they came to the people here who didn’t have much money but felt it was their patriotic duty to help the war effort.

Some land they paid for and some they didn’t. If you owed back taxes they took the land for what you owed.”

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The creation of Fontana Lake made those old homesteads and family cemeteries inaccessible to the people that were pushed closer into Bryson City, but the federal government did promise folks that a new road would be built that would connect residents to their heritage and ancestors’ gravesites.

The new route was supposed to be a 26-mile route from Bryson City to Tennessee following Fontana Lake’s shore through the national park. The State of North Carolina constructed a road from Bryson City to the national park boundary in 1959, laying the groundwork for the park to pick up construction.

Congressman Roy A. Taylor secured $8 million for construction of the North Shore Road a year later and then NPS picked up where the state left off with the road construction. However, by 1962 the NPS issued a report stating “it appears to be in the public interest to seriously reconsider the plan” to build the road.

Construction completely stopped in 1968 after only seven miles of the road had been completed — thus the Road to Nowhere was born. The $8 million was quickly eaten up and the chance of securing additional funding was slim with so many environmental concerns surrounding the project.

During the early 1970s, Swain County leaders continued to lobby state and congressional representatives to honor the 1943 agreement, but efforts weren’t going anywhere. It appeared more plausible to get a cash settlement, which is what then Gov. James Holshouser proposed in 1975. During a visit to Washington, D.C., a Swain County attorney threw out a starting figure of $25 million, but a NPS representative refused to negotiate.

Thanks to a visit to Swain County in 1978, Secretary of the Department of the Interior Cecil Andrus returned to D.C. to appoint a committee to explore the controversial agree-

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20 YEARS ment. Andrus proposed a $9.8 million settlement based on the value of the road in 1940.

Other congressmen introduced bills for a cash settlement but the legislation never made it out of one chamber or the other.

Meanwhile the National Park Service was still spending a lot of time and money analysing other options to appease Swain County while minimizing the potential environmental impacts on park land and wildlife.

The park offered to build a four-mile road with a cultural heritage center, picnic area, boat dock and visitor center facilities for $93 million, but Swain County people made it clear they weren’t interested in a compromise.

The “Build the Road” coalition was strengthened with support from U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor, R-Brevard. As the chairman of the Department of Interior

Appropriations Subcommittee, people were sure he could get the funding needed to rebuild the road. He had already gotten $16 million into the 2000 budget toward the project.

However, two of the parties that signed off on the 1943 agreement to rebuild the road — Swain County Board of Commissioners and Gov. Mike Easley on behalf of the state — had formally thrown their support behind the cash settlement.

The TVA — the fourth party to sign the original agreement — remained neutral on the issue but most assumed the quasi-federal corporation would side with the NPS if pressed to take sides.

While the argument over the right path forward continued, the families of those driven from the land continued to go to great lengths to visit their homesteads and cemeteries. Descendants formed the North Shore Cemeteries Association in 1978 and began organizing decoration days for more than 20 family cemeteries along the North Shore of Fontana Lake.

“It’s a traditional Appalachian decoration — we designate a day to go and clean the cemetery off and put fresh flowers on the graves and hold a small service,” Chambers said.

Getting to the cemeteries has been a struggle through the years, especially as the descendants get older. In the beginning, the association was on its own — using their own boats to get across the lake and then walking for up to an hour and a half to reach cemeteries with all the supplies they needed in hand.

Now the park service is more involved in helping the groups by providing transportation across the lake and offering a park trail crew to assist people to some of the harder to reach cemeteries using ATVs. A four-mile road with a visitors center wasn’t going to make the descendants’ annual pilgrimages any easier. They wanted the entire road built to

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U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, (from left) Swain County Commission Chairman Phil Carson, Rep. Mike Clampitt, Sen. Jim Davis, Rep. Kevin Corbin and U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis pose for a $35.2 million check presentation to Swain County, closing out the North Shore Road settlement in July 2018.

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prepare for another battle to get the government to live up to its latest promise, which was way more ironclad than the agreement made in 1943. The deal was that the NPS, under the Department of Interior, was supposed to make $4 million annual payments to Swain County through 2020 to meet the settlement agreement, but the allocations kept getting held hostage during the budget process in D.C. Congressman Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, got the money appropriated twice in the NPS budget, but both times it was rescinded after being caught up in an across-the-board clamp down on earmarks.

Then the money was left out of President Barack Obama’s budget for the next couple of years.

Six more years passed without any funds being appropriated to Swain County.

Knowing the settlement agreement would be expiring in 2020, Swain County commissioners filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Interior in 2016 claiming a breach of contract. The case was dismissed after a federal court found the federal government had not yet breached the contract since it doesn’t expire until 2020.

The lawsuit did seem to get things moving again, as did a push from U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-Asheville, and Republican Senators Thom Tillis and Richard Burr.

A $4 million installment was made to

Swain County in September 2017 and President Donald Trump announced in February 2018 that the rest of the settlement would be included in his 2018-19 budget.

Swain officials were still hesitant to believe another promise from the government but this one actually came through. Swain officials traveled to D.C. in late 2017 to get a check for $4 million and the following summer, D.C. officials traveled to Bryson City to deliver the remaining $35.2 million owed to Swain County just before the July 4 holiday.

Swain County still has one more hurdle to jump in order to collect the full interest from the $52 million sitting in a Raleigh account.

The State Treasurer has a differing opinion on the interpretation of the legislation that established the account specifically for Swain County.

That interpretation is twofold — that the county can only invest its fund in a Bond Index Fund or the Short Term Investment and that the county can draw down on the interest each fiscal year but the amount can’t exceed the amount drawn in the last fiscal year. Now that the fund has grown from $12.8 million to $52 million, the interpretation of the law could keep the county stuck at only drawing around $300,000 a year instead of several million a year.

Commissioners recently passed a resolution requesting that the North Carolina General Assembly modify Senate Bill 1646 to clarify the interpretation to allow Swain County to earn more interest and draw on all the interest each year. Sen. Jim Davis, RFranklin, introduced S307 March 20 to change the legislation. As of this week it was still stuck in the rules and operations committee, but County Manager Kevin King said he expects it to pass during this year’s session.

When it comes to how the county plans to spend the additional income in the future, Commission Chairman Ben Bushyhead said the county is beginning a strategic planning process to see what the county’s needs are for the next five to 10 years. That process, which will include a lot of public input, will determine how the county will spend the interest money from the North Shore fund.

will discuss the conversion of his historical novel THE MAN WHO STOLE HIMSELF into a film.

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make it easier for them to stay connected to their family roots and heritage. A promise is a promise, after all.

Fast forward to 2000 — the road still isn’t built and negotiations aren’t going anywhere.

As discussions are ongoing, the cost of constructing a road continues to increase. A 1996 study placed the cost of completing a road at between $136 million and $150 million. By 2005, the road completion was estimated to cost $375 million.

Many in Swain County began to see the writing on the wall, and Citizens for the Economic Future of Swain County formed to advance the cause of a cash settlement. The group hired Crisp, Hughes and Evans accounting firm in 2003 to come up with a figure for the monetary settlement. They arrived at $52 million, based on the cost of the road when it was flooded, with interest and adjusted for inflation.

The Swain County Board of Commissioners voted 4-1 in favor of accepting a $52 million settlement with Commissioner David Monteith being the lone holdout for the road.

After completing a lot of environmental studies and spending millions of dollars, the National Park Service finally decided in 2007 that a cash settlement was the way to go, though park officials disagreed with the $52 million amount.

An agreement for the $52 million was finally agreed upon in 2010 and the county received its first installment payment of $12.8 million, which was placed into a trust fund within the state treasury to safeguard the money on behalf of Swain County. The county can only draw off the interest off the account each year, but the principal can’t be touched unless approved by two-thirds of voters in a countywide referendum.

Things were looking up for Swain County as residents and leaders began talking about how the money should be spent. With $12.8 million in the account, the county could expect $200,000 to $300,000 a year in interest. But excitement soon waned when years passed without another installment being paid out from the federal government.

County leaders realized they’d have to

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2008: Real estate takes a major hit

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR he housing bubble was finally bursting in 2008 as the Great Recession became the new reality in Western North Carolina and throughout the nation.

North Carolina had more than 42,000 foreclosures in 2008 alone as people found themselves upside down on their homes, investors had to cut their losses in the midst of developing luxury communities in the mountains and financial institutions were left holding all the debt.

The Smoky Mountain News was there reporting on every aspect of the recession, including the many massive residential developments in the region that fell victim to the idea that the bubble would never burst.

From 2004 to 2006, developers Tony Corliss and Theodore Morlok spent $56 million amassing 3,500 acres between Tuckasegee and Glenville to create River Rock, a five-parcel development between the Tuckasegee River and Cullowhee Mountain.

In another part of Jackson County, developers borrowed about $20 million in 2005 to create Balsam Mountain Preserve, another high-end development with an Arnold Palmer designed golf course, nature preserve and other one-of-a-kind amenities.

Over in Swain County, Ami Shinitzky was working on Mystic River, a controversial narrow 35-acre strip along the banks of the Nantahala River that was divided into 32 pricey lots. In 2005, the average selling price per lot was $300,000.

These developments and thousands of others across the nation were relying on the ongoing sale of lots to not only make loan payments, but to construct the expensive amenities, building roads, installing water and sewer systems and marketing. In most cases, lot sales came to a grinding halt by 2008 and developers found themselves without enough money to pay the loan or complete the amenities. Some walked away from their investments while others, including

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20 YEARS for large residential developments altogether, including United Community Bank, a regional bank headquartered in north Georgia.

“With the economic situation, we are going straight down the road,” United Community Bank of Sylva President Becky Chastain said during a 2008 interview.

“Right now banks are afraid to lend. There’s no way to say when it (economic problems) will end. We take it day by day.”

While UCB and other local lending institutions said they never participated in any of the risky lending practices that led to the housing crisis — like stated-income and subprime lending — everyone was having to take extra precautions in an effort to decrease the number of foreclosures.

No community was untouched by the recession and the housing crisis, but Western North Carolina was particularly impacted by the real estate crash. Nearly every aspect of the region’s economy is reliant on a thriving real estate industry —

from tourism and hospitality, home construction, tradesmen to small business. If real estate isn’t doing well, the community isn’t doing well. No one was making any money, unemployment skyrocketed, wages fell and a lot of Realtors were looking for a new profession to see them through the recession. For example, the Franklin area had 275 licensed Realtors in 2007 and by 2015 it was down to about 100.

Technically, the recession only lasted through 2009, but the recovery for rural communities in WNC was much slower.

County officials today talk about how they’re still rebounding from the recession years when it comes to home values and property tax revenues that impact their annual budgets.

County governments are required to

perform property revaluations every eight years, but the recession presented a unique problem. Trying to assess property during the height of the recession was not going to be an accurate representation of values, and using those recession level values could be a devastating impact on county budgets.

Macon County has a policy to perform an assessment every four years, but when it came time for a revaluation in 2010, county leaders chose to postpone the process until 2013.

“We have to give the market more time to stabilize so we can determine where the market actually is,” Tax Administrator Richard Lightner told commissioners at the time.

The last revaluation done in

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Mystic River and Balsam Mountain Preserve, have fought their way through the recession years even through foreclosures and lawsuits.

While the overconfidence of developers was partly to blame, large financial institutions also had to take some responsibility for the real estate crash. When the market was booming, lending criteria was lax and many people were getting approved for loans they really couldn’t afford. After several years of extreme risk taking throughout the industry, banks that wanted to stay afloat were forced to tighten up their policies when it came to lending money. The recession brought on a new set of rules — banks wanted to see a higher credit score and higher income than before. Some banks stopped lending money

In this 2009 photo, Rick Boyd conducts a foreclosure sale of two large tracts owned by developer Legasus outside the Jackson County courthouse while concerned citizen Thomas Crowe follows along.

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2006 during the housing boom had Macon property values going through the roof — up 69 percent on average — but the 2014 assessment showed real estate values down by 15 percent on average. The most recent revaluation for 2019 showed little growth, but also finally showed a stabilization in values, which is a good thing, according to Lightner.

Other counties performing assessments during the recession years found that homes were still maintaining their value even though fewer homes were being sold.

While that was good news for county budgets, many residents didn’t understand how they could have higher property values during the recession.

“Our market has held stable,” Tracy Madgeburg, an independent appraiser who works in Haywood and Jackson counties, told SMN in May 2009. “It has not had drastic decreases in prices by any means, though things are staying on the market a lot longer, and in the past six months, there haven’t been many buyers.”

By 2015, Realtors were willing to start talking about rebounding from the recession, but this time the discussion

was centered around sustainable growth and perhaps even reluctant optimism about the future economy. They knew the booming times of 2004 to 2006 were never going to return, which was probably for the best anyway.

“I think it would be unhealthy if it got back to where it was. We couldn’t sustain the growth that was happening,” Becky Ramey, a broker/owner at Franklin RE/MAX, said in 2015.

Things were looking up though — the number of sales started to pick up, home prices started to rise again and the number of foreclosures began to fall. With nowhere to go but up, it was now a buyers market with no better time to purchase a new home. If you had good credit and a steady income, you could find a great deal no matter what your price range.

The Smoky Mountain News continues to follow the current real estate trends as a way to evaluate the status of the local economy. Demand and sales are back on the rise in all four counties we cover, but inventory is low within the $100,000 to $200,000 price range. If a home in the lower price range does come along, cash buyers are scooping them up quickly. A lack of inventory and an increase in demand from people moving to the area is driving up home costs and creating a severe shortage of affordable housing options.

In early 2017, Beverly-Hanks Agent Broker and Board of Realtors President Ellen Sither said a perfectly balanced market has six months of inventory; Haywood County currently had just four months. In 2007, the sales volume of all real estate in Haywood County — residential and commercial, homes and land — was $266.4 million. That volume declined to just $166 million during the depths of the recession in 2011, but has since recovered to the tune of $236.6 million for 2016.

The worst of the recession may be in the rearview mirror, but its aftershocks will be felt for years to come. If WNC learned anything, it’s that no investment is fool proof, not even mountain real estate, which historically has been thought of as the most secure investment one can make. Now we know demand and home prices can only be on the rise for so long before something’s got to give.

“Everyone assumes in this situation there is no risk. It is guaranteed. Most people never saw the risk. Everybody got carried away,” Waynesville lawyer Gavin Brown said during a 2014 interview looking back at the housing crisis.

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Sherry Patterson of Daytona Beach, Florida, looks out at the mountain views from a rental cabin she is considering purchasing just outside of Bryson City. Jessi Stone photo

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2009: Ghost Town comes crashing down

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT STAFF WRITER ecades after it first opened in 1962, Ghost Town in the Sky still commands a wistful loyalty from thousands of people who remember it during its heyday and are eager to return.

Even now, Facebook groups devoted to the mountaintop amusement park in Maggie Valley see regular posts from people around the world asking, “It is open? Will it open?

When?”

It’s not, and hasn’t been for some time; almost 20 years ago, the park began a long, slow slide into disrepair that opportunistic entrepreneurs are still trying to sort out, but 2009 was the year it all really started to fall apart.

Visitors watch intently as one of Ghost Town’s performers participates in a mock gunfight in 2007. File photo

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s current park owner Alaska Presley tells it, Virginia native R.B. Coburn was all set to put his amusement park in Ratcliff Cove, on the other end of Haywood County, until someone sent him to her.

“We got acquainted with him and then Hubert, my husband, took him over to see uncle Dan Carpenter who owned that property on the mountain,” Presley told The Smoky Mountain News in April of this year. “He and my husband built Ghost Town.”

Up to 400,000 people a year flocked to the park, accessed from its iconic chair lift 1,400 feet below. When they arrived at the top, they were greeted by an old-timey wild westthemed main street, carnival-style rides and dozens of costumed performers — dancers, merchants and gunslingers who each day would act out cowboy gunfights in the streets.

“I had to hide behind my daddy because I was afraid of the gunfire,” said Spartanburg resident Libby Withers Wilder, who nonetheless still holds fond memories of going there as a child in the 1960s with her family.

After years of declining revenues, likely due to the growing prominence of more modern mega-parks featuring licensed characters — from Bugs Bunny to Batman — R.B. Coburn finally retired in 2002, and closed the park. There it sat, for five long years, until new owners reopened it just in time for the greatest recession in modern history.

Ticket sales in 2008 were reported as

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“sluggish,” as gas prices surged and the Great Recession laid waste to the lifetime investments of millions of working-class Americans of the type who’d kept the park afloat all those years.

By 2009, almost $500,000 worth of liens had been placed on the property, according to Ghost Town’s then-General Manager Steve Shiver, and Ghost Town LLC — more than $12 million in debt — also owed $2.5 million to 220 local vendors and contractors, including more than $97,000 in sales tax collections owed to the state and $70,000 in municipal and county property taxes.

The company approached tight-fisted lenders without success, and ended up pouring nearly $4 million of its own money into the constant repairs and renovations required, but still had to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

“We were on the cusp of making this thing work, and then the credit markets absolutely fell apart,” said Shiver in March 2009.

20 YEARS As Shiver — and thousands of others — looked forward to the park’s May 2009 opening, Ghost Town’s signature attraction, a roller coaster called “The Cliffhanger,” hadn’t run since 2002 and was still having trouble getting certified by the state regulatory agency charged with amusement ride inspections.

In late April of 2009, Ghost Town asked the Town of Maggie Valley for a $200,000 loan — about $125 per taxpayer — and said it was critically needed if the park was to reopen at all.

“We are in a tedious and precarious time.

We wouldn’t be here unless we were at the end of our rope,” said Shiver. “My whole livelihood is at stake and my whole future is at stake.”

Alderman Mark DeMeola told Shiver he was reluctant to put taxpayers on the hook,

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but Shiver countered that without a healthy Ghost Town, taxpayers would suffer as well.

After a contentious few weeks arguing over the issue with Shiver, the town held a public hearing on May 18, just days before the park’s scheduled May 22 opening. In an odd twist, Shiver told Maggie Valley Aldermen at that meeting that he would withdraw his loan request because a private business owner had offered to help.

Although the park did open on time, albeit with a $3 increase in the $28 adult ticket price, the roller coaster still wasn’t licensed.

That didn’t sit well with some, like Greenville, South Carolina residents Judy and Keith Parker who at the time owned a second home in Maggie Valley and told The Smoky Mountain News that they wouldn’t go up the mountain until everything was working.

“We are kind of holding off until then,” said Judy.

The rebuilt coaster did indeed open, on July 1, but only for that day; state inspectors shut it down the next morning over a hairline crack in the seat frame on one of the cars.

In August, The Smoky Mountain News reported that even the $1.53 million in revenue the park took in during May, June and July wasn’t enough to cover operating costs of $1.85 million.

When the park closed for the season in the fall of 2009, workers were stiffed on their last two weeks of pay. The Maggie Valley Sanitary District even had to shut off water to the site, due to unpaid bills.

he situation only worsened from there.

Months after that ill-fated 2009 season, in February 2010, a 175-foot-wide mudslide stretching more than half a mile brought 30-foot high heaps of debris down Rich Cove Road at 30 miles per hour. Rich Cove Road is an access road that leads up to the park.

Two weeks later, creditors voted to reorganize, rather than liquidate, the park and its massive debt. In May, owner of the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad Al Harper offered to put up $7 million to stave off foreclosure and buy out all of the original 2006 investors.

That plan fell through, and

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Alaska Presley (center) prepares to purchase Ghost Town at auction in 2012. File photo Ghost Town once more, with her brother Mike.

“He had been sick for probably the last 20 years of his life,” said Wilder, who sprinkled Mike’s earthly remains near Ghost Town’s church and faux cemetery. “He would joke about it — he didn’t want a memorial, he didn’t want an obituary posted, he didn’t want a gravesite. He said ‘If you can take me to the mountains, and you can take me to Ghost Town, that would be fine.’”

Not long after Mike’s visit, the property was put up for sale by Presley at $5.95 million. n June 2018, another group of investors sought to succeed where others, including Presley, had failed. Former Disney executives Valerie and Spence Oberle said a deal was in the works to rehab the park, but as the rest of 2018 played out, that deal was revealed to be little more than a wish upon a star.

It started with a series of botched public relations events that had even longtime Maggie Valley residents scratching their heads; a promised media event, memorabilia sale and late fall reopening never happened, and then a strange series of anonymous letters began showing up at The Smoky Mountain News.

The Oberles, as it turns out, had another business partner who they’d kept in the background, perhaps purposely.

Lamar Berry, once the chief marketing officer of well-known fried chicken chain

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Popeye’s, was the money man — charged with rustling up the dollars they’d need to purchase Ghost Town from Presley.

Turns out, Berry was haunted by allegations of fraud and failure in regard to a unsuccessful 2005 effort to establish a chain of sandwich shops modeled after epic layabout and passionate sandwich-eater Dagwood, of the classic Chic Young comic strips.

Peter J. Tamulonis, an investor in the franchise, sued Berry and others, settling in arbitration.

“When you think about the legal position for what we were saying, we were able to prove we were lied to and misled,” Tamulonis told SMN in 2018, “I would say I had a horrible experience and you should investigate this guy. I would be very concerned about letting him touch my money or any of my loved ones’ money.”

Another Berry project, a proposed boardwalk in Lake Charles, Louisiana, also fell apart in 2010 “because those behind it say they never could get the financing to pull it all together,” according to an October 2016 report by KPLC-TV. In October 2018, a lien was filed against Ghost Town by local engineering firm Clark and Leatherwood for $52,551 in labor and materials used in the rehabilitation of the park’s A-frame entrance building from June 4 through Aug. 31. That same month, Berry

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was sued by a local innkeeper who said he was owed more than $3,000 for lodgings.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Berry wasn’t able to come up with the money to buy the park by a previously established Nov. 30 deadline and subsequently left town.

Presley’s still looking for a buyer, and the Oberles are again purportedly in the mix, but nothing’s really changed since the last futile attempt to revive the park.

Even though people continue to clamor for it — Haywood Tourism Development Authority Executive Director Lynn Collins recently said she still gets regular calls inquiring as to the status of the park — residents of the tiny Haywood County town of Maggie Valley have learned to live without it, even though they’d welcome a rejuvenated Ghost Town.

“Everybody bases everything on Ghost Town,” said Brenda O’Keefe, former owner of equally-iconic Joey’s Pancake House, in Maggie Valley. “I don’t. I have tried to say, ‘People, this is not about Ghost Town anymore. This is 50 or 60 years later. We have the national park, we have the Smoky Mountains, we have the Blue Ridge Parkway.’

That’s what Maggie Valley is really about. We have the Appalachian culture, clean streams and rivers and we’re the closest mountain range to Florida. That’s why people are coming here.”

June 5-11, 2019

Ghost Town never reopened for the 2010 season. In August, BB&T foreclosed on the park, citing $9.5 million it had been owed, dating back to 2007. The park didn’t open in 2011, either, but in February 2012, that same “private business owner” who helped Shiver with the last-minute $200,000 loan in 2009 stepped up to buy the park at auction, for $2.5 million. f “Only an Alaska Presley could ever get Ghost Town to run again,” Waynesville Mayor Gavin Brown told SMN writer Caitlin Bowling at the time. “She is a very sharp lady; y she sees value there. [But] in today’s market, in today’s world, I don’t see any value there.”

Presley quickly found major mechanical and cosmetic issues at the park, including with the coaster, the chair lift and the water supply. She estimated it would cost about $11 million to restore it to its former glory.

“Poor management and bad debts has plagued it for years,” Presley told Bowling in that same story. “A friend thought there was demons on that mountain, it has had such bad luck.”

The park stumbled along for the next four years, opening periodically, sporadically, partially or temporarily, until in June 2016, more than 15 years after R.B. Coburn first closed it, it failed to open and hasn’t reopened since.

A month later, Libby Withers Wilder was lucky enough to be given permission to visit

A February 2010 mudslide complicated plans to reopen Ghost Town. Patrick Parton photo

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Perdue’s election in 2008 “signaled new hope” for live gaming, SMN reported on April 7, 2010, but a lawsuit filed by a video game firm that year stalled the process. The suit argued that the governor does not have the right to negotiate gambling compacts — instead, the plaintiffs said, that power lies with the General Assembly.

Meanwhile, Cherokee was going on faith that live gaming would eventually be approved. The tribe was in the midst of a gaming floor expansion, expected to be complete in 2012, that was intentionally planned

enue, beginning at 4 percent and inching up a final level of 8 percent by 2032. Those funds would be used for public education. In return, the state granted the tribe exclusivity in the table gaming business west of Interstate 26 — the tribe had offered a bigger share of its revenue if the state would agree to a larger zone of exclusivity.

“It has been along hard process,” Hicks said in a Nov. 23, 2011, SMN story. “With any negotiation you are going to have doubts, but at the end of the day we kept pushing.”

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gaming operations it had, but reached an impasse with former Gov. Mike Easley.

That impasse was broken when Perdue took office and proved a critical part of the creation of a gaming compact between the state and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Her office and tribal leaders held talks for months trying to reach an amenable agreement.

The tribe has to give up a slice of its revenue in exchange for live gaming, such as blackjack and roulette, and the ability to extend credit to high rollers. The state’s share of casino revenue is from the new table games only and is based on a sliding scale — starting at 4 percent the first few years and maxing out at 8 percent over the next 30 years.

The Eastern Band has worked since the early 2000s to get the state’s John Hancock on a live gaming compact, and its dream finally came true this June when the state General Assembly approved the agreement.

The addition of live table games is expected to attract a new clientele and, in turn, more money and jobs flowing through the entire region.

The casino put out a wide-reaching call for experienced and novice card dealers earlier this summer.

The expansion by Harrah’s Casino and Hotel included a third hotel tower, a new entrance to the casino and a suite of new restaurants, dining spots, bars and lounges, including a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. It also built a major new entertainment venue, and will soon add a spa. It also did a major expansion of the gaming floors.

with a flexible design that could be easily adapted to accommodate live gaming.

By 2011, that faith seemed pretty well founded. After years of lobbying and months of hard negotiating, the tribe completed its deal with Perdue to bring table games, real cards and live dealers to Cherokee. The deal still wasn’t final, however. For it to become effective, the General Assembly needed to amend state statute to allow Class III gaming on tribal lands. That approval came on June 6, 2012.

In the end, Cherokee agreed to give the state a share of its gross table gaming rev-

August 22-28, 2012

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Gov. Beverly Perdue, Principal Chief Michell Hicks and Vice Chief Larry Blythe (left to right) take a seat at one of Harrah’s new Blackjack tables. Although the Governor didn’t play a hand at the time, she plans to return for some fun this weekend.

BY CAITLIN BOWLING STAFF WRITER orth Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue and other dignitaries gathered at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and Hotel Tuesday to officially mark the introduction of live table games at the casino.

Perdue commended the tribe and state leaders for a “job well done,” recalling when the subject of live gaming first came up in the 1990s.

“We understood that something could happen here that would be magic,” Perdue said. “It wasn’t about live gambling; it was about economic development.”

As a result of the live gaming, Harrah’s casino plans to go from 2,100 to 2,600 employees and hopes to increase visitation from 3.6 million to 4 million within the first year. Live gaming is the cherry on top of a $633-million remodel and expansion of the casino.

“In a hundred years, people will walk through this casino and what will it look like then?” Perdue said of the casino’s growth potential.

After years of attempting to reach an agreement with the state to allow live dealers, real cards and table games, Principal Chief Michell Hicks was simply happy to take a breath.

“It’s been a long journey, and I guess I have been waiting for this day to take a deep breath,” Hicks said. “I am very proud.”

The tribe was previously restricted to electronic and video-based gambling. It lobbied the state for years to lift the cap on the type of

“We understood that something could happen here that would be magic,” thengovernor Beverly Perdue said during an Aug. 22, 2012, celebration at the casino. “It wasn’t about live gambling; it was about economic development.”

As a result of live gaming, the casino planned to go from 2,100 to 2,600 employees and increase visitation from 3.6 million to 4 million within the first year, SMN reported at the time.

Per capita distribution data indicates that live gaming has made a big CompleteLaserClinic.com Fight Like A Girl! difference.

Between 2012 and 2013, per Pink Regalia capita amounts grew by 18.85 percent, despite the number of people receiving the shares increasing by about 200. The distribution amounts have grown every year since, though 631.8755 never by as much as they did in 2013. The next biggest jump came between 2015 and 2016, when the distributions grew by 12.45 percent following the September 2015 opening of Harrah’s Cherokee Valley River Casino and Hotel in Murphy.

Though live gaming was approved in 2012, efforts to secure it began about 10 years earlier during a Tribal Council trip to Raleigh. “(Tribal Council Member Albert) Crowe said council members were there as ‘corpo-

rate citizens’ to let the state know what the tribe has been doing to boost the economy of Western North Carolina,” SMN reported in a story published Feb. 19, 2003. “He noted that Harrah’s has provided jobs for the surrounding counties as well as the reservation and has infused local economies with increased revenues. He said that table games would increase employment and revenues.”

While Crowe said the meeting was “very positive,” negotiations between thenPrincipal Chief Michell Hicks and thenGovernor Mike Easley never went anywhere.

news

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER arrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort, an economic powerhouse that employs 5 percent of the workforce in the seven western counties and provides hundreds of millions of dollars each year to the tribe’s government and citizens, first opened its doors in 1997.

But back then it was a much smaller, much quieter place than the nearly 2 million-square-foot behemoth that exists today.

Expansion was part of the plan from the beginning. In 2002 the tribe completed an addition that included a 252-room hotel tower, 15,000 square feet of convention space, a gift shop, an indoor pool and an indoor waterfall.

The very next year it broke ground on a second hotel tower, which added another 324 rooms to the mix. By 2008, Gov. Perdue and Chief Hicks ground had brobask in mutual success of ken on yet live gaming deal at Harrah’s another expansion, a $650 milN lion project that included a third hotel tower, a 16,000-squarefoot spa, a new showroom, restaurants, shops, three additional parking garages and a remodeled gaming floor. A fourth hotel tower, with a budget of $250 million, is under construction and scheduled to open in early 2021.

All these changes have left their mark, but two developments stand out among the rest. In 2009, Cherokee voters allowed alcohol to be served at the previously dry casino.

And in 2012, the tribe received permission from the state to add live table games to its array of gaming offerings.

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2013: Southern Loop scrapped for good

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER or a road that has never existed, the infamous Southern Loop of Sylva sure has gotten a lot of ink over the past 20 years.

“A Jackson County ‘southern loop’ around Sylva is not even on the drawing board yet, but is already under fire,” SMN Publisher Scott McLeod wrote in a Sept. 5, 2001, story for the paper.

Following a November 2000 meeting, the road was slated to be the subject of an N.C. Department of Transportation feasibility study beginning in the spring of 2002. The DOT’s Transportation Improvement Plan envisioned it as a road that would extend from U.S. 441 south of Dillsboro to N.C. 107 between Walmart and Western Carolina University. From there, it would continue on to hit the U.S. 19/23/74 bypass.

“This has been kicked around by DOT since 1985,” Conrad Burrell, a Sylva resident and the Western North Carolina representative on the state Board of Transportation, told SMN in 2001. “Nothing has ever been done about it, and the traffic on N.C. 107 is getting beyond unbearable.”

However, opposition was swift to organize. In September 2002, the Jackson County Smart Roads Alliance formed to oppose the road, calling for DOT to improve the area’s existing roads and use a network of side streets to alleviate congestion before blazing a destructive path through the mountains. The feasibility study, completed in May 2003, compiled information on two proposed routes — cost estimates hovered around $200 million, with the northern route expected to relocate 124 homes and 17 businesses

June 5-11, 2019

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while the southern route would relocate 94 homes and five businesses.

“I am still a bit confused why we can’t look at congestion management on 107 before we spend hundreds of millions developing a bypass,” Susan Leveille, a Smart Roads member, told SMN for a story published May 6, 2009. “You need to look at the small things you can do. You don’t bulldoze down your house because you need another bathroom.”

Leveille and the others in her group eventually got their wish.

“The N.C. Department of Transportation last week agreed to try that approach first, temporarily shelving plans for the long-proposed bypass in favor of a 107 fix,” SMN reported on July 3, 2013.

Smoky Mountain News:

20 YEARS That decision set the stage for the conundrum currently facing Sylva. In 2017, the DOT unveiled its plans for an N.C. 107 makeover. Like the existing road, the new 107 would have only four lanes, but the project would get rid of the middle “suicide lane” in favor of restricted turnaround points to keep traffic flowing more smoothly.

Widened sidewalks and bike lanes would promote alternative transportation.

But those improvements would come at a price, and many Jackson County residents consider it too costly to bear.

While the March 2017 presentation put the cost of the road at $35.5 million total, $14.6 million of which would be for right-ofway acquisition, a cost estimate report

released in February 2018 put the right-ofway cost alone at $47.6 million. That’s because preliminary plans would force 54 businesses, one nonprofit and five residences to relocate — roughly one-sixth of Sylva’s business community.

Opposition to the road gathered swiftly, with the dormant Smart Roads Alliance springing back to action.

“It’s a matter of how much of an internal organ you can remove from your body before your body dies, and that’s what is going to happen to some of these businesses,” Sylva attorney and Smart Roads leader Jay Coward told a group of about 50 people gathered at the Jackson County Public Library in June 2018. “They’ll be so hurt by it they won’t be able to survive.”

Hoping to find a solution that would alleviate the traffic issues on 107 without taking a wrecking ball to Sylva’s business community, the Asheville Design Center

offered its services pro bono, and the town accepted. But after a full-bodied effort including a site inventory, a focus group meeting, two community meetings and a workshop with town, utility and DOT leaders, the organization came up short of the silver bullet needed.

“We’re in a tricky situation where we’re like, ‘Hey, community, bring us all your ideas,’ and I feel like we’re coming to you having swatted down most of those ideas,” Kristy Carter, a member of the ADC team, said during a community meeting April 17 of this year. “The plan, as impactful as it is, really is probably the best option of all the options that are out there.”

It remains to be seen where the 107 saga will go from here. Updated plans, considered 65 percent complete, are expected this month. Currently, right-of-way acquisition is expected to start in 2020, with construction beginning in December 2022.

“This has been kicked around by DOT since 1985. Nothing has ever been done about it, and the traffic on N.C. 107 is getting beyond unbearable.”

Smoky Mountain News

— Conrad Burrell, a Sylva resident and the Western North Carolina representative on the state Board of Transportation, in 2001

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Smoky Mountain News:

20 YEARS The thinking behind the MedWest Partnership was that Haywood, Jackson and Swain hospitals could merge their operations and save money, but the transition was rocky from the beginning. Some claimed the hospitals didn’t want to give up their autonomy to save money while others blamed cultural differences between the two medical staffs and an inability to change their competitiveness into a cooperative attitude.

Either way, it was obvious the partnership wasn’t working and another solution was needed. Jackson and Swain hospitals were the first to agree to the merger with Duke LifePoint in late 2013. Haywood Regional was officially sold to Duke LifePoint in August 2014.

Now under the Duke LifePoint umbrella with 65 other hospitals, Haywood, Harris and Swain seem to have recovered. All the facilities

have expanded services, have new equipment and new capital projects to better meet the needs of rural Western North Carolina. It was an exciting time. The sale wiped out all the debt, loans and lines of credit that had been hovering over the hospitals’ heads for years.

LifePoint paid $26 million for Haywood Regional and $25 million for WestCare, which included Harris and Swain. Harris’ debt and outstanding bills ate up about twothirds of the sale proceeds when all was said it done, but the medical community was more concerned with the for-profit’s commitment to invest in the aging hospitals.

Duke LifePoint promised $43 million in capital improvements at WestCare and $36 million for Haywood over the next eight years. Top priorities for Harris included a new emergency room and a complete remodel of the labor and delivery unit of the hospital. The hospital celebrated an $11 million emergency department expansion project in the fall of 2017, shortly followed by the opening of its $6 million New Generations Family Birthing Center in early 2018.

Since the sale, Haywood Regional has also seen a number of improvements made to its aging structure, including a new roof, new equipment, plumbing and electrical work and mattresses. Other investments include a half million dollar renovation to the hospi-

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tal’s health and fitness center and expanding its behavioral health unit.

The sale of a nonprofit system to a forprofit system also meant that the former hospital foundations could no longer raise funds to support the hospital. The foundations had to dissolve or change their mission. The sale also meant a new nonprofit foundation would be formed to receive the proceeds from the sale to be used for the purpose of improving the health of residents.

Haywood County Commissioners had to decide in 2016 which organization would be tasked with managing an estimated $20 million left over from the HRMC sale — Asheville-based Community Foundation of Western North Carolina or the Haywood Healthcare Foundation. In the end, commissioners chose the Community Foundation because of its experience in managing these types of large endowments.

At the time of the Duke LifePoint purchase, Mission Health represented the last remaining nonprofit health system in the region. That’s no longer the case since Mission merged with HCA Healthcare in February of this year.

Citing increased costs and stagnant reimbursements from Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance providers, Mission leaders said they had no choice but to join forces with a larger, for-profit system.

June 5-11, 2019

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR rea hospitals finally found some steady financial footing in 2014 after years of floundering, trying to keep their heads above water as providing health care to rural Appalachia became more challenging.

Haywood Regional Medical Center and the community hospitals in Jackson and Swain counties — all nonprofit systems — were purchased by for-profit Duke LifePoint Healthcare, a joint venture of Duke University Health System and LifePoint Hospitals.

At the time, Asheville-based Mission Health had hoped Jackson and Swain hospitals — which were currently operating under the MedWest partnership along with Haywood Regional Medical Center — would have chosen to partner with its larger nonprofit health care system. The decision to become for-profit hospitals was disappointing for Mission leaders.

“At a time when so many are struggling to receive the care that they need, the incremental burden on residents and communities to not only pay for care but also ensure returns to shareholders on Wall Street and around the globe is troubling,” said Jon Yeatman, Mission’s vice president of strategic development, in 2013. “Regardless, Mission will continue to support the residents of these communities as we have for so many decades.”

While some people were hesitant about the change from a nonprofit to a for-profit model, others breathed a sigh of relief knowing these struggling hospitals would now get a much-needed influx of cash investment to get their facilities back on track and to meet the never-ending need for new medical technologies.

All three hospitals had been losing money prior to the Duke LifePoint purchase, which is why they formed the MedWest partnership in 2010.

In 2008, Haywood Regional lost its Medicare and Medicaid status due to viola-

tions uncovered by health care inspectors and nearly closed its doors. Since 68 percent of the hospital’s revenue comes from Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements for patients, the hospital literally couldn’t afford to operate long without it.

The hospital practically shut down for five months, which was a major blow to the staff and the community.

Dr. Henry Nathan said the crisis the hospital was facing was immense, one of the worst any hospital could encounter.

“It breaks our heart that this is happening,” Dr. Henry Nathan said in a 2008 interview. “I am concerned in the short term about people who count on their paycheck at the hospital. They will look for jobs elsewhere, and when the hospital gets their Medicare back it will be hard to find people to come back to work. It will be a setback to recuperate from this. The stigma also won’t be good for the long-term future of the county’s medical community.”

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Smoky Mountain News

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November 16-22, 2016 Vol. 18 Iss. 25

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union, firefighters — at least 1,200 of them — were here, working furiously to save people and property from certain incineration.

Perhaps most infuriating was that the majority of the fires were suspected arsons.

“It’s wicked, evil, that they would destroy the forest,” Franklin resident Victor Mora Loza told Kays on Nov. 16. “I’d like to kick their ass.”

Tribal Council accused of illegally obtaining records Page 10 Voters go right, Dems wonder what went wrong Page 12

Western North Carolina’s Source for Weekly News, Entertainment, Arts, and Outdoor Information

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT STAFF WRITER s you read this, I’ve just noted the passing of my third anniversary with this 20 year-old newspaper and as such, the retrospectives I was charged to write this week were all on events that took place long before my arrival — except for this one.

I’d only been here for about five months when the first musky whiffs of smoke began to appear over the horizon, but being as my experience and training disposes me to cover politics and government, I continued to busy myself with the upcoming General Election.

Besides, we happen to have on our staff one of the most accomplished and knowledgeable outdoors writers in the game, the multimulti-multi-award-winning Holly Kays.

As we all worked late into the evening on Election Night, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016, it started to look and smell as though something was gravely amiss.

No, it wasn’t the unexpected victory of Donald Trump — it was the heavy smoke in downtown Waynesville, which over the previous days had really started to become unbearable.

I had been watching it ebb and flow for a week, and thanks to the constant exposure had also nursed a low-grade headache for days.

Kays’ Nov. 9 stories chronicled a region already wracked by a historic drought that by that time had fostered forest fires totaling more than 11,000 acres — about 17.5 square miles — in and around the Nantahala National Forest.

“And counting,” she wrote.

And she was — each morning I’d show up to the office to find her on the phone.

“How many acres now?” she’d ask them, checking in on the acreage of more than a dozen active fires while searing into my memory the names of these far-off places — Dicks Creek, Whitewater Falls, Moss Knob, Jones Gap. One week after the election, it seemed as though our whole world was on fire.

The conflagrations were now visible from space and had grown to more than 33,000 acres at 20 distinct sites across Western North Carolina alone. From almost every state in the

www.smokymountainnews.com

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2016: Fire on the mountain

Smoky Mountain News:

20 YEARS That week, the explosive growth of the fires pressed all of us into service, including me. I wrote a story on the dangers of breathing the smoke — ironic, for a habitual cigarette smoker — and learned that from Nov. 5 through Nov. 16, the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Air Quality Division reported two of those days as “moderate,” six days as “unhealthy for sensitive groups” and four days as just plain “unhealthy.” Not once since Nov. 4 was air quality considered “good.”

Even our IBMA-nominated Rolling Stonecontributing Arts and Entertainment Editor Garret K. Woodward — who writes news stories about as often as I write music stories, which is to say, never — got in on the action by surveying tourists and businesses

Smoke billows from the Chimney Tops during the early days of the fire that would eventually sweep a path of destruction through Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. NPS photo throughout the far western portions of our coverage area.

“We’ve absolutely taken a financial hit,” Nantahala Brewing co-owner Joe Rowland told Woodward in Bryson City. “This past week we did roughly half the business we did at this same time last year. A lot of businesses in this town — this region — depend on

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tourism. Folks are either not able to get up here or won’t come here due to health concerns from the smoke. This lack of tourism is going to cost this area a lot.”

SMN News Editor Jessi Stone, usually charged with the unenviable task of herding me, Kays and Woodward to print each week, also dropped some

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The Ferebee Fire came within feet of the Nantahala Outdoors Center before finally being contained. Garret K. Woodward photo Luciano told Kays. “It did not end until we got to the very bottom.”

They’re lucky they did; more than 2,400 buildings were destroyed and 14 people died, but once the smoke cleared, there were some positive takeaways.

Scientists quickly converged on what Kays called “a fire-forged laboratory” and continue to monitor how, exactly, flora and fauna are rebounding from the devastation.

A 2017 report on the Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s response to the fires found no negligence on the part of employees, but did point out some shortcomings in the way of communication, staffing and training.

And this past February, Haywood County — largely spared from the flames — played host to a four-day drill that drew 100 emergency management professionals from across the state to deal with a simulated wildfire, in hopes that they’ll never see what we all lived through that fall.

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words on the topic, reporting on still-dry conditions that threatened operations at Canton’s paper mill and led to water restrictions in Canton, Clyde, Franklin, Maggie Valley and within the Jackson County service area of the Tuckaseigee Water and Sewer Authority.

The next week Kays was back at it, making her calls and reporting the best news we’d heard since early November — the amount of acreage ablaze had “only” grown by 4 percent in the preceding week, and many fires seemed to be contained.

But that was before 90-mile-per-hour winds snapped trees, cut power lines and whipped a mostly-contained fire at Chimney Tops over the mountains to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, Tennessee, on Nov. 28.

That fire was made famous by Gatlinburg residents Michael Luciano and Anthony Fulton who, while attempting to drive out of it, filmed a harrowing video of their escape down a fiery mountain.

“That ended up being where hell started,”

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news

2017: Cherokee impeaches its chief

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER hen Patrick Lambert won the 2015 race for principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, he saw the victory as a direct mandate from voters.

Lambert came in on the heels of the 12year administration of former Principal Chief Michell Hicks, who opted not to run in 2015.

Lambert had opposed Hicks in the 2007 and 2011 elections, losing both times, but in 2015 he won by a landslide, raking in 71 percent of the vote.

“In tonight’s victory is a powerful truth,” Lambert said in his victory speech on Election Day. “I believe this election is a clear sign from our people that they are ready for leadership with a bold new vision.”

W

Smoky Mountain News:

June 5-11, 2019

20 YEARS After his swearing-in on Oct. 5 of that year, Lambert lost no time in making change.

In a series of unanimous votes taken that same day, the newly sworn in Tribal Council approved resolutions Lambert presented to authorize drafting a constitution, reinstate a 5 percent match for tribal employees’ 401ks, authorize completion of a full tribal census and double the Christmas checks given to elders and handicapped tribal members from $250 to $500.

Lambert swiftly brought other changes to the tribe as well. He installed timeclocks in tribal offices aimed at ensuring employees worked the hours they were paid for. He introduced legislation that created term limits for chiefs and vice chiefs, paid off the entire tribal debt and created a new

Tribal Council Chairman Bill Taylor (left) and Vice Chairman Brandon Jones raise their hands in favor of bringing impeachment charges against Principal Chief Patrick Lambert on April 6, 2017. Holly Kays photo Department of Justice.

Some changes earned him enemies.

Another piece of legislation introduced Oct. 5, which Council also approved unanimously, sought to remove all three members of the Tribal Gaming Commission and replace them with his own appointees. Lambert said their pre-inauguration vote to hire Hicks —

who had appointed them in the first place — as the TGC’s new executive director was “nothing more than political payback” “rife with conflicts of interest” and said they’d breached tribal code by allowing one of their own board members to be considered for the position. On Oct. 6, he sent letters to 14 tribal employees informing them their positions

were being either eliminated or transferred.

Those employees decried the actions as political maneuvers, while Lambert said they were simply “about transparency and doing what the people are asking for.”

Perhaps most notably, in April 2016 Lambert presented Tribal Council with the preliminary results of an

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May 24-30, 2017 Vol. 18 Iss. 52

audit that he said showed rampant corrup- articles of impeachment and set a date for the While those members did not vote on the tion under the previous administration. Six hearing. The same legislation that adopted particular article of impeachment their testimonths later, on Oct. 4, the U.S. Department the articles of impeachment also attempted mony related to, they did vote on the remainof Justice had written a letter advising the to suspend Lambert from office until the ing 11 articles.

“He hasn’t done his job and he hasn’t folQualla Housing Authority that it was under impeachment hearing could be held, but investigation by the FBI for “possible crimi- Lambert challenged the suspension in court, lowed his oath,” prosecuting attorney Robert nal conduct related to certain loans and loan which ruled in his favor — council cannot Saunooke said of Lambert during his closing arguments May 24. “He’s spent money he suspend a chief. applications, among other matters.”

The impeachment process was anything wasn’t authorized to with contracts that “I intend on taking these clear violations of federal laws to the FBI and federal attor- but a straight line, however. It was messy, it weren’t put together. That’s a violation of his ney’s office. It’s beyond serious,” he told was emotional and it was at times ambigu- oath of office, and that’s impeachable.”

“There’s so much wrong with this Council April 5, 2016. “I’m not playing ous. Tribal law at that time didn’t have clear games. I want those responsible tried, con- direction as to how an impeachment should process,” Scott Jones, the attorney defending be conducted, or how the vacancy should be Lambert, responded in his closing arguvicted and sent to jail.”

Lambert soon found that he was no filled once a leader is removed from office. ments. “The chief is not guilty of any impeachable offense. longer working with the supportImpeachment is not a game of ive Tribal Council he’d greeted in Haywood GOP members banned from party events Page 5 gotcha, and it ought not to be just October 2015.

Harris positions itself as WNC health care hub Page 16 political gain …. When you treat In August, Tribal Council voted the person who holds the most in a 9-3 split that would come to powerful elected office in the tribe pervade every impeachment-relatthe way you treated this chief — ed vote in the coming months to without fairness — the average launch an investigation into contribal member cannot and will tracts and human resources dealnot expect fairness from tribal ings under Lambert’s administragovernment.” tion. Those results came back in Ultimately, Council found January, and on Feb. 2, 2017 — the Lambert guilty on eight of the 12 same day that the FBI removed two articles, with the votes on all but U-Hauls full of various files and one article breaking down along documents from Qualla Housing the same 9-3 split that had — Tribal Council voted to begin revealed itself the previous impeachment proceedings against August. He was removed from Lambert. office effective immediately.

“As the reading (of the “Silence filled the room as impeachment ordinance) concouncilmembers voted and then cluded, the audience — which called a 10-minute recess before appeared to be largely composed swearing in Vice Chief Richie of Lambert supporters — let out a Sneed as the new Principal Chief. resounding ‘booooo,’ telling But when Sneed and Chief Justice Council what they thought of the Kirk Saunooke arrived and preimpeachment concept,” SMN pared to conduct the swearing-in, reported in its account of the the crowd erupted, asking Sneed meeting published Feb. 8, 2017. for a chance to speak and asking “(Tribal Council Chairman Bill) His removal from office means that that a special election be held to fill Taylor responded by directing the Principal Chief ’s office,” SMN Officer Fred Penick to clear the Lambert will never be eligible to run for reported in a story covering the chambers, which caused the audiMay 25 verdict. “The reaction was tribal office again, but that hasn’t ence to yell, ‘No! We’re not leavso strong that the swearing-in ing!’ Lambert expressed his supstopped him from remaining a could not take place in the council port for letting the people stay, house, as planned. Instead, Sneed setting off a brief power struggle prominent figure in Cherokee politics. and several councilmembers left between him and Taylor.” out the back door and went to the Ultimately, the people were Various impeachment-related issues bounced EBCI Justice Center to perform the ceremony.” allowed to stay.

His removal from office means that No articles of impeachment were present- through the Cherokee Supreme Court that ed until April 6. There were seven of them — spring, and as the May 22 impeachment hear- Lambert will never be eligible to run for tribal handed out spur-of-the-moment, rather than ing drew closer, Lambert appealed to the peo- office again, but that hasn’t stopped him posted ahead of time as agenda items typical- ple in a Grand Council held April 18. The from remaining a prominent figure in ly are — with five more added April 21, meeting drew 1,355 people, and in a vote Cherokee politics. In an address to supportcharging that Lambert had executed con- held during the meeting 84 percent of the ers following the impeachment, he pledged to tracts without proper approval from the 1,140 people who participated voted to end help his fellow tribal members organize and Business Committee; violated a law prohibit- the impeachment efforts. However, neither “beat them this fall at the polls.”

To that point, following the first election ing elected officials from entering into con- Tribal Council nor the Cherokee Supreme after the impeachment, in September 2017, tracts with tribal entities when he signed an Court upheld that vote as authoritative.

Though originally scheduled for only one only three of the seven pro-impeachment agreement between his hotel and the Tribal Casino Gaming Enterprise after his election day, the impeachment hearings ultimately incumbents who ran for re-election regained but before his swearing in; and spent tribal covered three full days, May 22 to May 24, their seats. The first chief ’s election since votfunds in his capacity as principal chief before with Tribal Council going into a closed ses- ers put Lambert in office in 2015 will be held actually taking office, among other items. On sion May 25 to deliberate on the verdict, this year — it remains to be seen what the verdict will be. his Facebook page, Lambert offered his delivering it in open session.

“The council’s got all the power,” Lloyd Council filled multiple roles during the responses to each of the individual charges.

Throughout the process, he maintained that process — the body drafted and approved the Ledford, 59, of Birdtown, told SMN on he’d done nothing wrong, at one point calling articles of impeachment, presided over the Election Day 2017 for a story published Sept. hearing and voted on the outcome. Two 13. “The only time our voice counts is at electhe effort to impeach him a “witch hunt.”

Tribal Council voted 9-3 to approve the council members also acted as witnesses. tion time, and that’s it.”

Smoky Mountain News 27

resume and emailed that information to board members the day before the July 12 meeting. Fetzer found the alleged discrepancies after violating confidentiality rules by giving the candidate’s name to a private firm, which Fetzer asked to check out the resume.

“I’m disheartened that we did what we were supposed to do. We followed the guidelines that were supposed to have been in place, and the Board of Governors I would say didn’t uphold their end of what was agreed to,” Leroy Kauffman, a WCU professor of accounting who has been involved with the Faculty Senate for many of his twoplus decades at the university, told SMN at the time.

The search sat stagnant until September, when WCU received word that it could

Smoky Mountain News:

20 YEARS David Belcher and his wife Susan pose during the 2017 Homecoming Parade in downtown Sylva. WCU photo

relaunch its efforts, using exactly the same search process that had been in place before.

The Board of Governors did develop new rules for UNC System chancellor searches, but those rules would not apply to the WCU search already underway, they said.

This loop in the roller coaster came just as WCU prepared to embark on a school year full of unknowns. Fall 2018 was the first semester for the N.C. Promise Tuition Plan, which lowered in-state tuition to $500 per semester for undergraduate students at WCU and two other UNC schools.

The program was expected to have an impact on the number and quality of applications to attend, but the school had no way All was going as planned until the July 12 of knowing for sure just what that impact Board of Governors meeting during which would be. the body was expected to approve Spellings’ A record 2,189 freshmen enrolled for fall final pick for the post. But instead of voting 2018, with overall enrollment rising by 5.48 yea or nay on the percent over fall candidate — 2017 — nearly Input sought for Waynesville comprehensive plan Nonprofit seeks answers in Bryson City K9 death whose name twice the remains increase WCU unknown — the was aiming for. board held a con“It came in a tentious twolittle hotter than hour closed seswe expected or sion that didn’t actually intendresult in a vote at ed,” Sam Miller, all. The candiWCU’s vice date ultimately chancellor for withdrew from student affairs, consideration, told trustees kicking the during a Sept. 6 search back to meeting. square one.

Admissions In a statestaff shortened ment announcits deadlines and ing the withadjusted marketdrawn nominaing strategies tion, Chairman ahead of the fall Harry Smith said that the board planned to 2018 semester, hoping to attract fewer applicomplete “an expedited review of the chancations, and that worked — the university cellor search process” in order to “refine and received 136 fewer applications than it had improve it,” implying that this review should in 2017. But the 2018 applications were of a take place before WCU resumed its search. It higher quality, and WCU extended offers of was later revealed that the episode occurred admission to 113 more students than it had after board member Tom Fetzer reportedly the previous year. A greater proportion of found some discrepancies in the nominee’s admitted students accepted their offers than June 20-26, 2018 Vol. 20 Iss. 4

T

bad word to say about David Belcher.

Campus wasn’t the same without him.

“Remember always that we — that you — are in the business of changing lives,” Belcher said during his parting words to the Board of Trustees in an emotional December 2017 meeting. “And with your continued passion, support and commitment to this university, there is no limit to what you can accomplish.”

Belcher passed away six months later, on June 17, 2018 — Fathers Day. More than 800 people attended a touching and musical celebration of his life held on campus June 23.

He would be sorely missed by those whose lives he’d touched, and he would be difficult, if not impossible, to replace professionally.

Nobody in the university community could have known just how difficult the task would prove.

An energetic, 21-member search committee formed in December 2017, conducting a series of community forums to gather input on what to look for in a new chancellor, then soliciting resumes and combing through the submissions to narrow it down to a list of people to invite for phone interviews; then a smaller list for off-campus, in-person interviews; and a still-smaller list for on-campus interviews tightly planned to keep the search confidential. From there, the committee chose three names for the WCU Board of Trustees to approve sending on to UNC System President Margaret Spellings.

Western North Carolina’s Source for Weekly News, Entertainment, Arts, and Outdoor Information

Smoky Mountain News

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER his roller coaster of a year at Western Carolina University started before it started, when the school’s beloved chancellor David O. Belcher announced Nov. 27, 2017, that he’d be stepping down at the end of the year.

Belcher, who was hired to lead the Catamount Community in 2011, had been fighting brain cancer since his diagnosis in April 2016. Surgery to remove the tumor initially seemed successful, but in August he announced that the cancer had returned, spurring a new treatment regimen. Then that treatment stopped working, and Belcher decided to go on medical leave effective Dec. 31, 2017. Provost Alison MorrisonShetlar took over as acting — and then interim — chancellor of WCU. WCU began 2018 as a school that was strong — in enrollment, development, academics, school spirit and a variety of other metrics — but yet adrift. Belcher had been more than just an administrative leader for the university. He could often be found on campus, interacting with students, cheering on the football team and generously dispensing high fives. Among his staff, he was known as a visionary leader who fostered a collaborative and energizing work environment where a sense of humor was always appreciated. From students to staff to community leaders, nobody seemed to have a 28

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2018: WCU sees a year of change

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Belcher and then-UNC President Margaret Spellings talk before a press conference during Spellings’ 2016 visit to campus. Holly Kays photo Kelli R. Brown, Ph.D., to the post.

Brown, 60, will serve as the 12th chancellor — and the first female Chancellor — of WCU. She most recently served as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Georgia College & State University, Georgia’s public liberal arts institution, and has more than 30 years of higher education experience.

“I recognize that I’m following the footsteps of a beloved leader. All leaders stand upon the shoulders of those who came before them. Just as David Belcher built upon the solid foundation left behind by his predecessor, I pledge to do everything within my power to ensure Western Carolina University continues to thrive during my time among its stewards,” Brown said at her welcoming reception in early May. “And like David Belcher, I’m fortunate to have a wonderful partner at my side to help me. I want to assure you Catamounts you will come to know and love this man as I do. Dennis and I are thrilled to be joining the Catamount family.”

Brown will start her new job July 1.

WHAT IS A “BLENDED” BURGER? A blended burger is when you add mushrooms to your hamburger meat. You may choose to do this to decrease the fat amount, increase the fiber, stretch the meat further or just as a way of eating less meat.

How to make a “Blended” Burger

https://www.mushroomcouncil.com/recipes/mighty-mushroom-blended-burger/

Chancellor-elect Kelli Brown shakes hands with Western Carolina University students during a reception to welcome the chancellor-elect to the university. WCU photo

Smoky Mountain News

You can use any variety of mushroom. Dice or food process the mushrooms, heat a skillet with olive oil, add mushrooms to the skillet and season with salt and pepper. You are aiming for a 3:2 ratio (3 parts beef to 2 parts mushroom.) Once cooked, add mushrooms to raw hamburger meat.

Season this mixture as desired. Form into patties and then cook in a skillet or on the grill.

June 5-11, 2019

in 2017. The university also saw a marked increase in transfer students, with 1,105 enrolling in fall 2018 compared to 786 in fall 2017.

Spellings visited WCU Oct. 24 to celebrate the success of N.C. Promise, applauding the university’s academic offerings as “Aplus-plus on every level.” But just two days later, she made headlines when she announced her resignation from the post she’d held for less than three years. That news sent a wave of uncertainty through the university community, which now had no way of knowing who would be choosing the final chancellor candidate from the list of three the trustees would eventually approve.

The Board of Governors has yet to announce a search process for a permanent presidential hire, but Dr. Bill Roper has been serving in the interim role since January.

It was a tumultuous year, but Western’s leaders say that the university is heading in a positive direction. And while Belcher will continue to be missed by many, the university is on its way to a new era of stable leadership following the April 25, 2019, election of

29

news June 5-11, 2019 Smoky Mountain News

Waynesville businessman faces SEC fraud charges T he Securities and Exchange Commission recently charged investment adviser Stephen Brandon Anderson, 41, of Waynesville, with defrauding clients by overcharging advisory fees of at least $367,000.

According to the SEC’s order, Anderson owned and operated River Source Wealth Management, LLC, a now-defunct registered investment adviser in North Carolina. River Source’s primary revenue stream was customer advisory fees. Customer agreements provided that those fees would be based on each customer’s assets under management.

The SEC’s order finds, however, that in 2015 and 2016, Anderson overcharged a majority of his clients. The amount and percentages of the overcharges varied but, in the aggregate, amounted to approximately 40 percent more than the agreed-upon maximum customer advisory fees. As described in the order, Anderson also misled his clients about the reason he transferred their assets from River Source’s long-time asset custodian, falsely stating that it was his decision and

that the separation was “amicable.”

In fact, as the order finds, the asset custodian ended the relationship with River Source after it noticed irregular billing practices and failed to receive sufficient supporting documentation from Anderson.

Furthermore, the order finds that Anderson made material misstatements in reports filed with the Commission, including overstating River Source’s assets under management by at least $34 million (18 percent) in 2015 and $61 million (35 percent) in 2016, and failed to implement required compliance policies and procedures.

The order prohibits Anderson from acting in a supervisory or compliance capacity or from charging advisory fees without supervision for at least three years, and requires Anderson to provide notice of the SEC order to clients and prospective clients.

“When advisors breach their duty to clients by misleading and overcharging them, they can expect the SEC will craft a package of remedies that will compensate

harmed investors, provide additional safeguards for prospective investors, and deter similar conduct,” said Carolyn M. Welshhans, Associate Director in SEC’s Enforcement Division.

Myth busters to take on ACA

camp will be held at the Waynesville Skatepark in partnership with the Waynesville Parks & Recreation Dept.

Big Brother Boards Skate Camp sessions are from 9 to 11 a.m. on the following Saturdays: June 22 and 29, July 13 & 20 and Aug 3. Children can attend one or as many as they want. The first session price is $30 that includes two hours of instruction and a Big Brother Boards Camp T-shirt. Each additional session is $25.

For more information, email bigbrotherboardscamp@gmail.com or call 828.400.1252.

Register at www.eventbrite.com (search for “Big Brother Boards Skate Camp”).

Maggie Valley budget hearing

Addressing the common misconceptions about the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare) and the president’s false promise of a “beautiful” replacement plan will be the focus Tuesday, June 11, when the Haywood County Democratic Party presents round two of their “Myth Busting” Forum series.

Scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at the USDA Center, 589 Raccoon Road, Waynesville, the forum will feature a panel of professionals who will make opening remarks, then take questions from the audience. The public is invited to attend.

“Why wait until 2020 to do something about health care? Most importantly, should we view what the president refers to as his beautiful healthcare plan as a promise or a threat,” asks Dr. Steve Wall, who will serve as the forum moderator.

According to a Politico report in April 2019, the advocacy arm of the American Cancer Society launched a $4.5 million campaign “that aims to break GOP resistance to Medicaid expansion in several states debating whether to join the program.” It’s their largest-ever campaign and North Carolina is one of the targeted states. The other states are Alabama, Georgia and Kansas.

Light refreshments will be served at the conclusion of the Q&A period.

Skateboard camp in Waynesville Professional skateboarder, Jared Lee is excited to bring summer skateboarding camp sessions to the children of Haywood County 30 with Big Brother Boards Skate Camp. The

AARP hosts Smart Driver Course Some drivers age 50+ have never looked back since they got their first driver’s licenses, but even the most experienced drivers can benefit from brushing up on their driving skills.

AARP offers a strategy to combat driving problems faced by many mature drivers. A Smart Driver course, a new version of the previous driver safety refresher course, is available to local drivers. Learn the current rules of the road, defensive driving techniques, and how to operate your vehicle more safely in today’s increasingly challenging driving environment. You’ll learn how you can manage and accommodate common age-related changes in vision, hearing and reaction time.

The AARP Smart Driver Course is being held from 1 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, June 12, at the Canton Senior Center, 1 Pigeon Street, Canton. Call your insurance agent to determine, if after taking the class, you are able to receive a three-year discount on your auto insurance.

To register, call 828.648.8173.

The SEC’s order finds that in 2015 and 2016, Anderson overcharged a majority of his clients.

The SEC’s order finds that Anderson violated Sections 206(2) and 207 of the Investment Advisers Act, and aided and abetted and caused River Source’s violations of the books and records and compliance provisions of the Advisers Act. In addition to the limitations and undertakings discussed above, Anderson agreed to a cease-anddesist order and a censure, and agreed to pay disgorgement and prejudgment interest of

The Maggie Valley Board of Aldermen will conduct a public hearing on the proposed 2019-20 budget at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday June 11, in the Town Hall Boardroom.

Visit www.maggievalleync.gov or stop by Town Hall to view the proposed budget weekdays from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Oral and written comments will be accepted.

Swain County budget hearing Swain County commissioners will hold a public hearing regarding the 2019-20 budget at 6 p.m. June 13 before their regular meeting.

The budget has been presented to the board and is available for public inspection in the clerk’s office at the Swain County Administration Building.

Hospital security officer wins award Harris Regional Hospital and Swain Community Hospital recently announced that Don Clawson, a security officer with the hospitals, has been recognized as the hospitals’ 2019 Mercy Award winner.

The Mercy Award recognizes one employee from each of LifePoint Health’s hospitals who profoundly touches the lives of others and best represents the spirit and values on which the company was founded.

The Mercy Award is an annual recognition program established in 2001 to honor the life and contributions of Scott Mercy, LifePoint’s founding chairman and chief exec-

$405,381 and a $100,000 penalty. Payments made by Anderson pursuant to the order will be distributed to harmed investors through a Fair Fund. Anderson consented to the order without admitting or denying the findings.

The SEC’s investigation was conducted

by Brian Vann and Daniel A. Weinstein with assistance from James Smith, Samara Ross and Jonathan Swankie, and the case was supervised by Brian O. Quinn and Ms. Welshhans.

Anderson grew up in Waynesville and graduated from Western Carolina University. He was an active member in the community, serving on the United Way board, Community Foundation for Western North Carolina board and Waynesville Rotary Club.

Anderson and his wife Morgan were also owners of Apple Creek Cafe in downtown Waynesville until they sold to John and Sandra Troiani, who turned the restaurant into Papageorgio’s.

utive officer. The award is the highest honor a LifePoint employee can receive.

“At Harris Regional Hospital and Swain Community Hospital, we share LifePoint’s commitment to Making Communities Healthier, and we recognize this is supported by the good work and service of our employees on and off the job,” said Steve Heatherly CEO of Harris Regional Hospital and Swain Community Hospital. “We are extremely proud to recognize Don for his efforts on behalf of our patients and our community.

Don goes above and beyond each and every day to ensure that every person he encounters receives the highest level of care and compassion.”

Voter ID informational seminars to be held next week Beginning this year, voters in North Carolina will be required to produce acceptable photo identification before being allowed to cast their votes, but a 2018 law also requires every county’s board of elections to hold at least two free voter ID seminars before Sept. 1, 2019. In Haywood County, those two sessions will both be held on Monday, June 17. The first will take place at 2 p.m. at the Canton Senior Center, 75 Penland Street, in Canton. The second will be held at 7 p.m. in the Historic Haywood Courthouse, 215 North Main Street, in Waynesville. Those in attendance will also be given information about the availability of free North Carolina voter ID cards, as well as voting options including absentee-by-mail, early voting and voting on Election Day. For more information, contact the Haywood County Board of elections at (828) 452-6633 or elections@haywoodcountync.gov.

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Opinion

Smoky Mountain News

35

When the universe offers gifts, unwrap them quickly. The folks at Junaluska Elementary served as a village for my boy, with Mrs. Prince being a cornerstone. The tears in my son’s eyes were an expression of the gratitude he couldn’t quite express through words.

The same goes for my littlest boy, who had bouts of emotion through the year but could always find comfort in his teachers and school counselor. It’s times like this I’m thankful to live in a small town where a phone call or quick text is all it takes to ensure my children are doing OK. As summer unfolds, I’m more than Columnist ready. Even though a newspaper never stops and we work year-round, there’s a different vibe during the summertime. I’m no longer scrambling to prep lunches and clothes for the next day or making sure homework is finished and agenda books are signed.

There are no field trips or theme days or getting children to school early or staying late for a practice or club meeting.

During the summertime, days unwind mindfully. The rushing around and chaos ceases for a couple months and it feels amazing.

Speaking of villages, I need to offer a message to my bosses, Scott McLeod and Greg Boothroyd. This week we cele-

Susanna Shetley

The final school bells have rung.

When I was teaching, the last few weeks of school were grueling and felt never-ending. Once students were finished with end-of-grade testing, they kind of went wild, as if they’d held it together all that time and could no longer maintain their instinctive desire to run, jump and talk nonstop.

With that being said, it’s also hard for teachers to say good-bye to a group they’ve educated and nurtured for an entire year. It’s bittersweet, for sure.

While I’m not in the classroom these days, I am a mom to two school-age boys. My oldest one finished up fourth grade and my little one first grade. When one becomes a parent, time flies faster than ever before.

Wasn’t it just yesterday, I was a new mom holding a colicky three-month old? And now that same little baby is a rising fifth-grader. It’s hard to believe. Before I can blink, he’ll be calling from college, a deep voice on the other end. The other night, he was writing a card to his teacher, Hayley Prince.

When he finished, he looked up at me with tears in his eyes.

“I’m really going to miss Mrs. Prince,” he told me.

Mrs. Prince is the current Haywood County School’s Teacher of the Year, so while she is an outstanding teacher, she’s more than that. She kept a keen and loving eye on my sweet boy this year. With the divorce, his dad remarrying and the selling of the family home, things could have gone south

brate the 20th anniversary of The Smoky Mountain News.

Twenty years ago, two very different guys with a shared vision came together to create a newspaper that continues to grow and thrive, despite an overall downward trend in print journalism.

I’ve been freelancing with The Smoky Mountain News for almost four years but came on board full-time in September 2017. It was my early days of single parenthood and I was trying to purchase my own house. My emotions were all over the place. The stability and artistic outlet this newspaper provided was paramount to my healing. Scott and Greg could have turned me away, worried that I was too much of a mess to focus and contribute something to the publication. But instead, they had faith in me and I could feel that.

As we celebrate SMN in this special issue, I’m grateful for so much. Grateful for amazing little boys who’ve enjoyed a wonderful year at the sweetest school in the world. Grateful to work in a place that practices compassion and honors individuality and creative freedom. Grateful for the early days of summer when the weather is perfect and possibilities endless.

And most importantly, I’m grateful to the universe for offering gifts exactly when we need them.

(Susanna Shetley is an salesperson, editor and writer for Smoky Mountain News, Smoky Mountain Living and Mountain South Media. susanna.b@smokymountainnews.com)

Passion is no excuse for spreading error U tion in Alabama after being raped could serve a longer prison sentence than the man who raped her.” Section 5 of the bill explicitly states that, “No woman upon whom an abortion is performed or attempted to be performed shall be criminally or civilly liable.”

It is also worth noting that the bill was written by a woman, voted for by women as well as men (who themselves were Guest Columnist voted into office by women as well as men), and signed by a woman (who was elected to office by women and men). It is simply nonsense to represent this act by a democratically elected legislature as some dark conspiracy of the patriarchy, unless the real sense of such an assertion is to incite hatred against the group that is the target of her ire.

It is true that there are no exceptions for rape or incest in the Alabama HLPA. On the assumption that the lives being protected are

Samuel Edwards

pon seeing Hannah McLeod’s recent guest column published in these pages on May 29, my first reaction was that it belongs in the same category as those rants whose message boils down to, “It’s da Jooz.”

Ms. McLeod’s seething anger about what she perceives, rightly or wrongly, as the victimization of the identity groups she most cares about may explain her passion, and may even call forth sympathy for their — and her — wounds. However, her fervor does not excuse her vicious caricatures of the views and motivations of those with whom she disagrees and her distortion of facts that she should have checked before writing about them. As the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but no one is entitled to his own facts.” A basic principle of good analysis — which she ought to have been taught at App State — is to base it on primary sources before expressing definite opinions. This she evidently has not done.

A case in point is her description of the Alabama Human Life Protection Act (to give it its proper title). It is blatantly false to assert, as she does, that, “a woman who gets an abor-

human — which is an objective fact, there being no such thing as a generic zygote or embryo or fetus — it would follow that a bill seeking the protection of all innocent human life would have no such exceptions.

Ms. McLeod, and indeed any supporter of these exceptions (including, I’m sorry to say, Mr. Trump and too many Republicans) have yet to explain why children conceived as a consequence of someone else’s crime should receive a capital sentence when the perpetrator of the offence is not subject to a similar penalty. If punishing the innocent is morally repugnant, and it is, punishing the innocent while not as severely punishing the guilty is even more repellent, and actually puts those who do it on the same level as the infamous practice in Islamist cultures of stoning rape victims to death whilst letting their assailants off with lighter, if any, punishments.

If Ms. McLeod intended to enlighten and inflame her readers, her column was a complete failure. The most (and I deliberately say “most,” not, “best”) it can have done was to affirm the existing bigotries — whether antiold people, anti-Christian, anti-white European male, anti- conservative, anti-

wealth, anti-American — of those who already agree with her. This means it was a waste of time (of which she claims to have so little) and of ink, since “haters gonna hate” no matter what.

If she intended to offend and inflame some of her readers, she had some measure of success –—perhaps more than she counted on in my case: I am not, in fact, among the class of conservative Evangelicals she so disdains. I am instead a Catholic who, unlike many prominent leftist politicians (Pelosi, Gillibrand, Biden, Durbin, etc.) actually believes all that his Church teaches.

However, any offense I have taken at what and how she has written, is far outweighed by prayer (in which I’m sure many of my Evangelical brethren join) that she be delivered from the anger that rages within her before it consumes her and others, and that she — and they — find grace, mercy and peace from the One Lord Who is the only sure Source of Truth and Life. For my part, I shall ask that a Mass to be offered for her.

Samuel Edwards is from Waynesville, where he lives and works. He holds degrees in music, religion and theology. Formerly an Episcopal and Anglican minister, he now helps prepare adults for Baptism and Confirmation in the Catholic Church at his local parish. ponderingheart@att.net.)

Air the laundry. The Smoky Mountain News encourages readers to express their opinions through letters to the editor or guest columns. All viewpoints are welcome.

Send to Scott McLeod at info@smokymountainnews.com or mail to PO Box 629, Waynesville, NC, 28786

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Locally sourced beef. Indoor and outdoor dining. facebook.com/ChurchStreetDepot, twitter.com/ChurchStDepot.

CITY LIGHTS CAFE Spring Street in downtown Sylva.

828.587.2233. Open Monday-Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Tasty, healthy and quick. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, espresso, beer and wine. Come taste the savory and sweet crepes, grilled paninis, fresh, organic salads, soups and more.

Outside patio seating. Free Wi-Fi, pet-friendly.

Live music and lots of events. Check the web calendar at citylightscafe.com.

THE CLASSIC WINESELLER 20 Church Street, Waynesville.

828.452.6000. Underground retail wine and craft beer shop, restaurant, and intimate live music venue. Kitchen opens at 4 p.m.

Wednesday through Saturday serving freshly prepared small plates, tapas, charcuterie, desserts. Enjoy live music every Friday and Saturday night at 7pm. www.classicwineseller.com. Also on facebook and twitter.

COUNTRY VITTLES: FAMILY STYLE RESTAURANT 3589 Soco Rd, Maggie Valley.

828.926.1820 Winter hours: Wednesday through Sunday 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Family Style at Country Vittles is not a buffet.

Instead our waitresses will bring your food piping hot from the kitchen right to your table and as many refills as you want. So if you have a big appetite, but sure to ask your waitress about our family style service.

FERRARA PIZZA & PASTA 243 Paragon Parkway, Clyde.

828.476.5058. Open Monday-Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday 12 to 8 p.m. Real New Yorkers. Real Italians. Real Pizza. A full service authentic Italian pizzeria and restaurant from New York to the Blue Ridge. Dine in, take out, and delivery. Check out our daily lunch specials plus customer appreciation nights on Monday and Tuesday 5 to 9 p.m. with large cheese pizzas for $9.95.

WEDNESDAY 5-9 P.M.

THURSDAY 5-9 P.M.

SUNDAY 11 A.M-3 P.M.

Rib buffet, fried chicken, vegetables, and a twenty-three item salad bar!

Piano Man & Angie

Buffet Brunch

$11.95

Country Buffet

$11.95

FIREFLY TAPS & GRILL 128 N. Main St., Waynesville 828.454.5400. Simple, delicious food. A must experience in WNC. Located in downtown Waynesville with an atmosphere that will warm your heart and your belly! Local and regional beers on tap. Full bar, vegetarian options, kids menu, and more.

Reservations accepted. Daily specials. Live music every Saturday from 7 to 10 p.m.

Open Mon.-Sat. 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Sunday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday brunch from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

FROGS LEAP PUBLIC HOUSE 44 Church St., Downtown Waynesville 828.456.1930 Serving dinner 5 to 9 p.m.

Tuesday through Thursday. 5 to 9:30 p.m.

Friday and Saturday. Closed Sunday and Monday. Frogs Leap is a farm to table restaurant focused on local, sustainable, natural and organic products prepared in modern regional dishes. Seasonal menu focuses on Southern comfort foods with upscale flavors.

Reservations accepted. www.frogsleappublichouse.com.

HARMON’S DEN BISTRO 250 Pigeon St., Waynesville 828.456.6322. Harmon’s Den is located in the Fangmeyer Theater at HART. Open 5:309 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday (Bistro closes at 7:30 p.m. on nights when there is a show in the Fangmeyer Theater) with Sunday brunch at 11 a.m. that includes breakfast and lunch items. Harmon’s Den offers a complete menu with cocktails, wine list, and area beers on tap. Enjoy casual dining with the guarantee of making it to the performance in time, then rub shoulders with the cast afterward with post-show food and beverage service. Reservations recommended. www.harmonsden.harttheatre.org HAZELWOOD FARMACY & SODA FOUNTAIN 429 Hazelwood Avenue, Waynesville.

828.246.6996. Open six days a week, closed Wednesday. 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday; 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Breakfast until noon, old-fashioned luncheonette and diner comfort food. Historic full service soda fountain.

JOEY’S PANCAKE HOUSE 4309 Soco Rd Maggie Valley.

828.926.0212. Open seven days a week! 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. Joey’s is a family-friendly restaurant that has been serving breakfast to locals and visitors of Western North Carolina

featuring turkey and dressing

$12.95

207 Paragon Parkway, Clyde

828-456-1997 828.926.0201 At the Maggie Valley Inn • 70 Soco Road, Maggie Valley

blueroostersoutherngrill.com Monday-Friday Open at 11am

tasteTHE mountains for decades. Featuring a large variety of tempting pancakes, golden waffles, country style cured ham and seasonal specials spiked with flavor, Joey’s is sure to please all appetites. Join us for what has become a tradition in these parts, breakfast at Joey’s.

JUKEBOX JUNCTION U.S. 276 and N.C. 110 intersection, Bethel. 828.648.4193. 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Monday through Saturday; Sunday 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Serving breakfast, lunch, nd dinner. The restaurant has a 1950s & 60s theme decorated with memorabilia from that era.

KANINI’S 1196 N. Main St., Waynesville.

828.452.5187. Lunch Monday-Saturday from 10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., eat in or carry out. Closed Sunday. A made-from-scratch kitchen using fresh ingredients. Offering a variety of meals to go from frozen meals to be stored and cooked later to “Dinners to Go” that are made fresh and ready to enjoyed that day. We also specialize in catering any event from from corporate lunches to weddings. kaninis.com MAD BATTER FOOD & FILM 617 W. Main Street Downtown Sylva.

828.586.3555. Open Monday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. with Sunday Brunch from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Hand-tossed pizza, house-ground burgers, steak sandwiches & fresh salmon all from scratch. Casual family friendly atmosphere.

Craft beer and interesting wine. Free movies Thursday through Saturday. Visit madbatterfoodfilm.com for this week’s shows & events.

MAGGIE VALLEY RESTAURANT 2804 Soco Road, Maggie Valley.

828.926.0425. 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.

Daily specials including soups, sandwiches and southern dishes along with featured dishes such as fresh fried chicken, rainbow trout, country ham, pork chops and more.

Breakfast all day including omelets, pancakes, biscuits & gravy. facebook.com/carversmvr; instagram @carvers_mvr.

SAGEBRUSH STEAKHOUSE 1941 Champion Drive, Canton 828.646.3750 895 Russ Ave., Waynesville 828.452.5822. Sunday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Carry out available.

Sagebrush features hand carved steaks, chicken and award winning BBQ ribs. We have fresh salads, seasonal vegetables and scrumptious deserts. Extensive selection of local craft beers and a full bar. Catering special events is one of our specialties.

WAYNESVILLE PIZZA COMPANY 32 Felmet Street, Waynesville.

828.246.0927. Open Monday through Friday; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 10 p.m.; Sunday noon to 9 p.m.; closed Tuesdays. Opened in May 2016, The Waynesville Pizza Company has earned a reputation for having the best hand-tossed pizza in the area. Featuring a custom bar with more than 20 beers and a rustic, family friendly dining room. Menu includes salads, burgers, wraps, hot and cold sandwiches, gourmet pizza, homemade desserts, and a loaded salad bar. The Cuban sandwich is considered by most to be the best in town.

Carver's

MAGGIE VALLEY RESTAURANT since 1952

Daily Specials: Soups, Sandwiches & Southern Dishes

Featured Dishes: Fresh Fried Chicken, Rainbow Trout, Country Ham, Pork-chops & more

Breakfast : Omelets, Pancakes, Biscuits & Gravy!

Friday/Saturday 11 a.m.-10 p.m.

Closed Tuesday

Sunday 12-9 p.m.

Sandwiches • Burgers • Wraps 32 Felmet Street (828) 246-0927

Real Local Families, Real Local Farms, Real Local Food

OPEN SATURDAY & SUNDAY, 9AM-4PM CALL FOR MORE INFORMATION 2804 SOCO RD. • MAGGIE VALLEY 828.926.0425 • Facebook.com/carversmvr Instagram- @carvers_mvr

twitter.com/ChurchStDepot

THANK YOU, HAYWOOD COUNTY,

FOR VOTING US

#1 BURGER! facebook.com/ChurchStreetDepot

Local WNC Gift Sets for Father's Day! Customize Your Gift Basket with Local Western North Carolina Craft Items ORDER ONLINE CityLightsCafé.com pick up at the café!

3 E JACKSON ST. • SYLVA, NC

www.CityLightsCafe.com

LUNCH · CATERING TAKEOUT & DINNERS TO GO Scratch Kitchen Scratch made using the freshest ingredients.

Sandwiches featuring house roasted meats, fresh salads, sides & baked goods.

Gluten Free & Vegan Options Monday-Saturday 10:30-2:30

Breakfast served all day!

MON.-SAT. 11AM- 8 PM

34 CHURCH ST. WAYNESVILLE 828.246.6505

828-246-6996 429 Hazelwood Avenue Waynesville Monday, Tuesday Wednesday Thursday, Friday Saturday Sunday Brunch

7:30am to 8pm Closed 7:30am to 8pm 8am to 8pm 9am to 3pm

1196 N. MAIN STREET WAYNESVILLE

828-452-5187 kaninis.com

AT BEARWATERS BREWING Tue-Thurs 12- 9 p.m • Fri-Sat: 12- 10 p.m.

Sunday: 12- 9 p.m. • Monday: Closed

101 PARK ST. CANTON 828.492.1422 PIGEONRIVERGRILLE.COM

Wine • Port • Champagne Cigars • Gifts

828-452-6000

20 Church Street Downtown Waynesville

Smoky Mountain News

APPÉTIT Y’AL N L BO

RENDEZVOUS RESTAURANT AND BAR Maggie Valley Inn and Conference Center 70 Soco Road, Maggie Valley 828.926.0201 Home of the Maggie Valley Pizzeria. We deliver after 4 p.m. daily to all of Maggie Valley, J-Creek area, and Lake Junaluska.

Monday through Wednesday: 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Thursday: 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. country buffet and salad bar from 5 to 9 p.m. $11.95 with Steve Whiddon on piano.

Friday and Saturday: 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sunday 11:30 to 8 p.m. 11:30 to 3 p.m. family style, fried chicken, ham, fried fish, salad bar, along with all the fixings, $11.95.

Check out our events and menu at rendezvousmaggievalley.com

Mon/Wed/Thurs 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

June 5-11, 2019

MAGGIE VALLEY CLUB 1819 Country Club Dr., Maggie Valley.

828.926.1616. maggievalleyclub.com/dine.

Open seasonally for lunch and dinner. Fine and casual fireside dining in welcoming atmosphere. Full bar. Reservations accepted.

PIGEON RIVER GRILLE 101 Park St., Canton.

828.492.1422. Open Tuesday through Thursday 3 to 8 p.m.; Friday-Saturday noon to 9 p.m.; Sunday noon to 6 p.m.

Southern-inspired restaurant serving simply prepared, fresh food sourced from top purveyors. Located riverside at Bearwaters Brewing, enjoy daily specials, sandwiches, wings, fish and chips, flatbreads, soups, salads, and more. Be sure to save room for a slice of the delicious house made cake.

Relaxing inside/outside dining and spacious gathering areas for large groups.

classicwineseller.com MONDAY - SATURDAY

10:00AM - 6:00PM

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38

A&E

Smoky Mountain News

Crafting together community BearWaters Brewing.

How craft beer impacted WNC

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD STAFF WRITER ccording to recent numbers, there are around 75 breweries within Asheville and greater Western North Carolina. And 19 of those breweries are located west of Asheville.

But, back in 1999, when The Smoky Mountain News launched, this was the number of breweries in our jurisdiction — zero. None.

Not a single one. The idea of craft beer, let alone something concocted in your backyard, was not only somewhat unheard of, it never was thought to be something of an economic driver.

“Asheville, and craft breweries in general, have had such a big tourism boom in the [recent] years. And having multiple local breweries here has brought a lot of new people to Waynesville,” said Kelsie Baker, co-owner of Boojum Brewing in downtown Waynesville.

“They stop in because of the breweries and end up coming back because of all the amazing things the town and the area have to offer.”

Aside from the enormous increase in craft beer enthusiasts worldwide, each of these breweries has also impacted seemingly every aspect of the culinary, nightlife, workforce, economic climate and social circles in these small Southern Appalachian mountain towns.

“Honestly, it’s hard to recall what downtown Franklin was like a few years ago when folks

A

joked about the sidewalks being rolled up at 5 o’clock,” said Ken Murphy, co-owner of Lazy Hiker Brewing in downtown Franklin. “We’re often told that we’ve significantly changed the dynamic of downtown Franklin by bringing life to the west end of downtown, and by stimulating other investment in the downtown area.”

“When we moved to Sylva there was not much of a nightlife and there were no bars.

Since we’ve opened, we’ve seen tremendous

Smoky Mountain News:

20 YEARS growth in the downtown business sector and we now have wonderful options for nightlife,” added Nicole Dexter, co-owner of Innovation Brewing in downtown Sylva. “We have several thriving bars, restaurants, and cafes that offer our town live music, entertainment and art — it’s been amazing to watch this town grow in the six years we’ve been here.”

And with each small town benefiting from these new and beloved anchor businesses in downtowns, one town in particular has completely shifted from a somewhat abandoned downtown corridor to a place where it’s hard to find a parking spot on the weekends — Canton.

“One thing became evident [back then], local beer was going to be well-received and supported by the community. Fast forward to now and you can clearly see the evolution of craft beer in Haywood County,” said Kevin

Sandefur, co-owner of BearWaters Brewing in downtown Canton. “I believe in my heart of hearts that all the breweries in the area have had a very positive impact on the local economy. They’re destinations in their own right, and have clearly diversified the attraction to this area. There have been a significant amount of jobs and tax revenue created, as well.”

Though nowadays opening brewery in our region is viewed as a stable investment and source of pride for a community with the right kind of folks behind an operation, it has been only in recent years where mindsets of local residents and tourists alike have warmed to idea of having a brewery down the street or around the corner.

“When I think back to Bryson City — and the other small towns west of Asheville — precraft brewing, there were drastically different places from my point of view,” said Joe Rowland, co-owner of Nantahala Brewing in Bryson City. “There was less night life, few if any family-friendly places to enjoy a craft beer and there was a joke that most of these towns rolled up the streets because there wasn’t much, if anything, going on in the evenings.”

Soon, communities began rallying around the breweries, many of which were breathing life into old and often forgotten properties in the heart of downtowns.

“Both of our main brewing facilities are located in buildings that predate World War II and would have likely been torn down if we

S EE B EER, PAGE 39

WNC Breweries Andrews • Andrews Brewing • Hoppy Trout Brewing • Snowbird Mountains Brewery Bryson City • Mountain Layers Brewing • Nantahala Brewing Canton • 7 Clans Brewing • BearWaters Brewing Cashiers • Whiteside Brewing Franklin • Currahee Brewing • Lazy Hiker Brewing Hayesville • Haynesville Brewing • Nocturnal Brewing • Valley River Brewery Highlands • Satulah Mountain Brewing Murphy • Valley River Brewery Sapphire • Sapphire Valley Brewing Sylva • Balsam Falls Brewing • Innovation Brewing • Nantahala Brewing (Outpost) Waynesville • Boojum Brewing • Frog Level Brewing

Back in 1999, when The Smoky Mountain News launched, this was the number of breweries in our jurisdiction — zero.

None. Not a single one. The idea of craft beer, let alone something concocted in your backyard, was not only somewhat unheard of, it never was thought to be something of an economic driver.

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD

Backstage in Canton with Balsam Range, January 2013. (photo: Garret K. Woodward)

HOT PICKS 1 2 3 4 5

The Cherokee Bluegrass Festival will return June 6-8 at the Holiday RV Village and Campground in Cherokee.

Nashville songwriting star Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard Time will perform during the “June Jam” beginning at 4 p.m. Saturday, June 8, at the Fines Creek Volunteer Department.

T

Smoky Mountain News

he first week I lived and The 23nd annual Cherokee Voices Festival will be worked in Western held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 8, at North Carolina, I slept The Museum of the Cherokee Indian. underneath my desk in the “Art After Dark” will continue from 6 to 9 p.m. old newsroom of The Smoky Friday, June 7, in downtown Waynesville.

Mountain News on Church Street in downtown Waynesville.

The Grace Church in the Mountains will be hostI still marvel over that. ing an internationally acclaimed art exhibition And yet I continue to sleep on titled “Icons in Transformation” through June 16 the ground at music festivals at the church in Waynesville. or if I’m at a backwoods bonfire too far from home, too far (financially speaking) when my freelance from my truck. It’s just a part of who I am, contracts with a few North Country publicawhich is a very minimalist and low maintetions were not going to be renewed that nance human being. summer due to budget cuts.

But, what I truly marvel at was how desI applied for over a hundred journalism perate I was for work back then in 2012.

Though I’ve been fully and happily employed jobs in June 2012. Cops and courts reporter in Omaha, Nebraska. Education reporter in at this newspaper for the last seven years, it the panhandle of Florida. Local government strikes me funny sometimes how on the verge of walking away from writing and jour- reporter in rural Maine. Gigs I wasn’t really psyched about. I wanted to write about pasnalism I was in those tremendously undersion, about artists and history, people and employed days. places, things and ideas that reside at the Seven years ago this month, I applied for the arts and entertainment editor position at core of a region, wherever that may be.

And in the 11th hour of my desperation, I The Smoky Mountain News. Temporarily received a message from The Smoky living in my parent’s farmhouse in Upstate Mountain News’ publisher, Scott McLeod.

New York, my back was against the wall

hadn’t come along to bring new life to them,” Rowland said. “As craft brewers have infiltrated each of these small towns, many of us have looked to expand by delving into ancillary businesses — farm-totable restaurants and additional taprooms — in other towns where our wholesale sales have been strong. That’s led to more redevelopment and additional economic development in areas that were previously abandoned.”

And that hyper-local impact by the craft beer industry has positively affected some of the smallest communities situated in our mountainous landscape, including the town of Andrews — home to three breweries amid a population of 1,780.

“Andrews is a sleepy town, at best. We recognize we’re not Sylva, Bryson City or even Murphy. But, little by little, we’re making improvements on the quality of beer and wine offerings by all the breweries and both wineries in town,” said Eric Carlson, co-owner of Andrews Brewing in downtown. “And we’ll continue to support the arts by having local talent play here year-round. [At Andrews Brewing], we like to call ourselves the prettiest little music venue in the mountains.”

With new breweries still popping up in Western North Carolina, many owners see the future of this industry holding a steady course. Each brewery has its own identity and client base, each working with other brewers around the region to ensure the growth and survival of one of the current community business pillars and foreseeable economic drivers in Western North Carolina.

“The next couple of years ahead will continue to change how local breweries develop and hold on to a customer base,” Sandefur said. “I suspect you’ll see some interesting diversity in products, venue and entertainment options to keep people enthusiastic and engaged.”

“Since we opened in 2015, the number of breweries in our region has more than doubled,” Murphy added. “Each brewery has its own vibe and niche. But, taken together, I think we complement quite well the outdoor activity and scenic tourism that is integral to the westernmost counties of North Carolina.”

But, regardless of what the future holds, the craft beer industry — breweries, taprooms, restaurants, music venues and enthusiasts — is here to stay.

These locations have become a source of local pride, an economic force and a tourism destination all in one. So, cheers.

“Recently, it seems that many breweries have been looking more locally.

They’ve been focusing on becoming more a part of their local communities through their taprooms and involvement with local groups and businesses,” Baker said. “People often see breweries as businesses that represent the spirit of their town. For tourists, you get a sense of the place you are visiting. For locals, you often see your own ideals represented in your local brewery.”

39

June 5-11, 2019

No fear or shame in the dignity of your experience, language and knowledge

B EER, CONTINUED FROM 38 arts & entertainment

This must be the place

He liked the writing clips I sent along, and also my enthusiasm in my cover letter about a sincere desire to write about humanity and the arts.

With the last couple hundred dollars in my bank account, I drove the 18 or so hours from Plattsburgh, New York, to Waynesville for the final job interview. Solo trek.

Nonstop except for gas stops and one hour of sleep around 2 a.m. in some rest area in West Virginia. Three days later, I was hired at The Smoky Mountain News.

Leaving the hiring, I immediately drove from Waynesville to Portland, Maine, to say goodbye to my folks and little sister, who were on summer vacation up there. Then, a couple days later, I headed from Maine to Plattsburgh to say goodbye to my friends, pack up my rusty pickup truck with my belongings and make my way back to Haywood County to start work the following week.

In my time with this publication, I’ve been lucky and grateful to be able to write about so many incredible subjects, to be part of experiences I only thought accessible in dreams. My loyalty to the newspaper is a direct relationship between the freedom in my work and the sincere notion that this is a quality product, one that every single employee here proudly stands behind.

And to that point, my loyalty and love of living and working in Western North Carolina comes from you (yes, you) the reader, those currently holding this paper week in and week out. Your support not only puts gas in my truck to track down and write about the next adventure, it’s also proof positive that what we’re doing (and what we’re about) is something of importance to our mountain communities and local residents.

Writing can be a lonely thing. And being a writer roaming the high peaks and low valleys can be an isolated life, too. But, this is my true calling. I spend many-a-night burning the midnight oil putting together a cover story on deadline. Transcribing hour-long interviews. Constructing an outline of how I want an article to look and feel like. Anyone in this profession can attest to the following: this is, truly, a labor of love.

I deeply believe in the power of the written word. I believe in sharing the stories of your neighbors (perhaps even you, too) for all to immerse themselves in. The world is a better, more informed and compassionate place when your community newspaper is there to observe and report on the matters of the day.

And yet, without readers and community support, there is no Smoky Mountain News.

We wouldn’t exist without each and every one of you out there. If you didn’t believe in our cause and why we should be part of your daily life, then we wouldn’t have made it past year one.

But, here we are. Twenty years later.

Seems like probably 20 days to some of us with how time flies. Maybe more like 200 years to others. At The Smoky Mountain News, we care about what we do, and how we do it. Each week you’re holding something of intrinsic value from our hearts and minds to yours, and back again.

Life is beautiful, grasp for it, y’all.

On the beat arts & entertainment

Cherokee Bluegrass Festival Carolina Blue.

Arnold Hill Band.

Concerts on the Creek The 10th season of the Concerts on the Creek summer music series continues with Arnold Hill Band with special guest Chris Pressley (country/rock) at 7 p.m. Friday, June 7, at Bridge Park in Sylva.

Concerts on the Creek events are free

and open to the public with donations encouraged. Bring a chair or blanket and enjoy the shows. Occasionally, these events will feature food truck vendors as well.

For more information, call 828.586.2155 or visit www.mountainlovers.com. Follow the Concerts on the Creek Facebook page for series updates.

The Cherokee Bluegrass Festival will return June 6-8 at the Holiday RV Village and Campground in Cherokee.

The three-day event begins at noon Thursday, June 6, and goes until 10 p.m. daily. Open stage will be 11 a.m. to noon.

Performers include Rhonda Vincent & The Rage, Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out, Sideline, Dailey & Vincent, The Grascals, Carolina Blue, Mike Snider, The Crowe Brothers, and much more.

Happy Holiday RV Village and Campground has over 400 hookups, including water, electric, and bathhouses. This is in the heart of The Cherokee Indian

Reservation. Bring lawn chairs with no high back chairs or rockers allowed. No pets or alcoholic beverages allowed in concert area.

Security will be on duty. This is a family show.

Shows go on rain or shine under a large tent, with tickets available at the gate. Daily ticket prices are $40 for adults in advance, then $45 at the gate. A three-day adult ticket is $90 in advance and $95 at the gate.

Children ages 7-15 are $15 per day or $45 for three days in advance and $50 at the gate.

Children under age 7 are free when accompanied by parents.

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.adamsbluegrass.com.

Smoky Mountain News

June 5-11, 2019

The Wobblers.

Groovin’ on the Green The Groovin’ on the Green summer concert series will host The Wobblers (R&B) at 6:30 p.m. Friday, June 7, at The Village Green in Cashiers.

Other performers will include Zuzu Welsh Music (blues/rock) June 14, Porch 40 (rock/jam) June 21, Andalyn (rock/Americana) June 28, Continental Divide (Motown/beach) July 5, Hurricane Creek (rock) July 12, Hi-5 (rock) July 26, The Currys (country/blues) Aug. 2, Eat a Peach (classic rock) Aug. 9, Americana Jones (roots) Aug. 16, Andrew Beam (classic

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

Apply via www.haywood.edu at the jobs page or directly at governmentjobs.com/careers/haywoodedu Contact Beverly Balliot in HR at 828-627-4562 if you have any questions.

40

country) Aug. 23 and Mac Arnold & Plate Full O’Blues (blues) Aug. 31.

Coolers are welcome but food and beverage vendors will be on site as well. Dogs must be on a leash and under the control of their owners at all times.

A new policy is in place this year with setting up for Groovin’ On the Green concerts. Tents must be set up next to the path at the very back of the event lawn. Chairs may be set up in the lawn anytime the day of the concert, however no chairs may be set up within the wings of the Commons until after 4:30 p.m. www.villagegreencashiersnc.com.

Haywood Community College is an Equal Opportunity Employment Institution.

• Dean of Health and Human Services • FT Computer Integrated Machining Instructor (9 month) • FT Electrical Systems Technology Instructor (9 month) • FT Lead Teacher – RCAC (2 positions) • PT Advanced Manufacturing Incubator Lead Technician • PT Assistant and Substitute Teachers - RCAC

Songwriting legend to play Fines Creek Nashville songwriting star Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard Time will perform during the “June Jam” beginning at 4 p.m.

Saturday, June 8, at the Fines Creek Volunteer Department, located at 244 Fines Creek Road in Clyde.

Musical guests will also include Cold Mountain Bluegrass, Mountain Bridge and John Wiggins. Cordle is most famous for his song “Murder on Music Row,” which was recorded by George Strait and

Alan Jackson and received the Country Music Association Award for “Vocal Event of the Year” and CMA nomination for “Song of the Year” in 2000.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students, under 12 free. A catfish dinner from 4 to 7 p.m. will be served for $10 per Larry Cordle. plate. The “June Jam” is held in memory of Juanita Metcalf and benefits the Fines Creek Fire Department.

• Balsam Falls Brewing (Sylva) will host JR Junior June 7 and Tim McWilliams June 14. All shows start at 8 p.m.

Free and open to the public. www.balsamfallsbrewing.com.

ALSO:

• Blue Ridge Beer Hub (Waynesville) will host an acoustic jam with Main St. NoTones from 6 to 9 p.m. June 6 and 13. Free and open to the public. www.blueridgebeerhub.com.

• Boojum Brewing Company (Waynesville) will host a bluegrass open mic every Wednesday and an all-genres open mic every Thursday.

All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless otherwise noted. www.boojumbrewing.com.

1.

Bookstore

2.

3.

4.

Kathryn Stripling Byer

Poetry Collection Celebration

arts & entertainment

• Andrews Brewing Company (Andrews) will host the “Lounge Series” at its Calaboose location with Chris West (singer-songwriter) June 6, Knotty Gs June 7, Harmed Brothers 7 p.m. June 8, George & Andy 4 p.m. June 9, Jody West June 14, Trevor Pattillo June 15 and Tom Edwards 4 p.m. June 16. All shows are free and begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. www.andrewsbrewing.com.

newsdesk crafts

On the beat

Saturday, June 8 • 6:30 p.m. # 314 - free hat

3 EAST JACKSON STREET • SYLVA

828/586-9499 • citylightsnc.com

Grab Dinner On Us!

Test drive any Slingshot® and receive a $50 dining credit*!

Hurry in, this offer ends June 30th, 2019.

• Concerts on the Creek (Sylva) will host Arnold Hill Band with special guest Chris Pressley (country/rock) June 7. Shows begin at 7 p.m. at Bridge Park. Free and open to the public.

June 5-11, 2019

• Currahee Brewing (Franklin) will host Somebody’s Child (Americana) 6 p.m. June 8. Free and open to the public. www.curraheebrew.com.

• Firefly Taps & Grill (Waynesville) will host Two Armadillos (Americana) June 8. All shows begin at 7 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.454.5400.

• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host Hot Club of Cullowhee June 7, Echo 13 (Americana) June 8, Ben Wilson (singersongwriter) June 14 and Whisky River Band June 15. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. www.froglevelbrewing.com.

• Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will have an Open Mic night June 5 and 12, and a jazz night with the Kittle/Collings Duo June 6 and 13. All events are free and begin at 8 p.m. www.innovation-brewing.com.

• Innovation Station (Dillsboro) will host Dottie the Band June 8 and Jackson Grimm June 15. All events are free and begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. www.innovation-brewing.com.

smokymountainnews.com

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Smoky Mountain News

• Groovin’ on the Green (Cashiers) will host The Wobblers (R&B) June 7. Show begin at 6:30 p.m. Free and open to the public.

Mon.-Fri. 9-6 | Sat. 9-5 Closed Sun.

*Terms and Conditions apply.

41

arts & entertainment

On the beat • Isis Music Hall (West Asheville) will host Michael Gulezian (folk/rock) 7 p.m. June 5, Earsight (funk/jazz) 7 p.m. June 6, Caroline Spence (singer-songwriter) 8:30 p.m. June 6, Claudia Nygaard (Americana/folk) 7 p.m.

June 7, Matt Andersen (Americana/blues) 8:30 p.m. June 7, AmiciMusic (classical) 7 p.m. June 8, Sam Pacetti (Celtic/folk) 6 p.m.

June 9, We Aren’t Dead Yet (Americana/folk) 7:30 p.m. June 9, Tuesday Bluegrass Sessions w/The Jakob’s Ferry Stragglers 7:30 p.m. June 11 and Paula Hanke & Peggy Ratusz (jazz/blues) 7 p.m. June 12. www.isisasheville.com.

ALSO:

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host an open mic night at 6:30 p.m. every Thursday, Dirty Dave & Dusty John June 7, Andalyn (pop/rock) June 8 and The Nouveaux Honkies 8 p.m. June 15. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. For more information and a complete schedule of events, click on www.lazyhikerbrewing.com.

June 5-11, 2019

• The Macon County Public Library (Franklin) will host The Vagabonds (old country/gospel)

Smoky Mountain News

• Maggie Valley Pavilion will host the Haywood Community Band at 6:30 p.m.

June 16. Free and open to the public.

Covered seating is available or bring your own lawn chair.

• Marianna Black Library (Bryson City) will host The Ghost Peppers (old-time/mountain) at 7 p.m. June 13. Free and open to the public. 828.488.3030 or www.fontanalib.org/brysoncity.

• Mountain Layers Brewing (Bryson City) will host the “Stone Soup” open mic night every Tuesday, Twelfth Fret (Americana/folk) June 8, Shane Meade June 14 and Somebody’s Child (Americana) June 15. All shows are free and begin at 7 p.m. www.mountainlayersbrewingcompany.com.

• Nantahala Brewing (Bryson City) will host The Log Noggins June 7, Samantha Grey June 8, Arnold Hill June 14 and PureFyah Reggae June 15. All shows are free and begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. www.nantahalabrewing.com.

• Legends Sports Grill (Maggie Valley) will host music semi-regularly on weekends.

828.926.9464 or www.facebook.com/ legendssportsgrillmaggievalley.

Father’s Day Weekend

at 2 p.m. June 10. Events are free to attend.

• Mad Anthony’s Taproom & Restaurant (Waynesville) will host JR Duo 8 p.m. June 15. All shows are free and open to the public. 828.246.9249 or www.madanthonys.bar.

• Nantahala Outdoor Center (Nantahala

Gorge) will host Freewheelin’ Mamas (Americana/folk) 2 p.m. June 15. All shows are free and open to the public. www.noc.com.

• The Oconaluftee Visitor Center (Cherokee) will host a back porch old-time music jam from 1 to 3 p.m. June 8. All are welcome to come play or simply sit and listen to sounds of Southern Appalachia.

• The Paper Mill Lounge & Theatre (Sylva) will host INoLonger 8 p.m. June 8. 828.508.0554 or www.thepapermilllounge.com.

• Pub 319 (Waynesville) will host an open mic night from 8 to 11 p.m. every Wednesday.

Free and open to the public. www.pub319socialhouse.com.

• Salty Dog’s (Maggie Valley) will have Karaoke with Jason Wyatt at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays, Mile High (classic rock) 8 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays, and a Trivia w/Kelsey Jo 8 p.m. Thursdays.

• Satulah Mountain Brewing (Highlands) will host “Hoppy Hour” and an open mic at 6 p.m. on Thursdays and live music on Friday evenings. 828.482.9794 or www.satulahmountainbrewing.com.

• Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will host Mountain Voices 7

June 13‐16

THURSDAY, JUNE 13 • The Gathering dinner – Held in Tartan Hall, First Presbyterian Church in Franklin.

6:00pm ‐ 8:00pm. Doors open at 5:00 pm. Silent Auction and 50/50 Raffle. Dinner tickets are $25 for adults, $15 for ages 12 and under. Entertainment by The Jacobites By Name. Tickets available at the Franklin Chamber of Commerce and at the Scottish Tartans Museum and Heritage Center, Inc., or call (727) 463‐7347 FRIDAY, JUNE 14 • Free Movie at 2:00 pm – The Macon County Public Library “I Know Where I’m Going.”

• Lecture on Women’s History – 4:00pm, Town Hall Meeting Room.

• Free Ceilidh – Held in parking lot behind The Rathskeller Coffee House (please bring your own chairs). Food and beverages available for purchase starting at 6:00 pm.

Entertainment by the BlarneyGirls 7:00pm ‐ 9:00pm.

SATURDAY, JUNE 15 • Street festival 9:00am ‐ 4:00pm. Opening ceremonies at 10:00 am. Music, food, vendors in downtown Franklin. Children’s activities. Clan Village.

• Scottish Clan Parade 11:00 am.

• Lectures • Lecture 1 ‐ 1 ‐ 2 pm • Lecture 2 ‐ 2‐3 pm. Town Hall Meeting Room.

• Herding dogs – demonstrations will run from 9:00am through 3:00pm.

• Highland Cow SUNDAY, JUNE 16: FATHER’S DAY • Kirkin’ O’ the Tartans, First Presbyterian Church, Franklin. 10:00am in Tartan Hall.

• Free Concert – Macon County Arts Council presents The Jacobites By Name at 2:00 pm in the Chapel, First Presbyterian Church, Franklin.

p.m. June 13. Community chorus with 70 members from Franklin and surrounding counties. The concert will include a variety of music: Broadway, pops, patriotic, folk and gospel. Tickets are $12. 866.273.4615 or www.greatmountainmusic.com.

• The Strand at 38 Main (Waynesville) will host an “Open Mic” night from 7 to 9 p.m. on Saturdays. 828.283.0079 or www.38main.com.

• The Ugly Dog Pub (Cashiers) will host Bluegrass Thursdays w/Benny Queen at 6:30 p.m. and Andalyn (pop/rock) 9 p.m. June 14.

• The Ugly Dog Pub (Highlands) will host Bluegrass w/Nitrograss Wednesdays at 7 p.m and Arnold Hill (Americana) 9:30 p.m.

June 29 • The Water’n Hole Bar & Grill (Waynesville) will host an “Open Mic Night” on Mondays, karaoke on Thursdays, DJ Kountry June 7, Local Metal Showcase June 8, Humps & The Blackouts (psychobilly) June 14 and West King String Band (Americana) June 15. All events at 10 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

828.456.4750.

• Whiteside Brewing (Cashiers) will host Jason Lyles 5:30 p.m. June 27. All shows start at 5:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

828.743.6000 or

Historic Franklin, NC

John Mohr MacIntosh Pipes Band

Funding provided by: Franklin Tourism Development Athority.

Franklin/Nantahala Tourism Development Committee. Partners and Supporters

42

On the street

The Western North Carolina Civil War Roundtable is pleased to welcome Kevin Pawlack on Monday, June 10, at the Waynesville Inn Golf Resort and Spa. Pawlack will be speaking on General George B. McClellan and the Battle of Antietam during the American Civil War. Pawlak is a historic site manager for the Prince William County Historic Preservation Division.

He currently manages Bristoe Station Battlefield and the Ben Lomond Historic Site and also works as a Certified Battlefield Guide at Antietam National Battlefield.

Pawlack also sits on the Board of Directors of the Shepherdstown Battlefield Preservation Association and the Save Historic Antietam Foundation.

His presentation will look at McClellan during the 1862 campaign that resulted both

in the Battle of Antietam and in the failure to destroy the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.

Among his publications, Pawlack is the author of Shepherdstown in the Civil War: One Vast Confederate Hospital and the coauthor of To Hazard All: A Guide to the Maryland Campaign.

He has also written The Heaviest Blow Yet Given the Confederacy: The Emancipation Proclamation Changes the Civil War in Turning Points of the Civil War, part of Emerging Civil War’s Engaging the Civil War Series with Southern Illinois University Press.

He blogs at “Antietam Brigades: A Blog about the Maryland Campaign.”

The evening’s agenda begins at 5 p.m. with a meet and greet dinner at the Tap Room within the Waynesville Inn Golf Resort and Spa. Dinner will be followed with a social at 6:30 p.m. The meeting and free presentation will commence at 7 p.m. More information can be found at wnccwrt.blogspot.com.

arts & entertainment

Are you ready for the carnival?

Civil War speaker to discuss McClellan

Cherokee festival showcases artists, storytelling

“Faith, Fire and Spirit in the Tennessee River Valley” will be the title of the presentation during the Swain County Genealogical and Historical Society meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 6, at the Swain County Regional Business Education and Training Center in Bryson City.

The early settlers of Western North Carolina brought their faith to these mountains. At the heart of the community was the spiritual life sustained by the local church.

Presenter Elise Bryson will focus on the importance of that faith, how it grew and its influence upon the formation of churches in WNC by sharing excerpts of old church

minutes, stories of the movers and shakers that brought it about, the history of some of the churches, and the history of the Tennessee River Baptist Association.

Bryson has been the Chairperson of the Swain County Heritage Board since its inception in 2012. She was instrumental in the formation of the Heritage Museum of Swain County and the Wall of History and Memorial to Veterans in front of the Swain County Courthouse.

For the past 13 years, Bryson has served as President of the Swain County Genealogical and Historical Society. She compiled the marriage record information that the Society published as two separate books of Marriages of Swain County.

Conversation and refreshments will follow the presentation. This is free and open to the public.

Taste of Scotland & Celtic Festival The 22nd annual Taste of Scotland & Celtic Festival will be held June 13-16 in downtown Franklin.

The festival is a celebration of the heritage brought to these mountains, that of the Scots and Scots-Irish, along with celebrating the historic relationships with the Cherokee. Franklin is home to the Scottish Tartans Museum.

The Taste of Scotland & Celtic Festival celebrates the history and heritage of our area, and encourages everyone to participate.

Smoky Mountain News

Spirituality and faith of early settlers

Events are as follows: • Thursday, June 13: The Gathering Dinner. Held from 6 to 9 p.m. in Tartan Hall, First Presbyterian Church. Silent auction and 50/50 raffle. Dinner tickets are $25 for adults, $15 for ages 12 and under. Entertainment by The Jacobites By Name. Tickets available at the Franklin Chamber of Commerce and at the Scottish Tartans Museum and Heritage Center, Inc., or call 727.463.7347.

• Friday, June 14: Ceilidh. Held from 6 to 9 p.m. in the parking lot behind The Rathskeller Coffee Haus (bring your own chairs). Food and beverages available for purchase. Entertainment by the BlarneyGirls.

• Saturday, June 15: Street Festival: From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Opening ceremonies at 10 a.m.

Music, food, vendors in downtown. Children’s activities. Clan Village. Scottish Clan Parade starts at 11 a.m, Lectures start at noon. Sheep herding dogs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

• Sunday, June 16: Kirkin’ O’ the Tartans.

Starts at 10 a.m. in the First Presbyterian Church. Lunch to follow in Tartan Hall. Free concert at 2 p.m. present by the Macon County Arts Council, The Jacobites By Name in the Chapel, First Presbyterian Church.

Lastly, with few exceptions, the festival is free and open to the public. The Gathering Dinner on Thursday night is the only ticketed event for the festival.

Put on by Friends of the Scottish Tartans Museum, you can learn more about the festival and its full schedule of events by visiting www.tasteofscotlandfestival.org.

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June 5-11, 2019

The Cherokee Summer Carnival returns June 9-15 to the Cherokee Fairgrounds.

Promoters have announced that C & M Southern Midways from Alabama will field almost 30 amusement rides, games, and food units that will feature some of the newest rides in the amusement industry.

Thrill rides as the giant ferris wheel, flying bobs, zipper, paratrooper and gravitron will enjoyed by riders of all ages. Almost a dozen rides will attract the younger visitors to the fairgrounds. A dozen games of skill will give away inflatable prizes and stuffed animals of all sizes.

Of course, the usual fun foods such as funnel cakes, Italian sausage, Philly cheesesteak, cotton candy and candy apples, and other carnival foods will be available.

Individual ride tickets for $1 each with most rides taking 3-5 tickets will be available.

Wristbands can also be purchased for $25 giving unlimited ride access for any one day.

Discount coupons are available throughout Cherokee at convenience stores, fast food restaurants and welcome centers. Discount coupons can also be clipped from an ad in this paper.

For more information, call 843.385.3180.

The 23nd annual Cherokee Voices Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 8, at The Museum of the Cherokee Indian.

Elders and millennials will be sharing traditional Cherokee culture through dance, music, storytelling, food and cultural arts demonstrations. This is a great way to immerse yourself in Cherokee culture, and to talk with Cherokee artists and performers.

Admission is free and open to the public. Sponsored by the N.C. Arts Council and The Museum of the Cherokee Indian.

For more information, visit www.visitcherokeenc.com.

arts & entertainment

On the street

‘Yappy Hour’ fundraiser returns

Smoky Mountain News

June 5-11, 2019

A work by Margaret Roberts.

44

Haywood Spay/Neuter is proud to present its second annual “Yappy Hour” fundraiser at 5:30 p.m. Friday, June 7, at the Maggie Valley Club & Resort.

Friends of dogs and cats will gather to support the important work of Haywood Spay/Neuter while enjoying exquisite hors d’oeuvres, a wine pull, and a live auction with original artwork by Margaret Roberts.

There will also be a silent auction for “experiences” such as dinner parties, a chance to participate in a corn hole tournament, hikes, and other fun learning experiences.

Tickets are $50 and are available at the HSN office or you can purchase them at www.haywoodspayneuter.org.

Women’s Work Festival The annual Women’s Work Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 15, at the Mountain Farm Museum in Cherokee.

During the event, you will learn about the vital role women played in creating and maintaining a mountain home. Walk the grounds of the mountain farm and watch demonstrations of open hearth cooking, spinning or sewing, corn shuck doll making, and more.

Free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.greatsmokies.com.

Front Street Arts & Crafts Show The annual Front Street Arts & Crafts Show will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Saturday, June 15, in downtown Dillsboro.

The small mountain town will glow with homespun talent as Front Street (by the railroad tracks) will be filled with fine arts and crafts from local artisans.

Strewn with vibrant colors, inviting festival aromas, and the warm sounds of guitars, banjos, and bass, the event will once again swing wide its welcome. The entertainment

stage will be located at the end of Church Street.

More than 50 vendors on Front Street will offer pottery, glass, candles, jewelry, needle crafts, birdhouses, soaps, gourds, photography, metal art, fiber art and visual arts: oil painting, pen and ink drawings, pastel prints, and so much more.

As you stroll through the town, you can also slip into the shops where you can enjoy the many different items especially chosen with you, the visitor, in mind. At lunch time there are many restaurants from which to choose to sit and relax.

828.506.8331 or email brendaanders@frontier.com.

• Vendors and demonstrators are wanted for the 2nd annual Mountain Heritage Fest in Cruso. This great day of barbecue, crafts, and music will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Saturday, July 13, at the Cruso Community Center. Vendor spaces are $10 for a 10x10 space and demonstrators can participate for free. All spaces are outdoors. For more information and for applications, visit www.crusonc.com/fest, call Levi at 828.400.7323 or email crusoquiltshow@gmail.com.

ALSO:

On the table

Fariello receives Lifetime Achievement Award

All aboard the BBQ, craft beer train

at the history and theory behind craft practice, not just its how-to nature.

She went on to write the From the Hands of our Elders series, three books on Cherokee arts and crafts. Her many book chapters and articles include “Lexicon of Studio Craft” in Craft and Contemporary Art. In 2018, she published Craft & Community, an early history of the John C. Campbell Folk School. Since 1990, she curated over 30 exhibitions for museums and organizations, almost all focusing on American craft.

From Hand to Hand: Functional Craft was exhibited at Handmade in America in Asheville; Iron: Twenty Ten at the National Ornamental Metal Museum in Memphis; and the touring exhibits Movers & Makers: Doris Ulmann’s Portrait of the Craft Revival and ReFormations: New Forms from Ancient Techniques.

Previously, Fariello was honored with a 2010 Brown Hudson Award from the North Carolina Folklore Society, a 2013 Guardians of Culture award from the Association of Tribal Archives and Museums, and a 2016 Preservation Excellence award from the North Carolina Preservation Consortium.

WCU musical review in Sylva

has a run time of less than one hour. The event is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Jackson County Public Library.

For more information, please call the library at 828.586.2016. The Jackson County Public Library is a member of Fontana Regional Library (www.fontanalib.org).

Waynesville Art School summer camps Registration is currently underway for summer art camps at Waynesville Art School.

• Art Sparklers camps for 7 to 9 year olds will be offered from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. daily on June 24-27 and July 22-25. Cost is $110 for a four-day session or $35 single day camp enrollment.

• Shining Minds camps for 10 to 13 year olds will be offered from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. daily on June 10-13, July 8-11 and July 29Aug. 1. Cost is $110 for a four-day session or $35 single day camp enrollment.

• Kinder Artists camps for 5 to 6 year olds will be offered from 10 to 11 a.m. daily on June 17-20, July 15-18 and Aug. 5-8. Cost is $45 for a four-day session or $15 single day camp enrollment.

828.246.9869 or visit www.waynesville artschool.com.

Now under new management with Stephanie Strickland and Genevieve Bagley, Bosu’s Wine Shop in Waynesville will continue to host an array of wine tastings and small plates.

• Mondays: Free tastings and discounts on select styles of wine.

• Thursdays: Five for $5 wine tasting, with small plates available for purchase from Chef Bryan’s gourmet cuisine in The Secret Wine Bar. • Fridays: The Secret Wine Bar will be

ALSO:

• A free wine tasting will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. June 8 and 15 at Papou’s Wine Shop in Sylva. www.papouswineshop.com or 828.631.3075.

• Free cooking demonstrations will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. on Saturdays at Country Traditions in Dillsboro. Eat samples and taste house wines for $3 a glass. www.countrytraditionsnc.com.

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Smoky Mountain News

The Jackson County Public Library will be hosting five Western Carolina University Fine Arts students as they present the Summer of 2019 Musical Review at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 11, in the Community Room at the library in Sylva.

The David Orr Belcher College of Fine and Performing Arts at Western Carolina University presents WCU Roadworks. This program began with The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged performances from students in the School of Stage and Screen in 2016.

In 2017, the students from the School of Music were featured in a variety show, Living the Dream. The summer of 2018 brought the students from the School of Art and Design out and around the community in an “Art Trailer.”

The program has now come full circle and will feature again the School of Stage and Screen students in the Summer of 2019 Musical Review.

The musical theatre review showcases the dynamic talent of these students from the School of Stage and Screen’s Musical Theatre program. The Musical Review will feature popular works from Wicked and Pippin and many more contemporary musicals.

This free offering is family friendly and

Bosu’s tastings, small plates

• The “Uncorked: Wine & Rail Pairing Experience” will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, June 8, at the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad in Bryson City. Full service alladult first class car.

Wine pairings with a meal and more.

800.872.4681 or visit www.gsmr.com.

June 5-11, 2019

Author and curator Anna Fariello was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Folk Art Center during the annual meeting of the Southern Highland Craft Guild.

Founded in 1930, the Guild is represents over 1000 craftspeople in nine southeastern states. Fariello was cited for her work at Western Carolina University where, as an Associate Professor, she developed the online Craft Revival archive.

She is currently working with Blue Anna Fariello Ridge National Heritage Area to develop the Blue Ridge Craft Trails, a project identifying and showcasing western North Carolina craft makers.

She began her work in craft as a potter, but her interest in documentation and exhibitions led her into a museum career.

In 1999, she was named a Smithsonian Fellow as the James Renwick Fellow in American Craft.

Her textbook, Objects & Meaning: New Perspectives on Art and Craft, published in 2003, was one of the first books that looked

There will be a barbecue and craft beer tasting with Mountain Layers Brewing from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, June 14, on the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, departing from Bryson City.

Tickets start at $79 and include a souvenir tasting glass for three samples of finely crafted beer selections. Adults-only and family friendly seating.

800.872.4681 or visit www.gsmr.com.

open for lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and open for drinks and small plates from 5 to 9 p.m.

• Saturdays: Champagne cocktails from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Secret Wine Bar will be open for lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. There will also be a free wine tasting from 1 to 5 p.m.

828.452.0120 or visit www.way nesvillewine.com.

arts & entertainment

On the wall

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45

arts & entertainment

On the wall ‘Icons in Transformation’ exhibit The Grace Church in the Mountains will be hosting an internationally acclaimed art exhibition titled “Icons in Transformation” through June 16 at the church in Waynesville.

This exhibit toured cathedrals and museums in Europe and the United States and more than 150,000 people witnessed the powerful exhibit.

The artist, Russian emigre Ludmila Pawlowska, was born in exile. Following the death of her mother, she found inspiration in the Orthodox monasteries’ traditional spiritual icons. She shares her abstract impressionist masterworks using ancient icon methods and techniques.

Grace Church in the Mountains welcomes the artist and her work by hosting a variety of cross-cultural and intergenerational opportunities. Visit www.gracewaynesville.com for an extensive calendar of events including a community gala, docentled tours, workshops and more.

For more information, call the church office at 828.456.6029.

HCAC Cherokee Artist Demonstrations The Haywood County Arts Council (HCAC) in Waynesville has announced its June line up of Cherokee Artist Demonstrations.

• Friday, June 7: 6 to 9 p.m. Opening reception. Matt Tooni, Cherokee flutist will set the mood of our opening reception with traditional Cherokee music.

• Saturday, June 8: 10 a.m. to noon.

Nathan Bush. From the Snowbird Community, Bush is a historic interpreter at the Oconaluftee Indian Village. Since 2015, he has demonstrated the traditional art of hammered copper.

• Saturday, June 8: 1 to 3 p.m. Potter Tara McCoy. While attending high school on the Qualla Boundary, in Cherokee, McCoy learned pottery, finger weaving, beadwork, silverwork, and other arts with jewelry making being her favorite. She is now an avid Cherokee potter.

• Saturday, June 15: 10 a.m. to noon.

Jody Lipscomb, mixed media and Cherokee language. Lipscomb published her poems and articles in regional outlets like Cherokee Writers, Cherokee Heritage Trails and the

A work by Joshua Adams.

Cherokee One Feather. Her most recent book, a Cherokee Family Activity Guide, provides activities for families visiting Cherokee.

She describes herself as “self-taught and culturally inspired.”

• Saturday, June 15: 1 to 3 p.m.

Storyteller Kathi Littlejohn. She will be telling the stories that are featured in the art work of John Julius Wilnoty. Littlejohn and

her fellow tribal members in the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians are surrounded not only by stories but by the mountains, rivers and seasons that inspired them centuries ago. Stories are an important part of Cherokee culture, used to instruct, amuse, warn and dream.

• Saturday, June 22: 10 a.m. to noon.

Betty Maney, Cherokee Baskets. Maney makes white oak baskets, pottery, Cherokee dolls, and a variety of beadwork pieces. In addition to being a talented crafts person and demonstrator, she also excels as an educator in hands-on workshops.

• Saturday, June 29: 3 to 5 p.m. Joshua and Lauren Adams, wood carvers. Joshua is part of a long lineage of Cherokee woodcarvers, starting with his great aunt and uncle James and Irma Bradley. Joshua also had the privilege to study under renowned Cherokee artist Dr. James Bud Smith and was directly influenced by legendary Cherokee artists Amanda Crowe and John Julius Wilnoty.

For more information, visit www.hay woodarts.org.

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June 5-11, 2019

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Smoky Mountain News

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On the wall

• The exhibit “Cultivating Collections: Photography, Artist Books, Contemporary Native American” will be on display through July 26 at the Bardo Arts Center on the campus of Western Carolina University. A reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. July 25.

• The Cowee Pottery School in Franklin will have a buy one, get one 50 percent off pottery class special for the month of June. Go to www.coweepotteryschool.org and use the promo code during checkout: “Bring a friend.” Must register both students at same time. One coupon per registration. For more information, email contact@coweepotteryschool.org.

ALSO:

• The graduating class of Haywood Community College’s Professional Crafts program will exhibit their best work at the 2019 Graduate Show. The show will be held through June 23 at the Southern Highland Craft Guild Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville. The Folk Art Center is open daily from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m.

828.627.4673 or creativearts.haywood.edu.

• The Haywood County Arts Council in Waynesville is looking for a new identity for the annual Haywood County Studio Tour.

• What happens to my family if the Affordable Care Act is overturned?

• Will cuts to Medicare and Medicaid affect my family?

• Can Medicaid expansion help with the opioid crisis?

• How can I afford my insulin?

• I work but can’t afford insurance. Will the Medicaid expansion help me?

Steve Davis, Owner, General Insurance Services Greg Christopher, Sheriff, Haywood County Lisa L. Leatherwood, MSN, RN, Administrator, Silver Bluff Village Guest Speaker, American Cancer Society North Carolina Initiative Stephen Wall, MD, Moderator Tuesday, June 11, 6:30 pm USDA Center, 589 Raccoon Road, Waynesville

Open to the Public Refreshments provided Web: haywooddemocrats.org Email: haywooddemocrats@gmail.com Paid for by the Haywood County Democratic Party

Submissions will be accepted through Aug. 1. The contest is open to everyone. Please visit the council’s website www.haywoodarts.org/logo-contest for the application form and additional information. Winner will be selected by the Haywood Arts Council Studio Tour committee. For more information, call 828.452.0593, email info@haywoodarts.org or visit www.haywoodarts.org.

• The Weekly Open Studio art classes will resume from 2 to 4 p.m. on Wednesdays at the Haywood County Arts Council in Waynesville, Instructor will be Betina Morgan. Open to all artists, at any stage of development, and in the medium of your choice. Cost is $20 per class. There will also be a Youth Art Class from 4 to 5 p.m. on Wednesdays. Cost is $10 per class. Contact Morgan at 828.550.6190 or email bmk.morgan@yahoo.com.

• The Museum of the Cherokee Indian has recently opened a major new exhibit, “People of the Clay: Contemporary Cherokee Potters.”

It features more than 60 potters from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and Cherokee Nation, and more than one hundred works from 1900 to the present. The exhibit will run through next April.

• A “Beginner Step-By-Step” adult painting class will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Thursdays at Frog Level Brewing in Waynesville. There is also a class at 6:30 p.m. on the last Wednesday of the month at Balsam Fall Brewing in Sylva. Cost is $25 with all supplies provided. For more information on paint dates and/or to RSVP, contact Robin Arramae at 828.400.9560 or wncpaintevents@gmail.com.

• Mad Batter Food & Film (Sylva) will host a free movie night at 7:30 p.m. every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. www.madbatterfoodandfilm.com.

Smoky Mountain News

• “Beginning Enameling” pendant workshop from noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday, June 11, at the Haywood County Arts Council in Waynesville.

Instructor Ilene Kay is a jeweler who works with Argentium Silver, Gold, heat colored Titanium and Copper using traditional fabrication metalsmithing techniques. She is inspired by the natural world and each piece of her work has a unique story to tell. Her work has a Zen-like love of the natural world that makes us mindful of the beauty of the elements that surround us. Cost is $65 for HCAC members, $70 for non-members. To register, call 828.452.0593.

“Art After Dark” will continue from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, June 7, in downtown Waynesville.

Each first Friday of the month (MayDecember), Main Street transforms into an evening of art, music, finger foods, beverages and shopping as artisan studios and galleries keep their doors open later for local residents and visitors.

Participants include Burr Studio, Cedar Hill Studios, Earthworks Gallery, Haywood County Arts Council’s Gallery & Gifts, The Jeweler’s Workbench, Moose Crossing Burl Wood Gallery, T. Pennington Art Gallery, Twigs and Leaves Gallery and The Village Framer.

It is free to attend Art After Dark. www.waynesvillegallery association.com.

June 5-11, 2019

• An artist reception for Gayle Barker Woody will be held at 5 p.m. Friday, June 7, at Gallery 1 in Sylva. Gallery Hours are from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday and from noon to 4 p.m Saturday. Located at 604 West Main Street, the gallery will be open by appointment on all other days by contacting art@gallery1sylva.com.

Waynesville art walk, live music

arts & entertainment

• “Fresh Air & Paint Outing” will be held at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 12, at Lake Junaluska. There is no cost, and no demonstrator, just a chance to paint in the company of other artists and share our techniques (and struggles). Bring your own painting or sketching materials, easel, chair, etc. Meet briefly at 9:30 a.m. at Gifts & Grounds to say hello and find painting partners, if you wish.

Regroup there at noon to share your work.

Bring lunch if you’d like to eat while we share. Alternatively, The Terrace is serving a buffet lunch that day until 1:30 p.m. for $13.

Sign up by calling the Haywood County Arts Council at 828.452.0593.

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On the stage arts & entertainment

HART presents ‘The Bridges of Madison County’ The Broadway musical “The Bridges of Madison County” will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. June 6-8, and at 2 p.m. June 9 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville.

The show is based on the bestselling novel

by Robert James Waller that became a hit film and was later adapted into a Tony Award winning musical. Jason Robert Brown composed the music and lyrics and Marsha Norman wrote the book for the show.

The story focuses on Francesca, an Italian war bride, and is set in 1965 in a small Midwestern town. Francesca has been married for eighteen years and has had a quiet life, but now the family is away at a state fair and a stranger has arrived seeking directions.

The chance encounter will change both of their lives forever.

Harmons’ Den Bistro at HART is open for dining before all performances.

Reservations can be made for the show and the bistro by calling the HART Box Office from 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday at 828.456.6322 or by clicking on www.harttheatre.org.

June 5-11, 2019

• The Western Carolina University Roadworks Cabaret will perform at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 15, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. The show is a 50-minute cabaret of musical theatre songs that students of the stage and screen program at WCU have put together to promote the David Orr Belcher College of Fine and Performing Arts.

Free and open to the public.

• There is free comedy improv class from 7 to 9 p.m. every Thursday at Frog Level Brewing in Waynesville.

No experience necessary, just come to watch or join in the fun. Improv teacher Wayne Porter studied at Sak Comedy Lab in Orlando, Florida, and performed improvisation with several groups. Join Improv WNC on Facebook or just call 828.316.8761.

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ALSO:

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For appointments please call 828.586.7654

• Open auditions will be held for the October production of "Night of the Living Dead" at 7 p.m. June 6-7 at the Smoky Mountain Community Theatre in Bryson City. The play is based on the 1968 movie of the same title, when the zombie craze first started.

There are several speaking roles, and extras are needed to play zombies. Makeup artists, a set crew and behind the scenes help are all needed as well. The audition will be a cold read from the script. No prepared dialogue is necessary. For information, find the SMCT on Facebook or call 828.488.8227. The theatre is located at 134 Main Street in Bryson City.

Books

Smoky Mountain News

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Loving every word of it, all 630,000 hundreds of other books that caught my attention, my greatest wish is to convey to readers my enthusiasm for the authors and what they have written.

Jeff Minick

Let’s start with some basic mathematics.

For 20 years, I have reviewed books for The Smoky Mountain News. For some of those years, I shared the position of reviewer with that fine storyteller and playwright, Gary Carden.

Occasionally, too, others like writer and poet Thomas Rain Crowe have published reviews in this space.

So let’s say I’ve put out 35 reviews per Writer year for 20 years.

That adds up to 700 reviews. Each review averaged about 900 words — I am supposed to aim at 850 words, but I tend toward logorrhea when discussing authors and books — which means that approximately 630,000 of my words about books have traveled from my computer to The Smoky Mountain News.

That’s a boatload of words.

And now I’ll let you in on a secret.

I have enjoyed every single word.

Here are three reasons for that pleasure.

I get to select the books I review.

I get to select the books I review.

I get to select the books I review.

That’s why a negative book review appears in The Smoky Mountain News about as frequently as a sunbather at a beach in Antarctica. Why kind of a nut would want to read books he disliked? Instead, from day one editor Scott McLeod has given me the freedom to choose the books I want to read.

When I stumble across a biography of Hemingway — Hemingway’s Boat — or a novel by Nina George — The Little Paris Bookshop — I read and then sit at this keyboard and tell others why these particular books attracted me. With these and all the

In addition to the joy I take in composing these reviews, I am also grateful to The Smoky Mountain News for continuing to publish book reviews. On a personal front, these columns have allowed me to sharpen my skills over the years, enabling me to grow and to find other outlets for my work. Writing these columns taught me the hard virtues of professionalism. I may be ill, I may be down in the dumps, I may be having the worst month of

my life, but once a week I sit down and talk through my fingers about a book I’ve read.

Often this obligation proved healthy for me.

Having to compose a weekly column grounded me, gave me a lifeline when life became a tornado.

I am grateful as well for the checks I have received over the last two decades. The money came in handy during times of financial duress and reminded me that someone had enough faith in my work to pay me for it.

More broadly, we should all feel an enormous sense of gratitude — and awe — that The Smoky Mountain News has not only survived in an age when so many print newspapers have stumbled into the grave, but also that the paper has kept its book review section. As far back as 2007, The Guardian’s John Freeman wrote a piece titled “Book reviews pushed to the margins,” noting how many papers around the United States had either eliminated or cut back on reviews, a trend that has continued. Freeman laments this decline, observing that “Book reviews are one of the few places in a U.S. newspaper one can stop to appreciate the beauty of language, the pleasures of knowledge. They are also footbridges to artistic tradition, however rickety.”

Not so in The Smoky Mountain News. The paper has done itself proud by continuing to offer this feature to its readers and so promoting reading and literature. In an age in which

so many people have moved from the printed word to the visual, from reading a novel or a

Smoky Mountain News:

20 YEARS history to a quick look at an online column or two, The Smoky Mountain News has fought the good fight on behalf of literature.

Along with joy and gratitude, I also take great pride in writing for The Smoky Mountain News. Here is a paper that prints real news, information that can benefit both individuals and the towns and communities of these mountains. In last week’s edition, for example, Holly Kays reported on the upcoming tribal elections in Cherokee. She wrote a brief introduction explaining the elections, then asked each of the candidates running for office the exact same questions. In other words, Holly Kays kept herself out of the story and reported the news. In The Smoky Mountain News, opinion is mostly reserved to its proper home, the editorial page.

Finally, here is a paper that celebrates the region and the people it serves. If you’ve come this far with me, take a few minutes and look through the Arts section. Here you’ll find feature articles on such assorted folks as bluegrass musicians, actors, weavers, and painters.

Time now to return that favor and celebrate 20 years of The Smoky Mountain News.

Time, too, to celebrate all you readers. So I’ll end by lifting my cup — black coffee, as it’s morning when I tap out these words — in a salute to all of you who have read me and this paper over the years!

Thank you.

(Jeff Minick is a writer and teacher.

Minick0301@gmail.com)

Summer learning at Marianna Black

Stripling Byer poetry collection celebration

Carolina Literary Hall of Fame.

To order copies of Trawling the Silences, call City Lights Bookstore at 828.586.9499.

The theme for this year’s Summer Learning Program is “A Universe of Stories” at the Marianna Black Library in Bryson City.

Children of all ages will be able to earn prizes for reading, be entertained with movies, and gain lots of knowledge through our various programs. All of the programs will take place at the library.

They will have movies at 3:30 p.m. Tuesdays, story times for ages 3-5 on Wednesday mornings at 10:30 a.m., and then a different Summer Learning Program(s) each week.

Be sure to grab a calendar at our library or check out our online calendar on our website at www.fontanalib.org to make sure you get the details for all of these amazing, fun, and educational programs.

For more information about the 2019 Summer Learning Program registration, activities, and prizes, please contact the Youth Services Department at the Marianna Black Library at 828.488.3030.

There will be an open reading of Kathryn Stripling Byer’s posthumous collection, Trawling the Silences, at 6:30 p.m.

Saturday, June 8, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.

Jacar Press will donate proceeds from sales to a cause she values. They’re currently in the process of narrowing that down and will have a decision soon.

When she died suddenly from lymphoma in June 2017, Stripling Byer had just completed her seventh — and what would be her last — collection of poetry, Trawling the Silences.

During her writing career, Stripling Byer received many honors and awards, including the Lamont prize for her second book, Wildwood Flower; the North Carolina Governor’s Award for Literature in 2001; and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council. She was the first woman to be selected as the North Carolina Poet Laureate, and served from 2005 to 2009. In 2012, she was inducted into the North

From page to stage Local author Thomas Thibeault will be leading a conversation on film production at 3 p.m. Saturday, June 8, at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville.

Thibeault’s novel The Man Who Stole Himself is now in development as a biopic of the Civil War hero Robert Smalls. The novel is highly visual and very suitable for translation onto the silver screen.

The Blue Ridge Bookstore meeting is informal and Thibeault will be discussing the process of turning a novel into a film script. The main elements of group cooperation and script analysis will figure highly and Thomas will bring examples of movie scripts for us to examine.

This is a great opportunity to see how an indie-book becomes an indie-film at an indie-bookstore. For more information, visit www.blueridgebooksnc.com or call 828.456.6000.

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Outdoors

Smoky Mountain News

Kids in Parks logs one million TRACK Trails adventures n its mission to engage children with the outdoors, the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation’s Kids in Parks program is marking a powerful milestone; kids and families have completed one million adventures through the program’s TRACK Trails. This figure represents more than one million miles hiked, biked or paddled, and more than 500,000 hours spent outside.

“I decided we were going to participate in

I

Get started Find out more about Kids in Parks and TRACK Trails at www.kidsinparks.com. The site includes easy information about how to sign up as well as an interactive map showing all 175 trails in the network.

the program to help motivate [my kids] to get outside and get moving,” said parent Janella Reynolds. “We attempted to do one trail a week, all summer long. They have enjoyed the trails and learning about nature. As a teacher, I try to have my children learning all summer long, and [the Kids in Parks program] helped achieve my goal.”

Using self-guided activities at participating locations, hikes on TRACK Trails become explorative outdoor experiences. These special adventures can be registered at www.kidsinparks.com, where young explorers can earn and collect prizes designed to encourage future outings.

To celebrate the achievement of one million adventures on TRACK Trails, Kids in Parks is launching a limited-time T-shirt fundraiser in partnership with Bonfire, offering kids and families a chance to wear their support for the program while they “TRACK the trails.” Proceeds from sales will help fund prizes for future Trail TRACKers. Three Tshirt designs will be available for purchase during June at kidsinparks.com/t-shirts.

Kids in Parks has installed more than 100 TRACK Trails in North Carolina with significant support from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation. Other foundations, organizations and land management agencies have also supported the program to help install more than 80 additional trails in 11 states and Washington, D.C. Today, Kids in Parks is a national network of trails where kids and families can hike, bike, canoe, play disc golf and more, all while learning about the natural, cultural and historical resources located at each site.

“As both a park manager and a parent, I appreciate that Kids in Parks is an effective way to connect families to parks without a lot of extra staff expense,” said Sean Higgins, Interpretation and Education Program

Kids get running outside. Donated photo

TRACK Trail participants help cut the ribbon on a trail at Mount Mitchell. Donated photo Manager for North Carolina State Parks. “The network of TRACK Trails encourages kids to explore the resources of parks and helps them develop an appreciation for natural spaces.

Ultimately, both families and parks benefit

Lime treatment reverses acid rain effects You can’t always believe what you see. The water in our mountain streams is sometimes polluted even though it appears crystal clear. And sometimes what looks like pollution is actually fighting the effects of pollution.

Acid rain looks just like regular rain. It occurs when rainwater falling through the sky picks up tiny pollutants like atmospheric sulfur from industrial plants. When acid rain makes its way into streams, it increases the acidity of the water, which can be harmful to fish.

Jason Farmer, U.S. Forest Service fisheries biologist, was part of a team that reversed the effects of acid rain on streams in the Upper Santeetlah watershed. Just like a gardener in Western North Carolina adds lime to naturally acidic soils, Farmer added limestone to neutralize the acidity of stream water. The streams were monitored to check the pH, a scale of acidity.

“After adding limestone to Sand Creek and Wolf Laurel Branch, our monitoring showed that

from the program.”

Engagement with the outdoors is critical, but children have become increasingly disconnected with nature, spending less time outdoors and more time interacting with electronic media. To help encourage spending time outdoors as a means to live a healthier life, Kids in Parks also operates a complementary Parks Prescription initiative called TRACK Rx. To date, Kids in Parks has partnered with more than 600 healthcare providers.

“By working with professionals that parents and caregivers trust, we’re helping kids and families see parks and public lands as resources for their health,” said Jason Urroz, Kids in Parks Program Director. “Not only does this have a positive impact on children’s health, but it’s helping to cultivate the next generation of environmental stewards.”

pH levels were restored to pre-industrial conditions. This will help sustain a healthy population of brook trout, the only trout native to Western North Carolina,” said Farmer, who works on the Cheoah Ranger District of the Nantahala National Forest.

Farmer also monitored the physical attributes and fish and aquatic salamander habitat of the stream channel after liming and found no negative effects.

This was a cooperative project between the U.S. Forest Service and North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. It received significant financial assistance from the Tennessee Valley Authority and Duke Energy.

Farmer’s efforts recently earned him the North Carolina Council of Trout Unlimited President’s Award for Outstanding Work.

“We were impressed by this outside-the-box but simple common-sense solution,” said Rusty Berrier, NCTU’s National Leadership Representative. “The potential to fight acid deposition by targeting it just before it hits the stream — sort of like setting the hook right before the take — both struck a chord with us and is an example of the kind of work Jason has consistently presented at almost every meeting I’ve attended.”

Limestone sand was added directly to the stream at Wolf Laurel Branch to reduce acidity of the water. Water clarity returned to normal after 30 minutes. Donated photo

outdoors

Let Us Sell Your House

Sunlight bathes the views at Highlands of Roan. SAHC photo

Roam Roan A day of free, guided outings in the Highlands of Roan in Mitchell County will showcase the conservation work that the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy has done in that area, Saturday, June 15.

The schedule includes hikes along the Appalachian Trail, botanical expeditions, sustainable homestead farm tours, yoga and family activities — all part of the SAHC’s

The #1 Listing & Selling Team In Haywood County annual June Jamboree. In the afternoon, guests can gather at Big Rock Creek Preserve for an afternoon social, with light refreshments provided.

Events are free, but registration is required. Register and view a full schedule online at appalachian.org/event/june-jamboree-2019 or contact Israel Golden, Israel@appalachian.org or 828.253.0095, ext. 205.

An easy 1.5-mile hike will offer killer views and diverse wildflowers, 10 a.m. Friday, June 7, to Frying Pan Fire Tower on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Parkway rangers will lead this excursion from the pullout at milepost 409.1, 1 mile south of the Pisgah Inn. Park at the gravel Forest Service road, but don’t block the gate, and bring water, good walking shoes and clothing for changeable weather.

828.298.5330, ext. 304.

RESIDENTIAL & COMMERCIAL PROFESSIONALS

74 N. Main Street, Waynesville bknoland@beverly-hanks.com • 828.734.5201 cproben@beverly-hanks.com • 828.734.9157

beverly-hanks.com

June 5-11, 2019

Take in the view at Frying Pan

Noland-Proben Team Brian K. Noland & Catherine Proben

Hike the Cataloochee divide

Friends of the Smokies to offer overnight experience Registration is now open for Friends of the Smokies’ 2019 “Overnight Experience,” which will take place June 25-26 in Gatlinburg.

In the first day, attendees will embark on an easy, guided afternoon hike in the Twin Creeks area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Day two will offer a choice

between two guided hikes: a moderate 5.4mile hike highlighting recently completed restoration work along the way to Rainbow Falls, and a strenuous 15-mile adventure across the southern exposures of Roundtop and Little Roundtop mountains to a section of the Smokies that few visitors experience.

A surprise guest will speak about the current state of the park, with lodging and meals provided at The Buckhorn, East Tennessee’s classic country inn that features stunning views of Mount LeConte. $300 per person. Register at www.hike.friendsofthesmokies.org.

Smoky Mountain News

A hike along the Cataloochee Divide Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will depart from the Waynesville Recreation Center at 8:30 a.m. Friday, June 7. $10 per person. Register with Tim Petrea, tpetrea@waynsvillenc.gov or 828.456.2030.

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outdoors

Learn to speak bird Learn the intricacies of bird communication during a presentation from biology professor Olya Milenkaya at 7 p.m. Monday, June 10, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin.

Birds use sounds, colors, Olya Milenkaya. patterns and dancing to send Donated photo messages. The program will explore what birds are communicating about, how they’re doing it and why they’re doing it, using examples from local and exotic species to highlight the broad diversity of avian communication.

Milenkaya is an assistant biology professor at Young Harris College in North Georgia and will soon begin as a professor of conservation biology at Warren Wilson College.

The program is offered as part of the Franklin Bird Club’s regular monthly meeting. www.franklinbirdclub.com.

Travel through the universe

Smoky Mountain News

June 5-11, 2019

A three-dimensional journey from the edge of the universe and through space and time to our home planet will be offered at 2 p.m. Thursday, June 13, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin.

“Ultimate Universe” is a joint effort between Evans & Sutherland and the Clark Planetarium.

The 33-minute presentation shows the transformation of galaxies in collision, the devastation of a star’s death and the immense power of erupting volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io. 828.524.3600.

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Ginseng. Donated photo

Ginseng harvest application period opens The application period for this year’s ginseng lottery will open on Monday, June 10, and close July 12.

Anyone wishing to collect ginseng in the Pisgah or Nantahala National Forest must hold a permit to do so. A total of 136 permits will be granted and awarded by lottery to those who apply. To enter, call or visit a district ranger office. Email requests will not be accepted. Winners will be notified by Aug. 16, and the harvest season will be Sept. 1-15. Each permittee may harvest up to three wet pounds of ginseng at $40 per pound.

Ginseng is a slow-growing but prized species. In 2013, the Forest Service increased restrictions on ginseng harvest in response to declining wild ginseng numbers. The agency will grant 16 permits in the Cheoah Ranger District, 66 permits in the Nantahala, 10 in the Tusquitee, 29 in the Appalachian, seven in the Grandfather and eight in the Pisgah.

Removing a wild ginseng plant without a permit or outside the legal harvesting seasons is considered theft of public property and punishable by up to a $5,000 fine and six months in federal prison.

Moccasin War marker to be commemorated A new historical marker will soon commemorate the 1885 Moccasin War following a dedication ceremony the Highlands Historical Society has planned for 8:30 a.m. Monday, June 10, in Highlands.

The Moccasin War legend tells of a revenuer who arrested two moonshiners from the Moccasin Township in Georgia, holding them in the Highlands Inn to await trial. An army of 18 Moccasin volunteers then declared war on Highlands, and during the ensuing battle a Moccasin youth was killed. The Georgians went home but shut off the only road into Highlands. A Confederate veteran who volunteered to make the run faced four Georgians marching toward him with rifles, and the veteran offered three prayers for his own protection. The adversaries passed each other without firing a shot. The war made the front page of The New York Times on March 16, 1885.

The historical marker will stand at the corner of Fourth and Main Streets between the Highlands Inn and Old Edwards Inn, where the war was actually fought. It was funded by the New York-based William G. Pomeroy Foundation.

Tennis time offered for seniors A tennis set time for senior citizens will be offered 9 a.m. to noon Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays at the Donnie Pankiw Tennis Center at the Waynesville Recreation Park.

The set time is open to anyone 55 and older, with the season running through Oct. 30, including holidays. It’s geared toward players with a skill level of intermediate or higher. Cost is $1 per day.

828.456.2030 or dhummel@waynesvillenc.gov.

Senior tennis players at an intermediate level or above are invited to play. Donated photo

Kids fish free

Waynesville Recreation Center 10 a.m. to noon Fridays.

The program is free for all, with no RSVP required. cmiller@waynseville.gov.

Base Camp on the Go Base Camp on the Go will return this summer, bringing a truck full of outdoor and environmental education activities to kids across Haywood County on a regular schedule beginning June 10 and continuing through the first week in August.

Base Camp on the Go will come to the

Kids try out a log rolling activity during last year’s Base Camp on the Go. Donated photo

Mainspring expands to Sylva Mainspring Conservation Trust now has an office in downtown Sylva.

Located at 642 West Main Street, the office will be open Tuesday through Friday, manned by current Mainspring staff and volunteer board members. A ribbon-cutting with the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce was held May 21.

Headquartered in Franklin, Mainspring’s service areas include North Carolina’s six westernmost counties as well as northern Rabun County, Georgia. The organization opened an office in Murphy in 2016 and then saw an increase in conservation projects in that area.

“After analyzing our effectiveness of having an additional office outside of Franklin, our board of directors recognized the potential of a Sylva office and how we can better serve the people of Jackson County,” said Executive Director Sharon Taylor. “We’re excited to be here.”

The nonprofit works with landowners who want to conserve their land and also offers hands-on education opportunities for local schools and other groups. Learn more at www.mainspringconserves.org.

Explore the outdoors A pair of summer programs serving kids ages 4 to 12 will soon start up at the Cradle of Forestry in America. n Woodsy Owl’s Curiosity Club is designed for children ages 4 to 7 and offered 10:30 a.m. to noon on Wednesdays or Thursdays, June 12 to Aug. 8. The program begins inside and then heads outdoors for investigation and play. Each child leaves with a colorful book, a Woodsy pin and a craft. Themes include camping out, busy pollinators, growing gardens, the gruffalo, watery world, nature’s recyclers, we speak for the trees and Smokey Bear’s ABCs. n The Junior Forester Program is for children ages 8 to 12 and offered 10:30 a.m. to noon Thursdays, June 13 through Aug. 8. Each week, Junior Foresters will investigate and explore the outdoors while learning about a range of topics, with weekly themes yet to be announced.

Children will receive a Junior Forester booklet and badge upon taking the “Conservation Pledge” at the end of the program. Adult chaperones are welcome but not required.

For both programs, cost is $5 for kids and $3 for accompanying adults, or free for adults with a Friends of the Cradle, America the Beautiful or Golden Age pass. Space is limited, so register by calling 828.877.3130.

outdoors

A kids fishing day will be held 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday, June 8, at the Haywood County Test Farm Pond in Waynesville. It is one of more than 30 kids’ fishing events held across North Carolina this spring.

The event is organized by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission and part of National Fishing and Boating Week and allows kids to fish for free while registering to win prizes. Participants should pre-register with Tanya Poole, 828.329.3472 or tanya.poole@ncwildlife.org.

Waynesville Recreation Center 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Mondays, the Canton Town Park noon to 2 p.m. Tuesdays, Fines Creek noon to 2 p.m. Wednesdays and the

June 5-11, 2019 Smoky Mountain News 53

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WNC Calendar

Smoky Mountain News

COMMUNITY EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS • Village Green is hosting open houses this summer for visitors to see progress on its construction project in Cashiers. Dates are June 12, June 26 and July 3. Info: 743.3434, courtney@cashiersgreen.com or www.VillageGreenCashiersNC.com.

• Bingo will be held at 6:30 p.m. on June 13 in the Maggie Valley Pavilion next to town hall. Sponsored by the Maggie Valley Civic Association.

• The Cullowhee Planning Council meets at 6 p.m. on June 18 in Conference Room 101A of the Cordelia Camp Building at Western Carolina University. www.planning.jacksonnc.org.

• Bingo will be held at 6:30 p.m. on June 27 in the Maggie Valley Pavilion next to town hall. Sponsored by the Maggie Valley Civic Association.

BUSINESS & EDUCATION • A dedication ceremony is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Monday, June 10, at the corner of 4th and Main Street in Highlands for a Legends & Lore Marker that will be installed to commemorate the historic Moccasin War that was fought in 1885 on Main Street in Highlands.

• A program entitled “Going to College without Going Broke” is set for 6-7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 11, in the Waynesville Library Auditorium. Presented by the N.C. College Foundation.

• College and Career Readiness at Haywood Community College will have an orientation on earning your High School Equivalency or Adult High School Diploma from 2-4 p.m. on Wednesday, June 12, in the Waynesville Library Auditorium. Registration required: 356.2507 or Kathleen.Olsen@haywoodcountync.gov.

• Registration is underway for a workshop on organizational change entitled: “Pathways, Ideas and Tips for Effective Organizational Change” that will be offered by Western Carolina University’s Office of Professional Growth and Enrichment from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on Monday, June 17, at WCU Biltmore Park in Asheville.

Registration: $279 (includes catered lunch). Info and to register: pdp.wcu.edu or 227.7397.

• Registration is underway for a Grant-Writing Certificate program that will be offered by Western Carolina University’s Office of Professional Growth and Enrichment. Program is from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on June 1821 at WCU’s campus in Cullowhee. Designed for those new to grant writing, those currently working on a project while facing specific issues as well as successful practitioners in the field seeking specialized info and advanced insights. Registration: $449. pdp.wcu.edu or 227.7397.

FUNDRAISERS AND BENEFITS • Haywood Spay/Neuter will present its second annual Yappy Hour fundraiser at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, June 7, at the Maggie Valley Club and Resort. Hors d’oeuvres, wine pull, live auction, original artwork by Margaret Roberts and silent auction experience. Tickets: $50 and available at the HSN office or www.haywoodspayneuter.org.

• The Junaluskans Flea Market will take place from 811:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 8, at the Nanci Weldon Memorial Gym in Lake Junaluska. Early bird shopping for $5 from 7:30-8 a.m. Proceeds support integral projects for the Lake Junaluska community.

• Registration is underway for Haywood Christian Ministry’s 26th annual fundraising Golf Tournament and Gala, which are set for Wednesday and Thursday, July 10-11, at Laurel Ridge Country Club and Waynesville

All phone numbers area code 828 unless otherwise noted.

Alzheimer’s, which is Sept. 21 at Pack Square Park in Asheville. http://act.alz.org/Asheville or 800.272.3900.

RECREATION AND FITNESS Inn & Resort. Golf is Wednesday; Gala is Thursday. Cost: $125 per golf player (includes one gala ticket); Gala is $30 per person. Entry forms at the HCM office in Waynesville, at haywoodministry.org or 456.4838.

• An hour yoga class is offered at 9 a.m. on Wednesdays at the Maggie Valley Wellness Center. $15 for a single class, or $55 for a package of four classes.

944.0288 or maggievalleywellness.com.

• The Strand will host a Shining Rock Classical Academy fundraiser at 6:30 p.m. on June 11. A special showing of “Into the Spiderverse”, will be shown at The Strand in downtown Waynesville with all proceeds going to SRCA. Visit www.38main.com for pricing & tickets.

283.0079.

• Yoga Basics Series with Jake Gilmore is scheduled for 6:45-7:45 p.m. on Thursday, June 6, at Waynesville Yoga Center. Register: 246.6570 or WaynesvilleYogaCenter.com.

• Ticket reservations are being accepted for two fundraisers that will benefit the Cashiers-Highlands Humane Society this summer: Bark, Beer & Barbeque on Thursday, June 20, at The Farm at Old Edwards; and Pawsitively Purrfect Part on Monday, Aug. 19, at Country Club of Sapphire Valley. Cost for each event: , $195 per person, $390 per couple or $1,800 for a table of 10. To request an alert once tickets are available, call 743.5769 or write shannon@CHhumanesociety.org.

VOLUNTEERS & VENDORS • Signups are underway for vendors and demonstrators wanting to participate in the second annual Mountain Heritage Fest, which is from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Saturday, July 13, at the Cruso Community Center.

Vendor spaces: $10. Info and applications: www.crusonc.com/fest, 400.7323 or crusoquiltshow@gmail.com.

HEALTH MATTERS • A “Preparation for Childbirth” class will be offered from 7-9 p.m. on Thursdays from June 6-27, Aug. 8-29 and Oct. 3-24 at Haywood Regional Medical Center in Waynesville. Pre-registration required: MyHaywoodRegional.com/ParentClasses or 452.8440.

• An Essential Oils for Summer Class will be offered at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, June 10, in the Macon County Public Library’s Meeting Room in Franklin. Learn how to naturally combat issues of summer fun, including biting bugs, ticks, germs, accidents and more. RSVP by texting: 246.2256.

• The N.C. Harm Reduction Coalition will conduct overdose recognition and opioid overdose reversal training from noon-2 p.m. on Tuesday, June 11, at the Haywood County Health & Human Services Agency in Waynesville. jeledu@me.com, 476.1465 or 356.2292.

• The Friends of the Haywood County Public Library will present “Reading Women’s Lives: Conversations from Fiction” featuring a discussion of “Nervous Conditions”

by Tsitsi Dangarembga from 4-6 p.m. on June 13 at the Waynesville branch of the Haywood County Public Library. Book is available at the library. Discussion will be led by Dr. Peg Downes.

• “Your Amazing Newborn” class will be offered from 79 p.m. on July 11, Sept. 5 and Nov. 7 at Haywood Regional Medical Center in Waynesville. Focusing on abilities, behavior, appearance and reflexes of your new baby. Pre-registration required: MyHaywoodRegional.com/ParentClasses or 452.8440.

• “Breastfeeding A-Z” class will be offered from 7-9 p.m. on July 18, Sept. 12 and Nov. 14 at Haywood Regional Medical Center in Waynesville. Focusing on techniques for proper latching and comfortable positions for a baby and mom to get started. Pre-registration required: MyHaywoodRegional.com/ParentClasses or 452.8440.

• Registration is open for the 2019 Walk to End

• Waynesville Yoga Center will present Sunset Yoga from 7-8 p.m. on Sunday, June 9, at Waterrock Knob with Tara Scarborough. $14. Register: 246.6570 or WaynesvilleYogaCenter.com.

• Buti, Hoops + Bubbles will be offered through the Waynesville Yoga Center from 6-7:30 p.m. on Friday, June 14, at Folkmoot Friendship Center in Waynesville. $20. Register: 246.6570 or WaynesvilleYogaCenter.com.

• Waynesville Yoga Center will offer Disco Buti + Bubbles from 6:30-7:30 p.m. on Friday, June 21. Cost: $14. Info and reservations: 246.6570 or WaynevilleYogaCenter.com.

• Waynesville Yoga Center will offer “Present Moment Awareness: What’s the Big Deal” from 1:30-3:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 22. Info and reservations: 246.6570 or WaynesvilleYogaCenter.com.

• Throughout June, Dance Tonight Haywood offers weekly evening classes on Argentine Tango (Mondays), Salsa (Tuesdays), Swing (Wednesdays) and Blues (Thursday) at 61 ½ Main Street in Canton. For times and to RSVP, text your name and email to 316.1344.

SPIRITUAL • Lake Junaluska will host a Summer Worship Series at 10:45 a.m. on June 9, 16, 23, 30; July 7, 14, 21, 28 and Aug. 4. Spirited services led by internationally known preachers in Stuart Auditorium. This year’s theme is “Psalms for Our Time.”

• Registration is underway for Lake Junaluska’s Summer Youth Events, which run from June 15-July 14.

Morning and evening sessions with worship, guest preachers and workshops for sixth-through-12th graders. www.lakejunaluska.com/summeryouth or 800.222.4930.

• Registration is underway for Music & Worship Arts Week, which is from June 23-28 at Lake Junaluska.

Multi-generational educational event including arts, praise and renewal. For ministry leaders or those who want to sing, dance or act all week.

Musicartsweek2019.wordpress.com.

• Registration is underway for Native American Summer Conference, which is June 28-30, at Lake Junaluska.

Speakers, Bible study and workshops.

Lakejunaluska.com/sejanam or 800.222.4930.

• Registration is underway for Guided Personal Retreats, on July 22-24, Sept. 16-18 and Oct. 21-23 at Lake Junaluska. Lakejunaluska.com/retreats or 800.222.4930.

POLITICAL • The Haywood County Democratic Party will present the second installment of its “Myth Busting” forum series at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 11, at the USDA Center, 589 Raccoon Road in Waynesville. Topic is Affordable Care Act. 507.5331 or myrna233@gmail.com.

• The Maggie Valley Board of Aldermen will conduct a public hearing on the proposed 2019-20 budget at 6:30

Visit www.smokymountainnews.com and click on Calendar for: ■ Complete listings of local music scene ■ Regional festivals ■ Art gallery events and openings ■ Complete listings of recreational offerings at regional health and fitness centers ■ Civic and social club gatherings p.m. on Tuesday, June 11, in the Town Hall Boardroom.

View the budget at www.maggievalleync.gov or stop by Town Hall.

AUTHORS AND BOOKS • It is with great joy and sorrow that Jacar Press announces the posthumous publication of Kathryn Stripling Byer’s Trawling the Silences. There will be an opening reading held at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, June 8, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. To order copies of Trawling the Silences, please call City Lights Bookstore at 586.9499.

• Local author Thomas Thibeault will be leading a conversation on film production at 3 p.m. Saturday, June 8, at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville. Thibeault’s novel The Man Who Stole Himself is now in development as a biopic of the Civil War hero Robert Smalls. www.blueridgebooksnc.com or 456.6000.

SENIOR ACTIVITIES • The AARP will offer a Smart Driver Course from 1-5 p.m. on Wednesday, June 12, at the Canton Senior Center, 1 Pigeon Street in Canton. Topics include how to minimize the effects of dangerous blind spots, effects of medications on driving and more. Info and advance registration: 648.8173. Event day registration starts at 12:30 p.m.

• Senior Tennis Time is from 9 a.m.-noon every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Oct. 30 at the Donnie Pankiw Tennis Center at 128 W. Marshall Street in Waynesville. For ages 55-up; intermediate or higher skill level. $1 per person per day. 456.2030 or dhummel@waynesvillenc.gov.

KIDS & FAMILIES • Base Camp on the Go, a series of outdoor and environmental education activities, will be offered at a variety of locations this summer, through the first week in August: 5:30-8:30 p.m. on Mondays at Waynesville Recreation Center; 2 p.m. on Tuesdays at the Canton Town Park; 2 p.m. on Wednesdays at Fines Creek and 10 a.m.-noon on Fridays at Waynesville Recreation Center. cmiller@waynesville.gov.

• Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva will host a video game night on Wednesday’s this summer from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Play Smash Bros. & Mario Cart on the big screen. Free. 586.3555.

• A Kids Fishing Day is scheduled for 9-11 a.m. on June 8 at the Haywood County Test Farm Pond in Waynesville.

329.3472 or Tanya.Poole@ncwildlife.org.

• Professor Whizzpop will perform a magic & comedy show at 6:30 p.m. on June 8 at Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. $1. 586.3555.

• Woodsy Owl’s Curiosity Club will be offered for ages 4-7 from 10:30 a.m.-noon on Wednesdays and Thursdays, June 12-Aug. 8, at the Cradle of Forestry in America near Brevard. Learning, outdoor activities and

• Nature Nuts: Frogs and Toads will be offered to ages 4-7 from 9-11 a.m. on June 17 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard. Registration required: https://tinyurl.com/yb28fpz8.

SUMMER CAMPS • Waynesville Art School will offer three youth camps this summer at 303 N. Haywood Street. Kinder Artists camps are for ages 5-6 and will be offered from 10-11 a.m. on June 17-20, July 15-18, and Aug. 5-8. Cost: $45 for four-day session or $15 for single-day camp enrollment. Art Sparklers camps are for ages 7-9 and are offered from 10 a.m.12:30 p.m. on June 24-June 27 and July 22-25. Cost is $110 for four days or $35 for singleday enrollment. Shining Minds Camps are for ages 1013 and are offered from 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. on June 1013, July 8-11 and July 29-Aug. 1. Cost is $110 for four days or $35 for single-day enrollment. 246.9869 or www.WaynesvilleArtSchool.com/programs-1.

• Registration is underway for Discovery Camp with weekly camps available June 10-Aug. 16 at the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville. Open to pre-K through rising eighth graders. Register: www.ncarboretum.org/education-programs/discovery-camp.

• Registration is underway for a pair of two residential camp programs scheduled for this summer at Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute in Rosman: Astro Camp, for ages 11-14, from Aug. 4-9; and Camp Above and Beyond, for grades 9-12, from June 16-28.

For info, scholarship opportunities and to register: www.pari.edu or 862.5554.

• Western Carolina University’s forensic anthropology program is accepting high school students for a summer day camp course that will run from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on June 17-21 in Cullowhee. Title: “Tales for the Dead: An Introduction to Forensic Anthropology. Registration fee: $299. For info or to register: bones.wcu.edu or 227.7397.

• Registration is underway for the Cashiers-Highlands Humane Society’s Critter Camp, which is offered from June 17-21, July 15-19 and Aug. 5-9. Camp hours: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Fun, immersive experiences with animals at no-kill shelter for rising first-graders through sixthgraders. $300 per child for each week. 743.5752 or info@CHhumanesociety.org.

• Registration is underway for two basketball shooting and dribbling camps that will be offered from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on June 24-27 and July 15-18 at the Waynesville Recreation Center. Led by former Appalachian State University coach Kevin Cantwell.

Cost: $150 per person; deposit of $25 required.

Register or get info: 456.2030 or academy7@live.com.

• Registration is underway for a pair of summertime nature/science camps offered by Western Carolina University for rising sixth-ninth graders. Nature Exploration Camp is from June 24-28; explore the natural world through field trips and activities in the

• Registration is underway for the Junior Appalachian Musicians Camp, preserving and perpetuating bluegrass, old-time, mountain and string music. Camp is from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on July 15-19 at the First United Methodist Church in Waynesville. Cost: $95. Sign up: www.haywoodarts.org or www.facebook.com/haywoodarts.

• Registration is underway for the Haywood County Sheriff’s Office’s “Sheriff’s Summer Camp,” which is for ages 10-13 and will be held from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. on July 8-12. Activities, field trips and opportunities to get to know deputies. A Facebook live video drawing determines which 20 campers are selected. 356.2880.

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KIDS FILMS • “Aladdin”, will be shown at 7 p.m. on June 5 & 6, 1 p.m. June 5, at The Strand in downtown Waynesville.

Visit www.38main.com for pricing & tickets.

283.0079.

• “The Secret Life of Pets 2”, will be shown at 7 p.m. on June 7-10 & June 12-20, 1 p.m. on June 7 & June 10, 9:30 p.m. on June 7-8 & June 14-15, and 1 p.m. & 4 p.m. on June 8-9 & June 15-16 at The Strand in downtown Waynesville. Visit www.38main.com for pricing & tickets. 283.0079.

• “Captain Marvel”, will be shown at 6:30 p.m. on June 14 and 7 p.m. on June 15 at Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. Free. 586.3555.

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• The Cherokee Bluegrass Festival will be held from noon-10:30 p.m. from Thursday through Saturday, June 6-8, at Happy Holiday RV Village and Campground, 1553 Wolfetown road in Cherokee. Rain or shine under a large tent. Tickets: $40 daily in advance; $45 at the gate; $90 three-day in advance; $95 at the gate. Tickets and full lineup: www.adamsbluegrass.com. Info: 706.864.7203 or 497.9204.

• The 23nd annual Cherokee Voices Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 8, at The Museum of the Cherokee Indian.

Smoky Mountain News

• Professional skateboarder Jared Lee will lead a summertime “Big Brother Boards Skate Camp” from 9-11 a.m. on the following Saturdays: June 22 and 29, July 13 and 20 and Aug. 3. First session is $30 and includes a camp t-shirt; additional sessions cost $25 each. Info: bigbrotherboardscamp@gmail.com or 400.1252. Register: www.eventbrite.com.

• Smoky Mountain Sk8way is enrolling participants for its Summer Camp, which is for ages 6-14 years old.

Games, art and crafts, learning and group activities. $35 a day or $150 per week. Nine weeks. For info or to enroll: www.smokymountainsk8way.com or 246.9124.

June 5-11, 2019

• Registration is underway for a summer volleyball camp that will be offered to rising third-through-12th graders from 9 a.m.-noon on June 17-20 at the Waynesville Recreation Center. Cost: $85 before June 1 or $100 after. Register or get more info: amymull@bellsouth.net.

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• The Junior Forester Program will be offered to ages 8-12 from 10:30 a.m.-noon on Thursdays, June 13Aug. 8, at the Cradle of Forestry in America near Brevard. Learning, outdoor activities and crafts. $5 for kids and $3 for accompanying adults. Info and register: 877.3130.

region. Cost $279 (lunch provided). Science Laboratory Camp is from July 8-12 and explores laboratory science through activities and experiments in biology, chemistry, geosciences and more. Cost: $199 (lunch provided). Info: camps.wcu.edu or 227.7397.

AR NE RI W VA LS

crafts. $5 for kids and $3 for accompanying adults.

Info and register: 877.3130.

Elders and millennials will be sharing traditional Cherokee culture through dance, music, storytelling, food and cultural arts demonstrations. Free www.visitcherokeenc.com.

• National Get Outdoors Day at the Cradle of Forestry in America will offer skills teaching and demonstration on Saturday, June 8. Activities, crafts, self-guided scavenger hunts, junior forester workbook, hiking trails and more near Brevard.

• The June Jam is at 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 8, at Fines Creek Volunteer Department in Clyde. Music by Cold Mountain Bluegrass, Mountain Bridge, John Wiggins and Larry Cordle and Lonesome Standard Time. Tickets: $15 for adults; $10 for students; free for under-12.

• The Cherokee Summer Carnival returns from June 915 at the Cherokee Fairgrounds. Amusement rides,

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games of skill, carnival foods. Discount coupons available at Cherokee convenience stores, fast food restaurants and welcome centers. 843.385.5180.

• The Taste of Scotland and Celtic Festival is Thursday through Sunday, June 13-16, in Franklin. The Gathering (formerly Clan Dinner) is 6-9 p.m. on Thursday, in Tartan Hall, First Presbyterian Church; Dance, food, music and movie from 5:30-10 on Friday; Opening ceremony at 10 a.m. followed by vendors, food, souvenirs and entertainment on Saturday; Kirkin O’ the Tartans ceremony at 10 a.m. on Sunday.

• The Front Street Arts & Crafts Show is from 10 a.m.4 p.m. on Saturday, June 15, in Dillsboro. More than 50 vendors, music, dance and more. 506.8331 or brendaanders@frontier.com.

• The annual Women’s Work Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 15, at the Mountain Farm Museum in Cherokee. During the event, you will learn about the vital role women played in creating and maintaining a mountain home. Walk the grounds of the mountain farm and watch demonstrations of open hearth cooking, spinning or sewing, corn shuck doll making, and more. Free and open to the public. www.greatsmokies.com.

• The 2019 “Art After Dark” season will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. the first Friday of the month in downtown Waynesville. Main Street transforms into an evening of art, music, finger foods, beverages and shopping as artisan studios and galleries keep their doors open later for local residents and visitors. www.waynesvillegalleryassociation.com.

JULY 4TH

June 5-11, 2019

• Lake Junaluska will host Independence Day Celebrations from July 3-7. Concerts by Balsam Range (7:30 p.m. on July 6) and the Lake Junaluska Singers (7:30 p.m. on July 4) and a show by Imagine Circus (7:30 pm. On July 5). Also: A parade (11 a.m. on July 4), a picnic (noon-2 p.m.), and fireworks (approximately 9:30 p.m. on July 4).

FOOD & DRINK • The “Uncorked: Wine & Rail Pairing Experience” will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, June 8, at the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad in Bryson City.

Full service all-adult first-class car. Wine pairings with a meal and more. 800.872.4681 or www.gsmr.com.

• Bosu’s Wine Shop in Waynesville will host five for $5 Wine Tasting from 5 to 9 p.m. on June 6 & 13. Come taste five magnificent wines and dine on Chef Bryan’s gourmet cuisine. 452.0120 or www.waynesvillewine.com.

• A free wine tasting will be held from 1-5 p.m. on June 8 and 15 at Bosu Wine Shop in Waynesville.

452.0120 or www.waynesvillewine.com.

Smoky Mountain News

• A free wine tasting will be held from 2-5 p.m. on

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June 8 and 15 at Papou’s Wine Shop in Sylva. www.papouswineshop.com or 631.3075.

• A pod meeting for Plant Pure Nation is at 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 20, in the kitchen above Sassy Girls in Dillsboro. Plant-based cooking demo and dinner.

SUMMER MUSIC • The Concerts on the Creek will host Arnold Hill Band w/Chris Pressley (rock) at 7 p.m. on Friday, June 7 at Bridge Park in downtown Sylva. Free and open to the public. Occasionally there are food trucks onsite.

586.2155 or www.mountainlovers.com.

• Groovin’ on the Green (Cashiers) will The Wobblers (R&B) June 7 at 6:30 p.m. Free and open to the public. www.villagegreencashiersnc.com • Groovin’ on the Green (Cashiers) will Zuzu Welsch Music (blues/rock) June 14 at 6:30 p.m. Free and open to the public. www.villagegreencashiersnc.com • The Concerts on the Creek will host Summer Brooke and Mountain Faith (bluegrass/gospel) at 7 p.m. on Friday, June 14 at Bridge Park in downtown Sylva.

Free and open to the public. Occasionally there are food trucks onsite. 586.2155 or www.mountainlovers.com.

ON STAGE & IN CONCERT • The Smoky Mountain Community Theatre will hold open auditions for its production of “Night of the Living Dead” at 7 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, June 6-7. Production is scheduled for October. Audition is a cold read from the script. 488.8227 or find them on Facebook.

• The Broadway Musical “The Bridges of Madison County” at HART at 250 Pigeon St. in Waynesville.

Performances at 7:30 p.m. on June 6, 7 and 8; and at 2 p.m. on June 9. Reservations: 456.6322, www.harttheatre.org.

• The Cherokee Bonfire & Storytelling will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays through Oct. 25 at the Oconaluftee Islands Park in Cherokee. 800.438.1601 or www.visitcherokeenc.com.

• Mad Batter Food & Film in downtown Sylva will host a live drag show at 9 p.m. on June 7. $5. 586.3555.

• The Jackson County Public Library will be hosting five Western Carolina University Fine Arts students as they present the Summer of 2019 Musical Review at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 11, in the Community Room at the library in Sylva. 586.2016. (www.fontanalib.org).

• Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will host Mountain Voices 7 p.m. June 13.

Community chorus with 70 members from Franklin and surrounding counties. The concert will include a variety of music: Broadway, pops, patriotic, folk and gospel. Tickets are $12. 866.273.4615 or www.greatmountainmusic.com.

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• Friends of the Library Concert featuring Martin Vee is scheduled for 3-4 p.m. on June 15.

HaywoodArts.org.

• Nantahala Outdoor Center (Nantahala Gorge) will host Freewheelin’ Mamas (Americana/folk) 2 p.m.

June 15. All shows are free and open to the public. www.noc.com.

• A Conductors Institute Concert is scheduled for 7 p.m. on June 15 at First United Methodist Church in Waynesville. HaywoodArts.org.

• The Western Carolina University Roadworks Cabaret will perform at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 15, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. The show is a 50minute cabaret of musical theatre songs that students of the stage and screen program at WCU have put together to promote the David Orr Belcher College of Fine and Performing Arts. Free and open to the public.

• Tickets are on sale now for “Lakeshore Goes Broadway,” which will be presented at 6:30 p.m. on July 16-17, in the Harrell Center Auditorium at Lake Junaluska Conference & Retreat Center. Tickets: $50; available at Bethea Welcome Center. www.lakejunaluska.com/singers.

• Tickets are on sale now for a concert featuring Paul Saik at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 3, at Lake Junaluska.

Tickets: $18. Lakejunaluska.com/associates or 800.222.4930.

CLASSES AND PROGRAMS • The Jackson County Public Library’s Adult Summer Reading Program runs through Aug. 3. Theme is the Great Jackson County Read: Armchair Traveler. Info: 586.2016.

• Encouraging art classes for beginning through advanced adults are offered by the Inspired Art Ministry at the following times and dates: Drawing classes from 1-4 p.m. on Mondays; painting classes from 1-4 p.m. on Tuesdays. Info: 456.9197, charspaintings@msn.com or www.iamclasses.wbs.com.

• The Weekly Open Studio art classes will resume from 2 to 4 p.m. on Wednesdays at the Haywood County Arts Council in Waynesville, Instructor will be Betina Morgan. Open to all artists, at any stage of development, and in the medium of your choice. Cost is $20 per class. There will also be a Youth Art Class from 4 to 5 p.m. on Wednesdays. Cost is $10 per class.

550.6190 or bmk.morgan@yahoo.com.

• The Weekly Open Studio art classes will resume from 2 to 4 p.m. on Wednesdays at the Haywood County Arts Council in Waynesville, Instructor will be Betina Morgan. Open to all artists, at any stage of development, and in the medium of your choice. Cost is $20 per class. There will also be a Youth Art Class from 4 to 5 p.m. on Wednesdays. Cost is $10 per class.

Contact Morgan at 828.550.6190 or email bmk.morgan@yahoo.com.

• The Cowee Pottery School in Franklin will have a buy one, get one 50 percent off pottery class special for the month of June. To get the deal, go to www.coweepotteryschool.org and use the promo code during checkout: “Bring a friend.” Must register both students at same time. One coupon per registration. contact@coweepotteryschool.org.

• Open Studio Wednesdays are from 6-10 p.m. at Waynesville Art School, 303 N. Haywood Street. $15 per session. Embrace your creativity while making art alongside other artists. Registration required: 246.9869 or WaynesvilleArtSchool.com.

• Learn how to make macramé plant hangers from 24 p.m. on Thursday, June 6, at the Waynesville Library.

Registration required: 356.2507 or Kathleen.olsen@haywoodcountync.gov.

• “Faith, Fire and Spirit in the Tennessee River Valley” is the topic of the presentation of the Swain County Genealogical and Historical Society meeting, which is at 6:30 p.m. on June 6, at the Swain County Regional Business Education and Training Center, 45 E. Ridge Drive in Bryson City.

• The Haywood County Arts Council will feature Cherokee Artist Demonstrations by flutist Matt Tooni (6-9 p.m. on Friday, June 7); historic interpreter Nathan Bush (10 a.m.-noon on Saturday, June 8); potter Tara McCoy (1-3 p.m. on Saturday, June 8); mixed media artist and Cherokee language speaker Jody Bradley Lipscomb (10 a.m.-noon on Saturday, June 15); and storyteller Kathi Littlejohn (1-3 p.m. on Saturday, June 15).

• McCracken Rest Home will hold its semi-annual yard sale from 8 a.m.-noon on Saturday, June 8, in Waynesville. Jewelry, art, household goods, clothing, knick-knacks. Proceeds fund activities fund to augment residents’ summer outings. 506.5069.

• The Western N.C. Civil War roundtable will feature guest speaker Kevin Pawlack on June 10 at the Tap Room within The Waynesville inn Golf Resort and Spa. Pawlack will speak on General George B. McClellan and the Battle of Antietam during the American Civil War. Meet and greet dinner at 5 p.m.; social at 6:30 p.m.; presentation at 7 p.m. wnccwrt.blogspot.com.

• A beginning enameling pendant workshop is set for noon-4 p.m. on Tuesday, June 11, at the Haywood County Arts Council in Waynesville. HaywoodArts.org.

• “Fresh Air & Paint Outing” will be held at 9:30 p.m.

Wednesday, June 12, at Lake Junaluska. There is no cost, and no demonstrator, just a chance to paint in the company of other artists and share our techniques (and struggles). You will bring your own painting or sketching materials, easel, chair, etc. Meet briefly at 9:30 a.m. at Gifts & Grounds to say hello and find painting partners, if you wish. Regroup there at noon to share your work. Bring lunch if you’d like to eat while we share. Alternatively, The Terrace is serving a buffet lunch that day until 1:30 p.m. for $13. Sign up by calling 452.0593.

Puzzles can be found on page 61 These are only the answers.

• An Artist Workshop entitled “Selling Your Work on Social Media” is set for 10 a.m.-noon on June 12 at the Haywood County Arts Council in Waynesville.

HaywoodArts.org.

• Registration is underway for the Cullowhee Arts’ eighth-annual Summer Art Workshop Series that will be held June 16-July 3 at Western Carolina University’s School of Art & Design. June 16-21, June 24-28 and July 1-3. www.cullowheemountainarts.org or 342.7899.

• Registration is underway for an Armor Construction: Gothic Gauntlet Class, which will be led by Brock Martin of WarFire Forge from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, July 20-21, at the Jackson County Green Energy Park in Dillsboro. Cost: $390, materials included. Preregistration required: 631.0271. Info: www.JCGEP.org.

• The Green Energy Park will offer a Glass Paperweight Class on Friday, June 21, in Dillsboro. $35 for a 30-minute time slot between 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Preregister: 631.0271. Ages 13-18 may participate with parent present. www.jcgep.org.

ART SHOWINGS AND GALLERIES • An artist reception for Gayle Barker Woody will be held at 5 p.m. Friday, June 7, at Gallery 1 in Sylva.

Gallery Hours are from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday and from noon to 4 p.m Saturday. Located at 604 West Main Street, the gallery will be open by appointment on all other days by contacting art@gallery1sylva.com.

FILM & SCREEN • “Apollo 11”, a documentary will be shown at 6:30 p.m. on June 7 at Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva.

Free. 586.3555.

• Tickets are on sale now for “Great Art on Screen” – a series of 90-minute documentaries featuring some of the worlds’ greatest artists presented by The Highlands Performing Arts Center and The Bascom: A Center for the Visual Arts. Upcoming topic: Monet on June 7. All shows at 5:30 p.m. at Highlands PAC, 507 Chestnut Street in Highlands. Tickets: $16; available at www.highlandspac.org or at the door.

• Franklin Bird Club will have a meeting at 7 p.m. on June 10 at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. Dr. Olva Milenkaya will present “Bird Communication: Sound, Color and Dance.

• The Franklin Bird Club meeting will feature a presentation entitled “Bird Communication: Sound, Color and Dance” by Dr. Olga Milenkaya at 7 p.m. on June 10 at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin.

Franklinbirdclub.com or 524.5234.

• The Franklin Bird Club will have a bird walk along the Greenway at 8 a.m. on June 12. Meet at the Macon County Public Library parking area.

Franklinbirdclub.com or 524.5234.

• “On the Water: Davidson River” program for ages 12-up from 9 a.m.-noon on June 12 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard. Registration required: https://tinyurl.com/yb28fpz8.

• A “Snorkeling in the Stream” program for ages 8-up is scheduled for 9 a.m.-noon on June 13 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard. Registration required: https://tinyurl.com/yb28fpz8.

• A “Casting for Beginners: Level 1” program for ages 12-up is scheduled for 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on June 13 and June 27 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard. Registration required: https://tinyurl.com/yb28fpz8.

• A “Kids Introduction to Fly-Fishing” program for ages 12-up is scheduled for 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on June 14 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard.

Registration required: https://tinyurl.com/yb28fpz8.

• Jackson County Farmers Market runs from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesdays at Bridge Park in downtown Sylva. jacksoncountyfarmersmarket@gmail.com or www.jacksoncoutyfarmersmarket.org.

• The ‘Whee Farmers Market is held from 3-6 p.m. on Tuesdays through the end of October at the entrance to the village of Forest Hills off North Country Club Drive in Cullowhee. 476.0334 or www.thewheemarket.org.

• The Nantahala Hiking club will take an easy-tomoderate 2.5-mile hike with an elevation change of 400 feet on Saturday, June 22, at Cliffside Lake Recreation area. $5 parking fee or Senior National Park pass required per vehicle. Info and reservations: 954.632.7270.

456.1830 or vrogers12@att.net.

• Franklin Farmers Tailgate Market runs 8 a.m. to noon, on East Palmer Street across from Drake Software. 349.2049 or www.facebook.com/franklinncfarmersmarket.

• “Locally Grown on the Green,” the Cashiers farm stand market for local growers, will be held from 3-6 p.m. every Wednesday at the Village Green Commons on Frank Allen Rd. next to the Cashiers post office. info@villagegreencashiersnc.com or 743.3434.

FACES

OF

• The Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy will offer eight guided group hikes on Saturday, June 15, in the Highlands of Roan section of the Appalachian Trail. Preregistration required: Appalachian.org.

• Carolina Mountain Club will hold a 9.6-mile hike with a 1,800-foot ascent on Sunday, June 16, from Big Fork Ridge to Rough Fork Loop. Info and reservations: 813.220.8959 or ransosar@gmail.com.

• The Original Waynesville Tailgate Market on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon at 171 Legion Drive in Waynesville.

HIKING CLUBS

• The Nantahala Hiking Club will take a moderate 7.5-mile hike with an elevation change of 600 feet on Saturday, June 15, from Lakeshore Trail to Whiteoak Branch of Forney Creek in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Info and reservations: 524.5298.

• The Nantahala Hiking Club will take a moderate, four-mile “Full-Moon” hike on Sunday June 16 to Siler Bald. 700 foot elevation change. Bring a flashlight or headlight. Info and reservations: 421.4178.

• Haywood Historic Farmers Market is on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon at the HART Theater parking lot and Wednesdays from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the First Baptist Church overflow parking lot beside Exxon. waynesvillefarmersmarket.com or haywoodfarmersmarket@gmail.com.

• Carolina Mountain Club will have a 6.8-mile hike with a 1,540-foot ascent on June 12 at Pisgah Ridge Loop. Info and reservations: 670.1611, 240.604.5000

or rlevy@cato.org.

• Carolina Mountain Club will have an 8.5-mile hike with a 1,700-foot ascent on June 23 from Mount Pisgah to Beaver Dam Overlook. Info and reservations: 692.0116, 696.6296 or bbente@bellsouth.net.

• Carolina Mountain Club will have a five-mile hike with a 300-foot ascent on Sunday, June 23, from Caney Bottom to Cove Creek. Info and reservations: 384.4870 or stuengo@comporium.net.

• Carolina Mountain Club will have a 7.2-mile hike with a 2,600-foot ascent on Wednesday, June 26, from Craggy to Little Snowball. Info and reservations: 423.9030 or rfluharty54@gmail.com.

HAYWOOD

• A “Tackle Rigging for Fly Fishing” program for ages 12-up is scheduled for 9 a.m.-noon on June 15 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard.

Registration required: https://tinyurl.com/yb28fpz8.

• The Franklin Bird Club will have a bird walk along the greenway at 8 a.m. on June 19. Meet at Big Bear Shelter parking area. Franklinbirdclub.com or 524.5234.

“The Haywood Chamber

• An “On the Water: Looking Glass Creek” program will be offered to ages 12-up from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on June 21 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard. Registration required: https://tinyurl.com/yb28fpz8.

entrepreneurial endeavors

• Backpacking course, will be offered by Landmark Learning on June 24-28, Aug. 12-16 and Oct. 21-25. www.landmarklearning.org.

has always supported our and all small businesses throughout the county.”

• Volunteer work days for the Trails Forever program are held every Wednesday, August, in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. For details and to volunteer: 497.1949 or adam_monroe@nps.gov.

• The Franklin Bird Club will have a bird walk along the Greenway at 8 a.m. on June 5. Meet at Salali Lane.

Franklinbirdclub.com or 524.5234.

• Blue Ridge Parkway Rangers will lead a 1.5-mile, round-trip hike at 10 a.m. on Friday, June 7, to the Frying Pan Fire Tower. Meet at Frying Pan Trail pullout, Milepost 409.6. Info: 298.5330, ext. 304.

FARM AND GARDEN • Registration is underway for the “Managing for Pollinators & Native Species” workshop, which will be offered from 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. on Thursday, June 13, at Mountain Research Station, 265 Test Farm Road in Waynesville. Registration required by June 7. Cost: $10 – includes lunch and materials.

Go.ncsu.edu/wow_pollinator_waynesville.

FARMERS MARKETS • The Swain County Farmer’s Market is held from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. every Friday through October at the barn

Richard & Kay Miller Owners Classic Wineseller, Church Street Depot, Pigeon River Grill & Hazelwood Farmacy

Smoky Mountain News

• Franklin Bird Club will have a bird walk along the greenway at 8 a.m. on June 26. Meet off Fox Ridge Road, just south of Franklin Flea Market on Highlands road. Franklinbirdclub.com or 524.5234.

Outdoors

June 5-11, 2019

• Grace Church in the Mountains is hosting “Icons in Transformation,” a traveling exhibition of icons by artist Ludmila Pawlowska, from 1-3 p.m. on Wednesdays and from 3-5 p.m. on Saturdays from through June 16.

• “Park in the Dark” – a fundraiser for Friends of Chimney Rock State Park – is set for 7:30-10 p.m. on Saturday, June 8, at Chimney Rock. Hands-on activities, nature stations, storytelling around the campfire, s’mores and more. Cost: $20 per adult, $8 for ages 515 and free for kids 4-under. Purchase required by June 6: ChimneyRockPark.com.

on Island Street in downtown Bryson City. 488.3848 or www.facebook.com/SwainCountyFarmersMarket.

wnc calendar

• Registration is underway for a Viking Round Shield Class, which will be offered from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, June 15-16, at Jackson County Green Energy Park in Dillsboro. Led by Brock Martin of WarFire Forge. Choose between different sizes and make your own. Cost: $370; includes all materials.

Preregistration required: 631.0271 or www.jcgep.org.

• The Waynesville Parks and Recreation Department will offer a hike on June 7 down the Cataloochee Divide Trail. Departure time is 8:30 a.m. at the Waynesville Recreation Center. $10. For info or to register: 456.2030 or tpetrea@waynesvillenc.gov.

828.456.3021 HaywoodChamber.com 57

PRIME REAL ESTATE Advertise in The Smoky Mountain News

MarketPlace information: The Smoky Mountain News Marketplace has a distribution of 16,000 every week to over 500 locations across in Haywood, Jackson, Macon, and Swain counties along with the Qualla Boundary and west Buncombe County. For a link to our MarketPlace Web site, which also contains a link to all of our MarketPlace display advertisers’ Web sites, visit www.smokymountainnews.com.

Rates:

■ Free — Lost or found pet ads.

■ $5 — Residential yard sale ads, ■ $5 — Non-business items that sell for less than $150.

■ $15 — Classified ads that are 50 words or less; each additional line is $2.

If your ad is 10 words or less, it will be displayed with a larger type.

■ $3 — Border around ad and $5 — Picture with ad or colored background.

■ $50 — Non-business items, 25 words or less. 3 month or till sold.

■ $375 — Statewide classifieds run in 170 participating newspapers with 1.1+ million circulation. Up to 25 words.

■ All classified ads must be pre-paid.

Classified Advertising: Scott Collier, phone 828.452.4251; fax 828.452.3585 classads@smokymountainnews.com

Diane E. Sherrill, Attorney

Is a Will Enough?

FREE LUNCHEON SEMINAR

11:30 A.M. -1 P.M. June 26 at Best Western July 24 at Best Western Reservations Suggested

828.586.4051

nctrustlawyer.com

559 W. Main St. • Sylva

ANNOUNCEMENTS HOOPER FAMILY REUNION July 13th. Covered Dish Luncheon at Noon in Senior Citizen & Activity Center, Hiawassee, GA. Bring Photos for Discussion on Family History. Any Questions Text Barbara @ 706.581.2016.

AUCTION BANKRUPTCY AUCTION Of Sunrise Performance Inc. d.b.a.

Paradise Tack, Online Only, Begins Closing 6/24 at 12pm, Dressage Attire Inventory, Equestrian Care Products, Tools, Farm Equip. and more, ironhorseauction.com, 800.997.2248, NCAL 3936 AUCTION Semi Trucks and Custom Trailer Auction in Lexington, NC, Online Only, Begins Closing 6/20 at 2pm, Property at JKS Inc. 301 Welcome Blvd, Lexington, NC, ironhorseauction.com, 800.997.2248, NCAL# 3936 BANKRUPTCY AUCTION Of Remaining Lots & Acreage Tracts of Haven Heights Subdivision in Marion, NC, Online w/Live Bid Center, Begins Closing 6/26 at 2pm, Bid Center at Marion Community Building, ironhorseauction.com, 800.997.2248, NCAL 3936

AUCTION

2-DAY EQUIPMENT AUCTION Trucks, Trailers, Shop Tools, Excavating Equipment, Farm Equipment, Personal Property Friday June 7, 2019 10:00a.m. & Saturday June 8, 2019 10:00a.m.

2875 Island Ford Road, Crumpler, N.C. Brochure or Information Col. James R. Jimmy Boyer NCAL#1792, Call 336.572.2323 or Email: boyerrealty@skybest.com BoyerRealtyandAuction.com AUCTION: Historic Manteo, NC Home-Gardens. 400 Uppowoc Av. Tax Val $703K. WILL SELL at or above $325K! June 15. Mike Harper 843.729.4996 (NCAL# 8286) www.HarperAuctionAndRealty.com

CARS A-1 DONATE YOUR CAR For Breast Cancer! Help United Breast Foundation Education, Prevention, & Support Programs.

Fast Free Pickup - 24 Hr Response Tax Deduction 855.701.6346 AUTO INSURANCE Starting At $49/ Month! Call for your fee rate comparison to see how much you can save! Call: 855.970.1224 FREE AUTO INSURANCE QUOTES. See how much you can save! High risk SR22 driver policies available!

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FROG POND ESTATE SALES HELPING IN HARD TIMES

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CONSTRUCTION/ REMODELING

AFFORDABLE NEW SIDING! Beautify your home! Save on monthly energy bills with beautiful New Siding from 1800Remodel!

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Restrictions Apply 877.731.0014 BATHROOM RENOVATIONS. Easy, One Day Updates! We specialize in safe bathing. Grab bars, no slip flooring & seated showers. Call for a free in-home consultation: 877.661.6587 SAPA DAVE’S CUSTOM HOMES OF WNC, INC Free Estimates & Competitive rates. References avail. upon request. Specializing in: Log Homes, remodeling, decks, new construction, repairs & additions.

Owner/Builder: Dave Donaldson.

Licensed/Insured. 828.631.0747 or 828.508.0316 ENERGY SAVING NEW WINDOWS! Beautify your home! Save on monthly energy bills with New Windows from 1800Remodel! Up to 18 months no interest. Restrictions apply 888.676.0813.

HAYWOOD BUILDERS Garage Doors, New Installations Service & Repairs, 828.456.6051 100 Charles St. Waynesville Employee Owned.

ROOFING: REPLACE OR REPAIR. All types of materials available.

Flat roofs too. www.highlandroofingnc.com From the Crystal coast, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Triad, and the Triangle.

252.726.2600, 252.758.0076, 910.777.8988, 919.676.5969, 910.483.3530, and 704.332.0555.

Highland Residential Roofing.

EMPLOYMENT

NEW AUTHORS WANTED! Page Publishing will help you self-publish your own book. FREE author submission kit! Limited offer! Call us now: 844.660.6943

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS RAILROAD IS HIRING FOR THE 2019 SEASON FOR:

mhill@premierindoor.com or Call Us at: 828.538.2055

EDUCATION/VACANCIES 2019-2020: Elementary Education, Special Education, School Psychologist, Middle Education, Biology, Agricultural Education, Mathematics, Building Trades, Business & Information Technology, English, Instructional Technology Resources. www.pecps.k12.va.us. Prince Edward County Public Schools.

Farmville, Virginia 23901.

434.315.2100. EOE FTCC Fayetteville Technical Community College is now accepting applications for the following positions: Physical Therapist Assistant Instructor (10-month contract) Network Management: Microsoft & Cisco Instructor. For detailed information and to apply, please visit our employment portal at: https://faytechcc.peopleadmin. com/ Human Resources Office Phone: 910.678.7342 Internet: http://www.faytechcc.edu An Equal Opportunity Employer PARAPROFESSIONAL POSITION Full Time, Benefits. Provides Supports for Adults with Disabilities, Assists Residents with Daily Living Skills, Meds Administration, Overnights Required. High School Diploma & Auto Insurance also Required.

Training Provided. Waynesville Area. For more information call 828.778.0260

LAND SURVEYING POSITION Morehead City, NC - Crew Chief or S.I.T. Pay $15-$21 per hour depending upon experience.

Email: Chase Cullipher: chase@tcgpa.com or Call 252.773.0090 LONG’S CHAPEL U.M.C. In Waynesville NC, Seeks a Full Time Director of Communications to Join the Staff Team. The Ideal Candidate Loves Jesus and Wants to Help Use Their Gifts of Communication to Help Long’s Chapel Connect People to the Story of God & Ministries that Can Change Their Life. If Interested, Please Send Letter of Interest and Resume to: Lori.Prickett@LongsChapel.com

Climate Control

Storage Sizes from 5’x5’ to 10’x20’

48 SECURITY CAMERAS AND MANAGEMENT ON SITE

Climate Controlled

1106 Soco Road (Hwy 19), Maggie Valley, NC 28751

Call:

828-476-8999

MaggieValleySelfStorage.com torry@torry1.com Torry Pinter, Sr. 828-734-6500

BROWN TRUCKING Is looking for COMPANY DRIVERS and OWNER OPERATORS. Brown requires: CDL-A, 2 years of tractor trailer experience OTR or Regional in the last 3 years, good MVR and PSP. Apply at: driveforbrown.com.

Or Call Brandon at 919.291.7416.

Find Us One mile past State Rd. 276 and Hwy-19 on the right side, across from Frankie’s Italian Restaurant

GOT CANDIDATES? Find your next hire in over 100 newspapers across the state for only $375. Call Wendi Ray, NC Press Services for info 919.516.8009 THE JACKSON COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES Is recruiting for a Processing Assistant IV in the Medicaid Transportation Program: Responsibilities include medical transportation coordination and other assigned duties. This position requires graduation from High School & demonstrated knowledge, skills and abilities gained through at least two years of office assistant/secretarial experience; or an equivalent combination of training and experience. This position is timelimited with benefits. The starting salary is $27,937.59.

Applicants should complete a NC State application form (PD107) and submit it to the Jackson County Department of Social Services, 15 Griffin Street, Sylva, NC 28779 or to the NC Works Career Center.

Applications will be taken until June 17, 2019.

Sharon Stovall BROKER, REALTOR®

828-508-3366

SharonS@4Smokys.com WAYNESVILLE OFFICE:

Great Smokys Realty

828-564-1950 www.4smokys.com

36 S. Main St. Waynesville

SFR, ECO, GREEN

smokymountainnews.com

Visit: GSMR.com/jobs for full job descriptions, list of additional benefits, employee perks & to download an application. Return applications to: srodeck@gsmr.com, or Depot at 226 Everett St or main offices at: 225 Everett St. EOE. All jobs are seasonal unless stated otherwise.

PREMIER INDOOR COMFORT SYSTEMS IS NOW HIRING Installers, Service Techs & Apprentices. Established, Growing HVAC Contractor Hiring Lead Installers & Service Technicians.

Our Company Focuses on Service, Maintenance, Replacements, Retrofits & New Construction.

Employees in These Positions are Well Compensated Depending on Experience & Have Access to Great Benefits & Vacation Packages! We Provide a Full Time Support Staff Including Office Dispatching, Technical Advisors & Company Paid Training.

Requirements: • Valid DL & Clean Criminal Record • Pass Drug Screen • Have Basic HVAC Hand Tools The Company Offers: • Hourly Pay + Commission • Company Vehicles • Paid Holidays/Vacation If Interested of For More Info, Contact:

EMPLOYMENT AIRLINES ARE HIRING Get FAA approved hands on Aviation training. Financial aid for qualified students - Career placement assistance. CALL Aviation Institute of Maintenance 866.441.6890

June 5-11, 2019

1) Cook & Kitchen Staff- Prepares and plates all 1st Class meals with a primary focus on high standards in food quality, sanitation & presentation.

2) Track Worker- Full Time with benefits Responsible for all replacement, upkeep and clearing of the railroad tracks with emphasis on safety.

3) Coach Maintenance- Full Time with benefits. Responsible for all repairs, renovations, and maintenance of coach fleet.

4) Property Maintenance- Full Time with benefits & Seasonal positions $11+. Responsible for cleaning & maintenance of property buildings and grounds. Pay dependent on carpentry & electrical skills.

5) Show Conductor- The Show Conductor interacts with all passengers on Family First, Crown, and Coach Class Cars while providing entertainment for the passengers in terms of railroading knowledge, stories, and regional history.

6) Parking Attendant- Coordinates vehicular and/or pedestrian traffic and park cars in a courteous, safe manner.

7) Ticket Agent- Greets customers, confirms reservations, sells tickets and directs passengers to designated boarding stations. They may also provide info to “walk-up” customers regarding the train excursions.

8) Concessionaire- Responsible for the daily duties of the Depot Café or Concession Train Car including but not limited to: food prep, customer service, cash handling, inventory control, merchandise, supply restocking, and facility upkeep.

9) Food Runner- Makes sure that food & beverage needs are fulfilled before the train leaves the station, run food from kitchen to passengers, assist in clearing tables after each course, perform cleaning and closing duties upon the train returning to the station.

10) Crown Host- Provides drink service, tour guiding, & customer service to passengers ensuring the safety and comfort aboard the train.

11) Rear Brakeman- Works as a member of the train crew to get train ready for departure, greet & help board passengers, provide customer service onboard, and perform duties to put the train away after the excursion.

12) Cleaning Supervisor- Responsible for the cleaning of train cars on a daily basis and overseeing of cleaning crew staff. Plans, organizes, directs and controls all cleaning crew activities to ensure cleaning crew goals & objectives are reached and consistent with established Company policy and procedure. Functions as a direct report for cleaning crew staff.

13) Cleaning Attendant- Performs a variety of cleaning duties to ensure that all train cars are clean & ready for the next scheduled departure.

14) On-Board Musician- The Musician/Onboard Entertainer travels from car to car providing musical entertainment and customer service for the passengers during the rail excursion.

15) Food & Beverage Supervisor- Core with benefits. Responsible for the daily operations of First-Class Service and Concessions in the Food & Beverage department. Plans, organizes, directs and controls First Class Service and Concession activities to ensure the department’s goals and objectives are reached and consistent with established Company policy and procedure. Works as a team member of the Food & Beverage Department.

16) Concession Supervisor- Responsible for the daily operations of Concessions in the Food & Beverage department. Plans, organizes, directs & controls Concession activities to ensure the department’s goals and objectives are reached & consistent with established Company policy & procedure. Works as a team member of the Food & Beverage Department.

EMPLOYMENT

WNC MarketPlace

AVON - EARN EXTRA $$.

Sell online or in person from home or work. Free website included.

No inventory required. For more info, Call: 844.613.2230 SAPA

EMPLOYMENT

THE SMOKY MOUNTAIN NEWS

Is Hiring A Digital Marketing Specialist!

147 WALNUT STREET • WAYNESVILLE

No Phone Calls Please.

For More Information on this Opportunity, Please Visit:

aspivey@sunburstrealty.com

jobs.smokymountainnews.com

828.506.7137

www.sunburstrealty.com/amy-spivey

59

EMPLOYMENT

WNC MarketPlace

RE/MAX

DRIVE WITH UBER. No experience is required, but you'll need a Smartphone. It's fun and easy. For more information, call: 1.800.655.7452

EXECUTIVE

Haywood Co. Real Estate Agents Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices/Great Smokys Realty - www.4Smokys.com Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate- Heritage • Carolyn Lauter - carolyn@bhgheritage.com Beverly Hanks & Associates- beverly-hanks.com • Ann Eavenson - anneavenson@beverly-hanks.com • Billie Green - bgreen@beverly-hanks.com • Michelle McElroy- michellemcelroy@beverly-hanks.com • Steve Mauldin - smauldin@beverly-hanks.com • Brian K. Noland - brianknoland.com • Anne Page - apage@beverly-hanks.com • Brooke Parrott - bparrott@beverly-hanks.com • Jerry Powell - jpowell@beverly-hanks.com • Catherine Proben - cproben@beverly-hanks.com • Ellen Sither - ellensither@beverly-hanks.com • Mike Stamey - mikestamey@beverly-hanks.com • Karen Hollingsed- khollingsed@beverly-hanks.com • Billy Case- billycase@beverly-hanks.com • Laura Thomas - lthomas@beverly-hanks.com • Lourdes Lanio - llanio@beverly-hanks.com

Ron Breese Broker/Owner 71 North Main Street Waynesville, NC 28786 Cell: 828.400.9029 ron@ronbreese.com

WORK FROM ANYWHERE You have an Internet connection.

13 positions available. Start as soon as today. As simple as checking your email. Complete online training provided. Visit for details: https://bit.ly/2yewvor SAPA

www.ronbreese.com Each office independently owned & operated.

Jerry Powell Cell: 828.508.2002 jpowell@beverly-hanks.com

74 N. Main St., Waynesville

828.452.5809

Christie’s Ivester Jackson Blackstream • George Escaravage - george@IJBProperties.com ERA Sunburst Realty - sunburstrealty.com • Amy Spivey - amyspivey.com • Rick Border - sunburstrealty.com • Pam James - pjames@sunburstrealty.com

Jerry Lee Mountain Realty

Brian Noland RESIDENTIAL & COMMERCIAL PROFESSIONAL

bknoland@beverly-hanks.com

828.734.5201

Jerry Lee Hatley- jerryhatley@bellsouth.net

June 5-11, 2019

Keller Williams Realty - kellerwilliamswaynesville.com • The Morris Team - www.themorristeamnc.com • Julie Lapkoff - julielapkoff@kw.com

828.452.5809

Lakeshore Realty • Phyllis Robinson - lakeshore@lakejunaluska.com

Mountain Dreams Realty- maggievalleyhomesales.com Mountain Home Properties mountaindream.com • Cindy Dubose - cdubose@mountaindream.com

McGovern Real Estate & Property Management

www.smokymountainnews.com

74 North Main Street Waynesville, NC 28786

• Bruce McGovern - shamrock13.com RE/MAX Executive - remax-waynesvillenc.com remax-maggievalleync.com • Holly Fletcher - hollyfletcher1975@gmail.com • The Real Team - TheRealTeamNC.com • Ron Breese - ronbreese.com • Landen Stevenson- Landen@landenstevenson.com • Dan Womack - womackdan@aol.com • Mary & Roger Hansen - mwhansen@charter.net • Judy Meyers - jameyers@charter.net • David Rogers - davidr@remax-waynesvillenc.com • Marsha Block- marshablockestates@gmail.com Rob Roland Realty - robrolandrealty.com

Mike Stamey

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74 NORTH MAIN ST. • WAYNESVILLE, NC

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828.452.4251 | ads@smokymountainnews.com

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TO ADVERTISE IN THE NEXT ISSUE

REAL ESTATE ANNOUNCEMENT

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BYLINES ACROSS 1 Persian monarch 5 Navigator Vasco -11 Mark Twain, e.g., religionwise 16 Locale for hydrotherapy 19 Architect Saarinen 20 Relative key of C major 21 Egg-shaped 22 Rat-a- -23 [Ordeal] [Blaze] 25 Supply with a new staff 26 City in Brazil, for short 27 Particle made of quarks 28 [Stolen] [Tempest] 31 Observing 35 Many a CPR giver 36 Several eras 37 [Ashen] [Analogy] 44 Nasty sort 47 Actor Thicke 48 Award for “Moonlight” 49 Follows by radar, as a target 51 Supporting musician 54 [Triumph] [Preset] 58 Very rarely 59 Poor review 61 Mined stuff 62 Andean country 63 Ending for propyl 64 Of a junction point 66 Exact lookalikes 69 Russia’s -- -TASS 70 [Obligated] [Covenant] 73 “Que --?”

76 AM/FM receivers 77 Monte -78 Clerk on “The

Simpsons” 81 Extremist 83 London loc.

84 Beast of burden 85 Native of Islam’s spiritual center 87 [Discover] [Performing] 91 Extremist 92 Prince Andrew’s younger daughter 93 Old Aegean Sea region 96 Brooklet 97 Proofer’s “let it stand” 98 [Captured] [Revelation] 104 Educ. org.

106 Beatified Mlle.

107 Finch variety 108 [Govern] [Edict] 114 Nasty sort 118 Hollywood’s Thurman 119 Brand of kitchen appliances 120 [Oliver] [Mae] 124 Maxwell Smart, e.g.

125 More timid 126 -- uno 127 Opera song 128 Ending for seer 129 Some bridge sides 130 Judge the value of 131 Royals manager Ned DOWN 1 Meyers of NBC 2 Zeus’ wife 3 Dry 4 Got raspy, as a voice 5 Actor Coleman 6 Poehler of “Sisters” 7 PC image file 8 Folk singer DiFranco

9 Comic Sahl 10 Region 11 Musical scale start 12 Evite listings 13 Metrical foot 14 Stick around 15 On edge 16 Skill at which one excels 17 Couple 18 Quark site 24 Singer Lisa 29 Prefix with plunk 30 Lost money in the stock market, say 32 Holy image 33 Rejections 34 SUV maker 37 Out of date 38 Otherworldly 39 Big spoon 40 Lowly chess piece 41 MSNBC host Melber 42 Out of date 43 San Francisco’s -Valley 45 City near central Missouri 46 Sign up for 50 Ozone-depleting compound, in brief 52 Prefix with unsaturated 53 Love, to Yvette 55 -- contendere 56 Wild horses 57 Meddling types 59 Containing cushioning 60 Many a white animal 65 Genetic info holder 66 IV dosage amts.

67 Be off base

68 Hollywood’s Hayek 70 Hair clip 71 Jellystone Park bear 72 Film director Joel or Ethan 73 Whimpers 74 Alaskan native 75 Many Broadway productions 78 Second part of 75Down 79 Beach toys 80 Popeye, to Pipeye 82 Wilson of Heart 84 Tons (of) 86 Haul off 88 Ballpoint brand 89 Pro vote 90 Young louse 91 Man-goat combo 94 SoHo locale 95 “When -- good time?”

99 Early online forum 100 Some hot rods 101 That girl 102 One-man-army types 103 Victim 105 Degrade 108 Bit of trickery 109 Ref relatives 110 Jewish youth gp.

111 Squares on calendars 112 City in central Sicily 113 Suffix with gas or right 115 First-century emperor 116 Nile goddess 117 French political division 121 Hotel units: Abbr.

122 Casual shirt 123 Divs. of 111-Down

ANSWERS ON PAGE 56

smokymountainnews.com

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WNC MarketPlace

The naturalist’s corner

BY DON H ENDERSHOT

20 years are in the can; as they say in the biz Experience a casual, relaxing atmosphere perfect for all walks of life, from families to golf groups to ladies who lunch. We pride ourselves on using fresh ingredients from our gardens and supporting local farmers. The details are priority.

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objects.’ And from Chief Seattle, ‘“Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatsoever he does to the web he does to himself.’

“The Naturalist’s Corner as a weekly column does not have a particular focus other

can’t, thinking back now, remember what the two floors below us were at 9 Main Street, in 1999 when this adventure known as The Smoky Mountain News took flight. I can, however, testify those five or six of us stuck around in the nooks and crannies of that third floor, all with electric heaters under our desks during the winter of 1999 were not thinking about where or what than some connection to the natural world.

It focuses, instead, on current issues, obserThe Smoky Mountain News would be in 20 vations and/or experiences. These are generyears. ally different each week and could range But here it is 20 years later and many of from national, regional or local environmenus with cold toes in 1999 are still affiliated with SMN. Many new are now affiliated and tal issues/concerns to area hikes/field trips or to Cope’s gray treefrogs that show up on many have come and gone, but I dare say SMN holds a special place in the heart of most.

Back in the day we were younger and sprier and wore many hats.

This was before multiVOLUME 1 tasking was a word – we called it working at DON HENDERSHOT SMN. I was the primary outdoor/environmental writer plus covered a news beat that included Macon, Swain, Jackson counties and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. But one of my most cherished tasks was producing my weekly column The Naturalist’s Corner. Twenty years later “The Naturalist’s Corner” is still in print.

Recently with the blessings and support of SMN, I began reviewing those 20 years of columns, plucking 52 out for various reasons and put them in book form — A Year from the Naturalist’s Corner: Volume 1 — which SMN published. In the introduction to the book I my doorstep.” tried to put into words what it was like writPeople sometimes ask how, after all these ing the column for SMN: years I still find things to write about. Well, “I am indebted to Scott [McLeod] and it’s not difficult. Nature presents a new Smoky Mountain News for giving me free palette everyday, either new subjects or old rein with the Naturalist’s Corner. The colsubjects in new light. If one is receptive to umn is not your typical ‘hooks and bullets’ the nuances of nature, it is a never-ending fare. It is, rather, a window on the natural source of inspiration. world that opens from the perspective that Here’s hoping the Naturalist’s Corner nature is not something separate from us window remains open. and that we are inextricably linked to the (Don Hendershot is a naturalist and a writer web of life. A perspective that resonates who lives in Haywood County. He can be from Thomas Berry, ‘The universe is a comreached at ddihen1@bellsouth.net munion of subjects, not a collection of

I

Smoky Mountain News:

20 YEARS

A Year from the Naturalist’s Corner

1819 Country Club Drive Maggie Valley, NC

M AG G I E VA LLEY C LU B . CO M

June 5-11, 2019

FOREWORD BY THOMAS RAIN CROWE

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June 5-11, 2019 Smoky Mountain News

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