Sanctuary gives a new start to orphaned fawns Page 22
On the Cover:
This year’s Republican National Convention was already slated to be an exciting event leading up to the race between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden. However, what transpired just prior to and then just after the RNC changed everything. The Smoky Mountain News checked in with a couple of local delegates who made the trip to Milwaukee to get a first-hand look inside the convention. (Page 6) shutterstock.com illustration
News
Haywood Dem delegate explains Harris pick..............................................................4 Macon County Economic Development funds internship program......................5 Jackson to fund Fairview School construction............................................................9 eCourts launches in Western North Carolina..........................................................11 Macon, Jackson to receive more opioid settlement funds....................................12 Canopy Housing Foundation makes grants for housing, education..................13 Opinion A love letter to Appalachia..............................................................................................14
Outdoors
Wildlife sanctuary gives a new start to orphaned fawns......................................22 Park program welcomes people with disabilities into the backcountry............27
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Y Yoou should be seeing local and regionally grown peach Ingles Markets produce section. There’s nothing quite like sweetandjuicyfreshpeachbutwhataresomeotherwa
sweet and juicy fresh peach, but what are some other ways you can use those peaches?
Here are 10 ideas:
• Make peach jam, jelly, or chutney
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• Add peach slices to a spinach or arugula salad along with mozzarella and prosciutto. Make a fruit salad with seasonal fruit like peaches, melon, berries and grapes.
• Peach cobblerr, , crisp, crumble and pies.
e with a milk
• Peel peaches, remove pit, and add them to a smoothie with a milk or soy milk base or to a 100% fruit juice.
• Slice peaches in half, remove the pit, brush with canola oil and grill. When done, sprinkle with brown sugar or drizzle with honey and have for dessert.
• Make peach ice cream or blend peaches with juice or milk and make popsicles
• Peel and diced peaches and make a breakfast parfait with plain or vanilla Greek yogurt and a sprinkle of your favorite cereal or granola.
• Make peach-apple sauce in your crockpot/slow cooker. What are your favorite dishes to make with peaches?
Leah McGrath, RDN, LDN
Ingles Market Corporate Dietitian
@InglesDietitian
Leah McGrath - Dietitian
Experience a C tf f P f lllk UMMERHOURS -
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Haywood Dem delegate explains Harris pick
BY C ORY VAILLANCOURT
News of President Joe Biden’s exit from the 2024 presidential race may have shocked some observers, but North Carolina’s Democratic delegates appear fired up and ready to get behind Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s new nominee.
“I have not seen the members of my party so energetic in a while,” said Jesse Ross, one of five 11th Congressional District delegates to the Democratic National Convention next month in Chicago.
Ross grew up in Waynesville, lives in Haywood County and works in Canton. He currently serves as president of the Young Democrats of Haywood County, and as the Western Regional Vice President for the Young Democrats of North Carolina.
On July 21, Ross was driving home from the North Carolina Democratic Party’s unity dinner in Raleigh the previous night, which had featured speakers including California representatives Nancy Pelosi and Ro Khanna, as well as N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein, the party’s nominee for governor in 2024. Ross had just pulled into a rest area when messages began to flash across his phone that Biden had declined to seek his party’s nomination for the presidency.
Biden’s move caps off a disastrous month for the president, during which he was panned for a poor debate performance against former President Donald Trump on June 27 and continued to make a series of very public missteps that led many to question his ability to lead. Speculation about Biden’s intentions had reached a crescendo over the preceding weeks, and prominent members of his own party called on him to drop out of the race.
The first news of Biden’s decision came
with a post on his X account at 1:46 p.m. on July 21.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden wrote.
“I guess the feeling was, ‘Alright, at least now we know,'” Ross said.
Around 30 minutes later, Biden expressed his support for and endorsement of Harris and followed that up with a fundraising appeal.
The North Carolina Democratic Party called an emergency meeting at 7 p.m. that evening strictly for delegates like Ross. The tone of the call, Ross said, was one of respect for the president.
“One reason people were supporting him for as long as they did is because that they knew he would get the work done and just the sheer political capital that came from delivering on most of his promises,” Ross said. “People respect him and felt honored in a lot of ways that he was there to represent us for so long.”
Biden’s July 21 withdrawal, supporters had raised $81 million for the Harris campaign. Around 60% of those donations were made by first-time donors to the campaign.
At 8:30 p.m., North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton announced
Then-Sen. Kamala Harris speaks at UNC-Asheville in October, 2020. Cory Vaillancourt photo
the rumors that he may harbor that ambition and said he will retire from politics.
Clayton told the Raleigh News & Observer’s Danielle Battaglia that delegates had also expressed support for Harris selecting North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper as her running mate. As of press time on July 22, Harris had not publicly expressed a preference for a vice presidential pick, although Cooper’s been mentioned as a short-list candidate along with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, among others.
No candidates besides Harris were mentioned but no one told anyone who to endorse, Ross said, however, the overwhelming majority of messages and calls he’d received in the interim indicated strong support for Harris, especially after Biden’s endorsement.
“That energy really carried over into the meeting, and people are excited,” Ross said. “People are naturally excited in a way that they haven't been the last few months.”
Fundraising stats back up that assertion. ActBlue, the Democrats’ online fundraising platform, said that in the 24 hours since
that all of North Carolina’s 168 delegates had endorsed Harris, joining Tennessee and South Carolina delegations and giving Harris 531 out of the 1,986 delegates she would need to win the nomination in Chicago next month. By July 23, Harris had secured enough committed delegates to win the nomination.
Rumors have been circulating that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and/or West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, currently registered as an independent, may attempt to seek the nomination. However, Monday morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Manchin shot down
Biden’s departure from the race does, however, raise a valid question — if he doesn’t think he can serve for the next four years, what makes him think he can serve for the next four months?
“What we do know, especially in the Democratic Party, is that he has been doing a good job consistently,” Ross said. “I'm thinking about when he joined the picket line [of a United Auto Workers strike in Michigan in 2023], getting the CHIPS Act passed to bring manufacturing back to the U.S., the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal, student loan forgiveness — there's just no reason for me to think that can't continue.”
Democratic National Convention will take place in Chicago in less than a month, from Aug. 19 through Aug. 22.
Macon Economic Development funds internship program
BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF W RITER
Ahistoric partnership intended to connect high schoolers with future employment opportunities and further economic development in Macon County has been solidified after commissioners approved funding for the Macon PULSE program this month.
“We’ve discussed the CTE program many times and I think it goes without saying the tremendous job and growth that that program has seen due to the team and what they have been able to accomplish, which is outstanding,” said Macon County Manager Derek Roland during the July 9 meeting.
For the past three years, Career and Technical Education Director Colleen Strickland has been working with her team and stakeholders at the county to develop an internship program in which students can be compensated for their work and training with local employers.
know that a couple of our students who earned EMT certifications and who’ve been doing ridealongs and who’ve been interning with Macon County Emergency Medical have now been hired,” Strickland said during a May presentation to the commission.
The Business Advisory Committee together with the school system reviewed and approved the program prior to its consideration by the county commission.
“As we all know, I think there’s two
At the commissioners’ July 9 meeting, the board voted unanimously to approve the transfer of $50,000 from the Macon County Economic Development reserve fund to support the program and allow for paid internships in the coming school year.
“We’ve all been working together on this for the last three years, and we’re at the point now where we’re ready to make this next step where we have our students who have completed pathways and who have earned credentials and how they’re ready to go work alongside the employers,” Strickland told commissioners.
Macon County Schools’ Career and Technical Education department created the PULSE program — Partners United in Learning and Skills Exchange — a few years ago through its public safety classes in order to connect students with Macon County public safety professionals.
Students have been able to do internships and work-based shadowing with EMS, the fire department and 911 dispatch.
“Everyone who’s worked with these kids has been incredibly impressed and wanted more,” said Strickland.
In the coming year, seniors who have completed two levels of CTE courses in one area of study may be eligible to work a paid internship aligned with their course of study, paid for through the transfer of money from the economic development fund. The internships require 120 hours on site in addition to an internship portfolio and a final presentation. Students will also be required to complete weekly evaluations and reflections.
“We know that the internships work, we
things at play here. We lose a lot of students outside our community when they go out of town to work,” said Macon County Economic Development Director Tommy Jenkins. “This shows them that there are opportunities in our community for gainful employment and careers. It would also improve our workforce dramatically with home grown talent.”
With emergency service departments facing staff shortages across the region, there have been several efforts to try to connect interested students with local employers. Franklin High School recently teamed up with Southwestern Community College to offer courses that put students on a path to earning their EMT certification.
The Macon County Career and Technical Education program also recently graduated its first flight student who passed the pilot’s exam and was able to get hired at the Macon County Airport.
“We know that getting kids out into the workforce, working under professionals, learning the skills is successful and it helps us retain talent right here in Macon County,” Strickland said.
Students who participate in the internship program will be eligible for a $1,000 stipend now that the county has approved funding for the program.
“This is not general fund money, it comes from the Economic Development reserve fund which is for promoting economic development,” said Roland. “These programs which are putting these students right in the pipeline for the workforce, there’s no purer form of economic development than that.”
WNC at the RNC
Western delegates reflect on historic GOP convention
BY C ORY VAILLANCOURT
P OLITICS E DITOR
Eight days is what it took to shock the world and cast the contentious 2024 Presidential race down untrodden paths.
Sandwiched right in the middle of an assassination attempt on July 13 and the leading opposition candidate’s withdrawal on July 21, the Republican National Convention saw thousands of delegates from across the country gather in Milwaukee to select their party’s nominee for president and vice president. What the nation saw proved to be unexpectedly historic, in a number of ways.
The show must go on
On Saturday, July 13, shortly after former President Donald Trump began to speak in Butler County, Pennsylvania, Michele Woodhouse was strolling around outside the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, admiring the preparations the city had taken in advance of the Republican National Convention slated to begin that Monday.
“I started to receive messages from people who had been watching the rally,” said Woodhouse, a North Carolina delegate and party chair of the 11th Congressional District. “I was googling and checking news apps and I wasn’t seeing anything, so I started making phone calls and walking back to the North Carolina delegation’s hotel.”
Two miles west, attorney and at-large delegate Leo Phillips, a Cherokee County attorney, was taking in a
Brewers game at American Family Field. It was a close contest, and like most fans Phillips was focused on the action on the field until he too began to receive a series of troubling messages.
“You could see the crowd’s reaction changing. They got quieter and people were just looking at their phones, scrolling, talking to one another in quiet tones,” he said. “Everyone just checked out of the game.”
Woodhouse, meanwhile, had arrived back at the hotel, where she finally saw for herself what had happened.
“We were in the lobby watching the replay of the assassination attempt, just standing there,” she said. “Time stood still.”
It stood still for Phillips, too — ushers at the ballpark finally had to ask him to leave, because the game had ended and he hadn’t noticed.
“We just stayed and looked at our phones. When we walked out, the crowd was rather subdued. I mean, you heard people saying, ‘Oh my God, they shot Trump,’” Philips recalls. “It was just a very solemn moment, a very reflective moment.”
Solemn, reflective, unanticipated and unprecedented — a former president and leading candidate had come within an inch of losing his life, just days before he was to accept his party’s presidential nomination.
The attempt on Trump’s life didn’t stop the democratic process from bestowing that nomination upon him, but it did make for a very different convention than had been originally planned.
Come together
Law enforcement agencies have sought to understand the motives of the 20-year-old shooter. His lack of criminal history, lack of mental health diagnoses, lack of a digital footprint and lack of explicit political ideology leaves little insight into him as a person and shifts the speculation, for now, to larger questions about society.
Western North Carolina Rep. Mike Clampitt (R-Swain) resurrected a line that emerged after the mass shootings at Columbine, blaming violent video games, but others marched to the familiar drumbeat of a dependable old boogeyman, violent rhetoric.
Politicians talk of targeted districts, of battleground states and of bullseyes — as President Joe Biden recently did — without a second thought.
“That was something less presidential than what is expected or should be expected and was expected from my generation, back in the late 1970s and early 1980s,” Phillips said. “That was totally over the top for President Biden to say such a thing. That’s a code to the extreme left, and there’s codes for the extreme right, to take physical, violent actions against someone.”
Violent rhetoric may be one of the very few bi-partisan political initiatives Americans willingly engage in nowadays, so if it does sometimes result in violent acts, there’s plenty of blame to go around on both sides of the aisle.
In 2009, protestors carried a sign at an antiObama rally that read, “We came unarmed (this
time).” A year later, Sarah Palin’s PAC put out a map with crosshairs over congressional districts that supported Obamacare. Trump himself said back in 2015 that a man who disrupted a rally in Birmingham, Alabama, maybe should have been “roughed up.” He also theorized back in 2016 that the only thing that would stop Hillary Clinton from appointing liberal federal justices might be “Second Amendment people.” That same year, Trump told a crowd in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that if they saw anyone trying to disrupt the rally to “knock the crap” out of them and that he would pick up the legal fees. During his infamous speech at the ellipse just prior to a violent mob storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump told the crowd to “fight like hell.” Reportedly, the first word he uttered after the assassination attempt was, “fight.”
From the left, actor Robert DeNiro said in 2016 that he’d like to punch Trump in the face. Comedian Kathy Griffin participated in a 2017 photo shoot featuring her holding up a bloody mask resembling then-President Trump’s severed head. Actor Johnny Depp joked about an actor assassinating a president in 2017. In 2018, longtime California Congresswoman Maxine Waters urged people to “create a crowd” around members of Trump’s cabinet in public, to “push back on them” and “tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in 2020 that Republican lawmakers are “enemies of the state.” Biden himself said during the 2016 campaign that he wished he were still in high school so he could take Trump out “behind the gym.” Two years later and still reminiscing over his high school days, Biden said he would “beat the hell out of [Trump]” if they were students. Biden’s July 8 comment that it was “time to put Trump in a bullseye” could have been explained away as a metaphor, like all the rest‚ until that 20-year-old actually did it three days later.
pick. Trump soured on his former Veep, Mike Pence, since he said Pence didn’t have the “courage” to violate the law on Jan. 6. Insurrectionists subsequently threatened to hang Pence.
Into that role steps JD Vance, just 39 years old. Vance was elected to the U.S. Senate from Ohio in 2022, but may be best known for his bestselling 2016 tome, “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” which is both lauded and loathed on each end of the political spectrum, especially here in rural Appalachia.
On one hand, the book presents a classic bootstrap story of a child born into an environment of poverty, addiction and abuse who grew up in strong public schools, joined the Marine Corps, earned his bachelor’s degree on the G.I. Bill and got a full ride to Yale Law School.
American dream is possible.”
Constitutionally speaking, Trump can only be elected once more, making his elevation of Vance that much more intriguing. In theory — but not always in practice, as per Pence — vice presidents often presume themselves at the front of a long line of potential successors.
“As a Republican, I love this part of it as well,” said Woodhouse. “This is a 12-year strategy. This is four years of Donald Trump in the White House, followed by eight years of JD Vance. And I love that strategy, because Republicans don’t always think that way. Oftentimes, decisions are made that are about the short-term. But this is a long-term, America-first, prosperity-for-all-Americans vision that’s been put forth by the Republican Party.”
Phillips said he didn’t know much about Vance, but now plans to read his book.
“You’ve seen a different side of the of the Republican Party. Every speaker that was on the stage this week at the RNC was positive and focused on unity.”
— Michele Woodhouse
Trump’s initial response to the assassination attempt was measured, perhaps not what the left thought would come from a man who periodically engages in all-night social media rants and had just cheated death by the slimmest of margins. A day after the shooting, Trump told the Washington Examiner that he’d rewritten the script of his convention speech to focus on unity, not on Biden.
“I think you’ve seen a very, very different side of President Trump since [July 13],” Woodhouse said. “You’ve seen a different side of the of the Republican Party. Every speaker that was on the stage this week at the RNC was positive and focused on unity. You heard heart-wrenching, devastating stories, but I think you saw positivity and unity and messages of hope and prosperity.”
Bittersweet elegy
With Trump’s nomination all but assured after former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley ended her campaign in March, the focus quickly shifted to Trump’s vice presidential
On the other hand, critics argue, Vance’s book places much of the blame for rural Appalachia’s poverty on stereotypes and the purported character flaws of the diverse groups of people that live there rather than systemic exploitation by an extractive economy that made them poor in the first place.
“He blames the poor for their poverty, saying that they don’t work hard,” Meredith McCarroll told The Smoky Mountain News July 21. “Growing up in Waynesville, I saw hard-working people all around me and so I took issue with his representation of the region as filled with lazy people who deserve to be poor.”
McCarroll is an Appalachian State alum who earned her Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee and teaches writing. Her 2019 book with Western Kentucky professor Anthony Harkins, “Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy,” was perhaps the most thorough and vocal collection of complaints about Vance’s work. It featured more than 40 essays and poems and won the American Book Award in 2020.
Vance wasn’t Woodhouse’s first pick, but she’s happy with Trump’s decision.
“I really liked the idea of [Virginia Governor] Glen Youngkin because I thought it put Virginia on the table. Youngkin did incredibly well in a statewide race by winning over unaffiliated, moderate and even Democratic women,” Woodhouse said. “I think JD Vance is an excellent choice. He won me over completely here at the RNC. I’ve always thought highly of him. His story restores hope in Americans that the
Phillips’ first choice was Sen. Marco Rubio, although he acknowledged it was far-fetched because both Trump and Rubio live in Florida. Confusing language in the Twelfth Amendment makes it difficult — but not impossible — for two residents of the same state to be elected as president and vice president.
Youngkin was also on Phillips’ list, as was former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson, whom Phillips called intelligent, articulate, insightful and morally connected but most importantly, able to step in if something happens to the president.
As to the 12-year strategy mentioned by Woodhouse, Phillips disagrees.
“I think the MAGA movement is particularly attuned and attributable to Donald J. Trump, period,” Phillips said. “I don’t think he can pass that mantle. That’s going to have to be earned by whoever wants to get it and I think what JD Vance does is open the possibility for an open convention [in 2028] or an open primary season at the very least. I don’t think just the fact that he’s vice president means he’s going to be propelled to the White House.”
Should I stay or should I go
Delegates and dignitaries in Milwaukee spent four days digging at a man who
Michele Woodhouse. File photo
dropped out of the presidential race three days after the convention had concluded. Pundits pondered whether the whole thing was a great big waste of time, but it’s not a far leap to tie Biden’s policies to Harris, and, it did energize Republicans ready to get out there and work hard for another Trump term.
Biden’s July 21 exit from the race surprised some, but others not so much; starting with his disastrous performance at a June 27 debate with Trump, Biden endured a month-long period of constant humiliation. Nearly every time he tried to project strength and competence, he failed. Lifelong allies called for him to step aside and political donations dried up as national media — until recently, strangely silent on Biden’s apparent ailments — circled like vultures.
Perhaps that’s why some Republicans wanted him to stick around a bit longer.
“One-hundred percent I want Joe to stay,” Woodhouse said July 19. “And I think you hear that from Republicans if you ask them straight up who they want at the top of the ticket. Joe Biden is who I want at the top of the ticket, because I think that’s the easiest path to victory for Republicans.”
with investigating the conditions that cause some South Americans to flee their countries, often to the United States.
Harris even supported a bipartisan border security bill, negotiated over months, that Trump proudly tanked back in February so Biden couldn’t take credit for it.
to say it, are more cognitively enabled, mentally and physically, to do their everyday jobs. I just I think the man needs to put his pride aside in all honesty and resign as president. I think it’s dangerous.”
Although Phillips wasn’t the first to raise the issue, his comments call into question Biden’s ability to serve the American people until the next president is sworn in on Jan. 20, 2025. Woodhouse, too, thinks that if Biden can’t run, he can’t and shouldn’t serve.
Reached on July 22, after Biden dropped out, Woodhouse said she wouldn’t grade the new race as “harder” or “easier,” but instead demonstrated the pivot Republicans had begun to make.
“Right now, the Democratic Party is rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic,” she said. “Kamala Harris has to own the policies of this administration. She supported all of his policies and lied to the people about his cognitive state.”
Now, Republicans are lashing out with misinformation about Harris’ role as socalled “border czar,” a position that does not exist. She was, however, tasked by Biden
al security and took executive action to prevent migrants who cross the southern border illegally from seeking asylum.
Again differing with Woodhouse slightly, Phillips said Biden isn’t, wasn’t and won’t be up to the job and should step down from both his campaign and the presidency, immediately.
“Honestly, I think he should go,” Phillips said about 24 hours before Biden did, in fact, go. “I think it’s a disservice to our country at this point. We have to be Americans, and if the President is having some health difficulties, the president is having some issues related to his age — I mean, there’s people in our community that are older than President Biden that, I hate
“That bad night at the debate, that was not a ‘bad night,’” Woodhouse said. “What we are seeing and what we have seen play out over the course of the last few days shows to me that Joe Biden right now is the biggest national security risk to our country. He does not seem to have the cognitive nor physical strength to be serving as the president.”
The end
Now that the RNC is in the rear-view mirror, all of the historic events that led up to it — overshadowed it, some would say — are coming into sharper focus.
Trump is not the first former president to receive his party’s nomination in the subsequent election. Trump is not the first former president to be shot while campaigning for his party’s nomination.
Trump is, however, the first major party candidate in American history to receive his party’s nomination after being held responsible by a court for sexual assault. Trump is also the first major party candidate in American history to receive his party’s nomination while a convicted felon.
While Trump has appealed the sexual assault ruling and all 34 felony convictions, it won’t take away from the fact that the former is a crime of character and the latter is a crime of trust based on business fraud connected to his sexual affair with a porn star in
July, 2006, as his wife of 18 months ostensibly sat at home caring for their newborn son.
The Republican Party has always claimed to be better in touch with the moral fabric of Americans than the Democratic Party, even before Ronald Reagan’s “shining city upon a hill” that was, according to Reagan’s farewell speech in 1989, “built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace.”
Questioning Biden’s physical fitness to serve has been fair game for some time, but questioning Trump’s moral fitness to serve somehow has not.
“I can’t speak for the American people,” Phillips said. “I can just speak for myself, and I don’t want to question the intent of the jury; however, when you’re picking a jury, you go through specific questions and you try to determine whether or not they can be fair and impartial, which means they put aside their beliefs. Now, you’re dealing with juries in in New York, in a very liberal or most liberal part of the state. So how I deal with it is, I don’t think the man had a fair shot at it.”
Woodhouse perhaps summed up the feelings of many voters on how — policy disagreements aside — Trump retains a strong chance to win, even as a convicted criminal.
“Are those going to be overturned on appeal? I think there’s a very high probability that that happens,” Woodhouse said. “I think for most voters, the Donald Trump they knew in 2016 was an imperfect man. And unless the Republicans or the Democrats are going to run Jesus — the only perfect person to ever walk the earth — every candidate you put forth has imperfections, shortcomings, sins, decisions that they’ve made in their life that they wish they hadn’t.”
Leo Phillips. File photo
Jackson to fund Fairview School construction
BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF W RITER
The Jackson County Board of Commissioners voted this month to commit to funding construction and renovation of Fairview School, which was recently identified as the system’s top capital needs priority due to overcrowding and outdated design.
“Our number one priority is Fairview, and we need it now,” said Superintendent Dana Ayers in a presentation to the commission. “We need you to vote.”
Ayers and Deputy Superintendent Jake Buchanan came before commissioners during their July 9 work session to review the school system’s capital needs priorities and plead for movement on the Fairview School project.
Ayers told commissioners that Fairview School has been at the top of the capital needs priority list for a very long time and remains the biggest need within the school system. However, the list of capital needs is lengthy and just behind Fairview are projects like a traditional middle school, ADA upgrades at Smoky Mountain High School, a bus garage, erosion control, renovations at Blue Ridge School and more.
Because the school system has so many capital needs, county commissioners requested last year that JCPS undergo a facility study to determine which needs were most pressing. The county commission funded the study, conducted by Clark Nexsen, which found that several schools in the county are overcrowded and confirmed both the prioritization that JCPS had previously outlines, as well as the necessity of a traditional middle school.
“The results that [Clark Nexsen] gave did not change Jackson County Public Schools’
priority list,” said Ayers at the July 9 meeting. “I’m here today because I’m a little disappointed because we haven’t seen any movement in the last 18 months. I do believe that part of that was it seemed like an insurmountable list of priorities that we had, so we want to focus today on the Fairview kitchen and cafeteria which is in dire need of not just an upgrade, but replacement.”
Fairview School serves over 800 students, the second-largest school in JCPS behind only Smoky Mountain High School, and its student body continues to grow. The facility study conducted by Clark Nexsen found that the cafeteria at Fairview is undersized by a minimum of 1,000 square feet and the kitchen is roughly 40% of the size it should be. In order to accommodate all students, Fairview starts lunch every day at 10:30 a.m. and continues through 1 p.m.
Additionally, the Fairview School is set up in pods, an outdated design system in which several classes are forced to share large circular rooms without walls to divide those spaces into individual classrooms. Plans to renovate the school include not only a new kitchen and cafeteria, but six additional classrooms.
“No one would tell you to build a pod school today,” said Buchanan. “While this does not mitigate the fact that we have classrooms divided up with bookshelves and tables and this doesn’t eliminate that, it does help to mitigate that. Particularly for kids that are older with bigger bodies trying to fit into those wedges.”
The facility study report from Clark Nexsen said “Fairview is most challenged with site constraints, ADA, cafeteria and classrooms configurations. Immediate
Students crowd into the Fairview School cafeteria. Donated photo
need for new cafeteria, kitchen and minimum
classrooms.”
Total costs for the construction and renovation are estimated at $18 million. The school system wanted commissioners to vote on the project this month in order to move toward its goal of going out to bid on the project next July, if not sooner. Estimates show the cost of the project increasing 5-10% each year.
The project would include a new cafeteria and kitchen at about 8,000 square feet, renovation of about 4,000 square feet of existing space and six new classrooms at 1,000 square feet each.
The school system has submitted the Fairview School renovation and construction project as part of its ask to the Department of Public Instruction Needs Based Capital Grant three times now but has not been able to secure that funding. Each time JCPS submits this project for the grant, both the Board of Education and the County Commission approve the project and commit to matching funds.
“We have approved this project before,” said Buchanan. “We have not been awarded those grants; we don’t feel that we are a good candidate for those grants compared to other districts.”
The Needs Based Capital Grant funds tend to be awarded to rural school districts that are using the funds to build completely new schools, as is the case in Macon County which was awarded $62 million for
its new Franklin High School project.
“We’re not going to solve this problem with those Needs Based Capital Grants,” said Buchanan. “We might be able to go about other projects down the road, but to solve this problem, Needs Based Capital Grants is not going to be our option.”
While the school board, county commission and members of the community have known about the issues plaguing Fairview School for many years, there has
been some hesitancy to address the issue amid the call for a traditional middle school. Jackson County Schools is unique among The Smoky Mountain News’ fourcounty coverage area — Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties, along with the Qualla Boundary — in that it does not have a typical middle school that exclusively serves sixth- through eighth-graders. Instead, there are four K-8 schools, serving almost 800 middle grade students —
Fairview, Cullowhee Valley, Smoky Mountain Elementary and Scotts Creek.
However, Buchanan noted that the facility study verified that even if the county can build a traditional middle school in the near future, it will still be necessary to complete the Fairview School project.
“Even if we decide down the road to build a middle school, that space is still needed,” said Buchanan. “There’s still ADA issues in place, there’s still the cafeteria space issues in place, and you would still have a building full of rooms with bookshelves for classroom walls. That doesn’t go away if we continue the conversation
Buchanan told the board that in his opinion, the community could disagree on the need for a traditional middle school in Jackson County, but that he did not believe a reasonable person could argue that the project at Fairview wasn’t necessary.
“We need this project at Fairview,” Buchanan said. “If we go down the road of a middle school, this is not money spent in waste, it is our top priority, we should move forward with it.”
The board voted unanimously to move forward with the project and permit county staff to identify funding for the project during its July 16 regular meeting.
According to Finance Director Darlene Fox, the county could seek two $10 million loans over two fiscal years and use sales taxes, including the quarter-cent sales tax, to pay those loans back.
eCourts launches in Western North Carolina
BY KYLE P ERROTTI
Members of the public interested in Western North Carolina court cases now have better access than ever to criminal and civil files.
On July 22, the new eCourts system officially rolled out in the state’s 11 westernmost counties as part of the fifth “track” to change over to the digital system. Before the rollout, a person would have to go to the courthouse, and in most cases, a clerk would have to retrieve a document for them, which could result in a person having to spend some serious time and money, especially if the file was at a courthouse in another county.
In an April release from the North Carolina Judicial Branch, it’s noted that the eCourts applications had already accepted over 1 million files and saved more than 3 million pieces of paper. Historically, roughly 30 million pieces of paper were added to court files each year in North Carolina, the release noted.
While there have been some issues with the rollout of eCourts in other counties earlier on in the process, by the time Track 4 was
Ryan S. Boyce to the legal community provided links for training resources to allow everyone — including attorneys, paralegals, hospital filers, judges, clerks and law enforcement — the chance to prepare for the upcoming
“I’m holding court like it’s 1982, but it’s not 1982. We’re now coming into the 21st century.”
— Roy Wijewickrama
transition to the digital system.
“We’ve conferred with these other clerks and judges about lessons learned and what works best,” Wijewickrama said. “From speaking with other chief district court judges in the state, the rollout has gone more and more smoothly each time.”
In addition, stakeholders have been in multiple online meetings every week since March. For elected clerks of superior court
In a July 23 interview with SMN, Plemmons said the rollout is going well, perhaps even better than expected. However, he also pointed out that there is still plenty of work he and his staff — along with clerk’s offices in the other 10 counties — have to do.
“There’s continuous training, and we have to generate reports on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to ensure the right actions and security measures are being taken,” Plemmons said.
Now that eCourts is operational, it allows not only easier, cheaper access to the courts by members of the public, but as Wijewickrama noted, the big transition will help those who spend their days working in the courtroom, as well.
“I’m holding court like it’s 1982, but it’s not 1982,” he said. “We’re now coming into the 21st century.”
Specifically, attorneys will be able to file documents remotely, and law enforcement agencies will be integrated into the system, meaning warrants and citations can be processed easily through the system. In addition, judges will be able to e-sign certain doc-
As planned, Western North Carolina courts became fully digital on July 22. North Carolina Judicial Branch photo
had been ironed out. All the same, folks in the 11 track-5 counties — Polk, Buncombe, Henderson, Transylvania, Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain, Graham, Clay and Cherokee — were not taking any risks.
In a Smoky Mountain News story earlier this month, Chief District Court Judge Roy Wijewickrama was quick to point out all that those affiliated with the court system in the judicial district made up of the state’s seven westernmost counties have done to prepare. To begin with, all stakeholders went through extensive training on how to use the system.
A May 23 memo sent from NCAOC director
it’s been one training with key stakeholders in the district, one meeting with his fellow elected clerks and then one with all stakeholders, plus representatives from NCAOC. That’s three in-depth meetings every week for months.
“Our whole district decided early on that we’re going to go at this from an optimistic standpoint and learn it the best we can and do what we can to make it a success,” Plemmons said in the SMN story earlier this month. “From what I understand from AOC and other districts, the time leading up to going live has gone better for us.”
in the past required them to put ink to paper, sometimes late at night.
While Plemmons said the system seems to be working well early on, the public and attorneys will need to remain patient as his staff continues to learn the ins and outs as they gain experience on the system.
“There will be a learning curve and growing pains, but it’ll be better in the long run for the courts and the public,” he said. “I ask the public to be patient with the rollout as we work through this. In the long run, this is going to be a really good thing for the public’s access to justice.”
Macon, Jackson to receive more opioid settlement funds
HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF W RITER
Macon and Jackson County commissions signed resolutions this month enabling the governments to receive funding from the Kroger opioid settlement, the third settlement of its kind for both counties.
The national grocery store chain agreed to pay $1.2 billion to states, local governments and Native American tribes in September of last year to settle claims that its own pharmacies played a role in fueling the opioid crisis. Approximately $40 million is expected for North Carolina.
The resolution signed by both counties to receive the settlement funds notes that the “opioid overdose epidemic has taken the lives of more than 37,000 North Carolinians since 2000.”
In 2021 alone, there were 22 people who died from an overdose in Jackson County and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates the total economic burden of prescription opioid misuse in the United States is $78.5 billion a year.
The first round of settlement funds provided the most significant amount to local governments with both Jackson and Macon counties receiving approximately $3 million
dollars over the course of 18 installments in as many years.
This latest round of funding from the Kroger settlement will provide far less, with Macon County set to receive just under $160,000 over the next 11 years.
Because the money provided through the settlements is not enough for individual counties to take on large scale projects, municipalities in Western Carolina have discussed a collaborative effort to construct a regional treatment facility.
At the Jackson Commission’s July 9 work session, Tanya Snyder presented information about the opioid settlement planning process on behalf of the Southwestern Commission. Together, the seven western counties and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians that make up region A are set to receive about $18 million in settlement funding.
“All seven counties collectively decided to go through some regional planning because while $18 million sounds like a lot of money, we felt like there’s an opportunity to leverage that fund if we are working together with other communities and other counties,” said Snyder. “We decided to come together and say ‘what’s going on in the opioid world? What do we need to do? What are the
opportunities? What are the gaps? Are there any overlaps where we can work together?’”
So far, the project managers hired to work on the opioid settlement planning contracted with Omni Institute out of Denver, Colorado to complete a strengths and needs assessment.
“We did that on a county level, so we started in every single individual county all seven counties and then the idea was once we see what’s going on in all seven counties, we’ll map that and see kind of where we are as a region and if there are any opportunities for us to combine our funding,” said Snyder.
Snyder explained to the Jackson County
use their individual funding on a county level.
“Through the [needs assessment] survey, we heard over and over again for Jackson County responses that supporting treatment and recovery was the number one priority,” Snyder said.
Planning efforts in Jackson County have identified the top three priorities for opioid settlement funding as recovery support services, post-overdose response teams and naloxone distribution.
The opioid epidemic has taken the lives of more than 37,000 North Carolinians since 2000.
Commission that while one county alone may not have enough money over the years to create a facility, if several counties worked together with combined funding, there may be the opportunity for a regional facility.
Following the needs assessment, project managers are now working to create a strategic plan and implementation plan that they hope will be completed by the end of August. Even after both of these plans are completed, counties are not obligated to take part in a regional effort and could still
HRMC doubles mammography capacity with new unit
Haywood Regional Medical Center (HRMC) is thrilled to announce the addition of a new mammography unit that will significantly enhance breast imaging services locally. This advanced equipment doubles the hospital’s capacity to see patients for mammograms and introduces new capabilities for Contrast-Enhanced Mammography (CEM), providing enhanced diagnostics for patients. CEM will be available to patients beginning in early August.
There may be more settlements coming down the line through which counties and municipalities receive similarly low levels of funding, all of which must be maintained in a special fund. Counties and municipalities are required to follow specific guidelines for spending and reporting the settlement money. There are two broad options counties can choose for allocating the money. Under the first option, local governments may fund one or more strategies from a short list of evidence-based, high impact strategies that have been proven to address the epidemic. Under the second option, local governments can engage in a collaborative strategic planning process involving a diverse array of stakeholders and then has the opportunity to fund a broader array of strategies.
According to Snyder, 77 local governments in North Carolina have already chosen the first option, with only nine choosing the second option. The seven western counties are among those who have not yet officially decided how to spend the settlement funding.
capacity, allowing for more patients to be accommodated, reducing wait times and ensuring timely access to essential and advanced breast health services.
CEM is particularly beneficial for women with dense breast tissue, as it improves cancer detection rates by highlighting areas that may be obscured in screening mammography. CEM detects approximately 10 cancers for every 1,000 women screened, a rate comparable to MRI.
The new breast imaging device, equipped with the latest imaging technology, allows HRMC to provide faster and more detailed breast cancer screenings and diagnostics. The addition of another mammography unit creates increased
CEM mammography is available through a referral from a licensed medical provider. Patients may self-request a screening mammogram either through their provider or by calling HRMC’s scheduling department. All mammography services are available at HRMC’s Outpatient Care Center located on the hospital campus. For more information or to schedule an appointment, please visit myhaywoodregional.com or call
Canopy Housing Foundation makes grants for housing, education
The Canopy Housing Foundation continued its longstanding commitment to the communities it serves by giving away more than $25,000 in grants and scholarships to local nonprofits and students at an event in Waynesville on July 23.
The Foundation is the charitable arm of the Canopy Realtor Association, which serves nearly all of Western North Carolina’s counties. Since the introduction of Canopy into Western North Carolina’s real estate marketplace in 2020, the Foundation has donated just over $97,000. This year, grants went to:
offs and evictions. Mountain Projects was nominated by Bryan Nolan, Allen Tate/Beverly-Hanks Realtors.
Pigeon Community Multicultural Development Center, $4,500: The grant will assist with costs for nine students to participate in the Summer Enrichment Program at
The Foundation is the charitable arm of the Canopy Realtor Association, which serves nearly all of Western North Carolina’s counties. Canopy photo
Haywood Habitat for Humanity, $3,000: The grant will partially fund cabinets and countertops for a Habitat home on Sylvan Street in Waynesville. The $3,000 brings the total amount granted to Haywood Habitat to $15,500.
Haywood Community College Foundation, $3,000: Supporting Haywood Community College’s Food Pantry/Clyde’s Cupboard, the grant will help provide students in need with food and personal hygiene products, freeing them up to spend their own money on housing and tuition. The HCC Foundation was nominated by realtor Amy Boyd Sugg with RE/MAX Executive.
Haywood Pathways Center, $4,000: The grant will provide rental assistance for four to five families at an average cost of $1,000 per family. Pathways was nominated by Pamela Williams, Allen Tate/Beverly-Hanks Realtors.
Mountain Projects, $5,000: The grant will assist 10-18 low-income clients with utility bills or rental assistance to avoid cut-
a projected cost of $650 each, helping to support families who are often not able to provide for their children’s essential needs during the summer months when schools are not in session. The Pigeon Center was nominated by Jan Hall, ERA Sunburst Realty.
REACH of Haywood County, $3,500: The grant will be used for emergency housing at motels for victims and survivors of domestic violence. This funding will provide almost 40 nights of lodging at approximately $100 per night, when other options are exhausted. REACH was nominated by Tavia Thomas, RE/MAX Executive.
Canopy also provides scholarships in conjunction with the Haywood County Schools Foundation. This year, Avery Arrington and Lilian Faulkner of Tuscola High School, along with Kai Maggard of Haywood Early College each received $1,000. This year’s scholarships bring the total amount of Canopy scholarships awarded since 2020 to $12,000.
To learn more about the Canopy Housing Foundation, visit canopyhousingfoundation.org.
Construction starting on new U.S. 23/74 turn lane
A contractor for the N.C. Department of Transportation has begun a safety project on U.S. 23/74 between Hyatt Creek Road and the Haywood County rest area.
CRW Land Services LLC, of Old Fort, is permitted to conduct daily lane closures of the inside lane in both directions between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
This access management safety project will revise the current traffic patterns by establishing a new left turn lane for westbound traffic. The project will also remove an existing U-turn lane and associated bulb-out for eastbound traffic. A new concrete median island will be installed to delineate the new turn lane and provide separation from opposing directions. It will be finished with long-life pavement markings and new signs.
The $216,000 project has been developed in association with NCDOT Traffic Safety staff to alleviate congestion while re-establishing the mobility and reliability of the corridor. It is scheduled for completion fall 2024.
A love letter to Appalachia
Editor’s note: This article first appeared online at the website “100 Days in Appalachia.” Meredith McCarroll is from Waynesville, went to Appalachian State and the University of Tennessee and resides in Brunswick, Maine. She is author of “Unwhite: Appalachia, Race, and Film” and co-editor of “Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy.”
Because I have been writing about Appalachia and representation for a while now, and because I have spent too many words on “Hillbilly Elegy,” I’ve been called upon to offer my opinion on JD Vance now that he is Trump’s vicepresidential pick. So I steeled myself and tried to figure if I had anything new to say.
I’m not sure whether I did, but maybe I found some new audiences this week. But I find myself thinking about and writing to those of you who already know about Appalachia. I don’t need to remind you of how many states the ARC says defines Appalachia or how many people live in those 13 states or how diverse those 25 million people are. I don’t need to make a case that people in Appalachia don’t think the same way, or that the experience I had in Waynesville, North Carolina, is so different than the experience in Hazard, Kentucky, where the industries and landscape and soft drink of choice are different.
Many of you know how it feels to see a Saturday Night Live skit lazily rely on the same stereotypes from 200 years ago just like you know how it feels to see headlines that Appalachia is being discovered as a new affordable retirement spot. I won’t try to tell you something you already know, something many of you reading this might have taught me. What I want to offer instead is something like a nod. An acknowledgment. Maybe even a hug. It’s not just you. I see it too. I’m angry and weary and not just at the latest reason that people are looking at Appalachia, but I’m also disappointed in the bifurcation that makes me scared to talk to neighbors about anything from college to healthcare because it has all become politicized to the point of stagnation.
It is hard to feel such complicated feelings and to be asked to speak for a place that defies a spokesperson.
At the Republican National Convention, JD Vance introduced himself and gave a speech to a room that felt a lot like a high school gym pep rally with no teachers to hush anyone and no principal to keep order. At one point, after Vance told a story about his Mamaw threatening to run someone over in her car, promising that “no one would know” – the crowd erupted into a chant of “Mamaw. Mamaw. Mamaw.”
It was a strange moment. Though I called my own grandparents Granny and Pa, I knew plenty of Mamaws and Papaws, and there was something refreshing about hearing a room chant this word that feels tied to class and place. A word that doesn’t often find center stage.
That moment of his speech lingered with me as I considered what I knew about his Mamaw from “Hillbilly Elegy.” Like so many grandparents then and now in places most affected by the opioid crisis or third shifts or predatory lending, Mamaw stepped in when she was needed. She was a solid presence for young JD when his mother could not be.
He might have remembered her with this crowd in order to point to some salt of the earth way of seeing her — hardworking and steadfast. Instead, though, he turned his Mamaw into a stereotype, straight off the pages of the funnies or drawn from “The Beverly Hillbillies.” He reduced her to a gun-toting Granny. And the crowd ate it up.
In 1953, Ralph Ellison wrote an essay entitled “Shadow and Act,” in which he said, “For I found the greatest difficulty
for a Negro writer was the problem of revealing what he truly felt, rather than serving up what Negroes were supposed to feel, and were encouraged to feel.” Is there a way to understand JD Vance in this context? Might he actually not know what to feel about eastern Kentucky, where his grandparents migrated in and out over his lifetime?
As we move toward a more and more homogenous culture, many of us want to see and understand what it is about our experience of place and family that is unique. Ultimately, we ask who we are and where we came from. Whether on Ancestry.com or by looking through a family tree in the front of a Bible, many Americans seek a deeper understanding of the past in order to see who we are today. And it is easy to rely on the stories we hear. In fact, we must rely on the stories we hear. That’s all we have.
face flow retention so that deadly flash floods are inevitable. When places are scarred, it is easy to look away from them while extracting what is needed from them.
Simply put, the stories we tell about a place matter. The ways that we understand groups of people directly impact how they are treated. So even with nothing new to say about this, even at the end of a week that has left so many of us weary and pessimistic, I can’t let it go.
It may be futile. The horse I’m beating may already be dead. But what else can I do?
It is silly to expect a politician who had a tough childhood in Ohio and eastern Kentucky to fight for the place that he left. It is strategic for him to use his extended family to prop up the story of his success. It is unsurprising that he will say what needs to be said to get elected. I’m done being shocked that JD Vance is making political moves for his own benefit without considering the cost of the stories that he tells.
But I am not done shouting back, challenging the false idea of some sort of unified Appalachia. I am not done pointing out the complexities of this region, highlighting Black, Brown, Queer, migrant stories that are and have been woven into the fabric of Appalachia all along. I insist on trying to show Appalachia as a place that is impossible to define in one article, interview or book. It is easy to feel defeated. It is necessary to rest. But when you can, look for and share the points of light around you — even if just telling a story to your child or passing a book to a neighbor.
Some of us have the stability of a great aunt who kept up with second cousins and can tell us who worked where and why a marriage actually broke up three decades ago. But many of us are the product of movement from one place to another — usually for “better jobs” — which often means we lose ties to extended family and aren’t quite sure whether we can still claim place.
A few generations down the line, we have to learn what our people might have been like by watching movies from that place or reading books from those perspectives. But what if the books and movies are not only naively simplifying stories of a place and of a people? What if they are intentionally pedaling an image or narrative to a particular end?
Appalachians like you already know that representation of the region has been a key element to its destruction. When people are portrayed as undeserving — perhaps they are lazy and can’t take care of themselves — it is easy to justify blowing the tops off of their mountains, causing not only instant and permanent wounds but impacting economic prospects for the surrounding areas, creating runoff and reducing sur-
Look through Julie Rae Powers’ new photography collection, “Deep Ruts,” and have your sense of a place joyfully disrupted.
Read stories from Neema Avashia and Michael Croley and Jeremy B. Jones and Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle and David Joy and Crystal Wilkinson and Silas House and Karida Brown and celebrate the contradictions.
Listen to Black in Appalachia and Appodlachia and Read Appalachia to remember the power of self-representation. Make your way through the archives in Appalshop, read the Foxfire books, and then watch “Hillbilly” or “After Coal” or “Up the Ridge” to see all the ways that self-representation is still a key part of survival.
I might be preaching to the choir here. But this is no eulogy. We needed no elegy.
If I’m preaching here, then I’ll encourage you to turn now to your neighbor. Find someone to remind you where you’re from. Find someone whose experience is nothing like yours. Find someone who inspires you. Surround yourself with people who can see beyond this moment and keep going. Keep reading. Keep writing. Keep watching. Keep filming. Keep singing. Keep loving and holding to account this place and one another.
We are bigger than this moment. We are more than any one of us.
4 bedrooms | 3 full baths | 2 half baths
Perched on nearly 13 unrestricted acres (this package is for 4.73 acres) just moments from Historic Main St Waynesville this extraordinary work of art was completed in Fall ‘23. Only the highest quality materials & expert level craftsmen retained to curate this dream home. Nearly every room boasts a view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. As you walk in the main floor you are immediately drawn outside to your covered outdoor living area overlooking the mountains & rolling pastures with your own lively creek. Main floor includes an expansive primary suite, laundry, kitchen/living area combination & formal dining. Upstairs is a loft, 2 more bedrooms and a Jack & Jill bath. The basement offers 2500+ of unfinished space. Front pasture is available for purchase. Expansive 2 car detached garage with portico.
Carry this together:
Zoe & Cloyd
WABto take a different approach to this most recent musical endeavor.
“For the past eight years, we’ve been focusing primarily on original songwriting, kind of our own music and interpretations,” said fiddler/vocalist Natalya Zoe Weinstein. “And, with this project, we’re going back to our musical lineages of our grandfathers.”
Those lineages at the core of the couple’s album are the klezmer and jazz stylings of Weinstein’s ancestors, and the traditional bluegrass tones of John Cloyd’s grandfather, Jim Shumate, a pioneering fiddler in his own right.
“[Jim] was from Wilkes County and lived in Hickory,” Cloyd said. “So, we’re pulling from pieces that he recorded with Flatt & Scruggs, stuff he played with Bill Monroe, and songs that he wrote — it’s become much more than just a heritage project.”
“[My grandfather] emigrated from Russia in 1923 and then came [to America] via Argentina because he couldn’t initially get into the United States,” Weinstein added. “And though we don’t have any recordings of my grandfather, we have all of these handwritten music notebooks of his — it’s been so fun to go through them.”
Geographically, Weinstein hails from Massachusetts, with her husband, Cloyd, a 12th generation North Carolinian. And as Cloyd was surrounded by bluegrass and mountain music as a youth raised in Southern Appalachia, Weinstein grew up playing classical violin, with her father a jazz pianist.
“Music was always around, and I was always passionate about it,” Weinstein said. “I did classical music for about 15 years, but got bored with it in college, reading notes on a page and so on. I wanted to do something different, only to fall in with folks who played bluegrass and old-time music.”
After college, Weinstein relocated to Asheville in 2004 and hasn’t looked back since finding herself in Western North Carolina.
“The more you listen to it, the more you hear the subtleties and the power in [bluegrass].”
— Natalya Zoe Weinstein
“I fell in love with bluegrass,” Weinstein said. “The more you listen to it, the more you hear the subtleties and the power in that music.”
As a member of Gen X, Cloyd found himself more interested in the heavier sounds of 1990s grunge and popular music early on, but it was a deep love for The Grateful Dead that led him down the rabbit hole to iconic 1970s jam-grass group Old & In The Way, featuring Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia on banjo.
“That ‘bridge moment’ came when I was home from college and hanging out with my grandfather,” Cloyd recalled. “I asked him, ‘Have you ever played ‘Pig In A Pen’? And he played it, he could everything on that record. He says, ‘Vassar Clements plays on that record, he’s a good friend of mine.’ I knew my grandfather was cool, but I didn’t know he knew all of these
Want to go?
The second annual AVLfest will take place Aug. 1-4 at numerous venues around Asheville.
Within the over 300 acts announced for the gathering, headliners include Papadosio, Washed Out, The New Pornographers, Beachwood Sparks, Langhorne Slim, Blitzen Trapper, River Whyless, Town Mountain, Susto, The Mother Hips, Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters, Jon Stickley Trio, Tyler Ramsey, Scott McMicken & The Ever Expanding, Randall Bramblett & The Megablasters, Larry Keel Experience, Zoe & Cloyd and much more.
For more information, a full schedule of artists and/or to purchase tickets, go to avlfest.com.
Initially, Weinstein and Cloyd were part of Americana/roots
Cloyd in 2015. From humble beginnings, the duo has toured extensively around the greater Southeast and beyond, gracing the stages of numerous legendary stages and festivals.
In 2021, Zoe & Cloyd were featured on the acclaimed PBS program “David Holt’s State of Music.” And the 2023 release of “Songs of Our Grandfathers” (Organic Records) signaled Zoe & Cloyd’s first international gig, which took place in Northern Ireland last year.
“Whereas I come from classical music theory and a formal background, John comes from the folk tradition of learning music by ear,” Weinstein said. “And I think because we come from different musical backgrounds, we complement each other with our skillsets and sensibilities.”
“We feel fortunate that we’re able to play music together, and to make stuff that people enjoy,” Cloyd added. “My grandfather didn’t have any kind of formal training on his instrument at all. And he always said to me that playing music is a gift, and he was right — it is a gift.”
Zoe & Cloyd will perform Aug. 2 at AVLfest in Asheville. File photo
Blitzen Trapper. File photo
‘We
This must be the place
BY GARRET K. WOODWARD
Hello from Room 26 at the Thunderbird Lodge within earshot of Interstate 90 on the outskirts of the small city of Mitchell, South Dakota. Most notably the hometown of the late politician George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic nominee for president.
It’s 9:39 a.m. I’ve just retrieved my first cup of coffee of the day from the lobby of the quaint roadside motor inn. Next to the tiny breakfast nook is an oddly-placed hot tub and sauna. There’s a slight chill in outside air after days of intense western heat.
The dirty Wyoming and Montana license plates in the parking lot remind me that the West isn’t too far away in the rearview mirror of the rental car. And the foggy morning blanketing the flat landscape reminds me I’m back in the Midwest. Fog so thick you can hear the tractor-trailers passing by on the highway, but you can’t see them, these diesel ghosts of the open road roaring by.
Today’s rough sketch of a plan is for my girlfriend, Sarah, and I to continue heading east to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to catch our direct flight back to Asheville tomorrow afternoon. There’s also talk of swinging into Sioux Falls, South Dakota, an hour away, to see her dear friend from high school. She hasn’t seen her friend since graduation, though they’ve kept in contact all these years.
As this latest western excursion winds down, I can’t help but retain an immense sense of gratitude to be able to wander and ponder, especially beyond the Mississippi River into spaces and places yet to explore in real time.
weeks out here swirling around my thoughts with each passing mile. The view outside the windshield transitioning from towering mountains and pine trees to high desert prairie to rolling grasslands. The beautiful vastness and emptiness of this country. Cruise control hovering at 80 miles-an-hour along endless straightaways in the Heartland of America.
The highways and backroads of Montana. Wondering the names of enormous mountains in the distance. Thoughts of what it must’ve been like roaming these lands long ago, what indigenous tribes and early explorers felt when they first saw the Rocky Mountains after arduous journeys from somewhere, anywhere. High heat in low valleys. Snow pack atop jagged peaks. The pursuit of whatever lies just beyond the next ridge. Push ahead and seek it out.
Cruising along U.S. 191 through dusty, mostly forgotten towns in the middle of nowhere of central Montana. Mobile homes with fading paint in the hot summer sunshine. Old trucks with no rust from the dry air in the backyards. Rogue dogs roaming free down dirt roads, some holding court at quaint gas stations in search of a handout or someone to take them home in their vehicle.
HOT PICKS
1
The “An Appalachian Evening” series will continue with a performance by Mac Arnold & Plate Full O’Blues at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 27, in Lynn L. Shields Auditorium at the Stecoah Valley Center in Robbinsville.
2
The 15th annual “Concerts on the Creek” music series will feature rock/reggae act Positive Mental Attitude (PMA) will hit the stage at 7 p.m. Friday, July 26, at Bridge Park in downtown Sylva.
3
The 57th annual Macon County Gemboree will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. July 26-27 and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 28 at the Macon County Community Building in Franklin.
4
“July Makers Market” will be held from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 27, in The Lineside at Frog Level Brewing in Waynesville.
5
Nantahala Arts & Crafts Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 27, at the Nantahala River Rafting launch corner at the intersection of U.S. 19/74 and Wayah Road.
car. Merge onto Interstate 15 North. Make our way towards U.S. 89 and ultimately U.S. 2 into Western Montana. Emotions of gratitude and excitement with each passing mile towards Whitefish and Glacier National Park. Cross into the Blackfeet Nation. Monuments and murals of a proud tribe and culture. Fuel up in Browning and continue the journey.
Chunks of the earth heard about from other travelers. Locations on maps that I’ve scanned over with excitement and hunger, the same way I browse an extensive fine dining menu. Yesterday, we said goodbye to my old friend, Amy, and her husband in Rapid City, South Dakota. Amy and I met way back in January 2008 when I took my first reporting gig at the Teton Valley News in Driggs, Idaho. I was the arts and culture writer. She was the photographer. We sparked a friendship immediately, so much so, we’ve remained friends ever since. Lifelong, truth-be-told.
Anytime I find myself in South Dakota, I seek her out and reconnect. This go-round, I introduced her to Sarah. What started out as stopping by and catching up quickly turned into hours of hearty conversation, discovering similar interests and life paths over some wine and pizza from the restaurant around the corner. Those kinds of folks you know you’re supposed to know in life.
People and moments of the last couple of
Great Falls for the night. Leaving the Gibson Hotel, we wandered over to the Sip-NDip Lounge, a legendary tiki bar in the heart of the outpost city since 1962. Order a fruity drink and watch the “Montana Mermaids” swim by along the bottom of the onsite pool, part of which being the windows behind the bar counter. They wave in your direction and blow you and yours a kiss. Sip the fruity drink in awe of where you are and what you’re doing. And there was Mattias, the vivacious German who owns the Kellergeist, a tiny establishment near the Great Falls courthouse. Hearing the sounds of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young echoing out onto Central Avenue after dinner, Sarah and I were intrigued and walked in for a nightcap. Originally, Mattias left Germany to work in Ireland for 20 years, then found work in Great Falls. “I fell in love with this place and I never left,” he smiles, pouring me a German draft, his accent weaving seamlessly between German and Irish. Wake up at the Gibson Hotel in downtown Great Falls. Crank over the engine of the rental
Roll into East Glacier Park. Decisions to either bolt forward to Whitefish or head north and enter into Glacier National Park via the St. Mary entrance. Based on time and place and having to be in Whitefish that evening (Thursday) for my Rolling Stone assignment on the Under the Big Sky music festival, it was decided to head to Whitefish and aim for Glacier on our free day come Monday.
Somewhere around the ghost town of Nimrod, Montana (named after the Biblical figure due to the location being a hunters’ paradise), we stumbled upon the Bear Creek Boat Launch & Campground. With the sun quickly fading, most of the kayakers and fishermen had already vacated the spot. Sarah and I put on our bathing suits and immediately jumped into the frigid waters.
Regaining my balance atop the slick ancient rocks and the swift current of the Middle Fork Flathead River, I emerged from the chilly depths with a grin. I gazed upwards at the mountain ridges cradling us, the bright sunshine radiating down upon the entire glorious scene. Sarah was sitting back up on the riverbank. I turned to her and said, “Good lord, I love Montana. My heart feels full being back here.” She concurred, her eyes also scanning the beauty before us.
To be continued (next week). Life is beautiful, grasp for it, y’all.
The Middle Fork Flathead River in Nimrod, Montana. Garret K. Woodward photo
On the beat
‘An Appalachian Evening’
The “An Appalachian Evening” series will continue with a performance by Mac Arnold & Plate Full O’Blues at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 27, in Lynn L. Shields Auditorium at the Stecoah Valley Center in Robbinsville.
A world-renowned blues musician and South Carolina native, Arnold began playing music in the 1950s when he and his brother built a guitar from a steel gas can, broomsticks, wood, nails and screen wire. His first band, J Floyd & the Shamrocks, included a young James Brown on piano. As a member of the Muddy Waters’ band, he helped shape the electric blues sound that inspired rock and roll of the late 1960s and
early 1970s. Regular guests of the band included Eric Clapton, Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop.
They’ve shared the stage with Howlin’ Wolf, Elmore James, Jimmy Reed, Junior Wells, Big Joe Williams and Big Mama Thornton. Arnold’s band Soul Invaders backed up iconic musicians such as B.B. King, The Temptations, Otis Redding, John Lee Hooker and Little Milton.
In Los Angeles, Arnold worked for ABC Television’s “Soul Train” band and provided his distinctive bass lines for the theme song of the hit television show “Sanford and Son.”
‘Concerts on the Creek’
The Town of Sylva, Jackson County Parks and Recreation Department and Jackson County Chamber of Commerce are proud to present the 15th season of the annual “Concerts on the Creek” music series.
Beloved Jackson County rock/reggae act Positive Mental Attitude (PMA) will hit the stage at 7 p.m. Friday, July 26, at Bridge Park in downtown Sylva.
“Our music is full of inspiration from these mountains. Water, mountain landscapes, nature, trails. They all take part in the inspiration process for us. We are proud to call Sylva home and our sound could not be what it is without this town,” said PMA guitarist Miller
Cashiers to host JarrettFest
A nationally recognized touring and recording artist of children’s music, Timmy Abell will perform at 4 p.m. Saturday, July 27, at the Boys & Girls Club of the Plateau, located 558 Frank Allen Rd. in Cashiers.
Also performing will be his wife, Susana, whose career in puppetry arts has spanned two decades and three continents.
The Abells’ appearance is sponsored by the Blue Ridge chapter of Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM) in Cashiers as part of their “JarrettFest 2024” music festival, which will be held at the club from 1-6 p.m. that day.
Watson. “It’s also really cool to see the similarities in bluegrass music and reggae and how they took shape from the development of African banjo. It’s also nice to bring a touch of reggae to these mountains.”
“Concerts on the Creek” are held every Friday night from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Everyone is encouraged to bring a chair or blanket. These events are free, but donations are encouraged. Dogs must be on a leash. No smoking, vaping, coolers or tents are allowed. There will be food trucks on site for this event.
For more information, call the chamber at 828.586.2155, visit mountainlovers.com/concerts-on-the-creek or go to the “Concerts on the Creek” Facebook page.
Timmy Abell will play Cashiers July 27. File photo
• Blue Ridge Beer Hub
Free and open to the public. 828.246.9320 / blueridgebeerhub.com.
• Boojum Brewing (Waynesville) will host Brother Fat (rock/jam) July 20, DJ Kountry July 26, Random Animals (indie/soul) July 27, Beer & Loathing Aug. 2 and Chrystal Fountains Band Aug. 3. All shows are located in The Gem downstairs taproom and begin at 9 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 828.246.0350 / boojumbrewing.com.
• Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center (Franklin) will host Buncombe Turnpike
Among his numerous awards are the Folk Heritage Award (2006), “Best Historical Album of the Year” (2010), an honorary doctorate of music from the University of South Carolina and induction into the Alabama Blues Hall of Fame (2017).
Though retiring in the 1990s to become an organic farmer, Arnold returned to the music scene when he formed the Plate Full O’Blues band in 2006.
Tickets are $18 for adults, $10 for students grade K-12. Dinner will also be available for purchase in the Schoolhouse Cafe starting at 6 p.m.
For more information and/or to purchase tickets, call 828.479.3364 or go to stecoahvalleycenter.com.
(Americana/bluegrass) 6 p.m. July 27 ($20 adults, $10 ages 6-16, free ages 6 and under). 828.369.4080 / coweeschool.org/music.
• Currahee Brewing (Franklin) will host Woolybooger (blues/folk) July 27. All shows begin at 7 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.634.0078 / curraheebrew.com.
• Farm At Old Edwards (Highlands) will host the “Orchard Sessions” w/Matt Rogers (singersongwriter) Aug. 15. All shows begin at 6 p.m. 866.526.8008 / oldedwardshospitality.com/orchardsessions.
• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host
A native of Asheville, Timmy is best known for his family concerts of music and storytelling, celebrating American, Appalachian, International and original folk music.
USA Today has called Timmy’s music “well-crafted rich and rambunctious”, and Silo Music compares Timmy to Pete Seeger in “...such qualities as down to earth yet imagination-stretching lyrics, strong values, skilled acoustic musicianship, directness and respect for his audience.”
His honors include the North Carolina Arts Council’s Fellowship for Songwriting, Parent’s Choice, NAPPA Gold and The American Library Association’s Notable Children’s Recording Awards.
Tuesdays Jazz Series w/We Three Swing at 5:30 p.m. each week, Rich Manz Trio (acoustic/oldies) July 25, Bridget Gossett Duo (Americana) July 26, Jon Cox Band (country/rock) July 27 and Taylor Watkins (singer-songwriter) 3 p.m. July 28. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.454.5664 / froglevelbrewing.com.
• Happ’s Place (Glenville) will host Dillon & Company July 25, Bull Street Band July 26, Alamo Band July 27, Doug Ramsey (singer-songwriter) July 29, Charles Walker (singer-songwriter) July 30, Nero Simon & The Sun Setters Aug. 2, Doug Ramsey (singer-songwriter) Aug. 3
Susana’s work as a bi-lingual puppeteer and circus performer both in South America and Europe prepared her for a successful seven-year tenure as a teaching artist in New Jersey where her programs and residencies were directly sponsored by Carnegie Hall, The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the New Jersey Department of Education and the New Jersey Council on the Arts. Admission is free to JarrettFest, including the Timmy & Susana Abell performance. To note, JarrettFest is named in honor and memory of beloved Blue Ridge JAM volunteer Jarrett L. Davis, IV (1957-2024). For more information about the festival, contact jam.blueridge@gmail.com or visit facebook.com/greatkidsjam.
and Doug Ramsey (karaoke/live music) Aug. 5. All shows begin at 6 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.742.5700 / happsplace.com.
• Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort (Cherokee) will host Buddy Guy (blues/rock) 7:30 p.m. July 27. caesars.com/harrahs-cherokee.
• Highlander Mountain House (Highlands) will host “Blues & Brews” on Thursday evenings, “Sunday Bluegrass Residency” from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and Mike Cooley (singer-songwriter) 8:30 p.m. July 25 ($45 per person). 828.526.2590 / highlandermountainhouse.com.
• Highlands Performing Arts Center will host
PMA will play Sylva July 26. Garret K. Woodward photo
Mac Arnold will play Stecoah July 27. File photo
On the beat
Chee-Yun (world/classical) 5 p.m. July 27, Dover Quartet (world/classical) 5 p.m. July 29, Viano Plus Piano 5 p.m. Aug. 3 and The Three Graces 5 p.m. Aug. 5. 828.526.9047 / highlandsperformingarts.com.
• Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will host “Monday Night Trivia” every week, “Open Mic w/Phil” Wednesdays and Jason Lyles (singer-songwriter) July 27. All shows and events begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.586.9678/ innovation-brewing.com.
• Innovation Station (Dillsboro) will host “Music Bingo” on Wednesdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All events begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.226.0262 / innovation-brewing.com.
• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host “Miss 1980s Something Pageant” July 27. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 / lazyhikerbrewing.com.
• Marianna Black Library (Bryson City) will host a “Community Music Jam” 6 p.m. on the first and third Thursday of each month and Kelli Dodd “Sings Dolly!” (Americana/country) July 25. Free and open to the public. All musicians and music lovers are welcome. 828.488.3030 / fontanalib.org.
• Mountain Layers Brewing (Bryson City) will host “Open Mic Night” w/Frank Lee every Wednesday, Scott James Stambaugh (singer-songwriter) July 26, Ron Neill (singer-songwriter) July 27, Bridget
Gossett (singer-songwriter) 5 p.m. July 28, Liz Petty (singer-songwriter) Aug. 2, Granny’s Mason Jar (Americana/bluegrass) Aug. 3 and Frank Lee (Americana/old-time) 5 p.m. Aug. 4. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.538.0115 / mountainlayersbrewingcompany.com.
• Nantahala Outdoor Center (Nantahala Gorge) will host Kate Leigh Bryant (singer-songwriter) 3 p.m. July 25, Asheville Junction (Americana/ bluegrass) 5 p.m. July 26, Mama & The Ruckus (soul/rock) 5 p.m. July 27, Blue (soul/blues) 2 p.m. July 28, Moonshine State 3 p.m. Aug. 1, Fun Sized Band 5 p.m. Aug. 2, Brown Mountain Lightning Bugs (Americana) 5 p.m. Aug. 3 and Blue (soul/blues) 2 p.m. Aug. 4. Free and open to the public. 828.785.5082 / noc.com.
• Pickin’ In The Park (Canton) will host Brothers Rathbone (band) & Green Valley (dancers) July 26 and Rewind (band) & Balsam Mountain (dancers) Aug. 2. Shows are 6-9 p.m. at the Canton Rec Park located at 77 Penland Street. Free and open to the public. cantonnc.com/pickin-in-the-park.
• Pickin’ On The Square (Franklin) will host Run Katie Run (Americana/country) July 27. All shows begin at 6 p.m. at the Gazebo in downtown. Free and open to the public. franklinnc.com/pickin-on-the-square.html.
• Santé Wine Bar (Sylva) will host Keturah & Bradford July 28 and Syrrup (Americana) Aug. 4. All shows begin at 5 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.631.3075 / facebook.com/thewinebarandcellar.
Buncombe Turnpike will play Franklin July 27. File photo
Cowee School welcomes Buncombe Turnpike
Americana/bluegrass ensemble Buncombe Turnpike will perform at 6 p.m. Saturday, July 27, at the Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center in Franklin.
Lead singer/bassist Tom Godleski began Buncombe Turnpike in the fall of 1997. The group plays a variety of heartfelt tunes ranging from traditional and contemporary bluegrass to gospel and hand-crafted Buncombe Turnpike originals. With its crowd-pleasing demeanor, seasoned musicianship and powerful vocals, the band has made a name for themselves among traditional and contemporary listeners alike in Western North Carolina and greater Southern Appalachia.
Tickets are $20 adults, $10 ages 6-16. Free for ages 6 and under. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, call 828.369.4080 or go to coweeschool.org/music.
Chamber music returns to Waynesville
The popular Chamber Music Society of the Carolinas (CMSC) will conclude its annual summer residency at 4 p.m. Sunday, July 28, at First United Methodist Church in Waynesville. Featuring the Jasper String Quartet, Tesla Quartet and other talented special guests, performances are creative, joyful, up-close and intimate.
“It’s music that transcends sitting in your seat,” said J Freivogel, founding and current first violinist of the Jasper String Quartet. “Experience the thrilling nature of live performance during the CMSC concerts. Come hear top-notch musicians and see their craft up close. Watch the way they create — and hear the musical ‘conversation’ between instruments.”
Tickets are $30 per person. Students will be admitted free. Donations to the CMSC can be made online and are appreciated to support these performances.
For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to cms-carolinas.com. Tickets are also available at the door by cash/check.
• Saturdays On Pine (Highlands) will host The Breakfast Club July 27 and The Holiday Band Aug. 3 at Kelsey-Hutchinson Park on Pine Street. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. highlandschamber.org.
• Scotsman (Waynesville) will host Rene Russell (Americana/rock) July 25, The Borrowed Band (country) July 27 and Moonshine State Aug. 1. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.246.6292 / scotsmanpublic.com.
• Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will host “Take Me Home: The Music Of John Denver” (Americana/folk) 7:30 p.m. Aug. 3. Tickets start at $18 per person, with upgrade options available. 866.273.4615 / smokymountainarts.com.
On the street
Ready for the Gemboree?
The 57th annual Macon County Gemboree will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. July 26-27 and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 28 at the Macon County Community Building in Franklin.
Rough and cut gems, minerals, fine jewelry, supplies, beads, door prizes, dealers, exhibits, demonstrations and more. Sponsored by the Franklin Chamber of Commerce and the Macon County Gem & Mineral Society.
Daily admission is $3 and free for ages 15 and under. For more information, call 828.524.3161 or visit franklinchamber.com.
• Stecoah Valley Center (Robbinsville) will host a Community Jam 5:30-7:30 p.m. every third Thursday of the month, Mac Arnold & Plate Full O’Blues (blues/rock) July 27 ($18 adults, $10 students) and Mean Mary (Americana/country) Aug. 3 ($18 adults, $10 students). All shows begin at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 828.479.3364 / stecoahvalleycenter.com.
• Yonder Community Market (Franklin) will host Jim Austin Classic Country Band (Americana/country) 6:30 p.m. every first and third Thursday of the month (free) and Will Kimbrough (singer-songwriter) 4 p.m. July 28 ($20 suggested donation). Admission by encouraged donation unless otherwise noted as a ticketed event. Family friendly, dog friendly. 828.200.2169 / eatrealfoodinc.com.
• Find more at smokymountainnews.com/arts
• “Mountain Street Dance” will be held from 6:30-9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 9, in front of the historic courthouse in downtown Waynesville. Live mountain music (Haywood Ramblers) and clogging (Southern Appalachian Cloggers). Caller will be Joe Sam Queen. Participation encouraged. Free to attend. For more information, go to downtownwaynesville.com/events.
• Grumpy Bear Campground & RV Park (Bryson City) will host a “Native American Show” 6 p.m. on
Macon County Gemboree returns July 26-28. File photo
• Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will host semi-regular stage productions on the weekends. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, call 866.273.4615 or go to smokymountainarts.com.
• Peacock Performing Arts Center (Hayesville) will host semi-regular stage productions on the weekends. All shows begin at 7:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. on Sundays unless otherwise noted. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to thepeacocknc.org or call 828.389.ARTS.
• Highlands Performing Arts Center will host semi-regular stage productions on the weekends. For more information, a full schedule of events and/or to purchase tickets, go to highlandsperformingarts.com.
On the wall
• Macon County Public Library (Franklin) will host artist Norma Hendrix at 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 24. Hendrix will speak of her recent creative endeavors in Wales and also reading from her latest writings. Her work will also be on display at the library throughout the month of July. Free and open to the public. 828.524.3600 or fontanalib.org.
• Marianna Black Library (Bryson City) will host “ArtWorks” at 1 p.m. every second Thursday of the month, with the next workshop being Aug. 8. Come create your own masterpiece. The materials for art works are supplied and participants are welcome to bring ideas and supplies to share with each other. Free and open to the public. To register, please call the library at 828.488.3030 or email vroberson@fontanalib.org.
• “July Makers Market” will be held from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 27, in The Lineside at Frog Level Brewing in Waynesville. Local arts/crafts vendors and more. Free and open to the public. 828.454.5664 or froglevelbrewing.com.
• Nantahala Arts & Crafts Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 27, at the Nantahala River Rafting launch corner at the intersection of U.S. 19/74 and Wayah Road. Local/regional artisan vendors and more. For more information, call 407.973.4020 or email leewalters@hotmail.com.
• Nantahala Outdoor Center (Nantahala Gorge) will host a “Summer Artisan Market” from noon to 5 p.m. the second Saturday of the month (May-September). Free and open to the public. noc.com.
• “Art & Artisan Walk” will be held from 58 p.m. every third Thursday of the month
HART to present ‘Footloose’
(May-December) in Bryson City. Stroll the streets in the evening and discover handcrafted items, artwork, jewelry, pottery, antiques and more. Look for the yellow and blue balloons identifying participating businesses hosting artists. greatsmokies.com.
• “Art After Dark” will be held from 6-9 p.m. each first Friday of the month (May-December) in downtown Waynesville. Main Street transforms into an evening of art, live music, finger foods, beverages and shopping as artisan studios and galleries keep their doors open later for local residents and visitors alike. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, go to downtownwaynesville.com.
ALSO:
• Marianna Black Library (Bryson City) will host an adult arts and crafts program at 1 p.m. every second Thursday of the month. Ages 16 and up. Space is limited to 10 participants. Free and open to the public. To register, call 828.488.3030 or email vroberson@fontanalib.org.
• CRE828 (Waynesville) will offer a selection of art classes and workshops at its studio located at 1283 Asheville Road. Workshops will include art journaling, watercoloring, mixed media, acrylic painting and more. For a full list of classes, go to cre828.com. For more information on CRE828, email dawn@cre828.com or call 828.283.0523.
• Gallery Zella (Bryson City) will be hosting an array of artist receptions, exhibits and showcases. The gallery is open from noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. For more information, go to galleryzella.com or call 517.881.0959.
• Waynesville Photography Club meets at 7
A special production of “Footloose” will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. July 25-27 and 2 p.m. July 28 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville. This high-energy musical promises to ignite the stage with unforgettable performances, classic 1980s hits and a compelling story of youthful rebellion and the quest for freedom.
In the small town of Bomont, dancing and loud music are forbidden, and the joy of youth is stifled by rigid conformity.
Enter Ren McCormack, a spirited teenager from Chicago, who challenges the oppressive norms and ignites a movement that changes the town forever.
Under the direction of HART’s talented team, “Footloose” explores themes of individuality, expression and the transformative power of art.
p.m. every third Monday each month on the second floor of the Haywood Regional Health & Fitness Center in Clyde. The club is a nonprofit organization that exists for the enjoyment of photography and the improvement of one’s skills. They welcome photographers of all skill levels to share ideas and images at the monthly meetings. For more information, email waynesvillephotoclub@charter.net or follow them on Facebook: Waynesville Photography Club.
• Haywood County Arts Council (Waynesville) will offer a wide-range of classes, events and activities for artisans, locals and visitors. The HCAC gallery is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays. For more information and a full schedule, go to haywoodarts.org.
• Jackson County Green Energy Park (Dillsboro) will be offering a slew of classes, events and activities for artisans, locals and visitors. For more information and a full schedule, go to jcgep.org.
• Southwestern Community College Swain Arts Center (Bryson City) will host an array of workshops for adults and kids. For more information on the upcoming classes and/or to sign-up, go to southwesterncc.edu/scc-locations/swaincenter.
• Dogwood Crafters in Dillsboro will offer a selection of upcoming art classes and workshops. For more information and a full schedule of activities, go to dogwoodcrafters.com/classes or call 828.586.2248.
• Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center (Franklin) will host semi-regular arts and crafts workshops. For more information, go to coweeschool.org/events.
“‘Footloose’ is not just a nostalgic romp through the neon-lit streets of the 80s,” said HART Artistic Director & Director of Footloose Candice Dickinson. “It’s a testament to the enduring power of art to transcend boundaries and spark revolutions. At its core, Footloose is a rallying cry for individuality, expression and the relentless pursuit of freedom.”
With a cast of 37 performers ranging from seasoned HART veterans to fresh faces making their stage debut, audiences can expect powerhouse performances of iconic 1980’s anthems such as “Holdin’ Out for a Hero,” “Let’s Hear it for the Boy,” “Almost Paradise” and “Footloose.”
To make reservations, call the HART Box Office at 828.456.6322 or go to harttheatre.org. HART Box Office hours are Tuesday-Friday from noon to 5 p.m. HART is located at 250 Pigeon St. in Waynesville.
Waynesville art walk, live music
A cherished gathering of locals and visitors alike, “Art After Dark” will continue its 2024 season from 6-9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2, in downtown Waynesville.
Each first Friday of the month (MayDecember), Main Street transforms into an evening of art, live music, finger foods, beverages and shopping as artisan studios and galleries keep their doors open later for local residents and visitors alike.
The event is free and open to the public. For more information, go to downtownwaynesville.com.
Experience ‘Textures’ at Haywood Arts
The Haywood County Arts Council’s (HCAC) latest exhibit, “Textures,” will run through Sept. 1 at the HCAC gallery on Main Street in downtown Waynesville.
Showcasing a rich tapestry of artistic mediums including ceramics, woodwork, felt, mosaic, fabric, macrame, collage and more, this diversified exhibition promises to have something for every art enthusiast.
For more information, go to haywoodarts.org.
A piece by Richard Baker. File photo
Works by Lindsay Keeling will be displayed at HCAC. Donated photo
‘Footloose’ will play on select dates in July at HART. Donated photo
The ‘Anxious Generation’ – Part l
Amonth ago I called my brother-in-law, known to all the family as Uncle Jim, to ask a favor. He readily said yes to the favor, then said he had one for me. He wanted me to read “The Anxious Generation,” the book about the first generation to go through adolescence with smartphones.
“It’s data-driven,” he said. “It’s not opinion.” Uncle Jim is a medical doctor. Data, or evidence, is fundamental to his thinking. He is also a grandfather, and that fact has led him to push this book. Jim has grandchildren under the age of 10. He wants the problems addressed by the book to be recognized and to be on the path of correction before his grandchildren are teenagers.
executives,” says Haidt, choose schools for their children “where screen use is prohibited.”
Though humans in general are “comparison machines,” writes Haidt, quoting one of his colleagues, adolescents are extremely sensitive to comparison. They are, in general, less secure socially and more susceptible
The author, Jonathan Haidt, psychologist and professor, intended to write a book about the damage that social media does to democracy, but while exploring the research he changed his mind. “I realized that the adolescent mental health story was so much bigger than I had thought. It wasn’t just an American story, it was a story playing out across many Western nations. It wasn’t just about girls, it was about boys, too. And it wasn’t just about social media. It was about the radical transformation of childhood into something inhuman: a phone-based existence.”
He pivoted and, with much support from others who saw the problems, wrote “The Anxious Generation” (2024, Penguin Press, 367 pp).
Many American health professionals began to notice a sudden increase in anxiety and depression in preteens and teens, especially girls, in the early 2010s. The data supported the observations. Increases in anxiety and depression were found in both selfreports and rates of emergency room visits. The later COVID lockdowns exacerbated the problems, but “the great majority of the rise was in place” beforehand.
Early studies showed a strong correlation with expanding social media use. Later studies, using control groups, showed that heavy use of social media can actually cause anxiety and depression in girls, with the greatest harm being to girls from ages 11 to 13.
The smartphone was introduced in 2007. It was basically a tool. Then began the race to claim as much of a user’s attention as possible. With competition over apps, with specific content being pushed to individuals, the “like” and “retweet” buttons, the frontfacing camera allowing easy self-portraits, the increasing speeds which offered more and more rapid delivery, the hooks were in place. Those entering puberty, the age to take the journey from childhood to adulthood, were the most vulnerable. “Many tech
social media use beyond the time involved. “Children did not evolve to handle the virality, anonymity, instability and potential for large-scale public shaming of the virtual world. Even adults have trouble with it.”
When Haidt says that we should be delaying smartphone and social media use in children, parents usually agree, but think that it is too late. It’s not too late, insists the author. When the “Titanic” sunk, he says, it’s two sister ships were taken to dry dock and reworked.
to peer pressure. We all know this. Is it always healthy for them to spend lots of time posting pictures of their lives, searching for “likes”? Is it always healthy for girls to spend hours looking at unlimited pictures of impossibly thin or beautiful young women, some of whose photos have been altered?
Most parents that Haidt talks to are concerned about phone use. For some, it’s a matter of too-often conflict at home over rules. Most parents worry that phone use is “unnatural.” They wonder if their child is missing something important by spending so much time on the phone. Studies by social psychologists support these concerns. We humans are meant to interact, in the present moment, with real, physical people. Not all the time, obviously, but often. In addition to social deprivation, Haidt discusses attention fragmentation. His own college and graduate students are notified multiple times an hour by their phones for news items or emails or messages. And then there are the problems of sleep deprivation and actual addiction.
There are specific problems with heavy
We now know the harmful effects of childhood phone use, and we can act by working together. The parent group Wait Until 8th is highlighted. Parents signs a pledge to delay giving their child a smartphone, but the pledge is not considered binding until 10 families in each grade sign, giving a child some peer support. (Haidt would prefer Wait Until 9th, which is what the data supports.) Schools can require that phones be locked up. Laws can be passed that require age verification for social media use. Parents can dictate that there be no screens in bedrooms, or at least after bedtime.
Some of the most encouraging news comes from Haidt’s experience with his own students and the young audiences he speaks with. They are primarily from Gen Z, the kids who were born after 1995, the kids who first went through puberty with smartphones, the ones he calls the Anxious Generation. These kids “are not in denial.” Most want to be healthier, and “are open to new ways of interacting.” They also want to change the world. “In the last year or so, I’ve been hearing about an increasing number of young people who are turning their attention to the ways the tech industry exploits them.” They will find new solutions, Haidt believes.
In the meantime, Haidt is convinced about several reforms that he considers crucial. Two of them are:
• No smartphones before high school.
• No social media before 16.
In Part ll in next week’s SMN, we will look what is happening with boys, and hear the story of the happy results from a school experiment in neighboring South Carolina.
(Anne Bevilacqua is a book lover who lives in Haywood County. abev1@yahoo.com.)
gives a new start to orphaned fawns
BY C ORY VAILLANCOURT STAFF W RITER
Nestled away on seven acres in a nondescript warehouse above Canton, not visible from the road, sits an animal rehab facility unlike most others in this wild and rugged region.
People here are crazy about the outdoors. That enthusiasm translates not only to Western North Carolina’s flora, but also its fauna, so on a steamy July afternoon in the heart of the busy season, volunteers at the Edith Allen Wildlife Sanctuary are working hard to keep up with dozens of hungry little mouths.
“We used to just do little mammals, like squirrels and rabbits,” said Gwen Landt, who owns the sanctuary with her husband, David. “But one day, some lady brought us a deer.”
That was the start of a decade-long mission to rehabilitate some of the most vulnerable, adorable ungulates one could ever hope to lay eyes on — newborn fawns.
Seeing them, however, is another matter entirely.
Their brownish-red polka-dotted coats make them difficult to spot in the wild, and their evolutionary instincts compel them to get low and stay still while mom’s away during the day munching on the vegetation that
Outdoors
to fight for even the ones that she knew probably would not make it.”
That particular fawn didn’t.
“His little legs were deformed, so she splinted them. He lived for five days, but for those five days, he got to stand up,” Wilson said. “For those five days he got to stand up and be a deer.”
The work isn’t easy and can be overwhelming, especially at this time of year, Landt explained. The majority of fawns are born in June. Most first-time mothers will give birth to a single fawn, but twins and triplets become more common with each subsequent pregnancy. Almost as soon as they’re born, the fawns begin to encounter trouble. During a late July visit to the sanctuary by The Smoky Mountain News, Landt said she had roughly 50.
The smallest and most imperiled begin their stay in the nursery, where microwaves hum while warming milk and incubators shine with the warmth that helps the fawns keep their body temperatures stable. They’re voraciously hungry, hand-fed and by the end of breakfast groggy, with their swollen little bellies protruding from their sides, just above their spindly, awkward legs.
When they grow larger, they’re moved to a part of the sanctuary called “the barn,” which is a large fenced area away from regular human contact. Here, no less voracious, the fawns jockey for position near racks of baby bottles they drain quickly. Eventually, they’re weaned from the bottle and start eating what their relatives in the wild do.
horrific injuries — whipped by weed whackers, mauled by lawnmowers, mangled by cars whose owners don’t know they’re hiding out under the oil pan.
Some predators can see them, so fawns that aren’t killed outright come away with lifethreatening, debilitating bites from dogs and coyotes.
When their mothers stray into misfortune, struck by a car or unethically poached by hunters out of season, fawns will usually remain in place, waiting patiently and indefinitely for a visit that will never come.
Dehydration sets in quickly, as do the maggots that begin to devour still-living flesh right from their tiny bodies. Without help, the fate of orphaned fawns is certain death.
occurrence, right outside her bathroom window.
A doe had given birth to triplets in Wilson’s garden but abandoned one that was in bad shape. Wilson began calling around, trying to find out what to do with it, when she found Landt, who told her to bring the fawn
Nearly all Landt’s tricks of the trade are self-taught.
“There's nowhere to go to school for this, to be a deer rehabilitator. And the pay is really bad,” she joked. “But the benefits outweigh that.”
Karen Wilson spends most days during the summer coming from Black Mountain to volunteer at the sanctuary, feeding and clean-
“She took care of him day and night, around the clock,” said Wilson. “I just fell in love with her compassion and her willingness
During season, Landt said she estimates she spends at least $100 a day caring for the fawns, including medication and veterinarian consultations. The money mostly comes out of her own pocket, although volunteer support has been overwhelming.
“It isn’t cheap, but we are so lucky, because this whole community brings their overgrown squash to my door, and their overgrown cucumbers and all these apples,” she says, pointing to a big box of bruised but otherwise beautiful red apples. “Volunteers come to feed the deer and sometimes they bring milk, so we're able to give them the very, very
The Landts are not new to the animal rehab game. David’s mother, Edith Allen, was an underwater mermaid who performed in the campy Florida tourist shows of the 1950s and 1960s. Landt said Allen also took care of the animals that were part of the show, including babies that appeared in some of the original “Tarzan” movies.
Allen’s brother, Ross Allen, was a renowned herpetologist who established a reptile institute, milked snakes and developed a number of anti-venoms — some of which protected American F
Fawns are especially vulnerable and can become orphaned for a variety of reasons. Cory Vaillancourt photo
You can help
For about a decade, the Edith Allen Wildlife Sanctuary in rural Haywood County has helped give a new start to some of the most vulnerable animals that surround us day and night. Orphaned fawns, some sick or injured, require intensive care, feeding and grooming before they can be returned from whence they came, but you can help make sure their rehabilitation sets them up for success. The sanctuary can always use donations, but not necessarily cash — fresh produce is always welcome, and their Amazon wish list includes mostly cleaning materials, medical necessities and standard office supplies like puppy “pee pads,” wound gel, Gatorade, garden hoses and lightbulbs. For more information the Edith Allen Wildlife Sanctuary or to contact owner Gwen Landt directly, visit facebook.com/edithallenwildlife.
troops during World War II.
This was kind of animal-loving environment in which Gwen’s husband David Landt was raised.
“He grew up with a Capuchin monkey,” Gwen laughed. “His uncle had an otter that would literally get up out of the pond and walk right through the front door of their house. We have eight-millimeter and blackand-white pictures of him wrestling alligators and anacondas underwater. He was the original Steve Irwin, I believe.”
a picture of it and send it to me. I can analyze from a picture very well whether a fawn is in need of care or not. Before you take any animal out of the wild — because people pick up little baby fledging birds and bring them to me when their mom is right there in the tree, taking care of them — call and get advice, because good Samaritans sometimes can cause more damage than good.”
Landt’s sanctuary is not a petting zoo; her ultimate goal is to return the deer to the woods. Measures are taken to keep them as wild and as wary of humans as humanly possible.
“It's almost impossible to raise a completely wild deer,” she said. “We don't have any choice but to be their mothers when they're in the nursery. When they go to the barn, we slowly start limiting our contact with them. We won't talk around them. We might even spook them just a little bit. Once they're all weaned, we don't go in there with them. The volunteers will go and throw food over the side of the fence and somebody else will run in and do the water and the grain and the vegetables.”
Around September each year, Landt starts to leave the gate on the barn open, allowing the fawns — now ready to survive on their own — to leave when they’re ready.
“They’re free to come and go as they please, and eventually they'll just go and not come back,” she said.
Then, nine months later, the cycle begins anew.
It’s hard work. Restless nights. Early
Larger fawns are fed separately from smaller ones, so each one gets their fill.
More than 40 years ago, the Landts established a grooming, boarding and training facility for cats and dogs in Waynesville. Today, it’s called Rahama Kennel and Cattery, and it prepared them for the cost, and the benefits, of the sanctuary they now run.
Not all fawns are in need of rescuing, Landt said, and she cautioned people from interfering with a situation they might not understand — often, mothers will return unseen, feed their babies and return to grazing. Eventually, momma will move her babies to a different spot.
“Don't walk up to it,” she said. “Just take
mornings. Triumphant victories tempered with heartbreaking losses. Deer aren’t even remotely considered an endangered species, and out of all the ways Gwen and David Landt could spend their golden years, Gwen was succinct when asked why she bothers at all.
“Because it matters to them,” she said. “I mean, they're these precious little innocent babies that have been displaced by man and that's not what I would call, ‘Let nature take its course.’ That's not nature. We did this. So I'm going to be there to pick them up and give them the best start I can.”
Cory Vaillancourt photo
Severe drought expands in WNC
The North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council (DMAC) expanded its severe drought classification and classified two counties as in extreme drought in the latest advisory issued Thursday.
voirs typically see higher demand for water during the summer, and the ongoing drought conditions could result in water restrictions. Some counties have updated their water conservation status on ncdrought.org.
DMAC classified parts of Columbus and Yadkin counties as in extreme drought (D3 classification) in the latest drought advisory. In addition, DMAC expanded the severe drought (D2 classification) to 26 counties. Parts of 49 counties were classified as in moderate drought, while 21 counties were classified as abnormally dry. Seven of the state’s counties west of Buncombe have areas in a severe drought.
The drought map came out Thursday, July 19, meaning weekend rains have since fallen across the region.
Groundwater and surface water reser-
For counties in severe drought, or D2, DMAC recommends water users should implement Water Shortage Response Plans, participate in regional and local coordination for the management of water resources, reexamine water delivery systems to minimize water loss and maximize efficiency, and eliminate nonessential users of water.
Counties in moderate drought, or D1, should Adhere to local water use restrictions, and participate, as appropriate, in regional and local coordination for the management of water resources.
Beekeeper group to host Varroa testing demo
Smoky Mountain Beekeepers’ August meeting will be held at the apiary at Mountain Discovery Charter School located at the top of Brendle Street in Bryson City.
Attendees will perform a hive inspection, and then host N.C. State Apiary Inspector Lewis Cauble will demonstrate the “sugar shake” method for determining the varroa mite load. Meeting will begin at 11 a.m. Aug. 3. Light lunch and refreshments will be provided. Please RSVP by sending an email to smokymtnbeekeeper@gmail.com.
Waynesville project seeks to elevate quality of life
The Town of Waynesville is applying for the Urban and Community Forestry Financial Assistance Program grant.
The goal is to implement the "Keeping Waynesville Beautiful Project,” which would aim to address several critical needs related to urban and community forestry.
“We have identified a pressing need for the enhancement of the town's urban tree population and the implementation of sustainable tree maintenance practices in two census tracts that include over half of the Waynesville population,” a news release states. “Furthermore, fostering community
engagement and awareness about the importance of urban and community forestry is essential.”
By addressing these needs, the project seeks to elevate the overall quality of living in Waynesville while ensuring the long-term health and sustainability of urban and community forests.
The Town of Waynesville is seeking letters of support from community businesses and organizations that are interested in the beautification of Waynesville and the maintenance of local trees. Those letters can be submitted to cmiller@waynesvillenc.gov by July 31.
Farmers market hosts Styrofoam disposal event
Bring unwanted Styrofoam by the Haywood County Farmers Market Saturday, July 27. Community members can bring their non-food-grade Styrofoam to the market to be condensed into bricks and diverted to the landfill.
Highlands lecture series to host NASA scientist
The Highlands Biological Foundation (HBF) announced the next lecture in their Zahner Conservation Lecture Series, taking place at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 1, at the Highlands Nature Center.
The lecture, titled "The Surface Water and Ocean Topography Mission: NASA’s New Eye in the Sky for Earth’s Water," will be delivered by Dr. Tamlin Pavelsky, a renowned professor of global hydrology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A small reception will follow.
In this talk, Dr. Pavelsky will share insights into NASA's Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) Mission, which was launched in December 2022 after nearly two decades of development. This mission aims to deliver unprecedented measurements of Earth's surface water, including rivers, lakes, and oceans. Using advanced radar technology, SWOT tracks detailed variations in water levels, providing valu-
able data on water storage, river flow, and ocean currents. Attendees will get an exclusive look at some of the initial findings from this groundbreaking mission.
Dr. Pavelsky earned his PhD in geography from UCLA in 2008. His research has focused on understanding the global distribution of water in rivers, lakes, and mountain snowpack using satellite imagery, field measurements, and regional climate models. Since 2013, he has served as the hydrology science lead for the SWOT satellite mission. For his work leading the surface water community towards solutions for measuring river flow from space, Dr. Pavelsky was awarded a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government to early-career researchers. Growing up in central Alaska in cabins without electricity or running water, Dr. Pavelsky's unique background has deeply influenced his research trajectory.
Haywood Waterways hosts annual picnic
The nonprofit Haywood Waterways is inviting members and supporters to gather for its annual picnic to be held at the Hemphill Bald Learning Center. The picnic will be held 4:30-6:30 p.m. on Aug. 10.
Those interested in attending should RSVP to Christine O'Brien by Wednesday, Aug. 7, at 828.476.4667, ext. 1 or christine@haywoodwaterways.org.
Youth fishing event in Cherokee
The Talking Trees Children’s Trout Derby will be held from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 3 at the Oconaluftee River Islands Park in Cherokee.
Fishing poles and bait will be provided, and participants will get a t-shirt. There will also be opportunities to win prizes.
Children from age 3-11 are welcome to participate. This event is accessible to children with disabilities.
Children will each receive a meal ticket, and food trucks will be on-hand to feed the parents.
In-person registration will be held Aug. 2 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Cherokee Welcome Center, and online can be completed at visitcherokeenc.com/events/talking-trees-childrens-trout-fishing-derby.
Word from the Smokies
Park program welcomes people with disabilities into the backcountry
“dream come true” she’d thought to be impossible.
“As parents of a disabled young adult,” one family wrote, “this gives us hope that things are finally changing for the better.” Ranger-led outings fill up fast, but wheelchair users can explore the park anytime by reserving one of the four GRIT Freedom Chairs the park now owns, thanks to support from the same organizations that funded the programming. The chairs are available Mondays and Tuesdays at Sugarlands Visitor Center on a first-come, first-served basis, and they’re reservable online Wednesday through Sunday. Users must register at least three business days in advance and can do so up to 30 days ahead of time. After registration, a staff member will reach out to verify the chairs meet the person’s needs and abilities. Then, a volunteer will be assigned to meet at the chosen trail, ensuring the person is comfortable with the equipment before embarking. Wheelchair users can bring their own trail buddy or hike with the volunteer.
Gthe stunningly diverse landscape of nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park, she was giving it her all on the soccer field. In adulthood, she became a wildland firefighter for the National Park Service.
Then, in 2002, she suffered a line-of-duty spinal cord injury while deployed in Oregon. Ever since, Pearson has been paralyzed from the waist down.
“One of the harder parts of that injury for me was that, after having children, I couldn’t share my enjoyment of nature with them in the same way that I experienced it growing up,” said Pearson, who now serves as ADA coordinator for Knox County, Tennessee, and volunteers with Catalyst Sports, a nonprofit dedicated to providing recreational opportunities for people with physical disabilities. “For 20 years, almost, I didn’t really go to the park that much, because it frustrated me to not be able to get past the overlook.”
Now, a partnership between the park, Catalyst, and Knox County is making the Smokies more accessible than it’s ever been before. Whether by participating in a menu of free ranger programs or taking a hike using one of the park’s new, reservable, offroad wheelchairs, people with disabilities can keep exploring after the pavement ends.
Leading the effort is Park Ranger Katie Corrigan, who started investigating options for accessible backcountry adventure after a 2019 encounter with a pair of veterans in the park’s Cosby area. They wanted to know what opportunities were available for them in the Smokies, given their physical disabilities. Coming shortly after Corrigan’s father had suffered a stroke, the conversation struck a personal chord.
from the National Environmental Education Foundation that allowed it to purchase two GRIT Freedom Chairs, capable of crossing streams and navigating rocks and roots, and to partner with Catalyst Sports and Knox County to offer three adaptive hikes and one biking excursion. The adventures drew a total of 220 people, including 44 people using adaptive technologies.
“I never knew my park service career would go in this direction, but I'm really honored to be part of this program,” said Corrigan, adding that she’s “never had a
climbing events and winning multiple championships. In 2019, she did nearly 70 miles of the Camino de Santiago in Spain using an off-road wheelchair. Now, she considers it a joy to leverage her 22 years of wheelchair experience to help ensure adaptive program participants are comfortable and confident on the trail.
“I’m just so happy to help other people, because someone helped me early on in my recreational endeavors and my sports over,” she said. “I just had to figure out a way
Corrigan began investigating the possibilities. The first step, she learned, was to measure the trails for key metrics like width, incline, and obstacles so people with disabilities could make informed decisions about where to go. Smokies staff spent more than 150 hours over two months conducting site
Currently, the chairs can be used on Gatlinburg Trail, the first 2.4 miles of Little River Trail, the back route to Cataract Falls, Sugarlands Valley Nature Trail, Bradley Fork Trail, Oconaluftee River Trail, Deep Creek Trail to Indian Creek Falls, Middle Prong Trail, John Oliver Trail, Elijah Oliver Trail and the areas around Sugarlands, Oconaluftee, and Cades Cove visitor centers. The park service is working to expand that list.
“We want the public to understand that Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a place for all people, including people with mobility needs,” said Corrigan. “We are striving to be an inclusive outdoor community where everyone can enjoy the outdoors with their friends and family.”
Last year’s success paved the way for more funding and expanded offerings in 2024. This summer, with support from Friends of the Smokies and Kampgrounds of America Foundation, the park offered a hike and boat tour at Hazel Creek, a kayaking experience on Fontana Lake, and an overnight backcountry adventure at Abrams Creek. Two hikes and two biking trips are scheduled for the fall, with each activity offered twice on the scheduled day.
able to help other people get out there and participate.”
The Smokies is leading the way in these efforts, but it is not alone. State park systems in both Tennessee and North Carolina offer a range of accessible features, including accessible hiking and kayaking programs in multiple North Carolina parks and reservable all-terrain wheelchairs at 22 Tennessee state parks. Catalyst recently applied for a grant from the National Forest Community Recreation Fund that would fund an adaptive recreation event in the Pisgah National Forest, as well as data collection and trail accessibility inventory. Several other national parks also offer all-terrain wheelchairs, though not ranger programs like those in the Smokies.
“We opened a door that isn’t going to close behind us,” said Pearson. “That’s my hope at least.”
Since her injury, Pearson has found many
For many participants, the experience has been transformational. Pearson recalls one woman, an avid hiker before suffering a stroke, who cried “happy tears” for most of one hiking program, so ecstatic was she to be out in the woods again. Another woman, a mother of twin girls, glowed as her children ran circles around her while they hiked together along a river. The experience was a
(Holly Kays is the lead writer for the 29,000member Smokies Life, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the scientific, historical, and interpretive activities of Great Smoky Mountains National Park by providing educational products and services such as this column. Learn more at SmokiesLife.org or reach the author at hollyk@smokieslife.org. To register for upcoming adaptive programs or reserve a hiking chair, visit catalystsports.org/great-smoky-mountainadaptive-hike-bike. To volunteer with the program, send an email using the form at nps.gov/grsm/contacts.htm. For trail accessibility information, visit nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/trail-access-information.htm.)
From left, ADA coordinator for Knox County and volunteer for Catalyst Sports Carly Pearson, program participant Cecil Williams, and Park Ranger Katie Corrigan smile during an adaptive outing at Hazel Creek. Catalyst Sports photo
Katie Corrigan checks in with a participant.
Jim Matheny, Friends of the Smokies photo
Park Ranger Katie Corrigan helps Carly Peterson, ADA coordinator for Knox County and volunteer for Catalyst Sports, navigate a creek crossing on Cooper Road Trail.
Jim Matheny, Friends of the Smokies photo
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SUDOKU
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