Smoky Mountain Living Aug. 2011

THE LURE OF MOUNTAIN LAKES • EXTREME OUTDOORS • A FASHIONABLE SPIN ON WNC’S ART SCENE • DESTINATION: TELLICO PLAINS, TENN.

Smoky Mountain L I V I N G

HIGH COUNTRY & GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS OF NORTH CAROLINA & TENNESSEE

Set adrift on memory bliss Antique and classic boats

How to use sustainable landscaping

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 • VOL. 11 • NO. 4

smliv.com

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER • 2011

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OUTSIDE IN

$5.95US $6.95CAN

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Organic farming advocate and child-activist Birke Baehr

Adventure on two wheels:

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74820 08682

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Tellico Plains, Tenn.

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ANDREWS 828-321-2050 BAKERSVILLE 828-688-5800 BLOWING ROCK 828-295-8072 BREVARD-DOWNTOWN 828-884-3649 BREVARD-STRAUS PARK 828-884-2600 BRYSON CITY 828-488-1168 BURNSVILLE 828-682-9992 CASHIERS 828-743-6600 CHEROKEE 828-497-3734 ETOWAH 828-890-3600 FRANKLIN 828-369-6197 HAYESVILLE 828-389-6363 HENDERSONVILLE 828-698-5684 MURPHY 828-837-9291 NEWLAND 828-733-9281 ROBBINSVILLE 828-479-3037 SPRUCE PINE 828-766-8880 SYLVA 828-631-9166 SYLVA-ASHEVILLE HWY. 828-631-9600 WAYNESVILLE 828-452-0307

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I can’t live without time with my dog.

I can live without pain.

Nothing is more disheartening than the inability to enjoy your favorite activities.

Playing fetch with her dog was too painful for Renee until she discovered the Pardee Orthopedic Center of Excellence. Our center ranks among the top orthopedic programs in the region and nation. We achieve this ranking by meeting the highest standards for quality of care, use of technology and staffing expertise.

Renee can’t live without time with her dog.

But now she lives without pain.

To find a doctor, call 1-866-790-WELL.

Watch Renee’s story.

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Renee Reeves Pardee Orthopedic Patient

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es nt

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WELCOME

from the managing editor

When I was little, my grandfather—Pop—used to take me fishing at a pond not too far from his house in Taylorsville, N.C. Since I was only about age six or seven, I didn’t have much of a cast and always worried desperately that instead of flinging my hook into the water, I would lose my grip and sling the entire pole. Luckily that never happened.

However, I did wander off once when my pole was held in the crook of a small Y-shaped stick we’d driven into the ground—a traditional makeshift resting place. The line was in the water, the hook baited with yellow corn, and it didn’t take much of a fish to give the line a tug and pull the entire unattended pole into the pond. My face flushed red with mortification and my eyes bugged out in fear. Losing a hook was one thing. Losing a pole, well, that just wasn’t done.

My mistake taunted me, as for whatever miraculous reason, the pole floated—smack in the center of the pond. Pop, a much better fisherman than I, gave a few casts out toward the pole in the hopes of hooking it and reeling it back to shore. We had no such luck. Finally, the owners of the pond had to shove a canoe into the water, paddle out, and retrieve my dignity.

If he was mad, Pop never showed it, but I wasn’t much for fishing the rest of the day, so Pop headed out into the vegetable garden by the pond, picked a watermelon, and busted it open with an unceremonious drop on the ground. I sat on the steps of the little cabin that overlooked the pond and relished the sweet flesh made warm by the summer sun. We spit seeds, and Pop cut out some of the best chunks for me using his trusty pocketknife—the same one we used to cut fishing lines and bait.

This memory came flooding back to me while out on the edge of Tellico Lake in Tennessee. Standing there watching the sunset, I happened to look down at my feet and noticed a small Y-shaped stick lying on the ground next to two tree stumps. Someone clearly had been fishing.

Often we think intimate spaces are those in close-quarters among four walls, but some of my most personal and meaningful memories have been created outside. This edition of Smoky Mountain Living is dedicated to the outside— and we have explored that theme in a variety of ways from being in the great outdoors to, more abstractly, feeling like an outsider. We hope you enjoy it from the outside cover all the way through.

— Sarah E. Kucharski, managing editor

From the Web

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DONATED FAMILY PHOTO

My mistake taunted me, as for whatever miraculous reason, the pole floated—smack in the center of the pond. Pop, a much better fisherman than I, gave a few casts out toward the pole in the hopes of hooking it and reeling it back to shore. We had no such luck.

Mail your letter to Editor, P.O. Box 629, Waynesville, NC 28786 or email editor@smliv.com.

Summer in the mountains often brings afternoon thunderstorms, which cool off the evenings.

However, some days the rain settles in to stay. We asked our fans how they like to spend a rainy day, or any other day in the mountains.

Here are some of their replies:

the photos I took when it wasn’t raining, and three, studying travel brochures, guidebooks, magazines, and the web to plan my next mountain adventure—as soon as it stops raining!

— Kristina Plaas

Camp with my family.

Sitting on a porch somewhere listening to the rain on the roof or if a light rain, putting on a poncho and doing some hiking.

— Gene Harmon

Hike the Appalachian Trail.

One, sitting on the porch staring out into the misty woods. Two, staying indoors and editing

Reading SML or a good book!

— Valerie Lefebvre Collins SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 4

— Amanda Allen-Miller Just walk!

— Connie Shamblin DeBord

— Marie Morgan Connect with us at facebook.com/smliv!

Fans have access to special promotions and giveaways including subscriptions, tickets, and more.

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About the writers VOL. 11 • NUMBER 4 Publisher/Editor

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Scott McLeod

editor@smliv.com General Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Greg Boothroyd ads@smliv.com Advertising Manager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jason Nichols jason@smliv.com Managing Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sarah E. Kucharski sarah@smliv.com Art Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Travis Bumgardner travis@smliv.com

Gary Carden is a playwright, storyteller and dramatist who has been recognized by the North Carolina Folklore Society for his contributions to folklore. He has been doing book reviews for The Smoky Mountain News for more than a decade. Presently, he resides in his grandparents' old farm house with his dog, Jack, his kitty, Booger, and a rooster named Chauncey. He refused to give names to the groundhogs that live in his garden.

Graphics . . . . . . . . . Margaret Hester, Micah McClure

Ryn Hayes lives on a small farm in

Finance & Administration . . . Amanda Singletary

the wilds of Haywood County, NC. She graduated from the University of N.C. at Wilmington with a master’s degree in Literature and a bachelors in Professional and Creative Writing. Her work has appeared in: The N.C. Poetry Society, Celebration, Atlantis, and N.C. Humanities.

Sales

. . . . . . . . . . . Greg Boothroyd, Whitney Burton,

Scott Collier, Drew Cook, Lila Eason, Jason Nichols, Bob Vogt

Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jason Nichols Contributing Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gary Carden, DeeAnna Haney, Ryn Hayes, Joe Hooten, Alli Marshall, Jack Neely, Anna Oakes, Joel Osgood, Mary Silver, Rebecca Tolley-Stokes, Teresa Killian Tate Contributing Photographers . . . . . . Travis Bradey, Charlie Choc, Lori Fritts, Mark Galloway, Gene Harmon, Margaret Hester, Joe Hooten, Blake Madden, Vonda B. Magill, Micah McClure, Keith McCullar, Bob and Linda Miracle, Rebecca L. Neely, Joel Osgood, Sherry Shook, Mary Silver, Bill Trufant, Rosemary H. Williams, Larry Wright, Sandee Wright Contributing Illustrator . . . . . . . . Mandy Newham Smoky Mountain Living is published bi-monthly

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

For advertising information, contact Jason Nichols at 828.452.2251 or jason@smliv.com.

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

Smoky Mountain Living assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. Queries should be sent to Scott McLeod at editor@smliv.com. ©2011. All rights reserved. No portion of this magazine may be reprinted without the express, written consent of the publisher.

DeeAnna Haney, a Western North Carolina native, has an enduring love for the mountains.

After graduating from Appalachian State University in 2010, she worked in the communications department at the Asheville Art Museum and is currently with The Smoky Mountain News. Her interests include food of all kinds (particularly anything sweet), arts, entertainment, travel and cultural studies.

Haney’s daily life runs on caffeine, chocolate and cereal.

Alli Marshall is the lead Arts & Entertainment Reporter and Fashion Editor for Mountain Xpress. She’s also the creator of AshevilleStreetstyle.com, a blog documenting the unique street fashion of Asheville, N.C. Marshall has long WWW.SMLIV.COM

been interested in all aspects of fashion and style, but she’s especially inspired by North Carolina’s long history in the garment industry, from its cotton mills and traditional handicrafts to its contemporary small-batch textile mills, organic fibers and independent designers.

Jack Neely is a reporter and associate editor for Knoxville’s alternative weekly, Metro Pulse, maybe best known for his award-winning column, “Secret History,” about the city’s often-startling past. He is also the co-author of that paper’s fiendishly clever crossword puzzle, a monthly humor columnist for Knoxville Magazine, host of a weekly internet talk show called “The Scruffy Citizen,” lecturer on subjects ranging from local impressionism to white lightning, and sometime leader of absurdly lengthy literary pub crawls around his home town.

Joel Osgood is a registered Landscape Architect, serves on the North Carolina Advisory Council for The Trust for Public Land, and is an advocate for the use of green design initiatives in projects around the world and throughout Western North Carolina. He and his wife, Heather, a graphic designer, enjoy applying their creativity and design principles to their own home in West Asheville where they coexist with four cats and two dogs.

Teresa Killian Tate spends her working hours in the public relations field at Western Carolina University and her playing hours in the great outdoors, often on a bike and often with her husband and four-legged friends. She lives in Sylva, N.C. Contributors also include: Erin W. Davis, Anna Oakes, and Rebecca Tolly-Stokes.

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in this issue: Photo Essay: Outside Readers share their images of the outside world.

Young Sprout Birke Baehr is one precocious kid. His passion for organic farming is leading a charge for change one person at a time. By Jack Neely

Going to Xtremes Get higher, go further, and climb faster with the outdoor adventurers who make extreme sports part of their lives. Meet hang gliders, hikers of the mountains’ hardest trails, and rock climbers from around the region.

By Mary Silver, DeeAnna Haney and Anna Oakes

One With The Water The Blue Ridge Chapter of Antique and Classic Boats is preserving watercraft heritage. Boaters come together at Lake Chatuge for an annual gathering to rub a few hulls and rev their engines. By Teresa Killian Tate

Tradition Upon Their Sleeves Members of the Southern Highlands Craft Guild weave their way to modern art of a wearable nature, though the practice hearkens back to traditional skills.

These artists show that sometimes what is on the outside really does matter.

By Alli Marshall

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departments Mountain Music Richard Buckner, who has earned critical praise and fan acclaim alike and has endured more than a decade in the business, is back with “Our Blood.” 22

Arts Jack Tworkov at the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center and works about the Civil War at Knoxville’s Frank H. McClung Museum. 24

Sustainable Living Landscape architecture and a more thoughtful, sensitive, and sustainable approach to the land. 26

Destinations Tellico Plains, Tenn., is a motorcyclelover’s paradise, as it is located between the Cherohala Skyway and the Tail of the Dragon. But the tiny town has much more to offer with access to the Cherokee National Forest, Lake Tellico, gold mining, downtown shopping, historical Cherokee sites, and more.

By Sarah E. Kucharski

On the cover: A classic Chris-Craft speeds across Lake Chatuge at an annual gathering of the Blue Ridge Chapter of Antique and Classic Boats.

BOB MIRACLE PHOTO

Letters Hunting, gathering, and cooking, as well as stories about bugs. 28

Outdoors Saving a rare cranberry bog in Tennessee, hiking with canine companions in the GSMNP, and nature photography’s surge in popularity. 33

Out & About The Swag is a place of rustic respite high on the mountain. 34

Cuisine West Asheville gains a culinary gem in Pizzeria Ritrovo and a recipe for Carolina Coleslaw for those late summer cookouts. 36

Mountain Voices Storyteller Gary Carden recounts his youth and the comic heroes that were his friends. 38

resources: Shopping Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Shop Savvy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Select Lodging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Calendar of Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Dandridge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Asheville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Cherokee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 The High Country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Brevard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Waynesville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

WWW.SMLIV.COM

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Larry Wright

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today. — Dale Carnegie

Gene Harmon

Keith McCullar

Lori Fritts

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Bill Trufant

Summer is the time to live outside—outside our homes, outside our routines, outside the limits of age, outside our boundaries, outside ourselves. Seize the season to grow and explore with a sense of wild abandon and unbridled curiosity. What do you see when you look outside, and how has an outside become part of your inside?

Vonda B. Magill

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Rosemary H. Williams

The more faithfully you listen to the voices within you, the better you will hear what is sounding outside.

Dag Hammarskjold

Charlie Choc

Travis Bradey

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Sandee Wright

Sherry Shook Joe Hooten

Mark Galloway

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DEPARTMENT

destinations

Tellico Plains, TENNESSEE

A mountain town worth exploring— especially on two wheels

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The central square of Tellico Plains is tucked away amid a small gathering of shops and restaurants.

Though there’s not much by way of hustle and bustle, one can happily spend an afternoon in town.

Start with a late breakfast or early lunch at Tellico Grains Bakery. Forget eggs and sausage, grab one of the bakery’s bananas foster or blueberry scones, saucer-sized cinnamon buns, ham and cheese croissants, a Benton’s bacon and cheddar biscuit, or fresh quiche. Signature sandwiches are offered fro 11 to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday—the day the bakery gives its wood-fired oven over to pizzas. Everything that comes from Tellico Grains is extraordinary, and yearning taste buds will inevitably draw one back for more.

Shops begin to open around 10 or 11 a.m.

Scott Street Gallery is just across the way from Tellico Grains and features the work of Sheila Sanford Holbo, who draws her inspiration from the East Tennessee landscape. Other artists work also graces the

THE

SEQUOYAH

BIRTHPLACE MUSEUM 20th Annual Fall Festival September 10 & 11. • 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Admission $5 • Kids 12 & under are free.

576 Hwy 360 • P.O Box 69 Vonore, Tennessee

423.884.6246

Open Year Round • Mon-Sat 9-5 • Sun 12-5 Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Years 59241

Carrying an extensive selection of quality Adventure, Dual-Sport, Sport-Touring, and Touring motorcycling soft goods.

Opposite: Tellico Plains is a gateway to the mountains of East Tennessee. Inset: Tellico Square Café is a friendly place for a traditional breakfast. Above: the garden at the Stone Cottage welcomes visitors. SARAH E. KUCHARSKI PHOTOS

Olympia Moto Sports • Klim Firstgear • Alpinestar • Nexx Wolfman • Giant Loop Bags Connection • Cruz Tools Powerlet, Ram • ROK Straps Sokz • Nikwax

Town Square in Tellico Plains Cherohala Skyway and the gateway to the Cherokee National Forest

106A Scott St. | Tellico Plains, Tennessee | 423.253.2088 www.tellicomoto.com WWW.SMLIV.COM

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DEPARTMENT

destinations

SARAH E. KUCHARSKI PHOTOS

For bikes, the best of the best

A

t first glance Tellico Plains, Tenn. is a sleepy little town tucked away at the end of the Cherohala Skyway, but this is motorcycle country—a place where curvy roads and mountain views attract bikers from all over the country and even around the world.

Tellico Plains provides access to both the Cherohala Skyway and the infamous Tail of the Dragon. The 36-mile long Cherohala winds its way from North Carolina into Tennessee, crossing through the Cherokee and Nantahala National forests. The peak elevation is 5,390 at the Santeetlah Overlook. Overall, it is a gentle drive with long, sweeping curves and long-range scenic views, drawing comparisons to the Blue Ridge Parkway, though less traveled.

The Tail of the Dragon, US 129, is Cherohala’s mean second cousin. Boasting 318 curves in 11 miles, the Tail of the Dragon has become a proving ground for adventuresome drivers and bikers. It is ill advised for any but accomplished riders and drivers to make their way along the Dragon. Each year accidents abound with speed, carelessness, and inexperience with sharp and sloping curves coming into play. Pull outs to allow other drivers and riders to pass can be found along the road.

A loop can be made from Tellico Plains up Tennessee 360—a lovely and peaceful ride through rural East Tennessee and up past the Fort Loudoun State Historic Site and Sequoyah Birthplace Museum—over to Tennessee 72 via US 411, into North Carolina by the Dragon and

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back via the Cherohala Skyway. A worthwhile detour includes the Foothills Parkway, which runs from the Tennessee end of the Dragon toward Townsend, Tenn. where Tennessee 73 runs into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park not far from Cades Cove. Taking 73 to US 441 affords options of heading into Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge or cruising through the mountains and across the state line toward Cherokee, N.C., which is the southern terminus of the Blue Ridge Parkway—469 miles all on its own. The Parkway travels up to Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park. There is seemingly no end for wheeled entertainment in these mountains.

Towns along preferred motorcycle routes have come to embrace riders. In Tellico alone there is Cherohala Skyway Harley-Davidson and the in-town Tellico Motorcycle Outfitters.

Restaurant marquees feature the words “Bikers Welcome” above the day’s specials, and the Cherohala Skyway Visitor Center sells trip souvenirs geared toward those on two wheels.

Stay and play There is perhaps nowhere more motorcycle friendly than The Lodge at Tellico, located one mile from the Cherohala Skyway.

Three room options—basic, deluxe, and premium—offer king beds, soaking tubs, fireplaces, microwaves, refrigerators, and porches overlooking the well-landscaped grounds. Garage parking for motorcycles is included with the premium rooms and can be purchased for $5 in connection with deluxe and basic rooms. Towels are designated just for grubby boots, an outdoor pavilion and fire pit make room for gathering, and a game room is great for rainy days or late nights. Walt’s BBQ, the lodge’s restaurant, is open to anyone but only open on weekends. Accommodation rates range from $79 to $95 per night. For more information, visit lodgeattellico.com or call 423.253.2506.

PHOTO COURTESY OF TENNESSEE DEPARTMENT OF TOURIST DEVELOPMENT

Above: Tellico Lake surrounds the Fort Loudoun State Historic Area and Sequoyah Birthplace Museum. Right: the Cherohala Skyway skirts the ridgetop and crosses the state line between North Carolina and Tennessee.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 4

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working studio and frame shop. Don’t miss the Tellico Arts Center where more than 70 talented artisans’ unique work is on display from large-scale paintings to intricate beadwork. A memento for home from the Arts Center is a must. Down the street, Stone Cottage Shops and Gardens blends antiques and décor in a house originally built for Doc Rogers, after whom the field where modern gold miners go to try their luck also was named. Explore the several rooms of milk glass lamps, crystal cups, and collectible art works, but be sure to visit the garden. The Bookshelf sells books both new and used, and is one of few places anywhere to still offer book repair.

Get a little lunch at the Tellico Square Café and a scoop of Mayfield Ice Cream from the Down Town Creamery, or head out to local institution, Tellico Beach

Suddenly, everything becomes irrelevant.

The History of a Small Town with Big Possibilities The Charles Hall Museum exists to preserve the history of the town of Tellico Plains, Tennessee. Charles Hall served as mayor of Tellico Plains for nearly 31 years and has amassed a magnificent collection of historical memorabilia, photos, equipment, guns and so much more.

Tellico Plains is a special place with a rich heritage and limitless possibilities.

Dedicated to promoting tourism in

Graham County Graham County Travel & Tourism Authority 387 Rodney Orr Bypass, Robbinsville, NC 28771

800-470-3790 • 828-479-3790 Fax: 828-479-4733 www.grahamcountytravel.com

229 Cherohala Skyway Tellico Plains, Tennessee

charleshallmuseum.com 423.253.8000

59156

A FREE WEEKEND ON US — when you purchase one of the

Red Mountain Cove or Farms sites!

The Charles Hall Museum features a vast collection of beautiful glass telephone insulators, as well as other historical items of interest from the area. SARAH E. KUCHARSKI PHOTO

MENT

Drive-in, where a chili dog and a shake won’t put a dent in the wallet and children of all ages frolic in the river. There’s even a rope swing.

The Charles Hall Museum, located next to the Cherohala Skyway Visitor Center, is half an antique shop and half dedicated to the evolution of the telephone and Bellsouth.

The museum’s collection comes almost entirely from former Tellico Plains mayor Charles Hall, who served for forty years.

Hall was an owner of the Tellico Telephone Company, which explains the vast number of wall phones, rotary phones, phones in all SEE TELLICO, PAGE 18

We often make lodging arrangements for those visiting Red Mountain looking to buying a site.

Most stay for a couple of days at a lodge on the Tellico River or in a mountain cabin nearby town.

Either location is much like Red Mountain … peace and quiet … pure bliss to those coming from the city, and when you buy we will reimburse you for your weekend here in Tellico Plains TN.

Oh yes —

when you come to visit we’ll also buy you dinner at one of our great restaurants in town!

The Cove and Farms sites all offer maximum privacy, and each site has different and very unique features like creeks, ponds, hardwoods, big views, pastures, and large or small acreage from 3 ac. to as much as 30 ac. or more. We have all underground utilities and high speed internet too.

Prices range from $39,000 to $200,000 so we can fit just about any budget.

58795

Close to Tellico Plains TN, in the mountains about an hour to either Knoxville or Chattanooga. Visit www.tellico-tn.com and call us at 423.253.7100 to set up your visit to our beautiful mountains and 100-year-old town.

WWW.SMLIV.COM

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DEPARTMENT

destinations

A path through time and Tellico Archaeological records indicate that Tellico Plains’ has been inhabited for more than 10,000 years, and was—more recently—an important Mississippian Mound Builders site a thousand years ago. Tellico Plains became a been a crossroads linking trade routes from the South to the Ohio River and coastal areas. The Unicoi Trail, also known as the Overhill Trading Path or Tellico Path, passed through the town. Spanish explorers are believed to have traveled the trail in the 16th century. In the early 1700s huge volumes of deer hides and furs were transported along the trail as Cherokees traded with Europeans for mass-produced goods.

The route also served as a military and diplomatic link between the British headquarters in South Carolina and the Cherokee capital at Chota (Tennessee).

The Cherokee joined forces with the British in the fight against the French, which lasted from 1756 to 1760. However, relations between the Cherokee and the British broke down. The Cherokee overthrew the British garrison at Fort Loudoun, and sixteen years later the British returned in conquest of native lands.

The Unicoi Trail remained a primary route in the early American-Indian Wars, the Revolutionary War, the Trail of Tears, and the Civil War until in 1813 it was improved and turned into a wagon trail running across the Cherokee Nation from the Tugaloo River in Georgia to the Little Tennessee River in Tennessee.

A 2.5 mile section of the Unicoi Trail that runs from Vonore, Tenn., to Murphy, N.C., has been developed and opened for public use.

The trail is designed for public education and recreation, and to provide those who visit with the experience of following the footsteps of thousands of people through time. Interpretive signs along the trail tell part of the trail’s story.

The trail also links up with the Benton MacKaye Trail, which starts on the Chattahoochee National Forest in north Georgia and travels through the southern portion of the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee connecting with the Appalachian Trail in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

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Fort Loudoun: COLONIAL TIES IN TELLICO PLAINS

T

hroughout the South, historic forts and reenactments tend to call the Civil War to mind. But the Fort Loudoun State Historic Area brings to life another time period altogether—the French and Indian War. The French and Indian War lasted from 1756 to 1760. Fort Loudoun was constructed to ally the Overhill Cherokee Nation with the British Colony of South Carolina, which felt threatened by French activity in the Mississippi Valley.

The Cherokee and British military forces fought against the French, but the

SARAH E. KUCHARSKI PHOTO

info:

y For more information about

Fort Loudoun, visit fortloudoun.com or call 423.884.6217. y For more information about the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum, visit sequoyahmuseum.org or call 423.884.6246.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 4

unity between the two broke down and in August 1760 the Cherokee captured Fort Loudoun and its garrison. The story is of course much more intricate and best told by the fort’s interpreters, who embody the fort’s history. Seasonal interpreters include Robert Rambo as Atta-Kullakulla, who was also known as The Little Carpenter and as a powerful peace chief of the Cherokee Nation, lived with the British military commanders at the fort. In addition there are several British soldiers who also serve as a surgeon’s mate, blacksmith’s helper, and whitesmith, among other positions.

The fort has been dutifully recreated and is a place where any history buff or imaginative youth will enjoy spending a day among the barracks and behind the cannons. Those less inclined will enjoy the scenery, as the fort overlooks the flooded valley that forms Tellico Lake.

The historic site has been further developed so that there are other amenities that make Fort Loudoun well worth a visit. There are three hiking trails that range from an easy .5-mile loop to moderately strenuous 2.25 miles. A small boat dock allows for canoes or the like to made their way into Tellico Lake, or simply take a dip and enjoy a picnic among the 30 available tables or shelter, which may be reserved for groups. A handicap accessible fishing pier offers anglers a chance to try their luck.

Fort Loudon will host the 18th Century Trade Faire on Sept. 10 and 11. The faire will feature hundreds of re-enactors as soldiers, settlers, and Cherokee; artillery and musket drills, skirmishes and battles; 18th century music, entertainment, and food; and historical presentations.

Fort Loudoun State Historic Area shares an island that was created by the damming of the Little Tennessee River with the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum.

The museum celebrates Sequoyah who gave the Cherokee a system of writing their language. He was born circa 1776 at the village of Tuskeegee, which was very near where the museum is today.

Sequoyah was a silversmith by trade but was among those Cherokee who enlisted on the side of the United States

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Robert Rambo portrays the Cherokee peace chief known as The Little Carpenter through the summer at Fort Loudoun.

SARAH E. KUCHARSKI PHOTO

under General Andrew Jackson to fight the British troops and the Creek Indians in the war of 1812. After the war and after having seen how, unlike white soldiers, the Cherokee were unable to write letters home or record happenings, he began work on creating a Cherokee language.

In 1821, after 12 years working on the new language, he and his daughter introduced his syl-

labary to the Cherokee people. Within a few months thousands of Cherokees became literate.

Like Fort Loudoun, the vast museum grounds offer a chance to explore on foot and see Lake Tellico.

Sequoyah Remembrance Day will be held at the museum on Aug. 7, followed by the 20th Annual Fall Festival on Sept. 10 and 11.

The Lost Lost Sea Sea Adventure Adventure The America’s Largest Underground Lake!

Go along for the ride Getting to Fort Loudoun State Historic Area and the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum from Tellico Plains is half the fun. Take Tennessee 360 out of town all the way there.

The curves make it a fun drive or ride, while the scenery is quintessentially East Tennessee. Round hay bales dot open fields, horses graze in the pastures, and eventually Tellico Lake comes into view. Late afternoon or early evening is a lovely time to make the trip if one isn’t planning on spending too much time at the final destination; however, heading out during the day affords one the opportunity to blast down 411 toward Madisonville and stop in to Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams for some of the best pork products period. To head back to Tellico Plains, continue on 411 to 68 to make time, or meander back down 360.

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Bald River Falls is one of few waterfalls easily accessible by car. Trout at the Tellicafé is large enough to share. SARAH E. KUCHARSKI PHOTOS

TELLICO, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15

shapes and sizes and colors, telephone insulators, telephone switchboards, telephone linemen safety kits, and, in general, more telephone related items than one can shake a stick at. There are also displays of guns, coins, tools, furnishings, and numerous treasures of local history. It is a museum unique enough to seek out.

A sunny day should be spent in the Tellico Ranger District of the Cherokee Na-

tional Forest, which encompasses 145,000 acres and where elevations range from 5,400 feet at Haw Knob to 900 feet in Tellico Plains. The ranger station is located by the Tellico River on a road just off the Cherohala Skyway. Staff there can provide information about camping, fishing, hunting, and hiking—it’s also where serious gold miners go for permits to sluice or dredge.

Multiple river access spots are located along the road, allowing for at least a temporary claim to part of the river for swimming and sunning. Farther on, one of the best waterfall views from a vehicle there is can be had at Bald River Falls. Keep going up the road to get to the fish hatchery. Head to wherever the pickup truck is parked and ask the hatchery staff for a handful of feed for the fish. And remember, when planning one’s day out, call ahead to Tellico Kats where they will fix up a picnic to go.

Back in town close out the night with dinner at Tellicafe, where the fried trout fills a plate, or Nut N’ Fancy, where there’s outdoor dining and chicken wings. Other restaurants such as the Tellico Fish Camp and Walt’s BBQ, tend only to be open on the weekends.

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 4

Sideboards Jelly Cupboards Pie Safes & More!

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G

old—the very word captures the imagination. Treasure hunters made first their way in the Coker Creek area in the 1800s but still today are panning the clear mountain streams and dredging up dirt in search of the elusive precious metal.

It doesn’t take much to try one’s hand at panning for gold. At the Coker Creek Welcome Center, located on Highway 68 south of Tellico Plains, hopefuls can purchase for less than $15 a pan, vial, suction dropper, and small guidebook that explains the basic process.

“There are a few facts about gold the beginner must know,” the guidebook reads.

“The most important is that gold is very heavy…

If you pan properly, the gold will be the last thing to try to work its way out of your pan.”

The welcome center staff point panners in the direction of Doc Rogers Field where a short walk leads to the creek. Even if one does little more than get wet and muddy, the fun lies in the possibility and the joy of being outside on a beautiful day. Children will love the excuse to

play in the water and are sure to expend bounds of energy.

However, those with serious intent are best advised to contact Coker Creek’s resident gold panning guide found at Bill’s Pit Stop adjacent to the welcome center. Bill isn’t always in, but he can be reached by phone to Though Coker Creek is a tiny community, there are schedule an outing. spots worth visiting. Seven Sisters Honey Acres The history of gold in features a variety of local mountain honey, bee Coker Creek dates back to products, creative arts, handcrafted gifts, gourmet 1827 when the land still coffees, cheeses and jams. Designs by Baerreis, belonged to the Cherokee. located next to the welcome center, features locally Gold was one of the main made woodwork including spoons, intricate boxes, motivating factors behind barrettes, as well as handmade jewelry. Old Coker the Indian Removal Act of Creek Cemetery’s graves date back to the 1700s 1830, approved by and Ironsburg Cemetery contains Civil War graves.

President Andrew Jackson, which provided May 1838, and began disarming the Cherokee; for the removal of all Indians to the West. The however, gold diggers already were settled in Cherokee were the last of the Native tribes to the Coker Creek area. The time is regarded the be forcibly removed. General Winfield Scott’s country’s first gold rush.

7,000 troops moved into Cherokee country in SARAH E. KUCHARSKI PHOTO

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A DVERT ISING SEC T IO N

True Tennessee is Jefferson County There’s nothing like getting back to nature to nurture your soul. From the pristine waters of Douglas and Cherokee lakes to the breathtaking views of the Great Smoky Mountains.

Have a “True Tennessee” experience in Jefferson County oldfashioned Southern hospitality, a day on the links, exploring and shopping in historic downtown Dandridge or simply taking a relaxing drive along one of the many scenic byways within Jefferson County.

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Calendar of Events True Tennessee is enjoying hometown events.

Farmers Market Saturdays, June – October 2011 8:00 a.m. – 12 noon.

Dandridge, Tennessee Local farmers bring their freshest fruits, vegetables, eggs, honey and other farm products. Most of the produce is organically grown.

Douglas Lake Swim-a-Thon Saturday, August 13, 2011 10AM -6PM Dandridge, Tennessee If you like to swim, kayak, or pontoon this is the event for you.

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Scots-Irish Festival Saturday, September 24, 2011 Dandridge, Tennessee The Scots-Irish Festival is an old-time Main Street Music Festival honoring the town’s earliest settlers in 1783. There will be terrific Entertainers, Bands, Pipes & Drums, Vendors, Food, Kid’s Area, and Lots of Fun!

Street Festival opens at 10:00 a.m.

Ceilidh (Concert) 6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Jefferson City's Old Time Saturday October 1, 2011 Jefferson City, Tennessee 9AM – 7PM A traditional downtown block party, with entertainers, southern-style food, and plenty of activities for the kids.

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DEPARTMENT

mountain music

Worth the wait

BY JOE HOOTEN

A

s one of America’s prominent singer-songwriters and Merge label alum, Richard Buckner has experienced the music industry before. During his ascension to folk troubadour status during the popular Alt-Country movement of the 1990’s, his first two albums, “Bloomed” and “Devotion & Doubt,” earned him critical praise and a loyal fan-following.

His plaintive growl and deep drawl lured listeners into his passionate and love-torn lyrics. Both albums were built upon strong lyrics, creative arrangements and a loving studio touch.

By 1998, Buckner had secured his status as an indispensable voice and songwriting talent with his seminal and critically acclaimed album, “Since.” Buckner’s cult status grew over the years with adventurous recordings like 2000’s “The Hill”—in which he set music to poems from Edgar Lee Master’s Spoon River Anthology—and the departure album, “Impasse” in 2002, which took a rather slight detour from his traditionally aligned acoustic music. He continued his exploration of expansive sounds and melodies that he started with “Impasse” in his last two albums with North Carolina-based label Merge—

“Dents & Shells” and “Meadow.” But it’s been nearly five years since Richard Buckner has released any new music. Until now.

A record nearly two years in the making, the Buckner who has earned critical praise and fan acclaim alike and has endured more than a decade in the business is back with “Our Blood.”

The two years it took to create was, in part, the result of multiple speed bumps, including a not-so-lucrative film score assignment that never came to fruition, the burglary of his home (the thieves made off his with laptop that held an early version of “Our Blood”), and an unlikely run-in with upstate New York law enforcement that you’d think was a CSI episode.

Buckner has been through a lot to get his latest finally released, but the blood, sweat and tears have paid off. He has created another stunning and moving piece of art with his distinctive style of music as only he can do. He incorporates elements from his previous releases while still exploring new territory among the nine tracks in “Our Blood.” From the acoustic “Escape,” Buckner-esque lyrics embrace his carpe-diem attitude, “Let’s waste the night\pay the price and get outta here\it’s

DONATED PHOTO

“If there is a story, it will end where it began and then keep going, free to stop, but never knowing why it should.”

— Richard Buckner

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In his own words SML caught up with Richard Buckner prior to the August 2011 release of “Our Blood” and had a chance to talk to the notoriously opinionated singer-songwriter.

SML: Five years between releases seems like an eternity for fans. Why the delay?

RB: After I finished my last record in 2006, I was asked to work up a score for a movie. It took a few years to complete and then the movie never really surfaced. I also worked on a few other songs for various things like a PBS documentary on sacred harp singing and a musical companion to a poem that McSweeny’s asked me to put together. “Our Blood” is the result of the three years that followed, where various mechanical, financial and personal setbacks and sprains helped it take longer to finish.

So how do you feel about the “singer\songwriter” label, does that truly do you justice?

I don’t feel anything.

PHOTO

Throughout your albums, your voice feels like it could have come from the mountains of Western North Carolina.

Have you ever spent any time around here?

The vocal mic on “Our Blood” is a Neumann u48 that I borrowed from a recording engineer/friend of mine named Jon Marshall Smith who lives in North Carolina; maybe that’s it. I’ve also spent time over the years in a few situations around the state.

Your affinity to acoustic music is obvious.

From “Since” on your music has evolved. Do you ever get any “Dylan goes electric” comparisons?

No. There are some that don’t like amps and loops and some that complain when I don’t do the loops and make some noise. Like the war on drugs: not winnable.

If there’s no money in making records these days, does this affect the artistic process from writing to recording?

You feel like a sucker throwing money and years into a hobby pit. It’s a humiliating addiction. Evidently, music has become a commodity that no one, except the artist, has to pay for.

The songs for “Our Blood” were recorded at your home, a DIY effort on many levels.

What are the advantages of home recording vs. a modern studio?

I record at home because it’s free, timewise and money-wise. It’s not really an advantage, though. Working in a studio, working with tape, working with an engineer are all good things. It’s more about where you find yourself when you start sorting through your options.

You’ve played the Grey Eagle in Asheville, N.C., many times. The shows are always moving and incredibly sincere. Have you ever thought of relocating to our mountain metropolis?

I have. I need to go somewhere. I live in a town in upstate New York where every day is a zombie apocalypse. If a rapture had come, it wouldn’t have been noticed around here; everyone’s already given up.

RICHARD BUCKNER: “OUR BLOOD” MERGE RECORDS

not enough\backing out just to disappear.”

While his love for expanding his sound around his discerning words will absolutely enthrall listeners on tracks like “Traitor” and “Gang,” his unique guitar work carries on with the beautifully strummed “Confession.”

Recorded at his home off and on between August 2009 and February 2011, musicians dropped in to accent some of songs with bits of pedal steel, percussion, and other elements—all built around the core of each song: that voice. As fervent and utterly haunting now as when he released “Bloomed,” Buckner’s voice is his music. “‘Our Blood’ is about being caught, armed with some barbed momentary reasoning that won’t let you go,” he says. “If there is a story, it will end where it began and then keep going, free to stop, but never knowing why it should.”

WWW.SMLIV.COM

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DEPARTMENT

mountain arts

Black Mountain’s unique arts influence endures Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center presents “Jack Tworkov: The Accident of Choice, The Artist at Black Mountain College” through Sept. 17.

The exhibition includes important works by Jack Tworkov, a founding member of the New York School and regarded as one of the great artists—along with Willem de Kooning, Philip Guston, Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, and Clifford Still—whose gestural paintings of the 1950s formed the basis for the Abstract Expressionist movement in America.

In the summer of 1952, Tworkov was invited to teach painting at Black Mountain College, located in the mountains of western North Carolina near Asheville. On view will be paintings and drawings by Tworkov ranging from 1948-52 including works from one of the artist’s most noted series, “House of the Sun” that began at Black Mountain College.

EXHIBIT PERSONALIZES THE ROLE OF CIVIL WAR TENNESSEANS The Frank H. McClung Museum offers history buffs a special look into the pivotal role East Tennessee played in the Civil War with an emphasis on the arts.

Military artifacts comprise a large part of the exhibit, however, and the then newly developed technique of photographic portraiture allows a glimpse into the personalities of the many individuals, military and civilian, who posed for the camera and whose 1863 likenesses survive. One such portrait is that of John Watkins, an artillerist from Ohio, who was inside the fort when the attack occurred. His letters home document the bloody horror from his own unique perspective, and his hat, jacket and telescope substantiate the life of a simple man caught up in historic events.

Also featured are enlargements of panoramas taken by George Barnard, a well-known Civil War photographer. In March of 1864, Captain Poe, an early advocate of photography as a documentary tool, supervised a complete panoramic survey of the Knoxville area, making it one of the most thoroughly recorded sites of the Civil War. Two years of research went into assembling all the historical sources possible—illustrations, photos, original letters Painting by Ken Smith depicting the Battle of Fort Sanders.

COURTESY OF MCCLUNG MUSEUM and diaries, older paintings, and military diagrams—to ensure the accuracy of Greg Harlin’s hauntingly powerful rendering of the Battle of Fort Sanders.

Abraham Lincoln’s interest in the area is embodied in a walking stick carved for him by a veteran of the Battle of Lookout Mountain out of wood from the battle site.

The McClung Museum is located on the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, call 865.974.2144 or visit mcclungmuseum.utk.edu.

ONE FAMILY, EIGHT DECADES OF QUILTING Jack Tworkov: “House of the Sun Variation,” 1952.

COURTESY OF BLACK MOUNTAIN MUSEUM + ARTS CENTER

info:

The Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, located in downtown Asheville, preserves and continues the unique legacy of educational and artistic innovation of Black Mountain College. For more information, call 828.350.8484 or visit blackmountaincollege.org.

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The Appalachian Arts Center at Southwest Virginia Community College will feature “A Heritage of Quilting” through Sept. 3. Local quilter Margaret Matney will showcase her work dating back to the 60s and quilts her mother made in the 30s and 40s.

The center is a 4,000-square-foot gallery, marketplace and educational resource. The center is divided into seven small gallery spaces devoted exclusively to the exhibition and sale of work created by local craftspeople, artists, student apprentices, authors and musicians. A large rotating exhibition space showcases regional artisans while a variety of educational demonstrations, artist talks, professional development workshops and craft courses are offered, as well as a business curriculum, Entrepreneurship for Artisans.

For more information, call 276.596.9188 or visit apparts.sw.edu.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 4

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DEPARTMENT

sustainable living

Sustainability principles for your landscaping A central challenge to making successful decisions in one’s own residential landscape is the ability to appropriately evaluate and choose the most environmentally responsible options while also accomplishing aesthetic goals and meeting budget constraints. Herein is an abbreviated list of principles to consider in one’s own pursuit of residential landscape decisions that incorporate the core messages of sustainability (inspired from the book Sustainable Landscape Construction: A Guide to Green Building Outdoors by J. William Thompson and Kim Sovig; and The Sustainable Sites Initiative at www.sustainablesites.org).

MINIMIZE IMPACT

y Understand and define “healthy” areas of the site. Minimizing impact on these areas forms the basis for sustainable efforts. y Make preservation of existing environmentally important features a priority. y Avoid making changes that potentially degrade the surrounding environment.

REPAIR AND NURTURE

y Regenerate lost or damaged ecosystems by healing areas of the site that require repair. y Grow healthy soil and restore microbial life and organic content through the use of composting. y Minimize use of pesticides and high intensity fertilizers that can further deteriorate the health of your soil. y Restore lost vegetation and introduce more ecological diversity.

MATERIAL SELECTION

y Understand the origin and fate of the materials you select.

When possible use local, salvaged, or recycled materials. y Favor materials that are living, flexible, and more easily adaptable to your site conditions and location. y Select plants, such as natives, that are beneficial to the surrounding site ecology, provide habitat for wildlife, and reduce requirements for irrigation and maintenance.

WATER CONSERVATION

y Use rainwater collection and more efficient irrigation techniques. y Understand, respect, and protect natural drainage patterns on your site. Avoid soil erosion that could carry sediment and pollutants off site. y Balance the site’s water needs with regional conditions and select plants that match the varying microclimates.

REDUCE PAVING

y Reduce the amount of hardscape areas. These impervious surfaces lead to more runoff and potentially more erosion. y Use alternatives to traditional hardscape paving that promote

26

Create connections for the future

BY JOEL OSGOOD

hen looking to buy a new home, many would not consider a front yard with rusted chain link fencing and one solitary shrub as having much “curb appeal.” As a budding landscape architect, however, I was fascinated with the prospect of a “blank canvas” and the chance to apply a more sustainable and thoughtful approach to the landscape. My wife and I began by replacing the chain link fence with a wooden one, integrated with arbors and gates using salvaged lumber. To continue the line of street trees and context of the neighborhood, we planted a large maple tree. We also chose from local sources a diverse selection of native plants that require less water and less maintenance, in addition to establishing water catchment for irrigation purposes throughout the yard. These changes to our landscape promote bird and wildlife habitat, and enrich ours as well. Every seaBefore son we now anxiously await JOEL OSGOOD PHOTOS the fruits, berries, and greens produced on our little one-eighth of an acre.

Whether one lives in a cottage surrounded by forest or a downtown apartment, a subdivision or a farm, we all make important decisions daily that have an impact on our surroundings. As a landscape architect, it is my belief that our ability to live “sustainably” is defined, in part, by how we connect to the land. With all the mainstream media attention and constant debate about climate change (and wherever you fall in your beliefs about the validity of climate change), most can agree that the decisions we make today have long-term consequences, and collectively as a society, those decisions have a lasting impact on future generations.

In making individual choices about sustainability, great emphasis has been placed on which car one drives, what one eats, and what products one buys; but equally important are the consequences of land planning decisions over the last 50 years and what decisions we will make in the future to improve and repair the built environment. Landscape architects are taking a leadership role in defining how we adapt as a society to whatever surprises our planet doubtless holds in the future. The goal of the profession is not to merely add trees and shrubs to an existing site, but to encourage and promote a more thoughtful, sensitive, and sustainable approach to human interaction with the land. In addition to influencing decisions on a residential site, landscape architects commonly influence sustainable decisions on projects such as large-scale community design, parks, greenways, open-space planning, city redevelopment, urban design,

W

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the infiltration of water into the soil. This replenishes groundwater and improves the overall health of your site.

MAINTAIN AND SUSTAIN

y Use non-toxic chemicals and biological controls for pest management such as predator insects or scent traps. y Use on-site resources such as the composting of grass clippings and yard waste as one of the most valuable assets for maintaining a healthy landscape. y Expect your landscape to evolve over time.

Pursue maintenance techniques that are appropriate to the pace of these changes and your evolving needs and landscape demands.

After

brownfield site redevelopment and wildlife corridors.

The more we recognize our individual decisions as incredibly important within the larger context of natural processes, the more we improve our own well-being, as

well as the health of the global ecosystem.

Ultimately, we can all benefit from enjoying the constant change of an evolving landscape, while finding inspiration and humility in the observation of nature’s varying splendor.

Don’t remodel your home ...

A well-planned and properly implemented approach that addresses these principles will take time, but once established, could reduce the amount of strenuous weekends maintaining your landscape. Beyond your home landscape, supporting local efforts that preserve and protect resources while promoting these sustainable principles on a larger scale is very valuable.

RESTORE IT.

Restorative Forestry uses draft horses and human hands to heal the local forest one careful harvest at a time.

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DRAFTWOOD FOREST PRODUCTS are the result of this stewardship.

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Biological Woodsman Ian Snider drives Suffolk horses Rudy and Wedge during a Draftwood winter harvest.

Call 828.266.3379 or email mtnworks@gmail.com WWW.SMLIV.COM

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DEPARTMENT

mountain letters

Well-fed stewards of the earth

BY REBECCA TOLLEY-STOKES

Hunt, Gather, Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast

by Hank Shaw. New York, NY: Rodale, 2011.

ISBN 978-1-60529-320-2 $25.99 Given the trendiness of foraged foods in metropolitan areas, ramps average $12 a pound or more, but allium tricoccum doesn’t appear within the pages of Hank Shaw’s Hunt, Gather, Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast, the culmination of his free-ranging pursuits to deeply know, engage with, and, best of all, devour all that nature offers. Though he spent time on the East Coast in Virginia, New York, and New Jersey, the bulk of his reeducation in foraging for animal and vegetable happened near Sacramento where he lives.

Shaw’s curiosity, quest for self-reliance, and absorption of knowledge taps into a groundswell movement afoot that spurs a reconnection with nature and traditional foodways. His fascination with the natural world began as a toddler when his parents and sisters encouraged him to enjoy the outdoors, to fish, dig for clams, and “feast at the table afterwards.” In three parts, his book, while focused on California flora, fauna, and sealife, covers foraging on land, fishing, and hunting. Shaw suggests two ways of preparing acorns: Grinding them for flour and then making acorn tortillas or acorn pasta, and alternately, making acorn soup. Consider his suggestions for

Shaw’s curiosity, quest for selfreliance, and absorption of knowledge taps into a groundswell movement afoot that spurs a reconnection with nature and traditional foodways.

28

“characteristics of various oaks” along the same lines as advice you’d receive from a sommelier.

The section of part two of most relevance to readers in our immediate region addressed “misfits of America’s oceans, ponds, and rivers,” for the bulk of this chapter’s focus regards sealife, and while it informs and entertains, its practical use to mountain dwellers is nil. When landing an eel, don’t net it.

They survive out of water a long time, too. Shaw recommends death by salt. While he doesn’t include an eel recipe, Shaw says eel is tasty barbecued, grilled, beer-battered, or in a bouillabaisse, but they don’t freeze well.

Saving the best for last in part three, Shaw ponders the question “why hunt?” It poses a moral issue for many folks unfamiliar with the practice, as does the consumption of meat and dairy products. Not so Shaw. He presents an intelligent argument, a middle way, allowing readers to become self-reliant food processors who bypass the meat processing business and USDA regulations. Shaw touts the flavor of wild meat as opposed to bland, domestic meat. Clear knowledge of your food’s origins makes eaters responsible stewards of the Earth. Shaw primes readers on rifles, seasons, gives hunting tips, tells how to handle game, how to skin and break down animals, and finally, how to cook and eat them.

Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon’s Army & Other Diabolical Insects by Amy Stewart.

New York, NY: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2011.

ISBN 978-1-5612-960-3. $18.95.

Frightening stories of bugs encountered outside and inside abound in this second installment in the Wicked series by Amy Stewart. Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon’s Army & Other Diabolical Insects “offers just enough information about the habits and lifestyles of each creature to make them easier to recognize.” Insects are so small that we give little thought to them unless they discomfit us by drawing blood, leaving a stinger in our skin, or disappear up a nostril while we search the skies for a cerulean warbler or weed our gardens. Stewart arranges insect entries alphabetically and categorizes each insect’s potential powers as “dangerous,” “painful,” “destructive,” “deadly,” or “horrible.”

Consider that when we had outdoor privies black widows hid under toilet seats. Now that most homes include indoor plumbing black widow bites on buttocks are rarely treated by emergency rooms. Stewart’s book is chockfull of unexpected intersections of cultural history and insects. As to other spiders, the brown recluse is considered painful. Each entry features a key indicating the insect’s size, family, habitat, and distribution.

The brown recluse is common in central and the southern

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United States and inhabits dry, sheltered areas such as woodpiles and sheds. Stewart argues that it is unfairly blamed for any kind of rotting painful lesion.

An occasional mystery, such as the Rocky Mountain Locust, sometimes appears. It was responsible for decimating the American West in the summer of 1875. Their swarms grew ever-smaller until the species disappeared completely by 1902. An insect making headlines for consuming much of the southeastern United States was the Formosan subterranean termite. Termites infested the floodwalls surrounding New Orleans five years prior to Hurricane Katrina, but were always a problem after they returned to the port after World War II. Insects related to human sexual relations appear a few times. For instance, the scabies mite is associated with Napolean

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Stewart’s book is chockfull of unexpected intersections of cultural history and insects.

Bonaparte’s exile to St. Helena and the Marquis de Sade was implicated for passing on Spanish fly to women in Marseille in June of 1772. But, reader beware, there are disturbing sexual relations between African bat bugs, banana slugs, fireflies, praying mantids, golden orb-weavers, and crab spiders for a healthy balance.

Her introduction makes it plain: We are outnumbered. In this marvelous blend of history and horror, Stewart demonstrates the power insects wield upon us both individually and as a society.

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DEPARTMENT

outdoors

ONGOING EFFORTS PROTECT ONE OF THE RARE JEWELS OF THE SMOKIES Shady Valley has long been recognized as one of the Southern Appalachians' most ecologically important areas, a rare high-elevation remnant of the last Ice Age. Shady Valley was once covered with a network of sphagnum/cranberry peat bogs and white pine/hemlock forests, which supported a rich community of plant and animal life. As the human population has grown and drained most of the wetlands, these plants and animals have become increasingly rare and threatened.

Shady Valley supports at least 26 rare plants and animals. The valley’s wetlands are one of only two places in Tennessee where cranberries grow naturally. These wetlands are also home to the bog turtle, which is federally listed as a threatened species.

To protect the wetland plants and animals of this special place from extinction, The Nature Conservancy purchased its first nature preserve in Shady Valley in 1978, the Jess Jenkins Cranberry Bog. The Conservancy later transferred the preserve to East Tennessee State University for scientific research and educational purposes.

Today the Conservancy owns four preserves and 723 total acres in Shady Valley, including 468 acres of mountain land and approximately 255 acres on the valley floor. The Conservancy permits or leases land in Shady Valley for haying, cattle, and/or hunting—Practices which are consistent with standard protection strategies for the rare plants and animals in the area.

The second Saturday of October brings the Shady Valley Cranberry Festival. The festival begins Friday evening at 5 o’clock with the Bean Supper and Auction at the Shady Valley Elementary School. On Saturday morning there is a community pancake breakfast at the Shady Valley Volunteer Fire Hall. A parade through Shady Valley with floats, tractors, horses and marching bands follows at 10 a.m. Free cranberry bog tours run from noon till 4 p.m.

For more information, visit nature.org/Tennessee or call 423.739.2537.

Nature photography the fastest growing form of outdoor recreation

SARAH E. KUCHARSKI PHOTO

In a recent national survey on outdoor recreation by the U.S. Forest Service, viewing and photographing nature — be it flowers, landscapes or birds — saw the highest increase in both in the number of people participating and how often.

“It says there is quite a pattern here that we are looking at,” said Ken Cordell, a pioneering scientist with the U.S. Forest Service Research and Development Branch in Athens, Ga. “The interest in nature viewing and photographing is a big deal.”

Beverly Slone, an avid nature photographer in Waynesville, has witnessed the trend play out in her hiking club. Over the past two years, more and more of the hikers have been toting newly purchased digital cameras on their outings.

“They are small and easy to carry with you when you hike,” Slone said. “You don’t have to mess with film. You can delete what you don’t like, and it doesn’t cost as much. You don’t have all that developing.”

For some, taking pictures is simply a way to document an outing. For others, the photography itself is the outing. Photography brings you closer to nature and your subjects, whether it’s a tree, an elk or an insect—more so than simply hiking, said Bob Grytten, an outdoor photographer who leads a club in Haywood County.

Canine adventure in the Smokies Planning to take your pooch to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park? Dogs are allowed in campgrounds, picnic areas, and along roads, but must be kept on a leash at all times. The leash must not exceed 6 feet in length. Dogs are only allowed on two short walking paths—the Gatlinburg Trail and the Oconaluftee River Trail. Pets are not allowed on any other park trails.

The Gatlinburg Trail travels 1.9 miles one-way from the Sugarlands Visitor Center to the outskirts of the city of Gatlinburg, TN. It is relatively flat and runs through the forest along side the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River. The trail offers beautiful views of the river, which at one point is crossed by a pedestrian footbridge. Foundations and chimneys of several old homesites are visible along the trail.

The Oconaluftee River Trail travels 1.5 miles one way from the Oconaluftee Visitor Center to the outskirts of the town of Cherokee, NC. It is relatively flat, but does have a few small hills. The trail runs through the forest along side the Oconaluftee River and offers beautiful views of the river.

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VISIT

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out & about

JOHN WARNER PHOTO

Rustic respite from the world

truly enormous grey cat, can be found sunning himself here, completely disinterested in avian circus above and the tiny chipmunks that scurry about stealing fallen birdseed. He does however love a comfortable lap, and his brush hangs on the wall awaiting any willing hand.

A packed lunch can be had by request along with water bottles, hiking sticks, and backpacks for an afternoon jaunt. Be sure to venture out to Gooseberry Knob—a popular spot for weddings—to sit a spell in the gazebo and partake of the view. This amenity is available even to those who are not guests at The Swag.

Exercise one’s hand-eye coordination with a game of grass court badminton down by the pond. There’s even an underground regulation-sized racquetball court. Or just work up a relaxing sweat in the outdoor hot tub or redwood sauna.

No matter how one whiles away the days, dinner is The Swag’s traditional time to come together to recount the day’s adventures.

Guests are seated at several tables scattered about the lodge’s main dining and living room and may choose to mingle with one another or enjoy a more private evening. Meals are bountiful with salad,

JUMPING ROCKS PHOTOGRAPHY

DEPARTMENT

JUMPING ROCKS PHOTOGRAPHY

The porch at the historic lodge at the Swag is a wonderful place to simply sit, watch the birds, and enjoy the view from 5,000 ft. Accommodations are well-appointed, blending luxury with rustic mountain atmosphere.

34

M

ornings at The Swag come early as the twittering cacophony of songbirds peaks with the dawn. The din is not unpleasant as it causes one to begin to stir while stealing a few more minutes’ nap under the plush and cozy covers, before finally shuffling off to the steam shower—a special perk found in Gail’s Room, a recent addition to The Swag that combined two smaller rooms into a luxury suite. With opened pores and soothed sinuses, one wraps up in a soft cotton robe, pours a cup of coffee brewed in-room, and stretches out on the private porch’s chaise lounge overlooking the mountains.

Adequately primed for the day and dressed for breakfast, one finds hearty offerings on the plate including biscuits and gravy, cider-simmered oatmeal, omelets to order, and fresh fruit. A continental breakfast will have already been served to the hikers who set out on a guided trip to meet the early birds in person, and one would be remiss not to embark on at least one day of adventurous trekking, as The Swag, located on a mountain high above Waynesville, N.C., abuts the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

However, there is plenty of time for that. The Swag is blissfully devoid of modern distractions that can fritter away the day. There are no televisions to be found, though those hard up for the day’s sports scores or email from work and home can at least make use of the wireless connection—though it is not recommended.

Rather revel in the high-speed hummingbirds that feed en masse by the main lodge’s porch. Often Malcolm Matthews, The Swag’s

soup, entrée, and dessert featuring herbs, fruits, and vegetables from The Swag’s own garden, and other local goods. A gourmet vegetarian option always is available and may be an enticing alternative even for omnivores. Dinner is another option for those who are not guests of The Swag to enjoy its riches, though there are limited spots available and those spots are filled only through advance reservation.

Frequently, The Swag hosts special events that bring entertainment to guests. August welcomes outdoorsman, author and storyteller Charles Maynard and birder Bob Collier. September welcomes singer/songwriter Doug Peters and storyteller Donald Davis. The after-dinner hour allows these visitors to share their knowledge and guests to wind down before turning in for the night.

As dusk falls, the night music can be heard through the open windows and the mountain temperature cools enough to warrant the stoking of a small fire to crackle and burn as book pages turn, until at last, the embers expire and sleepy eyes are retired.

info:

For more information about The Swag, visit theswag.com or call 800.789.772. Accommodations range from $410 to $785 per night and include all meals and amenities.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 4

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A PRESIDENTIAL PLACE OFF THE PARKWAY

DONATED PHOTOS

STEEPED IN SCOTS-IRISH TRADITION Dandridge, Tenn., celebrates its Scots-Irish heritage on Sept. 24 with its 5th annual festival in historic downtown. The festival features live music and dance, bagpipe and highland dance competitions, a dog show and parade, and other activities. The MacNicol Red Tartan is the official tartan of the festival’s 20011 Featured Clan. The clan is the only clan other than the 2010 Featured Clan Munro to have attended the festival every year since its inception. The National Trust for Historic Preservation recently named Dandridge one of 2011’s “Dozen Distinctive Destinations.”

For more information, visit scots-irish.org.

Learn Thomas Jefferson’s many interests at one of only two homes Thomas Jefferson designed and created for his own use—Poplar Forest.

Jefferson was, in addition to all else, an architect. Poplar Forest has become known as his most ideal and personal work of architecture, and was his home for 14 years. Thomas Jefferson and his wife Martha inherited the Bedford County plantation known as Poplar Forest from her father in 1773.

The property’s name, which predates Jefferson’s ownership, reflects the forest that once grew there. The 4,819-acre plantation provided Jefferson with significant income and the perfect setting where he could pursue his passion for reading, writing, studying and gardening after retiring from public life.

Upcoming programs at Poplar Forest dedicated to exploring Jefferson’s interests include a presentation on Sept. 11 featuring singer and harpist Eve Watters and music and stories from Jefferson's household. On Sept. 25 brewer Doug John will speak about the theory and practice of brewing in Jefferson’s time, including tasting Jefferson-era beer recipes.

Poplar Forest is located in Virginia near Lynchburg to the east of the Blue Ridge Parkway. It may be reached off the Parkway north of Roanoake, Va., via Route 460 east.

For more information, visit poplarforest.org or call 434.525.1806.

Where memories are made!

JUST A LITTLE OVER AN HOUR’S DRIVE FROM ATLANTA puts you at the Gateway of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Surround yourself with the beauty of our mountains, lakes, streams, waterfalls and State Parks. Explore our rich historical heritage including adoptable hand-stitched soft-sculpture babies known around the world as Cabbage Patch Kids®. Tee off from one of two PGA-rated mountain golf courses.

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DEPARTMENT

mountain cuisine Carolina Coleslaw

West Asheville Italian infusion The West Asheville community has welcomed Pizzeria Ritrovo, a spin off of Nona Mia —a tiny yet tasty Italian-American soul food establishment—to the culinary scene.

The two restaurants will be consolidating their menus into the new Pizzeria Ritrovo location on Haywood Road, offering diners a wider selection of classic entrees and authentic wood-fired Neapolitan pizza. Chef Peter Affatato of Nona Mia creates modern versions of time-honored recipes passed down through his family and the Italian-American community as a whole. Favorites include the Cavitapi Melenzane featuring corkscrew tube pasta, roasted eggplant, caramelized onion, roasted red pepper, plum tomato basil sauce and fresh Mozzarella and the Chicken Piccata featuring sautéed boneless chicken breasts with fresh lemon, capers, garlic, white wine, and Italian parsley, served with farmer's market vegetables.

At Pizzeria Ritrovo start with the Della Casa salad, which begins with wood-roasted romaine heart and roasted grape tomatoes adorned with cucumber, pickled cherry pepper, olive, red onion, balsamic vinaigrette, oregano, and marinated Feta. It’s enough to share or makes a lovely entrée along with a slice or two of pizza. Pizzas are traditional in that they are smaller sized at twelve inches and come with a crispy crust. Order one for a light meal with an appetizer and a house-made gelato for dessert. Order two for more serious eating. Creative toppings include smoked proscuitto, pancetta, pickled red onions, house-roasted mushrooms, shaved marinated fennel, oven-roasted red peppers, roasted grape tomatoes (which are not to be missing), and Kalamata olives. The beer menu is well rounded and features local offerings.

Pizzeria Ritrovo ultimately is a casual place with great food at affordable prices and is sure to lure foodies away from Asheville’s trendy downtown to the up and coming, hip west side of town.

1 1/2 tsp red wine vinegar 2 tbsp vinegar 2 tsp lemon juice 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce 2 tbsp spicy brown mustard 1/4 cup mayonnaise 1/4 tsp hot sauce 2 tsp ketchup 2 tsp salt 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil 7 cups shredded green cabbage 1 cup shredded red cabbage 1/4 cup finely diced red onion 1/2 cup shredded carrots Beat vinegar and sugar with an electric mixer on low speed in a large bowl. Add lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce; beat well. Add mustard, mayo, hot sauce, ketchup, and salt; beat well. With the mixer running, slowly add the oil; beat only until dressing is thick and creamy. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. Toss together green cabbage, red cabbage, onion, and carrots in a large bowl. Blot with a clean towel to make sure vegetables are completely dry. Refrigerate until vegetables are chilled. Just before serving combine dressing and vegetables; serve at once.

— Recipe by Tom Sasser of Charlotte, NC as featured in The Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook

Apple-achian tradition

info:

Pizzeria Ritrovo is located at 1050 Haywood Rd., Asheville, NC. For more information, call 828.505.8315 or visit ritrovopizzeria.com.

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 4

Carver’s Applehouse Restaurant and Orchard has long been known for its hearty breakfasts and crispy catfish.

Look for other family-friendly favorites such as chicken pot pie, pork chops, and fresh vegetables. Diners overlook 40,000 apple trees, which give way to each meal’s basket of apple fritters, apple butter, and apple cider. Located in Cosby, Tenn., Carver’s also has a shop featuring Appalachian gifts, candy, and local produce. Open daily 8 a.m.-6 p.m. 3460 Cosby Highway, Cosby, Tenn. 423.487.2710

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SEPT. 3 • 2011 • 3-7 P.M. Broyhill Inn & Conference Center • Boone, N.C.

Enevedrutacstaedtsoiogoodn!

Sample craft beer, listen to local music, and enjoy delicious food in the beautiful high country of North Carolina. Educational seminars will cover beer, brewing, and pairing food and beer. Proceeds to benefit local charities and the ASU Foundation!

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DEPARTMENT

mountain voices

I and Thou B Y R Y N H AY E S

T

he sun is a warm arm across my shoulders as I sit on the fallen cherry tree in the fallow field behind my house.

Two young rabbits eat by the edge of the trees. The cardinals and starlings are chattering merrily. Bluebirds! I haven’t seen any in years. They’re hopping about in this budding tree: two of them. I am sitting as still as I can—watching—these scenes of life. Everything. The trees are budding and blooming.

All colors. I can smell the dirt and warm grass. I smell the green.

I want to be more than a spectator. I get up from my seat on the cherry tree, pushed over in last spring’s storm but still alive.

I was partly sheltered there amongst the blooms, but as I get up, even as slowly as I can, all the little birds flee—jumping off the grass and bouncing, flying away. Diving into the tangle of hedge. The mourning doves’ wings flap loudly, followed by that muted whistling sound they make as they fade into the trees. The rabbits sit up quickly, then hopping, disappear as if diving into a magician’s silk hat.

I am off stage, the outcast, though I am no hunter. I am still the enemy. The interloper. Danger. I am predator—Homo sapien. And, all of the animals know it. It is encoded within them, even if I’ve forgotten all of my own encoding. I’m no hunter or even fisher. Raw chicken out of a pink and yellow package turns my stomach. I’m not even a gatherer anymore. I can’t remember what to gather. Blackberries are good, of course, but oh the thorns are accurate. And one must keep an eye out for snakes that eat the little critters that eat the berries. Snakes have got to make a living too. I know deer love acorns; unfortunately, I find these nuts bitter and waxy. Even though I’d never purposely harm any of the animals, something about me is evil incarnate to them. It is my humanness. I am the

original “Other.” Wild animals and humans are the original “Us and Them.”

And yet, I am the “Other” with my own kind too, sometimes.

They are supposedly my own kind. Basically furless. Basically omnivorous. Basically upright. I think I am a little bit different.

The kids used to tease me so, tease and tease until I cried. They teased me because of my glasses; they teased me because of how I was dressed; they teased me because I used big words; they teased me because I cried. They teased me because of who I am. I don’t know if they sensed my difference and so tormented me as something outside of themselves or if because they teased me, I became the outsider?

The bluebirds flee before me as I walk through the rusted wrought iron gate in the hedge. This hedge so old and probably twelve feet high. It separates the yard from the old cow pasture.

The birds love it here. And I love the bluebirds. I love their blueness and their pink thistle breasts and their round silvery bellies. I love the way they dip and rise and swoop in the air as if flight could be laughter itself.

I lean back my head and look into the clean blueness and the soft clouds as I begin to slowly twirl. The sun, brilliant, like a god in the south, blinds me, so I can’t look there though the warmth draws me. I open my arms to all the life around me, but my arms stay empty. The birds fly. The rabbits flee. I spin faster and faster, my skirt becomes a black mushroom top. I twirl until I fall, dizzy. Just to feel something. Something besides the separateness.

I slump in the grass, staring at the spinning green. The spinning slows, stops. The grass is lush, thick: St. Augustine. It

I push the edge of my pinkie

softly against his long toes, and just like a parakeet he puts a toe on my finger and then another until his whole foot rests in my palm. I don’t know why he allows me to pick him up. I’ve never seen an anole so docile. Maybe, there is something wrong with him. Maybe, it is just his youth.

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ting the top of my head ablaze. The effort of moving so slowly is foreign to me and surprisingly takes a lot of energy. At last, I hold my treasure before my eyes. He is starting to change colors, ever so subtly. Perhaps the heat of my hand causes it, or for some reason he thinks green looks better than brown against the pink of my palm.

He fits right in my hand, plenty of room to spare. His body is about as big as a crayon, except with a fat belly. His tail is twice is long as his body. He is covered in the tiniest green scales, but they aren’t slick like a fish’s. With the light shining on them he looks more like velvet or maybe moss. I can count every rib and see his rib cage expand and contract with every breath. I wish he would do his “strawberry.” That’s what I call it when a male anole extends the red and white pocked skin of his throat, his “throat fan” and then starts bobbing his head.

It’s a territorial display.

Yet, most amazing, are his eyes. They protrude and can move independently of each

other. The top lid is a deeper shade of green than his body, and his bottom lid is the most incredible turquoise blue—a woman’s stage make-up in the theatre. The irises are brown, and his pupils are perfectly round, large and friendly. Puppy eyes. He just sits in my hand and looks at me as I look at him. And every once in a while, he touches his pale pink tongue to my hand as if he sees some bug there. But when his puppy eyes look into mine, I can tell a lot of activity is going on behind those eyes. This is no vacant stare. I have read that dinosaurs had tiny brains, the size of a walnut. Of course, my little lizard is no dinosaur, but as I look at his head, I can see it is large in comparison to his body size. He has plenty of room in there for a nice brain. I don’t know for sure though. I’ll have to look it up.

Today, I made a friend outside of a book.

Outside. I made a friend or more aptly, I was befriended. I and Thou. Buber was right, and so was Flaubert: “God lives in the details.”

I made a friend or

more aptly, I was befriended. I and Thou.

59055

sparkles like the green of a male mallard’s head glistening with clean water. Oh, there’s a ladybug.

Finally, something that’s not afraid of me. I sit watching as she crawls upon the hem of my shirt.

As she rounds the top of my knee, a half-grown lizard lunges from out of the grass and gobbles up the ladybug. Pop. Like a kid eating a red M&M. I am amazed that the lizard continues to sit on my knee and a little distressed that he’s eaten “my” ladybug, but it is his job, so I can hardly hold it against him.

Slowly. Slowly. So slowly my arm aches, I move it towards the young brown lizard. He is a Carolina Anole, usually called a chameleon around here. Improperly. He rolls one round brown eye to watch me. I stop my arm. He looks at me, then continues his survey—on the lookout for another M&M, no doubt. I move my arm again. I push the edge of my pinkie softly against his long toes, and just like a parakeet he puts a toe on my finger and then another until his whole foot rests in my palm. I don’t know why he allows me to pick him up. I’ve never seen an anole so docile. Maybe, there is something wrong with him. Maybe, it is just his youth.

The sweat is rolling down my sides by the time I lift him up to my eye level. The sun is set-

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A DVERT ISING SEC T IO N

Haywood County, N.C. See Yourself in the Smokies!

There are plenty of things to do this summer through fall in beautiful Maggie Valley, Waynesville, Canton, Clyde and Lake Junaluska, NC. Enjoy one of our many outdoor activities, events or just relax and enjoy the beautiful Great Smoky Mountains and Blue Ridge Parkway.

For our racing enthusiasts sign up for: The Main Street Mile- August 12, Blue Ridge Breakaway August 20, The Maggie Valley Moonlight Race August 27 or the Bethel 5K and Half Marathon October 8.

Late summer events you don’t want to miss: August 31 – September 7 Canton Labor Day Celebration,

September 3- Block Party, September 3-4 Maggie Valley Labor Day Craft Show, September 9-11 Thunder in the Smokies, September 16-17 Fall Rally in the Valley, September 30October 1 High Country Quilt Show.

Fall events are sure to please. While viewing the spectacular fall foliage be sure to make time for these events: October 8 Church Street Art & Craft Show, October 8-9 Maggie Valley October Leaves Craft Show, October 15 Apple Harvest Festival, October 15-16 Maggie Valley Annual Fall Arts & Crafts Show, and October 21-23 World Championship Clogging.

For detailed information connect with us at www.visitNCsmokies.com or on Facebook at www.facebook/SmokyMountainsNC.

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Young sprout is full-on organic

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REBECCA L. NEELY PHOTO

B Y J A C K N E E LY

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irke Baehr has become famous in this past year, but on a Tuesday afternoon you might find him at a modest farmer’s market held in a church parking lot banked by tall lush woods in a residential area of Knoxville.

When you meet him, he looks you in the eye and shakes your hand firmly. He has a quick command of facts and a sure way about him, that rare confidence that comes with international acclaim. One of the most popular lecturers in the history of the Internet’s esteemed Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) series of talks on provocative subjects, in April, Birke’s message was dubbed in Italian, when he was a guest on a show broadcast nationally from Rome. Known as a fierce and uncompromising advocate for organic agriculture, he has more high-profile lectures coming up this fall on the West Coast—at the Mother Earth News Fair in San Rafael, Calif., as well as another TED event in Redmond, Wash.—as well as spots in upcoming British and American documentaries.

He has strong opinions, that farming should be done without pesticides or other chemicals, that animals should be treated well, that food should be as natural as possible, that consumers should know the farmers who provide their food. He expresses his views politely but frankly. Some of those views concern subjects most Americans, even the organic farmers who

rural Jefferson County, Mills admits, “I was not too into all this stuff myself, you know. I knew about pesticides and chemical fertilizers and all that stuff. But I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention until I started taking him to some of these conferences. And I tell you, I’ve become a real big advocate of what he’s doing.”

Birke’s always observing, but today he and his grandfather are shopping, too. “We got some green tomatoes to make fried green tomatoes,” he says. “We’re going to have them for dinner.”

Three or four years ago, he was just another skinny West Knoxville kid, albeit a smart, outgoing one. “He was born two months premature,” says his mother Tricia. “We thought, he must have something important to do, he sure was in a hurry to get here. He was always very bright, and interesting to talk to.”

He has a twin brother Brandt, who’s not yet famous. “They’re very different,” his mother says. Brandt is introspective, artistic.

Growing up in the very suburban west side of town, the boys had a mom who shopped at Kroger and a dad who traveled a lot. If Birke was known for anything, three or four years ago it was for his pluck as a middle linebacker for a community football teams organized by the local Optimists Club, and like most Tennessee boys, he daydreamed of playing in the NFL. They called Birke “Hit Man.” “He used to tell me that when he became an NFL football player, that me and my wife wouldn’t have nothing else to worry about,”

“Click on that!” he demanded, and summarily took over the computer.

“Well, that’s interesting,” his indulgent mother thought.

Birke explains. “That was really when the light bulb went on in my head, because I knew from all my friends in third grade that mercury was poisonous, that it was gonna kill you, don’t eat it or anything, don’t break your thermometers and mess with it. So I didn’t know what happened with corn syrup, just being an 8year-old kid, and I asked my mom, and the only thing she really knew it was in was sodas. And that was really—Wow. I just said to her, I’m not gonna drink sodas anymore. And so that really got the ball rolling.”

It rolled a good deal farther, as Trucia recalls of her willful son. “At Kroger, I’d put bread in a grocery cart. He’d pick it up, look at it, read the ingredients—and put it back on the shelf.”

“It’s got high-fructose corn syrup in it, Mommy.”

She would respond, “You don’t say.” She adds today, “I had no idea.”

Accustomed to leaving Kroger with a cartful of food, she sometimes left with only 10 items.

Their genius son posed a dilemma, and she recalls the problem: “What are we gonna have for dinner? Birke won’t let me buy anything at the store.”

Fortunately, an Earth Fare, a grocery chain that emphasizes organics, opened nearby. The Baehrs, who weren’t wealthy, at first balked at the

“Genetically Modified Organisms is what it stands for. How it goes against nature and everything is really freaky for me. Like Frankenstein, that was the first thing that came to mind.”

REBECCA L. NEELY PHOTO

— Birke Baehr

set up tables here, know little about. “Everybody thinks that Europe is so anti-GMO (genetically modified organism) and pro-organic,” he says, “and it wasn’t, really, from what I could see.”

It goes without saying that he opposes GMOs. He is patient in explaining his terminology to the uninitiated. “Genetically Modified Organisms is what it stands for,” he says.

“How it goes against nature and everything is really freaky for me. Like Frankenstein, that was the first thing that came to mind.”

Birke would be a remarkable fellow, even if he were not 12 years old.

He wears a University of Tennessee Vols cap, as does his companion, who’s about six and a half decades older than Birke. Birke calls him his “buddy.” Don Mills is Birke’s grandfather.

A local businessman who grew up on a farm in

grandfather Mills says, laughing. “He would take care of us.”

The Baehrs were pretty typical Americans in their eating habits. Tricia cooked at home, and did most of her shopping at Kroger. She did prefer whole-grain bread, like a lot of mothers do, and didn’t buy sodas except for birthday parties and family pizza nights. Their life began to change, unexpectedly, when, at age 8, Birke wandered behind his mother as she sat at the computer in a mundane daily chore: checking her email. Birke peered over her shoulder and practically shouted, “What’s that?”

On the little news feed beside her home page—Tricia Baehr hadn’t even noticed it— was a report of a university study indicating that levels of mercury were sometimes present in high-fructose corn syrup.

WWW.SMLIV.COM

higher prices, but as their son patiently explained, they could pay more for organic groceries—or pay the doctor. It was the origin of a line that got applause years later at the TEDx lecture.

She began helping Birke with his research.

Before long, Birke “went down that rabbit hole” of studying the agricultural industry, she said.

At the time, he predictably got some peer resistance. “At the time, a lot of my friends were kids who ate Cheese Puffs, and that kind of stuff, and played video games all day. And I also had some friends—maybe three or four— whose moms were into the organics, and they knew all about it. So I had friends who thought I was crazy, and others who didn’t.”

The more he learned, the more urgent his mission seemed. “I just remember digging deeper and deeper, finding more and more re45

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search, and I just remember one day, I said to myself, Man, as a kid, how do I get the word out. Nobody’s going to listen to a kid. But I finally got the chance one day.”

Meanwhile, three years ago, Birke’s mother and father made an unusual choice. Father John Baehr, who works with industrial flooring, often spent most of the time, as much as 25 days a month, out of town, often hundreds of miles away from Knoxville, and from his wife and children, on business.

“That’s not conducive to having a family,” says Tricia. “Here I was in Knoxville with three kids, always feeling like a single parent.” She found a website—the Internet plays a major role in this family drama—about families traveling together. The Baehrs bought an RV and began going as a family on Dad’s business trips, across the Southeast and beyond, from campground to campground. Birke recounts some of their travels with Dad, to Tampa Bay, Charlottesville, Indianapolis.

Of course, that makes football practice problematic, not to mention school. For the last three years, Tricia Baehr has been home-schooling her three kids on the road. That’s OK with Birke. Tricia gives them assignments weekly; he especially likes math, a subject especially useful for a farmer. “I get an urge to get very much done,” he says. “Sometimes I get it done in a day, and take the week off.”

Tricia doesn’t think their unusual gypsy

lifestyle has anything to do with why her son is so different. “I think he was like that anyway, to be honest,” she says. But she adds their lifestyle did open up the world in ways schoolchildren rarely see.

“It gave him opportunities to follow his passion.” Often, he wanted to visit organic farms and organic food-producing facilities near where his dad was working. John Baehr was working at a medical center in Murfreesboro, Tenn., when Birke noted—his mother thinks he was reading the Mother Earth News—that a well-known organic farmer named Joel Salatin, from northern Virginia, was speaking at “the Farm.” The once-controversial colony known in the ’70s as a “hippie commune” near Summertown, Tenn., survives as a sort of alternative-nutrition center.

“That’s only 70 miles from here—will you take me?”

“Well, I guess,” his mother responded. The organic agriculture prodigy befriended the middle-aged Salatin, who later impressed Birke’s grandfather, too. Don Mills has often been the one who accompanied Birke on his jaunts to conferences, first as a student, lately as a lecturer.

That unexpected career began one year ago, when his mother heard about an event about 120 miles east of home, in Asheville. Tricia had run across mention of a special TED series intended to expose the best ideas of teenagers—kids 13 to 18—in the Asheville area for a public project

called TEDx Next Generation Asheville. Birke was only 11, and lived in Knoxville. But, as Birke acknowledges, his mom has a talent for promotions. They filled out an application, and after a written statement and a sample film, made in his grandfather’s garden, the committee bent the age and geographical rules to let in the pre-teen from Tennessee.

The Orange Peel in downtown Asheville is not necessarily the sort of place one expects to see a grade-school kid lecturing about organic food. The well-known nightclub had recently hosted Vampire Weekend, Parliament Funkadelic, the Cowboy Junkies, and George Thorogood and the Destroyers. But on Aug. 28, 2010, a special event organized in conjunction with TED brought Birke Baehr, homeschooled sixth-grader and organic-food activist, to its stage.

He opened his talk, “Hello, my name is Birke Baehr, and I’m 11 years old. I came here today to talk about what’s wrong with our food system.”

He spoke without notes, and rapidly, about high-fructose corn syrup and pesticides and herbicides and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) for five minutes and 15 seconds.

“It seems to me that we can either pay the farmer, or we can pay the hospital,” he said, to a burst of applause.

REBECCA L. NEELY PHOTO

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HOTO

“Know your farmer,” he concluded.

“Know your food.”

There must have been something special about that particular five minutes. It was the first time he’d ever given a speech before any group, and it got out on YouTube. As of this summer, the number of people who have watched it is approaching half a million.

Today, Birke seems just a little sheepish about it. “I think I went really fast and did a lot of hand gestures, because I was really nervous and actually wanted to get it over with. I learned my talk completely,” he says. “I had to memorize it, and I tried my hardest to make it just go perfect. A lot of people are saying, ‘He used a teleprompter,’ and I’m saying, ‘No I didn’t.’”

Regardless, it was the beginning of a speaking career. He says it’s easier now.

The invitation to Italy’s popular talk show, “Il Senso della Vita,” hosted by popular television personality Paolo Bonolis, came out of the blue.

“I believe in English that means ‘the meaning of life,’” Birke says of the show’s title. In Italy, they call Birke “il piccolo agricoltore biologico.” The little organic farmer.

The Baehrs had never been to Europe, but they went to Rome to do the show.

Birke was an obviously popular guest. His presentation before a live studio audience was dubbed in Italian. Originally planned as a two-day trip, the Baehrs decided to make a longer trip of it. While there, Birke spoke at John Cabot University, the English-language university in Rome.

Staying true to Birke’s mission, they stayed with an organic farming family—the Italian word for organic is biologica—in rural Umbria. From them he learned the Mediterranean diet is not all it’s assumed to be, at least from an organic perspective.

“Everybody has this romantic notion of Europe, that they’re so much more organic than us,” he says. “Actually, from what I see here in Knoxville, we’re more organic than them.”

In between all the lights and applause, when he’s not on the road with his dad, he’s at his granddad’s house, helping with the turnips, red Asian lettuce, green onions, and bell peppers, tomatoes.

“The Cherokee Purple tomatoes are pretty good to plant every year. I just discovered them, the other year, and I got some seeds, and when I went to Italy [in April] I told my brother to water them for me. I had some in starter trays. And they died. So I bought some starters from a lady at the market, and I also bought some from the flower festival at the University of Tennessee gar-

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Birke works on plans for a chicken coop while in Italy.

The farmer’s market is one of Birke’s favorite places to be.

REBECCA L. NEELY PHOTO

den, on Mother’s Day, so I have at least four or five now, at my granddad’s house, by the pool.”

The Baehrs’ home base, when they’re not in the RV on the road, is not a farm, but just a suburban yard around a modern one-story house with a swimming pool in back. West Knoxville is known for its McMansions and chemically treated putting-green lawns, but the Baehr/Mills family’s tree-shaded neighborhood retains a ragged trace of the rural hill country, as you find in some pockets on the edges of towns in the foothills of the Smokies.

In the plot alongside his grandfather’s house is a puzzling row of greens Birke doesn’t remember planting. He refers to it matter-offactly as the “mystery plant.” Pointing at it, curiously, he says, “It looks edible, and I wanted to find out whether it’s a weed or not.”

It could be young collards. He’ll figure it out.

Even a world-famous organic farmer has disappointments. “Our Swiss chard wasn’t doing so good,” he says, “so we plowed it up with the rototiller.” And, of course, replanted.

Across the quiet road and just down the hill a bit, a neighbor has a much larger field, and tills a small part of it, maybe a quarter of an acre as a larger market garden. He hires Birke to tend it when he’s in town. The owner of this local organic-food plot is, perhaps ironically, a retired Kraft employee.

Their subdivision on a hilltop looks disarmingly rural on a summer afternoon, that idyll accompanied by songbirds and a lone crow, but 48

in fact it’s only half a mile from Kingston Pike, Knoxville’s notoriously commercial 20-mile long drive-in strip; Pizza Hut and several other chains restaurants are just down the hill. But you can’t see them from here.

Birke stands at the fence after a few days out of town and talks about how Johnson grass is poking up among the peas, potatoes, and cabbage in Mr. Brown’s market garden. “I think that cabbage is going to seed,” he says solemnly. He wants to try some new things this season. “I’m going to plant some watermelons and pumpkins.

I haven’t grown watermelons yet, that’s why I want to test ’em out to see what happens.”

He’d optimistic about the progress he’s seen just in his own short life. Knoxville alone has several more organic stores and farmers’ markets than it did just five years ago. Knoxville’s 157-year-old downtown Market Square has seen an astonishing revival and is Birke’s favorite local market. His grandfather remembers the days when everybody went to buy fresh local produce at Market Square. Farmers’ markets became much less common in Knoxville after 1950 or so, and especially after the demolition of the old Market House in 1960.

But during Birke’s lifetime, local and organic food has been a growing concern. Farmers’ markets are sprouting up everywhere, and Market Square alone sees more produce sales, especially at its Saturday market, than it has seen in half a century—and, by July, dozens of varieties of tomatoes.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 4

“The organic movement started to catch on in the early 2000s, 2003,in that area is when it really started getting momentum,” Birke observes. (In 2003, remember, he was 4.) “It’s gotten more popular since then.”

“I used to want to be an NFL football player.

That was one of my dream jobs. But now I want to be an organic farmer, because I want to change the world.” It takes an unusual mind to convince any American, at 12, that farming is more important in the big scheme of things than football, but he’s already making long-term plans. His mother expects him to save up and buy his own farm by the time he’s 25.

“Right now I’m a gardener, because I don’t have any land to inherit,” he says. “I’m gonna have to start from scratch when I get older. I want to have my own farm, and be an organic farmer.

“A lot of people think farming is just putting a seed in the ground,” he says. “But it’s not that. It’s so much more.” He outlines the necessity of planning the crops, protecting them from weather—an unprecedented hailstorm in April was a big setback to many local farmers, and gardeners.

“You need to do some research about plants and what they need,” he says. “You’ll get some variety that’s from the north, and can’t stand the Knoxville heat, or some that are even from Florida and can’t stand the Knoxville winters.

“A lot of people underestimate farmers,” Birke says. “They don’t understand how important they are.”

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Making Memories in Bryson City

Looking for a vacation that will satisfy every member of the family and create memories that you will treasure for a lifetime? Why not get off the beaten path and try Bryson City — the hub for mountain adventure in the Great Smoky Mountains?

Ride the rails on Western North Carolina’s only scenic excursion train or run the rapids on the Nantahala River, home of the 2013 ICF World Freestyle Kayaking Championships. Cycle the worldclass Tsali Trail or enjoy a road trip on The Dragon, rated third among America’s 15 Best Motorcycling Roads by “American Motorcyclist Magazine.”

Decompress with a trip to Deep Creek — located in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park — where you can enjoy a waterfall hike, picnic, tubing or just splashing in the cool mountain water. Spend an afternoon on the links or shopping our charming downtown filled with boutiques, galleries and eclectic eateries.

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GreatSmokies.com 800-867-9246 Franklin/Nantahala, NC “Enjoy the beauty. Discover the life.” Discover wonderful hiking trails, fabulous waterfalls, gem mining, canoeing and fishing. Enjoy our many quaint shops, antiques, arts and crafts, and museums. Find accommodations and restaurants to suit every taste.

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Make a playdate for mountain fun! Soak up the outdoors in the national park with a waterfall hike. Go fishing or boating on one of our lakes or world-class rivers. Spend your day shopping or in a pottery or craft class. Unwind on a scenic railroad excursion and experience the beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains or simply savor our charming downtown district.

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going to The mountains are a proving ground where outdoor enthusiasts come to test their mettle against one another and against themselves. There is no shortage of daredevils here— kayakers who ride headlong over waterfalls, mountain bikers who blaze down rocky grades, survivalists who venture into the woods with nothing more than what they can carry, runners who set records up mountain peaks, the list goes on. Smoky Mountain Living sought out some of the area’s extreme enthusiasts and found those who fly, those who climb, and those who walk. These are some of their stories.

MICAH MCCLURE PHOTO

A Hard Day’s Hike M A R Y S I LV E R

Hard hikes tend to be the memorable ones. Mention Mt. LeConte to anyone in my family, and they’ll tell you about the time on Trillium Gap Trail when a tropical storm somewhere on the coast threw us a downpour so torrential we thought we’d be washed off the mountain. My younger sisters, aged 8, each got a grocery bag from lunch as a makeshift poncho, but didn’t stay any drier than the rest of us in our T-shirts and cutoffs. The trail became a stream, which soon flowed at a sufficient depth for sticks to float by like tiny whitewater canoes; to our parents’ credit, we kept climbing. Why turn around when we were already soaked? I don’t remember much about the time we spent on top of the mountain that day, but I do recall being very proud to have gotten there. As we hiked down that afternoon, aiming our sore feet into soft mud, the sun came back out and we cheered.

SEE HIKING, PAGE 56

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Soaring to Great New Heights DEEANNA HANEY

Mind Over Matter

BY ANNA OAKES

Kayaking. Rock climbing. Motorcycle Racing. Ice Climbing. Mountain Biking.

All are different sports, over different terrain, requiring different gear and summoning different skill sets. But they all have one thing in common—they require your full attention, a laser-sharp sense of focus, completely freeing your mind of all other thoughts, as much—if not more—mental as they are physical. And that is why, while many may consider these sports to be “extreme,” Asheville-area outdoor enthusiasts Ken Pitts and Ed Maggart find them, well, “relaxing.”

SEE MIND, PAGE 52

DONATED PHOTO

At Lookout Mountain Flight Park in Rising Fawn, Ga., there are a number of people who experience what could be referred to as Peter Pan syndrome. It’s the infatuation and sometimes spiritual fulfillment of flight that attracts hundreds of people here each year. And just like in the classic Disney film, all it takes is a wonderful thought, and maybe a running start, to soar into the sky.

Matt Taber picked up hang gliding the way one might decide to play tennis or learn to crochet. In 1977, he was co-owner of a dive shop and a scuba diving instructor near Jockey’s Ridge on the coast of North Carolina. While driving to work each day, he would look over and see hang gliders launching off the dunes.

He watched them so intently on some days he admits he almost crashed his car on a few occasions. Growing up, Taber’s father was in the United States Air Force and the family had lived on several bases to which Taber attributes his fascination with flight and becoming a self-proclaimed “aviation nut.”

When the opportunity arose to sell his portion of the dive shop, Taber found himself with some extra time on his hands. One day he saw an ad in the newspaper that read “hang gliding instructor wanted: will train if qualified.” Taber was hired the first day he walked into Kitty Hawk Kites and was sent on his first flight lesson on the dunes.

“The girl in front of me broke her arm and then it was my turn,” he said with a laugh. “But it worked out better for me.”

Taber’s sense of adventure and love of flight led him to travel the world as a competition pilot. During his early years of hang gliding, he won numerous competitions including the Kitty Hawk Kites Gliding Spectacular in 1979 and the Great Race several times. During his competition era, he also owned and managed a water sports store at the coast. By day his focus was on the shop, and in the afternoons he sailed the coastal winds with fellow hang gliders.

The original owner of Georgia’s Lookout Mountain Flight Park approached Taber for help coming up with a new business plan for the attraction. One thing led to another, and in 1980 Taber found himself the sole owner of the flight park, situated about 120 miles northwest of Atlanta and just northeast of Chattanooga.

It’s easy to see how Lookout Mountain gained its namesake.

The winding road toward the mountaintop gives way to unparalleled panoramic views so distant that it is difficult to distinguish where the tips of the blue mountains end and the sky begins. It’s a natural instinct to look over the edge and wonder what it would be like to leap into the sky and never touch the ground—and hang gliders do just that. With a running start, they head toward the edge and let the air lift their makeshift wings.

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MIND, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 51

KEN PITTS

BLAKE MADDEN PHOTO

Rock Climber. Motorcycle Racer. Mountain Biker.

Nope, no siree—not every mother and father would trust their son on a dirt bike. But Ken Pitts’ folks did, with a little bit of coaxing.

“My brother broke the ice with my parents,” Ken said. “He talked them into letting him buy a motorcycle.”

Big bro was 15 years old when he started riding dirt bikes, and, not to be left out, 10-yearold Ken got one, too—a mini-bike. Then Dad got in on the action, and the trio took to the rugged old logging roads around Hueytown, revving engines and catching air along the southern tailbone of the Appalachians in northern Alabama. So began a lifelong thirst for adrenaline and appetite for outdoor adventure.

At 15, Ken was introduced, by his cousin, to spelunking—exploring wild cave systems, of which there are thousands scattered across the limestone underworlds of northern Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia. Caving requires some climbing, and occasionally the cousins escaped the slicks and shadows for some of the above-ground variety.

“I started going caving with him, and he introduced me to rock climbing. To him it was purely practice for going spelunking,” said Ken. “Something about the sport attracted me. It takes obviously a physical skill to climb, but it’s also very mental in that you have to be confident in your abilities. Anybody can walk a balance beam when it’s a couple of feet off the ground, but if you were to put it 50 feet off the ground, it’s technically no more harder to balance, but rock climbing has that mental aspect. I found it challenging.” Ken lost his personal caving guide when his cousin moved to Texas, but by then he’d decided he liked rock climbing better anyway. There was a good site for bouldering (short climbs without a rope) only minutes away from his home in Alabama. “When I discovered rock climbing, I started riding less and less,” he said.

It was rock climbing, in fact, that ultimately brought Ken to North Carolina. “Rock climbing in Western North Carolina is world class,” he emphasized. “There are as good of rock climbing opportunities here as anywhere in the world.” After spending a lot of time on WNC rock, Ken decided to make the area his permanent home, moving to Asheville in 1991. His favorite climbing destination in WNC is the Linville Gorge. “The remoteness to it, the beauty of the area, the quality of the rock—it’s an amazing place,” he explained.

Ken has climbed all over the Southern mountains, with first ascents at Looking Glass Rock, Rumbling Bald, Linville Gorge and Hawksbill in North Carolina and Chandler Mountain in Steele, Ala., among many others in that state. Another favorite is Red Rock Canyon in Nevada, featuring 2,000-foot-tall sandstone faces, the type of rock Ken learned to climb in Alabama. “It’s pretty rare for sandstone to be that tall,” he noted.

He and his buddies generally prefer lead climbing, in which a lead climber attaches to the rope at the bottom of a climb and ascends the route, along the way placing protection— anchors to prevent long falls—into the rock.

The leader’s partner belays the rope—paying out or taking up rope as the climber moves and

DONATED PHOTO

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 4

holding the rope in the event of a fall.

After more than a decade of rock climbing, though, Ken began to seek out new recreational hobbies, including mountain biking. “I had been rock climbing almost exclusively for 10 or 12 years and decided it was time to diversify a little bit,” he said. Nagging knee issues have kept Ken from mountain biking much in the last couple of years, however. Moving to Asheville also inspired a return to his first love—motorcycles.

“Motorcycles went by the wayside until I moved to Asheville,” said Ken. “I realized what a wonderful place this would be to ride.” He bought a street bike and knew friends who raced motorcycles. “I thought, ‘Gosh, I could do that,’” he recalled. That was in 1999. Two years later, he was the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association Historic Production Heavyweight national champion.

“It looked like too much fun,” Ken said. “It’s a legal way to go out there and as safely as it can be done go as fast as you’re able to go.” Without the hazards of gravel, road kill and larger vehicles, “it’s much safer than riding a motorcycle on the street,” he added. “It gave me a way to sort of get that need for speed out of my system in a controlled environment.”

Ken competes in vintage motorcycle leagues on asphalt, closed-loop road courses with right and left turns and hills. His race bike is a 1969 Moto Guzzi Loop-Frame, an Italian motorcycle.

“It’s a fairly unusual bike to race,” he noted.

“They handle well, and they’re extremely reliable. Americans think you have to have a certain number of horsepower or whatever; [they’re] not looked at as fast motorcycles, but really they are.”

Ken had four first-place finishes in 2002 and was referred to as “Mr. Curve” by a fellow Guzzi racer in a newsletter of the Moto Guzzi National Owners Club. Unfortunately, the Guzzi is parked for now. “I haven’t quit because I chose to,” said Ken. “In this economy, it’s an expensive hobby.”

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Clay County < North Carolina Come and experience Clay County all year round. No matter what time of the year it is, there’s always something to explore.

We invite you to celebrate our 150th Birthday with us throughout 2011 and we look forward to “Welcoming You Home to the Mountains.” Whether you like hiking or biking on a mountain trial, fishing or boating on Lake Chatuge, or shopping for handcrafted items on the Square and throughout our community, you will enjoy our charming shops and warm and friendly people

Join us for our Special Events: Aug. 13 Aug. 27 Sept. 24 Oct. 1-2 Oct. 21-23

Family Fun Fest - On The Square 21st Annual Mountain Golf Tournament Tractor Parade, BBQ & Chamber Business Expo John C Campbell Folk School Craft Show Punkin Chunkin Festival & Craft Show

Tractor Parade, BBQ & Chamber Business Expo: Celebrate our County’s agricultural history & get acquainted with our area businesses while you enjoy a local favorite of Pulled Pork BBQ Punkin Chunkin: Are you ready for some Pumpkins???..........

Watch the pumpkins fly as the teams compete for the championship bragging rights.

Fall craft fair with great food & music for all to enjoy.

Clay County Chamber of Commerce

Contact us for event details & lodging information:

388 Business, Hwy. 64 | Hayesville, NC 877.389.3704 | www.NCMtnChamber.com

Until you’re here …

… we’re there for you.

We know that as much as you’d like to be here, perhaps you haven’t made Western North Carolina your home — yet.

However, you can still be a part of the community with the Smoky Mountain News, the region’s free weekly covering news, events and issues that affect life here in the mountains. And when the time comes to make Western North Carolina your permanent address, or maybe to just come back and visit, our blue boxes will be waiting.

For subscription information, call 828.452.4251 or visit online every week at www.smokymountainnews.com.

34 CHURCH ST. • WAYNESVILLE, NC • 629 W. MAIN ST. • SYLVA, NC WWW.SMLIV.COM

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“The last couple of years have been awesome. There were ice climbs that people hadn’t been able to do for 20 years.”

— Ed Maggart MIND, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 52

Ken, 49, is a commercial photographer by trade and spends much of his free time outdoors, sometimes leaving for a climb early in the morning and not returning until dark. His wife shares his competitive nature, as she’s an avid race walker. Ken’s recreational hobbies are physically demanding, he said, but because they clear your mind, “the end result is a relaxing activity.”

“Motorcycle racing is the same as the rock climbing in this aspect: when you are doing it you get into this zone. It’s 100 percent focus; you’re not worried about work or any other stress in life. You’re totally focused on what’s in front of you.”

Of course, there’s always the potential for danger, but no more so than your morning commute, said Ken, noting he’s never suffered any injuries beyond scrapes and bruises.

“You can’t do these things without a certain amount of risk, but it’s a calculated risk,” he said. “I think driving to the cliff is more dangerous than the rock climbing itself.”

ED MAGGART

Rock Climber. Ice Climber. Kayaker.

Like Ken, Ed Maggart’s climbing career started in a cave.

“I started doing caving in high school with a Boy Scout troop,” said Ed, who grew up in Nashville, Tenn., where his grandparents had a big farm. He was always hiking or fishing. “I’ve enjoyed the outdoors my whole life for sure.”

Ed moved to climbing indoors as a teenager, and then went to college at Sewanee, near Chattanooga, where he found an active climbing community. During college and soon after, he further developed skills learned in small rock climbs of 200 to 300 feet by enrolling in courses on ice climbing and alpine climbing in Washington and Wyoming and began climbing mountains around the world.

“I was learning how to apply those skills to larger mountains, learning how to climb larger rock mounts,” Ed said. “When you’re going to be out for a really long day or overnight, there’s more technical skills that you need to know to climb safely and efficiently.” Ed scaled 12,000foot rock faces in Grand Teton and glaciers in Washington, learning about transitions between rock and snow and ice, avalanche safety and how to get someone out after a fall.

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In South America, Ed has climbed Alpamayo in Peru and made first ascents in Bolivia, which he described as pretty unexplored in terms of climbing. He’s also climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and mountains in New Zealand, the U.S. and western Canada. Recently, Ed climbed Ama Dablam, located in the Himalayas of eastern Nepal near Everest.

The biggest difference between rock climbing and ice climbing, Ed explained, is that in ice climbing, the conditions are constantly changing and the climber is totally dependent on the tools—ice axes, large screws placed into the ice for protection, and crampons (metal spikes strapped onto boots). “You can make a hand hold or a foot hold anywhere you want to,” he said. “What’s most challenging is judging the conditions. If the ice is really soft but thick, the tools go in easily, and it’s safe. If it’s really cold and hard, it’s brittle…[and] more difficult.

“I do think ice climbing tends to probably be a little more filled with hazards just because conditions can change so quickly. They can both be done safely if you have experience and use some good judgment,” he added.

In 1981, Ed moved to North Carolina after taking a job teaching science and working for the mountaineering program at Asheville School, becoming the program’s director a few years later.

Though it lacks the alpine climbs of taller mountain ranges, Western North Carolina holds its own in the climbing arena, Ed said, noting that Laurel Knob, near Cashiers, is the tallest continuous rock face in the eastern United States. “I think people that are climbers that don’t live here are surprised to find that we do have 1,000-foot-long cliffs here and ice climbs that are 600 or 800 feet long. For the terrain that we have, it’s really good.”

The Appalachian Mountain Institute Both Ken and Ed are part-time guides for the Appalachian Mountain Institute (AMI) based in Pisgah Forest N.C. AMI provides guided rock climbing and ice climbing trips as well as training for climbing instructors.

Ed said his groups at AMI include families on vacation, couples and beginning and intermediate climbers looking to enhance their skills.

“I enjoy working with a variety of people,” Ed said. “Sometimes I have the most fun…[with a] family who had never been climbing before.”

While some are a little afraid of heights, many first-time climbers have trouble trusting the equipment, Ken said. Equipment is much stronger, lighter and safer than when Ken began climbing in the ‘70s, he said—“they develop that trust in the Ed Maggart equipment, realizing how safe it really is.” appalachianmountaininstitute.com

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The recent cold, snowy winters turned the area into a sudden Mecca for ice climbing, which, in the South especially, depends very much on the season.

“The last couple of years have been awesome,” said Ed. “There were ice climbs that people hadn’t been able to do for 20 years. It was a free-for-all—it was pretty exciting. There were things that people had never seen before.

“Some years it’s not that much; some years it’s just incredible,” he added. “When it’s not cold for very long, you have to go up high to find the ice. It’s hard to plan ahead. When the ice forms, you’ve got to just go.” Good ice can be found by locating waterfalls on a map, talking to other climbers or simply scanning the winter landscape. “Everybody that ice climbs around here has their secret places that they know about,” he said.

Ed took up kayaking after moving to WNC through his work with Asheville School’s mountaineering program. “In the eastern U.S., this is the place to be for kayaking,” he said emphatically. Ed most often paddles on the Pigeon, Chattooga, Green and French Broad rivers, and plenty of good creek runs can be had all across WNC after a heavy rainfall. In a kayak, the paddler has much greater control than in other small water vessels.

“Kayaks are smaller and they’re more maneuverable. You can paddle on more challenging water and do things with them that you can’t do with a larger open canoe,” Ed explained.

As director of the mountaineering program, Ed, 53, is lucky to have a job doing the outdoor recreation activities he loves.

“It’s what I do when I work, and when I have free time, it’s what I do,” he pointed out. “Part of it is just enjoying being outdoors. I enjoy just a day hike as much as climbing. I’m really at home in the natural world, and I just love it.” Ed’s wife and daughter enjoy the outdoors as well—his daughter also kayaks and climbs.

With both climbing and kayaking, Ed relishes “the challenge that it presents and the feeling of being a little unsure that you can do it, being a little afraid, and working through that. The focus that it brings…you don’t have time to think about what you should be doing at work the next day.

“As a guy who’s traveled all over the world for adventure sports, I just always want to come back here,” Ed concluded. “I just love it in Western North Carolina. It’s a great place to be if you like being outdoors.”

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HIKING, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 50

Those who like nothing better than to tackle the hardest hikes are out there right now ankledeep in mud, ducking under low-hanging rhododendrons, hauling backpacks up and down slopes thousands of feet high, swigging water flavored with iodine or energy drink mix or both. They’re out there discovering the leaks in their raincoats, counting seconds after lightning, blistering their heels, napping on the backbone of the world, comparing the furthest blue mountains with their aching muscles’ memories. They’re always out there, or some representatives of them are, hiking while sun glares off the ice-encrusted snow around them, hiking through humid summer nights alive with katydid rhythms.

Long-distance hiker and filmmaker Kevin Gallagher is one of them. Growing up in the Shenandoah Valley, Gallagher spent plenty of time in the mountains and was drawn to the Appalachian Trail. “I was enchanted with the idea that there was this route right in my own backyard that I could follow all the way down to Georgia or all the way up to Maine,” he says.

“It wasn’t until college that I was able to commit to the idea and make it happen.” As part of the journey, Gallagher stopped once every day on the trail to load a roll of film into his camera. He took one photograph after every 24 steps, winding up with more than 4,000 images in slide form. “Managing the thousands of slides at the end was a bit of a chore,” Gallagher said.

“Using film made the creative process move along slowly just like the hike, so it was complementary in some ways even though the final product is so rapid.”

Gallagher used his slides to make a stop-action movie. “Green Tunnel” is a five-minute journey along the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail. Recognized at events like the Southern Appalachian Film Festival and the Yosemite Film Festival and winner of an Award of Merit in the Accolade Film Competition, the film condenses six months of effort into a single plunge—mountains, bridges, boulders, sunny skies and gray, tree after tree after tree flash by in progression from Georgia to Maine. “Outside of the more iconic places,” explains Gallagher, “I tried to find spots that were quintessential to that stretch of trail.”

Of course, there’s one section that is both iconic in its own right and quintessential to the AT, and that’s the 70 or so miles that run the crest of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In the Smokies, thru-hikers encounter Clingmans Dome, the highest peak of the entire trail, as well as miles of high-elevation sprucefir forest and open balds. “My big memory from 56

The view from Mount Sterling fire tower. MARY SILVER PHOTO

more:

Watch Green Tunnel at anothergallagher.com

Kevin Gallagher DONATED PHOTO

the Smokies is getting hit with a huge late spring storm that April,” Gallager said. “We plowed through knee high snow drifts at 5,000-plus feet and through the clearing clouds could see spring time in the valley below. I hadn’t spent much time in the Smokies, but because of the AT I’ll never forget them. I was fortunate enough to hike the length of the Pacific Crest Trail a few years after the AT, and that snow in the Smokies was great training for the High Sierra.”

The Smoky Mountains are home to several sweat-inducing, back-breaking, chest-heaving hikes—a guide to which can be found in the paperback Hiking Trails of the Smokies, pubSMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 4

lished by the Great Smoky Mountains Association. Long trails and steep slopes are sure indicators of the hardest of the hard. Yet, a hike can be hard on so many more levels beyond simply climbing mountains. Spend miles stepping over loose or slippery rocks, around thick, wet mud, or through minefields of horse manure. In late summer and early fall, yellow jackets can come boiling up out of the ground with little warning, and in winter a hike begun in dry woods at low elevation can lead to a treacherous, ice-coated land of drifted snow.

Every hiker has his or her own response as to why he or she continues to clamber one foot in front of the other—it’s the feeling of accomplishment, the chance to form connections with truly beautiful places and build relationships with hiking companions, the quiet time to think, the growth that comes from meeting challenges. “Even when the trail is bad, it’s good,” Gallagher says. “Hard days are just when I don’t have my head on straight. It isn’t so different from regular life in that respect. If you let the little things like rain and bugs get to you it builds up. On the trail it is easier to let the little things go since every day feels so rich and full.”

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Take a Hike

AT from Newfound Gap to Tennessee 32 y 31.4 miles y Net elevation change = minus 3,000 feet (5,700-feet total climb; 8,700-feet total descent) y What makes it hard: Hikers hardly get a moment’s break from climbing up or down, and there are enough exposed areas to be dangerous in a storm. Also, the trail doesn’t end back where it started, meaning that shuttle is needed. y What makes it worth it: That high, lonesome feeling: once past Charlies Bunion, the trail provides great solitude. To meet some thru-hikers, try this section in mid-spring. At any season, it’s a treat to spend this many miles so high in elevation. y For an extra challenge: Do it in one day, or keep going to Maine.

Mt. LeConte via Boulevard Trail and/or Bullhead y 14.9 miles y Net elevation change = minus 2,500 feet from Newfound Gap to Cherokee Orchard y What makes it hard: The section of the AT leading to the Boulevard Trail has a floor of ankle-turning cobbles interspersed with slick, slanted outcroppings of slate bedrock. Once to Boulevard, the climbing is manageable, but the downhill on Bullhead is torture for bad knees. y What makes it worth it: Mt. LeConte is one of the most popular climbs in the park, for good reason—it’s another world up there.

This route offers great views, a long wildflower season, and a lot of interesting rock piles, from the giant cairn on top to the boulders and overhangs on the way down and the old farm fences at the very bottom. y For an extra challenge: Do this hike in the opposite direction.

Rocky Top via Bote Mountain y 15.8 miles y Net elevation change = 0 (3,900-foot climb and descent from Laurel Creek Road) y What makes it hard: There are four direct ways to reach Rocky Top starting from Laurel Creek Road, and this one is the hardest because it’s the longest and starts from the lowest elevation.

Beyond the long climb, Bote Mountain Trail is tough because of its many loose rocks and its popularity with horseback riders. y What makes it worth it: Next time the University of Tennessee’s football team plays and the band strikes up “Rocky Top”—never mind being a Vols fan, never mind that the song was actually written about Mt. LeConte—one has been there and can proudly proclaim it so. y For an extra challenge: Climb another three-quarters of a mile or so past Rocky Top to Thunderhead Peak, which is the true mountaintop.

Mt. Sterling via Baxter Creek y 17.1 miles y Net elevation change = 0 (4,100-foot climb and descent from Big Creek hiker parking) y What makes it hard: The ascent of Baxter Creek Trail is among the most difficult in the park, and this hike packs on the miles afterwards. By day’s end, legs will feel like they’re on autopilot as they cruise down the flat, graded Big Creek Trail. y What makes it worth it: This hike offers some of most of the park’s varied forest types, from the shady coves to the exposed ridges, topped off with the fairytale spruce-fir forest. Mt. Sterling tower is just sketchy enough to be thrilling, especially on a breezy day, and you can see forever. Be sure to save time for a dip in Big Creek’s Midnight Hole, one of the coldest and cleanest swimming holes you’ll ever come across. y For an extra challenge: Make this hike an overnight figure eight by taking the Pretty Hollow Gap Trail down into Cataloochee.

The trail to Hemphill Bald.

MARY SILVER PHOTO

Gregory Bald y 11.4 miles y Net elevation change = 0 (3,000-foot climb and descent from Forge Creek Rd) y What makes it hard: It’s a pretty steep climb, especially the last 0.7 mile, and just as steep on the way back down. The hardest part though can be your drive home. It’s only about five miles from the trailhead to the exit of the one-way Cades Cove Loop Road, but every time someone ahead sees a deer or bear, the line of cars idles for at least 20 minutes. It’s not uncommon for those five miles to take an hour or more. y What makes it worth it: Big tulip and black cherry trees on the way up, and Gregory Bald. Flame azaleas of every hue from pale yellow and pink to deep orange and red bloom in early summer, and when they’re done the blueberries will be ripe. y For an extra challenge: See those weird yellow growths on the azalea branches? They’re galls caused by the fungus Exobasidium vaccinii, and are edible. Eat one.

Hemphill Bald Loop y 13.7 miles y Net elevation change = 0 (Polls Gap = 5,130 feet, Hemphill Bald = 5,540 feet, Caldwell Fork = 3,360 feet) y What makes it hard: Hikers reach their destination early on. After Hemphill Bald, there are still nine miles to hike, and there’s a downhill that loses 2,200 feet in elevation and dumps out in a buggy lowland. About 1,700 of those feet must be made back up. y What makes it worth it: Solitude. Even on Memorial Day weekend there may be no humans on the trail and instead elk and lots of wildflowers. Enjoy relaxing on a stone picnic table to admire the widespread views from Hemphill Bald. y For an extra challenge: Look closely for elk and wild hog hoofprints and try to discern the two. Both animals are found in the area.

Spence/Russell Field Loop y 11.6 miles y Net elevation change = 0 (3,800-foot climb and descent from Cades Cove Picnic Area) y What makes it hard: Down on the Cades Cove valley floor, those soft blue mountains don’t look nearly as high as they do only halfway up them. y What makes it worth it: Spence Field is a high-elevation bald perfect for an afternoon spent picking berries or napping in the warm grass. Visit the AT shelters and sign the guestbook and be sure to read what other hikers have to say about their trips. y For an extra challenge: For each crossing of Anthony Creek, douse one’s head.

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HEIGHTS, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 51

The 44-acre flight park has undergone huge transformations since its origin in the 1970s.

Back then, there wasn’t much more than a rudimentary concrete launching ramp. Now, Lookout Mountain Flight Park is a hang gliding resort with an unmatched reputation as second to none in the U.S. for turning out the most and best-qualified hang glider pilots. Taber has developed an instruction formula complete with aero tow and one-on-one instruction combined with tandem flights.

Two years ago, Dan Zink found himself with an itching need to experience hang gliding. He had already tried his hand at bungee jumping and sky diving, but found himself less than satisfied. After learning about Lookout Mountain, he traveled from Indiana for a tandem flight. The minute he landed he headed straight to the office to purchase a training package. It took him a year to return, but once he finished his training, he knew there was nothing else he would rather do than hang glide full-time. He eventually moved near the flight park to be an instructor. His passion for hang gliding is infectious for students, whose nerves are soothed by his reassurance that the experience will be amazing.

“Watching people get their first flight is really rewarding,” Zink said. “Most people don’t learn something new that’s that big and epic in their life but a couple of times. You learn to ride a bike, drive a car, but how many things do you really learn that’s that exciting?”

Hang gliding is considered an extreme sport for its potential for allowing the inhuman experience of flight, which is outside of the typical realm of sport activity, and also for its potential for danger.

“It is an extreme sport, there’s no doubt about it. But it’s not as dangerous as most extreme sports,” Zink said. “With hang gliding, you can make it dangerous or you can make it very safe.”

Training students often ask Zink if he has ever hit a tree. His answer is always an adamant “no.”

He compares hang gliding to driving a car: when you are driving, you don’t head for the trees, you stay on the road. If you stay conservative and do what you are supposed to, hang gliding should be as safe, if not safer, than driving a vehicle. With this mind set, he has never

“There are people out there that do think it’s an extreme sport, but I think most everybody could do it if they wanted to do it. You don’t have to be an athlete really to be a hang glider, you just have to have a good head on your shoulders and know what’s going on.”

— Matt Taber

even broken a fingernail while hang gliding.

Likewise, with more than 2,000 documented hours of flight time, Taber says he has barely suffered a scratch from the sport. For many firsttimers, the most difficult part is overcoming the mental challenge of literally jogging off the edge

of a mountain. This is where one distinct personality trait comes in, says Zink, and that is the person who is a “doer.”

“We’ve got short, tall, thin, fat, computer guys, construction guys, people afraid of heights, women in their 60’s and 70’s,” Zink said. “We’ve got everyone you could think of flying, but they all have that one trait. They’re all doers.”

At the flight park, instructors have done tandem flights with children as young as 4 years old to adults 80 years old. But since hang gliding does have a danger factor, it is a sport that cannot be gone into lightly or just on a whim. It takes careful training to achieve that first flight.

Even for the most experienced fliers, such as Taber and Zink, each flight is unique and exciting. For beginners, perfect flying condition is calm air. But professionals seek more challenging circumstances. Zink prefers to fly in radiating sunshine, which heats the ground and creates a rising column of air. This air, called thermals, allows the hang glider to fly in circles and be lifted further up without effort, like birds fly.

“It’s a free elevator ride up in the sky,” Zink said Thermals have allowed Zink and Taber to fly wing tip-to-wing tip with golden eagles and buzzards and make hang gliding the purest form of flight, the pilots say. Unlike flying an airplane, which is mechanical, and sky-diving, which sends you plummeting toward the ground, hang gliding is soothing, quiet and is often very spiritual. The best way to describe the feeling of hang gliding, says Zink, is to remember what it was like as a child running as fast as you could and wishing you would never come back down. With hang gliding, you can stay in the air for up to five or six hours at a time.

“There are people out there that do think it’s an extreme sport, but I think most everybody could do it if they wanted to do it,” Taber said. “You don’t have to be an athlete really to be a hang glider, you just have to have a good head on your shoulders and know what’s going on.”

Hang Gliding at Lookout Mountain Flight Park There are several packages to choose from to get you started hang gliding. The instructors here train more hang gliders than anywhere else in the world and offer state-of-the-art procedures. They are also extremely friendly and reassuring when it comes to making that first leap, so to speak, into a new experience.

Discovery Tandem Flight: This is the package to choose if you are looking for a one-time chance to soar in the air like a bird. The hang 58

glider is lifted in the air by an airplane, so there is no running involved. Students are in flight with the instructor and are able to experience stressfree hang gliding. This flight is at an elevation of 2,000 feet for around 20 minutes.

Introductory Experience: With this package, you will start at ground school, learning the basics of hang gliding and safety on the small hills at the landing zone. After ground school, you will get to tandem fly with an instructor.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 4

Introductory Weekend Package: This is the two- to four-day program where you will learn to launch and land a hang glider and perfect your skills over more time. A tandem hang gliding experience tops off the weekend.

Lookout Mountain also offers different levels of training packages with the goal of flying solo at the end. The flight park is open year round, five days a week. Contact the school at www.hanglide.com or call 877.426.4543.

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DONATED PHOTO

PASSION FOR HISTORY AND CONNECTING WITH NATURE LURES ANTIQUE AND CLASSIC BOAT ENTHUSIASTS TO MOUNTAIN LAKES B Y T E R E S A K I L L I A N TAT E

MIRACLE PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTO • MIRACLEPHOTOGRAPHY.SMUGMUG.COM

Tom Riggle can trace his love of boats to a pier not far from his grandparents’ house in Charlevoix, Mich., where as a child he used to watch wooden boats cross the lake. “They have a unique sound – kind of throaty and mellow, a soft rumbling,” said Riggle. “I thought, ‘Boy, someday I am going to have one of those,’ and then they quit making them.”

Someday came six years ago as the Lake Lanier resident was preparing to retire from a job as senior manager of the Marine Division of American Honda Motor Company. He and his wife, June, decided to dock their fiberglass Donzi and purchase a 1952 22-foot Chris Craft Sportsman. “It felt different driving the boat because the boat came from nature, being made of wood. There’s just a different smell and aura about it. You feel like the boat belongs on the water. It’s not attacking the lake; it’s part of it – part of nature. You almost think that if God had intended us to have fiberglass boats, he’d have made fiberglass trees,” said Riggle.

Although the Sportsman’s top speed reaches only half the Donzi’s, that’s fast enough for the couple,

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Norwegian Son As Al Olsen got to know a 1950 23-foot Chris Craft Holiday during the two years he spent restoring the boat, the Georgia resident’s thoughts turned inward to his family’s roots and the Viking spirit. “I named the boat ‘Norwegian Son,’ because I’m Norwegian, and the boat is the same year as my birthday,” said Olsen, who in April completed a total restoration of the mahogany boat, including a new bottom, frames and sides. “It gets in your blood. It really does –the smell of the wood when you are cutting it, the warmth of the wood when you are sanding it.”

Olsen, who was a homebuilder by trade, has restored a string of boats and does not consider his work done until he shares them with others. “We love to have other people appreciate the boats, not just because of what we’ve done but because of the history and the beauty – the preservation.”

Among the ACBS Blue Ridge Chapter’s most important activities to Olsen, the chapter president, are events such as the boat rides and barbecues hosted for terminally ill children. “Sharing with people who otherwise would not have an opportunity to get to do something like this with their families is probably the most meaningful part of the hobby,” he said.

MIRACLE PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTOS • MIRACLEPHOTOGRAPHY.SMUGMUG.COM

Miracle Photography Bob Miracle and his wife, Linda, do not own a classic or antique boat but have taken thousands upon thousands of photos of them – enough to be honored by Woody Boater website as January’s “Woody Boater’s of the Month.”

After Bob retired, the Anderson, S.C., resident began dedicating more time to photography and hiking, and a fellow hiker who was a boat enthusiast, Cathy McLay, saw how many photos he took of waterfalls and nature and invited him to a Blue Ridge Chapter Antique and Classic Boating Society event. “I took 1,800 pictures in three days on Lake Keowee, and sent them to everyone who came,” said Bob. “I was told anytime I wanted to come, I was welcome. I haven’t missed a show in three years.”

Taking photos at boat shows presents interesting challenges, such as bright sunlight, he said. “The camera will see light and blow it out,” he said.

His wife, Linda, began taking photos at the shows too. “I love the beauty of the boats, and I enjoy the people,” she said. In fact, Bob said it was Linda who helped him learn how to wait to get the perfect natural background.

“She has a great eye,” he said.

See more of the Miracles’ photos online at miraclephotography.smugmug.com/Boats.

It’s Someday The 1958 Chris Craft Capri left to Florida resident Art Hampton by a friend who knew Hampton liked the boat didn’t get the attention it needed until Nancy came along. A veteran waitress, Nancy had told Hampton that “someday” he was going to marry her. An entrepreneur who had gone through a divorce, he doubted that. Then after the couple got married, she told him that “someday” they would have a home in the mountains. Once again, he doubted… until they went on a vacation to Murphy. They bought land and built a home. So when she asked when he was going 62

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to get the boat working, he said, “Someday.”

“Unbeknownst to her, I found a guy who could get it done,” said Hampton. He enlisted the help of Steve Thurlow to not just restore but actually preserve more than 60 percent of the original boat. “When I brought it up to North Carolina, I had ‘It’s Someday’ painted on the back, and she cried. It was her idea to get the boat done and done nice. That was our dream.”

Today Hampton, his dog, Tater, and his son, Joel, take the boat – one of only 18 of that kind known to exist and one of only two that is seaworthy – to events with a poster-sized photo of Nancy under the words “In Loving Memory.”

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who named the boat “Slow Dancing.”

“We decided that retirement was a good time to change the pace of life, and the name refers to that lifestyle change for us – slowing down to enjoy the ride more.

Speed is not what it’s all about. It’s the joy of being out there and helping to preserve a part of history, so to speak,” said Riggle.

Today, he serves as membership chairman for the Blue Ridge Chapter of the Antique and Classic Boat Society. The organization brings people together who share an interest in historic, antique and classic boats, and works to protect the heritage of boating by preserving and restoring antique and classic boats. The society’s approximately 7,500 members form 56 chapters across the country and Canada and host events every weekend through the year. The shows feature historic, antique and classic boats with classes of boats built up to and including 1918 through 1975, and also contemporary

“You almost think that if God had intended us to have fiberglass boats, he’d have made fiberglass trees.”

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wood boats built 1976 through today.

Among the Blue Ridge Chapter’s annual events are gatherings hosted at mountain lakes such as the annual Lake Chatuge Rendezvous. “I will never forget the first time we went to Lake Chatuge, coming around the bend and seeing the mountains dropping into the lake. It was the most stunning sight I think I had ever seen,” said Gail Turner, a Gainesville, Ga., resident and immediate past president of ACBS International. Meanwhile, Al Olsen, who lives at Lake Hartwell in Georgia, said the beauty, clarity and wealth of wildlife sets mountain treasures such as Lake Chatuge apart. “The birds we see are just amazing. That’s what we like about the mountain lakes,” said Olsen.

Walk with club members such as Charles H. Mistele from Bluffton, S.C., past parked antique and classic boats at the Lake Chatuge Rendezvous, and they notice details. Mistele can point out small

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Miss America IX

“It was just fate. I was chosen — Charles H. Mistele

scratches indicative of a boat’s original parts, a historic Johnson Super Sea Horse 35 hp outboard motor, and a row of AristoCraft boats, a line first manufactured in Atlanta in 1946 by Claude Turner, whose son and grandson are active in the Blue Ridge Chapter. “Back when these boats were new, you were the fat cat on the lake,” said Mistele.

For many members, the boats carry a lot of nostalgia. “It’s not always just the boats that are antique,” said Riggle lightheartedly. “A lot of us have fond memories of the old boats from our youth.”

Lake Junaluska resident Randy Cunningham vividly remembers his first experiences with a wooden boat were skiing behind a family friend’s 1964 16-foot Century Resorter at 64

MIRACLE PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTO • MIRACLEPHOTOGRAPHY.SMUGMUG.COM

to protect this boat.”

The rundown condition of a 1930 Gar Wood named “Miss America IX” – the first boat to ever break 100 mph – so depressed a then-25-year-old Charles H. Mistele that he gave the owner his card and told him to call if he was ever going to dispose of it. “I said, ‘I can make a commitment to repower it and put it in front of people where it belongs.’ Two years later, he called me on a Friday afternoon,” said Mistele, who was working with his family’s fuel oil business in Michigan at the time. To see the boat, Mistele and his wife, Diane, loaded their two young daughters in the car for a foggy, approximately 75-mile drive – part of it on a two-lane road with water on either side.

All “Miss America IX” had then was a steering wheel, bow rudder and two propeller struts. His wife questioned why he – a sailor, not a power boater – wanted a boat that steered from the back and was not something they could sleep on.

He told her it was part of the nation’s racing history. “Someone has to preserve and protect this boat,” said Mistele, whose grandfather had captured the boat on film at a time when he recorded on 100 feet of film and then had to turn the film over to record on the other side. The boat is to water what the Spirit of St. Louis is to aviation, he said. “It was just fate. I was chosen to protect this boat,” he said.

Now, more than 40 years later, Mistele and his wife live in Bluffton, S.C., and take Miss America IX to shows and events from Wisconsin to New York. They share the boat’s history – how it twice defended the Harmsworth Trophy against British challengers and broke the 100 mph record on March 20, 1931. Mistele warns spectators before turning on the engines because of the thunderous rumble. Danielle Ragland from Fort Myers, Fla., sat in the driver’s seat of “Miss America IX” at the Lake Chatuge event and said the power of the boat takes you over. “Oh, she’s literally one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen,” said Ragland.

Visit www.missamericaix.com to learn more about the boat.

Lake Summit south of Hendersonville. “You don’t ever forget that – the sound and the smells an inboard boat makes,” said Cunningham, an architect who founded the Lake Chatuge Rendezvous, which will celebrate its 25th year in 2012.

For Olsen, riding in a neighbor’s antique boat and witnessing its craftsmanship reeled him in. “The sound and the ride is just so different,” said Olsen. “It’s like when a Harley Davidson rides by on the highway, you know it’s a Harley. It’s the same kind of feeling when an antique boat goes by. From the water line and the way they ride, you can see them coming from a long distance away and know it’s an antique boat.” Another part of the appeal for Olsen is actually working on and restoring the SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 4

boats. He bought his first in Cincinnati, Ohio, and did a partial restoration. “It only took a couple of months, and then I sold that one and bought one that needed a total restoration from a new bottom and frames all the way up to the deck,” said Olsen. “That was a big project.”

Today, he has a Canadian 1948 22-foot Shepherd Runabout named “Chat Noir,” which means black cat and is so named because the sides of the mahogany boat are painted black.

“We have another boat, too. Well, one more that’s running,” said Olsen, laughing.

Not every antique or classic boat requires a lot of work, and owners such as Cunningham say modern products, finishes and techniques actually make boats that are already restored relatively easy to maintain. “People will ask if

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Architect Randy Cunningham named his 1965 Philbrick Runabout with a 354-hemi engine, “Junaluska” in honor of his Lake Junaluska home. Cunningham can trace the history of the boat, which was made in made in Oakland, Calif., to a New Jersey pilot who regularly flew in and out of San Francisco, saw the boat and ordered one. “The boat was in pretty rough shape when we got it,” said Cunningham, who estimated he tinkered with the boat off and on for 20 years before finally finishing it.

The boat, one of only three of its kind known to be on the East Coast, is not the first he has restored and will not be the last, as his collection includes, in various stages of repair, a 1962 Correct Craft plywood boat and a 1954 Duracraft aluminum boat. “I’ve also got a 1937 Gar Wood that I hope one day to get started up,” said Cunningham.

He and his wife, Linda, founded the Lake Chatuge Rendezvous because they wanted there to be an event for ACBS members solely for enjoying their boats together without the pressure of competition and judging. “Half of Lake Chatuge is in North Carolina and half is in Georgia,” said Cunningham. “It is one of the most picturesque lakes. When you get on the water in a wood boat with the sound of the engine, people come back amazed at the beauty. Next year’s Lake Chatuge event is not set yet, but we always try to have it the second weekend in June at The Ridges Resort. It will be our 25th year, and it also happens to be the 25th anniversary for The Ridges Resort, so we are planning for a celebration.”

MIRACLE PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTOS • MIRACLEPHOTOGRAPHY.SMUGMUG.COM

Junaluska

Cardboard boat race The first time Kristopher Winter entered the Lake Chatuge Antique and Classic Boat Society Rendezvous’s annual cardboard boat race, he turned two 4-by-8 foot sheets of cardboard and a roll of duct tape into a canoe to race from one dock to another and back. “It didn’t end up well,” said the 21-year-old from Johns Creek, Ga., who has competed in the race every year since he was 8 years old. “The cardboard gets wet and just dissolves.”

Gainesville, Ga., resident Gail Turner said she and her husband, Bill, introduced the cardboard boat race to the Lake Chatuge event to capture the interest and enthusiasm of youth and adults alike.

“It creates a wonderful camaraderie among the participants and spectators that eagerly look forward to it from year to year,” she said. Lake Junaluska resident Randy Cunningham, who cofounded the Lake Chatuge Rendezvous with his wife Diane, said the addition of the race has been a lot of fun. “The creativity of the young boat-builders amazes me every year,” said Cunningham.

For the 2011 event, Winter fashioned a cardboard pontoon boat and focused on strategy: Paddle fast. Paddle, he did, but not fast enough to make it to the dock before the boat became a submarine, and he swam back to shore. At the sight of racers laughing as their cardboard creations began to sink, spectators called out “Time to get out the bilge pump,” and “They don’t make cardboard like they used to.”

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these are hard to keep up, and I haven’t found that to be the case,” he said. Another common question is what the best boat to buy is. “I say, ‘Buy one that runs and floats. And if you have to pick one, pick ‘float,’” said Cunningham.

“There’s so many different makes and models.

I tell everybody who is interested they need to join the Antique and Classic Boat Society so they can learn a lot before they buy a boat.”

Club members say what grows out of their shared interest in boats are deep and lasting friendships – the kind where you call each other on Thanksgiving and Christmas. “We keep these old boats going,” said Art Hampton, an ACBS member from Florida who owns a house in Murphy and enjoys taking his boat, “It’s Someday,” to mountain lakes such as Lake Chatuge. “We do it as a group. We do it to protect the history. We all get together, and we are very close knit. It’s a family.”

New members Susanna and Wayne Lloyd

on the web:

from Cumming, Ga., said the family atmosphere itself y Antique and Classic Boat Society www.acbs.org/ was a big part of y Blue Ridge Chapter of the Antique and Classic Boat Society what appealed to www.blueridgechapter.com/ them. Last year, y Woody Boater’s post about Miracle Photography they bought a 1977 www.woodyboater.com/communityweb/ AristoCraft Ninemiracle-photography-now-on-woody-boater/ teen to enjoy with y AristoCraft Boats their two children www.aristocraftboats.com/ and started attending ACBS events. experience the same feeling,” he said.

“There’s something for everyone,” said Wayne Sharing and stirring the fascination of classic Lloyd. Indeed, Cunningham said classic and and antique boats with the next generation is a antique boats were so much a part of his famkey for fulfilling the society’s mission to protect ily’s life that his kids grew up thinking everyboating heritage – to keep antique and classic one had old, antique boats, and they continue boats alive. “Saving this history is important,” to value their time together on the water. “My said Gail Turner, immediate past president of daughter would fall asleep as a baby when we ACBS international from Gainesville, Ga. “The put her on the boat, and she wants to bring her early builders had such a great spirit, and these baby to the lake because she wants her child to boats are part of their story and the stories of those they touched. When you are standing on the dock and hear someone say, ‘I had a boat like that,’ they tell you their story and you take their story with you. We are just the caretakers of the stories right now.”

“I say, ‘Buy one that runs and floats. And if you have to pick one, pick ‘float.’”

— Randy Cunningham

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T

o be a member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild is not simply to be part of a crafting circle. Yes, members weave and whittle, forge metal and throw clay pots. But they’ve also been inducted into the guild by a committee who, through multiple juried selections, determine that each crafter is making not just interesting and marketable work, but quality work in keeping with the guild’s more than eight decades of tradition.

And quality is not the only tradition associated with the guild. Nearly all of the craft forms it represents are rooted in time-honored artistry.

Pottery, quilt making and basket weaving are not just expressions of beauty, though many modern consumers treasure these handmade objects for their aesthetic qualities. Until the 20th century, these items were necessities, providing food storage and warmth. Appalachian mountain people didn’t make crafts simply to pass the time, they crafted to survive.

For that reason, many of today’s Southern Highland Craft Guild members became makers at the knee of a skilled parent or grandparent.

“My mother taught me to sew when I was very small. Knitting and crocheting and things like that,” says Barbara Miller, a guild member since 1965. “It was for practical use, for my own clothing or if I wanted to make gifts.” These days, Miller still makes clothing, though she does so on a number of floor looms in her own workshop.

FROM HOMESPUN TO HIGH-END Fiber arts is just one area represented by the craft guild, but it covers a lot of ground—from the ancestral coverlets that played an important role in the formation of the Southern Highland Craft Guild in the late 19th century, to ultra-modern techniques like Shibori weaving and contemporary garment design. But no matter how futuristic some of the wearable art might seem, most forms hearken back to traditional skills.

“Basic weaving goes back to old patterns that have been handed down for generations,” says Douglas Atchley, a Weaverville, N.C.-based weaver-turned-ceramist. “People take the old traditions and make them into new ideas, but you always go back to the tradition.” He says that as a teacher (first at Auburn University and later at John C. Campbell Folk School), he led courses in overshot weaving so students could understand the beginnings of the craft.

Atchley names Waynesville, N.C.-based weaver Liz Spear as one who takes long-established methods and makes them her own.

Spear’s garments, which were sent down the runway at this spring’s Folk Art Center’s Fiber 68

Day fashion show, are easily-wearable pieces in lush colors and clean lines. Spear herself, the emcee of the annual fashion show says, “What I make is fairly conservative. Most of my customers are women with office jobs.” Which is a long way from the conventional image of a mountain woman weaving a shawl to ward off the first chill of autumn. But Spear points out, “Nobody’s really doing traditional garments.

What’s a traditional garment? Nobody’s doing homespun liberty blouses.”

“Basic weaving goes back to old patterns that have been handed down for generations. People take the old traditions and make them into new ideas, but you always go back to the tradition.”

— Douglas Atchley

What the guild’s fiber artists are doing is a wide array of jackets, lots of scarves, skirts for a range of body shapes, quirky hats, ponchos, wraps, bags and even fiber arts jewelry that incorporates felting and weaving with beads. And the wearable pieces, bright and tactile, are so appealing that they’re not only highly soughtafter by craft fair attendees but by the makers themselves, who buy from and trade with each other to fill their own wardrobes.

STARTING SIMPLY Two of the artists who clothe many of the crafters at the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands are Jude Stuecker and Jen Swearington.

Both are Asheville, N.C., residents and both make youthful, body-conscious apparel— Stuecker’s pieces include hand-dyed and silkscreened a-line skirts; Swearington’s dresses and tees are hand-printed with stencils. Both Stuecker and Swearington, who are close friends, got their start as quilters.

“I was inspired by things I saw other people making,” says Stuecker. She started piecing fabrics, making her earliest quilts in a style akin to learning an instrument by ear. But it wasn’t until she was in college that she began seeking out advice from professionals.

“I never made traditional quilts, but I learned a lot from traditional quilters and techniques,” SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 4

she says. “I learned that it’s really important to make something well. I was just making things creatively, but there was a point when I needed to learn the right techniques and tools so things didn’t fall apart and were presented well.”

Stuecker’s production improved, but she was still “barely scraping by” financially until Swearington suggested she start making clothing because “women always buy clothes, regardless of how many they have. It’s hard to resist,” says Stuecker.

Swearington, who studied fine arts in graduate school, moved to Asheville about 11 years ago.

She immediately started exhibiting her wall pieces in coffee shops, and got into the Southern Highland Craft Guild based on that work. For her first guild craft show, she realized she needed items with shelf appeal at reasonable price points (wall hangings are large, and not exactly impulse buys). “I couldn’t have a whole booth of scarves, so I thought I’d try making a skirt and a top, and started very simply,” she says. Her efforts were rewarded with sales, so, without a fashion background, she branched into apparel.

Swearington uses silk and bamboo jersey with lycra, which she dyes herself. “It’s fun to get really amazing colors and to think about the body and the garment and how patterns line up,” she says. While Swearington’s business is predominately women’s wear these days (she even has a part-time assistant for production work), she still makes her wall pieces which she sells on crafter site Etsy.com (Etsy founder Rob Kalin bought one). She also makes sculptural quilt pieces for art shows, such as a fiber arts teapot for the National Teapots Show IV on exhibit at the Cedar Creek Gallery in Creedmore, N.C., through Aug. 21.

And Swearington carries aspects of her quilting over to her wearable art. “I make screens from my sketchbook pages for the wall hangings, and then print those on the fabric,” she says. Images that appear on her dresses and skirts—musical instruments, shoes, a light post—were once incorporated in quilts.

WARP AND WEFT: NOT JUST FOR WOMEN Tim Clark, a musician and fiber artist in Burnsville, N.C., also found a way to carry over his craft—Japanese braid-making—into wearable items. The elaborately-woven plaits, known as Kumihimo, were once used as straps for Samurai armor. When Clark discovered the craft, he fell in love with it because “there’s something so interesting about the mathematics,” he says. He was able to purchase the equipment for a flat-braid loom (a Takadai, which uses up to 100 strands) through a grant from the Arts Council.

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Wearing tradition on their sleeves Fiber artists at the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands

BY ALLI MARSHALL

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A Short History Though the Southern Highland Craft Guild was chartered in 1930, its history dates back to the 1890s. It was in 1897 that Presbyterian missionary Frances Goodrich (the greatgranddaughter of Noah Webster of Webster’s Dictionary fame) founded Allanstand Cottage Industries in Madison County, N.C. The business provided a means of income for Western North Carolina mountain women who wove traditional coverlets.

A decade later, Goodrich opened a showroom and retail space in downtown Asheville. The new location put Goodrich in contact with other leaders of the then-burgeoning arts and crafts movement. A 1928 meeting at the Penland School of Crafts (formed by Lucy Morgan, a Craft Revival leader who parlayed a weaving course for mountain women into a profitable cottage industry that also sought to preserve the traditional craft) planted the seeds for a crafters’ guild.

According to Western Carolina University’s well-researched online collection, Craft Revival: Shaping Western North Carolina Past and Present, “The meeting was scheduled for Christmas vacation with guests arriving on a snowy December day.” The guests, gathered around the fireplace in the weaving cabin, made up a Who’s Who of the Craft Revival, and, the collection reports, “The meeting marked a new phase of the Craft Revival, in which its leadership began to define the movement and articulate its goals.”

Olive Campbell was in attendance at that meeting. She had founded the John C. Campbell Folk School (named in honor of her late husband) in 1925. The Brasstown, N.C.-based facility was initially focused on forestry, travel, history and more, but it organized a community of carvers who operated much like the Allanstand Cottage Industry weavers. It was Campbell who initiated, according to the W.C.U. study, “the need for a ‘loose federation’ of craft producers as early as 1928.”

“A core group of craft enthusiasts continued to meet to develop the idea of a cooperative guild,” continues the W.C.U. report. “In 1930, at the annual Knoxville conference, they formally organized the Southern Mountain Handicraft Guild, today’s Southern Highland Craft Guild.”

To date, the guild represents more than 900 crafters in 293 counties across nine states in the Southeast. Its growth is just one testament to the growing and enduring craft community in the southern Appalachians. Guild members work in wood, clay, glass, metal, paper, jewelry, leather, mixed media, fiber and natural and manmade materials. Products range from quilts and baskets to sculpture and high-fashion handbags. While the output of guild members is widely varied, one thing is for sure: Each of these artists is producing top-quality pieces.

To join the guild, crafters from the Appalachian mountains of Kentucky, Tennessee, the Virginias, the Carolinas, Georgia, Maryland and Alabama can apply for membership. A successful application is followed by an image jury and then an object jury, during which a committee of experts considers the crafter’s work.

Benefits of membership include marketing opportunities such as selling work through the Allanstand Craft Shop (now located at the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway), Guild Crafts in Asheville, the Parkway Craft Center in Blowing Rock, Cumberland Crafts in Middlesboro, Kentucky, Arrowcraft in Gatlinburg, Tenn., and the biannual Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands which takes place each July and October at the Asheville Civic Center.

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Liz Spear wears one of her own handmade garments.

DONATED PHOTO

A recent fashion show at the Guild’s Asheville location showcased member works.

MARGARET HESTER PHOTO

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Clark’s partner, Linda Mace Michael, designs sumptuous and fashionable handbags. The couple realized that Clark’s Japanese braids would make perfect straps for the purses. The braids feature distinct patterns such as a fan and a Hana-Bishi (a family crest).

Because the Kumihimo plaits are so time consuming, Clark realized they weren’t financially feasible for the bags, but he’s continuing his study of obscure braiding forms. He is currently at work with artist and author Roderick Owen on a book about Peruvian braid patterns.

info: Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands 87 Haywood St, Asheville, N.C. October 20-23 Thursday-Saturday: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sunday: 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Admission: $8, children under 12 free southernhighlandguild.org

An unforgettable family vacation home overlooking downtown Waynesville, NC You and your family can relax in seclusion at 4500’ high enjoying long range views.

The custom home has 3 bedrooms with private baths, a kid’s room with bunk beds and a half bath. The screened in porch has a fireplace to keep you warm on those crisp evenings or you can enjoy making s’mores while sitting outside around the fire-pit counting the stars.

All Smoky Mountain Living readers enjoy any week of the year for only $1050* SmokyMountainVacation@gmail.com for more information. *does not include any local taxes or additional fees.

Clark, as a male fiber artist, is a minority in the field. While men populate disciplines like ceramics, woodworking and glass blowing, their numbers are few among weavers, knitters and apparel makers. “I was at a workshop in Pennsylvania on beginning Takadai, and one other man showed up,” says Clark. And that’s for the art form of the Samuri. Peruvian round braid, he relates, were developed for making slings used in hunting. Still, he says, “Fabric, it’s interesting, is mostly women showing up for the workshops. I don’t know why.”

Atchley found the same to be true when he was a teacher. “There were one or two men in the workshops,” he says. “And there are a few guys out there weaving.” He speculates that there are fewer men in fiber arts because it’s the less financially lucrative of the genres. But there are big names in fiber arts: Among the men, Atchley names famed fiber artist Jack Lenor Larsen, who studied ancient Peruvian techniques before going on to design textiles for interiors.

CREATING NEW TRADITIONS But not every artist seeks fame. Miller, who also volunteers in the Craft Guild’s library, is interested in historic preservation. “The archives are documents, photographs and papers,” she says. “Guild members who have been important in their fields have left us their papers.” Miller says it’s a good resource for the public as well as living guild crafters.

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“When you’ve got the whole hand weaving field and people who’ve been doing this for pleasure for quite awhile, there’s been a real growth of interest in the weaving field. The rise of knitting, the rise of quilting.

Weaving guilds have become popular again. I think we all need fiber in our lives.”

— Liz Spear

In her own work, Miller says time-honored weaving is all she’s ever done. “When I started weaving, I realized there were so many ways you could go.” She took time to try different ideas and techniques before settling on the traditional (especially focusing on 18th century textiles) “to see what I could do with what has been handed down.”

Spear, who is also well-versed in traditional weaving, seems to enjoy the challenge of pushing boundaries through new techniques and collaborations. “Once you learn how to work a loom and you’ve done the scarves and you’ve done the table mats, you want to do something else,” she says. Cut-and-sew garments are one area that’s been growing in recent years, according to Spear. She adds piecing with scraps, painting woven fabric and trading textile pieces with other artists. One collaborator, Laura Simms, marbles fabric for Spear.

Another popular new technique is Shibori weaving, developed by Waynesville, N.C.based fiber artist Catharine Ellis in the 1990s.

Traditional Shibori is a Japanese method of binding, twisting and stitching fabric to achieve patterns during the dying process. Ellis’ woven Shibori is, according to the artist’s website, “a process of weaving and resist” where stitches placed in the cloth on the loom can be gathered prior to dying. During the Folk Art Center’s Fiber Day fashion show, a large number of woven Shibori pieces (from artists like Neal Howard and Teena Tengue, both of whom will be at the July guild craft fair) were sent down the runway.

Even though fiber arts are based in tradition, they’re not limited by those roots. Like in any medium, trends continually arise as crafters innovate and are inspired by numerous sources: their peers, the magazines they read, high fashion and whatever’s the rage in contemporary clothing. “Right now, felting is huge on a whole lot of levels,” says Spear. “The newer techniques, each time one comes along, spawn the next set of trends in the field.” In the past year, she’s become interested in Nuno Felting,

a technique of building up layers of loose fiber, developed by an artist from New South Wales in the early ‘90s.

“I end up with really beautifully-textured soft fabric in a way that’s very different from my weaving,” says Spear. Which is not to say she’s considering abandoning weaving. “A loom is a really cool tool,” she says. Pattern-making and work with color are some reasons she suspects people are attracted to weaving.

“When you’ve got the whole hand weaving field and people who’ve been doing this for pleasure for quite awhile, there’s been a real growth of interest in the weaving field,” Spear says. “The rise of knitting, the rise of quilting.

Weaving guilds have become popular again. I think we all need fiber in our lives.”

And, Spear points out, those who aren’t drawn to crafting quite enough to take it up themselves are drawn to those who do.

Want to get your fiber fix? The next Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands is Oct. 20-23 at the Asheville Civic Center.

Fiber Day at the Southern Highlands Craft Guild’s Folk Art Center is held in May. MARGARET HESTER PHOTO

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DIRECTORY

shopping

CACKLEBERRY MOUNTAIN Waynesville’s best kept secret offers a huge selection of affordable home décor, gifts and custom floral designs.

460 Hazelwood Ave. • Waynesville, NC 828.452.2432 • cackleberrymountain.com CHARLES HEATH GALLERY, THE The Charles Heath Gallery is located at the corner of Depot and Everett Streets in Bryson City, North Carolina. Look for the old train depot and the Gallery is just across the street. Featuring works in Acrylic, Photography, Oils, Pastels and Pen & Ink. Original art and prints for sale framed and unframed.

Custom framing available.

7 Depot Street • Bryson City, NC 828.488.3383 • www.charlesheath.com CHRISTMAS IS EVERYDAY Located in beautiful downtown Waynesville. Offering wonderful ornaments and gifts year round. Visit our website for special items.

113 N. Main St. • Waynesville, NC 828.452.7945 • christmas-is-everyday.com FINE ART & CRAFT—SCENIC 276 CORRIDOR A 13-mile stretch showcasing galleries, studios, shops, lodging and dining venues.

See member listing for hours.

Brevard/Cedar Mountain, NC 828.883.3700 • artsofbrevard.org/tours GAINES KIKER SILVERSMITH/GOLDSMITH STUDIO AND GALLERY Specializing in custom design jewelry and accessories. Gaines’ creative influences vary from the natural world to the simplicity of pure geometric forms. Located in the village of Blowing Rock, the working gallery is open to the public Tues.-Sat. 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

132 Morris St. • Blowing Rock, NC 828.295.3992 • gaineskikersilversmith.com GALLERY TWO SIX TWO Open Mon. and Wed.-Sat. 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Gallery Two Six Two is a progressive, modern gallery featuring some of the finest local & regional artists Appalachia has to offer - from watercolor to woodwork, photography to pottery, jewelry to acrylics & oils, mixed media to stained glass. Located in the heart of Waynesville’s Historic Frog Level District.

262 Depot St. • Waynesville, NC 828.452.6100 • gallerytwosixtwo.com GLASS FEATHER STUDIO GALLERY April-Dec., Wed.-Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Unforgettable mountaintop shopping 74

destination with glorious views, flower gardens, and kiln-fired fused glass handmade by artists since 1982. Also featuring photography by Rob Travis.

200 Glass Feather Dr. (off Reasonover Rd.) Brevard/Cedar Mountain, NC 828.885.8457 • glassfeather.com JEWELER’S WORKBENCH Mon.-Sat. 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m., A working gallery offering design services, along with on-sight repairs. Dedicated to providing a gallery that offers the best in hand-crafted jewelry, along with a venue to display the works of local metalsmiths.

Your jewelry says a lot about you, so don’t just run with the pack … dare to be different!

80 N. Main St. • Waynesville, NC 828.456.2260 • thejewelersworkbench.us JUST DUCKY ORIGINALS Open Mon.-Sat. 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

(Waynesville open until 7 p.m. on Fri.) Classic fashions and unique gifts, just perfect for the children in your life.

25 Miller St. • Waynesville, NC 100 Charlotte St. • Asheville, NC 828.456.4297 • justduckyorignals.com MAST GENERAL STORE Experience the nostalgia of an authentic general store. The Original store, on the National Historic Register, has operated in Valle Crucis since 1883. Restored emporiums also in Boone, Waynesville, Hendersonville, Asheville, Knoxville, TN and Greenville and Columbia, SC. Hwy. 194 • Valle Crucis, NC 828.963.6511 • mastgeneralstore.com MUD DABBERS POTTERY & GIFTS Open all year.

Functional and contemporary handmade pottery in Western NC. The creations of 23 local potters in a working studio.

Locations in Brevard and Balsam, NC 828.456.1916 • 828.884.5131 OCTOPUS GARDEN Open Mon.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Sun. 1-6 p.m.

Five locations to serve you in the Asheville Area! Smoking accessories, gifts, T-shirts and more.

Call for directions: 828.232.6030 RUBY CITY April 1–Dec. 31: Open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.–Sat. Winter hours: Tues.-Thurs. 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

One of a kind gemstones, investment stones, diamonds and cut stones of all kinds as well as 14kt jewelry.

828.524.3967 • rubycity.com SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 4

SEQUOYAH NATIONAL GOLF CLUB Located 45 minutes west of Asheville, North Carolina and nestled among the oak, fir and flowered valleys in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains resides Sequoyah National Golf Club. Owned by the Eastern Band of the Cherokee, this design offers golfers an idyllic 18 hole journey, filled with scenic vistas, beautiful landscapes and challenging golf.

79 Cahons Rd. • Whittier, NC 828.497.3000 • sequoyahnational.com SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS CRAFT GUILD The Craft Fair is an event where connoisseurs and novices alike come to craft a collection, connect with tradition, and invest in regional culture. The Craft Fair takes place in beautiful downtown Asheville July 21-24 at the Civic Center.

828.298.7928 • southernhighlandguild.org TOOL SHED Open Mon.-Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

“The place to shop in Waynesville”—gifts, decorative accessories, jewelry, Christmas Shoppe and bridal registry.

784 N. Main St. • Waynesville, NC 828.452.5720 mountainshops.com/ maggievalleywaynesville/hpages/toolshed T. PENNINGTON ART GALLERY Colored pencil drawings of Western North Carolina scenery, landmarks, flora and fauna

by Teresa Pennington. Unique gift items, music boxes made to order, night lights, note cards, Christmas ornaments, etc. Have your favorite scripture included in the framing on any print. Custom framing for your prints or ours. Shipping available.

15 N. Main St. • Waynesville, NC 828.452.9284 • tpennington.com TWIGS AND LEAVES GALLERY Open Mon.-Sat. 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Sun. 1-4 p.m. (seasonal) Browse this unique gallery with its unforgettable collection of nature inspired works by 180 artists and craft persons.

98 N. Main St. • Waynesville, NC 828.456.1940 • twigsandleaves.com WHITE SQUIRREL SHOPPE Open 7 days a week year round (Sun. 1-5 p.m.)

Celebrating our 21st year with the same owner. 4,000 sq. ft. of quality merchandise!

Largest selection of candles in the area, Amish furniture, home accessories, local crafts, unique lamps, large bird, white squirrel and lodge departments.

Downtown Brevard, NC 888.729.7329 • whitequirrelshoppe.com

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shop savvy

T. Pennington Art Gallery

Sequoyah National Golf Club

828.452.9284 • 15 N. Main St. Waynesville, NC One in a series of eight—leaves with different scenes. To see them all go to www.tpennington.com

828.497.3000 • 79 Cahons Rd. Whittier, NC www.sequoyahnational.com The golf shop offers a ful range of men’s and women’s golf apparel.

Gallery Two Six Two 262 Depot St. • Waynesville, NC 828.452.6100 www.gallerytwosixtwo.com A modern gallery showcasing the finest in local & regional art.

Pictured: Carolyn Taylor

White Squirrel Shoppe 888.729.7329 2 W. Main St. • Brevard, NC www.whitesquirrelshoppe.com Perry’s hummingbird feeder—the all new “window watcher”—is made of brass, copper and glass. Made in Tennessee. $19.95

The Jeweler’s Workbench 828.456.2260 80 N. Main St. • Waynesville, NC www.thejewelersworkbench.us Don’t just run with the pack ... dare to be different. Specializing in hand-crafted jewelry and distinctive watches.

Christmas Is… Everyday

Twigs and Leaves 828.456.1940 98 N. Main St. • Waynesville, NC www.twigsandleaves.com Twigs and Leaves Gallery—where art truly dances with nature.

Pictured: clock by Bob and Lucy Gibson.

Mast General Store 866.367.6278 www.mastgeneralstore.com Valle Crucis • Boone • Asheville Waynesville • Hendersonville Greenville • Knoxville • Columbia Pictured: handcrafted Amish rocker.

800.490.3433 113 N. Main St. • Waynesville, NC www.christmas-is-everyday.com WoodWick Candles feature a natural wooden wick that creates the soothing sound of a crackling fire.

Cackleberry Mountain 828.452.2432 460 Hazelwood Ave. Waynesville, NC BreezeArt premium decorative flags are 40 percent heavier and more durable than typical flags. MailWraps are available for most designs .

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DIRECTORY

Gaines Kiker Silversmith & Goldsmith 828.295.3992 www.gaineskikersilversmith.com Handcrafted reticulated cuff bracelets.

Tool Shed 828.452.5720 784 N. Main St. • Waynesville, NC Snap Shoes: the shoe with infinite possibilities, the interchangeable snaps offer over 1000 ways to update your look. Pictured: Sharyn in Champagne.

Glass Feather Studio Gallery 828.885.8457 • 200 Glass Feather Dr. Brevard/Cedar Mountain, NC www.glassfeather.com Unforgettable mountaintop shopping, fine art glass and photography.

Fused glass and photography classes.

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DIRECTORY

select lodging

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

244 Love Ln. • Waynesville, NC 888.608.7037 • oakhillonlovelane.com ANDON REID INN Experience the Smoky Mountain views from our beautifully restored 1902 home. Sumptuous breakfasts, private baths, Jacuzzis, working fireplaces, fitness studio and distinctive features that contribute to your comfort. Moments away from the Blue Ridge Parkway, Pisgah National Forest, waterfalls and Asheville. Let us “wow” you!

92 Daisy Ave. • Waynesville, NC 828.452.3089 • andonreidinn.com BOYD MOUNTAIN LOG CABINS AND CHRISTMAS TREE FARM Featured in 2011 Southern Living Best Weekend Getaways . Enjoy a peaceful country setting in charming authentic log cabins,1 – 4 bedrooms, located on 130 beautiful acres.

Full kitchens, wood burning fireplaces, Wifi, & A/C. The cabins overlook the Smoky Mountains, our Fraser Fir Christmas tree farm, 3 stocked fishing ponds ,flower and vegetable gardens. Hiking trails to the top of Boyd Mountain, volleyball, basketball and badminton, swimming hole in the creek, sledding in the winter. Open every season .

828-926-1575 • boydmountain.com BEST WESTERN RIVER ESCAPE INN AND SUITES A Best Western with a style all its own. Overlook a rambling river from your spacious room or relax on our scenic riverside patio.

Enjoy deluxe guest rooms, suites, a heated indoor pool and hot tub, a hot breakfast bar and an atmosphere flowing with charm. One block from Historic Dillsboro, NC. 248 WBI Dr. • Dillsboro, NC 828.586.6060 bestwestern.com/riverescapeinnandsuites HISTORIC PROSPECT HILL BED AND BREAKFAST INN Catch the feel of "Home". Stylish, Affordable and Luxurious large, private rooms 76

where you belong to a beautiful, quiet place.

A/C, fireplaces, whirlpool tubs, king/queen beds. Mountain views. Wake up to birds, fresh air and tasty breakfast. Go to bed with firefly and star-studded skies. 40 minutes from Parkway - near Mountain City's 1950's vibe. Guest rooms $99-$179. Online discount promo code: PARKWAY 801 W. Main St./Hwy. 67 • Mountain City, TN 423.727.0139 • prospect-hill.com WATERSHED LUXURY LOG HOME RENTALS A collection of over 65 luxury cabins, chalets, and lofts within minutes of the Nantahala River and Bryson City. This includes private estate homes and also units on our 50-acre Watershed Resort property that features a community area, playground and a hiking trail that leads to our very own trout pond and waterfall, plus an authentic Indian teepee.

137 W. Watershed Rd. • Bryson City, NC 888.604.3075 • watershedcabins.com BLUE RIDGE RENTALS Blue Ridge Mountain Rentals offers a huge selection of the finest cabins and mountain homes in the Boone and Blowing Rock areas!

Visit us at blueridgerentals.com or call us at 800.237.7975. We look forward to serving you.

800.237.7975 • blueridgerentals.com RESIDENCES AT BILTMORE HOTEL Ideally located between Biltmore Estate and downtown Asheville. Studio, 0ne- and twobedroom suites available with full kitchens, fireplaces, balconies and most with whirlpool jet tubs. Property amenities include 24-hour Concierge, fitness center, heated outdoor pool, hot tub and fire-pit. Your mountain retreat in the heart of the city.

700 Biltmore Ave. • Asheville, NC 866.433.5594 residencesatbiltmore.com THE SWAG COUNTRY INN Chosen by readers of Conde Nast Traveler magazine as the #2 Best Small Hotel in the Unites States, the secluded hideaway itself consists of 250 private acres. The main lodge and cabins, consisting of 15 rooms, are built of 17th and 18th century hand hewn logs and local field stone. Join us for our 30th season to experience just how remote, rustic, refined and remarkable it can be at 5,000 feet. 3 gourmet meals are served daily, with turn down service each evening.

800.789.7672 • theswag.com SMOKY MOUNTAIN MANSION BED & BREAKFAST/FULL HOUSE RENTAL Breathtaking mansion with six B&B rooms that include breakfast; groups can rent out the entire house, self-catering or catering SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 4

options available. Outdoor dining pavilion, grill area, even a chapel/fellowship hall on site! The Mansion is the ideal setting to relax in spacious, comfortable surroundings, convenient to the Tail of the Dragon, Cherohala Skyway, rafting, boating, fishing, hiking, horseback riding, and scenic drives. We also host weddings, reunions, and retreats.

Come stay and play at the Mansion!

P.O. Box 259 • Robbinsville, NC 828.479.4220 smokymountainmansion.com ELA CAMPGROUND Whether you are traveling with a tent or in a motor home, you'll love the quiet, shady Ela Campground beside the Tuckaseigee River, midway between Bryson City & Cherokee NC on US 19. If you don't have a tent or camper, no problem. We have camping cabins and RVs you can rent for your mountain vacation.

5100 Ela Road (Hwy. 19 N) Bryson City, NC 828.488.2410 • elacampground.com BETTY’S AT HAWKSNEST This comfortably decorated condo, includes a deck, with a breathtaking view of Grandfather Mountain. This magnificent 1200 ft.

2 bedroom, 2 bath condo for four is conveniently located on the ground level. Parking is on a level driveway with plenty of room.

We are located in the Grandfather Mountain Community area almost mid-way between Boone, Banner Elk, Linville, and Blowing Rock. The condo is fully furnished with both comfort and convenience to meet your needs.

704.237.4372 • vrbo.com/129334 GRANDVIEW LODGE Tucked away in a mountain cove just off the beaten path near Waynesville, North Carolina, the newly-remodeled farm style home on 3 acres features 8 deluxe, country rooms with private baths. There’s also the 2-bedroom, 2-bath Grandview Cottage with full kitchen, living area and dining area. Sunday Brunches 11-2 with Live Music. It’s the perfect place for a private getaway!

466 Lickstone Rd. • Waynesville NC 800.730.7923 • 828.456.5212 grandviewlodgenc.com SMOKETREE LODGE Smoketree’s cozy atmosphere and prime location allows its visitors the choice of enjoying the peace and solitude of the Blue Ridge Mountains or the opportunity of partaking in the many activities available in the High Country!

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

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Over 60 vacation rental homes available!

(866) 586-8058 TOLL FREE www.smokymtngetaways.net

59062

59915

Magnificent

Mountain Escape

A Blowing Rock Tradition...

For over a century, the village of Blowing Rock, North Carolina has provided a cool mountain retreat for discerning people to enjoy upscale shops, fine dining, and family entertainment. The original structure of historic Hemlock Inn, centrally located in the village, was built over an artesian spring regarded to be the beginning of the New River.

Today, the original inn has been refurbished and additional rooms have been added.

BEAUTIFUL 2BR/2BA CONDO FOR RENT AT SEVEN DEVILS

• Near Boone, Banner Elk & Blowing Rock • First floor unit with Fireplace • Gorgeous Views from Deck • Sleeps 4

Downtown Blowing Rock, N.C. 828-295-7987 • www.hemlockinn.net

704.237.4372 www.vrbo.com/129334

Owned and operated by the Summers family since 1994 Innkeepers: Bryan and Donna Summers

Ask About Alumni Discounts

58919

59210

Rustic Elegance

IN NORTH CAROLINA’S GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS Restored antique 1, 2, 3, & 4 bedroom log cabins in a peaceful country setting on 130 acres with trout stream, fishing ponds, swimming hole & hiking trails. A/C & wireless internet.

445 BOYD FARM ROAD WAYNESVILLE, NC 28785

(828) 926-1575 www.boydmountain.com 59111

Your mountain retreat within the heart of the city. Our all-suite hotel is located just outside the gates of the Biltmore Estate with studio, one and two bedroom suites all including our exclusive 24-hour concierge service. Convenient to all of the most sought out tourism destinations, restaurants, and shopping in the area.

Named one of the top 25 hotels in the U.S. in the 2011 Trip Advisor Travelers’ Choice Awards

11914 Hwy. 105 S.

828-963-6505 Smoketree-Lodge.com Managed by Vacation Resorts International

59239

Banner Elk NC 28604 “Everyone we dealt with was exceptional. The suite was beautiful, very well laid out and you have a great location. This was our first visit to The Residences at Biltmore but it will not be our last!”

Ted & Bonnie — October 2010 WWW.SMLIV.COM

700 Biltmore Avenue

ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA

866.433.5594 ResidencesAtBiltmore.com 77

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CALENDAR

upcoming events

AUGUST 7th Annual String Time in the Smokies A celebration of Smoky Mountain traditions and bluegrass music. Featuring the 2nd Annual Smoky Mountain Championship Cornhole Tournament and performances by Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard Time. Pigeon Forge, Tenn. August 5-6. Call 865.428.0771 or visit www.oldmillsquare.com for more information.

41st Annual Smoky Mountain Folk Festival

Reflections of Elvis and his southern gospel songs presented by The Blackwood Brothers Southern Gospel Quartet. Smoky Mountain Center for Performing Arts in Franklin, N.C. August 11. For more information call 828.524.1598 or visit www.greatmountainmusic.com.

3rd Annual Mountain High BBQ & Music Authentic BBQ, live entertainment, a crafters village and tasting tent. KCBS sanctioned NC State Championship professional and backyard cook teams will compete in this 2 day festival. Wayne Proffit Agricultural Center in Franklin, N.C. August 12-13. Call 828.524.3161 or visit www.mountainhighbbqfestival.com

SMOKY MOUNTAIN FOLK FESTIVAL PHOTO

Two evenings filled with hundreds of talented artists providing the best in mountain music and dance.

Includes a variety of the region’s finest fiddlers, banjo players, string bands, ballad singers, buck dancers and square dance teams.

Enjoy the sounds of the dulcimer, harmonica, bagpipes, spoons, saws, and folk ensembles. Stuart Auditorium at Lake Junaluska, N.C. September 2-3. 800.222.4930.

Smoky Mountain Jubilee

Art in the Park A juried art show featuring over 100 exhibitors. Local and regional artists and craftspeople showcase their handcrafted jewelry, pottery, fiber, glass, photography, painting and more. American Legion Grounds in Blowing Rock, N.C. August 13. 828.295.7851.

Dancers. Cherokee Indian Fairgrounds in Cherokee, N.C. August 26-27. 800.438.1601.

2nd Annual Smoky Mountain Civil War & Relic Show Authentic Civil War era muskets, rifles, pistols, photographs, uniforms will be on display along with artifacts, relics and collectibles. Smoky Mountain Convention Center in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. August 2628. For more information call 800.223.6707.

34th Annual Sourwood Festival Nearly 200 vendors featuring arts, crafts, specialty items, food and more. Music and dancing in the big tent. Black Mountain, N.C. August 13-14. 828.669.2300.

1964 to 2011, Trans Am cars and more. Sevierville Events Center in Sevierville, Tenn. September 9-10.

865. 380.1996.

Art in the Park A juried art show featuring over 100 exhibitors. Local and regional artists and craftspeople showcase their handcrafted jewelry, pottery, fiber, glass, photography, painting and more. American Legion Grounds in Blowing Rock, N.C. September 10. 828.295.7851.

Dumplin Valley Bluegrass Festival Enjoy three days of music from the nation’s best bluegrass musicians. Featuring Monroeville , Paul Williams and The Victory Trio, Darrell Webb Band, The Little Roy and Lizzie Show, Rhonda Vincent and The Rage, Lou Reid &Carolina, The Quebe Sisters Band, Joe Mullins &The Radio Ramblers, Jimbo Whaley & Greenbriar and more. Kodak, Tenn. September 15-17. 865.397.7942 Sample the fare of Gatlinburg’s finest restaurants and businesses. Featuring live music. Gatlinburg Convention Center in Gatlinburg , Tenn. September 15. Visit www.eventsgatlinburg.com for find more information.

DONATED PHOTO

CHEROKEE NC PHOTO

Taste of Autumn

Festival of Native Peoples Indigenous tribes from across the Americas gather for this showcase of song, dance and art honoring the collective history, customs and wisdom of native peoples. Festival highlights include the popular Totonac pole flyers of Mexico, Four-time dance champion Tony Duncan of the Apache Arikara, Tezcatlipoca Aztec Dancers from Mexico City, The Pollen Trail Navajo Dancers, the Yurapik Dance Group of Alazka, the Laguna Youth Group from the Laguna Pueblo, the White Mountain Apache Crown Dancers of Arizona, as well as the Crow and Cherokee’s Warriors of AniKituhwa and the Raven Rock

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Brewgrass Festival

SEPTEMBER North Carolina Apple Festival Enjoy fresh picked apples from 14 local growers. Arts, crafts , street food and more. Live entertainment at the historic courthouse provided by the Buddy K Big Band, the Original Tams, Sound Express and the Legacy. Hendersonville, N.C. September 2-5. 828.697.4557.

The Forge Classic Car Show Rated by MSN as one of the top 8 car events in the country. Featuring a display of rare Mustangs from SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 4

A gathering of more than 40 American breweries showcasing over 120 beers. Featuring national and regional bluegrass musicians and a variety of area food vendors. Martin Luther King Jr. Park in Asheville, N.C. September 17. Visit www.brewgrassfestival.com to find more information.

Railfest All aboard for a weekend of special train excursions, motor cars from across America and an equipment display all in a festival atmosphere. Live entertainment including railroad work songs and the 7th Annual Children’s Talent Show. Food will be available along with arts and crafts. Bryson City, N.C. September 17-18. Call 800.872.4681 for more information.

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OCTOBER Mountain Glory Quilter’s Show Honoring the historic tradition of quilt making this annual show features handcrafted quilts in a spectacular display of color, skill and creativity. Marion, N.C. October 1-31. For more information call 828.652.8610.

Forest Festival Day Over 50 traditional craftsmen, exhibitors and entertainers gather at the Cradle of Forestry to celebrate our forests and forest heritage. Includes music, wood carving, weaving and more. The day also includes a John G. Palmer Intercollegiate Woodsmen’s Meet. Brevard, N.C. October 1. For more information call 828.877.3130.

Folk School Fall Festival Celebrate the rich heritage of the Appalachians. Features approximately 200 crafts people with live music, dancing, craft demonstrations, food and much more.

John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, N.C. October 1-2. For more information call 828.837.2775.

Cherokee Indian Fair A five-day fair with nightly musical entertainment, fireworks and a carnival midway full of rides and games. Craft and food vendors including some traditional Cherokee food along with an exhibit hall displaying the Eastern Band enrolled members’ traditional and contemporary arts and crafts. Cherokee Indian Fairgrounds in Cherokee, N.C. October 4-8.

Call 828.497.9195 for more information.

Gatlinburg Craftsmen’s Fair Over 200 talented artists and craftspeople showcasing woodworking, pottery, basket weaving,

stained glass, broom making and more. Gatlinburg Convention Center in Gatlinburg, Tenn. October 6-23.

For more information call 865.436.7479.

Carolina Bonsai Expo This two-day horticultural extravaganza in the mountains features a display of bonsai from enthusiasts in a six-state region. Also features live demonstrations, workshops and a bonsai marketplace.

Explore the Bonsai Exhibition Garden, which offers a world-class display of bonsai. At the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville, N.C. October 8-9. For more information call 828.665.2492.

Moogfest 2011 Three days of live music, exhibitions, installations, films, workshops, and discussions celebrating the spirit and expansive vision of Bob Moog. Asheville Civic Center in Asheville, N.C. October 28-30. For more information visit www.moogfest.com.

NOVEMBER Christmas at Biltmore Enjoy America’s largest home decorated with dozens of Christmas trees, hundreds of wreaths, bows, and poinsettias; miles of evergreen garland; thousands of ornaments, tinsel, and beading; and a magnificent 35-foot Fraser fir. Biltmore House in Asheville, N.C. November 1-January 2012. For more information call 828.225.1333.

The Polar Express Journey to the North Pole via the Polar Express.

Read along with the magical story and meet Santa.

Enjoy holiday caroling, hot cocoa, a special treat and a memento for the children. Bryson City, N.C. November 4-December 24. Call 1.800.872.4681 or visit www.gsmr.com.

The Nashville Legends Show Features four popular stars from the Grand Ole Opry.

Music from Jim Ed Brown, Helen Cornelius, Jack Greene and Jeannie Seely. Country Tonite Theatre in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. November 11. Call 1.800.792.4308 for more information.

Turkey Strut Square and Round Dance Festival Enjoy a lineup of national callers and cuers during this weekend of dancing. Grand Resort Hotel Convention Center in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. November 1720. Call 1.800.251.4444 for more information.

Festival of Trees Experience Christmas in the Smokies with dozens upon dozens of ornately decorated Christmas trees.

W.L. Mills Conference Center in Gatlinburg, Tenn. November 21-25. For more information visit www.eventsgatlinburg.com.

5th Annual Hometown Christmas Choose and cut your own Christmas tree in an oldfashioned family outing, enjoy the Festival of Trees at the Ashe Arts Center, as well as participate in a handmade and home-grown Holiday Market. Stroll the streets and galleries in West Jefferson to see the downtown lights and decorations. Enjoy the lighting of the community Christmas tree and Santa’s arrival in an old-fashioned fire engine with treats for everyone. West Jefferson, N.C. November 25-December 17.

For more information visit www.visitwestjefferson.org.

INTERNATIONAL NORTH CAROLINA’S FESTIVAL

July 19-29, 2012 “Thank you” to all our sponsors Performances in 12 Western NC counties Tickets on sale November 2011

OUR SPONSORS

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DEPARTMENT

mountain views

Sometimes, it ain’t so bad on the outside

BY GARY CARDEN

T

he first time I became aware of what it meant to be “outside looking in,” I was nine years old. It was a cold, snowy day in December and my cat, Bobbie was asleep in front of the fireplace. I was reading my favorite “funny book” about Sub-mariner when my grandfather came in from outside, picked Bobbie up, opened the door and pitched him out. Bobbie, climbed the screen door where he hung meowing piteously and staring through the glass panel in the front door. This performance angered my grandfather even more. He finally opened both doors, plucked Bobbie from the screen and pitched him into one of my grandmother’s giant boxwoods below the porch.

That did it. Within a matter of minutes, I had on my mackinaw, my toboggan and my new Christmas gloves, grabbed a chunk of cornbread from the “warming closet” of my grandmother’s Home Comfort stove, filched a mayonnaise jar from the cabinet, and I was out the door. While the family gawked through the window, I crawled under the boxwood, found Bobbie, and we set out for the barn. In my stubborn little head, I had decided to “run away.” Bobbie and I were going to live in the barn loft.

Eventually, my grandfather trudged to the barn and stood in the feed-room calling my name.

“GarNell, are you up there?”

I didn’t say anything.

“What do you think you are doing?”

“Me and Bobbie are going to live over here from now on.”

“You know I can’t stand a cat in MANDY the house.”

NEWHAM I didn’t say anything.

ILLUSTRATION “What the hell are you going to do with that mayonnaise jar?”

“Get some milk from the cow.” I thought that was pretty clever. I had planned ahead.

Grandpa snorted. “You are acting like your crazy Momma.”

“Maybe me and Bobbie will go live with her in Knoxville.”

“Come on back to the house. We are having leather britches and pintos tonight.”

“Can Bobbie come too?”

Grandpa said something I didn’t hear. Then, he said, “Bring the damned cat and come on.”

Back at the house, I took a seat at the dinner table where Uncle Ardell and Aunt Snookie sat glaring at me.

“Lord, what a aggrevating young’en,” said Aunt Snookie.

80

“You need to blister his little bottom for him, Daddy,” said Uncle Ardell. Then, he reached across the table and gave me a smack on the side of my head. “Shape up, Runt.” That was his nick-name for me. Then, he would usually stare at me and say, “I don’t see nothing of Lyndon in him.” He was talking about my father, who was dead, shot by a drunk in his little store up in Moody’s Bottom. “I see a lot of Gilmore, though.” Now, he was talking about my mother who had left me on the front porch and caught the bus for Knoxville.

After Uncle Ardell got out of the Navy, he and Snookie, his new wife, had come to live with us. They got my bedroom and I had to sleep on the couch which I didn’t mind since I could listen to the big Silvertone radio. I played it real low, but Snookie would sometimes come in the middle of the night and cut it off while I was listening to “Suspense” or “The Shadow.”

“We are trying to sleep!”

“Don’t sound like it to me.” (They made a lot of noise back there sometimes.)

“You better watch it, buster. I’m sick of you sneaking around spying on Ardell and me.”

So, here we sat, Bobbie and me. I got a saucer and gave Bobbie some milk. Snookie was complaining about the “lack of privacy” in the house and Ardell was nodding agreement.

“Where am I supposed to go,” I said.

“How about to hell,” said Ardell, and laughed.

I decided to do my best imitation of the Shadow, including that great laugh he had.

“What evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows! Haa, haa, haa, haa, haa!”

“What does that mean?” said Ardell.

“Oh, it is something that he gets out of those awful programs that he listens to, or them funny books that he is already reading,” said Snookie.

“He is already quare enough without that stuff,” said Ardell.

Grandpa gave a heartfelt sigh, got up and went to stand on the back porch and stare at the Balsam mountains.

I got my new issue of “Submariner” and settled on the couch. I liked Prince Namor who lived in the depths of the ocean. He rarely visited the human cities because they were inhabited by petty, foolish humans.

In the years following that wintery day, I spent a lot of time with Namor or with Lamont Cranston (the Shadow), or Captain Marvel. Movies, books and radio dramas were an escape into a world where my companions were “outsiders” too. Even now, almost 70 years after Bobbie and I fled to the barn, I sense a subtle shift in certain people’s attitudes when I lapse into my mountain dialect. I am outside again, and if I close my eyes, I see Prince Namor beckoning, offering escape, “Come Home, GarNell, to a place where the inhabitants are as strange as you.”

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 4

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ANDREWS 828-321-2050 BAKERSVILLE 828-688-5800 BLOWING ROCK 828-295-8072 BREVARD-DOWNTOWN 828-884-3649 BREVARD-STRAUS PARK 828-884-2600 BRYSON CITY 828-488-1168 BURNSVILLE 828-682-9992 CASHIERS 828-743-6600 CHEROKEE 828-497-3734 ETOWAH 828-890-3600 FRANKLIN 828-369-6197 HAYESVILLE 828-389-6363 HENDERSONVILLE 828-698-5684 MURPHY 828-837-9291 NEWLAND 828-733-9281 ROBBINSVILLE 828-479-3037 SPRUCE PINE 828-766-8880 SYLVA 828-631-9166 SYLVA-ASHEVILLE HWY. 828-631-9600 WAYNESVILLE 828-452-0307

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HIGH COUNTRY & GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS OF NORTH CAROLINA & TENNESSEE

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