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What’s A Meal Without Gravy? | Hiking the Chimney Tops Trail DECEMBER 2025/JANUARY 2026

A TAJINE IS NOT ONLY A DISH OR RECIPE; IT IS A WAY OF LIFE

The Secrets of Owls There’s

in These Mountains

Two Great West Virginia Destinations Unique Cabins Await Guests Along the AT REVIEW: Kings of Coweetsee

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is the adventures of Roy Boy and Birdie

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‘Poke’ is a word that stirs good memories

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11 MILKWEED TRAIL • GLENVILLE • NC 28736

4424 SQ FT • $2,290,000 With its striking A-frame architecture and glass walls that frame endless mountain and cloud-top views, this 3-story, 4-bedroom, one bunk room, 4.5-bath home in Pilot’s Knob is a true mountain showpiece.

Thoughtful details like arched windows and a spacious kitchen with an oversized island add warmth and character, while the open main living area invites both quiet mornings and lively gatherings.

Natural light pours into every level, highlighting the craftsmanship and creating a sense of peace throughout the home.

Whether you’re looking for a tranquil retreat or a luxurious year-round residence, this home blends mountain charm with everyday functionality. Just a short drive to both Cashiers, Highlands, and Lake Glenville (EV charging station included).

Roane Loudermilk roane@loudermilk-designs.com

93 U.S. HWY 64 E CASHIERS • NC 28717

L O U D E R M I L K G R O U P. C O M

OFFICE 770.485.2600 CELL 404.386.6500

50 MILKWEED TRAIL • GLENVILLE • NC 28736

4262 SQFT • $1,990,000 Designed for laid-back luxury and effortless entertaining, this 2-story mountain escape in Pilot’s Knob offers 3 bedrooms, 4 full bathrooms, and flexible living spaces for all ages.

of the surrounding mountains and cloud-covered peaks from the generous wraparound porch, complete with an outdoor wood-burning fire pit — perfect for year-round gatherings under the stars.

A dedicated bunk room makes hosting guests or grandkids a breeze, while the expansive basement-level sitting room is ready for cozy movie nights and spirited game days. Step outside to enjoy the crisp air and breathtaking long-range views

With its blend of rustic charm and modern comfort—including an EV charging station — this home is ideal for anyone seeking a high-end getaway or forever home, just minutes from the charm of Cashiers, Lake Glenville, and the beauty of Highlands.

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Contents FEATURES

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Special Cabins Await Along the AT. . . . . . . 26 The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club maintains a string of 49 oftoverlooked cabins along the Appalachian Trail that are available to the public. The cabins extend from the Charlottesville, Virginia, region into Pennsylvania.

There’s Glass in These Mountains . . . . . . . . . 32 A furnace and a vision transformed a quiet, rural Western North Carolina mountain community into a world-renowned mecca for studio glass. All it took was an initial spark and neighbors eager to fan the flame.

Two Great West Virginia Destinations . . 38 Bluestone State Park and the nearby Pipestem Resort State Park are renowned for fishing, hiking, birding, and other wonderful outdoor adventures. In fact, these two state parks are marvelous destinations no matter what stage of life you’re experiencing.

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FOOD What’s a meal without gravy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 A tajine is not only a dish; it is a way of life . . . . . . . . . 10

ON THE COVER: A rural Western North Carolina mountain community is a worldrenowned mecca for studio glass.

ARTS & MUSIC Music collaboration helps in Helene’s aftermath . . . 14 OUTDOORS Uncovering the secrets of owls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Chimney Tops a popular park destination . . . . . . . . . 20 Investing in our natural world adventures . . . . . . . . . . 22 STORIES

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The adventures of Roy Boy and Birdie . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Memories of Christmas cantatas and pageants . . . . 46 Poke is a word that stirs good memories . . . . . . . . . . . 48

SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 25 • ISSUE 6

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WELCOME

From the Editor

O

f all the announcements I received recently, one that really caught my eye was for the 10th Annual Maker City Summit, a weekend-long gathering of makers, dreamers, and doers in Knoxville, Tennessee.

“I know what it is like to go through life and tick boxes, and then you wake up one day and realize that you are in the wrong position. You are not using your talents boldly.

You are not using your skills and your experiences for good; you’ve left out your community.”

—Phillip Collins, founder of Good Black Art

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The get-together is scheduled the weekend of January 31-February 1, 2026.

Phillip Collins, founder of Good Black Art and one of the summit’s keynote speakers, said the weekend brings together painters, potters, brewers, bakers, performers, fabricators, and more. Through workshops, keynotes, and panel discussions, attendees learn how to grow their business, attract customers, and build sustainable brands.

I presented Phillip a scenario that many of us might relate to about the desire to make something versus, well, reality.

“I’ve had kids, I was married, I’m divorced, the kids are grown … I have a spark that I’ve harbored in my soul for 25 years, but never explored it, except in my very most private times. It’s an art, it’s a craft, it’s jewelry.”

It’s … creating something.

“Can a person with that story come to the summit?”

“That person should absolutely be at the summit, and I think that’s part of the conversation that I’m planning to have on the stage,” he said.

“The title of my keynote is, borders are suggestions … There is a geographic element to that, and we want to encourage openness and exploration and this drive, to your point, to encourage people to just take the leap,” he said.

“But I think that there is this other part to it, of [how] we internally create walls, and internally we create borders, or sometimes life just happens and we have to suppress certain things,” he said.

“The power of creativity is that it unlocks and removes those barriers! So I would encourage anyone who’s ever thought about exploring art to attend,” he said.

And in this case, art is music, art is making baskets, art is dancing, art is film. Art is watercolor, or postcards.

“Art is everything, and sometimes, you have these ideas in your head, and for whatever reason you’re not [yet] able to fulfill them,” he said.

Life happens.

“But I think that there are moments—like this summit—that allow you to think more broadly about who you are and what you can do. And that is why I agreed to do this summit, because

I know what it is like to go through life and tick boxes, and then you wake up one day and realize that you are in the wrong position. You are not using your talents boldly. You are not using your skills and your experiences for good; you’ve left out your community. You are disconnected and siloed, even though it might be comfortable, and it’s one of the reasons why I created Good Black Art, because there is a sense of urgency to get to people, especially when they’re young, to get them to understand who they are, why they exist, and what their purpose is, so that they can move through the world more intentionally, with purpose, and have the impact that … can change the world. And I know that sounds big and lofty, but that is actually what I believe,” he said.

As a keynote speaker, Phillip brings decades of experience connecting legacy industries with historically excluded communities. His global career spans Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America, where he worked with some of the world’s largest organizations to open doors to new ideas in new places.

Other keynoters include: • Debbie Millman, an author, educator, designer and podcast pioneer, host of ‘Design Matters,’ one of the first and longest running podcasts in the world.

• James Victore, a creative thought leader known for his provocative style as a graphic designer, art educator and dynamic, in-demand speaker on creativity.

• Sarah Sewell, a small business strategist, writer, and the founder of Flourish, a supportive e-commerce training community for productbased business owners.

The summit is designed for makers of all types—from illustrators to innovators, tinkerers to full-timers, and everyone in between—who are looking for maker business education and creative inspiration.

It’s hard to think of a better place for such an event than Southern Appalachia.

For further details, visit www.themakercitysummit.org.

Happy making.

—Jonathan Austin

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Contributors WELCOME Sue Wasserman When Sue Wasserman moved back to the Western North Carolina mountains more than 10 years ago, she promised herself she would be grateful each day to be surrounded by so much beauty. The freelance writer and nature photographer, who currently lives in Bakersville, North Carolina, is happy to say she’s succeeded.

Sue has written for a variety of publications, including The New York Times, Southern Living, Smoky Mountain Living, and The Atlanta Journal Constitution. Nature and the arts are two of her favorite subjects.

VOL. 25 • ISSUE 6 Publisher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Scott McLeod scott@smliv.com Associate Publisher . . . . . . Greg Boothroyd greg@smliv.com Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jonathan Austin jonathan@smliv.com Associate Editor . . . . . . . . Susanna Shetley susanna@smliv.com Advertising Director . . . . . . . Greg Boothroyd greg@smliv.com Art Director . . . . . . . . . . . Travis Bumgardner travis@smliv.com Music Editor . . . . . . . . . Garret K. Woodward Design . . . . . . Micah McClure, Jessica Murray, Jack Snyder Sales . . . Amanda Bradley, Maddie Woodard Finance & Admin.. . . . . . . . . . . Jamie Cogdill Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Scott Collier Contributing Writers . . . . . . Ben Anderson, Jim Casada, Nan K. Chase, Thomas Crowe, Julia Nunnally Duncah, Bruce Ingram, SG Séguret, Sue Wasserman, Renea Winchester Contributing Illustrator . . . . . . . David Cohen Smoky Mountain Living has made every effort to ensure listings and information are accurate and assumes no liability for errors or omissions.

To subscribe, call 866.452.2251 or subscribe online at smliv.com.

For advertising information, contact Greg Boothroyd at 866.452.2251 or greg@smliv.com.

For editorial inquiries, contact Jonathan Austin at editor@smliv.com.

Smoky Mountain Living assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. ©2025. All rights reserved. No portion of this magazine may be reprinted without the express, written consent of the publisher.

Smoky Mountain Living (USPS 0000-8240) is published six times per year (February/March, April/May, June/July, August/September, October/November, December/January) by Smoky Mountain Living LLC, 144 Montgomery Street, Waynesville, NC, 28786. This is Volume 25, Issue No. 6. Subscriptions are $25 per year; single copies are $5.95. This is Periodical Postage paid at Waynesville, NC, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster, please send address changes to Smoky Mountain Living, PO Box 629, Waynesville, NC, 28786.

Bruce Ingram A freelance writer since 1983, Bruce Ingram is the author of 11 books, including river guides on the James, New, Shenandoah, Rappahannock, and Upper Potomac rivers, a four-book Young Adult Fiction series, and an upcoming picture book for young children.

He has sold some 2,700 articles and 4,000 photos to magazines and websites.

He and his wife, Elaine, frequently co-write stories and also co-wrote Living the Locavore Lifestyle, a book about living off the land by hunting, fishing, and gathering, plus recipes.

Bruce has taught in public schools for years, sharing details with his students about writing and story structure.

Garret K. Woodward Garret K. Woodward is the arts and entertainment editor for The Smoky Mountains News and music editor for Smoky Mountain Living. He is also a contributing writer for Rolling Stone.

A native of Rouses Point, New York, he graduated from Quinnipiac University in 2007 with degrees in journalism and history.

He has been recognized with firstplace honors by the North Carolina Press Association, and has been nominated three times for Bluegrass Print/Media Person of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association.

In 2017, Woodward released his debut book, If You Can’t Play, Get Off the Stage: Bluegrass in Western North Carolina and Beyond.

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DEPARTMENTS

Food Traditions

I

What’s A Meal Without Gravy?

BY JIM CASADA

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n today’s culinary world, gravy seems to be almost an afterthought. It has been replaced by thin sauces, infusion cooking, sous vide preparations where the food being prepared is in effect soaked in its own juices, and more. Yet in my Smoky Mountain boyhood, and even more so in earlier generations, high country cooks like my Grandma Minnie would have considered a hot meal without gravy something approaching culinary sacrilege. It just wasn’t done. A chapter in a recent book I co-authored with noted Southern Appalachian blogger and vlogger Tipper Pressley, Celebrating Southern Appalachian Food, carries the title “You’ve Got to Have Gravy.” Traditionally, that was the essence of the matter.

My Grandpa Joe, who was a mountain trencherman of the first magnitude, would have been completely mystified if Grandma Minnie had served up a meal of her invariably scrumptious vittles without a boat or bowl of gravy. He wouldn’t have dared say anything—criticism of any aspect of Grandma’s cooking was beyond the pale, and rightly so—but there would have been a raised eyebrow and a “What’s going on?” glance in my direction.

Similarly, if a breakfast in a logging camp came without sawmill gravy, the boss of the operation likely would have found himself facing a workers’ revolt. Logging was demanding, calorie-consuming work, and those who pursued it demanded food that stuck to a man’s ribs. Gravy fit squarely in the menus of that mindset.

Most of us no longer live a day-to-day existence where physical labor is a fact of life, but that doesn’t mean that to gustatory glories of gravy made right needs to vanish in the face of dictates from calorie-counting, cholesterol-crazy food freaks. I’ll accept an all-things-in-moderation approach, but by the same token, there’s a solid case to be made, as the title suggests, that a meal without gravy can be mighty poor pickins. If you agree with that mindset or maybe just relish the pleasures of a fine meal served with properly made gravy to anoint a fine piece of meat, give a biscuit a college education, or fill a crater scooped in a hefty serving of mashed potatoes with liquid lusciousness, here’s some timetested offerings for gravy the mountain way.

Gravy remains a delightfully satisfying byproduct of any fried meat, and a cook’s ability to make it “just right” has long been considered a key measure of overall kitchen skills. To say that a cook makes “mighty fine gravy” is to tender a compliment of the highest order. Hopefully the recipes that follow will place you squarely in that rank.

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HAMBURGER GRAVY For many Appalachian families a few generations back, they were more likely to enjoy the flavor of beef in gravy than any other way. A half pound or so of the least expensive ground beef available (i. e., with the highest fat content) could be stretched a long way when made into gravy and served atop biscuits or crumbled cornbread. You got the savory taste of meat without much expense and hamburger gravy INGREDIENTS:

Half pound of ground beef with 25-30 percent fat content ½ cup (or more) of all-purpose flour 1 cup of milk Salt and pepper to taste PREPARATION:

Fry the burger then drain the grease and set the meat aside. Using the hot grease as your base, make a roux by gradually adding and browning flour. Then pour in milk a bit at a time, stirring constantly as the gravy thickens. When you approach the desired thickness for the gravy, sprinkle in salt and pepper along with adding the reserved burger. Heat everything, again using milk as a thinning agent as necessary. You can control the thickness of the gravy by how much flour and milk you use, and if the gravy is relatively thin a little burger goes a long way—and still keeps the taste of beef even though the mixture is mostly milk and flour.

CUBED STEAK AND GRAVY INGREDIENTS:

1/4 to 1/3 pound of cubed steak per person Cooking oil or bacon grease Flour Milk Salt and black pepper PREPARATION:

Thoroughly coat individual pieces of cubed steak with flour seasoned with salt and pepper.

It isn’t a bad idea, especially if you want “cut with a fork” tender steak, to give it some extra pounding on a cutting board before flouring. Fry the pieces in a large sauce pan or skillet holding a bit more oil than you would normally use for frying meat. Remove the meat with tongs and place on a plate, covering with a “tent” of tinfoil for warmth. Be sure to leave any of the brown

goodness that falls off during the frying process in the pan.

Once the meat is removed immediately add enough flour to the hot pan, stirring with a whisk as you do so, to make a roux. As an aside, don’t let the fancy, Frenchified word roux be “off putting,” to use mountain vernacular—it’s just a mixture of flour and grease that serves as a thickening agent in the gravy-making process. If you get a bit too much flour, and making a roux is pretty much a “judge by looks process,” add a bit more oil (or butter). Once the roux is the right consistency, with all the flour thoroughly blended in and nicely browned, add milk, whisking constantly as you do so. If the gravy in the making seems too thin add a bit more flour; if too thick, add more milk. You can also increase the amount of gravy this way, and in my view you never have too much. When it reaches a desirable consistency place in a gravy boat for serving or, alternatively, put the steak in a large container and pour the gravy over it for serving.

GIBLET GRAVY While there’s probably nothing wrong with enjoying dressing or a slice of turkey in an unadorned state, they really cry out for a lavish ladle of giblet gravy spooned over them. I’ll leave the gravy making details to your individual tastes (a thin gravy made without milk or milk gravy are the two most common choices), but I do have a suggestion that will make it meatier and better. The next time you kill a wild turkey, save not only the giblets (heart, liver, and gizzard) but all of the dark meat (legs, thighs, wings, and medallions on the back).

Place the dark meat in a large stock pot and keep it simmering for at least a couple of hours.

The meat will never get really tender, but it will reach a point where you can remove it from the bones. Do so, and keep the stock as well.

Chopped into small pieces and frozen with the giblets (add them in the final half hour of simmering), you have the makings of giblet gravy richly laced with nutritious bits of turkey.

Combine it with some of the stock you saved and the juices from your baked domestic turkey, and you can produce an abundance of gravy and have the good feeling associated with fully utilizing your wild bird. Alternatively, you can buy extra domestic turkey or chicken organ meats, perhaps along with a package of chicken wings, and do the same thing. Of course the latter won’t require lengthy cooking.

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If a breakfast in a logging camp came without sawmill gravy, the boss of the operation likely would have found himself facing a workers’ revolt. Logging was demanding, calorieconsuming work, and those who pursued it demanded food that stuck to a man’s ribs.

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DEPARTMENTS

Food Traditions add milk and flour, stirring steadily, to make a milk/meat gravy. If the meat is quite lean, as will certainly be the case with venison, you will need to add a bit of cooking oil or saved grease left over from frying streaked meat or bacon. Cook to desired thickness and pour over juicy slices of tomato. You can make an open face sandwich if you desire, but just the venison gravy and maters makes mighty fine fixins.

CHOCOLATE GRAVY INGREDIENTS:

3 tablespoons flour 4 tablespoons sugar 2 cups water 3 tablespoons cocoa PREPARATION:

I’ll accept an all-things-inmoderation approach, but by the same token, there’s a solid case to be made, as the title suggests, that a meal without gravy can be mighty poor pickins.

TOMATO GRAVY INGREDIENTS:

2 cups chopped tomatoes 2 tablespoons bacon drippings 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour Water Dash of sugar Salt and pepper to taste PREPARATION:

Add flour to hot bacon drippings and cook for 2-3 minutes while stirring steadily. Season to taste with salt and pepper as the mixture cooks (you are in effect making a roux). Stir in tomatoes and add dash of sugar. Cover over low heat until mixture thickens. Depending on how juicy the tomatoes are, water may need to be added to thin the gravy to the desired consistency. This recipe is a favorite summer breakfast item in many parts of the Appalachians.

TIP: Canned tomatoes may also be used. A variation is to sauté diced onion in the bacon drippings before adding the tomatoes.

GRAVY AND TOMATOES This is a great way to enjoy surplus ground beef or venison. Just brown whatever amount of meat you have, perhaps that left over from grilling burgers or making a meat loaf, and then

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Place flour in cast iron pan on medium heat; add sugar and cocoa and mix well. Gradually add water to mixture stirring constantly like you would for any other type of gravy. Serve over hot biscuits.

SAUSAGE/BACON/ FATBACK GRAVY After frying meat add flour to drippings and allow to cook for 2 to 3 minutes while stirring constantly. Salt, pepper and other seasoning can be added at this point. As you stir try to raise any little bits of meat that have cooked onto the pan. Doing so will ensure a very flavorful gravy.

Slowing add milk to pan stirring constantly.

About 1½ cups of milk are usually needed, but of course that needs to be adjusted to the amount of grease you have and how many folks are to be fed. Adjust the thickness as desired just before removing from the heat. Serve over warm biscuits, crumbled cornbread, slices of loaf bread, or even big slices of tomato.

CORNMEAL GRAVY INGREDIENTS:

About 3 or 4 tablespoons of bacon, fat-back, or hog jowl grease ½ cup of cornmeal Milk Salt and pepper to taste PREPARATION:

Brown cornmeal in hot fat; add other ingredients and stir till thickened. You probably

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noticed this is not an exact recipe.

I’ve found making gravy to be one of those things you have to do over and over till you figure out the method that works best for you. I add cornmeal or flour by the spoonful until I get enough in the pan to mostly soak up all the grease as it browns. Then I add milk to my thickness preference.

I like my gravy thin so I use more milk than most folks. As gravy cooks you can add additional milk or water to thin it out if it gets too thick on you.

RED-EYE GRAVY INGREDIENTS:

Country ham Coffee PREPARATION:

This is about as easy as gravy making gets. Fry country ham in cast iron pan. Remove from pan once browned on both sides. Pour hot coffee into the hot drippings and stir while scraping the bottom of pan. Allow to simmer for a few minutes and it’s ready to eat. Pour over hot biscuits and enjoy!

SAWMILL GRAVY True traditional sawmill gravy was heavy on cornmeal and light on flour. That was primarily because the latter was more expensive and less frequently ground in an era where most meal came from overshot mills turning grindstones or even tub mills. The gravy was often, though not always, made with sausage containing a lot of fat. You can get a modern version that still offers the crunch of cornmeal (keep in mind the old adage “white corn is for folks; yellow corn for critters”) combined with the smoothness of a flour base. Just mix a few tablespoons of unsifted cornmeal with your flour as part of the preparation process.

Ingles Nutrition Notes written by Ingles Dietitian Leah McGrath

SUPPORTING LOCAL (ADULT) BEVERAGES

Be sure and check out the beer/wine and cider section of your Ingles Markets where you’ll find local and regional beer, wine and cider.

Did you know:

Flat Rock Cider gets apples from Hendersonville NC area apple growers to make their hard cider? This cider has no added sugar, the sweetness comes from the apples and fruits used to flavor the cider.

French Broad River Brewing was severely flooded by Hurricane Helene. It took them 6 months to start brewing again and another month to reopen their tasting room. FBR brewing is one of the “OG” (original) breweries in Asheville along with Highland Brewing Company, Asheville Brewing Company and Green Man Brewery.

INGLES-MARKETS.COM Ingles Markets… caring about your health SMLIV.COM

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DEPARTMENTS

Appalachian Elegance

Tajines

for All Tastes

KITCHEN MUSINGS FROM A FRENCH CHEF

BY SG SÉGURET

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S

ay the word “tajine” and see color, spice, shadowed desertous hills, white flowing robes and bare feet and bright sunshine on sand. See markets and earthenware dishes and silver pots of tea with fresh mint and sugar cubes.

See tiles of intricate patterns, blues and greens and in-betweens.

A tajine is not only a dish, not only a recipe; it is a way of life. A meat or vegetable or fish stew from North Africa, particularly from the Maghreb region of Morocco, the dish is composed of its star ingredient plus a selection of vegetables or fruits or even nuts, and a whole range of spices.

The dish in which a tajine (also spelled “tagine”) is cooked is a shallow earthen shape with a conical top, which condenses as ingredients are slowly cooked, often over an open flame, and keeps the ensemble moist and tender, melding the spices into the totality so that you can think of nothing else

as the savory sweetness curls up into your nostrils when you walk by.

Options for the meat element are lamb, beef, pork, fish, poultry, venison. Vegetables can be potatoes, squash, sweet potatoes, onions, carrots, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes. Beans, pulses or nuts can augment a meat, or can substitute for meat if you are of a vegetarian persuasion. Try lentils, dried beans, almonds, chick peas. Dried fruit is often featured as well: dates, figs, apricots. And then there are the herbs and other seasonings: garlic, fresh cilantro, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cloves, cumin, cayenne, and the ubiquitous salt and pepper.

This may seem wildly exotic, but it adapts well to our Appalachian ingredients, with a bit of imagination and sleuthing among the spices hiding in your kitchen (it’s about time you put them all to use anyway!). Use a Dutch oven, or a generous frying pan with a large lid if you don’t have a tajine recipient.

Below are four recipes to get you started, or to add to your repertoire if you’re already a regular in the world of Moroccan cooking.

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TAJINE WITH A MEDITERRANEAN PROFILE (VEGETARIAN-FRIENDLY) INGREDIENTS:

1-2 onions 1-2 squash—crookneck, zucchini, or delicata 1-2 large tomatoes 1 bouquet fresh cilantro A few dozen green olives, pits in 1 tablespoon olive oil SEASONING: A generous dash of any or all of the following:

Cardamom Cumin Turmeric Ginger Cinnamon Nutmeg Cayenne Allspice Cayenne Pepper Salt PREPARATION:

Set bottom of tajine dish on low heat with a tablespoon of olive oil. Peel the onion(s), and cut into eighths, lengthwise. Toss in the dish.

Cut squash into chunks or strips and stir in with the onions. When the two begin to color slightly, add the tomato(es), chopped in large chunks as well. Add a handful of cilantro leaves, the olives, the seasoning, give a good stir, and put on the lid. Turn the heat down low, to a gentle simmer, and check occasionally to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom. If the dish begins to go dry, add some hot water or some broth, or even some white wine, to keep everything saucy.

Meanwhile, if you have any couscous grains in the vicinity of your pantry, heat a half cup water per person, and put in the same quantity of couscous when the water comes to a boil.

Cover, off the heat, and let fluff for about 5 minutes. Add some salt and olive oil and stir with a fork.

Put a generous scoop of couscous grains in the bottom of your dish, and top with the vegetables and a spoonful of sauce. Enjoy with a glass of Moroccan mint tea (black tea and fresh mint steeped together, served up over sugar cubes), or your favorite wine.

VENISON TAJINE WITH A TWIST INGREDIENTS:

A generous quantity of fresh cubed venison (or lamb) 1-2 purple (or yellow) onions ½ red bell pepper, for flavor and color A handful or two of green beans (fresh or frozen) 1 carrot for sweetness ½ lemon, cut in wedges A few cloves garlic 1 bay leaf A few sprigs thyme ½ cup slivered almonds Seasoning as in previous recipe PREPARATION:

Heat tajine dish and slice onion as in previous recipe. Throw in the pan, followed by the venison, patted dry and seasoned with salt and pepper. Brown a bit, add the other seasonings, with the addition of garlic, thyme and bay, cover, and let simmer slowly, checking to make sure it doesn’t go dry.

Meanwhile, add slivers of lemon, carrots cut in sticks, and crushed garlic cloves. Let the ensemble simmer for at least an hour, more if using venison, until meat is tender to the fork.

Serve on bed of couscous or with a flat bread (more traditional than the couscous, which is often served with its own dish of the same name) to sop up the juices.

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A tajine is not only a dish, not only a recipe; it is a way of life. A meat or vegetable or fish stew from North Africa, particularly from the Maghreb region of Morocco, the dish is composed of its star ingredient plus a selection of vegetables or fruits or even nuts, and a whole range of spices.

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DEPARTMENTS

Appalachian Elegance

Use a Dutch oven, or a generous frying pan with a large lid if you don’t have a tajine recipient.

SWEET POTATO LENTIL TAJINE (VEGETARIANFRIENDLY)

POTATO LEMON CAPER TAJINE (VEGETARIANFRIENDLY)

INGREDIENTS:

INGREDIENTS:

3-4 sweet potatoes 1-2 onions 1 cup dry (or cooked) lentils Bouquet of cilantro 1 tablespoon olive oil Salt, pepper, spices PREPARATION:

Wash and cut sweet potatoes into halfinch rounds. Toss into heated tajine dish with a splash of olive oil and the onion sliced in eighths. Let brown a bit, then toss in the lentils, along with a cup of water, wine, or broth. Add the cilantro and other seasoning, cover, and turn the heat down to a slow simmer. Serve on a bed of couscous, with a few sprigs of fresh cilantro to top it all off.

3-4 potatoes 4-5 cloves garlic 1 lemon 1 bunch cilantro 1 tablespoon capers 1 tablespoon olive oil White wine as needed Salt, pepper, seasoning PREPARATION:

Put on bottom of tajine dish to heat, adding the tablespoon of olive oil. Cut potatoes in ¾ inch chunks, and add to pan along with peeled garlic, quartered lemon, cilantro leaves, and seasoning. Give a good stir and, before browning begins, add a good splash of white wine. Check periodically to make sure ensemble does not go dry. When potatoes are tender, add capers, let infuse a few moments longer, and serve with a dry white wine.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Susi Gott Séguret, CCP, CSW, hails from the depths of Appalachia in Madison County, North Carolina,

but honed her culinary skills in France, where she resided for over 20 years, earning a diploma in Gastronomy and Taste from the Cordon Bleu and the Université de Reims. Author of several cookbooks including Appalachian Appetite, and Cooking with Truffles, Susi orchestrates multiple sensory experiences including the Seasonal School of Culinary Arts, the Asheville Truffle Experience, and the Appalachian Culinary Experience. Passionate about elements of taste and style, and how they extend from our palate into our daily lives, Susi strives to blend food, music, words and images into a tapestry for the senses. For more details, visit quintessentialtable.com.

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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 25 • ISSUE 6

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ART THAT WARMS EVERY SEASON. This winter, discover the magic of “Rejoice” by Margo Locke and hundreds of works by local artists. Whether you’re visiting the mountains or shopping from home, Twigs & Leaves Gallery is always within reach.

“Rejoice!”

Original Watercolor by Margo Locke

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828.456.1940 TWIGSANDLEAVES.COM SMLIV.COM

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DEPARTMENTS

Listen Here

Mountain Power J.D. Pinkus

‘CAVERNS OF GOLD’ COMPILATION ALBUM HELPS POSTHELENE

Underhill Rose

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD

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I

n the aftermath of Hurricane Helene—the devastating floodwaters that decimated a large swath of Western North Carolina in September 2024, leaving 108 dead and over $60 billion in damages—there have been numerous initiatives put forth by local and regional musicians to raise funds and provide aid to those in need in our backyard.

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Want to donate?

From benefit concerts to much-needed supply drives, backyard jam sessions and art functions, all with the same ethos in mind: “anything helps and everything counts.” Which is why this notable musical project—“Caverns of Gold”—is so impressive in nature when it comes to collaboration, camaraderie and community.

“What this project has taught me is that, even in hard times, we can find moments of joy and should allow ourselves to feel them,” said Alex Deutsch.

“Art might not be all we need, but it sure is a positive force for good.”

A compilation album featuring melodies from 280 artists, “Caverns of Gold” was initially conjured by a handful of local artists and folks heavily involved in the WNC music scene, including Deutsch, Joe Hooten, Jason Bugg, Kelly Minnis and Chad Nance.

“We all play in several musical projects based out of Asheville,” Deutsch said. “We had similar ideas to do some sort of compilation album to utilize the vast WNC music to raise money.”

Proceeds from the sales of the digital album will go to BeLoved Asheville, a storied nonprofit providing immediate resources to those affected by the recent natural disaster.

“We chose BeLoved Asheville because it has a wider scope,” Deutsch said. “They were supplying, feeding and housing people even before the storm and have stepped up in a huge way to help WNC post-Helene.”

The album itself is priced at $10. Folks can also donate more than the retail cost of the record. And since its release, “Caverns of Gold” has raised over $10,000 and counting. To note, a special “Caverns of Gold” benefit concert will be held on Jan. 9 at The Orange Peel in Asheville, North Carolina.

“We’re all big believers in the mutual aid model of support,” Deutsch said. “We also wanted [the album] to be accessible to most people. So, despite ending up with about 20 typical albums worth of music on this compilation, we set a minimum price of $10, though people [are] welcome to donate more and many did.”

Clocking in at 19 hours, the album itself is an incredibly intricate collage of marquee acts, regional heavy-hitters and rising local artists—the sum of which this melodic ode to the human spirit in the face of unimaginable tragedy and despair.

A vibrant compilation of songs from over 270 musicians from Western North Carolina and beyond, the “Caverns of Gold: A Benefit for WNC Hurricane Relief” album is now available for purchase. The release seeks to raise crucial funds for those affected by Hurricane Helene, with 100 percent of the proceeds benefiting BeLoved Asheville, a local nonprofit dedicated to providing immediate assistance and long-term support for those affected by the disaster. The cost of “Caverns of Gold” is $10. To obtain the digital album, go to cavernsofgold. bandcamp.com. As well, there will be a special “Caverns of Gold” showcase benefit at 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 9, at The Orange Peel in Asheville, North Carolina.

The concert will include performances by Pink Eye, Lower Peaks, Why Why?, John Kirby Jr. & The New Seniors, and more. theorangepeel.net.

“We have such a wide and diverse music scene and we wanted to showcase it,” Deutsch said specifically of the WNC musicians and groups selected. “We all have a stake in our community and think everyone deserves an equal voice in representing and supporting it.”

In terms of big names and rising national artists, R.E.M., Drivin N Cryin’s Kevn Kinney, Leftover Salmon, Steep Canyon Rangers, Milk Carton Kids, North Mississippi Allstars, Larry Keel, Tyler Ramsey, Jay Gonzalez, Dangermuffin, Dylan Walshe, Acoustic Syndicate, Papadosio, Abe Partridge and moe. each offered up a track. “[‘Caverns of Gold’] also [exposes] a wide audience outside the region to what those of us who live here already know—we have a world-class music scene filled with an immense amount of music,” Deutsch said.

From our neck of the woods, it’s the rich, vibrant talents of local/regional musicians: the late Malcolm Holcombe, Underhill Rose, The Get Right Band, Dulci Ellengerger, J.D. Pinkus, Andrew Scotchie, Powder Horns, Santiago y Los Gatos, The Dirty French Broads, The Moon & You, Arnold Hill, The 40-20-10s, Drunken Prayer, Planefolk and more all contributed numbers.

“In the fall of 2024, many [from WNC] who donated songs had just got power back, had their homes destroyed or still didn’t have potable water, but were willing to enthusiastically set aside their troubles and donate their talents,” Deutsch said. “The beauty of that generosity is matched only by that of the music this project has gathered together.”

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“What this project has taught me is that, even in hard times, we can find moments of joy and should allow ourselves to feel them. Art might not be all we need, but it sure is a positive force for good.”

—Alex Deutsch

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DEPARTMENTS

Outlooks

Uncovering the

Secrets of Owls

BY FRANCES FIGART

ABOVE: Threatened in

both North Carolina and Tennessee, northern saw-whet owls in the Smokies breed only in the highelevation northern hardwoods and spruce-fir habitat.

Their monotonous call sounds like someone sharpening a saw.

Photo by Andy Witchger

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I

f you have day-hiked in the Smokies, you have undoubtedly been monitored, unawares, from a tree cavity. The unseen watcher? A winged super-predator resting with one eye open, waiting for dusk or nightfall. Though vultures, hawks, eagles, and ospreys rule park skies by day, after the sun goes down, the forest belongs to the owls.

“Rodents and roosting birds are owls’ most frequent meals,” said Tom Howe, who has studied birds at Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology and is an active member of the Knoxville Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society. “They are well adapted for hunting with their great nocturnal eyesight and special positioning of their ears that enables them to judge the precise direction of sounds.”

Owls’ enormous eyes face forward on the front of their heads, like those of humans—likely the reason we have described them as wise down through the ages. This gives them 3-D or binocular vision for accurately gauging distance and perfectly tim-

ing a successful attack. Other visual adaptations include widely dilating pupils that can take in lots of light, even after dark; refined light-sensing retinal cells for detecting movement in low light; and “third eyelids” (called nictitating membranes) that close horizontally from the inside to shield the eye from debris.

“Owls can turn their heads three-fourths of a turn,” Howe said, “but are so fast that they can appear to be able to turn all the way around if you walk around them in a circle. This turning is a necessary trait because their eyes can’t turn in their sockets. So, both their eyes and ears face forward but their heads swivel, unlike other birds.”

Although owls are always watching us, we may have trouble spotting them—unless we know exactly when and where to look.

“It’s very difficult to see owls,” said Keith Watson of the Southern Appalachian Bird Conservancy, who leads birding trips in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. “But the best way is to

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hike or drive slowly and watch for perched birds above creeks or along sides of roads where prey may be more abundant.”

Who’s up for the challenge? There are three main owl species you are likely to see.

“The barred owl is our most common breeder in all park habitats,” Watson said. “They can often be heard throughout their range during the day, and they often feed in daytime also. Eastern screechowl is common everywhere except in the higher elevations, but they do breed here. And the great horned owl is a breeder with generalized habitat throughout the park, but not common.”

Howe said that dawn and dusk are “the favored times” to see owls but coming across them can be hit or miss. A few hours before dawn is often the best time to hear owls or see a great horned owl sitting high on an exposed limb or post.

Several species of more northern owls winter in the park but are much harder to see according to Paul Super, park science coordinator based at Appalachian Highlands Science Learning Center at The Purchase.

“Both long-eared owl and northern saw-whet owl are highly nocturnal and pretty quiet in the winter,” he said. “The northern saw-whet owl breeds here and is limited to the high-elevation northern hardwoods and spruce-fir habitat.”

Named for their monotonous call resembling the sound of someone sharpening (whetting) a saw, northern saw-whet owls are considered threatened in both North Carolina and Tennessee. Super noted that while there is only one winter report of a long-eared owl in Cades Cove, the cove has a more frequent, if rare, winter visitor in the shorteared owl.

“They are most often seen at dusk flying low over the fields, especially west of Hyatt Lane,” he said, “but they do sometimes fly during the day, especially during inclement weather. Sunset is the best time to get a glimpse.”

Retired supervisory forester Kristine Johnson remembered a late afternoon in 2012 when she and Susan Hoyle, a fellow member of the Tennessee Ornithological Society, were birding in Cades Cove for the annual Christmas Bird Count.

“Susan and I were cold and wet and were debating whether to walk out into a field off Sparks Lane before we called it a day,” Johnson said. “The rain seemed to slack off a bit, so I joked, ‘Let’s go out.

Maybe we will see a short-eared owl.’ This really was a joke because we had never seen one in Cades Cove. I had never seen one anywhere and only thought of it because someone in the bird club had caused great excitement by reporting one in Mid-

ABOVE: The short-eared

owl is a documented, if rare, winter visitor sometimes seen in Cades Cove. Sunset is the best time to get a glimpse of them flying low over the fields, especially west of Hyatt Lane, but they sometimes fly during the day in inclement weather.

Photo by Pete Richman

dle Tennessee a few weeks earlier. We walked a few hundred yards into the wet grass as rain and wind picked up again. And there, perched on a fence right in front of us, was a short-eared owl. When Susan told me what it was, I thought she was joking!”

Back in the late 1990s, Johnson was involved with an attempt to bring one species of owl back to the park. A press release from 1998 announced that “on Monday night, August 24, wildlife managers at Great Smoky Mountains National Park added the barn owl to its inventory of former native creatures which have been reintroduced into the Smokies. A total of seven of the handsome birds, also known as ‘ghost birds’ because of their off-white plumage and silent flight, were released into Cades Cove.”

These owls, which prefer open habitats with SMLIV.COM

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LEFT: Owls are primarily nocturnal because their unique physical and sensory adaptations allow them to hunt effectively at night when their preferred prey is most active.

The eastern screechowl, shown here in its gray morph form, is common and breeds in all habitats except the higher elevations.

Photo by Joe McGowan

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DEPARTMENTS

The eastern screechowl, shown here in its red morph form, doesn’t really screech, but makes a quavering whistle interspersed with a trill. It can be heard after dark around Sugarlands Visitor Center and at various roadside pullouts and campgrounds throughout the park.

Photo by Fred Dunn

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Outlooks

fields and structures, were part of a park effort to re-establish the native plant and animal communities that existed in the cove during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The release explains how barn owls “were once common throughout the temperate zones world-wide but have declined dramatically due to the entry of DDT and other pesticides into the food chain.”

The owls’ decline was also caused by changes in land use from grasslands to row crops and a shift from traditional wood-frame barns to modern metal buildings with few ledges for roosting. Since Cades Cove offered old wooden barns surrounded by 2,000 acres of meadow with an abundance of insects and small mammals, it seemed likely barn owls would establish breeding populations.

“I do not know why the barn owls did not succeed in the Cove,” Super said. “Perhaps they did not find a good place to nest. Perhaps the local barred owls caught and ate them.”

Barn owls can disperse hundreds of miles after fledging, so re-introduction and re-establishment are known to be difficult, according to Johnson, who handled owls released in the attempted reintroduction.

“Those we were given from the Knoxville Zoo

were rescued from demolition barn sites, so their lives were already in turmoil,” she said. “Barn owls are difficult to detect and monitor because they don’t call on territory and are strictly nocturnal. So, who knows, maybe they are still around Cades Cove.”

Some owls, including barred and great horned, are crepuscular—active during the twilight hours of dawn and dusk. Visitors hoping to spot owls may be tempted to lure them in by playing their vocalizations. But the park strongly discourages this, because recorded calls are usually territorial.

“If one plays the call of an intruder one time,” Super said, “the bird is not likely to alter its territory or use up a lot of its resources defending its territory from this ‘ghost rival.’ But in a place with millions of visitors, if that mysterious interloper keeps coming back, the bird may be motivated to shift its territorial lines or spend a lot of effort defending its property.”

He recalled once someone played a barred owl call near their tent site, bringing in a barred owl pair. The owls paid back the imposter by “whooping it up over his tent all night long, but that is time they could have spent hunting.”

The biggest threat to owls on non-park lands is habitat loss. Howe said that outside the park, “the easiest way to bolster owl populations is most likely to put out specifically made owl nesting boxes. For helping our largest owl, the great horned owl, preservation of wood lots with large trees is key. They aren’t cavity nesters.”

Another way humans inadvertently threaten owls? Traffic. Roads are a major hangout for insects and rodents—owl food.

“Unfortunately, the reason is likely because people throw food refuse out their car windows,” said Howe. “This attracts mice which in turn attracts these owls.”

Even their visual superpowers and swift flight cannot protect owls from wildlife–vehicle collisions.

“We have a number of roadkills of barred and eastern screech-owls trying to cross the road at night,” said Super. “Just one more reason it’s important for visitors to drive slowly through the park at any hour.”

If you are fortunate enough to capture an image of a barn owl or long-eared owl in the park, please email Paul_Super@nps.gov with the image as well as information about where you encountered the owl and when.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Frances Figart is the creative services director for the 29,000-member Smokies Life, a partner supporting Great Smoky Mountains National Park by providing educational products and services such as this column. Learn more at smokieslife.org and reach the author at frances@smokieslife.org.

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Due to a combination of unique skeletal and circulatory adaptations, owls can rotate their heads up to 270 degrees in either direction. Great horned owls breed in generalized habitat throughout Great Smoky Mountains National Park but are not common so are rarely seen. Photo by Joye Ardyn Durham

ABOVE: Even this juvenile great horned owl

is equipped for successful hunting with lethal talons for snatching, grasping, and shredding prey. The young fledge early in the year and may be seen February through June. Photo by Joye Ardyn Durham

LEFT: In the 1990s, Great Smoky Mountains

National Park attempted to reintroduce barn owls—which prefer open habitats with fields and structures—into Cades Cove, though this effort seems to have failed.

Both Cades Cove and Cataloochee could be good potential areas for them to take up residence. Photo by Chris Parker

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DEPARTMENTS

Field Guide

C On the Trail in the Smokies CHIMNEY TOPS TRAIL

BY BEN ANDERSON

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himney Tops Trail, about halfway between Newfound Gap and Sugarlands Visitor Center in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, has long been a crazily popular path. The prominent twin spires—rocky outcrops that resemble natural chimneys—at the end of the short but steep route rank as one of the park’s most visited trail destinations.

Unfortunately, the Chimneys area also is now known as the site where the most devastating fire in park history originated: the Chimney Tops 2 blaze in late 2016. Although the fire somewhat miraculously spared park structures, it did scorch 11,000 acres of park forestland as it roared northward on its way to a night of terror and tragedy in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, that claimed 14 lives.

Enduring effects of the catastrophic fire also truncated Chimney Tops Trail itself. Because the incinerated area is now prone to erosion, hikers are now obliged to hike only as far as a Chimneys overlook rather than scrambling up rock faces for even more commanding views. Yet the views from the overlook continue to make it a worthwhile destination.

It should be noted that because of the path’s continuing popularity, parking is often limited or nonexistent at the trailhead parking area. In addition, access to the trail frequently isn’t possible from Newfound Gap Road as a result of road closures that can occur most any time of year, as was the case this past August when the transmountain road

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washed out south of Alum Cave Bluffs trailhead and closed the Tennessee section of the road for six weeks.

Yet if the path is in fact accessible from Newfound Gap Road, you will appreciate the excellent trail rehabilitation work accomplished several years ago by the Trails Forever crew. Nearly 400 rock steps were laid during the rehabbing; almost 300 locust log steps were constructed; and roughly 700 square feet of retaining walls were built as part of the $450,000 project that took about three years to finish. Heavy foot traffic notwithstanding, the open section of the trail remains much easier to hike than it was before the rehab though you should still be prepared for significant elevation change over its relatively short length.

Despite the steep climb to the Chimneys, you initially go downhill from the trailhead in order to cross Walker Camp Prong on a foot bridge. The trail then climbs to clear Road Prong, which joins forces with Walker Camp Prong to form yet another prong: the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River.

Soon the trail passes, on the left, the terminus of Road Prong Trail that has followed a wet, rocky course from the Smokies crest and Appalachian Trail. At this point Chimney Tops Trail begins climbing in earnest toward its destination.

As you start ascending sharply via rock and log steps, the valley, creased by a tributary of Road Prong, begins to resemble a ravine more than a valley. The climb is unrelenting until a switchback swings the trail to the left, followed in short order by another that sends the path back to the right on a northerly course toward the Chimneys. From this point, the climbing is mostly moderate, not unlike many well-graded trails in the Smokies.

At a clearing, there’s a fine view of both Mingus Lead and Sugarland Mountain, the two towering ridges flanking Road Prong Trail. Here you’re closing in on the Chimneys. You then round a bend in the trail, where the path briefly becomes miry, and enjoy a straight-on view of the soaring Chimney pinnacles that are such an attraction. Because of the devastating fire, this point is now the end of the line for Chimney Tops Trail, still a worthwhile adventure.

n Trailhead: Chimney Tops Trail, 6.7 miles south of Sugarlands Visitor Center n Length: 4 miles round trip n Difficulty: Moderately strenuous because of steepness

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ben Anderson is author of Smokies

Chronicle: A Year of Hiking in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (blairpub.com).

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Go for a hike

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DEPARTMENTS

At the Park

‘Strength Comes From Not Standing Alone’ AFTER HELENE, PLACES OF BEAUTY CONNECT US TO THE LAND

B

orn from the high, cold springs of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and destined for the Gulf of Mexico, the clear waters of the Oconaluftee River have a long journey ahead.

B Y H O L LY K AY S

ABOVE: A photo taken

in the weeks following Hurricane Helene shows how severe flooding on Rough Fork Creek in Great Smoky Mountains National Park damaged the road and historic Caldwell Barn in Cataloochee Valley. Photo courtesy

of NPS

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The river flows through the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ homeland in Cherokee, North Carolina, and joins increasingly voluminous waterways as it travels toward the sea. The Cherokee know this southbound path as the Long Person, yvwi ganvhida—a living being with its head in the mountains and its feet in the sea.

“Water has always been something that has kept our community together and going,” said EBCI citizen Jasmine Smith, 15, chair and co-founder of the youth-led North American Indian Women’s Association Daughters. “Water is life, and without it we’re not going to be able to continue anything.”

Smith spoke before a river cleanup effort that NAIWA Daughters organized in conjunction with the sixth annual Outdoor Economy Conference, which drew a record of more than 700 people from 37 states to Cherokee, North Carolina, in September. As with other waterways in the region, the Oconaluftee plays an important role in the outdoor recreation economy, but its importance transcends dollars and cents. The river provides drinking water, wildlife habitat, spiritual renewal, inspiration, and flood mitigation.

To the Cherokee, the river is a living being deserving of care and respect—even reverence.

Traditionally, Cherokee people would go there at dawn to pray, asking the Long Person to take away feelings of greed and relieve them of harm, according to Juanita Wilson, an EBCI member and the Tribe’s training and development manager, who spoke at the cleanup. In return, she said, they would give the river space to live, adapting to it rather than changing it to adapt to human activities.

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“There were certain taboos,” Wilson said. “You don’t relieve yourself in the river. You don’t clean your kill. You don’t throw any trash at all. You honor it. It’s giving you medicine.”

With each cigarette butt or plastic water bottle they picked up, the ten conference attendees who participated in the river cleanup followed this ancient ethos, gathering 40 pounds of litter and adding to the impact of the Honoring Long Person cleanup held earlier that month. Wilson has organized the annual event, previously known as “Honoring Long Person,” since it began in 2021, removing more than four tons of trash from the riverside in Cherokee.

Dedicated stewardship like this was highlighted throughout the 2025 conference; the theme, “Investing in the Ecosystem,” encompassed much more than monetary returns.

“The outdoor economy is more than gear and trails,” Amy Allison, director of the NC Outdoor Economy Office, said during the September 16 morning keynote session at the Cherokee Convention Center. “It’s people, it’s place, it’s purpose, and this week we’re going to explore what it means to continue to invest in our outdoor ecosystem with our time, our energy, and our communities.”

The morning’s keynote speaker was Lesford Duncan, executive director of the Outdoor Foundation. With a degree in biology and graduate training in public health systems, he describes himself as “the world’s most unlikely economist.”

Though ecology and economy are rarely thought of in tandem, Duncan sees strong parallels between the two.

“Both are in the business of tracking flows,” he said. “Economists follow the flow of money; ecologists trace the flow of energy, nutrients, and relationships. Both are about systems of exchange—systems that only thrive when balance is possible.”

When it comes to building a strong economy, the natural world is a “powerful teacher,” he said, pointing to the forest as an example. Aboveground, individual trunks and branches reach high in search of light, while below ground a vast and interTOP: NC Governor Josh Stein addresses

attendees at the Outdoor Economy Conference September 16. Photo by Katy Perry, courtesy of Outdoor Economy Conference

RIGHT: While attending the Outdoor Economy Conference in Cherokee, Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation Blue Ridge Rising Director George Ivey participates in a litter cleanup along the Oconaluftee River. Photo by Holly Kays, courtesy of Smokies Life

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DEPARTMENTS

ABOVE: Michell Hicks,

principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, welcomes Outdoor Economy Conference attendees to the Tribe’s homeland. Photo by Katy Perry, courtesy of Outdoor Economy Conference

At the Park

connected network of roots and fungi exchange nutrients, send warnings, or even feed younger or weaker trees.

“It is cooperation disguised as competition,” Duncan said. “Strength comes not from standing alone, but from the sharing that happens beneath the surface.”

Nothing has brought that lesson home more viscerally than Hurricane Helene, which devastated much of the Southern Appalachian region in September 2024. The disaster dumped 20 to 30 inches of rain across a large swath of Western North Carolina with double-digit totals in four other states, a report from the National Hurricane Center found.

The resulting floods coupled with powerful wind gusts caused at least 250 deaths, 108 of them in North Carolina. Helene triggered more than 2,000 landslides and caused $78.7 billion in damage, destroying entire communities.

Left without working cell networks, potable water, or any readily available road map to normalcy, Appalachian communities had to put aside their differences and lean on each other to find a way forward.

After the initial emergency response phase was over, rebuilding outdoor infrastructure emerged as a priority for the future. Not only is the outdoor industry a key economic driver in the mountain region, but the peace and healing that can come from time outdoors became even more important in the wake of disaster.

“There’s a lot of trauma in disaster, and so we really do need places of beauty to help us connect back to the land,” Bradley Spiegel, a community planner for Asheville-based Equinox Environmental, said during a session titled “Scaling Resilience: Building Stronger and Safer Communities Through Outdoor Recreation.”

According to the US Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis, in 2023, outdoor recreation added $16.2 billion to North Carolina’s economy and $13 billion in Tennessee. A National Park Service study found that in Great Smoky Mountains National Park gateway communities alone, park visitors spent an estimated $2.2 billion in 2023, supporting 33,700 jobs. Storm damage forced public trails, roads, and facilities to close, making travel difficult for visitors, survival difficult

ABOVE: Hurricane Helene left this section of the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville completely blocked by fallen trees (left). Crews

were able to clear it within six weeks of the storm, though many other sections remained closed for much longer, and some have yet to reopen. Right photo by J. Shafer, both courtesy of NPS

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“Water has always been something that has kept our community together and going. Water is life, and without it we’re not going to be able to continue anything.”

— Jasmine Smith, 15, chair and co-founder of the youth-led North American Indian Women’s Association Daughters

for businesses, and the search for peace difficult for survivors.

“If I can see a squirrel or hear a bird, or maybe a turkey or an eagle fly by, my day is made, and that’s what it’s all about,” said EBCI Principal Chief Michell Hicks as he welcomed conference attendees to the Cherokee homeland. “It’s about the tranquility, about being in touch with the outdoors.”

Over the past year, much progress has been made. Debris has been cleaned from rivers, trails have been rebuilt, and businesses have reopened.

As of September 15 the Blue Ridge Parkway is now completely open from its southern terminus past Asheville, and on September 18 the last North Carolina state park to remain completely closed due to hurricane damage—Mount Mitchell State Park— reopened.

“Things truly are looking up for the western part of our state,” NC Governor Josh Stein told conference attendees. However, recovery is far from complete.

“What I try to ensure people know is that while our parks are open, there are hundreds of miles of trails that are still impacted by Helene, and it is going to take us a lot of time to get all of them back open again,” said NC Secretary of Natural and Cultural Resources Pam Cashwell.

Even in Great Smoky Mountains National Park,

which was spared the brunt of Helene’s wrath, trail and road closures remain in the Balsam Mountain, Cataloochee, and Big Creek areas on the North Carolina side of the park, and work is ongoing to repair damage to some historic buildings.

Recovery will take continued investment in both environmental and economic ecosystems, but if this year’s record-breaking conference attendance is any indication, interest is high in making that commitment. True success is measured not just in ease of living today, said Smith of NAIWA Daughters, but in the health and happiness of people yet to be born.

“Everything we do is not just for us; it’s done for the next generation,” she said. “So preserving our waters now is our gift and responsibility for generations in the future. And that’s really what’s keeping us going: the ability to connect with our Ancestors through our waters, recenter our traditional teachings, and incorporate them through everything we do in the modern day.”

15, chairwoman and co-founder of the North American Indian Women’s Association Daughters, speaks with conference attendees about the importance the Oconaluftee River, or Long Person, holds in the Cherokee culture.

Photo by Holly Kays, courtesy of Smokies Life

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Holly Kays is the lead writer for the 29,000-member Smokies Life, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the scientific, historical, and interpretive activities of Great Smoky Mountains National Park by providing educational products and services such as this column. Learn more at SmokiesLife.org or reach the author at hollyk@smokieslife.org.

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ABOVE: Jasmine Smith,

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FEATURES

Cabins on the AT

Hidden Gems Polished By Loving Hands

Special cabins await special guests along the AT

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here really are forest sprites, mysterious creatures who sprinkle their magic through the woods and delight all who visit.

BY NAN K. CHASE

Two such sprites are Thomas and Mary Jorgensen, a married couple 70 years young who live in rural Virginia and who have spent thousands of hours over the last 25 or so years organizing maintenance of an unusual and often-overlooked string of rustic cabins along the Appalachian Trail and other hiking destinations.

The Jorgensens have provided crucial leadership—and lots of muscle—for the work of the nonprofit Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC). The club’s 49 cabins, rented to the public as well as to club members, provide an income stream that funds maintenance the famed Appalachian Trail: the chainsaws, weed whackers, shovels, rakes and hoes needed to keep the main trail and various spur trails safe and inviting.

Completed in 1937, the AT stretches 2,198 miles from Georgia to Maine and has given through-hikers and day-hikers from around the globe a chance to experience the glorious Appalachian Mountains up close.

PATC’s cabins extend from the Charlottesville, Virginia, region to Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, and were built by various groups and individuals: forest rangers, member of the PATC, young men of the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps, and, reportedly, even a few moonshiners during Prohibition in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Thomas is one of about six regional supervisors for cabin maintenance. Each of the supervisors, he says, is responsible for seven or eight cabins apiece and for organizing teams of volunteers who keep the cabins in readiness year-round for renters.

That means buying and transporting to the cabin sites such supplies as lumber, paint and stain, a new water heater here and a propane tank there, replacement appliances and plumbing equipment.

Although rustic in nature, some of the cabins are upscale, so the entire enterprise adds up to one far-flung rental property. Because the cabins are operated as not-for-profit amenities, they are not listed on Airbnb, VRBO or other commercial rental platforms. And that’s why their nightly rates are far, far below the market value for similar, privately-owned properties, yet generate $1 million a year.

Oh, my aching back!

So how did Thomas Jorgensen, and later his wife, Mary, get involved in this challenging pastime? Today they are semi-retired from their busy careers owning a staffing agency, but a few decades ago it was a different story.

Thomas explains: “I became a single parent when my son was about 13 or 14 years old and active in Scouting. I got tired of sleeping on rocks (and hiking) every weekend, so I talked my son into the idea of hiking one weekend, staying at a cabin with SMLIV.COM

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a mattress the following weekend. So I have hiked about 50 percent of the AT, and we stayed in a couple of cabins that needed serious help.

“So just being a decent person we fixed what we could. Two months later PATC sent keys to a cabin, uninhabitable at the time, but told us we could stay for free anytime we wanted and fix it as we could.

My son and I had a good time putting that cabin in the system. Later, after I met Mary and my son went to college, we ‘converted’ from trail cabins to cabins only.

“In about 1998 or 1999 was started a ‘Southern Slacker’ group of volunteers, and we would take one cabin a year and fix it up: add a kitchen, re-chink the log cabin, add a 20-foot by 40-foot deck, whatever.”

It was an all-volunteer effort, sometimes drawing in 75 or 100 workers over the course of a summer.

One volunteer would be responsible for nothing but cooking for the rest of the crew, and the others would take on tasks that tapped into any special skills, like carpentry, roofing or plumbing.

Unskilled workers got to do “easy” jobs like cutting wood or building rock walls. Child labor was encouraged, meaning, kids could pick up little stones or deliver cups of water or tea.

Each day at 5 p.m. Thomas would unpack his special work box stocked with cocktail ingredients for the adults. That helped ease the aches and pains.

Now that they’re older, Thomas and Mary have eased off the jobs like climbing ladders to paint tin roofs and other major work, but they take up to half a dozen Monday through Friday work trips each summer to spruce up cabins.

Is there still magic? Yes. There have been extraordinary animal encounters: Mary is terse (“snakes”) but Thomas shares one especially vivid memory.

“We were in a cabin and there were six of us there. I went to take my Coleman onto the picnic table to make bacon for breakfast. I open the stove and this humongous mama bear was standing by the edge of the cabin. She mussed around, drank water out of a spring, then went down the hill maybe 100 feet and let out one heck of a roar. And sure enough, three little cubs came out of a tree.

She sat down with her back against the tree trunk and nursed the cubs right in front of us. After they got done eating, they came to the cabin spring area and played in an area nest to our cabin.”

WORD OF MOUTH Like many a good thing, word of mouth has been a driver of traffic to the PATC rental cabins… not only local word of mouth but worldwide. “I remember six guys from Ireland who were in Baltimore learning how to do HVAC work, and they heard about it. They didn’t know that America SMLIV.COM

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Cabins on the AT

shuts down for Thanksgiving and they had four days off. So they just rented a cabin and we met them out there. We had Thanksgiving there.”

Other groups have included a group of older ladies who are quilters. Now in their 80s, they get rides in every year with their grown children and spend their time sitting around tables and quilting together.

Families have rented different cabins at different stages of their lives, perhaps starting with the simplest (and cheapest) when children are young, and then gradually moving up to cabins with more advanced features.

And what are these features? Thomas Jorgensen explains that some cabins are listed as primitive, and may have no running water or indoor toilets; flashlights are mandatory for these “wooden tents.”

There are some with electrical service but not running water. Up the scale are those with hot and cold running water but wood heat only; so renters have to “buy wood, bring wood, find wood, or chop wood.”

The fourth class are the cabins with air conditioning and centralized heat. Pretty swank.

All it takes to find these gems is the willingness to step off the beaten path. Ready?

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Rent a cabin To view all the cabin options, visit patc.net/cabins. The webpage is loaded with information, including descriptions of the 49 cabins and those temporarily closed for maintenance and repairs, cabin policies, and booking information.

Reservations are required.

Note that many cabins are available only to Potomac Appalachian Trail Club members, but it’s easy to join right on the reservations page. Membership prices range from $30 for an individual senior, to $55 for a family of two adults plus under-18 children, to $750 for a lifetime couple membership.

Members can enjoy discounts on classes, events and merchandise, a free monthly newsletter and networking opportunities to learn about volunteering, and of course access to the many members-only cabins.

The primitive cabins begin at $25 a weeknight, with modern cabins at $70. Top rate is $650 for a three-night stay for up to 17 people at Blackburn semi-primitive cabin.

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FEATURES

Mountain Glass

BY SUE WASSERMAN

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o one imagined a furnace and a vision would transform a quiet, rural Western North Carolina mountain community into a worldrenowned mecca for studio glass. All it took was an initial spark and a community, eager to fan the flame.

The furnace was conceived in the early 1960s by Harvey Littleton, a University of Wisconsin art professor who believed glass could be made beyond the confines of traditional production factories.

When then Penland School of Craft Director Bill Brown saw Littleton’s working model at a conference, he knew the burgeoning craft school, located about an hour north of Asheville, had to have one.

Thanks to Bill Boysen, one of Littleton’s students, Penland’s first furnace was built in 1965. Studio glass classes followed.

The colorful history, intertwined as it is with countless individual artist stories, of which there are far too many to share in a single article, is etched in glass.

A FEW OF THE REGION’S LONG-TIME MAKERS

It often takes a team: Tadayoshi Littleton assists Kevin Doernen while hearth apprentice Conner Lujan watches and waits. Photo by Loam Marketing

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Not only are Billy and Katie Bernstein part of the movement’s richly hued history; they remain a part of its continued evolution. Both came to Penland to be part of the school’s thriving resident artist program. Katie’s residency was in the well-established ceramics program. Billy was just the second glass resident to wield the blow pipe.

Sitting on a farmhouse porch on the campus one day, Billy, along with fellow glass artists Mark Peiser and Fritz Dreisbach, pondered the potential benefits of getting other glass artists together. “We thought about all the things that Penland offered that might attract people,” Bernstein remembers.

“Fritz put the poster together and the Glass Art Society, with its first meeting held at Penland in ’71, was born.”

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“[As a craftsman] you’re always chasing after something in your head and always trying to figure out a better way.

The downside is that once you’ve made it, you’re always thinking you can do better. My tendency was to shortchange myself. Harvey taught me not to.”

—Rob Levin

ABOVE: Rob Levin at

home in his studio/ gallery near Burnsville, North Carolina.

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While Katie was content with her work as a ceramic artist, Harvey Littleton, who had become known as the father of the studio glass movement, had other ideas. Drawn to Penland and the creative momentum that was building, he constructed a home and studio in nearby Spruce Pine following his retirement. He asked Katie to bring a few work samples to his studio. “He had my work cast in glass and told me that’s what I should be doing,” she remembers. “Then he showed me how to make the molds.”

In the 80s, the couple began collaborating.

“Billy made the forms, and I did the cane drawings,” Katie notes. Glass became both a colorful canvas and the journal where they illustrated their daily lives. The couple’s collective and individual work has been exhibited and collected around the world.

Like Katie, Rob Levin started out in clay. He was taking his first class at Penland in 1971 when he saw people blowing glass. “Someone let me try it and I was fascinated,” he says. The next year he returned to take a glass class, ultimately becoming an instructor before staying on as a resident artist.

He was in his residency when Harvey Littleton moved to Spruce Pine. “Harvey was incredibly generous with his facilities,” Levin says. “He was one of the first to have a coldworking setup that included grinding and polishing equipment.”

Prior to Harvey’s arrival, it was common for glass artists to create pieces that didn’t need to be ground.

“Once he got here, he invited us to come out and use his equipment. I took him up on that offer.”

Levin was fascinated by watching Littleton work. “I had never thought about working on such large pieces.

“Being a craftsman is a couple of things,” he adds.

“First, you’re always chasing after something in your head and always trying to figure out a better way.

The downside is that once you’ve made it, you’re always thinking you can do better. My tendency was to shortchange myself. Harvey taught me not to.”

When Levin was ready to build a studio of his own, Littleton weighed in. “I showed him a pretty little spot on the property that I thought would be great for my studio space. He told me to keep that spot for inspiration before pointing out the least desirable space where the studio should go.” His perspective, Levin believes, was invaluable.

More than 50 years have passed since that first class, and Levin remains fascinated by the medium.

His goblets and sculptures merge form, function, and fantasy. He has taught and exhibited around the world, ever eager for the experiences and always happy to return to the quiet of the mountains.

“What happened here is pretty unusual,” Levin notes. “There are other places around the country that have glass communities, but most are in urban areas such as Seattle or New Orleans.”

Although surrounded by the studio glass movement thanks to his father, John Littleton didn’t set out to be a glass artist. “My dad was a teacher with very strong opinions,” he offers. “I wanted to do something I knew more about than him.”

He set his sights on photography. Although he traveled from Wisconsin to work part-time as a photographer in his father’s Spruce Pine studio, he emerged as a budding glass artist, establishing a successful partnership with his wife Kate Vogel.

What resonated deeply for Vogel was how John’s father viewed glass as an opportunity to express himself. “While so many were influenced by his work, Harvey supported artists in bringing their unique visions to life,” Vogel says.

The dynamic duo, whose home and studio are in Bakersville, and whose pieces can be found in museums and personal collections around the world, clearly followed his lead. To bring their sophisticated sculptural visions to life, they have learned to use architectural design software and build models. They have taught themselves to weld, and, of course, have learned much through trial and error.

Despite the region’s distinctly rural setting, the couple was struck in those early days by the international ambiance in the senior Littleton’s studio.

“I remember when Harvey invited 100 different artists from around the world to do prints on glass, even hiring a master printer to provide assistance,” Vogel says. “There were artists from Italy, and the Czech Republic. Dale Chihuly and his team were

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Rob Levin’s glass versions of “still life.”

here. This area had become one of the country’s most densely populated with glass artists who were making a living creating their work. Harvey didn’t hesitate to invite the glass community to his studio to meet guest artists.”

HEARTH GLASS—MERGING PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE When Keikichi Littleton thinks of her grandfather, Harvey, she remembers him as the man who read her There’s an Alligator Under My Bed. Although she grew up around renowned glass artists and has spent time working at Spruce Pine

Batch Co., the glass materials company founded

by Harvey and currently owned by her father, Tom Littleton, her interest in the medium wasn’t piqued until a college trip to New York’s Corning Museum. There, standing in front of a series of work entitled “Eight Heads of Harvey Littleton,” created by German Artist Erwin Eisch, she recognized the magnitude of her grandfather’s legacy.

Drawn as she was to the art form, she realized she was more interested in the business aspect of glass. “Because I don’t work directly with glass as a material, I will never have the same perspective as my grandfather, but I understand, just as he did, the importance of being a facilitator for the medium and the glass community-at-large,” says Keikichi, who, along with her brother Tadayoshi, owns and manages Hearth Glass and Gallery in downtown Burnsville.

The idea to open a public access studio had long been on Tom Littleton’s mind. He had, in fact, been collecting equipment for years. His vision was brought to life during a neighborhood quandary about what to do with an unsightly, unused gas station on West Main Street. Keikichi laughed as she heard herself respond that it should be turned into a glass studio. “The region is a hotbed of well-established glassblowers,” she adds. “I thought a glass studio would be a great way to support aspiring artists as well as those who are aging out of managing their own studios.”

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“I thought a glass studio would be a great way to support aspiring artists as well as those who are aging out of managing their own studios.”

—Keikichi Littleton

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FEATURES

Mountain Glass rent renters. “We knew Keikichi and Tadayoshi’s grandparents,” Billy offers. “Working at Hearth, we’re treated like honored grandparents.” While the couple miss having their studio, they appreciate the freedom that comes from not having to maintain a facility or get up in the middle of the night to check on the furnace or kiln. “They know how we work and have everything set up for us when we get there.”

Visitors are welcome to watch artists work and can also sign up for an introductory class. The gallery side of the facility offers a brief regional glass history as well as shelves lined with a kaleidoscopic array of functional and decorative work-for-sales by Hearth artists.

PENLAND KEEPS FANNING THE CREATIVE FLAME

Nick Fruin, Penland’s Studio Coordinator, and Courtney Dodd, Penland’s program Manager

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“People sometimes have the impression this business is for my brother and me to make our own art or have a career,” she says. “In reality, our goal is to support the growing community. Our artists have access to batch from Spruce Pine Batch Co., access to equipment, and are able to market directly to the community.” Tadayoshi, who manages Heath’s studio, ensures the batch is the highest quality by melting it weekly on-site.

Given the duo’s mindset of inspiring future glass artists, it comes as no surprise that the threeyear-old business already has an apprenticeship program. One young apprentice, who had never picked up a pipe until learning at Hearth, is now a paid employee, a source of great pride for the Littleton’s. Like their grandfather, the Littleton’s firmly believe that apprentices should be paid.

Tadayoshi Littleton wears several hats. Not only is he testing the batch for quality before it gets shipped to glass artists around the country, but the talented craftsman also blows his own pieces and makes sure the studio is properly maintained for the artists who rent space there. “I take great pride in catering to our renters, knowing their processes, and having the studio set up in the manner they need,” he says.

The Bernstein’s, whose studio was destroyed during Hurricane Helene, are among Hearth’s cur-

Penland School of Craft’s continued influence on not just the local, but national and international glass studio scene is unmistakable. “I went to a conference in Venice,” notes Studio Coordinator Nick Fruin. “Glass artists from around the world know Penland.”

“I never thought I would move somewhere so tiny, but people from all over the world are coming here, learning and sharing what they know,” adds Fruin’s wife Courtney Dodd, Penland’s Program Manager and a glass artist herself. The two met at Penland.

Dodd’s journey is like so many before her—she came as a student, returned as a core fellow, and then realized she was destined to stay. “I realized in being here, it was the first time I ever felt totally at home in a place.”

Fruin, who, like Tadayoshi Littleton, works to ensure student artists and instructors have what they need, believes it’s important to pay homage to Penland’s history. “We are not getting away from our history, but function now at a higher level. That on its own is exciting.”

In addition to their Penland roles, the two collaborate on a line of barware, Shaker and Salt.

Although there are no formal statistics, both agree that every year, a certain number of people, whether students or instructors, will be drawn to stay in the Penland area just as they have, helping the creative community continue to flourish.

“Penland has an everchanging generational guard,” Fruin says. “It’s a steady flux and flow.

Dodd adds, “there’s always a certain amount of nostalgia in being here, but at the same time, it’s amazing to be part of the ongoing evolution of the studio glass movement.”

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Katherine Zeilman’s glass is front and center at Hearth Glass’ gallery.

Photo courtesy of VIsit NC

Keikichi and Tadayoshi Littleton are proud to continue their grandfather’s legacy in glass.

Tadayoshi Littleton “applying a bit.”

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FEATURES

Great Family Destinations

Great Family Destinations Pipestem and Bluestone State Parks

Family fishing at Bluestone Lake which lies within its namesake park.

Bruce Ingram photo

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W

hen my wife Elaine and I were young parents with grade school-aged youngsters, we vacationed at Bluestone State Park.

We did the same with daughter Sarah and her husband some 15 years later.

In the years between and after, we visited Bluestone and nearby Pipestem Resort State Park southern West Virginia for fishing, hiking, birding, and general outdoor adventures.

In short, these two state parks are marvelous destinations no matter what stage of life you’re experiencing.

Steve Robertson, park hospitality manager for Pipestem, has served the park and its guests for over 40 years, beginning as a teenager as a part-time worker in 1985, and full-time in 1993.

“It’s just amazing how many attractions we have. Our zipline setup offers nine different zips covering 1.5 miles with such highlights as sailing over the top of a canyon rim and soaring 300 feet above the Bluestone River Gorge,” he said.

“For the under 12 crowd, our Splash Park and Adventure Lake offer inflatables, slides, trampolines, dumping buckets, climbing obstacles, and of course swimming and a beach. Our horseback riding program offers everything from ring pony rides for little kids to two-hour trips over a variety of terrains.”

Also available are skeet shooting, where all equipment is furnished, and golfing at a championship 18 hole or 9 hole par 3 course, along with a fully stocked pro shop. Nearby, fishing and paddling on Bluestone Lake, and the New and Bluestone rivers are available.

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BY BRUCE INGRAM

ABOVE: Long Branch Lake at

Pipestem provides solid sport for bass and bluegills.

Bruce Ingram photo

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FEATURES

Great Family Destinations

LEFT: The Canyon Rim Aerial Train offers spectacular views of the Bluestone River Gorge.

RIGHT: McKeever Lodge

is a fine place to stay while sojourning at Pipestem.

Bruce Ingram photos

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On our most recent sojourn, Elaine and I stayed at McKeever Lodge, which offers an indoor pool, day spa, sauna, massage, and a game room. Along with updated furnishings, rooms come with microwaves and refrigerators. McKeever also boasts a first-class restaurant, the Bluestone Dining Room (signature meals are the barbeque ribs with sides and the trout almondine), and the Black Bear Grill, which specializes in pizzas and wings.

District Park Manager Jesse Anderson suggests that visitors “take the Canyon Rim Aerial Tram to Mountain Creek Lodge and enter a different world.”

The lodge’s Mountain Creek Restaurant is known for its farm-to-table meals. “Those who fish will enjoy wading up and down the Bluestone River, fishing the riffles and rocky pools for smallmouths. The river is also a great place to birdwatch,” Anderson said.

Indeed, it is. On one visit, I became mesmerized watching a dozen or so cedar waxwings hawking over the Bluestone for insects.

Finally, Pipestem features trails; one of the most fetching is the 3.7-mile Pipestem Longbranch Lake Circle, rated moderate. Known for its birdwatching, hikers should be able to navigate it in less than two hours.

OVERVIEW OF BLUESTONE STATE PARK Located just a few miles from Pipestem, Bluestone is more of a traditional state park in the best sense of the phrase. Anderson emphasizes that the destination is known for its outdoor charms.

“For folks that fish, a campground is located along Bluestone Lake,” he said. “So, it’s very easy for guests to launch their canoe or kayak practically right out their front door.”

Bluestone is one of West Virginia’s premier largemouth, smallmouth, and hybrid striper impoundments, and the New River is generally recognized as the Mid-Atlantic’s top smallmouth and musky destination, as well as the finest for whitewater enthusiasts.

The town of Hinton lies just a few miles from both parks, and the Greenbrier River, another quality smallmouth waterway, enters the New River there.

Anderson said that Second Creek, a nearby tributary of the Greenbrier, is a topnotch special regulation trout stream.

One of the activities that my family always enjoys at Bluestone is hiking, and this park certainly excels in that area.

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“Hiking trails are certainly a major attraction at Bluestone,” Anderson said. “Eagle Point Trail [1.8 miles] offers some great views of Bluestone Lake.

A steep climb will lead to a great view of where the Bluestone River enters the lake. This is Mary Draper Ingles territory, and some 250 years ago this was a rugged, scary land to be in.”

For history enthusiasts, Shawnee captured Ingles in 1755. She escaped and trekked some 500 to 600 miles up the Ohio and New Rivers, as well as the lower Bluestone, to return home.

Anderson said the 9.1-mile Bluestone Turnpike Trail, a river bottom trail that likely offers eagle sightings, connects the two parks and is located mostly in the Bluestone Scenic River Area.

He also suggests combing the Rhododendron and Cabin trails, which make for a nice loop path.

If you really want some adventuresome backcountry treks, the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve is a short distance away.

Another aspect my family enjoyed during multiple visits to Bluestone are the secluded cabins, all of which are in woodsy settings. Several of them offer fetching views of the lake.

Bluestone’s cabin guests have access to Pipestem’s facilities, and Hinton is close by with local eateries and shops.

OUT AND ABOUT AT PIPESTEM McKeever Lodge is a superb home base to reconnoiter with friends and enjoy the area, so on our most recent visit, we joined Steve and Pam Watkins from Louisville, Kentucky, and Allan and Diane Denekas from Roanoke, for a two-day sojourn.

The lodge rooms are large and feature amenities such as a coffee machine and flat screen television.

Many rooms overlook the Bluestone River Gorge, and the mornings were marvelous as we sat on the balcony listening to songbirds as the clouds lifted from the chasm below.

Our breakfasts at the Bluestone Dining Room were delightful. One day, I wanted to have an early start in order to hike the 2.2 mile Lakeshore Trail, which encompasses Long Branch Lake. So I partook of the breakfast buffet which offers a wide variety of egg, bread, cereal, and other entrees.

Another morning, Elaine and I wanted a leisurely beginning to our day, so we ordered Bluestone’s Famous Chicken and Waffles (two Southern waffles and buttermilk breaded chicken with honey butter and sweet and spicy syrup) and the Pipestem Pancake Platter (two butternut pancakes topped with eggs any style and bacon or sausage). Adding

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Learn more: n wvstateparks.com

BELOW: The Bluestone Dining Room at Pipestem is a superb place for friends to gather and eat.

Bruce Ingram photo

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Great Family Destinations

LEFT: Guide John Bonham of New River Gorge Outfitters and Bobby Bower of Pro River Outfitters working a pool on the Shanklin Ferry’s float on the New River.

RIGHT: For dinner at

the Bluestone Dining Room, consider the West Virginia Trout Almandine.

Bruce Ingram photos

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to the appeal is that the park strives to use seasonal produce and meats from West Virginia farmers.

I spent another day fly fishing the New River (which flows through downtown Hinton) with guide Bobby Bower who operates Pro River Outfitters and Rocky Mountain Rafts. We caught smallmouth bass and sunfish on poppers and wooly buggers as well as charged through Class II and III rapids on the raft that Bower designed. Other highpoints were a shoreline lunch and observing bald eagles and ospreys.

Another day, Elaine and I decided to just enjoy the charms of Pipestem. One of the highlights was ascending Bolar Observation Tower which offers bucolic views in every direction and lots of photo ops of the surrounding farms and mountains. I also particularly enjoyed visiting the Nature Center that park naturalist Julie McQuade operates. Inside were many displays including ones on venomous snakes and a black bear.

“We do interpretative programs that are educational and fun, and range from birds to bugs to bats as well as any kind of critter that you might encounter in the park,” McQuade said. “We also have a microphone outside the Nature Center where the

people inside can learn how to identify birds by their songs.”

Interestingly, I learned that 182 species of birds have been observed at Pipestem. Some of the more unusual ones have been horned larks, blue-headed vireos, and golden-winged warblers.

That evening for supper, our sextet again visited the Bluestone Dining Room, this time ordering from the menu. Several of the most popular orders were the Atlantic Salmon (with the fresh salmon seared with avocado oil and served on a bed of wild rice pilaf with asparagus) and West Virginia Trout Almandine (8 ounces of trout lightly floured and pan fried; then topped with roasted almonds and sauteed grapes on a bed of wild rice pilaf).

For our last morning adventure, Steve and Pam Watkins joined Elaine and me on the 2.2- mile Lake Shore Trail that encircles Long Branch Lake. Even though it was a sultry, late June trek, the great rhododendrons were blooming, and we spotted or heard over two dozen songbirds and a red-shouldered hawk. It was a satisfying conclusion to what is an always memorable stay at two of our favorite West Virginia parks: Pipestem and Bluestone.

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Near the Parks Just a few miles from both parks lies the town of Hinton. Visit on a Saturday and you’ll find the community’s museums open. The Hinton Railroad Museum depicts items from railway days past, while the Campbell-FlannaganMurrell House Museum represents Hinton’s oldest railroad home. The Veterans Memorial Museum’s collections span from the early days of our country’s frontier to as recently as the Gulf War. For lunch, consider the Lucky River Café known for its Mediterranean entrees such as the Sunshine Salad, (a spring mix of goat cheese, roasted sweet potatoes, candied pecans and orange slices), or the Greek, (filled with sundried tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, and olive tapenade).

Candice Helms, executive director of Explore Summers County, recommends the Waterfall Wanderer West Virginia app. It will help lead you to the nearby Sandstone Falls waterfall on the New River as well as other cascades close by and around the Mountain State.

ABOVE: Spectacular

views exist at Bolar Observation Tower.

Here Steve Robertson, park hospitality manager for Pipestem, shows some of the panoramas available to Steve Watkins and Allan Denekas.

LEFT: Sandstone Falls proffers one of the most photogenic waterfalls in the region.

Bruce Ingram photos

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GOOD READS

Local Lore

A Time of Appalachian Christmas Cantatas and Pageants

N

ervous energy danced around the classroom located just off the sanctuary. For many of us, this was the first time we had been allowed inside the adult Sunday school classroom. Kids were almost always situated downstairs out of respect for our elders, who had trouble navigating the stairs on aging knees.

Inside the classroom, several of the women from church hovered over us, adorning us with red capes with a black bow that cinched the costume in place. Each had been handmade by expert seamstresses like Thelma, who had attended this small church all her life. The 60s were homemade times; a time when every woman knew how to sew, how to create clothing for their children with a quality that exceeds anything one can purchase today. Every man knew the value of his hands: how to wield a hammer, lay a brick, fall a tree, build a church. This was a church constructed on donated land. A church that, like many other small rural churches, struggle to keep the doors open in 2025 during a time when grandiose Christmas Cantatas and Pageants are the norm. Atop the mountain, inside the wood-paneled-walls of a building that has never once had a mortgage, children giggled nervously.

We had practiced for this moment. We were ready, and in case we weren’t, if we just kept our eyes on Miss Faye, she would lead us through this Christmas Play without a hitch.

On any other Sunday, the choir loft was an adults-only affair. Primarily because there wasn’t enough room to cuss a cat over in the corner that had been set aside for the singers and Joanne, our piano player. At best, there may have been room for fifteen people. The church these days is rarely packed with parishioners like it was back then. Being situated in a remote area in the far western tip of Swain County meant most-everyone attended, except those who had backslidden. We didn’t have the excuse that we could “stay home and watch the service online” like we do now. This brick and mortar building had raised three generations of Winchesters.

With red capes draped over our shoulders, one of the teenagers eased the Mary costume over her dress and wrapped

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the baby doll that would symbolize baby Jesus in a swaddle blanket. Joseph followed her lead and took hold of a walking stick. The angels donned their white robes and adjusted haloes constructed of bent coat hangers wrapped in gold tinsel. There was no grand light display. No spotlight on the stage; just tall white candles lit in the window ledge and lights dimmed. The church had no expensive audio visual equipment; only the sound of a piano that needed tuning and the intermittent coughing from those who had packed the church. Back then, only the affluent owned cameras. There are no photos of us that I know of, and the few images mother captured of me as a child are blurry or missing a portion of my head. This lack of childhood photos is why I take so many photos and ignore the grumbles of family.

Miss Faye opened the door and as we left the classroom, Delona placed a wrapped present in the hands of the younger kids, those with speaking parts. The congregation settled in, unaware that pasted to the back of the wrapped-presents were the words we were supposed to say, just in case the devil snatched away our voice with a horrid case of stage fright. This was the only time we would stand in front of an audience. It was dark, and scary, and the excitement we felt inside the classroom had disappeared the moment we filed into the sanctuary.

By comparison, the church I currently attend encourages little ones of all ages to stand before the congregation each Sunday and belt out a tune with the adults. No formal training required, the kiddos do not even need to know how to read. There isn’t a lick of stage fright on the faces of the children at Old Savannah in Sylva, North Carolina. They are confident with a self-esteem you rarely see in children these days.

As Christmas plays go, the story is one that has been retold throughout the generations. Mary was pregnant with a miracle. Joseph had the chance to set Mary aside, but took her as his wife and as the time drew near for her baby to be born they were required to made a long journey, on foot, to Bethlehem for Cesar had declared the first ever census. The story is told of Mary riding the back of a donkey, but did she really, or is that speculation?

Regardless, Mary wasn’t traveling to a spa. This wasn’t a trip of comfort and joy filled with yuletide sweets to nosh on along the way. This was a hard journey. They were tired and hungry, and then the baby came.

In Appalachia, most of the babies were baby dolls. The Appalachian Christmas play lasted about 20 minutes, just long enough for the ink to fade from Joseph’s sweaty hands, for he didn’t

have a wrapped gift with a cheat sheet facing him.

Fortunately, Joseph played a minor role. The highlight came when the children made their way into the choir loft where they sang, Silent Night, Holy Night, all is calm, all is bright. Followed by Away in a manger, no crib for a bed; and finally Joy to the World! Let Heaven and Nature sing!

The experience drew to a close when the deacons of the church entered the congregation carrying brown paper bags which they distributed to all in attendance. These traditional Christmas Treat bags ensured every person received a gift, just like the baby Jesus who had been sent as a gift for a fallen world. These bags—or pokes, as most folk called them—held an orange (that had been procured from a band member who had sold oranges as part of the annual band fundraiser). There was a candy cane, an apple, and a variety of nuts: an English Walnut, Brazil nut, and a nut that looked like a peach pit. Mind you, these were still in the shell, for every family in Appalachia owned a hand-held metal nut cracker and a tiny metal pick that resembled what the dentist used to clean tarter away from our choppers. Those without a nutcracker simply liberated the goody inside using a hammer and a stone they’d found in the creek with a nut-sized indentation. Soon, the heady fragrance of oranges filled the room as hungry children and adults tore into the peel. Fresh fruit was a luxury for Appalachians in the wintertime. Sadly, for many it still is.

Many adults would forgo a Christmas present so their children could have new shoes or one new toy.

The treat bag was their only gift; extra bags were given to those with the most need.

Modern-day Cantatas and Pageants are now stage productions with newborn babies cast as baby Jesus, and the minister offering himself as the adult-Jesus. There are light shows, costume changes, and-to my surprise, for I had been sheltered here in the hollers of Appalachia—these holiday extravaganzas often include the birth, the betrayal, the death, and resurrection of Jesus.

These productions take months to practice, and typically last a couple hours. We now have live nativity shows, some that you can drive through.

There are camels and donkeys, and multiple ways to celebrate the birth of Jesus. I highly recommend experiencing all of them, for there is no wrong way.

However, back in the church that raised me, they still tell the simple story of Mary, Joseph, and that sweet little baby Jesus who was born in a manger for there was no room for him at the inn. And if you don’t come for the story, come for a Christmas treat bag, because everyone who attends leaves with one.

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BY RENEA WINCHESTER

Atop the mountain, inside the woodpaneled-walls of a building that has never once had a mortgage, children giggled nervously. We had practiced for this moment.

We were ready, and in case we weren’t, if we just kept our eyes on Miss Faye, she would lead us through this Christmas Play without a hitch.

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GOOD READS

Book Review

The Adventures of Roy Boy and Birdie

BY THOMAS CROWE

In what is, in essence, a love story, the tale starts with a drive into Coweetsee and “a place that boasts more barns than people,” and with Roy Boy and Birdie, who are now middle-aged and divorced, but still in communication and, for Roy’s part, still in love.

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I

f one is writing about a specific region, culture and history of the country, it is helpful if the author is “from here,” as the mountain slang expression goes. In the case of Dale Neal’s new novel The Kings of Coweetsee (a county name that is apparently from “some garbled Cherokee word that no one remembers”), he is a native of North Carolina and has lived and written here in the Southern Appalachians being a former reporter, arts and book reviewer for the Asheville Citizen Times newspaper. Since then, he has written several novels and has been nominated and has won major literary awards. As someone well-respected and who writes as eloquently as other well-established Southern Appalachian fiction writers such as Frazier, Rash, Caldwell and Joy, Dale Neal “makes this his best and most potent book” in the words of Keith Flynn who is also “from here” and founding Kings of Coweetsee by Dale Neal.

Editor of the Asheville Poetry Review.

Regal House Publishing, 2024, 272 pgs.

Set in the mountains of Western North Carolina, as are his other books, and in what is a characOn the other hand, Birdie is in charge of the ter-driven novel, there are many lucid and even lascivious characters in multiple plot lines and Coweetsee Historical Society and its museum and, some with great rural Appalachian nicknames such as a youth with a perfect pitch voice, was a ballad as “Junk” Jackson, Aunt Zip, Shadrack Smathers, singer, “which is something she took up again after Cutworm and the two main characters of Roy Boy she ran off with the hippie,” Roy Boy ruminates. and Birdie. In what is, in essence, a love story, the Meanwhile, the county’s bad boy, Charlie Clyde tale starts with a drive into Coweetsee and “a place (“who had always been a terror, a one-man crime that boasts more barns than people,” and with Roy wave,”), has been released from prison, where he Boy and Birdie, who are now middle-aged and has been for an extended stay on an attempted divorced, but still in communication and, for Roy’s part, “If I were a poet and could write a fine hand, still in love. He’s running for I would write my love a letter that she’d understand. the office of Sheriff of Coweetsee County where “voters got I’d send it by the waters where the islands overflow, their dollars up front for voting And I’d think of my darlin’ wherever Igo.” for the right man,“ and the law —Scottish ballad spends their time “galavanting about these hills and hollers … burning moonshine stills and marijuana patches, murder charge complicated by the mysterious then raiding meth labs.” And Neal adds: “ It was drowning death of a young woman.

Dale Neal is old enough to know and remember a wonder any crime ever got solved in Coweetsee since all those men did was park their butts on bro- “the old ways” and, particularly, ways of speaking. ken cane-bottom chairs, drink bad coffee, and then He poetically gives us plenty of both in Kings of Coweetsee, which reads, in part, almost like Smoky the harder stuff after hours.”

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Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation (All Periodicals Publications Except Requester Publications)

1. Publication Title

2. Publication N umber

Smoky Mountain Living

Mountain Voices and Southern Talk, books written a generation ago in folk dictionaries filled with Southern Appalachian speech. We get “snot otters” (slang for water dogs), “more devils than deacons in these parts,” “evildoers,” the expression “you dumb shank!,” “a silver-tongued devil,” “the shiftless layabouts in the far hollers from town,” and “a looker” (for a woman of beauty) to name but a few. So, one could say that, on one hand, Kings of Coweetsee is an introduction to a place and its people “with random gunfire and chainsaws from the hollers below,” and on the other hand is a softly-written crime noir novel with certain personalities being more interestingly important than their crimes. Or, in the words of the character Maurice Posey contemplating his family upbringing as self-sufficient agriculturists living on a few acres of mountain land near Laurel Creek: “There were higher occupations than managing manure and starving to death on a sloped land when all the best dirt rolled down into the brown river year after year.”

Halfway through the book and after we’ve become “residents” of Coweetsee and intimate with all the locals, Neal delves deeper into the storyline and the methods behind the madness of what is mostly a tale of male morass and feminine flair. We’ve got Roy Boy’s escapades as he’s running for Sheriff; developers clearing and grading lots for gated communities “with fancy houses popping up like pimples on the ridge lines”; and brigands of locals raiding the Coweetsee barns for wood. We have a perfect paragraph on page 192 of the 1960s Hippie counterculture and the on-going love triangle between Roy Boy, Birdie and her second spouse, Talmage, who is “a city boy turned rural romantic,” who even having died of cancer is still Roy Boy’s unrealistic rival.

But Neal doesn’t stop there. He takes us to the “back of the beyond” with kudzu and tobacco beds, into the culture of local yokels, Nash Ramblers, Confederate flags and Jesus Saves signs and then into the present day of cell towers and “whoever has the money makes the rules.” Birdie had wanted to leave Coweetsee when she was in college, “but Birdie has stuck.’ Damn James Dickey,’ that’s all she could say.” In this Southern Appalachian tome, Dale Neal describes small town rural western North Carolina to a tee and has created a kind of “dance” made of characters and conversation, making it a true authentic gem to read.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Thomas Crowe is the author

of the award-winning memoir Zoro’s Field: My Life in the Appalachian Woods and publisher of New Native Press. He lives in Jackson County, North Carolina.

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GOOD READS

Stories “Apples, oranges, nuts, chewing gum, Christmas Pokes memory. bananas, hard Christmas candy.”

BY JULIA N U N N A L LY DUNCAN

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D

uring my childhood in the 1960s, my family’s church, Garden Creek Baptist Church, held an annual Nativity play at Christmastime. The first play that I had a part in, when I was around six years old, required me to recite a Bible verse. I had memorized and rehearsed my lines at home, and when I entered the church that Sunday evening, I felt confident that I was prepared. My parents and brother sat in a front pew, and despite my efforts to ignore my brother, I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. Something in his mischievous facial expression made me not only forget my lines, but totally freeze. I was unable to speak or move.

Despite the promptings of my Sunday school teacher, I remained mute, and we had to move on to the next person’s lines. In later Christmas plays, I settled for singing in the children’s choir, belting out carols like “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” The conclusion of these Sunday evening Christmas services was what I most looked forward to.

As the congregation exited the sanctuary, ushers waited to distribute our Christmas pokes. These brown paper bags were filled with seasonal fruits and candies—oranges, apples, English walnuts, and chocolate drops. This holiday tradition at our church—enjoyed by us kids, our parents, and the elderly folks—launched us into the Christmas season.

My mother often spoke about her childhood Christmases in the Clinchfield cotton mill village in Marion. She told me that on Christmas morning, children watched for horse-drawn wagons that carried pokes of treats to the mill houses.

“What was in your pokes?” I asked her.

“A lot of stuff,” she said, her eyes bright with the

I was impressed by the generosity of the mill’s offering. And she emphasized that every member of every mill family received a poke.

She said her daddy, an overseer in the mill’s card room, stayed late at the mill on Christmas Eve to help fill pokes.

“He’d bring home leftovers,” she added, which meant extra treats for her large family. She noted that when she was “real little,” the pokes were delivered in horse-drawn wagons, but later the wagons were replaced by trucks. I could imagine the mill children looking out their windows for the wagons or trucks to arrive.

The word poke—at least in my region of Western North Carolina—is seldom used anymore. When I taught Southern Culture at my local community college, I discussed certain words that were considered “Southernisms.” Most of my younger students had never heard the word poke, but many of the older ones fondly recalled Christmas pokes at their churches and enjoyed recounting their memories.

My husband remembers his own childhood Christmas pokes at Hankins Baptist Church in Marion, then a white wooden church that’s since been replaced by a brick church. After the Christmas play, he said, the pokes were handed out from a table near the church’s front door.“What was in your Christmas poke at Hankins?” I asked.

“An orange, an apple, a peppermint stick, bubble gum, and a little religious item—a bookmark or something.”

“Back then, did you ever hear anyone using the word poke other than in the expression ‘Christmas poke’?”

“Yes,” he said. “That’s what people called a paper bag then.” And he recalls when he was getting ready to leave his great-grandmother’s house, she would say something like, “I’ll put your apple butter biscuit in a poke for you to take home.”

From my research, I’ve learned that the word poke is considered chiefly a Southern word.

However, according to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the expression “poke bag” is still used in parts of Scotland to indicate a paper bag in which purchases like candy are carried. Poke is actually a ancient word, first appearing in the English language in the 13th century.

Whatever its origin and past or current usage, poke is a word that stirs good memories for many of us. It takes us back to our childhood churches and the Christmas pokes that we received after the Christmas play.

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