Smoky Mountain News | April 23, 2025

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April 23-29, 2025 Vol. 26 Iss. 48

Community responds to statue plaque removal Page 4 West Swain Fire Department hosts bass tournament Page 27

CONTENTS On the Cover: Emmy-nominated producer Dan Tapster will visit Western Carolina University to host a special presentation, “Our Planet Live,” a new and immersive live show featuring behind-the-scenes stories from explorers, filmmakers, scientists and adventurers that created some of the most eye-catching footage on our planet. Ahead of that presentation, The Smoky Mountain News caught up with the producer. (Page 24) Donated photo

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‘Trash’ or ‘Tribute’?: Community responds to statue plaque removal ..................4 Jackson commissioners likely violated law by removing plaque ............................5 New REACH director brings experience dealing with abuse victims..................6 Preservation efforts will preserve, promote Waynesville’s unique character......7 Maconians sound alarm on excessive debris removal ..............................................8 Greening Up the Mountains continues focus on environment ............................11 Community briefs ..............................................................................................................12

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Jackson commissioners’ plaque removal a mistake ................................................14 Letters to the editor ..........................................................................................................15

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INFO & BILLING | P.O. Box 629, Waynesville, NC 28786

A&E If it hadn’t been for love: The SteelDrivers to play MerleFest ..............................16 Maggie Valley hosts ‘Thunder in the Smokies’..........................................................19

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Jackson County opens flag football registration ......................................................26 West Swain Fire Department hosts bass tournament............................................27

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news

‘Trash’ or ‘Tribute’?

Community responds to statue plaque removal

BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER little over a week after the county removed what has been referred to as the “compromise plaques” from the Confederate memorial outside the Jackson County Library, residents showed up at the county commission’s April 15 meeting to speak on both sides of the issue, despite the lack of public discussion about the decision from commissioners. In total, seven people spoke about the Confederate memorial, with three people in favor of removing the plaques and four voicing their opposition to the removal.

“I’d like to thank all the commissioners that had a hand in putting Sylva Sam back to his original state, cause that’s something I grew up with all my life,” said Chris Keener.

“It’s not about where we were, it’s about how far we’ve come, in my opinion.”

As with many debates involving public remembrance of the Civil War, speakers in favor of removing the plaques tended to invoke heritage.

“Your leadership and commitment to preserving the history of Jackson County are deeply appreciated by many in our community,” said Megan MacMick. “This monument has stood as a silent witness to generations of change, struggle and growth. While it may represent different things to different people, for many of us, it is a part of our heritage.”

Author David Joy also spoke at the meeting. Joy’s latest novel “Those We Thought We Knew” — winner of the 2023 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award, Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction and the 2024 Sir Walter Raleigh Award — explores the complicated history of race in Jackson County and the persistent legacy of not just the Confederacy, but white supremacy. Joy, critical of the covert decision by commissioners to remove the plaque, was quick to acknowledge his own family’s complicated history.

“I’m a 12th-generation North Carolinian… but to admit that I’m a 12thgeneration anything in this country means that I’m most likely the direct descendant of enslavers. In my case, I am,” said Joy. “That’s not an easy thing to say.”

With the plaques now gone, the Confederate flag and the words “Our Heroes of the Confederacy” are once again visible on the base of the statue. Joy noted that the Confederate flag is a symbol that has different meanings to different people.

Smoky Mountain News

April 23-29, 2025

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“I grew up in a time where that flag and that history was revered, and when I look back, I think it was the conflation of that flag with Southern identity,” Joy said. “It came to mean all of these other things. I grew up going to Lynyrd Skynyrd shows, and when they hit ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ and a 100by-50-foot Confederate flag dropped at the back of the stage and everybody went nuts, my daddy was one of them.”

But then, Joy said, he grew up; he read books.

Joy pointed to the words of Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens who, in an 1861 speech defining the new southern government said its “foundations are laid,

supremacy,” said Joy. “I think it’s shameful.”

Other speakers said the statue is an appropriate memorial to the Jackson residents who lived during the Civil War, especially those who fought and died for their state in the struggle.

“Both sides of my family fought for the Confederacy,” said Denny Wood. “They didn’t go to the Civil War to fight for slavery; they went because the state of North Carolina called, and they answered that call.

So did my grandpa, so did my daddy, so did I.” Wood said that growing up, he never thought the statue was racist.

“It was a part of history. That’s what a bunch of them put up way back then. It’s a tribute to their family members that went and fought in the Confederacy,” Wood said.

“Was slavery wrong? Absolutely.”

In Wood’s view, putting plaques on the

The plaques that had been at the base of the Sylva Sam statue since 2021 have been removed. File photo

“Everybody’s saying, ‘well this should have been some public forum.

I come up here and talked with the other set of commissioners … and I got treated like a dog.

Alright? So y’all took the opportunity to right a wrong and I appreciate it.”

— Denny Wood

its cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery — subordination to the superior race — is his natural and normal condition.

This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical and moral truth.”

“I don’t care about any kind of revisionist history that wishes to place it as something else, because it’s not that,” said Joy. “I think about the Black communities in Jackson County; I think about people who have descendants here who go back hundreds of years and what every one of you who voted for that is saying is that you revere a moment in time when their ancestors were in bondage.”

In a county that relies on tourism, Joy asked commissioners to think about how people of color from out of town will feel when they see a monument with the Confederate flag.

“I view your actions as an act of white

statue dishonored the 163 men from Jackson County who died fighting in the Civil War. “When they erected that, that was not for slavery,” said Wood. “It was a monument for them 163.”

But Teri Cole-Smith came to the podium with another set of numbers.

“Let’s contextualize Sylva Sam by acknowledging Jackson County’s culpability in also owning slaves,” said Cole-Smith. “163 people died in the war… 218 people were enslaved here in Jackson County, and they were owned by families with last names that we commemorate even today on our street signs.”

Renee Coward brought the issue into the present moment, saying that in the wake of Hurricane Helene, she saw the force of good in her community.

“Good folks banding together to help their less fortunate neighbors. We didn’t ask about each other’s politics, religions, place

“Let’s contextualize Sylva Sam by acknowledging Jackson County’s culpability in also owning slaves,” said Cole-Smith. “163 people died in the war… 218 people were enslaved here in Jackson County, and they were owned by families with last names that we commemorate even today on our street signs.”

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of origin or on which side their ancestors fought in any wars,” Coward said. “Banding together was bigger than all of that. Being loving and accepting and giving was bigger than all of that. That’s what makes Jackson County and Sylva and North Carolina and Western North Carolina strong. That’s the kind of statue that I want to represent my hometown. One that shouts, ‘e pluribus unum.’ Out of many, one. Take the statue down.”

While many people on both sides of the issue were not happy with the compromise plaques when they were placed in 2021, several speakers noted that at the very least, they were a result of vast public engagement.

“To have done that with no moment for public comment, to have done that just on a whim … it is shameful,” said Joy. “It’s trash.”

— Teri Cole-Smith.

Jeffrey Hirsch was also concerned with the lack of notice or opportunity for public input prior to removal of the plaques.

Hirsch said that four and a half years ago the town went through “quite a bit of public input, contention, understanding and argumentation” before deciding to put up the plaques.

“For you folks to, on your own — ignoring all that went on five years ago, from both sides — basically just take one side and undo the compromise that we had reached displayed three things,” said Hirsch. “One, it was poor public governance … secondly, it was an insult to the citizens of Jackson County who spent a lot of time and energy finding ways to explain their side and come up with ideas that perhaps might get us through this … and third, it displayed a kind of cowardice that you chose that avenue to make that kind of decision without any kind of public input.”

“I think you should be ashamed of yourselves,” Hirsch continued.

Still, others saw the quick, covert decision as an efficient way to right a wrong.

“Everybody’s saying, ‘well this should have been some public forum,’” said Wood.

“I come up here and talked with the other set of commissioners … and I got treated like a dog. Alright? So y’all took the opportunity to right a wrong and I appreciate it.”

Cole-Smith admitted a lack of confidence in the county commission’s response to public concern.

n response to a public records request made by The Smoky Mountain News, Jackson County Manager Kevin King revealed that commissioners not only failed to discuss in any official meeting removing plaques placed on the controversial “Sylva Sam” Confederate statue at the old courthouse in 2020, they also failed to document any deliberations — likely violating state sunshine laws.

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removed.”

Of course it could — but it’s not the removal that’s at issue here; it’s the way commissioners did it in secret, leaving no records of their discussions and leaving constituents completely in the dark.

On April 21, in response to the public records request, King told SMN “The County does not have any public records or other

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Jackson commissioners likely violated law by removing plaque

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“I’m not really under any illusion that this current board of commissioners is going to be swayed by any of the public opinion that we’re hearing tonight regarding the recent removal of the compromise plaque that was installed after the very public debate regarding the statue beginning in 2020,” Cole-Smith said.

County Manager Kevin King said the board did not need a vote to remove the plaques from the statue.

“Each board member, individually, shared concerns regarding the plaque added to the historic statue at the old courthouse in 2020 [sic],” King told The Smoky Mountain News. “After consulting with legal counsel, it was determined the plaque could be removed.”

Cole-Smith and other speakers questioned the validity of this statement, saying

that even if a vote was not required, commissioners should still have brought it up in a public meeting for the purpose of transparency.

“I find it highly disingenuous to suggest that removal of the plaque is simply daily management of a piece of public property, especially in light of the intensity of the debate as was just mentioned in 2020 that surrounded the decision to add this plaque rather than relocating the statue, adding additional historical context or adding commemoration of any kind for those who were slaves, died or suffered, that were not Confederate soldiers,” said Cole-Smith.

No commissioners, save Commission Chairman Mark Letson, who was opposed to the plaque removal, have responded to requests for comment from The Smoky Mountain News.

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communications” between commissioners, county staff, law enforcement, county employees or contractors regarding the removal.

Tadych cited NCGS 143-318.9, which states “Whereas the public bodies that administer the legislative, policy-making, quasi-judicial, administrative, and advisory functions of North Carolina and its political subdivisions exist solely to conduct the people’s business, it is the public policy of North Carolina that the hearings, deliberations and actions of these bodies be conducted openly.”

“If it took a vote of the Commissioners to modify the monuments,” Tadych told SMN, “then it should have taken a vote to undo what had been done in the past. Coming to a consensus outside of public view is antithetical to the established public policy set by the North Carolina General Assembly.”

John Kubis, Jr., Jackson County’s attorney, has yet to return an April 16 call from The Smoky Mountain News.

— Cory Vaillancourt, politics editor

April 23-29, 2025

“Without question, the Jackson County Board of Commissioners violated the public policy of North Carolina by having a ‘general discussion’ and coming to the consensus they identify,” said Mike Tadych, counsel to the North Carolina Press Association and partner at Raleigh-based Stevens Martin Vaughn & Tadych.

On Aug. 4, 2020, after the Town of Sylva passed a resolution asking the county to move the statue, county commissioners voted to keep it, but to contextualize it by placing informational plaques over a Confederate flag carved into the pedestal.

On April 8, passersby noticed the plaques had been removed from the statue. On April 16, King told SMN “There was no discussion in open or closed session about the statue. Each board member, individually, shared concerns regarding the plaque added to the historic statue at the old courthouse in 2020. After consulting with legal counsel, it was determined the plaque could be

SEAL COATING & STRIPING

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Vogel takes helm at REACH

news

hired, and her first day on the job was April 1.

The sum of Vogel’s experiences lends itself to her new role, but the through-line that continues has been working to serve others in difficult situations, often involving sexual assault or romantic partner abuse. open in a way that started my healing journey as I was help“It always comes back down to the individual,” she said. ing people on their healing journeys.”

“Anytime someone calls our helpline, or anytime someone After receiving her bachelor’s degree, while working at a calls our office or steps in the door, the amount of bravery college on Hawaii’s big island, Vogel met her husband, a that it took to even take that first step, to even figure out that man who’d always wanted to live in The Aloha State but originally hailed from Waynesville. Around the time the pan- what they’re experiencing should not be happening is,

BY KYLE PERROTTI demic hit, the couple realized they wanted to prioritize fami- should be honored.”

Among the first of several large tasks that awaited Vogel NEWS EDITOR ly in hopes that their children could grow up surrounded by when she took her new role was learning about the commuEACH, the Haywood County nonprofit that provides a strong support network, surrounded by cousins with nity she now serves. aid to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, whom they could make lifelong memories.

“Since I’ve been here, we’ve been to has a new director. court. I’ve met with Waynesville PD, I’ve met In an interview with The Smoky with Canton PD. I have been able to talk to New REACH Executive Director Sara Vogel originally hails from the island of Oahu Mountain News, Sara Vogel affirmed her clients who have experienced everything but has now made her home in Waynesville, where her husband is originally from.

Donated photo commitment not only to REACH’s vital from elder abuse to rape and sexual viomission, but also to the community she lence,” she said. now calls home.

There are clear similarities between the Vogel, 38, was born and raised on the work Vogel has done in the past and the role North Shore of Oahu and then went to she’s stepping into with REACH. But there college at University of the Pacific in are also some differences. While budgeting Stockton, California, where she majored is nothing new, Vogel said having so much of in international relations. She later REACH’s funding coming from grants and received a Master’s of College Counseling private donations is a change of pace. from N.C. State and a Ph.D. in education“It’s exciting for me as a young profesal leadership from UC San Diego. In 2024, sional to learn about how funds come in, Vogel earned a Fulbright Scholarship to how we increase donor bases, how we thank work in British Columbia with Vancouver donors, how we maintain a relationship with Island University’s Women’s Studies the larger community, both businesses who Department to create a curriculum on sexmay want to support our cause, businesses ual violence prevention through comprethat we can network with and mutually help hensive sexual education. During that out, and then fundraising from a large scale time, Vogel gave a Ted Talk on her area of … but also the grant writing that we do and expertise. how that’s so impacted by everything that She has also worked at a number of happens at a state and federal level,” she colleges in roles that put her close to stusaid. dents, their dreams, their problems and at Vogel now has a team of volunteers that times, their trauma. At one school, she handle the on-the-ground operations, meanwas part of a crisis response team. ing she will largely step back from the per“I was working with students who had sonal interactions with victims that have suicidal ideations, who had been arrested, meant so much to her in the past. However, who had been sexually assaulted, who she said she enjoys being in a position where were in dangerous situations at home, and she can think broadly about how REACH I really got a taste for what it was like to can best serve the community. work with students in crisis,” Vogel said.

“If a client is experiencing lack of transla“I liked that work because I knew that tion services, how do we work with the difthose who are going through crisis situaferent entities in the community to provide tions need someone to care for them in that?” she said, adding that that kind of that moment. They need someone who problem solving and steering the ship is they can share some of their most intisomething she’s grown to enjoy as she’s mate details with and help them find a taken on more leadership roles over the path forward.” course of her career.

About 10 years ago, while working Vogel said that while there has been a with a team that investigated sexual viotransition phase for her in her new job, it lence cases on campus, Vogel had an has been made easier because of the team she has around epiphany. Through speaking with people who were coming In September 2024, after Vogel finished up her work in to understand the trauma they’d experienced, she finally British Columbia, the family moved to Waynesville — just in her. The entire staff and the volunteers are “incredibly independent and hardworking,” she said, adding that they’re understood her own trauma, her own experience in what she time to encounter the worst natural disaster in North called a “system of violence.”

Carolina’s recent history. Between Hurricane Helene and the “intrinsically motivated” to show up every day and do the “The work is incredibly personal to me, because everysubsequent birth of her second child, Vogel wasn’t quite sure hard, yet necessary work, of serving clients.

“One thing that has been absolutely clear is how dedicatthing from my first kiss being an experience of sexual what her future might look like, what opportunities may lie ed every employee that works for us is, from those who run assault, to experiencing rape in college while I was too intox- ahead as both she and her new hometown navigated wave our Within REACH resale store, who have increased profits icated to consent, those were experiences that I had kind of after wave of uncertainty. Then, in December of last year, every year that they have worked there to help fund our pushed away, to say ‘I have to keep moving forward. I don’t everything became clear all at once when she saw the direcorganization, to the folks who work at the shelter to those want to think about it, and I want to keep moving forward,’” tor position at REACH open up. who work 24/7 to make sure that when someone’s escaping she said. “When I started doing this work, it cracked me After going through the application process, she was violence and they walk into a home that’s not their own, that they feel like they’re going to be safe,” she said. “There are the people who work here in the central office, who are fielding all the calls throughout the day, working directly in advocacy services and client services, everyone shows up ready to REACH will host a drop-in meet and greet with Sara Vogel from 5-7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 29, at the Smoky Mountain Dog Bar in work every morning, and I couldn’t have asked for a better downtown Waynesville. For more information, call 828.456.7898 or visit reachofhaywood.org. team.”

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New director brings loads of experience dealing with abuse victims

Smoky Mountain News

April 23-29, 2025

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Meet REACH’s new executive director

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS EDITOR n a town where history lives not just in the pages of books but on every brick-lined sidewalk, beneath every gabled rooftop and deep within every stately mansion, Waynesville’s Historic Preservation Commission is stepping boldly into the future by leaning into a past that, for many locals, hasn’t yet passed.

“As the chair of the Historic Preservation Commission, we think that there’s historical assets in town that need to be saved, especially at a time of encroaching development and lots of new building going on,” said Alex McKay.

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meetings in 2023 and fieldwork in 2024 and has now culminated in a comprehensive document addressing administration, survey, outreach and formal designation of historic properties. Public feedback was gathered through meetings and online surveys to inform the final draft.

The plan mentions “a significant concentration of attached one- and two-story commercial buildings” along Main Street from Walnut Street to Pigeon Street, highlighting the Citizens Bank & Trust Company at 74 North Main St., the Masonic Hall at 37 Church St., the Waynesville Library at 113 North Main St., U.S. Post Office at 16 South Main St. and the

Local leaders are taking steps to protect Waynesville’s unique charm. Cory Vaillancourt photo

Get ready to celebrate You’re about to start hearing a lot about the number 250, if you haven’t already. Over the next 15 months, two important historic anniversaries will take place, one statewide and the other nationwide.

One of the first expressions by American colonists of the desire to govern themselves, the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, was purportedly adopted by Mecklenburg County residents on May

20, 1775; that’s why the date is inscribed on North Carolina’s flag.

The 250th anniversary of that historic moment will be commemorated in various ways across the state, including in Charlotte.

The other important date, July 4, 1776, is better known as the date the Second Continental Congress adopted the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Although the 250th anniversary of that momentous occasion isn’t until next year, state and local governments across the county are already gearing up for what will likely be one of the most memorable Independence Day holidays in American history.

The Town of Waynesville has already secured a $27,000 grant through the state to create a mural of the town’s namesake, Revolutionary War General “Mad” Anthony Wayne, on the Wall Street side of The Strand.

The Haywood Preservation Committee will work with the Haywood County NC250 Committee, The Strand’s owners and community stakeholders to select an artist and finalize the mural’s design. The town’s match of the grant will be $4,050.

— Cory Vaillancourt, Politics Editor

Smoky Mountain News

Waynesville Hardware Building at 226 North Main St. Frog Level presents a different identity than the Main Street District, a reflection of its links to the old Western North Carolina Railroad.

Structures of note in the Commerce Street corridor include the Cherokee Garage at 222 Depot St., the G. C. Logan Auto Company at 70 Commerce St., the Grady Honeycutt Building at 313 Depot St., the two freight depots at 40 and 66 Commerce St. and the North Carolina National Guard Armory at 44 Boundary St. Both the Cherokee Garage and the Logan Auto building have fallen into disrepair and have been vacant for some time.

The two most notable buildings in Frog Level, according to the report, are the T. N. Massie & Son building at 244 Depot St., built around 1900, and Burgin’s Market at 282 Depot St. Along with the Cherokee Garage, the

April 23-29, 2025

“We’d like to preserve our town for what it is.”

At the April 8 meeting of the Waynesville Town Council, the HPC, led by McKay and Land Use Administrator Alex Mumby, delivered a sweeping presentation on an array of historic preservation initiatives that span everything from murals and coloring books to signage, walking tours and multi-year planning documents.

The most significant effort unveiled at the meeting is the formal preservation plan for Waynesville’s three distinct historic commercial districts — Main Street, Frog Level and Hazelwood. Developed in collaboration with Annie McDonald, a senior architectural historian with Wake Forest-based Richard Grubb & Associates and funded through a $10,000 federal grant received from the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2023, the plan outlines a 10year roadmap to guide preservation policy.

The project began with public engagement

Massey and Burgin buildings were partially submerged by Richland Creek during Hurricane Helene last fall.

The WNC Railroad also played a significant role in the development of Hazelwood, as nearby manufacturing concerns prompted the development of a small commercial strip along Hazelwood Avenue. Nearly every building along this strip is significant, especially 493 Hazelwood Ave., now home to Hazelwood Gun and Tactical, and 444 Hazelwood Ave., home to Smoky Mountain Coffee Roasters.

Along Virginia Avenue, the old Hazelwood School and its addition now home to Folkmoot remain noteworthy examples of the neighborhood’s character, while a few buildings on South Main Street, like Clyde’s Restaurant, are also important, according to the study.

The plan notes Waynesville’s strong commitment to preservation over decades, suggesting a road map to ensure buildings in the three distinct cores remain as authentic as possible.

At its Jan. 9, 1997, meeting, the National Register Advisory Committee added 16 individual Waynesville properties and the Woolsey Heights Historic District to the National Register Study List. In 2001, Waynesville became a Certified Local Government, qualifying for federal Historic Preservation Fund grants managed by the National Park Service.

Since 1995, the town has received six grants totaling $39,800 for projects such as architectural surveys, historic district nominations and design guidelines. A notable 2017 grant supported the survey of African American heritage sites, and a 2020 grant funded updated documentation along key corridors.

The Downtown Waynesville Commission, originally the nonprofit Downtown Waynesville Association, continues to support preservation through its Main Street affiliation and is largely responsible for how downtown looks today, and why it’s so popular with the tourists that drive the town’s economy.

“Throughout Waynesville’s history, tourism has always been our thing,” McKay said. “The mountains, the water, the sulphur springs — they’ve always been a pull, and I think that’s still true today.”

During the public engagement phase of the plan’s creation, more than 65% of respondents expressed concern over the demolition of historic buildings while just over 56% were worried about inappropriate alterations to historic buildings.

Notably, neither the town nor the county is home to a dedicated nonprofit preservation

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Historic preservation efforts will preserve, promote Waynesville’s unique character

organization. Such organizations have achieved exceptional results in other areas; the Preservation Society of Asheville & Buncombe County, established in the 1970s, filled the gap left by lack of municipal government engagement while the Historic Savannah Foundation, established in the 1950s, is responsible for much of the historical character the 292-yearold Georgia city retains — along with the resultant tourism that powers the local economy.

Tourism, population growth and the demand for commercial space remain threats to historic structures, so the plan includes a series of goals for the town that could help Waynesville down the road.

Along with the implementation of ordinance-based municipal actions like the establishment of historic districts, bolstering public engagement and expanding awareness of existing resources, strengthening the HPC is paramount according to the plan. The HPC has long been working toward these goals.

Since 2017, the HPC has distributed illustrated coloring books to local fourth graders drawn by local artist Chris Sylvester and annotated by McKay. The books depict iconic buildings and sites across Waynesville, serving as an engaging introduction to the town’s architectural and cultural legacy. The program reached students at Hazelwood Elementary and Shining Rock in 2024, deepening the connection between youth and heritage.

Wayfinding through all that history is also about to get easier. The HPC is finalizing the design of interpretive signage for several key areas including Hazelwood, the Historic Haywood County Courthouse and, as part of a broader improvement plan with the parks and recreation department, Sulphur Springs Park, which will highlight the natural spring, its iconic springhouse and the long-lost Sulphur Springs Hotel.

Additional signs are planned for the Main Street district and Frog Level.

Waynesville’s self-guided tour book is also receiving a modern update. First published years ago, the new edition will include updated photos, a clearer map and more historic locations. The book is scheduled to go to press this spring and will be made available at the municipal building for a suggested donation of $5.

As part of its ongoing work, the HPC also received Town Council approval to apply for another CLG grant to nominate either the Love Lane neighborhood or the Country Club area for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. The proposed $10,000 grant would be split 60/40, with the town’s $4,000 match already requested — albeit in a tight budget year — for the fiscal year 2025–26 budget.

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Heavy machinery removes debris in the Little Tennessee River. Jason Love photo

Good intentions gone wrong Maconians sound alarm on excessive debris removal

Smoky Mountain News

April 23-29, 2025

BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER y this point, more than six months after Hurricane Helene barreled through Western North Carolina, it’s a common sight. Heavy machinery moving in and around waterways, working to remove debris that choked rivers and streams during extreme flooding caused by the storm.

Not only does debris removal help clear waterways of potentially hazardous material, but it also reduces the risk of dangerous flood events in the future. It’s a key part of the recovery process.

But as work gets underway Macon County, some are worried that the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the companies they have contracted for the work are going too far, removing debris that predated Helene and had become part of the ecosystem, as well as excess amounts of vegetation from riparian zones and in some cases, live trees.

“We’re not against woody debris removal in targeted areas, we can see how that can be helpful in a responsible way,” said Jordan Smith, executive director of Mainspring Conservation Trust. “But woody debris, dead or alive, is an important component of natural rivers, and removing it haphazardly can have some pretty serious impacts on habitat, food systems, nutrient cycles, things like that. We understand the purpose behind it, but we don’t think it’s being done responsibly from the Army Corps’ standpoint.”

Accusations of excessive debris removal 8

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and destruction of fragile ecosystems in the process are not isolated to Macon County. In Transylvania County, the Transylvania Times reported last week that Lauren Wilkie jumped into the Little River in order to block heavy machinery with her body to keep contractors from removing live trees and waterfall boulders on her property.

Hans Lohmeyer, stewardship coordinator with the nonprofit organization Conserving

have long-term effects on endangered species like hellbenders, mudpuppies and freshwater mussels.

The Little Tennessee River is home to more than 40 endangered, threatened or rare species of fish, mollusks, insects, amphibians and reptiles, 100 species of native fish, 10 species of native mussels and a dozen crayfish species. Among these are the Citico darter, Smoky madtom and Little Tennessee crayfish,

Debris removal equipment lined up before heading out to the Little Tennessee River. Bob Scott photo Carolina told the Transylvania Times that the well-intentioned effort to clear storm debris from that county’s rivers has turned into an ecological crisis.

Lohmeyer says the destructive work will

which aren’t found anywhere else in the world, and the newly named and scientifically described Sicklefin Redhorse.

According to a study from North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural

Resources, the stretch of Little Tennessee River between Franklin and Fontana Lake (25 miles) has a faunal diversity that rivals any in the state and perhaps in the nation.

Unlike other places in Western North Carolina that saw an unprecedented level of destruction from Hurricane Helene, Macon County and the Little Tennessee River made it through the extreme weather event largely unscathed.

“Macon County is one of the counties eligible to receive disaster aid because it was impacted, but not to the same extent as watersheds to our east, like the Swannanoa River, French Broad, Nolichucky; those rivers were absolutely devastated,” said Jason Love, associate director at the Highlands Biological Station, and previous site manager at Coweeta Long-Term Ecological Research Program.

“This barely made the top 10 floods in Macon County since 1944.”

According to Love, the United States Geological Survey river gauge near Otto recorded that the Little Tennessee River rose about 5,000 cubic feet per second during Hurricane Helene. This was significantly lower than the highest recorded CFS change recorded at the Otto gauge which occurred in 2016 when the river rose 8,000 cubic feet per second. During the Peeks Creek Disaster of 2004, when a slide destroyed 15 homes and killed six people, the river rose 7,900 cubic feet per second.

SEE DEBRIS REMOVAL, PAGE 10

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Smoky Mountain News

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DEBRIS REMOVAL, CONTINUED FROM 8

Smoky Mountain News

April 23-29, 2025

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“It just left me wondering, why is this [debris removal] going on in the Little Tennessee River, given that this was not a historic storm or historic flood, at least on the Little Tennessee Watershed,” said Love.

Although flooding may have been less severe on the Little Tennessee and Cullasaja rivers in Macon County than in other parts of Western North Carolina, the storm did still create buildups of debris that need to be removed.

“We’re not against woody debris removal where it makes sense, and there are places in the watershed where it does make sense,” said Love. “The corps is saying that this wood is an immediate threat to public safety. I can tell you, I paddle this river, some of these logs have been there the past decade, didn’t budge in Helene, so to say that the corps knows what’s going to happen with the wood… I think they’re overreaching, they’re overstating the risk and ignoring the ecological costs.”

On the Cullasaja, right across from Walmart, people have probably seen the log jam that has a motorboat stuck behind it.

“Get in there, remove that junk, because it’s a hazard,” Love said. “But to basically clear miles and miles of river of all the wood and cutting live trees because you think it’s leaning too far, or you think it has a dangerous branch overhead… it may make sense in the Swannanoa and rivers that have huge debris piles and tons of debris, but it doesn’t make sense in a river that didn’t experience that devastation.”

“Now, because of the corps and their overreaction, [the river] is being devastated,” Love continued.

County Manager Warren Cabe said Macon requested assistance with debris removal from a fixed receiving location in Highlands, for roadways and waterways through North Carolina Emergency Management. The state arranged for debris removal to be contracted through the Army Corps of Engineers.

The county was asked to provide locations with known debris issues or concerns.

“That information was passed on, and then the USACE evaluated and arranged for the removals,” said Cabe. “The information consisted of general locations and some aerial drone images of various debris spots.”

After that, the technical aspects of what is removed from waterways is managed by the Army Corps of Engineers.

“We are aware that some residents are concerned about the removal process,” said Cabe.

“The USACE is using subcontractors to complete the work and are monitoring. The USACE is a very knowledgeable agency with a significant amount of expertise in monitoring and managing waterway activities so we are hopeful that the process will ultimately result in a safe and well managed system of waterways in Macon County.”

Macon County does not have to contract with any entity for the debris removal, provide funding or request reimbursement as the process is conducted between North Carolina and the USACE. Basically, once Macon County made the request, removal and funding are out of its hands, managed instead by the state and USACE. 10

“Macon County wants to keep our environment clean and healthy and to maintain the quality of our water systems and would not knowingly contribute to any process that does otherwise,” said Cabe. “We appreciate the concerns from individuals and groups about this process and we have referred them to the appropriate agency or individual.”

Residents and environmental groups do not posit that county leaders or even the USACE have bad intentions, but that the approach to debris removal is too generalized.

“Our county is doing the right thing by

actions.

“We are clearing debris across the entire impacted area of Western North Carolina,” said Connolly.

Currently the right of way debris removal is 99% complete across 10 counties, and USACE is only hitting “hot spots” as requested by counties. USACE is actively removing debris or in contracting actions across 23 counties or areas for waterways, with approximately 20% completed.

Private property debris removal is about 27% complete.

bilizing the riverbanks. A lot of what we’re seeing removed, we don’t think falls within the scope of what the Army Corps’ intentions are.

Whether or whose shoulders that falls on, we’re not clear about. We just know that what’s happening is excessive and it’s massive.”

Once this type of removal is conducted, the damage is done.

“This is most likely the most damaging ecological event from the past 100 years to impact this river,” said Love.

Too much removal of debris can spell dis-

Heavy machinery caused disturbances at access points along the banks of the Little Tennessee river. Jason Love photo

them; they’re looking out for public safety.

They’re not stream ecologists, so they’re leaning on the corps,” said Love. “I understand the mission. I think everyone agrees that in those rivers hardest hit, we want debris cleanup. But the Little Tennessee isn’t one of those rivers. It needs to be more targeted, not just the whole river.”

According to David Connolly, chief public affairs officer for the USACE Wilmington District, AshBritt was awarded the Advanced Contracting Initiative (ACI) debris removal contract for Region 7.

AshBritt, out of Florida, is a national turnkey rapid-response disaster recovery and special environmental services contractor. In 2019, residents in Northern California filed a federal class action in which they claimed AshBritt removed “excessive amounts of soil” and structures unaffected by recent wildfires.

The company, hired by Kentucky after floods ravaged eastern parts of the state in July 2022, was accused in lawsuits following cleanup of allowing subcontractors to steal valuable trees from private property, destroying a family’s home and failing to pay workers.

“These contracts are implemented specifically for emergency and disaster scenarios,” said Connolly. “This was awarded based on a full and open competition.”

The USACE has contracted with AshBritt for debris removal in rights of way, waterways and private property, as well as commercial property and demolition that are still in the initial stages of scoping and contracting

According to Connolly, contractors are not paid by the weight of debris removed, as some have alleged; they are paid based on the cubic yardage removed from contracted sites.

“There are government quality assurance representatives at every location monitoring the debris removed from the site to ensure the correct material is removed,” said Connolly.

“Additionally, there are quality assurance representatives present at the temporary debris reduction sites that are validating the amount of material that is being removed. There are multiple checks and balances throughout the system to ensure what USACE contracted for is delivered.”

According to Connolly, there were 142 sites identified and requested by Macon County that were determined eligible for debris removal. FEMA determined debris eligibility requirements for the Direct Federal Assistance program.

“If FEMA determines the debris to be storm generated or where debris impedes navigation or produces a hazard to safety, it is removed,” said Connolly.

But some residents in Macon County think that these agencies might be getting the distinction between Helene debris, hazardous debris and natural buildup wrong. And that the consequences could be dire.

“When you go into these systems like is being done right now and remove mass quantities of dead debris and living trees that are part of the system, it has impacts,” said Smith.

“A lot of what’s being removed is actually sta-

aster for waterways because, while major storms like Helene cause a quick buildup of debris that wouldn’t normally make it into a river, there is a natural level of debris buildup that is expected within a waterway and benefits the ecology of a stream or river.

Woody debris within a waterway or along its banks provide important habitat for many of its inhabitants. Love explained that waterfowl and salamanders both use logs for protection and cover; insects burrow under logs.

“You’re removing critical habitat for a lot of species,” said Love. “There’s some freshwater mussel species who are associated with logs, because those logs slow down the current, kind of give a little hiding place, a little shelter for these mussels.”

Woody debris also plays an important part in nutrient cycling. Many species in a river feed on wood, and without access to that nutrient source, species abundance and diversity decline.

“It seems like now that this is going on, this is going to be incredibly hard to stop,” said Love. “The corps has been overwhelmed.

Folks have been working around the clock to try to deal with this disaster that’s unprecedented in North Carolina’s history, the nation’s history, to have this much flood damage, 7,000 plus bridges washed out. I just think they’re trying to get the work done and get it done efficiently and fast. Sometimes you kind of miss the big picture and you have incidents like this where it sounded good on paper, but the reality is a little different.”

Greening Up the Mountains continues focus on environment

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Jackson County Transit will offer shuttle service from the Jackson County Justice Center parking lot between the hours of 11:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Cost for shuttle service is $1 per person, and the ride back is free.

Parking is available at Mark Watson and the Jackson County Library, plus other limited spots along the detour. Paid parking is available at Pinnacle Relief on Grindstaff Road and First United Methodist Church for

$7 cash or $7.50 on a credit card. All proceeds will be used for church mission projects. Limited handicapped parking will be available in the lot behind the Sylva Police Department and beside Ward Plumbing, Heating & Air. The event is organized by the town of Sylva and the Main Street Sylva Association.

For more information, visit greeningupthemountains.com.

April 23-29, 2025 Smoky Mountain News

be used in other ways. The Styrofoam recycler picks up Styrofoam each month at Mark Watson Park.”

This year, Main and Mill Streets will be blocked off during festival hours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Vendors will be located on both sides of Bridge Park music stage thanks to the paving of the lot between the stage and Lifeway Church as part of the upgrades to the downtown green space in recent years.

The festival will host over 160 vendors with arts and crafts and nonprofit vendors located along Main Street and Bridge Park.

Food trucks and beverage vendors will be located on the Bridge Park lawn and in the paved parking lot beside Bridge Park.

The new public restroom facility is open beside the railroad tracks and there will be a ribbon cutting event for the new building at 2 p.m.

The day will begin with a 5K race kicking off at 9 a.m. Registration is available online at greeningupthemountains.com. The awards ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. The 5K starts and ends at Mark Watson Park in Sylva, with all proceeds benefiting the Jackson County Parks and Recreation Department.

There will be live music throughout the day at Bridge Park music stage.

• 10-11 a.m. TLQ+2 • 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Maggie Valley Band • 1-2 p.m. Bird in Hand • 2:30-4:00 p.m. Robertson Boys In addition to the music at Bridge Park the Jackson County Junior County Musicians will be performing on the steps of First Baptist Church on Main Street at 1 p.m.

Blacksmithing and glass blowing demonstrations by vendors from the Jackson County Green Energy Park will take place in the Southern Bliss/Lazy Hiker parking lot across from First Baptist Church. Children’s activities will also be scattered along Main Street in the same parking lot and at Fusion’s Spa.

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HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER his year’s Greening Up the Mountains, scheduled for Saturday, April 26, celebrates the 27th anniversary of the spring festival. True to its roots in the celebration of Earth Day and Appalachian heritage, the event continues to focus on local environmental stewardship and sustainability.

“Its namesake reflects the gradual progression of spring green moving up the mountains,” said Sylva’s Economic Development Director Bernadette Peters.

When the festival officially began in 1998, Sylva residents had been putting on smaller Earth Day and Appalachian events for years. But in 1998, these combined for the first time to create Greening Up the Mountains. That year, the event drew about 2,500 people.

Today, the festival has grown to host more than 12,000 attendees each year, showcasing heritage arts and local craftspeople, live music, demonstrations and food and beverages, while continuing to emphasize environmental stewardship and sustainability.

“Several years ago, the organizing committee wanted to increase the event’s environmental practices,” said Peters. “Over a three-year period, festival requirements were added to eliminate single-use plastics, plastic bottled water and plastic shopping bags.”

Tuckasegee Water and Sewer Authority created water filling stations so that attendees can refill their water bottles throughout the day, and Baxley’s Chocolates provides festival signage to help people understand the county’s trash and recycling practices, complementing the Jackson County Solid Waste’s educational offerings at the event.

“Demonstration organizations also share their strategies with the public at the festival,” Peters said. “This year, Western North Carolina’s ‘Feed Me Foam’ truck was added.

The group demonstrates how they distill a truck load of foam into a solid brick that can

Greening Up the Mountains will take place Saturday, April 26, in downtown Sylva. File photo

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Community Almanac

Smoky Mountain News

Giclee printing business opens in Waynesville

National Denim Day is April 30

Since 1999, Peace Over Violence has run an inspiring and powerful campaign to practice solidarity and support survivors by renewing its commitment to exposing harmful behaviors and attitudes surrounding sexual violence.

Denim Day is recognized on a Wednesday in April in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

REACH of Haywood provides help and support for victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, sex trafficking and elder abuse. If you or someone you know are being hurt, call REACH’s 24-hour helpline at 828.456.7898.

Haywood hosts construction career day

WNC Construction Career Day will take place Tuesday, April 29, 2025, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Smoky Mountain Event Center, located at 758 Crabtree Road, Waynesville, NC 28785. The goal of the event is to raise awareness of the industry’s numerous career opportunities for high school graduates. This private event represents collaboration among regional workforce boards, career and technology educators, community colleges and universities and construction and skilled-trades employers.

HCC hosts car show

Haywood Community College is hosting its third annual car show from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 26. Admission is free. With free admission, event includes food trucks, face painting, virtual-reality auto-body painting and much more.

Vehicle categories include classic/antique car, classic/antique truck, custom car, custom truck, off-road vehicle, modern vehicle and motorcycle.

The vehicle entrants will cast votes for the best vehicle in each category. Guests can vote for their favorite vehicle, with the winner taking home the Fan Favorite trophy.

For more information, please visit haywood.edu/carshow.

new business focused on printing giclees officially opened in Waynesville last week.

Smoky Mountain Studios, a sister business of neighboring Twigs & Leaves Gallery, is operated

by Anna Melton, who has worked in that industry for a decade.

Before Melton, friends, family and Haywood County Chamber of Commerce officials cut the ribbon, she had a few words for those who

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Smoky Mountain Studios in Waynesville cut the ribbon last week. Kyle Perrotti photo

United Way receives $25,000 grant from Duke Energy Foundation Duke Energy Foundation has awarded United Way of Haywood County a $25,000 grant to expand its post-Helene efforts in Western North Carolina. The funding is part of $500,000 in new grants from Duke Energy Foundation awarded to 20 nonprofits supporting long-term recovery efforts in Western North Carolina.

Since Hurricane Helene’s impact, Duke Energy and its foundation have committed over $2.7 million to disaster readiness, relief and rebuilding efforts in North Carolina.

For more information on Duke Energy Foundation and its initiatives, visit duke-energy.com/Foundation.

Pisgah Legal Seeks Community Support to Assist WNC Immigrants In Western North Carolina, Pisgah Legal Services provides most of the free civil legal aid for area immigrants, with only three attorneys working on behalf of people living in the 18-county region. Local supporters of the nonprofit have launched a giving challenge to match up to $100,000, increasing resources and supporting this work.

Giving online is fast, easy and secure at www.pisgahlegal.org/justiceforall.

Checks may be mailed to Pisgah Legal Services, P.O. Box 2276, Asheville, NC 28802.

Lake Junaluska launches $14 million fundraising campaign Lake Junaluska has launched the Sharing Our Gifts Campaign, a fundraising drive that seeks to raise $14 million to transform the grounds.

The campaign is the most ambitious fundraising drive in the history of Lake Junaluska. It will provide resources to strengthen the organization’s ministry to

turned out for the occasion.

The business is a fine art printing house where artists can bring in original work, which is then reprinted on canvass.

“The goal of our business is to be a resource for our artists and also for the art community,” Metlon said. “It’s a really special moment when an artist brings in an original piece. Often, I’m the first one to see it, and they tell me about their brainstorm. They tell me what they care about, and they tell me about their process. We get to be a part of that process, and that’s hands-down the coolest part of the job.” smokymtnstudios.com.

youth and families by expanding recreation options and creating versatile lodging options. The campaign will also invest in three beloved sacred spaces, as well as the Lake Junaluska dam, in order to continue the mission of serving as a place of light and hope.

“We are looking toward a bold vision for Lake Junaluska’s future — to position Lake Junaluska as the most welcoming place for personal renewal in our region and beyond,” said Ken Howle, executive director of Lake Junaluska. “We invite all who love Lake Junaluska to be a part of this important effort.

Together, we can share our gifts to make a lasting impact.” lakejunaluska.com

Haywood Habitat for Humanity kicks off community fundraiser Haywood Habitat for Humanity announced its inaugural “Haywood Rising: Spring Festival Building Hope” event, taking place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 17, at Allen’s Creek Park in Waynesville.

This community-wide celebration will feature live music a food truck, and a shed raffle—all to support Habitat’s mission of building strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter.

The event will include a food truck rally, a shed raffle, live music and activities throughout the day.

The event is free to attend. Food truck vouchers will be available for purchase both prior to and during the event. Raffle tickets will also be available for purchase at the event. Additionally, attendees who bring household donations will receive a free raffle ticket for a special basket of goodies from the Habitat ReStore shop. All proceeds directly support Haywood Habitat for Humanity’s affordable housing programs.

For more information or to purchase tickets visit haywoodhabitat.org.

SCC’s Small Business Center garners statewide excellence award Starting a business is a big step for anyone, but starting one from a different state is another matter entirely.

Originally from New Hampshire, Erin Tuveson fell in love with Western North Carolina, where she worked in outdoor adventure programs for over a decade.

After returning to New Hampshire, she took on the role as the manager of a local hostel. Continually feeling inspired by the Appalachian Trail, that’s when she got the idea to start Rambling Roots Hostel.

Tuveson reached out to Southwestern Community College’s Small Business Center, and Director Marne Harris was more than willing to take on the challenge, which ultimately resulted in her receiving the Business Success Story – Business Start-Up award for the 2024 Excellence Awards of the North Carolina Small Business Center Network.

Over the span of 14 months, Harris assisted Tuveson in creating a business plan and obtaining a loan before Tuveson moved to the area.

As part of a network of experienced Small Business Centers across North Carolina, Southwestern’s Small Business Center serves startup and existing small business owners with complimentary seminars, counseling and a resource center.

For more information, to reserve a seat or to request one-on-one confidential counseling, visit southwesterncc.edu/sbc or call 828.339.4426.

HCC hosts Community Science Night Haywood Community College in Clyde is welcoming back Community Science Night. This event is in partnership with NC SciFest and is part of a statewide effort to hold science-related events throughout April.

Bring the entire family out for an evening of hands-on, science-based activities at HCC. Every participant can complete each station and bring their creations home. This event is open to all ages.

HCC’s Community Science Night will be held from 6-8 p.m. on April 24 in the Hickory Building on campus. Pizza will be provided, courtesy of Pratt & Whitney. For more details and to register, visit haywood.edu/events/science-night.php.

The North Carolina Science Festival is presented by RTI International and produced by Morehead Planetarium and Science Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For more information, visit ncsciencefestival.org.

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April 23-29, 2025 Smoky Mountain News 13

Opinion Jackson commissioners’ plaque removal a mistake 14

Smoky Mountain News

To The Editor: I appreciate your straightforward and informative coverage of the removal of the plaque over Sylva Sam’s Confederate flag. I am a 21-year resident of Jackson County, and have enjoyed positive relations with fellow citizens here during all those years, no matter what our political views were.

The removal of the plaque is disturbing in two ways, in particular. First, the fact that it was done without public knowledge or invitation to comment is just plain sneaky. It doesn't matter if the rules governing the council allowed it to happen. I bet the commissioners knew there would be disagreement and they were not willing to face members of the county who disagreed with them. This is exactly the kind of behavior that erodes trust and demonstrates that authoritarianism is on the rise, even in our small county. Such a deci-

The new sheriff wants DEI to DIE To the Editor: Since President Trump, by the will of the majority of American voters, has come into office he has given a multitude of executive orders striking down failed policies of the Biden administration. None are as infamous as the DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programs.

These programs were not only racist and biased, but they were also disastrous from inception and now we are seeing some of the effect. Who knows how many tragic outcomes — such as all the recent aviation fatalities — are due to DEI. Now in fairness, I can’t say for sure that any of these accidents were due to DEI, but we will know soon. We do know that many private companies tried adopting these policies and they have quickly abandoned them for one simple reason: they don’t work.

It is ironic to me that the most famed minority leader of my day, Martin Luther King Jr., would not be in favor of these racist programs. In his famous “I have a dream” speech, he said “I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but the content of their character.”

That is my dream too. I think that a person should not be judged by his or her gender, sexual preferences or religion. Where, in the job world, we are “blind” to all these issues, but we only look at two things: merit and performance.

Currently in the NBA, 70% of the players are black, 17% white and 10% multiracial. But in the most recent U.S. census the ratio was 60% white, 19% Hispanic or Latino and 12.6% Black. Can you imagine a world where the teams under DEI program would have to hire and fire based on race and keeping the proper ratios? And don’t forget homosexual and transgender percentages. Teams would be searching for players to be added to their team not based on needs of the team but on

sion to move behind closed doors may have been a slick maneuver within the rules, but it was not fair, or just, or morally commendable. The kind of move a 12-year-old makes when trying to get away with something. Shame on the commissioners who supported this behavior.

Secondly, your article did a great job of reminding us why the plaque had been installed in the first place. A notable number of members of our community, myself among them, do not feel comfortable with some of the things the Confederate flag has come to symbolize. Of course I can understand the desire to honor those who served in the battles of the Civil War, no matter what side they were on. But since we are in this moment “One nation under God,” why should a symbol that shouts of a desire to dismantle the United States and continue slavery have center stage in front of our beautiful courthouse library? After all, have the com-

LETTERS race or ethnicity and sexual orientation. But that is not happening in the NBA. Why? Because players are chosen based on talent and merit and meeting the needs of the team.

John Kennedy, the senator from Louisiana, said it best: “the best way to stop discriminating against people on the basis of race and gender, is to stop discriminating against people on the basis of race and gender.” So simple yet profound. Americans deserve the best most qualified people, particularly at critical roles where many people’s lives are at risk, such as pilots and air traffic controllers and engineers building bridges and high-rise buildings and doctors. I personally think that we should not ask about race or ethnicity or sexual orientation on job applications. You can’t ask about religion, why should you be able to ask about these things? Personally, I am glad to see the end of blatant discrimination. There is a new sheriff in town, and he wants DEI to DIE. David Lawson, MD Lake Junaluska

missioners or others who support such a display of the Confederate flag actually thought about what our lives might be like if the Confederacy had won?

More than a 150 years have passed since the Civil War. It is time to let that loss go and work together through understanding, compromise and open-hearted forgiveness to continue to build this nation. What the commissioners did was just a “Gotcha” moment that promotes division, partisanship, and let's be honest, a slap in the face to civil rights.

Maybe a solution is to install the plaque right next to that annoying Confederate flag? Perhaps that could stand for our experience of the Civil War, and then our growth beyond it?

E Pluribus Unum.

Judy Robinson Sylva

This is not economic stewardship. It’s profiteering made possible by reckless policy — an intentional asset transfer from the American public to the privileged and powerful.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has warned that tariff-driven uncertainty is suppressing business investment and fueling inflation — problems beyond the Fed’s capacity to offset. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has echoed these concerns, estimating that GDP growth could fall by up to a full percentage point annually. Both call this what it is: a crisis of politi-cal choice, not economic necessity.

Even more disturbing is the erosion of our constitutional protections. Recent incidents involving the wrongful detention —or even abduction — of legal U.S. residents, visitors and in some cases citizens by federal authorities raise urgent questions about the state of due process and habeas corpus in this country. Agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice must be subject to serious remedial oversight,

We deserve better leadership than this To the Editor: This Easter season — a time for moral reflection and renewal — I feel compelled to speak to the direction of our national leadership. We face a moment where economic manipulation and constitutional neglect are becoming normalized, with grave consequences for all Americans.

Recent tariff announcements by the administration have triggered predictable market chaos. Following just one such announcement, hedge funds and speculators reportedly shorted over $40 billion in equities, profiting by billions as markets fell.

Meanwhile, ordinary Americans — retirees, savers and pension holders — saw their financial security shaken.

and those responsible for such illegal actions held accountable under the law.

These issues reflect moral and leadership failures that directly affect the lives and liber-

ties of real people right here in Western North Carolina and across this country.

Easter reminds us that truth, sacrifice and accountability to our highest ideals still matter. Our elected officials, including Senators Tillis and Budd and Congressman Chuck Edwards among others, must demonstrate the moral leadership to challenge these abuses and re-store integrity to both our economic system and constitutional democracy. We, the people, deserve nothing less.

J. Fripp Clyde

WNC does not need martial law To the Editor: Here in Western North Carolina, we know the value of independence, personal responsibility and limited government. That’s why I’m deeply concerned about a quiet move coming out of Washington that doesn’t seem to be getting the attention it deserves and that could affect every one of us.

After his inauguration in January, the president signed an executive order declaring a national emergency at the southern border. But the part no one’s talking about is what came next: the order gives the Department of Defense and Homeland Security until April 20 to recommend whether to invoke the Insurrection Act — a law that would allow the president to deploy U.S. troops against civilians here at home.

No matter who we voted for or

our political affiliation, military force should never be used against the American people.

Using the Insurrection Act to send troops into American towns and cities is not border policy. It’s federal overreach, plain and simple. It bypasses governors, threatens our right to rally, and risks setting a precedent that could be abused by any future president.

I urge Congressman Chuck Edwards and Senators Thom Tillis and Ted Budd to speak out before the April 20 report is delivered.

The people of North Carolina deserve to know where their leaders stand — not after the fact, but now.

Our Constitution was built to limit the power of government, not to concentrate it.

Let’s not let fear — or politics — erase the freedoms generations of Americans have fought to protect.

Constance L. Neely Scaly Mountain

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April 23-29, 2025 Smoky Mountain News

To the Editor: The tariff disaster is the last of three major events that demonstrate that the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress are incompetent to govern the country. The deportation debacle was the first and the so called cost-cutting fiasco is the second.

The deportation of undocumented individuals was billed as an effort to remove criminals and “bad actors” from the country.

The reality is that it seems to be a cruel strategy to terrorize minorities, foreign students and other non-citizens. In reality, even undocumented persons are less likely to commit any crime than native born citizens.

The second major “initiative” of the Trump administration is the so called cost cutting and fraud detection by the bogus DOGE (Department of Governmental Efficiency). Cost savings were over estimated and any fraud has yet to be verified. This “department” is not approved by Congress, but Republicans in Congress are as quiet as a church mouse about DOGE. Rather than a competent strategy of evaluating the necessity of different workers and agencies, the DOGE team of 19- to 29-yearold hackers were unleashed willy-nilly to make drastic cuts in the federal workforce, cut funded programs and pause research grants. Critical research on cancer and other health issues are in jeopardy. Thousands of workers have had to be rehired because it was discovered that they performed critical functions — such as maintaining our nuclear weapons. Again, one apparent objective was to terrorize and traumatize individuals and families unnecessarily and to hamper government functioning.

The entire process indicated complete incompetence regarding any fraud, cost savings or functional efficiency. The only alternative explanation other than incompetence would be that this was a concerted effort to damage the government’s ability to function.

Again, Republicans in Congress continue to be silent on this display of incompetence.

Now we have the tariff terrorism of the

Trump administration affecting not only U.S. mar-kets, but markets around the world. The support for solving trade problems with tariffs comes from a crackpot “economist” whose views are not shared by reputable economists.

Adjusting tariffs to achieve a level playing field on specific industries and products would be appropriate. Instead, the approach has been a circus of incompetence. Global tariff has been imposed on all goods from countries based on a simplistic formula — then paused when the consequences became obvious. Incompetence also is indicated by imposing tariffs on islands occupied only by penguins and other small regions that have no discernable trade with the U.S. A competent strategy would have been to study the areas of trade with each specific country to determine whether a retaliatory tariff was warranted in a specific type of commerce or group of products. This would be in line with trying to achieve a fair-trade goal.

Apparently, the Trump administration does not have competent staff, discipline or the desire to undertake such a competent strategy. As with the other examples mentioned, the Republicans in Congress appear to be sitting on their thumbs while the investment savings of millions of Americans are in peril.

Congress has the authority to control tariffs but chose to give the president the ability to unilaterally impose tariffs. This means that the tariff issue is a Republican issue and not just a Trump issue.

There are a number of fallacies and myths about tariffs. The first is that other countries pay the tariff. Importers in the U.S. are forced to pay tariffs on goods from other countries. They then pass that cost on to consumers. For example, with a 20% tariff, a pair of shoes that would have cost $100 will now cost $120; a car that would have cost $30,000 will now cost $36,000. The same math holds for imported food. Tariffs are a tax paid by consumers.

A second fallacy is that tariffs alone will stimulate domestic manufacturing. Growing manufacturing requires long-term investment and time. You cannot just increase the price of imports and expect manufacturing to flourish. In reality manufacturing was growing due to the incentives in the stimulus packages passed during the Biden administration.

Tariffs actually can hamper or destroy manufacturing. For example, a company that manufactures metal roofs may go out of business because tariffs will increase the cost of the metals used. Thus, their roofs are not price competitive with shingles.

First imposing harsh measures and then backing off from them seems to be Trump’s art of the deal strategy. So, Trump’s strategy seems to imply that the way to get a good deal on a car is to first punch the sales person in the face and then begin to negotiate price.

The apparent incompetence displayed by the Trump administration and the Republicans in Congress is appalling. No wonder hundreds of thousands of citizens took to the streets on Saturday, April 6, to protest how the country is being run.

Norman Hoffman Waynesville

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Smoky Mountain News

If it hadn’t been for love The SteelDrivers to play MerleFest

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR tanding on the precipice of their 20th anniversary, The SteelDrivers aren’t looking over their shoulders at the road to the here and now. Quite the contrary, where the Americana/bluegrass icons are aiming headlong towards the unknowns of tomorrow. And with one simple, yet powerful, thought permeating throughout — what’s next?

“Very early in the game, we were determined to do our own original music. And we stood by it, where now we’re reaping those rewards,” said fiddler Tammy Rogers. “The sound has been really unique, because nobody’s expected to play like somebody else — everybody has their own individual voice.”

Cultivating that deep sense of self — and of the independent, freewheelin’ spirit residing at the core of The SteelDrivers since their inception — the band’s latest album, “Outrun,” is an ode to the trials and tribulations of life itself, where certain undeniable truths about love, lore and legacy come to pass as the clock keeps ticking.

“And you can’t outrun a broken heart that gives into a gun,” the ensemble howls and rumbles through the title track. “And you can’t outrun the Grim Reaper once the deed is done.”

“Outrun” not only underlines the immense talent and storied prestige within the Grammy-winning group, it also celebrates The SteelDrivers latest partnership with famed

S

Memphis, Tennessee, label Sun Records.

“We like to think of albums as having their own space, slant, and story,” Rogers said.

“And ‘Outrun’ really encapsulated the whole album. I think the secret of why we’ve been able to keep going is not getting too far ahead of ourselves — aiming to be content in a moment, and to let it unfold, to invest and enjoy it.”

Reflecting on the last two decades at the helm of The SteelDrivers, bassist Mike Fleming can’t help but harbor genuine gratitude and appreciation for his longtime bandmates and also those who have entered their tightly-knit musical circle in recent years.

“It’s a partnership — of people, and of collaboration,” Fleming said. “That element of creativity and having new material, it keeps you on your toes. We have to have that spark, that something which drives us forward.”

Beyond the evolving musical nature of The SteelDrivers, this seamless ebb and flow

The SteelDrivers will play MerleFest April 24. File photo between intricate bluegrass and the hardscrabble blues, another key element of “Outrun” is this underlying tribute to late founding member Mike Henderson. And though Henderson passed away in 2023, his memory and presence is still profoundly felt by the group, onstage and in the studio.

“I lovingly refer to Mike as the architect of the band,” Rogers said. “Because he’s the one in the beginning that called us all together.

Everybody respected everybody else, and that’s what created our sound and what makes it so unique.”

Within the tracks featured on “Outrun,” The SteelDrivers cut two of Henderson’s numbers, including “Painted and Poison,” which the group would play live but never recorded and “Prisoner’s Tears,” a selection Henderson recorded on one of his country records.

“Mike’s greatest influences were blues and bluegrass,” Rogers said. “And he intentionally put people together that he knew would

understand those influences. He allowed us to just play how we played — that’s always been the way we’ve approached it.”

With the 20th anniversary celebration underway for The SteelDrivers, the bandmates are each taking inventory of where it all began, where it stands at this juncture and where it may go from here.

“It’s not about any one thing,” Rogers noted. “It’s about the whole band.

Everybody’s important. And, at this point in the game, the songs have taken on a life of their own, where [the audience] is singing every song — there’s nothing more gratifying than that.”

“Our crowd wants to hear songs from every album, and we try to cram in as many as we can into a 90-minute set,” Fleming added.

“But, we also want to give’em new stuff to hear that’ll hopefully become one of their new favorite songs.”

Memories of The SteelDrivers early days at Nashville’s famed Station Inn, onward to big stages underneath bright lights from coast-tocoast and beyond — it’s all one whirlwind trajectory, experienced together and in real time.

“What’s kept me going all these years is the fact that we’re still pushing, still exploring musically,” Rogers said. “Different sounds.

Different grooves. Different songs. We’ve got incredible material from all of our albums to pull from during our [live] set.”

“We don’t want to be a cover band of ourselves,” Fleming added. “If there’s no creativity and new material going into it, then it becomes laborious. And we’re fortunate that we do this because we like and we want to do it.”

Now with “Outrun” hitting the ground running, The SteelDrivers are gearing up to hit the road and do what they do best — and have done at the highest of levels for years and years — which is hop up in front of a microphone and radiate a true tone of melodic beauty and artistic integrity for all to hear within earshot.

“It’s being onstage with these incredibly talented people and playing to crowds who love to see you and hear you,” Fleming said.

“I’m just a lucky person to have that in my life at this time.”

“We’ve done all this work, and we’ve had all of these amazing things happen through the years,” Rogers added. “And, truly now, when we step onstage, more than any other feeling, it’s joy and gratitude.”

Want to go?

Leftover Salmon. File photo

A beloved Western North Carolina musical tradition, the 37th annual MerleFest gathering will be held April 24-27 on the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro.

Headliners include Bonnie Raitt, The Avett Brothers, Watchhouse, The SteelDrivers, Leftover Salmon, Sam Bush, Asleep At The Wheel, Peter Rowan, The Dead South, Wyatt Flores, Stephen Wilson Jr., I’m With Her, The War & Treaty, The Lil Smokies, Tony Trischka, Brent Cobb, Donna The Buffalo and many more.

For more information, a full schedule of artists and/or to purchase tickets, visit merlefest.org.

This must be the place

‘And that same black line, that was drawn on you, was drawn on me’

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arts & entertainment

time. Walk away with a kick in your step.

Don’t forget those days and nights where you were just by yourself. Solo and left alone with your thoughts, for good or ill (hopefully, mostly good). And even if the thoughts are heavy and sorrowful, to know enough within

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD yourself to not only acknowledge those emotions, but also evaluate, process, and move formy word count requirement in haste in a hotel ward from them with a better sense of who you room, usually hitting submit for the column to are, what you want, and what you have to offer my publisher with only a few minutes to spare another kindred spirit in matters of the heart.

Those days and nights where you were just before I have go downstairs and checkout. by yourself, whether it be typing away wildly Back into the truck. Back on the road. in some café in Waynesville or Whitefish, St. So, today, as I’m going through these columns from the last year (March to March is Augustine or Saranac Lake, Park City or The wildest thing about being a longtime Portland. Those days you were solo and jogthe NCPA entry calendar), a flood of memowriter is that you end up compartmentalizing ging down some dirt trail and happily into the ries and feelings rolled across my field-ofmost of your life through your assignments, woods (my favorite disappearing act). Those vision. Many of which conjured with deep interviews, deadlines, and so forth. nights you were solo and For myself, it’s like this shoebox you fill enjoying a scrumptious up each week with words, emotions and meal, your only company sentiments, only to publish it on the blank being a favorite dog-eared s page and push it out the door and into the paperback from Kerouac world. Onward to the next, empty shoebox or McMurtry, whose own to once again fill up with words, emotions words, sentiments and and sentiments. memories throw a few Truth be told, as a writer/journalist, you’re more logs onto the fire of t running around trying to capture, absorb and your intent. transcribe the world swirling around you in There’s no glorificareal time on a moment-by-moment basis — tion in those moments the people, places and things that catch our previously mentioned. eye, grip our heart, and soothe our soul.

Just genuine appreciaAnd, with that undulating rhythm of the tion. And I think of how written word and of your life, you tend to formuch has changed in the get just how many things you’ve seen, felt, Point Au Roche State Park, New York. Garret K. Woodward photo last year, how much more heard or experienced throughout a period of may change in this comtime, simply due to the organized chaos of gratitude for those moments, others cultivated ing year, and every year thereafter. It’s just the your existence, personally and professionally. way it goes, I suppose, eh? Nothing you can do with just as deep sadness — the gamut of the To note, it’s not lost on me in what I get to about the pace of time, only to remain eternalhuman condition on full display to our readwitness and jot down on the blank page. It’s ly curious, purposely vulnerable to the ers across Southern Appalachia and beyond. just that, when your only anchor point in this unknown, and completely open to all of the All of those endless miles on the interuniverse are deadlines, everything tends to feel beauty that you come across each day you states, highways and backcountry roads of like (and, ultimately, is) a blur. This constant America. All of those sunrises and sunsets. All awaken into endless possibility. motion of self and of a modern society in flux.

Life is beautiful, grasp for it, y’all. of those good times that eventually morph Case-in-point, I’ve been going through my into hard times and back again, just like the newspaper files today in preparation for some universe intends for humanity. All of those d possible article entries in this year’s North delicious, unexpected meals at roadside estabCarolina Press Association awards. lishments and new friends made by happenRecognition? It is what it is. Honestly, it stance along the way, more so serendipitously. doesn’t matter to me. I’m more concerned The 27th annual Greening Up And those familiar, beloved faces you had with the work I put so much time into, to keep the Mountains festival will be alongside. This go-round for March 2024improving my craft and my range. held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

March 2025, a slight grin emerged on my face But, it does help out our publication, The Saturday, April 26, along Main Street Smoky Mountain News, when we (as an edito- peeling back the columns of adventures I once and Bridge Park in Sylva. had with my former partner. She’s an incredirial group) take home a bunch of honors over A community jam will be held ble soul, and I count myself truly lucky to have in Raleigh to further emphasize our value to from 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday, May had those moments together, images only she the community at-large here in the mountains 1, on the front patio of the and I could recreate in memory. No ill will, of Western North Carolina. Some 13 years at Marianna Black Library in Bryson City. only peace found within. this newspaper and I still love the work now Jumping into that freezing cold river in more than ever. That, and it’s always nice to Amy LeAnn Richardson, Melissa Montana on a hot, dry afternoon last July. Toes see your publisher smile proudly when we Helton and Doug Van Gundy in the sand on the Carolina coast in take home the gold. will host a reading as part of September. Or that unforgettable dinner in Anyhow, I only really enter my weekly col“Independent Bookstore Day” at 3 Maine with a slew of new faces met just the umn, “This Must Be The Place,” in the annual p.m. Saturday, April 26, at City night before. Attending that film festival in NCPAs. I’ve been writing this column every Lights Bookstore in Sylva.

Toronto, only to find that incredible Thai single week since June 2013 (when I was only restaurant. And those hikes in whatever moun28 years old). So, at last count, that’s someRising singer-songwriter and tain range we found ourselves in. Etcetera. where around 615 columns. And, since its multi-instrumentalist Alma Russ Don’t forget those days and night with inception, the column has become this slicewill hit the stage at 6 p.m. your friends and family. Laugh until it hurts. of-life, journal entry of sorts, usually hovering Friday, April 25, at Mountain Layers Eat with gusto. Share hard truths and embrace around whatever it is I’m going through or Brewing Company in Bryson City. your true value as a human being. Ears ringing doing on a given week.

Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) from once-in-a-lifetime concerts. Late night Normally, when I’m sitting down and conwill host Lori & The Freightshakers heart-to-hearts, singular spaces where you say structing the column, I’ll either be holed up in (classic rock/country gold) at 6 out loud, “You know, I’m supposed to know some coffee shop somewhere from coast-top.m. Saturday, April 26. you in this life.” Bear hugs goodbye until next coast come Sunday morning or trying to meet

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Smoky Mountain News April 23-29, 2025

arts & entertainment

On the street

‘Airing of the Quilts’ will be May 4 in Dillsboro. File photo

The Pigeon Community Multicultural Development Center in Waynesville has recently announced its 2025 “Pigeon Community Conversations with Storytellers Series.”

This curated series will showcase award-winning storytellers from Western North Carolina’s African American, LaKisha Blount will be in Latino and Waynesville May 8. File photo Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian communities.

Through live storytelling, readings, music and focused questions, the “Pigeon Community Conversations with Storytellers Series” examines the purpose and power of storytelling in underrepresented communities.

Types of storytelling to be explored are written, traditional, musical and spoken word poetry, which will reflect Western North Carolina’s diversity of talent. The series is appropriate for all community members. Everyone is welcome to attend.

PCMDC Program Director Tausha Forney will lead this series. The conversations are casual and will allow for audience participation. The events will be held at 6 p.m. at the PCMDC. • May 8: LaKisha Blount explores the essence of her experiences and generational stories of Black mountain life in Appalachia

through her figurative oil paintings. Using bold colors, gritty textures of layered paint and intricate markings, Blount aims to capture the raw emotion and beauty of everyday life.

• June 12: Joseph Drew Lanham is an American author, poet, wildlife biologist and 2022 MacArthur Fellowship-winner for his work “combining conservation science with personal, historical and cultural narratives of nature.”

• July 10: Kelle Jolly is an “AffrilachianGeorgia-lina-Peach,” embracing a rich blend of cultural influences. Through the art of storytelling and her mastery of the ukulele, she joyfully expresses her folk traditions.

• Aug. 14: Roy Harris belongs to three storytelling organizations: the Asheville Storytelling Circle (of which he is a former president), the North Carolina Association of Black Storytellers and, more recently, the National Association of Black Storytellers.

• Sept. 11: Glenis Redmond is the First Poet Laureate of Greenville, South Carolina, and is a Kennedy Center Teaching Artist.

Tickets are $10 for community members, $7 for seniors (ages 65 and over) and $5 for students. Children 12 and under may attend free of charge.

Tickets may be purchased in advance and can be purchased at the door of each performance. Reduced price $50/$40/$30 series passes are also available. Refreshments are available for purchase. Please contact Tausha Forney for information about individual event sponsorships.

For more information and/or to purchase tickets, visit pcmdc.org.

Franklin arts and crafts fair • Appalachian True Heritage Festival will be held May 2-3 on Main Street in Waynesville.

Live music, live artisan demonstrations, vendors, “True Crime Trail,” “Quilt Trail Bus Tour” and more. Presented by the Downtown Waynesville Commission, Shelton House and Haywood County Arts Council, this celebration is made possible by the Haywood County TDA and Visit Haywood. haywoodarts.org/ath-festival.

ALSO:

The 22nd annual “Thunder in the Smokies” spring rally will be held May 2-4 at the Maggie Valley Fairgrounds.

The oldest and largest motorcycle rally in the Great Smoky Mountains, the weekend celebration will feature live music, dozens of vendors, motorcycle shows/games, prizes and much more.

For more information, a full schedule of events and/or to purchase tickets, visit thunderinthesmokies.com.

The Friends of the Greenway (FROG) will host an arts and crafts fair from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 3, at the FROG Quarters, located at 573 East Main St. in Franklin.

A wide array of artisan booths will be onsite. Vendor fees, food purchases and purchased raffle tickets will benefit FROG. Live music will also be ongoing during the event.

For more information, call 828.369.8488 or visit littletennessee.org.

On the stage • Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort (Cherokee) will host semi-regular comedians on the weekends. For tickets, visit caesars.com/harrahs-cherokee.

• Haywood Arts Regional Theatre (Waynesville) will host a stage production of "Love & Other Calamities: A Night of Comedic Shorts" 7:30 p.m. April 25-26, May 2-3 and 2 p.m. April 27 and May 4. harttheatre.org / 828.456.6322.

ALSO:

‘Thunder in the Smokies’ returns to Maggie Valley May 2-4. File photo

• Highlands Performing Arts Center

(Highlands) will host semi-regular stage productions on the weekends. mountaintheatre.com / 828.526.9047.

• Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will host a stage production of “The Civil War: The Musical Story of Us” at 7 p.m. April 24-26. Presented by the Overlook Theatre Company. Tickets are $18 for adults. smokymountainarts.com / 866.273.4615.

Smoky Mountain News

‘Thunder in the Smokies’

April 23-29, 2025

The Appalachian Women’s Museum “Airing of the Quilts” will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 3, at the museum in Dillsboro.

If quilts could talk, they would tell of decades of cold nights and warm bodies, of wrapping up babies and comforting the elderly. A quilt might tell of the loving hands that created it and even the individual pieces — the tan from a loved one’s shirt or stripes from an old tie — can tell stories of years past.

The airing of the quilts is a traditional rite of spring in the mountains. After a long winter with families snuggled under layers of warm handmade quilts, the warmer weather of springtime gave women a chance to freshen up and air-out these essential covers.

To honor this tradition, the AWM held its first event in 2018 with more than 65 quilts hanging on the wraparound porch, from clotheslines in the yard and on quilt racks and other surfaces throughout the first floor of the museum.

There will also be a fabric scrap exchange, a quilt pattern and book exchange, raffle and music. Unlike previous events, organizers are allowing repeats for those who have something so special they want to air it again.

For more information, visit appwomen.org.

Pigeon Community ‘Storytellers Series’

arts & entertainment

‘Airing of the Quilts’

• Peacock Performing Arts Center (Hayesville) will host semi-regular stage productions on the weekends. thepeacocknc.org / 828.389.ARTS. 19

On the beat

Greening Up the Mountains

Smoky Mountain News

April 23-29, 2025

Bird In Hand will play Sylva April 26. File photo

Presented by the Town of Sylva, the 27th annual Greening Up the Mountains festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 26, along Main Street and Bridge Park in Sylva.

The festival is a heritage arts gathering that celebrates the arrival of spring through both traditional and contemporary forms of Appalachian art, music, food and beverage which honor our community and local artisans. First created in conjunction with Earth Day celebrations, the festival still thrives to be good stewards of the beautiful mountain town and surrounding area.

In addition to over 150 arts, crafts and food vendors, attendees can enjoy a 5k run, demonstrations of blacksmithing and glass blowing, beverage arts featuring local craft breweries, children’s activities and live music throughout the day.

The live music schedule for the Bridge Park Music stage is as follows: TLQ+2 (10-11 a.m.), Maggie Valley Band (11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.), Bird In Hand (1-2 p.m.) and Robertson Boys (2:30-4 p.m.)

For more information and a full schedule of events and activities, visit greeningupthemountains.com.

Americana, folk at Mountain Layers

Rising singer-songwriter and multiinstrumentalist Alma Russ will hit the stage at 6 p.m. Friday, April 25, at Mountain Layers Brewing Company in Bryson City.

Based out of Western North Carolina and with her unique brand of “patchwork music” (country, folk and Appalachian styles pieced together), Russ enjoys playing guitar, banjo and fiddle.

Russ was also a contestant on “American Idol” Season 16. Her most recent album, “Fool’s Gold,” was recorded in an abandoned church in the West Texas desert while Russ was on a national tour.

Free and open to the public. To learn more, call 828.538.0115 or visit mountainlayersbrewingcompany.com.

For more information on Russ, visit almarussofficial.com.

Alma Russ will play Bryson City April 25. File photo

• Blue Ridge Beer Hub (Waynesville) will host Doug & Lisa May 24. All shows begin at 5 p.m. Free and open to the public.

828.246.9320 / blueridgebeerhub.com.

• Cataloochee Ranch (Maggie Valley) will host Marc & Anita Pruett (Americana/bluegrass) April 23 and Brian Ashley Jones & Melanie Jean (Americana/country) May 2. All shows begin at 5 p.m. For tickets and reservations, visit cataloocheeranch.com/ranchevents/live-music.

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• Classic Wineseller (Waynesville) will host Jacob Johnson (singersongwriter) 7:15 p.m.

May 2-3 for a special two-night dinner performance ($50 per person per night, includes tax and gratuity).

Beverages are separate. Limited seating.

Reservations required. 828.452.6000 or classicwineseller.com.

ALSO:

• Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center (Franklin) will host “Open Mic” May 9 (free)

and Aubrey Eisenman & The Clydes (Americana/bluegrass) May 10 ($15 adults, $7.50 kids). All shows begin at 6 p.m. 828.369.4080 / coweeschool.org/music.

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host Tim Akins (piano/R&B) April 26. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

Free and open to the public.

828.349.2337 / lazyhikerbrewing.com.

• Currahee Brewing (Franklin) will host “Team Trivia” Mondays and Nathan Nelson (singer-songwriter) April 26. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

Free and open to the public. 828.634.0078 / curraheebrew.com.

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Sylva) will host “Music Bingo” 6:30 p.m. Mondays and Tim Akins (piano/R&B) April 25. All shows begin at 8 p.m. Free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.

828.349.2337 / lazyhikerbrewing.com.

• Farm At Old Edwards (Highlands) will host the “Orchard Sessions” with Mike Kinnebrew (singer-songwriter) April 23. All shows begin at 6 p.m. Admission is $40 per person. 866.526.8008 / oldedwardshospitality.com/orchardsessions.

• Listening Room (Franklin) will host Michael Reno Harrell (singer-songwriter) 2:30 p.m. May 3. Suggested donation $20. Located at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.

• Folkmoot Friendship Center (Waynesville) will host Las Montanitas (Latin/world) May 22. Tickets are “pay what you can” ($25, $15, $5). 828.452.2997 / folkmoot.org.

• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host “Jazz On The Level” 5:30 p.m. every Tuesday, Laura Thurston (singer-songwriter) April 24, Different Light April 25 and Lori & The Freightshakers (classic rock/country gold) April 26. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

Free and open to the public. 828.454.5664 / froglevelbrewing.com.

• Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort (Cherokee) will host Tom Jones (pop/soul) 9 p.m. April 25. For tickets, visit caesars.com/harrahs-cherokee.

• Highlander Mountain House (Highlands) will host “Blues & Brews” 6-9 p.m.

Thursdays ($5 cover), Zorki (singer-songwriter) 1-3 p.m. Saturdays, “Bluegrass Brunch” 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sundays (free) and the “Salon Series” with Ben Nichols (Americana/indie-folk) 8:30 p.m.

April 24 (admission is $55.20 per person, tax included). 828.526.2590 / highlandermountainhouse.com.

• Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will host “Monday Night Trivia” every week, “Open Mic with Phil” on Wednesdays and Mike Hollon (singer-songwriter) May 3. All shows and events begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.586.9678/ innovation-brewing.com.

• Junction Pub (Sylva) will host “Open Jam” 7 p.m. Sundays, “Open Mic” 6 p.m.

Thursdays, Blended Hemp April 25 and Acoustic Reign April 26. All events begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.370.2090 / facebook.com/jctpub.

• Lands Creek Log Cabins (Bryson City) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.488.9793 / landscreeklodge.com.

• Macon County Public Library (Franklin) will host The Vagabonds (Americana) at 2 p.m. the first and third Monday and a “Song Circle” open jam from 3-6 p.m. the first Tuesday each month. Free and open to the public. 828.524.3600 or fontanalib.org.

• Macon County Veterans Memorial Park (Franklin) will host the “Sweet Carolina Music Festival” 2-9 p.m. May 3. Acts include John Morgan, Joe Lasher, Jason Passmore, Chip Perry Band, Alton Lane Band and R.A. Nightingale. Tickets are $30 general admission, $50 VIP. Kids ages 3 and under are free. franklinchamber.com.

• Old Edwards Inn (Highlands) will host live music in the Hummingbird Lounge at 5:30 p.m. every Friday and Saturday. Free and open to the public. 866.526.8008 / oldedwardshospitality.com.

• Otto Community Center (Otto) will host James Thompson (Americana) 4 p.m. May 2. Bring a beverage and snack of your choice. Free and open to the public.

770.335.0967 / go2ottonc.com.

• Peacock Performing Arts Center (Hayesville) will host “Songwriters Showcase 52” April 26. All shows begin at 7:30 p.m. For tickets, 828.389.ARTS / thepeacocknc.org.

• Rathskeller Coffee Haus & Pub (Franklin) will host “Karaoke By Spoon” 6:30 p.m.

April 23, Paul Bowman (singer-songwriter) April 24, “Open Mic with Dirty Dave” 6:30 p.m. April 25 and Joe Munoz (singer-songwriter) April 26. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.369.6796 / facebook.com/rathskellercoffeebarandpub.

• Scotsman (Waynesville) will host Rich Manz Trio (oldies/acoustic) April 24, J.R. Williams (Americana/country) May 1 and Daniel Ullom Trio (bluegrass) May 2. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public.

828.246.6292 / scotsmanpublic.com.

On the wall

A work from Christine Schlageter. Donated photo

The Haywood County Arts Council (HCAC) will present “Quilted Expressions: A Celebration of Block-Based Art,” an innovative exhibit that reimagines the traditional quilt, throughout June 2 at HCAC’s Haywood Handmade Gallery in downtown Waynesville.

This unique showcase challenges conventional ideas of quilting and expands the definition of what a quilt can be.

Artists working in all mediums have been invited to create pieces inspired by the structure and tradition of quilts, with each artwork limited to a maximum size of 12-by-12 inches.

From textiles and mixed media to painting and sculpture, the exhibit highlights the beauty

of block-based design across various artistic disciplines.

“This show is an exploration of pattern, form, and storytelling,” says HCAC Executive Director Tonya Harwood “Quilting has long been a symbol of community, craftsmanship, and creativity. This exhibit honors that tradition while pushing boundaries in exciting new ways.”

“Quilted Expressions” is part of HCAC’s ongoing mission to celebrate artistic innovation and support both emerging and established artists. The Haywood Handmade Gallery, run entirely by dedicated volunteers, is a cornerstone of Waynesville’s growing arts scene.

The exhibit is free and open to the public. For more information, visit haywoodarts.org or email director@haywoodarts.org.

• “An Evening of Poetry and Pottery” will be held from 6-7:30 p.m. Friday, April 25, at the Friends of Marianna Black Library Bookstore in Bryson City. Local author and artist Ben Cutler will be the host. Free and open to the public. greatsmokies.com.

ALSO:

Laura Talbert is a featured artisan at ‘Art After Dark.’ File photo

WCU faculty art showcase Featuring works from faculty artisans at Western Carolina University, the 2025 School of Art & Design Faculty Biennial Exhibition will be displayed through May 2 in the Bardo Arts Center in Cullowhee.

Outside of the classroom, faculty members in the School of Art & Design are active artists and scholars that make significant contributions to the arts. The exhibition provides students and the community with an opportunity to view recent works created by distinguished faculty members whose primary research output is studio-based.

For more information, visit wcu.edu/bardo-arts-center.

• Marianna Black Library (Bryson City) will host an adult arts and crafts program at 1 p.m. every second Thursday of the month. Ages 16 and up. Space is limited to 10 participants.

Free and open to the public. 828.488.3030 / fontanalib.org/brysoncity.

• CRE828 (Waynesville) will offer a selection of art classes and workshops at its studio located at 1283 Asheville Road. Workshops will include art journaling, watercoloring, mixed media, acrylic painting and more.

828.283.0523 / cre828.com.

• Haywood County Arts Council (Waynesville) will offer a wide range of classes, events and activities for artisans, locals and visitors. The HCAC gallery is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Sundays. 828.452.0593 / haywoodarts.org.

• WNC Paint Events will host painting sessions throughout the region on select dates. For more information and/or to sign up, visit wncpaint.events.

• Jackson County Green Energy Park (Dillsboro) will be offering a slew of classes, events and activities for artisans, locals and visitors.

828.631.0271 / jcgep.org.

• Marianna Black Library (Bryson City) will host

• Find more at smokymountainnews.com/arts

Smoky Mountain News

• “American Coup: Wilmington 1898” will be screened at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 24, in the Community Room of the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva. The film shares the little-known story of a deadly race massacre and carefully orchestrated insurrection in North Carolina’s then-largest city, Wilmington, in 1898. The screening is part of a state-wide effort to show the story of the massacre, its place in U.S. history and its lasting impact. The film will last about an hour. There will be a discussion afterwards.

828.586.2016.

“ArtWorks” at 1 p.m. every second Thursday of the month. Come create your own masterpiece. The materials for art works are supplied and participants are welcome to bring ideas and supplies to share with each other.

Free and open to the public. 828.488.3030 / vroberson@fontanalib.org.

A cherished gathering of locals and visitors alike, “Art After Dark” will launch its 2025 season from 6-9 p.m. Friday, May 2, in downtown Waynesville.

Each first Friday of the month (May-December), Main Street transforms into an evening of art, live music, finger foods, beverages and shopping as artisan studios and galleries keep their doors open later for local residents and visitors alike.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, visit downtownwaynesville.com.

April 23-29, 2025

• Smoky Mountain SpringFest will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 3, at the Stecoah Valley Center in Robbinsville. Children’s activities, arts/crafts, food vendors and much more. This event is free and open to the public.

828.479.3364 / stecoahvalleycenter.com.

Waynesville art walk, live music

arts & entertainment

Haywood Arts presents ‘Quilted Expressions’

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arts & entertainment

On the table

On the beat

• Classic Wineseller (Waynesville) will have its wine bar open 4-8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. 828.452.6000 / classicwineseller.com.

• Slanted Window Tasting Station (Franklin) will host Adam & Joe 6 p.m. April 25.

828.276.9463 / slantedwindow.com.

• Blue Ridge Beer Hub (Waynesville) will host semi-regular tap-takeovers from local and regional breweries on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.246.9320 / blueridgebeerhub.com.

ALSO:

• “Flights & Bites” will be held starting at 4 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays at Bosu’s Wine Shop in downtown Waynesville.

828.452.0120 / waynesvillewine.com.

• “Take A Flight” with four new wines every Friday and Saturdays at the Bryson City Wine Market. Select from a gourmet selection of charcuterie to enjoy with your wines. Educational classes and other events are also available. 828.538.0420.

Smoky Mountain News

April 23-29, 2025

• “Uncorked: Wine & Rail Pairing Experience” will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on select dates at the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad in Bryson City.

Full service all-adult first class car. Wine pairings with a meal, and more. There will also be a special “Beer Train” on select dates. 800.872.4681 / gsmr.com.

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• Stecoah Valley Center (Robbinsville) will host a Community Jam 5:30-7:30 p.m. every third Thursday of the month and semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.479.3364 / stecoahvalleycenter.com.

• Trailborn (Highlands) will host its “Carolina Concert Series” with Remedy 58 (blues/soul) April 24 and David Cheatham (Americana/folk) May 1. All shows begin at 6 p.m. Free and open to the public.

828.482.1581 or trailborn.com/highlands.

• Unplugged Pub (Bryson City) will host “Line Dancing” 7 p.m. April 23 (free), “Karaoke Night With Lori” April 24 (free), Rock Holler April 25 and Second Chance April 26. All shows are $5 at the door unless otherwise noted and begin at 8 p.m. 828.538.2488 / unpluggedpub.com.

• Valley Cigar & Wine Co. (Waynesville) will host Rene Russell (Americana/roots) 2 p.m.

April 27. Free and open to the public.

828.944.0686 / valleycigarandwineco.com.

• Valley Tavern (Maggie Valley) will host “Karaoke with Jason” Tuesdays, “Tom’s

Trivia” Wednesdays and Contagious May 2.

All shows and events begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public.

828.926.7440 / valley-tavern.com.

• Vineyard At High Holly (Scaly Mountain) will host Breeze Cable April 27 and Monica Spears noon May 4. All shows begin at 2 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.482.5573 / thevine-

yardathighholly.com.

• Wells Events & Reception Center (Waynesville) will host the “Frank Sinatra Tribute with Brent Thompson” 7 p.m. May 2.

Admission is $40 (per person). Doors at 6 p.m. 828.476.5070 / wellseventcenter.com.

• Find more at smokymountainnews.com/arts

Bryson City community jam A community jam will be held from 6-7:30 p.m.

Thursday, May 1, on the front patio of the Marianna Black Library in Bryson City.

Anyone with a guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, dulcimer or anything unplugged is invited to join. Singers are also welcomed to join in or you can just stop by and listen. The jam is facilitated by Larry Barnett of the Sawmill Creek Porch Band.

The community jams offer a chance for musicians of all ages and levels of ability to share music they have learned over the years or learn old-time mountain songs. The music jams are offered to the public each first and third Thursday of the month — spring, summer, fall.

This program received support from the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of North Carolina and the National Endowment of the Arts.

For more information, call 828.488.3030.

On the shelf

IN NEED OF LOVING HOME

Jeff Minick

I

intrigue come thick and fast in this latest Western by the Johnstones. Colter narrowly escapes death in several gunfights while Patsy Palmer begrudgingly helps him survive. When they discover the now-delirious Kip, Patsy takes an immediate shine to the boy, as he reminds her of her young son who died fighting for the South. In Cheyenne, Reno and Burricchia slowly realize that the dying Secret Service last words “Trust nobody” was solid advice, as the plot to murder Grant extends well beyond the Dugan gang.

Several things about “While the Town Slept” recommend this book to the reader.

The Johnstones know how to set a scene, whether it’s in Wyoming’s rocky hills or a Cheyenne bar room. Moreover, they are adept at mixing fact and fiction. As president, Ulysses Grant did visit Wyoming,

• Amy LeAnn Richardson, Melissa Helton and Doug Van Gundy will host a reading as part of “Independent Bookstore Day” at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 26, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. Free and open to the public. 828.586.9499 / citylightsnc.com.

ALSO:

• Allen Murdoch Moore will host a reading for his latest science fiction work, “The Voyage of the Arc Sec,” at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 29, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. Free and open to the public. 828.586.9499 / citylightsnc.com.

(Not the dog, the book…)

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Smoky Mountain News

though not in 1873. Allen Pinkerton did indeed employ female detectives, beginning in 1855 with Kate Warne, a widow who helped foil an assassination attempt against Abraham Lincoln when he was on his way to Washington to assume the role of president.

Here, too, are mention of God and prayer,

topics which oddly don’t always appear in such period books. Kip several times invokes God in asking for help, as does Colter. These brief scenes are reminders that in the “Wild West” religious faith was common among the settlers and cowboys.

I read very few Westerns, not from any dislike of the genre but simply from forgetfulness and from too many other books tugging at my attention. Yet one thought that recurred as I read “While the Town Slept,” that haunted me really, was of time. In these pages, for instance, is Jed Reno, a fictional character, yes, but representative of those mountain men who would have remained alive in 1873. Here as well are Cheyenne on the warpath, a land where lawless men still act with impunity, and an America where everyone travels by horseback, buggy, or train.

This was daily life in the West only 150 years ago. The technological canyon alone between those recent ancestors and our own age — the telegraph was their Internet; a wagon was their SUV — is immense. This sensation of change always just floors me.

Here’s a living example of what I mean. While operating the Palmer House Bed and Breakfast in Waynesville from 1984 to 2004, my wife and I three times lodged Mrs. Irene Harrison (1890-1999), daughter of the co-founder of the Goodyear Tire Company, Charles Seiberling. At 103 years old when she last stayed with us, Mrs. Harrison was 13 when the Wright Brothers flew their airplane at Kitty Hawk, 22 when she booked passage on the Titanic for her parents — they canceled the reservation at the last moment — and 28 when World War I ended.

Like Irene Harrison, the elderly are time machines made of flesh, bone, and blood. And like “While the Town Slept,” books about the past, built from the imagination, paper, and ink, also possess this power to whisk us back into the past.

If you’re looking for an excursion into the Old West, “While the Town Slept” will take you there.

(Jeff Minick reviews books and has written four of his own: two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust On Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning As I Go” and “Movies Make the Man.” minick0301@gmail.com.)

April 23-29, 2025

t’s the spring of 1873 in the Wyoming Territory, and U.S. Marshal Tim Colter and his grizzled mentor and best friend, mountain man Jed Reno, are hunting down some train robbers when they come across a man dying of gunshot wounds.

The victim turns out to be a Secret Service agent who as he breathes his last says, “President Grant … assassinaWriter tion … Dugan … trust nobody.”

Those words bring any thought of pursuing the train robbers to a screeching halt.

Dugan is an ex-Confederate who fought with Quantrill’s Raiders during the Civil War and who has refused to give up the fight, though eight years have passed. Instead, he and his band of marauders murder and steal to support their cause. Now, with President Grant due to visit the Territory, it’s possible they intend to do to Grant what John Wilkes Booth did to Lincoln.

For the rest of “While the Town Slept” writers William Johnstone his nephew, J.A. Johnstone, bring us along for the ride as Colter and Reno try to track down the Dugan gang before they can intercept and kill the president. Along the way, they encounter the brawling, foulmouthed Patsy Palmer, a Southern sympathizer; the 14-year-old orphan, Kip Jansen; and a female Pinkerton detective, Ginger Burricchia, who, having got wind of the plot of to kill the president, is attempting to discover the assassins’ plans and whereabouts.

Colter and Reno are forced to separate. The marshal takes off in search of Dugan, reluctantly bringing along Patsy Palmer while sending his friend back to Cheyenne to snoop around for news of the conspiracy. There Reno becomes involved with the attractive and skilled Agent Burricchia. Meanwhile, after his mother dies on the trail, Kip Jansen escapes his wicked stepfather, breaks his ankle traveling by night, and must survive crippled and alone in a harsh land totally foreign to him.

Like our modern-day thrillers, action and

arts & entertainment

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828.246.9155 977 N Main St Waynesville NC 28786

23

24

Outdoors

Smoky Mountain News

‘Life on Our Planet’ is an acclaimed American television nature documentary series. Steven Spielberg was the executive producer, with Dan Tapster also a producer. Donated photo

incredibly visual (“VFW-heavy series and presenter-led documentaries”) and profound stories about our planet and everything that has happened since the dawn of time — whether millions of years ago or right now.

“My passion lies in crafting string narrative arcs that engage audiences,” Tapster said. “Ensuring that every project I undertake tells a story that’s both informative and emotionally resonant.”

One of Tapster’s prized projects is the recent “Life on Our Planet” documentary series, where he served as a producer alongside executive producer Steven Spielberg. Released in 2023 on Netflix, the highly-acclaimed series — which focuses on the evolutionary arc of life on Earth — has become a popular feature on the streaming service.

“The idea was to create a landmark series that would bring the story of life on Earth to a mainstream audience with cinematic ambition and scientific vigor,” Tapster said. “But, doing that — especially across billions of years — required a huge amount of planning, coordination and innovation.”

Dan Tapster. Donated photo

Emmy-nominated producer to speak at WCU

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD A&E EDITOR s a young child, growing up right outside of London, Dan Tapster fondly remembers watching David Attenborough’s nature documentaries with his mother, these family moments that were “a cherished ritual.”

“She proudly claims to be his number one fan,” Tapster said. “And those early experiences ignited my fascination with storytelling and the natural world.”

A

From there, Tapster pursued and earned a degree in biology, only to parlay that deeply held love of nature and storytelling into eventually working on some of Attenborough’s films, including “The Life of Mammals” and “Planet Earth.”

Those experiences are where Tapster “learned the art of blending scientific insight with compelling narratives.”

And over the last 20 years, Tapster, who has eight Emmy nominations to his credit, has continued his cinematic journey of creating, cultivating and connecting audiences with these

To note, Tapster will host a special immersive presentation, “Our Planet Live,” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 24, in the Bardo Arts Center Performance Hall at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee.

“Culturally, I hope the series sparks conversation — about our place in the natural world, our impact on it and our responsibility to it,” Tapster said of “Life on Our Planet.”

“And, on a more personal level, I hope it inspires a sense of wonder, that people come away not just informed, but moved — maybe even changed.”

According to Tapster, “Life on Our Planet” took about five years to complete “from initial concept to final release.” This included in-depth conversations with paleontologists and evolutionary biologists, all amid endless research covering a multitude of subjects, species and pivotal eras on our planet.

Next, came the visual development stage. This encompasses storyboarding and beginning to put together the chronological puzzle of our planet. After that, it’s the endless depths of using VFX (visual effects) to produce “photorealistic extinct creatures and ecosystems on an unprece-

F

The North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council has classified most of the state as at least abnormally dry with only a few counties entirely normal. Over half of the state’s counties are abnormally while 42 coun-

ties — all east of The Smoky Mountain News coverage area — are in a moderate drought.

Onslow County is in a severe drought.

Following a rash of 1,000-plus-acre fires earlier in the month, there is now a fire burning in Swain County that has threatened homes in the southern part of the county.

Although there was some precipitation earlier this week, the dry conditions are persisting, meaning most outdoor burning is considered risky.

outdoors

Much of Western North Carolina still abnormally dry

Most of the state is at least abnormally dry with some areas in a drought. ncdrought.org photo dented scale.”

“Every creature had to be designed from fossil evidence, with scientific advisors involved at every stage — from anatomy to behavior,” Tapster said.

When it came to the visuals, “Life on Our Planet” was a mix of live-action shots from locations around the globe mixed with VFX. Not to mention the editorial side of things, where endless pages of script had to be accurate and entertaining, this effort to find the ideal rhythm between images and words.

“We were essentially building a planet from scratch — time period by time period,” Tapster said. “And populating it with creatures that hadn’t walked the Earth for hundreds of millions of years.”

So, what was the biggest takeaway for Tapster from “Life on Our Planet”?

“Both personally and professionally, is just how fragile, yet resilient life on Earth truly is,” Tapster said. “Telling the story of five mass extinctions — and all of the life that came back in their wake — really

reframes your sense of time and place. It’s humbling. You realize that we, as a species, are just a blink in Earth’s history, but we’re having an outsized impact.”

tion — “this time, one of our own making.”

“If the series can help people feel both the awe of life’s story and the urgency of protecting its future?” Tapster pondered. “Then

“Culturally, I hope the series sparks conversation — about our place in the natural world, our impact on it and our responsibility to it. And, on a more personal level, I hope it inspires a sense of wonder, that people come away not just informed, but moved — maybe even changed.”

— Dan Tapster

At the core of “Life on Our Planet” is the underlying emphasis on the five mass extinctions that have occurred over the period of four-billion years that are showcased in the series. Tapster noted that, according to many leading scientists, modern-day humanity is currently living through what could be considered the sixth mass extinc-

we’ve done something worthwhile.”

With “Life on Our Planet” now in the rearview mirror for Tapster, he’s off to his next project — somewhere, anywhere on our planet. Telling intricate, immersive stories and using the stunning artistic medium

of film to do so.

“I feel like we’ve only scratched the surface of what nature has to teach us — about resilience, about beauty and about ourselves,” Tapster said. “Filmmaking [has] allowed me to take it a step further — to not just understand nature, but to share it, dramatize it and bring others into that sense of awe.”

For Tapster, he’s never lost that childlike wonder of discovery, going all the way back to simply being a kid running around the forests near his home.

“That fascination goes all the way back to my childhood — walking through the woods, flipping over stones to see what was hiding underneath,” Tapster said. “And maybe because nature makes you feel small, in the best possible way. It reminds you that the world is bigger, older and more intricate than any one of us. There’s humility in that — and also responsibility.”

April 23-29, 2025

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Emmy-nominated producer Dan Tapster will host a special presentation, “Our Planet Live,” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 24, in the Bardo Arts Center Performance Hall at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee.

“Our Planet Live” is a new and immersive live show featuring behind-the-scenes stories from the explorers, filmmakers, scientists and adventurers that created some of the most eye-catching footage of our planet.

With a focus on climate fragility and climate migration, “Our Planet Live” tells an unprecedented story about overcoming obstacles on a global scale and explores the messages at the heart of these action-packed, emotional and unforgettable sequences.

Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 seniors and WCU faculty/staff, $15 child/non-WCU student and $5 for WCU students.

For more information and/or to purchase tickets, visit wcuarts.universitytickets.com.

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Smoky Mountain News

A computer-generated recreation of the extinct cameroceras. Donated photo

25

outdoors

Lake Junaluska plant sale offers new varieties

Bring Some Happy To Your

Outdoor Space!

April 23-29, 2025

We Have Stepping Stones & Birdhouses!

’t n o d get for M!

MO

Lake Junaluska’s Spring Plant Sale will be 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, May 3, at the Nanci Weldon Memorial Gym. For sale will be a few thousand plants, including an assortment of annuals, perennials, herbs and vegetables, hanging baskets and several varieties of native plants from the Corneille Bryan Native Garden, said Melissa Marshall, Lake Junaluska director of grounds.

“This year we have added many fun new varieties of plants. We will have a variety of new colors in the way of annual bedding plants, eye-catching perennials, a nice selection of herbs and vegetables plus many native plants,” Marshall said.

This year’s sale will also have plant themed T-shirts, garden hats, gloves and other garden items available from Junaluska Gifts & Grounds.

Plants will range in price from $3 to $45 and can be purchased by cash, check or charge. Proceeds from the plant sale directly support landscaping at Lake Junaluska, where the grounds and gardens are open for all to enjoy and are made possible through charitable giving. Proceeds from the sale of the native plants will specifically benefit the Corneille Bryan Native Garden.

For more information about Lake Junaluska, visit lakejunaluska.com.

Join Franklin Bird club for Macon County walks

29

affairsoftheheartwaynesville.com Smoky Mountain News

About 3,000 plants will be available for sale during the annual Lake Junaluska Spring Plant Sale. Donated photo

Puzzles can be found on page 30 These are only the answers.

The Franklin Bird Club leads walks along the Greenway on Wednesday mornings at 8 a.m. through September. Walks start at alternating locations: Macon County Public Library, Big Bear Park and Salali Lane.

The public is welcome. All walks are weather dependent. Additional information, including directions to each location and a bird club check list can be found at littletennessee.org/franklin-birdclub.

Schedule and meeting places for upcoming walks: • April 30: Salali Lane parking lot • May 7: Macon County Library parking lot • May 14: Big Bear parking lot • May 21: Salali Lane parking lot

File photo

open. Registration will remain so until April Jackson county opens 28 for the clinic and May 15 for the league. can register online at rec.jackflag football registration Participants sonnc.org. For questions, contact Joe Lyon 26

Registration for youth flag Football clinics and youth flag football league is now

at joelyon@jacksonnc.org or at 828.293.3053, ext. 4-3.

Public input sought on Jackson County conservation plan The Jackson County ‘Headwaters District’ Conservation Plan seeks to apply an objective, fact-based approach to assessing the conservation and development priorities of communities within the southern half of Jackson County.

This effort will generate recommendations for the County Commission based on established best practices together with broad public input and will explore incentives that promote balancing natural resource protection and responsible development.

The “Headwaters District” is named for its unique location within the county encompassing a portion of the Eastern Continental Divide, north from which flow headwaters of the Tuckasegee, and south from which flow the headwaters of the Chattooga, Whitewater, and Horsepasture Rivers. The district contains six Townships spanning the southern half of the county, from Caney Fork in the north down to Cashiers in the south.

Equinox has been contracted to lead the effort, with broad fiscal support coming from Jackson County, The Community Foundation of WNC and the Tourism Development Authority. The public input phase is critical in shaping the plan, as any final recommendations for the county commission will be informed in part by opinions and preferences shared during these live public engagement sessions and via the open public survey.

Equinox is looking for participation from a wide spectrum of interest groups, including but not limited to farmers, shop owners, people who enjoy the outdoors, stuThe ‘Headwaters District’ is named for its unique location within the county dents, educators, developers and tradesmen, folks encompassing a portion of the Eastern Continental Divide, north from involved with tourism, hospitality or food, real estate, which flow headwaters of the Tuckasegee, and south from which flow the foresters, hunters and fishers, multigenerational and headwaters of the Chattooga, Whitewater, and Horsepasture Rivers. Donated graphic. shorter-term county residents, and others.

West Swain Fire Department hosts bass tournament and BBQ dinner The West Swain Fire Department — an all-volunteer department — is hosting its 31st annual bass tournament and BBQ dinner.

The event will be held from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on May 3 at the Almond Boat Park at Fontana Lake.

Prizes will be awarded for first File photo through sixth place, and there will also be a prize given for the person who catches the day’s biggest fish.

The entry fee is $150 per boat with a maximum of two contestants per boat. All proceeds benefit the West Swain Fire Department.

Registration is open up to and including the day of the tournament. Anyone interested in registering ahead of time can do so by contacting any of the following: Almond Boat Park, 828.488.6423; N.C. Clampitt Hardware, 828.488.4499; Great Smoky Mountain Bait and Tackle, 828.488.8920; West Swain Fire Department, 828.788.6810.

A BBQ Dinner will be served from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. and includes meat, slaw, baked beans, roll, dessert and drink for $15.

Boats will be launched in the order they are registered. Parking and check-in assistance is available beginning at 5 a.m.

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Entertainment ALL THERE ACROSS 1 Taunt in fun 5 Pinball fouls 10 Tram loads 14 Raisin, at first 19 $5/hour, e.g.

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