After having zero women sitting on the last tribal council, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians now have four. The Smoky Mountain News spoke with these four new council members to get their perspectives on what it means to them to again feature female leadership and what they hope to accomplish during their time on council. (Page 12) Donated photo
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Getting children in on the fun of decorating for the holiday season makes this time of year that much more special. Children who make their own ornaments and other items can proudly display them all season long.
There are plenty of handmade holiday crafts to keep little fingers occupied. Here are some ideas to spark imagination and hours of creative fun.
EASY SNOW GLOBES
A visit to the craft store will uncover various items that can be turned into snow globes. Look for a plastic cookie jar-like container with a lid that screws on tightly; otherwise, choose glass mason jars. Use a general ratio of one cup of water, three teaspoons of glycerine or an oil like baby oil or mineral oil, and a few teaspoons of glitter. Glue a plastic Christmas tree or snowman figurine to the underside of the lid of the jar with a rubberized adhesive or another glue that will hold up to wet conditions. When dry, replace the lid, invert the jar and watch the snow fall.
SALT DOUGH ORNAMENTS
Salt dough is a modeling dough made from two cups of all-purpose flour, one cup of salt, and about 3⁄4 cup of water. Mix the ingredients together and knead until the dough is smooth and easy to work with. Add more flour if it’s too sticky; more water if it’s
too dry. Kids can use cookie cutters to cut shapes from the rolled-out dough, or sculpt freehand. Remember to poke a hole through the top of the ornament to thread through string or ribbon later on. While the dough can be dried out by air in about a week, a faster method is to bake in an oven at 250 F for 11⁄2 to two hours, or until the dough is dry and hard. Kids can then paint the dried creations.
PAPER GINGERBREAD FIGURES
Children may delight in making life-sized
gingerbread girls and boys they can decorate and then hang up on the wall. A roll of brown postal paper will work, as will other embellishments like markers, paints, crayons, or ribbon. Kids take turns being traced while lying down on a piece of rolledout paper. Then the general shape is cut out and decorated. Children can raise their arms, bend their legs, or vary their positions to give life to the gingerbread figures.
WINTER WONDERLAND
It can be fun to create a diorama or small
winter landscape that can be set out with other decorations. Craft stores will likely sell small, plastic evergreen trees this time of year, or they may be available in the model train aisle of a local hobby shop. The trees can be given snowy boughs with a little acrylic paint. Include figures of bunnies, deer and whatever else kids can dream up. A thin strand of LED, battery-operated lights can add some illumination to the scene. Secure all items to a piece of cardboard or foam board for ease.
Children can make the most of their time crafting items for holiday decorating.
How to create new holiday traditions
Traditions are hallmarks of most holidays, but they’re particularly prominent during celebrations that fall at the end of the year. The customs people hold dear are among the many factors that set the holiday season apart. It’s why we eat turkey when giving thanks or kiss under the mistletoe.
Just because a holiday is associated with various established traditions doesn’t mean individuals and families cannot come up with new customs. Here are some pointers for people seeking to establish new holiday traditions.
IDENTIFY WHAT YOU VALUE
Values establish the foundation for holiday traditions. Maybe you aspire to give back to your community? Perhaps the goal is to spend more quality time with family? Once you’ve identified the values driving your motivation to start a new holiday tradition, you can then establish one that aligns with those values. For example, if you aspire to give back, then a day of service at a nearby soup kitchen can become a holiday tradition.
REFLECT ON CHILDHOOD TRADITIONS
Perhaps there is something adults did during their own childhoods that can be incorporated into modern traditions? An adult who has fond memories of playing a game in between courses of the holiday dinner can engage in that same game to pass it on to another generation.
GET INSPIRED
Although scouring social media can create feelings of inequality or even competition as everyone posts their holiday activities, such searching also can provide inspi-
ration for innovative traditions. If something a friend is doing looks like it can be fun and rewarding, families can borrow the tradition and make it their own.
EXPAND ON AN EXISTING TRADITION
New traditions do not have to be entirely unique; they could expand on things that families already do. If family baking sessions are an existing tradition, perhaps the efforts can be expanded to include more family members? Extra items can be packaged up and shared with elderly neighbors who may no longer have a lot of family visiting or can’t bake on their own.
COMMUNICATE WITH OTHERS
Engage the entire family in discussions about traditions they may want to include in holiday celebrations as well as what ones they may not enjoy. For example, traditions that foster over-consumption or create unnecessary stress can be eliminated and replaced with customs that make everyone feel better.
INVOLVE OTHERS
Part of the magic of the holidays is the chance to connect with others. Expand holiday traditions to include more people. If a home is not large enough to handle a crowd, think about renting a room at a VFW center or firehouse, where a greater number of people can get together to create wreaths or even watch holiday movies. The more, the merrier this time of year. Holiday traditions can make the season enjoyable, but they are not set in stone. Families can modify existing customs and create new traditions to make the season even more meaningful.
KILL ROAD GRILL
Make a home more accommodating for holiday guests
illions of people host family and friends during the holiday season.
According to a recent report from the travel and finance experts at Upgraded Points, 57 percent of adults surveyed planned to host a holiday gathering in 2024, while 70 percent of respondents indicated they planned to attend such celebrations.
Hosting is a significant responsibility, but it’s also a fun way to catch up with loved ones in a laid back environment. Chances to catch up are even stronger when hosting overnight guests, whose comfort should be a priority as hosts ready their homes for holiday celebrations. Hosts preparing to welcome loved ones into their homes this holiday season can take various steps to make their homes as accommodating as possible for overnight guests.
• Offer a secluded spot to sleep. The holiday season can be hectic, and it can be hard to keep things calm and quiet when returning home. That’s especially true in homes with young children. Overnight guests who might be a little weary from traveling will undoubtedly appreciate a place away from the hustle and bustle to rest their heads. Though hosts must make due with the space they have, make a concerted effort to ensure residents remain quiet around guest rooms or other areas where overnight guests will be sleeping. If possible, choose a secluded spot away from areas of the home that tend to be noisy, such as the kitchen and living
room/game room.
• Offer some in-room entertainment. Access to the internet and streaming services is nonstop in the modern world, and it can be a nice gesture to ensure overnight guests can stream their favorite content and stay connected during their stay. Hosts can outfit guest rooms with a smart TV for as little as $100 and load it up with popular streaming apps so guests can watch an episode or two of their favorite show in private before calling it a night.
• Offer kid-friendly creature comforts. Adults may be accustomed to sleeping outside their own homes, but younger guests might not be as familiar or comfortable sleeping somewhere other than their own bedrooms. If young children will be staying overnight, hosts can consider putting them up in the same bedrooms as their own children, which can be especially fun when kids are roughly the same age. Additional kidfriendly creature comforts include a stuffed animal or two, an in-room night light and some storybooks on a bedside nightstand.
• Include guests in fun traditions. Tradition is a big part of the appeal of the holiday season, and hosts can make guests feel more welcome by inviting them to participate in their own family traditions. Expand family baking sessions to include overnight guests, encourage willing loved ones to pitch in when preparing family meals and let guests pick their favorite holi-
various strategies to ensure overnight guests feel welcome and comfortable during their stay.
day film for a family movie night. Millions of people will host overnight guests this holiday season. Hosts can employ
Tradition figures prominently in many households throughout the holiday season. Whether it’s decorations like a Chanukah menorah or a Christmas tree, or a family gathering on Christmas Eve, there’s no shortage of traditions to make this unique time of year even more special.
Young families or first-time hosts may want to incorporate as many popular traditions into their seasonal celebrations as possible. Doing so can lay a foundation for years of celebrations to come. As families prepare to spend this holiday season at home, they can incorporate some of these classic traditions into their celebrations.
FAMILY BAKING SESSIONS
What would the holiday season be without baked goods? While it’s easy to purchase premade goodies at grocery stores and other retailers, homemade concoctions made in the comforts of one’s own kitchen alongside loved ones is a classic and cherished tradition in many households.
LETTERS TO SANTA
Santa Claus makes his presence known one night a year, and writing letters to the jolly old elf is a custom with a lengthier history than some may realize. Though it might not be possible to pinpoint precisely when the first letter to Santa was written, historians believe the tradi-
tion began in the early nineteenth century. Roughly two centuries later, children’s letters to Santa remain a popular tradition in many households and communities, and there’s no stopping adults from writing letters to the man who calls the North Pole home.
ADVENT CALENDARS
Advent calendars are another holiday season tradition with a history that dates back centuries. Historians believe the first Advent calendars were produced in Germany around 1850. Faithful celebrants can now find Advent calendars in many forms, and some retailers even sell craft kits that enable families to create their own calendars at home. Homemade Advent calendars can be a unique way for families to put a relatively new spin on a centuries-old holiday tradition.
CHRISTMAS CARDS
Christmas cards may seem like a relatively recent phenomenon, but that’s not the case at all. Prior to 1843, many Christmas celebrants shared handwritten letters with friends during the holiday season. Come 1843, Sir Henry Cole commissioned designer John Colcott Horsley to design a Christmas card that Cole could then send to various friends. Christmas cards remain a popular means to spreading holiday cheer, and families can design cards together and work as a team to get them ready to send. These are just a handful of the many holiday season traditions families can embrace this December.
Pet-friendly holiday decorating
Decorating is one of the great joys of the holiday season. Stores adorn their front-facing windows with amazing displays and homeowners often deck out residences from top to bottom with all measures of holiday wonderment.
Approximately 94 million households in the United States feature a pet, according to the American Pet Products Association. Many of those households will be decorating for the holidays and must figure out ways to keep homes safe for all residents — including those covered in fur. These tips can ensure a pet-friendly season with lots of holiday decor.
• Choose shatterproof decorations. Select shatterproof ornaments and other decorative items that are durable and nontoxic. Items made from felt, fabric or wood tend to be safer than items that can break.
• Pick pet-friendly plants. Poinsettias and mistletoe may be traditional, but they can be toxic to pets. Additional options like Christmas cactus can be safer. Artificial plants are another alternative to consider.
• Opt out of open flames. It is best to avoid traditional candles when pets are around. Instead, there are plenty of those powered by LED lights that even mimic the flicker of real candles.
• Avoid tinsel and ribbons. Digestive issues or blockages can affect pets who ingest tinsel or ribbons. Select pet-safe ribbons or garlands, and skip the tinsel entirely.
• Avoid edible decor. Candy canes on trees or popcorn garlands are festive, but they may prove too tempting for pets to resist. Animals can get sick and may knock over the Christmas tree or other items to access the food.
• Secure decorative items. Position the Christmas tree in an area that is not easily accessible. Avoid putting it near furniture that can be used as a jumping-off point. Make sure the tree stand is sturdy enough to prevent tipping, and consider using wire or string to tie the tree to a ceiling or wall anchor for further stability.
• Mind the scents. Some fragrances can be overwhelming or irritating for pets, so use scented diffusers or plug-ins sparingly. A simmering pot of cloves, cinnamon sticks and orange rinds can create a welcoming, all-natural aroma.
• Create a sanctuary. Try not to move too many of the pet’s creature comforts, such as favorite toys or bedding. If you must move these items out of the way, gradually introduce the pet to his or her new area, which can be set away from the hustle of the main entertaining area.
A pet-friendly holiday season involves being mindful of pets’ safety while decorating.
Haywood opens new EMS base near Lake Junaluska
B N A year. It is part of efforts by Haywood County leaders to improve emergency services coverage and response times. The base, centrally located near the intersection of Russ Avenue and Mauney Cove Road, should do just that with close proximity to Lake Junaluska, Maggie Valley and Jonathan Creek.
more efficient life-saving service. Along with the new base off Russ Avenue, the county also approved a nearly $2.1 million contract to redevelop the Clyde Armory so that it can serve as an EMS base.
“By doing this, we can cut down on response times,” said Haywood County Commissioner Kevin Ensley. “I think there’s a couple more we’re going to be doing.”
Along with a large, heated bay capable of keeping three ambulances, the new base also has bunk rooms for people on shift work, an office, a day room and a full kitchen. The goal, once the necessary staff adjustments are made, is to man the base and keep a truck running out of it 24 hours a day.
Haywood County EMS Director Travis Donaldson offered a few words ahead of the ribbon-cutting. During that time, he talked about how the base is an investment in the community.
“By placing our crews in a modern, purpose-built facility located closer to where calls occur, we will reduce response times and continue improving patient outcomes across the district.”
Donaldson thanked the commissioners for their “leadership and commitment to public safety,” as well as County Manager Bryant Morehead for funding the project from “concept to completion.”
“Most importantly, I want to recognize the men and women of Haywood County EMS,” Donaldson said. “You are the heart of the agency. You respond at all hours, in all conditions, and provide exceptional care with professionalism and compassion. This new base was built for you; to give you the space, resources and environment you deserve. Supporting you means better service for our community, and this building is a direct investment in your wellbeing and success.”
A group of county employees and elected officials cut the ribbon on the new EMS base. Kyle Perrotti photo
The bay can house three ambulances and should allow for one truck to be operational 24/7. Dillon Huffman photo
Franklin swears in new council
TNovember, the board was officially sworn in during the town’s Dec. 1 meeting. Stacy Guffey, formerly the vice mayor, was sworn in as mayor, newcomers Jeff Berry and Travis Higdon were sworn in as councilmembers and Rita Salain was again sworn in after winning as an incumbent.
In the General Election, held Nov. 4, Guffey, who opted to run for mayor instead of trying to keep his seat on town council, won his race against political newcomer and business owner Matthew Holland, coming away with a total of 333 (59.04%) votes.
The top vote-getter out of a crowded field for town council was Berry with 313 votes. Next was incumbent Salain, who received 297 votes. Also earning a seat on council was Higdon with 283 votes.
There was a packed house for the swearing-in ceremony and Franklin Town Hall’s downstairs meeting room, as seats ran out and dozens were left standing. Many were friends and family of those who won their elections, but there were also plenty of residents on-hand to see their new leadership take the helm.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have this many people here at every meeting,” former Mayor Jack Horton, who didn’t run again this year, said as he opened the meeting.
Prior to the swearing in, Guffey gave Horton and outgoing council member David Culpepper plaques acknowledging their service to the town and its residents. Both men received standing ovations. Each of
Culpepper, who served a pair of terms, reminded the crowd of something he’d said during a previous campaign, sage advice for the new board.
“Don’t worry about old people and tourists; just focus on making Franklin a good place to live, and you won’t be able to keep the old people and tourists away,” he
gaveled the meeting back in. First order of business was to select Council Member Mike Lewis to be the next vice mayor, a motion that carried unanimously.
Guffey opened up the floor for each council member to say a few words, after which he offered a speech for his fellow board members and the many from the
unity, regardless of political party. As the old down partisan shifts on the regional level by looking at local election results, saying that people with different beliefs won’t be pitted against one another.
“We have a Republican on this board because Democrats and independents voted for him. We have Democrats here because Republicans and independents voted for them,” Guffey said. “That tells me something. Franklin’s heart beats stronger than its labels. We look for character, not party for service, not slogans.”
“We can prove that government still works when people put their neighbors before names and service before self,” he added. “Let me make something clear; when I read in a newspaper that our board has shifted in one way or the other in terms of Democrats, Republicans or independents, I want to say this, no party gained seats on this board, because party stops at that door right there. This is a nonpartisan board. What Franklin gained are two new board members, neighbors that are eager to learn, ready to serve from the heart and ready to get to work for you. And let me be very clear — when I hear someone say that their party is going to take control of this board. No. No party controls this board. The people of Franklin control this board.”
The new Franklin town council, from left to right: Joe Collins, Travis Higdon, Rita Salain, Mayor Stacy Guffey, Vice Mayor Mike Lewis, Robbie Tompa and Jeff Berry. Kyle Perrotti photo
New Mayor Stacy Guffey presents a plaque honoring the service of former Mayor Jack Horton. Kyle Perrotti photo
Compassionate visions, courageous leadership
Meet the women of tribal council 2025
BY LILY LEVIN STAFF W RITER
Lavita Hill has dreamed of joining tribal council since high school.
Painttown’s Shannon Swimmer feels less like she’s taking on responsibility with her new role — and more that she’s “stepping into it.”
Shennelle Feather of Yellowhilll took the leap because she saw the right opportunity.
“I’ve learned throughout my life that if I don’t walk through the doors that are open, then I get burned,” she said.
Venita Wolfe would routinely voice her frustrations with the elected body to her father.
“And one day he got — I would say — probably got tired of it. And he just turned to me and says, ‘Well, why don’t you run?’” she recounted.
That sealed Wolfe’s place on the ballot alongside Hill for Big Cove.
After breaking up an all-male caucus, the four women are now well into the beginning of their terms as Eastern Band of Cherokee tribal councilmembers.
Hill is a finance and accounting veteran; for the past 25 years, she said she “administered the [tribal] trust fund and oversaw the investment accounts.”
Swimmer, an attorney, served as a tribal court judge for years before she was named director of Western Carolina University’s Cherokee Center.
Feather, with a background in biology and deep knowledge of indigenous culture, most recently held the role of community manager at the Museum of the Cherokee People.
Wolfe holds a master’s degree in public health and legal studies, and she’s worked in both research and tribal human resources.
Each brings a unique skillset to the group, a love for the community and a profound dedication to serve.
GIVING BACK
comes to domestic labor.
“Women already manage their homes. They already are the caretakers. They take care of business. They plan. They take care
got aunts and uncles who are like parents, so it’s just a collective,” she said.
When the work gets hard, Wolfe has three mantras inspired by loved ones.
HISTORY, FAMILY
There’s an interconnectedness, history and lifeblood among the women that resembles the bonds among relatives — and the path of the rivercane.
Tribal council did not always, and does not typically, consist entirely of men. Among council’s eight most recent two-year cycles, the earliest four — spanning 2009 to 2017 — included at least three female members. Then, the election in late 2017 saw the success of only two women, a trend that continued until 2023, when that number dropped to zero.
“For our tribe, historically speaking, women have always been in leadership, and it is my belief that women should be in leadership now and forever — always,” Hill said. Naturally, throughout these past two years, all were upset with — and felt called to act on — the absence of female representation. Hill said women are natural leaders because they “consider everything first” — and they’re often the default parent when it
“You will never see one river cane growing by itself, because it can’t exist. It won’t thrive … That is how we exist in community… And it’s really just a blessing to be able to serve with, to have these river cane women around me, holding me up too,” Feather said, in an ode to the interconnectedness of the tribe — and the four women on council.
“The women that I get to work with, they’re the most supportive people that there are, and they’re so smart and caring. And I just — I’m grateful,” Hill said.
As for the history, Feather said it’s “collective memory” — it forms when river cane is cut.
The same goes for the tribe.
“Whenever we lose someone, we feel it,” she said. “Whenever we have a new baby in the community. We feel it, we celebrate it, all of us.”
Feather recalled a specific example to The Smoky Mountain News involving Swimmer’s grandfather, who “would have shine and design nights for pottery, and the whole family would come, and they’d all get their river rocks, and they’d bring their pots, and they’d shine them up, and they’d do it all together.”
Finally, there’s the lifeblood itself: a shared sense of being tied to the place that is Cherokee. Wolfe, Feather and Swimmer — unlike Hill — have each spent time away from the tribal boundary, residing anywhere from Fort Bragg to California. But all, of course, returned.
“You really just feel like you’re so tethered to this land, and it really is something that is in your DNA. It’s not just — it goes beyond being homesick,” said Swimmer.
Feather explained that even in death, the Cherokee would be returned to this land, returned to the earth.
And with family as an integral aspect of the lives of Hill, Swimmer, Wolfe and Feather, this group fits the bill.
Hill acknowledged that she was disappointed in the absence of women in EBCI governance — for the sake of both her daughter and granddaughter, Her ascent to council was partially motivated by wanting her family to know, as she put it, ‘You can do anything you want, and [being an elected representative], this is part of it.’”
Swimmer, also a grandmother, was supported throughout the election by her large and interconnected family.
“My granddaughter, she’s got her several great grandparents, because my mom and dad are both still alive, and then we’ve
strong enough to eclipse the poverty she experienced in childhood.
“We were really so rich.”
In college, she said, a few girls on her sports team were talking about those who received free school lunches growing up. Feather remembered she never had to pay. For the first time in her life, though she'd had a regular sponsor through Save the Children, she began questioning if she'd grown up in a low-income household.
“I never felt that that there was a void [caused by poverty], because we were so full with our family’s love and culture,” Feather said of her childhood, adding that this connectedness urged her to run for office, because “with that perspective, it’s like, why wouldn’t we give back?”
“When we were transitioning on to the next life, we were wrapped in river cane mats,” she said. “The basket makers, the weavers — they were the women.”
REFLECTIONS ON COMMUNICATION, WORK
Wolfe observed that the team of four is cohesive because "all of us have specialized in a field" — Swimmer's experience practicing law, Hill's career in finance, Feather's cultural knowledge and the public health and legal background Wolfe possesses herself — adding this ensures "that when we as a group come together, we complement each other."
Hill told SMN that the women on council have been meeting since prior to inauguration, with the goal of having “open communication,” providing a means to “bounce [around] ideas,” and a F
Left to right: Lavita Hill, Shannon Swimmer, Venita Wolfe and Shennelle Feather were recently elected to tribal council.
forum to show mutual support. These three pillars, however, aren’t just goals for internal communication. They’re also important when determining how to relate to unelected EBCI citizens.
As a tribal judge, Swimmer chose to subvert the courtroom’s hierarchy of power with a simple, yet transformative tactic.
“I came down from the bench,” she said. “I sat in a circle with the people that I was talking to, because even that visual [of sitting on the bench] — that’s not traditional, and it’s definitely not healing.”
Swimmer explained that her new eye-toeye position recreated the entire dynamic.
“People would open up. People would talk. People would share,” she said.
This intentional dialogue is something all four women want to encourage among their constituents. That’s also in part because they know how frustrating it feels to be on the other side.
GOALS FOR THE TERM
The women on tribal council might still be soliciting input from their constituents, but each knows exactly what she wants changed — and how.
One of Wolfe’s major concerns is the safety of her community “in terms of lighting, better roads, sidewalks,” more bike trails, bike lanes and walking paths. She’s also interested in building flashing-light crosswalks, like those in Maggie Valley.
“We’re a tourist town, and we have people trying to walk across the street, and not everyone knows or sees them standing there,” the councilmember explained, while acknowledging that “there’s a lot that has already been done,” including the new Whitewater Landing.
Feather and Swimmer reiterated Wolfe’s desire for increased pedestrian and recreational safety. In addition to more lights
support and transparency.
“Our government is a business. It’s business,” Wolfe said, referring to the tribe’s moneymaking ventures such as Kituwah, LLC, and Qualla, LLC. She added that when elected officials aren’t transparent about the status of the business, “that tends to make you — make me angry, because that’s our livelihood. Our livelihood is being put into investments that we don’t know about.”
Regarding transparency of councilmembers, Hill echoed that sentiment. At monthly meetings, she noticed that representatives would “say very vague things … but then they never went into detail.”
“And for me personally, that’s where my own grief with them came in. It was just, ‘I don’t have enough information from you guys to feel satisfied with how you’re doing your job,’” Hill told SMN.
To ensure she isn’t replicating this dynamic, Hill cited her continued development of a monthly newsletter and a webpage with an option to submit feedback in the form of a survey asking the following questions: “what are you happy with tribal services, and then what are you dissatisfied with, and how can we help?”
and crosswalks, Feather said, “we need more than one entrance and exit to our school.”
“And my grandma advocated for that,” Swimmer responded with a chuckle, explaining that the late woman was at tribal council for this reason every single month.
“If my grandma, Amanda, was still alive, she would be like, ‘You better get that road open now that you’re on council,’” she said.
Feather mentioned another important consideration for the Qualla Boundary: “continuing to still represent Indigenous culture.” It’s an issue not threatened by stagnancy, but rather by loss.
“We have more characteristics of a small city than we do a small town,” Feather said, so it’s important to ensure “our identity [is] being protected.”
Regardless of the topic at hand, each member of the group felt an extra static in the air: change, and enough of it to get things done.
“I feel like now, for some reason or another, our people are wanting to be more engaged,” said Wolfe. “And that’s what’s amazing,”
The four women serving on tribal council value cooperation,
Newly elected Sylva councilmember shares experience, values and vision
Sylva is located in Jackson County, named for Andrew Jackson. It is intersected by U.S. 74, also known as the Andrew Jackson Highway.
In 2021, Matthews heard about a proposal — initially passed as a tribal resolution before becoming a discussion item among commissioners — to change the namesake of the county. Instead of the late president, the county would pay tribute to EBCI Principal Chief Walter Jackson, who had served eight terms.
But there were “no Cherokee people in there to have that conversation or try to push, and the vote went in the direction of just keeping [the namesake as] Andrew Jackson,” Matthews said.
The councilmember cited this event as simply one instance of “listening to people’s voices and about things that were being voted on, then watching votes go in other directions.”
The failed Jackson County renaming — and the absence of elected officials who looked like him and would advocate for respecting indigenous voices and history — left Matthews disheartened. Furthermore, it inspired an important question: what if he were to run for office?
Though when Matthews threw his hat in the ring for elections, he aimed for town council, not county commission. After all, through presence, experience and the front-facing hospitality industry, he’s already a familiar face to many in the small town.
Matthews’ restaurant work offers unexpected opportunities to connect with all sorts of people, including local board members and government officials. His employers tend to use open kitchens, inviting conversations with customers that sometimes serve as the catalyst for 15- or 20-year friendships.
“I have some friends of mine now that — now they have a daughter … I made their first meal on their first date at the restaurant,” he recalled.
Matthews said feedback regarding his cooking remains a vital aspect of his interactions with diners. But over time, those experiencing his cooking witness more than culinary improvement.
“It’s a long road that, [customers have] watched me grow — not just as a chef, but as a person,” he said.
Regarding his position on Sylva town council, he told The Smoky Mountain News, “I hope I have the [electoral] support because people know how I am as a person, and my selfworth that I have, and the care that I have for all of those who showed me the same care in this. And I just want to move forward with them.”
VISIONS AND TENSIONS
Matthews said in his new position, he plans to meet with public works, Sylva police and the town director “to get ideas of what is needed through those different departments.”
The town trusts in this leadership, evidenced by election results that were overwhelmingly in his favor.
But the councilmember still sees remnants of the “old” Sylva, which didn’t always value him. As part of a small Indigenous minority, “for years, it seemed like I was told, ‘We’ll do better if you just go back here,’” he said.
He said the “new” Sylva — partially thanks to a complimentary Washington Post article that encouraged newcomers into the town — reached its peak right before COVID. Then everything slowed down, and even now, the momentum hasn’t quite caught up with the loss. For example, he described the treatment of his Indigeneity as parallel to the municipality’s current discussions of LGBTQ+ issues.
Though September marked Sylva’s fifth annual Pride Festival, it was the second without an accompanying parade, terminated in 2024 by the town board. Matthews said while some commissioners framed funding the parade as a “fiscal issue,” the parade brought an influx of customers to local stores and restaurants.
And to him, it all went deeper than business and finance.
Perry Matthews won his election to be seated on Sylva’s town council in November. Donated photo
It “felt like [the decision to exclude the pride parade] was just so easily swept aside,” he said, adding that “it affected so many people, who felt unseen … they felt they had a place in this town, and we’re open and accepting. And all of a sudden it was like, ‘Well, only from a distance and behind closed doors.’”
Matthews wants to see the Pride Parade reinstated during his term.
In addition, he’d like Sylva to further welcome his own identity — by bridging the cultural and literal gap between Jackson County and the Qualla Boundary, the federally recognized home of the Eastern Band. While the Qualla Boundary is partially located in Jackson County, enrolled members eligible to vote tend to cast ballots more often in federal and tribal elections and participate less at the county and district level. According to Matthews, mitigating the disconnect between Jackson and Cherokee could begin with an Indigenous People’s Day celebration. It could also look like recognizing historical Native artifacts already in Sylva.
Matthews told SMN that he found an old map of a settlement in town by what was the former Speedy’s Pizza location.
“It wasn’t a very significant settlement, but it was a stopping point between Stecoah and Tuckasegee,” he said.
While Matthews would “want to talk to some more people and get a better understanding of what [the settlement] actually was,” he noted that he’d like to honor it with a small plaque, so folks don’t have to travel to Oconaluftee Village to see Indigenous history.
“This displacement is not good for all of us, as a people, moving forward together in the current day and age,” he said.
Finally, Matthews brought up the possibility of introducing Sylva to an outdoor drama depicting Cherokee life immediately after settler contact — and the next 500 years. Indeed, the chef has a special connection to “Unto These Hills,” performed throughout the summer in Cherokee. Then a construction worker, he helped build the drama’s set 20 years ago; this summer, to mark its 75th anniversary, he cooked an indigenous meal for the audience.
Matthews’ experiences have, moreover, shaped his vision for other elements of the community, including recreation and socializing. He remembered that in high school, “there was a place next to the bowling alley” that served as a quasi-club for kids aged anywhere from 14 to 20. It lacked supervision, he noted, making way for the inevitable: alcohol. Teenagers could also gather at the bowling alley, “but I think there was a bar attached to the bowling alley as well,” he said.
That was decades ago. Now, Matthews has a 14-year-old son, and he’s having to renavigate the landscape.
It hasn’t changed — not drastically.
Matthews told SMN that “outside of the movies and the bowling alley, and small handful of other things” there isn’t lots to do, even now. So as a councilmember, he’s interested in advocating for more activities for that age group.
“We like bowling, but I don’t see [my son] going to be a professional bowler,” he said.
AREA’S BEST BURGER
Local leaders speak out against drunk driving
BY KYLE P ERROTTI N EWS E DITOR
Law enforcement leaders and elected officials from across Western North Carolina gathered the day before Thanksgiving to remind people about the dangers of consuming alcohol and getting behind the wheel while also reaffirming their commitment to combatting drunk driving.
The event took place in Haywood County on what has become known as “Blackout Wednesday,” the day before Thanksgiving when old friends and family return to town and enjoy each other’s company, often with plenty of booze flowing.
In addition, that night at 6 p.m., officers around the region gathered at spots in their jurisdictions where someone had died or been seriously injured in a collision involving a vehicle driven by someone under the influence of alcohol or traveling far too fast. Many of the officers were the ones on duty the night that person lost their life. Officers ran their blue lights at those spots for 10 minutes.
Several people spoke from atop the county historic courthouse’s steps Wednesday afternoon. First up was WNC DWI Taskforce Director Ellen Pitt, who has spearheaded the issue regionally for over two decades now. Pitt spoke about the documented increase of alcohol sales in bars and ABC stores across the state the day before Thanksgiving and offered a warning to any would-be drunk drivers out there.
she said. “You’ll have trouble with law enforcement, trouble with the courts, trouble with your mama, trouble with the bank, big trouble with the car insurance. Thousands of dollars worth of trouble. Stay sober or plan ahead.”
“If you choose to engage in selfish, reckless conduct that destroys someone else’s family in Western North Carolina, you’re going to run into a solid wall of trouble,”
Next up was Madison County Manager Rod Honeycutt, who talked briefly about what’s been accomplished at the state level, some of which was spurred on by or at least lobbied for by the taskforce. He also talked about legislation going forward, including the continued efforts by the taskforce to pass the Sober Operator Act, which would lower the legal limit while operating a vehicle to .05. That bill, introduced by Rep. Mike Clampitt (R-Swain) has thus far failed, but the group has vowed to keep pushing it. The Sober Operator Act also included two new elements not before seen that are tangentially related to the issue. One would require for District Court sessions, where many DWI cases are heard, to be recorded as Superior Court currently is. The other would create an easily accessible database where mem- F
Local law enforcement and elected leaders gathered to reaffirm their commitment to combat drunk driving in Western North Carolina. Kyle Perrotti photo
Law enforcement and local tow truck drivers gathers at the site in Haywood County where Joshua Tratham had his life taken by a drunk driver. Donated photo
bers of the public could see stats related to DWI charges and convictions, as well as other relevant case information like reasons for dismissals or suppression of evidence.
“We have renewed our fight with House Bill 108,” Honeycutt said. “It’s a comprehensive DWI bill recommending that legislators follow Utah law and reduce the limit to .05.”
Rondell Lance of the Asheville Fraternal Order of Police lamented how much scrutiny officers are under to follow procedure when conducting field sobriety tests and prosecuting subsequent cases, from the moment they pull a vehicle over to when they take the stand and testify under oath in front of a judge or jury. From procedure on the roadside to using the right terminology in court, everything must be squared away.
“If you choose to engage in selfish, reckless conduct that destroys someone else’s family in Western North Carolina, you’re going to run into a solid wall of trouble ... Thousands of dollars worth of trouble. Stay sober and plan ahead.”
Ellen Pitt, WNC DWI Taskforce Ditector
“It does not cause them to hesitate when making an arrest. Even though they’re under such scrutiny on such a case, they’re out there willing to do it, and that’s why we support them 100%” Lance said. “We thank them for what they do and do it out of respect. So I ask that if you’re hearing this, out of respect to the victims, out of respect to your community, please don’t drink and drive, because if you do, I guarantee you these officers will not hesitate to do their job and face all that scrutiny just to make an arrest to keep our streets safe.”
District Attorney Ashley Welch kept her speech brief and to the point.
“I’m here today first to say that my office has and always has had a zero tolerance for driving while impaired cases,” Welch said. “We are blessed in the in this part of the state to have some of the best law enforcement and best trained law enforcement in this state. If you drive impaired during this holiday season, the likelihood that they catch you is incredibly high, and if they catch you, we will prosecute you. Please, everyone. Have a safe and healthy and happy holiday season. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and please do not drive while impaired. There are plenty of ways to get rides. If you get somewhere and you choose to drink, do not drive next.”
Professional craft students to host
holiday craft sale
Students in the Professional Crafts Program at Haywood Community College will host a holiday craft sale from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 4 on campus in Clyde. The sale will feature student work in four mediums: fiber, metals, ceramics and wood. Held in the Mary L. Cornwell Gallery in the Sycamore Building, the sale is open to the public.
admission to select majors at N.C. State and will have access to N.C. State’s Transfer Planner Tool, advising support, and have application fees waived.
To be eligible for the Wolfpack Connect program, HCC students should have completed a transferable degree, maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 and meet NC State’s application deadlines and admission requirements. A full list of requirements can be found on their website.
Students come from around the country for Haywood Community College’s unique combination of practical business skills and craft techniques. This student-led sale is a valuable opportunity for students to practice the marketing and sales skills they learn in the professional craft program and a fun way to engage with community members about craft.
Cash, credit cards and personal checks will be accepted.
HCC announces new university transfer agreements
Haywood Community College continues to expand university transfer agreements with North Carolina universities. HCC offers transferable degree programs and credit options as students choose to start their postsecondary education locally before transferring to a four-year institution.
As Spring 2026 registration opens, HCC has two new transfer agreements in place. This offers students additional guaranteed transferable options to two North Carolina universities.
The agreement with Western Carolina University — WCU Connect — is a directentry admission program to the college. This program offers HCC students early access to advisors, a personal admissions counselor, priority orientation, bookstore discounts, and more. This transfer opportunity does not have a separate application fee and will set students up for maximum success with early access to WCU resources.
Qualifying students for the WCU Connect program should have completed their associate degree prior to attending WCU, submit a WCU Connect participation form, a WCU application, earn and maintain a cumulative GPA of 2.50 at HCC and a minimum GPA of 2.20 in their most recent HCC term. Full details of all the qualifications can be found on their website.
N.C. State University has established the Wolfpack Connect Guaranteed Admission Program to provide a seamless transfer pathway for HCC students. HCC students meeting the established criteria are guaranteed
Shelley White, President of Haywood Community College, said, “When community colleges and universities work together, students win. These agreements strengthen access to higher education across our state and help our students reach their goals more efficiently and affordably.”
Full details about these transfer options and others can be found on HCC’s website at haywood.edu/programs/about-transferring.php.
Harris named ‘Communicator of the Year’
Michelle Harris, director of engagement & marketing and public information officer at Haywood Community College, has been named the 2025 District 2 Communicator of the Year by the National Council for Marketing & Public Relations.
This award recognizes outstanding achievement and leadership in two-year college communications.
NCMPR presents the Communicator of the Year Award annually in each of its seven districts. As the 2025 honoree for District 2 — which includes community and technical colleges in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas — Harris now becomes one of seven finalists for NCMPR’s national Communicator of the Year Award. The national award will be presented in March 2026 during the NCMPR Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.
“Michelle’s creativity, leadership, and commitment to telling the story of Haywood Community College have made a significant impact on our campus and community, especially as we’ve navigated the challenges of the last five years,” said Shelley White, HCC president. “We are excited to see her work recognized on the national stage through this award.”
In addition to Harris’s individual recognition, HCC received a Bronze Award at this year’s NCMPR District 2 conference for the “Community is our Middle Name” campaign. The award was presented in the campaign wild card category and highlights the innovative work Harris and her team produced, including outreach during the region’s Hurricane Helene recovery efforts.
Forest bathing: slow down and immerse yourself
Count me among those who are proud that Jackson County has two fully accessible certified forest therapy trails, two of only 21 worldwide with that particular certification.
One is a mile-long paved track along the Tuckasegee River near Webster and Cullowhee. The other is the unpaved lower portion of the Pinnacle Park. You can look at the map online at the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy programs and see the two Jackson County trails listed.
“The certified forest therapy trail at the Jackson County Greenway stands as both a celebration of partnership and a commitment to community wellbeing — a model for how accessible public lands can nurture both ecological and human health,” said Debby Singleton, a retired Western Carolina University professor and founding member of the nonprofit group Friends of Jackson County Greenways, in an article in last week’s Smoky Mountain News.
Singleton is a certified forest therapy guide who touts the benefits of slowing down while in nature, known as “forest bathing.” Many of us decide to go for a hike and it’s all about going from point A to point B, getting so many miles or steps in, or making it to the summit of a particular peak. While that’s all well and good, there are other benefits that come from slowing down while under a tree canopy, walking slowly along a creek or putting down some ground cover in an open meadow and just looking at the sky.
Preserve Fontana Regional Library
To the Editor:
For nearly 100 years, the Fontana Regional Library System has reflected the traditional mountain values of literacy, truth and community responsibility. These values guided our grandparents who built the first libraries in these mountains. They guided our parents who supported them. And they guide many of us today. Yet these long-held values are now at risk.
A flyer circulated this month claims that the Fontana Regional Library System is unsafe for children. This claim is inconsistent with the facts and with the legal standards that protect access to information in public libraries. Public libraries follow strict collection development procedures, professional review standards and age-based shelving policies. Children’s sections do not contain sexually explicit materials.
Federal constitutional law supports the principles our mountain families have always cherished. The United States Supreme Court held in Board of Education v. Pico that officials may not remove books simply because they disagree with the ideas in them.
In Rosenberger v. University of Virginia, the Court reaffirmed that viewpoint discrimination is unconstitutional. In Tinker v. Des
“With forest bathing, it’s just all about slowing down, slowing your heart rate down, taking time to notice and observe. And as a guide, I provide these prompts or invitations to help the participants do that,” said Singleton.
Many live in this region because of its outdoor amenities, but a lot of people don’t take advantage of our forests and waterways. In truth, as our lives become more reliant on technology, our connection to nature suffers.
Many studies have shown that spending time outdoors provides physical and mental health benefits.
Way back in the mid-2000s I read an interview that I remember to this day. The Sun, an eclectic and iconic magazine out of Chapel Hill, featured an interview with Richard Louv, a journalist and the author of several books.
That interview way back then was about his latest book, “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from NatureDeficit Disorder.” After reading about the therapy trails in Jackson County, I went back online to read that interview with Louv. Here’s the magazine teaser about his book:
“In the days before sprawling residential subdivisions, children at play could often be seen traipsing through meadows or climbing trees. Now it’s more common to find boys
LETTERS
Moines, the Court declared that students retain free speech rights within educational environments.
Lower courts, including in Sund v. Wichita Falls and Counts v. Cedarville School District, have ruled that attempts to restrict materials based solely on ideological objections violate the First Amendment. These decisions protect exactly what our mountain values have always stood for: openness, learning and truth.
Approximately six months ago, the Jackson County Board of Commissioners voted to withdraw from the Fontana Regional Library System. Their vote was final and the dismantling is underway. Yet the board has offered no public explanation for its decision and has refused requests for clarification. Meanwhile, some individuals who support the dismantling continue to claim it is “to protect children,” though no evidence supports that claim.
Government bodies have a legal duty to base decisions on facts, law and the public interest. Acting without explanation undermines transparency and violates the standards of responsible governance our mountain communities expect.
The dismantling is not complete. The system will remain in operation until June 30. The board can still reverse its decision. Protecting our traditional mountain values
Check it out
and girls being shuttled from school to computer to soccer practice as part of a fast-paced schedule that leaves little time for daydreaming or exploring nature. The result, says journalist Richard Louv, is ‘nature-deficit disorder.’ Louv coined this term, which is not a medical diagnosis, to call attention to the absence of nature in children’s lives. In his newest book, he ties the lack of time spent in nature to everything from childhood obesity to psychological disorders. Suburban sprawl and busy schedules are just two factors keeping children out of nature, Louv says. Others include the strict focus on academics, what he calls the “criminalization of play,” mediafueled fear of child abductions and overzealous environmental campaigns.
Making connections to nature, to the outdoors, is what makes us human and centers us. So, again, way to go Singleton, Jackson County Recreation Department and everyone else who played a part in this endeavor. It’s one more reason I love calling this place home.
(Scott McLeod can be reached at info@smokymountainnews.com.)
means standing up for truth, education and lawful decision-making. Our libraries embody these values. They provide early literacy, internet access, educational support, safe gathering spaces and the knowledge that every child deserves a fair chance.
The board should reconsider its course and honor the mountain heritage that has
guided our communities for generations. Preserving the Fontana Regional Library System is not only the right decision under the law. It is the right decision for our children, our families and the mountain values we hold dear.
Allen Lomax Jackson County
A dedication for the new therapy trail will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 6, at the Locust Creek Trailhead in Sylva.
Editor Scott McLeod
Where the river goes Dean
DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots
ARTS & E NTERTAINMENT E DITOR
With the untimely passing of founding member and longtime lead singer Scott Weiland in 2015, and the tragic death of replacement singer Chester Bennington (originally of Linkin Park) in 2017, the Stone Temple Pilots were at a crucial crossroads with one question in mind — pack it all up and shake hands goodbye or push ahead, hell or high water. They chose the latter, kicking off a worldwide search for the next front-man of one of the most beloved and successful acts in rock history. They scoured the globe. Thousands of submissions. Hundreds of demos listened to. Dozens of possible leads brought into the studio to jam and see if everyone gelled.
And yet nothing came of it. Either the submissions sounded too much like Weiland or Bennington, or the demos sounded like nothing in the same ballpark as what STP is all about — this hardscrabble Detroit attitude a la the MC5 meets California psychedelic rock.
The surviving members of STP — brothers Dean (guitar) and Robert (bass) DeLeo and Eric Kretz (drummer) — were riding a razor-sharp line between paying tribute to the legacy of their storied band and its slew of hits, and also avoiding becoming the thing they dread the most: a nostalgia act.
None of the members wanted to step onstage and just “play the hits” like some kind of “Groundhog Day” scenario. They wanted to sprinkle in the classics alongside whatever they’d been working on or planned to work with whoever would fill the enormous void left behind by Weiland and later Bennington.
By 2017, just as all hope was beginning to be lost, a chance encounter sparked a wild chain of events. On tour with the Hollywood Vampires
Alice Cooper, Joe Perry of Aerosmith and actor Johnny Depp), Robert DeLeo was backstage in Detroit, Michigan, when it was mentioned that STP should bring popular local singer Jeff Gutt in for an audition.
The DeLeo’s and Kretz called Gutt in, with the audition coming together seamlessly — in the studio and at Gutt’s coronation onstage as the new lead singer of STP at The Troubadour nightclub in the heart of West Hollywood, California, on Nov. 14, 2017.
Gutt could hit the high notes and had that crooning ability that was so signature to Weiland’s sound and presence, and also the howling rage brought to the surface by Bennington’s tenure — the ideal foundation on which STP could build moving forward.
In March 2018, STP released a self-titled album, its debut with Gutt, which was followed by “Perdida” (2020). Since then, The Smoky Mountain News caught up with Dean DeLeo. He spoke of the living, breathing legacy of STP and what’s to come in this next, bountiful chapter of one of America’s great rock bands.
Smoky Mountain News: With Scott and
Want to go?
The 33rd annual “Warren Haynes Presents: The Christmas Jam” will take place at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, in the ExploreAsheville.com Arena at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville.
The lineup will include Warren Haynes & Friends, Stone Temple Pilots, MJ Lenderman & The Wind, Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country, Maggie Rose, Edwin McCain, “A Very Special Xmas Jam Tribute to Phil Lesh” (featuring Haynes, Grahame Lesh, Jimmy Herring, John Molo and Jason Crosby)
Chester, what kind of clarity — in the grand scheme of things — have you found in recent years?
Dean DeLeo: I have no clarity on any of that. I’m, on a daily basis, scratching my head over those two gentlemen. I think of those guys every day. And there’s things I remember from each one of them that are the fondest, dearest, sweetest memories in my heart. I’m scratching my head and really sad.
SMN: Do you think you’ll ever make peace with it?
DD: I don’t know, man. I don’t know. It’s a big loss. I was very intimate with both of those guys, and I hope people can realize what I mean by that. I’m talking when you get in a room with somebody and you’re sharing music. And you’re really allowing yourself to be so vulnerable. There’s plenty of times I came in with a song and I think, “This is like the best thing I’ve done so far.” And somebody could say, “I’m not feeling that.” [Laughs]. And you kind of have to rise to the occasion and move on. And respect that, you know? So, you’re very vulnerable and it’s a very intimate
and more.
As well, “Christmas Jam By Day,” which overtakes Asheville venues throughout the afternoon of Dec. 13 will also return. Featuring a wide-array of local and regional artists, participating venues include the Asheville Music Hall, The One Stop and Jack of the Wood.
Proceeds from the event will once again go to Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity and BeLoved Asheville. For more information, a full schedule of acts and/or to purchase tickets, visit xmasjam.com.
situation when you’re sharing and writing music together. It is for us, anyway, So, yeah, I don’t know if I’ll ever get over that, man. I don’t know. Because they were two great losses in my life, and I know for many others as well.
SMN: What’s surprised you most about getting older? Are you having any full-circle moments lately or maybe a rebirth in your thought process with the band?
DD: The music’s still the same, you know? We still love to get one another off, to just go in [a room] and make a ruckus. Personally, where it’s really changed a lot, is thinking of the hours that I used to spend just sitting around listening to music. Just laying around listening to music. I don’t have time for that, man. I don’t want to do that anymore ‘cause I want to be with my kids. I want to be out in the mountains. I want to be hiking. I want to go to the beach. I want to just be with my kids, whether we go to the movies or whatever. That’s where my real joy is — to be with my wife and kids.
SMN: I recently saw a picture of you with [the late guitarist] Wayne Kramer [of the MC5]. And I was curious about what that band means to you, in terms of their influence and attitude that they presented, and [in reference] to what STP has always been doing.
DD: Man, that band meant a lot to us, and on every level. [MC5 lead singer] Rob Tyner used to make all his clothes. I mean, just everything about that band, from the attitude, from the ferocity, from the style, from everything about it. It just oozed sex and love and violence. It was just everything. It had everything. And it just meant a lot to us. They were one of the greatest rock-n-roll bands ever, and we’ll never see the likes of that again, I don’t think. People might allow it, but I don’t know that technology will allow it.
SMN: What the biggest joy for you these days, in terms of not only the band still being relevant, but also vital and still creating?
DD: Well, I know what I’m sitting on, musically speaking. And I know what Robert has. There’s a lot left. We just love making music. And we love being able to share it with you. And I got to tell you, I don’t want to claim ownership on this thing. You know, this [music] belongs to all of us. This is all of ours. I just want us all to really have it be a place where we can completely dip our minds and find every emotion in it. And if we just get to do that, then that makes me feel good, man.
SMN: What has a life creating and performing, touring the world and interacting with people from all walks of life, taught you about what it means to be a human being?
DD: Well, it’s a lot better to be a human being than a human doing. A human being just being, you know? It’s so easy for us to get into the human doing — “I have to do this, I have to do that.” A human doing and a human being are at each end of the spectrum. And I haven’t quite figured it out, but there are times in my day or in my week, where I get to experience to be simply a human being. And when that lines up for me? That’s pretty fulfilling.
(featuring
Stone Temple Pilots will play Asheville Dec. 13. File photo
This must be the place
BY GARRET K. WOODWARD
‘Oh, that we could always see, such spirit through the year’
Thanksgiving morning. I awoke to the sounds of my upstairs neighbor scurrying about, most likely getting things together for whatever he has planned for Turkey Day. Nearby Russ Avenue is oddly quiet. Nobody is heading to work. The incessant construction has ceased for the day, too.
My bedroom is silent, save for the smart phone on the nightstand dinging every so often with messages and well wishes from those near to my heart yet far away on the map. Emerging from my slumber, I push up the window shades and look out onto Waynesville, slowly gazing up at the mountains.
I’ve got three things on the “to do” list today. One, sign a real deal agreement with a literary agency. Two, wander into the hills and go for a trail run somewhere. Three, track down a plate of food at the humble abode of some dear friends. Well, four things if you include writing this column. It’s around 1:30 p.m. when I head to the office. The newsroom is empty. Everyone at this publication is home with family for the holidays. With my family over 1,000 miles away up near the Canadian Border, the holidays are always kind of awkward, loose and somewhat lonely. I don’t aim to be a loner, and I’m not in essence, I just have always gone at my own pace and rhythm. Luckily, I’ve been able to befriend such kind and generous folks here in Western North Carolina, who usually will set me a plate at their table when the weather gets cold and the Christmas tree is already up. Normally, I’d just spent today wandering around the woods solo and pondering life, but I do have an open invitation for a friend’s Thanksgiving dinner over in Sylva. Open my laptop in the newsroom and print out a copy of a proposed literary agreement sent to me last week by a real deal agency based in Manhattan. To note, I’ve been working towards this day for the last 20 years, ever since the summer of 2005, when I was 20 years old and decided to dedicate my life to the written word. This moment is happily surreal and emotional, one where I find myself in deep reflection at the road to the here and now.
about possibly doing a book, or a series of books, through their agency. The company has been following my work for a little while and felt maybe we could collaborate. The recent Zoom meeting went incredibly well, one where I walked away feeling truly seen and feeling very inspired.
I know this is the first step into a whole new realm of my life, both personally and professionally. And I’m ready. I’m excited to see where this continued journey will take me. To that, none of this would be possible without the love and support of all of you out there. It’s not lost on me. The gratitude remains.
Convert the agreement into a PDF and email it to the agent. Signed, sealed and delivered. Once I clicked “send,” I sat there at the conference room table by myself as a whirlwind of memories flew by my field-ofvision. The endless miles traveled. The countless words written. The journey, both geographically and spiritually, to this juncture of my existence. Onward into the next scene.
HOT PICKS
1
A special production of “Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberly” will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 5-6, 11, 13 and 2 p.m. Dec. 7 and 5 p.m. Dec. 14 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville.
2
Sylva Christmas Parade will be held from 3-4:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7, on Main Street.
3
The 42nd annual “Lights & Luminaries” will return from 5-9 p.m. Dec. 5-6 and 12-13 in the streets of downtown Dillsboro.
4
Canton Christmas Parade will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 4, in downtown.
5
Bryson City Christmas Parade will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, in downtown.
on a few dishes before you could grab your plate and start your feast. Big bear hugs and ear-to-ear smiles. Rekindling old, cherished friendships. Pour a beverage and go enjoy some football until dinner is ready.
Gather ‘round the long antique dining room table. Plates overflowing with smoked turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans and flakey buns, all covered in a more than generous helping of brown gravy. As someone like myself from the North Country, a person who covers his pancakes and waffles with an ungodly amount of maple syrup, my tendencies remain similar with gravy.
Conversation hovers over jovial memories from past holiday meals or the impressive nature by which one of the table guests is going for a third helping of stuffing and so forth. Raise the wine glasses high and into the moment at-hand. Salute each other present at the table. Cheers to those long gone, but not forgotten. The laughter of frolicking children in the background. The laughter of adults in the foreground. The circle of life. The splendor of time and place.
Earlier this fall, the agent approached me
Hit the road for Sylva, but not before disappearing into the woods in Balsam on the Jackson/Haywood county line. It’s an old logging road that I’ve been jogging down regularly since I moved to WNC in 2012. It’s high up on the ridge and remains an anchor point of tranquility and solitude amid a modern world seemingly gone mad. I seek it out often when I need to escape life. When I reached the old abandoned cabin way back in the woods on the dirt road, it appeared it was finally taken down. After decades of neglect and winters of heavy snows collapsing the roof, the property owners tore it down. All that remains is the small foundation and some scrap metal. I think fondly on the innumerable jogs by that cabin and how it always made me smile. Over to Sylva. Putting the truck in park at my friends’ farmhouse, I was 15 minutes beyond my 3 p.m. invitation time. And yet, they were still putting the finishing touches
By sunset, it’s time to motor back to Waynesville. Heading out the front door of the farmhouse, the air temperature had dropped considerably compared to my afternoon trek in the woods. The air reminds me of home, and how I hope everyone back in the North Country is also having an enjoyable holiday. On the way back over Balsam Gap, thoughts of those raucous Thanksgiving feasts at my parents’ farmhouse before it was sold when I was in college.
Those childhood and adolescent holiday memories are dusty in hindsight. The visions are a tad fuzzy on the edges, but still held tightly to my chest. Carefully placed moments on the shelves of my memory. Dusted off from time to time, usually around this time of year, and sometimes when I find myself lost in thought, either on some backcountry road in Southern Appalachia or lonely highway in Wyoming or Montana when I wander through there each summer.
Life is beautiful, grasp for it, y’all.
Trail running in Balsam. Garret K. Woodward photo
On the tree
• Sylva Christmas Tree Lighting and “Holiday Concert” will be held from 6-8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 5, in front of the Historic Jackson County Courthouse on West Main Street. Free and open to the public. discoverjacksonnc.com.
• Bryson City Christmas Parade will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, in downtown. Free and open to the public. greatsmokies.com/events.
• Highlands Christmas Parade will be held 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Dec. 6, on Main Street. Free and open to the public. highlandschamber.org.
• Sylva Christmas Parade will be held from 3-4:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7, on Main Street. The parade takes place along Historic Main Street for celebration, cheer and a chance to see Santa. The floats start and end at Mark Watson Park after a loop through town. Free and open to the public. discoverjacksonnc.com.
On the stage
‘Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberly’
A special production of “Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberly” will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 5-6, 11 and 13, 2 p.m. Dec. 7 and 5 p.m. Dec. 14 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville.
While the Darcys host a grand holiday gathering upstairs, the servants below find themselves in the midst of a holiday scandal. An unwelcome guest — Mr. Wickham, Lydia’s incorrigible husband and Mr. Darcy’s sworn enemy — arrives uninvited, throwing the household into turmoil. As secrets unravel and loyalties are
• “The Nutcracker,” featuring the Ballet Conservatory of Asheville, will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 5, in the Bardo Arts Center Performance Hall at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. Admission is $5 for WCU students, $15 for non-WCU students, $20 for seniors and WCU faculty/staff and $25 for adults. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, visit arts.wcu.edu/tickets.
‘The Best Christmas Pageant Ever’
A special production of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 12, 19-20 and 2 p.m. Dec. 13-14, 20-21 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville. When the unruly Herdman kids, the “worst children in the history of the world,” show up at
• Canton Christmas Parade will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 4, in downtown. This year’s theme is “Santa’s Workshop in Motion.” The parade features area school groups, high school bands, Christmas music, dance teams, churches and many local businesses, as well as horses, dogs, tractors, vintage cars and the flashing lights of our local emergency services. Santa and Mrs. Claus will also be making a special appearance. Free and open to the public. cantonnc.com.
• Cherokee Christmas Parade will be held Saturday, Dec. 13. For more information, visit visitcherokeenc.com/event/2025-winterfest.
tested, the staff must navigate the complexities of class, love and forgiveness. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, visit harttheatre.org or call the box office at 828.456.6322.
• Highlands Performing Arts Center (Highlands) will host a special production of “Home for the Holidays” on select dates and times from Dec. 5-21. mountaintheatre.com / 828.526.9047.
• Peacock Performing Arts Center (Hayesville) will host “Mrs. Robbie’s Winter Showcase” 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7. thepeacocknc.org / 828.389.ARTS.
church and muscle their way into the annual Christmas pageant, everyone expects total disaster. What they get instead is the most surprising, hilarious and heartfelt pageant ever staged. Full of mischief, laughter and unexpected moments of grace, Barbara Robinson’s beloved classic is a holiday favorite for the whole family. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, visit harttheatre.org or call the box office at 828.456.6322.
‘Christmas at Pemberly’ will be at HART on select dates. Donated photo
Sylva Christmas Parade. File photo
On the wall
Waynesville art walk, live music
A cherished gathering of locals and visitors alike, “Art After Dark” will continue its 2025 season from 6-9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 5, in downtown Waynesville.
Each first Friday of the month (MayDecember), Main Street transforms into an evening of art, live music, finger foods, beverages and shopping as artisan studios and galleries keep their doors open later for local residents and visitors alike.
Cherokee pottery exhibition
The event is free and open to the public. For more information, visit downtownwaynesville.com.
HCAC ‘Small Works’ exhibit
The Haywood County Arts Council’s “Small Works” exhibit will run through Dec. 31 at the HCAC Gallery & Gifts showroom in downtown Waynesville.
The annual exhibit that expands the types of work for sale in the downtown Waynesville gallery, as well as who can display their work. Other than specially curated exhibits, which occur a couple times annually, this exhibit is the only one that allows any artist within the western mountain region to participate for a small fee.
With dozens of artists participating, the exhibit promises to be eclectic. Although the only requirement is that the pieces be 12 inches in any dimension or smaller, HCAC challenged participants who are making holiday themed works to consider artistic expressions that are multicultural in nature and celebrate the many different holidays — ways of celebrating and ways of experiencing holidays.
For more information, visit haywoodarts.org.
Cold Mountain Christmas Craft Fair
The second annual Cold Mountain Christmas Craft Fair will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, at the Bishop Johnson Dining Hall in Lake Logan.
Holiday shopping, pictures with Santa, cookie decorating, live music and more. Guests will experience a charming holiday event in a pristine gem of Haywood County.
Mile-long Lake Logan is surrounded by the Shining Rock Wilderness
• “Holiday Market” will run through Dec. 27 at The Bascom Center for the Visual Arts in Highlands. Discover unique, handcrafted gifts by local and regional artists, including members of The Bascom Clay Studio. Celebrate the season with holiday-themed workshops for children and adults. For more information, call 828.526.4949 or visit thebascom.org.
A special showcase, “Didanisisgi Gadagwatli: A Showcase of Pottery from the Mud Dauber Community Workshop,” is now on display at the Museum of the Cherokee People in Cherokee.
On view through May 2026, the exhibition features works by students of Tara McCoy (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians) handcrafted during an intensive three-month work-
Renowned for her pottery, McCoy began making crafts at 12 years old. She honed her skills while taking arts and crafts classes with Alyne Stamper (EBCI) and has won numerous awards at the Cherokee Fall Festival and at Southwestern Association of Indian Arts Santa Fe Indian Market.
MotCP is located in Cherokee. Donated photo
Today, she shares her knowledge with others. Designed to increase and uplift pottery-making among members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, McCoy’s workshop uses a hands-on approach, empowering first-time potters to bring their own personal style to ancestral techniques and methods.
“The Didanisisgi Gadagwatli pottery workshop is an example of how museums can support and uplift great work already happening in the community,” said MotCP Director of Education Dakota Brown (EBCI). “Tara’s dedication to gadugi [community working together for the common good] and intensive approach to teaching has been hugely successful and is a powerful example of reconnections and resurgence. Connection and practice to our material culture is a continuation of our shared Cherokee identity and perpetuates Cherokee pride.”
The artists exhibited include Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle (EBCI), Barbara Jones (EBCI), Paula Wojtkowski (EBCI), Marisa “Sis” Cabe (EBCI), Lisa Howell (EBCI, Pawnee Nation) Malia Crowe Skulski (EBCI), Samantha Cole-Daniels (EBCI), Elvia Walkingstick (EBCI), Maggie Jackson (EBCI), Michelle Lynn Long (EBCI, Mvskoke Creek Nation) and Tara McCoy (EBCI).
For more information, visit motcp.org.
and Pisgah National Forest, making this a premier destination for Southern Appalachian hospitality, adventure and downhome family fun.
Folks can enjoy a glass of warm cider by the fire or embark on a winter hiking adventure using one of the on-campus trails. Lakeside cabin rentals with a 20% discount are available for families and friends who would like to make it a weekend getaway (email info@lakelogan.org).
For more information, visit lakelogan.org/event/cold-mountainchristmas-craft-fair-2025.
• “Kris Kringle Holiday Market” will be held from 3-7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 5, at Sorrells Street Park in downtown Canton. Over 30 vendors will be in attendance. Photos also available with Santa Claus. Free and open to the public. milltownfarmersmarket.com/kringlemarket.
• “Merry Market” from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, at the Nantahala Outdoor Center in Bryson City. Enjoy a day of local shopping featuring over a dozen artisans offering handmade gifts and festive treats. Free and open to the public. greatsmokies.com/events.
• “Christmas in the Mountains” arts and
crafts show from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, at the Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center in Robbinsville. stecoahvalleycenter.com.
• “Art After Dark” will be held from 6-9 p.m. each first Friday of the month (MayDecember) in downtown Waynesville. Main Street transforms into an evening of art, live music, finger foods, beverages and shopping as artisan studios and galleries keep their doors open later for local residents and visitors alike. The event is free and open to the public. downtownwaynesville.com.
A work by Suzanne Barrett Justis. File photo
The ‘Small Works’ showcase will be held at HCAC. File photo
On the beat
Stecoah welcomes Appalachian Road Show
Appalachian Road Show will play Stecoah Dec. 13. File photo
Renowned Americana/bluegrass act Appalachian Road Show will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, on the Grand Stage at the Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center in Robbinsville.
Right out of the gate with its self-titled debut album, ARS garnered big attention by the bluegrass industry, with its fanbase growing steadily. That would soon parlay itself into the outfit taking home the honors for “New Artist of the Year” and “Instrumental Group of the Year” at the 2021 IBMA awards.
This past September, at the IBMA award show in Chattanooga, ARS took the stage to perform “Della Jane’s Heart” in front of every big star currently within the “high, lonesome sound.”
ARS was up for the most coveted honor of the night, “Entertainer of the Year,” alongside pillars of the genre: Alison Krauss & Union Station, Del McCoury Band and Billy Strings. And though ARS didn’t come away with the trophy, the ensemble reinforced its status as one of the “must see” marquee acts in modern bluegrass.
The performance is open to the public. Tickets are $30 for adults and $10 for students. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, visit stecoahvalleycenter.com or call 828.479.3364.
• Assembly On Main (Waynesville) will host “Open Mic Night” 7-9 p.m. Mondays (signup at 6:30 p.m.). Food and drink specials. Free and open to the public. 828.246.0839 / assemblyonmain.com.
• Balsam Falls Brewing (Sylva) will host “Open Mic” 8-10 p.m. Thursdays. Free and open to the public. 828.631.1987 / balsamfallsbrewing.com.
• Balsam Mountain Inn (Balsam) will host “Picking on the Porch” (open community jam) 6 p.m. Tuesdays, “Trivia Night” 7 p.m. Wednesdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.283.0145 / thebalsammountaininn.com.
• Blue Ridge Beer Hub (Waynesville) will host Blue Mountaineers (Americana/bluegrass) 57 p.m. Thursdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 5 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.246.9320 / facebook.com/brbeerhub.
• Boojum Brewing (Waynesville) will host “Karaoke Night” 9 p.m. Wednesdays, “Trivia” 7 p.m. Thursdays, “Open Jam” 10 p.m. Thursdays and semi-regular live music on
7. Admission is free, with love offerings accepted. The church will match the first $1,500 of donations. 828.524.3119.
• Folkmoot Friendship Center (Waynesville) will host “World Drum Classes” every Friday at 2:30 p.m. (adults, free) and 4 p.m. (family friendly, all ages, free), “Waynesville Acoustic Guitar Group” 2-4 p.m. every second and fourth Saturday of the month (free) and J. Creek Cloggers 6:30 p.m. Dec. 5 (free). 828.452.2997 / folkmoot.org.
• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host “Jazz On The Level” 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.454.5664 / froglevelbrewing.com.
• Happ’s Place (Glenville) will host Rock Holler Dec. 6, Corey Stevenson Dec. 11, Dillon & Company Dec. 12 and Blue Jazz (blues/jazz) Dec. 13. All shows begin at 6 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.742.5700 / happsplace.com.
• Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort (Cherokee) will host Cirque Musica Holiday Wonderland 7:30 p.m. Dec. 6 and John Morgan (country) 7:30 p.m. Dec. 13. For tickets, click on caesars.com/harrahs-cherokee.
• Highlander Mountain House (Highlands) will host “Blues & Brews” with Scott Low 6-9 p.m. Thursdays ($5 cover), Zorki (singersongwriter) 1-3 p.m. Saturdays, “Bluegrass Brunch” 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sundays (free) and the “Salon Series” on select dates. 828.526.2590 / highlandermountainhouse.com.
p.m.). Free and open to the public. 828.944.0403 / facebook.com/legendssportsgrillmaggievalley.
• 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/franklin.
• Meadowlark Motel (Maggie Valley) will host a “Bluegrass Jam” 5-7 p.m. Sundays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.926.1717 / meadowlarkmotel.com.
• Mountain Layers Brewing (Bryson City) will host “Open Mic Night” with Frank Lee every Thursday, Shane Meade (indie/soul) Dec. 5, Aly Jordan (singer-songwriter) Dec. 6, Frank Lee (Americana/old-time) 5 p.m. Dec. 7, Bird In Hand (Americana/indie) Dec. 12, Scott James Stambaugh (singer-songwriter) Dec. 13 and Liz Petty (singer-songwriter) 5 p.m. Dec. 14. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.538.0115 / mountainlayersbrewingcompany.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.
• Orchard Coffee (Waynesville) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. 828.246.9264 / orchardcoffeeroasters.com.
the weekends. All shows are located in The Gem downstairs taproom and begin at 9 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.246.0350 / boojumbrewing.com.
• Bryson City Brewing (Bryson City) will host Carolina Freightshakers Dec. 5, Awake The Dream Dec. 6, Tricia Ann Dec. 12 and Borrowed Time Dec. 13. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.538.0085 / brysoncitybrewing.com.
• Cataloochee Ranch (Maggie Valley) will host semi-regular live music throughout the week. All shows begin at 5 p.m. unless otherwise noted. For tickets and reservations, visit cataloocheeranch.com/ranch-event.
• Farm At Old Edwards (Highlands) will host the “Orchard Sessions” on select dates. All shows begin at 6 p.m. Admission is $50 per person, with discounts rates available for hotel guests and members. 866.526.8008 / oldedwardshospitality.com/orchard-sessions.
• First Presbyterian Church (Franklin) will host “CareNet Benefit Concert” 3 p.m. Dec.
• Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will host “Monday Night Trivia” every week, “Open Mic with Phil” on Wednesdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows and events begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.586.9678 / innovation-brewing.com.
• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host “Music Bingo” 7 p.m. Tuesdays, “Trivia Night” 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, “Open Mic Night” 6:30 p.m. Thursdays, Sweet & Sourwood Honey (Americana) Dec. 6 and J.B. & Friends (Americana) Dec. 13. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 / lazyhikerbrewing.com.
• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Sylva) will host “Music Bingo” 7 p.m. Mondays, “Trivia Night” 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays, “Old Time Jam” 6:30 p.m. Thursdays, Ray Ferrara (country/folk) Dec. 5 and Prophets Of Time (rock/jam) Dec. 12. All shows begin at 8 p.m. Free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. 828.349.2337 / lazyhikerbrewing.com.
• Legends Sports Bar & Grill (Maggie Valley) will host Blue Mountaineers (Americana/bluegrass) 5-7 p.m. Mondays, “Open Mic Night” 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Karaoke Thursdays (6 p.m.) and Saturdays (7 p.m.), with live music each Friday (8
• Otto Community Center (Otto) will host “Music Nights” with James Thompson from 4-6 p.m. first and third Friday of the month. Free and open to the public. go2ottonc.com.
• Peacock Performing Arts Center (Hayesville) will host “Christmas With The King” (Elvis Presley tribute) Dec. 5. All shows begin at 7:30 p.m. For tickets, 828.389.ARTS / thepeacocknc.org.
• Quirky Birds Treehouse & Bistro (Dillsboro) will host Open Mic Night at 7 p.m. Tuesdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.586.1717 / facebook.com/quirkybirdstreehouse.
• Rathskeller Coffee Haus & Pub (Franklin) will host “Karaoke” 7 p.m. Wednesdays, “Trivia Night” 6:30 p.m. Thursdays, “Open Mic” 6:30 p.m. Fridays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.369.6796 / facebook.com/rathskellercoffeebarandpub.
• Salty Dog’s Seafood & Grill (Maggie Valley) will host “Karaoke with Russell” on Mondays, Bridget Gossett (Americana) Dec. 5, Lance Turner (singer-songwriter) Dec. 6, Ginny McAfee (singer-songwriter) Dec. 12 and Waynes & Eric Dec. F
13. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.926.9105 / facebook.com/saltydogs2005.
• Santé Wine Bar (Sylva) will host semi-regular live music on Sundays. All shows begin at 5 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.631.3075 / facebook.com/thewinebarandcellar.
host a Community Jam 5:30-7:30 p.m. every third Thursday of the month (free), “Community Christmas Cantata” 6 p.m. Dec. 7 and Appalachian Road Show (Americana/bluegrass) 7:30 p.m. Dec. 13 ($30 for adults, $10 for students). 828.479.3364 / stecoahvalleycenter.com.
• Stubborn Bull (Highlands) will host “Live Music Mondays” with local/regional singersongwriters. All shows begin at 5:30 p.m.
Indie, soul at Mountain Layers
Florida-based indie/soul singer-songwriter Shane Meade will perform at 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 5, at Mountain Layers Brewing Company in Bryson City. Hailing from Elkins, West Virginia, Meade is a self-taught late bloomer who borrowed an old guitar from his father. He began playing and writing songs in the summer of 2000 before relocating to Florida, eventually leaving the corporate world and pursuing music full-time in 2005.
5. File photo
• Sauced (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.246.9585 / saucedwnc.com.
• Scotsman (Waynesville) will host “Open Mic” first Wednesday of every month, Kate Leigh Bryant (singer-songwriter) Dec. 4, Celtic Road Jam (Celtic/world) 4 p.m. Dec. 6, Smashing Mouths (1990s/2000s rock tribute) Dec. 6, An Tir Nua (Celtic/world) 3 p.m. Dec. 7, Rene Russeel (Americana) Dec. 11, “Yachty Or Nice Party” with DJ Captain Kipper Dec. 13 and Jenny & The Weazels (Celtic/folk) 3 p.m. Dec. 14. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.246.6292 / scotsmanpublic.com.
• Slanted Window Tasting Station (Franklin) will host R.A. Nightingale (singer-songwriter) 6 p.m. Dec. 5, Blue Jazz (blues/jazz) 5 p.m. Dec. 6, Rail Town 4 p.m. Dec. 7 and Alton Lane Band 6 p.m. Dec. 12. 828.276.9463 / slantedwindow.com.
• Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will host “Irish Christmas In America” (Celtic/traditional) 7 p.m. Dec. 12 and “Christmas With The Isaacs” (Christian/gospel) 7 p.m. Dec. 19. Tickets now available, with seating upgrades offered. 866.273.4615 / smokymountainarts.com.
• Smoky Mountain Dog Bar (Waynesville) will host “Open Mic Night” 5-7 p.m. Fridays. Free and open to the public. 828.246.0726 / smokymountaindogbakery.com.
• Stecoah Valley Center (Robbinsville) will
The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 828.538.0115 or visit mountainlayersbrewingcompany.com.
Free and open to the public. 828.200.0813 / the-stubborn-bull.com.
• Trailborn (Highlands) will host its “Carolina Concert Series” with David Cheatham (singer-songwriter) Dec. 4 and Remedy 58 (blues/soul) Dec. 11. All shows begin at 6 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.482.1581 or trailborn.com/highlands.
• Twisted Spoke Food & Tap (Maggie Valley) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.926.1730 / facebook.com/twistedspokerestaurant.
• Valley Tavern (Maggie Valley) will host “Karaoke with Jason” Tuesdays, “Tom’s Trivia Night” Wednesdays and Crimson Moon Dec. 5. All shows and events begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.926.7440 / valley-tavern.com.
• Veterans Of Foreign Wars Post 5202 (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.456.9356 / vfw5202.org.
• Vineyard At High Holly (Scaly Mountain) will host Breeze Cable (singer-songwriter) 2 p.m. Dec. 6, Monica Spears (singer-songwriter) 2 p.m. Dec. 7 and Tim Austin (singer-songwriter) 2 p.m. Dec. 14. Free and open to the public. 828.482.5573 / thevineyardathighholly.com.
• Western Carolina Brew & Wine (Highlands) will host live music 4-6 p.m. Saturdays, Woolybooger (blues/folk) 5 p.m. Dec. 5 and Mick Mayer (singer-songwriter) 5 p.m. Dec. 12. Free and open to the public. 828.342.6707 / wcbrewandwine.com.
Shane Meade will play Bryson City Dec.
On the street
Dillsboro’s ‘Lights & Luminaries’
The 42nd annual “Lights & Luminaries” will return from 5-9 p.m. Dec. 5-6 and 12-13 in the streets of downtown Dillsboro.
Experience the magic as the entire town is transformed into a winter wonderland of lights, candles, laughter and song. Over 2,500 luminaries light your way to shops and studios.
Each night, shops will stay open way into the night providing free refreshments, musicians and singers performing in individual shops. The sound of hooves will echo through the night with old-fashioned horse and buggy rides.
With retail shops offering a variety of quality arts and crafts, unique gifts, clothing, gourmet foods/wines and specialty Christmas items, the festival provides a unique holiday shopping experience.
Shopkeepers and restaurants are open late. See Santa and Mrs. Claus as they ride through town in their pickup truck. Write a letter to Santa and drop it off at his special mailbox. Live music will also be held on Front Street.
Free and open to the public. For more information, visit dillsboronc.info.
• “Celtic Christmas” will be held from 6-8:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 5, at the Otto Community Center. Celebrate the holidays in a traditional Celtic way with fiddles, whistles, drums, singers, Irish dancers, storytelling and more. Admission by donation ($20 suggested). All are welcome. For more information, visit go2ottonc.com.
• “Winter Wonderland Nights” will be held Dec. 6 in Franklin. Downtown will feature living window displays of the holidays, live
sounds of the season outdoors at the gazebo and inside stores, free holiday attractions (weather permitting), refreshments, hot cider, great sales from local merchants and more. franklin-chamber.com/events.
• “Polar Express” train ride will roll down the tracks on select dates from the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad depot in downtown Bryson City. For a complete listing of departure dates and times, 800.872.4681 or gsmr.com.
‘Christmas at Lake Junaluska’
A beloved annual tradition, the “Christmas at Lake Junaluska” celebration will be held Dec. 12-14 at the Lake Junaluska Conference & Retreat Center.
• “Holly Jolly Trolley Tour” from 5:30-8 p.m. Dec. 12 and 14 at the York Dining Commons. Join Jolly Elf as you tour the lake in the Holly Jolly Trolley. Enjoy festive Christmas lights, an onboard scavenger hunt, music, hot cocoa, cider, a marshmallow roast and more.
Activities” from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13, at the Harrell Center. Enjoy a spirited and fun day of Christmas shopping.
‘Christmas at Lake Junaluska’ will be Dec. 12-14. File photo
• “Festival of Lessons and Carols” at 6:45 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, at Memorial Chapel. Feel the spirit of Advent and Christmas this holiday season during Festival of Lessons and Carols, a one-hour traditional English service featuring Scripture readings and corresponding music.
• “Holiday Craft Market & Family
ALSO:
• “Christmas Light Show Drive-Thru” is running everyday through the holidays at the Great Smoky Mountains Event Park in Bryson City, except Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Admission is $20 for cars and family vans and $40 for activity vans and limousines. Tour buses and school buses are not allowed due to the tight turns at the entrance. For more information, visit explorebrysoncity.com/events/christmas-holiday/christmas-lights.
On the table
• “Breakfast With Santa” from 9-11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, at the Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center in Robbinsville. Pancake breakfast, cookie decoration, ornament craft and more. Bring your own camera for Santa. Cost is $8 per person. stecoahvalleycenter.com.
• “Letters to Santa, Hot Cocoa & Cookies” from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. through the holidays at the Bryson City Visitors Center in downtown. Free and open to the public. greatsmokies.com/events.
• “Breakfast with Santa” from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, Dec. 6, at the Rivers End Restaurant in Bryson City. noc.com/events/breakfast-withsanta.
• “Cookie Walk & Christmas Bazaar” from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, at the Bryson City United Methodist Church on Main Street. greatsmokies.com/events.
• Cataloochee Ranch (Maggie Valley) will host semi-regular culinary events and workshops throughout the week. For a full schedule of upcoming activities, tickets and reservations, visit cataloocheeranch.com/ranch-event.
• Balsam Mountain Inn (Balsam) will host “Wind Down Wine Flight” 6 p.m. Thursdays. 828.283.0145 / thebalsammountaininn.com.
For more information and a full schedule of activities, visit lakejunaluska.com/eventscalendar.
• “Christmas Wonderland” hayrides will be held at Darnell Farms near Bryson City through Dec. 28. Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Limited seating available. For a full schedule and/or to purchase tickets, visit on darnellfarms.com.
• “Winterfest” ice skating and food truck rodeo every Friday and Saturday through Dec. 27 at the Cherokee Welcome Center. visitcherokeenc.com/event/2025-winterfest.
• Classic Wineseller (Waynesville) will have its wine bar open 4-8 p.m. Fridays/Saturdays and semi-regular wine tastings on the weekends. 828.452.6000 / classicwineseller.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.
• “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.
• “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.
‘Lights & Luminaries’ returns to Dillsboro Dec. 5. JCTDA photo
Rediscovering place in Southern Appalachia
As author Thomas Rain Crowe discovered during his own long journey from Western North Carolina to California to Europe (and with due respect to another Western North Carolinian, Thomas Wolfe), you can go home again. Crowe did. In previous contributions to the eco-literature canon (he wrote the acclaimed books “Zoro’s Field: My Life in the Appalachian Woods” and “The End of Eden” and edited Katuah: The Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians), Crowe in those projects provided vividly rendered insights from his journey across the world and his return to Appalachia. He is known for compelling prose and poetry that articulate hard-won wisdom regarding how we humans might live humbly in harmony with the natural and cultural history of our given/chosen place on earth.
itual renewal.
Substack author Joe Napora (who translated “Walam Olum,” an epic New World poem of alleged Native American origin) positioned Crowe’s new book as constituting an important contribution to the body of literature springing from acute integration of environmental and social consciousness.
Wrote Napora, “Gregory Bateson warned us more than fifty years ago that ‘if Lake Erie is driven insane, its insanity is incorporated in the larger system of your thought and experience.’ Since then, much has been written about how necessary it is to bring forward the intimate relationship between language and landscape: the writings of Barry
Crisis & Transition.’ He has taken to heart Gary Snyder’s words to him to do ‘the wild work.’ Do it and write it. Learn it. Love it. Live it. Crowe quotes Thoreau: ‘All good things are wild and free’ and shows what that means to him: ‘It’s not the money — it’s the wilderness that turns me on.’ … Crowe doesn’t seem interested in the Modernist demand to ‘Make it New,’ which is little more than a slogan to buy and buy more again. His writing takes us back, way back, where we need to go, like Snyder says of it, the wild work, to love work when ‘work and play are one.’”
The burden of this latest book, “New Natives: Becoming Indigenous in a Time of Crisis & Transition,” is to try to unburden people from dispiriting feelings of rootlessness they are enduring in this fraught moment in history. “New Natives” both consolidates the wisdom present in those previous books and elaborates on that wisdom, providing deepened understanding of the need for rootless humans to implant themselves in some place and in some community promising physical, psychic and spir-
‘Magazine Night’ at City Lights
City Lights Bookstore and Western Carolina University
up the university’s annual magazine and meet UCM staff, students and supporters
UP” story about last March’s inaugural Unite UP basketball
and learning experience for college-aged persons with intellectual disabilities, supporting
The event is free and open to all. For more information, visit citylightsnc.com or 828.586.9499.
“New Natives” emerged as a project idea at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva on April 13, 2025. During a poetry reading there for my new poetry book, “Blue Moon,” I publicly praised Crowe and photographer Simone Lipscomb (the former was a reader while the latter was in attendance at the reading) for their 2011 book “Crack Light,” and I wondered aloud if there might be a further collaboration. Not to take credit for “New Natives” other than to confess gratification that Crowe’s varied and always thought-provoking writings — emerging from his lifelong commitment to do “the wild work” and gathered from both previously published and unpublished sources — have been collected to meet the present moment when environmental protections of wild places are under siege. At one level, “New Natives” will serve in the defense of one place and its people (Appalachia), but the book will ultimately inspire people in other bioregions to engage deeply into their own place, whether native or adopted, and “Learn it. Love it. Live it.”
In the striking cover photograph to New Natives — one of several inspiring images contributed to the book by photographer Lipscomb — a climbing trail offers a rugged but clear path to the crest of a steep hill. Metaphorically, this suggests one of the ways “New Natives” will be of considerable value to readers: this book can serve as a sort of guidebook to help weary travelers find their way through the gap in the mountains ahead to the other side where, like Daniel Boone’s settlers, they may find a place in which they will be feel whole and free, like new natives. (Ted Olson lives in Johnson City, Tennessee, where he teaches Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University.)
Lopez, Gary Snyder and Robin Wall Kimmerer come easily to mind. Add Thomas Rain Crowe’s poetry and essays in ‘New Natives: Becoming Indigenous in a Time of
Lost apples of the Smokies
age and global transport networks grew in importance, many cultivars became either extinct or extremely rare. Cameron Peace, a professor of tree fruit genetics at Washington State University, estimated that fewer than half of these historic varieties still exist. Many of the names Greene mentioned in his interview — Hog Sweet, Winter John, Sheep’s Nose, Rusty Colt, Yellow Pippin and Nonesuch — are unfamiliar to today’s apple
Identifying rare apple trees was once an arcane and time-intensive art, but the advent of rapid and inexpensive DNA testing has made it much easier. The park partnered with Peace, who runs a fruit tree identification project called MyFruitTree, to test six trees at The Purchase.
Results showed that one of the trees was a Magnum Bonum, an apple common in the South through the 1930s. Nurseries dubbed it “the king of all fall apples,” according to the Southern Heritage Apple Orchard’s Apple Index; the fruit had white flesh sometimes stained red near the skin, and in taste it was “tender, juicy, fine-grained, aromatic and mildly subacid.”
Word from the Smokies
BY HOLLY KAYS FOR S MOKIES LIFE
Rediscovering the park’s apple harvest heritage
Growing up in Swain County, Nathan Dee Greene ate a lot of apples. The family had several trees of their own, but every fall, they bought bushels from the nearby orchard on Laurel Branch, across the Tuckasegee River from Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
“My mother would go all day, and she’d pick up the apples in a tote bag, and after school, I would go over and get them and sled them home,” said Greene in an archived interview. Now deceased, he was nearly 86 when he spoke with Nathan Somers in 2004 for the conversation now catalogued as part of Western Carolina University’s Oral Histories of Western North Carolina project. “At that time, the roads in this community, there was only sled roads; it was very small and very narrow and therefore it wasn’t big enough for a wagon. And you used sleds back then all the time.”
Whether fresh from the tree, sun-dried, sulfur-treated or preserved as apple butter, cider, brandy or vinegar, the apple was a beloved staple in the days before refrigeration
and global distribution networks. The versatile fruit thrived in the cool mountain climate, playing an important role in farms and communities throughout the Smoky Mountain region.
“The real benefit to those farm families having apples is that they last for a long time in root cellars,” said Jesse Webster, a forester with Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
“Cool, rock-sided apple barns could house those apples throughout the fall, throughout the winter, into the spring of the next year.”
The rocky remains of these structures are still scattered throughout the park, along with aged apple trees still clinging to life in the shade of the surrounding forest. Since 2019, Webster and his colleagues have been engaged in a project seeking to save these living remnants of the park’s cultural heritage.
“We’re protecting what we have on the landscape, because it helps connect the story that we’re telling,” Webster said. “It’s that link to the past.”
According to idiom, nothing is as American as apple pie. But the apple, like the forebears of most Americans, is an immigrant, originating half a world away in Kazakhstan. The wild crabapples that are the ancestors of all modern apple trees were first
varieties bred for attributes like crispness, sweetness and suitability for baking or long storage. Apples first arrived in the Americas sometime in the 1500s, with Native peoples as well as European settlers further adapting them to their own purposes.
“It’s pretty fascinating if you think about how apple trees have changed over time,” said Interpretive Park Ranger Michael Smith, who manages the Mountain Farm Museum adjacent to Oconaluftee Visitor Center and the eight apple trees in its orchard.
The oldest apple trees known to exist within the National Park Service are on The Purchase, an area of the Smokies in Haywood County that was added to the park in the 1990s. For about a century, this mountain was home to the Ferguson family, who cleared the land for livestock and agriculture — including apple trees, which thrived at the 5,000-foot elevation.
Today, more than 30 apple trees persist on The Purchase, and though they’re now more than 125 years old and have gone decades without human care, they’re still healthy. To keep them that way, in 2022 Webster and his crew cleared out nearby trees that were shading out the apples and began to prune and mow around the neglected fruit trees. Now, said Webster, “they’re really looking great.”
The next step was to identify the trees. Historically, at least 16,000 types of apples were grown in the United States, but as fewer people kept orchards and suitability for stor-
Most apple trees are actually a combination of two separate trees — the root stock, which determines how tall the tree will grow, and the scion, which determines what kind of fruit the tree will produce. Instead of using seeds, orchardists typically graft a scion of their desired cultivar onto a root stock, ensuring that the exact genetics of the desired cultivar are preserved.
DNA tests showed that the other five trees were the offspring of two different types of apples, indicating that, rather than growing from carefully grafted seedlings, they had likely been incidental plantings, sprouting up from a fallen apple left decaying on the ground. Identifying the trees’ parents could uncover the likely identities of older trees that have long since vanished from the Ferguson orchard.
“There are millions of trees out there, and we aren’t going to value them if we don’t know much about them,” said Peace. “If you know the name, it connects you with all the other stories, all the people who have ever grown it and enjoyed it and talked about it and written about it. It brings you into the big story. Otherwise, it’s just an orphan out there.”
Though local lore held that most of the Fergusons’ trees had been Limbertwigs, only one of the five trees tested had a type of Limbertwig as one of its parents. Another was the offspring of a Tolman Sweet, and two more a Ben Davis. Two of the trees had the same mystery cultivar as a parent. The trees’ DNA matched a sample held by the Temperate Orchard Conservancy in Oregon labeled as “Pittsburg,” but Peace has not yet been able to confirm whether the Pittsburg label itself is correct. Three more parents remain a mystery.
“Some of these trees we’re finding at Purchase Knob might be
Missie King Oakley makes apple butter at Twin Creeks in 1933, once a common fall chore in the Smokies. Colorized National Park Service photo
NOC wins ‘Event of the Year’ award
The Nantahala Racing Club and Nantahala Outdoor Center announced they have been honored with the American Canoe Association’s 2025 “Event of the Year” award for hosting the 2025 Junior Olympics and Regional Teams Development Camp.
This national recognition celebrates NOC and NRC’s shared commitment to advancing youth paddlesports and nurturing the next generation of competitive canoe and kayak athletes. Held this past summer on the Nantahala River, the event brought together more than 50 young paddlers from across the country for a week of racing, skill-building and community connection. The program featured age-group slalom and kayak cross competitions, expert coaching sessions and athlete development workshops, all designed to help participants grow as both athletes and stewards of the sport.
“Event of the Year” award recognizes events that exemplify excellence in organization, innovation and community impact. For NOC and NRC, the honor highlights decades of dedication to youth development and the continued growth of competitive paddlesports in the U.S.
The award was presented on Oct. 18
Celebration and PaddleFest at the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte. The ceremony honored instructors, volunteers, organizations and leaders whose service continues to shape the future of paddlesports.
The American Canoe Association’s
rediscovered varieties,” Webster said.
The Purchase is not the only place in the park with old apple trees. Webster is working to find and identify additional trees, now awaiting results on 15 specimens that have been sampled at Cades Cove, Cataloochee, Smokemont and a high-elevation site along Kuwohi Road. Webster expects to finish assessing the park’s apple trees by spring 2026.
Though he anticipates finding plenty more apple trees that have persisted, overlooked, in previously inhabited areas of the park, there’s already an easy way for visitors to experience the Smokies’ apple harvest history. At the Mountain Farm Museum next to Oconaluftee Visitor Center, eight apple trees grow inside a high fence — erected in 2015 to protect the trees from elk — next to an apple barn that once stood on a farm in Little Cataloochee.
“For us here in the park, we’re not intensive like you’d see on commercial orchards,” Smith said. “We don’t treat trees or spray trees for insects. We don’t use any fungicide. We let them be more natural, a little less input. We don’t fertilize.”
Every year, Smith and his colleagues prune the trees and assess their condition. Most of the easy-to-reach apples end up being picked by visitors, but any that remain are either fed to the farm’s pigs and chickens or used as educational tools at the
Accepting the award on behalf of NOC was Lee Liebfarth, father of Evy Liebfarth, Olympic bronze medalist in women’s canoe single at the Paris 2024 Olympics, who trained on the Nantahala River.
annual Mountain Life Festival, held at the farm each September.
“You have to decide what the purpose and the goal for your orchard is,” Smith said. “For us, it’s to have trees and a small orchard and produce some apples, but also to talk about why those apples were important to people.”
In every apple is a taste of history — and a mouthful of possibilities. Old apple trees like those found in the Smokies offer the potential not only to resurrect historic varieties but to create new ones.
“Anyone can cross anything with anything,” Peace said. “The more people are doing that, the more we are recreating that diversity that used to exist. A lot of that crossing has already been done by nature itself, and so you can just go out and find these old trees, and if they’ve got some really great attributes, then bang — there’s a potential new cultivar.”
Do you have an old apple tree on your property? Learn how to get its DNA tested by myfruittree.org.
(Holly Kays is the lead writer for the 29,000member Smokies Life, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the scientific, historical and interpretive activities of Great Smoky Mountains National Park by providing educational products and services such as this column. Learn more at SmokiesLife.org or reach the author at hollyk@smokieslife.org.)
Nantahala Outdoor Center.
Over 1,000 acres protected in Haywood County
The Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy has transferred 1,060 acres in Haywood County to the State of North Carolina to become part of public lands managed by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission.
These tracts include land for the Cold Mountain Game Land and Pisgah Game Lands, including the 409-acre White Oak Mountain tract adjoining the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that SAHC purchased in December 2024. These transfers continue a long-standing partnership between SAHC and the NCWRC in conserving and managing land and opening outdoor recreation access to the public.
These 1,060 acres of conserved and transferred land are located in three corners of Haywood County — on the southwestern slopes of Mt. Pisgah, the northwestern edge of Cold Mountain, and in the northwest corner of the county on White Oak Mountain, bordering the GSMNP. Each of the transferred tracts is now managed by the NCWRC.
tract was made possible by a grant from the NC Land and Water Fund, support from generous conservation donors, and a grant from the Pigeon River Fund of The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina.
A little further west in Haywood County, SAHC transferred 167 acres at Dix Creek for the Cold Mountain Game Land. SAHC had acquired this tract in 2022, and the transfer is the latest in a series of projects in which SAHC has partnered with NCWRC to fill out the Cold Mountain Game Land. NCWRC recently completed a new gravel parking area on the property, and access through this tract is open to the public.
In the northwest corner of Haywood County, SAHC transferred the 408-acre White Oak Mountain property to the state to be managed by NCWRC. The property adjoins both the GSMNP and Pisgah National Forest, creating an important corridor for wildlife movement. Habitat here supports a wide range of species, including birds, deer, elk, bear, and more. SAHC purchased the property last year to protect wildlife habitat and prevent real estate development on the edge of the national park.
Near the Cruso community of Haywood County, SAHC purchased and transferred 409 acres on the slopes of Mt. Pisgah around Pisgah Creek to the state for the Pisgah Game Land, along with an adjoining 76-acre property that SAHC had acquired in 2020.
SAHC’s purchase of the Pisgah Creek
Grants from the NCLWF and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, along with generous support from conservation-minded donors, made the protection of the White Oak Mountain property possible.
The 1,060 acres of conserved and transferred land are located in three corners of Haywood County. Donated graphic
The Joyful Botanist
BY ADAM B IGELOW
Native Plants and Native People
Ithink a lot about native plants. In fact, it is the subject of most everything I do, from the weekly wildflower walks I lead during the growing season, to the many classes, workshops and presentations I offer throughout the year. And I write about native plants in these columns that I produce twice a month. My focus is on plants that are native to the southern Appalachian Mountains and Western North Carolina.
When I’m writing or talking about native plants, I’m always careful to say the full phrase “native plants” and not just shorten it to “natives” out of respect for the native people who have lived here continuously for tens of thousands of years and are still here.
I live in the WNC mountains on land that was taken from the Aniyunwiya, Tsalagi or Anikituah people, who are known collectively in modern terms as Cherokee. This is Cherokee land. They are the original inhabitants and tenders of the forests, meadows, mountains and rivers of this beautiful land.
Many mountain folk, the term I use for the settlers of Appalachia who are descendants of people from Scotland and Ireland, are proud of their family history going back hundreds of years to the 18th Century. That familial continuity is something to celebrate. When compared to upward of 25,000 years of continuous living and cultivation of land, however, it pales in comparison. That is how long people have been living here. If you ask the native Cherokee people, they have always been here.
But if we’re going to brag on how long a family has lived here, then the native plants of Cherokee land have the bragging rights going back millions upon millions of years, long before people arrived on the land. Native plants like tulip-poplar (lirioden-
(magnolia fraseri) are from the magnolia family (magnoliaceae), which is among the oldest flowering plant families in the world. Magnolias have been on the land for hundreds of millions of years. They have been around so long that their flowers evolved before bees and flying insects and are still pollinated by crawling beetles. Magnolias are older than wings.
When people have been living on and with the land for such a long time as the native people have here, relationships with the land and especially with plants develop strong, interconnected ties. This is true of indigenous people of North America, whose close attention and careful work led to the creation and care of many foods that we take for granted on our plates, especially in our holiday feasts and traditions.
A native plant is defined (in one of many different definitions) as one that existed on the land prior to European contact. In general, and even as modern historical discoveries have shown otherwise, I tend to use the classic 1492 date as the demarcation line for defining when a plant moved and introduced by people is either native or exotic. If it was brought here in 1491 or before, then it is considered by many as a native plant.
tional feasts in the United States come from North, Central and South America. Many people don’t know this due to how these plant species have been changed and spread around the world over time. If you associate potatoes (solanum tuberosa) with Ireland and tomatoes (solanum lycopersicum) with Italy and not from Peru, where
Cranberries (vaccinium macrocarpon), blueberries (vaccinium spp.) and strawberries (fragaria virginica) all can be found growing in the wild of WNC, as well as on our grateful tables and in our full bellies after feasts. And they are all native plants. Maybe you even sweetened those fruit pies or sauces from the sugar maple tree (acer
By this definition, corn (Zea mays) can be considered native to Appalachia. Corn, as we know it today, was created through traditional breeding methods over thousands of years by the Mexica people, whom we know as Aztec. They took a weedy grass species called teosinte (zea sp.) and through intention, care and observation bred a food that dominates our plates to this day.
Many of the foods that we eat at tradi-
they both were developed, then you too have been fooled by the Columbian Exchange. This is the collective term for the spread of plants and animals for production by colonizing and conquering European nations.
Squashes like the pumpkin (cucurbita pepo) and candy roaster (cucurbita maxima) used for pie or porch decorations are so native to this land that they continue to have co-evolved bee associates that are involved in its pollination. These are the squash bees (Peponapis spp. and xenoglossa spp.) who make their homes in the bare soil just under the squash’s stem.
saccharum), which is also native here.
I don’t celebrate the traditional, apocryphal story of Thanksgiving, as it is tied to the genocide of native people. I prefer to honor the many native tribes and peoples whose land was stolen in the creation of this country. I do celebrate their traditional foods, and the ingenuity and intelligence used in their care and breeding. And I celebrate native plants. Here’s to the natives of this land. May they continue.
(The Joyful Botanist leads weekly wildflower walks most Fridays and offers consultations and private group tours through Bigelow’s Botanical Excursions. bigelownc@gmail.com.)
This is Cherokee Land. Adam Bigelow photo
Dreaming of spring? Beat the winter blues by planting native seeds.
Late fall and early winter are the perfect times to sow many native species, which benefit pollinators, wildlife, soil and water quality — all while being low-maintenance in your garden. Thanks to our volunteers, a variety of local seeds are now available for free through Mainspring’s WNC Wildseed Library.
Stop by the Jackson County Public Library (next to the Sylva Seed Library) or the Macon County Public Library in
Franklin to see the selection and check back monthly for new species. Each packet includes sunlight, soil and water info, plus germination instructions — a virtual seed catalogue offers even more details.
This new Mainspring volunteer program connects people to the Southern Blue Ridge’s natural heritage, helping communities grow and steward native plants, from a window basket to a whole yard. Individuals can support the program by volunteering, donating seeds or contributing financially.
Large animal health grants awarded to Macon
Ten North Carolina veterinary practices were recently awarded grants to help support their large animal practices. This $130,000 recurring fund was created by the N.C. General Assembly in 2023 and is annually administered by the N.C. Ag Finance Authority.
Applicants intend to use funding this round for student debt repayments, facility construction, equipment loans, a variety of animal chutes and new technology and software. The veterinarians selected during this funding cycle cover 47 of the 100 counties across North Carolina.
In The Smoky Mountain News coverage area, grantees were Cowee Cowgirl Mobile Large Animal Veterinary Services and Farm and Field Mobile Large Animal Veterinary Services in Macon County. This funding opportunity is available to veterinarians who practice in one of the 70 North Carolina counties with a population of 100,000 or fewer and who spend 30% or more of their patient care involved in large animal veterinary care.
Turkey operation tests
positive for bird flu
A turkey breeding operation in Wayne County has tested positive for High Path Avian Influenza. The positive sample was first identified by the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Veterinary Diagnostic Lab in Raleigh.
This is the first case of high path avian influenza in commercial poultry in North Carolina since January 2025. Prior to this case, North Carolina had 14 commercial flocks and 12 backyard flocks impacted by avian influenza. The latest case in Wayne County impacts 9,500 turkeys.
This strain of HPAI virus is considered a low risk to people according to the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control but is highly contagious to other birds, including commercial and backyard flocks of poultry. The virus is also not considered a food safety threat, and infected birds do not enter the food supply.
Commercial operations and backyard flock owners should continue to follow strict biosecurity measures. If your birds are sick or dying, report it right away to your local veterinarian, the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Veterinary Division, 919.707.3250 or the N.C. Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory System at 919.733.3986.
Information on HPAI in general and an online listing of all N.C. cases since 2022 is at ncagr.gov/divisions/veterinary/avianinfluenza.
The selection of seeds will be updated monthly. Donated photo
MarketPlace information:
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NOTICE OF SERVICE OF PROCESS BY PUBLICATION STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA LEE COUNTY IN THE DISTRICT COURT FILE NO. 25CV001788520
TIMOTHY LAYNE, JR., Plaintiff, vs. SHANNON RAE LAYNE, Defendant. )
TO : Shannon Rae Layne, the above-named Defendant:
TAKE NOTICE that a pleading seeking relief against you has been action. The nature of the relief being sought is as
follows:
ABSOLUTE DIVORCE
You are required to make defense to such pleading not later than December 29, 2025, said date being
publication of this Notice, and upon your failure to do so, the party seeking service against you will apply to the Court for the relief sought.
This the 19th day of November, 2025
WINSTEAD
& FEINDEL, PA
Susan M. Feindel Attorney for Plaintiff 1094 Wilkins Drive/P.O. Box 37 Sanford, North Carolina 27330
Telephone: (919) 2920526
TO BE PUBLISHED: November 19, 26 and December 3, 2025
NOTICE OF ADMINISTRATION
Case No.25E000669-430
Earlene Rebecca Gibson Robinson, having -
utor of the Estate of Norma June Gibson of Haywood County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate to present them to the undersigned on or before Mar 03 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate, please make immediate payment.
Executor
Attn: Earlene Robinson 89 Wild Rose Lane Canton NC 28716
NOTICE OF ADMINISTRATION
Case No.25E000690-430
Claudia Denise Burrell,
Administrator of the Estate of Orpha Ilah Clark Burrell of Haywood County, North Carolina,
this is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate to present them to the undersigned on or before Mar 03 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery.
All persons indebted to said Estate, please make immediate payment.
Administrator 5 Knoll Ridge Rd Candler, NC 28715
NOTICE OF ADMINISTRATION
Case No.25E000368-490
Mary N. Bigwitch, havingistrator of the Estate of Charles William Bigwitch of Jackson County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate to present them to the undersigned on or before Feb 12 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate, please make immediate payment.
Administrator c/o Mary Bigwitch 705 W Main Street Sylva, NC 28779
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Legal, Financial and Tax
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Wanted to Buy
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SUDOKU
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Physicians Mutual Insurance Company
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