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On the Cover:
It’s hard not to notice the toll that fentanyl and methamphetamine have taken on the region, but not many people are aware of how they gets here. SMN examines how the war on drugs plays out from the southern border to Western North Carolina. (Page 10) An agent handles drugs following a raid. Shutterstock photo
News
Tribe approves $64 million for cannabis enterprise..................................................6
Legislative tour focuses on lingering flood impact....................................................7 How drugs come into WNC and what if anything can be done about it........10 Canton will get mill’s whistles, other historic artifacts............................................23
Manipulating Macon: commissioner gaslights entire public body......................25
Opinion
Life without the phone? Simply unimaginable..........................................................26 The Hoyle house still lives in my memories................................................................27
A&E
Slice of the dream: New Sylva pizzeria comes full circle......................................28
Character counts: a review of James Rosen’s ‘Scalia’..........................................35
Outdoors
Botanical survey complete for Pinnacle Park............................................................36
Notes From A Plant Nerd: Long in the Toothwort..................................................42
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SYLVA |
written by Ingles Dietitian Leah McGrath
Traditionally buttermilk used to be a naturally fermented beverage, the leftover product of the churning of cream to make butter. Now you can find buttermilk made commercially by milk processors (like MILKCO that supplies our Laura Lynn brand) by adding probiotic cultures to milk (of any level of fat from whole to skim/fat-free) to “culture” it and create lactic acid. The result is a slightly thick, sour-tasting beverage that is “cultured” with good bacteria (probiotics) much like yogurt.
Fun facts:
• If you have never tried buttermilk but like plain Greek yogurt of kefir, you will probably like buttermilk.
• You will get probiotics (good bacteria) from drinking buttermilk and much like drinking milk, you’ll get calcium and vitamin D from buttermilk as well. The calories for the buttermilk will depend on the type of milk used.
• The sodium amount for buttermilk is higher (about 2x as much) as in milk so if you are on a sodium restricted diet, please pay attention to this.
• Buttermilk can be used in place of milk to make biscuits, waffles, pancakes and even smoothies. You can also use buttermilk to make salad dressings and when making fried chicken.
• Because of the probiotics, some individuals with lactose intolerance may tolerate buttermilk better than regular milk. (Please note: lactose intolerance is NOT the same thing as an allergy to cow’s milk protein. If you are allergic to cow’s milk protein you should NOT drink buttermilk!)
• Need some buttermilk for a recipe but don’t have any? Put 1 TBSP vinegar or 1 TBSP lemon juice into a 1 cup measuring cup and fill remaining with milk. Let sit for 5 minutes.
Sources: https://slate.com/human-interest/2012/05/history-of-buttermilk-whats-thedifference-between-cultured-buttermilk-and-traditional-buttermilk.html https://www.foodrepublic.com/2013/01/03/what-is-buttermilk-and-how-do-i-make-it-usingregular-milk/#:~:text=Simply%20put%2C%20it's%20the%20liquid,enzymes%20into%20low %2Dfat%20milk. https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/how-to-make-buttermilk/
Leah McGrath, RDN, LDN Ingles Market Corporate Dietitian
Leah
McGrath - Dietitian
Following more than an hour of discussion capping off months of debate, the Cherokee Tribal Council voted April 6 to fully fund its cannabis enterprise’s eightfigure startup funding request.
“We cannot go borrow the money from a bank,” said Qualla Enterprise General Manager Forrest Parker. “It’s federally illegal. That’s why nobody can provide anybody a cookie-cutter letter from NIGC [National Indian Gaming Commission] that says, ‘Hey, everybody’s good to go. Don’t worry about it’. That’s why we have this opportunity, is because of that. If it was just cookie-cutter easy, then everybody would be [doing it].”
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has been talking about various forms of legalized cannabis use since 2015, when Tribal Council approved a resolution funding a feasibility study for marijuana legalization on tribal lands. Then-Principal Chief Patrick Lambert vetoed the resolution, but Tribal Council approved another, similar resolution in 2018, and Principal Chief Richard Sneed signed it. In 2021, the tribe legalized medical marijuana and decriminalized possession of small amounts of the drug.
That same year, the tribe created an LLC to sell and produce medical marijuana products and an advisory commission to recommend a regulatory framework for a medical cannabis program. The LLC, now called Qualla Enterprise, has so far received $31 million from Tribal Council to launch the business but told the body it needed an additional $64 million to get off the ground.
“What matters is number one, how many customers can legally walk into that store and purchase. Number two, how much product do we have to sell them?” Parker said. “That’s the only two things that drive revenue here. And I don’t have the product without the infrastructure.”
There is little resistance around the horseshoe to supporting the tribe’s burgeoning medical cannabis industry, with most Council members enthusiastically in favor. Parker expects the enterprise to be extremely lucrative, supporting 400-500 local jobs while getting the tribe well ahead of the curve in an industry that — for the moment — is still illegal in North Carolina outside the Qualla Boundary. However, for months Tribal Council has hedged on giving Qualla Enterprise its full start-up funding request for fear of running into trouble with the NIGC, which oversees the tribe’s fattest cash cow — Harrah’s Cherokee Casinos.
Revenues from the casinos in Cherokee and Murphy fund about half the tribe’s budget and give each tribal member roughly
$15,000 in direct payments each year.
In December, when Qualla Enterprises asked for $63 million to prepare for its first year of retail sales, Tribal Council appropriated $10 million from the funding sources it could identify that were not tied to gambling proceeds but said the LLC would need to find a loan for the rest, with the tribe serving as guarantor. Due to cannabis’ continued designation as illegal under federal law, securing a loan proved impossible, causing Parker to return month after month to con-
By this time, the $53 million request had grown to $64 million. According to Carolyn West, chair of the Qualla Enterprise board, this was to cover operational expenses incurred since the original December 2022 request. The need for funding had also become more urgent as deadlines loomed for contracts and other commitments to move the business forward. Council members worried that if they didn’t find the money now, they’d lose the $31 million they’d already invested.
the past to the future.”
When the tribe’s general fund balance exceeds 50% of the annual budget, the excess goes into its investment accounts, so those accounts contain some funds that originate from non-gaming revenues like the tribal levy. Yellowhill Rep. T.W. Saunooke said investment accounts are also a valid source of non-gaming revenue due to their function as interest-earning accounts.
tinue the conversation with Tribal Council.
“If we were to say that we’re going to use gaming revenues to fund this, then what we put at risk is being shut down at our gaming operation by NIGC for being out of compliance with federal law,” Principal Chief Richard Sneed told Council during the December discussion.
That concern led Council to amend the December 2022 resolution to stipulate that funding above the $10 million available from non-gaming revenues should come from a loan.
Qualla Enterprise came back in January to report that the loan avenue was not successful and to renew its request for funding, but Tribal Council tabled the request, and it remained tabled until the April 6 session.
“The hesitancy here I see is going to cost us $31 million,” said Big Cove Rep. Teresa McCoy. “I do not understand it.”
Qualla Enterprise made its case for why Tribal Council could appropriate the $64 million without endangering its casino enterprise. Attorney Darian Stanford of Sovereign Solutions Carolina gave a recap of all the allocations Tribal Council had previously made to Qualla Enterprise, pointing out $14 million — nearly half — was initially appropriated to Kituwah LLC from the tribe’s investment accounts before being transferred to the medical cannabis enterprise. The rest came from various non-gaming revenues.
“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel here,” Stanford said. “We’re simply using the language that this Council and the principal chief’s office has approved in the past and applying it just the same as it had been in
“Every dime that we take and we got from gaming that’s in Endowment II or Sovereign Wealth Fund, wherever it is, it’s not just sitting in the bank,” Saunooke said. “For the most part, it’s invested into the stock market. Anything that is earned is earned off that other business. Anything that is left available of interest earned is no longer a gaming dollar.”
Other Council members argued against the idea of having to categorize its funds as gaming or non-gaming dollars at all.
“I want to make it very clear to everybody here and the viewing public and whoever else is watching — we’re not asking Harrah’s Casino for any money,” said Vice Chair Albert Rose. “When that money leaves that casino up there and comes over to the tribe, the identity is lost. Now this fear mongering of ‘it’s still gaming money sitting in
Nearly two years after rains from Tropical Storm Fred inundated Haywood County and flooded parts of Bethel, Canton, Clyde and Cruso, important infrastructure projects are continuing with significant help from the North Carolina General Assembly.
On April 17, Rep. Mark Pless (RHaywood) brought legislators from across the state to show them firsthand the work that remains.
“One of the hardest things about recovery from such a tragic event is knowing exactly what needs to be done,” Pless said. “Over the last year, year-and-a-half, we have worked hard to find what the problems are, we’ve worked hard to address the issues, we’ve thrown a lot of money this way and now we’re fine-tuning how that’s going to look.”
The rest of far Western North Carolina’s House delegation showed up in support of Pless, including reps Mike Clampitt (RSwain) and Karl Gillespie (R-Macon). Pless
also welcomed Rep. Jennifer Balkcom (RHenderson) and House Majority Leader John Bell (R-Wayne), who with Pless chairs the disaster recovery and homeland security committee.
A number of local government officials from Canton, Clyde, Haywood County, Haywood Schools and the Haywood County Sheriff’s Office took part in the tour, which began in the parking lot of Canton’s old town hall.
destruction. A culvert on Rhoda Street that couldn’t handle the immense volume of floodwaters was the second stop, meant to illustrate what happens when water can’t get to a reservoir or basin.
“Now they can look at it, and the legislature can understand why we need to make sure that we’re not just repairing damage, we’re doing it better this time so that we prevent damage the second time,” Pless said.
Like the downtown Canton projects, the
sit amid fields of rubble and wrecked vehicles. They’re a poignant reminder of when the Pigeon River slammed into the small working-class neighborhood tucked in between Cruso Road and Max Thompson Road.
It will happen again, but next time, Pless wants to be sure the damage isn’t as severe. He wants buyouts, and wants to be sure nothing will be built there ever again. The area could become a wetland or be returned to agricultural use so long as the farmers understand that they could one day lose everything.
“We don’t know exactly how much the buyouts are going to cost at this point, so we don’t know how much money we need,” Pless said. “I know that money that is in Raleigh right now that we appropriated, I have some flexibility. If I can get some of that shifted around, we’re looking at $5 or $6 million to start so that we can go ahead and go down that road. And we’re going to add more money to it once we realize how much it’s going to cost to actually do the buyouts.”
From there it was off to the bridge on Hungry Creek Road, which spans the river.
“Hungry Creek is an example of what happens when we don’t put the streams back where they originally were,” Pless said, noting the flooding that took place in 2004. “Now what we’re seeing is, the river is migrating to one side or the other, which changes what floods next time. We have to have a plan to put these streams back. That’s why the American Flood Coalition was here, to help us understand how we need to build back and get the streams where they came from.”
The American Flood Coalition is a nonprofit comprised of local, state and national elected officials as well as leaders in the business community and the military that advocates resiliency-based solutions to emerging environmental issues. Representatives of the group have visited Canton multiple times since 2021.
“The issue of flood resiliency, flood recovery — that is truly a statewide issue, because the need is truly statewide,” said Tony McEwen, Carolinas director of the AFC. “It’s not just a coastal issue. We’re actively working with legislators in Raleigh to make sure that the existing funding streams and future funding streams, as well as flood policy in general, bears in mind the kind of unique issues that you face here in Western North Carolina.”
On Cruso Road, where it intersects with Rattlesnake Branch Road, there’s a stunning view of the river below demonstrating how the flood changed its course and where, exactly, it imperils the roadway.
All projects in the town of Canton — town hall, the police and fire departments, the armory and the Colonial Theatre — have been funded, but Pless started the tour there to show his fellow legislators the scope of the
Rhoda Street project is funded; however, the rest of Pless’ tour was a multi-million-dollar to-do list focusing on both recovery and resiliency.
In Hidden Valley, abandoned homes still
“Rattlesnake Cove is a big deal. It’s an area that the roadway is going to erode again because the river turns as it comes in. Any time we get a heavy rain, it causes more of that bank to come off. It’s dangerous to the folks that live there but it’s more dangerous in the fact that eventually another storm is going to hit it and it’s going to wipe that road out completely,” Pless said. “If we can
“We’ve thrown a lot of money this way and now we’re fine-tuning how that’s going to look.”— Rep. Mark Pless
go in and get some transportation funding, get some engineers up here from DOT, figure out a way to get that reinforced and shored up and get maybe even get the river diverted away from it, we can protect that area.”
Protecting the area as a whole also means looking at first responders and their needs; Pless, who is formerly EMS, and Clampitt, a retired fire captain, both took great interest in what happened at Cruso’s fire station 2.
During the flood, water penetrated the building on Michael Road. Firefighters were able to get one of the trucks out in time, but another ended up stranded in 4 feet of water in the garage. Both the truck and the building need to be replaced.
“Cruso doesn’t have the budget to go in and replace stations and move stuff around. We’re going to try to help them get up out of the floodway, so that from now on, they can respond and do what they need to do, but do it from a safe location,” Pless said.
Finally, the tour wound up at Central Haywood High School in Clyde. The school sits right on the Pigeon River, not far from the bridge where hundreds upon hundreds of green peppers, violently stripped from their stems by fast-moving floodwaters, washed up.
But the school is also part of a larger facility that houses not only the school board’s meeting room, which has now been flooded twice, but also the school system’s information technology department.
Classes are currently being held at the former Central Elementary site in Waynesville, which Pless says isn’t ideal.
“We need them back in Clyde,” he said. “The school board doesn’t have the money. The county doesn’t have the money with everything that’s going on with the mill and the possibility of them closing. We need to be able to get them moving forward and I think we need to get them off the river so that it never floods again.”
Balkcom said that the county she represents, Henderson County, experiences periodic flooding from the French Broad River and that there are also infrastructure issues there that need to be fixed.
“I think the big thing is being prepared, setting money aside knowing that this happens maybe two or three times a year,” she said. “Being prepared for it makes a world of difference.”
Bell said he’d been looking at Haywood County’s flood damage on paper for more than a year, but that seeing in person made quite an impact.
“My brain has been turning the whole trip on how we can reclassify terminology on different pieces of legislation to help Western North Carolina tap into some of the same funding that eastern North Carolina has had,” he said. “I think that when we get back to Raleigh, we’ll sit down with Rep. Pless sometime this week and will figure out some ways that we can go ahead and quickly address some of the problems that I’ve seen today.”
our bank account’ — it’s not. It’s tribal money.”
During his comments on the floor, Parker pledged that Qualla Enterprise would view the $64 million as a loan rather than an appropriation, eventually paying the tribe back.
“If the tribe goes and gets a loan, a line
tice it would be wise on the front end to try to get the broader picture and get prepared for that,” she said, “but whereas our people have not spoken by referendum on whether or not they want adult use or recreational, again if you were to pass this, my concern is that has already been bypassed.”
Parker replied that the requested funding would go toward infrastructure for medical cannabis production only. The bulk of the ask, $35 million, is for an indoor grow facility, which will boost the
dum.
“We’d never not let the people vote [on that],” he said.
Sneed, who has been a longtime supporter of the cannabis enterprise effort but a vocal opponent of ignoring NIGC guidance about funding cannabis operations, was not in the Council chambers when Tribal Council discussed the resolution April 6. Should he decide to veto the legislation, Tribal Council would need a two-thirds weighted vote to override that decision. The weighted vote April 6 came out 63-31 in favor of passage, with Snowbird/Cherokee County Rep. Adam Wachacha’s six votes absent, so any veto override attempt would have little margin for error.
of credit or anything, however y’all want to give it to us, we will pay it back,” Parker
The resolution Tribal Council voted on was a substitute for the document attached to the agenda, and the substitute was not available as of press time. But based on West’s summary to Council of changes from the original, language treating the appropriation as a loan does not appear to be in the document Tribal Council voted on. No amendments were made during the discussion.
Wolfetown resident Susan Toineeta questioned the $64 million figure, asking whether the money would go solely toward launching the medical cannabis business or if some of it would fund infrastructure in preparation for recreational legalization in the future. Any decision to legalize recreational marijuana, she said, should be made by referendum vote.
“I understand how in a business prac-
quantity and quality of the plants. In phase two of the business — North Carolina’s anticipated legalization of medical cannabis — he expects revenue potential to skyrocket.
“We have to somewhat be prepared for that,” he said. “We’re not overbuilding. We are not building for adult use. We’re building for a medical cannabis dispensary. But we’re the only people that can grow for it. We’re the only people that can make product for it. And we’re the only facility within 350 miles.”
Recreational use, Rose said, would be a matter for the people to decide by referen-
Following the discussion, Tribal Council first voted on a move to table the resolution, with Yellowhill Rep. David Wolfe, Wolfetown Rep. Mike Parker and Painttown Reps. Dike Sneed and Michael Stamper voting in favor and the remaining members against. The move failed, and Council then voted on a motion to pass the resolution, which broke down along the same lines as the move to table. Chairman Richard French, Vice Chair Albert Rose, Wolfetown Rep. Andrew Oocumma, Yellowhill Rep. T.W. Saunooke, Snowbird/Cherokee County Rep. Bucky Brown, Birdtown Rep. Boyd Owle and Big Cove Rep. Teresa McCoy voted in favor.
These decisions come at a critical time not just for Qualla Enterprise but for the future of cannabis in North Carolina. A bill seeking to legalize cannabis for medical use has passed the N.C. Senate 36-10 and is now being considered by the House of Representatives. A handful of other cannabis bills have been filed as well but have yet to make it out of committee.
“I want to show the state of North Carolina and the United States of America,” said Big Cove Rep. Teresa McCoy, “that the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians can conduct a business that brings benefits to its people.”
Haywood County Democrats will meet on Saturday, April 22 at the USDA Center, 589 Raccoon Road, Waynesville to elect party leaders for the next two years during their 2023 County Convention. A free breakfast will be served beginning at 8 a.m. The business session will convene at 9 a.m.
Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers will deliver the keynote address and town board candidates running for re-election in Canton, Clyde and Waynesville will be recognized to speak briefly about their campaigns.
In addition to the election of party officers, other business will include electing delegates to serve for a two-year term on the North Carolina Democratic Party Executive Committee and appointing delegates for the 11th Congressional District Convention to be held on May 20.
Any registered Democrat is welcome to participate in the convention, but voting power is limited to party members who were designated as delegates during their annual precinct meeting held in February. Convention registration will be conducted upon arrival at the USDA Center. For additional information, contact Democratic Headquarters at haywooddemocrats@gmail.com or call 828.452.9607. Hours of operation are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday
“However y’all want to give it to us, we will pay it back.”
— Forrest ParkerQualla Enterprise General Manager Forrest Parker addresses Tribal Council April 6. EBCI photo
“You could almost identify areas in certain parts of the country that you would expect to see drug use, but now it’s just rampant across all demographics.”
— Dan Salter, HIDTA Atlanta-Carolinas executive director
It’s the inevitable result of human nature. Addiction has impacted almost every American — even those who’ve never suffered from the disease usually know someone who has. As the crisis has worsened over time, the societal impacts have become impossible to ignore as more Western North Carolina residents and businesses fall victim to property crimes committed by people looking to steal something worth enough to get the drugs they need.
Law enforcement at all levels believe their efforts to curb the flow of drugs into communities is just and that the war is not only worth fighting, it’s winnable. However, as time goes on and more resources are poured into this endless campaign, citizens have become less patient. And as Mexican drug cartels have gained more power and influence, they’ve been able to ensure the flow of drugs is uninterrupted. Even though they know some product may be intercepted, they don’t care. It’s a cost of doing busi-
ness.
From the streets of Mexico to the streets of Western North Carolina, traffickers understand that crossing a cartel could mean death, but doing their bidding is lucrative as long someone can avoid arrest. This makes it easy for drug trafficking organizations to control just about anyone they deem useful. Cartels call it “plato o plomo,” a phrase deriving from Colombian Spanish that means “silver or lead.”
According to local, state and federal law enforcement officers interviewed by The Smoky Mountain News, the drugs causing the biggest issues are methamphetamine and opioids. Both have been problems for decades, but the crisis has exploded in the last five years as supercharged versions of each have flooded the market and proven far more addictive.
With the existing mental health epidemic that was made worse during the COVID19 lockdowns, the crisis is more extreme than ever. Overdose deaths have increased 72% since 2019, with a 40% jump in 2020
during the first year of the pandemic. In 2021, overdose deaths increased 22% as 4,041 people in North Carolina lost their lives. This is the highest number of overdose deaths in a single year on record in the state. In 2021, more than 77% of overdose deaths in the state likely involved the synthetic drug fentanyl, which is more powerful than any other commonly used opioid.
Dan Salter runs the Atlanta office for the High Intensity Drug Trafficking program. Unlike the Drug Enforcement Administration, HIDTA is part of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which falls under the Executive Office of the President. He said that despite all efforts, the drug epidemic has worsened in recent years.
“You could almost identify areas in certain parts of the country that you would expect to see drug use, but now it’s just rampant across all demographics,” Salter said.
Some argue that intense supply-side disruptions are the best solution, but others think banning substances makes the problem worse. The Iron Law of Prohibition, a
term coined in 1986 by Richard Cowan — who was at the time the Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, known as NORMAL — states that the more law enforcement efforts intensify, the more demand for prohibited substances increases. More enforcement can also incentivize dealers to increase the drug’s potency.
“The harder the enforcement, the harder the drugs,” Cowan said.
Nabarun Dasgupta, a scientist with UNC’s Injury Prevention Research Center, said research backs that theory up in the modern day when it comes to the likes of meth and fentanyl.
“The point is that the standard things that law enforcement are doing, they don’t work,” he said. “We need better solutions.”
The path meth and fentanyl take from production to the pipe or the needle is long but well established.
The Smoky Mountain News takes a close look at how deadly illegal drugs like methamphetamine and fentanyl have flooded Western North Carolina, investigating what the future of the war on drugs looks like and whether it’s even winnable.
Atlanta has become more than just the economic epicenter of the South; it’s also Mexican drug cartels’ trafficking hub and now supplies drugs for the entire Eastern United States. Shutterstock photo
Most meth and opioids consumed in the United States come from Mexico. The precursor chemicals to produce these synthetic drugs are shipped in from a few foreign nations with most entering Mexico’s Pacific ports from China. It is difficult to stop the shipment of these precursors considering most have legitimate, even common, industrial usages.
This is a marked change from the way things used to be.
A few decades ago, the popularity of both prescription and illicit opioids exploded. While the poppy required to produce heroin was largely in grown in countries like Afghanistan and Mexico, once synthetic opioids became popular, there was less demand for the organic product.
Derek Maltz, who worked 28 years in the DEA including about a decade in charge of its special operations division, recalled what he saw around that same time. He said that in the late 2000s, they saw a spike in synthetic drugs such as cannabinoids with brand names like “Spice” and “K2” that were sold at gas stations and head shops. Those products were commonly manufactured in China and shipped to the United States.
At that time, fentanyl was a prescription painkiller in the United States, but it wasn’t long before the Chinese chemists working on behalf of criminal organizations in that country began manufacturing fentanyl and sending it to the United States through the mail.
“We started seeing many people in America dying from what was reported as heroin overdoses until the autopsy reports came back and it came back as fentanyl,” Maltz said.
As the government cracked down on such shipments, Chinese criminal organizations realized they had a business opportunity and began selling precursor chemicals to cartels. Around 2016, fake prescription pills looking like OxyContin, Xanax and Xylazine containing fentanyl turned up, and now they’re everywhere.
Part of Dasgupta’s job is to test certain substances to determine what drugs may actually be in them, and he recommends any drug users have some kind of identification test to ensure they don’t take something they didn’t want.
Dasgupta said the overdose spike over the last couple of years stemmed from the government’s crackdown on legally prescribed opioids. People who were already addicted found another avenue to get what they needed, and the fentanyl boom came just in time.
“We’ve seen a broad shift in the market from pills to synthetically produced fentanyl and other opioid analogues,” he said. Meanwhile, meth has continued to grow in popularity as addiction rates rise. Through the mid-2000s, meth was largely produced in local clandestine labs.
Waynesville resident Joey Reece is a retired
“That was all the way back to when the P2P meth from the biker gangs was still common,” he said.
Reece also recalled that when meth labs started popping up, cooks around southern Appalachia began using large amounts of over-the-counter drugs containing pseudoephedrine to make their product. The drug’s popularity boomed.
“The old adage was you could leave a kilo of cocaine on your front porch, and people would pass it by looking for either meth or pills,” he said.
Once the new state and federal laws made it impossible to get enough pseudoephedrine to produce mass amounts of meth, local labs dried up. Cartels had already established meth operations in Mexico prior to this point, so once the market in the United States opened up, they seized the opportunity.
The cartels could produce meth cheaper. Like with fentanyl, massive amounts of precursor chemicals can be shipped from China. The cheapest and most effective way to make meth on that scale is the method Reece mentioned, using phenyl-2-propane.
Now P2P meth is ubiquitous.
In an interview with National Public Radio, former Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske said drugs are moved north across the Mexican border, at which point a mule will “immediately transfer the drugs to another
individual.” While the border has been much publicized and politicized due to increasing detentions of undocumented immigrants, “well over 90%” of drugs come through legal ports of entry, Kerlikowske said.
Robert Murphy has been with the DEA since 1997 and now serves as the special agent in charge of the Atlanta Regional Office, which covers Georgia and the Carolinas. Murphy agreed that most drugs are trafficked into the United States through legal ports of entry. Most commonly, they are hidden within shipments of legitimate goods.
“We see partitions in gas tanks,” he said. “One time, we had Disney figurines you would buy for your kids, and they were made completely out of meth.”
Traffickers have even been known to mix foam meth into the lining of semitruck ceilings, including one found in Georgia in late 2021.
It’s hard to search all vehicles that come across while still allowing a reasonable flow of trade. Murphy said sometimes a cartel will send several vehicles with shipments across at the same time, but prior to their crossing, someone will call in a tip on someone in front of that group to divert border patrol agents’ attention.
“Some poor person was paid ‘x’ amount of dollars and is driving across the border,” Murphy said. “All they are is a distraction, and then the lane is wide open.”
When Murphy started with DEA in the 90s, Colombian trafficking organizations were moving drugs through the Miami area. During that time, agents would investigate smuggling routes and bust people in passenger vehicles or boats.
All at once, something changed.
“I want to say it was late ‘98,” Murphy said. “I went to bed, and when I woke up
Mexican cartels had completely taken over.”
As the DEA clamped down on drug shipping routes in the Caribbean, which are still in use to a lesser degree to smuggle cocaine and marijuana, many traffickers went overland through Central America and Mexico to get to the United States. Because they controlled these routes, the cartels made more money while also honing their trafficking operations, and they grew fast.
As meth and synthetic opioids became more popular in the United States, cartels produced massive amounts of product with impressive purity that could be sold cheap, all without marijuana and poppy fields that are subject to interdiction flyovers and even satellite surveillance. In some cases, in the very spots where those fields used to be, there are now super labs churning out synthetic drugs around the clock.
They wrangled control of every step of the process.
It was a business decision. Buy for $1 sell for $2, but in the cartels’ case with China delivering precursors at an extreme discount, it’s more like manufacture for $1, sell for $10.
“Making meth is pennies on the dollar, and it’s selling for $6,000 a kilo now,” Murphy said.
Drug trafficking organizations, called DTOs, came to control the drug trade in Atlanta, which has become the primary center for shipping narcotics throughout the eastern United States — it’s essentially the new Miami.
In Atlanta, two cartels dominate — Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation, or CJNG — and they’re run by people who are trusted back in Mexico. Those two cartels
are currently engaged in a violent turf war in Mexico but tend to maintain the peace in Atlanta and sometimes even work together when an arrangement proves to be mutually beneficial.
Murphy said Atlanta is an obvious choice for cartels to use as a drug trafficking hub because of its access to transportation with several major interstates and a large airport, a relatively low cost of living and a strong economy.
“It’s the same reason Atlanta is attractive for every major business … it’s a very tragic cocktail,” he said.
Cartel associates in Atlanta usually work on one-year contracts. Some of the lowerranking people who come across the border make far more money than they could in Mexico and can send plenty of cash back home to their families. Sometimes their loyalty is guaranteed by coercion or threats. The carrot or the stick, plato o plomo.
“They control them through family members in Mexico, the fear of retribution,” Murphy said.
While Sinaloa and CJNG aren’t known for frequent acts of violence in the Atlanta area, that’s because people know how real the threat is and rarely get out of line. El plomo — the lead — ensures that promises made are promises kept.
Murphy said he’s seen bodies burned to death on the side of the road in Georgia.
“You hear it on the street, ‘We don’t mess with the Mexicans,’” Murphy said. “It’s a different level of violence.”
Others come to the area as well, including chemists who make their way north to teach workers how to process certain drugs. Murphy said they track chemists’ movements as part of an effort to map out cartel operations and gain a better understanding of their chain of command.
Before Salter took his position with HIDTA, he spent 33 years as a DEA agent and served in Murphy’s current role from 2015-2018. Salter said when he came to Atlanta and got his first briefings, he was “blown away” by how tightly the cartels controlled the drug trade, and why it seemed more centralized in that city.
“The cartels centralized their distribution and transportation here in the Atlanta Metroplex which makes it very easy to reach out and deliver their product to Asheville, to Raleigh, to Columbia, South Carolina,” he said.
Dante (a random named assigned to a trafficker whose identity is being protected due to an ongoing investigation) was traveling in his BMW through Western North Carolina with meth, fentanyl, psilocybin mushrooms, paraphernalia, a handgun and $700 cash when he saw the flashing lights in his rear-view mirror.
Officers, based on a tip from a confidential informant tying Dante to a DTO, attempted to pull him over for having an obscured license plate. Dante fled, and a chase ensued that reached speeds of up to 130 mph. After an officer executed a PIT maneuver and caused Dante to crash, he owned up to what he’d been doing in the area, and a search warrant was drawn up for the location where he said a large amount of meth was being cooked.
One officer arrived at the residence Dante mentioned and waited for more units to arrive. Three people came outside. The officer told them why he was there and said they were free to do whatever they wanted as long as they didn’t try to access the residence. They said they were going to do some yard work and went back to an outbuilding just outside the officer’s view.
A “large fireball” came from the wood line and hit the back of the residence, igniting a blaze.
The officer detained the three individuals and got on the radio to request that others get to the scene as soon as possible. He also called for the fire department to stage in case the fire grew.
The cops worked together to extinguish the fire, using buckets of water to ensure the flames didn’t reach a nearby propane tank. Once the search commenced, officers found multiple containers holding a “clear crystalline substance,” plastic buckets, two
Conversion labs often operate like the one seen here with no attention paid to safety precautions. DEA photo
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cans of acetone and some unidentified liquid. A field test confirmed that the crystalline substance was meth. Over 38 pounds of the drug was seized.
A common way for meth to enter the country from Mexico is in liquid form. In many cases, it is shipped to trafficking hubs like Atlanta before being passed along to a conversion lab, which employs a simple process to convert the liquid meth to crystal form.
Many of those conversion labs are in the Atlanta Metro Area, including one found in July of last year with 800 pounds of liquidfoam meth that hadn’t yet been cooked.
“We have conversion labs all over Atlanta,” Murphy said.
It’s easy to keep a conversion lab under wraps as long as those operating it don’t draw any attention to themselves. Murphy said the families renting the property often look innocent, with some even having kids who take the bus to school every morning.
“It’s literally the family you want living next door except for the fact that they’re making toxic chemicals,” Murphy said.
Murphy said property owners renting to people running conversion labs aren’t always in on the game, but they should have an idea, considering they are usually fronted several months’ rent in cash.
“It’s just greed,” he said.
They are also becoming more common in rural areas, especially in North Georgia. In August of last year, a conversion lab was taken down in Franklin County, a sparsely populated area about an hour south of the North Carolina border. That region’s rolling hills accommodate larger pastures than the rugged mountains of Western North Carolina, which makes for the perfect spot to cook meth undetected. The Franklin County operation, housed in an outbuilding on a 100-acre farm owned by an Atlanta-area man, was large. According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the 255 gallons of liquid meth found there could produce up to 700 kilograms of crystal with a potential street value of $7.8 million.
The meth that arrives in Western North Carolina often comes from such labs.
Murphy believes a lab like the one found in Franklin County is constantly producing, meaning the large amount found there was to be processed and shipped before long, at which point more liquid meth would be delivered.
“It’s going up and down the East Coast and then into the Midwest,” Murphy said.
GBI Special Agent Trent Hillsman heads up the agency’s drug taskforce in the northern part of that state; his jurisdiction includes almost every trafficking route that goes from Atlanta to North Carolina, including some of those that pass through South Carolina or Tennessee.
Not long before the Franklin County raid, according to search warrants from multiple cases, Dante’s small Western North Carolina conversion lab was found.
After the arrest of a “cook” in the Atlanta area, the Sinaloa Cartel ordered a trusted trafficker —Dante — to clear out a similar lab “somewhere on the border of Georgia and Tennessee.” Dante was told to expect a certain number of 5-gallon buckets of liquid meth. There was an extra bucket, so he took it for himself.
Dante sells kilogram quantities of meth to several people in Western North Carolina on a weekly basis. Those people break that meth up and deliver it to street-level dealers from East Tennessee to Asheville and perhaps beyond. Dante brought the extra liquid meth to his Smoky Mountain partners and told them how to convert it to crystal.
The Western North Carolina crew got to work. The process usually involves a little bit of chemistry and some equipment, but it was cruder in this case. They soaked socks in the liquid meth and hung them up in front of fans to dry them off.
But they never got to reap the profit as
organization is involved. The cartels don’t care who sells what at the street level as long as they get their money.
The Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG in Atlanta deal with other criminal entities, such the Aryan Brotherhood, Sureños and Bloods factions like Sex, Money, Murda. Those gangs have connections in Western North Carolina that can run drugs to local dealers, many of whom claim they belong to Gangster Disciples, a nationwide gang that originated in Chicago and is represented by a six-pointed star, like the Star of David. That symbol appears in graffiti and tattoos around the region.
One Georgia gang that has an outsized role in drug trafficking is the Ghostface Gangsters, who have enjoyed a meteoric rise in recent years. That gang is mostly white, but authorities have said not all members espouse white supremacist ideals, and they do business with Mexican cartels and other ethnic gangs. Founded in prison, the gang is
In August of last year, 25 defendants, including the three “Pillars,” pleaded guilty to RICO charges as well as conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, maiming and attempted murder.
“On the street and from behind bars, Ghostface Gangsters have trafficked drugs and orchestrated and perpetrated horrific acts of violence,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan. K. Buchanan.
Some people operate trafficking rings from prison in North Carolina, but it’s an even bigger problem in Georgia, where the Ghostface Gangsters and similar prison gangs hold sway. Hillsman called them “prison brokers.”
Alfonso Brito, known by the name “Casper,” was recently found guilty in federal court of trafficking meth. According to court documents, an investigation into a DTO in Catawba, Gaston and Lincoln counties that began in 2018 led to Brito, who had been in a Georgia prison since 2017 when he
that meth now sits in an evidence locker.
Meanwhile, the conversion labs in the Atlanta metroplex and North Georgia carry on, meeting the endless demand for meth as far as their trafficking networks can reach.
From Atlanta, drugs enter Western North Carolina in a variety of ways. Some come from Charlotte via Asheville, and some come up U.S. 441, leading them right to Franklin, an otherwise quiet town that has seen an uptick in large trafficking busts in recent years.
At the cartel level, the business is structured and controlled the whole way. The farther down the chain the drugs go, the less
now run by seven men, known as the “pillars.” While the gang is purported to have hundreds and maybe even thousands of members on Georgia streets, its hierarchy is largely locked up.
In July 2021, in what was called the “single largest gang investigation in Georgia,” charges were brought against 77 Ghost Face Gangsters, including three of the pillars. Gov. Brian Kemp spoke at a news conference following the announcements.
“Gangs are the driving force behind violent crime across our state … Given what we are seeing in Atlanta and other places, I don’t think people need convincing anymore that we are facing a gang-violence crime crisis in our state but also across the country,” he said.
was convicted to a 30-year sentence for incest. Information from a cooperating defendant in June 2022 indicated Brito was a prison broker. According to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s office, between 2019 to the fall of 2021, Brito coordinated individual shipments of “multiple kilograms” of meth totaling more than 100 kilograms from “the Atlanta area into Western North Carolina.”
According to a search warrant, it was through information obtained by two cooperating defendants that the large shipments were tied to Brito, who was communicating with runners “regularly” through social media, including CashApp, as well as cell phones.
Brito has yet to be sentenced.
For some, selling drugs in prison can
raise their profile while they’re incarcerated, which will help them outside the walls.
“The best thing that can happen to someone in the drug game is they go to federal prison or any other prison, and they make a connection with a Mexican drug gang and then they get released,” Murphy said.
Once the prison broker contacts an outside partner, they set up a meeting or a dead drop. Sometimes, the transaction may be as quick and anonymous as picking up a car in a parking lot, driving it to another place, then going home without ever speaking to anyone.
Mid-level traffickers in Western North Carolina may pick up meth, fentanyl and other drugs several times per week. The pickup spot may be in Atlanta, North Georgia, Charlotte, Asheville or another farwestern county. Sometimes, they even ship smaller amounts via the U.S. Postal Service.
U.S. Attorney Dena King prosecutes federal criminal cases in the Western District of North Carolina, which covers Charlotte up to Hickory and all the way west to Cherokee County. King said that as the cartels have built their monopoly, they’ve become “bigbox retailers” with traffickers who deliver several different substances each trip.
“[Traffickers and dealers] are a one-stop shop in terms of what people want,” she said. “They want to be a single source for everything.”
King, who has prosecuted drug cases most of her career, noted some other changes she’s seen, including purer meth than ever, as well as larger amounts being moved for lower wholesale prices. She said the explosion of fentanyl is also unlike anything she’s seen, adding that they encounter street-level dealers cutting all kinds of other drugs with the substance, even more common drugs like cocaine. There are several reasons this happens. Sometimes it’s to increase the potency of another opioid like heroin, sometimes it’s what customers want, and sometimes they include it to hook a person on fentanyl.
“That’s part of why we’re seeing the uptick in overdose deaths,” King said.
Sometimes, several local people with connections in Atlanta will band together to form a bona fide trafficking operation.
Such was the case with a ring that was broken up in Macon County through Operation JAWBreaker, which ended in 2018 with numerous arrests. “JAW” stands for the first names of the three primary targets — James Steele, Arthur Potts and Wade Ennis. Those men employed runners to pick up drugs in Atlanta and were supplying a large portion of meth users in Macon and surrounding counties. Most, if not all, of the runners and street-level dealers were users who took a cut in return for running the drugs.
Steele pleaded guilty to continuing a criminal enterprise and was sentenced to at least 70 months in prison, and Ennis died of a heart attack before trial. Potts was given a suspended sentence and has been in and out of jail on drug charges since.
In a story from The Southern Scoop, Assistant District Attorney Jason Arnold said the prosecutions brought Operation JAWBreaker to a “successful conclusion.”
“It is the culmination of a long investigation that led to the 2018 arrests of 13 individuals,“ he said. “Along with our law enforcement partners, we are focused on protecting our community from the selling and using of dangerous drugs, sometimes with fatal consequences. This operation highlights effective partnerships in targeting people who have engaged in illegal behavior.”
Former Macon County Sheriff Robbie Holland, who held that office until December of last year, said that
trafficked out of businesses, including multiple mechanic shops from Murphy to Asheville. There were also several people interviewed who said that trafficking on the Qualla Boundary is a problem, and search warrants indicate that drug dealers have operated out of casino hotels both on the boundary and in Murphy.
Neither the Cherokee Indian Police Department nor the Tribal Prosecutor’s Office could be reached for comment.
Drugs are sold across the region at prices that vary based on several factors, including availability. Street-level dealers and runners often work for traffickers to support their own habit. However, Nabarun Dasgupta, the UNC researcher, said people often turn to selling narcotics based on economic circumstances.
“Most people on the street retail level who are selling drugs would rather be doing something else … given better alternatives, people would readily take them,” he said.
and homes, and occasionally on street corners. But that’s not always true anymore.
“With cell phones and social media, you can arrange deals whenever and wherever you want,” Hollingsed said. “You don’t have to drive into certain communities or certain places or know a guy to go buy your drug; you just get on social media. That has really hindered law enforcement.”
Along with Henderson County, Buncombe County is the only governmentdesignated high intensity drug trafficking area out of North Carolina’s 10 westernmost counties. As the biggest city in Western North Carolina, Asheville is the region’s largest trafficking hub.
Joe Silberman is the captain in charge of the Asheville Police Department’s criminal investigations division. While Silberman said his detectives don’t see cartel members
although he doesn’t consider Macon County to be a drug trafficking hub, he did see large quantities sometimes. Other times, people would make several trips to pick up smaller loads.
“We saw that they would make multiple trips a day,” Holland said. “They would never come back with super large quantities, just come back and forth, because they knew that they couldn’t bring large quantities, because we could end up popping them down the road.”
North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation Director Bob Schurmeier said that’s something he sees throughout the state, considering how many major highways there are.
“North Carolina has one of the largest and most efficient transportation systems in the whole country … it’s no surprise cartels take full advantage of that,” he said.
When drugs reach Western North Carolina, they are sold to street-level dealers through a few avenues. Search warrants say meth and fentanyl are sometimes
Once drugs get to street-level dealers, it’s hard to tell what customers may get. Several dealers could be supplied from the same batch of drugs, even from the same runner, but could sell a different product on the street, depending on how they cut it.
The results can be dangerous, even deadly. In February of last year, six people overdosed at Asheville’s Grove Park Inn when the cocaine they used was laced with fentanyl. Only a few days ago, The Boulder, Colorado, Police Department put out a warning on Twitter that there had been several overdoses in one day, leading them to believe someone had put out a bad batch.
“There’s a lot of domestic experimentation going on in the local markets,” Dasgupta said.
Once in local markets, those drugs can be purchased hand-to-hand from a known dealer. A more recent phenomenon is an increase in people buying drugs on social media. A report from NPR earlier this year called attention to that very trend and quoted lawmakers and activists who were concerned that people who may not otherwise use drugs could be brought into the market — especially children.
Bill Hollingsed was Waynesville’s police chief from 1999-2019. He said that at the beginning of his tenure, drugs were sold as people might imagine — out of businesses
residing in Asheville as reported by other outlets, they encounter people with direct connections to those organizations. He added that some traffickers keep a place to stay in multiple towns where they move drugs.
“There are some who even will have a dual residency here and Charlotte,” Silberman said.
SMN also spoke with an APD detective who is a sworn member of a DEA taskforce. Because of the undercover nature of their work, they spoke on the condition of anonymity. That detective has been with the department on-and-off over two decades and said the demand for drugs is larger than ever.
“Whereas years ago, we were dealing in small quantities, maybe ounces, we’re now seeing kilograms,” they said.
One man who sat atop a major polydrug trafficking ring in Asheville for a couple of years is Rodney Allison, who was sentenced to 310 months in prison after being arrested in April 2019. Investigators employed numerous tactics to zero in on Allison and his coconspirators, including interviews with cooperating witnesses, controlled drug buys and searches of personal electronic devices.
Over the course of the investigation, law enforcement seized several pounds of drugs,
12 firearms, ammunition and $153,674 in cash. Along with Allison, who went by the aliases “Hot” “Biggs” and “Black,” seven other defendants were also sentenced to prison terms ranging from 37 to 108 months.
Court documents outline how Allison supplied several dealers around the Asheville area, who then distributed smaller quantities to street-level dealers. One witness said Allison had delivered drugs to him about 10 times over a two-to-three-week period with quantities up to a kilogram. Another witness claimed he received about 2 kilograms of meth and an ounce-and-a-half of heroin from Allison every month. The government extrapolated from such statements that Allison had provided that man alone with 48 kilograms of meth and 24 ounces of heroin.
A search of Allison’s iPhone revealed his text messages with lower-level dealers. Many of the messages explicitly discuss transactions. For example, on May 28, 2018, Allison set up a deal on his phone.
“I need the same thing I got last time,” someone texted Allison.
“what u need,” Allison replied.
“Half of clear.” Clear is known slang for meth.
“On Way.”
A memo from Allison’s defense attorney concedes that Allison sold some meth but argued he wasn’t the “kingpin” the U.S. Attorney’s office was making him out to be. Allison is related to several members of a known Atlanta criminal organization, who according to court documents, run some of their enterprise out of their night club in Atlanta where multiple people have been shot in recent years, including 51-year-old Melvin Allison, who was killed there in 2016.
Allison’s attorney argued that his client was steered into a life of crime by family and
that he was far from being a high-level trafficker.
“The defendant has been used — ‘played’ in the words of his older sister — by others since childhood,” the sentencing memo states.
A difference between drug sales in Asheville and other WNC counties is that in Asheville, there are some areas where transactions occur out in the open.
“There are a number of places in the city with open air drug markets,” Silberman said.
Where those open-air drug markets exist, there are higher rates of violence, Silberman added. An initiative APD instituted in the last couple of years focuses on getting guns off the streets to curb violent crime. While there has still been an overall rise in violent crime, Silberman thinks it’s not as sharp as it would have been if they hadn’t implemented the program.
He said most guns are seized from people who are trafficking or selling illegal drugs.
A lot of the violence isn’t a matter of business, but rather the result of personal vendettas among those in the trade who turn to the gun to settle disputes. Silberman cited the Westville Pub shooting of 2021 as an example.
“That was a sort of grudge that led to an armed robbery,” he said. “That led to a shooting and an accidental death. That led to another series of shootings where nobody died. That led to a retaliatory killing.”
Drug dealers conduct numerous small transactions every day. Most of the proceeds — money that is leeched from the local economy — make their way back up the chain to cartels.
Some people who fall into addiction can maintain jobs and a steady income stream, but a lot struggle to feed their habit and can’t find gainful employment; many end up unhoused. They must find another way to get money for drugs they need. WNC residents complain about a rise in property crimes, from stolen vehicles and easy-topawn items like lawn equipment to shoplifting.
“I think most of our theft and property crime has a root in narcotics,” Silberman said.
One of the most common targets in rural areas is Walmart, where items can be stolen and returned for a gift card that can be used as currency. In recent reporting from Asheville Watchdog, one woman said that when she was using, she’d pay $40 to $60 for a gram of meth. Sometimes, she would shoplift from Walmart and return items for gift cards and other times dealers would request specific items for her to steal.
“They’d give you like a little shopping list,” the woman said.
Money often changes hands between the exact same parties who traffic the drugs before it reaches the cartels in Atlanta.
Last month, a Florida man was sentenced to 260 months in prison after being found guilty of several charges tied to not only trafficking drugs, but also to moving money for cartels. According to a press release sent out by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Jorge Luis Perez distributed meth, heroin and fentanyl in Jackson and Swain counties. Authorities learned of Perez’s trafficking through a larger investigation into regional networks.
“Court records show that Perez obtained his drugs from drug trafficking distributors in Mexico by way of Georgia,” the release reads, adding that he also moved drugs in Georgia and Florida.
A traffic stop in Sylva led to the discovery of a “distribution quantity” of meth, a firearm and over $10,000 cash. Cops stopped Perez again a couple of months later and found more meth than before, as well as digital scales. Later that day, they searched Perez’s camper and seized drugs, AR-15 magazines, ammunition and a money counter.
“Law enforcement also found several wire transfer receipts indicating that Perez was wiring money to Mexico, under false names and addresses,” the release reads. “In the camper, Perez also had a shrine dedicated to Santa Muerte, who has been adopted by drug traffickers as a folk ‘patron saint.’”
Once bulk proceeds make their way to higher-level traffickers or cartel members, criminal organizations use “smurfs,” who split up proceeds — whether physically or digitally — and deposit them at different banks, keeping each sum under $10,000, at which point the transactions would be reported.
Sometimes, they move bulk cash all the way back to Mexico.
“Those same hidden compartments that are utilized to transport drugs are utilized to transport thousands or millions of dollars in cash,” said U.S. Attorney King. Proceeds can be laundered through casinos where cash is turned into chips, payments of college tuition or real estate. In testimony to a Canadian commission of inquiry in 2020, John Cassara, a former investigator at the U.S. Treasury Department and author of the new book, “China-Specified Unlawful Activities: CCP Inc., Transnational Crime and Money Laundering,” talked about money laundering through real estate.
“Almost 60% of purchases by international clients are made in cash,” he said. “Chinese buyers have been the top foreign buyers in the United States both in units and dollar volume of residential housing for six years straight. ... In the United States, there is little if any customer due diligence by real estate agents.”
While cash is sometimes laundered directly through legitimate businesses, as governments have cracked down on those operations, cartels have sought less detectable methods — methods that have also proven to be cheaper.
According to a December 2020 Reuters report, Chinese “money brokers” are one of the most worrisome threats. Money brokers can move large sums of currency “quickly and quietly” from the United States to China and then to Mexico with “a few clicks of a burner phone and Chinese banking apps.”
“It’s the most sophisticated form of money laundering that’s ever existed,” one source said in that story.
The technique is known as mirroring.
The Reuters story uses testimony from the trial of a money launderer, Gan Xianbing, to explain the process. Lim Seok
Pheng, who worked for Gan, testified at his trial that she would collect drug money — from $150,000 to $1 million at a time — at one of several U.S. cities. A cartel member would pass along information for Lim to rendezvous with someone in a public place, and she would give a serial number for an authentic $1 bill. When she’d meet up with the contact, she’d hand over that bill as a receipt.
Lim and the contact would go to an area business, where she would give the details of a bank account in China to a person at the business. The businessperson would take possession of the U.S. currency as the equivalent number of yuan is transferred from a Chinese account they own into another account in China. The funds become available in an account in China without any physical or digital paper trail in America.
That money can be transferred between accounts in China without any scrutiny since Chinese authorities aren’t aware of the money’s origin.
Next, the money goes from China to Mexico. The same mirroring technique is often employed on that end to get the money into the hands of a launderer’s client.
Since the beginning of the cryptocurrency craze, Bitcoin has also provided an avenue for money laundering. During a webinar hosted by Justice Clearing House, DEA Special Agent Michael “Vince” Kersey with the El Paso Intelligence Center said the use of Bitcoin by drug trafficking organizations has increased “big time.” But he also said that even with the advent of cryptocurrency, COVID presented a unique challenge for those organizations looking to launder bulk cash since businesses they moved money through were shut down along with the rest of the country.
“A lot of these businesses that were used for money laundering over the last year have been closed or haven’t been accessible, so that bulk currency has been floating around out there or they’ve been trying to find alternate methods to launder it,” Kersey said, adding that the situation led to an increase in bulk currency transfer, and therefore an increase in seizures, during the pandemic.
Given Hollywood’s fascination with drug trafficking organizations and the investigators who work to stop them, it’s easy to romanticize the job of narcotics agents and detectives, but even for those who police the highest reaches of the cartel, the job requires patience, focus and time — a lot of time.
As traffickers and dealers try everything they can to avoid law enforcement detection, sometimes all officers can do is watch, wait and slowly build the case. Traffickers
can be proactive in their operations, but law enforcement, by nature, must be reactionary.
“It’s not running and gunning like Martin Lawrence and Will Smith in Bad Boys in Miami where we’re having gunfights in the streets,” Henderson County Sheriff Lowell Griffin said. “So much of it now is just tedious, very time-consuming work.”
Investigators can have a full understanding of how a drug trafficking conspiracy may work, but it can take months to get enough concrete proof to move on that information. Officers must also keep up with technology, including how traffickers communicate and transact through digital encrypted means like Venmo, CashApp, WhatsApp and Signal, all of which require a signed search warrant to obtain data.
Getting a judge to sign off on a warrant typically requires dozens of hours of surveillance and interviews, documenting everything every step of the way. If that work yields enough information to generate probable cause, the warrant can be authorized.
If not, it’s on to the next lead.
Surveillance is monotonous, as it can require long shifts at all hours of the day or night, sometimes without anything noteworthy happening. In some instances, if there’s activity like suspected drug dealing, investigators may pull over someone leaving a location to see if they either have anything illegal in plain view or any information to offer, but that can be hit-or-miss.
“It takes a lot to develop probable cause so that you can get a judge to sign off on entering somebody’s private property and searching through their belongings,” Griffin said. “It’s a ton of surveillance.”
Sometimes, hard work pays off. Deputy James Hurn is one of Henderson County’s narcotics investigators. He said he’s worked months to develop probable cause for search warrants that have led to up to 18 pounds of meth being seized.
Sometimes, investigators might even find more than they expect.
“One time, we picked up a duffel bag that we thought had drugs in it. It was really heavy, and we opened it up, and it was over $100,000 in cash,” Hurn said. “That just blew our mind.”
A difficulty former Sheriff Holland said Macon County deputies face is stopping traffickers coming up U.S. 441 through Rabun County, Georgia, into North Carolina. They must have a reason to stop a suspected drug trafficker if they don’t have a warrant, but to get to that point, there must be good intel pointing to a specific vehicle, and then deputies have to actually spot it.
The problem is, while U.S. 441 is heavily traveled, there are 31 other roads that lead into Macon County.
Traffickers aren’t blind to the fact that they may have the law watching them. Even novice traffickers will have one or two other vehicles go ahead of them to either act as decoys or go miles ahead to watch out for potential traps.
“We’ve had that happen,” said former Macon County Lt. Dani Burrows, who headed up the office’s criminal investigation division prior to retiring at the same time as
Holland. “They left Georgia, and we knew they left. But they didn’t come back this way because they got word, so they were actually intercepted over in Gilmer County. They were gonna come in Murphy way.”
Over in Henderson County, the oft-congested I-26 causes headaches for Griffin and his deputies.
“Even officers that are skilled in interdiction can’t get anything stopped because there’s nowhere to stop,” he said. “Half the time, it’s bumper-to-bumper, so even if you spot what you believe is a person of interest, we can’t do much.”
Those kinds of issues are also prevalent at the nation’s southern border. With about 90% of the drugs coming across the border through legal ports of entry, often transported by U.S. citizens, several sources SMN spoke with said only about 10% of vehicles are screened, and the time to inspect them is limited.
Murphy said the DEA’s best source of intel to obtain probable cause is its informants.
“There’s no secret the biggest investigative asset DEA has … is the network of confidential human assets that we have worldwide,” he said.
Gaining off-the-record intel is one thing, but admissible evidence is different. Most of the drug cases U.S. Attorney King’s office handles are tied to a Mexican drug cartel. She said one challenge at that level is getting people to testify in court, considering the promise of violence witnesses face — including violence against innocent loved ones.
“Their families may be at risk,” King said.
Intel isn’t much good unless it’s shared. Jurisdictional boundaries can’t be crossed by law enforcement, but they are crossed daily by traffickers. Silberman said it’s important that divisions within APD know what others may be looking for. For example, a vigilant patrol officer might have the chance to collect evidence crucial to an ongoing case. Silberman gave an example where a patrol officer pulls someone over and discovers a trafficking quantity of drugs.
“What if the car has some weight in it?” Silberman hypothesized. “If the officer has
paid attention to what we’ve asked them to do, they’ll snatch his cell phone and get it in airplane mode.”
Data from that phone can go to the APD detective who works with the DEA, and information relevant to any number of investigations may be found.
In Macon County under Holland, there was also always consideration of what another department might find valuable.
“We [had] a Franklin police officer that works every day with our drug officers,” Holland said. “So those two communicate any information that we get … you’ve got to have that communication taking place with somebody that’s here 24/7.”
Local intel also goes up to federal agencies, especially the DEA, which oversees every multi-state drug taskforce. Like the Asheville Police Department, sheriff’s offices and some municipal departments have deputies and officers who are sworn in with the DEA and ensure information goes back and forth as needed.
Regional HIDTA offices are among the most valuable intelligence hubs. Salter said his office’s taskforce includes 135 local, state and federal agencies, all sharing information, all working toward the same mission.
“We have our intel centers that coordinate all the information coming in and coming out,” he said. “We’re kind of a non-compete entity. We coordinate meetings and intel briefings regularly to share information.”
King talked about how necessary this kind of cooperation is to her office’s prosecutions. She said local law enforcement can uncover criminal elements that may fly under the federal radar because local law is
“It’s not running and gunning like Martin Lawrence and Will Smith in Bad Boys in Miami where we’re having gunfights in the streets. So much of it now is just tedious, very time-consuming work.”— Lowell Griffin, Henderson County Sheriff A photo of the of crystal methamphetamine found in a conversion lab. DEA photo
in touch with their communities and can tell when something is off. They can act as the task force’s eyes and ears on the ground.
“They then become force multipliers,” King said.
This year, North Carolina State Sen. Michael Lazzara, R-Onslow, introduced S189, which would strengthen the existing “Death by Distribution” law that enables district attorneys to charge a person with second-degree murder if they deliver a drug that ends up killing someone.
“Incarceration should also be used as a tool to help stop people from distributing, selling fentanyl and other drugs,” Lazzara said in a North Carolina Health News story. “And putting criminals who distribute fentanyl behind bars will help to disrupt the supply of fentanyl and send a clear message that this kind of behavior will be unacceptable.”
Ernie Lee, the district attorney for Sampson, Duplin, Jones and Onslow counties, said in that story that while he wishes there were more options for treatment, it’s also important to distinguish those who are in the throes of addiction from those who exploit others’ addiction by trafficking drugs.
“For those people out there selling drugs, I have no sympathy for them, because they are basically profiting off of others’ misery,” Lee said. “I’ve not been hesitant about prosecuting an individual for second-degree murder, where they cause the death of someone by selling drugs to them.”
Dasgupta said sudden supply disruptions, like what’s created by such bills,
could have catastrophic results. People will have to find a new supplier, and that supplier could have a different product.
“Anything that makes the drugs become more variable, that’s what’s killing people,” he said.
Jennifer Carroll has done harm reduction research for 20 years. While working at the CDC on overdose response strategy, she wrote the agency’s technical guidance on overdose prevention. Carroll interviews people who’ve overdosed. Like Dasgupta, she said one of the most dangerous things is when a supply is disrupted.
“100% of the time they were like, ‘I couldn’t find my number-one guy, so I went to the number-two guy’ or they had to go to another source” she said.
Carroll said she also worked with first responders in New Hampshire, where she found something similar.
“Any time there’s a big bust they have to double up naloxone because everyone’s more likely to overdose,” she said.
It takes cooperation from other countries’ governments to craft and enforce drug policies at the federal level. Murphy, who has extensive experience working in Mexico, said this is the lowest level of cooperation he’s ever seen from that country’s government and believes it’s due to a combination of corruption through bribes and the very real threat of harm — plato o plomo.
“The Mexican government is not willing to take on the cartels in their country,” he said. “They know what’s going on. They know about the shipments coming in because we literally tell them.”
On March 24, when U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was asked at a Senate
“This is truly one of the best places to work. I love my team and leadership here and feel highly valued and appreciated for a brief period, I could not wait to come back when there was an This is the best place I have ever worked.”
hearing whether drug cartels control parts of Mexico, he responded, “I think it’s fair to say yes.”
This elicited a fiery response from Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
“That is false, it’s not true. ... There is nowhere in the nation’s territory where authorities are not present,” he said.
However, Obrador did admit that cartels had established a presence in the country’s federal regulatory agency, known as “Cofepris,” to approve imports of fentanyl precursors coming from China.
“They even had representatives in Cofepris, people lobbying inside Cofepris,” Obrador said, adding that some officials have been charged in that case.
Even harsher claims have been made against the Chinese government.
Several people SMN spoke with said China is turning a blind eye toward criminal activities, and some went as far as saying the country is aiding and abetting the shipment of fentanyl, as well as money laundering. While the Chinese government has cracked down from time to time on the criminal organizations, Murphy believes the country is happy to see those drugs — drugs which caused over 100,000 fatal overdoses in the United States last year — flood the country. He even said China is “pretty much giving away” the precursors since to them it’s not about profits, it’s about that bigger goal.
“They’re allowing us to destroy our own … it’s just wiping it out,” Murphy said. “It’s brilliant, right?”
In October of last year, a ProPublica report similar to the Reuters story on money laundering used the narrative of Chinese American gangster Xizhi Li to describe how criminal organizations use techniques like mirroring to launder money.
Many say the Chinese government was
likely involved in that scheme.
Adm. Craig Faller told Congress in 2021 that Chinese launderers had emerged as the “No. 1 underwriter” of drug trafficking in the Western Hemisphere, adding that the Chinese government is “at least tacitly supporting” those operations. In an interview for the ProPublica story, Faller, now retired, said China has “the world’s largest and most sophisticated state security apparatus. So there’s no doubt that they have the ability to stop things if they want to.”
“We used to have a regular dialogue with the Chinese specifically on things like money laundering, counternarcotics policies,” Assistant Secretary Todd Robinson, who leads the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, told ProPublica. “And since that has stopped, it has not been clear, we’ve not really been able to get a handle on how much of this is criminal organizations and how much of it is criminal organizations connected to or suborning Chinese government officials.”
As far as action the U.S. can take, there’s an array of opinions. Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-Henderson) told SMN that he believes there’s “an enormous appetite” to stop the flow of fentanyl among House Republicans, but he believes President Joe Biden is “opposed” to securing the border, noting that his budget cut money going to enforcing the southern border.
“Unfortunately, we have an obstacle in the White House who is opposed to securing the border,” he said.
Although most illegal drugs come across the border via legal ports of entry, Edwards advocated for finishing the border wall and
adhering to policies already in place to curb the flow of undocumented immigrants between ports of entry.
“It wouldn’t matter what other set of laws we might pass,” he said. “It’s pointless as long as we have a president that is not insistent in observing this crisis and returning border agents to their posts and letting them do their job.”
When it comes to regional trafficking hubs like Atlanta, Edwards blamed local leaders in those cities for the crimes that occur there.
“The problem that we have is in so many metro areas, and I’ll use Asheville as an example; we’ve created a lawless situation that enables criminals to join the general population,” he said.
Derek Maltz, the retired special agent who used to head up the DEA’s special operations division, often appears on Newsmax and Fox News advocating for the United States to take the fight south of the border. He has even testified in front of congressional committees to say as much. In his interview with SMN, he said that would come in the form of a series of “precision strikes” to cripple the cartels’ ability to manufacture meth and fentanyl.
Murphy thinks the technology and funding are there to shut down the drug smuggling at the ports of entry.
“I can tell you right now that after 9/11, not a damn thing came across the border,” he said. “We shut that thing down. We just gotta have the will. There is nothing that came across. We listened to the cartels, and they were complaining. There was nobody that hated the terrorists more than them because it completely stopped business. You could not find drugs on the street anywhere, and the price went through the roof.”
While the United States didn’t completely shut down its borders following 9/11, it
did implement a policy to check every vehicle — every trunk, every wheel well, every nook and cranny.
Over recent years, there’s been a robust debate around harm reduction’s role in curbing the drug crisis. Harm reduction includes a range of public health policies — from needle exchanges to safe use sites — designed to lessen the negative social and health consequences associated with various behaviors, such as drug use. Dasgupta said it will be hard to recover from the addiction crisis and begin to see the true benefits of harm reduction without first overhauling our medical system in a meaningful way that allows the people who need it most quick and cheap access to healthcare.
Dasgupta also said it isn’t fair or even realistic to have any kind of debate about harm reduction based on its current existence since he considers it so severely underresourced. Research indicates some public health benefits from harm reduction programs, even though far more money is put into the war on drugs than the effort to keep people alive and healthy, even with President Joe Biden’s commitment to put $30 million into combatting the issue.
“They have to spend their time raising money instead of going out there and taking care of people,” he said.
Those who fight the war on drugs fervently defend it.
Officers and agents SMN interviewed take pride in their work, and many base their very identity on fighting what they believe is the good fight.
Murphy said justification for the war on drugs can be found by looking at past successes, like the DEA’s dismantling and disrupting several formidable cartels, or when
legislation made it about impossible for meth cooks in the U.S. to get enough pseudoephedrine to produce their product in bulk.
However, the unintended consequence of those victories has been the ultra-violent CNGJ cartel filling the power vacuum in the first case, and the rise of super labs in Mexico that produce more addictive P2P meth in the other.
Law enforcement officers frequently say if one life is saved, the whole effort is worth the hassle and resources. However, harm reduction advocates have the same goal, and they say there are better ways — nonpunitive ways — to go about saving lives.
And now with a more scrupulous public and a worsening drug crisis, more citizens seem to share that belief. Negative perceptions of the war on drugs are fueled by a sense that it’s not winnable, that the federal agents fighting it know it’s frivolous and the mission is more about self-preservation. Murphy believes the DEA hasn’t done a good job of letting the public know how it carries out its mission and why that mission is important.
“We were totally against the press,” he said. “The mantra was ‘it didn’t help us.’ We were successful in what we’re doing, but nobody knew what we were doing.”
To make matters worse for the DEA, in September 2020, former DEA agent Jose Irizarry pleaded guilty to 19 charges tied to his work laundering money for cartels. He admitted to taking at least $1 million in bribes and kickbacks.
Irizarry not only alleged that other feder-
al agents, prosecutors, informants and cartel smugglers themselves were in on a “threecontinent joyride” known as “Team America,” he said his participation in that ring was driven by a feeling that the war on drugs was pointless.
“We had free access to do whatever we wanted,” the 48-year-old Irizarry told the Associated Press. “We would generate money pick-ups in places we wanted to go. And once we got there it was about drinking and girls.”
Critics of the DEA called Irizarry’s statements further proof that the war on drugs is a charade. Agents firmly push back on those assertions.
“Let me let me be clear, Jose is a bad guy, so whatever he said means nothing to me,” Salter said. “It’s just laughable that he gets an article to say he did that because we’re not going to win the drug war.”
But some questions remain — is victory possible, and what would that even look like? If it isn’t possible, is there even a plan for withdrawal? When one trafficker or dealer gets arrested, someone else is ready to step up and embrace the opportunity to make money moving illegal substances. As long as the demand is constant, people will be there to provide the supply. In her book, “Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America,” Beth Macy opined that “You whack one [dealer], and the others just pop right up, like WhacA-Mole.”
Sheriff Griffin put it another way.
“It’s kind of like we’re running around trying to put out fires, but we’ve got a whole segment of the population ahead of us setting fires,” he said.
Carroll believes that while the war on drugs as it’s being fought now isn’t logically consistent, it does have a strong emotional
appeal for people, especially amid high overdose rates.
“It taps into things that are important in our culture; children are important, strangers are untrustworthy,” she said.
Dasgupta said it’s important to enter into the complicated debate with an understanding of how people become addicted and how often it’s a matter of circumstance, whether that’s a lack of economic opportunities in rural America or mental health issues tied to previous trauma. To end the war on drugs, the system must stop pushing people into vulnerable situations, he said.
“The ones who end up with drug use problems that are debilitating tend to have
decriminalize drugs, but added that “coerced” treatment is flawed.
She said the best solutions often come from local communities.
Dasgupta said a difference to consider when thinking about legalizing drugs in the United States is the racial and economic disparities present and the injustices minorities continue to encounter in the country’s justice system. Portugal was already “ahead of the curve,” Dasgupta said.
“We’re starting so far behind,” he said.
For Carroll, the key to curbing the overdose epidemic is a safe source for people who use.
other things going on in their lives,” he said. “There’s another reason why the demand for opioids has increased, including social isolation and painful conditions that patients can’t get treated at the doctor’s office anymore. We here in North Carolina mix up all those stories.”
Many have called to legalize marijuana, and some have argued that all drugs should be made legal, or at least decriminalized like in Portugal. In that country, if someone gets cited for a drug-related offense enough times, they are ordered to undergo treatment. Proponents of this system claim it’s the perfect balance of empathy and accountability. Carroll said we should have the conversation about how best to legalize or
“We have so much effort on the war on drugs and stopping people from using and saving the children, but everyone who’s directly involved knows that it’s a supply problem,” she said. “I am interested in everybody coming home alive at the end of the day.”
However, like with the DEA’s war on drugs, the harm reduction movement leaves one large question. If the supply side of the drug crisis continues to be dominated by these powerful cartels and Americans continue to become addicted, is harm reduction a viable overall solution for the drug crisis?
Both law enforcement and harm reduction advocates hold fragments of a solution, but without a comprehensive approach and an honest conversation about the war on drugs, it seems like fentanyl and meth will maintain their stranglehold on our society — that is, until something more addictive comes along.
“It’s kind of like we’re running around trying to put out fires, but we’ve got a whole segment of the population ahead of us setting fires.”
— Lowell GriffinIt’s hard to say what the solution for the drug epidemic looks like, but it’s clear that way things are done now isn’t working, and the community continues to reflect the growing crisis. Bob Scott photo
The town of Canton won’t quite look, feel or smell the same once the century-old paper mill finally closes later this year, but after a surprise announcement by Mayor Zeb Smathers on April 12, there’s some hope that in the future it will at least sound the same.
“The whistles will be given to the town of Canton to have, possess and use,” said Smathers, who struck a deal on the whistles during meetings with Pactiv Evergreen over the last few weeks. “That whistle can and should remain a symbol of what got us here.”
The paper mill’s whistles have been as much a fixture in Canton as the mill itself. Their shrill steam-powered shrieks can be heard for miles and have pierced the Haywood County air multiple times a day for many decades, guiding workers to and from work and home. They even blow during football games hosted at Canton’s Pisgah High School.
Alderman Ralph Hamlett, who grew up in Canton as the son of the town’s police chief, said that one of the things he missed most while was working as a professor at North Texas University was hearing the whistle blow.
“Yes, we’re losing the mill, but that does-
n’t mean we have to lose who we are,” Smathers said.
According to Smathers, the whistle announcement is the first of hopefully several regarding the town’s effort to preserve the cultural legacy of the mill long after it’s gone. He said there was also an agreement with Pactiv Evergreen for the town’s museum to acquire certain historic documents and artifacts from the site.
Since the closing was first announced on March 6, Smathers has compared the entire affair to a death in the family. First it was shock, then denial, then anger. Now, to boost the region’s collective psyche, he’s asking for a visitation.
“I think it’s very important the mill be opened up over the course of the next several weeks,” Smathers said, noting that some people would like to see the place where their ancestors toiled for years to pay for things like college educations and Christmas toys. “People need to get inside the place that has been so mysterious to so many.”
Other requests are still being made of the mill’s owners, Smathers said.
More than $1 million in purses was awarded and thousands of fans attended the first races resulting from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ quarterhorse racing venture in Kentucky.
The races were held April 1-6 at Red Mile in Lexington, the first quarterhorse races in Kentucky in more than a decade.
Through a subsidiary of its commercial gaming business arm EBCI Holdings LLC, the tribe is a 49% owner of Revolutionary Racing Kentucky, the company behind a $55 million project to build Sandy’s Racing & Gaming, a world-class quarter horse racetrack, equestrian center and gaming facility in Eastern Kentucky.
While the track, Sandy Ridge, is under construction until Spring 2025, races will
take place at the Red Mile in Lexington. Sandy’s Gaming, a historic horse racing facility, is expected to open later this year.
After a contentious meeting with an outpouring of input from the public, Macon County commissioners have decided to work with the Fontana Regional Library system on the terms of its agreement rather than pulling out of the system altogether.
“It was unanimously agreed that the regional agreement is beneficial to all three counties and their citizens, but improvement is needed in the areas of parental empowerment and governance of the Fontana Regional Library System,” said Commission Chairman Paul Higdon.
Public turnout was so high at the Tuesday, April 11, meeting of the Macon County commissioners, that for safety concerns, some people were asked to leave. According to the fire marshal, there were originally about 170 people in the courtroom, which has a max occupancy of 136. More than 45 of those people had signed up for public comment and although it is within the rights of commissioners to limit the public comment period to no more than 30 minutes, Commissioner Josh Young suggested the board listen to the remainder of the public’s comments after concluding other business on the agenda. The rest of the commissioners agreed and, allowing five minutes for each speaker, the meeting lasted more than five hours — ending well past midnight.
The issue at hand was whether county commissioners would decide to pull Macon libraries out of the Fontana Regional Library system. The matter started to gain traction earlier this year when a group of Macon residents voiced their concerns over certain books containing LGBTQ themes and content in the Macon County Library. Most of these residents were not advocating for banning books, rather to segregate them to a section that would be indicative of their theme or label the books so that library patrons would know they contain LGBTQ content.
Some residents also advocated for Macon County to separate itself from FRL as well as the American Library Association, the national accreditation association for all librarians in state aid libraries. Residents were urging for separation from FRL largely because they feel the FRL Board of Trustees had not been receptive to their complaints.
Commissioner Danny Antoine took up the cause and during a March 14 commissioner meeting said he was working on pulling Macon County out of the system. He also asserted that his fellow commissioners were on board with his goals.
“For those of you who have stated about pulling out of the Fontana Regional System, believe me, I’m completely on board with that,” Antoine said. “It’s not a simple process. It is a hard process that we’re definitely working super hard on, trying to figure out how to do this the best way because you can’t just pull out of that system and leave the library hanging by itself. We have to have a system in place to be able to make sure that the library is functioning correctly.”
However, when residents showed up in force to voice their opinion on the library controversy April 11, Antoine appeared to walk back some of that intent. The speakers were relatively evenly split between those advocating for withdrawing from the FRL and segregating LGBTQ material, and those advocat-
work is protecting kids. The only thing I brought up before the media turned this into a circus was not to allow pornography to fall into the hands of kids.”
During the meeting, Chairman of the Macon County Library Board of Trustees Bill Dyer addressed the board.
“I’ve listened and read as members of our community have expressed their views and opinions on these topics and their relevance to Macon County,” said Dyer. “As a result, I have come to the conclusion, I’m convinced, that neither remaining in Fontana Regional Library, or leaving, will resolve all of our disagreements and difficulties. Hopefully we will all be willing to choose what’s best for our community at large and work together toward that end.”
Dyer noted that the library is bound by state and federal law. He presented a report on the procedures, impacts and costs of leaving the FRL system, outlining what’s at stake. He said the library board strongly recommended remaining in the FRL system.
“The trustees feel that the effect of withdrawal is financially staggering and unduly burdensome, with absolutely no corresponding benefit to the citizens of our community or the library patrons,” Dyer said. “No library trustee board has ever received any oversight directives from the county commissioners. The current group of trustees is, however, receptive to considering directives that the board of commissioners adopt.”
Later in the meeting, Antoine again suggested that the county commission did not have intent to withdraw.
“I still don’t understand what’s in question about what’s going on with the library, to be perfectly honest,” Antoine said.
A member of the audience shouted that Mr. Antoine had said he was working on pulling out of the Fontana Regional Library System.
“That’s my personal opinion, first and foremost,” said Antoine. “Secondly, the board has not yet made a public statement as to which direction we’re going concerning the Fontana Regional Library, so there’s a lot of comments being made about us removing ourselves from the Fontana Regional Library, but yet there’s not been a comment that’s been made by the board itself concerning the direction.”
After listening to all public comments, Commissioner John Shearl voiced his opinion on the matter.
“I don’t remember having a conversation with these other four board members that we were going to leave the Fontana Regional Library, because I’ve stayed behind it and let Chairman Higdon and Commissioner Antoine handle this library thing,” said Shearl. “But it’s time that we board members let you guys know, if you guys want a compromise, that’s what I want, to compromise. Put these books where they belong, keep them out of the hands of children that are not age appropriate. That’s where I stand.”
ing to remain a part of the system. Those advocating to remain in the system argued that parents should be responsible for making sure their children don’t read material that is not age appropriate.
On more than one occasion, when a speaker came to the podium asking the commission to remain within the FRL, Commissioner Antoine indicated the board had no intention of pulling out.
“What do you think my intentions are with the library?”
Commissioner Antoine asked after one member of the public spoke. “Would you like to know what my intentions are? I work with kids. My life’s work is working with kids. My life’s
The board then went into closed session. When it reconvened in open session, Higdon announced the commission would maintain membership of Macon County libraries in the FRL system but would work with FRL to create a better agreement between the regional system and local libraries.
According to Higdon’s statement, the three participating counties are looking into provisions that will give parents greater ability to set restrictions over what materials their minor children may check out while remaining in compliance with the law, as well as the structure and authority of the respective county library boards and the regional library board.
“The hope is that we will be able to present these proposed revisions to the local agreement to the three commissioner boards by mid to late August,” said Higdon.
Shortly after I went to work for the Eastern Band of Cherokees back in the 1980s, my wife got employment at the Sylva Herald and so we did the logical thing. We decided to build a house. Since my grandfather had adopted me as his son, I received a beautiful piece of land in the old pasture, so we got a local builder to build a modest house with celestory windows in the roof and a wrap-around deck. It had two stories with one bedroom on the second floor and another on the first. I loved it from the start and some of my most pleasant memories are of lying on the floor on Sunday night and listening to my favorite program, “Hearts of Space.” I could see the night sky through those celestory windows as I listened to Vangelis or Hank Snow.
For a decade, I was truly happy. I was delighted with my three acres and spent a great deal of time exploring the dense woods that surrounded me. There were still pheasants and quail in the woods, and when I hiked all the way to “King’s Mountain” (there are dozens of mountains that have that name), I often found my way across the mountain and into a little cove that came to be known as “Smart Carter Cove.” (There is a story associated with this little cove and the man who once lived there, solitary and happy.)
It was a long time before I ventured down through the laurel thickets into the hillside that ended up in a section of Jackson County called “Love’s Field.” It was there, as I made my way through a large thicket, that I found the Hoyle house. Perhaps it is necessary to be “raised Appalachian” to understand my reaction to this rustic little house. It was a tightly constructed cottage that emerged from that hillside. There was a clean, well-kept spring and the backyard, with a tin dipper hanging on a hook, and when I drank, the water had the same taste as my grandfather’s spring. (Yes, good water does have a distinct taste.)
I peeped through a back window and saw rows on rows of canned goods: corn, pickled beans, tomatoes, okra, etc. However, it was becoming increasingly obvious that no one was living in this house. There was a little chicken lot, but an absence of clucks and cackles. I mounted the front steps, knocked and then tried the front door, and it opened!
It was a neatly kept home. There were two bedrooms, covered with colorful quilts; a “Warm Morning” heater in the living, and a little cook stove in the kitchen. There was a little kitchen table complete with salt and pepper shakers .... It all looked as though it was waiting for someone to settle into a chair. I saw a few personal items — photographs, a calendar and a little Philco radio. But I was becoming nervous. I had no business prowling through this house!
Perhaps the people living here had simple gone to buy groceries or visit relatives. I gently closed the front door and climbed back through the laurel thickets to my own home. I immediately contacted a neighbor and asked about the little house. “Yes, that is the Hoyle house,” he said. “I guess there is no one living there, now. For years, there were two sisters and a handicapped brother, but the brother died recently. The two
sisters are probably in a nursing home.”
Wow! That stunned me. My mind was immediately filled with images of those three people, living in that house, sitting before that fireplace, eating those canned goods at that table, feeding those chickens. I sensed love and comfort, and I wondered if they listened to the “Grand Ole Opry” and “Renfro Valley.” I called my neighbor back and asked him what was going to become of that house?
“Well, someone should contact a relative, and I’m not sure that there are any.”
He called me back later.
“There is a Hoyle that lives at the head of the holler here. Not a very social fellow, I’m afraid.”
So, I decided to find the Hoyle at the head of the holler. I made one of my trips into the few houses beyond
hoping that my trip had been a success. I was a bit upset by the reception that I had received, but I later learned that this family had a reputation for being “unsociable.”
A week later, I visited the Hoyle place again. Long before I arrived, I became anxious. Something was wrong. I discovered that the front door had been torn away and I entered to find all the furnishings gone. The bed ticks had been carried into the woods and gutted and they were scattered through the undergrowth. Both stoves were gone and the walls were stripped of everything, including photographs. The house now had a forlorn quality that was only deepened when I found that the canned goods were smashed and the spring was full of broken Mason jars, beans, corn and tomatoes.
The vandalized Hoyle house was my first experience with the fate that awaits all things that could no longer defend themselves. I suppose that the mattresses had been gutted in the hope that they might contain hidden money. But why destroy canned goods? Why not take them home? I had been raised to respect and honor fading traditions. There is a darkness here that is at odds with my experience .... something that seeks to bum and destroy the very things that nurtured our lives.
Rhodes Cove and one solitary man, chopping wood in his front yard, gave me some vague information. At last, I struggled through a lot of undergrowth to find an isolated cabin. As I got closer, I found myself in a yard full of barking dogs.
When I saw the woman on the porch, I asked if I had reached the Hoyle house. She shut the dogs up and came to the end of the porch and stared at me. It was not a friendly stare. Finally, she said, “Come up here on this porch and my boys and me will cut your hair.” The enmity in her voice was almost tangible. ‘“You one of them hippies, I guess.”
“No, ma’m,” I managed to say. “I am looking for relatives of the Hoyle sisters who used to live near me.” Silence prevailed. The woman continued to stare.
“They have moved out of their house and it is vacant,” I said. More silence. Then, two large young men materialized behind the woman.
“I thought you should know,” I added lamely. “The two sisters are in a nursing home.”
The woman turned and spoke to the two men, and I felt that they must be relatives. I retreated into the dense woods,
I only returned to the Hoyle house once more, dreading what I would find. I had the feeling that the house was disappearing now, gently sinking into oblivion. The windows were all broken and the barren walls seem to lean inward. The floor was littered with tom clothes and the skins of animals. In one bedroom, I found one small, feral dog and a litter of pups. The room bore witness to her struggle to survive and the remains of rabbits and small animals were everywhere. She rose on trembling legs, prepared to drive me from the house, and her undernourished state was painfully evident in the outline of her ribs.
What to do? I choose to do what I had done with the sullen woman who offered to cut my hair. I retreated. Out of the house .... back through the laurels, back to a safe place that had warmth and food and possibly the illusion of safety. I did not return. I did not need to see the rest of that sad decline. I am sure that there is nothing there now that would speak for the honor due that quiet house and its residents that once lived there in harmony with the natural world. I am sure that “progress” has arrived .... streetlights, pavement and city water. Ah, but the Hoyle house still exists in my memory: that little spring, those Mason jars and the waning warmth of that little kitchen.
hear tell of people, a precious few, who are not permanently tethered to their phones, people who are able to go hours at a time without being accessible or needing to access someone else. People who dare to be unavailable for a period of time, if you can imagine such a thing. Do you know anyone like that?
Some of these same people are also not on Facebook or any other form of social media. I consider such people to be intrepid non-conformists in the manner of Henry David Thoreau, who in the middle of the 19th century built a cabin on Walden Pond and retreated from society for a couple of years in search of the simple life, one of contemplation, selfreliance, and solitude.
Nearly two centuries later, people who have managed to resist what sometimes feels like the sheer inevitability of our collective participation in social media and perpetual technological “interconnectedness,” are following a similar path, but they find their solitude in the stillness of technological disconnection. They do not trouble themselves over how many “likes” a photo of their eggs benedict have accumulated since this morning when they posted it on Instagram, nor do they feel somehow diminished because their friends, the Worthingtons, are touring Spain and they are not.
Now, when I talk with my grown children about “a time before cell phones,” I might as well be talking about “a time before electricity” or “a time before roads.” All of it is equally incomprehensible. The cell phone is just as much a part of the fabric of their daily lives as turning on the light in the bathroom at night or driving to school in the morning, not something they would give a second thought about unless the electricity is suddenly out or the road unexpectedly closed.
And then what? It is a peculiar sort of calamity. It feels a little bit thrilling, a little taste of unpredictability, but mostly it feels unsettling, a reminder of how the feeling of being in control is mostly an illusion. What happens when you are addicted to something that is both the source of and the solution to your anxiety? That is our predicament with our phones.
Last year on Christmas morning, our daughter inexplicably lost her brand new iPhone while we were opening gifts. It was there, and then it wasn’t. We spent hours, and then days, and then weeks looking everywhere for it, and I do mean everywhere, retracing steps, examining every
conceivable scenario, and developing wild theories until finally calling off the search and consigning the case to the category of unsolved mysteries.
The phone was never found, so she had to grit her teeth and plunder her savings for another phone, because, well, the prospect of not having a phone for more than a few days was not only untenable, but quite literally unbearable, as it is not only for most people of her generation, but most people in general these days.
“My life is in that phone,” she said. Quite so. And there you have it.
I am certainly not immune. Instead of reading “Finnegan’s Wake,” or learning how to speak French, or practicing on my guitar, I have developed a fun little community on my Facebook page centered around the game Wordle. There must be nearly 20 of us by now, posting our Wordle scores every day and comparing strategies, celebrating our good scores and lamenting our poor ones, laughing and commiserating like friends at the barbershop. There is talk of actually getting together this summer for a meal or something, since few of these people have actually ever met in “real life.”
Wordle only takes about 10 minutes out of my day, though, and I wouldn’t want to give up our little ragtag community. On the other hand, over the years, I’ve engaged in lengthy and pointless political debates with both friends and total strangers, and, even worse, spent countless hours pondering or fuming over reader comments on various news articles, sometimes even responding, which is about as worthwhile as punching yourself in the face. Spend an hour reading people’s comments on any number of topics on social media, and you’ll end up wondering why you ever believed democracy was a good idea.
The key to all of this is either developing the discipline to limit yourself to a certain amount of time and a certain level and type of activity on your iPhone or iPad or laptop so that you also have time to read and learn a language and play the guitar, or else admit you have a problem, go to Walden Pond, and throw every one of your devices right in the center of it.
There is already a 12-step program for Internet and technology addicts, called ITAA. I expect attendance to grow exponentially over the next few years, as people finally figure out that there are even worse calamities than losing their phone.
Rip Van Winkle went for a walk, drank a potion, and went to sleep for 20 years. When he finally woke up, everything had changed. He could not get that time back. I wonder if social media is our potion and what we’ll lament when we wake up.
(Chris Cox is a writer and teacher who lives in Haywood County. jchriscox@live.com.)
Sliding into a booth at Meatballs Pizzeria in downtown Sylva, Crystal Pace and Santiago Guzzetti gaze out onto a bustling Main Street rushing by the front windows. It’s been a longtime dream of Pace’s to do just this — to simply sit down and eat pizza in Meatballs.
“I just remember being a little kid and helping out at Meatballs,” Pace said. “And that was my first experience [in the culinary industry]. From there, I went on to do catering and all kinds of things.”
“All kinds of things” seems to be an understatement for Pace and her husband, Guzzetti, nowadays. Aside from launching Meatballs last month, the young couple runs Ilda, an Italian fine dining spot just a stone’s throw away, and Santé, a cozy wine bar next door to Ilda. They also run a catering business with a full calendar of upcoming weddings.
But, for Pace, Meatballs was the true full circle moment. Originally located where Ilda currently stands, Meatballs was a beloved culinary fixture in the small mountain community from 1983 to 2000.
Meatballs was owned and operated by Karen Martar, who was Pace’s stepmother. Hailing from New York, Martar found herself in Sylva with her family’s sacred meatball recipe in hand. In 2007, Martar passed away from pancreatic cancer.
“Karen had such a big character and was so loving,” Pace said. “She really touched me and everyone in this town — not everybody you talk about 40 years later.”
As a kid, Pace remembers spending her summers and holidays bouncing around Meatballs, downtown Sylva and greater
Western North Carolina. Skip ahead to adulthood, with Pace working in fine dining in New York City where she meets Guzzetti, an executive chef from Argentina with an extensive background in Italian cuisine.
“My first job as a chef was to run a pizza place — I know my way around pizza,” Guzzetti chuckled. “And, when you’re a chef in New York, you sometimes can’t afford to eat in the places that you work. So, you stop somewhere and get a good slice — grab some pizza and keep moving.”
When Pace returned to Jackson County to raise a family with Guzzetti, the duo opened Ilda in April 2021. Although she now owned the former Meatballs building, there was always a thought to someday resurrect the pizzeria. And that’s when the opportunity arose to take over the space next door to Innovation Brewing.
Meatballs Pizzeria is located at 414B West Main St. in Sylva. Hours of operation are noon to 9 p.m. Friday through Monday and 4-9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday.
For more information, call 828.354.0248 or visit meatballspizzeria.com
What used to be Pie Times pizzeria, the room already had a wood fire oven and was turn-key ready for its next chapter. With the building owned by Nicole Dexter and Chip Owen of Innovation, the two couples partnered up to open Meatballs.
“I think it’s serendipitous — everything just seemed to work out,” Guzzetti said.
With its artisan approach, Guzzetti noted Meatballs offers the choice between Neapolitan and Roman styles of pizza. Martar’s signature meatballs are also on the menu. And with the help of Ilda bar director and acclaimed mixologist Antoine Maurice Hodge, Meatballs now has craft cocktails on tap.
“Neapolitan is sourdough. It requires more fermentation and a longer period of time [to make], where it’s cooked from start to finish in the wood fire,” Guzzetti said. “Our Roman is thicker and super crispy, where the crust is more of a holder for all of the ingredients on top.”
Grabbing herself a fresh slice from the warm pizza pan, Pace consumes the meal with gusto. There’s a surreal sense of gratitude running through her thoughts while sitting in the booth at Meatballs, with the memory of Martar and her ethos always intact in Pace’s daily actions.
“[From Karen], I know that nothing is that serious, and to always have a good time — enjoy the moment, the people, the company,” Pace said. “[Karen] was always lighthearted and never seemed stressed — that’s not easy to do in this environment.”
BY GARRET K. WOODWARD
Dropping my girlfriend off at her house in West Asheville, it was a warm, sunny Saturday afternoon. She was headed to South Carolina to spend time with her best friend. I decided to track down a new trail to jog down.
Cruising along N.C. 151 from Candler towards the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Upper Hominy area of Buncombe County unfolded right outside the windshield. S-curves, farm fields and a canopy of trees high above the truck. Parking on a narrow dirt pull-off, I could see the gate for the old logging road that allowed public use.
Tightening up a pair of dirty running shoes, I started up the steady incline that hugged the contours of the ridge. Winding around the mountain, the sounds of the nearby road and all its sunny day motorcycle and sportscar traffic soon disappeared into the ether — it was just myself, a few birds chirping and the sounds of nearby creeks sporadically throughout the trek.
For the most part, my legs and body felt fine, albeit a bit tight and a tad tired moving up the trail. At 38, I’ve been a die-hard runner since I was 12 years old and in seventh grade. Running is a huge part of my life, more so nowadays than I’d ever envisioned back in the middle school era of meandering down trails behind the school within reach of the Canadian Border.
And I’ve never taken running for granted, with a deep sense of gratitude amid each step up a trail or down a road. It’s that serene sense of self and ability to be able to make one’s way up a mountain or along a paved route for several miles, only to circle back to your vehicle just as the runner’s high swirls around your current state of being.
But, as I’ve gotten older, it’s been, well, interesting to see how the body ages and matures, as the legs “ain’t what they used to be.” And that can be tough, physically and emotionally, especially for someone like myself that was a D-1 college athlete in the good ole days of sub-five-minute miles and hovering
around two minutes for 800 meters, where an 18-minute 5K pace was considered par for the course (my PR is 16:31 for 3.1 miles).
No matter, seeing as it’s all part of growing up and getting older. You’ll never be that spry young kid at the starting line, whether literally or figuratively.
You’re an older adult way down the road of life, this juncture of time and place where the weight of daily existence can sometimes hang heavy on your shoulders. That, and knee sprains and achilles tendonitis seem more frequent with each passing year on the calendar on the wall.
The irony of dealing with somewhat chronic physical pain and slower paces while in motion as a 30-something runner is that I love the act of running more now than ever before. Back then, as a student-athlete, running was kind of a chore, something you do and participate in because some coach saw something in you — perhaps potential, promise or passion.
Nowadays, even if it takes me the better part of a half-mile to feel warmed up, the legs and arms finding their ideal rhythm of pace and performance, eventually I’ll hit my stride and fall into that seamless beauty of running in one’s own realm of reality.
Us runners are well-aware of that realm, where the rest of the world and its meaningless priorities and responsibilities fall away with each drop of sweat rolling down your
Renowned Haywood County bluegrass group Balsam Range will perform on Saturday, April 22, at Sorrells Park in Canton.
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The Smoky Mountain Roller Girls will kick off a brand new season of bouts versus the Upstate Roller Girl Evolution on Saturday, April 22, at the Swain County Recreation Center in Bryson City.
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City Lights Bookstore and the Jackson County Public Library will celebrate the book launch of “Hillsville Remembered” by Travis A. Rountree at 6 p.m. Friday, April 21, in the Community Room of the library in Sylva.
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Rising singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Alma Russ will hit the stage at 5 p.m. Sunday, April 23, at Mountain Layers Brewing Company in Bryson City.
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Featuring an array of local/regional artisans, crafters and musicians, the 25th annual “Greening Up The Mountains” festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 22, in Sylva.
face and onto the ground below. The stress of thoughts, actions and reactions that really don’t matter in the grand scheme of things now seem small and insignificant when immersed in the depths of a trail run.
About a couple miles down the trail, it’s time to turn around and return to the truck parked on that narrow dirt pull-off on N.C. 151. Wipe your forehead and neck with the dry fit shirt and ready oneself for the second part of the jaunt. But, not before taking a moment to let out a big sigh of relief and redemption, that nod to the ability of body, mind and spirit to make these regular treks into pure silence and disconnection from society.
Sure, the legs “ain’t what they used to be,” but neither am I. Yes, in the good ole days of fast miles and school records, these limbs proved victorious. But, as I’m nearing the 40-year mark, the real victory is still being able to do so, and all while the fruits of muscle and strength breed such mental and emotional victories when everyday life becomes a little too hectic or daunting.
Back at the truck, it was a few minutes of stretching and “shaking it all out” for basic maintenance of yet another glorious run. The new trail proved itself worthy of such endeavors of a curious soul looking for the next path to trot down in search of your true essence.
Push ahead with a smile ear-to-ear, for what else is there to be in search of, eh? Pull those running shoes out from the closet or the back of your car and lace ’em up. Log into the AllTrails app or website (alltrails.com) and throw a dart of mischief and discovery at the map on the wall of your intent. Onward.
Life is beautiful, grasp for it, y’all.
‘To rouse the spirit of the earth, and move the rolling sky’N.C. 151 near the Blue Ridge Parkway. Garret K. Woodward photo
Renowned Haywood County bluegrass group Balsam Range will hit the stage on Saturday, April 22, at Sorrells Park in Canton.
A fundraiser to support the Altrusa Scholarship Fund, gates open at 4 p.m. Live music will kick off with The Jeff Little Trio at 5:30 p.m. Balsam Range takes the stage at 7 p.m.
Since its inception in 2007, Balsam Range has become one of the most decorated and award-winning acts in the wide world of bluegrass music. The band has taken home the following International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) honors: “Entertainer of the Year” (2014, 2018), “Album of the Year” (2013, 2017), “Song of the Year” (2011, 2015) and “Vocal Group of the Year” (2014, 2015), with Melton named “Male Vocalist of the Year” (2014, 2018) and Tim Surrett “Bass Player of the Year” (2018).
“It’s most meaningful to me to remember how the band has been able to help certain families,” said Balsam Range banjoist Marc Pruett. “[Whether it was] a child with cancer [or] a family whose home burned, and the fragile and old we helped feed through our efforts with Meals On Wheels, and the Backpack Program — for me, those are my accolades.”
Beer and wine available for purchase. Food trucks will also be onsite. Bring your lawn chair. Tickets start at $43 per person, with special VIP packages offered. Kids ages 6 and under are free. As well, Altrusa is offering free admission for mill employees and their spouses.
For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to altrusaofwaynesville.org/purchase-tickets.
Appalachian/indie group Jackson Grimm & The Bull Moose Party will perform at 8 p.m. Friday, April 21, at The Scotsman in Waynesville.
Grimm marries folk/pop melodies with the lonesome sound of traditional Appalachian music. In a region with a strong music culture, it is no surprise that Grimm’s songwriting is representative of his musical birthplace: Asheville.
His songs run the gambit from an homage to a traditional country waltz in “If Not For You,” an unrequited love song driven by a Beatles-esque melody in “I’d Hold You (But I Don’t Wanna Hold You),” to a drunken party-grass song à la Old Crow Medicine Show in “Last Train Home.”
The performance is free and open to the public. For more information, call 828.246.6292 or go to scotsmanpublic.com.
• Altered Frequencies (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.342.8014 or alteredfrequencies.net.
• Angry Elk Brewing (Whittier) will host Twelfth Fret (Americana) 5 p.m. April 29. All shows are free and open to the public. 828.497.1015 or facebook.com/angryelkbrewingco.
• Balsam Falls Brewing (Sylva) will host an open mic from 8-10 p.m. every Thursday. Free and open to the public. 828.631.1987 or balsamfallsbrewing.com.
• Blue Ridge Beer Hub (Waynesville) will host a semi-regular acoustic jam with the Main Street NoTones from 7-9 p.m. every first and third Thursday of the month. Free and open to the public. For more information, go to blueridgebeerhub.com.
• Boojum Brewing (Waynesville) will host karaoke at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, trivia at 7 p.m. on Thursdays, Rossdafareye (rock/jam) April 22 and Imij Of Soul (Jimi Hendrix tribute) April 29. All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 828.246.0350 or boojumbrewing.com.
• Currahee Brewing (Franklin) will host The Remnants 7 p.m. April 22. Free and open to the public. 828.634.0078 or curraheebrew.com.
• Farm At Old Edwards (Highlands) will host the “Orchard Sessions” on select dates. Tickets start at $25 per person. For tickets, go to oldedwardshospitality.com/orchardsessions.
• Folkmoot Friendship Center (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. For tickets, go to folkmoot.org.
• Fontana Village Resort Wildwood Grill will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 800.849.2258 or fontanavillage.com.
• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host its weekly “Tuesday Jazz Series” at 5:30 p.m., Aunt Vicki April 21, Municipal Surf Group April 22, Syrrup 3 p.m. April 23 and Kind Clean Gentleman (rock/soul) 5:30 p.m. May 2. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. 828.454.5664 or froglevelbrewing.com.
• Frog Quarters (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows are at 11 a.m. Free and open to the public. Located at 573 East Main St. littletennessee.org or 828.369.8488.
• Happ’s Place (Glenville) will host Trey Stephens (singer-songwriter) April 28 and Doug Ramsey (singer-songwriter) April 29. All shows begin at 6 p.m. Free and open to the public. happsplace.com or 828.742.5700.
• Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort (Cherokee) will host Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo (rock/soul) 9 p.m. April 21. For a full schedule of events and/or to buy tickets, caesars.com/harrahs-cherokee.
• Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will host “Trivia Night with Kirk” from 7-9 p.m. every Monday, Open Mic Night every Wednesday, Shane Meade (indie/soul) April 21 and Adi The Monk April 29. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. innovationbrewing.com.
• Innovation Station (Dillsboro) will host “Music Bingo” on Wednesdays and semiregular live music on the weekends. All events begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. innovation-brewing.com.
• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host “Music Bingo” 6 p.m. Tuesdays, trivia 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Open Mic 6:30 p.m. Thursdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 or lazyhikerbrewing.com.
• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Sylva) will host trivia 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Old Time Jam 6:30 p.m. Thursdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 or lazyhikerbrewing.com.
• Meadowlark Motel (Maggie Valley) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 6:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to meadowlarkmotel.com or 828.926.1717.
• Moss Valley (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. Food trucks and beverages available onsite. Bring a lawn chair. Presented by Drake Software.
• Mountain Layers Brewing (Bryson City) will host Granny’s Mason Jar (Americana/bluegrass) April 22, Alma Russ (Americana/folk) 5 p.m. April 23, Zip Robertson (singer-songwriter) April 28 and Heidi Holton (blues/folk) 5 p.m. April 30. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.538.0115 or mountainlayersbrewingcompany.com.
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• Nantahala Brewing (Sylva) will host Moody Bridge April 21, Caribbean Cowboys (beach/oldies) April 22 and Home Cooked Meal (Americana/country) April 29. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.641.9797 or nantahalabrewing.com.
A rock-n-roll power trio tribute to the sound, music and vibe of Jimi Hendrix, Imij of Soul will hit the stage at 9 p.m. Saturday, April 29, at The Gem downstairs taproom at Boojum Brewing in Waynesville.
The show is free and open to the public. To learn about Imij of Soul, go to facebook.com/jimivibes. For more information, call 828.246.0350 or go to boojumbrewing.com.
A community jam will be held from 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 20, at the Marianna Black Library in Bryson City.
Anyone with a guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, dulcimer, anything unplugged, are invited to join. Singers are also welcomed to join in or you can just stop by and listen. The jam is facilitated by Larry Barnett of the Sawmill Creek Porch Band.
The community jams offer a chance for musicians of all ages and levels of ability to share music they have learned over the years or learn old-time mountain songs. The music jams are offered to the public each first and third Thursday of the month — spring, summer, fall.
This program received support from the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of North Carolina and the National Endowment of the Arts. 828.488.3030.
• Nantahala Outdoor Center (Nantahala Gorge) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows behind at 5 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. noc.com.
• Orchard Coffee (Waynesville) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. 828.246.9264 or orchardcoffeeroasters.com.
• 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 or facebook.com/quirkybirdstreehouse.
• Rathskeller Coffee Haus & Pub (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Shows begin at 8 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.369.6796.
• Salty Dog’s Seafood & Grill (Maggie Valley) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.926.9105.
• Satulah Mountain Brewing (Highlands) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.482.9794 or satulahmountainbrewing.com.
• Sauced (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.246.9585 or saucedwnc.com
• The Scotsman (Waynesville) will host a
Rising singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Alma Russ will hit the stage at 5 p.m. Sunday, April 23, at Mountain Layers Brewing Company in Bryson City.
Based out of Western North Carolina and with her unique brand of “patchwork music” (country, folk and Appalachian styles pieced together), Russ enjoys playing guitar, banjo and fiddle.
Russ was also a contestant on “American Idol” Season 16. Her most recent album, “Fool’s Gold,” was recorded in an abandoned church in the West Texas desert while Russ was on a national tour.
Free and open to the public. 828.538.0115 or mountainlayersbrewingcompany.com. For more information on Russ, go to almarussofficial.com.
“Celtic Jam” 2-5 p.m. Sundays, Ginny McAfee (blues/rock) April 20, Jackson Grimm & The Bull Moose Party (Americana/old-time) April 21, Tricia Ann (singer-songwriter) April 27 and TrancEnd (rock/pop) 9 p.m. April 29. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.246.6292 or scotsmanpublic.com.
• SlopeSide Tavern (Sapphire) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.743.8655 or slopesidetavern.com.
• Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will host The North Carolina Symphony 7:30 p.m. April 19 (free). For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to smokymountainarts.com or 828.524.1598.
• Stecoah Valley Center (Robbinsville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.479.3364 or stecoahvalleycenter.com.
• The Ugly Dog Pub (Cashiers) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. 828.743.3000 or theuglydogpub.com.
• The Ugly Dog Pub (Highlands) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.526.8364 or theuglydogpub.com.
• Unplugged Pub (Bryson City) will host JR Williams (singer-songwriter) April 20, Rock Holler (rock) April 21, Carolina Freightshakers (classic rock) April 22, Mountain Gypsy April 27, Wayne Bucker April 28 and Keil Nathan Smith & Sudden Change
April 29. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.538.2488.
• Valley Cigar & Wine Co. (Waynesville) will host Karaoke with Jason April 28 and Rene Russell (singer-songwriter) 2 p.m. April 30. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.944.0686 or valleycigarandwineco.com.
• Valley Tavern (Maggie Valley) will host Trivia with Tom April 19 and 26, Biscuits & Gravy April 20, The Paper Crowns April 25, Keil Nathan Smith (singer-songwriter) 6:30 p.m. April 27, Tricia Ann Band April 28 and The Super 60s 3 p.m. April 30. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.926.7440 or valley-tavern.com.
• Water’n Hole Bar & Grill (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 9:30 p.m. 828.456.4750 or facebook.com/waternhole.bar.
• Wine Bar & Cellar (Sylva) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. 828.631.3075 or facebook.com/thewinebarandcellar.
• Yonder Community Market (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. Donations encouraged. 828.200.2169 or eatrealfoodinc.com.
The Pic’ & Play Mountain Dulcimer Players will be resuming in-person jam sessions at the St. John’s Episcopal Church basement fellowship hall in Sylva.
The group welcomes all beginners and experienced dulcimer players, including mountain (lap) dulcimer and hammered dulcimer players. Songs played include traditional mountain tunes, hymns and more modern music. The group meets at 1:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturday of every month in the basement of St. John’s.
Pic’ & Play has been playing together since 1995. The more experienced members welcome new players, help them navigate their instruments and guide them through some of the basics of tuning, strumming and playing.
The mountain dulcimer, also known as a fretted dulcimer or a lap dulcimer, is a uniquely American instrument. It evolved from the German scheitholz sometime in the early 1800s in Appalachia and was largely known only in this region until popularized more broadly in the 1950s.
For more information, call Kathy Jaqua at 828.349.3930 or Don Selzer at 828.293.0074.
Bird In Hand will play ‘Greening Up the Mountains’ on April 22.
Featuring an array of local/regional artisans, crafters and musicians, the 25th annual “Greening Up The Mountains” festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 22, in Sylva.
The premiere spring festival for Western North Carolina, the event attracts thousands of visitors and locals alike. Sponsored by the Town of Sylva, the festivities will once again
The Smoky Mountain Roller Girls will kick off a brand new season of bouts versus the Upstate Roller Girl Evolution on Saturday, April 22, at the Swain County Recreation Center in Bryson City.
The team is an amateur women’s athletic roller derby league that aims to provide an outlet for fun, fitness and camaraderie among
take place in historical downtown Sylva. Hitting the stage at Bridge Park, live music will be provided by Asheville Junction (1010:45 a.m.), Seth & Sara (11-11:45 a.m.), The Maggie Valley Band (noon to 12:45 p.m.), The Fuzzy Peppers (1-1:45 p.m.) Lua Flora (22:45 p.m.) and Bird In Hand (3-4 p.m.). For more information and a full schedule of events, go to greeningupthemountains.com.
its members and develop athletic ability and teamwork. SMRG endeavors to give back to the community that supports them through community building initiatives and charitable donations of time and activity.
Doors open at 4 p.m. with the first whistle at 6 p.m. Tickets are $5 presale or $8 at the door. Kids ages 11 and under are free. Bring your own chair. For more information, click on facebook.com/smokymountainrollergirls.
• Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will host Emmy-nominated comedian/storyteller Chonda Pierce at 7 p.m. Sunday, April 23. Tickets start at $33.50 per person with VIP seating available. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, click on smokymountainarts.com or 828.524.1598.
“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. For more information and/or to register, call 800.872.4681 or go to gsmr.com.
A nature-themed art workshop for elementary school-age children and young families will be held on Earth Day from 1-4 p.m. Saturday April 22, at the Macon County Public Library Children’s Area in Franklin.
With instruction from Franklin Uptown Gallery artist-educators, participants will create take-home projects including leaf confetti collages, newspaper owls, paper rubbings and tin can flower planters. Trail mix
• “Flights & Bites” will be held starting at 4 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays at Bosu’s Wine Shop in downtown Waynesville. For more information on upcoming events, wine tastings and special dinners, click on waynesvillewine.com.
• A free wine tasting will be held from 6-8 p.m. every Thursday and 2-5 p.m. every Saturday at The Wine Bar & Cellar in Sylva. 828.631.3075.
• “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. For more information, call 828.538.0420.
snacks and all materials will be provided, as well as a creation station for preschool-age siblings.
The event is free and open to the public. No pre-registration is required. Wear comfortable clothes and shoes and come for any part of the three-hour session.
The wheelchair-accessible library is at 149 Siler Farm Road. This event is produced by the Arts Council and Macon County Art Association. For more information, email arts4all@dnet.net or phone 828.524.ARTS.
to water, fishing practices, and sustainability. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday. Free and open to the public. For more information, go to arts.wcu.edu/breach.
• “Art After Dark” will return from 6-9 p.m. Friday, May 5, in downtown Waynesville. Each first Friday of the month (MayDecember), Main Street transforms into an evening of art, music, finger foods, beverages and shopping as artisan studios and galleries keep their doors open later for local residents and visitors. downtownwaynesville.com.
• The immersive installation “Courtney M. Leonard — BREACH: Logbook | CORIOLIS” is currently being showcased through May 5 in the Fine Art Museum at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. Created by the Shinnecock Nation ceramic artist as part of Leonard’s BREACH series, the exhibition explores cultural and historical connections
• Southwestern Community College Swain Arts Center (Bryson City) will host an array of workshops for adults and kids. For more information on the upcoming classes and/or to sign-up, go to southwesterncc.edu/scclocations/swain-center.
• Dogwood Crafters in Dillsboro will offer a selection of upcoming art classes and workshops. For more information and a full schedule of activities, click on dogwoodcrafters.com/classes.html or call 828.586.2248.
He was good friends with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. He taught shooting to another justice, Elaine Kagan, and became her hunting buddy. When he was under consideration for the post of judge on the D.C. Circuit Court, the FBI conducted its usual background investigation, examining his bank accounts and tax returns, and interviewing several dozen colleagues and friends. These interviews confirmed his integrity, intellectual gifts, and charisma, and are filled with such plaudits as “delightful and sensitive,” “of unimpeachable character,” “a model family man … his reputation above reproach …” and “the government could not have a better candidate for a position as a judge.”
In “Scalia: Rise to Greatness, 1936-1986” (Regnery Publishers, 2023, 500 pages), James Rosen gives us a lively and thorough account of the man who would sit on the High Court along with the likes of his friends, Justices Ginsberg and Kagan.
Rosen takes us from Antonin Scalia’s boyhood in Trenton, New Jersey to the moment he joined the Court. As a child, he attended a public elementary school in Queens, entered St. Francis Xavier High School, where he graduated as valedictorian, won those same high honors at Georgetown University, and graduated Harvard Law magna cum laude.
His career thereafter was varied and stellar. He spent some years employed by a prestigious law firm, two stints teaching law in excellent universities, worked for the Nixon and Ford administrations, and put in an outstanding performance as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals in D.C.
Rosen takes us behind the scenes in these endeavors, showing the challenges they presented, the people with whom Scalia interacted, and the consequences of his actions and decisions.
But getting to know the personal side of Scalia is what I most enjoyed in this biography , particularly those traits and virtues that carried this son of an Italian immigrant all the way to the Supreme Court.
Scalia’s devotion to family, for example,
stands out. Though he was the only son of Catherine and Salvatore, who was more commonly called Sam, he was surrounded from infancy by a tribe of relatives, especially aunts and uncles, who instilled in him the importance of family. He brought these values into his marriage with his beloved Maureen McCarthy.
Of course, Scalia himself was no dullard either. Throughout Rosen’s biography, we read again and again of his brilliance in the classroom and in the law. Accompanying this powerful intellect, however, was a rigorous work ethic first learned in childhood. His father, a scholar and a professor, read and studied intensely his entire life, and served as an early example of the efficacy of effort and labor. Sam also demanded his son apply himself in the same way. Scalia’s classmates and his colleagues in the law all remember him as witty and fun-loving, but they also inevitably add to that evaluation his intense dedication to the job at hand.
Also from his childhood, Scalia learned the absolute importance of character. Of his father, Rosen observes, “Moral character was king in Sam’s eyes, prized more than intellect or wealth. ‘Son,’ he would tell Nino, ‘brains are like muscles. You can rent them by the hour. The only thing that’s not for sale is character.’” This emphasis on doing the right thing, no matter how hard or unpopular, was reinforced by the Jesuits at Xavier High.
These lessons in moral formation stuck with Scalia the rest of his life. Following the FBI investigation, the bureau deemed Scalia’s “impartiality, objectiveness, professional ethics and competency … above reproach.”
As Rosen writes of that FBI report, “Would that every life repaid such close scrutiny with such superlative results.”
Described by Rosen as “petite but fiercely independent, intellectually brilliant, and impeccably mannered,” like her husband, Maureen was a devout Catholic and conservative in her politics. The couple raised nine children and remained married for 55 years until Scalia’s death in 2016.
At a Federalist Society celebration in 2006 — Scalia was one of the founders of this organization — the justice summoned Maureen to the podium, where he paid homage to her talents. Rosen gives us this description of what followed:
“Mrs. Scalia smiled shyly and examined the floor as the justice described her as ‘the best decision I ever made, the mother of the nine children you see, and the woman responsible for raising them with little assistance from me ….
All too often these days our public figures fall short of what we hope from them. Whether celebrities or politicians, they may amaze us by their talents and their works, but frequently their character leaves much to be desired.
The actress who stuns us by her performance on the screen is on the set an absolute nightmare in her cruelty to the crew. The politician who brings peace to some foreign land brings the exact opposite to his wife and their children.
It is, then, both refreshing and uplifting to read the story of a man who was so possessed by drive and ambition who yet firmly kept his eyes on the highest goods of all: family, work, and virtue.
(Jeff Minick reviews books and has written four of his own: two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust On Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning As I Go” and “Movies Make the Man.” minick0301@gmail.com)
During the “Greening Up the Mountains” festival in downtown, the “Ecopoetry Earth Day” reading with writers Loss
and Thomas Crowe will take place at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 22, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. Glazier is the author of “Transparent Mountain,” with Carter the writer of “Larvae of the Nearest
A conversation with the authors will follow the reading.
To reserve copies of the authors’ books, please call the bookstore at 828.586.9499.
for
HANNAH MCLEOD
STAFF W RITER
Sylva has received the results of an indepth botanical survey of Pinnacle Park revealing that the property is a bonanza of biodiversity. Now, the town is partnering with Jackson County and the Jackson County Tourism Development Authority to fund a master plan implementing survey recommendations.
“The overarching message from Equinox to the town, to the foundation, is you have a gem,” said Owen Carson, plant ecologist for the Ashville based consulting, planning and design firm Equinox Environmental, in a presentation to the board Thursday, April 13. “You have a wonderful, amazing place with a lot of really special and important species, assemblages of natural communities, water resources and wildlife. And you have an opportunity at this point in time to take a positive step in the stewardship and management of Pinnacle Park. Hopefully this document and all it contains will help the town
and the foundation move forward into the next phase of planning for Pinnacle Park.”
Pinnacle Park comprises just under 1,800 acres of land situated near Sylva and is boarded by other conserved lands. In 2007, the Fisher Creek Tract, about 1,100 acres of the former town watershed, was placed under a conservation easement and opened to the public for recreation shortly thereafter.
The Blackrock Tract, about 435 acres abutting the original Pinnacle Park property on the crest of the Plott Balsam Mountains, had previously been slated for development before those plans were abandoned. In 2016, The Conservation Fund started looking for partners to help conserve the 912-acre property.
Mainspring Conservation Trust protected it under a conservation easement and Sylva acquired the 435-acre Blackrock Tract in 2019 after the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
purchased the adjacent 471-acre Shut-In Creek Tract, completing the complex conservation deal.
On the other side of the main Pinnacle Park property is the Dills Creek Tract, also a failed development. Mainspring is currently working on getting this 246-acre piece of land into a conservation easement and transferring it to the town.
“This is a large tract of land in a culturally and biologically important part of the world, protected from failed attempts of development,” said Carson. “The work that Mainspring has done and the Town of Sylva and [The] Conservation Fund and all the other conservation partners has been really important to get this land acquired and protected and added for public experience.”
In 2021, the Pinnacle Park Foundation released a request for proposals to conduct a botanical survey of the park prior to building any additional trails and amenities.
“We proposed to do a little more than a botanical inventory,” said Carson. “We proposed to use our collective expertise to assess water quality, wildlife, plants, natural communities and included in that are assessments of rare species. We also looked at developing recommendations for stewardship of some of those elements contained within the property.”
In combination with its own data gathering, Equinox used data provided by Pinnacle Park Foundation members and volunteers, as well as state and national sources like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Heritage Program and the state’s Spatial Data Download program.
“A lot of Pinnacle Park Foundation members have done a lot of personal recreating and personal inventorying out there and provided a lot of really important data for this report that could be interpreted and analyzed,” said Carson.
The results of the survey show Pinnacle Park contains at least 25 different natural community types, some of which are very specific to certain topographic or elevational areas. The park contains over 19 miles of streams and seeps with excellent water quality and bio classification ratings and several rare species of vascular plants.
A natural community is a distinct and recurring assemblage of populations of plants, animals, bacteria and fungi naturally associated with each other in their natural environment.
“The goal of this assessment was not to provide an exhaustive list of flora,” said Carson. “It was to document as much as possible by traversing as many habitats as possible and giving ourselves a look at a pass through the diversity of ecosystems that we could predict and find on site.”
The team started documenting in March 2022 and continued to do so through late fall and into early winter. Carson did not name or describe the location of any of the rare plants
the team found to avoid destruction or poaching of those populations. The data will be shared with the town and the Pinnacle Park Foundation.
One of the more interesting results from the survey involved the discovery of how old water infrastructure has sheltered populations of Southern Appalachian brook charr, more often called the Southern Appalachian brook trout. While brook charr are native to Southern Appalachia, other predatory fish like rainbow and brown trout were introduced to the area from California and Europe, respectively. These species of trout tend to outcompete the native brook charr where the species coincide.
Both the Dills Creek and Fisher Creek tracts contain infrastructure from the historic watershed when Sylva used to draw its water directly from these creeks. The structures have prevented rainbow and brown trout from swimming further upstream to spawn. This barrier to trout, combined with the presence of healthy populations of benthic macroinvertebrates — informally called aquatic bugs — allows the upper portions of the Dills and Fisher Creek tracts to support brook charr populations.
“Normally we look at barriers in streams and we try to get rid of them. There’s a lot of momentum on removing barriers to movement of aquatic organisms. But some of those barriers are actually preserving the genetics of the brook charr up in those watersheds,” said Carson. “It’s really important and significant that this diverse array of bugs is occurring in these headwater streams, because these bugs are feeding the charr. If anything were to happen to those bugs, you could put pressure on, and negatively affect the charr population.”
The survey found that Pinnacle Park is highly connected to important landscapes, has high-quality biodiversity and wildlife habitat and is strongly resilient against climate change. It is rife with unique topographical features including extensive cliffs, boulder fields, rocky outcrops and summits, the most popular of which is likely the pinnacle for which the park is named.
Equinox consolidated some of its findings from the botanical survey into recommendations for the Pinnacle Park Foundation. These include protection of sensitive elements, poaching prevention, restoration of degraded roads and trails and control of nonnative invasive species.
The degradation of roads on the property, especially those on the Blackrock Tract originally cut for housing developments, are particularly troubling. These roads contain huge ruts and are causing sedimentation that is impairing water quality in Blackrock and Soco Creeks.
“I understand the cost of repairing a road like that is astronomical now, but certainly restoration of these degraded roads, especially on the Blackrock side, is one of our strongest recommendations as you move into the master planning effort,” said Carson.
“To have some really serious con- F
versations about the integrity of that road, what it’s doing to the ecosystem, what it’s doing to Soco Creek, which might I remind you is one of the veins of the Long Man running into Qualla.”
Long Man (Ga-nv-hi-dv A-s-ga-ya) is the Cherokee conception of river systems whose head is in the mountains and feet lie in the sea, providing water to drink, clean, grow food and perform numerous cultural rituals.
“If we have the opportunity to make a positive change for the water source of the Cherokee, I think that could be a really important benefit,” said Carson.
The botanical survey ranks invasive species according to their risk level and recommends taking immediate action on populations that pose a high risk to the area. For example, invasive kudzu, which is pres-
property.
“An overarching nonnative invasive plant management plan would be a good idea,” said Carson.
One of the botanical survey’s most valuable pieces of information for the construction of a master plan is identifying the location of ecologically sensitive areas.
Knowledge of these places will help inform future trail development and maintenance of existing trails.
Now, the Pinnacle Park Foundation can start creating a master plan to protect the plant species and communities identified in the botanical survey.
Ecologists observed a large constructed caddis case in the park.
“We want to take these survey results and do a recreational survey of citizens that use this park and determine the best path forward and best future for this park and how to preserve it and how to balance preservation of the park with recreational opportunities for people,” said Mayor David Nestler. “It will help us identify what we need to fix in the park and get funding sources for that as well.”
This master plan is distinct from a separate master planning process to sketch out trails and amenities for the Blackrock Tract. In 2021, the town voted to partner with the EBCI on that planning process. Both governments appropriated $20,000 for the effort, but no contract has yet been awarded.
Pinnacle Park Foundation has already received and ranked proposals for the botanical master plan. Equinox received the highest ranking with the cost estimated at $150,000. So far, the Jackson County Tourism Development Authority has donated $50,000 towards the master plan.
The annual Jackson County Bike Rodeo will return 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, April 29, at Cullowhee Valley School.
A variety of stations will be available for kids to get set up to ride bikes safely, including bike safety checks, helmet inspections, a learn-to-ride segment, bike skills courses for all ages, lessons on fixing bikes and group rides. A bike raffle will give away six free mountain bikes from Motion Makers Bicycle Shop in size-appropriate categories.
Hosted by Jackson County Parks and Recreation, the event is supported by a diverse set of community partners and donors. Contact Trevor Brown with questions at 828.293.3053.
Youth and teens looking to get into mountain biking will have multiple chances this spring in Haywood County.
• Afterschool mountain biking sessions will be offered 3:30-5 p.m. Tuesdays through May 9 at Waynesville Middle School. The sessions are free, with loaner bikes and helmets provided.
• Youth ages 11-18 are invited to ride Chestnut Mountain Nature Park in Canton 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 29. The ride is part of a series of youth rides at the park this spring. Other dates are May 13 and June 17, both Saturdays. Loaner bikes and helmets are available. Participants will have the chance to improve their skills with a local mountain bike coach while exploring the park. Both programs are free, but registration is required at bit.ly/haywoodrec.
The annual Spring Parking Area Cleanup will spruce up Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest at 9 a.m. Thursday, April 27, near Robbinsville.
Partners of Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness will join the U.S. Forest Service to trim, sweep and clean the parking area and entrance road. Volunteers are needed for cleanup tasks as well as for traffic control. A hot dog lunch will be served.
For more information, contact president@joycekilmerslickrock.org.
ent on the lower end of the Pinnacle Park side and on the upper reaches of the Blackrock side of the park, is known to grow over native plants, pull down trees and it does not hold soil back. The recommendation is to eradicate invasive species from the
At its April 13 meeting, the town board voted to appropriate $50,000 towards the master plan; the money will come from Fisher Creek water quality funds. The remaining $50,000 is expected to come from Jackson County.
Mainspring Conservation Trust will celebrate Arbor Day weekend with a slate of events ranging from a foraging walk to a greenway workday.
Trees Arbor Day Walk” at Tessentee
Bottomland Preserve near Franklin will explore how to look at trees in order to know them. Instead of focusing on simple memorization, the group will learn to notice and appreciate traits such as branch arrangement, bark texture, growth pattern, leaf shape and habitat type.
• At 1 p.m.
Saturday, April 29, Mainspring and MountainTrue will partner to restore native habitat along the Jackson County Greenway in Cullowhee.
• At 11 a.m.
New detections of Chronic Wasting Disease, a fatal ailment affecting cervids like deer and elk, have been reported in Cumberland and Wilkes counties, spurring N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission Executive Director Cameron Ingram to invoke emergency powers.
Forsyth counties will continue to be designated as secondary surveillance areas as they were in 2022.
• At 10 a.m. Friday, April 28, Wildcraft Kitchen founder Cara-Lee Langston will lead a spring foraging walk at Tessentee Bottomland Preserve near Franklin to share her extensive knowledge of foraging and herbal medicine.
• At 3 p.m. Friday, April 28, the “Talking to
Sunday, April 30, Adam Bigelow of Bigelow’s Botanical Excursions will lead the Onion Mountain Plant Hike exploring the plants on Mainspring’s newest preserve. All events are free save the Onion Mountain hike, which costs $25.
Registration for individual events required at mainspringconserves.org/events.
North Carolina residents can join citizen scientists around the world — and challenge other budding naturalists across the state — during the 2023 City Nature Challenge from Friday, April 28, through Wednesday, May 3.
The annual event has become an opportunity for people of all ages to celebrate the outdoors while engaging in and advancing scientific research. Participants take photos of plants and animals they find in their backyards and neighborhoods and upload them to the iNaturalist app. Scientists use that information alongside images of wildlife from around the world for research purposes.
Every county in North Carolina is represented as one of five participating regions, each with a lead institution — one of which is the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville. These regions will be engaged in a friendly competition to see which one can upload the most observations and most species.
To participate, people 13 and older can download the free iNaturalist app. After that, it’s as easy as going outside and taking pictures of nature. Children 12 years or younger can submit their photographs through the ecoEXPLORE website, a free K-8 youth education program developed by The North Carolina Arboretum, and their photos which will then be added to their region’s iNaturalist project. Anyone uploading 20 observations will be eligible to win a free N.C. BioBlitz patch. nccitynaturechallenge.com.
The Blue Ridge Parkway has received the 2023 Byway Organization Award for Viewshed Improvement from the National Scenic Byway Foundation in recognition of the massive conservation project at Waterrock Knob that will transfer more than 5,200 acres into National Park Service ownership.
The award, presented to the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, is one of the National Scenic Byway Foundation’s eight national awards presented annually.
The Blue Ridge Parkway and its partners celebrated the land acquisition in 2016 and again in 2022 as the arduous process of officially transferring the property to National Park Service ownership neared completion,
but for some parcels that process is still ongoing. One finalized, the land transfer will add more than 8 square-miles to Blue Ridge Parkway lands, conserving rare, highelevation species and natural communities, miles of creek and scenic views along more than 8 miles of the Parkway.
The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation submitted its award application to help recognize and thank other partners who did the lion’s share of the work at Waterrock Knob — the landowners, land trusts and donors. The Conservation Fund, Conservation Trust for North Carolina, Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy and The Nature Conservancy secured millions of dollars of cash and in-kind donations over more than 30 years to carry out the Waterrock Knob project. Simultaneously, these groups have protected tens of thousands more acres at many additional locations along the Parkway.
Ingram has delineated new surveillance areas for CWD and specified requirements to reduce movement and infection risk. These actions will work in concert with temporary rulemaking actions the Wildlife Commission took at its March 30 meeting, when it voted to notice five temporary rules related to CWD management. Comments will be accepted through April 28.
The proposed temporary rules will delineate several new counties or parts of counties as primary or secondary surveillance areas that were not designated as such in 2022. In the northwestern part of North Carolina, new designations will apply to Alleghany, Alexander, Ashe, Guilford, Iredell, Rockingham, Stokes, Surry, Wilkes and Yadkin counties. In eastern North Carolina, new designations will apply to Bladen, Cumberland, Harnett, Hoke, Robeson and Sampson counties. Davie and
In all of these surveillance area counties, rules will prohibit fawn rehabilitation, govern the transportation of deer carcasses and carcass parts, prohibit the placement of minerals and salt licks to congregate wildlife at any time and prohibit the placement of bait, food, or food products to congregate wildlife outside of the hunting season.
Since the first North Carolina case of CWD was detected in March 2022, the disease has been found in Surry, Yadkin, Stokes, Cumberland and Wilkes counties. It has been found in 30 U.S. states and four Canadian provinces in free-ranging cervids or commercial captive cervid facilities.
To comment on the proposed temporary rules, include name, phone number and mailing address in an email to regulations@ncwildlife.org or use the comment portal at research.net/r/proposed_temporary_cwd_rules_and_rule_amendments. Hard copy comments can be mailed to Rulemaking Coordinator, N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, 1701 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699.
Mainspring will hold a series of events celebrating trees and the outdoors this Arbor Day weekend.Paul Rysz photo Elk. File photo
Discover Life in America, a nonprofit dedicated to learning as much as possible about the diverse species in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, turns 25 on April 22 — which, fittingly, is also Earth Day.
Since its founding in 1998, DLiA has recorded 21,602 unique species in the park through its flagship project the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory. Of those, 10,831 were new to the park’s records and 1,074 were new to science.
A pair of events in Tennessee will commemorate the anniversary on Saturday. An open house 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Twin Creeks Pavilion in the Smokies will include guided nature hikes, live music, guest speakers, a picnic lunch and tours of DLiA office and the Smokies’ Natural History Collections at Twin Creek Science Center. Doug Tallamy — an entomologist, ecologist and conservationist who has authored or co-authored several conservation-focused nonfiction books—will give a keynote talk at 7 p.m. at the Park Vista in Gatlinburg.
Both events require registration. For more information about DLiA or to register for an event, visit dlia.org/news-andevents/25years.
Learn about the intersection of Black History and the Blue Ridge Parkway during a community lecture at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 29, in the Community Room of the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva.
The event, hosted by Western Carolina University’s Mountain Heritage Center, features the latest research by Anne Mitchell Whisnant, an associate professor of the Practice in the Social Science Research Institute at Duke University, and localizes national themes in “Crossroads: Change in Rural America,” a traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian Institute that will reside at the Mountain Heritage Center through April 25.
“I hope that my research on Black history within the parkway corridor will help tell a more complete story of life and work, family, land and community in this region,” Whisnant said.
The Blue Ridge Parkway winds 469 miles through both rural and urban areas of southern Appalachia. Historically, parkway interpretive exhibits have focused on the rural life of White residents. Whisnant hopes, “a more inclusive, less romanticized history can help the park welcome people of all backgrounds to play and learn there.”
The exhibit is free to visit 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday until April 25 at the Mountain Heritage Center in Hunter Library at WCU. Its visit to Cullowhee was made possible by the N.C. Humanities
Council, and it is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between Smithsonian and State Humanities Councils nationwide.
Get started or go deeper into backyard chicken keeping with a slate of programs and workshops offered this spring in Waynesville.
■ “Getting Started with Backyard Chickens” will be offered 1-2 p.m. Thursday, April 20, at the Haywood County Public Library. Free.
■ “Backyard Poultry for Beginning Folks” will be held 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 20, at the Haywood Ag Center. $15 registration includes dinner.
■ “Troubleshooting Common Issues in Your Backyard Flock” will be held 1-2 p.m.
at a date yet to be determined at the Haywood County Public Library. Free.
■ “Backyard Poultry for Experienced Folks” will be offered 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 25, at the Haywood Ag Center. $15 registration includes dinner.
■ “Basics of Hatching Chicks at Home” will be offered 1-2 p.m. at a date yet to be determined at the Haywood County Public Library. Free.
■ “Hatching School: Everything You Need to Know about Hatching at Home” will be offered 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at a date yet to be determined at the Haywood Ag Center. $40 registration fee includes lunch. For more information, or to register, visit haywood.ces.ncsu.edu/2023/04/2023backyard-poultry-hatching-programs.
The Watershed Association of the Tuckasegee River is holding a spring fundraiser that will culminate with a live music event 2-8 p.m. Saturday, April 29, at Innovation Station in Dillsboro.
An online raffle is underway now and will continue through April 29, with prizes including rafting, ziplining and fly fishing trips; gift certificates to local businesses, nursery trees and more. The lineup April 29 includes David Cheatam, Fuzzy Peppers, Beansidhe and Bird in Hand. For more information or to buy tickets, visit protectourwaters-wnc.org/ or text WATR2023 to 33100.
A grand opening celebration for the Barbara McRae Cherokee Heritage Apple Orchard will be held 4-6 p.m. Saturday, April 28, in Franklin.
“This orchard is established near the Noquisiyi (Nikwasi) Mound and is likely on land that had once been farmed by Cherokee women,” said Nikwasi Initaitive Executive Director Elaine Eisenbraun. “Bringing back the apple trees is like restoring a small fragment of the Cherokee agronomic lifestyle that residents enjoyed. Future visitors will be able to have a holistic experience of scented blossoms, tasty apples, and a lovely little path to build their understanding of the prior residents of these mountains.”
The apple orchard is a living exhibit of the apple varieties perfected by the Cherokee people who lived in these mountains before Europeans arrived in North America. The idea was born in 2020, when McRae, a former Franklin Press editor and Franklin Town Council member who died of cancer in 2021, thought it up to honor the story of the
perfect for all walks of life, from families to golf groups to ladies who lunch. We pride ourselves on using fresh ingredients from our gardens and supporting local farmers. The details are priority.
grew them.
The mini orchard, located on the Macon County Greenway a half-mile downstream from the Big Bear Pavilion, today highlights
BY ADAM B IGELOW
There are three species of toothwort (Cardamine spp.) in the woods of Southern Appalachia, two of which are very common sights on spring wildflower walks. And one that is very rare, and uncommonly seen in the mountains.
Cut-leaved toothwort (Caardamine concatenata) is one of the true spring ephemerals, in that it emerges from the ground in early to mid-spring, makes leaves, produces flowers, gets pollinated, sets and releases seeds, and dies back to the ground, all in the span of a few short weeks. The rest of the year, there is no sign of this plant above the ground, as it lays dormant waiting for its time to bloom again next year.
The leaves of this species are small and wispy and are only found along the stem. These stem leaves are highly dissected, or cut, hence the name cut-leaved toothwort, and have three leaflets per leaf. There are no leaves at the base of the stem or lying along the ground. The flowers are most often white and hang downward, indicating that they are trying to attract pollinators that fly close to the ground or crawl along the ground. Sometimes the flowers of cutleaved toothwort show up as pink. They are still the same species, just expressing genetic diversity within that species.
The common toothwort (Cardamine diphylla) has leaves along the ground that can be seen all year long. This species also has three leaflets that are much wider and fuller than its ephemeral cousin. Other names for this plant give away its leaf size (broad-leaved toothwort), its family relationship and edibility (turkey mustard) and the shape of its rhizome (crinkleroot). It also has leaves along the stem that resemble the ones found on the ground. The flowers are often smaller and squatter than those of cut-leaved toothwort and are starkly white.
There is a third species of toothwort in the mountains of North Carolina, although it is very rare here, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it. It is called slender toothwort
(Cardamine angustata) and according to the Vascular Plants of North Carolina database, is much more common in the Piedmont bioregion than it is in the mountains.
Toothworts got their names based on the resemblance of the rhizome root to the teeth of a saw blade. The flowers also look similar to a pulled tooth, roots and all. And, based on the old Doctrine of Signatures — the idea that a plant part’s resemblance to a body part, secretion or ailment indicates how it can be used medicinally — these toothy resemblances indicated that this plant could have a use to help with toothaches. And it turns out that they do. I have used the rhizome of common toothwort to temporarily relieve tooth pain while waiting to see the dentist.
Toothwort roots have anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties. And when you have a toothache, it is usually due to some food that gets caught in a cavity, which then grows bacteria that causes the gums around the area to inflame, putting pressure on the nerve and causing untold pain. And I’m not sure why this is, but toothaches always seem to begin on a Friday afternoon when the dentist is already out golfing for the weekend. And you have to suffer all weekend long before you can even make an appointment, let alone get in to see the dentist and find relief.
It is then that I recommend looking for the leaves of common toothwort, and if you have permission or own the property where you found them, dig up a plant to find the saw-toothed rhizome. Wash it off, and then gently chew up a piece, place it in the cavity of the inflamed and offending tooth, and find relief. This will help reduce the gum swelling, help reduce the population of bacteria growing there, and therefore help reduce the pain until you can get yourself to the dentist’s chair.
(Adam Bigelow lives in Cullowhee and leads weekly wildflower walks most Fridays, and offers consultations and private group tours through Bigelow’s Botanical Excursions. bigelownc@gmail.com.)
• The Jackson County Farmers Market meets every Saturday November through March 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and April through October 9 a.m.-noon at Bridge Park in Sylva, 110 Railroad St. Special events listed on Facebook and Instagram.
• The Jackson Arts Market takes place from 1-5 p.m. every Saturday at 533 West Main St. in Sylva with live music and an array of local artists.
• The Jackson County Public Library is hosting Randi Neff from the Smokey Mountain STEM Collaborative at 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 26, in the Storytime Room. Attendees will learn about the phases of the moon and make an Oreo Moon Phase Calendar. This program is free and open to the public.
• Haywood Community College will host Community Science Night 6-8 p.m. Thursday, April 27, in the Hickory Building at Haywood Community College. There will hands-on, science-based activities. The event is free and open to all ages. For more information contact Tyler Beamer at tbeamer@haywood.edu.
• A Feldenkrais class will be held 5:30-6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, April 26 and May 3, at the Folkmoot Friendship Center in Conference Room A1. Feldenkrais uses gentle movement and directed awareness to help you increase ease of movement and improve flexibility and coordination. Walk-ins welcome, mats not supplied. Class costs $18-$25 on a sliding scale, to register or learn more call 505.438.9109 or email eetm2023@proton.me.
• A Feldenkrais Mini-Workshop on “Experiencing a Flexible Chest” will be held 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturday, May 6, at the Folkmoot Friendship Center in Conference Room A1. A free introductory class will be held at 6 p.m. Friday, May 5. Bring a mat. Workshop costs $50, cash and checks accepted. To register or learn more call 505.438.9109 or email eetm2023@proton.me.
• Yoga for kids of all ages will take place at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 27, at the Macon County Library. Bring a yoga mat. For more call 828.524.3600.
• Mountain Area pregnancy Services and the WIC Breastfeeding Peer Counselor work together to provide a casual support group for prenatal and breastfeeding individuals from 1-2 p.m. on Tuesdays at Mountain Area Pregnancy Services, 177 N Main St. Waynesville, NC. All are welcome, registration is recommended. For more information please call 828.558.4550.
• Chess 101 takes place 3:30-4:30 p.m. every Friday at the Canton Branch of the Haywood County Library. For more information, email Ashlyn Godleski at ashlyn.godleski@haywoodcountync.gov or call 828.356.2567.
• The Canton Branch of the Haywood County Public Library Creative Writing Group meets 10:30 a.m. - noon on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month. For more information, email Jennifer at jennifer.stuart@haywoodcountync.gov or call 828.356.2561.
• Knit Night takes place at 5:30-7:30 p.m. every second Tuesday of the month at The Stecoah Valley Center. The event is free and open to the public. RSVP is recommended: 828.479.3364 or amber@stecoahvalleycenter.com.
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• Sylva Writers Group meets at 10:30 a.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month at City Lights Bookstore. For more information contact sylvawriters@gmail.com.
• Nantahala Hiking Club’s own Victor Treutel will speak on his new book “When Dogwoods Bloom” during a free program at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 13, at the Macon County Library. For more information visit fontanalib.org.
• Professor Bart D. Ehrman, Biblical scholar and author of six New York Times bestselling books including “Jesus” and “The Triumph of Christianity,” will speak and answer questions at 7 p.m. Friday, April 14, at the Queen Auditorium in the Folkmoot Friendship Center at 112 Virginia Ave. in Waynesville. Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door Tickets may be purchased at Blue Ridge Books or by calling 828.226.5921.
• Tremont Writers Conference, an intensive five-day retreat for writers of fiction, nonfiction and poetry will take place Wednesday, Oct. 25-29. Applications to participate in the event may be submitted online now through April 30 at writers.gsmit.org.
• Creative Writing Club will take place at 3:30 p.m. on the fourth Wednesday of every month at the Macon County Public Library. The writing club is intended for ages 8-12. For more information visit fontanalib.org or call 828.524.3600.
• Mother Goose Storytime takes place 10:30-11 a.m. every Wednesday, at the Waynesville branch of the Haywood County Public Library. Ideal for children from birth to 2 years old. For more information, contact Lisa at lisa.hartzell@haywoodcountync.gov or call 828.356.2511.
• Wiggle Worms Storytime takes place 10:30-11 a.m. every Tuesday, at the Waynesville branch of the Haywood County Public Library. Ideal for children 2-6 years old. For more information contact Lisa at lisa.hartzell@haywoodcountync.gov or call 828.356.2511.
• Storytime takes place at 10 a.m. every Tuesday at the Macon County Library. For more information visit fontanalib.org or call 828.524.3600.
• Toddler’s Rock takes place at 10 a.m. every Monday at the Macon County Library. Get ready to rock with songs, books, rhymes and playing with instruments. For more information visit fontanalib.org or call 828.524.3600.
• Art afternoon takes place at 3:30 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month at the Macon County Public Library. For more information visit fontanalib.org or call 828.524.3600.
• Art in the Gardens will take place April 2-May 15 at Lake Junaluska. Artwork by Lake Junaluska community artists will be featured in several of the 16 gardens throughout the grounds. For more information visit lakejunaluska.com/activities.
• The 25th annual Greening Up the Mountains will take place 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, April 22, in downtown Sylva. For more information and a schedule of events visit greeningupthemountains.com.
• A glassblowing class “Ornaments and Paperweights” will take place 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, May 6, at the Green Energy Park in Dillsboro. Pre-registration is strongly suggested, no experience necessary. For more information or to register contact GEP at 828.631.0271.
• “Meander in May,” the free, self-guided arts festival organized by the Highlands Chamber of Commerce/Visit Highlands, NC will return at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 20. For more information and a schedule of events visit highlandschamber.org.
• Paint and Sip at Waynesville Art School will be held every Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 7-9:30 p.m. To learn more and register call 828.246.9869 or visit PaintAndSipWaynesville.com/upcoming-events. Registration is required, $45.
• “Flights & Bites” will be held starting at 4 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays at Bosu’s Wine Shop in downtown Waynesville. For more information on upcoming events, wine tastings and special dinners, click on waynesvillewine.com.
• A free wine tasting will be held from 6-8 p.m. every Thursday and 2-5 p.m. every Saturday at The Wine Bar & Cellar in Sylva. 828.631.3075.
• Take a trip around the world with four different wines every Friday 11 a.m.-8 p.m. and Saturday 11a.m.-6 p.m. at the Bryson City Wine Market. Pick from artisan Charcuterie Foods to enjoy with wines. 828.538.0420
• Cooking classes take place at the McKinley Edwards Inn from 6-8:30 p.m. on Thursday nights. To reserve your spot call 828.488.9626.
• Happy Houseplants with Jacque Laura of Snake Song Shop will take place at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 25, at the Jackson County Public Library. Jacque will give tips on repotting, watering and general care that helps common indoor plants thrive. For more information call the library at 586.2016 or email jcpladults@fontanalib.org.
• Chess 101 takes place from 3:30-4:30 p.m. every Friday in the Canton Branch of the Haywood County Public Library. No registration required, for more information call 828.648.2924.
• Wired Wednesday, one-on-one technology help is available at 3-5 p.m. every Wednesday at the Canton Branch of the Haywood County Library. For more information or to register, call 828.648.2924.
• Uptown Gallery, 30 East Main St. Franklin, will be offering Children’s Art Classes Wednesdays afternoons. Adult workshops in watercolor, acrylic paint pouring, encaustic and glass fusing are also offered. Free painting is available 10 a.m.-3 p.m. every Monday in the classroom. A membership meeting takes place on the second Sunday of the month at 3 p.m. All are welcome. Call 828.349.4607 for more information.
• “Thursday Painters” group will be held from 10 a.m.3 p.m. on Thursdays at The Uptown Gallery in Franklin. Free and open to the public. All skill levels and mediums are welcome. Participants are responsible for their own project and a bag lunch. 828.349.4607 or pm14034@yahoo.com.
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• Wildflower Walks in the Corneille Bryan Native Garden will take place at 2 p.m. Wednesdays April 19, 26, and May 3, at Lake Junaluska. Stroll the garden with an experienced volunteer. Space is limited, contact cbnativegarden@gmail.com to reserve a spot. For more information call 828.452.5840.
• Botanist Adam Bigelow will present “Wildflowers of Southern Appalachia” 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 17, in the next installment of a lecture series underway at Cowee School in Macon County.
• Learn how to indulge your love of gardening despite age or mobility level during a two-hour program at 1 p.m. Wednesday, April 19, at the Haywood County Cooperative Extension Office on Raccoon Road in Waynesville. Direct questions to mgarticles@charter.net or 828.456.3575.
• Learn how to stay safe in the woods with a course at 10 a.m. Friday, April 21, at the Waynesville Library and Sunburst area. The course will include an indoor portion and a hands-on outdoor portion. Register at haywoodcountync.gov/recreation.
• Join the Benton MacKaye Trail Association and Partners of Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness for a trail maintenance workday starting at 9 a.m. Saturday, April 22. The group will meet at Tapoco Lodge on U.S. 129 and split into groups. Bring water, trail lunch and gloves. RSVP to Nelson Ashbrook at nelsonashbrook@gmail.com.
• Nantahala Outdoor Center will kick off its 2023 season with the annual Spring Fling Celebration Saturday, April 22, at the NOC property in Swain County.
• Celebrate Earth Day noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 22, at Highlands Nature Center in Highlands. The Earth Day Extravaganza will include a scavenger hunt in the Highlands Botanical Garden, nature art and DIY crafts with recycled materials and a 4 p.m. guided wildflower walk through the garden. Free, with no registration necessary. Event will be canceled in case of severe weather. For more information, visit highlandsbiological.org.
• The Fire Mountain Inferno will take place Saturday and Sunday, April 22-23, at the Fire Mountain Trails in Cherokee. The event will feature two days of enduro downhill racing. For more information or to register, visit gloryhoundevents.com.
• Friends of the Greenway and Macon County Parks & Recreation will host an Open House 1-3 p.m. Tuesday, April 25, at FROG Quarters, 573 E. Main St. Stop by to give best wishes to Terry Browning who will be retiring on April 28 after 20 years providing maintenance to the Little Tennessee River Greenway.
• The Watershed Association of the Tuckasegee River is holding a spring fundraiser that will culminate with a live music event 2-8 p.m. Saturday, April 29, at Innovation Station in Dillsboro. For more information or to buy tickets, visit protectourwaters-wnc.org/ or text WATR2023 to 33100.
The Smoky Mountain News Marketplace has a distribution of 16,000 copies across 500 locations in Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties, including the Qualla Boundary and west Buncombe County. Visit www.wncmarketplace.com to place your ad!
Rates:
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Note: Highlighted ads automatically generate a border so if you’re placing an ad online and select a highlight color, the “add border” feature will not be available on the screen.
Note: Yard sale ads require an address. This location will be displayed on a map on www.wncmarketplace.com
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NOTICE OF ADMINISTRATION
Case No.23-E-189 Cynthia Farrell, James Roy Green Jul 19 2023
Bid proposal is due no later than 5:00pm on Friday, April 28, 2023. Formal Public Bid Opening Date: Monday, May 1, 2023.
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Beverly Hanks & Associates- beverly-hanks.com
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• Anne Page - apage@beverly-hanks.com
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• Ellen Sither - esither@beverly-hanks.com
• Mike Stamey - mikestamey@beverly-hanks.com
• Karen Hollingsed- khollingsed@beverly-hanks.com
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• John Keith - jkeith@beverly-hanks.com
• Randall Rogers - rrogers@beverly-hanks.com
• Susan Hooper - shooper@beverly-hanks.com
• Hunter Wyman - hwyman@beverly-hanks.com
• Julie Lapkoff - julielapkoff@beverly-hanks.com
• Darrin Graves - dgraves@beverly-hanks.com
ERA Sunburst Realty - sunburstrealty.com
• Amy Spivey - amyspivey.com
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• Randy Flanigan - 706-207-9436
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• Ashley Owens Rutkosky - ashley.rutkosky@exp.realty
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• Ron Breese - ronbreese.com
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• Phyllis Robinson - lakeshore@lakejunaluska.com
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• Rob Roland - 828-400-1923
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Here’s How It Works: Sudoku puzzles are formatted as a 9x9 grid, broken down into nine 3x3 boxes. To solve a sudoku, the numbers 1 through 9 must fill each row, column and box. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and box. You can figure out the order in which the numbers will appear by using the numeric clues already provided in the boxes. The more numbers you name, the easier it gets to solve the puzzle!
Answers on 42
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