New Appalachian Moments Blog Post by Scott Ballard The Appalachian Scenic Highway, what we know today as the Blue Ridge Parkway, was meant to be as functional as it was aesthetic…both getting travelers from the Shenandoah National Park to the Smoky Mountain National Park, but also reflecting that the landscape…
LAND USE MANAGEMENT: WORKING TOGETHER FOR THE FUTURE © 2019 Walt Hampton The Appalachian region is a complex amalgamation of high, steep mountain ridges punctuated with small, deep valleys and an amazing abundance of water. Stretching from Maine to Georgia, as a land form it is unique on the…
New Appalachian Moments blog post by Scott Ballard Many people can recall various floods or high water, but very few residents remember two earlier events of epic proportions that devastated our region. That’s because the flooding that truly overwhelmed many of our ancestors occurred in 1916 and 1940. By the…
THE GARDEN: GETTING A BIT MORE TECHNICAL © 2019 Walt Hampton I have had a few questions from readers about our gardening efforts and this week I would like to address those. Please remember, this is what is working for us, and we are always looking to our neighbors for…
New Appalachian Moments Blog Post! By Scott Ballard When the early scotch-irish pioneers came up into these rugged mountains, they brought with them sturdy individualism, their own brand of religion and music, AND the art and mystery of distilling! People would actually be pretty shocked to find out how much…
THE DANG GARDEN! © 2019 Walt Hampton I mentioned to you folks last year that pepper plants like to ‘hold hands’, an expression shared with us from my wife’s sister from West Tennessee. I thought I would begin this year’s garden post with a look at last years’ harvest…
New Appalachian Moments Blog Post! By Scott Ballard The Junaluska neighborhood, in the NW North Carolina mountain county of Watauga, could very well be one of the oldest, if not THE oldest continuously inhabited black communities in Western North Carolina. Junaluska has a unique history dating back to the mid-1800’s,…
New Appalachian Moments Blog Post! By Scott Ballard While she might have beat the heat and vacationed at the Green Park Inn, Annie Oakley’s main connection to Blowing Rock really comes from her operating a shooting range at Mayview Manor in 1924. Born in Ohio, Annie began hunting and shooting…
WALT’S CAMPFIRE 6-19 #1 copyright Walt Hampton 6-1-19 RATTLER! Over the course of the next thirteen weeks I have been given the opportunity to share with you some more time around the campfire, while I take a deeper look at our Appalachian mountains. My intention is to stimulate…
New Appalachian Moments Blog Post! By Scott Ballard What do the US Senate, movie star Jean Harlow, a bull walrus and the Hope Diamond all have in common: A connection to Robert Rice Reynolds…it didn’t matter that he claimed no kinship to the Reynolds tobacco fortune…because he made his own…
