Each time tourists or residents drive beneath the stone bridges throughout the Blue Ridge Parkway, whether it is in Cherry Lane, Laurel Springs or somewhere along the 477-mile route, they are passing beneath a piece of history and essentially a piece of Europe. Both Italian and Spanish immigrants helped to…
WALT’S CAMPFIRE EAT THAT TURKEY! COPYRIGHT 2019 WALT HAMPTON Before we get too romantic let me inject a little reality into this tome: although the adult tom turkey is indeed a beautiful creation, showy, with gorgeous plumage and a regal bearing, the truth is that biologically he is…
MAY 7, 2018 BETTER ANGELS I worked him for three hours on 5-6-18 but he would not come down the Mountain. He stayed on the other side of the fence, forbidden fruit, teasing and tempting me. All that night the Devil whispered in my ear: …
NEW APPALACHIAN MOMENTS BLOG POST!!! From Scott Ballard Welcome to Digging into Ashe County History Part Two. In Part One we introduced mining for iron at the famous (or infamous) Ore Knob mine. This mine held secrets back then, and still does today. Read on. After closing in the 1860s,…
NEW APPALACHIAN MOMENTS BLOG POST!!! From Scott Ballard Mining in the upper northwestern section of North Carolina begins with soapstone, then on to iron… and ends with copper. Native American peoples quarried the easily carving soapstone into bowls and figures millennia ago, the likes of which have been found is…
NEW APPALACHIAN MOMENTS BLOG POST!!! From Scott Ballard Nope, it’s not the 7-year itch, perhaps a topic for a later podcast (!!!), but the Itch we’re talking about is something caused by a tiny little bug called a mite which ran rampant not that long ago. Funny how something almost…
NEW APPALACHIAN MOMENTS BLOG POST!!! From Scott Ballard Have you ever been driving out in the countryside and you pass an old farmhouse and notice…cedar trees, sometimes massive, growing just off the front porch or somewhere close by in the front yard? Or seen big cedar trees in old family…
Do you ever wonder how your hometown or the section of the county you’re from got its name? In Alleghany County the names are obvious for certain sections like Piney Creek, Cherry Lane, and Roaring Gap. At one time the county even had locations like Nile and Egypt on their…
NEW APPALACHIAN MOMENTS BLOG POST!!! From Scott Ballard Is there anything we take more for granted today than electricity? Especially as our phones, cars and homes get smarter, meaning more connected to computers, the internet and even more reliant on steady power. Even though Thomas Edison invented the first power…
NEW APPALACHIAN MOMENTS BLOG POST!!! From Scott Ballard Can you imagine how different school was in the early days of Appalachia? My great grandfather would ring this bell… to call the kids to their books several times a day. Why? Because during breaks in the learning they might be outside…
