Following the arrival of Daniel Boone a couple hundred years ago, a slow trickle of settlers started coming up the mountain and settling around Tanawha, what the Cherokee called Grandfather Mountain. Its reputation as a unique and special place began to spread far and wide. It began attracting the attention…
The colors of fall in Appalachia include more than leaves. The colors of the many apple trees include bright orange, reds and greens as well. As Avery County, NC extension agent Doug Hundley told us, those trees might be the remnants of much larger orchards! Many of our ancestors, who…
From the very beginning, his mother knew there was something special about this child. She named him “Oddie” because she had the notion that he was going to be unique, and that he was. The grandson of slaves, Oddie brought a revolution to black education in Ashe County. In 1933…
Tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Northwestern North Carolina, Alleghany County is the state’s fifth smallest county, but it is home to one of the most powerful political dynasties the state has ever known. Jonathan Doughton might have had some local fame as a county commissioner, but his…
There is a new generation of folks who don’t know that the wild and scenic New River was once threatened to be dammed by a major power company. One of the staunchest opponents of damming the New River had not been that interested in the whole process until the power…
When we last left Tom Dooley he had just been caught on the run in Tennessee. Now it was time to try him. The prospect of a trial gained much attention throughout the region and caught the attention of former governor North Carolina Governor Zeb Vance. Some believe that Vance…
In today’s edition of Appalachian Moments We explore the most famous love story gone wrong in North Carolina history as we hang our head with old Tom Dooley (Dula). Dooley was born to a poor Appalachian family in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Wilkes County, NC. Tom…
Seven Devils…the village that we know today was just an isolated mountain valley farm perched between Hanging Rock and Grandfather Mountain. Farmers were growing cabbage and tobacco where the soil was good and running cattle up in the hills among the rocks and old arrowheads. The federal government opened up…
New Appalachian Moments Blog Post by Scott Ballard Just to be clear: A “haint” (sometimes referred to as a “haunt”) is an unsettled or angry dead spirit. A haint can range from a ghost to an undefinable something that scares the you-know-what out of you. In the same way a…
New Appalachian Moments Blog Post by Scott Ballard Born at the turn of the 20th century and prodigy as a child, young Thomas Wolfe enrolled in UNC Chapel Hill at age 15…impressive enough, but this kid had BRASS. During an induction ceremony for new members of the debate and literary…
