New Appalachian Moments Blog Post! By Scott Ballard Even today, It never fails that when visitors from…off the mountain get here they make some comment about the steep, narrow and winding roads…well, I’ve got news for those folks…the roads up here are the best they’ve ever been! At the turn…
New Appalachian Moments Blog Post By Scott Ballard The popular image of the Appalachian folk healer is complex and sometimes even contradictory. In our very first blog post we covered home remedies, most often created and used by women, but the image of an older gentleman, like Alleghany County’s (NC)…
New Appalachian Moments Blog Post By Scott Ballard (Author’s Note) I was encouraged to visit a unique exhibit of artwork at the Clubhouse at Jefferson Landing recently. While walking through the fine displays of portraiture work, I noticed some larger paintings to my left. The creativity and melding of the…
New Appalachian Moments Blog Post! By Scott Ballard Many of our “modern” roads are built upon the trails of ancient game or native peoples and often those roads cross and the same is true for Todd, North Carolina. Humans have been visiting the crossroads of Todd, for…well, a long time…millennia!…
New Appalachian Moments Blog Post by Scott Ballard If you’ve heard it once, I’ll be you’ve heard it hundreds of times, “It’s a small world.” Well, what does that mean exactly? It means that, as we get older, we gain a greater appreciation for how truly connected we all are.…
New Appalachian Moments Blog Post By Scott Ballard It’s not hard to imagine that dating (or wooing!) someone in the mountains was far different back when…or…was it? Usually the initial attraction would happen at church function, a harvest-related event or at school…where you might…take eyes to someone…or become sweet on…
New Appalachian Moments Blog Post! By Scott Ballard When gazing upon Grandfather Mountain, it’s easy to imagine that it has always looked like it does today. The fact of the matter is that it has looked very different at different points in its long and varied history. And it’s history…
New Appalachian Moments Blog Post! By Scott Ballard There are two prevailing views about Cherokee origins. One is that the Cherokee themselves (as a tribe of people) are relative latecomers to Southern Appalachia. The other theory is that they have been here for thousands of years…bottom line, they were probably…
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…
