Sourwood honey is a favorite among connoisseurs
 

Sourwood honey is a favorite among connoisseurs

Now is sourwood time. From late June into mid-August sourwood trees will be flowering throughout Western North Carolina, from the…
Read More

Comment

Hepatica — a thing of beauty and lore
 

Hepatica — a thing of beauty and lore

Nothing is fairer, if as fair, as the first flower, the hepatica. I find I have never admired this little…
Read More

Comment

Confederates pushed road over Newfound Gap
 

Confederates pushed road over Newfound Gap

On Jan. 12, 1864, a Confederate battery of artillery and about 650 men under the command of Gen. Robert B.…
Read More

Comment

Some ‘Indian Caves’ were very likely the real thing
 

Some ‘Indian Caves’ were very likely the real thing

Everywhere you go in Western North Carolina there are secluded places reputed to have been used as hideaways by the…
Read More

Comment

The black sheep of the blackbird family
 

The black sheep of the blackbird family

2014 seems to be a banner year for cowbirds. I saw them in large numbers in southeastern Arizona two weeks…
Read More

Comment

A few poems as spring awakens the mountains
 

A few poems as spring awakens the mountains

Since the year 2000, I have written going on 750 Back Then “columns” for The Smoky Mountain News. I am…
Read More

Comment

Behind the ballad of Kidder Cole
 

Behind the ballad of Kidder Cole

Judge Felix E. Alley (1873-1957) was a native of Whiteside Cove, near Cashiers and Highlands. During most of his legal…
Read More

Comment

Regional historians and ‘piglets from heaven’
 

Regional historians and ‘piglets from heaven’

“Eagles, as they still do, lived on the creek. One day in the 1890s, an eagle dropped a piglet into…
Read More

Comment

Another storyteller to add to the list
 

Another storyteller to add to the list

For years I’ve been enjoying and sometimes writing about a group of old-time Western North Carolina storytellers I think of…
Read More

Comment

A bear hunter for the ages
 

A bear hunter for the ages

John Baker (Little John) Cable Jr. is one of the prominent figures in Horace Kephart’s Our Southern Highlanders (1913; revised…
Read More

Comment

Gypsies conjure memories of the past
 

Gypsies conjure memories of the past

When I was a boy growing up in south-central Virginia during the early 1950s, my home was situated near a…
Read More

Comment

Remembering the glory of sports radio
 

Remembering the glory of sports radio

Let’s talk some sports radio. I began thinking about this piece the afternoon before the Super Bowl. The Panthers were…
Read More

Comment

Bringing in the new year naturally
 

Bringing in the new year naturally

Some musings on the New Year, from one who never cared much for noisy midnight celebrations of any sort, but…
Read More

Comment

Shagbark hickory among the most interesting in WNC
 

Shagbark hickory among the most interesting in WNC

The walnut family is relatively small, but it contains some of the more interesting and valuable tree species found in…
Read More

Comment

Cherokee homes were warm and smoky in winter
 

Cherokee homes were warm and smoky in winter

“Two or more Families join together in building a hot-house, about 30 feet Diameter, and 15 feet high, in form…
Read More

Comment

The perversity of inanimate objects: logging then and now
 

The perversity of inanimate objects: logging then and now

Some steam and water-powered sawmills were established in the Smokies region during the 1870s and 1880s. But full-fledged industrialized logging…
Read More

Comment

Strawberry wine and its place in Smokies lore
 

Strawberry wine and its place in Smokies lore

Jack Coburn was a regional entrepreneur who had come to the Smokies in the 1890s. Jack liked to laugh, drink,…
Read More

Comment

Unusual geographic locations always get my attention
 

Unusual geographic locations always get my attention

Some of my happiest times here in the Blue Ridge have been those hours spent locating grassy balds, gorges, sinkholes,…
Read More

Comment

Wolves have special place in regional lore
 

Wolves have special place in regional lore

I’ve never seen a timber wolf, even though they no doubt once roamed — from time to time — across…
Read More

Comment

The secret ministry of frost
 

The secret ministry of frost

It’s early October as I write this column. The first frost hasn’t, as yet, arrived. But it won’t be long…
Read More

Comment

The crossroads of humanity and nature
 

The crossroads of humanity and nature

I like visiting those sites here in the Smokies region where there is what I think of as an “overlay;”…
Read More

Comment

Kephart's life after Hazel Creek
 

Kephart's life after Hazel Creek

Horace Kephart left the cabin site on the Little Fork in the fall of 1907, spending considerable time in other…
Read More

Comment

Buckeyes still beguile nature lovers
 

Buckeyes still beguile nature lovers

A large yellow buckeye tree overhangs and supports the swinging gate that accesses our property. The tree has started to…
Read More

Comment

Liverworts — a unique bridge in the plant world
 

Liverworts — a unique bridge in the plant world

Some years ago, when I first became interested in plant identification, I became curious about liverworts. They are one of…
Read More

Comment

Deep Creek offers a great taste of the Smokies
 

Deep Creek offers a great taste of the Smokies

We are attracted to water. Mountain paths always wind down to water — springs, branches, creeks and rivers. Water is…
Read More

Comment

A favorite time to watch the home garden
 

A favorite time to watch the home garden

This time of the year is perhaps the best time to enjoy flowering plants in a home garden. Many of…
Read More

Comment

Rabbit gums and cold, windy mornings
 

Rabbit gums and cold, windy mornings

While perusing the shelves in a used bookstore recently, I spotted a title that was irresistible: From the Banks of…
Read More

Comment

The ultimate revenge: yellow jacket soup
 

The ultimate revenge: yellow jacket soup

The yellow jackets are back. They inundated my home office this morning. First they gnawed through the ceiling from a…
Read More

Comment

Another eventful day in Bryson City
 

Another eventful day in Bryson City

The whistle of the excursion train on the far side of the river shrieked three times. From where I sat…
Read More

Comment

Water has a magical draw on us
 

Water has a magical draw on us

We are attracted to water. Mountain paths always wind down to water — springs, branches, creeks and rivers. Water is…
Read More

Comment

Back in the day, many built their own
 

Back in the day, many built their own

When I was a very young boy growing up in Virginia, there was a very old man in our neighborhood…
Read More

Comment

The grand and showy hibiscus
 

The grand and showy hibiscus

I had my first introduction to the showy and curious hibiscus flowers when I was a boy. Rose-of-Sharon was a…
Read More

Comment

Doc may have been most civic-minded Swain citizen ever
 

Doc may have been most civic-minded Swain citizen ever

Note: Every July 4th from 1973 through 1990, I used to go in Bennett’s Drug Store here in Bryson City…
Read More

Comment

Georgia’s Black Rock State Park worth the visit
 

Georgia’s Black Rock State Park worth the visit

Perhaps you’re looking for a new site to visit this summer?  If so, consider making a visit to Black Rock…
Read More

Comment

Elderberry gets me thinking with my stomach
 

Elderberry gets me thinking with my stomach

A plant that always gets me to thinking with my stomach is common elderberry (Sambucus canadensis), which is just now…
Read More

Comment

First of the Floppy Disc: Almond School
 

First of the Floppy Disc: Almond School

I wrote first by hand and then with a manual typewriter. Starting about 1990, I moved “up” to a Tandy…
Read More

Comment

The Tsali legend
 

The Tsali legend

Since the mid-1980s, I’ve been researching and writing about events surrounding the Cherokee removal of 1838, especially those pertaining to…
Read More

Comment

The mystical allure of moving water
 

The mystical allure of moving water

We are attracted to water. Mountain paths always wind down to water. Water is the essence of our very being…
Read More

Comment

“Tunnel-phobia” has gotten worse as years go by
 

“Tunnel-phobia” has gotten worse as years go by

Leading a field trip isn’t complicated. But there may be more to it than you suppose. It helps if you…
Read More

Comment

Plants hitch a ride to the sun
 

Plants hitch a ride to the sun

A book I read about the Suwannee River featured numerous photographs of trees overhanging the waterway festooned with Spanish moss.…
Read More

Comment

Identifying birds
 

Identifying birds

Although bird identification can be perplexing — baffling at times for even the most accomplished birders — the principles of…
Read More

Comment

Some scarlet tanagers are orange
 

Some scarlet tanagers are orange

Last Saturday, I led a bird identification workshop for the Smoky Mountain Field School. We started out in the morning…
Read More

Comment

A book every naturalist needs on his or her shelf
 

A book every naturalist needs on his or her shelf

Naturalist Donald Culross Peattie (1898-1964) was born in Chicago. In his autobiography The Road of a Naturalist (1941), Peattie recalled…
Read More

Comment

Cliff swallows return
 

Cliff swallows return

That’s the news. Our common breeding swallows have always been purple martins, barn swallows, and northern rough-winged swallows. To a…
Read More

Comment

The blue-grey gnatcatcher is a mighty mite
 

The blue-grey gnatcatcher is a mighty mite

Elizabeth and I were sitting on the deck Monday evening when a tiny bird made an abbreviated appearance — apparently…
Read More

Comment

Serviceberry is recurring harbinger of spring
 

Serviceberry is recurring harbinger of spring

I have two options when driving back and forth from home to town. One is along a river and the…
Read More

Comment

Their own way of fishing
 

Their own way of fishing

I’m sometimes asked if the prehistoric Cherokees used any sort of poisons on their blowgun darts. These darts (slivers of…
Read More

Comment

Saved by the appearance of a tree swallow
 

Saved by the appearance of a tree swallow

Earlier this morning (Tuesday, March 26) I gazed wishfully through my office window here in Bryson City. About all I…
Read More

Comment

My wife knows good morels when she sees them
 

My wife knows good morels when she sees them

It’s just about morel time. By early April (if not sooner), the succulent spring-fruiting fungi that are the most sought…
Read More

Comment

In the land of water and rock
 

In the land of water and rock

Like Old Esdras in the Bible, some live in a land of milk and honey. Here in the Blue Ridge,…
Read More

Comment

Smokey Mountain News Logo
SUPPORT THE SMOKY MOUNTAIN NEWS AND
INDEPENDENT, AWARD-WINNING JOURNALISM
Go to top
Payment Information

/

At our inception 20 years ago, we chose to be different. Unlike other news organizations, we made the decision to provide in-depth, regional reporting free to anyone who wanted access to it. We don’t plan to change that model. Support from our readers will help us maintain and strengthen the editorial independence that is crucial to our mission to help make Western North Carolina a better place to call home. If you are able, please support The Smoky Mountain News.

The Smoky Mountain News is a wholly private corporation. Reader contributions support the journalistic mission of SMN to remain independent. Your support of SMN does not constitute a charitable donation. If you have a question about contributing to SMN, please contact us.