By Sarah Kucharski

About halfway between Seattle and the Canadian border, just on the cusp of Snohomish County, sits a small town named Darrington. Nestled in the Rocky Mountains, dotted with evergreen trees, Darrington bears a striking resemblance to Western North Carolina.

And it’s no mistake. Mailboxes emblazoned with names like Queen, Dills and Guffey, Appalachian accents and bluegrass festivals evoke the history and traditions of Darrington’s sister city, Sylva.

Many of Sylva’s residents remember the migration to Washington State that began with the logging industry decline in the 1930s. But Western Carolina University assistant history professor Scott Philyaw’s research has shown that the first North Carolina transplants arrived as early as the 1880s. This research will be presented at the 27th Annual Appalachian Studies Conference held in Cherokee March 26 to 28.

Using census records, family letters and newspaper articles, Philyaw has pieced together the Appalachian “diaspora” that led to the establishment of a miniature Tar Heel state almost 3,000 miles northwest of here.

Philyaw first noticed the Darrington connection in the Sylva Herald, seeing local obituaries interspersed with those from out West. Rooting through the paper’s archives, Philyaw found news briefs and letters from Darrington providing updates on day-to-day life — who had gotten married, who had given birth. The surnames matched those commonly found throughout Jackson County.

“When people would leave, apparently it was just the custom to write back,” Philyaw said.

As information trickled back to the homeland, the mystery of traveling west began to dissipate. North Carolina settlers focused on towns such as Darrington and Sedro Woolley in neighboring Skagit County. Knowing that they had relatives in the far-off state made migrating less frightening.

“It’s much easier to move somewhere if you already know somebody there,” Philyaw said. “Washington was something that people knew a lot about.”

The migration has had long-lasting effects on local mountain communities as relatives and descendents are spread across the western coast.

Joe Rhinehart, president of the Jackson County Historical Association, said two of his great uncles moved west, one settling in Oregon, the other in Washington, where he farmed and logged. Rhinehart’s North Carolina family members kept in touch with their brethren out West, and in the 1930s his mother went for her first visit.

“As soon as she was able to travel out there she did go and spend the summer,” Rhinehart said.

Although the Historical Association has not done any official studies of the western migration, talks are underway to publish Philyaw’s work in a book.

But western settlers took with them more than just their relatives’ memories and last names. Appalachian culture — music, food and accents — all migrated west, too. Southern Baptist Churches popped up, Washingtonites called themselves Tar Heels and bluegrass found its way into the Rockies.

Washington-based Tar Heels formed the North Carolina Society, a group that maintains the connection and encourages social interaction amongst migrants.

“As early as 1908, they were organizing what they called Tar Heel picnics,” Philyaw said. “I see the Darrington Bluegrass Festival as the continuation of these picnics.”

Started in 1976, the Darrington Bluegrass Festival celebrates Appalachian mountain and gospel music. Although the music evolved over the years, the North Carolina influence has remained strong. Two years ago a man originally from Jackson County was featured on the festival’s promotion poster, said WCU history department graduate student Robert Ferguson.

Ferguson, whose thesis delves into the Washington bluegrass phenomenon, secured a fellowship from the North Carolinian Society of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and traveled to Darrington to learn more about the festival and its origins.

Through his work with the Queen family, Ferguson ran across Ernie Queen, a Jackson County native who grew up in John’s Creek just a few houses down from Mary Jane Queen, his aunt and matriarch of the family. Ernie’s father was one of the many Jackson County folks who seasonally traveled to Washington to work in the logging industry. After a few visits West, Ernie moved out to Washington in the 1950s, settling in Sedro Woolley.

He joined the ranks of Darrington Bluegrass Festival performers a few years after the festival’s inception, going on to form his own bluegrass association in Sedro Woolley. The association organizes jam sessions at a local high school, plays community functions and travels to various bluegrass festivals throughout the region.

Now in its 28th year, the Darrington festival runs three days and features bands with names such as Pine Mountain Railroad, the Sawtooth Mountain Boys and Red Dirt Road. This year 14 bluegrass bands will descend upon the town of 1,200 for the mid-July fest.

Ferguson will speak about the festival in conjunction with Philyaw at the upcoming ASA conference.

Fellow WCU history department assistant professor Richard Starnes will present his research on migration to North Carolina, as witnessed in trends of black workers transitioning from a plantation and sharecropper society to the tourism industry in the mountains.

Starnes’ work is derived from census returns for Buncombe, Haywood and Henderson counties from the year 1880, 1900 and 1920. The returns show a steady rise in the number of black tourism workers, predominately in Buncombe County as Asheville’s popularity as a mountain retreat increased.

For example, in Buncombe County the number of black male tourism workers rose from 56 in 1880 to 321 in 1920. Similarly, black female tourism workers rose from 30 to 215.

These workers, often found in hotels or as stage coachmen, represented a significant part of the Appalachian service industry and of the population as a whole. In 1900, blacks represented almost 11 percent of Western North Carolina residents.

“The idea of a white Appalachia is a misnomer,” Starnes said. “It’s as if they were invisible.”

A majority of the black population moved to the area in search of economic opportunity beyond that of a sharecropper, Starnes said. Numbers began to decline after World War II, when blacks left Appalachia in search of larger black communities in urban areas.

Starnes, Philyaw and Ferguson’s lecture “Mountain Migrations: People, Place and History in Western North Carolina” will take place from 12:30 to 2 p.m. at the Appalachian Studies Association Conference in Room 6 at Cherokee High School on March 26.