The Smoky Mountain News will be publishing a series of articles to showcase a number of women in Western North Carolina who are currently making history. 

• Women’s contributions to workforce celebrated
• Businesswoman offers leadership advice
• Beloved Woman reflects on life full of love for language and community
• Oswalt becomes Cherokee’s third living Beloved Woman
• Finding your ‘shero’

Waynesville, Sylva and Franklin’s main commercial thoroughfares are getting a makeover in the coming years that could reshape the fabric of these communities for decades to come. The North Carolina Department of Transportation has plans to change the five-lane drags into boulevards to improve safety and ease congestion.

• Death of the five lane, birth of the boulevard
• A windshield tour of the new 107
• Over and out: a Southern Loop retrospective

Waynesville, Sylva and Franklin’s main commercial thoroughfares are getting a makeover, reshaping the fabric of these communities for decades to come.

Within the residential real estate industry lies an interesting contradiction. 

SEE ALSO:
• Haywood housing demand is high but inventory is low
• Macon making sustainable growth in real estate market
• Real estate rebounding in Jackson
• Mountain cabins in high demand in Swain

Brian Cagle is vice president and managing broker at Beverly-Hanks in Waynesville. Beverly Hanks doesn’t sell real estate, however; Beverly-Hanks sells a lifestyle.

It hasn’t been a quick or easy recovery, but Macon County real estate is back on the rise and Realtors see that trend continuing into 2017.

With the recession nearly a decade in the rearview mirror, the real estate market is once more robust in Jackson County — especially in the southern end of the county around Cashiers.

Sherry and Gary Patterson vacationed in Bryson City for the first time about 20 years ago and now they can’t get enough of it.

Did the fires hurt wildlife? 

Prescribed burning is often used as a tool to benefit wildlife by regenerating their habitat, and in the case of the slowly creeping ground fires that accounted for most of the burned area, wildlife are usually able to get out of the way as flames approach.

What started as a small group of like-minded people helping each other deal with aftermath of Election Day has now morphed into a progressive political action team with more than 400 supporters.