But their impact goes quite a bit further than Scott’s reminiscing and nostalgia may lead newer readers to believe. What they have created provides a richer opportunity for exploration and expression in the entire region for thousands of people every week. As a 20-year reader, many thanks. I’ve learned a lot.

Like the SMN, my own Great Adventure also began 20 years ago here in WNC when my wife and I quit good jobs and abandoned the comforts and convenience of Raleigh for our own foray into the wilds of WNC. Without jobs or many contacts we threw ourselves naked into the wilderness of rural Sylva for a shot at the freedom, beauty and independent spirit that these mountains have forever been known. Shortly after we arrived we found the SMN and met Scott, confirming that we had found the right spot to put down long, deep roots.

With time on my hands between scaring up construction work to pay the bills, I started playing around with writing some stories, thoughts and opinions running around my head, inspired in part by what I read in the SMN. Not having much training in journalism beside the required college composition courses, I looked for a way to package my ideas so as not to appear a complete illiterate.

I sent in a piece for review and to my surprise I saw it in print the next week. Excitedly, I sent in another and asked Scott to critique and edit it as I was not a trained writer. He politely replied back that the SMN didn’t offer critiques or try to steer contributors in any direction, preferring writers “go their own way” on whatever it is that compels them to write. So I sent another, and another, now numbering dozens. They didn’t all see the light of day, but by the very act of asking readers for their unfettered thoughts supported with weekly ink, SMN has fostered an atmosphere of engagement with their communities of an exceptional nature. Perhaps a good portion of their success has been them truly engaging and caring about the communities they serve, and why they are held in such high regard by their readers as well as state and national media organizations, earning multiple awards each year for excellence in several categories.

So a big thank you for all that you have done for your readers, the region and the many unknown gifts and inspirations your pages provide each week, an affirmation of how rich life is in these ancient, verdant hills. To the next 240 issues!

If I haven’t joined the dinosaurs in the fossil record in the interim , I hope to enjoy

them all. Cheers!

John Beckman

Cullowhee