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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
“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
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
Identifying birds
Although bird identification can be perplexing — baffling at times for even the most accomplished birders — the principles of…
Read More
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
The harbingers of spring are upon us
As you read this it may well be freezing or even icy outside. But before long you’ll be outside working…
Read More
Re-learning those old, familiar (bird) songs
I like “old time rock and roll” too. And I recently got some of my old time records, CDs, iPods,…
Read More
Be(ar) careful in the Smokies
In the natural world there are certain experiences that rivet our attention and remain stored in our memory banks. Through…
Read More