A rich newspaper account of Bryson City circa 1910
Despite the boosterism (and alliteration) that permeated a front page layout (perhaps instigated by the ever-energetic Jack Coburn, who is…
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Just sit on the porch and breathe
I write this down in the country again ... seated on a log in the woods, warm, sunny midday. Have…
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Bracken among the world’s most common plants
“Here and elsewhere, bracken is such an aggressive plant that one wonders why it has not taken over the world.”…
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Learning bird songs is an art unto itself
Editor’s note: This column first appeared in a May 2009 issue of The Smoky Mountain News. In the opaque early-morning…
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Zeke’s gone, but leaves us a blank verse sonnet
Two German shorthaired pointers named Maggie and Zeke were our constant companions for years. When we went bird watching along…
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The forlorn calls of the yellow-billed cuckoo
Editor’s note: This column first appeared in The Smoky Mountain News in May 2008. O Cuckoo! Shall I call thee…
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The sacred animal that walks like a man
Editor’s note: This column first appeared in an April 2003 edition of The Smoky Mountain News. Bears have always held…
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Old-time dentistry just plain hurt
Old-time dentistry as practiced here in the Smokies region wasn’t pretty. All of the descriptions I have found make it…
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Birch stills were once plentiful in the mountains
Throughout spring the pendent catkins of sweet birch (Betula lenta) will be dangling gracefully in the wind in rich woodland…
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Colorful reminders of long-ago homesteads
A chimney standing all alone where a fire burned a house down long ago … a crumbling stone wall overgrown…
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The woodcock — secretive, rotund and acrobatic
While walking stream banks or low-lying wetlands, you have perhaps had the memorable experience of flushing a woodcock — that…
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One of the Smokies’ finest poets
Editor’s note: This Back Then column by George Ellison first appeared in the Feb. 15, 2012, edition of The Smoky Mountain…
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Did the southeastern Native Americans take scalps?
(Editor’s Note: Readers should be cautioned that several of the descriptions of scalping and related practices presented in this column…
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German utopian wanted a community in Cherokee
Note: This is the second of a two-part series about Christian Priber, an utopian socialist whose beliefs — including free…
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A German idealist sought refuge among the Cherokee
Christianus Gottlieb Priber was born in Zittau, Germany, where he was the son of a beerhouse owner. In October 1722,…
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Blue jays arouse mixed feelings among humans
Everyone knows what a blue jay looks and sounds like in a general sort of way. Their incandescent blue plumage…
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Cherokee used toxins to stun fish
People sometimes wonder if the prehistoric Cherokees used any sort of poisons on their blowgun darts. These darts (slivers of…
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The quandary that is book shelving
The books have once again piled up in stacks up to three feet high in many corners of the house.…
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High-elevation overlooks are awe-inspiring
High-elevation overlooks are one of our finest natural resources. These vantage points allow us to rise above our everyday humdrum…
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When they bloom, ‘fall’s a-coming’
Late summer has slid into early autumn. The end of summer officially arrived with the autumnal equinox of Sept. 23,…
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To free your mind, just get outside and walk
In the June 14, 2004, issue of The New Yorker magazine, there was an essay titled “Blocked! Why Do Writers…
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Logging has always been dangerous work
Steam and water-powered sawmills were established here in the Smokies region during the 1870s and 1880s. But full-fledged industrialized logging…
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Time to enjoy the bounty of your flower garden
[Before moving on to the primary subject of this column (yard gardens), I’d like to share some impressions with you…
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Cherokee had uses for many local plants
For the ancient Cherokees and other southeastern Indian tribes, the greatest causes of illness were the spirits of vengeful animals.…
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What’s a naturalist?
Trying to answer that question, the first source I resorted to was, of course, the Oxford English Dictionary. Therein I…
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Early book gives vivid descriptions of WNC
Those who read this column regularly are aware of my interest in the early descriptive literature of Western North Carolina.…
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The day lily is a beautiful, hardy outlander
How many naturalized plants do you recognize from your vehicle this time of year as you drive around taking care…
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Perhaps ‘possums are figuring it out
I bless my lucky stars that I’m a columnist assigned the pleasant task of writing about this region’s natural and…
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A blemish by any other name
Systems of mature trees and shrubs are covered with blemishes that signal age: cankers, seams, burls, butt scars, sterile conks,…
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The honest little bird
On one level, the natural history of a region consists of its terrain, habitats, plants, animals and how they interrelate.…
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Moonshine stills weren’t the only stills
All this spring, golden birch catkins were dangling throughout the woodlands of the Smokies region. These are the male, pollen-carrying…
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A fox sighting is always a delight
In the natural world here in the Blue Ridge, there are certain visual images that rivet the attention of human…
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Special places define us
One never tires of discovering special places here in the southern mountains. Through the years, such places readily become old…
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‘Doc’ Bennett was truly a man of the mountains
I have files in my computer containing articles I’ve forgotten that I wrote until, by chance, I run across them…
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Old-time surveyors used some interesting tools, markers
“The line runs down the meander of the ridge to where Bossy dropped her first calf.” “The line runs to where…
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The copper run in the Great Smokies
The worldwide annual production of “high conductivity copper” had by 1899 risen to 470,000 tons, of which 300,000 tons were…
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A search for Horace Kephart’s alcove
The setting for Horace Kephart’s posthumous novel Smoky Mountain Magic (2009) is the Cherokee Indian Reservation, Bryson City and Deep…
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Delving into the origin of Native American words
Editor’s note: This article was first published in The Smoky Mountain News in December 2003. Tuckaseigee, Oconaluftee, Heintooga, Wayah, Cullasaja,…
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A new, excitable girl in our quiet cove
Essays and columns are difficult to categorize. Dividing them into the formal and informal is about all anyone can agree…
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Come winter, trees reveal their blemishes
Like an old man’s face, mature hardwood tree trunks are covered with blemishes that signal age: cankers, seams, burls, butt…
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When frost comes, we know winter has arrived
The first frost serves as a given year’s most distinctive dividing line. It’s hard to pinpoint just when winter becomes…
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Witch-hazel has adapted as a late flowering plant
Editor’s note: this article first appeared in a November 2003 edition of The Smoky Mountain News. If you take a…
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Robin redbreasts are a perennial favorite
Our elementary school primers were populated by robins pulling worms out of holes. They appeared on television screens on Saturday…
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Bryson City and the widow Cline
Before the settlement named Charleston became the village named Bryson City in 1889, it was a tract of land known…
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Water was not always taken for granted
Old-time mountaineers often picked their home and church sites according to the location and purity of springs. They were connoisseurs…
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It’s ragweed that is the real culprit
“Hay fever: An acute allergic condition of the mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract and the eyes, characterized by…
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Buckeyes both a good luck charm and a poison
A large buckeye tree overhangs and supports the swinging gate leading into and out of our pasture. Since we are…
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Not a lot known about Bryson City’s namesake
Two well known sites in Swain County were named for Col. Thaddeus Dillard Bryson, a significant figure in Western North…
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Lungwort used for making beer, bread
Lungwort is the leaf-like lichen common on tree trunks several feet or more above ground level. It resembles liverwort but…
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Common ash tree deserves more attention
“How many thousand-thousand of untold white ash trees are the respected companions of our doorways, kindliest trees in the clearing…
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