Several years ago I wrote about Bradford Torrey’s A World of Green Hills, which was published in 1898 by Houghton Mifflin and Co. The book is divided into two parts, equally devoted to Torrey’s travels in Western North Carolina and southwestern Virginia (Pulaski and Natural Bridge). The North Carolina portion was set primarily on the Highlands Plateau, which he accessed from Walhalla in upcountry South Carolina via a horse- and mule-drawn wagon.

By Jennifer Garlesky • Staff Writer

Restaurant patrons in Highlands will soon be able to sip on rum and coke while eating a steak or order a pitcher of beer while eating pizza now that citizens voted “yes” to an alcohol referendum.

By Michael Beadle

Indulge in a seven-course meal that includes roasted pheasant, foie gras and braised wild boar. Sip award-winning wines from Tuscany. Savor sushi, soft-shell crab and sake. Tempt your tongue with rich chocolates.

Each weekend, Carol Austin figures out what meals her family is going to eat during the upcoming workweek. She shops for groceries and fills her vehicle’s gasoline tank before Monday morning.

When the well heeled are in need of a pampered retreat in Western North Carolina, they often look toward the Old Edwards Inn and Spa in Highlands.

By Michael Beadle

Cyrano’s Bookshop in downtown Highlands may be all of 700 square feet, but that hasn’t stopped its new owners, Clair and Arthur Simpson, from setting up book signings for such nationally notable authors as Pat Conroy, Steve Berry, Sharyn McCrumb and Nicholas Sparks.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

A lawsuit over deed restrictions that could prevent a controversial high-rise condominium near Highlands from being built is past due for mediation.

When CNN chose John Armor’s web blog as the political site of the day several years ago, coining him an “intellectual redneck” in the process, Armor accepted the tagline proudly.

From his home in Highlands, Armor posts satire columns on the Internet by an invented character, “The (More er Less) Honorable Billybob Congressman” from Western North Carolina. It’s one of many outlets for Armor’s political commentary and humor that floods the journals and digital newsletters of numerous national think tanks, an unwieldy profession that pits Armor as a watchdog of the liberal media one day and a Supreme Court analyst the next.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

In his first month as the newly elected mayor of Highlands, Don Mullen has already earned a reputation as a service-oriented, civic-minded, friend of the environment.

Macon County officials have contested the legality of a moratorium Highlands enacted on commercial building within the town’s extra-territorial jurisdictions this November.