Back in the 1990s, Karen and Johnny White were in a nomadic phase of life, spending several months traveling the country in search of a place to call home. Time after time, they found themselves most drawn to small towns with vibrant farmers markets. 

Like voters across the country, Jackson County residents are electing representatives for offices ranging from congressman to commissioner, but this fall they’ll decide a more tangible question as well — whether or not the county should borrow $20 million to build a new aquatic center in Cullowhee.

As in the District 4 race, the ballot for the District 3 county commission seat in Jackson County is devoid of incumbents. But unlike in District 4, both choices are first-time candidates who have not previously served on any elected or appointed board. 

After years of planning, public meetings and emotionally charged back-and-forth, right-of-way acquisition for the N.C. 107 project in Sylva was set to begin in February, with construction starting in early 2023. 

But that was before COVID-19 hit. 

Western Carolina University has announced changes to the spring 2021 schedule related to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.

Mike Wurman visited Max Patch for the first time in May 2014, and the experience changed his life. 

Wurman, an artist, had only lived in Asheville for about two years at the time after moving from Texas. He wasn’t much of a hiker, but his brother-in-law suggested that he check out the iconic bald, located in Madison County just past the Haywood County line. At the time, Wurman was feeling lost and full of self-doubt about his art. But something changed when he knelt down to take a photo of the white-blazed post marking the Appalachian Trail’s path across the bald.

There’s no incumbent on the ballot for Jackson County’s District 4 commission seat, but voters will still find themselves choosing between a known quantity and a new contender this election season.

A new grant program approved by a unanimous vote from the Sylva Board of Commissioners Sept. 24 will allocate $20,000 to help nonprofit organizations better serve Sylva residents during the pandemic. 

During its Sept. 3 meeting, Tribal Council voted unanimously to approve a slate of changes to its election ordinance ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline enshrined in Cherokee law. 

During a Sept. 15 meeting, Jackson County commissioners voted unanimously to terminate a pair of billboard leases the county holds with Allison Outdoor Advertising, the oldest of which has been in place since 1976. 

An updated and expanded version of this story is now available here. 

A widely circulated drone photo showing Max Patch covered with more than 100 tents — along with pictures of large amounts of trash left by the campers — has gone viral over the past week, leading many to question what should be done to keep the iconic location from being loved to death.

Delayed Harvest Trout Water restrictions will take effect in North Carolina on Thursday, Oct. 1.

Candidates for offices ranging from county commissioner to state senate will appear in upcoming debates. 

Tribal Council unanimously approved a $3.4 million land purchase in the Painttown Community during its meeting on Thursday, Sept. 3. 

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is asking the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to give it a new agency superintendent following a unanimous vote from Tribal Council Sept. 3. 

A recently released report from the National Recreation and Park Association shows that most U.S. adults — 82 percent of them — believe that parks and recreation are essential services. 

Fairview resident Virginia Ward has received the 2019 Youth Award as part of the George and Helen Hartzog Awards for Outstanding Volunteer Service, an annual recognition of volunteer excellence offered by the National Park Service. 

When Karly Jones began the Appalachian Trail on Feb. 27, the weather was cold and the trail crowded. She quickly earned the trail name Jitter, short for jitterbug.

“I was constantly moving to try to stay warm, so I would hop from one foot to another and rub my hands together or jump around, or anything to keep warm,” she said. 

As February turned into March, Jones climbed Springer Mountain, traversed Neels Gap and then Dicks Creek Gap, summited Standing Indian Mountain and made her way through the challenging terrain of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. That’s when she first heard about COVID-19, from a group of pre-med students who had just been notified that their classes would be canceled for the next two weeks. By the time she reached Hot Springs, the world had changed. 

“That was when a lot of people were making decisions and plans to go home,” she said. “I significantly noticed it.”

Emergency responders have found the body of a 25-year-old man reported missing at 7:36 p.m. Monday, Sept. 14, after falling into the water at Midnight Hole in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. 

Racially charged vandalism in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has prompted an investigation searching for those responsible. 

Jackson County commissioners voted unanimously Sept. 15 to ask for the N.C. Association of County Commissioners’ support for state legislation to give counties more control over state and federal construction projects within their borders.

At 5 p.m., the August sun is hot and high overhead as my husband and I walk through the hodgepodge of parked cars at The Ten Acre Garden. It’s more crowded than I expected, but then again, I didn’t really know what to expect — I’ve never been here before. 

By the end of the night, I’ll be wondering why it took me so long to arrive. 

Emergency responders have found the body of a 25-year-old man reported missing at 7:36 p.m. Monday, Sept. 14, after falling into the water at Midnight Hole in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Tax values for Jackson County properties are set to rise next year as the county enters the final stages of its process to revaluate property values last set in 2016. 

A search is underway for a missing man in the Big Creek area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

On the afternoon of Friday, Sept. 11, backpackers were hiking the Hazel Creek Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park when they found an unoccupied tent at Campsite 82 with a single sleeping bag inside. Across the creek, they discovered human remains and a scavenging bear. 

With nearly six weeks now elapsed since Jackson County Commissioners voted to cover up the Confederate flag on the base of the controversial statue overlooking Sylva, town commissioners are asking the county to either make the fix quick or put a temporary covering over the image. 

Danny Bernstein’s fascination with DuPont State Recreational Forest began soon after she moved to Asheville in 2001. 

“The first hike I took in DuPont Forest was to High Falls,” Bernstein wrote in her new book DuPont Forest: A History. “Like other visitors, I gawked and stared at the falls as I clicked one shot after another. It was a spectacular waterfall. Then I turned around and spotted a tall chimney on a hill. I walked up the wooden steps and saw that the chimney had a fireplace on two sides. A date had been engraved in the concrete. No other clue, no plaque, no sign — I was not in a museum. But I knew there was a story here beyond the waterfalls.”

Congressional candidates Moe Davis and Madison Cawthorn clashed last week in a pair of debates spanning two days and three hours, covering everything from health care and economics to gun rights and race relations. 

In a narrow vote Sept. 3, the Cherokee Tribal Council approved a Fiscal Year 2021 budget that reflects the economic uncertainty caused by COVID-19. 

UPDATE Sept. 9: Lafon has been found safe and unharmed.

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office is requesting assistance locating missing teenager Aaliyah Lafon.

Law enforcement is investigating an early morning shooting that occurred just before 3 a.m. this morning near milepost 364 on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Jackson County Commissioners voted unanimously to offer County Manager Don Adams a four-year contract extension following a closed-session discussion on Tuesday, Sept. 1.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has announced its intention to develop a 200-acre mixed-use development envisioned as an “experiential destination” on property it purchased last year along Interstate 40 in Sevier County, Tennessee.

Nobody who knew Terry Rogers was surprised by the sprinkling of jokes that pervaded his acceptance speech. 

One was a story about a friend who came upon a frog that promised a kiss would turn it into a beautiful princess — “At my age,” the friend purportedly said, “I’d rather have a talking frog than some beautiful princess” — and another recounted what happened when Roger asked his pastor to pray for his hearing. The pastor laid hands on him, prayed and asked how his hearing was now, to which Rogers replied that it wasn’t now — it was “next week down at the courthouse.”

The third week of classes is now underway at Western Carolina University, and the Jackson County Department of Public Health has identified the first cluster on campus. 

Pandemic-induced public health rules are severely impacting bottom lines for restaurants nationwide, but members of the Sylva Town Board hope that an effort to expand outdoor seating opportunities downtown will help ease the pain on Main Street. The town has passed two ordinance changes this summer to pave the way for increasing the outdoor table space available to downtown eateries. 

Five Western Carolina University students are no longer enrolled at the school after appearing in a pair of videos that featured racial slurs and surfaced on social media the first weekend after classes began. The university community showed overwhelming support for the students’ departure from campus during a march held Wednesday, Aug. 26, drawing more than 800 people. 

The Cherokee Tribal Council is likely to vote this week on proposed changes to several sections of the tribe’s election ordinance. 

A COVID-19 cluster including 17 residents of Harrill Hall has been identified at Western Carolina University.

For the ninth time in the last 10 years, Western Carolina University is starting the year with a record high enrollment — despite earlier concerns that the Coronavirus Pandemic could cause a decrease in enrollment.

Despite multiple outstanding environmental violations, a new student housing complex located on Western Carolina University’s Millennial Campus off Killian Road welcomed its first group of tenants this month. 

Now 75, Cashiers resident Ann Austin was just 3 years old when her grandmother died following a sudden cardiac episode. 

A pair of videos that appeared on social media over the weekend elicited strong reaction from many in the Western Carolina University community who decried their contents as racist. 

A new COVID-19 dashboard for Western Carolina University is now available online at www.wcu.edu/coronavirus/reporting.aspx.

Jackson County Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday, Aug. 18, to table a vote terminating its lease agreements with Allison Outdoor Advertising after the company’s president Claude Dicks implored the board to consider other options first.

A collection of 47,000 plants and animals currently tucked away in various rooms of Western Carolina University’s Stillwell building will soon have a new home thanks to a $517,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. 

When the 19th Amendment passed in 1920, women throughout the nation began to vote for the first time. But for a long time, the rights granted in that amendment were realized mainly by white women. 

“Our ancestors, our forefathers, they were hurt because they had fought for suffrage too for the 19th Amendment, and it didn’t really do any good,” said Ellerna Forney, a Sylva native who is Black. “But they still kept fighting.”

In 1930, a young man named Henry Owl traveled to the Ravensford election precinct in Swain County to register to vote. 

Owl was a U.S. Army Veteran, and a college graduate. He held a master’s degree, in fact, having finished the UNC Chapel Hill graduate program in history the previous year. At Lenoir College, where he began his undergraduate studies in 1925, he was elected “Most Popular Boy” and competed as a star athlete in football and baseball, earning posthumous induction to the Lenoir-Rhyne Sports Hall of Fame in 2012. 

After a July 23 Town of Sylva meeting was cut short following a barrage of racial slurs and other offensive disruptions from some attendees, the Sylva Police Department was quick to issue a press release stating that it was investigating the incident with the goal of identifying and charging the people responsible.