Angel DeCora, Untitled painting, ca. 1900; oil on canvas. Darling Family Collection
 

WCU opens ‘Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Stories’ exhibit

Beginning in the 1870s, the U.S. government attempted to educate and assimilate American Indians into “civilized” society by placing children…
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Ecopoetry ruminations from the Great Smokies
 

Ecopoetry ruminations from the Great Smokies

“We must unhumanize our view a little, and become confident / As the rock, and ocean that we were made from.” —…
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Bloomingdale Bog Trail. (Garret K. Woodward photo)
 

This must be the place: Set of keys and a dusty suitcase, car wheels on a gravel road

What’s that feeling the day before a big trip? More so, a road trip? Where you’re mulling over what to…
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(From left) Arnold Hill is Heath Brown, Adam Blythe, Sam McCarson and Mike Yow. (Garret K. Woodward photo)
 

Days we left behind: Arnold Hill to play Canton Labor Day

One of the finer experiences of being a bona fide music freak is to witness and appreciate the growth and…
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Ready to try theater?
 

Ready to try theater?

The Haywood Arts Regional Theater in Waynesville is currently offering a wide variety of classes in the theater arts for…
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WCU gets new air quality monitors
 

WCU gets new air quality monitors

New air monitors measuring particulate matter, temperature and relative humidity are now up on the Western Carolina University campus. 
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Second deer tests positive for chronic wasting disease
 

Second deer tests positive for chronic wasting disease

A second deer has tested positive for chronic wasting disease after North Carolina’s first CWD-positive deer was found in December…
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Goldenrod flowers bloom beneath autumn skies. Adam Bigelow photo
 

Notes from a plant nerd: There’s goldenrod on them there hills

Goldenrods (Solidago spp.) are among the most widespread, beautiful and important wildflowers in all of Southern Appalachia. There is almost…
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The rare green salamander requires moist, rocky habitats like those found on Brushy Mountains. Lori Williams/NCWRC photo
 

Southside story: Bid awarded in contentious timber project

Five years after it first proposed the controversial Southside Timber Project, the U.S. Forest Service has awarded a timber bid…
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Bottomless arch culverts like this one on Buck Creek improve passage for fish and other aquatic organisms while reducing road maintenance. USFS photo
 

Culvert project to improve fish habitat

A portion of Connelly’s Creek Road in the Nantahala National Forest will close starting Sept. 6 to upgrade an existing…
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Trail repairs done on Tennessee A.T.
 

Trail repairs done on Tennessee A.T.

New bog bridges and repaired steps are now in place on the Bradley Gap Section of the Appalachian Trail through…
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A trio of books all worth a read
 

A trio of books all worth a read

Before proceeding to reading and books, a note on circumstances and environment.
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Street Food Institute event to help local food businesses
 

Street Food Institute event to help local food businesses

N.C. State Cooperative Extension, Eastern Band of Cherokee Commerce Department and EmPOWERING Mountain Food Systems are hosting the Street Food…
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Blinded by the light: WNC clogger becomes social media sensation
 

Blinded by the light: WNC clogger becomes social media sensation

Before March 2022, 28-year-old Zeb Ross didn’t have a social media presence. No Instagram, TikTok or Twitter. He did have…
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Legislators, candidates stake out positions on abortion ban
 

Legislators, candidates stake out positions on abortion ban

After nearly 50 years of contention and debate over what was once considered “settled law,” abortion has now become a…
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Ela Dam has been in operation since 1925. File photo
 

Mainspring considers Ela Dam purchase

Franklin-based nonprofit Mainspring Conservation Trust will take the lead in efforts to remove 97-year-old Ela Dam if its board decides…
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A Shot Above of WNC photo
 

Lawsuit puts Ghost Town development in limbo

Just two weeks after a lawsuit was filed to dissolve Ghost Town in the Sky, LLC — the company that…
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Janet Presson speaks during the public comment session of a Haywood County Board of Commissioners meeting on Aug. 15. Haywood County Government photo
 

Haywood commissioners reject misinformation at meeting

When a small group of concerned citizens turned up to the most recent Haywood County Board of Commissioners meeting, it…
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Construction for the second phase of Shining Rock Classical Academy is currently paused due to rising inflation. Hannah McLeod photo
 

SRCA board operates with reduced membership

Over the last eight months, three board members have either resigned or been removed from the Shining Rock Classical Academy…
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Jackson to receive $3 million in opioid settlement
 

Jackson to receive $3 million in opioid settlement

Jackson County will receive more than $3 million as part of an opioid settlement. The timeline for collecting that money,…
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Tribe seeks state recognition for enrollment cards
 

Tribe seeks state recognition for enrollment cards

While the federal government considers tribal enrollment cards official forms of identification sufficient to board a domestic flight or cross…
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Haywood Healthcare Foundation awards grants
 

Haywood Healthcare Foundation awards grants

The Haywood Healthcare Foundation Board of Trustees voted at its June meeting to award $497,500 in grants for fiscal year…
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Calbert Christian, who is originally from Jamaica and now resides in Sylva, received his diploma during SCC’s High School Equivalency commencement ceremony on Aug. 2 in Myers Auditorium on the college’s Jackson Campus in Sylva.
 

Ceremony celebrates High School Equivalency grads

Like every other graduate at Southwestern Community College’s High School Equivalency commencement ceremony, Calbert Christian navigated a unique road on…
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Let’s have a civil dialogue about abortion
 

Let’s have a civil dialogue about abortion

To the Editor: Thank you, Jane Harrison, for setting me straight about my being in the minority of Americans because…
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Successful tyrants sell big lies
 

Successful tyrants sell big lies

Americans may wonder what it felt like to be living in Italy or Germany when they were submitting to tyrants. Now…
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A purple state 
is a better state
 

A purple state 
is a better state

To the Editor:  I’ve been a casual visitor to Highlands for years, becoming more of a seasonal visitor and now…
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Trump should be prosecuted
 

Trump should be prosecuted

To the Editor: One of the most revealing, declarative statements ever uttered by a politician in the last 50 years…
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This must be the place: Time waits for no one, lord, why did I hesitate?
 

This must be the place: Time waits for no one, lord, why did I hesitate?

Stepping out onto the porch late Sunday morning, the air was cool. The first sign of an impending fall, even…
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A year after Tropical Storm Fred washed away his crop, Gary Griffith’s fields are once more full of green peppers. Holly Kays photo
 

‘It can’t be like that all the time’: Farmers recover from Fred amid inflation, weather worries

When Gary Griffith woke up a rainy Tuesday on Aug. 17, 2021, he never imagined that by the next morning,…
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The J. Creek Cloggers perform July 23. David Huff Creative photo
 

Barn dance raises $85K for the Smokies

Friends of the Smokies raised $85,000 to support the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at its Smokies Stomp event held…
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N.C. declared free of bird flu
 

N.C. declared free of bird flu

North Carolina is now officially free of High Path Avian Influenza, meaning that the state can resume export and international…
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Local author pens novel about pre-Depression Asheville
 

Local author pens novel about pre-Depression Asheville

I’ve said it before — our local authors are “going to town” these days, and in this case quite literally. 
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Bardo Arts Center fall season announced
 

Bardo Arts Center fall season announced

The Bardo Arts Center (BAC) at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee is excited to welcome patrons into its spaces for…
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The Cruso landslide. (Garret K. Woodward photo)
 

This must be the place: Ode to the flood, ode to Cruso, Bethel and Canton

Sitting on a barstool at The Water’n Hole in Waynesville last Monday afternoon, I took a pull from the cold…
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A year later, there is still much to be done
 

A year later, there is still much to be done

Earlier this week, I had started writing a column about the progress made in the year since the flooding from…
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Back-to-school season is upon us
 

Back-to-school season is upon us

In May my boys were counting down the days until school ended; now, they are counting down the days until…
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Letter writer had it all wrong
 

Letter writer had it all wrong

To the Editor: Oh, good grief! The often-repeated exasperation by the cartoon character Charlie Brown came to mind upon reading…
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What to look for in a judge
 

What to look for in a judge

To the Editor: Until 2018, judges in North Carolina had been non-partisan, after which the Republican legislature changed the law…
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Boxes full of paperwork lie strewn about the second floor of Canton’s now-unused town hall. Cory Vaillancourt photo
 

After the Flood: Trying times, trauma, trepidation and triumph

Hours earlier, Natasha Bright had been trapped atop a bunk bed in a barricaded bedroom with her dogs, her cats…
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The work has been ongoing at Pisgah Memorial Stadium since last year’s flood. During that time, teams have had to play home games at other venues. Allen Newland photo
 

Haywood Schools still face deluge of flood repairs

On Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 17, 2021, the second day of the school year, Haywood County Schools Superintendent Dr. Bill Nolte…
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This image was captured by Ben Wilson from the tree as flood water raged beneath him. Ben Wilson photo
 

Delivered through the storm: Cruso man’s struggle to rebuild eased by community’s compassion

Ben Wilson recently got around to looking at footage from security cameras at his home captured the day he watched…
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Tropical Storm Fred triggered a mudslide along U.S. 276 near the Cruso Fire Department. Allen Newland photo
 

When the next one comes: Emergency managers work toward flood preparedness

In the year since Tropical Storm Fred  ravaged Western North Carolina, emergency managers have been busy working to ensure that…
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Wendy and Chuck Rector lost their entire home in Cruso during the historic flood of 2021, which overtook the small Haywood County community when a wall of water washed through the area. (Garret K. Woodward photos)
 

‘We just held on’
: A year after historic flood, Cruso family is still rebuilding

Handing an old red bandana back and forth to wipe away the tears emerging from their eyes, Wendy and Chuck…
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Officials from the EBCI and City of Danville break ground on the $650 million casino project Aug. 11. EBCI photo
 

Tribe, Caesars break ground on $650 million Virginia casino project

At an Aug. 11 event  that Principal Chief Richard Sneed said felt more like a pep rally than a ceremony,…
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A look at Laurel Ridge Country Club’s 12th hole. The club has recently changed ownership. Donated photo
 

Laurel Ridge Country Club changes ownership

Waynesville’s Laurel Ridge Country Club has changed ownership, with a new era beginning. 
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On a Saturday in July 2020, cars line both sides of Newfound Gap Road near the trailhead for Alum Cave Trail. NPS photo
 

Smokies adopts parking fee

Starting March 1, visiting the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will no longer be completely free — a first for…
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The case has caught the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
 

Phony writ from sham court offers bounties for national, state and local lawmakers

More than three dozen Western North Carolina judges, elected officials and municipal employees have been “served” with a bogus judgement…
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Bryce Evans
 

Missing person found dead in park

The body of a Knoxville man who went missing while traveling to Charlotte was found Friday, Aug. 5, in the…
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