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Thanks for speaking out so forcefully
To the Editor: I commend Hannah McLeod for speaking so forthrightly and forcefully about the new extreme abortion laws.
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Twenty down, 20 more to go
To the Editor: Hats off to Scott McLeod and the staff at SMN for navigating two decades of informative, entertaining…
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Thank the hard-working journalists
To the Editor: Congratulations The Smoky Mountain News for its 20th anniversary. As a fifth-generation journalist, I thoroughly enjoyed reading…
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Respect for others missing in Edwards’ response
In the most recent edition of the SMN (June 5), I read a guest editorial written by Mr. Sam Edwards…
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You won’t make friends like this again
By the time she was 4-years-old, my daughter was better at making friends than I have ever been. When we…
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Oconaluftee Job Corps center to close
For more than 50 years, disadvantaged youth struggling to find their way in the world have had the chance…
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Interstate 40 closed indefinitely after another rockslide
Less than four months after a rockslide in Haywood County closed a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 40, it’s happened again.…
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Abundant Labs to open hemp processing facility in Canton
Haywood County’s latest economic development victory – a state of the art, $12 million hemp processing facility – means that…
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Jackson County to vote on budget June 11
The Jackson County Commissioners will adopt the budget for fiscal year 2019-2020 in a special-called meeting at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday,…
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Primary Election results return to Cherokee
Preliminary results are in from Cherokee’s June 6 Primary Election.
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The art of togetherness
Five years ago, Michelle and Robby Railey had one question in mind. “How do we get to the next level?”…
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Passion is no excuse for spreading error
Upon seeing Hannah McLeod’s recent guest column published in these pages on May 29, my first reaction was that it…
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When the universe offers gifts, unwrap them
The final school bells have rung. When I was teaching, the last few weeks of school were grueling and felt…
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Kids in Parks logs one million TRACK Trails adventures
In its mission to engage children with the outdoors, the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation’s Kids in Parks program is marking…
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Lime treatment reverses acid rain effects
You can’t always believe what you see. The water in our mountain streams is sometimes polluted even though it appears…
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Mainspring expands to Sylva
Mainspring Conservation Trust now has an office in downtown Sylva.
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The Naturalist's Corner: 20 years are in the can; as they say in the biz
I can’t, thinking back now, remember what the two floors below us were at 9 Main Street, in 1999 when…
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Loving every word of it, all 630,000
Let’s start with some basic mathematics. For 20 years, I have reviewed books for The Smoky Mountain News. For some…
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Fariello receives Lifetime Achievement Award
Author and curator Anna Fariello was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Folk Art Center during the annual meeting…
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This must be the place: No fear or shame in the dignity of your experience, language and knowledge
The first week I lived and worked in Western North Carolina, I slept underneath my desk in the old newsroom…
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Crafting together community: How craft beer impacted WNC
According to recent numbers, there are around 75 breweries within Asheville and greater Western North Carolina. And 19 of those…
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Twenty years later, another edition done
In the beginning, one doesn’t even think about the long run. When you’re fighting every day to survive, there’s no…
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1999: Smokies works to overcome hurdles
It’s no coincidence that the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was the subject of The Smoky Mountain News’ first-ever front-page…
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2001: Elk return to Western North Carolina
“A large herd gathered last week on a remote, historical farmstead maintained by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, in…
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2003: The end of Eric Rudolph’s run
He was a seasoned dumpster diver by now. For the last three summers, he’d regularly swoop down in the dead…
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2004: Floods ravage Western North Carolina
The tiny central Haywood County town of Clyde lies more than 270 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, more than 400…
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2005: State passes education lottery system
Nearly 15 years after the North Carolina General Assembly narrowly passed a bill establishing an education lottery system, state legislators…
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2007: Journey from the Road to Nowhere
If you can’t understand why people in Swain County are distrustful of the federal government, then you are among those…
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2008: Real estate takes a major hit
The housing bubble was finally bursting in 2008 as the Great Recession became the new reality in Western North Carolina…
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2009: Ghost Town comes crashing down
Decades after it first opened in 1962, Ghost Town in the Sky still commands a wistful loyalty from thousands of…
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2012: Table games come to Harrah’s
Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort, an economic powerhouse that employs 5 percent of the workforce in the seven western counties and…
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2013: Southern Loop scrapped for good
For a road that has never existed, the infamous Southern Loop of Sylva sure has gotten a lot of ink…
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2014: Transition to for-profit health care
Area hospitals finally found some steady financial footing in 2014 after years of floundering, trying to keep their heads above…
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2016: Fire on the mountain
As you read this, I’ve just noted the passing of my third anniversary with this 20 year-old newspaper and as…
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2017: Cherokee impeaches its chief
When Patrick Lambert won the 2015 race for principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, he saw the…
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2018: WCU sees a year of change
This roller coaster of a year at Western Carolina University started before it started, when the school’s beloved chancellor David…
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SEC claims Waynesville businessman defrauded clients
The Securities and Exchange Commission recently charged investment adviser Stephen Brandon Anderson, 41, of Waynesville, with defrauding clients by overcharging…
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Women dead following Parkway vehicle accident
A Brevard woman is dead following a car accident on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Devil's Courthouse.
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Comedy star Ken Jeong brings stand-up to Harrah’s Cherokee
Actor/comedian Ken Jeong will be performing live at 9 p.m. Friday, May 31, at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort Event Center.
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Why deny health coverage?
To the Editor: Many people in our Western North Carolina counties are in a health care coverage void. Through no…
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Trump threatens our ideals
To the Editor: Thank you for publishing Norman Hoffman’s diagnosis of our president’s obvious disorder. Hoffman’s approach is logical, analytical,…
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HRMC leaders support HB 655
To the Editor: You don’t have to look far to see that many in North Carolina — approximately 500,000 —…
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Memorial Day is more than flags and speeches
My wife, Lori, and I recently attended the wedding of my nephew in Fayetteville. While there, we wandered around downtown…
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Evangelical fingerprints all over abortion bills
By Hannah McLeod • Guest Columnist Living outside the United States makes it easier to ignore the day-to-day whirlwind of…
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A prayer for Mike and all who served
I wish I knew where Mike is. I haven’t seen or heard from him in 10 years at least. I…
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WNC was once home to marble mines
(Editor’s note: This article first appeared in The Smoky Mountain News in June 2004) The destiny of a given region…
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The story behind the man: First-ever Horace Kephart biography explores a complex man and momentous life
Horace Kephart has been dead for 88 years, but his name and his story still pull an undercurrent through Western…
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Help hellbenders
The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission wants to hear about hellbender sightings, part of agency biologists’ ongoing effort to learn more…
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Boating fatalities abnormally high in 2018
On the heels of a year when more people died from boating accidents in North Carolina than in any other…
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Sense of place is crucial to Hewson’s novels
Some novelists display a real talent for capturing a place in words and then bringing that “little postage stamp of…
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