As the temperature drops in Western North Carolina, the fun only heats up. The holiday season here is filled with events and activities aimed to celebrate the best way we know how — with friends, family and visitors alike. 

The annual Stecoah Harvest Festival will return Oct. 18-19 to the Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center in Robbinsville. 

The U.S. Forest Service reopened the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Trail and all other facilities in Graham County will reopen on Oct. 11 

Rising Americana/old-time ensemble The New Quintet will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, at the Stecoah Valley Center in Robbinsville. 

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced a $20 million grant from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to modernize roads and improve safety for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. 

SECU Foundation recently awarded a $1.6 million grant to Vecinos for a new medical center and human services hub in Macon County.

When Superior Court Judge William Coward announced his retirement late last year, it caught many in the Western North Carolina legal community off guard and set in motion a process with little precedent.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians will ask the federal government to take 38.2 acres in Graham and Swain counties into federal trust following unanimous votes from Tribal Council Thursday, Feb. 1. 

New town leadership is looking forward to getting things moving again in the tiny Graham County municipality of Lake Santeetlah, after a pair of incumbents and a pair of former Town Council members won resounding victories repudiating actions taken by the town’s elected leaders over the past two years. 

Residents in the furthest west counties may see smoke over the coming months as the Cherokee National Forest carries out prescribed burns on an estimated 18,500 acres in Monroe and Polk counties, Tennessee, which abut Graham and Cherokee counties in North Carolina.