With the purchase of 8 acres in Bryson City, Swain County will now have an outdoor event area to host county fairs, kids carnivals and more. 

Just one year after setting up shop in Cherokee, the Fly Fishing Museum of the Southern Appalachians will be moving to Bryson City. 

Two well known sites in Swain County were named for Col. Thaddeus Dillard Bryson, a significant figure in Western North Carolina during the second half of the nineteenth century.         

One is, of course, Bryson City. And the other is the Bryson Place, now Backcountry Campsite (No. 57) in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park situated six miles north of the gated trailhead in the Deep Creek Campground. Here then are some notes regarding Col. Bryson as well as his namesakes.

Spirits were high in Dillsboro last week as Steam Engine No. 1702 chugged noisily to a stop on the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad.

They all do something with their hands.

Meandering around Western North Carolina and greater Southern Appalachia, one thing becomes apparent — folk ‘round here are quite imaginative. It’s been said you can’t throw a rock in any direction without hitting someone with a zest for life coupled with a deep sense of the creative self.

Considering Bryson City didn’t even have a website until 2009, it’s no surprise that it lags behind the other municipalities’ web presence.

Alderwoman Heidi Woodard’s motion for the town to abandon the right-of-way on Fry Street was met with silence at Monday night’s Bryson City board meeting, but town leaders say that doesn’t mean the issue is dead.

“This is the ugliest fly I have,” says Mike Kesselring, pulling a battered-looking brown-bodied, black-feathered fly from a box marked “18. Antiques.”

The box is just one of the many filling the back of Kesselring’s red SUV, the fly just one the roughly 9,000 in his expansive collection. The flies run the gamut from the long, flowing streamers designed to resemble flashy-colored minnows to tiny but intricate creations mimicking the river’s smallest insect nymphs. Nearly all are prettier, more pristine than the 20-year-old thing Kesselring, 64, now holds up to the sunlight.

Great Smoky Mountain Railroad officials say they will make their deadline for getting a steam engine back up and running in Bryson City.

In a long-awaited strategic move, Nantahala Brewing in Bryson City will soon be putting the final touches on the purchase of a nearby bottling company.