Holly Kays
Smoke is clouding the Sylva area following the eruption of a wildfire Sunday, Oct. 23, which grew to about 374 acres by Tuesday morning, Oct. 24. Take a drive along U.S. 74, and you’re likely to feel an itch in your throat from the smoke. Look for a mountain view, and the slopes ahead will appear covered by a gauzy haze.
The town of Sylva is in hot pursuit of what Police Chief Davis Woodard called a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to add a canine component to the ranks of municipal law enforcement.
Strength in unity. Identity in culture. Power in the past. Momentum toward the future.
Despite the diversity of traditions and histories and origins populating the event center at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort this week, common ground was easy to spot among the 26 tribes represented at the annual meeting of the United South and Eastern Tribes. The three-day event drew 355 people to learn, discuss and strategize about everything from health to federal agency rulemaking to international advocacy. But before any of that began, the gathering affirmed its unity through a series of prayers, dances and ceremonies.
The sun had barely risen over the Pisgah Ridge, but the Blue Ridge Parkway’s Devils Courthouse pull-off was teeming — mainly with women, mainly older, wearing pins and clad in skirts and stoles and scarves, some of which were made of bona fide mink.
They were the Daughters of the American Revolution, and they were excited to commemorate an achievement of their predecessors, the Daughters of nearly a century before.
Franklin orthodontist Jim Davis has held the District 50 seat in the N.C. Senate since 2010, when the legislature flipped to a Republican majority for the first time in more than 100 years. But if Jane Hipps, a retired educator and certified nurse practioner from Haywood County, has her way, she’ll be the one representing District 50 come January.
When the forest planning process for the Nantahala and Pisgah national forests kicked off more than two years ago, it didn’t take long for the question of wilderness designation — whether and how much more acreage should be recommended, which areas should make the cut — to rise to the top of the stack of contentious issues.
Congressman Mark Meadows (R-Cashiers) and a room of 30 wilderness supporters spent two hours discussing everything from ecology to U.S. Forest Service road budgets last week at the Haywood County Historic Courthouse with the goal of better understanding each other’s views on the purpose of wilderness designation.
“I will read everything you send me. I’m going to ask you questions,” Meadows promised as he closed out the meeting. “I’m trying to be as informed as I can.”
A tribal authority tasked with helping tribal members find housing is under investigation by the FBI for “possible criminal conduct related to certain loans and loan applications, among other matters,” according to a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice dated Oct. 4 and delivered to the program’s director, Charlene Owle.
When Ricardo Nazario-Colon first stepped onto Western Carolina University’s campus to interview for the new chief diversity officer position, one thing stuck out to him above all else.
It was a sunny Constitution Day at Western Carolina University, and the colors shone brightly on the giant beach ball — dubbed the “free speech ball” — that the campus chapter of Young Americans for Liberty rolled from spot to spot.
In Western North Carolina’s travel and tourism community, it’s not too unusual to find women at the helm. But when Stephanie Edwards, executive director of the Cashiers Chamber of Commerce, launched her career about 30 years ago, she was most definitely the minority.
It’s not unusual to hear a visiting veterinarian term Cherokee Animal Care Clinic an emergency day clinic, Dr. Robbie McLeod says as she takes a standing lunch break accompanied by a stethoscope, paperwork and a wiggly puppy in for its shots.
A cadre of curious animals gathers at the gate as Joe Moore, owner of Indian Springs Farms in Bethel, approaches the pasture.
“Hello girls,” he says, addressing the herd of bright-eyed, tuft-headed alpacas. As he opens the door, some draw near to sniff his shirt or hands, while others — the shier ones, presumably — hang back to gauge the situation from afar.
After a yearlong tug-of-war, Angela Kephart has vacated her post as a Tribal Casino Gaming Enterprise board member following the Cherokee Tribal Council’s razor-close decision to uphold July legislation shortening her term by a year to end Sept. 30.
Anyone who’s driven through Jackson County in the last several months is likely well aware that there’s an election underway for two county commissioner seats.
When the days get short and the nights get cold, a collection of Jackson County organizations comes together with the shared goal of getting the county’s less fortunate safely through the winter. Called Jackson Neighbors in Need, the group works to get homes winterized, heat bills paid and — as a last resort — nighttime shelter provided for those who would otherwise be left out in the cold.
It’s been 17 years since voters in North Carolina’s four westernmost counties have chosen a new representative for the state House of Representatives, but following the retirement of Roger West, R-Marble, that will change on Election Day.
After months of talking, planning and producing, Jackson County is set to unleash a new ad campaign and website showcasing the county’s best to a deep bench of potential visitors, and tourism director Nick Breedlove is enthusiastic about the results.
Much of America spent Aug. 5-21 with eyes glued to a television, cheering on athletes from all corners of the country as they represented the red, white and blue in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
SEE ALSO: A conversation with Michal
For the community of paddlers whose nucleus is the Nantahala Outdoor Center, one Olympic dream demanded especially rapt attention — that of 23-year-old kayaker Michal Smolen, a whitewater slalom favorite who cut his teeth on the waters of the Nantahala River. William Irving, president of NOC, well remembers his first experiences watching Michal paddle. At the time, Irving was the high performance director for USA Canoe/Kayak and Smolen’s father Rafal was the newly hired national team coach.
Red wolves will be removed from the majority of the five-county area of eastern North Carolina where they now exist in the wild, following a Sept. 12 decision from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
A vacant lot along the gateway to Sylva from Dillsboro will stay empty for a while longer following the town board’s decision to deny a request from Whittier-based C&D Towing and Wrecker Service to use the property for an impound lot.
A pair of Mercedes-Benz vans that The Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation once bestowed upon the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians will remain with the tribe, Tribal Council decided earlier this month — almost exactly one year after it originally voted to cut ties with the organization and send the vans back from whence they came.
These days, bovines — not elk — are the only cows wandering around the Ross dairy farm in Jonathan Creek.
Elk may be the most polarizing animal in Western North Carolina right now, but William Carter has kept a closer eye on the issue than most. Carter makes his living off a small mountain farm in the Jonathan Creek area, sharing a property line with the Ross dairy farm — that family’s elk-related struggles have earned them plenty of unwanted time in the local spotlight.
SEE ALSO: Two-mile fence keeps elk off dairy farm following winter shooting of seven animals
As the elk population has grown, Carter’s found himself wondering what the future holds for his acres of beans, pumpkins and cattle pasture.
It was nighttime in the White Mountains, and Steve Claxton was pretty sure he wouldn’t make it till morning. Rain was falling, and winds were ripping through his campsite at 90 miles per hour, sharpening the 40-degree temperatures like a knife. He’d known that camping above treeline was a bad idea, but an incoming storm had forced him to do it — now he was afraid it was the last thing he would ever do.
“At Mount Washington there’s a huge wall of people who died in the White Mountains, most of them in July and August and most of them from hypothermia,” Claxton said. “I really thought they were going to have to add my name to that.”
After surviving the first application process under the new wireless communication rules, Jackson County commissioners directed the planning board to look for ways to improve the ordinance.
A lawsuit seeking to declare illegal a controversial Tribal Council decision to issue its members pay raises has been dismissed in Tribal Court, according to a Sept. 1 decision from Temporary Associate Judge Sharon Barrett.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians threw its support behind the cause of the Standing Rock Sioux in North Dakota when Tribal Council voted to give $50,000 toward a legal battle to prevent construction of an oil pipeline north of Standing Rock Sioux land.
A minor adjustment to elk depredation rules brought 70 people — about 40 of them college students — out to Haywood Community College last week for a public hearing with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.
High in the Plott Balsams, there’s a swath of property riddled with panoramic views, sparking waterfalls and high-elevation solitude that was once destined for development. But more than a decade after purchasing it, America’s Homeplace has yet to build a single structure — and now the homebuilding company is offering the 912 acres at a reduced rate for long-term conservation.
“It’s a beautiful piece of property, kind of a one-of-a-kind piece,” said Stacy Buchanan, regional president for the company and a Jackson County native. “There’s not many pieces this large left in the Southern Appalachians.”
If all goes according to plan, by this time next year Jackson County will have been declared the trout capital of North Carolina, and county commissioners are already starting to talk about how to plan for the resulting increase they anticipate in angling tourism.
Dedication of a new Charters of Freedom monument in Sylva originally planned for Sept. 17 — Constitution Day — is being pushed back to allow the county more time to plan the Freedom Park area to be constructed around the monuments.
Western Carolina University saw its previous high-water mark for enrollment blasted away this year as final student counts for 2016 came in, with new records set for both total enrollment and freshman class size.
A meeting to talk about wilderness started off with a bang last week when a group of pro-wilderness folks who had showed up hopeful of putting a bug in Congressman Mark Meadows’, R-Cashiers, ear were asked to leave.
It’s not unusual for Waterrock Knob, which boasts some of the best views on the Blue Ridge Parkway, to see its parking lot test the limits as summer reaches its zenith. More people visit the Parkway than any of the 412 units in the National Park Service, and it’s hard to resist Waterrock’s high-elevation coolness and sweeping vistas when mid-year heat grips the valleys below.
When President Woodrow Wilson scrawled the signature that brought the National Park Service into being — 100 years ago, on Aug. 25, 1916 — many of the parks now integral to America’s national identity had yet to be created.
SEE ALSO: Thousands of acres added to the Parkway for Park Service centennial
There was no Great Smoky Mountains National Park, no Blue Ridge Parkway, no Appalachian Trail. No Grand Teton or Olympic or Mammoth Cave or Acadia National Park. At the time Wilson signed the Organic Act, only 35 national parks and monuments existed, with America the only country to have any.
Possessing drugs on the Qualla Boundary will get a lot more expensive following a decision this month to ratchet up fines for anyone — enrolled and non-enrolled people alike — caught with illegal substances.
Mill Street in Sylva will likely become a one-lane road in the future following a vote from the town board last week.
Harris Regional Hospital saw its tax value slashed by 36 percent in the minutes before Jackson County’s Board of Equalization Review adjourned for the year, and while its new $27.2 million value is still more than twice the $13 million the hospital had argued it was worth, it’s quite a drop from the original $42.3 million appraisal.
When her husband lost his battle with cancer, Lindey Herrington was living in a 1,800-square-foot house in Lakeland, Florida, where the couple had made their home for two-plus decades. After his death, it didn’t take her long to decide that she needed a change.
With fall classes newly underway, 420 Western Carolina University students are settling into their rooms in brand new Noble Hall, a $29.3 million building that the university just completed.
A meeting seeking feedback on an emerging plan to turn Sylva’s Pinnacle Park into a mountain biking destination drew about 70 people to the Mad Batter Food and Film last week, and after a night of fielding questions and taking comments, the folks behind the effort are feeling positive about its future.
When the Cherokee Tribal Council voted last month to investigate hiring and firing practices in tribal government, Principal Chief Patrick Lambert made clear that he intended to veto the legislation. But now, Tribal Council is saying that the vote fell outside the scope of Lambert’s veto power and refuses to submit a written document for him to veto.
As manager of Waynesville’s urban forest, it’s safe to say that Jonathan Yates likes trees. So when Diane Kornse of the Mountain View Garden Club approached him last fall to ask if the town had any project in the wings that the club could help tackle, Yates was ready with an answer.
“I said, ‘Actually, I do have an idea I’ve had for years, but it would really require something like a garden club to make it happen,’” Yates recounted.
The cadre of groups helping the U.S. Forest Service work toward a new management plan for the Pisgah-Nantahala National Forest recently got a first peek at one of the most controversial aspects of the planning process — the proposals for new wilderness designation.
“This is the first real concrete opportunity we’ve had to see what the Forest Service is thinking,” said Richard Mode of the N.C. Wildlife Federation. “I’m thrilled to have an opportunity to look at them.”
Just one year after setting up shop in Cherokee, the Fly Fishing Museum of the Southern Appalachians will be moving to Bryson City.
Wearing a leopard-print leotard and suspended 4 feet off the ground in a band of purple silk, Patricia Forgione is in her element.
After 35 straight days on the job, Jeannine Sowers is sorely in need of a spa day. The irony of it is, she’s been at the spa all month. Actually, all year.
For the past decade, Sylva’s Pinnacle Park has had Sae Smyrl envisioning a lofty future for the hiking area. A mountain biker for the past 40 years, Smyrl would walk the trail and think how great it would be to ride his bike through the 1,100-acre forest. Bikes are allowed on the existing trail, but it’s way too steep for the sport to be fun.
A plan is now afoot to make Smyrl’s dream a reality, with the Nantahala Area Southern Off Road Bicycling Association pursuing a goal to bring some 30 miles of biking trail, featuring loops of various difficulty levels, to the Fisher Creek watershed.
The greenway in Jackson County has now been fully open for a month, and use is skyrocketing on the one-mile path along the Tuckasegee River in Cullowhee. From May to July, monthly use more than doubled to 5,485 visitors — that figure is more than five times the 1,034 people who used the greenway in November 2015, the first month data was taken.
