Ski season

Count me among those who continue to be like a kid at Christmas when it’s the beginning of ski season. It’s a freeing feeling, strapping on skis and just flying down a hill with gravity as your motor.

By Michael Beadle

When nurse Josie Ellis set out to take pictures of Hispanic migrant families several years ago, she had no intention of creating an art exhibit. It was simply an attempt to share photographs of children with their parents who could not afford cameras and rarely had their own photos.

By Jennifer Garlesky • Staff Writer

Tuckasegee community members are at ease now that the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources denied a quarry permit to Carolina Boulder and Stone.

By David Curtis

Making the rounds in teacher’s email inboxes is a story about an educator from Arkansas who taught her students an invaluable lesson on the right to an education.

By Jennifer Garlesky • Staff Writer

Restaurant patrons in Highlands will soon be able to sip on rum and coke while eating a steak or order a pitcher of beer while eating pizza now that citizens voted “yes” to an alcohol referendum.

Last Tuesday’s vote was as illuminating as any recent elections, and it should send a few good signals to those already looking ahead to 2008.

By Julia Merchant • Staff Writer

Legislation passed in the most recent session of the General Assembly calls for the restructuring of the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority Board.

By Julia Merchant • Staff Writer

The renovation of Haywood County’s historic courthouse is halfway complete, and things continue to move along smoothly — for the most part.

By Sarah Kucharski

Sunlight streams in our house’s south facing windows. The rays bring out the color in the Kiatt wood that makes up the top of the new table sitting in our dining room.

By Chris Cooper

It’s not such an odd pairing when you think about it; two voices as recognizable as these, weaving and twisting around each other, using their considerable interpretive skills on a set of songs written by the likes of Tom Waits, the Everly Brothers, Sam Phillips and Townes Van Zandt. Plant’s music, either with the band that made him part of rock’s pantheon or on his solo efforts, has often been sprinkled with early blues, 50’s rockabilly, world music and the pastoral shades that bluegrass’s traditional instrumentation (acoustic guitars, mandolin and banjo played by band mates Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones) can provide.

By Jennifer Garlesky • Staff Writer

The rural landscape of U.S. 441 heading into Cherokee is changing. Drivers can see numerous realty signs touting “land for sale” along the four-lane roadway that leads into the Qualla Boundary’s business district.

By Julia Merchant • Staff Writer

Snow is once again blowing at the Cataloochee Ski Area in Maggie Valley, marking the official start of the winter ski season in Western North Carolina.

By Julia Merchant • Staff Writer

The election of Brad Walker, Bryson City’s new mayor, is more than just a changing of the guard — it’s representative of how the tiny Swain County town has transformed in recent years from a remote location in the Smokies to a much sought-after tourist destination.

Smoky Mountain Living prominently features images from across the southern Appalachians in each edition. Photo essays adhere to the issue’s overall theme.

The next edition of Smoky Mountain Living will focus on the theme “Water.” The mountains’ ecological diversity relies on the region’s rivers, streams, lakes, and waterfalls, all fed from groundwater supplies and copious rainfall. In the Smokies, the average annual rainfall varies from approximately 55 inches in the valleys to over 85 inches on some peaks-more than anywhere else in the country except the Pacific Northwest. During wet years, over eight feet of rain falls in the high country. The relative humidity in the park during the growing season is about twice that of the Rocky Mountain region.

Send your images to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by June 21, 2013. Reader submitted photos are unpaid but those selected are rewarded with publication in our nationally distributed magazine. SML covers the southern Appalachians and celebrates the area’s environmental riches, its people, culture, music, arts, history, and special places. Each issue brings the Appalachians to life.

Published six times each year, SML is a magazine for those who want to learn more about where they live and those who want to stay in touch with where they love.

Submissions should be hi-resolution digital images and include information about where and when the photos were taken and by whom.

For more information about Smoky Mountain Living, visit smliv.com or connect at facebook.com/smliv.

Omnivore’s Dilemma

What should we eat for dinner? Do we buy organic? Do we grow our own food? Should we eat fewer carbs or curb our protein? The basic idea of what to eat now fraught with unprecedented choice and anxiety in an age of fast food convenience and a supermarket’s infinite possibilities. As the American menu has expanded, so too has its risks — cancer-causing additives, industrially processed products, genetically modified foods, calories and fat grams that steer us in and out of diets. And all the while, we lose the connection to that natural process of how animals and plants once fed us. Author Michael Pollan delivers a stunning book of how food comes to us and what our myriad of meal choices now means as the very survival of the human species. Weaving elegant prose and fabulous research, Pollan traces four meals back to their roots — from fast food to a gourmet meal — and you’ll be amazed to learn what happens to the food we normally take for granted. Pollan makes a compelling case for re-examining the political, economic and moral implications of our food choices. A must-read for the modern consumer.

Aphrodite’s Daughter

Travel across time and meet a host of powerful and daring women in this poetry collection by Winston-Salem’s Becky Gould Gibson. Inspired by stories from Greco-Roman mythology, Christianity and art through the ages, Gibson eases into self-reflection and challenges the reader to humanize feminist icons. We imagine Aphrodite ranting through an email or a 9th Century abbess giving a speech that would make William Wallace tremble. As Vikings are about to strike her monastery, Abbess Ebba cries out to her fellow nuns: “Hallowed steel, halt, hide until needed! / Mild Mother Mary, now let them come; / my sheath is stocked — keen-edged, cunning. / Watch them bleat back to their long-boats, / blood shouts, swearing: ‘This new god has / wondrous ways!’”

While delivering homages to goddesses, Gibson treads into her own pool of personal experience. We knowingly nod at the metaphor of daughters exhibited like Ming vases. During a pap smear test, we enter the most sacred orifice of a woman whose very cells flaunt themselves like Jazz Age flappers. Gibson dares us to laugh at our icons as we do ourselves. In one series of poems celebrating images of the Virgin Mary, irreverent titles abound — “Our Lady of the Cucumber” and “Our Lady of the Belt Buckle.” This collection, which won the 2006 X.J. Kennedy Poetry Prize, celebrates a keen-eyed talent in the prime of her craft. Get thee to a bookstore.

— By Michael Beadle

By Brent Martin

For those who have read Charles Frazier’s excellent Western North Carolina tale, Thirteen Moons, you will most likely remember his descriptions of the dark Nantahala Mountains and the vivid imagery associated with their empty night skies and spirit-filled forests.

By Julia Merchant • Staff Writer

If all goes as planned, Haywood County will one day be home to a 4,500-acre mega-resort that could drastically change the face of tourism in Western North Carolina — and what it means to call Haywood County home.

By Jennifer Garlesky • Staff Writer

Voters in Macon County rejected a $42.1 million bond that would have provided new funding to build new schools, leaving county officials no choice but to seek out alternative funding.

By Chris Cooper

Every so often a few releases slip beneath the radar, or at least my radar. Massachusetts based Rounder Records released a few (honestly, more than a few) fine recordings over the last year, notably those by endearingly oddball pop veterans They Might Be Giants and the disarmingly talented NY duo Dean and Britta.

By Julia Merchant • Staff Writer

It’s been more than a week since Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue raised some eyebrows with his atypical approach to getting rain to fall in the drought-ravaged state. With no rainfall in site and the lake supplying Atlanta’s water rapidly dwindling, Perdue joined 250 citizens in a last ditch effort to combat the drought — he bowed his head and prayed.

By Brent Martin • Contributing Writer

I recently met with Merritt Fouts, a multi-generational resident of Macon County, to talk about his family’s syrup making that would take place the next day. Merritt is a retired school principal and editor of the weekly e-newspaper, The Burningtown News.

By Jennifer Garlesky • Staff Writer

As Jackson County officials work to develop a plan to regulate commercial growth along U.S. 441, officials from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians say a partnership needs to be formed to ensure that the area’s economic development fits both parties’ needs.

These days Americans aren’t known for making tough choices. To the contrary, our national reputation is one of being soft. We eat too many bad foods and complain about our health, sit around way too much instead of exercising, and continue to drive gas-guzzling, huge cars when we know they damage the environment and play into the hands of foreign dictators who control the oil.

By Jennifer Garlesky & Becky Johnson • Staff Writers

An influential yet controversial figure in public policy is reclaiming a leadership post in the mountains three years after his forced departure as Haywood County’s manager.

By Julia Merchant and Becky Johnson • Staff Writers

One of the consultants involved in pulling off Cataloochee Wilderness Resorts — a 4,500 acre development supposedly coming to Haywood County — has raised some eyebrows in the community.

By Jennifer Garlesky • Staff Writer

Sylva town board member Danny Allen conceded his race against fellow board member Ray Lewis on Monday, settling the tie between the two candidates following the Nov. 6 election.

By Michael Beadle

For the longest time, Buffy Queen and John Buckley wanted to share their love of movies with other people. As avid film fans, they’d see an amazing documentary and say to themselves, “People need to see this.”

By Jennifer Garlesky • Staff Writer

Members of Jackson County Smart Roads Alliance are sifting through paperwork at the North Carolina Department of Transportation Division 14 office in Webster to find out how the Southern Loop road project suddenly appeared on the state priority list.

“And they’re hanging their stockings!” he snarled with a sneer.

“Tomorrow is Christmas! It’s practically here!”

Then he growled, with his grinch fingers nervously drumming,

“I MUST find a way to keep Christmas from coming!”

— The Grinch

Most readers will recognize where those words are from, whether or not they have read the entire poem, seen the original movie or even the remake. Most of us can imagine a scene, a personal memory of what Christmas Eve and Christmas morning was like growing up, or what it’s like watching your own kids on Christmas morning. Most of those scenes are pleasant, memories that bring a smile to your face, make your heart a little warm?

I was 22 years old in 1967. Although it’s become fashionable to downgrade the sweeping changes brought about by my generation to the meaningless antics of a bunch of spaced-out druggies and naive idealists, history confirms that we really shook things up in the 1960s. We advanced civil rights, women’s liberation, gay rights, and free speech; we became environmentally aware; we exposed and brought down the dark reign of Nixonian evil, we said no to an imbecilic war, blind conformity and government censorship. Yes we had our nut cases and, yes, we made our mistakes, but overall we made a real and positive difference. This great worldwide birth contraction was spearheaded by young people.

By Julia Merchant • Staff Writer

Looking to start your own business? You should do well in Western North Carolina. Seeking a job in traditional manufacturing? Good luck, experts say — it won’t be easy to find.

“The Santaland Diaries”

If you’re reading this, you may already be too late — get thee right now to a phone and call the Asheville Community Theater to reserve tickets for David Sedaris’ short story turned play, “The Santaland Diaries.” Sedaris’ account of a season as an elf in the Macy’s department store bears the NPR favorite’s typical caustic wit, self-deprecation and tremendous observation skills. Tom Chalmers, former Artistic Director of NYC’s Gotham City Improv/Groundlings East, stars in this one-man show. The play has sold out for the past four years — you’d think with that success they’d add a few more shows, as it only runs Dec. 14-16. Note that the show is NOT recommended for children. Tickets are $10 and can be reserved by calling, 828.254.1320.

Making a Gift List

I’m a firm believer in never getting to old to make a list of what you want for the holidays. It clears up any confusion and helps ensure warm feelings all the way around for the gift giver and those on the receiving end. And if someone says that they really don’t want anything, make a donation in their name to a local charity and present them with a card stating such.

Godiva Chocolates

I’ve been a sucker for Godiva ever since my aunt introduced me to them (note that the phrasing is not the other way around) when I was about seven years old. These days they’re much more accessible, but remain special to my heart. There are full-on Godiva stores here and there, though none local to WNC, so instead head online to www.godiva.com. There’s a holiday collection featuring everything from nothing but white chocolate, a hot cocoa sampler, Hanukkah ballotins, truffles, chocolate Santas, cordials and absurdly large gift baskets. I know that we need more holiday treats like we need a hole in the head, but personally I’ve never let that stop me.

— By Sarah Kucharski

Friends of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park appear to have hit a home run with a new license plate design sporting the image of a black bear.

Rumors have been circulating for years about the proposed mega-development in the Jonathan Creek area, the one with a thousand houses and a huge retail center that would take advantage of the area’s proximity to Interstate 40 and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Well, now that those plans are out of the bag, so to speak, the one thing people in the affected area should be reminded of is this: it’s going to take a grassroots effort that pulls out all the stops to prevent a development like this from getting under way.

By Chris Cooper

It hardly needs to be said that the banjo has taken major leaps in the hands of certain talented players over the years. It’s job as the “rhythmic glue” in traditional bluegrass continues, but has also evolved and found a unique voice in the more complex harmonies of jazz, “newgrass,” and all points in between. And the award winning playing of Tony Trischka has been a major force in taking the instrument to these new places for some 40 years or so.

By Jennifer Garlesky • Staff Writer

Kathy Sherrard and Anne Allison have dedicated their lives to educating the public about black bears.

By David Curtis

Wool socks, silk long johns, cotton turtleneck, boots, down vest, wool jacket, Gortex insulated camo gloves. Deer hunting? No, Friday night high school football in late November, expected temperature at game time — 27 degrees.

By Jennifer Garlesky • Staff Writer

Imagine having the flu and sitting in a folding chair in a crowded waiting room for five hours just to see a doctor. For those with no health insurance this is probably the best option when seeking care for minor illnesses. An office visit to a family physician could cost at least $100, and that’s not including prescription costs.

By Jennifer Garlesky • Staff Writer

Macon County commissioners spoke in favor of committing nearly $40 million to fund school construction at their meeting Nov. 26 but stopped short of taking any formal vote on the projects.

By Julia Merchant • Staff Writer

Sarge’s Animal Rescue has scrapped its plans to build a no-kill animal shelter in a location that was fiercely opposed by nearby residents.

The Haywood County non-profit originally won approval to build the shelter on Oct. 9 by asking the board of aldermen for a text amendment that would allow for animal shelters to be a permitted use in the Hall Top Road Rural District, a residential area located off Russ Avenue near K-Mart in Waynesville.

By Garret K. Woodward • Staff Writer

If Norman Rockwell ever ventured out of New England, as the crow flies, he may have found himself in downtown Waynesville.

And if Rockwell had packed a blank canvas and a rusty toolbox of untouched acrylics into his vintage station wagon, he may have painted the scene that unraveled in front of the courthouse last Friday evening.

By Garret K. Woodward • Staff writer

I had just finished my third steamed carrot when the yelling began.

It was a group of men, with faces of power and a seemingly euphoric rage. With backs to each other, their bodies pointed in every direction, chests being pounded to the point red hand marks emerged. Tongues stick out furiously in a unique and precise tribal fashion that would make even Gene Simmons question if he was doing it correctly when he was onstage.

Dr. Dan Pittillo will explore the natural history of the southern Appalachians at 7 p.m. on Aug. 2 at the Highlands Nature Center as part of the Zahner Conservation Lecture series.

In a geological discussion, Pittillo will go back to the theory of plate tectonics and consider how mountain building took place here in the southern Appalachians. Did we have peaks pushed up to 15,000 to 20,000 feet or might it have been less dramatic? He will use case studies in the Flat Laurel Gap at Pisgah, Craggy Gardens, and Panthertown Valley to get clues of how these processes have been contributing to our very biodiversity.

Dr. Andrew Methven will discuss “Highlands Fungi: The good, the bad, and the deadly” at the next lecture, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Aug. 9.

The southern Appalachian Mountains are world-renowned for an incredibly rich diversity of fleshy fungi, especially mushrooms.  This lecture will introduce participants to some of the common and unusual fungi that can be encountered on a walk through the woods in the vicinity of Highlands. Attendees are encouraged to bring mushrooms for identification before or after the lecture! 

All Zahner lectures take place at the Highlands Nature Center. www.highlandsbiological.org or call 828.526.2221.

A Farm to School project will provide food awareness and better nutrition education for students and staff at five Haywood County school while also helping local farmers.

The project — funded by a $22,000 grant from the Community Foundation and its affiliate Fund for Haywood County — is designed to address concerns about nutrition and health and the disappearance of small farms. The program supports farmers by increasing sales and diversifying markets. Students, teachers and staff at Bethel Elementary, Jonathan Valley Elementary, North Canton Elementary, Riverbend Elementary and Waynesville Middle School are taking part in the project. In addition to local healthy food served in cafeterias, the program includes farm field trips, cooking demonstrations, nutrition education and school gardens.

The project will serve about 3,000 students and staff at the five school sites, comprising nearly 40 percent of Haywood County Schools’ enrollment.

Volunteers are being sought for a workday at Cataloochee Ranch in Haywood County that will enhance the habitat for migratory birds and improve water quality.

The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) and Nature Valley are partnering with the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy to coordinate the workday, which will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 28.

The schedule of activities for the day includes:

• 8:45-9 a.m.: Volunteers arrive, sign in, waivers.

• 9:10 a.m.: Intro and welcome, recognize partners, share plan for day.

• 9:20 a.m.: Split into project groups, head to project site.

• Bird group: led by Chris and Margot.

• Trail group: led by Hanni and Allison.

• 9:30 a.m.: At worksite: work for three hours, snacks provided.

• 12:30 p.m.: Bird habitat group finishes work.

• 12:50 p.m.: Trail crew finishes work, hikes to top of Hemphill Bald.

• 1 p.m.: Catered lunch all together at top of Hemphill Bald. Informal presentation/discussion on conservation from a landowner’s perspective and what SAHC is doing in the Smokies focus area.

• 1:50 p.m.: shuttle ready to take people back to parking area.

• 2 p.m.: program officially ends

To register call 828.253.0095, ext. 212, or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 A $20,000 reward is being offered for information about the recent killing of three elk near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the Mount Sterling area of Haywood County. 

Last month, the North Carolina Wildlife Federation offered a $5,000 reward. The conservation organization has pledged up to the new amount to a person who provides information about the elk killings that directly leads to an arrest, a criminal conviction, a civil penalty assessment, or forfeiture of property by the subject or subjects responsible.



The three elk were killed around May 18, one bull with a .22 caliber firearm, a cow with a birdshot from a shotgun, and a pregnant cow with a undetermined gunshot.

“We feel strongly that this malicious and cowardly act of illegal activity has no place in North Carolina,” said Tim Gestwicki, executive director of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation. “We are upping the ante to hopefully entice anyone with information to come forth.”

The poached elk were part of a reintroduction program by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that began in 2002.  Initially, 25 elk were brought to Cataloochee Valley where the herd has grown to 140 but have now spread beyond the park boundary. People come from far and wide to view the elk, significantly supporting local tourism.



Anyone with information is encouraged to call the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission toll free wildlife violations number at 800.662.7137. Any awarded monies do not have to be made public..



While heavy rains have washed wayward trash into creeks in recent weeks, kids from Whitehouse, Tenn., helped scoured the banks of Richland Creek in Waynesville for litter as part of a summer youth project for Whitehouse First United Methodist Church.

Several all-day Space Science Labs for adults or kids will be held on various dates in late July and early August at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, led by working astronomers and engineers.

Treading lightly on the land isn’t always easy if you’re sitting on top of 1,000 pounds and four stout hooves, but backcountry horsemen in the Smokies have been learning new practices for minimizing their impact to the environment while trail riding and camping with horses.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is recruiting volunteers to help staff the visitor contact station at Clingmans Dome through Nov. 30.            

The visitor station at Clingmans Dome sits at an elevation of 6,300 feet and is a point source of information for the national park and the high elevation spruce fir ecosystem, in particular. Volunteers are needed to assist in educating visitors about the Park while also providing recreational, trip planning, and directional information.

The information center, constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps, originally served as a comfort station but was converted into a seasonal information center in 2010. It also includes a bookstore area managed by the Great Smoky Mountains Association.

“In the past, visitors to this popular destination did not have a chance to obtain information on their high elevation visit or have questions answered,” said Park Superintendent Dale Ditmanson. Volunteers will work alongside Association employees and are asked to work at least one four-hour shift per week through November. The hours will be from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Interested persons will be provided with an orientation and training before beginning at the contact station. Training is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 14.

To sign up for training, call 828.497.1906.