There’s no costumed ghouls or pre-recorded shrieks on the Friends of the Smokies’ November hike, but you will trek along a trail with a “road to nowhere,” visit a secluded cemetery and explore a dark, 365-foot tunnel.  

On Tuesday, Nov. 1, hiking enthusiast and author Danny Bernstein (Hiking North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Heritage) will lead this 9.4-mile hike along the Lakeshore Trail, often called “The Road to Nowhere.” The hike is moderate in difficulty and has a total elevation gain/descent of 1,350 feet.

Participants will depart from Waynesville at 9:15 a.m. and Bryson City at 10 a.m. Exact meeting locations specified upon registration. A donation of $25 is requested, and includes a complimentary membership to Friends of the Smokies. Donations will benefit Trails Forever, a program dedicated to trail improvement projects in the Smokies. There is no cost to current Friends of the Smokies members.

Space is limited. Contact Friends of the Smokies to register for the Road to Nowhere Hike at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 828.452.0720

Nantahala Outdoor Center has opened a retail concept shop from The North Face located inside NOC’s outfitters and retail store in Gatlinburg, Tenn.

Covering 1,000 square feet of space within NOC’s Great Outpost, the specialty shop designed and merchandised by The North Face showcases products from The North Face’s full line. Featuring gear, footwear, outerwear and apparel for hiking, camping, running, snow sports and casual, customers can shop for unique and top selling items from the popular brand.

“We are thrilled to open our doors to The North Face. They are a premium outdoor lifestyle brand in line with our mission and values. This reinforces a very dynamic retail partnership,” says NOC President and CEO Sutton Bacon.

The first Smoky Mountain Paddling Club outing will be Oct. 29 at 10 a.m. on Bear Lake in Jackson County, weather permitting. Paddlers of all ability levels are welcome. Bring appropriate clothing, craft of choice, food, water and a personal flotation device. A group will be meeting at the United Community Bank in Sylva (1640 E. Main Street) at 9 a.m. to carpool or give you someone to follow.

252.558.5122 or e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The fifth-annual Power of Pink race will be held Oct. 29 at MedWest Health and Fitness Center on the campus of MedWest-Haywood in Clyde, with a 20-mile relay, 4-mile run and fun run/walk.

The event helps raise breast cancer awareness and funds to provide breast cancer detection services and treatment for underserved women in the MedWest-Haywood hospital service area.

Power of the Pink includes The Pink Relay, an all-women relay covering 20 miles between five team members; the Pink 4-Miler Run/Walk open to male and female runners or walkers; and the Bubble Gum Fun Run/Walk, a non-competitive event.

The HRMC Foundation, Haywood County Health Department and MedWest Health System sponsor the annual event. Since 2007, Power of Pink has provided more than 530 procedures for 373 women. Last year, the event raised more than $20,000.

The goal this year is to raise $25,000 and to attract 40 teams for The Pink Relay.

Cost to enter a relay team is $200, the four-mile run for men and women is $25, and the Bubble Gum Fun Run/Walk is $10 for adults and $5 for youth 12 and under. To register, visit www.medwesthealth.org and click on the Power of Pink tab. Or 828.452-8343

As clay is to the potter and stone is to the sculptor, river cane is the vital raw material to the Cherokee basketmaker. But it’s in short supply.

The Watershed Association of the Tuckasegee River has received a grant from a Cherokee artisans group for $9,500 to locate cane stands along the river to provide a local supply source for basketmakers.

Roger Clapp, WATR director, has issued a call for volunteers to help with the river cane hunt, which will run through September 2012.

With a revival of basketmaking in Cherokee, artisans are having to travel farther and farther from home to find cane suitable for their use, said David Cozzo, director of Revitalization of Traditional Cherokee Artisan Resources, which provided the grant.

It wasn’t long ago, said Cozzo, that the art of basketmaking had gone into decline to the point that there were only two Cherokee artisans making double-weave baskets. Supply of cane wasn’t a problem.

Then the Cherokee Preservation Foundation stepped in and started basketweaving classes. A revival ensued. Now, the craft is even taught in the Cherokee High School.

“With the cultural revival, the need for river cane has increased,” said Cozzo. His group is planning a trip soon to Kentucky to harvest cane from a “really nice stand” there. And the group is working with Sumter National Forest in South Carolina to find cane there for harvesting.

Cozzo is convinced that there is river cane enough in Jackson and Swain counties to provide an adequate local source — it just needs to be located and the owners persuaded to allow the harvesting.

Volunteers or owners of rivercane stands should contact  the WATR office in Bryson City at 828.488.8418.

WATR meets Nov. 7

The fall meeting of Watershed Association of the Tuckasegee River is set for 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 7, in the atrium of the new Jackson County Library. Refreshments will be served at 6:30 p.m. Dan Perlmutter, a retired Western Carolina University professor, will discuss the proposed Watershed Activity and Discovery Science Center.

Regional water quality experts will give a state of local forests and streams report in a public forum held by the Jackson-Macon Conservation Alliance at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 27, in Highlands. Information will be presented by Jonathan McCall, registered forester with the N.C. Forest Service; Ed Williams, basinwide planner with the N.C. Division of Water Quality; and Mike Wilkins, district ranger with the Nantahala Ranger District, U.S. Forest Service.

They will discuss the challenges they face in protecting these resources along with the current and potential threats to our natural resources. They will also offer solutions to help protect these valuable natural resources for the common good. There will be time for questions and answers, and audience participation in determining solutions to address these threats and challenges.

Held at the Highlands Community Building next to the Baseball field on Fourth Street. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 828.526.0890, ext. 256.

The leaders of the two primary Great Smoky Mountains National Park partners were recently presented with the Department of Interior Citizen’s Award for Exceptional Service.  

Terry Maddox, executive director, Great Smoky Mountains Association and Jim Hart, president of the Friends of the Smokies, were recognized for their outstanding support to the Smokies and the National Park Service.

Maddox has led the GSMA since 1990. The nonprofit corporation runs bookstores in the park and markets Smokies’ interpretive products outside the park as well. Under his leadership, the Association has grown from a small book retailer to a major author and publisher of award-winning educational products including books for adults and children, field guides, maps, videos, podcasts and web-based material.

“For years our bookstores offered mostly generic guidebooks, but our publications are now tailored to tell visitors specifically when and where they can expect to find a particular wild flower, bird, or tree. We also offer vivid stories on the Park’s history and prehistory,” said Smokies superintendent Dale Ditmanson.

Hart has served as president of Friends since 2002. Under his guidance, the Friends has substantially increased the public’s awareness of the value of the park and its various threats. They have placed a strong emphasis on providing educational programs for young people who will be the stewards of the Park in coming years by funding fieldtrips and ranger programs for area schools, as well as internships for high school and college students.

Over the nine years of Hart’s tenure, Friends donations have swelled from about $1.8 million a year to over $3.5 million, supporting everything from the restoration of historic buildings to black bear preservation. The Friends have also created a new “Trails Forever” endowment which is approaching $4 million.

The two groups also worked together to fund the construction of the new Oconaluftee Visitor Center at the North Carolina entrance to the Smokies.

“The outstanding leadership provided by Terry Maddox and Jim Hart is a tremendous asset to the Park’s preservation and to the service we provide to over 9 million visitors,” Ditmanson said. “Their service stands as a vivid reminder that the public support and individual stewardship which set aside created and developed this priceless national treasure is still alive and well 75 years after the Park’s creation.”

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy is looking for great photos of people enjoying the Appalachian Trail in 2011. The conservancy is looking for images that illustrate your idea of a perfect day on the trail. Creative and unique shots are encouraged.

All entries must be submitted by email by Nov. 10. Submissions should be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. A panel of judges will select the top 20 photos. Prizes will be awarded to the top three contestants.

For more information, including rules, or questions regarding the photo contest, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 304.535.6331 ext. 134.

In recognition of National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness month, Western Carolina University will offer free confidential memory screenings on Nov. 15 at the Haywood County Office Building on Elmwood Way in Waynesville.

The purpose of the 15-minute memory screenings is to promote early detection of memory loss and to provide participants with suggestions, strategies and information about brain health.

Leigh Odom, a professor in WCU’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, will conduct screenings. Because of this program, Odom was recruited to be involved in the development of the Brain Gym, a new program co-sponsored by Haywood Community Connections & Haywood County Recreation Dept.

Reservation necessary. Call 828.452.6789.

An HIV/AIDS Awareness Walk will be held Saturday, Nov. 5 at 11 a.m. in Asheville.

Walkers will gather at The Grove House Complex at 11 Grove Street, and then move uptown to rally at Pack Square.

The mission of the free awareness walk is to bring attention to the ongoing issue of HIV/AIDS infection in Western North Carolina and to inform the public about the current funding crisis of the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which provides life-saving medications to low-income North Carolinians living with HIV/AIDS in this state.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians will build a youth center facility on approximately 20 acres of national forest land near Robbinsville.

The youth center, affiliated with the Boys and Girls Club of America, will offer a variety of programs including Cherokee Language classes, social skills development, cultural craft classes, computer labs, and physical fitness programs. The center will serve the outlying portion of the Cherokee reservation in the remote Snowbird area of Graham County.

The 15,000 square-foot building will meet LEED green building certification and will including a multi-purpose field and an interpretive hiking trail. The youth center will be constructed directly across from the N.C. Forest Service Graham County Office on Massey Branch Road.

The state’s oldest metal truss bridge will be replaced with a new, $1.7-million bridge built beside the old one.

The truss bridge, which was constructed in 1891, is located over the Pigeon River on Chambers Farm Lane near the intersection of U.S. 276 and N.C. 215 in Haywood County.

A new bridge will be built adjacent to the existing bridge. The existing bridge will be rehabilitated and will remain in service as a bicycle and pedestrian-only bridge.

The rehabilitation work will include sandblasting and repainting the truss structure and replacing components. The bridge will additionally be fitted with taller railings to safely accommodate bicycles and pedestrians. The State Historic Preservation Office and NCDOT’s Historic Architecture Group will be consulted to ensure the original style of the bridge is maintained.

The contract was awarded to R.E. Burns & Sons Co. of Statesville. Work can begin as early as Oct. 31 and is scheduled for completion by Aug. 15, 2013.

More than 300 people packed a public hearing last week to debate whether Mission Hospital in Asheville is an overbearing monopoly and is unfairly squeezing out smaller hospitals in the region.

Doctors, hospital leaders and patients from across Western North Carolina gave passionate speeches in hopes of swaying a state committee investigating the issue.

At issue: whether anti-trust regulations limiting Mission’s influence should be tighter, or done away with.

“Mission must have the freedom to serve. It must have the freedom to compete for patients,” said Ron Paulus, the CEO of Mission. “It means letting patients and physicians choose where they go, who to align with, and letting performance on quality determine the winners and losers, not government regulation.”

But opponents portrayed Mission as a predator and bully, gobbling up smaller hospitals and buying doctors’ practices to funnel more and more patients to its mothership in Asheville, weakening the availability of health care in people’s home communities around the mountains.

“Mission success is inversely proportional to the success of the region’s smaller hospitals,” said Jason Wells, vice president of Park Ridge hospital in Hendersonville.

“When Mission gains market share, someone else has to lose market share.”

An HIV/AIDS Awareness Walk will be held Saturday, Nov. 5 at 11 a.m. in Asheville.

Walkers will gather at The Grove House Complex at 11 Grove Street, and then move uptown to rally at Pack Square.

County Commissioner David Gantt, local writer and poet Dennis Tillman and longtime HIV/AIDS activist Michael Harney are slated to speak.

The mission of the free awareness walk is to bring attention to the ongoing issue of HIV/AIDS infection in Western North Carolina and to inform the public about the current funding crisis of the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which provides life-saving medications to low-income North Carolinians living with HIV/AIDS in this state.

Palliative Care and Hospice Services of MedWest Health System will hold a series of training classes for new volunteers Oct. 31 through Nov. 3 in Sylva.

The 12-hour series will acquaint volunteers with the Hospice philosophy and program. Sessions run from 9 a.m. to noon daily, at the Jackson County Public Library. Pre-registration is required.

Volunteer opportunities include: patient and family support, companionship visits, respite care for caregivers, errand running, bereavement support, chaplain-related and other professional services, office assistance, fundraising and community events planning.

828.452.8578 to pre-register.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians will build a youth center facility on approximately 20 acres of national forest land near Robbinsville.

The youth center, affiliated with the Boys and Girls Club of America, will offer a variety of programs including Cherokee Language classes, social skills development, cultural craft classes, computer labs, and physical fitness programs. The center will serve the outlying portion of the Cherokee reservation in the remote Snowbird area of Graham County.

The 15,000 square-foot building will meet LEED green building certification and will including a multi-purpose field and an interpretive hiking trail. The youth center will be constructed directly across from the N.C. Forest Service Graham County Office on Massey Branch Road.

Carolina Readiness Supply will have a Customer Appreciation Day at their new location, 72 Montgomery Street in Waynesville, just below the Main Street Sun Trust Bank on Oct. 29 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.  

There will be book signings by three local authors: Larry Porter, True Globalization; Mike McCarthy, The Noah Option; and Patrick McConnell, Government of Deceit.

Fire-starting without matches classes will be taught by Doug Knight. Other topics include water pumps that will work if your electricity goes out and sanitation and waste disposal in a disaster.

828.456.5310.

Inspired by a Global Poverty Project presentation on campus, the president of Western Carolina University’s Student Government Association and the wife of Chancellor David O. Belcher will eat on just $1.50 per day for five days.

To help raise awareness of global poverty, student TJ Eaves and Susan Brummell Belcher will participate in the Live Below the Line campaign beginning Monday, Oct. 24. Belcher and Eaves acknowledge the challenges ahead.

“It will be a pretty interesting week because I am a fairly picky eater,” Eaves said. Belcher said she’d have to explore whether coffee with cream will fit in her budget.

“If not, I’ll struggle with that one,” she said.  

Participating in the challenge is a natural fit for Belcher, who after her husband’s appointment as new WCU chancellor designated herself a “WCU friend-raiser” and pledged to “wholeheartedly engage with students, faculty, staff, donors, alumni, community members and other constituent parties to create broad support for the WCU mission.”

For WCU students who wish to participate in the challenge, Aramark, WCU’s food service provider, will host a station in the upper level of the Courtyard Dining Hall with foods and portions that comply with the Live Below the Line initiative for breakfast, lunch and dinner on Thursday, Oct. 27.

While Belcher and Eaves have initiated the project primarily to raise awareness, Belcher does have a goal to raise money for CARE, a humanitarian organization fighting poverty in more than 70 countries around the world. Anyone interested in sponsoring them or joining their effort, including community members, can visit WCU’s Live Below the Line page online (http://my.e2rm.com/TeamPage.aspx?teamID=262576). Updates on the effort will be available on the WCU Poverty Project Facebook page.

Western Carolina University Chancellor David O. Belcher this week fired C. Joseph “Chip” Smith, the director of intercollegiate athletics.

Belcher announced that Fredrick Q. Cantler, WCU’s longtime senior associate athletic director for internal operations, has agreed to come out of retirement to serve as interim director of athletics.

Cantler, who retired in March after 33 years in athletics administration at WCU, will serve as interim director of athletics as the university conducts a national search for a permanent athletics director, Belcher said.

“With Fred’s wealth of experience, including a previous stint as interim AD, I have the greatest confidence in his ability to keep the athletics program moving forward during this time of transition,” he said. “Fred brings extensive knowledge of athletics budgeting and NCAA compliance issues to this assignment, and I am grateful to him for his willingness to assume this responsibility.”

During his career as a sports administrator, Cantler helped develop the Catamount women’s soccer program from scratch in 1999. Two years later in 2001, the program captured the first of its three Southern Conference tournament championships. Also, the Catamount baseball team won both the regular season and tournament titles in 2003 and won the regular season in 2007, advancing to the NCAA regional tournaments.

There’s a move afoot in Sylva to designate some of the downtown area as a national historic district.

A study, expected to take about six months to complete, will help determine whether and which parts of town have enough historic aspects to qualify. First Citizens Bank is bankrolling the study.

Paige Roberson, executive director of the Downtown Sylva Association and the town’s economic planner, said the information gathered in the study would be shared with business owners. If 51 percent want to move forward and form a historic district, the issue would then come before Sylva town commissioners for a formal vote.

Individual homeowners can opt to have their houses included if historic standards are met.

“Sylva should be a pretty good candidate for a historic district,” Roberson said.

There are benefits to receiving such a designation, said Paul Benson, planning director for the town of Waynesville. Waynesville has three districts on the National Register: Frog Level, approved in 2002; Main Street, approved in 2009; and an expansion of the Main Street district to include nearby residential streets in 2010.

Benson said simply documenting historic buildings in town as part of the application process has proved valuable in and of itself.  

“The Waynesville Historic Preservation Commission used this information in their walking tour publication,” Benson said. Property in the historic districts also have special protection from road widening, for example.

Benson said the primary benefit will “hopefully be the long term preservation of historic buildings and the character and quality of life they bring to the community.”

Canton also has an approved National Historic District.

Business owners with buildings included in a district can get a 40 percent tax credit to help pay for renovations, Roberson said. The designation does not limit what they can do with their buildings.

“Building owners can do anything they want,” she said, emphasizing the tax credit given for following historic standards is optional.

— By Quintin Ellison

Casey Cooper, chief executive officer for Cherokee Indian Hospital, will deliver Western Carolina University’s annual public lecture on Indian health at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2.

Cooper will address the topic “The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians: Issues in Health” in a talk scheduled for the A.K. Hinds University Center theater.

The event is made possible through a $3,000 gift from Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and Hotel to Western Carolina’s College of Health and Human Sciences to sponsor a public lecture series on Native American health issues offered through the university’s Culturally Based Native Health Program.

Established in 2006, the Culturally Based Native Health Program, or CBNHP, provides health professionals with an opportunity to acquire knowledge about Cherokee culture and other Native American cultures that might help them in treating patients.

The program’s lecture series is designed to help inform the public of issues that affect the health and wellbeing of Native peoples and to be of interest to those who work in rural communities in Southern Appalachia with other underserved populations.

828.227.2164 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Homeward Bound, a foster care/adoption awareness event coordinated by the Haywood County Department of Social Services and Western North Carolina foster care agencies, will be held from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 5, at Long’s Chapel United Methodist Church.

The event is designed to provide information on how to become a foster and/or adoptive parent and to share information on Haywood County children who need placement with a family.

DSS currently has 96 children in foster care. Jones estimates that 40 percent of the children placed in foster care each year are placed in homes outside of Haywood County. The event will allow interested persons to learn more about how the process works and to talk to families who have fostered.

Homeward Bound will take place in the Long’s Chapel Fellowship Hall. The church is located at 175 Old Clyde Highway in Clyde. Admission and parking is free.

828.356.2367 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The final day to donate “Coats for Kids” through the Cullowhee United Methodist Church and Cullowhee Valley Elementary School is Monday, Oct. 31.

Donations of good-condition used or new warm clothing, hats, gloves, shoes and coats can be dropped off at sponsoring locations.

Underwear and sock donations should be new and in original packaging (in sizes newborn-18 or XS- XL).

“Coats for Kids” Distribution Day will be Saturday, Nov. 5, at Cullowhee United Methodist Church from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. Parents or guardians will need to be physically present with their children in order to receive items.

Monetary gifts can be sent to Cullowhee United Methodist Church, PO Box 1267, Cullowhee, NC 28723. Please write on the memo line: “Coats for Kids.”

The Smoky Mountain Brass Quintet will perform a free concert Tuesday, Nov. 1, in the recital hall of the Coulter Building at Western Carolina University.

The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m.

Members of SMBQ, the quintet in residence at WCU, are P. Bradley Ulrich and David Ginn, trumpets; Travis Bennett, horn; Dan Cherry, trombone; and Michael Schallock, tuba.

The program also will feature fellow faculty soloists John West, Will Peebles and Pavel Wlosok. West will perform “Blues Concerto for Alto Sax and Brass Quintet” by Holcombe. Peebles will be the bassoon soloist on Burrill Phillips’ “Concert Piece,” arranged by Ulrich. Wlosok, jazz piano, will be joining the SMBQ on his “Jazz Miniatures for Brass Quintet.”

828.227.7242.

The Overlook Theatre Company will present the “Wizard of Oz” Nov. 3-6 at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday performances will be at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday’s performance will be at 2:30 p.m. Ticket prices start at $10 each.

This production of the “Wizard of Oz” will include 95 cast and crew members bringing the classic MGM film to life in a two-act production complete with songs from the Oscar-winning musical score.

This production of Wizard of Oz is sponsored by Watson Contracting of 201 Sloan Road, inFranklin.  Watson Contracting is a privately-owned business serving the construction and architectural needs of Western North Carolina and surrounding areas.

www.greatmountainmusic.com or 866.273.4615.

The Cherokee Rodders are hosting the popular “Cruise the Smokies” Rod Run Nov. 4-6 at the Acquoni Expo Center (the old Cherokee High School).

This is the largest show and shine in the area for hundreds of classic and customized pre-1981 cars and trucks. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Travel & Promotion Department, Harrah’s Cherokee Casino, Smoky Mountain Chevrolet, GT Graphics, and ET Motorgear are the major sponsors.

All cars, either for show or sale, will be parked on the grounds of the center. Spectator parking will be available in surrounding areas around the Center. Gates will open at 8 a.m. for both cars and spectators. Daily spectator entrance fee is $5 with children 10 and under free.

Registration is $40 per car and provides unlimited entrance to the show for two people (children 10 and under are free); a dash plaque and button; chicken dinner on Friday night; poker walk on Saturday; poker cruise on Friday; a chance to win door prizes, cash drawings, and trophies. New this year are the “Trivia,” “Blind Driver,” and the “Loudest Muffler” competitions with prizes. Event shirts will be available for purchase.

Visit www.cherokeerodders.com or call 828.497.2603 to register or for more information.

Two award-winning, classically trained artists — guitarist Brad Richter and cellist Viktor Uzur — will perform this weekend at the Jackson and Macon libraries.

The Arizona Daily Star describes the duo’s original music as “straddling the divide of pop and classical music in a way that seems so natural, you wonder why someone had never thought of it before.” The programs will feature a set of their popular mash-ups and an exciting arrangement of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” among others.

Richter is the former U.S. National Finger-Picking Champion and has won numerous prizes for performing and composing. Uzur is former principal cellist and soloist with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra and is a prize winner at many competitions.

The duo will perform at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 28 at the Jackson County Library. The performance at the Macon County Library is at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 30.

The Low Tech Ensemble will perform at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3, in the Coulter Building recital hall on the campus of Western Carolina University.

The Low Tech Ensemble plays gamelan music from the Central Javanese tradition and by contemporary composers. A gamelan is an orchestra of tuned percussion instruments that consists mainly of gongs, zithers and xylophones. The concert will feature several traditional pieces as well as a performance of an arrangement by Will Peebles, director of the WCU School of Music.

Joy Shea, also a WCU music faculty member, instructs the ensemble. A resident of Jakarta, Indonesia, for 12 years, Shea has studied and played gamelan with some of the foremost instructors in the United States.

Admission to the concert is free and open to the public.

For more information about the concert, contact the WCU School of Music at 828-227-7242. To learn more about the Low Tech Ensemble, contact Shea at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Western Carolina University Percussion Ensemble, under the direction of Mario Gaetano, will perform in concert at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2, in the recital hall of Coulter Building. The concert is free and open to the public.

The ensemble performs compositions specifically written for percussion instruments, such as drums, timpani, xylophones and marimbas. The ensemble is made up of 13 of Gaetano’s undergraduate percussion students.

The concert will include “Stratus” by Chris Crockarell, “Sacrificial Rite” by David Gillingham, “Ceremonium” by Jared Spears and Symphony, Op. 34 by Armand Russell. Also on the program is Gaetano’s “Fiesta Del Rio.”

The concert will feature traditional African drumming selections.

828.227.7242.

A talented lineup of potters is coming to Dillsboro for the seventh annual Western North Carolina Pottery Festival on Nov. 4-5.

The juried festival showcases 45 master potters hailing from 17 states.

Elmer Taylor of Denton, Texas, is this year’s featured artist. Taylor is the Regents’ Professor of Art at the University of North Texas and has a summer studio in the Sun Valley region of Idaho. Early in his career, Taylor trained in England under Bernard Leach, considered the father of the modern functional pottery movement.

Taylor’s appearance speaks to the quality of ceramic artists who frequent the WNC Pottery Festival on an annual basis.

“What started as a local pottery event has blossomed into a national show featuring some of the best potters in America,” said festival organizer Joe Frank McKee of Dillsboro’s Tree House Pottery. “These artists love our show because of the fall scenery, the great customers who come year after year, and the hospitality of everybody in Western North Carolina.”

The main portion of the festival is Saturday, with potters manning their booths along Front Street and demonstrations on-going throughout the day. All festival attendees receive a ticket for a day-long raffle, while a silent auction has been added this year to benefit a local organization that provides meals to needy families.

Pre-festival excitement takes place Friday from 1-5 p.m. with the third annual WNC Clay Olympics competition, featuring a field of 20 potters from the festival. Also Friday is the firing of the wood-fired kiln, plus the opportunity to buy pottery tools and equipment at discount prices from Shimpo Ceramics of Chicago. Stone Mountain Clay and Glaze of Tucker, Ga., will also be on hand Friday selling clay and glaze products.

Saturday’s festival hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine. Admission is $3 per person, with children under the age of 12 admitted free.

“Festival attendees get to buy incredible works and see wonderful demonstrations all day long,” McKee said. “And they’re surrounded by the fall foliage of the Great Smoky Mountains.”

For festival info call 828.6315100 or visit www.wncpotteryfestival.com. For lodging information call the Jackson County Visitors Center at 800.962.1911.

A two-hour workshop in mixed media techniques will be taught at Leapin’ Frog Gallery on Friday, Nov. 4, by local artist Silvia Cabrera Williams.

Attention will be given to the elements and principles of art incorporating several mixed media techniques using gesso. The workshop is from 1-3 p.m. and cost of $25.

A recent mixed media piece of Williams has been juried into the 25th International Show of the North West Pastel Society in Tacoma, Wash. The show will be held at the oldest gallery in the Northwest by the oldest fine art company in the country, the American ART Company.

Call 828.456.8441 today to reserve your space for the workshop at Leapin’ Frog Gallery at 58 Commerce St. in th Frog Level area of Waynesville.

Artist and gallery owner Peggy Duncan has 31 of her paintings in pastel, acrylic, oil and mixed media on exhibit at Swain County Center for the Arts through Nov. 10. The “Fleeting Images” exhibit includes a retrospect of Duncan’s work from impressionistic pastels and low country landscapes to textural mixed media paintings on shaped wood panels.

There will be a reception for Duncan on Saturday, Oct. 29, in the lobby of Swain County Center for the Arts immediately following a concert of blues, zydeco, rock and jazz by Gas House Mouse at 7 p.m.  

Sponsored by the North Carolina Arts Council, Swain County Center for the Arts and Swain County Schools, the public is invited to both the concert and the reception free of charge.  

Duncan moved to Bryson City in 2006 to pursue her own painting full time and to open The Artists’ House Studio & Gallery in her house. She displays and sells artwork by a variety of 2-D and 3-D local, regional and national artists, including her own pastel, oil and acrylic paintings. The Artists’ House Studio & Gallery is located at 40 Victorian Drive in Bryson City.

Duncan’s artwork has been accepted in more than 40 regional and national juried shows since the early 1980s.  Her painting, “Pretty in Purple,” is one of only 24 pastels selected out of a total of 77 entries to show in the Appalachian Pastel Society Juried Show to be held Oct. 14 to Nov. 23 at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts.

828.488.7843.

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

The next issue of Smoky Mountain Living will focus on all things home. Appropriate photos would include hometown scenes, animal homes, feeling at home, homemade things, and whatever else evokes the spirit of home.

Reader submitted photos are unpaid but those selected are rewarded with publication in the 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. Email photos to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by Oct. 21.

This winter Smoky Mountain Living is celebrating the home. Help share the joys of home by telling about your hometown in 300 words or less.

Some questions to consider as you think about writing are: What was it like growing up in your hometown? What are your favorite memories? What does it feel like to be home? What gave/gives the town a sense of place? Why did you leave or did you? Would you live in your hometown again or do you live there now? What's one thing you would tell any visitor to your hometown to make sure to do?

Submissions must include a picture of the writer (current or, even better, in the hometown) as well as full name, current address, hometown name, email and phone number.

Submissions should be by those who grew up in the Southern Appalachian region or are now living in the Southern Appalachian region.

Send your submission to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by Oct. 24.

Public comment will be taken on a proposed 17.4 percent rate hike by Duke Energy at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 26, at the Macon County courthouse.

Commercial customers’ rates would increase by 14 percent.

Aside from general disdain of larger monthly power bills, the proposed rate hike has raised the hackles of environmentalists. Duke is hoisting the cost of building a new coal power plant onto its customers. Environmentalists have questioned the need for the new coal plant, instead calling for renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy conservation.

“The proposed hikes will place a burden on the public in an effort to build more generating capacity when such capacity is not necessary,” said Ken Brown, a member of WNC Alliance environmental organization in Jackson County.

The N.C. Utility Commission must OK the rate hike. It is holding public hearings across the state, including the one in Franklin.

A meeting called Green Drinks was held recently in Franklin, and helped prep talking points for opponents to use at the public hearing.

“We feel a large public turnout is needed to keep the decision-making process balanced,” said Bill Crawford, an organizer of Green Drinks.

Green Drinks is a monthly social gathering of conservationists, providing a forum and outlet for the environmental community to discuss issues and share concerns. It was patterned after a long-standing Green Drinks event in Asheville.

Anyone is welcome. 828. 524.2280 or 828.349.3067.

The Alliance for Saving Threatened Forests is hosting a one-day symposium, from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., about host resistance research to the hemlock and balsam woolly adelgids.

The conference will take place Oct. 26 at the Haywood County Cooperative Extension Center, across from the Mountain Research Station in Waynesville.

There are several objectives, including bringing together scientists who are researching adelgid resistance to explain their work in layman’s terms.

The symposium is sponsored by the Friends of the Smokies, the N.C. Nursery and Landscape Association, and the N.C. Christmas Tree Association. A barbecue lunch will be provided.

www.threatenedforests.org or contact Erin Mester, ASTF development officer,

Department of Entomology, Grinnells Laboratories, Campus Box 7626, Raleigh, N.C. 27695-7626, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Learn from experts about the rich American Indian history of Cherokee and Clay counties at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 25, at the Hiwassee Valley Pool and Wellness Center in Murphy.

Lance Greene and T.J. Holland will speak.  

Greene received his PhD in anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, under an advisory committee that included Brett Riggs. He has worked as an archaeologist for 25 years, mostly in the Southeast. He works as a historical archaeologist with a focus on life in the Southern Appalachians during the 19th century. His recent research focuses on how and why members of traditional Cherokee communities avoided forced removal in the 1830s.  Greene’s dissertation is based on findings from research on the historic Welch Farm near Andrews, a portion of which was conserved by the Hiwassee-Valley Land Trust earlier this year.

T.J. Holland is director of the Junaluska Museum in Robbinsville and an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. He holds a degree in fine arts from Western Carolina University and is an expert on the mative settlement histories of the Hiwassee, Valley and Cheoah river valleys.

The forum is sponsored by the Junaluska Museum and the local conservation groups Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition and Hiwassee-Valley Land Trust and is a project of the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee.

The Hiwassee Valley Pool and Wellness Center is located at 695 Conahetta Street, across from Konehete Park near downtown Murphy. www.cherokeeheritagetrails.org/robbinsville_places.html

The second annual Rooted in the Mountains symposium at Western Carolina University will be held Thursday, Oct. 20, and Friday, Oct. 21, in the Grandroom of the A.K. Hinds University Center.

The Rooted in the Mountains event was created to raise awareness of the intersection of environmental, health and indigenous issues related to mountain destruction.

Dennis Martinez (Tohono O’odham/Chicano), a “bio pioneer” and advocate for an indigenous perspective of ecology, will speak at 6 p.m. Thursday. Sheila Kay Adams, a longtime storyteller and performer of traditional Appalachian ballads, will lead a musical performance beginning at 7:30 p.m. Also Thursday, the documentary film “The Last Mountain” will show at 4 p.m. in the University Center theater. The screening is free. “The Last Mountain” explores the consequences of mining and burning coal and focuses in particular on the use of a method for strip-mining in Appalachia commonly known as mountaintop removal mining.

Cultural historian Jeff Biggers will start Friday’s session with a 9 a.m. keynote address. Biggers, a coal miner’s grandson and outspoken critic of mountaintop removal in Appalachia, is the author of nonfiction works Reckoning at Eagle Creek, The United States of Appalachia and In the Sierra Madre. The symposium also includes a Thursday reception, Friday lunch, academic presentations and a facilitated discussion.

The symposium registration fee is $125 (free to students, with an optional $10 charge for lunch). The Biggers address, part of WCU’s Art and Cultural Events Series, is free to all.

Rooted in the Mountains sponsors include WCU’s Division of Educational Outreach, Mountain Heritage Center and Cherokee studies program. Community sponsors include the Center for Native Health, Watershed Association of the Tuckasegee River, the Canary Coalition, the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee and the Tuckaseegee Community Alliance.

To register go to rootedinthemtns.wcu.edu or call 828.227.7397.

A fall party will be held at Haywood’s Historic Farmers Market on Saturday, Oct. 22, from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m.

There will be “campfire cuisine with Lu Dodson, a National Park Service ranger, who also will emphasize bear awareness techniques.

Lorraine Conard, a Waynesville singer-songwriter, will perform in the Music Tent, and the Haywood County Amateur Radio Club plan a ham-radio setup at the market.

www.waynesvillefarmersmarket.com

A farm equipment auction will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 22, at the Haywood County Fairgrounds on NC 209.

On the auction block will be a variety of tractors and tractor equipment, a trailer, hay, hand tools and more.

From Interstate 40, take Exit 24. Go south on N.C. 209. The fairgrounds are approximately 3.5 miles on the left. 828.593.9649

Bryson City Bicycles is in search of gently used bikes to be tuned and donated to kids in need.

The bike shop will again support the Swain County Family Resource Center with a Christmas Cheer Program by fixing up these used bicycles and donating them to the center to be distributed to families in need.

Gently used adult or youth bikes, bikes that have been outgrown, or bikes in decent condition that might need tuning or new parts can be dropped off at Bryson City Bicycles. The bike shop will tune the donated bikes, replace parts, and make sure the bicycles are safe before handing them over to the Family Resource Center for distribution.

Last year Bryson City Bicycles provided 15 refurbished bikes to the Family Resource Center. Bryson City Bicycles is accepting bicycles now through Dec. 15. Bryson City Bicycles is located at 157 Everett St. in downtown Bryson City.

828.488.1988 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Haywood Community College Timbersports Team finished in first place in the John G. Palmer Intercollegiate Woodsmen’s Meet and Forest Festival Day held at the Cradle of Forestry. The team competed against Montgomery Community College, North Carolina State University, Penn State Mont Alto, and Virginia Tech.

A nature walk by The Land Trust for the Little Tennessee will be held Friday, Oct. 21, at Tessentee Bottomland Preserve in Macon County just south of Franklin.

The walk will feature different types of forest stands, historic farmhouse and silo and stands of rivercane. Tessentee Bottomland Preserve is stop No. 53 on the N.C. Birding Trail, with the preserve’s bird list at 116 species and it’s butterfly list at 43 species and counting.

Jason Love, LTLT board member and site manager for Coweeta Long Term Ecological Research, will lead the hike.

To get to Tessentee Bottomland from Franklin; take the Georgia Road (U.S. 23/441) south for approximately 5.2 miles, turn left onto Riverside Roadd and follow for 0.5 miles, turn right onto Hickory Knoll Road and follow for approximately 1.9 miles — the preserve is located off a private drive (2249 Hickory Knoll Road) on the right side of the road; parking area is on the left, before the farm gate.

For directions from other locations and to RSVP, contact Jill Wiggins at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 828.524.2711 x209.

LTLT acquired the original 64-acre tract of bottomland and river bluff land at the junction of Tessentee Creek and the Little Tennessee River in November 1999. The conservation project was made possible by grants from the NC Clean Water Management Trust Fund, The Lyndhurst Foundation and significant donations from LTLT supporters. The parcel was the first land protected on the free-flowing Little Tennessee and now, 12 years later, in 30 different land protection projects, more than 20,000 acres and 35 miles of river frontage have been conserved. In December 2009, a bargain sale by Margaret Parks, in honor of her late husband, James (Jim) Parks Jr., allowed LTLT to add another 5.6 acres to its Tessentee Bottomland Preserve. Parks sold the property to LTLT for less than one-half of its market value and financed one-half of the purchase price to allow LTLT time to raise funds for the project.  For more information about the conservation and restoration projects of LTLT, visit www.ltlt.org.

The Wilderness Society’s Brent Martin will lead the final presentation in the “Gardening for Wildlife” series of lectures at 7 p.m. on Oct. 21 at the Rickman Store in Macon County.

Martin, the southeast representative for the Wilderness Society, will lead a program called “Hug a Bug! Love a Bee! Save a Tree!” which focuses on putting a value on nature’s free services. Martin will discuss how nature’s gifts are undervalued but vital to the health and sustainability of the planet, and most importantly how individuals can work to protect natural systems in our own neighborhoods.

Songwriter Angela Faye Martin will accompany Martin’s talk with some “wild” strumming and songs.  

This is the third year of the Gardening Series organized by the Friends of the Rickman Store. All gardeners who have received “Backyard Wildlife Habitat” certification from the National Wildlife Federation are invited to attend and be recognized with congratulations.

828.349.5201.

Come hike the 8,600-acre Waynesville Watershed property at the head of Allens Creek in Haywood County, which is normally off-limits to all public access.

The last hike of the year there is set for Saturday, Oct. 29, at 9 a.m. It will be led by naturalist Don Hendershot, Peter Bates of Western Carolina University and naturalists from Balsam Mountain Trust.

The hike will be between three and five miles long across moderately strenuous terrain. Hikers should bring their own lunch, water, appropriate (warm) clothing, hat, rain gear, and wear sturdy shoes. Birders should bring their binoculars. The group will leave from the Waynesville Water Plant and return by 2 p.m.

The hike is being co-organized by the Town and Balsam Mountain Trust, the nonprofit environmental education and research arm of Balsam Mountain Preserve.

Advanced registration is required and can be done online at www.townofwaynesville.org, or 828.452.2491.

Learn how to cook wild game outdoors in a class from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Oct. 22 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education.

Topics will include equipment, preparation and cooking techniques best suited for the outdoors and wild game. Instructors will share their best recipes and participants will be able to sample the dishes.  

Space is limited and pre-registration is required. The center is near Brevard off U.S. 276 next to the Davidson River. The class is free.

828.877.4423 or www.ncwildlife.org.

Earlier this month the fourth-grade classes from Cartoogechaye Elementary School hiked 4 miles on the Appalachian Trail from Wayah Crest picnic area to Siler Bald. The Nantahala Hiking Club led the hike as part of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s Trail to Every Classroom outreach program to local schools. The school’s physical education department uses the hike to demonstrate hiking as a life long, healthy living activity.

Western Carolina University faculty and students from the athletic training program finished the fourth annual Mountain Jug Run for Research in record time, completing the 175-mile relay run from Cullowhee to Boone in 29 hours, 11 minutes and 54 seconds.

The fundraising effort began early Friday afternoon, Oct. 7, from WCU’s E.J. Whitmire Stadium and ended at the Appalachian State University football stadium just after 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8. This year’s contingent of 15 WCU runners beat the previous low time of 29 hours, 53 minutes and 53 seconds recorded by last year’s group, said James Scifers, director of WCU’s School of Health Sciences.

Named in honor of “The Battle for the Old Mountain Jug,” the annual football rivalry game between WCU and ASU, the relay is organized to raise funds for the National Athletic Trainers’ Association’s Research and Education Foundation, which awards research grants and academic scholarships in the field of sports medicine.

The relay course took the runners 15 miles to the Blue Ridge Parkway at Balsam, and then the group followed the parkway north for 152 miles before exiting the scenic highway and running the final 7 miles into Boone.

The running contingent this year included Scifers and three other faculty members – Ashley Long, Rob Dingle and Emily Martin – plus 11 students: senior Kayla Jones, juniors Josh Edwards, Wes Bell, Alessa Lennon, Mikko Ablan and Carlos Acuna; sophomores Sarah McNamara, Aaron Marshall, Brittany Wiley and Michael Evans; and freshman Taylor Parker.

Donations will be accepted until the end of WCU’s fall semester and may be made in the form of checks, made payable to the NATA-REF, and sent to Jill Manners in 134 Moore Hall at WCU.

City Lights’ “Coffee with the Poet” series continues at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 20 with local artist and author Terry Michelson.

Michelson will be reading from her three recent collections, Psalms, Wolven and Sonnets. Her paintings will also be on display at City Lights Bookstore in celebration of the third annual Colorfest arts festival. See her demonstrate her pastel technique on Saturday, Oct. 22.

Coffee with the Poet event is every third Thursday and is co-sponsored by NetWest.

828.586.9499.