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586 Search Results for "george ellison"
A harrowing tale of bear encounters
Published: 2013-06-12 15:05:19In the natural world there are certain experiences that rivet our attention and remain stored in our memory banks. Through the years I’ve written about my own encounters with rare plants, endangered landscapes, copperheads and timber rattlers, coyotes,...
Read MoreA chip off the ole mauler block
Published: 2013-06-12 14:47:55Just after Christmas, my wife, Elizabeth, and I were driving south in the San Luis Valley of Colorado headed for Arizona. Situated on the border with New Mexico and bounded to the east by the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the valley is one of the more beau...
Read MoreOld remedies for the toothache
Published: 2013-06-12 13:50:51As noted previously in several Back Then columns, the Cherokees and later on the white settlers here in the Blue Ridge lived close to the natural world. In many ways that lifestyle must have been exceptionally rewarding. . Most of us have to flip a switc...
Read MoreNew discoveries in Kephart presentation
Published: 2013-06-11 19:54:26A panel discussion will present recent discoveries and observations relating to legendary Western North Carolina figure Horace Kephart at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 13, in the Mountain Heritage Center at Western Carolina University. WCU’s Mae Claxton and Ge...
Read MoreAccounts of a horned serpent
Published: 2013-06-06 19:49:13I have on more than one occasion written about Uktenas, the giant horned serpents modeled on timber rattlesnakes that appear in Cherokee mythology. In doing so, I have never suggested that they are anything but symbols for the nether world of darkness, d...
Read MoreTradition of the cockfight
Published: 2013-06-06 19:15:45As most everyone knows, a cockfight is a match between two specially trained roosters traditionally held in a ring called a cockpit. The activity has a long tradition in American culture. . First the English and then the Irish brought in their favorite b...
Read MoreNeufeld’s book on Appalachia
Published: 2013-06-06 18:56:25There is a newly published collection of essays that deserves the full attention of any reader interested in this region’s history. Titled A Popular History of Western North Carolina: Mountains, Heroes, and Hootnoggers (Charleston SC: History Press, 20...
Read MoreThe storied bloodroot
Published: 2013-06-06 18:20:17Bloodroot is surely one of most widely admired wildflowers in the eastern United States. Walk now through any rocky, deciduous woodland in Western North Carolina and you’ll likely encounter the plant in all its glory. Notice how the lobes of the kidney...
Read MoreMove over harbingers
Published: 2013-06-06 18:12:34George Ellison talked about the harbingers of spring in his Feb. 28 column in The Smoky Mountain News. Well those harbingers now have lots of company. . The other day as I was bringing groceries into the house a blue flash danced in the air past my head....
Read MoreAsh bats and the boys of summer
Published: 2013-06-06 17:32:39Some essays get to their point or points right away. Others are discursive, beating around the bush before getting there. Or they may not, in fact, have a discernable point. This one, I suspect, will fall somewhere between the latter two categories. . As...
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