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The woodcock — secretive, rotund and acrobatic
Published: 2018-03-07 16:37:51While walking stream banks or low-lying wetlands, you have perhaps had the memorable experience of flushing a woodcock — that secretive, rotund, popeyed, little bird with an exceedingly long down-pointing bill that explodes from underfoot and zigzags a...
Read MoreColorful reminders of long-ago homesteads
Published: 2018-02-21 16:43:14A chimney standing all alone where a fire burned a house down long ago … a crumbling stone wall overgrown with tangles of vines … a flattened area on a slope above a creek or abandoned roadbed … all are likely locations for a dwelling or outbuildin...
Read MoreOne of the Smokies’ finest poets
Published: 2018-02-07 15:50:30Editor’s note: This Back Then column by George Ellison first appeared in the Feb. 15, 2012, edition of The Smoky Mountain News. Olive Tilford Dargan is fairly well known in literary circles as the author of From My Highest Hill (1941), a delightful col...
Read MoreDid the southeastern Native Americans take scalps?
Published: 2018-01-24 16:24:25(Editor’s Note: Readers should be cautioned that several of the descriptions of scalping and related practices presented in this column are graphic.) When I was a boy, incidents of scalping by Native Americans were a staple in the old-time movies about...
Read MoreGerman utopian wanted a community in Cherokee
Published: 2017-12-27 15:18:38Note: This is the second of a two-part series about Christian Priber, an utopian socialist whose beliefs — including free love — caused him in the mid-1730s to “flee” from Germany and eventually into the Southern Appalachians, where he intended w...
Read MoreA German idealist sought refuge among the Cherokee
Published: 2017-12-13 16:08:37Christianus Gottlieb Priber was born in Zittau, Germany, where he was the son of a beerhouse owner. In October 1722, Priber’s Doctor of Jurisprudence thesis (written in Latin) was published at Erfurt University in Erfurt, Germany, after which he return...
Read MoreBlue jays arouse mixed feelings among humans
Published: 2017-11-29 15:44:49Everyone knows what a blue jay looks and sounds like in a general sort of way. Their incandescent blue plumage and raucous “thief! thief! thief!” calls are a vibrant part of everyday life. It is a stunningly beautiful bird with a bag full of attitude...
Read MoreCherokee used toxins to stun fish
Published: 2017-11-15 16:36:31People sometimes wonder if the prehistoric Cherokees used any sort of poisons on their blowgun darts. These darts (slivers of black locust, hickory, or white oak) were from 10 to 20 inches long with thistledown tied at one end to form an air seal in the ...
Read MoreThe quandary that is book shelving
Published: 2017-11-02 13:42:02The books have once again piled up in stacks up to three feet high in many corners of the house. It’s time to get organized. Easier said than done. Un-shelving and reorganizing and re-shelving books is tricky business, with multiple options that can be...
Read MoreHigh-elevation overlooks are awe-inspiring
Published: 2017-10-18 15:26:47High-elevation overlooks are one of our finest natural resources. These vantage points allow us to rise above our everyday humdrum existence and see the world with fresh eyes. Many of the finest overlooks along the Blue Ridge Parkway, in the Great Smokie...
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