TAR HEEL JUNIOR HISTORIAN
THE STATE HISTORY JOURNAL FOR INQUIRING STUDENTS
Spring 1 991 Volume 30, Number 2
TAR HEEL JUNIOR HISTORIAN
THE STATE HISTORY JOURNAL FOR INQUIRING STUDENTS
Spring 1991 Volume 30, Number 2
State of North Carolina
James G. Martin, Governor
Department of Cultural Resources
Patric Dorsey, Secretary
Division of Archives and History
William S. Price, Jr., Director
Lawrence G. Misenheimer, Assistant Director
Museum of History
John D. Ellington, Administrator
Wesley Creel, Assistant Administrator
Research Branch
R. Jackson Marshall III, Curator of Research
Tar Heel Junior Historian Staff
John Lee Bumgarner, Editor, Designer
Ursula G. Glass, Editorial Assistant
Melissa Johnson, Contributing Editor
Sam Anthony, Photograph Researcher
Susan Fender, Illustrator
Education Branch
Janice Williams. Curator of Education
Tar Heel Junior Historian Association
Doris McLean Bates, Executive Secretary
Tar Heel Junior Historian Association
Publications Advisory Board
Faye L. Freeman, Carolyn Grubbs, Terry Holt,
Lynn Lye, Terry Shive
Managing Editors
Ron Holland and Harley Jolley
THE PURPOSE of the Tar Heel Junior Historian
magazine (ISSN 0496-8913) is to present the
history of North Carolina for this state's young
people through a well-balanced selection of
scholarly articles, photographs, and illustrations.
It is published two times per year by the Tar Heel
Junior Historian Association, North Carolina
Museum of History, 109 East Jones Street,
Raleigh. North Carolina 27601-2807. Copies are
provided free to association members, along with
the association newsletter, Crossroads. Individual
and library subscriptions may be purchased at the
rate of $3.00 per year. © Copyright 1 991 , North
Carolina Division of Archives and History.
EDITORIAL POLICY: The Tar Heel Junior
Historian solicits manuscripts from expert
scholars for each issue. Articles are selected for
publication by the editor in consultation with the
managing editors and other experts. The editor
reserves the right to make changes in articles
accepted for publication but will consult the author
should substantive questions arise. Published
articles do not necessarily represent the views of
the N.C. Museum of History, the Division of
Archives and History, the Department of Cultural
Resources, or of any other state agency. Student
articles are welcomed. Guidelines for student
articles are listed in the "Advisers' Supplement."
THE TEXT of this journal is available on magnetic
recording tape from the Library for the Blind and
Physically Handicapped. For information call
1 -800-662-7726. EIGHT THOUSAND copies
were produced at an approximate cost of
$7290.00 or $.91 per copy
CONTENTS
1 Introduction: "The Land of the Sky"
Ron Holland and Harley Jolley
2 Living with the Mountains
Betty Jolley
6 The Pisgah Culture: Ancestor of the Cherokees
David Moore
9 The Cherokees: This Land Is Our Land!
Duane King
14 Mountain Folklife: A Blend
Joan Moser
19 Folklife by Hand: Handmade Is Best Made
Bob Conway
22 Tourism: On the Road!
Hugh M. Morton
26 Asheville: The City that Grew Up
Around Its Square
Mitzi S. Tessier
30 The Federal Presence: A Big Deal
Jim Ryan and Ron Holland
33 On Top of Old Smoky: Creating
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Ed Trout
36 First in Forestry
John Palmer
39 Mining: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Leonard Wiener
45 Meet the Authors
45 Acknowledgments
r^M^lj |PRINTED with
l^lSOYINK
Introduction: "The Land of the Sky"
by Ron Holland and Harley Jolley
Morethan 1 00 years ago,
Tar Heel novelist Christian
Reid described the
mountains of western North Caro-lina
as "The Land of the Sky."
Over the years, this description
has gained wide popularity. Today,
"The Land of the Sky" continues to
provide unique scenic beauty. It
also provides recreational oppor-tunities
as well as economic,
social, and cultural benefits.
The North Carolina high country
is a land of peaks and valleys hid-den
in summer's morning mist. It
is a land where autumn's brilliant
colors give way to the beauty of
winter. It is a land where spring
bursts forth with flame azalea,
mountain laurel, and rhododendron.
The mountains were the home-land
of the Cherokee Indians and
other ancient cultures before Euro-peans
came to America. Over the
years the history of the Indians and
the settlers mixed to create a rich
cultural heritage. And today,
some 650,000 North Carolinians
call the mountains home.
The mountains of western North
Carolina comprise about twelve
percent (6,000 square miles) of the
state (49,067 square miles).
There are over forty peaks higher
than 6,000 feet and another eighty
peaks between 5,000 and 6,000
feet. Mount Mitchell, at 6,684 feet,
is the highest point in the eastern
United States.
In the thirty-mile drive from
Asheville to Mount Mitchell, the
visitor can see changes in
vegetation and climate that one
could experience in a drive from
North Carolina to Canada. There
is also great diversity of animal life
in the mountains, including bear,
wild boar, deer, turkey, and
bobcat. The higher elevations
provide mild temperatures in the
summer and temperatures cold
enough to make snow skiing
possible in the winter. Because of
these and other features, tourism
is the leading industry. It brings
millions of dollars each year to the
region's economy.
These mountains are the home
of the Cradle of Forestry in
America, where the nation's first
forestry school was established in
the late 1800s. Today, about
1 ,500,000 acres of land are being
managed by state and federal
agencies as well as by private and
commercial interests.
It might be said also that the
North Carolina mountain region is
the cradle of traditional crafts.
Self-sufficient mountaineers
passed down their skills from
generation to generation. Today,
many of these traditional crafts
continue to survive.
The region abounds in rocks
and minerals—more than 300
varieties have been documented.
These range from semiprecious
stones, such as emeralds, rubies,
and aquamarines, to commercial
feldspar.
We invite you to explore the
mountains in this issue of the Tar
Heel Junior Historian. We hope
you will be able to experience this
region firsthand on a future
vacation.
Living with the mountains
by Betty Jolley
Almost everyone in North
Carolina knows that the
Tar Heel State has three
geographic regions: the coastal
plain, the piedmont, and the
mountains. The coastal plain is
flat, with sandy and loamy soils
covered in farmland or pine
forests. The coastal plain meets
the piedmont at the fall line.
Here, the land becomes hilly
and increases in elevation to-wards
the west. Population is
dense in the piedmont, and it
is more highly urbanized than
either the coastal plain or the
mountain regions.
The mountains
The mountain region is a part
of a larger mountain chain, the
Appalachians. This chain
extends from central Alabama,
through parts of New England,
and into Canada. One part of
this chain, the southern Appala-chian
highlands, extends from
Virginia through North Carolina
into Georgia.
Cutting through these moun-tains
is the Eastern Continental
Divide. Rain and snow falling
west of this imaginary line
Graphic not to scale Elevations of North Carolina's regions
Continental Divide
Mt. Mitchell,
6,684 ft.
Piedmont
mountain
ranges
Fall line Atlantic
Ocean
Mountain region Piedmont region Coastal plain region
2
reaches creeks and rivers that
flow into the Gulf of Mexico.
Whatever falls east of the divide
flows downstream into the
Atlantic Ocean.
Several mountain ranges
make up the North Carolina
portion of the Appalachians. One
notable range is the Black Moun-tains.
These mountains reach
their greatest height at Mount
Mitchell. At 6,684 feet, it is the
highest point east of the Missis-sippi
River.
Within North Carolina over forty
peaks are higher than 6,000 feet.
Eighty peaks are between 5,000
and 6,000 feet. Other ranges in
the North Carolina Appalachians
are the Great Smoky Mountains,
Unaka Mountains, Newfound
Mountains, Pisgah Mountains,
Cowee Mountains, Balsam Moun-tains,
Nantahala Mountains, Valley
River Mountains, and the Snow-bird
Mountains.
How the mountains
affected life
The earliest settlers in these
mountains moved into the region
about 10,000 years ago. They
were the native Americans, the
Indians. They had moved east
and south across the country until
they reached the Appalachian
Mountains.
Europeans moved to this
area during the late 1 600s and
the 1700s. They came from two
directions. The English came
west through North Carolina's
piedmont from the coastal plain.
The Scotch-Irish and Germans
traveled from northern states
down the Great Wagon Road
through Virginia.
This mountain area with its
rugged terrain was difficult and
challenging for the new settlers.
It remained an isolated area
because it was difficult to build
roads through or around high,
rocky mountains. Most travel took
place on paths and rough roads
along streams and rivers. Isolation
due to the lack of good roads
made European settlers self-sufficient
and independent.
Despite isolation, the European
colonists and later generations
from the 1 700s through the 1 900s
were able to make a living. Most
lived in the valleys along the rivers.
They found plenty of wildlife and a
great variety of plants for food,
medicine, and clothing. They also
found vast forests for grazing
animals and supplying lumber for
houses and furnishings. The land
was fairly fertile. Each family had
at least a few acres of land to farm.
As other settlers moved into the
region, more and more people
farmed for a living. When the best
land was used up, more land was
needed. But there was none left to
go around. Many people from the
Appalachian region then moved
3
4
through gaps in the mountains to
other states in search of more and
better land. This trend continued
well into the 1900s.
Because of isolation, a distinc-tive
Appalachian culture devel-oped.
It became different from
culture in other regions of the
state. It was a blend of Cherokee,
European, and African cultures.
Today, the lifestyle of the Appala-chian
mountaineer reflects that
historical cultural heritage.
Modern changes
The mountains no longer isolate
people from the rest of the world.
Many changes have come to the
region. Where once there were
only dirt roads, many paved
Native Americans and early settlers traveled on
footpaths and primitive roads through valleys
and beside rivers. Early railroads were also
built through the same valleys and along the
same rivers (Top, left). Today in the mountains,
railroads and highways often follow old paths
and roads (Top. right). What allows modern
road builders to construct roads on or through
the sides of mountains (Bottom) ?
highways have been built. Where
once families worked and children
studied by the lamplight, electricity
has been installed with all its
modern conveniences. The
telephone and television have
allowed the voices of the world to
become a part of the modern
Appalachian scene.
Definitions
Coastal plain rivers are deep and wide. In the early
days of water transportation, small boats could travel
upstream to the fall line. It is located on the boundary
of the coastal plain and the piedmont. There, the
piedmont rivers become narrow, rocky, shallow, and
rapid. Beyond this point, it is difficult for boats to
travel upstream.
Urbanized means to become more like a city.
5
The Pisgah culture:
ancestor of the Cherokees
by David Moore
Thesouthern mountains
were home to native
Americans long before
Europeans explored the New
World in the 1 500s. These native
Americans practiced a way of life
that was in harmony with all living
things. Their lives were rich with
tradition and ritual. But they did
not possess a written language.
Instead, their history was told in
stories and myths. If their history
was told and not written, how have
we learned about the history of
these prehistoric people?
Archaeologists have provided
some of the answers.
Archaeological investigations
show that these Indians lived in
villages scattered along the river
valleys of the southern Appala-chian
Mountains. They had settled
there for at least 500 years before
Europeans arrived. Archaeologists
call these early people the Pisgah
culture. They were the ancestors
of the Cherokee.
Between 1 000 and 1 500, these
Cherokee ancestors lived in
palisaded towns and villages.
Most of their villages were located
in what are now Haywood and
Buncombe counties. Others were
located throughout the mountains
of North Carolina and eastern
Tennessee.
6
The Pisgah people were both
farmers and hunters. They used
the rich, valley soils to grow their
crops. Corn was the most impor-tant
plant grown. Boiled corn and
ground cornmeal were basic to the
Pisgah diet. Beans and gourds
were also grown. Pisgah people
grew tobacco, which they smoked
in clay or stone pipes. They also
grew sunflowers and other plants.
In the forest they gathered hickory
nuts, walnuts, acorns, and other
nuts. Other wild plants served as
foods and medicines.
Every member of Pisgah society
helped to produce food. Women
tended the farm fields and gath-ered
nuts and wild plants. Men
hunted animals. Deer provided
most of the meat and were often
hunted by lame groups in the fall.
The leaders of Pisgah society
were priests and chiefs. Priests
performed sacred rituals to
ensure the well-being of the
people and the harmony of their
world. Many everyday activities
like farming, hunting, and playing
games were usually accompanied
by rituals. Chiefs directed political
and economic activities such as
trade and war.
Earthen mounds were con-structed
at some large Pisgah
towns. The mounds were made
of dirt and were four-sided with
flattops. A ramp or log stairway
led to the council houses or
temples built at the top. Here the
chief and his priests carried out
important ceremonies. The local
chief and priests were more
powerful in towns with mounds
than leaders of surrounding towns.
Archaeologists have carefully
excavated Pisgah village sites like
the Warren Wilson site in Bun-combe
County and the Cane River
School site in Yancey County.
These sites have provided archae-ologists
with much information
about Pisgah people. Pisgah
villages ranged in size from one to
Archaeologists found pieces of this pot (Previous page) in a trash pit at the Cane River school site. They rebuilt it. It is about eleven-inches tall, and it
was made and used between 1200 and 1400. How many years ago was it used? Pisgahs used pots like this for cooking or for food storage. How
difficult would it be for you to make a pot like this ? How would you do it? What would it be like to cook food in it over a fire ? These are artifacts (Above)
from the Cane River School Pisgah site . An artifact is anything made and used by people. The artifacts on the top row are gaming disks made from
broken pots. Gaming disks were used as counters in games. How hard do you think it would be to make these disks from pieces of a broken pot? How
do you think the artifacts on the bottom row were used by the Pisgah people ?
7
Archaeologists often find plant materials and animal bones when they excavate a Pisgah village.
What do these things tell archaeologists about Pisgah foodways ?
HI
more than five acres. The vil-lages
were usually surrounded by
a protective palisade. Pisgah
houses were square, about twenty
feet on each side, with grass- or
bark-covered roofs. House walls
were made much like the pali-sade.
Inside the house a central
hearth was used for cooking.
Smoke from the cooking fire
escaped through a hole at the top
of the roof.
Definitions
Pisgah people used the houses
for cooking, storage, and sleeping.
Other activities took place outside
of the house. Villagers dug large
pits in the ground for smoking
deer hides or roasting meats. To
butcher animals for food, they
used stone knives and scrapers.
Bone needles and awls were
used to sew garments from the
skins. They dug other pits to store
cured meats, nuts, and other
foods. When no longer needed,
these pits were filled with gar-bage.
Women made pottery for cook-ing
and storing foods and liquids.
The pots were decorated with
fancy rims. Their surfaces were
marked with patterns pressed
onto the clay with carved wooden
paddles. Some of the pots
were nearly two-feet wide and
two-feet tall.
Village life also included death.
Important rituals were part of
burial. The dead person was
usually wrapped in a flexed or
fetal position. Then they were
buried inside or just outside of
their house. Some were buried
with shell jewelry or other
objects. These showed how
important certain people were in
the community.
Sometime during the 1 500s, the
Pisgah people moved. They left
the central mountain region for the
far western counties of North
Carolina. Archaeologists are
unsure why they moved. That is
one question archaeology cannot
yet answer.
Tradition is beliefs, opinions, customs, stories,
etc. Tradition is the way things are done,
accepted by the people of a community. Tradi-tion,
knowledge, and behavior in all parts of life
combine to make a culture for a group of people.
A ritual is a ceremony, like a school graduation or
an awards presentation. Sacred rituals are holy
or religious ceremonies, such as church services.
Archaeologists study the remains—artifacts, plant
materials, graves, pits, animal materials—of past
human activities. Their work is called archaeology.
When they excavate a site, they carefully remove
layers of soil and photograph, draw, map, and
measure everything at the site.
Archaeologists use Prehistoric Period to refer to
people who lived or events that occurred before the
use of a written record. They use Historic Period to
refer to events that occurred after the use of a written
record. In the southern mountains, the Historic
Period is generally considered to begin in the 1 500s
after Spanish explorers met Indians and wrote about
them.
A palisaded village has a palisade around it. A
palisade is fence of large, strong posts surrounding
a village. Pisgah village palisades had sticks and
branches woven between the posts and were
packed with mud.
An awl is a tool used to punch holes in leather.
8
The Cherokees: this land is our land!
by Duane King
Spanish explorers first met
the Cherokee Indians in
1540. At that time, the
Cherokees occupied the southern
Appalachian mountains. Avery
large wilderness separated them
from their neighbors. That land
was used for hunting and covered
40,000 square miles in parts of
what are North Carolina, South
Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia,
Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia,
and Alabama. But their homeland
consisted of what is now eastern
Tennessee, southwestern North
Carolina, northwestern South
Carolina, and northern Georgia.
The story of the Cherokees after
they met Hernando de Soto's
explorers in 1 540 is their struggle
to keep European colonists from
taking their land.
Contact with colonists,
late 1600s
After 1 540 there was no recorded
contact between Cherokee and
European until the late 1 600s.
By then, European explorers and
traders were moving in the
Cherokee territory. The struggle
for land began.
In 1 684 the Cherokees made
their first treaty with Europeans.
Representatives from the lower
towns of Toxawa and Keowa
signed it in Charleston, South
Carolina. In 1693 another
delegation from the lower towns
met in Charleston. This time they
asked for guns to use in their wars
against the Esaw, Savannah, and
Congaree Indians.
Trading and treaties with
colonists, early 1700s
By the early 1 700s, the Chero-kees
and European colonists
developed a thriving deerskin
trade. More than 50,000 hides
were sold through Charleston
annually. In exchange for deer-skins,
the Cherokees received
trade goods—guns, ammunition,
knives, axes, garden tools,
beads, clothing, and rum. Of
the trade goods, guns were the
most important. With the guns,
the Cherokees could better
defend their hunting grounds
and settlements from their
Indian neighbors.
The Cherokees got their guns
and became more powerful. They
fought wars against their Indian
neighbors. They forced the
Tuscarora from North Carolina and
the Yuchi and the Shawnee from
Tennessee. 1 During this period,
the Cherokees spoke of war as
their "beloved profession." For the
Cherokee, war was very important.
Traditionally, young men gained
status in Cherokee society during
war. They had to show courage
and valor in warfare.
Sir Francis Nicholson, the
English royal governor of South
Carolina, tried to simplify relations
between colonists and Cherokees.
He created the title "Emperor of
the Cherokee Nation." Thirty-seven
Cherokee chiefs met with
Nicholson at Charleston in 1 721
.
They agreed to accept the radical
idea of a leader for all the
Cherokees. They also agreed to
give away some of their land in
South Carolina to European
colonists. This was the first time
—
but it would not be the last—the
Cherokees would give up land
to whites.
Competing groups in the
Cherokee, early to mid-1 700s
In 1 725 Colonel George Chicken
visited the Cherokee town of
Tunnissee. It was the home—or
capital—of the Cherokee emperor.
On April 3, 1 730, Sir Alexander
Cuming arranged for the election
of a new emperor. His name was
Moytoy, from Great Tellico.
1 Note: North Carolina was an English royal colony from 1 729 until 1 776. It consisted of present-day North Carolina and Tennessee. In 1 796 Tennessee
became a state.
Cherokee settlements, 1700s
Tellico
River
Overhill or
Western
Cherokee
Settlements
Little Tennessee River
Oconaluftee River
Hiwassee
River
Map not to scale
Cheowa .'
River ."
Nantahala River
Tuckaseegee
River
\ Middle
<—r Cherokee
: Settlements
North Carolina
Savannah River
Lower
Cherokee
Settlements
Moytoy was killed in battle in
1741. He was a member of the
Tellico-Hiwassee coalition. His
supporters wanted another
member of their Tellico-Hiwassee
group to be emperor. They did
not want to give up their political
power and prestige. The Tellico
council was able to get the
British to make Ammonscossitee
the new emperor. He was the
son of Moytoy.
In 1 751 the colony of South
Carolina placed an embargo on
Cherokee trade goods. There had
been problems between the
Cherokees and traders, and the
Cherokee were fighting with the
Creek Indians. In 1752 Emperor
Ammonscossitee traveled to
Virginia to find another source of
trade goods. He was
unsuccessful. But false rumors
started before he returned. The
rumors were that he had sold the
northern hunting grounds.
Ammonscossitee lost the support
of his own council.
Throughout this period, the
Chota council competed with the
Tellico-Hiwassee coalition. Its
members wanted to be the leaders
of the Cherokees. Cherokees
argued more and more as the
Tellico-Hiwassee coalition grew
weaker. The coalition could not
lead the Cherokee. So, the
governor of South Carolina turned
to the Chota council for leaders.
In 1753 South Carolina's royal
governor named the Chota chief
as emperor.
Settlers called the new emperor
Old Hop. He served until his death
in 1760. He was powerful because
he had strong supporters on his
council. They included
Attakullakulla, the best-known
Cherokee diplomat in the 1 700s;
Oconastota, a warrior and head
of the military organization;
Ostenaco, a former member of the
Tellico-Hiwassee coalition; Long
Jack, from Fanasi; and Cheulah,
from Settico.
Fighting during the French
and Indian War, 1756-1761
The French and Indian War began
in 1 756. The Cherokees had
signed a treaty with the British
in 1730. Under that treaty the
Cherokees would support the
British. The British colonies called
on the Cherokees to fight the
French and their Indian allies.
The Cherokees did not want to
send warriors to the Virginia
frontier because their homes
would be unprotected. They would
send warriors if the British
protected their vulnerable
settlements. The Chota council
urged the Virginia and South
Carolina colonies to build forts in
the overhill country in Tennessee.
The colonies agreed. The Virginia
fort was built across the
Tennessee River from Chota.
South Carolina's Fort Loudoun
was built upstream from the mouth
of the Tellico River. The
Cherokees sent several hundred
w
warriors to fight. The Cherokees
served with valor, and a number
were killed in battle.
But everything did not go well.
The warriors were away from
home for a long time. They had
fought but had not received
payment promised by the British.
Some returning Cherokee
veterans were killed by Virginia
frontiersmen. The Cherokees felt
betrayed and were angry. They
retaliated—got even—by attacking
settlers in North Carolina and
South Carolina. They attacked
as far east as Fort Dobbs near
Statesville in present-day Iredell
County. And they attacked
present-day Forsyth and
Stokes counties.
The British sent an army against
the Cherokees. In June, 1760,
Colonel Archibald Montgomery
destroyed the lower towns in
South Carolina. Two months later
the Cherokees surrounded Fort
Loudoun. The people in the fort
were forced to surrender. About
two dozen soldiers were killed. In
1761 Lieutenant Colonel James
Grant and 2,800 soldiers burned
the fifteen middle towns in North
Carolina. After this fighting ended,
an uneasy truce lasted for more
than ten years.
Fighting again, 1776-1794
In 1 776 Cherokee war parties
attacked white settlements in
upper east Tennessee. The
Cherokees were fighting on the
side of the British. Abram and his
warriors attacked Fort Caswell on
the Watauga River, near present-day
Elizabethton. The Raven of
Chota led warriors against the
isolated farms in the Carter's
Valley area, and Dragging Canoe
attacked the Holston River settlers
near present-day Kingsport. But in
the fall of 1 776, Virginia frontiers-men
destroyed most of the Chero-kee
settlements on the Little Ten-nessee
River. They burned the
towns of Mialaquo and Tuskeegee.
Because of the fighting,
Dragging Canoe wanted to
abandon the towns along the Little
Tennessee River. He wanted to
start new towns on the Hiwassee
River, farther from whites. The
older Cherokee chiefs did not want
to be part of the fight. They hoped
to remain neutral during the
American Revolution (1776-
1781). The chiefs wanted to
rebuild the towns on the Little
Tennessee. They did so without
Dragging Canoe. He and his
followers of 600-700 families
started new settlements along
Chickamauga Creek near
Chattanooga, Tennessee.
In 1780 and 1 781 , frontiers-men
burned the towns along the
Little Tennessee. They were
retaliating for raids by Dragging
Canoe's warriors.
Cherokee towns, 1700s
Tunisee
Tommotley
Tuskeegee
\
Great
Tellico
/ / Settico
Chota
Tallassee
Little Tennessee River
Oconaluftee River
Tuckaseegee
Great
Hiwassee
Cheowa
Hiwassee
Nantahala River
Tuckaseegee River
North Carolina
Hiwassee River
Savannah River
Tunisee
Keowa Map not to scale
11
By 1 784 Chota had only thirty
houses. But it was still one of the
largest towns in the Little
Tennessee River Valley. In June,
1 788, Chief Old Tassel, Old Abram
from Chilhowie village, and his son
were killed at Chilhowie. The
Cherokee capital was moved from
Chota to Oostanauli, Georgia.
Cherokees continued to leave the
Little Tennessee River Valley.
Losing more land to white
settlers, 1794-early 1880s
Cherokees and whites stopped
fighting in 1794. Cherokees had
hoped to protect their land against
white settlers. But they could not.
More white settlers crossed the
mountains and moved into
Cherokee territory. Many
Cherokees moved south and west
into Georgia and Alabama. By
1 799 only five houses remained
at Chota. Most of the fields were
overgrown in the towns on the
Little Tennessee River. In 1819
the land on which these towns
were located was given to
the whites.
The "Trail of Tears,"
1838-1839
White pressure for Cherokee land
increased. In 1835 a small group
of Cherokees signed away the last
Cherokee land east of the
Mississippi River. From 1838 to
1839, most of the Cherokee
people were forcefully removed
from their land. They were taken
to the Indian Territory, now the
state of Oklahoma.
The United States government
tried to remove all Cherokees. But
more than 1 ,000 managed to stay
de Soto
encounters
Cherokee
7540
Traders
began
entering
Cherokee
land
1660
Cherokee timeline, 1540-1840
1684 Cherokees sign treaty in
Charleston
European
settlers began
moving into
Cherokee land
Royal
governor
appoints
Cherokee
emperor
early
1720s
Cherokees force out
Tuscarora, Shawnee, Yuchi
1740-
1753
Tellico-Hiwasee coalition
leads Cherokees until Chota
council becomes more
powerful and begins to lead
Cherokees
French and
Indian War
1756-
1761
Cherokees aid
British in war
Returning Cherokee warriors
killed by Virginians; Cherokees
retaliate by attacking white
settlements
American
Revolution
1776-1781
1776-
1794
Cherokees
attack white
settlements;
settlers
retaliate
Cherokees leave parts of
Cherokee territory destroyed
by whites
1 780s-early
1800s
Cherokees lose much land to
whites; Cherokees leave towns
and move to other areas
1838-1839
1840
Cherokees removed to
Oklahoma ("Trail of Tears")
12
Cherokee and white settlements during fighting,
1776-1794 Carter's Valley -
Holston River settlements'
Holston River
Virginia fort \
Tellico River.
.Fort
Caswell
Watauga
River
Middle
Tuckaseegee River Cherokee
Settlements
North Carolina
Savannah River Keowa River Map not to scale
in the east. Most of these were in
North Carolina. The rugged
mountains and friendly whites
provided a safe haven for many
Cherokees who did not wish to
leave their homes.
Today, more than 9,500
descendants of those Cherokees
still live in North Carolina. Most
reside on the Qualla Boundary
—
comprised of 56,000 acres of land
in five western counties. No one
can take that land from them now.
The land was placed in federal
trust in 1 924 to ensure that this
tiny fraction of their once vast
territory will always remain in
Cherokee possession.
Definitions
A treaty is a formal, written agreement. It is
approved and signed by the representatives of
groups of people.
At the time of European contact, the Cherokees
spoke three dialects. A dialect is a form of speech
spoken in a certain area by a certain group of
people. People in each of the three major
geographical divisions of Cherokee settlements
spoke a different dialect. The lower dialect—Elati
—
was spoken in the lower settlements along the
Keowa, Tugaloo, and the Savannah rivers in what
are now northwestern South Carolina and
northeastern Georgia. The middle dialect
—
Kituhwa—was spoken in the middle settlements on
the Oconaluftee, Tuckaseegee, Nantahala, and
Little Tennessee rivers in western North Carolina.
The western or overhill dialect—Otali—was spoken
in western or overhill towns of what is modern-day
east Tennessee and in the towns along the Hiwassee
and Cheowa rivers in North Carolina.
A coalition is a union, combination, or alliance of
people for a special purpose, usually for politics or
war. A council is a group of people elected or
appointed to make laws or to rule or manage a town.
A government can slow down or stop trade of another
nation or group of people by embargo. It stops
trading with that group of people or prevents others
from buying or from selling goods to them.
13
Mountain folklife: a blend
by Joan Moser
All cultures, at all times, in all
parts of our world maintain
vital, living traditions.
These traditions are passed on to
future generations by word of
mouth. These word-of-mouth, or
oral, traditions are called folklore.
Folklore requires a spoken
language. Older generations use
that language to tell the next ones
these important traditions. When
traditions are combined and
passed by this spoken language to
future generations, they are
continuing folklife.
Do the people in the North
Carolina mountains have
folklife and folklore?
Yes. A distinct folklife has devel-oped
in western North Carolina.
This folklife blends the traditions of
native American, European, and
African cultures. Mountain folklore
is many things. It is stories, songs
and dances, humorous anecdotes,
riddles, and other things passed by
word of mouth. Craftmaking is part
of folklife. Crafts might be necessi-ties
such as quilts, woven cover-lets,
baskets, pottery, and log
buildings. Folklife in the North
Carolina mountains also includes
traditional foodways. Foodways
are recipes for preparing and
cooking food and drink, types of
foods eaten, and tools and utensils
used to cook or serve food.
Earliest folklife was
native American
Mountain folklife began with the
earliest cultures—the native
Americans. They may have lived
here as early as 1 0,000 years ago.
No oral folklore traditions survive
to tell us about them. But many
stone artifacts such as spears,
axes, scrapers, and celts remain.
Those objects tell us what oral
traditions cannot.
Archaeologists have uncovered
evidence of early mountain folklife.
This was the folklife of the Pisgah
culture, and it was alive as early as
1 ,000 years ago. IntheSwan-nanoa
River valley, just east of
Asheville in Buncombe County,
archaeologists have discovered
the remains of a Pisgah village.
No spoken language remains of
these early mountaineers. But
many details of their lives do.
There are graves in which they
buried their dead with ceremonial
objects, such as pottery and neck-laces
made of animal teeth and
14
Cherokees relied on
plants for some foods.
One wild food
resource was the
"Indian turnip. "
It is
also known as the
"jack in the pulpit"
(Arisaema triphyllum).
The bulblike roots of
the plants were baked
to reduce the spicy
taste and were eaten
like onions.
Cherokees also relied
on plants for
medicine. They
taught European
settlers what they
knew.
sea shells. The method of burial
suggests a traditional folk belief
in a life after death. In addition,
archaeologists have found many
stone artifacts. The artifacts
include grinding stones for corn
and arrow points and spearheads
for hunting. These artifacts tell
how these people gathered food
and how they prepared it.
Archaeologists have found
evidence of houses. Soil samples
tell archaeologists about the
housesthey lived in. The Pisgah
people had a tradition of building
houses using upright, wooden
poles. The patterns of the house
posts remain in the ground. They
also know that Pisgahs placed
hearths inside for heating
and cooking.
Archaeologists also know more
about their foodways by their
garbage. Near their houses, they
placed piles of trash in pits
—
discarded animal bones, seeds,
and other plant materials. These
piles tell us what they ate. [See
David Moore's article on the
Pisgah culture in this issue.—Ed.]
Cherokees shared their
folklife: food and medicine
The Cherokee Indians developed
a distinctive culture like the Pis-gahs.
We have much more
evidence of their folklife because
their descendants continue to
live in western North Carolina.
Many live within the Qualla
Boundary in Swain, Haywood,
and Jackson counties.
Cherokee folklife contributed
to the survival of the early Euro-pean
settlers in the 1700s. Pio-neers
traveled to America from
Great Britain and the European
continent. All of these early
European colonists depended
heavily on the Cherokees. The
native Americans introduced them
to corn, beans, and squash.
They also showed them how to
hunt and to preserve food. The
Cherokees taught the settlers
how to gather, dry, and store wild
fruits, roots, nuts, and herbs for
use during the cold winters.
Cherokees not only passed
on folklore about food but also
about medicine. Europeans and
Cherokees in the 1 700s had one
thing in common: they both de-pended
on plants for medicine.
The colonists came to the New
World assuming that there would
be plants for medicine. So they
had to rely on the native Ameri-cans
to tell them which plants
provided medicine.
European settlers
brought their folklife
European settlers brought their
own folklife and folklore with
them to America. They brought
their crafts and knowledge of
how to make them and tools and
knowledge of how to use them.
From Great Britain, the Scotch-
Irish brought looms, weaving,
and needlework traditions. The
French Huguenots weaved and
developed a sturdy cloth known
as linsey-woolsey.
The Germans brought tools,
such as the broad axe, froe, draw
knife, and shave horse. They
introduced these to other settlers
for the building of log cabins and
barns. In Britain many of the major
forests had already been cut down
for buildings and firewood. So
the Scotch-Irish, Welsh, and
English who came from there to
the North Carolina mountains were
not used to building with wood.
They were used to building with
stone. But the Germans had
learned to conserve their forests
and brought along techniques for
building with wood.
The Appalachian stories, songs,
and dances that are part of today's
mountain heritage were brought by
15
these European groups. These
stories include hero tales from
Europe. And many of the longer
narrative songs called "ballads"
also came from Europe. But
European settlers changed folk-lore
to reflect their new environ-ment.
For example, what should
have been a European king's
palace in "Jack Tales" was
changed to a frontiersman's large,
log cabin.
Dance music reflects other
cultures as well. Mountaineers
continue to play old bagpipe tunes
like "Bonaparte's Retreat" on
fiddles. German dance music
tradition is preserved in tunes such
as "Buffalo Gals." The Germans
also brought a stringed instrument
that was held on the lap. It was
played with the fingers and a
goose feather. Today that instru-ment
is known as the Appalachian
Ginseng: the marvelous
little magician
When the earliest European
settlers moved into the mountains,
Cherokees knew the uses of
almost 400 different plants, trees,
and shrubs. European botanists
and explorers Andre Michaux and
William Bartram visited native
American villages throughout the
southeast. They collected plant
specimens for the private gardens
of European kings and wealthy
private citizens in such cities as
Boston, Massachusetts, and
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The most famous plant col-lected
was ginseng (Panax quin-quefolium).
This plant had been
used in China as a cure-all for
over five thousand years. During
the 1 700s, it was an important
agricultural product shipped from
the American colonies.
And today the root of this plant
is still prized. Mountain families
gather it for use in folk medicine.
Sometimes it is sliced and
chewed. Traditional recipes are
still followed for ginseng teas.
The root is also ground into a
powder for soup seasoning.
Mountaineers also gather it to
export to Asian countries, espe-cially
to China. It sells for as much
as $200 per pound during the fall
foraging season.
In mountain and Asian folklore,
the ginseng root has amazing
properties. It is supposed to
improve the memory, stimulate
the nervous system, and lengthen
life. The Cherokees who discov-ered
it first called it the "most
marvelous little magician."
off'"*
mm®
16
Mountain folklife is a blend of many cultures. Early settlers played Scotch-Irish music on a musical instrument of German origins, the dulcimer. Some
still play the dulcimer today (Left). Today's mountain string-band music relies on two musical instruments with African folklife origins, the guitar and the
banjo (Left and right).
dulcimer. Scotch- Irish dance
tunes are also played on it.
African Americans
brought their folklife
Besides the native Americans
and the European immigrants,
African Americans added to
folklife traditions in the moun-tains.
Only a few mountaineers
owned slaves, for many people in
the mountains opposed slavery.
But following the Civil War (1 861-
1 865), many African Americans
came to the mountains in search
of work. They brought the banjos
and guitars that are so important in
mountain string-band music today.
And they added many new steps
to traditional clog dances as well.
Mountain folklife is a blend
North Carolina mountain culture
today reflects the blending to-gether
of native American, Euro-pean,
and African-American folk
traditions. They have changed
through time and will continue to
do so as new immigrants join from
other states and other countries
bringing their own folklife.
Definitions
Artifacts are objects made or used by humans. Celts are ground and polished stone axes.
They are used in some human activity. A cure.a|| js a medjcjne thgt js sypposed tQ hea, a||
Scrapers are made of stone and are used to scrape diseases,
animal hides.
17
Folklife by hand: handmade is best made
by Bob Conway
Crafts are a part of western
North Carolina's folklife.
What are crafts? They are
objects made by hand, household
items that were once used in
everyday life. They include
baskets, pottery, quilts, and woven
rugs. Handmade crafts were
usually made out of natural
materials such as wood, stone,
metal, or cloth.
The first mountain crafts were
made by native Americans. We
know the most about crafts made
by the Cherokees. In the 1700s,
European settlers moved into the
area. The pioneers brought with
them their skills for making useful
things. They needed them in the
new land. When the pioneers met
the Cherokees, both learned new
skills and borrowed new kinds of
tools and objects from each other.
They also learned each others'
ways for making crafts.
From the colonial days until the
early 1900s, mountain people
made things for their own use—or
for someone else in the commu-nity.
But change came with roads.
People visited the area and
wanted to buy crafts, but many
mountain people were giving up
making crafts because they could
buy the same things at nearby
stores. When better highways
were built, craftmaking was re-vived
for the tourist trade. As
tourists flocked to the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park
and drove down the Blue Ridge
Mountain crafts are traditional objects made by hand for use in the house. Pottery was used to
prepare or store food in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Coverlets were woven on looms and used
on beds for warmth.
19
20
In the 1 900s new national parks and forests and new highways attracted tourists who wanted to buy crafts. Tourists are still attracted by crafts at places
like the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild in Asheville.
Parkway, they brought money to
buy crafts. They visited the Chero-kee
Indian reservation and bought
baskets, pottery, woodcarving,
weaving, and beadwork crafts.
Today on the Qualla Boundary,
Cherokee wood carvers like
Goingback Chiltoskey, Amanda
Crowe, Virgil Ledford, and John
Julius Wilnoty and basketmakers
like Eva Wolfe and Rowena
Bradley have become nationally
famous. Visitors to the town of
Cherokee can see a variety of
working craftspeople at Oco-naluftee
Indian Village. Craft
exhibits are featured also at the
Cherokee Heritage Center, Qualla
Arts and Crafts Gallery, and
Museum of the Cherokee Indian.
Some mountaineers choose to
live in rural areas instead of towns
and cities. They make their living
creating crafts. And besides
farming, some mountain people
have no interest in any other work
than handcrafts. They do not
want to work in offices, stores, or
factories. For those who cannot
leave their houses, such as the
elderly or the handicapped, hand-crafts
provide an income.
Among mountaineers, dulcimer-maker
Edd Presnell, folk-toy
maker Willard Watson, and
blacksmith Bea Hensley are well
known. Craft collectors and
tourists seek them out.
Mary M. Cornwell of Lake
Junaluska in Haywood County
has been a leader in mountain
handcrafts. In 1951 , with only
fourteen craftspeople, she
founded the Village of Yesteryear.
It was first located in a small,
wooden building at the North
Carolina State Fair in Raleigh.
Now, thirty-nine years later,
Cornwell still goes to Raleigh
each October for the State Fair.
An average of 1 00 craftspeople
work in a large, modern pavilion
that has become one of the fair's
leading attractions.
HHHHHSHHHHBH
Traditional mountain crafts are
still being made, but they are less
common. Modern, artistic crafts
have become popular. Some are
based on the pioneer crafts, but
many are not. They are made by
people who have moved into the
region. They sometimes have
college degrees, usually in art, and
are well trained. Sometimes they
receive training at one of two craft
schools in the mountains: the
John C. Campbell Folk School in
Cherokee County near Murphy,
and Penland School in Mitchell
County near Spruce Pine. The
Campbell Folk School is the home
of the famous Brasstown Carvers.
It also teaches wrought-iron
making to would-be blacksmiths.
Although traditional crafts have
survived for two centuries, their
future is not bright. Someone
recently observed, "We are now
living in the last decade of
mountain crafts." ~i
21
Tourism: on the road!
by Hugh M. Morton
WhenSir Walter Raleigh's
colonists came to North
Carolina in 1 585, no one
on board his tiny ships was a
tourist. All on board came to settle
this corner of the New World.
Those were rugged times. The
colonists struggled for food,
shelter, and life itself. No one had
much time or thought about
traveling for enjoyment.
In the 1600s and 1700s,
European explorers and settlers
traveled in the New World. But
they were exploring, looking for
spices, gold, new travel routes, or
a place to live. Some recorded
and published what they saw.
Early tourism for health,
then recreation
In the early 1800s, people began
traveling to escape sickness or to
get well. Many wealthy residents
of the coastal areas of the
Carolinas and Georgia visited the
mountains to escape coastal heat,
humidity, and ticks and mosqui-toes,
which spread malaria and
other fevers. Some men built
summer homes in the mountains
for their families and stayed in the
coastal areas to work.
Those who traveled to get well
visited mineral springs to drink the
22
water or bathe in it. Many visited
resorts like Hot Springs in Madison
County. The water from the
springs was supposed to heal
sicknesses and ailments. Once
named Warm Springs, Hot Springs
claimed to have been a health
resort since 1779.
By the late 1 800s, the resort
had grown larger. Thousands
of tourists traveled there follow-ing
the construction of the magnifi-cent
Mountain Park Hotel in the
1 890s. The hotel was described
as a rambling structure. It had a
large lobby, spacious parlors,
and one fourth of a mile of veran-das—
porches. It also included
luxuries and modern conve-niences
such as elevators, steam
heat, toilets, fireplaces, an orches-tra,
a music hall, billiard parlors,
and bowling alleys. It also offered
a golf course, tennis courts, and
horseback riding. With such
luxuries and conveniences,
many soon came to enjoy only
the pleasures that the health
resort offered.
Expansion: railroads +
promotion = tourists
During the 1 890s, tourism ex-panded
in the North Carolina
mountains. Other resorts were
built. They offered the same
luxuries and modem conven-iences,
except they lacked mineral
water springs. Northeast of Hot
Springs, Blowing Rock in Watauga
and Caldwell counties, and Linville
in Avery County, are examples of
two fine resorts that developed.
In 1889, my grandfather, Hugh
MacRae, formed the Linville
Improvement Company to begin
the Linville Resort. In 1891 and
1892, he linked Linville with
Blowing Rock. He constructed a
stagecoach route called the
Yonahlossee Road (now U.S.
Highway 221). Eseeola Inn was
completed in Linville in 1892.
Mayview Manor and Green Park
Hotel were built in Blowing Rock
for tourists.
One reason these resorts
expanded was the growth of the
railroads in the mountains. For
example, Asheville, in Buncombe
County, is the present-day tourism
capital of the North Carolina
mountains. But it did not earn that
honor until the railroad came to
town in the 1 880s. The Western
North Carolina Railroad was the
major line leading to Asheville. It
made Asheville the transportation
hub in the western part of the
state. Railroads were the key
Tourists have long
been attracted to
western North
Carolina. The first
tourists visited springs
to drink and bathe in
warm, mineral waters
at places like Hot
Springs. They later
came just for the
luxuries and activities
offered by hotels, such
as the Mountain Park
Hotel, located at Hot
Springs.
to all transportation in that day,
both for cargo and passengers.
Railroad connections were essen-tial
to tourism.
When the Western North Caro-lina
Railroad reached Asheville in
1 880, "Judge" Edward Aston was
the loyal and enthusiastic mayor.
He wanted to attract people to the
2,61 0-person community. So he
sent thousands of advertising
mailers throughout the United
States and Europe. The circulars
boasted that Asheville was a resort
for those who suffered from tuber-culosis.
The health resort idea
caught on. Asheville successfully
attracted people to the area.
Hotels were essential for
lodging the many visitors. The
Swannanoa Hotel and the Eagle
Hotel were the best known hotels
in Asheville in 1880. Others were
built. They included the Battery
Park, Kennilworth Inn, the Langren
Hotel, and the Grove Park Inn.
These fine hotels gave Asheville
the reputation of having more and
better hotels than any city of the
same size in the United States.
After World War II:
planes and automobiles
Rail transportation had been
important to western North
Carolina tourism from the 1 880s
into the 1940s. By the end of
World War II (1941-1945), fewer
tourists came by train. More and
more came by cars or airplanes.
Some tourists had been visiting
the area by car after Great Smoky
Mountains National Park was
opened in 1 934 and sections of the
Blue Ridge Parkway were opened
around 1940. Both had attracted
many millions of visitors. Yet
many more of the area's visitors
traveled to the area on major
United States highways. Now
most reach the area by the
interstate highways.
Asheville Regional Airport is the
only airport in the North Carolina
mountains offering major airline
service. But air terminals are
located on either side of the
mountains in Knoxville, Tennes-see;
Greenville-Spartanburg,
South Carolina; Charlotte; and
Atlanta, Georgia. Many people fly
into these airports, rent a car, and
drive to the mountains.
When World Warll ended,
tourism once again expanded in
the North Carolina mountains and
the whole state. North Carolina
state government began an
effective tourism promotion
agency. State government offi-cials
and the public began to
realize that tourism industries
could supply needed employment
and taxes in the mountain coun-ties.
Some counties and towns
added room occupancy taxes.
This tax increased their tourism
promotion funds so that they could
attract more tourists.
During this period of expansion,
tourists have found new reasons to
visit the mountains during the
warm months. Historical dramas
Unto These Hills, in Cherokee in
Swain and Jackson counties, and
Horn In The West, in Boone in
Watauga County, have become
important cultural contributions to
tourism. New attractions like
Tweetsie Railroad, Ghost Town,
and Grandfather Mountain have
added other activities for young
and old alike. More than a dozen
new golf resorts have opened. And
many people from Florida are
attracted to the mountains. Many
Floridians have built second
homes in the mountains. Tourists
come in fall's cool weather to view
leaves changing. Others visit in
the winter to ski. Year-round
tourism is now the rule in western
North Carolina.
23
Tourism in western North Carolina is threatened by air pollution. Forests at around 6, 000 feet suffer from air pollution and acid rain (Top, left). Heavy
damage has occurred at Mount Mitchell. Roan Mountain. Clingman 's Peak. Water Rock Knob, and Grandfather Mountain. Clearcutting—cutting down
all the trees in one area—is a logging technique that threatens the natural beauty of western North Carolina s forests. This load of logs (Top. right) was
hauled from a clearcut area in Pisgah National Forest near Linville in sight of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Visual pollution is also a problem. Lack of
planning and development regulations allows low quality growth along heavily traveled highways (Bottom).
24
Today, tourists visit the mountains all year round.
What about the future?
Managers at Grandfather
Mountain, a scenic attraction near
Linville, survey their visitors.
Those surveys show that scenery
is the leading reason people visit
that attraction. This finding might
be true for all tourists visiting
western North Carolina. Yet there
are a number of threats to the
natural beauty of the mountains.
They include damage to waters
and forests from air pollution, lack
of regulations and planning to
control building, timber harvesting
close to heavily traveled highways,
and lowered water levels in
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
lakes. One recent threat was
eliminated by the passage of the
Ridge Law. It stopped the
building of high-rise apartments
on the crests of mountain ridges.
Despite these threats to tour-ism,
North Carolina's citizens and
out-of-state guests continue to
flock to the North Carolina moun-tains.
They no longer come by
stagecoach or train. They do not
come to take advantage of min-eral
waters and to escape hot,
mosquito summers. They come
by plane and car to visit historic
sites, to see beautiful scenery, and
to take advantage of natural
resources in the mountains. They
travel to their second homes, to
play golf, to fish for trout, or to raft
on the cold clear waters. An active
and effective Travel Council of
North Carolina is taking the lead in
finding solutions to the threats,
determined to see that tourism will
be North Carolina's number one
industry by the year 2000.
25
Asheville: the city that grew up
around its square
by Mitzi S. Tessier
The heart of Asheville is its
public square. Once called
Public Square, it did not look
anything like today's Pack Square.
There was no monument to
Buncombe County native and Civil
War Governor Zebulon B. Vance
( 1 862-1 865) . It had no paved
streets, fountain, or artistic
buildings. A fenced lot along a dirt
trail, it was simply a crossroads in
the western part of the state.
Public Square had very humble
beginnings. The first courthouse
built there by the Buncombe
County Court of Pleas and
Quarter Sessions was a log
building. The village that grew up
around it was called Morristown
until it was incorporated by the
state in 1 797 and renamed to
honor Samuel B. Ashe, governor
of North Carolina (1 795-1 798).
Early travelers described what
the square looked like in the 1 700s
and early 1800s. One woman who
came to Asheville in 1 824 wrote,
"Asheville is not so handsome a
village as I expected, there are
four pretty good brick buildings,
the Jail and three dwelling houses,
the foundation of the court house
is laid which will also be of brick.
When that is finished the village
will look much better, it being
bounded on all sides by mountains
to give it all the beauty."
26
Transportation and growth
In 1 828 the first "major highway" in
the western part of the state was
built. Called the Buncombe
Turnpike, it followed the route of
an Indian trail along the French
Broad River. At Asheville it
crossed Public Square.
Asheville's hotels flourished
from turnpike traffic. Visitors from
South Carolina and Tennessee
arrived in stage coaches, dusty
and weary. At the hotels they
could buy lodging and dinner.
Other travelers, called drovers,
had used the turnpike route for
years. They herded livestock and
poultry to markets in South
Carolina. As many as 1 00,000
turkeys or pigs may have fluttered
and squealed their way across
Public Square in a single season.
Many years passed before the
railroad came to Asheville. The
Civil War (1861-1865) and
financial problems blocked early
efforts to build a railroad. Rough,
rocky terrain posed problems in
bringing the railroad to the
mountains. Building a track
through the Blue Ridge Mountains
was hard and dangerous. Many
workmen lost their lives as they cut
seven tunnels between Old Fort in
McDowell County and Asheville.
It was difficult to cut through
hundreds of feet of stone without
powerful machinery.
The first boom
The period between 1880 and
1 890 in Asheville was a boom
time. The city grew in population
and wealth. During the 1880s and
1 890s, Asheville attracted many
people. It grew from a town of
about 2,500 to a city of almost
15,000. It also gained a national
reputation as a health spa.
Before the discovery of antibiotics,
a cure for lung diseases included
rest in a cool climate. Hospitals
and sanatoriums for
tuberculosis patients dotted the
surrounding hills.
The man for whom the square is
now named came to Asheville in
1883. His name was George
Pack. Pack was a man of dreams.
Although he lived in the city less
than twenty years, he gave lots of
money to make the square
beautiful. He also contributed to
the growth of Asheville.
Another man who made a
difference in Asheville in the 1 880s
was George Vanderbilt. He was
the son of one of America's most
wealthy men. Vanderbilt bought
thousands of acres of land south of
the city and built a palatial home.
His 250-room castle, Biltmore
House, is now owned by his
grandson and attracts thousands
of tourists each year.
The second boom
The next boom came in the 1920s.
Nationwide, commerce and
industry grew. More money than
ever before became available.
Asheville's ideal climate and
beautiful scenery attracted people
with money to spend. Real estate
people became rich selling land
and building new buildings
downtown.
27
Public Square from
the 1 700s to the late
1880s was a fenced
lot surrounded by dirt
streets (Top, left).
George W. Pack
(Top, right) shared his
wealth with Asheville
by giving money for
improvements to the
square. One
improvement was a
monument on the
square to honor
former governor
Zebulon Vance. To
honor Pack, Asheville
changed the name of
Public Square to Pack
Square. The square
was busy in 1930
(Bottom). Just beyond
Pack Square are
buildings built during
Asheville's boom.
The county
courthouse is the tall
building on the left.
Like other Asheville
and Buncombe
County buildings, it
was built with bonds.
28
The Asheville and Buncombe
County governments even caught
boom fever. By 1 929 they had
borrowed enough money for new
buildings. They built a new city
hall, a county courthouse, a high
school, a library, and a highway
tunnel under Beau-catcher
Mountain. This money came from
the sale of bonds.
The crash
It seemed that nothing could stop
progress in the 1 920s. Over
$8,000,000 of city and county
funds rested in the Central Bank
and Trust Company on Pack
Square. It was enough money to
repay those bonds. All seemed
rosy until the morning of
November 20, 1930. On that
morning, Central Bank and Trust
Company failed. All the money
was gone. This was called the
"crash." This crash occurred
Definitions
during the national "crash," also
called the depression.
Recovery, growth, and boom
For Asheville, the crash turned out
to be lucky. Her people saw hard
times during the depression years.
Yet all that time the city and the
county were buying back those
bonds. They were paying people
back the money the city and
county had borrowed. It took over
forty years. But finally in 1976, the
last bond was paid off. The city
was left with a strong credit rating
and a wealth of unusual 1 920s
buildings.
Today, Asheville is again
enjoying a boom. Developers are
restoring downtown and Pack
Square. Those artistic buildings
from the 1 920s are being cleaned
up and used again. For some the
use may be different. A former
department store is now a hotel.
A furniture store has been made
into apartments.
Passenger trains no longer run
the rails into Asheville, but new
highways and a jetport carry
travelers to the city. Two large
malls and several major
department stores ensure her
reputation as a commercial center
for the western part of the state.
As ever, the heart of Asheville is
still the square. Each year in July,
over 1 00,000 people gather there
to celebrate life in the city at a
festival called Bele Chere. Bele
Chere in the old Scottish language
means beautiful living.
This year Pack Place Arts and
Cultural Center opened on the
southwest corner of Pack Square.
It is very near the place where the
first courthouse stood. Pack Place
is home to museums and a
performing arts theater. There
visitors may hear the story of
Asheville's history and see the
place where it all began.
A Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions was the
form of courts and county government in early North
Carolina. The Court of Pleas heard civil suits. The
Court of Sessions tried minor criminal cases. The
word "quarter" came from the meeting dates of the
court—once a quarter or once every three months.
The court also had other county administration
duties.
A boom is a time of swift, vigorous growth and
development.
Health spas are places where people visit to
exercise or to get healthy again after an illness.
Tuberculosis is an infectious disease affecting the
lungs. Patients with turberculosis, or consumption,
went to sanatoriums for rest and to be treated.
Antibiotic drugs were not available at the time to
cure tuberculosis. Antibiotic drugs are made from
bacteria or fungi and destroy or weaken germs.
Penicillin is an antibiotic.
A palatial house is one that is large and fancy, like a
palace.
Bonds are certificates that governments sell when
they want money for constructing buildings. After a
designated time, people get their money back plus
interest. A credit rating is an estimate of the
amount of money that can be loaned to someone.
It is determined by a lending agency, like a bank.
A credit rating is based on how much money
someone has and his record in paying debts.
The depression started with the stock market
"crash" on October 29, 1 929. Banks had made too
many loans, and people could not pay loans back.
As a result, banks could not pay depositors money in
their accounts. Businesses had borrowed too much
money and were in debt. The national economy
slowed down. Unemployment rose. The depression
ended in the early 1 940s.
29
The federal presence: a big deal
by Jim Ryan and Ron Holland
Life has changed in the
mountains since the time of
the first native Americans
and European settlers. Much of
the area now is under control of
the United States government.
The land and its use are regulated
by federal law. Government
programs and policies affect the
lives of many people. Some
people do not like the government
control of the land or their lives.
Yet the federal government's
policies and programs have had a
positive impact on western North
Carolina during the past fifty to
sixty years.
Today, more than 4,000 federal
employees work in the mountain
counties. The Blue Ridge
Parkway employs 1 46 people.
Three hundred fifty people work
at the National Climatic Data
Center while 41 work for the
U.S. Forest Service. In the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park,
75 people are employed, and
at Tennessee Valley Authority,
sixty people are employed. In
addition, many people work part-time
or as temporaries for these
federal agencies.
The budgets for these agencies
are in the millions of dollars. For
example, the Blue Ridge Parkway
has a budget of $5.3 million;
National Climatic Data Center,
$1 8 million; U.S. Forest Service,
$32 million; and Great Smoky
Mountains National Park,
$2.5 million. Counties where these
agencies operate benefit in some
way from their presence. Millions
of visitors spend their tourist
dollars visiting federal land and
sites in these counties, often
providing employment and taxes
to less-developed areas.
National Climatic Data Center
The National Climatic Data Center
(NCDC) moved from New Orleans,
Louisiana, to Asheville in 1952.
The center was established as an
official Federal Records Center for
preserving the weather records of
the United States. Today many
Federal presence
Tennessee
Great Smoky
Mountains
National Park
Fontana
Dam and Lake
Hiwassee Dam and Lake Map not to scale
30
global weather records are
preserved for studying worldwide
climatic problems.
An agency of the U.S.
Department of Commerce, NCDC
manages and makes available
global environmental data. By
using more than 1 00 years of
weather records, NCDC learns
from the past in an effort to help
others prepare for a better
tomorrow. From the weather
observations of Ben Franklin and
Thomas Jefferson to the data from
modern weather satellites, the
NCDC archives contain a wealth of
valuable information.
the way, the parkway provides
visitors with spectacular views of
mountain peaks and valleys. At
historic sites on the way, visitors
can catch glimpses of re-created
pioneer life.
President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt (1 933-1 945) began the
parkway in 1 933 as a public works
project under the eye of the
National Park Service. The
parkway provided jobs for many
men during the depression (1 929-
early 1 940s). The last leg, Linn
Cove viaduct, near Linville in
Avery County, was not completed
until 1 987, more than fifty years
after the parkway was begun.
With brilliant fall foliage, an
abundance of spring blossoms,
and cool summer temperatures,
the parkway has become one of
the most popular recreational
areas in the nation.
Its motor road, with low speed
limits, was designed exclusively
for leisurely recreational travel.
Off the road, the parkway offers
camping, picnicking, fishing,
hiking, and a wide variety of
ranger-led programs.
Blue Ridge Parkway
The Blue Ridge Parkway winds
470 miles through the southern
Appalachian Mountains. It con-nects
two national parks
—
Shenandoah in Virginia and Great
Smoky Mountains in North
Carolina and Tennessee. Along
Construction of the
Blue Ridge Parkway
began in 1935, and it
opened around 1940.
Some of it ran through
forested areas that
had been cut
down by logging
companies for timber
(Top). Today, millions
travel along the
parkway enjoying its
beauty (Left).
Great Smoky Mountains
National Park
West of Asheville, the southern leg
of the Blue Ridge Parkway ends at
the Great Smoky Mountains. The
North Carolina-Tennessee border
divides the park and follows the
crest of some of the highest
mountains east of the Mississippi
River. Many of the peaks are more
than 6,000 feet in height. This
national park contains 525,000
acres of mountains, about 820
square miles.
Established in 1934, the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park is
the most popular national park in
the United States. Millions of
visitors go to the park each year.
The park offers spectacular
scenery, sparkling streams, and
more than 1 ,400 species of
flowering plants and trees. In
addition many of the old pioneer
buildings have been saved so that
people can see what life was
like in the old days. Visitors can
see these sights by car or on
foot. They can also hike, camp,
fish, picnic, or just relax in an
unspoiled wilderness.
United States Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service manages
more than 1 ,000,000 acres of
national forests in western North
Carolina, about 1 ,600 square
miles. Under the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, the forests provide
habitats for plants and animals and
offer services to visitors. Visitors
use recreation areas for hiking,
camping, hunting, boating, and
fishing. Some areas are
considered wilderness and for
limited use. In recent years more
people have used the Pisgah and
Nantahala national forests than
have visited Great Smoky
Mountains National Park.
Other areas of the forest provide
watersheds for nearby communi-ties.
Those same communites
benefit from the timber in the
forest. Timber companies hire
local people to cut the trees for
furniture and paper manufacturers.
In some areas, citizens receive
permits and cut trees for firewood.
Fontana Dam
Pisgah National Forest has
498,000 acres. It was established
in 1 91 6 as the first national forest
east of the Mississippi River. A
large portion of Pisgah National
Forest was originally part of the
Biltmore Estate belonging to
George W. Vanderbilt of Asheville.
The largest national forest in
North Carolina is Nantahala Na-tional
Forest, with 518,000 acres.
Cherokee Indians were the original
owners and users of the land.
Tennessee Valley Authority
The Tennessee Valley Authority
(TVA) was established by Con-gress
in 1 933. Its main purpose
was to help the nation recover
from the Great Depression.
It provided jobs, electric power for
homes and industry, and flood
control in North Carolina's Tennes-see
River Basin. North Carolina is
one of seven states in the project.
Four major TVA hydroelectric
dams were constructed in western
North Carolina—Hiwassee,
Apalachia, Chatuge, and Fontana.
These dams form lakes used
by many for boating, fishing,
and skiing.
Fontana Dam is located on the
Little Tennessee River in Swain
County. It is the highest and per-haps
the most picturesque of all
the TVA dams. At 480 feet, Fon-tana
Dam is also the tallest dam in
the eastern United States.
Definitions
A watershed is an area where water drains into
creeks, rivers, or lakes providing the water needs of
a community. Hydroelectric dams are dams built
on rivers to provide electricity. The water passes
through generators, which make electricity.
32
On top of old Smoky: creating Great Smoky
Mountains National Park
by Ed Trout
Creating Great Smoky
Mountains National Park
was difficult. It took money
and a lot of work by thousands of
people. Establishing parks located
in the western United States was
fairly easy. Congress merely
carved parks like Yellowstone out
of lands already owned by the
government. They were often
places where no one wanted to
live anyway.
Getting park land in this area
was a different story. Thousands
of people and a handful of large
timber and paper-manufacturing
companies owned land in the
Smoky Mountains. Many people
had farmed there for many years
and did not want to leave their
family homesteads. Nor did the
large corporations want to
abandon huge timber forests,
miles of railroad track, logging
Asheville
Cherokee
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
North Carolina
Map not to scale
33
equipment, and whole villages of
employee housing.
The idea
The idea for a national park in the
southern Appalachians started in
the late 1890s. A few people from
northern states began to talk about
a public land preserve in the cool,
healthful air of the southern
Appalachians. A legislator even
entered a bill in the North Carolina
General Assembly to establish a
land preserve. It failed. By the
early 1900s, many more people
were pressuring Washington for
some kind of public preserve.
Some people wanted a national
park, and others wanted a
national forest.
The drive to create
In the mid-1 920s, the drive to
create a national park became
successful. Many people living
and working in Knoxville,
Tennessee, and in Asheville
wanted a national park created.
The two groups had long been
competitors over its location. Each
wanted it near them so that their
group could profit. But they finally
began to work together for a park
halfway between the two cities in
the heart of the Smoky Mountains.
The park supporters were not
hard-core conservationists,
backpackers, and trout fishermen.
They were motorists. Cars were
becoming more popular, and many
people were beginning to own
them. Car owners had formed
clubs and wanted new and better
roads on which to drive their cars.
They were interested in good
roads through beautiful scenery.
Raising the money
In May, 1926, President Calvir
Coolidge (1923-1929) signed
a bill to establish Great Smoky
Mountains National Park. This bill
gave the U.S. Department of the
Interior responsibility for a park in
the Smoky Mountains. But
1 50,000 acres of land had to be
purchased first. Since the
government could not buy land for
national park use, supporters had
to raise the money.
In the late 1 920s, the Tennes-see
and North Carolina legisla-tures
each gave $2 million to buy
land. Citizens, private groups, and
even schoolchildren raised addi-tional
money. By 1928, $5 million
had been raised by the legislatures
condemned in court. On that
land, timber and paper
manufacturing companies owned
trees and valuable equipment they
did not want to lose.
It was a tough situation for
people who lived there. Losing a
house and land was an emotional
loss. For many, their families had
lived there for generations. Losing
land meant losing a homestead,
churches where neighbors gath-ered,
and cemeteries where loved
ones were buried.
Some people were allowed to
and citizens. But there was
trouble. The cost of the land had
doubled, and the campaign
ground to a halt. The day was
saved when the Laura Spellman
Rockefeller Memorial Fund do-nated
$5 million. The land was
finally bought.
Buying the land
Although supporters had raised
money, buying the land was
difficult. Six thousand small farms,
large tracts, and other miscella-neous
parcels had to be
surveyed, appraised,
negotiated, and sometimes
stay under lifetime leases. They
were too old or too sick to move.
Younger ones were granted
leases on a short-term basis. Yet
if they stayed, they would not be
allowed to live the same life they
had lived before. They could not
cut timber or hunt and trap animals.
Many people were asked later
how they felt about losing their
land to make Great Smoky
Mountains National Park. About
half took the money offered for
their land and left. They were glad
to have it. The other half ex-pressed
feelings from inconve-nience
to hostility.
34
Dedicating the park
Developing the park
The first park superintendent
arrived in 1931. From 1933 to
1942, the Civilian Conservation
Corps built the facilities and
restored pioneer buildings.
They stopped when World
Warll (1941-1945) finally shut
the program down. They built
many of the trails, campgrounds,
Definitions
and the beautiful stone bridges
and buildings.
Dedicating the park
The final touch in the creation of
the park was its formal dedication.
In September, 1940, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-
1945) stood on the Rockefeller
Monument at Newfound Gap.
With one foot on the North
Carolina side and one foot on the
Tennessee side, he spoke about
the park and its many supporters.
That ceremony dedicated a
sanctuary that is not a local park, a
county park, or even a state park.
It is a national park for all the
people of the country and the rest
of the world to enjoy.
There are differences between a national forest
and a national park. In a national forest, the
federal government allows people to use its
renewable resources. This means that a person
might be allowed to cut large groves of trees for
timber or to graze cattle on grassland. In a national
park the scenery and resources are protected.
Nature is allowed to run its course.
Tracts and parcels are pieces of land. They were
surveyed—measured for size and boundaries
—
appraised—a money value determined—and
negotiated—a price offered and then accepted or
rejected. If the owner rejected the price offered, the
government went to court and had the land
condemned—taken for public use and the owners
paid.
Leases are rights to use property in exchange for
money—rent.
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was an
agency created during the depression (1 929-early
1 940s) to provide work and wages for unemployed
young men.
35
First in forestry
by John Palmer
I n 1968 the U.S. Forest Service
opened the Cradle of Forestry,
I a historical museum in Pisgah
National Forest. Today the drive
to the museum on a winding
mountain road is through natural
beauty. Oaks, dogwoods, yellow
poplars, white pines, sourwoods,
and other trees shade the
roadway. Under the trees, "pink
beds"—thickets of rhododendron
and mountain laurel—add
greenery and flowers.
After driving through this natural
beauty, it is hard to believe that
these mountainsides were once
bare of all bushes and trees. The
only thing left were stumps and
limbs. In the late 1800s and early
1 900s, most forests in western
North Carolina had been de-stroyed.
Lumber companies
logged the trees to make money,
or farmers burned the trees to
provide pastures for grazing cattle.
Poor farming methods destroyed
the soil, and much of it filled valley
streams, leaving deep gulleys on
the hillsides.
Yet some forest remained,
showing it could be made beautiful
and useful once more. In the late
1 800s and early 1 900s, many
people wanted to see forests cover
the mountains again. These
people included George and Edith
Vanderbilt, Gifford Pinchot, Doctor
Chase P. Ambler, Doctor Henry O.
Marcy, and Professor Carl A.
mi
/•OH
36
Schenck. In the process of re-building
the forests in western
North Carolina, they made North
Carolina famous in forestry.
All North Carolina license plates
are proudly stamped with the
phrase "First in Flight." That
phrase celebrates the Wright
Brother's first airplane flight at Kitty
Hawk. Yet North Carolina's plates
could be stamped "First in For-estry"
since many of America's
forestry "firsts" occurred in western
North Carolina. These firsts
include:
• the first American forester with a
college degree to be hired;
• the first American college of
forestry;
• the first national forest to be
created in the eastern
United States.
First American forester
The story starts with George W.
Vanderbilt when he visited
Asheville with his mother in the
early 1880s. Vanderbilt grew up in
New York City and had recently
inherited several million dollars
from his family. During his visit to
Asheville, he was attracted to a
1 ln 1905, under President Theodore "Teddy"
view of the mountains from a hill
near the resort town. Soon after-wards,
Vanderbilt purchased Lone
Pine Hill. It became the first of the
purchases he made in building his
125,000-acre Biltmore Estate.
To manage the forests on his
land, he hired Gifford Pinchot.
Pinchot was a Pennsylvanian who
graduated from a French forestry
college in Nancy, France. (There
were no American forestry schools
at this time.) Vanderbilt hired
Pinchot in 1892. He took over the
planning and care of Vanderbilt's
forests. As a result, he became
America's first practicing scientific
forester. 1
First American forestry
school
After Gifford Pinchot left Biltmore,
Dr. Carl Alwin Schenck took his
place. Schenck was born in
Germany and educated there as a
forester. He became responsible
for the management of the forests
on George and Edith Vanderbilt's
Biltmore Estate. Schenck was a
captivating person. With his stern
German manner, flamboyant
velt (1 901-1 909), Pinchot became the first chief
mustache, and heavy accent,
Schenck left a mark wherever he
went. Schenck continued and
expanded on Pinchot's work. But
he is primarily remembered for
starting the Biltmore Forest
School, the first school of forestry
in America.
The Biltmore Forest School
opened in September, 1898, and
closed fifteen years later. It turned
out between 350 and 400 gradu-ates.
Schenck's wide knowledge
and magnetic personality attracted
a growing group of young men
interested in forestry. "My forestry
apprentices . . . accompanied me
everywhere and asked contin-ually
for explanations," Schenck
wrote in his autobiography, The
Birth of Forestry in America.
The school was the obvious,
organized answer to his appren-tices'
questions.
George Vanderbilt had encour-aged
Schenck and the school.
Schenck started with a twelve-month
course. Tuition, room, and
meals cost only $200 per year.
Schenck held the college at the
Biltmore Estate from fall through
the newly established U.S. Forest Service.
spring. In the summer, he moved it
to a remote site deep within Bilt-more's
forest at the Pink Beds (an
area in Transylvania County). All
transportation was by horseback.
First national forest in
the east
In the 1 800s people flocked to
western North Carolina for their
health. They soon grew to love the
beauty of the mountains. In 1885
doctors like Chase P. Ambler and
Henry O. Marcy thought that the
natural beauty of the mountains
contributed to the health of people
visiting the region. For that reason
they thought the forests needed to
be preserved.
Many people became interested
in what Marcy and Ambler had to
say. As a result, they fought and
planned to save the forests. The
region was surveyed and a report
was made. After many years of
work, the U.S. Congress finally
passed the Weeks Act. It gave the
U.S. government power to buy
private land in the east for national
forests. North Carolina legislators
supported the passage of the act
in Congress.
Edith Vanderbilt
Under this act, in 1 91 5, the
government bought nearly 87,000
acres around Mount Pisgah from
George Vanderbilt's widow, Edith.
She was very interested in pre-serving
the mountains and their
natural resources. This was
among the first land purchased
under the Weeks Act. It also
began the establishment of all the
national forests east of the Missis-sippi
River.
Conclusion
All of these milestones are of
continuing importance for North
Carolina, its mountains, and their
people. Without Vanderbilt, his
widow, Edith, Pinchot, Schenck,
Drs. Marcy and Ambler,
congressmen, and citizens,
we might not have the beautiful
forests in the mountains. All North
Carolinians can be deeply proud of
such a fine forestry heritage.
38
Mining: between a rock and a hard
place
by Leonard Wiener
The first miners were
native Americans
Mining has played an impor-tant
but unappreciated role
in western North Carolina
history. The very earliest miners
were native Americans who
needed minerals and rocks. They
searched for and dug earth and
rock materials. The Indians dug
clay to make pottery. They also
looked for specific types of rocks
for tools or hunting equipment.
About 4,000 to 5,000 years ago,
some groups discovered soap-stone.
From it they carved useful
bowls and vessels as well as
ornaments. The Indians also dug
and collected sheets of mica. The
mica was often split and trimmed
into ornaments. They traded it to
other Indian groups as far away as
the Ohio River Valley.
Early native Americans needed minerals and rocks. Soapstone—a soft, talc-rich rock that can be
easily cut and carved—was used to make bowls, vessels, ornaments, and pipes (Top in photo).
Certain kinds of rocks were made into scrapers (Left in photo) and celts (Right in photo). What were
other tools Indians may have made from earth or rock materials? (Hint: see photographs in David
Moore 's article on the Pisgah culture).
39
Europeans came later
and searched for gold
In 1 540 the first Europeans
explored the North Carolina,
Georgia, and Tennessee
mountains. The expedition
belonged to Spanish explorer
Hernando de Soto. Lured by tales
and rumors, they searched for
gold-bearing mountains. But the
Spanish gold-hunting effort was
unsuccessful. Three hundred
years later, prospectors finally
found and mined a small amount
of gold in this region.
Settlers needed iron;
other minerals were found
The early mountain settlers had to
become experts at making
wooden products from the forest
because metal tools and
hardware, such as hammers and
nails, were very scarce. Most tools
and hardware had to be shipped
from England. Even if the
From what material
do you think this
English Wedgwood
pitcher was made?
Did native Americans
or European settlers
make pottery in
North Carolina? If
they did, what did
they make, and how
did they make it?
mountain settlers had found any
of the useful mineral deposits, few
were experienced in refining the
raw ores.
Gradually, some mineral depos-its
were discovered in the moun-tain
area. In 1767, English
chinaware-maker Josiah Wedg-wood
sent Thomas Griffiths to
North Carolina. Griffiths searched
for raw clay to make pottery.
He mined and shipped to England
more than five tons of white, china
clay. Today, china clay is called
kaolin. Wedgwood's source of clay
lay along the Little Tennessee
River in Macon County.
Wedgwood produced his first
modern, white pottery from this
kaolin. But he stopped using this
North Carolina clay the next year.
He had discovered a large deposit
of china clay in England. No more
kaolin was mined in North Carolina
until the 1880s.
After the American
Revolution, iron
products were scarce
After the Revolutionary War
(1 776-1 781 ), iron products were
scarce in the state. Iron pots and
pans, lanterns, knives, farm
equipment, axes, saws, guns, and
tools of all sorts were especially
scarce in the remote parts of
western North Carolina. In 1788
the General Assembly recognized
this need and passed a law. It
encouraged development of local
iron-ore mines and refining
operations. The law granted up to
3,000 acres to iron manufacturers.
It gave them three years to erect
an iron works. If the iron manu-facturer
could make at least 5,000
pounds of iron, the state gave
him the land. In addition, he
would not have to pay land taxes
for ten years. The legislature
granted the manufacturer land so
that he could have a source of
trees to make charcoal.
Mining increased
in the 1800s
In the early to mid-1 800s, many
small ironmaking forges were built
in western North Carolina. These
forges supplied needed iron to
communities in the area. When
transportation to the mountains
improved, communities no longer
needed to supply and refine their
own iron because they could get
iron products elsewhere. The local
forges were abandoned.
The most productive iron-producing
area in western North
Carolina was at the Cranberry
community in Avery County. It is
just a few miles from the Tennes-see
border.
Magnetite was discovered at
this location around 1789. Magne-tite
is an important ore of iron.
Not until about 1 820 was a small
ironmaking forge constructed
40
alongside Cranberry Creek. Like
most early forges, water power ran
its machinery. Soon several more
water-powered forges were built
near Cranberry.
The iron produced was used
mostly in the local area. Because
of poor transportation, these
forges in Cranberry had few
customers outside of the commu-nity.
Lack of transportation was a
major reason these operations
remained small. As late as 1856,
iron production was less than
twenty-five tons per year. This
amount is barely enough to make
a single load for a modern, flatbed
tractor-trailer!
In 1 866, to overcome the trans-portation
problem, the mine
owners in Cranberry planned to
build a railroad. However, con-struction
of the thirty-two-mile-long
track was not finished until 1882.
The railroad went from Cranberry,
west through the mountains and
the Doe River Gorge, to Johnson
City, Tennessee. In Johnson City,
the railroad connected with an
interstate railroad.
Because of the railroad,
Cranberry's iron sales and cus-
This is Cranberry iron-ore works in Avery County in the 1920s. An entrance to the mine is at the
upper left. After mining, the ore was processed in the buildings to separate magnetite—an iron-rich
mineral—from unwanted rock. The magnetite concentrate was then shipped to the blast furnace
where it was converted to metallic iron.
tomers increased. The owners
promptly built a new blast furnace
that could produce up to fifteen
tons of iron per day. Because the
furnace could produce more iron,
more ore had to be mined. Previ-ously,
the forge operators had
simply picked up abundant pieces
of ore found on the surface. Or,
they collected it from shallow,
hand-dug pits. The mine owners
now had to be more systematic to
get enough ore.
About 1900, a much bigger,
steam-powered furnace and plant
were built in Johnson City. De-mand
for iron increased and iron
mining in Cranberry quickly
About 1850. copper ore was discovered at Ore
Knob copper mine, and it was mined from 1873
to 1883 and from 1952 to 1962. Miners leave
the main shaft along one of the underground
tunnels. This mine has been the state 's biggest
copper producer.
41
increased. The new furnace
could produce as much as 1 00
tons of iron per day. Since the ore
was only about one-third iron, the
miners had to mine 300 tons of
ore per day to get 1 00 tons of iron
from the furnace.
The Johnson City furnace was
finally shut down and abandoned
in 1 930. In 11 years, about 1 .5
million tons of iron ore had been
mined from Cranberry. Competi-tion
had forced the mine opera-tors
to close. Competitors in
Michigan and Minnesota found
much bigger, richer deposits of
iron ore in the mid-1 800s.
Geologists estimate that there
are perhaps another 1 .5 million
tons of iron ore still remaining in
the Cranberry deposit. However,
competition from the Great Lakes
and other areas makes the pros-pects
for renewed iron mining at
Cranberry quite dim.
Other minerals were mined in
western North Carolina in the
1 800s. Commercial mica mining
started in 1867. At first, the
demand was for big sheets of
mica. The sheets were trimmed
to specific shapes. They were
used for windows in wood- and
coal-burning stoves and in lan-terns.
Mica sheets were used
because they are transparent and
resistant to heat. Since mica is
also an excellent electrical insula-tor,
it was later used in electrical
machinery.
Copper was also mined in
western North Carolina in the
1800s. At Ore Knob in Ashe
County, copper ore was discov-ered
about 1850. Most of the
mining took place from 1 873 to
1 883. Some took place later.
Mining continues today
Besides iron, many other mineral
products have been mined in
western North Carolina. Until the
1 940s, most mines were small to
medium-size operations. Although
not large, they provided work in
many out-of-the-way places.
In isolated communities, cash-paying
jobs were scarce and the
mines were welcome.
Today, four minerals dominate
western North Carolina's mining.
These are crushed stone (includ-ing
sand and gravel), mica, feld-spar,
and olivine.
Crushed stone
Crushed stone is the state's
biggest mineral. Nearly every
mountain county has at least one
operating crushed-stone quarry
and processing plant. The highly
populated counties require much
crushed stone. During 1989, the
western counties used nearly 8
million tons of crushed stone and
gravel valued at about $40 million.
Crushed stone is essential in
construction of all sorts. For
example, a modern highway
may need more than a foot of
processed stone underneath
the pavement and shoulders.
In addition, stone makes up sixty
to eighty percent of the concrete
or asphalt pavement.
When people build roads or
homes or renovate and rebuild old
In the 1900s, crushed stone production became the largest mining operation in western North
Carolina and the state. It has to be mined in a quarry (Top, left) and processed (Top, right) before it
can be used as a foundation for roads (Bottom).
42
structures, they need crushed
stone. If the quarries are nearby,
the stone is cheaper. The amount
of processing is one important
cost factor. The other is hauling
the stone in trucks. The longer
the distance, the higher the cost
of the stone.
Mica
Over the years, sheet mica has
been mined from more than 2,000
different western North Carolina
sites. But demand for sheet mica
has greatly decreased. It is no
longer mined in the United States.
Solid-state electronic components,
such as computer chips, have
replaced many old-style electronic
parts that required mica.
But there are still uses for mica.
Industry now uses tiny, ground
flakes of mica for other purposes.
Most goes into paint and gypsum-plasterboard
cement. In western
Minerals mined in North Carolina mountains
Minerals County
Anthophyllite, asbestos Avery, Jackson, Mitchell,
Transylvania, Yancey
1933-1978
Barite Madison 1884-1927
Clay (brick) Buncombe, Henderson I pitp 1700^ tn nrp^pnt
Clay (kaolin) Avery, Buncombe, Jackson,
Mitchell
1888 to present
Copper Ashe, Jackson, Swain 1850-1962
Corundum Clay, Jackson, Macon Late 1800s to present
Crushed stone, sand, and gravel All counties Late 1700s to Dresent
Dimension stone (fieldstone and
rough-dressed stone)
All counties 1700s to present
Dimension stone (finished and
dressed marble and granite)
Buncombe, Cherokee,
Henderson
1800s to 1981
Feldspar Avery, Buncombe, Haywood,
Jackson, Mitchell, Transylvania,
Yancey
Late 1800s to present
Gold Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell,
Cherokee, McDowell,
Transylvania
1828 to about
1940
Iron Allegheny, Ashe, Avery,
Cherokee, Madison
1 807-1 Q?fi
Kyanite Yancey 1934-1944
Mica Most counties 1867 to present
Monazite Madison, McDowell,
Polk, Rutherford
1886-1910
Olivine Avery, Clay, Jackson, Macon,
Yancey
1933 to present
Talc Cherokee, Madison 1859-1988
Titanium Caldwell 1942-1952
Miscellaneous: beryl, chromite,
columbite gems (especially emerald,
ruby, and sapphire), graphite, lead,
lime, manganese, quartz, vermiculite,
zinc, zircon, and others
Various counties Various times
43
Children were paid to
split and trim mica at
the Walnut Knob
mine, Ashe County,
about 1900. What
would it be like to split
mica ? Do you think
you would like this
kind ofjob after
school instead of what
you do now? Why?
If mica was used in
lanterns, what do you
think it looks like?
What color is it, and
how easy is it for light
to pass through ?
How do you think it is
used in electrical
devices 9
North Carolina, about 25,000 tons
per year of flake mica are pro-duced.
The mica comes from a
half-dozen open-pit mines and
plants in the Spruce Pine area in
Mitchell and Avery counties.
Feldspar
Since 1917, North Carolina has
been the nation's leading feldspar
producer. Feldspar is used in the
ceramic industry and in making
glass, especially jars and bottles.
Television picture tubes also use
feldspar.
In the late 1 800s, feldspar was
first mined near Sylva in Jackson
County. In 1 91 1 mining began
near Spruce Pine. That area now
is North America's principal feld-spar-
producing region. At first,
Definitions
handpicked ore was shipped to
out-of-state mills for processing.
After a large grinding plant was
built nearby in Tennessee in 1914,
North Carolina became a steady
producer. A great deal of research
led to the construction of a new
processing mill at Spruce Pine in
1946. New technology reduced
the amount of hand labor needed
to mine and sort ore. Massive,
heavy equipment now digs,
moves, and processes large
quantities of ore cheaply and
efficiently.
Olivine
Olivine is an unusual, green-colored,
heat resistant mineral.
Because of its heat resistance,
olivine is used to make molds.
Molten iron, steel, and aluminum
are poured into the molds to make
castings. These metal castings
range from small, delicate shapes
to huge industrial machine parts.
Olivine was first identified in
North Carolina in the late 1 800s.
Because the deposits sometimes
contain ruby and sapphire, gem
hunters soon located nearly all
the olivine. By 1933 commercial
production of olivine was under-way.
There are several hundred
olivine deposits in the mountain
region. Only about two dozen
are big enough to be mined. In
North Carolina, one mill in
Yancey County processes
olivine ore mined from several
nearby deposits.
What will happen to mining
in the future?
In the future, we can anticipate
that the old mining districts will
continue to attract prospectors.
They will continue to look for
undiscovered ore deposits.
We can also anticipate that as
society's desires and commercial
needs change, the nation's miners
will respond. New mines
producing new minerals may have
to be developed. Some old mines
will have to close. But it is almost
certain that ordinary crushed
stone quarries will be needed to
meet our local needs for many,
many years to come.
Soapstone is a soft, talc-rich rock that can be easily
cut and carved.
Ores are minerals or rocks containing metal that can
be mined and refined. After an ore has been dug
from the ground, it is refined. In refining, the ore is
heated in a forge or a furnace and the metal is
separated from other minerals. Forges are also
used to take a metal, such as iron, and heat and
shape it to make tools. Charcoal is a black, brittle
form of carbon made by partly burning wood without
air. Charcoal was used to create fires in furnaces
and forges. Part of the reason for granting land to
iron manufacturers was to supply the iron works
with sources of wood to make charcoal.
44
Meet the authors
Ron Holland is regional supervisor, Western Office, Division of Archives and History, N.C. Department of
Cultural Resources, Asheville. Harley Jolley teaches history, Mars Hill College, Mars Hill and is an
authority on the history of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Betty Jolley teaches geography, Mars Hill College,
Mars Hill. David Moore is staff archaeologist, Western Office, Division of Archives and History, N.C.
Department of Cultural Resources, Asheville. Duane King is assistant director, National Museum of the
American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, New York City. Joan Moser teaches sociology and anthropology,
Warren Wilson College, Swannanoa. Bob Conway retired several years ago from the Western Office,
Division of Archives and History, N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, Asheville. He now presents
programs for the Cherokee Historical Association, Cherokee. Hugh MacRae Morton has been active in
promoting tourism and environmental protection for many years in North Carolina. He operates Grandfather
Mountain. Mitzl Tessier is an author living in Asheville. She has written Asheville: A Pictorial History and is
working on Buncombe County: A Pictorial History. Jim Ryan is park ranger and management assistant,
Blue Ridge Parkway, National Park Service, Asheville. Ed Trout is park historian, Great Smoky Mountains
National Park, National Park Service, Gatlinburg, Tennessee. John Palmer is forestry instructor and
campus arboretum director, Haywood Community College, Clyde. Leonard Wiener is geologist, Geological
Survey, N.C. Department of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources, Asheville.
Acknowledgments
Artifact credits: Unless otherwise indicated, artifacts are from the collection of the N.C. Museum of History. Thanks to Al Hoilman, Collections Branch, N.C. Museum of
History, for artifact assistance. Photograph and illustration credits: Eric Blevins, photographer, collections and design branches, N.C. Museum of History, photographed
the museum's artifacts. Unless otherwise indicated, Lee Bumgarner, editor, produced maps, graphics, charts, and timeline. Unless otherwise indicated, historical
photographs are provided by the Archives and Records Section, Division of Archives and History, N.C. Department of Cultural Resources. Front and back cover: Susan
Fender, Raleigh; page 3, map by Jean Marie McManus, Raleigh; page 4, both photos by Tim Barnwell, © copyright; page 5, top left. North Carolina Collection, University of
N.C. Library at Chapel Hill; page 5, bottom. Public Information, N.C. Department of Transportation; pages 6, 7, and 8, courtesy of author; page 1 5, courtesy of author; page
1 6, objects courtesy of Lee Bumgarner, photographed by Eric Blevins; page 1 7, top left, courtesy of author, photograph by Bob Lindsey, Asheville Area Chamber of
Commerce; page 17, top right, North Carolina Collection, UNC Library at Chapel Hill; page 18, courtesy of Cherokee Historical Association, Cherokee, photograph by Edward
L. DuPuy, Black Mountain; page 20, Cherokee Historical Association; page 21 , left, courtesy of Southern Highland Handicraft Guild, Asheville; page 24, all courtesy of
author; page 25, all photos by Tim Barnwell, © copyright; page 26, courtesy of author; page 27, Pack Memorial Library, Asheville: page 28, top right, North Carolina
Collection, University of N.C. Library at Chapel Hill; page 32, courtesy of authors; page 34, courtesy of author; page 37, North Carolina Collection, University of N.C. Library at
Chapel Hill: page 37, bottom left, courtesy of author, ©copyright The Biltmore Company, Asheville; page 37, middle, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture,
provided by Forest History Society, Durham; page 37, top right, courtesy of author; page 38, courtesy of author, ©copyright The Biltmore Company. Asheville; page 41 , top,
courtesy of author, N.C. Geological Survey Bulletin 32, 1923; page 41 , bottom, courtesy of author. Colburn Gem and Mineral Museum, Asheville; page 44, courtesy of author,
U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 740, 1923. Special thanks: Many thanks to Sam Anthony for his unflagging enthusiasm in researching photographs; thanks for map
reproduction assistance to Bob Frye, Technical Services Section, Division of Archives and History; thanks for photo reproduction assistance to Nick Lanier, Western Office,
Division of Archives and History, Asheville; thanks to David Moore, Western Office, for reviewing maps; thanks to Steve Massengill, Archives and Records Section, Division
of Archives and History, for photograph search assistance; thanks to John Ellington, Wesley Creel, Janice Williams, Jackson Marshall, Doris Bates, Ron Holland, and Harley
Jolley for reviewing the manuscripts; thanks to Doris Bates and Lynn Lye, Education Branch, N.C. Museum of History, for producing 'Adviser's Supplement." Special, special
kudos and undying gratitude go to Ron Holland for photograph research, advice, editing, writing, and other things that I do not know about.—Ed. O
45
North Carolina Museum of History
Division of Archives and History
Department of Cultural Resources
109 East Jones Street
Raleigh, North Carolina 27601-2807
Library Rates
CROSSROADS
AWARDS DAY 1989 A HIT!
Awards Day 1989 was a
great success! The event was
fun and rewarding for all junior
historians who met May 25-26
at the Peace College campus,
Raleigh. Over 500 students and
advisers from across the state
gathered for the annual
meeting. For many students, a
year of hard work paid off as
they received awards for their
projects. Tom Belton,
executive secretary of the Tar
Heel Junior Historian
Association (THJHA),
commented, "The atmosphere
at the awards program was
much like that at the Academy
Awards in Hollywood!"
On Thursday, junior
historians mingled with club
members from other schools.
After the presentation of special
awards and student
entertainment that evening, the
crowd danced to a DJ's
booming music. Belton
laughed, "That dance always
leads to friendship and
romance."
But the convention included
far more than social activity.
Friday morning, junior historians
attended two historical
workshops of their choice.
Belton declared that the
workshops "were terrific."
Following lunch on the grounds,
the festivities were topped off by
the awards program. Dr.
William S. Price, Jr., director,
N.C. Division of Archives and
History, presented thirty-five
awards in three categories.
Smiling winners came up on
stage while the audience
clapped and cheered. The
audience was so thrilled with
each junior historian on stage
that by the end it was clear:
everyone at Awards Day 1989
was a winner!
INSIDE
Winning Workshops 2
Artifact Search 3
Contest
Thoughts on Awards 4
Day
Societies' Special 5
Prizes
THJH Magazine 6
News
Competitors Reach 8
Raleigh
This Year's Top 1
1
Advisers
What's Coming Up 12
in 1990?
LIGHTS,
CAMERA,
AND LOTS OF
ACTION AT
AWARDS DAY
When the curtain went up on
the workshops at Awards Day
1989, junior historians were
treated to an extravaganza of
shows. A variety of workshop
presenters took the stage
Friday morning to interpret
North Carolina history. All
seven presenters played their
parts well. Each turned the
spotlight to some aspect of
North Carolina's coastal plain.
In some cases, the
audiences participated in the
drama. Spectators at George
Pettengell's demonstration of
colonial coopering became
leading actors when they got to
try their hand at making
buckets. Pettengell is a cooper
at Colonial Williamsburg,
Virginia.
At other workshops,
presenters took over the whole
act. Connie Mason, N.C.
Maritime Museum, Beaufort,
George Pettengell
perfects the angle
on the wood that
students used to
make their own
buckets.
serenaded junior historians
during her performance of
"Wind, Water, and Song: Life on
Portsmouth Island." Duncan
McKee and Jimmy Barger,
Elizabeth II State Historic Site,
Manteo, attracted attention
when they appeared in full
sixteenth-century costume for
their "We'd Rather Knot"
demonstration of knot tying.
Meanwhile, Billy E.
Richardson, Airship Industries
USA, Inc., Weeksville, took on
the role of teacher when he
discussed how blimps and
airships fit into coastal history.
The Knotts Island Junior
Historical Association, Knotts
Island School, Knotts Island,
brought along a whole cast of
students to illustrate the "Art of
Decoy Making."
Junior historians also caught
a glimpse of what went on
behind the scenes for sailors on
battleships in World War II.
"Making buckets was
fascinating. You could
watch it actually
happening!"
—Blair Smith, student,
East Rowan High School
Janette Meek, USS North
Carolina Battleship Memorial
Commission, Wilmington, came
to discuss the sailors' lives on
board ship.
Finally, Leisa Brown,
Somerset Place State Historic
Site, Creswell, brought down the
house with her workshop,
"Somerset Place: Past
Present, and Future."
When the shows were over,
junior historians gave the
workshops rave reviews. The
presenters turned out to be an
informative and entertaining
cast of players!
Artifact search winners
Tracking
down history
at the annual
artifact search
This year, sixty-nine junior
historians from across North
Carolina went hunting for their
state's past. They unearthed
110 artifacts while participating
in the eleventh annual artifact
search, sponsored by the North
Carolina Museum of History
Associates. Each of the twelve
clubs whose students
participated in the search
received a copy of Stephen E.
Massengill's North Carolina
Votes on the Constitution: A
Roster of Delegates to the
State Ratification Conventions
of 1788 and 1789. Recently
published by the N.C. Division
of Archives and History, the
book is the first in a series to be
printed in cooperation with the
Crossroads
John Lee Bumgarner, Editor
Lisa Marie O'Neil, Editorial
Intern
Tom Belton and Susan Baker
Monroe, Reporters
Ursula Gray, Editorial
Assistant
Eric Blevins and Jim Mercer,
Photographers
Crossroads is a newsletter
published once during the school
year by the Tar Heel Junior
Historian Association, North
Carolina Museum of History, 109
East Jones Street, Raleigh, NC
27611. Copies are provided free to
club members, along with the
magazine Tar Heel Junior
Historian. Individual and library
subscriptions for the newsletter
and magazine may be purchased
at the rate of $3.00 per year.
North Carolina Commission on
the Bicentennial of the United
States Constitution. In addition,
thirteen junior historians who
located exceptional North
Carolina artifacts received a
copper brooch of the dogwood
flower. The commemorative
pins were handcrafted in North
Carolina using copper from the
dome of the state capitol
building, which was removed in
1972 during extensive
renovations.
Those junior historians
receiving awards are as
follows: James Alston, Yellow
Jacket Historians, John Graham
Middle School, Warrenton; Anita
Sadler, The Moratoc
MarConians, E. J. Hayes
Elementary School, Williamston;
Teresa Shough, Madison-
Mayodan Junior Tar Heels V,
Madison-Mayodan Middle
School, Madison; Kristi Lunch,
Yellow Jacket Historians, John
Graham Middle School,
Warrenton; Lee A. Peele,
Yellow Jacket Historians, John
Graham Middle School,
Warrenton; Tyra Houghton,
Carmel's Adventurous Tar
Heels (CATS), Carmel Junior
High School, Charlotte; Lynne
Mastandrea, Carmel's
Adventurous Tar Heels (CATS),
Carmel Junior High School,
Charlotte; Elizabeth Albert,
Carmel's Adventurous Tar
Heels (CATS), Carmel Junior
High School, Charlotte; Kara
Matterman, Parkwood History
Cubs, Parkwood Middle School,
Monroe; Lisa M. Johnson,
Academy Adventurers,
Waccamaw Academy,
Whiteville; Jann McKeithan,
Parkwood History Cubs,
Parkwood Middle School,
Monroe; Monica Miller,
Mustang Militia, East Rowan
High School, Salisbury; and
Ernest L. Ritchie, Mustang
Militia, East Rowan High
School, Salisbury.
WOULD YOU WALK A MILE TO PEACE COLLEGE?
ao
Would you walk a mile to
Peace College? Well, Tar
Heels are famous for their feet,
but we still don't know anyone
who actually footed it to the Tar
Heel Junior Historian
Association's annual Awards
Day.
We do know at least two
boys who couldn't make the trip
on the school bus. Instead they
sent their father. John and Joe
Fernald's dad showed up at
Peace College when his sons
got sick. The twins from
Cumberland County insisted
that they didn't want to miss a
bit of the weekend's excitement.
Sending their father was the
best they could do. We don't
Students came to
Raleigh from all
over. Monica
Miller and her
adviser. Julie
Smith (standing
left), arrived from
Salisbury (right
photo). Others
poured in from
Beaufort County
(below).
know if he enjoyed the ride or
not.
Monica Miller, on the other
hand, could have arrived at the
convention in a one-horse
buggy. She didn't though. The
old buggy was her winning entry
in the artifacts search contest.
Monica, three-year member
and president of East Rowan's
Mustang Militia, Salisbury,
discovered the buggy at her
family's homestead. Everyone
told her digging it out would be
too much trouble, but she didn't
give up! Today she has an
award to make up for all her
work, even if she didn't get to
hitch up her artifact and drive to
the capital city.
BEAUFORT COUNTY SCHOOLS
Of course, most people at
Awards Day arrived by bus.
The Parkwood Middle School
Cubs, Monroe, came out in
force. Randy Howell, Noah
Duvernell, Marc Arnold, Jay
Hutcherson, and Jeff Howard
piled out of their bus onto
Peace College's campus ready
to embark on two days of fun
and learning. Noah and his
friends spent Thursday
afternoon together while other
students played frisbee. They
argued about the Civil War
(from both sides), discussed the
dance planned for Thursday
night, and realized that talking
and learning with friends
provided, as Noah said, "a lot
of opportunities."
Later that evening the
Parkwood club performed,
"They'll Never Hang a
Woman," during student
entertainment. Raina Trull, who
acted in the play, agreed with
Noah. She said that Awards
Day was "very creative and a
great learning experience."
All in all, junior historians
agreed that it was worth the
long ride from any hometown
—
on foot or by bus!
SOCIETIES
PRESENT
AWARDS
Melvin T. Scott, Jr.,
Jamesville Junior Historians,
Jamesville Elementary School,
Jamesville, won the Afro-
American History Award and
$50.00 for his paper, "Struggles
to Success." The Piedmont
Area Branch of the Association
for the Study of Afro-American
Life and History sponsors this
award to encourage student
appreciation for black
achievements. Melvin's article
details the life of David Franklin
Griffin, who was orphaned as a
child and became a prominent
black minister in Williamston.
The North Carolina
Genealogy Society presented
two $25.00 awards because
there were so many high-quality
submissions. One
award went to Amanda Ellen
McGrady, Martin '76ers, Martin
Middle School, Raleigh, for her
entry, "Tracing My Roots." The
other award was presented to
Lee Waterfield, Knotts Island
Junior Historians, Knotts Island
School, Knotts Island, for his
project, "The Waterfield
Heritage." Lee Albright of the
Genealogy Society stated, "I
was so pleased to see the
PICTURE
PERFECT
DETAIL
Photography has
become a great interest of
junior historians. In part
this is because the State
Historic Preservation Office
has sponsored the North
Carolina Historic
Architecture Contest since
1979. Students in
competition are encouraged
to photograph unique North
Carolina buildings and
architectural elements. This
practice helps them to
appreciate the value of
photographic documentation
as a historical research tool.
We congratulate the contest
winners, whose names, entry
titles, and photographs will
appear in the fall 1989 issue
of the Tar Heel Junior
Historian magazine.
Southern Junior
High THJHA
receives Youth
Preservation
Award (above,
left). Scott wins
Afro-American
History Award
(above, right).
McGrady and
Waterfield with
Genealogy
Society awards.
number of excellent entries and
the interest in genealogy."
The Southern Junior High
Tar Heel Junior Historian
Association, Southern Junior
High School, Roxboro, won the
$50.00 Youth Preservation
Award sponsored by the
Historic Preservation
Foundation of North Carolina,
Inc. Under the guidance of
Mitch Wilds, State Historic
Preservation Office, club
members removed deteriorated
boards on an antebellum
smokehouse in Person County
and replaced them with solid
boards from the same period.
They also repaired and painted
the tin roof, and they painted the
smokehouse white.
EDITOR
REVEALS
THEMES FOR
NEW ISSUES
Recently, John Lee
Bumgarner, editor of the Tar
Heel Junior Historian, revealed
the topics of the upcoming
issues of the magazine. During
the 1989-1990 school year,
two issues will be published by
the Tar Heel Junior Historian
Association. The first of the
two, the fall 1989 issue, will deal
with historic preservation. The
publication, which has been a
long time in the works, will
commemorate the fiftieth
anniversary of the Historic
Preservation Foundation of
North Carolina, Inc., an
organization that works to
restore and preserve North
Carolina homes, buildings, and
landmarks.
Meanwhile, the spring 1990
THJH will concentrate on the
North Carolina piedmont. This
issue will be the second in a
series of three that focus on the
different geographical regions
of the state: the coastal plain,
the piedmont, and the
The North
Carolina piedmont
has been a center
of industrial and
technological
growth. At R. J.
Reynolds
Company's
Tobaccoville
plant, for example,
the cigarette
manufacturing
industry
nourishes What
other industries
have developed in
the piedmont?
mountains. Bumgarner
commented, "Our spring 1989
coastal plain issue was a
tremendous success. It was
great! We had a lot of positive
response from students and
teachers. They all like this
series because they can learn
something different about
another region of North
Carolina."
All three consulting editors
of the fall THJH are part of the
Historic Preservation
Foundation. Catherine Bishir is
a well-known historic
preservationist and author who
is currently director of the North
Carolina Architecture Project for
the foundation. Along with
Bishir, Myrick Howard, the
foundation's executive director,
and Sally Poland, director of
education/events, will make
contributions to the magazine in
an effort to introduce students to
historic preservation. Howard
explained, "We believe it's very
important that young people
develop an interest in their
heritage as it lives and as it
stands around them. We hope
students realize what their
churches, homes, or schools
mean to them and to their
society."
These experts believe that
students must learn to
appreciate all kinds of North
Carolina houses and buildings.
Many junior historians have, of
course, been to Raleigh and
have seen the State Capitol
and the restored houses on
Blount Street. But how many
students have thought about old
tobacco barns as important
structures? Old barns and
packhouses are very much a
"We want students to say,
'What makes my town or
my state different and
how can we keep it that
way
—Sally Poland,
consulting editor
part of North Carolina culture.
They are an expression of the
way we live and of the
agriculture that made us what
we are!
All buildings represent in
some way what is unique about
the place where they stand.
The architecture in North
Carolina is, therefore, different
from that which exists in all
other states. "North Carolina is
not," said Bumgarner, "like
New Mexico. There are no
adobe houses here, but there
are houses that are made out of
pinewood." Sally Poland states
that the Historic Preservation
Foundation and the Tar Heel
Junior Historian Association
"want to get students out in the
community to look up at the
architecture and say What
makes my town or my state
different and how can we keep
it that way?' We'd like to sow
the seeds of historic
preservation in the next
generation."
In the THJH piedmont issue,
three distinguished professors
will serve as consulting editors.
They are Dr. John David Smith,
professor of history, NCSU,
Raleigh; Dr. David R. Goldfield,
Robert Lee Bailey Professor of
History, UNC-Charlotte; and
Dr. Lindley Butler, historian-in-
residence, Rockingham
Community College, Wentworth.
Goldfield remarked on the
importance of the spring
rrNo longer do Indian
trails connect piedmont
cities. The region has
witnessed an evolution
from trails to railroads to
modern interstates and
airplanes."
publication by saying, "Most
school curricula don't deal with
regional issues. They deal with
the state and the nation but not
with regions. The piedmont
issue will, then, add a new
dimension to students' studies
of North Carolina."
The piedmont is a distinctly
different place from the coastal
plain or the mountains. It is
mostly rolling hills. It starts at
the fall line, the eastern dividing
These are
photographs of
the Richmond Law
School, Yadkin
County, before
and after
restoration. Why
is it important to
restore and
preserve old
buildings and
homes ? What
does a building
tell us about when
it was built or
about the people
who built it?
line where rivers are too steep
and rocky for navigation
upstream, and it works its way
westward towards the
mountains.
The piedmont is an area of
great interest, not only because
of its geography, but also
because of the contact between
rural and urban sectors. Farms
sit alongside the outer limits of
growing cities where industries
such as textile, furniture, and
tobacco manufacturing have
developed.
Today a sweeping arc of
cities—each with its own style
and personality—runs west and
south from Raleigh to Charlotte,
the state's largest city. And no
longer do Indian trails connect
these cities. The piedmont has
witnessed an evolution from
trails to railroads to modern
interstates and airplanes. The
central plateau of North
Carolina, technologically
progressive and culturally and
geographically diverse, is a
fascinating study.
TEACHERS: Have your
students research and write
articles for the piedmont issue.
Note that articles are due by
October 30, 1989. See the
latest Teacher's Supplement for
editorial guidelines.
WORKING
THEIR WAY
UP: JUNIOR
HISTORIANS
REACH
RALEIGH
Each year, junior historians
across the state slowly climb
the THJHA contest ladder with
their history projects. On the
ladder's first rung, students
compete at local schools,
where advisers and other adults
select each club's best
projects. As many as six of the
selected projects may be
entered in the statewide
competition. These winning
student entries step up the
ladder towards the highest
contest level in Raleigh.
Once in Raleigh, most clubs
compete in the general contest
at either the elementary or
regular contest level. Some
clubs, however, may enter their
projects at the very top of the
ladder—in the special
achievement category. These
are the clubs that have
previously distinguished
themselves by winning at least
two first-place awards and one
honorable mention in three
separate contests.
Of course, all contest
participants sharpened their
research and artistic skills while
learning about their
communities. They also helped
others become more aware of
North Carolina's complex
history. The association wishes
to recognize all the winners,
who are listed below by
category.
RAILROAD
MEDIA CONTEST
Elementary
contest/individual
First place
"Wildlife on Lake Mattamuskeet
National Wildlife Refuge"
Anita Sadler
The Moratoc MarConians
E. J. Hayes Elementary School
Williamston
Mrs. Minnie Hoggard, adviser
Honorable mention
"An Oral History of Famous
Women in North Carolina History"
Martha Wayne
Academy Adventurers
Waccamaw Academy
Whiteville
Mrs. Betty Butler, adviser
Elementary
contest/group
First place
"Dymond City: Martin County's
Ghost Town"
Jamesville Junior Historian Club
Jamesville Elementary School
Jamesville
Mrs. Merle Price and Mrs. Nancy
Long, advisers
Honorable mention
"The King-Bazemore House"
The Moratoc MarConians
E. J. Hayes Elementary School
Williamston
Mrs. Minnie Hoggard, adviser
Regular
contest/individual
First place
"Economic Growth of Greenville"
Mandy Cox
History Unlimited II
E. B. Aycock Junior High School
Greenville
Mrs. Patricia Sheppard, adviser
Honorable mention
"Evans' Family Cemeteries"
Amy Schwartz
Carolina Explorers
E. B. Aycock Junior High School
Greenville
Mrs. Sandra Walton, adviser
Regular contest/group
First place
"The Legend of Frankie Silver:
They'll Never Hang a Woman"
Parkwood History Cubs
Parkwood Middle School
Monroe
Mrs. Nancy Mills and Mrs.
Donna Elmore, advisers
Honorable mention
"Interview With Thad Eure"
Martin '76ers
Martin Middle School
Raleigh
Mr. Craig Matthews, Mrs. Sarah
Jordan, and Ms. Joyce Somes,
advisers
Special
achievement/group
First place
"Mackay Island National Wildlife
Refuge"
Knotts Island Junior Historians
Knotts Island School
Knotts Island
Mrs. Faye Freeman, adviser
Honorable mention
"Those Were The Days"
Eagle Express
C. C. Erwin Junior High School
Salisbury
Mr. Terry Holt and Mr. Terry Shive,
advisers
LITERARY
CONTEST
Elementary
contest/individual
First place
"Wilmington and the Cape Fear
River"
Lisa Johnson
Academy Adventurers
Waccamaw Academy
Whiteville
Mrs. Betty Butler, adviser
Honorable mention
"History of the Roanoke River"
Don Mills
The Moratoc MarConians
E. J. Hayes Elementary School
Williamston
Mrs. Minnie Hoggard, adviser
Elementary
contest/group
Honorable mention
"David Stone"
The Moratoc MarConians
E. J. Hayes Elementary School
Williamston
Mr. Minnie Hoggard, adviser
Regular
contest/individual
First place
"Blackbeard"
Dru Lewis
Carolina Explorers
E. B. Aycock Junior High School
Greenville
Mrs. Sandra Walton, adviser
Honorable mention
(two-way tie)
"The Hunt"
Ann Weathers
Nash Central Junior Historians
Nash Central Junior High School
Nashville
Mrs. Cherry, Mrs. Smith, and Mrs.
Flowers, advisers
"My Diary: Year One-June,
1860-June, 1861"
Andrea Rosenberg
The Brogden Emeralds
Brogden Middle School
Durham
Mrs. P. Honkanen, adviser
Regular contest/group
First place
"Spirit of Bathtown"
Carolina Explorers
E. B. Aycock Junior High School
Greenville
Mrs. Sandra Walton, adviser
Honorable mention
"History of Early Churches in Rowan
County"
Mustang Militia
East Rowan High School
Salisbury
Mrs. Julie Smith, adviser
Special
achievement/individual
First place
"Charlie Poole: Rockingham
County Stnngband Musician"
Alex Seymour
Wentworth Tar Heel Junior
Historians
Wentworth School
Wentworth
Mr. Ward Triche, adviser
Honorable mention
"The Waterfield Heritage"
Lee Waterfield
Knotts Island Junior Historians
Knotts Island School
Knotts Island
Mrs. Faye Freeman, adviser
Special
achievement/group
First place
"Sounder"
Couratucke
Currituck County High School
Currituck
Mrs. Barbara Snowden, adviser
Honorable mention
"Grist Mill Gleanings"
Eagle Express
C. C. Erwin Junior High School
Mr. Terry Holt and Mr. Terry Shive,
advisers
ART CONTEST
Elementary
contest/individual
First place
"One Room School House"
Queshenna Armstrong
Jamesville Junior Historian Club
Jamesville Elementary School
Jamesville
Mrs. Merle Price and Mrs. Nancy
Long, advisers
Honorable mention
"Blackbeard"
Tyler Gooden
Academy Adventurers
Waccamaw Academy
Whiteville
Mrs. Betty Butler, adviser
Elementary
contest/group
First place
"Our North Carolina Quilt"
Lighthouse Historians
East End Elementary School
Durham
Mrs. LaHarve M. Johnson, adviser
Honorable mention
"J & W Railroad"
Jamesville Junior Historian Club
Jamesville Elementary School
Jamesville
Mrs. Merle Price and Mrs.
Nancy Long, advisers
Regular
contest/individual
First place
"The Old Johnson House"
April Arrington
Regulators and Revolutionaries
Douglas Byrd Junior High School
Fayetteville
Mr. Gary Whitman, adviser
Honorable mention
(two-way tie)
"A Teachery"
Jay Hutcherson
Parkwood History Cubs
Parkwood Middle School
Monroe
Mrs. Nancy Mills and Mrs. Donna
Elmore, advisers
"Cross Creek Cemetery"
Max Weinstem
Fayetteville Academy Chapter
Fayetteville Academy
Fayetteville
Mrs. Lulie Harry, adviser
Regular contest/group
First place
"Organ Church: 244 Years of
History"
Mustang Militia
East Rowan High School
Salisbury
Mrs. Julie Smith, adviser
Honorable mention
(two-way tie)
"Sherman Burns the Arsenal"
Stedman Junior High Historians
Stedman Junior High School
Stedman
Mrs. Lynn Bunce, adviser
"Quilt Sampler"
Carmel's Adventurous Tar Heels
(CATS)
Carmel Junior High School
Charlotte
Mrs. Lutecia Hathcock, adviser
Special
Achievement/individual
First place
"The Waterfie