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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
Object Description
Description
Title | Tar heel junior historian |
Contributor | Tar Heel Junior Historian Association. |
Date | 1991 |
Subjects |
North Carolina--History--Periodicals North Carolina--History--Societies, etc.--Periodicals |
Place |
North Carolina, United States |
Time Period | (1990-current) Contemporary |
Description | Vol. 30, no. 2 (Spring 1991) |
Publisher | [Raleigh, N.C.] : Tarheel Junior Historian Association |
Rights | State Document see http://digital.ncdcr.gov/u?/p249901coll22,63754 |
Physical Characteristics | v. :ill. ;28 cm. |
Collection | North Carolina State Documents Collection. State Library of North Carolina |
Type | text |
Language | English |
Format | Periodicals |
Digital Characteristics-A | 7913 KB; 72 p. |
Digital Collection | North Carolina Digital State Documents Collection |
Digital Format | application/pdf |
Audience | All |
Pres File Name-M | pubs_serial_history_tarheeljuniorhistorian2830.pdf |
Pres Local File Path-M | \Preservation_content\StatePubs\pubs_serial_history\images_master\ |
Full Text | 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 |
OCLC Number-Original | 20803080 |