State

Our Welcomers By BOB CONWAY usage to simply "Dakota." The "Fighting Sioux" of North Dakota are in the same athletic conference as the "Coyotes" of South Dakota, but those handles obviously don’t lend them¬ selves to any confusion. But there is intense rivalry between the universities and the states, ac¬ cording to Mr. Strinden. He cited some ruffled feelings in the upper stale over the fact that the University of South Dakota band calls itself the "Pride of the Dakotas" — but that, of course, is direct verbal piracy as opposed to the muddier issue of which state or univer¬ sity is "Carolina." "The biggest question around here is where Chief Sitting Bull’s bones are buried." continued the North Dako¬ tan. alluding to a charge they’d been stolen. He also recalled that some public relations types in his state had once talked about changing the name to pure "Dakota" to remove the con¬ notation of coldness that the "North" implied. That would have left South Dakota just hanging there by its own modifier. The plan didn't fly. In con¬ clusion. Mr. Strinden admitted a hit sadly, there's right much confusion east of the Mississippi about North and South Dakota: "People are just as likely to put Pierre (the South Dakota capital city) in North Dakota, and Fargo (the capital of North Dakota) in the other state. They just don’t under¬ stand our geography." Unbiased Research The good people of academia in South Carolina are gentle in their view of this matter. Asked for a historical review of when the University of South Carolina became "Carolina." they came up with some more definite facts. USC Historian Prof. Dan Hollis pointed out that the institution was chartered in 1801 as South Carolina College. It was closed during the Civil War and re-opened in 1865 as the Uni¬ versity of South Carolina. After another closing in 1877 it reopened in 1880 as South Carolina College of Mechanics and Arts, in obvious al¬ legiance to which a student publication was named "The Collegian." The name was formally changed to the University of South Carolina in 1887. In the spirit of the earlier situa¬ tion. the name of the student publica¬ tion was changed to "The Carolinian." That evidence tends to show that the name "Carolina" for the institution at Columbia had no factual basis before 1865 — a full three score and 10 years after Hinton James trekked the long ( Continued on page 53) THE STATE, May 1980 When out-of-state travelers enter North Carolina on one of the Interstate highways, the first Tar Heels they en¬ counter often arc the friendly, helpful women at a North Carolina Welcome Center. First known as "hostesses." they are now designated "information spe¬ cialists" and every day except Christ¬ mas they are busy dispensing facts and figures about the state with the effi¬ ciency of a computer. North Carolina now has five Wel¬ come Centers: two on Interstate 85. two on I -95. and a fifth on 1-40. Three more arc planned: one on 1-26 near Tryon and two on 1-77. one near Ml. Airy and another south of Charlotte. In a particularly scenic mountain setting is the Welcome Center near Waynesville on Interstate 40. a few miles south of the Tennessee state line in the Pigeon River Gorge. "Many visitors tell us this is the prettiest center they have ever seen." says Mrs. Margie Millar, manager. The native stone and frame building and its attractive grounds have won a national award for Dick Bell. Raleigh landscape architect. What docs it take to work at a Wel¬ come Center? "Above all. you've got to like peo¬ ple." Mrs. Millar points out. During the height of the travel season, the public comes into the center in a virtual Hood — although most of the visitors remain only briefly, getting informa¬ tion and picking up various North Car¬ olina brochures. Three of the women at the 1-40 cen¬ ter: Trisha Dixon. Judy Teague, and Vickie Smith — once worked at banks in Haywood County. The information specialists are trained on the job and new employees are sent out periodically on tour of at¬ tractions in the region. They find it much easier to talk about places they have seen themselves, they explain. Many of the questions about Tar Heel attractions are in regard to the Biltmore Estate. Cherokee. Grand¬ father Mountain. Chimney Rock. Blue Ridge Parkway, the Boone- Blowing Rock area, and the North Carolina coast. Tourists frequently ask the distance to various points and quite a few. pos¬ sibly thinking about retirement, in¬ quire about the weather — especially in the winter time. The women at the center seldom get a question they can’t handle, but they