Archive
Recent Stories
Joseph Mackereth
Guardians of the Blooms
Helen and Julia Smith spent a quarter century documenting the wildflowers along the Blue Ridge Parkway on slides and in notebooks, eventually influencing the Parkway to change its mowing practices to preserve the blooms. Read more
Historic Rugby: Utopia Resurrected
Tennessee 52 negotiates the humps and dips of the Cumberland Plateau amid rural scenes-horses loosed in pastures, homes with manicured lawns in front and corn fields out back, ragged groves of plantation pines. Read more
Su Clauson
Ray Hicks: America's Premiere Storyman
Beech Mountain Native Says it "Comes Natural" Read more
Courtesy Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), Lynchburg District.
The Storm That Swallowed a County
In late August, 1969, Hurricane Camille produced a once-in-10,000-years inland storm with the strength of a 40,000-megaton nuclear bomb that nearly destroyed Nelson County, Va. Read more
The Blue Ridge Mountain Frescoes of Ashe County, N.C.
It's Not Just Their Subjects That Are The Stuff Of Miracles Read more
Courtesy of Steve Brooks, Maxine Kenny
Figuring Out the Forever Forest
What if every county in the Blue Ridge region were home to at least one 500-year forest? The foundation carrying that name has already helped several property owners toward taking part in that effort. The result could be magnificent. Read more
The Carter Family Lives On...
Janette Carter Extends A 60-Year Tradition That Began With The Birth Of Country Music Read more
Randy Johnson
Should We Save the Vanishing Balds? The Forest Service Says "Yes"
The Southern Appalachian regions of North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia contain about 2,500 acres of "balds"-high, open meadows along the ridges of mountain peaks. How they got there and how to keep them there have become hot topics. Read more
Brown Mountain Lights
Cherokee maidens in search of fallen warriors? The souls of a slain mother and child? A war hero in search of his family? Let's go find out. Read more
Mabry Mill: The History of A Twice Saved Beauty On The Parkway
The most-photographed spot along the 470 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway was nearly lost before the roadway was built. And then again even after it was decided to save it. Old Ed Mabry would sure stand proud at what's happened to his mill. Read more
From The Archive: The Day They Hanged an Elephant in East Tennessee
In 1916 World War I raged in Europe. Dadaism, ripe with comic derision and irrationality, took hold in artistic circles. Margaret Sanger opened the first birth-control clinic. It was a good year for scapegoats. It was a good year to hang an elephant. Read more
Photos courtesy of Pike County KY Tourism Commission ("Devil Anse" Hatfield photo courtesy West Virginia State Archives)
Hatfields & McCoys, Revisited, Part 11: "It's The Pigs! "
I am sure that many intelligent readers of feud books wonder, as I did for several decades, why people believe the cartoonish feud yarns. Read more
Photos courtesy of Pike County KY Tourism Commission ("Devil Anse" Hatfield photo courtesy West Virginia State Archives)
Hatfields & McCoys, Revisited, Part 10: "Hounds, Geese and Gunshots"
Photos courtesy of Pike County KY Tourism Commission ("Devil Anse" Hatfield photo courtesy West Virginia State Archives)
Hatfields & McCoys, Revisited, Part 9: "Rocks All The Way Down"
You may have heard this story in its more popular version, which has turtles instead of rocks, but the earliest version discovered (1838) goes like this... Read more
Photos courtesy of Pike County KY Tourism Commission ("Devil Anse" Hatfield photo courtesy West Virginia State Archives)
Hatfields & McCoys, Revisited, Part 8: Reexamining The Infamous Hog Trial
As this series is proving, much of the feud story is illogical, impossible or downright ludicrous. A surprising amount of it is also in clear conflict with official public records. Read more
Photos courtesy of Pike County KY Tourism Commission ("Devil Anse" Hatfield photo courtesy West Virginia State Archives)
Hatfields & McCoys, Revisited: Part 7 – Winners and Losers, Feudists and Financiers
From time to time someone will ask me, perhaps only half seriously, who won the Hatfield-McCoy feud. Given the way we think of feuds, as mighty struggles between two equal, or nearly equal, clans, it’s a legitimate question. So let’s have at it. Read more
Photos courtesy of Pike County KY Tourism Commission ("Devil Anse" Hatfield photo courtesy West Virginia State Archives)
Hatfields & McCoys, Revisited: Part 6 – Examining Justice in the "Lawless" Tug Valley
Many fables posing as “Feud history” begin with a few basic premises. Chief among these is the claim that the Tug Valley in the 1870’s-‘80’s was a lawless place. But court records for Pike and Logan Counties refute this contention entirely. Read more
Elizabeth Hunter
From the Farm: For the Wild World
The challenges facing the monarchs and the wild bees bring illumination and duty to protect what we put in peril. Read more
Photos courtesy of Pike County KY Tourism Commission ("Devil Anse" Hatfield photo courtesy West Virginia State Archives)
Hatfields & McCoys, Revisited: Part 5.3 - The Legend of Abner Vance
A Tale of Two Tales: The Legend of Abner Vance Part 3 of 3. By Ryan Hardesty, Creator of “The Real Hatfield, Real McCoy, Real Feud, Real Matewan Facebook Group” Read more