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Our Blue Ridge Towns

CURRENT Our Blue Ridge Towns

Our Blue Ridge Towns: Sylva/Dillsboro, North Carolina

Where Small Business is Big Business: An hour southwest of Asheville, two adjoining North Carolina towns have earned themselves a string of “firsts” and “onlys.”

Our Blue Ridge Towns: Thomas, W.Va. – “Everyone’s Hometown”

"Everyone’s Hometown." That’s what you see on the welcome signs coming into Thomas, West Virginia, population 554. Is a hometown feel enough to grow a remote high-valley town surrounded by national forest?

Our Blue Ridge Towns: Whitesburg, Kentucky Comes Back

With the region’s coal mining jobs largely gone, the east Kentucky town is at work on new ways of success.

Our Blue Ridge Towns: Riding the Art Train in Clifton Forge, Virginia

How does an out-of-the-way mountain town—pretty much left for dead a few decades back— make a comeback? It’s a long story that finally comes down to this: creativity and courage.

Current Issue

Left to right: Glass artisans use methane from nearby landfill at the Green Energy Park. A Civil War soldier stands watch over Sylva’s Main Street. Public art decorates Sylva’s business district. A cat peruses the offerings at Sylva’s City Lights Bookstore.

Our Blue Ridge Towns: Sylva/Dillsboro, North Carolina

Where Small Business is Big Business: An hour southwest of Asheville, two adjoining North Carolina towns have earned themselves a string of “firsts” and “onlys.”
Most of Thomas’s Front Street storefronts have been restored, with living space above thriving galleries and antique shops.

Our Blue Ridge Towns: Thomas, W.Va. – “Everyone’s Hometown”

"Everyone’s Hometown." That’s what you see on the welcome signs coming into Thomas, West Virginia, population 554. Is a hometown feel enough to grow a remote high-valley town surrounded by national forest?
Whitesburg is cradled by the Pine Mountains, at the western edge of the Appalachians.

Our Blue Ridge Towns: Whitesburg, Kentucky Comes Back

With the region’s coal mining jobs largely gone, the east Kentucky town is at work on new ways of success.
It’s a full house on Main Street at the beautiful Historic Masonic Theatre.

Our Blue Ridge Towns: Riding the Art Train in Clifton Forge, Virginia

How does an out-of-the-way mountain town—pretty much left for dead a few decades back— make a comeback? It’s a long story that finally comes down to this: creativity and courage.
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Departments

At Coopers Rock State Forest, new Stargazer cabins invite guests to look up through skylights and telescopes.
Country Roads

Even Closer to Almost Heaven

New Stargazer cabins at Coopers Rock State Forest offer a skyward escape in the mountains of West Virginia.

June 29, 2026
©Duncan Seaman
Country Roads

A Mountain Tradition Turns 90 

Visitors flock to Galax, Virginia, each summer for the Old Fiddlers’ Convention, a days-long celebration of Appalachian music.

June 29, 2026
Synchronous Fireflies
Creature Feature

The Light Fantastic

Fireflies are struggling with the effects of artificial light.

June 29, 2026

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