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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.

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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

Much of the Oklawaha Greenway is lined with trees.
The Good Walk

Walking Oklawaha Greenway

Located just minutes from downtown Hendersonville, North Carolina, this 3.25-mile scenic pathway winds through forests and wetlands.

May 1, 2026

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