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15 May ' 13:00
Wed15
Landslide protocol: a muddied affair
The tragic death of a railroad worker investigating a fresh landslide along a rail line last week highlighted the hidden, yet inherent, risks for workers who are first on the scene in the aftermath of a slide.
Joseph Drewnoski, 33, of Waynesville, was buried and killed by a landslide in the middle of the night while surveying tracks for storm damage near Black Mountain following a weekend of unrelenting rains. Norfolk Southern Railway got a report of a landslide on the tracks in the middl...
Heart of the matter
It’s the sound of the ancient mountains, the unique people and rich culture of Southern Appalachia.
It’s the sound of Soldier’s Heart.
Filled with the musical att...
This time I’m sure of it; at least I think so
When I sat down to write a piece for this week’s paper my topic was already chosen. I was going to criticize the current legislative leadership in Raleigh and what that group is d...
Dobyns novel reveals small town underbelly
Stephen Dobyns has written 20 novels and more than 10 volumes of poetry; however, he is difficult to “classify.” His writing is praised by big league names as varied as Franc...
Segway tours make debut in Waynesville
The train was the first to arrive in Waynesville back in 1886; then, the rise of the automobile; but, this spring, there’s a new human transporter in town: the Segway.
The owners...
- The long and short of it: Space crunch leads to cosmetology waiting lists
- Duke rate hike beats the drum of fossil fuel power production
- Heart of the matter
- Youth soccer camps
- Cherokee casino hits earning milestone
- Landslide protocol: a muddied affair
- Sylva gun shop brings Bullet Bunker online
- Learn the secret of home cooking
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Identifying birdsWritten on Wednesday, 15 May 2013 14:28
Although bird identification can be perplexing — baffling at times for even the most accomplished birders — the principles of identification are relatively simple. We recognize birds by their visual appearances and by their vocalizations.
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10 May ' 10:36
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09 May ' 08:50
Thu09
- Advocates want to save little-known old growth pockets
- Walking the dog: The trials and tribulations of being homeless in Haywood
- New courthouse landscape to be less lush, more spartan
- Landslide kills railroad worker
- Canton residents trapped after landslide blocks road
- Price tag inches up on Cherokee jail and justice center
- Macon commissioner duo wants to spend down savings to bring on tax cuts
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07 May ' 21:15
Tue07
Advocates want to save little-known old growth pockets
Hidden among the expanse of forestland in Western North Carolina are little-known pockets of trees that are several centuries old. Either overlooked by loggers or too difficult to access, the old growth stands act as windows into the past and markers of Appalachian history.
Since the end of the Civil War until the 1930s, most forests in the eastern United States were clear-cut. However, some tracts were able to escape that era of industrialized logging and continue to grow.
Making crafts of the past come alive
In order to have a clear vision of the future, one must cherish the traditions of the past.
“Southern Appalachian traditions are our heritage,” said Beth Woody. “They made ...
Where do we go when the public square fractures?
The “fractured public square” refers to the loss of the place where a community discusses ideas, politics and values. The ideal public square can be both a bonding agent and a pla...
A rural bookstore that beat the odds
“Bookshops are magic.”
This quotation, buried in the middle of Wendy Welch’s The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap: A Memoir of Friendship, Community, and the Uncommon Pleasure o...
Advocates want to save little-known old growth pockets
Hidden among the expanse of forestland in Western North Carolina are little-known pockets of trees that are several centuries old. Either overlooked by loggers or too difficult to...
- Events for readers and writers
- Cops in schools offer more than peace of mind
- Upfront costs don’t deter plans for Cashiers ABC store
- HCC makes pitch for continued building plan
- Haywood weighs cost-benefit of more school cops
- Tribal Council vote on bear zoos disappointing
- A rural bookstore that beat the odds
- Arts scene
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Some scarlet tanagers are orangeWritten on Wednesday, 08 May 2013 00:00
Last Saturday, I led a bird identification workshop for the Smoky Mountain Field School. We started out in the morning in a residential area (Minot Park) in Gatlinburg and worked our way into the higher elevations of the national park by late afternoon. The weather at Newfound Gap was perfectly awful: wind, rain, fog, cold, you name it. But it was a good group and we did OK.
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03 May ' 13:33
Fri03
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01 May ' 10:44
0501
More hellos than goodbyes: Topography forces cell phone companies to weigh cost-benefit of erecting new towers
As long as Realtor Sammie Powell leans back in his chair in his home office, he can talk on his cell phone all day long. But as soon as he stands up to reach for something across his desk, his service goes from good to nonexistent.
“I could be sitting at my desk, and if I lean over, I might not pick up,” said Powell, who lives and works from his home in Villages of Plott Creek neighborhood in Waynesville.
Waynesville galleries get ready to paint the town for the season’s first art walk
If the litmus test of a community’s health is how strong its art scene is, then, by the looks of it, Waynesville is in tip-top shape.
Hundreds will take to the streets of downtow...
Despite failure, time will come for gun legislation
The defeat of gun control legislation in the Senate wasn’t as much surprising as it was disappointing. This is one of those issues — like gay rights or even limits on tobacco adve...
For your culinary and reading pleasure
Most booklovers have suffered that “Oh, no” moment when a friend, with nothing but the best of intentions, presses an unfamiliar book into their hands with the words, “Read this —...
Smokies offers Mountains-to-Sea Trail hike and presentation
Folks interested in hiking a section of the Mountains to Sea Trail and learning a bit more about the storied path have a chance to chat with a MST guru in the Smokies Saturday, Ma...
- State debates drug testing for aid recipients
- News in brief
- More hellos than goodbyes: Topography forces cell phone companies to weigh cost-benefit of erecting new towers
- Sweepstakes industry chalks up tiny victory with uncertain bearing
- Window is closing for stalled room tax increase in Haywood
- HCC moves forward with law enforcement, emergency responder training site
- Tuscola students aim to bring clean water to Uganda
- For your culinary and reading pleasure
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A book every naturalist needs on his or her shelfWritten on Wednesday, 01 May 2013 02:12
Naturalist Donald Culross Peattie (1898-1964) was born in Chicago. In his autobiography The Road of a Naturalist (1941), Peattie recalled his first extended visit to the North Carolina mountains in 1906 as a time when he “saw the world of people fall away, grow small, grow hazy blue, forgotten. In seven months upon that isolated summit of the Appalachians, I began to discover a world older and greater. It is the world now of my established habitation, my working days and holidays, and it lies open to all men, in valleys as on mountains, by any road you choose to enter.”
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24 Apr ' 10:52
24
Libraries brace for hit: Libraries play offense over state budget cuts
For years, state funding for libraries has been on the decline. But librarians in Western North Carolina are not taking this next round lying down.
In response to a recommendation by Gov. Pat McCroy to cut the state library budget by nearly 5 percent, librarians in the Fontana Regional system put out petitions in the libraries in Macon, Swain and Jackson counties.
Spring up at Greening Up
The 16th annual Greening Up the Mountains festival takes place Saturday, April 27, on Main and Mill streets in historic downtown Sylva.
This free festival celebrates spring in th...
I will miss my conversations with Roger Ebert
I cannot credit film critic Roger Ebert, who died just a couple of weeks ago after a lengthy battle with cancer, with instilling in me a lifelong love of movies. I was already in ...
Tension-soaked novel is one of Appalachia’s best
Mark Powell’s The Dark Corner is probably the best Appalachian novel that I have read in the last decade. It is also the most disturbing. In this, his third novel, Powell cap...
Winter floods close some Smokies trails, repairs pending
A section of the Noland Creek Trail in Great Smoky Mountains National Park will be closed to hikers and horseback riders through May 2, as crews repair flood damage from the past ...
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Cliff swallows returnWritten on Wednesday, 24 April 2013 02:05
That’s the news. Our common breeding swallows have always been purple martins, barn swallows, and northern rough-winged swallows. To a lesser extent, tree swallows also breed here, where there are suitable tree cavities or boxes. Cliff swallows are another matter.
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Cliff swallows return
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17 Apr ' 07:17
Wed17
Trial by dirt
While sunlight, water and good soil may seem a simple enough equation for getting a plant from seed to fruit, like anything it becomes a lot more complicated when people are involved.
During the past decade, community gardens have been sprouting up across Western North Carolina — from Canton to Cherokee to Sylva. Churches and charity organizations use them as a supply of produce to feed the needy; schools use them as places to teach kids about agriculture and plants; and gardeners use them as s...
The luck of the draw
All bets are on in Cherokee.
The first major poker tournament held at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and Resort has lured crowds of card sharks from the southeast and beyond, surpassin...
Legislators should support Haywood room tax hike
The room tax hike being sought by Haywood leaders needs to pass and deserves the support of the legislative delegation in Raleigh, and we hope that Sen. Jim Davis in particular wi...
History of Cherokee War is top notch
We Americans sometimes forget how new we are to the history of the world.
Here in Western North Carolina, for example, we live like other Americans. We drive cars on expressways,...
Sharpening their skills: HCC lands spot on the national lumberjack scene
Dana Dowdy raised a razor-sharp axe above her head, let it hover a moment and then slammed into her competition with the first of many swift, deft blows.
The throngs of che...
- Trial by dirt
- Swain inmates no help on roadside trash pickup
- Macon County pledges suite of raises all around
- ‘Greening Up the Mountains’ in Sylva
- Empty Bowl: a meal and music with a cause
- Pigeon Gorge dead spot could be solved soon for AT&T cell customers
- Robbery ring targeting vacation homes busted
- Emergency action plans layout game plan well before disaster strikes
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The blue-grey gnatcatcher is a mighty miteWritten on Wednesday, 17 April 2013 13:48
Elizabeth and I were sitting on the deck Monday evening when a tiny bird made an abbreviated appearance — apparently just to check us out — and disappeared. It took only a fleeting glimpse for us to know that our visitor had been a blue-gray gnatcatcher. There is, after all, nothing else in the avifauna of the Smokies region quite like the mighty mite. It’s a bird you’ll enjoy knowing once you learn its basic characteristics.
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12 Apr ' 16:12
Head chef and co-owner at The Sweet Onion in Waynesville, Weaver is at the forefront of a pioneering movement within the county and greater Western North Carolina to make his backyard a culinary destination.
When Doug Weaver looks around Haywood County, he sees potential.
“We’re on the fence, right in the middle of where it’s almost a scene,” he said.
Head chef and co-owner a...
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12 Apr ' 09:19
Fri12
Religion and public schools have never been a black and white matter anywhere in the U.S., but the shades of grey can be even more complicated in the Bible belt.
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