The Southern Highland Reader

CHEROKEE–The Cherokee Preservation Foundation, funded by gaming revenues produced by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, began making economic development grants in 2002. Since then, it has awarded 487 grants totaling nearly $40 million. Every dollar of the Foundation’s support has been matched by $1.41 in secured grants or other funding or in-kind resources, making the foundation’s total contribution to the region more than $95 million.

The Foundation’s focus is on project, planning and capacity initiatives that will enhance the Cherokee culture, facilitate economic development and job opportunities, and improve the environment. We are helping the EBCI and its neighbors address challenges that include the loss of jobs from manufacturing plant closures, potential environmental degradation due to increased traffic and localized growth in specific areas, the deteriorating growth of small and medium businesses in the region, and a decline in visits from tourists to Cherokee cultural events and institutions.

Yesterday the Foundation released a film detailing its efforts. View the film below …

FRANKLIN–The Land Trust for the Little Tennessee (LTLT) would like to thank Governor Perdue for recommending continued funding for the Clean Water Management Trust Fund (CWMTF) at $50 million for the upcoming fiscal year.

Her support is vital in making sure that conservation remains a priority in these tough economic times. With the governor’s budget recommendations, she has recognized that conservation projects create jobs in many communities hit hard by the recession. The state parks system, for example, continues to set records for both visitors and economic impact (more than $400 million per year).

LTLT hopes legislators will also continue to recognize the value of conservation, and we urge them to support conservation funding as the General Assembly works on its budget legislation.

In response to losing more natural lands than any other state in the country over the last decade, North Carolina has shown exceptional national leadership in conserving its irreplaceable natural resources. Thanks to the North Carolina’s investment through its four conservation trust funds, communities across the state have formed private and public (local, state and federal) partnerships to leverage state dollars and maximize economic benefits.

The Clean Water Management Trust Fund’s board has identified dozens of quality conservation and clean water projects that are ready to close upon receipt of funding. These projects will protect our most important economic resource–a clean water supply. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that it is 20 to 400 times more expensive to treat polluted water than to prevent contamination through watershed protection.

LTLT as well as local counties and and regional municipalities have received grants from the Clean Water Management Trust Fund since 1996 providing funding to cover closing costs such as surveys and appraisals for perpetual conservation easements on streams, rivers and wetlands. In many cases, trust fund grants supported the partial purchase of development rights from landowners who wanted to ensure their land would never be developed. However the CWMTF tap was virtually turned off in 2008/09 due to the state’s budget crisis.

LTLT and North Carolina’s twenty-four other land trusts work in partnership with willing landowners and the state to protect our most critical sources of clean water, wildlife habitat, and farmland, which sustains North Carolina’s economy. Projects funded by our state’s four conservation trust funds have set aside thousands of acres for the public to hike, fish, hunt, canoe, bird and sightsee. In western North Carolina, public recreational areas conserved by CWMTF funding include the Needmore Game Lands in Swain and Macon Counties; Pinnacle Park in Jackson County, Lands Creek watershed in Swain County and Mable Creek watershed in Cherokee County. CWMTF has also helped to conserve important farmland such as the Spring Ridge Dairy in Macon County.

A Cullowhee resident and project fanatic blogs his construction of a hand-hewn cabin in the shadow of Painter Knob.

First posted May 17, 2008

HAYESVILLE-Sylva blogger Gulahiyi offers up a post about a place called Smackass Gap, out beyond the better-known Chunky Gal mountain on U.S. 64.

I’d never heard of Smackass (the place), nor had I heard of it’s more notable products, an author named – wait for it – Eudora Rumph. Actually, Eudora Rumph is a nom de plume, but who can blame her?

This geographic revelation does bring to mind a story about Chunky Gal, though. A couple of decades ago two men were arrested for doing who-knows-what to one another at a picnic area on that mountain, and the local paper’s headline the following week, stripped across the top of the front page, read “Two arrested for lewd conduct on top of Chunky Gal.”

I’ve got a xerox of it around here somewhere.

(First posted April 23, 2008)

“KIMSEY CREEK–Every year about this time, when the stinkingest vegetable known to man gets ripe and tender, [Burton] Bumgarner gets out his mattock and flour sack and heads back into the high, cool hills to dig ramps. His favorite spot is here in the wild and rugged Nantahala Mountains whose rich, damp coves produce ramps by the thousands. He calls it ‘a ramp-digger’s heaven.’ ”

“A Mess of Ramps”, John Parris, 1955

SYLVA–Jim Howell takes a break from the set of steps he’s building with a Town of Sylva crew.

Spring days don’t get much more sumptuous than this one. Sunny, bright and mild with a cool breeze and a softness in the air borne of plenty of good rain.

Howell is tall and burly, with a shaved head. He wears those wrap-around sunglasses.

After small talk on the unpredictability of April weather, Howell said: “We’re gonna dig ramps this weekend,” and it was clear he was counting the seconds. It was clear he’d said it many times before, too, and always at this time of the year. At quitting time he and some friends were headed west, into Clay County, for a full weekend of it.

For the uninitiated, the ramp is a type of leek that grows wild in the mountains. They’re strong when taken raw, they can defend themselves when well-cooked, and the odor seeps out of your pores if you over-indulge. Back in the day, kids could get themselves booted out of school if they were willing to down enough raw ramps for breakfast. We have festivals to celebrate the things.

“I like ‘em on pizza,” offers Howell, although, like most fans, he’s most likely to chop them into a skillet with potatoes or eggs, unadorned. He went on to describe his plan for this year’s crop, though, which includes various dehydration and storage schemes.

…

Many people are content to follow the “eat local” law when it comes to ramps, and indulge only in season, figuring part of the magic might lie in the scarcity. Terry Fox seems to feel that way.

Fox has operated Terry’s Produce on Main Street, Sylva, for two decades, along with his cat, Ghost (who we assume hasn’t been around for the full run). Fox carries ramps through the spring, and has a steady stream of takers, including bulk buyers from some of Sylva’s cafés and restaurants.

“Is it a good year for ramps?” he’s asked. He says ramps don’t seem to have their ups and downs. Every year’s a good year.

…

Faye Holliday founded the Spring Street Café in Sylva in 2001 (and sold it in 2006). Endlessly experimental and a lover of “slow food”, Holliday always used ramps in season.

“It was a big deal for us,” she said. “If for no other reason, when you were willing to gather them, you had some free food to cook up!”

She’s quick to credit other early spring greens, and ticks off a list. These foods have always been important in the mountains, and simple nutrition was no small factor.

“After four months of cold winter, you can imagine what it was like to see the first greens in springtime,” she said. “They aren’t always easy to get–stinging nettles are good, but you better wear some gloves. After you taste them, though, the high-dollar handful of spinach from the grocery store doesn’t compare too well.”

Holliday, whose culinary skills were developed in kitchens from Nantahala to Asheville, was a force for her suppliers to reckon with. “I wanted more than anything to use local and wild local foods,” she said. “There’s a culture of food here that the Scots-Irish and the Cherokee have relished for centuries.”

Spring Street drew a following for its approach, and if the local growers and gatherers heading in her door didn’t outnumber the diners, they weren’t exactly swallowed up by the crowds, either.

Holliday goes on to heap praise on the morel mushroom, and to lament that wild ginger is so seldom found on local menus.

“They’re local delicacies,” she said. “They’re available and special to our environment, and you can’t take that for granted. I like what our farms provide, but our woodlands provide so much, too.”

…

Jen Pearson owns Guadalupé Café in Sylva, in what was once a drug store and soda fountain called “Hooper’s”. The long counter with its silver stools, and equally lengthy stainless steel fountain are now part of Pearson’s popular “tropical fusion” cafe and bar, which has won praise and a following.

There’s nothing fancy about Guadalupé, but there’s no sameness about it, either. It is very much its own place, and very focused on local food. Pearson is a friend of Holliday’s and they’ve worked together. So it’s no surprise to glance down Guadalupe’s menu and find Caney Fork goat meat right in there with the mango chutney.

…

Russell Childers cooks at the venerable Lulu’s Café in Sylva. But his ramp gathering is a personal thing. He spends a lot of time at it in the spring, and he admits that he has to, because he uses plenty in his recipes. His latest effort at home? Chili. He doesn’t slice the ramps, he drops the entire bulbs in the chili (they’re not too big). This way, he says, when you get a hold of one, you get the full treatment.

Read more:

Southern Highland Reader: Ramp recipes
Christian Science Monitor: Ramps, 2006

MURPHY–Dwight Otwell, staff writer for the Cherokee Scout in Murphy, reported recently about efforts made by mountain farmers to diversify and to profit from niche crops.

Agriculture has dwindled rapidly in the mountains, where farmers face not only the standard competition from industrial farming, but the added challenge of a lack of flat land.

Otwell’s lead:

Farmers who make their entire livelihood from working the land are almost a relic from the past in Cherokee County.

As the number of large farms has steadily dwindled, a new type of farmer has emerged, one who can forge a living from an acre or two growing for a specialty market.

He goes on to interview a vintner, a dairy farmer and vegetable farmers, all of whom are using innovative methods to make their famrs work.

Another excerpt:

A new type of market is using the Internet to sell products to high-end restaurants or consumers. The main market for this area is Atlanta.

The idea is that a chef gets the fresh produce he wants the next day, Wood said. The chef knows the farm the produce comes from and he trusts it. A person with as little as a half acre of land willing to grow specialty crops can make $20,000 to $30,000 an acre.

Read Otwell’s story in the Scout here.

BRYSON CITY–The Smoky Mountain Times‘s Jim Casada takes a break from recent reviews of outdoor literature to share some Thanksgiving memories of eating and hunting in the Smokies.

An excerpt:

From that point on throughout my boyhood and beyond, rabbit hunting loomed large in Thanksgiving weekends. Hunts on Thanksgiving Day were normally abbreviated, because we had a grand feast and family gathering commencing sometime in early afternoon and culminating with a feast featuring fare like Grandma’s cathead biscuits and gravy, Aunt Emma’s ambrosia, Mom’s applesauce cake, and of course, turkey.

The trimmings included things which aren’t standard everywhere, as Grandma Minnie provided delicacies such as watermelon and peach pickles, leather britches beans, and a brown-sugar topped casserole using cushaws – an old-time winter squash.

Read Casada’s piece here.

OTTO–The Land Trust for the Little Tennessee (LTLT) has awarded its 2009 Ramsey-Brunner Land Conservationist of the Year Award to Myra Waldroop and family for their conservation work on family property at Rainbow Springs, in the headwaters of the Nantahala River in Macon County.

The award, which is given to honor individuals who have made significant contributions to land conservation in LTLT’s project area, was presented at LTLT’s annual Fall Celebration at Tessentee Bottomland Preserve in Otto.

The 248-acre property conserved by the easement conveyed to LTLT by Waldroop and her family has numerous conservation values. It lies on either side of the Waterfall Scenic Byway which runs from Rosman to Murphy and is adjacent to National Forest System lands. There are prime farmland soils being farmed and productive forest land that is managed for timber harvest, and, last, but certainly not least, it has nearly 4,000 feet of Nantahala River flowing through it and over 700’ of Black Creek.

According to Myra Waldroop’s records, the family has owned property in Rainbow Springs since as early as 1853.

“My grandfather, C.W. Slagle, acquired land in Rainbow Springs over a number of years,” said Myra.

The family used the property for family vacations for many years. During the 20’s and 30’s the Ritter Lumber Company operated in one of the meadows complete with a thriving lumber town including post office, commissary, hotel and school. A railroad hauled lumber down the river to be shipped away.

In 1948, Myra’s father, Carl Slagle, retired to Rainbow Springs, and later, Myra inherited a portion of the her grandfather’s property where both of her daughters now live. There are many stories of four and five generations who have fished, hunted, and gathered with friends and family at “Rainbow”.

“Many family traditions live on,” says Myra. “With this long history, my family and I decided we wanted this property protected from development. The LTLT was our solution. We appreciate working with the folks at LTLT. A special thanks to Sharon for her patience as we worked out the details of the Deed of Conservation.”

In her presentation of the award to the Waldroop family, Sharon Taylor stated, “LTLT’s mission is to conserve the waters, forests, farms and heritage of the upper Little Tennessee and Hiwassee River valleys. However, we work with landowners on a purely volunteer basis, so it is somewhat opportunistic. When Myra Waldroop called to say she was interested in conserving a portion of the Family’s Rainbow Springs property, that opportunity fit our mission like a glove. I know that all of the conservation values are important to LTLT, and important to the Family, but the Waldroop Family conserved their land because of their love of the land and the heritage that the land represents.”

REGIONAL–David Tell at the Macon County News reports on the opening of deer season this Monday.

The season, which is expected to be an active one, runs until December 12.

Tell’s lead:

Deer hunting season opens Monday, and it’s expected to be a good one.

Whitetails are numerous, active, mobile — and hungry, according to wildlife officials, and hunter interest and presence are seen as strong.

Read the whole piece here.

CHARLOTTE–The Charlotte Observer reports that two Cullowhee area men were sentenced to federal prison Monday for “… attempting to transport, buy or sell an American black bear”.

Bobby Allen Gibson, 24, and Steven Louis Broom, 31, were charged in July of last year.

Both will spend ten months in prison, a year on federal parole and perform 100 hours of community service. Their punishment also includes banishment from federal lands, revocation of hunting and fishing privileges, and, in Broom’s case the revocation of the right to own a dog of any kind.

The Observer story is here.

Asheville Citizen-Times story here.

REGIONAL–Dave Tabler’s Appalachian History blog touches on an interview with herbalist Tommie Bass (1908-1996), and Bass’s take on giving money to politicians. Here’s Bass:

I figured . . . the fact of the business is a fellow running for office, a man or a woman, I’m like the little boy was about the peckerwood.

Peckerwood pecked a hole in a hollow tree and he went in there, and the little boy he drove a peg in behind it. Somebody said to him, “Son,” said, “you shouldn’t of done the little bird that way.” [And the boy said], “Well the son-of-a-gun pecked in, now let him peck out”.

And so I’m that way about a politician. If he wants to get into office, let him get in there (chuckles), but I ain’t gonna try to help him. Course, if he’s a good guy, I’d talk for him, but as far as paying him in there, I don’t go along with that.

Read the post here.

Tommis Bass. Photo by Tom Rankin, 1983

REGIONAL–Western Carolina University associate professor Anna Fariello takes an in-depth look at the extraordinary world of Cherokee basketry in her new book “Cherokee Basketry: From the Hands of our Elders”, just out from the History Press of Charleston, South Carolina.

Fariello heads up the Craft Revival Project at WCU.

Here’s an excerpt from a story by Jill Ingram for The Reporter:

An author, editor and former research fellow at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Fariello most recently turned her attention to Cherokee basketry, a thousands-year-old tradition, passed from mother to daughter, that she believes is integral to Cherokee culture. Fariello’s new book, titled “Cherokee Basketry: From the Hands of our Elders,” studies Cherokee baskets and basket-makers who lived during the first half of the 20th century.

The project reinforced Fariello’s understanding that for Cherokee people, “the making of things is significant to their culture and their identity,” a concept foreign to many people in contemporary, mainstream culture, she said. The Cherokees’ use of natural resources as basket materials gave Fariello an appreciation of the environmental sustainability and ecological balance also inherent in the culture.

Read the entire story and view photos here.

CULLOWHEE – Native American artist and activist Shan Goshorn will visit Western North Carolina in November for a talk at Western Carolina University and a demonstration at the Oconaluftee Institute for Cultural Arts.

“Pieced Treaty,” wood pulp splints and commercial dye, 20 by 20 by 26 inches, by Shan Goshorn, 2007.

An artist working in a variety of media, including paint, photography and mixed-media, Goshorn will speak about the progression of her work and her art as an expression of her activism during an artist’s talk at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3, in Room 130 of the Fine and Performing Arts Center on the WCU campus. The event is free and open to the public.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, Goshorn will lead a workshop demonstrate her process of hand-tinting black-and-white photography at OICA, 70 Bingo Loop in Cherokee. The workshop is limited to 25 people and includes lunch and supplies, although participants may bring their own black-and-white prints, in a matte finish. No artistic background is required.

Goshorn is a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and lives in Tulsa, Okla. An artist for more than 25 years, she has exhibited work across the United States, Canada, Europe, China and Africa. Her work addresses contemporary American Indian and human rights issues, including Indian stereotypes and treaty violations. For example, Goshorn wove “Pieced Treaty,” a basket in the traditional Cherokee “spider’s web” pattern, from paper printed with tobacco agreements between the state of Oklahoma and the Cherokee Nation.

“‘Pieced Treaty” refers to the continual breaking of agreements,” Goshorn said. “I deliberately left the basket unfinished because the negotiations appear to be ongoing.”

The piece won first place in the basketry division of the 2009 Red Earth Festival’s artist competition and has been purchased by the National Museum of the American Indian, part of the Smithsonian Institution. Goshorn’s work is featured in numerous other collections, including the Institute of American Indian Art; in Cherokee, her work is in the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, Harrah’s Cherokee Hotel and the Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual.

The WCU School of Art and Design and the Oconaluftee Institute are co-hosts of Goshorn’s visit. The visit is funded by the Cherokee Preservation Foundation and the Revitalization of Traditional Cherokee Artisan Resources, an initiative operated through Western Carolina University’s Cherokee studies program.

The Oconaluftee Institute partners with Southwestern Community College and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to offer an associate’s degree in fine arts. An agreement with WCU allows graduates to enter the university as juniors pursuing the bachelor of fine arts degree.

FRANKLIN–On Saturday, November 7, come celebrate ten years of stewardship on the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee’s Tessentee property in Otto. The Celebration begins at 11:00 and continues until 4:00 and includes music by the Frog Town 5, tours of the property, annual conservation award presentation, and demonstrations by Cherokee artisans and others. All activities are FREE for the entire

Tessentee Bottomland Preserve. Ralph Preston photo.

family, and food may be purchased on-site from Big Mountain BB-Q. In November of 1999 LTLT purchased 60 acres at the confluence of Tessentee Creek and the Little Tennessee River. This was the first land protected on the free-flowing Little Tennessee, and now a decade later – with 30 land protection projects – more than 5200 acres and 35 miles of river frontage have been conserved.

LTLT’s purchase of the Tessentee Bottomland Preserve not only launched an extraordinary river corridor conservation initiative, it also created a laboratory for land restoration and stewardship in the valley. At Tessentee LTLT purchased an old dairy farm with diverse soils, abundant water, and an historic farmstead. LTLT conducted a detailed inventory and sought expert advice in developing a management plan to restore the rich and diverse natural and cultural heritage resources found here in the heart of the upper Little Tennessee River Valley.

The riverbanks have been stabilized and reforested, and a wetland area has been partially restored. LTLT began their invasive exotic plant control program at Tessentee and initiated the long process of converting fescue pastures to more diverse grassland habitats and open woodlands.

At Tessentee LTLT first began its collaboration with Cherokee artisans in the management and harvest of rivercane. This collaboration has expanded to the establishment of experimental plantations of butternut and white oak for production of other traditional artisan materials. The Tessentee Preserve is stop #53 on the NC Birding Trail with the preserve’s bird list at 115 species and butterfly list at 42 species and counting. Here one can hike the most extensive trail system found on any LTLT property. Volunteers have also helped to restore the historic farmstead – by restoring the apple house, smoke house, and in recent months the foundation of the historic farmhouse.

Now a decade later, the Tessentee Preserve is a rich mosaic of wildlife and plant habitats, and it serves as a microcosm of LTLT’s stewardship and restoration work in this historic valley. It is a wonderful place to walk and to appreciate the extraordinary richness and diversity of the upper Little Tennessee.

GSMNP–Those thumps you heard earlier were tourism folks fainting dead away at the news that the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will close its wildly popular Cades Cove loop for three months in the spring for repaving and sprucing up.

An excerpt from the Knoxville News Sentinel:

The park examined a “full range of options” to do the work, according to Superintendent Dale Ditmanson.

All would have required unsuitable detours for the 3,000 to 4,000 vehicles that enter the cove each day, Ditmanson said.

Night-time work also was considered, but the road would have had to be closed for the rebuilding of the sub-base.

The park chose to close the road and recycle it in place as the most efficient and “environmentally responsible” way to complete the work, Ditmanson said.

Read the story here.

The Western North Carolina Pottery Festival returns for its fifth year on Saturday, Nov. 7, with an expanded lineup and a special clay “Olympics” competition.

Event organizers continue to be surprised by the popularity achieved by the festival in a short period of time. With dozens of well-known applicants from across the nation, the number of juried potters has been expanded to 42 this year. Last year’s show had 36 exhibitors.

Dillsboro, NC

The 2009 festival includes potters from 13 states, including Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, New York and New Jersey, as well as North Carolina and surrounding states. The featured potter is Trent Berning of California.

“There are name potters in the show we never expected to have, and we had to turn away 30 potters, so there is competition to get in,” said organizer Joe Frank McKee of Dillsboro’s Tree House Pottery. “It’s become a premier event. We have potters from every type of clay medium.”

Berning, of Berning Clay Gallery in Fallbrook, Calif., has a master’s degree in ceramics from the University of Tennessee and is an instructor at two colleges. He is known for creating large pots featuring slip decoration, which uses fine clay in a variety of colors blended into liquid form and applied to pots.

Another artist of note is Richard Aerni of Rochester, NY. Aerni, a potter for 30 years, specializes in single-fired, wood-ash glazed functional stoneware. His work is sold in galleries across the country and is on display at the Smithsonian Institute.

New this year is the clay Olympics challenge from 1-3 p.m. Friday at Tree House Pottery. The competition is sponsored by Shimpo, a pottery equipment company, and includes 20 potters attempting to create the tallest cylinder and widest bowl in 10 minutes.

Saturday’s festival hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine. Admission is $2 per person and includes a ticket for a day-long raffle. Children under 12 are admitted free.

“All the smiling faces in Jackson County and the people supporting the WNC Pottery Festival make this a special event,” said McKee. “Our potters like interacting with people and are willing to share information. They’re not just here for money, they’re here to share their craft.”

GSMNP–Great Smoky Mountains National Park managers have announced that the Park’s cooperating partner, Great Smoky Mountains Association, has just published and released its newest book, Smoky Mountain Magic, a novel by Horace Kephart.

Horace Kephart

Although completed in 1929, two years before the author’s death, the novel was never published until now.

Cathy Cook, Chief of Resource Education and Science at the Smokies said, “We had no idea that a Kephart novel even existed. The unpublished manuscript for Smoky Mountain Magic was handed down within the Kephart family until it was finally brought to the attention of park superintendent, Dale Ditmanson, by Libby Kephart Hargrave, the author’s great-granddaughter, at one of this year’s 75th Anniversary celebrations.

The typewritten manuscript was complete, having gone through numerous drafts and revisions over the course of the eight years that Horace Kephart labored over it.”

Smoky Mountain Magic’s fictional story takes place during the summer of 1925, mostly along the Deep Creek watershed in the Great Smoky Mountains, but also in a thinly-disguised Bryson City (called Kittuwa) and the Cherokee Indian Reservation. Characters include a mysterious stranger (who resembles the author in his youth), a greedy land baron, a cadre of mountain folk ranging in constitution from stalwart to conniving, a beautiful botanist, a Cherokee chief, and a witch. The novel fits the adventure story genre of the day with a bit of romance interwoven.

The famed author and outdoorsman first came to the Great Smoky Mountains in 1904 looking for a fresh start in life. He moved into an abandoned cabin on a tributary of Hazel Creek, a remote area even by early 20th century southern Appalachian standards. There Kephart befriended his independent and self-reliant neighbors and pursued his passions for hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, and generally living off the land.

The result of his time in what Kephart described as the “back of beyond” were Our Southern Highlanders, the classic work on the people of the Smokies, and Camping and Woodcraft, the definitive work on enjoying the out of doors. Both works are still in print and continue to nurture an enthusiastic following.

During the 1920s, Kephart and his friend and fellow hiker George Masa began a vigorous campaign to have the Great Smoky Mountains protected as a national park. Kephart wrote letters, articles, and a booklet championing the cause, and Masa contributed his breath-taking landscape photographs.

Together they raised awareness of the significance and beauty of the Smokies and sounded the alarm over the devastation being caused by unsound, industrial logging operations. Both Kephart and Masa figure prominently in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park segment of a new 12-hour documentary series by Ken Burns entitled “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” which will begin September 27 on PBS.

For their successful effort, both Kephart and Masa have neighboring mountains named for them. A stream, trail, and camping shelter in the national park also bear Kephart’s name.

The 248 page Smoky Mountain Magic is now available in both paperback ($12.95) and hard cover ($19.95). All proceeds are being donated to the Horace Kephart Foundation (in support of the annual Horace Kephart Days Celebration in Bryson City), Great Smoky Mountains Association, and Friends of the Smokies.

SYLVA-Horace Kephart is well known for his explorations in what is now the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and for his writings about the area and its people. The new Ken Burns documentary on our National Parks features Kephart’s significant role in the creation of Park.

Now, a long-lost novel by Kephart has been found and just been published by the Great Smoky Mountains Association, 80 years after Kephart completed the manuscript in 1929.

Video from the Great Smoky Mountains Association:

City Lights will host a reading from the novel by Kephart’s great-granddaughter, Libby Kephart Hargrave, on Tuesday, October 20th at 7:00 p.m.

Hargrave wrote a foreword for the book, detailing how it came to be published after having laid so long only in manuscript form. George Ellison wrote the introduction, which gives further background and places the novel in the full context of Kephart’s legacy. Elizabeth Ellison’s watercolor is featured on the book’s cover, and Ron Rash’s praise also appears on the cover: he calls the book “a remarkable and illuminating read.”

As Ellison points out in his introduction, Kephart was an excellent listener, and in his time in the Hazel Creek community, he listened to residents tell about their lives. Both his ear for dialogue and his appreciation for a good story are revealed in the novel, which is set in Deep Creek, near Bryson City.

The story features Cherokee lore, as well, and some fantastical elements. too. According to Ellison, “Creating a dreamscape is not the sort of stylistic device a reader familiar with Camping and Woodcraft and Our Southern Highlanders would have expected from Kephart, not even in a novel.”

But at its heart, Smoky Mountain Magic is a story of both romance and adventure.

At the City Lights program devoted to the book, Hargrave will talk about bringing the manuscript to publication and will read selections from it. She will also take questions from the audience.

More reading …

Gary Carden reviews Smoky Mountain Magic in the Smoky Mountain News.

Bryson City Book Premiere and Signing to be Hosted by Kephart Family

In honor of the recently rediscovered and published novel Smoky Mountain Magic, the Kephart family and the Swain County Chamber of Commerce

invites the public to a premiere party that will feature readings from the novel as well as an opportunity to have your copy signed by a relative of the famed author.The event, which will be held at the historic Calhoun House Hotel located indowntown Bryson City, is scheduled for Sunday, October 18, 1 – 5pm. After a short program that will include naturalist George Ellison, GSMNP Superintendant Dale Ditmanson, representatives of the Great Smoky Mountains Association which is responsible for the publication of the novel, and great-granddaughter Libby Kephart Hargrave, family members will be available for signing and conversation. Music will be provided by the talented Lee Knight, and refreshments will be provided.

CHEROKEE–In early September, the Knoxville News Sentinel’s Carly Harrington put together this overview of Qualla Boundary economic conditions, and talked to some folks that might not otherwise be heard in such a piece; among them, Leon Grodski and Natalie Smith, owners of Tribal Grounds Coffee and well-known multimedia artist Davy Arch.

The general theme: while the influence of Harrah’s Cherokee Casino has its pluses and minuses, the influx of cash that the casino brings is giving the Cherokee greater opportunity to control their economic destiny.

An excerpt:

While roadside shops continue to hawk their fake American Indian wares, locals say they are trying to get away from such “shot glass” tourist attractions, focusing instead on authentic Cherokee history and heritage.

“The tribe is spending money to create a nicer experience that’s more culturally oriented and authentic. The goal is to move away from the touristy trinkets from China,” Groski said.

After the park opened, people from other places were attracted to the area by the lure of tourism and its financial prospects. The tribe, in need of money, allowed them “to market their junk.”

“They wanted any kind of business they could get. We weren’t generating revenue to support the infrastructure,” Arch said, noting that there’s more tolerance and acceptance of the Cherokee culture today.

“Things are looking up. We have more control of our destiny now than the last couple hundred years. It’s changing.”

Read the piece here.

CHEROKEE-“We stand on the edge of becoming a truly unique voice in the world for indigenous art and culture,” said Joel Queen, new program coordinator and instructor at the Oconaluftee Institute for Cultural Arts in Cherokee.

Queen, whose art is displayed in such places as the Smithsonian Institution and the British Museum in London, says that art is the same language wherever you go. “The language of our Cherokee art is so storied with paintings, weaving, wood crafts, stonework and ceramics and I’ve spent my life creating in the Cherokee mediums,” said this enrolled member of the Eastern Band. “I’ve been able to make a successful living at it but now it’s time for me to give back and that’s why I chose to work with OICA.”

Master Cherokee potter Joel Queen, the new program coordinator and instructor at the Oconaluftee Institute for Cultural Arts in Cherokee, demonstrates a unique technique of using a cloth diaper to allow movement and expansion of clay. Luzene Hill, OICA program outreach coordinator, watches as Queen molds the strip of clay inside as he begins creating a piece of pottery.

His students, like Mike Taylor of Cherokee, respect the artistic heritage Queen brings to the institute. Members of Queen’s family have been potters for nine generations. “A lot of potters will keep their family secrets but I believe in sharing and in keeping the traditions alive so they don’t get lost,” said this grandson of potter Ethel Bigmeat. “One of the reasons to create art is so people can see their past and their future.”

“Part of our strength at OICA comes from our generational teachers like Joel and John Grant, who teaches wood and stone carving,” said Luzene Hill, program outreach coordinator for the institute.

“We give students a foundation in traditional methods, but we also give them the freedom to create contemporary art,” said Hill, an artist whose work is exhibited in private and corporate collections across the country.

Students of all skill levels are welcome at the institute, a joint endeavor of the Eastern Band, Southwestern Community College and Western Carolina University.

Students can earn an associate of fine arts degree from Southwestern. If they want to continue their education they can transfer to Western Carolina University, or any other college in the state university system, as a junior to pursue a bachelor of fine arts degree.

“Not all of our students want to go for a higher degree and we help them find their place in the market,” said Queen. “That’s important- they can be a great artist but if they don’t know how to market their work, they won’t be able to make a living from it.”

“Joel has his own business and gallery so he is the perfect person to help our students with marketing,” said Hill.

At present the classes are small enough that instructors can individualize a program around the student’s skill level.

Queen said part of his job is “taking students’ love of creating and helping them through the steps to achieve the vision they think their piece should look like. My job is to challenge them, to help them push their boundaries and see just how far they can go.”

But before they push the envelope and break all the rules, Queen teaches his students just what the rules are –rules he has learned from a personal mastery of clay and from knowledge and talent passed down from eight generations before him who sifted and kneaded hand-dug clay, stamped it with hand-carved wooden paddles and fired it in traditional pit fires.

“Here at the institute we respect and honor the traditions of our Cherokee ancestors. But after students master technique, we encourage them to show innovation and creativity,” said Queen. “For our Cherokee culture to evolve, our art must evolve first…and art is the same language, no matter where you go.”

While the institute is a mix of traditional and contemporary, the students are also a mix. About half are Cherokee and the others represent a mix of cultures, according to Hill, an EBCI enrolled member.

“The more students we get, the more programs we can offer,” she said. For more information, call 497-3945 or stop by the new location at 70 Bingo Loop Road in Cherokee.