The Southern Highland Reader

Lower Falls (“Gulahiyi” photo)

CASHIERS–Ruminations from the Distant Hills shares a hike, some history and a few images from the Whitewater River, which flows south from Cashiers into the Palmetto State.

An excerpt:

The final stretch of the Whitewater River is the part that I will never see, since it is lost forever beneath the waters of Lake Jocassee, built by Duke Power in the 1970s. Among the worlds lost to the Jocassee damnation was the trail of the French botanist Andre Michaux who explored the Keowee and its headwaters in 1878 and 1788.

Somewhere between the Whitewater and the Toxaway Rivers, he took notes on one unusual plant. The subsequent efforts of botanists to find the Shortia galacifolia described by Michaux continued for a century before the mystery of the Oconee Bells was finally solved.

Read Gulahiyi’s post 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.”

Michael Pollan is author of In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto and The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, along with many other books and essays. His new book is called “Food Rules”.

He says “If you follow these rules, you will be purchasing and eating real, whole food most of the time.”

1. Don’t buy anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. Like anything orange that isn’t salmon, a carrot or an orange.
2. Avoid products containing ingredients that can’t be found in an ordinary pantry. Even better, avoid anything that has more than five ingredients. Better still, if you can’t pronounce most of the ingredients, you don’t want to eat them.
3. Don’t buy anything that lists sugar in its first three ingredients. And NO HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP! Not even a little.
4. Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay away from the middle–that’s where most processed food is shelved.
5. If it came from a plant, buy it (and eat a lot of it). If it was made in a plant, pass it by.
6. If it says lite, low-fat, or non-fat on the package, put it down. You’ll be more satisfied if you eat a little bit of the real thing.
7. Avoid food that is pretending to be something that it is not. This includes soy-based mock meats.
8. Food making health claims on the package is not food you want to buy. Don’t take the silence of the yams as a sign they have nothing valuable to say about your health.
9. Avoid food that is advertised on television. And remember, if it is delivered through the window of a car, it is not food.
10. Get out of the supermarket. Look to farmer’s markets for the majority of your food and snacks.

Pollan collected more rules from readers of the New York Times Magazine, which can be read here.

REGIONAL–It’s a familiar complaint in the mountains: tax money, like water, runs downhill to Raleigh and never comes back.

The Asheville Citizen-Times‘ Joel Burgess contributed a history yesterday of western North Carolina’s under-representation in high-power state politics, quoting WCU faculty member Richard Starnes along the way and naming Jackson County’s Lacy Thornburg as an exception to the rule.

Here’s an excerpt:

With a few notable exceptions, including former House Speaker Liston Ramsey and Govs. Jim Holshouser and Dan Moore, modern mountain politicians have struggled to make a dent in Raleigh’s power structure. Reasons trace back centuries, scholars say, and range from geography to old grudges.“It has to do with the low population and also that WNC has often charted its own political path,” said Richard Starnes, head of the history department at Western Carolina University.

-and-

The list of western politicians who have held great sway in the Tar Heel State largely begins and ends with one man — former House Speaker [Liston] Ramsey.

Read the story here.