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This is the place. As Heriot Clarkson sat on his mule atop Grassy Mountain in June 1909, he looked out over a sea of mountains extending to the horizon in every direction, his dreams before him. Here was the spot for a retreat from the summer heat of the piedmont and coastal plain where simple living and natures beauty would combine to create an idyllic community. But the story doesnt begin there. Hardy Scotch-Irish settlers moved into these same mountains some two centuries earlier, admiring the same views and putting down permanent roots. Images of America: Little Switzerland documents the unique interactions between native and summer residents in working together to build this remarkable community. The social, economic, historical, and spiritual fabric that makes Little Switzerland unique among resort communities is presented, along with the personalities and places that provide its character.
There is a little piece of Spruce Pine in almost every home and business in America. Known as the Mineral City, Spruce Pine is the hub of mining activity in the mineral-rich Toe River valley, which provides mica, feldspar, and ultra-pure quartz for computer chips and other electronic components. Images of America: Spruce Pine is the story of a town with two main streets that was started by the arrival of the railroad. This volume includes the characters, events, tragedies, triumphs, and memories shared by town residents. From catastrophic fires, ravaging floods, and economic turmoil, to visits by U.S. presidents and the Carolina Barn Dance, it is all right here.
Mountains, streams, and strong families are the characteristics of Bakersville and the small towns that surround it in northern Mitchell County. For much of human history, people lived in small, rural trade centers where they knew everyone and helped each other, and families were the most important part of life. Bakersville was no exception. Fast-forward to the 21st century, and such places have faded from view. There may be an empty store, post office, or school, but there is little else in evidence of the vitality and lives of earlier citizens. Kona, Clarissa, Hawk, Tipton Hill, Buladean, Ledger, Bandana, and others had few economic opportunities left. Tobacco farming dissolved, factories moved abroad, mines closed, and most of the World War II generation and its descendants left for the military, college, and greener pastures. With smaller populations, all those public places were consolidated with others. It is those who settled and remained that are honored here.
Nestled in the mountains of western North Carolina, Mitchell County was created in 1861 and was named for Dr. Elisha Mitchell, a University of North Carolina professor who died in 1857 while remeasuring the mountain that now bears his name. Although the appropriately named mountain lies in adjacent Yancey County, Mitchell County has no shortage of claims to fame; it is well known for the Clinchfield Railroad, the Carolina Theater, the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Penland School, and the infamous Frankie and Charlie Silver murder case. There is also much more to Mitchell County than its best-known sites and figures. Mica and feldspar mining, the orchard at Altapass, churches, the Wing Academy, Bakersville, and Spruce Pine all have their own unique histories. Within the pages of this book are images of the famous and the ordinary, the routine and the remarkable, the lasting and the transitory. The photographs come from all over Mitchell County and celebrate the area's unique Appalachian culture.
The highest peak in the eastern United States, Mount Mitchell towers 6,684 feet over its home in Yancey County, North Carolina. It has borne silent witness to great scientific and personal achievements, tragic loss of life, heated debates, and a host of controversies both great and small. Once considered forbidding and remote, it claimed the life of its namesake, Elisha Mitchell, when he fell to his death in an attempt to firmly establish the mountain's height. In the early 1900s, entrepreneurs constructed a railroad, opening its old-growth forests to massive deforestation. This devastation stirred some of the earliest notions of environmentalism that led to Mount Mitchell's establishment as North Carolina's first state park. Today, it is a playground for tourists from around the world, offering some of the best hiking and views in the nation. Mount Mitchell showcases the rich history of the mountain along with the events and colorful characters that have shaped its story.
An American phenomenon, Gone with the Wind is one of the most popular American novels of all time, winning a Pulitzer Prize and amazingly returning to the New York Times bestseller list 50 years after its first appearance. Now comes an absorbing biography of its author, Margaret Mitchell, revealing how elements of her life made their way into this classic. 25 halftones.
At the outset of his career Ted Hughes described letter writing as 'excellent training for conversation with the world', and he was to become a prolific master of this art. This selection begins when Hughes was seventeen, and documents the course of a life at once resolutely private but intensely attuned to others. It is a fascinatingly detailed picture of a mind of genius as it evolved through an incomparably eventful life and career.
Intrepid Kathleen Purvis traveled extensively throughout the South to create this first-ever guide to the region's burgeoning craft-liquor movement, capturing her journey in the creation of six original Liquor Trails. As fascinating as the craft itself are the distillers' experiences and backstories. Purvis chronicles them with verve and insight, bringing her knowledge of southern foodways and traditions to bear on the flourishing of the distiller's art. She shows how new entrepreneurs, part of the all-American food and drink renaissance, are positioning themselves to find both the inspiration and land ranging from West Virginia to Louisiana for their farm- or farm-ingredients-based distille...
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