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�Western North Carolina
Since the Civil War
Ina W oestemeyer Van N oppen
John
J.
Van Noppen
APPALACHIAN
CONSORTIUM
APPALACHIAN CONSORTIUM PRESS
BOONE, NORTH CAROLINA 28607
�The Appalachian Consortium was a non-profit educational organization
composed of institutions and agencies located in Southern Appalachia. From
1973 to 2004, its members published pioneering works in Appalachian studies
documenting the history and cultural heritage of the region. The Appalachian
Consortium Press was the first publisher devoted solely to the region and many of
the works it published remain seminal in the field to this day.
With funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National
Endowment for the Humanities through the Humanities Open Book Program,
Appalachian State University has published new paperback and open access
digital editions of works from the Appalachian Consortium Press.
www.collections.library.appstate.edu/appconsortiumbooks
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license. To view a
copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses.
Original copyright © 1973 by the Appalachian Consortium Press.
ISBN (pbk.: alk. Paper): 978-1-4696-3831-7
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-4696-3833-1
Distributed by the University of North Carolina Press
www.uncpress.org
�TABLE OF CONTENTS
AUTHORS' PREFACE
lV
INTRODUCTION BY CRATIS WILLIAMS
Vl
PROLOGUE
I
23
PART ONE: THE PEOPLE AND THEIR HOMELAND
I.
2.
On Main Traveled Roads
Off The Beaten Path
25
59
69
PART TWO: A CHANGING SOCIETY
3·
4·
5.
6.
7·
8.
9·
IO.
I 1.
Religion
The Bar and The Forum
That All May Live
Public Education
Church Related and Private Institutions of Learning
Teacher Education
From The Heart, The Hand, and The Head
Literature
The Lore of The Folk
PART THREE: A DEVELOPING ECONOMY
I2.
I3.
I4.
IS.
I6.
17.
Hear That Whistle Blow!
Agriculture
Timber!
From Indian Trails to Broad Highways
Business and Industry
In Pursuit of Pleasure
SOURCES
7I
88
I03
I2I
5I
I66
I84
I
20I
223
25I
253
269
29I
323
346
37I
414
INDEX
111
430
�AUTHORS' PREFACE
Since its organization in 1952 and even before that time, members of the Western North Carolina Historical Association have
searched zealously for history in their communities and in their
counties. They researched old letters, records, account books,
family histories, historic happenings. They have written county
histories and presented papers before the historical association.
They have sought the aid of the state Department of Archives
and History. They have promoted the preservation of historic
sites. Their contributions have been invaluable for a history of the
region. Among the leading contributors have been Miss Cordelia
Camp, Dean W. E. Bird, Mrs. Mary Jane McCrary, Dean D.].
Whitener, and Professor John A. McLeod. Journalists John Wikle,
John Parris, George McCoy and his wife, Lola Love McCoy, and
such writers of county histories as Judge Johnson Hayes, Clarence
Griffin, Mrs. Sadie Smathers Patton, Mrs. Margaret Freel, Mrs.
Nancy Alexander, Horton Cooper, Arthur Fletcher, and Mrs.
Lillian Thomasson, provided information sifted out from local
annals.
The newspapers of Western North Carolina, especially the
Asheville Citizen- Times, are to be commended for publishing anniversary editions and encouraging the people to be interested in
their history and its preservation. Publisher George M. Stephens
has been a promoter of the Carolina Highlands, publishing numerous books and pamphlets dealing with Western North Carolina history.
January 27, 1963, a committee to promote a history of the
Western North Carolina Highlands was appointed. It consisted
of W. Ernest Bird, Miss Cordelia Camp, John A. McLeod, D.
Hiden Ramsey, George M. Stephens, Glenn Tucker, and Daniel
]. Whitener, chairman. By late 1964 the present authors had been
lV
�Authors' Preface / v
drafted to write the book. Interested members contributed financially to support the research, most generous of whom was
Wendell Williamson of Asheville.
Robert Conway of the North Carolina Department of Archives and History furnished a list of names of persons who were
particularly interested in history, one in each county. We called
upon the persons named, and they usually guided us around their
counties to view the historic sites and distinctive features. Leroy
Sossamon took us flying over the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In Brevard Mrs. Mary Jane McCrary took us into
her home, as did Dr. and Mrs. Edward Phifer in Morganton.
Several county-wide meetings of local historians were held.
Informative ones were arranged by Worth Morgan of Forest
City and Frank Rogers of Waynesville. Many members of the
association took us to old residents who knew of historic events.
They showed us letters, furnished newspaper clippings, some of
which were undated and had no sources listed. John Wikle of
Bryson City furnished an extensive file of his articles from the
Asheville Citizen and the Atlanta Journal.
Dozens of graduate students researched local topics, contributing useful information. Lawrence Groves, Thomas Corbitt,
and Rosalie Sexauer Dorsey deserve special mention.
We are grateful to members of the administration at Appalachian State University for released time for research, to the Office
of Development for photographic assistance, and especially to
John Dinkins, photographer.
Our sincere appreciation is due Dean Cratis Williams who
wrote our introduction, Mrs. Allie Hodgin of the Appalachian
State University Library who aided us tirelessly, and Jack Van
Noppen who reviewed the manuscript and helped organize it.
Our greatest indebtedness is to Miss Myra Champion who encouraged and contributed more than words can tell to the
completion of this book.
Boone, North Carolina
February 12, 1973
Ina Van Noppen
John]. Van Noppen
�INTRODUCTION
The late Daniel]. Whitener, Chairman of the Department of
Social Sciences and Dean of Appalachian State Teachers College,
was commissioned in 1948 to prepare a history of Watauga
County, North Carolina, for the Centennial Celebration of the
formation of the county and the Sesquicentenial Celebration of
the founding of Watauga Academy, the parent institution of
Appalachian State University. Dean Whitener's experience
inspired him to assume leadership in the forming of the Southern
Appalachian Historical Association, which set about to build the
Daniel Boone Outdoor Theatre in Boone and produce Kermit
Hunter's Horn in the West, but he also saw the need for a carefully
done history of Western North Carolina which he hoped ultimately to be able to write himself.
Encouraged by both the Western North Carolina Historical
Association and the Historical Society of North Carolina, Dean
Whitener began gathering material and planning a history, but
his heavy burden of administrative duties at the rapidly growing
college and his wide range of interests and involvements in local
and state civic activities did not leave time for him to engage in
the field research needed for the kind of history he thought
should be written. During the year prior to his scheduled retirement from his administrative position at Appalachian, Dean
Whitener realized that the condition of his health was such that
he would not be able to write the history he had dreamed of
writing. He sought the advice of the members of the Western
North Carolina Historical Association and his collegues at the
college. He was urged to determine whether Ina W oestemeyer
Van N oppen, a productive scholar and professor of history at
Appalachian, might be willing to undertake to complete the
history.
Vl
�Introduction / vu
Ina Van Noppen, who had collected oral history, visited the
sites of engagements along the route of Stoneman's Last Raid,
and searched for materials in archives and libraries in preparation
for her writing of Stoneman's Last Raid, had become interested in
the history of Western North Carolina and the mountain people
who live there. She had already discovered that, aside from a
few county histories of uneven quality written for the most part
by people little acquainted with the techniques of historical
scholarship and often motivated by genealogical interests, little
had been done, and no one had attempted a comprehensive
history of the entire mountain region of the state since 1914 when
John Preston Arthur published his History of Western North
Carolina. Dr. Van Noppen, reluctant to undertake to do the
assignment because ofher work in collaboration with her husband,
John James Van Noppen, a professor of English at Appalachian,
in the preparation of a biography of Daniel Boone, requested
time for consideration of the request. Urged by the membership
of the Western North Carolina Historical Association and
encouraged by promises of such resources as might be available
to it in helping to underwrite the publication of the book, Dr.
Van N oppen agreed to write it provided she could work in
collaboration with her husband.
As the plan for the history developed, the Van Noppens
began to see that it ought not to be the usual history of the political
and economic progress of a region within a state but, rather a
whole history, which would include a treatment of the differentiating qualities of the mountain people as well as their institutions,
traditions, customs, folklore, arts and crafts, way of life, and the
literature written about them and by them.
Western North Carolina is the state's share of Appalachia,
but no history of Appalachia has been written. Much has been
written about the folklore of the mountain people, the economic
problems which plague the region, and the nature of the people
themselves, as well as their social problems, customs, old fashioned
religious views, and political conservatism. The Van Noppens
thought that a history should treat all facets in the lives of the
people about which it is written. Hence, they have produced an
economic, political, social, and cultural history which might well
be taken as a model for similar histories of western Virginia,
eastern Kentucky, and eastern Tennessee, which, when taken
together, might provide a base for a comprehensive history of a
unique and fascinating people, the Southern Appalachians.
�viii / Introduction
Western North Carolina Since the Civil War is the product of
eight years of research and writing. Not content to rely upon
such sources as might be found in regional libraries and state
archives, the Van Noppens sought out individuals in the mountain
region who possessed primary sources, traveled over the mountains tram town to town and courthouse to courthouse in search
of sources, sought documents and reports stored in state archives
and the Library of Congress. John Van Noppen reviewed the
literature about the mountain folk, visited living writers, studied
the collections of ballads and folk songs, and read theses and
dissertations written about the cultural heritage of the area.
Together, the Van Noppens attended fairs and festivals and
visited museums, libraries, and colleges in the area. They traced
out the early roads through the mountains, studied the histories
of the railroads, visited the forests and the national and state parks,
examined the history and development of tourism, and sought
out the seers and craftsmen, the educators and the religious
leaders, the politicians and the developers who share in guiding
the native mountain folk living in what has come to be known
as North Carolina's vacation land through their transition from
a highland rural and largely self-subsistent society to what is
rapidly becoming an urban society.
Ina Woestemeyer Van Noppen, a native of Bethel, Kansas,
was educated at the University of Kansas and Columbia University. Soon after graduating from the University ofKansas, she began
teaching history in high schools in Kansas City. After receiving
the M.A. degree from Columbia, she taught for a time at the
Woman's College of the University ofNorth Carolina at Greensboro. While working toward her doctoral degree at Columbia,
she taught history at Penn Hall Junior College, where her husband
John J. Van Noppen, was dean and a teacher of English. Later
sh'~ and her husband taught at Hiram College and at Youngstown
College in Ohio before going to Appalachian State Teachers
College in Boone, North Carolina, in 1947. She is the author of
The Westward Movement (1939), The South: A Documentary
History (1958), and Stoneman's Last Raid (1961), for which she
received the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Award from the Western
North Carolina Historical Association. She and her husband
collaborated in the writing of Daniel Boone, Backwoodsman (1966).
An outstanding teacher ofhistory, Dr. Ina Van Noppen received
one of the first distinguished teacher awards presented by Appalachian State University.
�Introduction / ix
John J. Van Noppen grew up in Madison, North Carolina.
He holds degrees from the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill and Columbia University. After years of teaching
in secondary schools and preparatory schools, including experience in Italy, where he became personally acquainted with Benito
Mussolini, Dr. Van Noppen began a long career as a college
teacher and administrator. He was an English teacher and Dean
ofPenn Hall Junior College and Preparatory School at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, Head of the Department of Education at
Hiram College, and a teacher ofEnglish at Youngstown College
in Ohio. He joined the English faculty at Appalachian State
Teachers College, Boone, North Carolina, in 1947. He has
engaged in extensive research on Archibald Henderson and
George Bernard Shaw and collaborated with his wife in the
writing of Daniel Boone, Backwoodsman (1966).
The Van N oppens are world travelers, having conducted
summer tours abroad for students and teachers for many years.
While researching in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland in
preparation for their biography of Daniel Boone, they learned
much of the ferments which sent English, Scottish, and ScotchIrish pioneers into Western North Carolina prior to the American
Revolution. Among the descendants of these settlers are the
Western North Carolina mountain people of today.
Western North Carolina Since the Civil War, though a scholarly
work, is published without the extensive footnotes which the
authors painstakingly prepared. Aimed primarily at the reading
public, particularly of Western North Carolina, the book is none
the less of value to the historian and the student oflocal cultures.
Moving slowly and often painfully out of their dark period
of economic and social disintegration following the Civil War,
the mountain people living in the isolated and insulated "lost
provinces" ofWestern North Carolina had by 1900 begun their
steady march of progress into contemporary times. Uneven
at times and faltering as the state and the nation suffered through
such social and economic upheavals as war, economic booms and
recessions, and drouths, the people of Western North Carolina
have made solid progress in improving education, local economy,
communication, land use, and natural resources. Most importantly, they have clung to the traditions and nurtured the heritage
that is uniquely their own. With pride in themselves and appreciation of the grandeur which lies about them, they have managed
to preserve their own culture and conserve their own beautiful
�x / Introduction
homeland so rich in resources that the degree of poverty there
is not comparable with that found elsewhere in Appalachia. As
the Van Noppens have so aptly observed, Carolina mountain
folk arc not "yesterday's people" nor is night likely to come to
them, for they have become the shapers of their own destiny.
Cratis Williams
Appalachian State University
Boone, North Carolina
�PROLOGUE
Extending from Rutherfordton on the south to Mount Airy
and Fancy Gap on the north is an elevated region, the foothills,
from I,ooo to 2,ooo feet above sea level. Beyond are lofty, mistshrouded and haze-creating mountains, the picturesque barrier
of the Blue Ridge on the east, the magnificent Great Smokies
and the scenic Unakas on the west. Between the Blue Ridge,
which is the eastern Continental Divide, and the Unakas there
is a high plateau with altitudes ranging from 3,500 to 4,000
feet. Grandfather Mountain 5,964 feet, is the highest and most
spectacular peak in the Blue Ridge, but not as high as the Black
Mountains farther south, where Mount Mitchell rears its lofty
crest 6,684 feet above sea level.
This elevated tableland encircled by the two great mountain
ranges is traversed by cross chains that run directly across the
country, from which spurs of greater and lesser height lead off
in all directions. Among the transverse groups are the Black,
Roan, Yellow, New Found, Pisgah, Balsam, Cowee, Nantahala,
Cheoah, and Tusquitee ranges. Between these ranges lie valleys
formed by rivers which flow through gorges near their headwaters, then widen out and continue through fertile valleys
across the plateau, and narrow again, dividing the rampart
into the Unicoi, the Great Smokies, the Iron, the Bald, and the
Stone Mountains. Clingman's Dome in the Smokies is 6,642
feet above sea level, almost as high as Mount Mitchell. The
Black Mountain range extends for twenty miles, and its sides
are covered in places by almost impenetrable forests. Of the
transverse chains, next to the Blacks in size and altitude are the
Balsams. In general magnitude and length they are the most
extensive of the cross ranges. Fifty miles long, this range has
numerous peaks which average 6,ooo feet.
I
�2 /
Prologue
Geographically Western North Carolina, consisting of foothills, valleys, peaks, the crest of the Blue Ridge, the Great Smoky
Mountains, and the transverse ridges, is about 250 miles long
and up to ISO miles wide. It consists of approximately one-fifth
of North Carolina's area but only one-seventh of its population.
It has one county with sixteen persons per square mile, three
with fewer than thirty per square mile, three with from thirty
to thirty-nine per square mile, five with from forty to fortynine persons, and two with from fifty to fifty-nine, while for
the entire state the population density is ninety-seven per square
mile.
Since I739 the subdivisions of the state have been known as
counties, each serving as an administrative unit for the colony
and later for the state. As new areas were opened they too were
designated as counties; some of them were quite large, and
later as the population increased other counties were formed
by subdividing the existing ones. Rowan County, formed in
I 7 53, was the parent of Western North Carolina although the
present-day Rowan County is not in Western North Carolina.
In I77I Surry County was created from Rowan and remained
the westernmost one until Burke was also formed from Rowan
in I777 and Wilkes from Surry in I778. In the southwest Mecklenburg was created from Anson and in I769 Tryon was formed
from the westem part of Mecklenburg. In 1779 Tryon was
abolished and its land divided between Lincoln and Rutherford
counties; the latter is in Western North Carolina.
Meanwhile four additional counties, later part of Tennessee,
were formed: Washington in I777, Sullivan in I779, Greene
and Davidson in 1783. They anticipated cession to the United
States and in 1784 tried to create the State of Franklin, which
did not survive as a state. Three other counties, Sumner, Hawkins,
and Tennessee, were subdivided from the four before cession
did take place in I789. The seven became part of the State of
Tennessee which was admitted to the union in I796.
In I8oo Westem North Carolina consisted of Surry, Rutherford, Burke, Wilkes, Buncombe (which had been created from
lands ceded by the Cherokees), and Ashe counties. Ashe had
been separated from Wilkes. As the Cherokees gave up additional
lands Haywood County was established in I8o8, Yancey in
I833, and Henderson in I838. From Rutherford and Burke
came McDowell in I842, and from Buncombe and Yancey
was formed Madison in I 8 5 I. In I 828 Macon was set apart
�Prologue / 3
from Haywood, and in 1851 Jackson County was created from
Haywood and Macon, the latter having surrendered the land
evacuated by the Cherokees for the county of Cherokee in
1839. Further subdividing created Polk from Henderson in
1855, Transylvania from Henderson and Jackson, and Clay
from Cherokee, in 1861, Swain from Jackson and Macon in
1871, and Graham from Cherokee in 1872.
In the northwestern part of the state Caldwell was formed
from Burke and Wilkes in 1841, Watauga from Wilkes, Ashe,
Caldwell, and Yancey in 1849, Mitchell in 1861 from Yancey,
Watauga, Caldwell, Burke, and McDowell. Alleghany was
created from the eastern part of Ashe. The last county, Avery,
was formed in 1911 from Mitchell, Watauga, and Caldwell.
Upon examination of a map showing the counties ofWestern
North Carolina one must conclude that they have very peculiar
shapes. This is due no doubt to the mountainous terrain and to
the necessity that people be able to travel from the farthest
point to the county seat.
In the eighteenth century immigrants poured through "William
Penn's new port of Philadelphia" from the British Isles and
Germany. With them they brought their skills, speech, ballads,
dances, and folk customs. Many of the second and third generations came southwestward seeking land. Salisbury in the newlycreated Rowan County (1753) became the springboard into
the West. In the 1750's Salisbury was like the hub of a wagon
wheel. Settlers flowed in along the northern, eastern, and southeastern spokes. They paused briefly to rest their horses, repair
their wagons (if they had any), and to buy needed supplies
of salt, powder, lead, and tools. Many fanned out along the
western spokes toward the beckoning beauty of the Blue Ridge.
They plunged deeper and ever deeper into the wilderness, lured
on by the prospect of cheap and still richer lands on which to
build their homes. Soon they had settled all except the most
mountainous parts of what are now Surry, Wilkes, Burke, and
Rutherford counties. Intrepidly they disregarded the threat
of Indian attacks and moved into the uncharted wilderness.
Some lost their lives but many survived, the ancestors of presentday mountaineers. Men bearing the names of Alexander, Boone,
Bryan, Robertson, Sevier, Shelby, Campbell, Clingman,
�4 /
Prologue
Jackson, Davidson, Patton, Rutherford, Councill, Calloway,
Howard, Horton, Gudger and Moore were among the advance
guard. They cleared land, built primitive cabins, hunted, trapped,
and fought the Indians. Their incentive was the passion for land
where there were few taxes and no restrictions upon political
and religious freedom. The extent of their migration may be
seen from the fact that in I746 there were not one hundred
fighting men in the North Carolina foothills; while in I753
there were three thousand. In I765 one thousand wagons passed
through Salisbury going westward.
During the Revolutionary War the Cherokee Indians made
the fatal mistake of siding with the British. They were badly
defeated and decimated by frontiersmen led by men like Griffith
Rutherford and John Sevier. Their towns were burned, their
women and children killed, and they were driven ever westward.
During the Revolution many who fought the Cherokees saw
the mountains for the first time, admired the beauty of Western
North Carolina and were determined to return and settle as
soon as the war ended. A law passed by the state legislature in
I 777 provided the method of acquiring land. Each claimant
took to the entry recorder a statement of location and approximate boundaries of the land he wished. The county surveyor
then surveyed the tract and prepared two plots with descriptions
of boundaries and acreage, which he transferred along with
the warrant of survey to the secretary of state. The claimant
paid the entry taker two pounds and ten shillings per one hundred
acres. A husband was allowed to take six hundred forty acres
for himself and one hundred acres for his wife and each of his
children. For purchases in excess of his allotment the purchaser
paid five pounds per one hundred acres, or one shilling per acre.
Tracts of as many as I ,ooo,ooo acres were laid out and were
acquired by speculators who disposed of the land in tracts of
soo or rooo acres. Among the large landowners in the region
before I8oo were Charles Gordon in Wilkes County, Robert
and William Tate in Burke, David Allison, John Gray Blount,
and William Cathcart in Buncombe. When the war was over
the state offered land to servicemen in payment for their having
served.
The bold and dauntless pioneers pushed across the great
mountain barrier into a natural wonderland with magnificent
scenery, a cool climate, clear air, pure water, fertile valleys,
and game in plenty. In this region men and women extended
�Prologue / 5
a frontier civilization that became Western North Carolina,
consisting ultimately of the twenty-four counties that are in the
mountains or ascend the eastern slope of the mountains.
Many of the settlers moved into the back country on foot
and on horseback, bringing their household goods on pack
horses. Among these goods were, in addition to rifle, axe, and
hoe, clothing, blankets, bed clothes, bed ticks to be filled with
grass, a large pot, pothooks, an oven with a lid, a skillet, a frying
pan; a handmill to grind com, a wooden trencher in which to
make bread, pewter plates, spoons, the iron parts of plows, a
broadaxe, a froe, a saw, an auger, seed, and a few fruit trees.
The historian John Fiske implied that the settlers of the
mountains were descended from poor whites and indentured
servants who migrated westward rather than compete with
slave labor, that their ancestors had been herded into ships from
the slums and jails of England. His opinion was true of only a
small minority. He and others who held this opinion ignored
the predominant Scotch-Irish and German origin of many
settlers. John C. Campbell believed that the early mountain
population was recruited chiefly from the poor but vigorous
small farmers of the piedmont, few of whom owned slaves.
A study of family names in the Southern Highlands by the
Russell Sage Foundation revealed that of 497 names, one-third
were English, one-third were Scotch-Irish, and fifteen per-cent
were of German origin. Most of the families were descended
from those living on the frontiers of Virginia and North Carolina
in 1790. They were the same stock that later peopled the Midwest
and the Southern states along the Mississippi, except Louisiana.
According to S. H. Hobbs, the English in Western North Carolina
contributed most to the civilization of the region. "Wherever
the Englishman has gone ... he has carried with him the industrial, political, and intellectual customs of his native land. The
English ideal of home life, the English industrial system, the
English principles of politics and government, the English
language and literature sooner or later became the dominant
force wheresoever the Englishman set up his home."
R. D. W. Connor characterized the racial strains of the
population as follows: the English were law-abiding, commercially minded, and self reliant; the Scotch-Irish were democratic,
liberty loving, and religiously minded; the Germans wer.e shrewd,
economical, conservative, lovers of learning and ·religion.
Although Connor was writing about the people of the state
�6 / Prologue
as a whole, these national strains made up the population of
Western North Carolina and his description is apt.
There has been a tendency to speak of the early settlers as
though they were all alike, all of one class. This tendency has
created a misconception. They were not a homogeneous group.
Three classes came to the mountains: the prosperous settler
class that came and bought good bottom land and perhaps
thousands of acres of mountain land as well; those who bought
land in smaller tracts from the first group or from the state;
and those who came on foot or horseback carrying their few
possessions, and who squatted on the land. Many of the prosperous
people of the area today are descended from the settler class,
although their prosperity did not result from agriculture. Their
land was their most valuable resource, and scions of pioneer
families are still realizing tremendous returns from land sales land that has grown amazingly valuable. On the other hand
poverty for many resulted from the extinction of the game,
over crowding, and exhaustion of the soil. As time passed many
valleys, ridges, and coves had a population greater than they
could support. Large families lived crowded in one or two-room
cabins. As late as 1910 eighty per-cent of the population lived
outside towns of one thousand population. As the original
farms were divided among descendants holdings became smaller
and smaller.
The Civil War brought disunion and discord to Western
North Carolina. Many people loved their section and their
state, but they also revered the Union for which their ancestors
had fought. Some favored the South, some the Union. Brother
fought against brother and father against son. Neighborhoods
split, families divided. Many heroic young men fought for the
Confederacy; others fled through Tennessee and Kentucky
to join the Union army. Numbers hid out in mountain caves
and recesses to avoid conscription. Many of the latter two
groups were opposed to slavery; others felt that the Civil War
was a war of the planter class and they had no reason to fight
for planter dominance of the state.
There was no actual campaign in the mountains of North
Carolina until 1865, but the mountain passes were of strategic
importance. The Northern strategy was to divide the South
into segments, and control of the passes would have contributed.
�Prologue / 7
A number of roads crossed the mountains from east to west:
the Western North Carolina Road across the Balsam Mountains;
the great highway from South Carolina and Georgia crossing
Saluda Gap, passing through Henderson, Buncombe, and Haywood counties; roads from Wilkesboro diverging in three
directions: northwest into Virginia, west through Watauga
County into Tennessee, and southwest through Morganton,
crossing the Blue Ridge at Swannanoa Gap. Turnpikes supplemented the state roads, making it possible for wheeled vehicles
to cross through some of the gaps, but there were many littleknown mountain paths where only experienced guides could
find their way. The great mountain barriers discouraged invasion
by hostile forces even though the area was divided in sentiment.
Railroads to cross the mountains had been planned, but none
had been built.
During the war campaigns were fought all around the
mountains but not through them. The salt works at Saltville,
Virginia, were a target of several Union raids. Cumberland
Gap was in Federal control in 1863; Chattanooga and Knoxville
were captured by Union forces and the Shenandoah Valley
and the gaps in the Virginia mountains saw considerable action.
Braxton Bragg, Kirby Smith, and John Hunt Morgan led
Confederate troops through the passes of the Cumberlands,
and Union troops fought their way through Georgia's mountains
from Chattanooga to Atlanta, yet North Carolina's mountains
remained a formidable barrier. General U. S. Grant considered
following up the victory at Chattanooga by sending so,ooo
men through the mountain country, but after a ride of 175
miles, he abandoned the plan because of the bad roads.
The Confederacy realized the importance of North Carolina
mountain passes. Colonel William Holland Thomas of southwestern North Carolina anticipated such a campaign as that
planned by Grant. He believed that Lee might wish to use the
mountains as a stronghold where he could have an invincible
base of operations. Confederate soldiers built roads over the
passes through the Great Smoky Mountains, and they controlled
the mountain passes toward Tennessee. Early in the war Thomas's
Legion of Indians and Highlanders, the Eightieth and Sixtyninth North Carolina regiments, had guarded the bridges
between Bristol and Chattanooga, but after the fall of East
Tennessee, they fell back on the Smoky Mountains toward
Waynesville and Webster.
After East Tennessee became Union territory, the Fourteenth
�8 / Prologue
North Carolina Battalion (Woodfin's Battalion) was created.
Originally three companies, it later had six. Its members were
Western North Carolinians and its function was to defend the
state's borders against invasion and pillage. After Woodfin's
death James L. Henry was made Lieutenant Colonel and commander of the battalion. As Henry had only one eye the command
was sometimes referred to as the "One-Eyed Battalion." It
made raids into Tennessee and used the guerilla methods necessary
in mountain fighting.
In r864 the defenses of Northwestern North Carolina were
very meager. Madison County was patrolled by a cavalry
company; while Major Harvey Bingham had two companies
in Watauga and a Captain Price had a small company in Ashe.
These companies defended the counties against predatory bands
from East Tennessee. Yancey and Mitchell counties were virtually undefended.
The mountains sheltered fugitives from both armies, who
hid by day and raided by night, often in bands of twenty or
more. Many prisoners who had escaped from Confederate
prisons made their way to the Union lines in Tennessee. Prisoners
from Salisbury followed the Y adkin to Wilkes County, said
to be the strongest Union county in North Carolina. The Confederates called it "Old United States." The Unionists sheltered
and fed the escapees and guided them to Banner Elk where
men like Keith Blalock and Harrison Church guided them to
Tennessee. Those escaping from the prison at Columbia made
their way across South Carolina, through Saluda Gap to Hendersonville and Asheville, where Dan Ellis guided them to
Tennessee. One group of prisoners escaping by this route were
hidden for four days by the girls of a family near Flat Rock.
The father of the girls was a "rebel," the mother a "home
Yankee," and the father never learned of the fugitives. Guides
for the prisoners roamed the country "sacking" the fine houses
and stealing money, jewelry, and silverware.
In March r865 the Union army was ready to begin the final
campaign of the war. Mobile, the last port in Confederate
hands, was being attacked by General E. R. S. Canby. General
George Thomas was sending out two powerful expeditions,
one under Brevet Major General H. Wilson in Alabama, the
other under M~or General George Stoneman toward Lynchburg.
General Philip H. Sheridan's cavalry had completed its raid
�Prologue / 9
through the Shenandoah Valley and had moved to White
House on the Pamunkey. The armies of generals William T.
Sherman and John M. Schofield were at Goldsboro. General
John Pope was preparing for a spring campaign against Generals
Kirby Smith and Sterling Price west of the Mississippi. Grant
with the armies of the Potomac and the James confronted General
Robert E. Lee, who defended Petersburg and Richmond.
Very important was General Stoneman's raid through the
mountains of Western North Carolina, Southwestern Virginia,
and the piedmont of North Carolina in March and April 1865.
General Stoneman, a West Point graduate stationed in
Fort Brown, Texas, at the start of the war, refused to surrender
to Confederate troops when his immediate superior did. He
escaped with his command and continued to serve the Union
army as a cavalry commander in West Virginia, under General
George B. McClellan, and with the Army of the Potomac.
In 1864 as a commander of the cavalry corps in the Atlanta
campaign he was captured at Clinton, Georgia. Exchanged,
he returned to command under General Thomas in East Tennessee. He conducted a destructive raid against Bristol and Saltville,
Virginia, in December 1864. Early in I 865 he was ordered to
collect horses and men to destroy the railroad between Bristol
and Lynchburg. Participating in Stoneman's raid were three
cavalry brigades under Brigadier General Alvan C. Gillem,
with brigade commanders Colonel William J. Palmer, Brigadier
General Simeon B. Brown, and Colonel John K. Miller.
On March 28 General Stoneman notified General Thomas
from Boone that he had captured the place, killing nine, capturing
sixty-two, and that the raid was a surprise to those on his route.
His raid was a surprise. A few weeks earlier, a few Union men
had surprised and captured Camp Mast with one company
of Home Guards. The other company of Home Guards were
surprised by Stoneman. Colonel George Kirk of the United
States Army had gathered a regiment of volunteers from the
deserters, bushwhackers, and Union sympathizers. In January
Kirk had created a diversion up the French Broad River and
cleared the mountain region of deserters. Now Kirk barricaded
the passes from Blowing Rock and Boone westward. On the
day that Kirk arrived in Boone, Lee was evacuating Petersburg
and Richmond and was moving toward Lynchburg following
the Confederate defeat at Five Forks, and Grant feared that Lee
�IO /
Prologue
might escape to North Carolina by way of the Richmond and
Danville Railroad. Stoneman was supposed to prevent Lee's
retreat to North Carolina by the railroad or his establishment
of a bastion of defense in the mountains.
At Boone Stoneman's command separated. Palmer's brigade
went by way of Deep Gap to Wilkesboro; Brown's moved
by way of Blowing Rock to Patterson's factory on the Yadkin
near Lenoir. Here they found an adequate supply of corn and
bacon, and Miller's brigade, following, destroyed the factory.
The latter brigades joined Palmer's at Wilkesboro where they
captured stores and horses and were forced to camp because
the Y adkin River was in flood.
On March 30 Stoneman's cavalry moved out ofWilkesboro.
James Gwyn, whose plantation was passed, said that the raiders
took only cattle and horses and that they did little damage.
They went thence to Elkin and used up provisions but did not
burn the factory or the cotton. September I, 1863, Gwyn had
written that Union sympathizers had taken over Wilkesboro
but that they would rue the day. They had been influenced
by Parson Brownlow's Knoxville Whig and Holden's North
Carolina Standard. Now Gwyn pointed out that Stoneman's
men did not respect those calling themselves Union men. Gwyn
saved some of his cattle by hiding them in the woods.
At last the raid on the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad
took place. The Union cavalry passed through Dobson and
Mount Airy, crossing the Blue Ridge. It captured and burned
a Confederate wagon train. Having reached Virginia the forces
were divided. It is sufficient here to say that Stoneman's men
destroyed the railroad successfully, then, returning to North
Carolina they destroyed the Confederate prison at Salisbury
(they did not liberate the prisoners, who had already been
removed) and large quantities of supplies. Following this they
began their return to Tennessee. We take up their activities again
as they reached Lenoir on Easter Sunday, April 15.
Meanwhile a Union scouting party sent to Asheville on
April 4 reported that the roads were barricaded and that 2000
men under General R. B. Vance defended it. The Union commander Colonel Isaac M. Kirby had orders not to participate
in a battle. He was engaged in a skirmish about four miles from
Asheville and retreated.
�Prologue /
I I
At Lenoir Stoneman's invasion had long been expected.*
March 29 reports had come that Yankees were in the Y adkin
Valley, on April 7 that Kirk with 300 men occupied Blowing
Rock, and on April I3 that Salisbury had been "bummed."
On April I 5 Stoneman's men rushed in and camped their prisoners
on the grounds of St. James Episcopal Church.t Citizens were
invited to feed the prisoners and to move freely among them.
Major A. C. A very of a very prominent Burke County family
had been captured by chance in Salisbury. In 1864 he had obtained
permission to organize a regiment to protect Northwestern
North Carolina. The regiment was never organized, but the
local companies did become a battalion, and arms, ammunition,
and equipment were sent to them by Governor Vance at the
request of Major A very. A very had gone to Salisbury to obtain
men to join him in an attack on Kirk at Blowing Rock when
he was captured. He was taken as a prisoner to Tennessee, but
Stoneman did not realize that he had captured Avery. People
of Lenoir helped him to conceal his identity by shaving his
beard and giving him the clothing of a relative, after which
his own men did not recognize him. The Yanks liked the people
of Lenoir but called it the "d - est little rebel town."
At Lenoir General Stoneman left the command, returning
through Watauga County to Tennessee. He reported that the
tithing depots had furnished food and that captured horses
had made his command better mounted than when it left Knoxville, and "this after crossing Stone Mountain once and the Blue
Ridge three times, and a march made by headquarters since
the 2oth of last month of 500 miles, and much more by portions
of the command."
Colonel Palmer was sent to Lincolnton and General Gillem
to Morganton. James Gwyn reported of Morganton: "They
tore everything to pieces at Uncle Avery's, held pistols to the
ladies' heads, drove them out of the house and took what they
liked." After Stoneman left the command the plundering and
*
In her Diary on March 30 Mrs. Ella (G. W.F.) Harper wrote of rumors
that ro,ooo Yankees were in the valley, and that they had burned the factory.
The next day she expressed fear that Tories would be raiding Lenoir, and
that the furniture had been removed from their store for safe keeping.
t
Mrs. Ella Harper wrote in her Diary "Everyone cooking as much as
possible for our poor famished prisoners."
�12 /
Prologue
sacking of houses and mutilations of furnishings increased
greatly.
General] ames G. Martin with Palmer's Brigade (Confederate)
of the 62nd, 64th, and 69th Regiments, a South Carolina battery,
and Love's Regiment of Thomas's Legion defended Asheville.
On April 24 General Gillem met General Martin under a flag
of truce. He promised that if his command were furnished three
days' rations it would not molest the country but would peaceably
march through and proceed to Tennessee. "The almost starving
country" furnished the supplies, but the Yankee army soon
returned, terrorized the people, burned houses, and destroyed
the armory and all the guns and ammunition they could find.
A Negro garrison was left in charge of the town for a year and
"burners roamed the countryside for miles around."
General Gillem reported the complete surprise of the rebels
at every point, and of the entire campaign he enumerated the
captures: "25 pieces of artillery ... 2I that they were forced
to abandon in Southwest Virginia ... 6ooo prisoners and I7
battle flags."
The war was not over yet in Western North Carolina:
a part of the "One-eyed Battalion" was in a skirmish as late
as May IO. And James Gwyn of Wilkes County wrote in his
diary May 4: "We have a quiet time now, our Southern armies
are disbanded ... and terms of peace are said to be agreed
upon .... All we dread here now is robbers & no doubt there
will be plenty of them this summer."
By the time that Gwyn wrote the comment about the robbers,
depredations in Wilkes County had become a certainty. Fort
Hamby came into being shortly after Stoneman and his army
left Wilkes County March 3 I, I 86 5. The men who used it and
terrorized the surrounding countryside were said to be deserters
from Stoneman's forces and "home Yankees" who sympathized
with them. Their leader was named Wade, and he was reputed
to have been a major under Stoneman. Fort Hamby was not a
military fort but a stronghold for the desperate band of criminals
who occupied it. The houses belonged to disreputable women
named Hamby. After having been occupied by Wade and his
men, it was called Fort Hamby.
There were two old-fashioned log buildings. The larger was
two stories high and was the one used as a fort. The other, about
�Prologue /
I
3
Clark's N. C. Regiments cites May 1 o as the date of this skirmish
PHOTO BY ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO .
�14 / Prologue
thirty feet from the fort, a single story, was used as a kitchen.
These buildings were on the north side of the Y adkin near the
mouth of Lewis Fork Creek on the top of a hill which overlooked
the two streams. This strategic location gave excellent vision
from both sides of the fort and made it easily defensible.
The men of the fort, heavily armed with the latest type of
Union rifles, roamed the countryside for miles about, plundering,
robbing, terrorizing the people in Alexander, Caldwell, Wilkes,
and Watauga counties. Without compunction they killed women
and children. Elated by their strong grip on Wilkes, Wade's
men made a raid on Caldwell County May 7; on the Sunday
following Major Harvey Bingham and a few men surprised
the fort. Wade begged for the lives ofhis men and time for them
to dress. While the captors were off guard, the robbers seized
their guns which had been concealed near their beds. They
killed two of their captors, one the son of General Clark of
Caldwell County. The others escaped, leaving the bodies of
the two slain men.
On Saturday May 13 Wade and his men went into Alexander
County to kill Reverend J. B. Green, a former Confederate
lieutenant. Forewarned, the Greens and their former slaves
repulsed the raiders. On May 14 the second attack was made
on the fort by some twenty men under the command of Colonel
Wash Sharpe, Colonel C. W. Flowers, and Captain Ellis. James
Polk Linney, sixteen, and James Brown, eighteen, were killed.
On Tuesday some forty men from Alexander, Iredell, Caldwell,
and Wilkes counties surrounded the fort, constructed breastworks
and beseiged it during the night. About daybreak Wallace Sharpe
sneaked up to the old kitchen at the rear of the house and set
it on fire. Wade and the men in the fort came out in apparent
surrender. Suddenly Wade bolted through the surrounding
line and escaped. The four men who were captured- Beck,
Church, Lockwood, and one other- were executed. The fort
was burned. It is believed that Wade's band numbered about
thirty, of whom about ten actually stayed at the fort with the
other members of the band living nearby. With the destruction
of Fort Hamby, Wilkes County saw the end of its Civil War
strife.
In Madison County during the Civil War great hostility
was felt between those who favored secession and those who
supported the Union. Augustus S. Merriman of Buncombe
County was appointed solicitor for the Eighth Judicial District
�Prologue /
I
5
during the war, and his task of maintaining law and order was
difficult. Once when some inhabitants (so-called Union sympathizers) seized the town of Marshall, plundered the stores
and committed many acts of violence, one thousand Confederate
citizens of Buncombe County formed a posse and hurried to
Marshall to punish the marauders. Solicitor Merriman prevailed
against this disregard of civil power, and the occasion passed
without further incident. Merriman held his courts throughout
the war, and persons who committed depredations were brought
to trial, imperiling Merriman's life. When he ran for election
to be a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1865, former
members of Kirk's regiments threatened vengeance and Merriman lost. Later he was elected Judge of the Superior Court
for the Eighth Judicial District and upon the convening of
court in several counties violence was threatened. In Clay County
hundreds of armed men awaited the beginning of an onslaught
when the court opened. After a skirmish involving sixty to
eighty persons, Judge Merriman directed the sheriff to select
and swear in sixty trusted men from both factions, to see that
they were armed, and to tell them to shoot the first man guilty
of violence with intent to start a general disturbance. A similar
occurrence happened at the court in Cherokee.
As has been pointed out, many of the pre-war Whigs after
serving the Confederate government became Democrats, but
since the name Democrat was repugnant to them the party was
called the Conservative Party. A Republican Party organization
was formed in North Carolina in 1867. It consisted of some
former Whigs, many small farmers who had not favored secession,
Northerners who came to the state to participate in political
affairs, and freedmen. It controlled North Carolina until 1870.
From the beginning it was popular in Western North Carolina.
Perhaps it is true, as a historian has remarked, that the Western
counties did not suffer as much during the years I865-187o as
piedmont and eastern counties where there were more Negroes
to vote and hold office, but there were trying times. Republicans
organized the Union League in the state to campaign for Republicans; and William H. Holden of Raleigh and Tod R.
Caldwell of Burke County, Republicans, were elected governor
and lieutenant governor respectively in 1868. Terrorist activities
of members of such organizations as the Ku Klux Klan and
editorial campaigns of newspapers against Holden's administration prompted the governor to call for two regiments of
�r6 / Prologue
volunteer troops as "detailed militia" to arrest the violence and
disturbances which he and his advisers attributed to the Conservatives. George Kirk of Tennessee, leader of Union regiment~
in Western North Carolina during the Civil War, was choser
to head one regiment. A circular written by Holden was circulatec
in the western part of the state. It read: "Rally Union Men in
defense of your state! Rally soldiers of the old N. Carolina 20
and 3d Federal troops! Rally to the standard of the old commander .... rooo recruits are wanted immediately, to serve
six months unless sooner discharged. These troops will receive
the same pay, clothing and rations as United States regulars.
Recruits will be received at Asheville, Marshall, and Burnsville,
North Carolina."
The so-called "Kirk-Holden war" was part of the political
campaign of r870 which did not include the election of governor,
whose term had been fixed at four years by the constitution of
r868. The election resulted in victory for the Conservatives
in the legislative offices: five of the seven North Carolina members
of Congress and majorities in both houses of the General
Assembly. While the Republicans had controlled the General
Assembly the issuing of $27,85o,ooo in bonds for railroad repair and construction was authorized, although only $17,66o,ooo
were issued. The bond issues constituted a fraud participated
in by some seventeen legislators led by George Swepson and
lobbied for by Milton Littlefield. Most of the proceeds were not
used for railroad construction. Of the bonds issued, $6,387,000
was authorized for construction of the Western Division of the
Western North Carolina Railroad, Asheville to the Tennessee
line, and $6r3,000 for the Eastern Division, Salisbury to Asheville.
When the Democrats took over the General Assembly in
I 870, they authorized a railroad investigation, the findings of
which enabled them to impeach Governor Holden and convict
him in March 1871 of high crimes and misdemeanors. Tod
Caldwell became governor and was reelected in r 872. Upon
his death Curtis H. Brogden of Wayne County, Lieutenant
Governor, succeeded to the office. Although the Conservatives
controlled the General Assembly, Republicans served as governors until 1876.
Ku Klux activities subsided in the piedmont by r87r but
they continued in several mountain counties, Burke, Polk,
McDowell, and Rutherford in a very uncontrollable fashion.
Meanwhile Congress had passed the Ku Klux acts and more
�Prologue / 17
United States troops were sent into the state. Wholesale arrests
were made, and 981 persons were indicted for "Ku Klux depredations" by a federal grand jury in Raleigh. Of the thirtyseven convicted, the most famous Western North Carolinian was
Randolph A. Shotwell, Democratic editor of Rutherfordton.
J. G. de R. Hamilton, editor of the Shotwell Papers, concluded,
"Shotwell was the county chief in Rutherford County, having
assumed the position at the request of leading men in the hope
of checking the movement. He had never been on a raid and
never ordered one and had sought to prevent ... raids. He was
convicted on false evidence, fined $5000 and sentenced to six
years in Albany." Shotwell was pardoned after two years.
Hamilton found that the Klan in Rutherford and Cleveland
counties had been used to cover "private vengeance, sheer
lawlessness, and in certain cases the activities of certain republicans
in violation of the United States Internal Revenue law concerning
whiskey.''
The Civil War ended, but the bitterness between opposing
factions lasted for years. The acrimony over Reconstruction
was perhaps not as violent in Western North Carolina as in
Eastern North Carolina, but the impact of both the war and
the Reconstruction that followed it are still evident in the partisan
rivalry that exists between Democrats and Republicans in the
mountain counties. Moreover it is believed by many that those
constituting the Democratic power structure in the state resented
the fact that Western North Carolina was a divided region
during the war, and that they have discriminated against those
in the mountains by limiting appropriations that would aid the
economy.
Much has been written about the mountain people for the
last hundred years or more. Perhaps the description by Randolph
A. Shotwell of the people in Rutherford County in the late
r86o's is as good as any. He saw four different groups: (r) families
of wealth, intelligence, and cultivation - they were the ex-slave
holders, who educated their children at distant schools, and
owned large tracts of land; (2) those who lived in substantial
frame or log dwellings and enjoyed "good living" although
their members had little education; (3) log cabin dwellers who
owned only a few acres and lived in one-room structures, with
�I8 / Prologue
little furniture, and who had in money no more than twenty
dollars in a year, hunting and fishing supplementing the products
of the garden patch to provide the family's food; (4) those who
owned little or no land and who lived in complete ignorance
of the outside world. Shotwell included in this group the illicit
distillers who lived in the wildest woodlands and operated
three-gallon stills in the most secluded places.
For those who lived on the hills and in the coves, frontier
conditions persisted and poverty was widespread, yet many
descendants of the first settlers remained. They stayed because
of the beautiful scenery and the healthful climate. The rolling
hills, the green valleys, and the lofty mountains covered with
laurel, rhododendron, hemlock, balsam, pine, oak, and chestnut
made Western North Carolina one of nature's wonderlands.
They loved their native area, its beauty and its freedom. Julius
Caesar was right in writing "Mountaineers are always free."
Life in the villages and towns of Western North Carolina
was not very different from that of rural villages in other parts
of the state. These people were not mountaineers as the term
is usually used; neither were the gentry, those on large valley
farms, to be considered mountaineers. Keeping in touch with
kinfolk throughout the piedmont they participated in local
government and the General Assembly, educated their sons
for the professions such as law and medicine, and entertained
in the Southern manner. When Arnold Toynbee wrote, " ... in
the heart of our Western Society's 'New World' of North
America, there is today a large and widespread population of
English and Lowland Scottish origin, with a Protestant Western
Christian social heritage, which has been unmistakably and
profoundly barbarized by being marooned in the Appalachian
backwoods ... " he could not have been referring to the farmers
who developed the holdings at the mouths of the rivers and
large streams, who built two-story log houses which as time
went on they enlarged or replaced with fine brick homes, many
of which are still standing in Caldwell, Burke, McDowell,
Rutherford, and Polk counties. These families were large,
and marriages were made to preserve the link between the
households of mountain valleys and the piedmont.
Most of the prosperous families had owned slaves. Dr.
Edward M. Phifer made a study of the slaveholding families
in Burke County. He found that in I 86o, "921 families engaged
in farming, 548 of the families were landowners, 9 were listed
�Prologue /
I
9
" Magnolia," one of the elegant ante-bellum homes in Burke County
as owning as many as 300 improved acres, 3 8% of the 548
landowners were slaveholders, I6o/o of the slaveholders owned
only one slave each, 6o family heads owned Ioo or more slaves,
26% of the population was slave." He explained, "The ScotchIrish and German upcountrymen turned to legalism, already
a component of their thought process, to justify the institution
of slavery." Those who owned slaves were professional people,
church officers, farmers, and merchants. A Methodist minister
William Fullwood owned as many as nineteen slaves at one
time, and in I 8so the Presbyterian minister at Quaker Meadows,
John McKamie Wilson, Jr., had ten slaves. Many of the slaveholders had occupations unassociated with agriculture. The
slaves worked in shops, engaged in household manufacturing,
gold mining and railroad construction as well as agriculture.
Slaves were considered a good investment, liquid assets, and
some slaveowners are not known to have owned any land. Dr.
Phifer's description of slaveholding in Burke County can no
doubt be applied to the other counties ofWestern North Carolina.
The Population Table shows how many slaves were held in
each county in r8so. The leading families of I85o were still
the dominant element in the population of I877.
For the persons usually characterized as mountaineers, who
�POPULATION TABLE
Counties
White
N
1850
Free Negro
188o
Slave
White
Colored
1950
Total
1960
Total
1970
Total
0
4'
C)
Alleghany
Ashe
Avery
Buncombe
Burke
Caldwell
Cherokee
Clay
Graham
Haywood
Henderson
Jackson
Macon
Madison
McDowell
Mitchell
Polk
Rutherford
Surry
Swain
Transylvahia
Watauga
Wilkes
Yancey
8,096
II,6oi
5.477
s,oo6
5.493
5.931
5.892
s,6I3
4.777
I0,425
I6,I7I
3,242
10,746
7.908
Created in 1859
86
Created in 191 I
107
163
108
8
Created in 186I
Created in I872
IS
37
Created in I85I
I06
Created in I851
207
Created in I 86 I
Created in I855
220
272
Created in I87I
Created in I861
29
2II
so
595
I,7I7
2,132
1,203
337
4I8
924
549
I,262
2,905
2,000
I29
1,142
346
4.967
13,478
519
958
18,424
I0,090
8,688
3.486
2,721
I,6oo
386
I43
212
484
1,385
749
668
457
1,899
503
1,143
3,273
2,067
549
517
409
I,923
325
7.796
3,I73
2,I23
9.787
8,895
6,594
7.396
I2,353
7,037
8,932
3,920
II,925
13,234
3.236
4,823
7.75I
I7,258
7.368
8,155
21,878
13,352
124,403
45.518
43.352
18,294
6,oo6
6,886
37.631
30,92I
I9,26I
I6,I74
20,522
25,720
I5,143
II,627
46.356
45.593
9.92I
IS,I94
I8,342
45,243
I6,306
7.6oo
19,100
u,6oo
132,400
54.900
5I,200
15,800
5,300
6,300
43.300
37.700
17,300
I4,500
I6,200
27,000
I3,500
II,300
44.810
48,8oo
8,ooo
I6,6oo
I7.300
45,IOO
13,300
8,134
19,571
12,655
145,056
6o,364
56,699
I6,330
5,I80
6,562
41,710
42,804
2I,593
IS,788
I6,003
30,648
I3,447
II,735
47.337
51,4I5
7,86I
I9,713
23,404
49.524
12,629
~
:;::
"'
�Prologue /
2I
lived in the more remote coves and valleys and on the steep
hillsides, life did not change much, even after the tum of the
century, because new means of transportation did not reach
them. Dr. Benjamin Washburn, who grew up in Rutherfordton,
and who after completing his medical training practiced medicine
in the upper part of Rutherford County early in the twentieth
century, in the South Mountains, wrote: "It seemed to me that
to go from the lowland section of the county into the South
Mountains, although the distance was only about thirty miles,
was to pass into a different world - a world which showed
stage-by-stage changes in civilization which had been going
on in our Appalachian hills since the early years of the nineteenth
century .... As I became better acquainted with the people
I found it hard to realize that the South Mountain folks and
those of the lower part of our county were descended from the
same English and Scotch ancestors. This was all the more
interesting because I was related to many of these mountain
families, one of my grandmothers having come from this section."
Washburn called the South Mountains "a picturesque section
with simple, loyal, homeloving families."
Cecil Sharp, an Englishman who came to the Appalachians
to collect mountain ballads, found the people "leisurely, cheery,
... in their quiet way, ... with a very highly developed social
instinct. They dispense hospitality with openhanded generosity
and are extremely interested in and friendly toward strangers,
communicative and unsuspicious .... They have an unaffected
bearing and the unselfconscious manners of the well-bred."
The one other group in the population of Western North
Carolina was the Cherokee Indians. Following a treaty with
the United States at New Echota in I835, for a money payment
and land in present-day Oklahoma the Indians reluctantly ceded
their remaining land in the East, and in I 838 their removal
began. Many Cherokees opposed the treaty and some hid out
in the mountains; while others stole away from the procession
and returned to the mountains with numerous white families
befriending them. In I839 there were about one thousand living
in the Smokies. William Holland Thomas, a trader, went to
Washington to negotiate permission for them to remain in
North Carolina. With their share of the treaty money Thomas
bought a tract of land in his own name since North Carolina
had passed a law forbidding Indians to own land. The area
situated on the Oconaluftee River became known as the Qualla
Boundary. It contained about 50,000 acres. Other small tracts
�22 / Prologue
including one in present-day Graham County brought the total
to about 65,000 acres. When after the Civil War Thomas lost
all of his personal fortune, the federal government repurchased
the land and in 1875 the Indian Office assumed direct control
of the affairs of the band. Formal title to the Qualla Reservation
and outlying tracts was granted to the Eastern Cherokees in
1876, and in 1889 they became a corporation under the laws
ofNorth Carolina.
The Cherokees have long been known as thrifty, hardworking
people. A traveler through the Qualla Reservation wrote in
I 892 that the village of Yellow Hills was "beautiful ... , neat,
orderly, and picturesque. We have gone through the Qualla
Cherokee Reservation, down its most populous valley, through
its roughest and most picturesque scenery. Coming through,
by way of their thoroughfare and by their churches, we have
seen most of the population in their Sunday dress and holiday
garb, men, women, and children. We have seen their houses
and farms, and visited them at home .... This Monday mom,
we have seen the native at work - the red man, actually at
work - driving oxen, reaping, mowing, one actually running
a reaper - shades of McCormick! We have passed by and seen
a road-working party. Every Indian we have seen this morning
has been at work. They are in their work-a-day attire and even
in that they are well dressed."
Chapter One, "On Main Traveled Roads," reveals a county
by county view of the more or less normal lives, the places, and
the leaders, I877-188o. Superior Court Judge David Schenck
traveled from county to county, met the professional people,
the hotel keepers, the leaders of the communities. Interwoven
with his account are descriptions of the sports, the churches,
the schools, to give a picture of the life of the substantial people
of the region.
Chapter Two, "Off the Beaten Path," describes the life
and customs of the poorer mountain people who lived in the
coves and on the ridges. They are the mountaineers of the
stereotype created by the outlanders and writers of fiction.
A traveler in the mountains would see a man who was tall,
lean, emaciated, poorly dressed, and think that he was seeing
a typical mountaineer.
These accounts introduce topics whose histories will be
narrated in subsequent chapters.
�PART ONE
The People and Their Homeland
23
��CHAPTER
ONE
On Main Traveled Roads
To a resident of one of the western counties, the holding of
the superior court was of major importance, and the county
government seemed more significant than the national one
because to it they were more closely related. When a new county
was created by the General Assembly that body would appoint
a group of commissioners to select a site for the county seat,
purchase the land (sometimes it was contributed by an interested
landholder) and lay it out in lots, setting aside the amount needed
for the courthouse and jail and selling the remaining lots to
businessmen and householders. Thus the county seat developed
into a service center for the county, with the usual businessmen:
general merchants, tanners, millers, distillers, carpenters, cattle
dealers, and in some cases a drug store. Churches and schools
grew gradually, and one or more hotels were built to accommodate the judge, the lawyers, and the people from the outlying
parts of the county during court week.
Burke County, the parent of many western counties, has a
rich and interesting history centering around its courthouse. It
was the earliest seat of justice and law in Western North Carolina.
For a while the Supreme Court of the state held its summer
sessions in Morganton, the county seat. Colonel Lusk, an Asheville
lawyer, when he was ninety-two in 1928, reminisced that there
had been a time when Asheville was jealous of Morganton. Burke
County's third courthouse, which is still in use, was begun in
1833 and was under construction for several years. It was made
25
�26 / Part I: The People and Their Homeland
Burke County's historic courthouse
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO.
Aerial view of Burnsville, county seat of Yancey County today
HUGH MORTON PHOTO
�On Main Traveled Roads / 27
of native stone which was later covered with concrete. It served
not only as a courthouse but as a center for every kind of gathering.
For example, when a group of citizens and their slaves assembled
in I 849 to join those who rushed to California to find gold,
they met and left from this venerable courthouse.
The English and the Scotch-Irish settlers and their descendants
have always been proud of their system of law that was transplanted into the North Carolina mountains in the eighteenth
century by their ancestors. This heritage of English common law
and legal justice was centered around the courthouses. When
highways came they were designed to run from county seat to
county seat. The courthouse was to the county seat what the
cathedral was to a medieval city: it expressed the hopes and
aspirations of the people. It was the heart's core of the western
counties, the shaper ofhuman lives and destinies. It was the center
of government and authority. It brought order and system to
wilderness Carolina. It was the focal point of the social life, the
occasion when those from one cove could meet and gossip with
their neighbors from other coves and ridges, whom they had not
seen for months. It gave to the mountaineer who loved litigation
the joy of indicting someone. With the limited opportunities for
recreation and social experiences, trials and court cases gave
excitement and spice to his life.
Charles Dudley Warner and other writers have described
how the people in the mountains would gather in the county
seats for court week. They came to meet their friends and relatives,
to buy and sell, and to barter their home-grown products for
store-bought-goods, needed supplies of salt, coffee, medicines,
and tools. As soon as their business was transacted, they gathered
in front of the courthouses. They would chew tobacco, spit,
dip snuff, and drink liquor. The towns would be full of their
buggies, their covered wagons, which were really tents on
wheels, used as conveyances and as beds. Often they were loaded
with apples, produce, or barrels of hard cider. There were always
several wagons near the court. Cider, ginger cakes, maple sugar,
and whiskey were sold.*
*
"The A.S. Merriman Journal," North Carolina Historical Review, VIII,
300-330, gives the best account of court week in Western North Carolina,
full of detail, such as the following: "Scores of women attend this court
[Madison County] for the sole purpose of drinking and pandering to the
lustful passions of dirty men." The judge had to order the whiskey wagons
off the court house grounds so that court might proceed.
�28 J Part I: The People and Their Homeland
The administration of the law was not always just, but it
was exciting. Spring and fall, court week was the magnet to
draw all to the county seats. The judges and lawyers came on
horseback or when possible in buggies- those who rode the
circuit- "old pettifoggers, young shysters, and brilliant, neat
attorneys." Alexis de Toqueville remarked more than a century
ago that in the United States every major problem ends in a
law suit. The law was so often used to subvert justice that many
people doubted its fairness, yet most men believed that the law
was good if men used it lawfully. The folklore of the law is that
if a murdered man has called the murderer a bastard or a son of
a bitch, the jury will often acquit the murderer. If his lawyer or
the murderer convinces the jury that the victim brushed his hip
or his coattail as if reaching for a weapon, he may be acquitted.
If the lawyer can show that the victim has been intimate with the
murderer's wife, the accused will be acquitted under the "w1written law." Mountain people are far more peaceful than writers
of fiction would have their readers believe. There have been
and still are "pockets of riffraff." But violence was not limited to
the "riffraff." Some of the most prominent families in Western
North Carolina numbered among their members those who
had killed or had died at gun point. Dr. Robert B. Vance of
Buncombe County, in 1827, defeated by Samuel P. Carson for
election to the United States House of Representatives, remarked
that Colonel John Carson, father of Samuel, had been a Tory
during the American Revolution. Samuel Carson denounced
Vance as a liar, and other bitter remarks led Carson to challenge
Vance to a duel, which was fought in Tennessee. Vance was
killed by Carson's bullet. William Waightstill Avery of Burke
County, the eldest child of Isaac Avery, was a distinguished
North Carolinian, but he shot and killed a legal opponent,
Sam Fleming, in I 85 I. Earlier Fleming had horsewhipped A very,
and although Fleming was unarmed A very shot him in the
courtroom from a distance of five feet. A very was tried and
acquitted on grounds of temporary insanity. The jury deliberated
only ten minutes. This case illustrates the fact that a man could
kill an unarmed man and be acquitted. This incident had little
effect upon Avery's subsequent career. In 1852 he was again
elected to the legislature and in 1856 to the state Senate and
became its speaker. In I 86o he was chairman of theN orth Carolina
delegation to the Democratic convention. In spite of his skill
as a public speaker he was defeated as a candidate for Congress
�On Main Traveled Roads / 29
Franklin, Macon County seat, surrounded by mountains
HUGH MORTON PHOTO
Brevard, Transylvania County seat
HUGH M O RTON PHOTO
�30 / Part I: The People and Their Homeland
by Zebulon Baird Vance in 1858. He was active in organizing
the Western North Carolina Railroad and became one of its
directors in 1857. In r86o he was again elected to the state Senate.
He later served in the Confederate Provisional Congress. He
died July 3, 1864, of a wound received in pursuit of Kirk's raiders.
Judge David Schenck held court between 1877 and r88o in
most of the county seats in Western North Carolina. If we follow
him around the circuit, we gain a rare view of a region about
which he had experienced much concern. He wrote on December
29, 1879, "Since the 24th of August ... I have been toiling over
the great mountains and the Circuit that I dreaded more than
any other in the state has ended, and ended peacifully." He commented briefly on social activities, remarked about politics and
leading citizens. He shared with his diary the scenic high points
and the difficulty of travel in the mountainous areas. His remarks
touched upon numerous people and places which will be dealt
with at greater length in other chapters.
Schenck was elected on the Democratic ticket - the first
Democrat elected by the general public to preside over a superior
court in theW estern District. The Reconstruction constitution
drawn up and adopted in 1868 provided for popular election of
judges (formerly they were chosen by the General Assembly).
An amendment added in I 875 required their rotation from
district to district. In 1876 the Democratic Party won almost
complete control of North Carolina.
At the beginning of the 1877 court sessions, Judge Schenck
traveled from his home in Lincoln County to Newton by buggy.
There he took a train to Morganton, arriving almost simultaneously with the new era since the railroad had been completed
beyond Morganton to Old Fort. A county seat and a railroad
town, Morganton was one of the centers of growth in Western
North Carolina. Burke County had a population of 12,809,
about three tenths Negro. It was one-third mountainous, the
balance in rolling hills and valleys. W. C. Erwin, lawyer and
promoter of the county to northern capitalists, called the area
"a country that has fertile soil, hospitable people, magnificent
scenery, a perfect climate, vast mineral wealth, abundant water
power, great forests of pine and the hard woods, and immunity
from droughts and blizzards and unseasonable frosts." Morganton
had 861 persons.
�On Main Traveled Roads / 3 r
Upper class travelers in the 187o's shared the road
Asheville was the center of trade for a large area
�32 / Part I: The People and Their Homeland
There were two hotels. Judge Schenck chose the Mountain
Hotel, kept by Dr. ]. M. Hoppeldt, where the cooking was
"equal to any I ever saw- steaks an inch thick, rare and so
tender and juicy that it almost melts in your mouth." John Gray
Bynum, a popular lawyer, was the judge's host for Sunday
dinner - the menu, ham and chicken, all kinds of vegetables,
and dessert of peaches, watermelons, and cakes of different kinds.
As the Bynums took boarders, there were ten person at dinner.
The judge was looking forward to winning other political
honors, and he felt that his charge to the court on Monday made
a good impression. The lawyers were Colonel Burgess S. Gaither,
A. C. Avery,]. S. Bynum, Alfred Erwin, and S. C. W. Tate.
James M. Gudger was solicitor. Cam Pearson, the clerk, was a
Radical. Colonel Gaither was the "leader and father" of the
Burke County Bar, and Major A. C. Avery was the leader of
the Democratic Party there.
Burke County had a number of fine old plantation mansions
including Belvedere and Bellevue, both Erwin family homes,
and Swan Ponds, built by Waightstill Avery, part of the house
dating back to the late eighteenth century, and lived in by
generations of A verys. Quaker Meadows is one of the most
attractive farming areas in Burke County, and a number of
ante-bellum brick houses remained, remnants of prosperous
times before the Civil War. Many of these houses are still in a
good state of preservation.
If the judge had been interested in the economic life of the
region he would have reported that the county had the following
businesses: I 5 blacksmiths; 3 cattle dealers and 4,4ro head of
cattle; 2 coopers; 5 distillers (licensed) ; 3 fertilizer agents ; I
insurance agent; 2 livery stables; 2 lumber dealers; 8 flour and
grist mills; 2 millwrights; I mine for asbestos; 6 or 7 gold mines;
a Democratic newspaper, the Blue Ridge Blade; 4 tanners; 2
tobacco manufacturers; 2 watchmakers; 3 boot and shoe manufacturers; and six physicians. On the farms, 752 acres were
planted in cotton, 58 acres in tobacco, 22,6I3 in corn, 8 in rice,
1,654 in rye, and ro,or6 in wheat. Of schools there were fifty-two
for white children and fifteen for Negroes. In addition there
were two academies and one college. Methodist churches
predominated, with thirteen Methodist Episcopal South, nine
Methodist Episcopal (northern), one African Methodist Episcopal,
three Methodist Episcopal Zion, and one Methodist Protestant.
The others were one Episcopal, three Presbyterian, and four
�On Main Traveled Roads / 3 3
Baptist. In a later chapter all of these denominations will be
discussed.
In the northern part of Burke County were several tourist
attractions: Hawksbill at the top of Jonas Ridge, and Table
Rock, both of which attracted excursionists; Linville Falls,
formed by a shelf of rock and a drop of ninety feet, from the base
of which the Linville Gorge runs south about twelve miles
between Jonas Ridge and Linville Mountain. This wild and
rugged ravine never failed to charm the energetic souls who
rode horseback llP its course. At Linville Falls the Franklins,
descendants of John, brother of Benjamin Franklin, who have
lived for generations at the falls, served as guides and also "took
travelers" overnight. The last half mile of the trek to the gorge
could be covered only on foot.
The South Mountains fill the southern third of the county,
and the Blue Ridge cuts across the northwest corner. The South
Mountains create a "thermal belt" where frost is infrequent.
They run nearly parallel with the Blue Ridge for about forty-five
miles, extending through parts of Burke, McDowell, Rutherford,
and Polk counties. They were sparsely settled but in some places
were farmed to the very peaks. On a plateau three hundred feet
higher than Morganton was Glen Alpine - a glen with four
mineral springs- almost surrounded by mountains. Twelve
miles from Morganton, seven miles from the railroad but with
regular hack service, Glen Alpine Springs had a large hotel
which attracted visitors, and for those who wanted to explore
some of the peaks of the Blue Ridge it was conveniently located.
The waters were believed to be healthful. Piedmont Springs,
ten miles north of Morganton, was another resort.
Following his two weeks in Burke County the judge was to
hold court in McDowell County, and Major James W. Wilson,
president of the Western North Carolina Railroad, furnished
an extra train to carry the members of the bar to Marion on
Sunday evening, the party consisting of Colonel Gaither, Major
Avery, Solicitor Gudger, and Judge Schenck. The judge chose
to stay at the Fleming House. Marion was a town of 372 persons,
with businesses similar to those of Morganton.
At the old Erwin mansion on the Catawba River three miles
from Marion lived Major E. A. M. Erwin and his maiden sisters,
�34 / Part I: The People and Their Homeland
Misses Matilda and Mary Ann Erwin. Schenck wrote, "The
ladies are the finest specimen of that splendid race of people who
inhabited this luxuriant valley, but whose fortunes have been
swept away by the desolation of a war leaving them little else than
honor, grace, dignity, intelligence and the love of the Presbyterian
faith to solace them in their misfortune. This family however
have left them a fine farm and entertain sumptuously and
delightfully."
One of the most famous and handsome houses in McDowell
County was the Carson House, situated on the banks of Buck
Creek near the Catawba River. Built in 1810, for many years it
had been a stopping place for Brown's line of stages that ran
from Marion to Asheville. Since the Western North Carolina
Railroad had been completed beyond Old Fort in 1877, the
stage line had been discontinued between Marion and Old
Fort, but summer visitors frequently made a night's stop at the
Carson House before continuing northward toward North
Cove and the Linville Gorge. Advertised rates at the Carson
House were as follows: man and horse, $1.50 per day; single
person, $7.00 per week; single person, $25 per month. J. L.
Carson advertised, "Much attention has been paid to beautifying
the grounds and the house has been well fitted up."
Judge Schenck's political ambition was gratified by the interest and approval shown him in each county seat. He wrote
of his reception in Marion, "The people as far as I heard were
delighted and expressed themselves decidedly for me."
The next stop on the circuit was Henderson County. To
reach it the judge traveled by train from Marion to Henry's,
the inn near Old Fort at the end of the railroad in I 877, and
there he and the solicitor spent the night. The next morning they
took the four horse stage coach for Asheville, had dinner there
at three P.M., and continued on the same stage to Hendersonville,
where they stayed at the Henry Hotel. Judge Schenck was an
admirer of the mountain scenery.
In Hendersonville some of the most prominent citizens
called on him: William Miller, B. T. Morris, Captain]. M. Toms,
and others. As he organized the court he noted that the Democrats
were "satisfied." Although the officers of the court were Republican- C. M. Pace, clerk, and Jonathan Williams, sheriffSchenck was "constrained to say they are very good officers,
especially the sheriff, who is a nice clever gentleman .... He is
the first Radical I ever had any respect for, and he disclaimed
�On Main Traveled Roads J 3 5
being a full blood, is only tainted enough to get office from
the party."
Colonel H. T. Farmer, who operated the famous old inn
built in 1853 at Flat Rock (still serving the public in 1972 as the
Woodfield Inn) sent for Judge Schenck to spend the night.
Colonel Taylor took the judge out in his buggy, and on the
way they drove around among the magnificent summer residences, about twenty-five of them, each in a park-like tract
of from sixty to one hundred acres, that had been owned and
occupied each year during the summer season by prominent
South Carolina families. Flat Rock may well claim to be Western
North Carolina's first resort center.
The Saluda Mountains are a spur of the Blue Ridge and are
the boundary between North and South Carolina. Hendersonville
was built on a smooth bench of land about halfway up the Blue
Ridge Mountains. Between Hendersonville and Saluda Gap
were fine farms and orchards, especially of peaches and apples.
Schenck returned to Asheville September 2, 1877, and registered
at the Eagle Hotel, room 3 5· The Honorable Thomas Lanier
Clingman was staying in room 36, just across the hall, and the
two men spent hours together daily. Clingman had enjoyed a
long political life and knew "most of the distinguished statesmen
and politicians of this age." He had practiced law around the
whole of the Western Circuit when there were only four lawyers
of any prominence in the mountain counties and they all went
the rounds with the judge. Beginning with membership in the
legislature he went on to serve fourteen years in the United
States House of Representatives and three and one-half in the
Senate before the state seceded.
The Eagle Hotel was operated by James Patton and was the
stopping place for the stage coaches over the Swannanoa Gap
and from Greenville, South Carolina. ]. H. Gudger's Buck
Hotel, in the center of Asheville, was the coach stop for the stage
that ran from South Carolina via Saluda Gap and Hendersonville.
This route Judge Schenck found not very scenic, but it was
nevertheless the most comfortable to travel. A third hotel, the
Buncombe, was the choice of many because it was apart from the
busiest section of town. There were five other less-known
hotels.
�36 / Part I: The People and Their Homeland
Farmer's Inn, now Woodfield Inn
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO.
Asheville, the only city in Western North Carolina, had
about 2,100 people and twenty-three attorneys. The sheriff,
Levi Plemmons, was a Democrat, but the clerk, J. H. R eed,
was a Radical. J. M . Gudger, the solicitor, accompanied Schenck
on the circuit. The judge felt even before holding court in Asheville that his prospects there were flattering. Leaders Thomas
D. Johnson, H. B. Carter, and C. M. McLoud gave him "every
assurance that the bar here are for me and the people evidently
are my best friends. If I get through successfully next week, I
think all will be well.''
As was his custom in each county he served, Schenck made
sightseeing trips in Buncombe, socializing with all he met. He
wrote, "Beau Catcher, a small mountain which overlooks the
little city of Asheville and commands quite a fine view .. . is the
resort of the 'Beau Catcher' and the 'Beauty lovers' every evening,
who drive there, ride there, and walk there and do their courting
there. Old Folks are tolerated too, so I went up the other evening
and witnessed from it a most glorious sunset. But old as I am, I
admired the round limbs and tapering waists and merry faces of
the girls more than the grandeur of the mountains in the distance .
. . . Such is the frailty of poor mankind - a slave to woman, no
matter how silly, if she has a pretty face and ankle."
�On Main Traveled Roads / 37
Buncombe County had the largest population of any of the
mountain counties, 21,209, of whom 3,487 were Negroes. There
were thirty-four post offices and sixty churches, Methodist
predominating. There were sixteen Methodist Episcopal South,
ten Methodist Episcopal (northern), one African Methodist
Episcopal, one African Methodist Episcopal Zion, eight Methodist
Protestant, twelve Baptist and three Free Will Baptist, five
Presbyterian in the U.S. (southern), one Presbyterian U.S.A.
(northern), one Disciples of Christ, two Episcopal, two Missionary
Episcopal, and one Roman Catholic, the only Catholic church
in the entire area.
Asheville had a public library on the fourth floor of the
court house. Private schools were Asheville Female College
(sometimes listed as the Female High School), Asheville Male
Academy, Montanic Institute. Elsewhere in the county were
Black Mountain High School, Weaverville College, Hominy
Academy at Hominy Creek, and Leicester Academy. The
Asheville Female Academy is said to have attracted students
from Maine to Florida with its four year course.
The businesses in Asheville were more specialized than in
other towns. Thirty-four general merchants operated stores,
but in addition there were two bakers, one restaurant, two
booksellers and stationers, two photographers, two banks, one
furniture store, three druggists, and three barbers. There were
eleven wheelwrights, thirteen grist mills, six sawmills, two
woolen mills, three millwrights, and one marble-working
establishment, five lumber dealers and eleven carpenters and
builders. Asheville had two tobacco warehouses, as in the late
seventies most of the mountain counties were having a try at
growing tobacco, the bright-leaf variety. The effort was abandoned in a few years and not until the late 192o's was burley
tobacco introduced in the region.
The two newspapers, the Asheville Pioneer and the Asheville
Citizen, were weeklies. The Citizen (Democratic) had been
published since r869 with Randolph A. Shotwell as its first
editor.
Calvin H. Wiley in his North Carolina Reader (1868), said,
"Some of you will be surprised to find Asheville a place of much
intelligence and refinement." The cosmopolitan air was created
by those who had come there for their health. Rebecca Harding
Davis, who traveled in the Southern Highlands during the 187o's
wrote, "There is a sanatorium in the little town Asheville which
�38
f Part I: The People and Their Homeland
View of Asheville from Beau catcher Mountain, a favorite rendezvous
of young Lovers
Countless hogs and other animals were driven through Asheville to South Carolina
markets. Other traffic had to give way
�On Main Traveled Roads / 39
is becoming a Mecca for consumptives."
In addition to the eight hotels in Asheville there were flourishing inns on all the turnpikes leading into town- Smather's
at Turnpike, Alexander's at Alexander, and the Reagan House
at Weaverville were all well known. Smather's Inn contained
forty rooms. John C. Smathers had started it with ten rooms but
his business had flourished. Here he furnished grain and roughage,
a fenced enclosure for stock, with pasturage ; had a mill, a blacksmith shop, a carpenter shop, and served travelers, drovers,
and their livestock. The inn was crowded with "hundreds and
thousands of horses, mules, hogs, and cattle" driven on foot,
and was a stopping place for stage coaches and private vehicles
carrying tourists and business men. Alexander's had been in
operation since the Buncombe Turnpike was completed in I 828
when James Mitchell Alexander of Asheville bought and improved a place on the right bank of the French Broad River,
ten miles from Asheville, for a hotel and mercantile business.
The hotel was in use as long as the turnpike was the highway for
interstate travel. Another Alexander's was ten or twelve miles
H ardy travelers stopped here on the ascent of the hig hest mountain in Eastern
A merica
�40 / Part I: The People and Their Homeland
east of Asheville; it was a long-famed wayside house. This Mr.
Alexander was characterized by one visitor as "a hale sprightly
young man of eighty, who, like all other farmers in the mountains
'took in' travelers, gave them an excellent supper and comfortable
beds, and sent them on the next day."
The resorts Haywood White Sulphur Springs, Warm
Springs (now Hot Springs), and Asheville complemented each
other, guests stopping at one for a few days, then riding by
stage coach to another. A popular horseback excursion route
from Asheville ran up Reem's Creek to Weaverville and Elk
Mountain. Weaverville had a college, one of the four in Western
North Carolina. The Weavers were early comers, and it has
been estimated that thirty percent of the early settlers in the
valley north of Asheville were related to them.
Adventurous visitors to Asheville made the ascent to Mount
Mitchell. Leaving the main road to Marion at Alexander's, up
the narrow valley of the North Fork, headwaters of the Swannanoa, the explorer would reach the foot of Mount Mitchell the
first day. The night would be spent at Glass's, the roomy cabin
of a family that accommodated strangers. The vehicles were
left, the rest of the trip being made on horseback. A pack horse
would be used to carry supplies for twenty-four hours: blankets,
rugs, and food. From Glass's to the summit of Mount Mitchell
was a very steep and difficult twelve miles of trail. A rest stop
could be made half way up at the ruins of the once famous
Mountain House which had been built many years earlier. Above
that point were unending forests of balsam and fir, the latter
growing in perfect cone shapes, their bases meeting in close
thickets, giving the mountains their name, the Black Mountains.
Along the trail great boulders and fallen trees heightened the
adventure for the mountain climber.
During the course of Judge Schenck's travels on the circuit
he was accompanied part of the time by Mrs. Schenck and at
other times by his daughter Lucy. They were ecstatic over the
mountain scenery. The judge employed the owner of a nice
carriage to take Mrs. Schenck and himself from Asheville to
Burnsville, where he had a choice of two inns or boarding houses.
He chose Sol W. Carter's hotel. The other was owned by the
versatile G. D. Ray, who also owned a mica mine, a saw mill
�On Main Traveled Roads / 41
Climbers camped overnight before the descent from Mount Mitchell
at Ivy Gap, and a flour and grist mill in Burnsville. He was a
druggist, a tanner, a general merchant, and one of the principal
farmers in the county. Eight mica mines were being worked in
the county and mica from the mine of G. D. Ray was exhibited
at the World's Fair in Vienna. This sparsely settled county of
7,694 persons was a grazing area, and there were eight cattle
dealers who bought up cattle from the farmers and had them
driven to market in South Carolina or Tennessee, where there
were rail connections. The Black Mountains run through the
center of Yancey County, and while parts of this range were
forested with heavy timber, other parts were in native grasses.
About one-half mile from the summit of Mount Mitchell was a
piece of tableland one-half mile wide, a natural pasture. The
W estern North Carolina Land Company which advertised this
�42 / Part I: The People and Their Homeland
area for sale boasted, "Hundreds of cattle fatten here in summer.
Herbs and flowers abound, as do wild fruits." The company
was offering a site about half way up Mount Mitchell as "a terrace
ideal for a sanatorium."
The name Boon (as the family in that county spelled it at
the time) was constantly in Judge Schenck's mind during the
stay in Burnsville. The case of Thomas Boon who had been
convicted of murder a year before had been appealed, and while
he had not fired the fatal shot, the court found him guilty of
aiding and abetting the murderer. Sam Boon, father of Thomas,
appeared in court as a witness. Among the nine blacksmiths in
Yancy County was Macdaniel Boon. In that family it was and
has continued to be traditional for each generation to provide
at least one blacksmith.
Court closed in Burnsville in time for the judge to enjoy a
fox chase with the Aliens. He borrowed a horse from his landlord
and with three of the Allens and their six well trained dogs rode
to the foot of Green Mountain. The trail was fresh and the dogs
were sent in pursuit of "Reynard." The men rode around to an
eminence from which they could hear the race. Schenck wrote,
"In ten minutes after the trail was struck the pack was in full
cry and the music glorious. They ran in a circumference of a
mile or two around us where we could hear the 'cry' all the
time. The race was 'fast and furious' for forty minutes when
the fox was pressed so closely that he put into a cliff of rocks
but out of this the Allens soon forced him to retreat by means
of poles and as he jumped from [the] cavern the race was renewed
with increased noise and speed, and continued for ten minutes
longer until Reynard was overtaken and our chase was over."
But a much more exciting hunt was about to occur. The
telegraph line to Asheville had just been completed. From
Marion Schenck had telegraphed for permission from a Mr.
Murchison in Raleigh to have some sport on Murchison's
Black Mountain lands, 1 3,ooo acres on the south side of the
Black Mountain that had been posted to forbid trespassing.
Murchison had bought the land at sheriff's sale that year for
$2,200, to use as a timber and game preserve. (In 1909 it was
sold for $225,000.)
"Big Tom Wilson" had become a legend in his own day as
a guide and hunter. He was now fifty-six years old. He lived
nine miles south of Burnsville. Schenck,]. M. Gudger, Schenck's
landlord Carter, and Wilson Allen of the preceding hunt, went
�On Main Traveled Roads / 43
on horseback to Tom Wilson's, had noonday dinner, and were
at the forks of the two Caney rivers two and one-half miles from
Big Tom's by two o'clock. Mrs. Schenck and Mrs. Gudger
followed to the Wilsons in a buggy and waited for the hunt to
be over. The first day the party killed a big stag and had " a keen
relish for another day's sport." At 8:30 the next morning Gudger
and Schenck stood about 200 yards above the Forks, where
they had a clear view as the other hunters climbed the mountain
for a drive. Their wait was rewarded, for at ten o'clock a beautiful
Big Tom Wilson, twenty years before judge Schenck met him, had become famo us
for his discovery of the body of Elisha Mitchell, scientist and professor
�44 / Part I: The People and Their Homeland
doe came galloping down the stream. After killing the deer,
wrote Schenck, "We had a general jollification and gathering
up and after the hunters had hop passed the deer [tied the feet
together and suspended it from a pole] the party fished for
speckled trout and Wilson Allen killed two beautiful pheasants.
Big Tom went to a mountain orchard and filled his hat and
pockets with October peaches, large white freestones, and
brought them down for the party to feast on". That night appetites were keen and the venison and trout and good corn bread
were acceptable to all.
After supper the party sat around the fire while Big Tom
told yarns, bear tales, fishing tales, and adventure tales of all
kinds. One of the tales was of how on the rugged cliffs of the
Black he killed a small bear (125 pounds) and five raccoons.
These, with a rifle weighing eleven pounds, he had to carry down
the mountain. He "hoppassed" the "coons" on a grape vine and
strung them around his shoulders, three on one side and two on
the other. Then he tied the fore feet of the bear together and ran
his head between, with the bear on his back. With his left hand
he held the two hind paws to keep the bear's weight from choking
him. In his right hand he carried the gun. Big Tom believed,
and most southerners agree, that "coon" meat is the best of all
wild game. (Big Tom was the mountain man who found the
body of Dr. Elisha Mitchell for whom the mountain had been
named.)
At night the party slept "in true mountain fashion." A room
with several beds was shared by the Gudgers and the Schencks.
A tallow candle was the only light.
After ten days' vacation Judge and Mrs. Schenck started to
Bakersville in a "jersey" at seven o'clock in the morning, to
hold court in Mitchell County. Heavy showers fell as their
vehicle climbed over and around Green Mountain. ''The mud
was deep and the road slippery, then the clouds rose and the rain
stopped." The ford in the Toe River at Peterson's was dangerous
because the water was so high. Peterson rowed the Schencks
across in his "dugout" twenty feet long and two and one-half
feet wide and made another trip for their baggage, while a boy
drove the jersey across. Then at the edge of Bakersville the gray
horse began to balk and the judge and his lady finished the
�On Main Traveled Roads / 45
Here the Schencks and the Gudgers spent two nights
journey on foot. At the Penland House dinner was eaten, clothes
were changed, and at three o'clock the judge was charging the
grand jury. The docket was small and the session of court uneventful. The judge was eager to continue his exploration of
the mountains.
Mitchell County is much smaller than Yancey and was part
ofYancey, Caldwell, andWatauga until 1861. The Nollichucky
River forms the boundary between Mitchell and Yancey counties,
while on the east is the Blue Ridge and on the west the Toe
(Estatoe) River which flows the entire length of the county
forming a valley "rich beyond description."
On Saturday, October 25, 1879, Judge and Mrs. Schenck
set out with a caravan for Roan Mountain, with a horse and
buggy provided by Major Jacob M. Bowman for the first five
miles, after which they had to travel five on horseback. General
Wilder, an iron capitalist of Chattanooga, Tennessee, a Union
army veteran who owned the mountain, had built a twenty
room lodge called Cloudland. Only a caretaker and his little
daughter were at the lodge, but the nine guests were welcomed
with a cheerful fire, coffee, and tea and sugar, to which they
added the "snacks" they had brought along. From the Pinnacle
�46 J Part I: The People and Their Homeland
The only dry way to cross swollen streams
Roan Mountain in early June is colorful with myriads of purple rhododendrons
U .S. FOREST SERVICE PHOTO
�On Main Traveled Roads / 4 7
half a mile from the Cloudland Hotel, 6,306 feet high, could
be seen ranges of mountains in Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee,
and Georgia, as well as the ridges and peaks of North Carolina.
The Bluff, ten feet lower than the Pinnacle, is at the southwest
end of the mountain, and from it one looks down on a dreadful
abyss below, although in the distance were to be seen thriving
farms and villages in Tennessee, and on Big Rock Creek was the
"Iron Works" at Cranberry. Charles Dudley Warner, exploring
a few years later, wrote about the large variety of flora on Roan
Mountain: "There are many [plants] we are told, never or
rarely found elsewhere in the United States .... The rhododendron [growing there] ... has a deep red, almost purple color."
About one-fifth of the land in Mitchell County was cultivated.
The usual corn, oats, wheat and rye were to be seen, and fifteen
acres were in cotton. Seventy-seven acres were planted to tobacco.
Bakersville had a stoneware manufactory and a newspaper, the
Republican. Churches in Mitchell County were chiefly Methodist
and Baptist.
A very County had not been created, and Schenck went next
to Watauga County, where Boone, the county seat, was the
highest such seat of government east of the Rockies at that time.
To Schenck the routine of the court was monotonous in the
small village of two stores and two hotels. Colonel Folk from
Lenoir conveyed Schenck in a buggy drawn by two good
horses. He stayed at Bryan's Hotel, where he was fed speckled
trout, buckwheat cakes, sugar tree syrup, and the best milk,
"good enough for a king." With a Captain Todd he fished in
Howard's Creek. They caught twenty trout, the "most beautiful
and gamey of all fishes." The court lasted only from Monday
to Thursday, and on Friday the judge wrote, "Lawyers, suitors,
and witnesses are gone, leaving the town lonely and uninteresting." A week would intervene before the next court, in
Jefferson, and he did not know how he could "make the time
interesting."
Charles Dudley Warner commented about the two "taverns"
in Boone and concluded that they were necessary to accomodate
judges and lawyers when court was in session: "The court is
the only excitement and the only amusement. Everybody in the
county knows exactly when the court sits and when court
�48 / Part I: The People and Their Homeland
breaks. During the session the whole county is practically in
Boone, men, women, and children. They camp there, they
attend the trials, they take sides; half of them, perhaps, are witnesses, for the region is litigious, and the neighborhood quarrels
are entered into with spirit ....
"This tavern, one end of which was a store, had a veranda
in front, and a back gallery, where there were evidences of
female refinement in pots of plants and flowers. . . . The front
porch in the morning resembled a carpenter's shop; it was
literally covered with the whittlings of the row of natives who
had spent the evening there in the sedative occupation of
whittling."
On November 12, 1879, Judge Schenck went from Boone
to Jefferson, twenty-two miles, in a carriage. He made his headquarters at the old George Bowers House, kept by Martin
Harden, in "room no. 3, which was for many years known as
the judge's room and had been occupied by almost all the antebellum judiciary."
Ashe County is one-third larger than Watauga in area, and
its population was almost twice that ofWatauga, but the county
seat, Jefferson, was smaller than Boone. There was great interest
in mining in Ashe County, and grazing was also important.
There were thirty-eight cattle dealers. One brandy distiller and
ten whiskey distillers were licensed. There was a Negro population
of 966, and the county had three Negro schools, a large number
for a mountain county.
Judge Schenck's circuit did not include Alleghany, Wilkes,
and Surry counties. While all of Alleghany has an elevation of
over 2,500 feet (and the Blue Ridge passes along its eastern and
southern border), it has no peaks of over 5,000 feet. Sparta,
the county seat, had about roo residents in r88o. The population
of the county was 5,486. Wilkes County lies south of Alleghany,
with the crest of the Blue Ridge forming its northwest boundary.
It is so large that it is sometimes called the "State of Wilkes."
The population of 19,I8I seems to have been fairly well distributed in r88o. The county seat, Wilkesboro, had only a few
hundred people. One hotel and one boarding house accommodated the court officials and lawyers. The parent county,
Surry, once included present-day Stokes and Forsyth and all
of the land to the west as well as what came to be seven Tennessee
counties. Partitions dated from I 777 to I 850, after which Surry
County had its present boundaries. Its mountains are in the
�On Main Traveled Roads J 49
northwestern part, the crest of the Blue Ridge just skirting the
corner of the county. On the south is the historic Yadkin River,
along which lived some distinguished families. Surry County's
best known spot was Pilot Mountain, which was in 1970 made
a state park. Surry is hilly or mountainous, with swift streams
that were utilized for water power. One industry, the Elkin
Manufacturing Company, established in 1848 by the Gwyn
family for making cotton cloth, was in r884 employing thirtyfive workers and producing daily five hundred yards of sheeting
and five hundred pounds of yarn. While Dobson, population
95, was the county seat, Elkin and Mount Airy were the important
towns. In the latter there were manufacturers of cotton goods,
but the new line of manufacture was tobacco. The county
processed almost a million pounds of the weed in 1883, and
Mount Airy had five tobacco factories, with four more at other
points in the county. Two newspapers were published in Mount
Airy: the National Visitor and the Mount Airy Watchman. The
mineral of Surry County was not yet being exploited, but an
abundance of granite was to become in later years one of the
important resources.
Winter was coming on as Judge Schenck traveled fifty-five
miles from Jefferson to Lenoir, over the Blowing Rock Gap.
The first thirty-two miles were done in a two horse buggy
with Colonel Folk. "The New River, a rapid mountain stream
125 feet wide," Schenck wrote, "was frozen over in many places,
and Meat Camp Creek bore the weight of horses, buggy, and
passengers. A night was spent at the home of Len. W. Estes, on
the Blue Ridge. Mrs. Estes had the finest B.W. [buckwheat]
cakes I ever ate. They were about nine inches in diameter, round
as a plate and thick as your hand, and very light .... Estes has a
beautiful mill pond, full of trout, and I have a special invitation
to fish in it, which I hope to accept and enjoy."
On Sunday Colonel Folk and the judge rode on to Lenoir,
making the twenty-two miles by four P.M. "I am rejoiced to
leave the high elevations and the dangerous roads of the mountains
as the cold winter comes on," wrote Schenck.
One civil case on the docket, Freeman v. Sprague, took
from Wednesday to Saturday to complete. It dealt with the
ownership of the Henry Hotel at Henry Depot on the Western
�50 / Part I: The People and Their Homeland
North Carolina Railroad west of Old Fort, and the lawyers
employed for the plaintiff were E. H. Malone, J. C. Bynum,
and Romulus Linney; for the defense, Burgess S. Gaither,
George N. Folk, and D. P. Cilley. All of these names are those
of well known families of the area. Colonel and Mrs. Clinton
A. Cilley entertained Judge Schenck, the Joneses, and Colonel
Pearson at tea. The Jones, Lenoir, Patterson, and related families
were residents of attractive and stately homes Qn plantations
near Lenoir. Kemp Plummer Battle wrote, "I state as a fact
that the lovely and fertile country through which flows the
upper Yadkin and its tributaries has been for years the home of
a prosperous, high toned and harmonious people. . . . [It is]
designated by admiring visitors as Happy Valley."
Lenoir's newspaper, the Topic, one dollar per year, advertised
that it was "published weekly in the liveliest town in the
mountains." Schenck called Lenoir "one of the most literary
and cultivated places in the state."
Court ended after almost four months of "toiling over the
great mountains," and Schenck went home to rest until March
when he was next to travel to Asheville. That trip was made
by train to Charlotte, thence to Spartanburg, South Carolina,
where he missed his train to Hendersonville. Mr. Anderson,
superintendent of the railroad, sent him to Hendersonville on
an engine. "It was a grand ride over Tryon Mountain," he wrote.
While holding court in Asheville the judge met Kope Elias,
Esquire, of Macon County, his devoted friend. Upon hearing a
report that some fine wild turkeys had been in a field nearby,
Schenck and Elias borrowed a horse and buggy on Saturday
and rode out to shoot turkeys. "It was seven miles, and the
roads were desperately bad, and we just got to the 'blind' in
time to hear the turkeys fly out of the field." The birds were
seen again on Sunday. Monday morning "came wet and foggy,
but by 6 o'clock Kope and I were in the 'blind.' I was armed
with [a] double barreled breech loader, Kope with a muzzle
loader. In about a half hour we heard one fly down from the
roost and give a low call or two and in a few minutes we heard
the gang, five in all, fly over the fence. I was to 'conduct the
shooting,' so I whispered to take a position and keep a keen
watch. Directly a large gobbler came running to the bait, and
�On Main Traveled Roads / 5 I
we could see his outlines through the dense fog about twenty-five
steps from us, then another joined him, and I gave command
to aim, then to fire. At the word I fired both barrels at my gobbler,
full and square in the breast, as he had discovered our presence
and was peering his keen eyes into the crevices of the 'blind'
to see what we were. Kope fired one barrel simultaneously,
and both turkeys fell. Kope's turkey, to our surprise and mortification rose up and flew into a thicket and left him feeling 'blank
and cheap'." Later Kope's turkey was found dead where he had
fallen from a tree. Schenck continued, "My gobbler weighed
17 pounds .... I preserved the 'tails' and 'wings' for fans, and
stuffed the head, leaving the full breast of feathers attached.
The beard is nine inches long."
Schenck had very little to say about the court at Marshall
in Madison County, which he conducted in March 1880. He
rode to Marshall in a hack and stayed at Jack Gudger's hotel.
He wrote of Madison County, "This county is now wild over
tobacco. The raising of this weed has increased very greatly
and is proving remarkably profitable. Lands are increasing in
value, and labor is greatly in demand."
Marshall had little room for more than the main street,
"the mountains rising to a lofty summit, almost from the water's
edge of the river." It had about I 50 people. Warm Springs to
the northwest had hotels and boarding houses and was to become an even more popular resort after the railroad reached
there.
We next find Judge Schenck in Brevard. The French Broad
River rises in Transylvania County and the judge marveled at
"the fertility, wealth, and beauty of the valley." He enjoyed
shooting pheasants there. These birds "come to apple orchards
in secluded places to eat the tender buds." Court over in Brevard
(he had nothing to say about the lawyers or the docket), Mr.
B. D. Lankford, Esquire, was "kind enough to furnish me two
good mules and drive me to Waynesville without charge."
They admired the "magnificent valley of the Mills River" on
the way. One night was spent at Turnpike Post Office at the
Smathers Inn.
Waynesville was not incorporated until I871, but to Judge
Schenck it appeared "an old dilapidated town, dirty and dingy,
�52 /
Part I: The People and Their Homeland
Downtown Marshall today squeezed in between the French Broad
and the mountains
HUGH MORTON
PHOTO
and in itself without attraction." Hence he chose a room at
Major W. W. Stringfield's White Sulphur Springs near Waynesville, of which he wrote, " ... one of the lovely spots in this
world, and capable of being made a paradise with capital. The
mountain scenery is grand, the river or creek running in stone's
throw is transparent as crystal, the spring is very fine, and there
are no cleverer people in the world than the Major and his wife."
The population of Waynesville was 225. Much interest was
shown in agriculture, clubs and societies having been organized
including the Haywood Agricultural Society.
From Waynesville Judge Schenck proceeded to Webster,
then the county seat of Jackson County, with Walter E. Moore,
a young lawyer. The docket was short and court closed in two
days; a "horse thief' and a "house thief' were both sentenced
to ten years in the penitentiary.
Jackson County as described by William Ernest Bird "is
essentially medial within the extremely western subdivision of
the mountain region. Its shape is that of an elongated oval bowl
�On Main Traveled Roads J 53
with an irregular rim: the Blue Ridge on the southeast, the
Smokies to the southwest, the Balsams to the northeast, and the
Cowees to the southwest. It is divided for almost its entire
length by the Tuckaseigee River."
At the Cherokee town of Stekoa near present-day Whittier,
Griffith Rutherford met the Indians in 1776 and drove them
into the Smokies. In 1781 John Sevier defeated them a second
time near the present town of Sylva. In 1796 the "Meiggs and
Freeman Line" was established from the Smokies to South
Carolina, limiting the Cherokees to the territory west of the
line. Thus part of what later became Jackson County was available
to white settlers, and near the Meiggs and Freeman Line certain
men were permitted to operate trading stations: Foster's, Love's
and East laPorte. In 1819 another treaty gave the State of North
Carolina the entire Tuckaseigee Valley, and the land newly
available was divided into districts, surveyed, and sold to white
settlers. Thereafter the area went through the pattern of home,
church, and school building common to each valley in turn.
The most exciting natural landmark in Jackson County
was Judaculla Rock, now a state shrine, a large stone on Caney
Fork Creek which has inscribed in hieroglyphics a message
that no one has ever been able to decipher. Legend tells of a
super-human being named Judaculla of prehistoric times who
carved the inscription to commemorate his activities in the
area.
In the southeast corner of Jackson County Confederate
General and later Governor of South Carolina Wade Hampton
had an estate at a very scenic point which later became the
resort, High Hampton. Whiteside Mountain is one of the most
spectacular mountains in the state. One side has a rock precipice
I ,8oo feet high, giving the mountain its name.
Franklin, with a population of 207, was the county seat of
Macon County which had been formed in 1828. It became a
cultural center for the southwestern part of the state, had a
number of schools and academies, and was the home of the first
normal school established in Western North Carolina. In 1875
another town, Highlands, was laid out in the southeastern part
of the county as a summer resort. Settled chiefly by newcomers,
it boasted a literary society, the Highlands Improvement Association, the Highlands Floral Society, the Highlands Temperance
Union, and a newspaper, the Blue Ridge Enterprise. Both Franklin
and Highlands had high schools.
�54 / Part I: The People and Their Homeland
Waynesville was described in the 187o's as a quaint, old-looking town. Life was
simple and rural
After Judge Schenck had finished the court in Franklin,
he and his daughter Lucy who had joined him set out with
Thomas Slagle as guide to climb the Nantahala Mountain Range.
They were able to go by two-horse buggy to the gap, and there
"took saddle" for the summit which was three miles farther.
Near the summit was the famous "wine spring," which furnished
water to drink with their lunch.
On the way to Hayesville in Clay County the judge, Kope
Elias, and Lucy stopped at Alexander Munday's at Aynone
Post Office at the western foot of the Nantahala Range. Schenck
had sent word to the host to have plenty of speckled trout ready,
and he had "a most bountiful supply of this most delicate of all
fishes." After dinner they crossed "Tusquitcher Mountain"
(Tusquitee) to Hayesville. The road followed "cool crystal
branches, with gushing streams at every turn, and grand forest
of hemlock and wilderness of rhododendron on every side."
One night was spent at the "cozy cottage" of one of the Shearer
families on Tusquitee Creek. There was a little mill nearby,
and water had been piped to the Shearer house and to the mill
race.
�On Main Traveled Roads J 55
�56 / Part I: The People and Their Homeland
:..1.:: "
..
The Schencks followed the Nantahala Gorge between Franklin and Hayesville
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO .
Only two days were required for the session of court in
Clay County, which h ad been part of Cherokee until 1861.
The county's population was only 3,3 16. After the court closed
the judge's party continued to Murphy, the road following
the Hiwassee River for part of the way. They h ad time for
sightseeing before the next session in Cherokee, and the judge
wrote, "I spent the next week very pleasantly." He was able to
take "several fine drives" to explore scenic attractions.
Cherokee County was described by Chataigne's Directory
as having "marbles of the finest quality and of various colors
that compose whole mountains," but at that time m arble was
not being mined.
Kope Elias accompanied Judge Schenck on this trek on the
Western Circuit in 1880, and they next traveled to Robbinsville,
Graham County, spending the night at Dr. R. C. Washburn's
at the head of Valley River. The docket was finished in a day
and a half. Robbinsville was a hamlet of sixty-one persons, the
�On Main Traveled Roads / 57
entire county's population numbering 2,335. Graham County
was very young at the time of Schenck's visit, having been created
in 1872. Some Indian families continued to live there on land
purchased for them by William Holland Thomas. They subsisted
by farming and hunting. A few white families had straggled in
even before the Cherokee removal. The roads were poor, most
of them lying at least at a thirty degree angle. Not until the lumbering industry started would people come to Graham County
in any great numbers.
The county seat of Swain County (now Bryson City) was
then called Charleston. It was thirty-two miles from Franklin,
to which the judge had returned after court at Robbinsville.
The Little Tennessee River was high, and as the judge crossed
it his buggy and valise filled with water.
In Swain County law enforcement had been made a problem
by a band of rioters and desperadoes led by members of the
"Wiggins family." The judge sentenced about ten to jail for
terms of from three to twelve months, and he sent them to the
Franklin jail "for safe keeping." Swain County had a total
population of 3,784, and its land was assessed at 78/: per acre.
Charleston had 100 people. The main portion of the Cherokee
Indian lands, the "Qualla Boundary" was partially in Swain
County.
Two other counties not included in Schenck's circuit were
Rutherford and Polk. Rutherford was one of the more populous
counties, much of its land lying in the piedmont, with a population of 15,208. In part of the county are the South Mountains.
Inserted in the southwestern corner is little Polk County through which run the Saluda Mountains. Chimney Rock in
Rutherford County was one of the tourist attractions, and the
highest point is Pinnacle Mountain, 3,832 feet. The Broad River
and the Second Broad flow through the county. In cultural
life Rutherford and Polk had a head start, as they had begun to
be settled before the American Revolution and they were always
in touch with more highly developed areas. The Speculation
Land Company promoted settlement and advertised, attracting
purchasers. From I814-1845 Rutherford was the center of
gold production for the nation, and Bechtler's mint north of
Rutherfordton was allowed to coin money. The county began
�58 / Part I: The People and Their Homeland
the textile industry in I874 when an old wheat mill was converted
to production of cotton goods. It employed fifty people until,
within the year, it was destroyed by fire and not until years
later were plans made for its successor. Its mill village of fifteen
houses was probably the first in Western North Carolina.
Polk County with 5,062 people and an area of only 234
square miles had I,646 acres devoted to cotton and 93 I in tobacco.
A fine old home in Polk County was Green River Plantation
built by ColonelJoseph McDowell Carson about I8oo. Inherited
by Carson's granddaughter Mrs. Frank Coxe, it served as a
country home, the Coxes spending most of each year in Asheville,
where Mr. Coxe built the first charming Battery Park Hotel.
Green River Plantation house still stands.
Columbus, the county seat of Polk, had only 7I people in
I 880. The southern and eastern portion of the county is a fine
fine farming area. Within a few years after I88o, Polk County
was to become attractive to both summer and winter residents
(not the same groups) when rail connections with South Carolina
were made. The route followed had been the Indian Trading
Path, later a main traveled road from Kentucky and Tennessee
to the South.
�CHAPTER
TWO
Off the Beaten Path
The distinctive mountain culture as described by vtsttors,
missionaries, social workers, members of study commissions,
and residents during the last hundred years, was to be found
among the people off the beaten part. Edward King in The
Great South, 1875, described a visit to a mountain cabin. He
saw the housewife smoking a corncob pipe and warming her
hands before an open fire. Rain dripped through the roof;
the children were huddled together. There were few furnishings,
but the barns were full and the family had a few sheep and goats.
At that date the mountain people were not destitute, but the
public schools were deplorable. He concluded that the people
were relatively well off.
A description of mountain life about 1880 by the great
psychologist William James is so typical of outlanders' views
that it is quoted at length: "Some years ago ... in the mountains
ofNorth Carolina, I passed by a large number of'coves' ... which
had been cleared and planted. The impression on my mind was
one of unmitigated squalor. The settler had ... cut down the
more manageable trees and left their charred stumps standing.
The larger trees he had girdled and killed. . . . He had then
built a log cabin, plastering its chinks with clay, and had set
up a tall zigzag rail fence around the scene of his havoc, to keep
the pigs and cattle out .... He had planted the intervals between
the stumps with Indian corn ... ; and there he dwelt with
his wife and babe - an axe, a gun, a few utensils, and some
59
�6o / Part I: The People and Their Homeland
pigs and chickens ... being the sum total of his possessions.
"The forest had been destroyed; and what had 'improved'
it out of existence was hideous ... without a single element of
nature's beauty, ugly indeed seemed the life of the squatter ...
beginning back where our first ancestors started and ... hardly
better off for ... the achievements of ... intervening generations .... ''
"Then I said to the mountaineer who was driving me, 'What
sort of people ... make these new clearings?' 'All of us,' he
replied. 'Why we ain't happy here unless we are getting one
of these coves under cultivation.' I instantly felt that I had been
losing the whole inward significance of the situation. Because
to me the clearing spoke of naught but denudation, I thought
that to those whose sturdy arms and obedient axes had made
them they could tell no other story. But when they looked
on the hideous stumps, what they thought of was personal
victory. The chips, the girdled trees, and the vile split rails spoke
of honest sweat, persistent toil, and final reward."
James, like many other writers and visitors to the mountains,
had deplored the meagerness of the life of those who lived in
the coves and on the ridges. The isolated mountaineers that
he saw were poor, terribly poor, but they retained their pride,
their self-respect, their independence, their individuality, and
their zest for life. Many of their children left their mountain
homes to "seek their fortunes" in the mill towns, the county
seats, or the cities, but they always remembered nostalgically
the experiences, the sounds, and the sights of their childhood:
crossing streams by footlogs; washing wool in streams; carding,
spinning, weaving; boiling clothes in a black iron pot swung from
a tripod; salting sheep from a gourd; a mother churning milk
and cooking the evening meal by the light of a fat pine stick;
the father riding for the doctor by the flare of a burning torch
or taking the corn to the mill on foot or on horseback; lograilings; house-raisings; corn huskings; the crushing of sorghum;
the stomping, swinging, shuffling of feet; the voice of the caller
and fiddle music at neighborhood square dances. Mountain
sounds were those of the howling winds, the singing of birds,
the tinkling of cow, horse, and sheep bells, the ringing of axes,
the thud of mauls, the crash of falling trees, the sputter and
crackle of open fires, the clank of the blacksmith's hammer, the
hissing of frying meat and the whir of the spinning wheel and
above all the sound of the human voice with all its varying
�Off the Beaten Path J 61
A log cabin of the type lived in by the earliest settlers and the poorer mountaineers
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO.
later
I
G oing to the Mill -
riding is better than walking
j
�62 / Part I: The People and Their Homeland
intonations in talk and in the singing of hymns and old ballads.
Other sounds came from the mass hysteria and jerkings at
revival meetings, laughter, obstreperous cursing, crying at
trials, kettles singing over a crane. Interesting smells were those
of oak, cedar, pine burning, hominy boiling, sassafras steeping,
com bread baking, ham frying, and woolen clothes drying
before a fire.
A small mountain settlement of the type that might be found
in almost any county of the region was that on the North Fork
of the Swannanoa River, described by Fred M. Burnett in This
Was My Valley. The Bumets (earlier spelling) built their first
log cabin there in 1762. In the valley, less than four miles long,
closed in by mountains on all sides, lived at least fifty families.
Here were "all the crafts- blacksmith shops where they built
their own wagons, plows, knives, and tools. They tanned leather,
made shoes, harnesses, and saddles. They carded, spun, and
wove their own wool and made their clothes." From the peach
and apple orchards came the fruit for their brandy. Wheat,
com, and rye were also distilled. Their fields produced com,
and every farm had poultry and domesticated animals. The
community was almost entirely self-sufficient. After the crops
were harvested in the fall, the men went on the first hunt, which
would last from Monday morning until Saturday afternoon.
Each man carried a sack of supplies such as com meal for fritters,
flour for gravy, salt, coffee, a slab ofbacon, potatoes, and onions.
The hunt would provide the meat. To the group of men who
had known each other and hunted together all their lives, the
hunt was a way of life, a prized experience.
Mountain families have usually been patriarchal. In them
the men have been dominant, the women subservient. The
men made the decisions, did "men's work"; the women did
the chores and the house work and often did not eat at the table
with the men, especially if guests were present, but stood to
serve men and guests. Women however generally were loyal
to their men and not unhappy. They often referred to the husband
as "The Mister" or "him." They usually would not go visiting
or to town without his permission. The mountain man respected
all women but was not chivalrous. He would not tip his hat
nor offer his chair to an older woman. He would let his wife
carry a child or other burdens. He would walk in front of her
down the road or path. But he was scrupulous in teaching
manners to his children.
�Off the Beaten Path / 63
One of the simplest ofgrist mills
An old mill that is still in existence
ASH EVI LLE C ITIZEN -TIM ES CO .
�64 J Part I: The People and Their Homeland
Mountain musicfor a play-party game
A mountain hunter
�Off the Beaten Path / 65
The mountain man believed that everyone was equal in the
sight of God and man. He resented condescension with fierce
pride. There were no marked distinctions in the mountains. He
was intolerant of anyone who tried to "get above his raisin'."
He would balk at doing a "woman's work." He was ashamed
to milk a cow, wash dishes, or make a bed, but he was quite
willing to do the "hard work" of plowing, harvesting, felling
trees, clearing land, sawing or chopping wood for cabin or
fireplace. He was not lazy: he used great energy in his primitive
methods of farming, in hauling his produce to market, in walking
many miles over the hills hunting animals, birds, ginseng, or
other salable herbs.
During the three months of the growing season, men's
work was regimented by the demands of their crops. That
season was short because of frosts coming late in the spring and
early in the fall. After crops were in and the land made ready
for spring planting, the men could choose their activities until
seed time. The more ambitious cleared land, split rails, cut
firewood; others hunted, gambled, pitched horseshoes, attended
shooting matches, drank liquor, and swapped yarns. Many
made liquor; most drank. The drinking often made them
quarrelsome.
The mountain man had poise, self-confidence, versatility,
was able to adapt to any kind of job. He was proud, "touchy,"
a jack-of-all trades, had learned to do almost everything for
himself. He took education seriously because he had to work
so hard to get it or because he was denied the opportunity. He
could stand any amount of hard work, but he chafed at monotonous jobs. He was rash, precipitate, oversensitive, quicktempered. He usually resented all outlanders.
Although the general level of cultural achievement had
dropped because of isolation and the meagerness of opportunity,
the mountaineer has been found to be a naturally capable, honest,
intelligent, and efficient worker. He had an air of leisure, did
not seem to be in a hurry, but he got things done that had to
be done.
It has been said that child-bearing, hard work, and hopelessness were the lot of mountain women. Sometimes that was true
when a family was crushed by hopeless poverty. But women
were the bulwark of mountain society. They held the homes
together. They did the household chores, tended the livestock
and garden, raised hemp and sheep and made the family clothing
from hemp or from wool that they had sheared, thread they
�66 / Part I: The People and Their Homeland
had spun, and cloth they had woven. They cooked, cleaned,
hoed the garden. Often they plowed; sometimes they even
pulled the plow. They hunted herbs for medicine and greens
for "sallets." In season the whole family would hunt ginseng,
which sold for sixty cents a pound in 1848 (and for $9.68 green
or $38.oo dried, in 1969). On Sundays the women often walked
behind the horse, mule, or ox while the men rode to church
holding what children they could. The women would put
on their sunbonnets to work in the fields. They dried beans,
corn, apples, peaches, pumpkins, and prepared kraut, pork,
venison, and squirrel meat for winter. They made their own
soap from the lye of hickory ashes and grease. They made their
own candles and they dyed the cloth that they wove - linsey
for underwear and dresses, jeans for men's clothing. Their
dyes were homemade: indigo (blue), madder (red), maple
bark (purple), hulls, roots, and walnut bark (brown). Dyes
were also made from sumac berries and laurel leaves. While
they worked or during their few leisure moments many dipped
snuff. They had tin snuff boxes into which they dipped chewed
birch sticks to rub the snuff on their gums. Snuff dipping was
not a pretty custom, but it gave them satisfaction, and the women
deserved any pleasure they could get. Other women smoked
clay or corncob pipes filled with twists of home-cured tobacco.
R. R. Smith, who engaged in mission work north and west
of Asheville near the end of the nineteenth century, wrote, "In
the summer and fall the women, wise like ants, store up food
for winter ... drying and canning fruits and vegetables ...
leather britches [long strands of dried snap beans hanging on
the walls of the cabin], dry pumpkin ... cut in thin, spiral
pieces put on sturdy sticks and hung in dry places .... Gourds
were plentiful and made a cheap substitute for tin and earthenware. The small ones were used for drinking cups, the large ones
for holding salt, sugar ... , the largest size for carrying water
from the spring. Each family had a supply of remedies gathered
from forest and field: boneset, goldenseal, burvine, catnip .... "
These intrepid women had few conveniences and few pleasures. They faded early from hard work and child-bearing. But
they took pride in their cooking, preserving, in their weaving
and dyeing. A woman could weave five yards of linsey in a
day. They liked company and often met for spinning, carding,
reeling, knitting, and weaving contests. There was a quilting
frame in many a mountain home. It was suspended from the
ceiling and was about waist high. Patchwork pieces of brightly
�Off the Beaten Path / 67
colored cloth had been gathered and saved. The quilting consisted
of spreading cloth under a filler of cotton or wool, covering it
with the patchwork which had been pieced together in intricate
designs: sunburst, log cabin, crazy quilt, and others; and with
tiny stitches sewing through all three thicknesses following a
design that was repeated throughout the entire quilt.
It was never a mountain custom to rely on hired help. When
anything needed to be done that required many hands, the
neighbors were "right neighborly." They used sickles to harvest
small grain. When a man's crop was ripe, neighbors would
gather to reap and shock it. A dozen or more men would cut
through a field. Then they hung their sickles over their shoulders
and bound back. Boys gathered the sheaves and old men shocked
them. Corn crops were gathered and thrown in heaps beside
the cribs. Neighbors came and husked the crop. Dr. C. D . Smith
of Franklin said he had seen eighty to ninety men around his
father's corn crib. Neighbors helped also in a barn or house
raising or in a "rail mauling." This was a communal splitting
of rails for fences. Neighborliness was more than a custom.
It was a way oflife. Neighbors would help each other at grinding
cane stalks, wheat threshings, or making molasses. They attended
Methodist camp meetings, Baptist association meetings, community picnics, school commencements, circuses. All helped
the sick. Some who were gifted in their knowledge of herbs
were called "yarb" doctors. They and the "granny women"
did much to maintain health.
::-.....
W eaving was among the many responsibilities of the mountain woman. The loom
is home-made
�68 / Part I: The People and Their Homeland
John C. Campbell wrote entertainingly of mountaineers
as horse traders. He wished that he could live to see a horse
trade between a Carolina mountaineer and a Connecticut
Yankee. He affirmed that to the mountain man every business
transaction was a horse trade and that he sought to get the better
of his competitor. He gave his opponent credit for knowing
as much as he did. Sometimes his shrewdness seemed like dishonesty to those who did not understand him. If one caught
up with him he thought more of the trader's shrewdness. If
one tried to deceive him, he would find him a shrewd judge
of human nature. Horse trading took place anywhere, any time:
at county seats on court days, at public speakings, at country
stores, blacksmith shops, mills, and crossroads.
The language of the mountain people a century ago has been
said to be similar to that of the Elizabethan English. It was archaic,
picturesque, figurative. There was too in the language quaintness
which set it apart from that used outside the mountains. Not
only had the language been preserved but the English and Scottish
ballads and folk songs had survived also. Many have been changed
greatly; others are remarkably close to the original versions.
Their melodies have not only a touching beauty, but they are
uniquely expressive of mountain character. They were preserved
because of the isolation of the people. The folk speech of the
mountain people had its dialectal individuality. Many studies of
mountain dialect are available. A few examples are the following:
fotch for fetch, ye for you, hit for it, antic for a comical person,
preacher-parson, fotched-on Jurriner, granny woman, neighbor-people,
tooth-dentist, play-purties, heer'd and afeard, mought, hyar for here,
right smart for a considerable amount, right pert, consentable for
willing, plague for tease, I wouldn't care to for I do not object,
We got along plain for we did fairly well, Hit was thickety for It
was not an easy passage, after preachin' has broke, sculp for scalp,
shootin' iron for fire arm, skeerd, ourn, Jranticky (a combination
of frantic and panicky), endurin' for whole, swallow a punkin'
seed for get pregnant, galackers for pickers of galax leaves, sangers
for pickers of ginseng, settin' up for courting.
Until the coming of the roads and railroads, life in the
mountains remained as it had been. These modes of access made
marketing of produce possible; they were the opening wedge
to the good life for the mountain people.
�PART TWO
A Changing Society
Western North Carolina was never a land apart from the rest of
the state, even in the earliest days, in spite of the mountain barrier.
One of the first ties that existed was religion. Churches were established
in the colony in the wave of protestant evangelical activity that followed
John Wesley's lead in England and then in America. Camp meetings
sprang up out of the work of orderly smallgroup gatherings, grew
and spread ultimately into a "movement whose aspects and practices
were completely free affairs of the uninhibited masses" -the Great
Revival which reached Western North Carolina by the end of the
eighteenth century. At singing-gatherings (which continue to this
day) and camp meetings, pioneer people were given to use what may
have been their first manufactured and mass-produced article, the
folk-hymn or revival song. This article employed as its tune a folk-tune,
as its text words composed by a spiritually-minded man, in the words
of one of them, taking the "devil's ditties" to do the Lord's work.
What happened to the simple folk-songs of a bye-gone era was
symptomatic of change. New ways were built upon the old. They
did not supplant the traditions of the past- the agriculturally based
social system making prestige the property of the river-bottom gentry;
the politics of heredity making power an establishment belonging to
the prosperous few. The religious awakening was what first brought
isolated men into a great participation with masses of men. Methodist
Conferences and Baptist Conventions were loyally attended by delegates
from the mountains, who usually rode horseback to an eastern meeting
center.
�70 / Part II: A Changing Society
There had been highways of commerce too, tortuous wagon roads
on which it was not unusual to see merchants' wagons drawn by as
many as eight oxen, taking feathers, eggs, beeswax, medicinal herbs,
apples, to the markets of the piedmont and returning with a full line
of finished merchandise for the general stores. Travelers might ride
in stagecoaches drawn by six beautifully matched horses like those
that for a while went from Marion to Asheville. Those who were
chosen to represent the area in the General Assembly and the United
States Congress traveled thus.
And one must not forget the taste that was developing in people
for entertainment. In the smaller towns the only spectacles ofimportance
to draw crowds, in these days before the motion picture, may have
been politics and the courts, and it was only to towns that one could
go for the latter. North Carolina's most widespread folklore, like
the ballad "Tom Dula," has to do with criminal actions and legal
proceedings which aroused great interest in the arena of the day, the
courts. Tom Dula was defended in several trials by the famous lawyer
and former governor Vance, and reporters came to little Wilkesboro
from far off New York newspapers, public interest in the case being
so great. An earlier trial, that of Frankie Silvers in Burke County and
a still earlier one, that of John Lewis for the murder of Naomi Wise
(the ballad is "Omie Wise") show the interest of an enduring nature
that a great trial can arouse in an eager audience of common citizens.
Not all trials were criminal cases, and not all courts were so well
attended, but one must conclude that then the courts were more
interesting and exciting than now. Nor were courts so far removed
from the other great arena, politics.
Other cultural institutions developed slowly. Only the well-to-do
could afford to attend the academies and institutes that were usually
located in the county seats, and for the masses the one-room school
had to suffice until a state system of education for all developed.
The changing s~iety in Western North Carolina could not have
come wi<:hout the railroads and the highway system. The historian
must arbitrarily choose the order in which different topics fall. Part II
which follows traces the changing society; Part III will narrate the
developing economy. Both took place simultaneously.
�CHAPTER
THREE
Religion
Many Western North Carolinians are traditionally fundamentalists who believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible,
particularly of the Old Testament. Their beliefs are deep, strong,
sincere, although not always have the believers transformed
their creed into Christian living. It has been said that religion
to Western North Carolinians is bred in the bone. It took various
forms, depending somewhat on their national orgins but more
on the opportunities offered and on evangelism in the particular
locality.
The denominational pattern existing in Western North
Carolina after the Civil War had been determined many years
earlier by the work of the pioneer ministers who had given
unstintingly of their time and their lives. We might have expected
that at least one-third of the people would be Presbyterians, if
family traditions had prevailed, since that proportion were of
Scottish descent. But Presbyterians did not engage in missionary
work in the mountain area until near the close of the nineteenth
century. Meanwhile, Baptist churches were easily established
and many potential Presbyterians joined them. Baptist churches
outnumber all others in Western North Carolina. Methodists,
too, had a system for organizing new congregations and creating
new churches, and their results in Western North Carolina
were good. For example, a community of Presbyterians living
in the Tuckaseigee Valley far away from their church were
advised by the Presbyterian minister in Asheville to join the
Methodist Church until they could obtain a Presbyterian pastor.
71
�72 / Part II: A Changing Society
They became staunch Methodists and continued in that denomination.
Baptist churches promoted democracy, and they also tied
newly settled areas with the ones from which people had removed,
thus helping to unify the population of the area and the state.
The method was simple. A group of Baptists who had moved
too far from their church to attend services would start a new
congregation with the help of the parent church. After a period
of recruiting enough members to carry on church discipline,
the branch, called an "arm," would petition the parent church
asking for the dismission of its members for the purpose of
forming a new church. The mother church usually sent helpers
to constitute the new one, and the minister of the mother church
was responsible for the spiritual welfare of the "arm". A member
of the new congregation might be chosen as their minister. He
would be examined for his doctrinal views by a "presbytery"
of at least two ministers. If they approved him, they would
ordain him by "the laying on of hands" and by prayer. Thus
new churches sprang up rapidly and at small expense. The
minister was a self-supporting man. He was sometimes an
illiterate one who would have to teach himself to read the Bible
because he felt a "call" to preach or to "exercise his gifts" (of
words). Thus a church might be the mother of a number of
smaller ones.
Baptist churches formed "associations" whose meetings
were attended by the delegates chosen by each congregation.
In this way they kept in touch with other communities. Judge
Johnson]. Hayes's excellent history of Wilkes County traces the
formation of each Baptish church in the county from 1771 to
1960. The earliest churches organized in the county, first part of
Rowan, then Surry, and finally Wilkes, became members of
the Strawberry Association of Virginia. In 1790 the churches
in North Carolina in that association were dismissed to form
the Yadkin Association, and in 1799 the churches from the
Y adkin Association were permitted to withdraw to form the
Mountain Baptist Association. By I 8 3 I the Baptist State Convention was in operation, and it founded schools and colleges,
established a religious press, and produced an advanced type of
scholarship.
As the denomination grew in numbers and strength, missionary activities multiplied, and the Sunday School was introduced.
Church members began to participate financially in support
of missions and benevolent societies. A number of the churches
�Religion / 73
objected. The Mountain Association by a majority vote in 1838
declared itself an anti-missionary body hostile to the "institutions
of the day" and took the name "Primitive Baptist," a step which
had already been taken by the Fisher's River Association in
1832 in Surry County, another former member of the Yadkin
Association. The Primitive Baptist churches opposed the new
system and refused to sit in conference with those who favored
it. They expelled from their numbers members of such secret
organizations as the Sons of Temperance and the Masonic
order, fearing that these organizations might compete with
the church for influence over the members. Primitive Baptists
were opposed to a paid ministry or to schools and colleges for
the education of men for the ministry, and while they were
actually zealous in missionary efforts they disapproved of financial
activities of churches in any form. Most of them objected to
instrumental music in churches. The Primitive Baptist movement
was felt in Surry and Ashe counties and in the portion of Wilkes
County that later became Alleghany County. In r884 there
were twenty-one Primitive Baptist churches in that area. The
Missionary Baptist churches were expelled from the Mountain
Association and formed new associations which supported
Sunday schools and educational institutions. The Primitive
Baptists seem not to have spread into the southwestern part
of the state, but there another offshoot developed, the Free Will
Baptists, who were also very rigid in doctrine but extremely
anti-Calvinistic (the Primitive Baptists were Calvinists). The
Free Will Baptists in Buncombe, Madison, Yancey, and Mitchell
counties in r884 numbered sixteen churches.
The Missionary Baptist churches in the United States split
into two conventions over the issue of slavery, and most of the
churches in North Carolina have been affiliated with the Southern
Baptist Convention since 1845. However, there were numbers
of mountain people opposed to slavery, and when after the
Civil War the Union League came into existence and Union
sympathizers joined it, about one hundred of them in r867
formed the Mountain View Baptist Association. Its growth
was slow. In r884 there were two of these Union churches in
Alleghany County, and today there are four or five small associations in North Carolina and Virginia.
To the south the French Broad Association was organized
in r8oo with fourteen churches in North and South Carolina.
These churches had been dismissed by Bethel, the mother association, to form the new group. By I 807 there were seven member
�74 / Part II: A Changing Society
churches west of the Blue Ridge. Each of these churches sent
out arms and organized congregations. When the State Baptist
Convention was organized, these churches in the western
section found it difficult to keep in touch with its proceedings.
Travel by horseback for such long distances to the meetings
of the convention was arduous although the delegates were
diligent in attending. In 1844 an appeal was made by delegates
from the French Broad Association for a new convention. In
1845 at Boiling Springs Camp Ground near Hendersonville,
the Western Baptist Convention was organized. Its aims were,
"distribution of the Bible among the destitute, employment of
Home Missionaries within her bounds, the sustaining of foreign,
domestic, and Indian missions; also to educate poor young men
called of God to the Ministry of the Gospel who may be approved
by their churches." This convention served until 1895, and after
r 86 5 its membership was limited to associations west of the Blue
Ridge. It founded Judson College in Hendersonville and authorized the establishment of Mars Hill College in Madison County.
Examination of the history of the Baptist churches in all
twenty-four counties would be impossible here. Two counties
that illustrate the steady increase in the number of Baptist churches
are Wilkes and Cherokee. Records of Baptist churches in Cherokee County are available in Margaret Freel's Our Heritage:
The People of Cherokee County, North Carolina, 1540-1955.
The fifty-eight churches are divided between the West Liberty
Baptist Association and the Western North Carolina Baptist
Association, and in each association twelve churches have been
established in the twentieth century, while sixteen were in
existence in each before 1877. In Wilkes County the Baptist
churches are listed by Judge Hayes in The Land of Wilkes. In the
Brushy Mountain Association there are thirty-five churches,
thirteen of which were constituted after 1900, indicating that
missionary activity has continued and multiplied as the urban
area around the Wilkesboros developed. In addition, thirteen
Baptist churches in Wilkes County are in the Elkin Baptist
Association, only two of which were established after 1900.
The Stone Mountain Association had in 1960 twenty-nine
churches. The Briar Creek, Elkin, and Stony Fork associations
include some churches outside Wilkes County. Many of the
churches now occupy modern brick structures with educational
classrooms and heat and water facilities, and the minister is
usually furnished with a house.
�Religion / 75
The locating of Methodist Episcopal churches in the mountain
counties was begun by English-born Francis Asbury, who became
the first Methodist bishop in America in I 784. He crossed the
mountains sixty times, carrying religion to the people along
his route. He began the system of "itinerancy," and when it
became impossible for him to attend all of the congregations
he had founded, the office of elder, later presiding elder, was
created. A Methodist circuit consisting of a large number of
congregations was followed by a "circuit rider" who visited
each "appointment" periodically. Often meetings were held in
the homes. Because the life was strenuous, a Methodist minister
would frequently serve only four or six montb as a circuit
rider, after which he would "locate," and establish a church.
By I8oo almost the entire area of Western North Carolina was
divided into circuits in which were numerous "classes" presided
over or taught by lay leaders except when the circuit rider was
present.
As time went on the churches were organized in "conferences," each conference into districts, and each district into
circuits. The Holston Conference began in 1783 with sixty
members and one preacher. By I824 there were I3,444 white
members, I ,4I I colored ones, and forty-three preachers. It
had three districts - Abingdon, Knoxville, and French Broad and twenty-five circuits with thirty-eight preachers besides the
presiding elders. Among the circuits of the Holston Conference
was the Waynesville Circuit and Echota Mission, under the
leadership of the Reverend Ulrich Keener. It included all of
Haywood and parts ofTransylvania,Jackson, and Swain counties.
Most of the people in the charge were Cherokee Indians. The
Black Mountain Circuit included the mountainous region of
Buncombe, Yancey, and Burke counties. The French Broad
Circuit also was mountainous. The life of the circuit rider has
been described thus: "Traveling day after day, preaching in
the houses of the people, in school houses, in little log meeting
houses, and in the open air, mingling with the people in their
homes, ... visiting the sick, comforting the dying, burying
the dead, marrying the young, baptising the children, warning
sinners, and reclaiming the backsliders - such was the life of
the young preacher as he rode over the rugged hills."
In I 824 a dispute arose in the Methodist Episcopal churches
concerning the lack of opportunity for lay members to participate
�76 / Part II: A Changing Society
Typical of the hundreds if country churches is this in Jackson County, except that
today many are being replaced by brick structures
in church meetings. "Union Societies" were formed by those
who wanted more democracy in their church. Starting in
Maryland, the agitation spread southward, two conferences
being formed in rural North Carolina of circuits of the dissenters
who practiced lay representation. They objected to the episcopal
form of church government of the main body of Methodists.
These societies, which later called themselves the Methodist
Protestant Church, multiplied slowly. In r884 there were eight
Methodist Protestant churches in Buncombe County, one in
Burke, and one in McDowell.
Another division in the Methodist Episcopal Church occurred
in r 846 over the right of a bishop to own slaves, and the Methodist
Episcopal Church South was formed. The counties in Western
North Carolina were in one of three conferences of the Methodist
Episcopal Church South: the Holston Conference, including
Asheville, Burnsville, H endersonville, Waynesville-Echota Mission, and Franklin circuits; the North Carolina Conference,
with Surry County, Jonesville, and Wilkes County; and the
South Carolina Conference with Rutherfordton, Morganton,
and Lenoir. Thus it was that Davenport College at Lenoir,
when ready to accept students in 1857, was turned over to the
South Carolina Conference.
After the Civil W ar the Methodist Episcopal Church [North]
�Religion / 77
started evangelistic actiVIties in the South, forming its own
Holston Conference, of which the Asheville District had in
I 866 I ,007 members. A new conference of the Methodist
Episcopal Church was created in I867, the Virginia and North
Carolina Mission Conference, including all of North Carolina
except Watauga County and the area west of the Blue Ridge,
which remained part of the Holston Conference, Asheville
District. Much of the work was among Negroes. In I876 there
were forty churches, thirty-one local preachers, and 3,500 members. In I 88o the Blue Ridge Conference was formed and at first
all of North Carolina was included. Later it was reduced to
thirteen counties west of the mountains. Branson's North Carolina
Business Directory for I 884 listed eight northern Methodist
churches in Buncombe County and two in each of Clay and
Transylvania counties.
In addition there were two types of Negro Methodist churches
in the area: the African Methodist Episcopal Church which
traced its founding back to Philadelphia in I8I6 of which there
was one in Buncombe County, one in Burke, and one in Rutherford; the African Methodist Episcopal Church Zion, organized
in New York in 1796, of which there were two in Polk and one
in Buncombe counties.
Camp meetings played their part in extending the work of
the churches. One of the famous locations was Turkey Creek
Camp Ground at Leicester in Buncombe County. A tract of
land was deeded by the Gudger family in 1826 to be used for
meetings and religious services. It evidently had been so used
even earlier, as Bishop Asbury wrote in his diary on September
27, 1806, "I rode twelve miles to Turkey Creek to a kind of
camp meeting. On the Sabbath I preached to about five hundred
souls." For over sixty five years camp meetings were held there.
It was a typical camp meeting ground. The camp was laid out
like a big square, in the middle of which was the "arbor" where
services were held, covering one-fourth acre, with room to
seat one thousand to fifteen hundred people, roofed over but
with no side walls. The arbor was on a slope with the speakers'
stand at the lower side, making it resemble an amphitheater.
The rough wooden slabs which served as seats were later replaced
with better ones. People who attended the meetings came to
�78 J Part II: A Changing Society
stay several days. They lived in "tents," which were really
rough wooden sheds, surrounding the arbor and making the
square. Some tents had two stories, the floor of the first story
being dirt covered with straw. The beds were bunks built around
the walls like a long shelf. The meetings usually began on Thursday and lasted until Monday or Tuesday. They were held in
August, and Sunday was the big day. They furnished opportunity
for people from different communities to get to know each
other and for families that were separated to have reunions.
Eventually the nature of the meetings changed. Horse traders
and merchants invaded the camp ground to engage in their
businesses, whence the meetings were discontinued.
Since 1939 when the three large Methodist bodies, Methodist
Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal South, and Methodist Protestant,
became the Methodist Church, and later the United Methodist
Church, laymen have participated in all matters, a victory
for the Methodist Protestants. In 1966 the General Conference
of the Methodist Church held in Chicago adopted a resolution
to do everything possible to eliminate any structural organization
based on race at the earliest possible date and not later than
the jurisdictional conference in 1972. There had been in North
Carolina the Central Jurisdiction which had consisted of Negro
churches. In I 968 the Central Jurisdiction was abolished and
the Negro Methodist churches became part of the conferences
and districts in which they were geographically located. [The
Winston-Salem District of the Western North Carolina
Conference has been divided into Winston-Salem Forsyth and
Winston-Salem Northeast districts. Mr. James C. Peters, a
Negro, was appointed by Bishop Hunt as District Superintendent
(the office formerly known as the Presiding Elder).] Of the
272,000 members of churches in the Western North Carolina
Conference, about 12,000 are Negroes, and of the 750 active
ministers, 56 are Negroes.
The Presbyterian family of churches is third in membership
in North Carolina, although its communicants number only
about one-twelfth of the church membership of the area. There
have been Presbyterian churches in Western North Carolina
at least since I 786. The first three congregations west of the
Blue Ridge are said to have been in Buncombe County: Swannanoa, Rim's Creek (Reem's Creek), and Cane Creek. In 1799
�Religion / 79
George Newton was called to Buncombe's churches to be
minister. Leadership for these churches came from Virginia,
where the Abingdon Presbytery was constituted in I786, to
extend west about two hundred miles and eastward to the Blue
Ridge. Church government in the Presbyterian church may be
compared with civil government in the United States. Local
self-government prevails in individual churches through elected
elders and congregational meetings. Delegates are sent to the
presbytery, a district organization of Presbyterian churches,
to which the obligation of missionary work is assigned. The
body corresponding to the state government is the synod, and
at the top is the assembly, which has jurisdiction over all of the
churches of the organization.
The Holston Presbytery, organized in I827, included what
are now Watauga, Mitchell, and Yancey counties. Meanwhile
churches east of the Blue Ridge and in southwest North Carolina
were members of the Concord Presbytery, far away in those
days of slow travel. For a brief period of five years a Morganton
Presbytery was in existence, but it was abolished in I 840. Extension of the church into the mountains was not vigorously sought.
The Presbyterian Church, too, was split at the time of the Civil
War, and the Presbyterian Church of the Confederate States
of America was established. In North Carolina it made no gains
during the war; in fact, 2000 communicants lost their lives.
After the war the southern church was named the Presbyterian
Church in the United States, and the Presbytery of Mecklenburg
was set off from that of Concord, but still little effort was made to
establish churches in the mountain area, although a need to do
so was recognized. When the Synod of North Carolina met in
Charlotte in 1877 a report was presented, from which the following is quoted: "Scotch-Irish Presbyterians settled in the
western part of the State. They rapidly increased, until at the
time of the Revolution, they numbered three or four thousand.
. . . At this time [I 877], after a lapse of a hundred years, they
numbered 16,544 communicants in 214 churches, with II3
ministers. . . . We have failed to perform our whole duty.
With our educated ministry, our intelligent, influential and
wealthy members, we ought to have planted the Presbyterian
Church in every comer of the State." In I 88o when the Synod
met in Raleigh it was reported that of the ninety-four counties
included in the Synod, twenty-nine had no Presbyterian churches,
and twenty-four had only one each. In r884 Branson's Directory
�8o / Part II: A Changing Society
reported twenty-four Presbyterian churches in the counties
of Western North Carolina. At that time there were just two
evangelists in the state, and the Synod was spending only $2300
for evangelistic work. In synod meetings frequent discussions
of responsibility for missions brought up the argument that
mission work was the responsibility of the presbyteries, not
of the synod. Finally, however, in 1893 the Reverend R. P. Pell
was sent by the Synod as district evangelist to Watauga and
Mitchell counties. At that time there was not a Presbyterian
church in Mitchell County and there was only a very small
one in Watauga County. Mr. Pell's report to the Synod the
next year was, "Churches in charge, 4; mission points, 5; communicants 162; Sabbath schools, 4; pupils, 275, with seven
teachers." Pell had traveled on horseback, in a buggy, and on
foot and had held services in places hitherto unknown to the
Presbyterians.
In 1896 the Asheville Presbytery was formed, being set off
from the Mecklenburg Presbytery. There were eleven counties,
ten ministers, and one thousand communicants. The area lay
west of the Blue Ridge and included Buncombe, Clay, Cherokee,
Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison,
Transylvania, and Swain counties. It was almost entirely missionary ground. In four of the counties there was still no Presbyterian
church and in four other counties there were only 150 communicants. Two missionaries, Robert F. Campbell, pastor of
the First Presbyterian Church in Asheville, and R. P. Smith,
were sent out to investigate the destitution within the presbytery.
Both men were natives of the mountain area and would be welcomed in the homes. They were directed to leave the railroads
and telegraph lines and the larger valleys behind and to penetrate
the secluded coves and highlands and report what they found.
They spent three months preaching from house to house and
in the woods, sharing the rude accommodations and plain fare
of the people. They found numbers of houses without a lamp,
a candle, a comb, a brush, a looking-glass. Many of the people
had never seen a town, and the buggy of the evangelists was a
curiosity. They found many families in which not a member
could read a syllable and in whose homes there was not a word
of print. An area of I 50 square miles had 400 children of school
age and no school, church, or Sunday school. There were large
areas in which there was no physician, and old women and quacks
administered herbs and practiced their superstitious arts. Women
�Religion / 8 1
and children did most of the work in these remote homes,
and men were idle except when hunting, fishing, or running
illicit distilleries. Campbell wrote, "In some regions a young
man has reached the summit of his ambitions when he has learned
to pick the banjo, owns a dog, and carries a pistol and a bottle
of whiskey."
Many persons told the missionaries that their parents had
been Presbyterians, and Campbell concludes, "Th~ Presbyterian
Church failed to feed and tend these scattered members of its
fold, and the more aggressive Methodist and Baptist churches
gathered them into their folds. God bless them for it." R. P.
Smith wrote, "They never had a fair chance. Entrenched here
for generations and far removed from the thoroughfare of a
progressive world, the wonder is that they have done so well.
After the survey of the summer, 1898, work of the Presbytery
began in the areas where need was greatest. School conditions
in Robbinsville were deplorable. Suitable buildings were
lacking and teachers were incompetent. People grasped the
opportunity for a good school. A two-room building was built,
one room for school, the other for church services. Soon two
additional rooms were needed, as the enrollment reached 3 50;
Three teachers were engaged and a library of 300 books was
installed. A pastor was employed and church and Sunday school
started. People in the county said that this was the greatest
influence for good the county had ever experienced. In Haywood
County in a district where there had not been a public school
in operation for two years, the Snyder Memorial Academy
was built and it soon had an enrollment of 295 pupils. In Big
Ivy Community in the Black Mountains, two churches were
organized and in 1905 there were 150 members. Schools were established in connection with the churches, and an ex-moonshiner
said the Presbyterian workers had done more to benefit that
section than all the laws of North Carolina.
In Haywood County an orphans' home at Crabtree was
opened in 1904, with a day school attached for the benefit of
the poor children of the neighborhood. During the first year
twenty orphans were cared for and sixty-five children attended
the school.
From 1897 until 1904 E. Mac Davis was the pioneer evangelist
of Madison County. He preached at thirty-eight points, distributed thousands of tracts and books, organized three or four
churches and a large number of Sunday schools and mission
�82 / Part II: A Changing Society
summer day schools. A number of women and one man assisted
him in the work. When he left the area he had two hundred
members in his churches.
Following Mr. Pell in 1895 were Edgar Tufts, L. E. Bostian,
and E. D. Brown in Watauga County and L. A. McLaurin in
Mitchell County. They were seminary students who worked
during the summer months. In I 897 Edgar Tufts came back
after completion of his seminary work to spend the rest of his
life in Northwestern North Carolina.
Greater than the desire to found churches was the determination to educate the boys and girls, to let them "know the good
life." The Presbyterian Church set up a pattern that public
schools might follow. It sent in strong personalities, if possible
ones well acquainted with mountain life and character, to
establish high schools, often in a county seat, with boarding
facilities and dormitories. Even after the State of North Carolina
authorized the counties to support high schools, many could
not because of the lack of funds. The church schools' objectives
included that of leadership training for the time when the state
would maintain high schools. When that time came a number
of the church schools continued to furnish living facilities for
students who lived too far away to be day students. After school
buses were put into operation, some of the high schools established
by the churches were advanced to college level and are still
functioning.
At about the same time the Asheville Presbytery was formed,
the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (northern) began to
dream that it would "make Asheville the center of Scotch-Irish
Presbyterianism in the Southern Appalachian mountains." Young
men and women were sent all through the mountains as leaders.
Schools were attempted for children of all ages. The aim was
not to organize Presbyterian churches but to send young people
back to their communities to teach and live the Christian faith.
The result was that few churches were formed. The schools
have dwindled and much of the former school property has
been sold. An exception is Warren Wilson College. Today
the interest of the young missionaries has been transferred to
the cities.
The Protestant Episcopal Church, heir to the Anglican Church
of colonial days, had small numbers of communicants in Western
�Religion / 8 3
North Carolina congregations, but they were usually leaders
in their communities and were often prominent in the state.
An antipathy toward the Episcopal Church was evident in many
parts of the area. Scholars have concluded that many of the
Scotch-Irish had moved westward to avoid paying tithes to
the established church and their disapproval has been passed on
to their descendants. Perhaps that is the reason that more people
did not affiliate with the Episcopal Church. At the end of the
Civil War there were few of these churches in Western North
Carolina and most of them were in the foothill parts of the
counties. Those in the mountainous areas were established by
South Carolinians who summered there. In I836 a chapel was
built for Episcopal families at Flat Rock, called St. John's in the
Wilderness. In I859 another church was completed near Fletcher,
Calvary Episcopal Church. Miss Fanny Blake contributed
thirteen acres and a building in which she conducted a school at
Calvary Church from I859 until her death. Tradition has it
that a band of Stoneman's cavalry command during his raid
in I865 camped for a night in the yard of Calvary Church,
and Stoneman was so impressed with the beauty of the church's
interior that he ordered his men to take special care not to destroy
anything in the House of God. Stoneman was not in the Asheville
area during the campaign. The account may be true of part of
his command. The story is that the next morning the cavalrymen
were permitted to use pieces of the red church carpet for saddle
blankets, and they rode away with "red carpet fluttering from
their horses' backs."
Another chapel was St. Paul's in the Valley which dated
from I856. The first services were held in the carriage shed of
F. W. Johnstone at Montlove, his summer home. James Stuart
Hankie, of the South Carolina Seminary at Camden, served as
pastor. Occasionally he preached on Sunday afternoons at the
Baptist church in Cathey's Creek community. After Transylvania
County was formed a church was organized in Brevard and
services at St. Paul's were discontinued in I 884.
The Diocese of North Carolina was organized in I 8 r 7
with the Reverend John Stark Ravenscroft as bishop. He was
succeeded by Bishop Levi S. Ives, who visited Morganton,
Asheville, and Hot Springs when he journeyed through the
mountains to Tennessee to organize a diocese there. His interest
in Northwest North Carolina was awakened, and in I842 he
established at Valle Crucis a boarding school for mountain
�84 / Part II: A Changing Society
boys and a school of preparation for the ministry. A large farm
was acquired and buildings were erected. William West Skiles
came from the eastern part of the state to manage the farm and
was ordained deacon. Eight candidates for the ministry were
educated there. When Bishop Ives resigned Skiles continued
his missionary work for ten years although the school stopped.
Jarvis Buxton who helped Skiles at Valle Crucis started a school
in Asheville. Later another Episcopal school, Ravenscroft,
was founded there, and its director, Mr. Hillhouse Buell, established the mission in Brevard that developed into St. Philips
Church. St. James Church in Hendersonville was organized
in 1840 and consecrated in 1863. The rector, Thomas C. Wetmore,
founded Christ School at Arden in 1900. Another St. James
grew from a Lutheran church near Lenoir founded by Parson
Robert Johnson Miller who later was ordained to the Episcopal
priesthood. He had founded Lutheran churches in Lincoln and
Burke counties as well. A small group of devoted missionaries
held services in Watauga and Ashe counties, and their difficulties
were brought home to Bishop Atkinson when he tried to travel
from Lenoir to Watauga County on a visitation in 1878. He
wrote, "On the afternoon of that day ... I set off ... but found
the road so washed by the flood resulting from the heavy rains
of the previous day and night, as to be impassable. I then attempted a more circuitous route, but the carriage in which I
was travelling was overturned in a stream, which was ordinarily
very shallow. I escaped with no more consequence than a wetting
of myself and baggage, but I found that further progress up the
mountain was impracticable, the road that wound its way up
its ascent being washed away."
Years earlier, Episcopal churches had been established at
Morganton, Rutherfordton, and Wilkesboro through the efforts
of Bishop Ives. St. Paul's Church in Wilkesboro had a devoted
minister, Reverend Richard Wainwright, who served forty- two
years beginning in 1855. He also served as superintendent of
schools of the county for twenty years and conducted a private
school for young men in his home. His daughter Mary Taylor
started a school for girls in Wilkesboro in 1879 and conducted
it until 1919, with an average attendance of twenty. Wainwright
held services at Wilkesboro once a month, traveling on horseback
to other places to hold services on other Sundays.
As the number of Episcopal churches increased, a need was
felt for a training school for the ministry, and Ravenscroft
�Religion / 8 5
School in Asheville offered such work from the late 186o's
until about 1890, during which time fifteen candidates for the
ministry studied there. Dr. Buxton of Ravenscroft Mission
started holding services for Negroes at Trinity Chapel, now
St. Matthias. General and Mrs. James Martin drilled Negro
classes in the catechisms and teachings of the church, and a day
school was held there. The first Negro priest, S. V. Berry,
came in 1874 from Western New York to serve at St. Matthias
for eleven years.
Interest in Valle Crucis was revived in 1893 and an associate
mission was established. A school for mountain girls held there
is discussed elsewhere. With several churches in Asheville, and
small ones in Blowing Rock, Beaver Creek near Jefferson, and
All Souls Church in Biltmore built by George Vanderbilt, the
Episcopal Church was on sound footing by the close of the
century.
Other denominations have congregations in Western North
Carolina. There are twelve Lutheran churches, five of which
are in Watauga County. Two of the latter, Holy Communion
and Mount Pleasant, date from 1842 and 1845 respectively.
Several Catholic services were held in court houses in various
county seats before the first Catholic church was built in Asheville
in 1869. As in-migration of the managerial class occurred when
industries moved into the area, Catholic churches have been
established in the residential areas near the plants as well as in
resort communities.
Western North Carolina is now being called the "South's
Summer Religious Capital." In the Asheville area in 1951
there were ten assembly grounds and in the entire region twentytwo religious conference grounds. The investments in the grounds
and buildings amount to millions of dollars, and it was estimated
in 1951 that each year the conferees spend almost $5,ooo,ooo.
The total of expenditures in the area is larger more than twenty
years later.
Montreat, established first, dates back to 1897 when the
North Carolina General Assembly chartered the Mountain
Retreat Association. In 1905 the Presbyterian Church in the
United States bought it as a summer conference ground. Since
that time it has been used the year around. In 1913 the Montreat
�86 / Part II: A Changing Society
Normal School was established, the forerunner of MontreatAnderson College. In 1962 more than twenty-one conferences
were held at Montreat in September and October alone. Nineteen
different groups use the facilities for conferences.
Ridgecrest is the second oldest. In 1907 an organizing committee for a Southern Baptist assembly bought 850 acres ofland
selected by James M. Tucker of Asheville. He had been the
principal author of the idea; he obtained the charter and sold
the idea to the Southern Baptists. The Southern Railroad to
Asheville passed through the grounds but there was no station,
and the assembly grounds could be reached from the east only
by a road up the mountain through Swannanoa Gap, which
in rain or snow turned to mud. When a railway station was
obtained, the stop was first called Terrell's, later Blue Mont,
and finally Ridgecrest. The buildings on the assembly grounds
have been built gradually until thousands of delegates may be
accommodated at one time. In 1965 twenty-two conferences
were held from June 10 to September 16. The grounds are
administered by the Baptist Sunday School Board of the Southern
Baptist Convention.
Lake Junaluska, the World Methodist Center, was established
by a laymen's missionary movement of the Methodist Episcopal
Church South in 1908. It now belongs to the Southeastern
Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church. The World
Methodist Council established its headquarters there and the
World Methodist Building was erected in 1955. The assembly
grounds were opened for conferences in 1913. The tract of
2500 acres contains a beautiful lake of 250 acres. Elmer T. Clark
wrote that "Across the years the most famous personalities of
Methodism have appeared upon its platform."
Another Methodist center is at Hayesville, the Hinton
Rural Life Center, dating from 1953 when Mr. and Mrs. Walter
Moore deeded four and one-half acres of land and an unfinished
hotel building to the Hayesville Methodist Church. With
contributions from Mrs. H. H. Hinton, the Duke Foundation,
the Annual Conference, and the Waynesville District, and with
private gifts, the center was completed to be used by groups
in the Southeastern Jurisdiction of the Methodist Church. It
is the center for the Appalachian Development program of the
Methodist Church, a laboratory school for ministers and
students.
Camps for boys and girls in conjunction with the conferences
�Religion / 87
enable families to spend their vacations m the same general
area.
Other conference grounds include the following: Lutheridge,
near Arden, by the Lutheran Synods in the Southeast; Cragmont,
near Black Mountain, for Free Will Baptists of North Carolina,
which occupies the old Crag mont Sanitarium; Blue Ridge,
near Black Mountain, established by the YMCA of the South
in 1906, which serves as headquarters for varied meetings and
may be rented by any recognized educational, religious, or
social group; Kanuga Lake, in the Hendersonville area, the
assembly of the Episcopal Church of the two Carolinas; Bondarken, established at Flat Rock in 1963 by the Associate
Reformed Presbyterian Church for youth and adult programs
for eleven southeastern states; Ben Lippen, a short distance
from Asheville, owned by the Columbia (South Carolina)
Bible College and used as an interdenominational Christian
vacation center; Our Lady of the Hills, near Hendersonville,
the assembly of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh, begun
in 1956 and now used as a camp, convention site, retreat, and
rest site; Christmont, for the Disciples of Christ, near Black
Mountain. Others are Blowing Rock Assembly of the Southern
Synod of the Evangelical and Reformed Church, started in
1945 by a gift from the family of Abel A. Shuford; Wildacres,
near Little Switzerland, an experiment in the betterment of
human relations, open to all denominations for conferences
and workshops; the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen, in
Buckeye Cove, built to serve as a meeting place for ministers
and church groups throughout the South who are unable to
find space in any of the other conference grounds.
Perhaps the most unusual of the assembly grounds is Fields
of the Wood, of the Church of God. On the side of Burger
Mountain near Murphy have been constructed a huge concrete
cross, the largest altar in the world, a reproduction of the
sepulchre from which Christ rose, a stairway with 320 concrete
steps, each marked by tablets on which are carved Biblical
teachings, and the Ten Commandments laid out in huge stone
letters, with each letter five feet tall.
�CHAPTER
FOUR
The Bar and the Forum*
The law above all other professions offered its followers the
opportunity for political power, public office, and prominence.
A man often progressed from solicitor to superior court judge
and thence to the state supreme court; or he might be elected
to the General Assembly or to the United States Congress.
Judge Richmond Pearson's law school, Richmond Hill in
Yadkin County, which had ended with his death in 1877, was
very popular and prepared more than a thousand young men
for the legal profession, but many studied under Judge W. H.
Battle at the state university, and others attended the schools
of Dick and Dillard in Greensboro, Colonel George Folk of
Lenoir, Judge John L. Bailey of Asheville, and A. C. A very
of Morganton. There were other lawyers in the West who
guided young men in the study of law. In some families it was
a tradition that one son would follow his father in the legal
profession. Some read law although they had no intention
of practicing it. Such was Rufus Lenoir Patterson of the wealthy
family of Happy Valley, Caldwell County, who became owner
and manager of three manufacturing enterprises and whose
cotton mill was burned by Stoneman's troops in the raid through
Western North Carolina and Virginia in 1865.
Lawyers still accompanied the judge and the solicitor from
* The following chapter is not intended as a comprehensive treatment of
lawyers and lawmakers in and from Western North Carolina. Rather, it
illustrates the quality of the region's lawyers and lawmakers.
88
�The Bar and the Forum / 89
county to county on the circuit, a practice that has been discontinued now when travel is easy. Road conditions during
the 187o's made the travel difficult. Colonel Clinton A. Cilley
of Lenoir went one day to Morganton for court. His diary
entry for that day read, "Left at seven, got beyond the crossroads
and turned back by John's River. Went to ferry with Folk and
Wakefield, Crossed at three, and walked to Morganton. Paid
boy for carrying baggage, 6o¢." The distance was about fifteen
miles. At another time going from Lenoir to Jefferson he spent
two days on the road each way. He wrote, "Left for Boone
7:Io-toll2o¢. Got into Boone at 5:10P.M. Stay at Coffey's."
The following day, "Left for Jefferson at 8 A.M. In at 4: r 5 -last
ten miles it rained a good deal." On his return from Jefferson
he had to pay 25¢ to have a log chopped from the road.
The lawyers usually traveled on horseback, stopped at the
same hotels in the towns and at the same wayside inns in the
country, sometimes as many as ten or fifteen of them together
at one of the country stopping places, and there they would
try important cases in their discussions before the cases ever
came before the court. The wit and humor of certain of the
lawyers, the scholarliness of others, became well known. Isaac
Avery commented· on Romulus Z. Linney of Taylorsville and
Watauga County (he had a summer home on a mountain top
in the latter): "Most men who read literature hold it in reserve
as mere ornate punctuation or emphasis for every day speech,
but Mr. Linney breathes composite literature at breakfast.
In Congressional halls he has caused laughter by the use of
colloquialisms which are his birthright, while in the back rural
districts he has combined in furious speech Spencer, the Old
Testament, Bill Nye, Blackstone, and the Constitution, and
aimed them with telling force at an audience that was moved
to weep blind tears."
Many of the great statesmen of Western North Carolina
in the Ante-bellum period had been Whigs who worked for
roads and railroads to and in their region and for constitutional
reform. Gradually most of them became Democrats or later
Conservatives. Those who survived in 1877 were still the great
lawyers of the area. David Lowry Swain, native of Buncombe
County, lawyer, member of the state House of Representatives,
governor at the age of thirty-one, and president of the state
university for thirty-three years, died in r868. William Holland
Thomas, great benefactor of the Cherokees and organizer of
�90 / Part II: A Changing Society
a legion of soldiers in the Civil War, who succeeded in getting
laws for the cutting of roads from Jones Gap to Caesar's Head,
Bakersville to Burnsville, Patterson to Valle Crucis and on to
Jonesboro, Tennessee, Zionville to Mountain City, Cataloochee
to Newport, Tennessee, Oconalufty through Soco Gap, from
V alleytown over the Snowbird Mountains via Robbinsville,
was ill and although he lived until I893 he was not able to
participate in public affairs by I877. Thomas Lanier Clingman,
former United States Senator, who deserted the Whig Party
for the Democratic in I 856 over the slavery issue, was living
in retirement in Asheville. Augustus S. Merriman became Judge
of the Eight Judicial District in I865, was elected United States
Senator in I872 and served from I873 to I879. Zebulon Baird
Vance, the most spectacular and universally popular man born
in Western North Carolina, after serving as war governor of
the state, practiced law while the Reconstruction government
was in power, was elected Governor in I876, and in I879 was
chosen to succeed Merriman as United States Senator. Tad
R. Caldwell of Burke County did not join the Conservative
Party. He was the Republican lieutenant governor who was
promoted to the governor's chair when Holden was impeached
and removed from office. Caldwell was reelected to succeed
himself, but he died in office in I 87 4· Burgess Sidney Gaither
who had practiced law in Morganton since 1829, served in the
state Senate, being elected president of that body in I 846, was
solicitor of the Seventh Judicial District after 1848, and worked
for the election of Bell and Everett of the Constitutional Union
Party in I86o. Gaither was pronounced by Judge David Schenck
the "leader and father of the Burke County Bar" in 1877. Of
Nicholas W. Woodfin of Asheville, who had studied under
Michael Francis and Governor Swain, it was said "There is no
name in Western North Carolina more identified for the last
thirty years- that is beginning with I845- with the material,
industrial, and educational interests of that part of the State."
Allen Turner Davidson also studied under Michael Francis
and in 1845 was licensed to practice law in North Carolina.
He established his practice in Murphy, seat of the new county
of Cherokee, and traveled the circuit as far east as Cleveland
County. The Davidson family was one of the best known in
the area. They had come from Pennsylvania in I748, some
settling on the Catawba River in present-day Iredell County,
others in the Swannanoa Valley. In subsequent generations
�The Bar and the Forum / 91
several had gone westward to Tennessee and to Texas. Allen
T. Davidson left the law in r86o to become president of the
Merchants and Miners Bank of Murphy. During the Civil War
he served as an agent of the state commissary department, and
after the war he practiced law in Asheville until r885.
Among former Democratic leaders of the area, William
Waightstill Avery had been killed during a battle with Kirk's
raiders in Burke County in r864, but his brother, Alfonso
Calhoun Avery, had a successful career as a judge and lawyer,
living until I913.JudgeJohn L. Bailey who had been associated
with Supreme Court Justice Nash in Raleigh, had moved to
Buncombe County and conducted a law school until his death
in 1877. Theodore F. Davidson, one of his students wrote, "I
think his influence upon the Bar of the Mountain Circuit has
been more inspiring and lasting than that of any other member
of the profession."
A new, younger group oflawyers was appearing in the courts
of Western North Carolina in the 187o's and 188o's. In 1884
in the twenty-three counties there were r62 lawyers, many of
whom are well remembered for their ability and wit. James
Madison Gudger, Jr., and his brother Hezekiah A. Gudger,
born in Madison County, were admitted to the bar, H. A.
Gudger in 1871 and James M., Jr., in 1878. The latter served
as a member of the United States House of Representatives,
and Hezekiah was appointed Assistant Attorney General by
President Cleveland in 1 89 3. Jeter C. Pritchard said of James
M. Gudger, Jr., "[he] had a splendid legal mind and could
prepare a case for trial with as much ease and facility as any
lawyer I ever knew .... He was always at his best in a rough
and tumble contest .... A lawyer who served in the first Cleveland administration was Edmund Jones, related to the Patterson
and Davenport families of Caldwell County. He read law under
Colonel George Folk and was licensed by the Supreme Court
of North Carolina in r88r. His activity in the Democratic
Party led to his appointment to a "responsible position in the
Treasury Department." He also served five terms in the General
Assembly. Kope Elias, born in South Carolina, studied under
the Reverend Laban Abernethy at Rutherford College, then
under Richmond Pearson. Admitted to the bar in r 870, he
�92 / Part II: A Changing Society
began his practice in Murphy, moving to Franklin two years
later. "At one time he enjoyed the largest practice of any lawyer
west of Asheville." He was admired by other members of the
bar for his story-telling prowess.
Three first cousins, grandsons of Colonel William Moore,
pioneer whose homestead is now occupied by the Enka Corporation on Hominy Creek in Buncombe County, became eminent
lawyers: Walter E. Moore studied under Dick and Dillard,
practiced in Webster, Jackson County, and was made judge
of the Twentieth Judicial District in I 926; Charles Augustus
Moore studied law with Judge John Bailey in Asheville and
practiced in Asheville, serving as Judge of the Buncombe County
Criminal Court, 1887-1890; Frederick Moore studied law in
Hayesville and at Chapel Hill. He was admitted to the bar in
1892, became a judge at age 29, and served ten years. Frederick's
son, a resident of Haywood County, named for his grandfather
Daniel Killian Moore, was governor of North Carolina from
1965 to 1969. Locke Craig wrote half a century ago, "For more
than a century the Moores have stood in the front rank of the
people of Western North Carolina."
Theodore F. Davidson, son of Allen Turner Davidson,
served in the Civil War, enlisting at sixteen. After the war he
studied law under Judge Bailey and was admitted to the bar
in 1867. He practiced law with his father in Asheville until
1882. He had become quite active in the Democratic Party,
served in the state Senate, and helped to promote the completion
of the Western North Carolina Railroad, of which he was
made state director in 1879. He developed a great interest in
history and collected a notable library.
The Daughton brothers, Rufus and Robert ofLaurel Springs,
Alleghany County, wielded great influence in state and nation.
Rufus, the elder, studied law at the state university and opened
his office in Sparta in 1880. In that year he was elected to the
state House of Representatives, serving as chairman of the
Finance Committee. Robert Lee Daughton, a farmer, was a
member of the State Board of Agriculture from I903-1910,
a member of the State Prison Board, served as president of the
Deposit and Savings Bank of Wilkesboro, and in 1910 he was
elected to the Sixty-second Congress where he served continuously until January, 1953. He was a member of the Ways
and the Means Committee of the House of Representatives
and became its chairman in 1933.
�The Bar and the Forum / 93
Thomas C. (Tam) Bowie was a generation younger than
the Daughton brothers but he belongs in the same tradition.
Born in Louisiana, he came to Ashe County with his mother
after the death of his father. His maternal greatgrandfather
Elijah Calloway had served in the General Assembly at the age
of twenty-one when there was no road to his plantation. Elijah
walked from his home on the South Fork of the New River
to Raleigh to assume his seat in the legislature, and he secured
a bill to build a road from his home intersecting with the stage
line from Jefferson to Wilkesboro. Elijah Calloway had the
first brick house in his section, and the first house with glass
windows. He was a Whig in politics. His son James studied
medicine at Jefferson School of Medicine in Philadelphia and
settled in Louisiana. After his father's death Tam attended a
school at Moravian Falls in Wilkes County, North Carolina,
went to Kentucky to work at coal mining on two occasions.
He attended Mars Hill College and the University of North
Carolina, receiving an A. B. degree in 1899. After a year of
study at Yale University Tam returned to North Carolina and
studied law at the state university. He was admitted to the bar
in 1901. He served in the legislature in the terms of 1908, 1913,
1915 (when he was Speaker of the House) and in 1921 was
chairman of the Committee on Roads when the state highway
system was created. Governor McLean appointed him a special
emergency superior court judge in 1927. He was called a "man
with a golden tongue."
Locke Craig, child prodigy who went to the University
of North Carolina at age fifteen, moved to Asheville after
completing his study of law, and set up a practice in r882. He
participated actively in Democratic Party politics and in 1898
he campaigned for Aycock. He was in the General Assembly
in 1899 and in 1901. In 1908 he ran unsuccessfully for the
Democratic nomination for governor, but in 1912 he was
elected governor.
Most men were content to leave the legislative halls to
those trained in the law. Now and again someone from a mercantile family sought and won political honors. James C. Harper,
born in Pennsylvania, who moved to Caldwell County after
a residence in Ohio in 1840 when the county was being formed,
had laid out the town of Lenoir, practiced civil engineering,
surveying, and draftmanship, merchandising and textile manufacturing, served in the state House of Representatives 1865-66,
�94 / Part II: A Changing Society
and was elected to the United States House of Representatives
in 1871. Almost a century later James T. Broyhill of Lenoir,
associated with the Broyhill Industries, probably the largest
family-owned furniture manufacturing concern in the world,
represents the Tenth Congressional District. Richard Thurmond
Chatham was chairman of the board of directors of the large
Chatham Manufacturing Company in Elkin when he was
elected to the United States Congress in 1949, and he continued
to serve in both capacities until in 1955 he resigned from the
chairmanship. He died just before his term in the House of
Representatives ended in I957·
The Democratic Party in North Carolina has from I 870
until today had a majority in the legislature with one brief
exception- r895-190I- the Fusion period. The Fusion period
involved the rise of the People's Party or the Populist Party,
the fusion of that party with the Republican Party, the temporary
overthrow of the Democratic party, and then the restoration
of the Democrats to power. Most of the writers concerning
the Fusion period have a Democratic bias.
The violent political attitudes in the last third of the nineteenth
century were the result of the Civil War and Reconstruction.
As has been pointed out there were two parties, the Republican
and the Conservative, later called the Democratic. The Conservative Party was composed of white men whose desire was
to drive the Northern "foreigners" out and to return control
of the state government exclusively to whites. The rivalry
of the two parties, the Republican to maintain control and the
Conservative to gain it, is the story of Reconstruction in North
Carolina.
The Conservatives captured the legislature in I 870 and the
governorship in I876, and North Carolina was Democratic
from I876 to I894, when the Republican Party and the Negro
were again political factors.
The Democrats had chafed under the Reconstruction constitution and had called a constitutional convention that met
on September 5, I875. Instead of drawing up another constitution
the convention wrote many amendments, two of which were
of great importance: the residence requirement for voting
would be ninety days rather than sixty, and any person convicted
�The Bar and the Forum / 9 5
of a felony could be disfranchised; and the General Assembly
was given power to modify, change, or abrogate county governments. The association of the Negro with the Republican Party
gave the Democrats the lever by which to control the state.
Former Whigs had formed and led the Conservative Party
and they refused to use the name Democrat for eight years.
But Zebulon Baird Vance and the Democrats defeated the
Republicans in 1876 and Vance was hailed as "the redeemeer."
The name Democrat became acceptable.
The national issues in the r88o's centered around the regulation
of railroads, currency fluctuation, tariffs, control of monopolies
and agricultural demands by a vocal West. Prior to I 894 no
efforts were made by the Democratic Party to foster social and
economic reforms, for these were opposed by the industrial
and railroad interests. Men in control of the Democratic Party
in North Carolina were in alliance with the railroad and manufacturing interests. Many of these men had used the state between
I 876 and I 894 to further their own business interests and were
content to rest on their chief accomplishment - redemption
of the state from Yankees and Negroes. Democrats thus failed
to offer North Carolina a vitalized program. This evasion of
issues was made possible by reminding the voters of Negro
rule under the Republican Party during Reconstruction.
From I876 for many years the question of the Negro in
politics was the dominant issue in all party affiliations. Democratic
election law, Democratic control of county governments
gerrymandering, intimidation, manipulation and corruption
had kept the party in control from I876 to I894.
In I 890 the Democratic Party had two elements: a dominant
conservative wing (pro-business, anti-reform) led by a few
leaders who controlled the party, and a liberal, agrarian anticorporation wing with spokesmen like Walter Clark and Leonidas
Polk. The liberal agrarian element grew in strength because of
agrarian discontent and criticism of the railroads. The two
farmers' organizations, the Grange in the early seventies and
the Farmers' Alliance, which was organized in I887, made
little impression in the mountains, but that section benefited
from their influence. In the election of I890 the Alliance virtually
captured control of the Democratic Party.
"The 'Farmers' Legislature of I89I' ... increased the tax
rate for public schools, established a normal college for white
girls, and an agricultural college and a normal college for Negroes;
�96 / Part II: A Changing Society
increased the state appropriations to the University and state
colleges; [established a School for the Deaf and Dumb in Western
North Carolina] and provided state regulation for railways
by forbidding rebates and rate discriminations and creating a
railroad commission of three members elected by the legislature
and empowered to reduce rates and eliminate the special tax
exemptions and low assessments enjoyed by the railroads,"
summarized historian David Holcombe.
Again the conservative Democrats c;,ontrolled the party in
North Carolina in I894. They stood for laissez Jaire policies,
no governmental regulation of railroads, and favoritism to
business. It was a large party but it was governed by a few and
was interested chiefly in self-preservation.
The geography of North Carolina was significant in the
development of the post-Reconstruction Republican Party.
A few western counties were centers of Republican strength.
Sectional hostility had been incited before the Civil War by
a lack of just representation in the legislature and the contempt
with which non-slaveholding white farmers were treated by
the slave-holding oligarchy of the lowlands. After the Civil
War many of the small farmers became Republicans. In gubernatorial elections seven mountain counties voted Republican
in each election from I 876 through I 896: Ashe, Cherokee
Henderson, Madison, Mitchell, Polk, and Wilkes. Nineteen
other counties voted Republican during the same period -in
other parts of the state. There were forty-seven counties in
other parts of the state with from forty to forty-nine per-cent
of the vote being Republican during this same period. This
potential strength was often sufficient to challenge the Democratic
Party at a given election.
The Republican votes in the western counties were those
of adult male whites, since the Negro population in each county
was comparatively small. Because of the Republican counties
and the small Democratic majority in many other counties,
Western North Carolina was an important political region.
It was not the sole determinant in state politics, but mountain
leaders exercised importance out of proportion to the size,
the population, and the wealth of the area.
The resurgence of the Republican Party, I890-1900, was
closely linked with the rise of the Populist Party as a result of
agrarian discontent which projected the Farmers' Alliance
into politics. The Populist Party was a protest against social
�The Bar and the Forum / 97
and political grievances which the Democratic Party had done
little to alleviate. Since the demands of the Alliance were intended
to correct outstanding abuses, its entrance into politics was
inevitable. Its leaders wanted it to work with both old parties
rather than to form a separate political party. More was expected
from the Democrats than from the Republicans in North
Carolina since they were the party in power. In I 892 the Alliance
split. The more conservative members remained loyal to the
Democrats because of the fear of the Negroes and the Republicans.
The more radical joined the Populist Party of the midwestern
farmers.
In I 892 the Populist Party held its first state convention
and set forth a progressive platform. W. P. Exum, the party's
candidate for governor, received a small vote in the western
counties as did James B. Weaver, the Populist candidate for
President, but the state as a whole cast a Populist vote which
combined with the Republican vote exceeded that for the
Democratic candidates. Seven mountain counties voted Republican as usual.
In I 894 the Republican and Populist parties endorsed a
cooperative ticket. This fusion ticket carried the election. The
Democrats retained only forty-six seats in the House and eight
in the Senate. The Populists gained thirty-six seats in the House
and twenty-four in the Senate, and together the Fusionists
elected their Supreme Court ticket and their State Treasurer,
and captured control of both houses by a large majority. In
Western North Carolina there were sizeable Republican and
Populist gains. The legislature in I 895 set the maximum interest
rate at six per-cent and provided for a four-month school term.
The election of 1896 brought into office Daniel Russell, the
only Republican governor in North Carolina, 1877-1973· He
carried eleven of the mountain counties. Between I 897 and
I 899 the Fusionists were in complete control of the executive,
legislative, and judicial offices in the state. Local self-government
for the counties was vested in boards of three county commissioners elected by the people.
The Fusion period came to North Carolina because economic
distress existed and political reforms were needed. The marriage
was not permanent. The "white supremacy" campaign of
1898 defeated Fusion and by 1900 the Democrats were again
in complete control in North Carolina. They decided to eliminate
the Negro as a factor in North Carolina politics by an amendment
�98 / Part II: A Changing Society
to the constitution combining a literacy test and a grandfather
clause provision to disfranchise the Negroes. Although the
amendment carried, in only five of the counties of Western
North Carolina did a majority of voters approve the amendment
which was submitted to them in 1900: Alleghany, Buncombe,
Burke, McDowell, and Rutherford. All except Alleghany had
fairly large Negro populations. A law passed in 1899 gave the
General Assembly the power again to elect county commissioners.
During the period of Fusionist rule Jeter C. Pritchard,
Republican of Madison County, was elected United States
Senator to succeed Zebulon B. Vance who had died. In 1897
Pritchard was chosen by the General Assembly to serve a full
six-year term, and when he was defeated for the senatorship
in 1903 he was given federal offices, in 1903-1904 as Justice of
the Supreme Court for the District of Columbia and from
1904 until his death as Judge of the United States Circuit Court
of Appeals for the Fourth Judicial District.
The two other United States Senators elected from Western
North Carolina since 1903 were Democrats: Robert Rice
Reynolds from Asheville, who was elected in 1932 and served
until 1945; and Samuel James Ervin, Jr., of Morganton, who
served first as a member of the United States House of Representatives to complete the unfinished term of his brother, Joseph
William Ervin, who had died, and then in 1954 was elected to
the United States Senate to replace Clyde Hoey, deceased.
He had been a member of the North Carolina Supreme Court
from 1937 to 1943 and again from 1948 to 1950. He still serves
in the Senate.
Five Republicans have been elected to the United States
House of Representatives from Western North Carolina in
the twentieth century. Edmund Spencer Blackburn, with a law
office in Jefferson, served from 1901 to 1903 and from 1905
to 1907. Charles Holden Cowles of Wilkesboro, who acted
as Blackburn's private secretary during his first term, was elected
to the House in 1909. Richmond Pearson, son and namesake
of the great Chief Justice and law teacher, served in the North
Carolina House of Representatives from Buncombe County
from 1885 to 1889, and during the four years 1895 to 1899 he
was the Representative from the Ninth Congressional District.
He was reelected in 1900 but did not complete his term as
Theodore Roosevelt appointed him to a succession of diplomatic
posts. From 1907 until Taft's inauguration in 1909 he was minister
�The Bar and the Forum J 99
to Greece and Montenegro. Except for the leadership of the
Roosevelt forces in North Carolina in the campaign of 1912
he did not participate in public life after 1909. Jeter M. Pritchard,
son of Jeter C. Pritchard, was a prominent Republican who
served in Congress from 1929 to 193 I. James T. Broyhill has
represented the Tenth District since 1962.
In 1960 nineteen of the twenty-four western counties voted
for Nixon for President, although only four voted for Goldwater
in 1964. Madison County voted Democratic for the Presidency
in both 1960 and 1964. It seems to be anybody's guess how these
counties will go politically.
Even before a Republican governor was elected in 1972, the
choice of the Democratic machine was no longer certain of
winning the office. Victories ofKerr Scott in 1948, Terry Sanford
in 1960, and Dan K. Moore in an election of great turmoil in
1964 indicate that the Democratic organization can no longer
handpick its candidate.
No longer is the county courthouse so completely the center
of mountain social life but it has remained the center of political
life - the seat of power and patronage. Crimes of violence
have decreased, more amusements are available, and the coming
of the automobile and of good roads has increased social intercourse. County agents, welfare departments, mental health
clinics, and county libraries are often centered around the
courthouse. The courthouses and the county seats have been
the centers of coteries of power, the "courthouse rings," the
political machines. Here in these little Tammany Halls the
political bosses have dispensed patronage and determined in an
autocratic manner the political destinies of the county. In Western North Carolina these political machines were Democratic
and were kept in power by friendly Democratic legislatures.
In a number of counties Republicans were in the majority but
as long as the legislature appointed the county commissioners
the county chairman of the Democratic Party had the power,
not the Republican representatives in the legislature. He selected
the candidates for the office of county commissioner. Often
no teacher could obtain or hold a position without his approval.
The Democratic legislature appointed the school committees,
controlled many of the educational and welfare administrations,
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Part II: A Changing Society
James Holshouser, elected in No vember 1972 the first R epublican Governor in
North Carolina in this century and the _fifth W estern N orth Carolinian elected to
that office since 1865. Holshouser is a native of Boone and has practiced law there
except when serving in the General Assembly, since his graduation from the
University of North Carolina Law School at Chapel Hill.
PHOTO COURTESY OF WATAUGA DEMOCRAT
and kept a Democratic minority in power. For example, in
R epublican Madison County for years a Democratic county
boss ruled the county as completely as Huey Long ruled Louisiana.
Election of county officials has been restored to the people
and recently members of county boards of education have been
made elective officers.
Over all the counties west of Asheville the Asheville and
Buncombe County political machine had tremendous influence.
From the end of the Civil W ar to the Depression of the thirties
many of the counties were traditionally Republican. Because
of the social program of Franklin Roosevelt the Democrats
gained the ascendency. Weldon Weir, the city manager of
Asheville, Coke Candler, chairman of the board of county
commissioners, Lawrence Brown, the sheriff, and Don S. Elias
wielded great power. The political adroitness of these m en was
�The Bar and the Forum / 101
notable. Weldon Weir was credited with masterminding the
fortunes of the Democratic Party in Asheville election after
election. For decades Sheriff Lawrence Brown was political
arbiter of the county. He built a strong political base by helping
the needy and by persistently enforcing the law but used his
powers dictatorially. Throughout the 1930's, 1940's, 1950's a
third political figure allied with Weir and Brown was Don S.
Elias, newspaper owner and financier. He was the third leg of
political tripod. He was a statewide figure operating powerfully
in local politics. As a newspaper man he often held the politicians
in check and served as a balance of power. The political dynasty
ruled by these men began to crumble in the 1950's. In 1958
Dave Hall of Webster with the backing of Judge Dan Moore
defeated Weldon Weir for the congressional nomination,
evidence that no longer did "Big Buncombe," dominate politics
west of Asheville. Don Elias had supported Weir and the defeat
proved that he was not invincible in the Twelfth District. The
passing of Buncombe's dominance was further seen in 1966
when Congressman Roy A. Taylor lost Buncombe by 4000
votes but still won reelection. It had been a truism that to win
in the district one had to win in Buncombe.
Sheriff Brown's high-handed treatment of Jay Hensley,
who had exposed the Democratic toleration of gambling in
Buncombe County, and the seizure of liquor bottles at the state
convention of the North Carolina Junior Chamber of Commerce
after they had condemned Brown's actions aroused such indignation that in 1964 Brown was defeated by Harry Clay and
Buncombe had its first Republican sheriff since the 192o's. In
1968 Weldon Weir retired at sixty-two, Coke Candler decided
not to run again, Harry Clay was reelected, and the Republicans
elected a member of the board of county commissioners. These
events are indicative of the resurgence of historic Republican
strength in the mountains. The Democratic Party has dominated
North Carolina for one hundred years, but the Republican
Party is a power to be reckoned with, particularly in Western
North Carolina.
The lawyers and the legislators, most of whom were lawyers,
have profoundly influenced the laws and the politics of the
region. Lawyers often dominate the political destinies of their
�102
J Part II: A Changing Society
towns and counties. They are frequently elected to the legislature
or to Congress and they influence the laws that affect the region.
Formerly the number oflawyers was small and the contributions
of each could be evaluated as Arthur did in his Western North
Carolina. Today the number of lawyers with potential political
influence is legion and a full treatment of their history would
require a lengthy book.
�CHAPTER
FIVE
That All May Live
From the time of the first settlement until after the Civil
War, most medical needs in the mountains were attended to
by granny women, herb doctors, and midwives. There were
no railroads, few roads, and the efforts of the occasional doctor
on horseback were truly Herculean. During and after the Civil
War the movement of troops and the wandering of freedmen
was accompanied by epidemic diseases, especially typhoid
and smallpox. Out of the memory of the terrible experiences
during the war, the state's doctors sought to provide better
medical facilities and health measures. The State Medical Society,
organized in 1800, given up in 1804, reorganized in 1848, had
met annually except during the war. In r 8 59 it had persuaded
the General Assembly to establish the requirement that before
a new doctor might start his practice he must be passed by the
State Board of Medical Examiners. During the trying years of
Reconstruction, health measures were not among the issues
considered important, but in r875 the legislature authorized
the building of the Western Insane Asylum of North Carolina
(now Broughton Hospital) at Morganton. It was estimated
that there were at least seven hundred "insane" persons in the
state who were not receiving treatment. The appropriation
of $7s,ooo was made to provide a hospital for four hundred
patients. As an economy measure fifty convicts were sent to
Morganton to make bricks. The contractor for the bricks was
responsible for clothing, feeding, and guarding the prisoners.
When the institution was completed, it was already too small to
meet the need of the western part of the state, and an additional
103
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Part II: A Changing Society
$6o,ooo was appropriated for another wing in I 877. One portion
was set aside for those who could pay for their own care.
In 1877 a group from the State Medical Society went to
Raleigh to lobby and succeeded in getting created a state board
of health (with an annual appropriation of $Ioo!). Another
act made the county medical societies county boards of health.
Two years later, after an intensive campaign by Dr. Thomas
F. Wood, Secretary-Treasurer of the new State Board of Health,
who sent out hundreds of letters at his own expense, a more
effective public health act was passed. A nine-member board
(composed of physicians and others, including one civil engineer)
was provided for. The revised law had been backed vigorously
by the State Medical Society.
In the counties of Western North Carolina as late as 1883
only twenty doctors were members of the State Medical Society,
and consequently there were no county boards of health to
function. Typhoid had a serious incidence in the West, and
diptheria abounded. New theories about the causes of these
diseases- polluted water, insects, and direct contact- were
known only by the few doctors who did attend the meetings
of the medical societies or read their journals.
In Western North Carolina the doctors had to travel many
hours per day (usually on horseback because of the poor mountain
roads) to visit the critically sick and to dispense remedies. Some
mountain counties had more physicians in I884 than in I958;
in I884 Ashe had 8, Clay 4, Graham 5, Mitchell 8, Swain 4,
Yancey 6; in I958 Ashe had 6, Clay I, Graham 4, Mitchell6,
Swain 4, Yancey 5. But a much smaller number of patients could
be seen by a mountain doctor who had to travel to the sick
than is possible today. An example was the father of Dr. Gainc
Cannon, who practiced medicine in Jackson and Transylvania
Counties and in the vicinity of Pickens, South Carolina. Cannon
remembered: "Father had to do most of his traveling on horseback, carrying his medicine and instruments in his saddle bags.
He rode long distances, and not only were the calls tiring and
time-consuming, but he was also often paid poorly. Father
could hardly make a call far over into Jackson County and get
back the same day. And often he collected not a penny ....
Sometimes those who were able to pay him wouldn't do it,
even though he charged little. . . . Most of the time he was
paid in things the family could eat - a country ham, potatoes,
fresh vegetables, ... produce ... from the farms and orchards.
�That All May Live / I05
Father couldn't carry much of that sort of stuff on his horse,
along with his bulging saddle bags, so often a patient would
bring it down to us, sometimes in a cart pulled by an ox."
Such doctors had neither the time nor the money to attend
meetings of medical societies or to buy medical journals. They
continued to practice medicine as it had been taught to them
years earlier. Meanwhile the moderately ill were cared for by
"granny women," some of whom luckily had a surprising
knowledge of herbs and their medicinal values; superstitious
and injurious treatments were characteristic of many of them.
The majority of the people did not enjoy good health.
Chronic ailments were typical. Dr. Benjamin Washburn said
that dyspepsia was found in almost all adults and children,
caused from "eating thick, soggy corn pone, greasy vegetables,
and too much salt pork." Bad sanitary conditions contributed
to the typhoid, diarrhea, and other bowel ailments which were
common. Other well-known diseases of the area, in the vernacular, were "pneumony fever," "side pleurisy," "joint
rheumatism" "jumpin' toothache," the "bloody flux" (dysentery), and "gallopin' consumption." "Dew pizen," it was
learned later, was a preliminary stage of hookworm disease.
It caused mountain children to have a stunted, anemic condition.
"Bold hives" might be scarlet fever or other childhood infections.
Babies were usually delivered by ignorant midwives, and as a
result many women suffered ill health all their adult lives. Dr.
Washburn described medical practice in dealing with the abovenamed diseases in the South Mountain district in Rutherford
County, where he began his practice in 1912. Diphtheria and
tuberculosis were the great killers. They were so widespread at
times that there were epidemics causing a reign of terror. Many
children died of diphtheria and were buried in wooden boxes.
Eight children died in one family. The philosophic resignation
of the parents was expressed by saying "The Lord giveth and
the Lord taketh away." With diphtheria a child would be lumpy,
listless, feverish. He might have a sore throat. The breathing
would be obstructed by a swollen membrane, the pulse rapid,
thready, and uncountable. About the sixth day the child would
die of toxemia, the effect of the poison produced by the bacteria.
Violent pain was usually followed by death. Fortunately, diphtheria is no longer the great child-killer that it once was. Medical
science developed an anti-toxin that has almost wiped out the
dread disease.
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Part II: A Changing Society
Another serious epidemic disease, scarlet fever, would sweep
through whole neighborhoods. It often affected the kidneys,
the brain, the middle-ears, leaving some children deaf mutes.
It was less often fatal than diphtheria and would run its course
in a week or ten days. It is still dangerous but less prevalent than
formerly. Measles was the most highly infectious of the epidemic
diseases. It was usually not fatal but often went into pneumonia
and complications. Smallpox was the only infectious disease the
doctors really knew how to prevent. Vaccinations were used,
but so crudely that infections often resulted. A healthy child
who had a good "take" was used as the source of vaccine for
other children. The doctor scratched a place on the arm until
blood began to ooze, then dipped the lancet into the pus on the
arm of the inoculated child and rubbed the pus in the scratched
arm.
Tuberculosis was the great and universal scourge. People
believed that its spread was inevitable, the result of the Divine
will, an act of God. Patients had a phthisical cough, a fever flush,
an elevation of temperature, and they spat, usually on the floor.
Isolation of patients was not usual, as the bacterial cause of the
disease was not recognised. There was no effort at prevention
by quarantine. Poor housing conditions caused the prevalence
and virulence of tuberculosis to increase. Yet an area one hundred
miles by fifty miles centering in Asheville was believed to have
complete immunity from tuberculosis, and, as has been noted
elsewhere, the town became a resort for tubercular patients.
Surgery was practiced sparingly by mountain doctors
because of the antipathy of the people to it. Compound fractures
resulted in amputations because it was believed that if there was
no amputation the patient would die of infection. Anesthesia
was seldom used in the mountains, although elsewhere ether
had been used since I 842, and chloroform since I 872. Whiskey
was often given to dull the pain during an operation.
The mountains were also believed to be safe from yellow
fever. During a yellow fever epidemic in Florida in I888 hundreds
of people fled from the state. Both Waynesville and Hendersonville welcomed the refugees, 260 coming to Hendersonville.
Eastern towns grew alarmed and quarantined against persons
coming from Waynesville and Hendersonville. The State Board
of Health then forbade the coming of yellow fever refugees
to North Carolina.
�That All May Live /
107
Meanwhile, in the world at large between 1890 and 1910 the
germ theory of disease was thoroughly established and the science
of bacteriology developed. The State Board of Health turned
its attention to providing safe water supplies and sewage disposal
in towns and cities. Its system of disease control included quarantine, abatement of nuisances, and vaccination. A doctor in
each county was employed as county superintendent of health.
He was chosen by the county board of health, which consisted
of all practicing physicians, the mayor of the county seat, the
chairman of the county commissioners, and the city or county
surveyor. The county superintendent of health performed post
mortems for the coroners, registered vital statistics, and attended
persons at jails and poorhouses.
The education of the people of North Carolina for retention
of their health really began with the campaign to eradicate
hookworm disease. In 1903 Dr. Charles W. Stiles of the United
States Public Health Service addressed the State Medical Society
at Hot Springs on the prevalence of hookworm disease in the
South. In 1905 Dr. W. P. Ivey of Lenoir, a member of the State
Board of Health, read a paper to the State Medical Society titled
"Uncinariasis (hookworm disease) in the Mountains of North
Carolina." He recommended the holding of clinics, to be attended
by doctors who did not attend the meetings of the medical
societies, in the counties. He found the disease common in Caldwell County and he believed that other Western North Carolina
counties "were wormy too." He ended his paper with the
following lines: "Hear, gentlemen, my conclusion. Uncinariasis
is among us .... It is a grievous burden .... It is a menace to the
neighbors. It kills folks. It makes mental underlings, ... physical
dwarfs. It curtails producing power. It steals dollars from our
wealth. What are you going to do about it?"
The Rockefeller Sanitary Commission spent $15,000 annually
in North Carolina for a Bureau of Hookworm Eradication
which was established in the state in March 1910. Dr. W. P.
Jacocks directed the campaign, which lasted five years. A corps
of doctors and microscopists worked in one county after another.
First a member of Dr. Jacocks' team visited a county to sell the
idea to the county commissioners and ask them for an appropriation. About six weeks later a field director arrived to conduct
the treatment. The first week was devoted to advertising and
education. Handbills were circulated, and posters were placed
�ro8 / Part II: A Changing Society
in public buildings such as post offices and stores inviting people
to the lectures and demonstrations. An exhibit consisting of a
set of large charts to illustrate the lecture showed the life history
of the hookworm and the manner in which infection occurred,
showed patients before and after treatment and diagrams of
privies which would prevent soil pollution. Hookworm eggs
and larvae were shown under the microscope.
About five places in each county were designated for the
holding of clinics, and at each a dispensary was held once a
week for five weeks. A typical one, at Mill Spring in Polk County,
was described by Dr. Washburn, who joined the campaign in
1913. Men, women, and children began arriving at the designated
spot at 8 A.M. Approximately two hundred people came: in
buggies, on horse back, and in wagons. Activities were varied.
People who had been treated previously were examined to
determine the extent of improvement, after which a lecture
was given explaining how hookworm disease stunted the mental
and physical growth of children. Then additional diagnoses
were made and medicine (large capsules of thymol mixed
with milk sugar) was distributed.
The clinic was like an all-day picinic, and most of those
who came in the morning stayed throughout the activities.
They examined an exhibit showing how soil pollution, flies,
dirty food, and contaminated water could cause hookworm
disease. Typhoid, it was explained, was spread in the same way.
About half an hour was spent by the crowd in singing, led by
a volunteer with a tuning fork, while the microscopist prepared
a report on specimens brought in. People had packed picnic
lunches and the clinic recessed long enough for the meal. Other
families arrived in the afternoon, and the clinic lasted until
nearly five o'clock.
One of the lessons taught in all of the counties was that the
placing of privies over swift-running streams as was customary
in the mountains, when homes boasted privies at all, caused
pollution of water that could seep into the springs from which
the drinking water was taken. Efforts were made to persuade
county boards of education to provide safe drinking water and
sanitary privies at each school.
All but one county, Ashe, appropriated funds for the hookworm eradication campaign. Even in counties where the incidence
of the disease was small, the educational value of the program
was tremendous because through it people learned how to
�That All May Live /
109
prevent other serious diseases. After the hookworm campaign
ended in 1915, public health work was continued with the fulltime services of a county doctor in several counties, including
two in Western North Carolina, Surry and Buncombe.
Practically all of the 206 physicians in Western North Carolina
in 1884 were general practitioners. Many of them were of
well-known families that had furnished leaders in other professions as well. Moreover, it was not unusual to find two and even
three doctors in a county with the same surname, of whom
two were often father and son.* In many families it was a
tradition for one son to be a physician. The doctors, in addition
to the strenuous obligations of their profession, were often
civic leaders: trustees of academies, members of local school
boards, and of the county boards of health. Such a leader was
Dr. James A. Reagan, physician and surgeon, who served as
president of Weaverville College for three years from its incorporation as a college (1873) and who continued after that
to serve as a trustee. Dr. H. B. Weaver of Asheville in an obituary to Reagan in 1910 described his public service: "In the
heat and in the cold; up the rugged mountain sides . . . ; down
the sunless valleys; in dangers seen and unseen he never faltered .... No matter from where the cry for relief came, ...
he responded .... "
As time passed many of the doctors opened parts of their
homes or built special buildings in which they maintained
clinics or hospitals. This practice continued in smaller communities until well into the twentieth century. It made possible
surgery and more sanitary nursing conditions and saved many
lives.
Then there were physicians who were not native to Western
North Carolina who came in after completing medical school
because of an invitation by the community, such as Dr. W. C.
Tate, who came to Banner Elk to conduct a small hospital already
established, and Doctors Eustice H. and Mary Martin Sloop,
*
For example, there were doctors C. B. Roberts, R. K. Roberts, and
Robert Roberts in Haywood County; drs.J. L. Egerton and Thomas Egerton,
G. W. Fletcher and M. H. Fletcher, and Josiah Johnson and L. L. Johnson
all in Henderson County; Latta Reagan and W. S. Reagan in Madison
County, Oliver Hicks and Romeo Hicks in Rutherford County, to name
only a few.
�no / Part II: A Changing Society
who founded a hospital in Crossnore.
An example of Western North Carolina doctors who
devoted much of their professional lives to public health work
is Dr. Lewis Burgin McBrayer of Buncombe County. He was
licensed in I 890 and conducted a surgical practice in Asheville
until 1909, when he became city health officer. Sanitation,
especially concerning water and milk supply, was emphasized
during his administration. Meanwhile the State Medical Society
had organized an association to combat tuberculosis, and Dr.
McBrayer worked at Raleigh in 1907 with the General Assembly
to get the State Sanatorium for Tuberculosis established. In
1914 he left the mountains to serve as superintendent of the
Sanatorium for ten years. He played a part in getting another
state tuberculosis sanatorium established, in Western North
Carolina, and in setting up public health nursing. He was president
of the State Medical Society in 1914, and from 1917 to 1937 he
was its secretary-treasurer. The resolution passed by the State
Medical Society at his death included these words: " ... his
pioneering labors in this field [of fighting tuberculosis] won
for him and for his state nation-wide recognition."
When Dr. McBrayer became superintendent of the State
Sanatorium for Tuberculosis he replaced Dr. ]. E. Brooks,
who then (1914) came to Blowing Rock to retire. There was
no resident physician in the village at that time, and although
at first Dr. Brook's health did not permit him to do more than
answer emergency calls, he eventually maintained an office
practice in Blowing Rock. He was aghast at the opportunities
that the tourist center offered for the spread of contagious
diseases. Conditions were no doubt similar in most of the mountain villages, and the crowding in of summer visitors in the
resort centers made the danger of epidemics even greater.
Dr. Alfred Mordecai described the situation. Within the village
the average family had a stable for the horse and one or more
cows, a pigpen, a chicken lot, an outdoor privy, a spring, and
a garden. No screens were used to keep the flies out of the houses.
Garbage was thrown out to the pigs and chickens.
While the larger hotels were situated on hills apart from
the village center, they had their stables and "a retinue of stable
boys and domestic servants, who were very prone to use the
back lots and bushes instead of the surface privies provided for
them." Diseases such as typhoid and smallpox were increasing
in frequency.
�That All May Live j
II I
Dr. Brooks began holding "fireside chats" with civic leaders,
inviting one or more to visit with him to talk about community
affairs. He pointed out the unsanitary conditions and what they
might lead to. At "smokers," suppers and other meetings the
local citizens were roused to action. Dr. Brooks brought such
speakers as Governor Thomas W. Bickett, future governor
Cameron Morrison, and James I. Vance, D. D., to speak on
the subject of public health. Soon the fly breeding places were
eliminated. A chamber of commerce and other civic organizations developed from Dr. Brooks's work. Tuberculosis was
very prevalent in Watauga County and that part of the state,
and Dr. Brooks launched a drive to control it. He believed that
socio-economic conditions caused its spread, and he lectured
in schoolhouses throughout the area, asking people to stop
their promiscuous visiting with sick people whose illnesses
had not yet been diagnosed and to provide their families with
less crowded living conditions. An epidemic of smallpox in
Watauga County in I9I4 followed by one of diphtheria in 1915
caused people at least to heed his advice about visiting. Dr.
Brooks's services continued in Blowing Rock until his death
in 1921.*
A Philadelphia physician, Dr. Henry Norris, and Mrs.
Norris, came several times to Rutherford County for Dr. Norris
to hunt. They visited often at the Coxe estate, Green River
Plantation. They made friends in Rutherfordton and came to
realize that there was no hospital between Charlotte and Asheville
at a time when travel was slow and difficult. In 1905 the Norrises
decided to found a hospital in Rutherfordton. The buildings
of a former military academy were purchased and reconditioned,
and the hospital functioned there from 1906 until 1911, by
which time Dr. and Mrs. Norris had built and equipped an
excellent new facility. In 1907 Mrs. Norris organized a school
of nursing at the Rutherford Hospital. Dr. Norris and Dr.
Montgomery Biggs, and two nurses, all from Philadelphia,
soon won a widespread reputation for excellence. Additional
*
Alfred Mordecai, "James Edwin Brooks, M. D.," Part II, North Carolina
Medical journal Oune, 1958), 238-242, described intimately his association
with Dr. Brooks. In a letter to Ina Van Noppen, Dr. Mordecai wrote, "I
entered the practice of medicine in 1915 at Blowing Rock and sat in quite
often at his [Dr. Brooks'] fireside chats .... I was so impressed by the work
of Dr. Brooks that I later entered the field of Public Health in Western
North Carolina.... I think he could be called the Father of Modern Sanitation
and Health Education in Watauga County."
�I
12
f
Part II: A Changing Society
equipment and space were added from time to time, and after
the death of Dr. and Mrs. Norris a Committee of Friends of
the Hospital raised funds in 1941 for a Norris Maternity Building.
Its construction was delayed by World War II, enabling Rutherford Hospital to acquire a much larger building than had been
anticipated. In 1946 Congress passed the Hill-Burton Act to
give federal funds to communities to match local funds for the
construction of non-profit hospitals. Thereupon the North
Carolina Medical Care Commission was created to administer
a combination of state and federal aid to counties that wished
to build hospitals. Consequently in 1951 a new wing which
doubled the bed capacity of the Rutherford Hospital was built
and a completely modernized hospital was dedicated. Another
new building, the Crawford Memorial Building for the School
of Nursing, was dedicated in 1956 and conditions for teaching
were improved through a grant from the Ford Foundation
in 1957. The nursing education program was transferred to
Gardner-Webb College at Boiling Springs, in 1965, with
students doing their clinical work at the Rutherford Hospital.
Grace Hospital in Morganton is another excellent institution
of the same age as the Rutherford Hospital. Miss Maria P.
Allen, a graduate of the Episcopal Hospital in Philadelphia
who was serving as a visiting nurse in Burke County, wrote an
article, "The Spirit of Missions," in which she explained the
need for $3000 for a small hospital. The money was given by a
generous woman in New York. The Reverend Walter Hughson,
rector of Grace Episcopal Church of Morganton, established
the hospital in 1906 in a frame building containing fifteen beds.
Dr. E. W. Phifer, who had been in practice in Morganton for
four years, generously contributed administrative services, and
he and Dr. J. B. Riddle were the hospital staff. In 1918 Dr. W.
H. Keller joined the two. In 1920 a new brick hospital was
built, and staff and services have grown until in 1950 there were
120 beds and a staff of twenty-five specialists and generalists.
A school of nursing was established in 1910 with Miss Maria
Allen as its director. By 1950 about 230 nurses had graduated.
In addition to their clinical experience in Grace Hospital student
nurses were given a twelve week affiliation course in psychiatric
nursing at Highland Hospital in Asheville and a twelve week
course in pediatric nursing at Duke University Hospital. In
1959 Lenoir Rhyne College in Hickory engaged in a joint
program to offer college degrees for Grace Hospital School of
�That All May Live /
I I
3
Nursing graduates. Subsequently the School of Nursing was
discontinued; now Lenoir Rhyne's nursing students obtain
their clinical training at Grace Hospital. Burke County has
recently added a splendid new hospital.
Before 1945 there were hospitals with seventy-five or more
beds, outside the urban area of Buncombe County, only in
Burke, Haywood, and Rutherford counties. Ashe, Macon,
McDowell, Caldwell, Transylvania, and Jackson counties had
more than forty hospital beds each, while Watauga, Avery,
Cherokee, and Swain counties had hospitals with fewer than
forty beds. Since then many new hospitals have been built.
By 1958 there were 3.2 short-stay hospital beds per one thousand
population in Western North Carolina, while for the state as a
whole the average was 3.3 beds per one thousand. In addition,
new public health centers were constructed between 1948-1958
with federal aid in all of the counties except Buncombe and
Henderson.
Nurses' training in the 196o's was largely taken over by the
educational institutions, practical nursing courses being given
by Wilkes Community College, Asheville-Biltmore Technical
Institute, and Caldwell Community College near Lenoir. A
two year course in nursing is offered at Western Piedmont
Community College in Morganton terminating in the Associate
of Applied Science degree, and a four year course in nursing
given at Mars Hill College leads to the B.S. degree. The three
hospitals in Western North Carolina in 1966 that still had
hospital schools of nursing were Martin Memorial at Mt. Airy,
Memorial Mission in Asheville, and Mountain at Fletcher.
A very special institution in Western North Carolina is
Western Carolina Center, located just outside Morganton. It
is one of four state-supported residential centers for mentally
handicapped children. A part of the North Carolina Department
of Mental Health, it serves thirty-two western counties. In
1959 the legislature appropriated $4,500,ooo for its construction,
and the first patients were admitted in 1963. The center's
director, Dr. J. Iverson Riddle, stated that the Center provides
diagnosis, treatment, and care for the mentally handicapped
child by the use of the "multi-discipline approach to the total
child." Regimentation is avoided and each child is treated as an
individual who may return to his community and live a relatively
normal life. Two hundred eighty acres of land with rolling hills
and the South Mountains in the background form the setting
�I I
4 / Part II: A Changing Society
for the sixteen buildings, including residence cottages, academic
buildings, diagnostic clinic, hospital for crippled children,
infirmary, an additional children's unit of I20 beds, and workshop. The population consists of adults and children with an
average age of eighteen. The capacity, 832 in 1970, will be
increased constantly as new "cottages" are completed.
Morganton has become one of the four regional health
centers in the state. In 1959 the name of the North Carolina
Mental Hospital (earlier the Western Insane Asylum of North
Carolina) was changed to Broughton Hospital. The School
for the Deaf, Broughton Hospital, and the Western Carolina
Center are appropriately located in the same community.
Many of the techniques used in teaching deaf children can also
be used successfully with mentally handicapped children who
have communication difficulties, and the psychiatric staffs at
Broughton and Western Carolina Center can complement
each other. The Mental Health clinics located in a number of
the thirty-two mountain and piedmont counties served by the
Center and by Broughton Hospital are associated with the two
by an administrative staff. Also served is the Western North
Carolina Correctional Center in Morganton, a new type of
prison where rehabilitation rather than punishment is the aim.
Related to the health of the people are water, air, and noise
pollution and contamination of soils and foods from pesticides.
There is today a world-wide concern over pollution of the
environment. Man pollutes the air, water, and land with noxious
fumes, sewage, noise, pesticides, and nuclear radiation. With
the population explosion and the proliferation of manufacturing plants, pollution is being highly accelerated. The fouling
of the world's land, air and water is the fastest-spreading disease
of civilization. It is potentially one of history's greatest dangers
to human life on earth. If present trends continue it will make
all of the world's cities and most of the countryside uninhabitable.
Toxic gases and "killer smogs," suspended over cities, contain
sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, ozone, and carbon monoxide,
and cause lung cancer and emphysema and can actually asphyxiate
respiratory sufferers. These gases emanate from automobile
exhausts, smokestacks, and incinerators. They can be reduced
by fitting offending smokestacks with filters and electrostatic
precipitators and by inducing factories to use low-sulfur fuels.
�That All May Live J
I I
5
Automobiles can be equipped with anti-pollution devices.
As early as I932 Asheville citizens circulated petitions requesting smoke control. June 3, I932, the town council adopted
an anti-smoke ordinance which was not entirely effective. A
cooperative study in I963 by the City of Asheville, the Buncombe
County Health Department, and the North Carolina State
Board of Health found that Asheville still had a serious smoke
and air pollution problem. In I964 it was found that air pollution was damaging trees and shrubs, and in I965 a federal
grant of $23,945 was made to enable Asheville to study its
air pollution problem. January I, I965, a two-year study was
begun during which many industries installed or began installation of air-control equipment. Recommendations were made
for (I) adoption of regulations by four county boards of health,
(2) the establishment of air-monitoring stations, (3) education,
(4) enforcement, (5) coordination of administration. In I966
clean-air rules were adopted for the Asheville area. In 1967
the North Carolina General Assembly added air pollution
control to the water control program and created the Board of
Water and Air Resources to study the problem, to devise means
of control, and to supervise local air control programs. The
Assembly offered tax benefits for air pollution abatemant facilities. A law was passed, to be administered by the North Carolina
Board of Water and Air Resources. This law is not yet effective,
as only after July I, I974, will industries face fines of $I,ooo a
day. Even then there will be many loopholes, and it is feared
that the state board will be unable to resist pressure from industries.
June 25-26, 1968, upon request of Governor Moore, a
conference on Appalachian Development was held at AshevilleBiltmore College (now the University of North Carolina at
Asheville). In this conference all forms of pollution and programs
of pollution abatement were discussed.
It is evident that cities, towns, and industrial plants in Western
North Carolina have air pollution problems. It is a hopeful
sign that organized and concerted efforts are being made to
ameliorate conditions on local, state, and national levels. If
these efforts are to be effective, laws with teeth in them must be
enacted and enforced. Penalties must be sufficiently severe to
induce compliance by offenders. The magnitude of the air
pollution problem may be perceived from the fact that the
United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
estimates that air pollution costs more than $r3,ooo,ooo,ooo
annually.
�I I
6 / Part II: A Changing Society
Far older and much more widespread in Western North
Carolina than air pollution is the problem of water pollution.
The sharp increase in water pollution is alarming. "Every major
river in the United States is grossly polluted. Even the lesser
streams have been made slimy and foul by factories [and towns]
that freely sluice their noxious wastes into any nearby flow ....
We ctre pumping enough poisons into our environment - and
into our bone and flesh - to threaten the survival of the species
within two or three decades." This water pollution problem
can be improved by the treatment and purification of sewage
and industrial wastes.
For almost one hundred years doctors in North Carolina
have been concerned about water pollution. They organized
and served on county boards ofhealth. They worked and educated
to eliminate "privies" in thickly settled areas, to get communities
to create water and sewer services, and to eliminate unsanitary
conditions that might cause epidemics. In I89I "the State Board
of Health was given responsibility for protecting streams used
as sources of public water supplies from municipal sewage ... "
but little attention was given to the pollution of other streams
by industrial wastes.
On August IO, I927, a conference was held at Canton,
North Carolina, at the request of the State Health Officer of
Tennessee. Present were Mr. Reuben Robertson, president of
the Champion Paper and Fibre Company, officials of the North
Carolina State Board of Health, and the district engineer of
the United States Public Health Service. The meeting concerned
possible measures for correction of pollution of the Pigeon
River in the interest of protecting the water supplies of Tennessee
from wastes emitted by the Champion Paper and Fibre Company.
Thus as early as I927 water pollution was recognized as an
interstate matter.
In the earlier decades of this century conservationists were
concerned about the preservation of the forests. By I939 the
protection of forests and timber was under relative control.
Industries were induced to come to the mountains, population
increased, and the water pollution problem was magnified.
Little effort was made to stop stream pollution by industrial
plants until the present stream sanitation law was passed by the
General Assembly in I95 I. The act created a Stream Sanitation
Committee and required it to establish water quality standards
�That All May Live J I 17
in keeping with "best usage," to study pollution of the state's
waters, to classify the waters in the public interest, and to develop
a stream pollution control program. Articles began to appear
in the Asheville Citizen under such titles as "Problem of Stream
Pollution," (1951), "TVA Claims Three Plants Pollute Streams
in Western North Carolina" (1953), "Polluted French Broad
Blemish on Western North Carolina Scenery" (1957), "Plan
to Abate French Broad Valley Stream Pollution Drafted"
(1958), "Fifty Towns and Industries Filed Plan for Pollution
Control" (1960), "Good Progress in Cleaning Western North
Carolina Streams (Champion Spending $J,OOo,ooo, Hendersonville $r,ooo,ooo, Enka and Buncombe County $7,500,ooo)"
(1963), "North Carolina Has Spent over $2oo,ooo,ooo on Water
Pollution in Fifteen Years" (1966), "State Water and Air Control
Councils Appointed" (1967), "Twenty Projects to Stop Stream
Pollution- to Remove Damage of Pesticides" (1968).
The French Broad River Basin encompasses 2825 square
miles in North Carolina and it is a major part of the Tennessee
River system. The North Carolina portion of the basin contains
the French Broad, the Pigeon, and the Nolichucky rivers and
their tributaries. Studies were made in the 1950's of the pollution
of the streams, under the auspices of the State Stream Sanitation
Committee. The 1950 population was 247,290, of which twentyone percent lived in Asheville. There were eighteen public
water systems in the basin serving an estimated population of
149,645 which used 2o,ooo,ooo gallons of water daily. There
were thirty points of significant water pollution. Total wastes
from these points had an estimated domestic sewage population
equivalent of 1,096,280. Only a small percentage of the waste
load received treatment before it went into the streams. The
basin is rich in natural resources and scenic attractions. It has
abundant water power and adequate water supplies to sustain
an increased population and additional industries if stream
pollution can be controlled. The smaller streams were relatively
unpolluted; but the French Broad, Hominy Creek, Pigeon
River, Nolichucky River, Tucker Creek, Davidson River,
and the North and South Toe Rivers received excessive amounts
of waste.
The amount of wastes from cities and particularly from
industrial plant is frightening, although many communities
and the major industrial plants are making efforts to solve their
�I I
8 / Part II: A Changing Society
pollution problems. The Ecusta Paper Corporation, a branch
of Olin Mathieson, in I955 emitted wastes equal to those of a
city of 249,000. Part of these wastes were treated, part were
not. Asheville drained the majority of its wastes into streams
untreated or with only primary treatment. In Asheville and its
suburbs are twelve sanitary districts. The wastes and sewage
from these and from towns, plants, and schools all the way to
Mars Hill, Marshall, and Hot Springs were discharged untreated
into streams. In Haywood County the wastes of Canton, Clyde,
Waynesville, and Lake Junaluska were discharged into the
Pigeon River. In I957 the wastes discharged by the Champion
Paper and Fibre Company were equal to those from a population
of 624,000. Around Bakersville, Burnsville, Spruce Pine, tremendous amounts of water were used by the mining industry
to separate the earth from the minerals. The resultant wastes
going into the Nolichucky River extended for a great distance
downstream and caused complaints from people living in
Tennessee.
In I959 all agencies of the Department of Conservation
and Development were reorganized in a Department of Water
Resources. One of this department's four major divisions, that
of Stream Sanitation and Hydrology, is responsible for pollution
abatement and control. The Department of Water Resources
administers policies concerning stream pollution, ground water
supplies, and surface water. The seven-man Board of Water
Resources and the seven-man Stream Sanitation Committee
have parallel responsibilities. The Stream Sanitation Committee
has studied all of the state's sixteen major river basins. By I963
it had adopted "best usage" classifications for all basins and had
issued pollution abatement plans for thirteen river basins,
ninety-two percent of the state.
In I957 the Department of Conservation and Development
established a Division of Community Planning to help cities
and towns with land-use planning. Resource planning is being
conducted by the local Area Development Associations. These
are beginning to be effective. The Western North Carolina
Regional Planning Commission released its first economic study
in I96I. Another study was that of Asheville Township which
presented a twenty-year plan for physical development. In this
plan "conservation easements" were recommended to induce
industries to cooperate.
�That All May Live / I I9
Using a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission,
the State Planning Office employed the firm of Rummel,
Klepper, and Kahl (I968) to study selected growth areas along
interstate and Appalachian Corridor highways. This company's
report contained significant information. There are seventy
community water systems in the North Carolina portion of
Appalachia. Many are outdated or loaded to capacity. They
must be enlarged and improved to provide for increasing population and additional industrial plants. Sixty communities now
provide sewer services. Twenty-eight of these have satisfactory
facilities, twenty-one have under construction or are preparing
to construct the needed facilities, two are having financial difficulties, I I7 other unsewered communities need facilities. About
$4oo,ooo,ooo for construction by communities will be needed.
Of industries, eighty-one have significant water discharges
into streams. Of these, sixty-four are providing adequate treatment, seventeen are not.
Tourism, present and future, is the lifeblood of the economy
of Western North Carolina. The area has the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park, the Blue Ridge Parkway, extensive
fishing and wildlife, recreation facilities, and many summer
camps. With its beautiful scenery and its enticing climate, the
region has the greatest tourist and vacation attractions in Eastern
America. But if tourists are to continue to come to the mountains,
towns and plants must study their problems and provide waste
treatment facilities.
Daily in newspapers and on television there are articles
and comments by public men about pollution control. A crusade
against pollution was well begun by 1970. Pollution is often an
interstate problem. Rivers rising in Western North Carolina
flow into Tennessee, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia.
It was the complaint of Tennessee authorities in I927 that first
caused North Carolina health authorities and the Champion
Paper and Fibre Company in Canton to become concerned
about pollution control. Nevertheless, progress was negligible
for many years. Currently the people of Ashe and Alleghany
counties are being asked to have acres of their richest farm lands
inundated so that pollution wastes can be flushed from the New,
the Kanawha, and the Ohio rivers in West Virginia. Local
and state agencies must do their parts. The state must pass effective
statutes and enforce them effectively. Strong federal laws must
�I 20
f
Part II: A Changing Society
be enacted to control the major polluters: automobiles, factories,
cities, and towns. A good example was the Water Quality
Act of 1965, which provided for the adoption of water quality
standards for interstate and costal waters by all the states. The
federal government has the power through its control of interstate commerce, interstate relations, and its taxing powers.
Penalties should be sufficiently high to induce compliance, and
the statutes should be firmly enforced. Again it must be a uniformly applicable federal program; otherwise states that stringently
enforce pollution control might find industries moving to
states with less expensive programs of regulation. Furthermore
federal funds must be made available, for many communities
lack the needed finances to meet their needs. If the federal government will do its part, the State of North Carolina can cooperate
through its Department of Conservation and Development,
and its Boards of Water and Air Resources with their Sanitation
Committees. Local communities and industries must cooperate
and expend their own funds to meet their individual responsibilities.
�CHAPTER
SIX
Public Education
The great cultural progress made in Western North Carolina since
is due largely to the improvement in its schools. The change
was statewide and must be seen within the framework of state legislation and judicial opinion. Over half of the General Fund of North
Carolina annually now is spent for public education.
1900
"I have visited
several places in this Western North Carolina
-and have found a kind and hospitable people wherever I
have gone. Truly there seems a wide field open ready for the
laborer in this portion of our State. Good teachers are wanted ....
I am satisfied to cast my lot among this people and if my impressions remain what they are and my school flourishes- this will
probably be my home for some time to come." So wrote George
F. Dixon to his friend Calvin Wiley, past General Superintendent
of Common Schools, indicating that Dixon was opening a
subscription school in Watauga County in the year following
the end of the Civil War. Such schools were springing up in
the mountain region and across the state. The office of General
Superintendent of Common Schools had just been abolished
by the General Assembly. The county courts were authorized
to apply any school taxes collected to subscription schools, which
were to be permitted to occupy public schoolhouses to prevent
the buildings from falling into decay from nonuse. Private
(i.e. subscription) schools did spring up everywhere, but they
I2I
�122 /
Part II: A Changing Society
An early school, no windows, no stove, only a hearth for light and heat
School terms were short, and boys and girls
attended until well along in their teens
�Public Education
f
123
served only a limited number of children. This was a sad climax
to the movement which had been hailed as the first effort of a
Southern state to give serious attention to providing a system
of public schools for the education of all of its white children.
The Literary Fund, founded in 1826, which had been the state's
contribution to the support of the schools, had been all but
wiped out by the worthlessness of state and Confederate securities,
and the Assembly ruled that any moneys remaining be placed
in the State Treasury for general expenses.
During the remainder of the century the state followed an
exploratory pattern, revising the public school law each biennium.
The groundwork was laid by the Constitutional Convention
of r868, which consisted of eighteen Northern men, fifteen
Negroes, sixty-four Radicals (Republicans), and thirteen Conservatives (Democrats). The convention adopted a resolution
stating that " ... the interest and happiness of the two races
would be best promoted by the establishment of separate schools."
The most significant educational provisions of the constitution
they wrote were these: "The General Assembly at its first session
under this Constitution shall provide by taxation and otherwise
for a general and uniform system of public schools, wherein
tuition shall be free of charge to all children of the State between
the ages of six and twenty-one years. Each county shall be
divided into a convenient number of districts in which one or
more Public schools shall be taught at least four months in every
year; and if the county commissioners of any county shall fail
to comply with the aforesaid requirements of this section they
be liable to indictment."
One of the Northern members of the Constitutional
Convention, Samuel S. Ashley of Massachusetts, was elected
Superintendent of Public Instruction in r868. He had been in
the state only three years, having been sent by the American
Missionary Association to conduct a Negro school in Wilmington.
It was his responsibility to rebuild the public school system, and
he wrote the school law of r 869 to implement the provisions
of the constitution. The townships, new subdivisions of the
counties provided for by the constitution, were to play an
important part in his plan for the operation of the schools. The
township board of trustees, elected annually by the registered
voters, would receive yearly from the township school committee
an estimate of the financial requirements for supporting a fourmonth term for all of its schools each year, and at the annual
�I24 / Part II: A Changing Society
township meeting would submit it for a vote. If the township
voters failed to levy the tax, the committee would forward the
estimate to the county commissioners, who were to levy the
required taxes under penalty of indictment.
The constitutional provision and the law to implement it
were excellent, but in I87I the State Supreme Court ruled
that such a levy by the county commissioners was not constitutional on the theory that schools were not a necessary expense.
While the General Assembly could levy a tax without the
consent of the people, so ruled the court, the county commissioners could not do so without the approval of the people.
And so the plan failed before it ever got into operation. While
the communities could vote a tax, the compulsory aspect of
the law was annulled.
Lacking the tax monies that were to have been levied by
the communities under the constitution, funds provided for the
support of public schools by the General Assembly were woefully inadequate. The school law of r867 provided that seventyfive percent of a poll tax of $1.05 would be used for schools
and that an additional appropriation of $roo,ooo from the state
treasury would be apportioned among the counties. The appropriation was not made in I 868- I 869, but by I 870 a special tax
of eight and one-third cents on one hundred dollars valuation
was levied to pay the $roo,ooo. Other sources of school funds
were taxes on retailers and auctioneers, fines, penalties, forfeitures,
and entries of vacant lands and swamp lands. Instead of providing
for free public schools the General Assembly in I 87I levied a
new statewide tax of six and two-thirds cents on one hundred
dollars valuation and a twenty cent poll tax, to supplement the
revenue from the existing provision that seventy-five percent
of all county and state poll taxes, be allocated to the counties
for the support of schools.
The funds from these several sources were to provide fifty
cents per month for each scholar in any "free school" that might
be established. In communities where taxes to support schools
were not voted, the "free schools" were often subscription
schools. All children who could afford to pay tuition were
expected to do so in such a union of private with public schools,
and only students unable to pay were admitted free of tuition.
Neighborhoods that took the initiative to start a school would
receive the state aid, and those that did not would lose their
share of the school money, although an amendment in 1873
�Public Education / I25
gave such districts the right to acquire credit for their share
of the school money, to be used later.
Ashley resigned as superintendent in I87I and was followed
in office by a quick succession of other men, but the situation
did not change. The incumbent superintendent in 1874 reported
the policy thus: "The State does not go into the school districts
and establish a school without any effort on the part of the people
of the district. It rather aids the people to establish their own
school." What the state's policy had created was a voluntary
system in which each community could determine the kind
of schools and the amount of schooling it wanted to have.
Supervision of public schools was practically nonexistent
from r865-188I, as there was no local official charged with their
operation. An ex ojficio state board of education was provided
for by the constitution of 1868. It consisted of the governor,
lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state treasurer, auditor,
superintendent of public works, superintendent of public
instruction, and attorney general. The county board of education
was also ex officio, consisting of the county commissioners, with
the chairman of the board of county commissioners as chairman
of the board of education. This board was to supervise the public
schools and to appoint one resident of the county of good moral
character and of suitable attainments to be styled the "county
examiner." He would examine all applicants for teachers'
certificates at the county court house and issue certificates of
three grades, to be valid only in the county where issued. Later
each county was provided with a board of three examiners.
In 1881 county superintendents were provided for, to be elected
by joint meetings of the county commissioners and the county
boards of magistrates. A law in I 885 required that separate
county boards of education be elected by the two abovementioned boards.
In spite of their lack of professional education, some of the
teachers in the 187o's were engaging in professional activities.
In 1872 a State Educational Association was formed at Wilmington. It met in Raleigh for three days in I873, "organized
permanently," and adopted a resolution recommending the
establishment of permanent county educational organizations.
This organizational movement began to be felt even in the
western counties, as in Henderson County, where an educational
association was formed in 1874. The members at the Raleigh
meeting in I 873 prepared a "memorial" to present to the General
�I26 J Part II: A Changing Society
Assembly stating the improvements needed in the public schools.
In 1877 Governor Vance presented such a memorial to the
General Assembly, asking that body to give its attention to
education.
The school law of 1877 included two significant provisions.
One was to create two normal schools, the first at the state
university for white students and the second at Fayetteville,
for Negroes (the normal schools will be discussed later). The
other provision was to permit any township containing a city
of 5,000 or more inhabitants, upon the petition of one hundred
"respectable citizens," to vote upon the levying of an annual
tax for support of one or more graded schools in such township.
Greensboro and Charlotte already had graded schools which
had been established under clauses in their charters, but there
was no township in Western North Carolina that could qualify
in population for a graded school district under this law. In
1879, however, the General Assembly passed a law directing
the commissioners of Buncombe County, upon the petition
of one hundred "respectable citizens" who were freeholders
of the city of Asheville, to submit to the voters the question
of a special school tax. Not until 1887 did Asheville approve
the plan, and even then "the opposition was keen and the proposal
carried by one vote." The town had some excellent private
schools and some of the most influential citizens disapproved
of public schools.
In I 879 Governor Vance became a United States Senator
and Thomas Jordan Jarvis, Lieutenant Governor, succeeded to
the office of Governor, to which he was reelected two years
later. His six years were to be felt in Western North Carolina in
the completion of the Western North Carolina Railroad, the
establishment of the State Geological Survey, the Agricultural
Experiment Station, and some improvement of the public
schools. In 1881 he described to the legislature the current
condition of the state's schools, stressing the need for additional
normal schools and increased taxation. The assembly increased
the tax rate to twelve and one-half cents per one hundred dollars
valuation and the poll tax to thirty-seven and one-half cents.
Until uniform schooling and compulsory attendance grew
out of the state's increasing awareness of its responsibility for
�Public Education / 127
education, the development of schools was not systematic.
The opportunities for an education depended on many things:
local initiative in providing the funds and buildings; efforts
of individuals in founding academies and institutes, and of
philanthropists and religious denominations as well; concern
of teachers in supplementing the meager terms of the public
schools; and ambition of parents which made them support
local institutions where they existed and send their children
away to school where they did not.
In the mountain counties where money had always been
scarce, the people of most districts made little effort to provide
adequate schools. I. N. Benners, County Treasurer of Haywood
County, in 1875 reported, "Our school system is a failure ....
The people are too poor for more taxes, and will not vote to
tax themselves; consequently there can be little more than a
two months' school taught with the money provided by law."
And from Rutherford County came the complaint, "If the
people would submit to be taxed to aid the school fund our
schools would soon be built up, teachers would be encouraged
to prepare for teaching, and the whole community would take
an interest in the work of education."
The responsibility to provide separate schools for Negroes
created two problems. Mitchell County was like several other
mountain counties in that it had too few Negro children in any
district to make a school; consequently it used its share of the
money assigned by the state for the education of Negro children
to provide one Negro school centrally taught. The other problem
was the statewide opposition of many prominent persons to
public support for education, persons who held that it was
"robbery to tax one man to educate another man's children"
and that the burden of educating the Negroes who paid such
a small portion of the taxes was too heavy for the improverished
South to bear.
In contrast to the few schools maintained for Negroes,
more and more schools for white children began eventually
to operate, and, owing partly to the poor facilities for transportation, in Western North Carolina more than eight hundred
public schools of the one-room variety opened their doors for
an average term of from six to ten weeks. The township boards
submitted to local demand for more schools. From Unaka
Township, Cherokee County, came the complaint, "We find
that every patron would like to have the school kept near his
�128 / Part II: A Changing Society
door." Thus the school term was necessarily shortened to make
the available funds stretch to pay all of the teachers.
In most of the public schools the term was brief. Often
the regular term was held during the "dormant season" when
there was the least amount of farm work to be done. It ended
by or before Christmas. Following the free term, a subscription
school was often offered to supplement the work already
completed. Sometimes the same teacher would conduct the
public school and the subscription school. As parents were
required to pay the teachers in the latter, a limited number of
children attended, and the teaching could be made much more
effective than in the public school. Even adults sometimes
attended the subscription schools. Another supplemental school
sometimes held was the writing school, which lasted approximately ten days, during which teacher and pupils concentrated
on penmanship.
In Western North Carolina during the eighteen-seventies
one of the greatest incentives to the establishment of better
schools was the Peabody Fund, created in 1867 by George
Peabody, American millionaire with a banking house m London.
He gave$ 1,ooo,ooo to assist educational effort in the impoverished
South, to which he added another $1 ,ooo,ooo in 1869. A later
gift of almost $1 ,soo,ooo in Florida and Mississippi bonds was
lost because those states repudiated their bonds. The fund was
kept intact for thirty years by a board of trustees which decided
how the income should be spent. No money was appropriated
as charity aid to the indigent. It was "used for the promotion
and encouragement of intellectual, moral, or industrial education among the young of the more destitute portions of the
Southern and Southeastern states" ofboth races. The board gave
only about twenty-five percent in any instance; the rest had to be
raised locally. The purpose was to promote community responsibility for education and for the training of teachers. The two
general agents of the board, the Reverend Dr. Barnas Sears,
and after Sears' death,J.L.M. Curry, became well-known figures
in the educational world of the South.
Only a subscription school could qualify for aid from this
fund because of the high standards. A Peabody School was
required to conform to the following criteria: to have at least
one hundred students, two teachers, a ten-month term, and an
average attendance of eighty-five percent. In 1871 Mars Hill
College, then a secondary school, received three hundred dollars,
�Public Education J 129
and Montanic Institute in Buncombe County was allowed a
like amount in 1874. Franklin and South Hominy schools each
received $450 in 1874, and Asheville, Hayesville, Marshall,
and Pigeon Valley $300 each. The following year Webster
School, Roan Mountain, Pisgah, Waynesville, Reems Creek,
Laurel Fork, Laurel Hill (Clay County), and Cheoah were
allotted $300 each. By 1879 the Peabody Fund was distributing
funds only to graded schools, of which Western North Carolina
had none. But, in those days when state funds were inadequate,
the incentive offered by the Peabody Fund had encouraged the
operation of some excellent schools in the mountain area.
Buncombe County in the 188o's had better than average
schools, because of the availability of capable young women,
residents of the districts who had studied in the good private
schools. Children paid the usual fifty cents monthly tuition.
The county had seventy-two districts for white children and
sixteen for colored. In about two-thirds of the schools only
the first four grades were offered, while most of the remainder
provided seven grades. The Asheville Democrat in I 889 commented: "By now every district in the county has some sort of
a house. Several of these ... arc not comfortable, while a large
majority, if they were furnished with desks and other school
furniture, would be considered very good school buildings.
The popular size for building them at this time is 24 feet wide
and 40 feet long by 12 feet high ... from floor to overhead
ceiling .... This house requires six windows with twelve lights
each 12 x I 8, three windows on a side. In the back of the room
[is] ... a stage. Here the teacher examines his classes.... This
house will hold, on the main floor, 40 desks and leave room for
one three foot center aisle and two narrow aisles next to the
wall. ...
"Plain desks made of dressed boards cost 75 cents each ....
The entire cost of the building [including desks] may be met
with $330.00." Thirteen new county schools had been built
that year. The county board furnished $1.25 per child, and the
monthly tuition of not more than fifty cents sufficed.
Mrs. Lillian Thomasson made a study of the records of
J. S. Smiley of Swain County who was first a teacher in a subscription school, then county school examiner, and finally county
superintendent for eight years. As superintendent he visited
each school in the county and was paid for the number of days
he worked. In 1881 he traveled two hundred miles in his visiting
�I
30 / Part II: A Changing Society
and spent seven days examining teachers and wntmg reports
of which the following is typical: "First school visited was De
Hart's District No.4 of Swain County August roth I88r. Framed
house, but no blackboard. Teacher found sitting during exercises.
'Seraglio,' 'intaglio,' 'biliary' mispronounced by the teacher.
No. of pupils in the district was no. present on the day visited 3 r. Seats in school house in district No. 4 very inferior slab
benches not low enough to be comfortable." One of Smiley's
earlier reports written when he was a teacher illustrates the
split term necessitated by the farm season: "The Charleston
[now Bryson City] School District No. I in Charleston Township
began August I4, I 876, with a very promising attendance. We
had forty before we stopped for fodder, and what added to the
beauty of the school was the average age of the pupils which
was only a fraction over ten years .... Since fodder our largest
attendance was 25. All the children learned well." [signed] J. S.
Smiley. Swain County had seventeen school districts for white
children and one for Negroes during the eighteen-eighties.
In the r883 session only thirteen schools were taught, owing
to the shortage of teachers. About seventy percent of the children
were enrolled, but the average attendance was only twenty-five
percent, chiefly because of a whooping cough epidemic. In
that year the tuition, $r.Io per scholar, plus the apportionment
of school funds provided for a term of four and one-half months.
An interesting contrast of a public school and a "subscription
school" in Wilkes county was written by Lawrence D. Washington in his Confessions of a Schoolmaster. In the former, girls sat
on the right, boys on the left, separated by a narrow aisle. Some
had slates on which they "ciphered." Books in use had been in
the families for perhaps two generations so that there was no
uniformity of texts except for several of Webster's "Blue-backed
Spellers." Children were dressed in homespun and their shoes
were home-made of cowhide. A roaring fire was of little help
because the door had to be left open to provide light. The room
was windowless, with here and there a log sawed out for light.
A plank hung to the wall with leather hinges was used as a
writing desk by fire or six pupils at a time. No classes were held
in arithmetic or reading. Instead, each child would go to the
schoolmaster for help and recitation. At the close of the day
came the only real class, a spelling match when the children
stood in a row and "spelled down," competing for a "head
mark." Some who could not read could spell by heart every
�Public Education / 13 r
word in the "Blue-backed Speller." In comparison, at Edgewood
Academy Washington found double desks, blackboards, a
large stove in the center of the room, and a carefully worked
out course of study. The tap of a bell brought an orderly group
of young people into the room in double file. Opening exercises
consisted of a hymn, reading of a psalm, roll call, and then
recitation by classes. There was instruction in penmanship,
geography, reading, spelling, map drawing, and English
grammar.
The first state-managed educational institution in Western
North Carolina was the School for the Deaf and Dumb in
Morganton, created in a mood of social concern by the General
Assembly in r89I. The School for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind
at Raleigh which had been in operation since I 846 was too
crowded to accept all who applied and was too far from the
western counties to serve them adequately. The school at
Morganton included dormitory, school building, and cottages
for those who operated the farm and dairy. The course of study
was that of the public schools of the state. The Oral Department
was established for those who could acquire speech and speech
reading; others were taught in the Manual Department: for
boys, art and free-hand drawing, industrial training, printing
and typesetting, wood-working, shoemaking, and farm and
garden; girls were taught household work, sewing and dressmaking, and cooking. All were taught the academic subjects.
The Report of the Board of Directors in 1900 included an
appeal for the establishment of a school for the feeble-minded:
"Many of the children could be treated and their conditions
much improved, and some of them could be trained and to
some extent educated, under suitable surroundings." In the
196o's such an institution was created in Morganton by the
state - the Western Carolina Center.
The state did not have a school system; the opportumt1es
for schooling varied from county to county and from district
to district. Near the turn of the century a new era began, when
the Legislature (in 1899) appropriated $roo,ooo to be apportioned
among the counties on the basis of population. The next session
of the Legislature (r9or) appropriated the $roo,ooo plus a second
$ IOO,ooo known as the "Equalizing Fund," to be distributed
�r 32 / Part II: A Changing Society
to the counties where it was needed in order to extend the school
term to four months, as nearly as might be. An act was passed
to allow cities and towns and special tax districts outside towns
and even whole counties to vote taxes to extend the term to
four months.
The farmers' legislature of I89I and the fusion (Populist
and Republican) legislature of I895 had established state responsibility for higher education for women, for teachers, and
for Negroes, and had created the School for the Deaf and Dumb
at Morganton. In I 898 the Democrats regained control of the
legislature as a result of an intensive campaign against Negro
suffrage. Active in the canvass were a group of young men
including Charles B. Aycock and Locke Craig of Asheville,
two future governors. Aycock became a party leader. The
legislature in I899 approved a constitutional amendment similar
to those passed by Mississippi and eventually by eight Southern
states. It made literacy a qualification for voting, with the
provision that persons whose direct ancestors had been entitled
to vote on or before I 867 would be permitted to register to
vote at any time within the next eight years (the Grandfather
Clause), and to vote, provided they paid their poll taxes on
time. Aycock worked closely with the legislature of I 899 that
appropriated the aforementioned $Ioo,ooo to be distributed
among the counties for school support. In the election of August 2,
I900, North Carolina's voters approved the literacy test amendment and elected Aycock governor.
Fortunately for the cause of educational progress, Governor
Charles B. Aycock (I90I-I905) promised during his campaign
in 1900: "If you vote for me, ... I shall devote the four years
of my official term to the upbuilding of the public schools of
North Carolina. I shall endeavor for every child in the State
to get an education." He began his educational crusade immediately, offering his services as a speaker to groups of people who were
promoting a local tax levy for schools. Meanwhile other forces
were at work in North Carolina and the entire South to provide
better educational opportunities.
Beginning in I898 with a gathering at Capon Springs,
West Virginia, composed chiefly of ministers, the Conference
for Southern Education was held annually with John Ogden,
Northern philanthropist, as president. A number of wealthy
Northerners expressed interest chiefly in Negro education.
In I90I the Conference met at Winston-Salem, and Aycock
�Public Education / 133
welcomed the guests. The decision to wage a campaign for
free schools for all the people in the South led to the formation
of an executive committee called the Southern Education Board.
It would be largely a publicity and propraganda agency and
would not have large sums at its disposal. John D. Rockefeller,
Jr., who attended the Winston-Salem meeting, persuaded his
father to make large gifts to Southern education (a total of
$s3,ooo,ooo) and another board, called the General Education
Board, was created to disburse the funds. Many of the same men
served on both boards. Three North Carolinians on the Southern
Education Board were Edwin A. Alderman, Charles D. Mciver,
and Walter Hines Page.
The work of Alderman and Mciver had attracted the interest
of John Ogden, and in 1901 he invited the two to visit him at
his summer home at Kennebunkport, Maine. As a result of
this visit, the campaign of the Southern Education Board in
North Carolina was launched with Mciver as chairman. Fortythree educational workers of the state gathered at Raleigh in
February, 1902, to launch the campaign. Governor Aycock
presided and organized the drive for better schools. The program
included local taxation, consolidation of school districts, building
and equipping better schoolhouses, longer school terms, and
better salaries for teachers. Members of committees formed at
the Raleigh meeting were to send weekly articles to newspapers
of the state advocating the above program, and ministers were
asked to preach one sermon per year on public school education.
The public campaign was carried on by speakers who were
provided funds by the Southern Education Board, and especially
by the governor and the state superintendent of public instruction,
who served in the campaign without extra pay. Superintendent
Thomas F. Toon died in 1902 as a result of over-exertion in
the campaign, and Aycock appointed J. Y. Joyner, professor
at the State Normal and Industrial School, to the position, which
he held until 1919. The private campaign, as described by Joyner
in his Biennial Report for 1902-1903, 1903-1904, was carried
by friends of education into their communities as they moved
about among the people, around the church door, and on the
public highway.
When Aycock began his campaign, he believed that the
only way to improve rural schools was by local taxes voted
into effect by the people. The executive campaign committee
consisting of the governor, Mciver, Toon, and later Joyner,
�134 / Part II: A Changing Society
A multiple teacher school, vintage 1906
concentrated its efforts on commumt1es that seemed eager to
take action for better schools. As Aycock traveled and lectured
he came to realize how great the need was for better schoolhouses. He had asked the legislature in 1901 to allow the principal
of the Literary Fund to be loaned for the schools if the ~hoo,ooo
appropriation were not paid in full. The request was not allowed;
however, in 1903 the Literary Fund of approximately ~hoo,ooo
was made a loan fund to finance the construction of school
buildings. This fund had been provided for in the Constitution
of I 868; worthlessness of the securities held in the original
fund was known. The new fund consisted of the investment
of proceeds from sources such as sale of swamp lands and of
grants of land from the federal government, and grants and
bequests from individuals. Until 1903 only the interest had
been used. Under the new provision as much as one half of the
cost of new buildings would be lent to any district, although
no loan would be made to a district with fewer than sixty-five
children of school age unless the size of the district was necessarily
limited by scarcity of population or other unsurmountable
barriers - an inducement toward consolidation.
�Public Education / r 3 5
Some Western North Carolina districts experimented with
consolidation. When Granite Falls in Caldwell County consolidated two districts, the average attendance of the two districts
increased from fifty-four to one hundred-thirty. Six teachers
were required where three had sufficed before, and the school
term was extended from fourteen to twenty-eight weeks. The
county superintendent wrote, "Consolidation has been a great
blessing for this community. The effort has also been good for
local taxation. Gradation and classification have been improved
and a greater number of grades added." Wilkes County reported
consolidating two schools, increasing enrollment from thirty-five
to sixty-two and average attendance from eighteen to forty-six.
One of the two teachers was eliminated, thus enabling the school
term to be extended from twelve to sixteen weeks. Wilkes
County had great need for consolidation, as it had seventy-four
schools for white children and forty for Negroes in 1904, with
fifteen additional districts that had no school houses.
Compulsory attendance was experimented with under a
law of 1903 for Macon County. In the one year of its operation
the average attendance at public schools in the county increased
twenty per cent and enrollment increased 34-4 percent. This
was four times the statewide increase in enrollment and twice
the increase in average attendance. Not until 1913, however,
did the legislature pass a compulsory attendance law for the
entire state.
Joyner wrote in one of his biennial reports concerning
teachers' salaries: "As long as the annual salary paid the teacher
who works with the immortal stuff of mind and soul is less than
that paid the rudest workers in wood and iron, less than that
paid the man that shoes your horse or plows your com or paints
your house or keeps your jail, the best talent can not be secured
and kept in the teaching profession - the teaching profession
must continue to be made in many instances but a stepping-stone
to more profitable employments or a means of pensioning
inefficient and needy mediocrity."
In 1904 the average white teacher's salary in North Carolina
was $29.05 per month and that of Negro teachers was $22.27,
the average term for white children was seventeen weeks and for
Negroes sixteen weeks. An examination of the table of teachers
salaries and terms in Western North Carolina shows that while
the schools in the western countries were keeping pace with
others in the state in extending their terms, the average salaries
�136 / Part II: A Changing Society
were below those for rural schools in the state as a whole. It
will also be noticed that salaries of Negro teachers were much
lower than those of white teachers. Joyner believed that this
differential was justified. He wrote: " ... their teachers are not
so well qualified and have not spent so much money on their
education, their expenses of living are much less, and therefore,
they do not need and ought not to have as much per capita for
the education of their children. [He continued, however] There
is more real danger of doing the Negro an injustice in the apportionment of the school fund, even after considering all these
things, by withholding his equitable part, than of doing the
white race any injustice by giving him too much."
Comparison of the education of Negro children in Western
North Carolina with that in other parts of the state shows that
a Negro child in Western North Carolina was as likely to be
enrolled in school as one in other parts of the state but not as
regular in attendance- due to the long distance he would have
to travel, since there were fewer Negro schools. A study of the
results of the two educational crusades, that begun in 1889 and
the one of Aycock's administration, shows that they were
effective in reaching the school population. Only four and sixtenths percent of white children of school age and thirteen and
TEACHERS' SALARIES AND TERMS IN 1904 IN SOME
WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA COUNTIES
White
Colored
Term in Weeks
City
Counties
Male
Female
Male
Female
White
Alleghany $23.50 $22.27 $20.00
Buncombe 35.00 32.30 25·35 $2s.oo $36.00
Caldwell
28.63 23.78 22.14 19.37
Cherokee
24.00
30.38 30.38 26.25
Graham
28.94 19.!6
Haywood
28.75 28.00 25.00 20.00
Jackson
28.52 23.93 2!.00 22.50
Macon
25.96 23.17 2!.00 23.66
Madison
28.42 2).25 22.00 23.66
Polk
27.53 2).00 20.00 19.50
Surry
24.00 2J.90 22.50 20.00
15.00 15.00
Watauga
24.16 20.83
Yancey
24.79 18.64 rs.66 12.)0
*
not available
Biennial Report, 1904
SOURCE:
Colored White Colored
$36.oo
24.00
*
20
!7.66
16
r6
r6.8o
15.72
r8.72
17
15.20
r6.48
16
20
20
IS
*
*
14.86
16.oo
16
15
15.20
13·33
16
20
�Public Education /
I
37
two-tenths percent of Negro children of the Western North
Carolina counties were classed as illiterate in I904. In I922 Edgar
W. Knight wrote an article concerning education in the Southern
mountains for School and Society. He said that forty-five percent
of the population was illiterate. This was not true of the young
people who had benefited from the recently improved schools.
He said that less than forty percent were in attendance, which
was true only when applied to the entire school census, persons
six through twenty-one years old.
In I907 the General Assembly passed a law permtttmg any
county board of education to establish and maintain for a term
of not less than five months per school year one or more high
schools. An appropriation of $40,785 was made to aid in establishing such schools. In Western North Carolina dormitories
and mess halls were essential to the plan because of the long
distances students must travel. Credit toward room and board
was given to those bringing raw provisions from home, and
private donations were invited from members of the communities
because the state appropriaton was so small. By I9I I there
were thirty-six rural high schools in the twenty-four counties
ofWestern North Carolina (Avery County was created in I9II).
Most of the high schools had a thirty-two week term, although
one was in operation only seventeen weeks. Most of them offered
only a two-year course, andjust five had more than one teacher,
four others utilizing a teacher from the elementary grades on
a part-time basis. Enrollment ranged from a low of seventeen
to one hundred three at Hendersonville, which had a three-year
course, three teachers, and a thirty-five week term. In I9I7 the
North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that high schools were
part of the public school system and were subject to the requirements of the constitution, thus reversing the 1 87I decision of
the court that schools were not necessary and that county commissioners could not levy taxes to support them. In I92I there
were only six counties in Western North Carolina that did
not have at least one accredited high school, Yancey, Mitchell,
Graham, Clay, Ashe, and Avery. In the following year two
high schools were accredited in Ashe County, one in A very,
and one in Yancey. A good many of the accredited high schools
were private ones, but there were sixteen graded schools in the
�Hayesville High School. Public high schools began with the law of 1907
area, all publicly supported. City and town high schools were
superior to rural ones. Of the eight in the twenty-four county
area in 1922 five had four year courses and five had thirty-six
week terms.
Among the unusual schools founded by dedicated individuals
for the improvement of mountain living, two examples are
the Stearns schools of Columbus, Polk County, and Crossnore
School, A very County. A wholesome combination of state
and private support was to be found in Polk County beginning
in 1891. Mr. Frank Stearns of Cleveland, Ohio, spent some time
in Columbus, North Carolina. Charmed with the scenery and
impressed with the native intelligence of the people and the lack
of educational opportunity, he provided a two-story building
for an elementary school. He purchased modern desks and
supplemented the public school fund to extend the term to six
months, with no tuition charge. A year later he built another
two-room building for kindergarten and library. Four years
later he bought land for a campus and had a new building erected
to house a secondary school which was named the Central
Industrial Institute. A board of trustees directed its affairs under
a charter from the General Assembly. Thus all grades from
kindergarten through high school were offered. A small tuition
fee was required of students in the upper grades. Dormitories
for boys and girls, a music department, and a library were all
provided by Mr. Stearns. In 1916 the school district assumed
�Public Education / I 39
responsibility for the school and voted bonds to build a new
high school building which was named Stearns High School.
A consolidated high school later replaced it, and the former
school plant houses an elementary school.
Dr. Mary Martin Sloop's work in Avery County began in
the year that the county was formed, I9II. Daughter of a
Davidson College professor, Mary Martin attended the Woman's
Medical College of Philadelphia and hoped to go to Africa as
a missionary. Instead, in 1908 she married Dr. Eustice H. Sloop,
and in I 9 I I they began their career of social and medical work,
first at Plumtree and then at Crossnore. Mrs. Sloop got a new
one-room school built. Gradually additional rooms were added
and boarding students were accepted. Money derived from the
sale of old clothes contributed by people from all over the nation
helped to finance the plant and the social work. At first, girls
who were far enough along in their studies were sent to Edgar
Tufts' school in Banner Elk, but eventually high school work
was offered at Crossnore. In 1917 Crossnore School was chartered
as a non-profit organization. Weaving was a major handicraft.
Dr. Sloop said, "Our aim is to keep alive an almost forgotten
art; to cherish in the young people of the mountains a reverence
for the art; to provide a means of livelihood for women and
girls as well as to furnish homes with beautiful and symbolic
material." The weaving department operated under the SmithHughes Law. Crossnore is a public school as well as a craft
school. The school property consists of 250 acres, some thirty
buildings, living accommodations for some two hundred
children and other buildings necessary for elementary and high
school; the new A very County Consolidated High School has
absorbed the high school at Crossnore. The county, the state,
and the school provide elementary education for the children
of the community and the boarding children. School busses
bring in those who do not live at the school. The Garrett Memorial
Hospital is at the edge of the school grounds.
By 19I3 the Equalizing Fund was earmarked to lengthen
all school terms in the state to six months or as long as the increased
funds from a statewide property tax of five cents on the hundred
dollar valuation would permit, and from that time on, efforts
were made to establish the six months' term. In 1919 a new
equalization plan based on the comparative wealth of the counties
was adopted. A statewide revaluation of property was made
in 1920, but the effects were undone by a special session of the
�140 / Part II: A Changing Society
legislature which ruled that county comm1ssloners might
readjust valuations. During that decade constant readjustment
of the amount of the fund was necessary because of changes in
property values, at the same time that school costs were rising
rapidly; from $8oo,ooo in 1919 the fund was increased to
$5,250,000 in 1929. In 1925 the county tax rates varied from
twenty-one cents per hundred dollars valuation to $r.o6 for
the counties' part of the current operating expense. Twenty-two
of the twenty-four western counties benefited from the Equalizing
Fund. McDowell and Buncombe Counties, being industrialized,
had increased their wealth and could have low tax rates, while
agricultural property fell in value during the prolonged agncultural depression of the 192o's.
By 1929 a number of rural high schools which had been
built with funds from bond issues were threatened with having
to reduce the length of their terms because revenues were not
sufficient. In that year a "Tax Reduction Fund" of $r,25o,ooo
was appropriated for these high schools. Blanford Dougherty,
president of the Appalachian State Normal School as it was then
called, is credited with having influenced the creation of the
state funds for schools. In an address that he gave at the Lansing
School in Ashe County he said: "I am one of those that believe
that every child from the crest of the Blue Ridge, the Tennessee
line, down through piedmont North Carolina, down ... to
the sands of the sea, should have as good a chance as any other
child, whether he lives in the city or in the country, whether
he lives in the mountains or on the plains .... I submit ... that
it is not right for this State to allow an 85q tax in Watauga County
and a 29q tax in Forsyth County to run a six month's school
if we claim, and are sincere in our claim, that we have a State
system of education."
This was not an unusual statement for Dougherty to make,
as he had worked for what he called the "Gospel of Equalization"
since 1912 and was a member of the State Equalization Board
established in 1927.
In 19 3 I the state abandoned equalization and put into use
complete state support of public schools for a six months' term.
This meant that North Carolina would have two school systems,
a state six months' system and one of local control in counties
where there was an extended term which varied from one to
three months. The extended term was supported by local levies
and the Tax Reduction Fund, which was continued and increased
�Public Education / 141
by the General Assembly of 193 I. By that time the nationwide
depression was causing greater difficulty in the support of schools.
Counties were in default on their obligations and teachers were
unpaid. Then in 1933 in North Carolina by increasing state
school funds and decreasing costs, the principle of complete state
support for an eight month term was established. Teacher loads
were increased, salaries were reduced, fewer principals were
allotted, and bus routes were redirected for economy's sake.
Schools were to be supported completely by the state. All special
tax districts, special charter or otherwise, were declared nonexistent and no taxes could be levied in said districts for school
operating purposes except for courses in home economics,
agriculture, and vocational subjects where such taxes were
already being levied. (These courses were partially supported
by the federal government under the Smith-Hughes Law.)
City units with one thousand or more school population were
allowed to continue as administrative units under a superintendent. Counties were to serve as administrative units under
county superintendents, and they were to be redistricted with
consolidation for convenience and economy. Administrative
units were permitted by an approved election to improve the
standards of the schools for a term of no more than 180 days.
Management and control of school buses was to be by the
state. Salaries for all personnel were lowered and rural supervisors
were eliminated. All school expenditures were to be standardized
by the state. Later as conditions improved permissive legislation
allowed administrative units to vote special taxes. By 1943 the
school term for the entire state was extended to nine months.
The school law of 1933 was of tremendous benefit to the
rural schools of Western North Carolina. Nevertheless, its
effect on a city such as that of Asheville was catastrophic. From
1920 to 1924 during the city superintendence of W. L. Brooker
great progress had been made by the schools of Asheville. Four
new buildings were built after a bond issue of $sso,ooo was
voted in 1920, and a new levy of ten cents on a hundred dollar
valuation was approved by the voters. West Asheville was
annexed and Asheville enjoyed a "boom". Again in 1924 a
bond issue was voted, this one also for $sso,ooo, and in 1926
still another of $1,50o,ooo was approved. The superintendent
of schools recommended that a new high school plant and a
separate junior college building be erected. In 1929 when the
high school was completed with the junior college housed in
�142 / Part II: A Changing Society
the same building, Asheville's schools were among the best
in the state. Music and creative art, home economics, manual
training, and physical education were offered in all of the school
grades, and the high school had a commercial department.
An administrative staff numbering eighteen persons served
the system. Then came the failure of the Central Bank and Trust
Company and other banks in the area, and the depression became
acute. The junior college was discontinued and several school
buildings were closed. The law of 1933 reduced the budget
for the city school system from the $763,628 figure of 1929-1930
to $183,761 in 1934-1935. Such courses as manual training,
music, and physical education which had been offered since
1905 were eliminated.
Consolidation of the Public schools, an objective of the
Board of Equalization established in 1927 and of subsequent
legislation, was facilitated by the building of the "Scott Roads,"
HOW THE TAX EQUALIZATION PROGRAM
HELPED TWENTY-TWO OF THE COUNTIES
OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA TO
MAINTAIN A SIX MONTH SCHOOL TERM
County
Necessary Rate
Without Fund
Actual
1925 Rate
Total
Reduction
Alleghany
Ashe
Avery
Burke
Caldwell
Cherokee
Clay
Graham
Haywood
Henderson
Jackson
Macon
Madison
Mitchell
Polk
Rutherford
Surry
Swain
Transylvania
Watauga
Wilkes
Yancey
-75
·7S
!.42
.5S
.SI
·93
!.5 I
!.02
·79
·76
·97
I.I9
.96
.So
!.20
.6S
.61
.62
.S2
!.02
I. I 5
·75
-47
-54
.91
-54
.70
.60
r.o6
.90
.70
.65
·73
.64
-72
-70
.90
.60
·53
-55
.62
.So
.66
-55
.2S
.24
-51
.04
Source: Biennial Report, 1924-1925, 1925-1926.
.1 I
·33
-45
.!2
.09
.II
.24
·55
.24
.10
.30
.OS
.OS
.07
.21
.23
·49
.20
�Public Education / 143
paved secondary roads, during the administration of Governor
Kerr Scott in the early 1950's. Subsequently most of the one to
four-teacher schools passed out of use. School buses could then
carry children to institutions having in most cases a teacher
to a grade. The newest development is in the building of
mammoth rural high schools serving from a half to a full county.
An example is Tuscola Senior High School, which had 1,045
pupils and fifty-four staff members when it opened in 1966.
Located on a hilltop overlooking Lake Junaluska in Haywood
County, it was named for the one-room school that was once
located near by. It replaced three high schools and received
students from two additional schools as it serves the entire
western half of the county. Its campus of forty-two acres is
large enough to accommodate all of the activities associated
with a modern secondary school, and it offers "rich programs
suited to students with diverse interests, backgrounds, and
abilities.''
Equalization did not apply to Negro schools as it did to
those for white children. It is appalling that as late as 1924 there
were in Western North Carolina only two graded schools for
Negroes which included high school grades: Asheville, with 217
students, and Hendersonville, with 19. A beginning was being
made in Jackson and Wilkes counties with county training schools.
The "county training school movement" for Negro youth
began in 191 r throughout the South in an effort to provide one
good school in each county, to which capable students might go
after finishing the work at a one-teacher rural school. The Slater
Fund paid $soo to any county that would match it with $750
and run the school for ten months. While the schools were not
high schools, their offerings were eventually extended to a
four year term. By the 1933-1934 term there were ten Negro
high schools in the twenty-four counties of Western North
Carolina, but most of them were inadequate. There were thirteen
teachers in the Negro high schools of Buncombe County, but
most of the other counties had only one or two teachers in their
Negro high schools. In 1921 the state set up schedules for teacher certification and salaries, but the Negro schedule provided
salaries for Negro teachers that were much lower than for white
teachers with equal preparation. Both Negro and white teachers
were in most cases paid below the scale for some time to come.
During the 1943-1944 term, equalization of salaries for Negro
and white teachers was achieved, depending on certificates
�144 / Part II: A Changing Society
~~ ~
~
....... "..,..,..,...,
............
--
.....
~..,.,.
Architect's drawing of a new consolidated high school- one of several modern
educational plants in jackson County
held. In counties where the number of Negro children was
insufficient to justify operating a high school, provisions were
made by the boards of education to send Negro students to
nearby counties where high schools were in existence.
Integration was the solution to the problem of the small
number of Negroes in most of the counties. As new rural consolidated high schools were built after the U .S. Supreme Court's
decision in 1954 in the case of Brown v. Topeka Board of
Education, integration of the races took place. In Buncombe
County a gradual program of desegregation was adopted from
the first through the eighth grade, and Asheville schools were
largely integrated. In January 1970 the Asheville system established "busing" of students to achieve complete integration.
Graham County, which has no Negroes, integrated Indian and
white school populations in 1960. Yancey abolished its one
Negro school in 1962, Jackson County its one Negro school
and Madison County its three in 1964. In 1965 twelve counties
closed the doors of their Negro schools and sent the students
to other public institutions in the counties; Burke eliminated
all of its six N egro schools in that year. Other counties followed
until in 1970 there was only one all-Negro school, New Hope
Elementary School, which was integrated in September, 1970.
Since 1880 education has been provided for Cherokee Indian
children. In that year the Friends Meeting of Indiana agreed to
establish schools for the Eastern Cherokees, including an industrial
school, and to operate them for ten years. In I 892 the federal
government took direct charge of the schools and has operated
them since that time. An elementary day school was eventually
established in each of the townships, with an elementary and
a high school at the Cherokee Agency. The last named included
both boarding and day students. Although the Cherokees have
a written language of their own, their alphabet having been
�Public Education / 145
invented by Sequoyah, a member of the tribe, during the I 82o's,
the English language is used in the schools. Cherokee children
may go to public schools if they choose, and a scholarship fund
enables many to go to college.
During the 1950's the Board of Higher Education was
created to coordinate the work of tax-supported colleges in
the state. This board helped to establish a series of junior colleges
and at the same time the State Board of Education founded a
number of industrial education centers. In 1961 Governor
Sanford appointed the Carlyle Commission on Education beyond the High School, with Irving Carlyle of Winston-Salem
as chairman. Its recommendations were adopted by the General
Assembly in 1963. The law provided for a system of community
colleges, technical institutes, and industrial education centers
under the State Board of Education but with local boards of
trustees. This was just what was needed in Western North
Carolina. The area had colleges and junior colleges, but they
reached only a minority of the young people. There was no
institution designed to teach the skills needed in the developing
technological society. Because of the difficulties of travel, high
schools had not been consolidated sufficiently to enable them
to have the latest expensive equipment needed for effective
vocational training. The new institutions were to operate on
an open-door policy, admitting any adult and providing whatever
training he needed.
An epoch-making decision of the General Assembly in 1967
made four of the senior state-supported colleges "universities."
Among these were Appalachian and Western Carolina colleges.
East Carolina College, which had grown phenomenally since
World War II, had asked the legislature for independent university
status. The consolidated university consisted of institutions at
Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Greensboro, and Charlotte. Governor
Moore and the State Board of Higher Education opposed the
granting of university status to East Carolina College and the
alternate proposal that the three former teachers colleges be
made regional universities. When the latter proposal came up
for a vote the Senate added an amendment including the predominately Negro Agricultural and Technical College at
Greensboro, and the measure passed. Now that Western North
Carolina has two universities that will through the years develop
liberal arts and professional training other than for teachers,
the bright young people with the potential to become leaders
�146 / Part II: A Changing Society
Aerial view of a portion of the Appalachian State University campus
HUGH MORTON PHOTO
This view of a portion of the Western Carolina University campus shows its
magnificent setting
�Public Education J 147
will have the opportunity to complete their educations near
home, at less expense and with less likelihood of their outmigration afterward.
The regional universities are surveying their community
service capability and are extending their programs, graduate
and undergraduate, to meet the needs of the region. For instance,
both Appalachian State University and Western Carolina
University have established various colleges. Their colleges
of business will each operate a Bureau of Business Research
to supply information to industries and businessmen in Western
North Carolina. Appalachian is creating a "Continuing Education
Center," a laboratory for learning and living. It is expected to
draw and hold persons seeking recreation and vacation programs
of educational nature which will greatly extend the usefulness
of the university to the region. It will emphasize folk culture,
arts and crafts, music and drama. It will enable the university
to serve creatively. Western Carolina University will have
excellent highway facilities. It will be connected with the roads
of the Appalachian Regional Development program and the
Interstate system by a new four-lane "limited access" highway.
As new industry has moved into the region the university
has added two major in-service programs providing bachelors'
degrees in business administration and health services. The
university has been active for twenty years in regional planning
and development of Western North Carolina.
The University of North Carolina at Asheville is the newest
state-supported liberal arts institution in the area. It has gone
through a process of change since 1927 when a junior college
was established by the Buncombe County Board of Education
as a part of the public school system, the first public, tuition-free
junior college in the state. County students were enrolled free
of charge. Such courses as German, Greek, and creative writing
were offered in addition to the curriculum usually found in a
two-year college, and the student body grew to about three
hundred. Meanwhile the College of the City of Asheville was
established in 1928. Both operated until 1930 when the North
Carolina Supreme Court ruled that a junior college might be
supported by the city only if no increase in tax was necessary
for that specific purpose and if it could be operated without
"impairing the efficiency of the elementary and high schools,
and of the kindergarten schools ... forming a part of the public
school system." The depression and the above ruling made
�148 / Part II: A Changing Society
necessary the closing of the College of the City of Asheville.
The Kiwanis Club of Asheville urged in vain the consolidation
of the two colleges. In the 1930's the county's junior college
had to institute a tuition charge of $roo, and the name of the
school was changed to Biltmore Junior College. A literary
magazine called Bluets with Virginia Bryan Scheiber as adviser
offered inspiration to students in creative writing, and it won
frequent awards in the annual Columbia Scholastic Press Association contest at Columbia University. Works of such writers
as Wilma Dykeman, John Ehle, Patty Sebartle, and Robert
Campbell, Jr., appeared in Bluets. The dramatic groups won
awards in the drama contests at Chapel Hill. The name of the
college was changed again in 1936 to Asheville-Biltmore when
the city began giving financial support. World War II caused the
student body to dwindle. Fortunately the United States Navy
set up a program that helped finance the college during those
trying years. After the war the Seely estate was obtained for
a scenic and spacious campus. In 1955 the North Carolina General
Assembly voted an appropriation for Asheville-Biltmore College, which was increased two years later when it was decided
to make it a state-supported community college. AshevilleBiltmore was the first institution to qualify under the community
college act and state funds were made available for a long-range
building program. A campus located nearer Asheville was
deemed necessary, and the present site was acquired. A bond
issue of $5oo,ooo was approved by the people of Asheville and
Buncombe County in 1958 and the state allocated funds to build
five buildings on a r6r.9 acre tract in North Asheville. An
additional bond issue of $750,000 and a tax levy were approved
in 1961, which were matched by state funds. The General
Assembly in 1963 changed Asheville-Biltmore to a senior
state-supported college. The legislature of 1969 made it a unit
of the Consolidated University of North Carolina.
Still educational levels in Western North Carolina are well
below those of the state. Only 30.6 percent of adults 25 years
and over in Western North Carolina have completed high
school, compared with 40.8 percent for urban places and 32·3
percent for the state. College graduation was 9.8 percent in
urban North Carolina, 7.6 in metropolitan Asheville, and only
5.5 percent in Western North Carolina. Interest in education
is gammg momentum in Western North Carolina but the
percentage of high school graduates attending college has
�Public Education / 149
declined. There is a steady increase in those enrolling in technical
institutes, business and nursing schools.
In June, 1968, the State Planning Task Force submitted
a report, Manpower Education in the North Carolina Appalachian
Region. Conclusions drawn were these: "1. Public education
must be re-oriented to the world of work and occupational
preparation, which enhances traditional general and vocational
education ... ; 2. Teacher education must be improved and
more teachers provided in the schools . . . ; 3. Guidance education
must be improved and more counselors provided ... ; 4· Noncurriculum services such as food, clothing, medical and dental
care, psychological and social workers, must be increased and
extended into new areas."
The high schools that have vocational programs arc revamping
their offerings in view of the employment needs of the area.
New buildings are being funded by grants under the Appalachian Program. Among the courses being given are carpentry,
auto mechanics, brick masonry, electronics, blueprint reading
and drafting, mechanical drawing, poultry and livestock, and
horticulture. Cosmetology and a number of homemaking
courses are offered especially for girls. Arrangements are being
made for the students to work in industry, agriculture, construction, or services during the summer months at the skills
they have been developing during the academic year.
Under Governor Terry Sanford the North Carolina Fund
was created with grants from the Ford Foundation, the Z.
Smith Reynolds Foundation, and the Mary Reynolds Babcock
Foundation. Project areas of the state were outlined and each
was invited to organize and construct a plan for community
action. For example, four counties, Watauga, A very, Mitchell,
and Yancey created W AMY and sent a program to the Fund
authorities. Meanwhile the Economic Opportunity Act was
passed and liberal federal funds were available. In this state
the North Carolina Fund was designated to administer the
program of the Office of Economic Opportunity. There were
many facets to the program. One of the most significant was
the Neighborhood Youth Corps, to help economically deprived
youth of r6 to 21 years of age, to give them educational and
vocational training and cultural enrichment. Fifty-three and
two-tenths of the population of Western North Carolina have
completed eight years or less of public schooling. These
"dropouts" constitute one of the most serious problems, as
�r 50 / Part II: A Changing Society
most of them will never be anything but unskilled workers
unless they receive special training. The technical institutes
have cooperated with the Neighborhood Youth Corps to
provide instruction in such skills as bricklaying, upholstering,
drapery, basket-making, and other handicrafts.
An optimistic report published by the Western North
Carolina Regional Planning Commission in 1962 ended with
these words: "If the people of the region work to clear away
the obstacles to growth, make the best use of the region's resources,
and take advantage of the outside forces working in their favor,
they can look forward to a bright future for Western North
Carolina."
�CHAPTER
SEVEN
Church Related and Private
Institutions of Learning
Before 1900 only private schools and colleges offered the
"higher branches" oflearning. They continued to exist after the
passage of the law ofi907 providing that counties might establish
public high schools, and many people favored them over the
public high schools. Some of the private institutions had been
designed to make secondary school available to mountain youth,
and others were fashionable schools that appealed partly because
of their location in scenic resort areas. The private schools were
invaluable in supplementing the work of the infant high schools.
Almost all of both types were for white students. Two exceptions
were Allen Industrial Home and School for Negro girls at
Asheville and Western Union Academy in Rutherford County.
Many of these schools did not pass out of existence when the
trend turned to public high schools. They exist in various forms
today.
Among people of Clay County there are still those who
talk of a master teacher, John 0. Hicks, who organized and
conducted the Hicksville High School, a private school, in I 8 so.
He is credited with improving the quality of public school
teaching in Hayesville and all of Clay County by his inspirational
example. It is said in Clay County that its chief product has
been people, and all in the county are proud of the products of
Hicksville Academy. Perhaps they are proudest of all of one
graduate, George Truett, born in Cherokee County in 1867. His
151
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f Part II: A Changing Society
father moved the family to a farm near Hayesville so the children
could attend the so-called "Hicksville High School." George
Truett went on to study at nearby Young Harris College in
Georgia and became a great Baptist minister. For years he was
pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. Among the
honors that he won was that of serving as president of the World
Baptist Alliance.
Another of the best private schools in Western North Carolina
during the 187o's was the East La Porte Male and Female Academy
in Jackson County. There were three teachers headed by A. M.
Dawson, a famous educator of that area, and the curriculum
included arithmetic, natural philosophy, algebra, Euclid (geometry), grammar, geography, Latin composition, and reading.
The catalogue for r878-1879 promised that although criticism
and explanation would be furnished by the faculty, judicious
care would be exercised lest "explanation may be made to stand
in the vacancy occasioned by the student's want of study .... "
Room and board, including fuel, lighting, and washing, cost
five dollars per month and tuition varied from five dollars to
twelve and one-half dollars per term of five months, to be
determined by the course chosen.
Some families sent their sons and daughters away to other
states to be educated. Emory and Henry College, near Abingdon,
Virginia, was a manual labor school where boys might earn
most of their expenses. The Stonewall Jackson Institute at
Abingdon was praised by Charles Dudley Warner. He visited at
Worth's, a trading center in northern Watauga County where
he spent the night. The daughters had attended the Stonewall
Jackson Institute. The home had two pianos and "a bevy of
young leadies whose clothes were certainly not made on Cut
Laurel Gap. Books were scattered around the house- evidences
of the finishing schools with which our country is blessed."
It is a truism that each school was as good or as bad as its
teachers. One great teacher who made his influence felt widely
was Robert Logan Patton. A Western North Carolina boy,
he earned his way through Phillips Academy at Exeter, New
Hampshire, and Amherst College, spending ten years on his
education after he was seventeen years old. He was well qualified
to assume leadership on a state or national level in either education
or the ministry, but he chose to preach chiefly at rural churches
and to found academies. When he returned from Amherst in
1876, he was probably the best educated man in Western North
�Church Related and Private Institutions of Learning /
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53
Carolina, and people in different communities urged him to
come to them and found academies. He opened his first school
at Table Rock in Burke County in August, 1876, and taught
there three years, opened his Globe Academy in Caldwell
County in 1882, one at Glen Alpine in 1889, another at Morganton
in 1890, one at Moravian Falls in Wilkes County in 1891, then
returned to Morganton to remain from 1892 to 1901. There
were internals when he accepted other appointments, such as
the pastorate of the First Baptist Church of High Point, but
he always returned to his mountains. From 1910 to 1912 he
served as superintendent of schools in Morganton, after which
his health failed and he was obliged to retire.
Even earlier than these academies were five so-called colleges
in Western North Carolina, three of which were in operation
or were being built when the Civil War started. Davenport
College was founded in Lenoir, Caldwell County, by a group
of far-sighted and prosperous men who wished to make their
town a cultural center. They talked about a college for women,
first approaching the Concord Presbytery, with which the
Presbyterian churches in the county were affiliated, but it decided
to locate its college at Statesville (Mitchell College). The Lenoir
community had become so enthusiastic that the people would
not let the college idea die. The South Carolina Conference
of the Methodist Episcopal Church South accepted the proposal
of the Lenoir group. William Davenport, James C. Harper,
W. A. Lenoir, Jas. Harper, E. W. Jones, and Uriah Cloyd were
the most generous givers, although the list of donors was long.
Named for the largest contributor, the college was completed
in 1857 and was given to the South Carolina Conference, which
kept it in operation until the last year of the Civil War. When
General George Stoneman's United States Cavalry raid approached Lenoir after attacking Salisbury, the president, the
Reverend A. G. Stacy, disbanded the school and moved the
girls toward South Carolina. The troops occupied the college
premises, plundered the library, destroyed the furniture, and
"the place was left a wreck, despoiled of everything except
that the buildings were not burned." The friends of the college,
although improverished by the war, refurbished the buildings
cheaply and classes were resumed. With a preparatory department
and a college department it continued in operation until 1936
�I
54 J Part II: A Changing Society
under the Western North Carolina Conference to which it had
been transferred in I87o when the new conference was set up.
After I893 both men and women were in the student body.
In I938 it was merged with Greensboro College.
Two other colleges originated as private schools but were
turned over later to the Methodist Episcopal Church South.
Rutherford College, founded in Burke County in 1853 by
Dr. Robert Laban Abernethy, was first an academy called Owl
Hollow School. Five years later it received its charter as Rutherford Academy, named in honor of John Rutherford, who
contributed the land, and in I 86I the name was changed to
Rutherford Seminary. In 1870 it became Rutherford College.
In I900 it passed into the possession of the Methodist Church.
A number of Methodist ministers were educated at Rutherford
College. Soon after it began granting degrees Brantley York
became a professor, remaining for five years. York had the
distinction of having been the first teacher and the moving
spirit of Union Institute, later Trinity College, now Duke
University. Rutherford in its later years experienced financial
problems, and in I933 it was merged with Weaver College to
form Brevard College. For a while a public school was housed
in the Rutherford College buildings, after which the property
was sold to persons establishing the Valdese General Hospital.
Weaver College, which was chartered in 1873, occupied
grounds that had long been used by schools, the Salem Camp
Ground. A building erected in I836 to entertain the Holston
Conference served as a neighborhood school until 1854 when
the Sons of Temperance built a larger house. A boarding school,
the Masonic and Temperance High School housed there, served
a large area until I862, reopening in I866. A fire destroyed the
building in I 872, and the community rebuilt and expanded the
school. Dr. James A. Reagan, physician and surgeon, was one
of the founders and served during the first three years as president
of the college, after which he continued to serve as a trustee.
The college was chartered in I 873 with a local board of trustees
as Weaverville College. A later president, W. C. McCarthy
(1876-188o), is said to have procured sheep hides from neighboring farmers, which he tanned and used as diplomas. McCarthy
wrote each diploma with a quill pen, in Latin. In I883 the
property was deeded to the Methodist Episcopal Church South,
and the Western North Carolina Conference supervised the
�Church Related and Private Institutions of Learning /
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55
college work from that time. The educator who served longest
at the school was Marion A. Yost, who taught Latin, Greek,
and other subjects for thirty-five years and was for ten years,
r888-1898, both a teacher and president of the college. Three
degrees, Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, and Master
of Arts, were offered until I 896 when the last was dropped.
From 1912-1934 the school was a junior college, and the name
was shortened to Weaver College in 1912. Literary societies
constituted the leading student activity. They were still flourishing in 1934 and were transferred with the college to Brevard
College. Summer schools at Weaver had attracted teachers,
tourists, and parents as well as regular students.
When the transfer to Brevard was consummated thirty
members of the student body and five faculty members made
the move. Alumni of both Rutherford College and Weaver
College are ardent supporters of Brevard College. It occupies
the site of the Brevard Epworth School started at Brevard in
1895 by the Revered Fitch Taylor, aided by the Sunday schools
and Epworth Leagues of the Western North Carolina Conference
of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. After his death in
1909 the Woman's Home Missionary Society took over the
work, and the school, which then became the Brevard Institute,
was accredited by the North Carolina State Board of Education.
It served a worthy purpose in making high school available to
mountain boys and girls when public schools were not in existence. After operating thirty-eight years, however, Brevard
Institute was no longer needed; with new trends in education
and the availability of public schools, a junior college was needed.
Effects of the depression had been hard on Rutherford College
and Weaver College, and the North Carolina Conference
decided to merge the two in one new institution. The women's
organization that had sponsored Brevard Institute offered its
school plant, free of debt, to the conference, and the offer was
accepted. Brevard College continued the tradition of Methodist
aid to education in Western North Carolina. Citizens of Brevard
and Transylvania County donated hundreds of acres of land
and reconditioned the buildings of the former institute. The
institution opened in the fall of 1934 as a self-help junior college
with the students doing practically all of the work on the campus
and on the college farm and dairy.
Two Baptist associations started colleges in the southwestern
�I56 / Part II: A Changing Society
part of the state before the Civil War: Mars Hill College in
Madison County, first called the French Broad Institute and
established in I 856 by the French Broad Association, was chartered
as Mars Hill College by the General Assembly in I 859; and
Judson College in Hendersonville was founded by the Salem
Association and approved by the Western Baptist Convention
in I858. Mars Hill was coeducational and played an important
part in its community, a crossroads center on what for many
travelers was the favorite passage through the Southern Appalachians. Because of the location the spot was of strategic
importance during the Civil War and was held by the Confederacy in spite of the Unionist sentiments of many of the people
of the county. The college closed in I863 because of a lack of
male students, and while Confederate soldiers were quartered
there fire destroyed two buildings. Additional destruction
almost brought ruin to the college and forty years went by
before the equipment equalled that enjoyed by Mars Hill before
the war.
In spite of poverty, apathy, and the bitterness of the Reconstruction period, the buildings were used for some type of
educational activity after I 86 5. College work was reinstated
in I 86 5 but the next few years were a time of struggle to obtain
funds, to repair the one remaining building, and to keep a
president. In I87I and I872 a "Peabody school" was run, after
which the college was dormant until I878. For a few years an
orphanage occupied the buildings, and for two years L. B.
Lunsford conducted a private school there. In I878 the institution
was reinstated as a high school, its work beginning with a primary
department. The frequent changes of presidents ended with the
coming of Robert L. Moore in I 897 to serve forty-one years.
During that time the institution became an accredited junior
college. Enrollment grew from I83 students, mostly local residents, to 970 from twenty-four states and three foreign countries.
By I964 it had become a senior college. Accreditation by the
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools was granted in
1967. The music department was given membership as a senior
college in the National Association of Schools of Music in 1960,
and the department of business administration was made a
member of the American Association of Collegiate Schools
of Business in the same year.
The Building of Judson College was an ambitious undertaking, and it would have been completed on schedule if the
�Church Related and Private Institutions of Learning J I 57
war had not come. The structure was of hand-hewn stone
with handsome stone columns. The walls were finished by
I86I but the roof was not completed until 1871. The trustees
had to take a mortgage to pay the existing debt and continue
construction. When the debt fell due a joint-stock company,
the Western North Carolina Education Company headed by
Pinckney Rollins, purchased the unfinished structure to keep
it from falling into the hands of some other denomination.
In I 878 work was resumed, one room was floored, and the free
school of the township was taught there. In I 879 the coeducational
Judson High School was held in the finished part of the building.
The house was completed in October I 882, and the college
began its session with five teachers. The name was changed
several times during the construction period, from Hendersonville Female College to Western North Carolina Female College,
to Judson Female College, and finally to Judson College.
Although planned for women, it operated for twelve years as a
coeducational college and graduated outstanding citizens. In
I 892, the debt on the building never having been paid off, the
company had to sell the property. The purchasers continued to
operate a college there for two years, after which it was used
as a high school. In 1903 Judson College was sold to the town of
Hendersonville to be used as graded school building.
A partial list of Baptist schools in Western North Carolina,
compiled by John Preston Arthur, includes the following:
Mars Hill College, Mars Hill; Yancey Institute, Burnsville;
Mitchell Institute, Bakersville; Fruitland Institute, Hendersonville; Round Hill Academy, Union Mills; Haywood Institute,
Clyde; Sylva Institute, Sylva; Murphy Institute, Murphy.
All of these schools except Mars Hill College and Fruitland
Institute have passed out of existence. Occupying the site of
Round Hill Academy at Union Mills is Alexander Schools,
Incorporated, a child-caring institution founded in I925 by
J. F. Alexander. Open the year round, it is licensed to accept
I 78 children. Since 1932 its academic work has been consolidated
with the public school at Union Mills. Children in residence
are ones who have been deprived of their homes by death or
other circumstances. Modern and up-to-date buildings have
been built by contributions from churches, laymen, and the
Duke Foundation. Fruitland Institute is owned by the Baptist
State Convention and is used during the academic year as a
school for young ministerial students who do not have college
�I
58 / Part II: A Changing Society
training, and in the summers for assemblies and conferences.
Methodists were always concerned about education in
Western North Carolina before the public schools became
effective. A list of some of their schools follows. Methodist
Episcopal Church South: Asheville Female College, developed
in I 856 from the Holston Methodist Female College established
in I842; Hayesville College, Clay County, opened in I890
and in operation only one year, after which its assets were
transferred to Trinity College; Tuscola Institute, Haywood
County, founded in I855 by the Reverend William Hicks,
followed by the Richland Institute (its site is now Lake Junaluska);
Secondary School at Jefferson, established by the Mount Airy
District, I9IO-I929; Brevard Institute, I895, given to the
Woman's Board of Home Missions in 1905.
Methodist Episcopal Church (North): Brown Seminary
at Leicester, on Turkey Creek Camp Ground; Aaron Seminary,
Montezuma, now Avery County, I890-I9I I; Fairview College,
Traphill, Wilkes County, a private school accepted by the
Conference in I 886; Etowah Institute near Brevard; Eagle
Mills School at Eagle Mills, Wilkes County; Oberlin Home
and School, ncar Lenoir, founded by Miss Emily Pruden in
I885, name changed in I903 to Ebenezer Mitchell Home and
School, moved to Misenheimer in I909 and named Pfeiffer
College, now a senior liberal arts college (Miss Pruden established
fifteen schools in North and South Carolina.); Allen High
School, started by Mr. and Mrs. Louis M. Pease, given to the
Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal
Church.
The Allen Industrial and Home School was established for
mountain Negro girls about 1875 by Mr. and Mrs. Louis M.
Pease, social workers from New York who had come to Asheville
to retire. The couple purchased land, including an old livery
stable which they converted into a home and school. After
conducting the school for twelve years they gave the property
to the Woman's Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal
Church (Northern) to be carried on as a mission school. In
I 897 it was made a boarding school called the Allen Home
School, now known as the Allen High School. It has become
an example of excellence in secondary education for Negroes.
For many years the curriculum included grades one through
twelve, but as responsibility for the work of the grammar grades
was assumed by the public schools, Allen High School limited
�Church Related and Private Institutions of Learning /
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59
its offerings to grades eight through twelve. The present buildings were built in the 1950's, the school is accredited, and the
graduates are accepted by colleges and professional schools.
Two Presbyterian assemblies have participated in the educational progress of Western North Carolina. The Asheville
Normal and Associated Schools represent the work of the
Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (Northern), now the United
Presbyterian Church. Mr. and Mrs. Pease, who founded the
Allen Industrial and Home School, were closely associated with
the founding of the excellent Asheville Normal which functioned
from 1892 until 1940. Their first school for white girls developed
from the boarding house which they maintained in their home.
Vacationing guests observed that the girls employed for household
work were capable but uneducated, and through the influence
of a guest, Dr. Thomas Lawrence, the Board of Home Missions
purchased the thirty acre tract owned by Mr. and Mrs. Pease
and employed the Peases to help conduct a school, to be called
the Home Industrial School. It opened in 1887 and was soon
filled to capacity with seventy boarding students and forty
day students, ranging in age from five to twenty. The Asheville
Normal and Collegiate Institute was established in 1892 on
the same property, to educate rural school teachers. Thus it
antedated both the Cullowhee and Boone training schools.
The Home Industrial School and the Normal and Collegiate
Institute were among twenty-five day and boarding schools
throughout Western North Carolina established by the Woman's
Home Mission Board of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.
In I 920 all of these schools in and around Asheville were organized
into a system called Asheville Normal and Associated Schools
with Dr. John E. Calfee as president. Two other schools of
the twenty-five mentioned above were Dorland-Bell School
for Girls at Hot Springs and the Asheville Farm School for
boys. Dorland originated in the home of Dr. and Mrs. Luke
Dorland, who had been working since 1867 at Scotia Seminary,
which he founded, a Presbyterian school for Negro girls at
Concord. Coming to Hot Springs in 1887 to rest, the Dorlands
invited some children into their dining room to learn to read
and write. Soon a school developed, which in 1893 the Woman's
Board of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. sponsored. Two
�160 / Part II: A Changing Society
miles away at a farm called the Willows a home for boys was
established by the same group. The Bell Institute, a third school,
merged with Dorland in 1918 to form Dorland-Bell. Eventually
housed in a campus of eight buildings, the school was accredited
as a high school, but the work was always broader in scope
than that of the usual high school. Mrs. Maud Gentry Long of
Hot Springs, an alumna of Dorland-Bell, wrote, "The friends
of this school are investing their money not at 4 or 6 per cent
but in the lives of the womanhood of our mountains." The
school's stated purpose was as follows: " ... to help girls from
remote mountain districts who are not within reach of a good
school; to lead those to a vision of the possibilities of a rich,
happy life in the country; to send back into the mountain homes
young women who will know how to make healthy, happy
Christian homes .... Our main interest is in the girl who will
have no schooling after she leaves here."
Meanwhile in 1894 the Asheville Farm School was established
at Swannanoa. The first students were young men, rather than
boys, who had had no opportunity for schooling. As the years
passed and the elementary schools improved, the Farm School
was able to advance its work and to be a high school. Its campus
was to be the home of Warren Wilson College.
Warren Wilson College dates from 1942 when the Presbyterian Board of National Missions combined the Dorland-Bell
School and the Asheville Farm School on the campus of the
latter. At first it offered four years of high school work and two
years of college studies. Each student continued his academic
program and also majored in a vocational field, such as agriculture, auto mechanics, business, construction engineering,
homemaking, journalism, woodworking, carpentry, printing,
and weaving. Each student contributed half of each day to his
vocational program. When high school work became readily
available, it was dropped at Warren Wilson and two additional
years of college work were added, the first class graduating with
the A.B. degree in 1969. Since its founding the college has been
concerned chiefly with young people of limited financial means
and superior promise. Every student works part of each day,
and thus the college is maintained and the student cost is reduced.
In Asheville the Normal and Collegiate Institute was discontinued in 1940 as the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. changed
its emphasis in the Southern highlands and especially in Western
North Carolina to the liberal arts concept. But it had played a
mighty part in the drama of education in the mountains. The
�Church Related and Private Institutions of Learning / 161
normal in 1925 began offering work to the four-year college
level, leading to a degree, the Bachelor of Education, later the
Bachelor of Science in Education. Asheville citizens supported
the college by making contributions for new buildings. The
normal was approved by the American Association of Teachers'
Colleges. In 1930 the Home Industrial School was dropped.
It was no longer needed. By 1936 the summer school of the
normal enrolled r 500 students. President Calfee was able to
influence numbers of noted professors to offer instruction in
the summer school, and for several years Columbia University
accepted credit earned at the Asheville summer school toward
degrees at the former. This enabled Southern teachers to earn
degrees at Columbia by doing much of their work in Asheville.
Faculty members came from Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Pennsylvania, the United States Naval Academy, Virginia, Duke,
Tulane, South Carolina, North Carolina, and many other
universities of the highest prestige in the nation. Students from
as many as thirty-four states attended in a single season. The
summer school grew to be the second largest one in the South
with a faculty of ninety-nine. Merchants and business firms,
the Chamber of Commerce, and the people of the community
cooperated with the normal, all of them recognizing it as a
definite asset in advertising Asheville. But with Dr. Calfee's
retirement in 1937 after 21 years, the conditions changed. The
Board of Missions ended its support of the Asheville Normal
and Teachers College as it was finally called. Asheville citizens
attempted to keep it operating under the name Asheville College,
but available funds were not sufficient, and it closed after the
summer school of 1944. It had served its purpose.
The Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (Southern) began at
about the turn of the twentieth century to found some schools,
largely through the initiative of interested people in the communities served. Such was the Westminster School in Rutherford
County, established by some of the old families of the neighborhood, especially for boys, although a few girls were admitted.
It was in operation from 1902 until 1923, offering work in
twelve grades. Even the best of North Carolina's public schools
at that time offered only eleven grades. Glade Valley School,
near Sparta, was organized in 1910 as a coeducational boarding
school. It is still in operation and is accredited by the Southern
Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges and by the
State Board of Education.
In the northwestern part of the state the Southern Presby-
�r62 / Part II: A Changing Society
terian Church in 1897 acquired the services of Edgar Tufts.
George McCoy, Asheville journalist titled an article describing
Tufts' projects "What God and Edgar Tufts Did." Tufts had
just completed his work at Union Seminary in Virginia when
he came to Banner Elk to be pastor of a small church. Two
years earlier during the summer Tufts and two other seminary
students had worked in Northwestern North Carolina where
two ladies were holding a small summer mission school. In
I 897 Tufts invited some of the more advanced students to continue
their studies in his home. In I 899 a two-room building was
erected with contributions of work and materials by members
of the community and aid from Tufts' friends to whom he had
appealed for help. That school has grown into Lees McRae
College, a junior college named for the two ladies who started
the mission school, Mrs. Elizabeth McRae and Mrs. S. P. Lees.
Tufts persuaded Dr. W. C. Tate to come to Banner Elk where
he already had a small hospital in operation. In 1922 Grace
Hospital was built, and in I933 a new and larger one replaced
it, to serve twelve mountain counties. The latest hospital, built
in the 196o's, is named the Charles Cannon Memorial Hospital.
With money contributed by friends Tufts bought Lybrook
Farm, a mile from the school, for an orphanage. It is named
Grandfather Home because of its view of Grandfather Mountain.
In 1924 after Tufts' death, the three institutions were incorporated
as the Edgar Tufts Memorial Association, and the young Edgar
Hall Tufts continued the work his father had started.
Montreat-Anderson Junior College began in 1913 at the
invitation of the Mountain Retreat Association to the General
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, U.S., to use its conference
ground and buildings in Buncombe County for educational
purposes. Nine synods participated in establishing the Montreat
Normal School, which received contributions from the synods
until 19 3 I. Dr. R. C. Anderson, President of the Mountain
Retreat Association, served as president of the normal. Gradually
the college department developed and was accredited by the
Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. In
the early 1940's Montreat became a senior college, although
it was not accredited as such. In the 1950's the high school department was dropped and in 1960 the college, which had been
renamed Montreat-Anderson, retrenched, becoming a junior
college again. Throughout its history it had been a girls' college,
but is now coeducational.
�Church Related and Private Institutions of Learning / 163
Four schools were established by the Episcopal Church for
the education of mountain youth. They were Christ School at
Arden in Buncombe County, Patterson School at Legerwood
in Caldwell County, Valle Crucis School in Watauga Counf)',
and Appalachian School at Penland, Mitchell County. Christ
School and Patterson School are strong institutions today.
Christ School was at first primarily an industrial, coeducational
institution. The tuition could be paid in work. Carpentry,
printing, telegraphy, bookeeping, and typewriting were taught
along with academic courses. Some students walked as many
as ten miles each way to and from school. The General Education
Fund of the diocese and private donations supported it. Within
a few years the student body was limited to boys, and as the
public schools of the state improved, boys from other states
were accepted, and gradually accommodations were increased.
The school won accreditation as a first class school for boys.
Patterson School was founded by Mr. Samuel Patterson, who
gave the old Patterson family home near Lenoir to the Episcopal
Church, Jurisdiction of Asheville. Patterson was interested in
agriculture and improved farming methods, and agriculture as
well as academic courses were taught. Income came chiefly from
donations of friends and a diocesan loan fund. As time passed
the purpose of the school was enlarged to prepare boys for
college and business as well as for hometown industries.
Appalachian School was founded by Dr. Rufus Morgan,
one of the most notable characters who ever walked the mountains. When he was a mere boy he wished his parents to use the
money that they would spend for Christmas presents for him
to buy food for a needy family. Quite early he resolved to devote
his life to helping the people of the mountains. During the
summers he spent his time tramping and getting to know
mountain people. When Morgan graduated from the General
Theological Seminary in New York, Bishop Homer of the
Episcopal Church purchased the Penland property in Mitchell
County so that Rufus Morgan could start a school there. When
he and his bride arrived at Penland in 1914 there were two
buildings on the site which had been used earlier by Mr. Wesley
Conley for his "Seven Springs Baptist Industrial School."
Morgan began his program of erecting buildings, making
roads, establishing water systems, planting crops, administering
to the physical needs of the people, molding character, and
raising the level of spiritual life of the people and giving himself
�164 / Part II: A Changing Society
to the community. This work established, Morgan left Penland
in 1918. He was succeeded by Miss Amy Burt, who was joined in
1920 by Miss Lucy Morgan, whose name became nearly synonymous with the later Penland School.* Bishop lves' interest
in Valle Crucis and his establishment of a school for boys there
in 1842 has been mentioned. Bishop Cheshire revived interest
in Valle Crucis in the 189o's, and a school for girls was built,
although boys were admitted as day students. Fire destroyed
one of the buildings in 1919 and two teachers lost their lives.
During World War II the school was permanently closed,
and the campus and buildings arc used for conferences.
The John C. Campbell Folk School was named for the author
of The Southern Highlander and His Homeland. Campbell believed
that the folk schools of Denmark had much to offer as models
for the mountain people of North Carolina. The school is a
noble and continuing experiment in adult education, a workshop
for creative living. Its 366 acres of peaceful, rolling dairyland
in Clay County, eight miles southeast of Murphy, its craft
school, its folk music and dancing are the fulfillment of a dream
ofJohn C. Campbell. Its purpose is to help people to "do beautiful
things with hands and minds, to be a workshop for life." Campbell
died in 1919 before his school had materialized, but his wife
made his dream come true. She went to Denmark to study.
She sought to answer the question: how to keep an enlightened,
progressive, and contented farming population on the land.
Mrs. Campbell realized that agricultural improvement had to
go hand in hand with enlightenment. Therefore the John C.
Campbell School has taught its students improved methods
of dairying and farming. They farm the 366 acres scientifically.
The school has sought to make the farmers in its area self-sufficient
and contented, to make them prosperous and creative, to give
them "economic independence based on self-help." In 1925
the school was incorporated with the approval of the Conference
of Southern Mountain Workers. The American Missionary
Association (Congregational), the Board of National Missions
of the Presbyterian church in the U.S.A., and the National
Council of the Protestant Episcopal Church contributed toward
* The Penland School was started as a handicraft department run in conjunction with the Appalachian School but with many adults participating.
When the Appalachian School was discontinued Penland School continued
to operate, and it purchased the land and buildings of Appalachian School.
�Church Related and Private Institutions of Learning J 165
its support. The first classes were held in the winter of1927-1928.
Subjects were simple field surveying, construction of model
farm equipment, cooking and sewing, grammar, reading,
writing, arithmetic of the most practical kind, lectures in history,
literature, economic geography, health, daily music, agricultural
science, bookkeeping, forestry, wood carving, weaving. The
school did not give credits, but it sought to help young people
to utilize fully their natural abilities and to make life in the
country more interesting and rewarding. Students laughed,
sang, danced, discussed, as well as worked. The philosophy
of the school was to get students of the school to think and read
and to let them work the rest for themselves. Annual dance
courses were taught. Mrs. Campbell went to Massachusetts
to see Cecil Sharp, the great English collector of songs and
dances. He and she went through the country collecting folk
tunes, songs, and ballads. The John C. Campbell Folk School
still operates on the pattern of the Danish Folk School. It has
some fifteen buildings used for school purposes, faculty homes,
and dairying and farm outbuildings. The great part of the
acreage is used for demonstration of scientific farming and
forestry.
An experimental school that does not fit into any pattern
was Black Mountain College, founded in 1933 by a small group
of faculty and administrators from Rollins College at Winter
Park, Florida. They hoped to develop students who were able
to "creatively meet the demands of our century." Major emphasis
was placed on music, drama, creative writing, and the visual
arts, painting, drawing, graphics, and architecture. Josef Albers,
a former Bauhaus teacher, and his wife Anni were hired as the
Visual Arts Department, and a place was won by their students
of Black Mountain College that was significant in the world
of modern art. With the resignation of Josef and Anni Albers
the major emphasis of study changed to creative writing, and
a literary review was produced. The college ceased to function
in 1956, but the people who had studied there were reaching
a stage of great influence in art and writing. While no degrees
or credits had been offered, those students who had chosen to
do further work were admitted to important graduate schools.
�CHAPTER
EIGHT
Teacher Education
((And gladly would they learn and gladly teach."
In the last fourth of the nineteenth century the General Assembly
sought to improve teacher education by supporting normal schools and
institutes. In I893 and I903 it began the support of the Cullowhee
Normal and the Appalachian Training schools. As these schools
evolved to become regional universities in 1967, they provided most
of the teacher training for Western North Carolina.
Legislation in I 876- I 877 provided for two normal schools,
one at the state university and one for Negroes. President Kemp
Plummer Battle of the university held summer normal schools
until 1885. Although the plan of the General Assembly had been
that only men would be accepted at the normal school in Chapel
Hill, both men and women were enrolled. Some of the young
men who were in attendance during the academic year, particularly Edwin A. Alderman and Charles Duncan Mciver, were
persuaded to remain for the normal school where they were
permanently won to the profession. Their work was to revolutionize the schools of the state. Teacher training as provided
for by the Act of 1887 was carried on for Negroes at Fayetteville.
To each of the two normal schools the state paid $2ooo and the
Peabody Fund added $soo. Many books were contributed
r66
�Teacher Education / 167
by publishers for use in the normal schools. The State Educational
Association of 1872 formed at Wilmington must have passed
out of existence, as in 1878 in Chapel Hill a North Carolina
Teachers Association was formed, and again the organization
of county associations was encouraged.
Chapel Hill was a long way from the westernmost counties,
and in 1879 only three Western North Carolina counties were
represented in the student body of the normal. It was good
news for the western counties when in 1881 the legislature
provided for eight additional normal schools, four for white
teachers and four for Negroes. To finance these, the state paid
$500 to each and the Peabody Fund furnished $250 each. The
one normal school in the mountains was at Franklin. Throughout
the years that it was held, the majority of the members were
from Macon County, and the county's schools came to be
recognized as superior.
When the normal in Chapel Hill was discontinued in 1885,
four additional ones were created for white teachers, including
schools at Boone and Asheville. The Boone Normal School
was offered only two summers, after which it was transferred
to Sparta, where in 1887 it was held from July 6 to 28. Charles
Duncan Mciver, a young graduate of the state university who
had attended the normal school at Chapel Hill, served as superintendent of the Sparta Normal, for which he received $125.
His report of the Sparta school reveals some of the values and
deficiencies of the normals: "Of the teachers who attended the
Boone normal last year, not more than ten were at the Sparta
normal. In fact there was only one teacher from Watauga County.
Furthermore, from So to 90 per cent of the attendant teachers at
Sparta had never seen any Normal School before. This indicates
that the majority of teachers do not (often they cannot) go a
great distance to attend normal schools. Small salaries and short
terms render it, in many cases, impossible. Generally, too, these
cases need Normal instruction more than any others. Normal
Schools, or efficient County Institutes, should be brought within
the reach of every teacher in the State. The locating of the school
at Sparta this year is a move in that direction." The superintendent
of the Asheville Normal School in the summer of 1887 was
another of the bright young men who had attended the University
Normal School, Edwin A. Alderman.
Teaching arithmetic and reading in the Asheville Normal
in 1887 was Philander P. Claxton. In that year Asheville voted
�I
68 J Part II: A Changing Society
to be a special charter school district with a graded school, and
Philander Claxton was elected superintendent of the Asheville
schools. A native of Tennessee, Claxton had studied at Johns
Hopkins University, after which he had spent six months in
Germany studying the school system. His biographer says that
he brought enthusiasm and new methods and that he and his
teachers indoctrinated Asheville for support of better schools.
At teachers' meetings papers on Froebel, Rousseau, and Pestalozzi
were read, and interest ranged from kindergartens and Greek
education to psychology and methods of teaching special subjects.
Mciver had referred to county institutes, which were being
conducted in a number of the western counties. As early as
1878 Dr. Alexander Graham, superintendent of the Charlotte
schools, conducted such institutes, with the aid of the Peabody
Fund, and in 1881 the General Assembly passed a law permitting
counties to hold institutes, really short normal schools, toward
the support of each of which the state would pay $100. In 1883
Rutherford County held two such institutes, one for white
teachers attended by thirty-five persons, and one the week
following for Negro teachers. Polk County held a four-weeklong institute and Henderson County had a two-week one.
The North Carolina Teacher, a magazine published privately
in Raleigh, commented: "From these brief points you will
observe that the mountains are alive to the great educational
movement of the State."
President Battle of the State University delivered two lectures
at an institute in Sparta which caused him to write: "I have
always been favorably impressed with the mountain people.
The ordinary notion of their want of culture is a mistake. Some
may lack the refined manners of the low counties but they are
kind and hospitable and many are shrewd. Some of our ablest
and most attractive orators were reared in the mountains."
In 1883 a North Carolina teachers' chautauqua was suggested
by the North Carolina Teacher. Again in 1884 in the February
issue the idea was explored. The proprietor of White Sulphur
Springs at Waynesville invited the teachers to spend a month
there, and the Western North Carolina Railroad, newly completed to that point, offered low fares. The chautauqua was held
beginning on June 16, 1884, and lasting two weeks. It differed
from the normal schools in that there were no textbooks and
no assignments. Colonel Francis W. Parker, who later became
famous as founder and principal of the Chicago Institute, an
�Teacher Education / 169
experimental school of the University of Chicago, was one of
the speakers. The railroad offered a ticket that would permit
teachers to attend the Franklin Normal School at the close of
the chautauqua. Room and board for this vacation in the mountains cost six dollars per week at the hotel and from three to
five dollars at homes in Waynesville. The North Carolina Teacher
carried the appeal, "We want to give the pupils in our schools
some idea of the State's gigantic system of internal improvements,
as seen in the completion of the Western North Carolina Railroad,
and the extension of the Ducktown Branch. The ride across
the Blue Ridge Mountains reveals one of the most remarkable
feats of engineering skill on earth .... As the train climbs up
and winds around those great mountains, rising one hundred
and sixteen feet to each mile traveled, often shooting through a
dark and rocky tunnel and over the steepest of trestles the grandeur
of the view far exceeds the expectation of the most brilliant
imagination."
Perhaps this was the first convention held in Western North
Carolina by any group, and the enthusiasm of the members
was great. Railroad officials cooperated, providing a special
train for the group of one hundred teachers who boarded at
Goldsboro and the additional one hundred who joined them
at Raleigh. By the time the train reached White Sulphur Springs
there were three hundred aboard. The train was divided into two
sections to cross the mountains, and at one time the first section
was passing over a portion of the road one thousand feet above
the other section, causing much applause as the passengers
experienced this wonderful sight. Both sections stopped for
breakfast at the new Round Knob Hotel, and the party enjoyed
the Round Knob Fountain which threw water nearly three
hundred feet in the air. During the chautauqua provisions were
made for recreation, and on the fourth day about seventy-five
teachers rode horseback to the peak of Lickstone Mountain,
with Wid Medford, celebrated bear hunter and mountain guide,
to lead them. The next two annual sessions of the teachers'
chautauqua were held at Black Mountain, after which a permanent building was erected at Morehead City, where subsequent
chautauquas were offered.
The county institutes had been held during the months of
July and August, and attendance was optional. As many of the
rural teachers had no education except what they received in
the district schools, further training was essential. The State
�170 /
Part II: A Changing Society
Round Knob, where the trains stopped for passengers to eat. Note the winding track
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO.
The fountain (geyser) at Round Knob
�Teacher Education / 171
Board of Education in 1889 decided to select two competent
men as institute conductors to carry on the work throughout
the entire year, requiring the dismissal of school at the time of
the institute in any county and making teacher attendance
compulsory. The four thousand dollars hitherto appropriated
for normal schools annually was now assigned to the support
of institutes and other work for the instruction of teachers.
The rules for holding institutes were made by the State Board
of Education, while the board of education in each county was
expected to provide a suitable place and to defray all local
expenses, including the room and board of the conductor of
the institute. The county superintendent was to assist the
conductor and to help administer a permissiv~ examination
at the end of the institute. Those who passed would receive
three-year first-grade teachers' certificates which could be used
in any county in the state. Edwin A. Alderman and Charles D.
Mciver, both of whom had been superintendents of normal
schools, were selected as institute conductors. They felt that
"the logical approach to the southern educational problem was
through the teacher and his training." Perhaps it was because
of the influence of the two that the normals were discontinued
and the state institutes were started. Not only were the institutes
to serve as a pedagogical shortcut, reaching every teacher in
the state, but Alderman and Mciver believed that "the gospel
of education'' must be taken to everyone: parents, committeemen,
and the public at large. It was impossible for two men to hold
an institute in every county, and Dr. J. L. M. Curry, agent of
the Peabody Fund, gave money to enable the State Board of
Education to employ M. C. S. Noble, J. Y. Joyner, and E. P.
Moses during July and August of 1889, and the same men plus
Alexander Graham, John J. Blair, and E. L. Hughes in July and
August 1890. In the western counties Negro teachers attended
the same institutes as whites, the Negroes sitting apart in a place
assigned to them.
Mciver and Alderman divided the state, Mciver holding
institutes from the foothills to the western boundary the first
year, staying a week or two in each county. After working with
teachers and trustees of schools he would hold at last a "Peoples'
Day" in which he addressed the public in churches, warehouses,
schoolhouses, on local problems and on public education.
Emphasis was placed on "lack of uniformity in textbooks, want
of interest on the part of parents and committeemen, the perpetual
�172 /
Part II: A Changing Society
change of teachers and the inadequacy of records they left behind
them, and the want of general supervisory power, ... the work
of the county superintendent being largely clerical." The
following year Alderman held institutes in the west. He outlined
his and Mciver's purposes in these categories: I. To carry to
the people definite knowledge of the educational work resting
on the public schools; 2. To carry to the doors of the public
school teachers, who could not seek it, definite instruction as
to the meaning of teaching and the teacher's office, and training
in scientific methods of teaching; 3. To make suggestions that
would tend to perfect and increase the efficiency of the system.
Among the points of concern emphasized by Alderman and
Mciver in their reports concerning the institutes were the use
of Webster's spelling book by about half of the schools, which
produced children who could not read but who "spelled through"
the speller; children who knew more or less grammar but could
not write simple English decently; children who had "been
over" arithmetic but "had no grasp upon the simple essentials
of that science." The two criticized the bad schoolhouses and
poorly trained teachers. Alderman wrote, "I find that only a
small fraction of the teachers have had the advantages of any
ampler training than that offered by the public schools ... [ ; ]
professional training for their difficult work they have had but
little. About twelve per cent of them have read a technical work
on teaching."
Alexander Graham who conducted institutes in the summer
of I 890 gave in his report a glimpse of educational progress
in the counties that he visited. He was pleased with the interest
shown in education in Madison County. Thirty-seven schoolhouses had been constructed during the past six years, ten of
them costing $1200 apiece, twenty-five costing $soo each; only
two were built of logs. Yet only twelve teachers attended the
institute. In contrast was the one held in Waynesville, where
seventy teachers attended and visitors occupied all of the
remaining space in the room. In Graham County the message of
the institute, that "Every child has the same right to be educated
as he has to be free; the one right is as sacred as the other," was
opposed by some, one person being heard to remark, "Men who
talk like that ought to be lynched." Thirty teachers attended
the institute at Robbinsville in Graham County, and a group
of four or five hundred Republicans and Democrats listened to
Graham, but he was dissatisfied with the reception ofhis address.
�Teacher Education / 173
Later when he visited Franklin he attributed his success there
to the influence of the splendid normal schools that had been
held in the town for so many years, and he lamented, "Oh,
Franklin! if the mighty educational work which had been done
for thee had been done in Robbinsville, it would have repented
long ago." At Hayesville he addressed the Farmers' Alliance.
The crowd was large and the interest was great. He called Clay
"the banner county on education" and complimented the county
on the establishment of Hayesville College and its influence,
concluding, "I think they will have four more schools of high
grade in Clay in the near future." [The college had 190 students,
but it lasted only one year.] Clay County had a small population,
and there were only eighteen white teachers, six of whom
received three-year certificates during the course of the institute,
an unusually large percentage to qualify for that honor. At
Webster, Jackson County, eight certificates were issued and at
Waynesville nine certificates were earned. Graham wrote, "I
never met a nicer people or more earnest teachers, and I was
struck with the absence of old teachers. I examined not more
than three gray heads." In eight counties he addressed over four
thousand people on education and free schools and issued fiftythree certificates.
The institutes were almost like a great religious revival, and
their influence was inestimable for the inspiration they gave
in the movement for educated teachers in the mountainous
portion of the state. In r 889 the county board of education of
Jackson County held an institute at Webster, followed by a
state institute in charge of Edward P. Moses, one of North
Carolina's most dynamic educational leaders, superintendent
of the Raleigh schools, who had taught at the summer normal
school at Chapel Hill and had won some great disciples for the
teaching profession. Among the teachers attending the institutes
at Webster was Robert Lee Madison, who was to found a
future state university in the mountains.
A youth from Lexington, Virginia, Madison had come to
Jackson County in December 1885 at the age of nineteen to
teach in the Qualla community. By r889 he was serving in two
capacities, editor of the newly-established Tuckaseigee Democrat
in the new town of Sylva on the Ducktown Branch of the
�174 / Part II: A Changing Society
Western North Carolina Railroad, and teacher for the second
year in the school at Sylva. This was a subscription school, the
public money having been spent for "patent desks." The fortyodd students ranged in age from six to twenty-three, and the
subject matter, from the ABC's to algebra, rhetoric, and French.
Madison's stay in Sylva, he looked upon as "marking time,"
although he had abandoned his plan to study medicine and had
decided that teaching was to be his profession. To prepare for
his profession he had accumulated eight or ten first class books
on the subject. A small group of his students volunteered for a
class in practice-teaching which he had organized, and he dreamed
of a permanent school for educating teachers. In July when
Madison attended both of the institutes in Webster he was won
by Moses as Mel ver and Alderman had been. Madison later
reminisced: "As never before I became inspired. The effects
of his [Moses'] mastery of the principles of education and of his
stirring style and contagious enthusiasm for the sacred vocation
of teaching were irresistible and convinced me more than ever
that ... I must devote myself to teaching ... and find my
work here in these delectable mountains." As the institute closed
Moses was impressed with young Madison's examination paper,
and after a talk with him offered him the principalship of a high
school in Raleigh, but the offer was declined as the young man
chose to stay in the mountains.
Later that year Madison accepted an invitation to teach
the rural Cullowhee High School in Jackson County. With
forty public school children it drew only forty dollars a year
from county funds and a few cents a year per capita from the
state treasury, totaling just enough to pay a teacher $22.50 a
month for a two-month term. Yet the patrons of the school
guaranteed a salary of $400 for a ten-month year. The publicspirited community intended to have a good school. Boarding
students from other districts were welcomed and were housed
in the neighborhood at prices ranging from four to six dollars
a month. Some of the "school-minded men" even put up little
houses or "shacks" or allowed students to build such houses
on their land, so they might "batch" and keep the cost at "the
vanishing point." Enrollment grew rapidly to approximately
one hundred and the school was obviously a success. The
following year Cullowhee High School attracted students from
neighboring South Carolina as well as from other counties and
had a staff of three teachers including the principal, Madison,
�Teacher Education / 175
a nmsic and art instructor, and a primary teacher. Commencement
in I 890 was colorful, lasting three days. A sermon was preached
by D. B. Nelson of Asheville and an address was given by Kope
Elias, prominent lawyer of Franklin. Madison recalled: "Music
for the occasion was furnished by the Cherokee Indian brass
band of sixteen instruments played by Indian boys in uniform.
Large crowds attended all the exercises and basket-dinner in
abundance was served each day. Such was the lavish hospitality
of the community that for three days, all visitors from a distance
were housed and ted- and their horses too- without charge.
Some near-by homes had as many as fifty for a single meal;
and when the beds were all full, pallets of quilts were spread
upon the floors, so that if accommodations could not be palatial
they could at least be palletable."
In I 8y3 Madison saw an opportunity to make his dream
come true. The state was experiencing a momentum toward
practical education as a part of a movement of the farmers in
North Carolina as in many other states to organize for their
common interest. In I 887 an influential Farmers' Alliance was
fostered in the state by Colonel L. L. Polk and his periodical,
The Pro~~;ressive Farmer. Farmers had serious financial problems
during the eighties and nineties and they were convinced of the
benefits to be enjoyed from better public schools and from
colleges that could provide a practical education. Under the
influence of a crusade for agricultural education the State Agricultural and Mechanical College was established near Raleigh
in 1887. In 1890 a large number of farmers were elected to the
legislature, and in 1891 the "farmers' legislature" established
the Normal and Industrial School for White Girls and the
Agricultural and Technical College for Negroes, both at
Greensboro, and the School for the Deaf and Dumb at
Morganton.
In this rash of legislation for schools, Madison perceived
an opportunity for an appropriation for a normal department
at Cullowhee. He first proposed to Walter E. Moore, member
of the General Assembly from his district, that he introduce a
bill to establish a normal department in connection with some
existing high school in each of the nine congressional districts
in the state, providing $3000 to each, a total of $27,000. The
state would have no capital outlay and all of the public schools
in the state would benefit from improvement of teachers. When
Moore replied that such a bill would have no chance to pass
�176 / Part II: A Changing Society
at that session, Madison asked him to introduce a bill providing
$3000 for a normal department at Cullowhee. The measure passed
with an annual appropriation of$1500, as one act in a decade of
legislation for higher education.
In 1895 a fusion legislature dominated by Republicans and
Populists established a normal department at Slater Industrial
Academy at Winston, for Negroes, which had been in operation
for three years as a private institution named for John F. Slater,
philanthropist. The school grew into Winston-Salem State
Teachers College, and in 1969 the General Assembly designated
it Winston-Salem State University. It and the Salisbury Normal
School established in 1881 and abolished in 1903 were the only
ones in the western half of the state for training Negro teachers,
and they were too far away from the mountain counties to help
the Negro teachers there. As salaries of Negro teachers were
less than those of white teachers, the Negroes in Western North
Carolina were almost invariably men or women with no
preparation for the work. Biddle University at Charlotte, now
Johnson C. Smith University, offered normal school work,
but graduates of the university found employment in the cities
where pay and living conditions were better than the rural
schools offered.
The law that created the appropriation for Cullowhee placed
its normal department under the care and supervision of the
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, who had power to
regulate it and to discontinue it if he found the department
inefficient or unnecessary. The principal of the high school was
authorized to confer three-year first-grade certificates valid
throughout the state to graduates. Students preparing to teach
were not required to pay tuition. By 1894 the appropriation
began to pay dividends when twelve normal-course graduates
went out to teach. The next year sixteen first-grade certificates
were granted.
In I 899 Principal Madison reported that seventy-six students
representing seven counties were attending the normal school
and that eighty had been granted scholarships for the 1900-1901
term. The department had furnished more than two hundred
public school teachers, most of them teaching in the rural schools.
He characterized the work of the department as a "unique and
very necessary one." He admitted that the work of the Normal
and Industrial College and of the Department of Pedagogy
at the state university was of a much higher order than the
�Teacher Education j 177
QUALIFICATIONS OF WHITE AND COLORED
TEACHERS IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA,
I9II-I9I2, IN SOME COUNTIES
County
1St
Grade
2nd
Grade
3rd
Grade
Normal
Training
College
Diploma
White
Ashe
Buncombe
Rural
Asheville
Burke
Clay
Henderson
Rural
Hendersonville
Macon
Madison
Mitchell
Wilkes
Rural
N. Wilkesboro
Jackson
Watauga
774
132
132
IS
I4
54
36
4
4
4
86
44
53
r6
42
6
3
17
14
9
so
41
25
46
:l2
30
14
5
28
55
120
PER CENT OF TOTAL
16
37
7
3
3
55
5
6
4
12
6
5
4
10
2
44%
20%
-4%
25%
Colored
Ashe
Bunco me
Rural
Asheville
Burke
Clay
Henderson
Rural
Hendersonville
Macon
Madison
Mitchell
Wilkes
Rural
N. Wilkesboro
Jackson
Watauga
PER CENT OF TOTAL
Source: Biennial Report,
IO
8
IO
I I
3
17
9
5
2
5
2
4
4
4
6
2
r6
10
2
2
2
3
52%
1910-1912.
4 0/
10
�178 / Part II: A Changing Society
Cullowhee institution was able to offer; but the two former
were preparing teachers for academies, city schools, and some
of the colleges. He wrote: "Our sphere, while an humbler one,
most largely affects the great body of public school children
outside of the towns. Our specific work is to prepare teachers
for the rural and village elementary schools, and there is no
other State institution, so far as we know, that is doing this to
any appreciable extent .... It is just as necessary that normal
instruction of teachers be provided for as that the term of rural
public schools should be lengthened. 'As is the teacher, so is
the school.' ''
The curriculum was that of the secondary school with teacher
training courses added. The academic instruction included
spelling and defining, arithmetic, grammar, composition, English
literature, elementary algebra, United States history, North
Carolina history, civil government, political and physical
geography, physiology and hygiene, physics, and elementary
Latin. The professional work consisted of theory and practice
of teaching, principles of education, history of education,
psychology applied to teaching, lectures, and professional
reading. From this beginning the school grew to be Western
Carolina University, discussed earlier.
A new building was completed at Cullowhee for the Normal
department in 1904, most of the $7,500 required having been
subscribed by private individuals. It was located in a wooded
tract of about three and one-fourth acres contributed by David
Rogers and named in his honor "Rogers Park." The demand
for graduates was so great that it could not be met. A summer
school was held in the summer of 1904 with a faculty of seven,
including E. P. Moses. Teachers from Graham, Clay, Macon,
Haywood, and Transylvania counties as well as from Jackson
attended and Madison hoped to make the summer school a
permanent feature of the school's work. He asked that the annual
appropriation for succeeding years include funds for summer
schools on a larger scale. He ended his report for 1904 with the
assurance that the "patriotic legislators" would encourage in
every way the work which "means so much in this promising,
yet long-neglected section of our State."
Madison remarked in the 1904 report that there were
"demands for the establishment of similar institutions in other
parts of the state," and he encouraged the legislature to continue
and to enlarge provisions for training young men and women
�Teacher Education / 179
for teaching in the rural and village elementary schools. This
advice had already been acted upon by the General Assembly in
1903. In 1902 Principal Madison had met Blanford Barnard
Dougherty, co-principal with his brother, Dauphin Disco, of
the Watauga Academy in Boone. The two brothers had built
the academy, 1899-1900, furnishing half the money from their
own assets and cash. The rest was contributed by citizens in the
area as a result of a fund-raising campaign that reached across
the county, the gifts ranging from twenty-five cents to the
$soo from Moses H. Cone, industrialist, who had a summer home
in Blowing Rock. The total of the contributions was said to
be near $1100. B. B. Dougherty had degrees from CarsonNewman College and from the state university, while Dauphin
Disco Dougherty had his bachelor's degree from Wake Forest
College, which the younger brother had also attended for one
year. Both brothers had been teachers in academies and in Holly
Springs College. Edwin A. Alderman had been president of
the state university when Blanford Dougherty was a student
there, and M. C. S. Noble had been Professor of Pedagogy.
Both no doubt influenced the young man's interest in teacher
training, as did his employment in the summer of 1899 holding
institutes in eight counties along the Blue Ridge. Blanford
Dougherty was county superintendent of Watauga County
at the time the new academy was built, and from the beginning
some of Watauga Academy's graduates became teachers. So
when he met Robert Lee Madison in the summer of 1902 while
both were serving as instructors in the summer school at Mars
Hill College, he learned about Cullowhee's appropriation from
the state for the support of a normal department. He plied
Madison with questions about how to get state aid for teacher
training, and by the end of the summer he had fixed his determination on turning Watauga Academy into a teacher-training
school with state support. Captain Edward F. Lovill wrote
a bill and Dougherty himself went to Raleigh to present his
case- his first visit to the state legislature. He later told about
his harrowing experiences. Governor Aycock, President Mciver
of the Normal and Industrial College, the president of the state
university, and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction
were all against starting a new training school. Perhaps they
remembered how ineffective the eight normal schools of the
188o's had been. After William Newland of Lenoir agreed to
present the bill, he and Dougherty waited three weeks to get
�I
8o / Part II: A Changing Society
a hearing before the Committee on Education. That committee
reported unfavorably, but a favorable minority report made it
possible to place the Newland Bill before the General Assembly.
Dougherty made an hour-long speech to a joint session, and the
House passed the bill, but the Senate vote was a tie. Clyde Hoey,
a senator from Cleveland County, the presiding officer in the
Senate at the time, voted in favor of the measure and thus it
passed. Henceforth Blanford Dougherty was to visit Raleigh
during the sessions of every General Assembly until his retirement
as president of Appalachian State Teachers College in 1954.
The school, to be called the Appalachian Training School, would
receive an appropriation of $I 500 for a building, when a like
amount had been paid by private individuals, and an annual
payment of$2ooo for teachers' salaries and maintenance. Tuition
was to be free to all who would sign a pledge to teach two years
in the public schools of North Carolina. Nowhere in the act
was Watauga Academy mentioned. The board of trustees for
Appalachian Training School, members of which were appointed
in the law, were to open books for subscriptions to the building
fund and to choose a site for the training school. Several communities in three counties competed for the new school and
made offers of land, money, and buildings. Boone offered $1000
and the use of Watauga Academy, and the board of trustees
voted to make Boone the permanent location of the school, with
Watauga Academy serving as its first home. This school became
Appalachian State University in 1967.
Friends of Cullowhee in the General Assembly favored the
passage of the Newland Act, and from 1903 until 1912 when
Madison's first administration ended, he and Dougherty cooperated in winning support for the two training schools.
(Cullowhee's name was changed in 1905 to Cullowhee Normal
and Industrial School.) In 1908 the legislature voted to establish
a third training school for teachers in the eastern part of the
state at Greenville. A number of efforts were made from time
to time to abolish both of the western schools and to establish
one more centrally located in or near Asheville. The greatest
threat came in I9II when Dr. George T. Winston, former
president of the state university and the State Agricultural and
Mechanical College, upon his retirement to Asheville became
a spokesman for a training school in Asheville and introduced
a bill in the General Assembly to establish in Asheville a western
training school. Both Dougherty and Madison were in Raleigh
�Teacher Education
I
181
working against Winston's measure and it was rejected by the
Appropriations Committee. Again an effort was made in 1915
when Governor Locke Craig, a resident of Asheville, in his
gubernatorial address asked the General Assembly to establish
in the western part of the state a school similar to the one at
Greenville. Craig completely ignored the two existing training
schools, but it was understood that he would have the new
institution absorb the ones at Cullowhee and Boone. The lawmakers rejected the proposal by a slight majority.
The trustees of the Appalachian Training School elected
B. B. Dougherty Superintendent and D. D. Dougherty Principal.
There were at the beginning four other faculty members, one
of whom was Mrs. D. D. Dougherty. Three terms were held,
a three-month fall term, a spring one of four months, and one
in the summer of two months. The public school of Boone
was incorporated in the training school and all between the
ages of six and twenty-one could attend the free term in the
fall. They might attend the other terms by paying a small fee.
Students from a distance were given room and board at twentyfive cents per day.
In the suburbs of Boone near the Watauga Academy a
tract of four and one-half acres was purchased for $212.50, and
a brick building (which continued in use until it was demolished
in 1967 to make way for a new administration building) was
erected at the cost of $7000, of which $3000 was contributed
by three hundred people, many of them poor. The building
consisted of four classrooms, a library, office, music room, art
room, and auditorium. Three hundred twenty-four students
attended during the first year, one hundred ninety being public
school teachers. Fifty-one came from a distance and paid tuition.
In 1907 the General Assembly provided for rural public
high schools, but it was many years before such were established
in Western North Carolina and the two training schools continued
to offer high school subjects with the teacher training superimposed. In 1917 a State Educational Commission was created
by law to investigate various features of public education. The
commission was authorized by the statute to call upon any
source for aid, and the General Education Board was asked for
advice. The study of North Carolina's schools was placed in
the hands of Dr. Frank P. Bachman, working in cooperation
with Dr. Wallace Buttruch, president, and Dr. Abraham Flexner,
secretary of the General Education Board. Concerning Cullowhee
�I
82 / Part II: A Changing Society
Boys and girls were segregated at Appalachian Training School. The building on
the left was the original Watauga Academy
Normal and Appalachian Training School, the report concluded
that these were "of non-standard type which must for the present
necessarily be of lower grade, that is, admit students who have
less than a standard four-year high school course." This, the
commission believed necessary because, they said, "only three
counties in the western part of the state, Cherokee, Buncombe,
and Haywood, had standard high schools." The recommendation
of the commission was that henceforth both training schools
leave all high school instruction to such high schools as should
be established in the mountain sections and concentrate on
normal school work for elementary teachers. The commission
urged, "[These schools] should admit students who have completed the seventh grade of elementary schools and graduates
of non-standard high schools, and give them a two, three, or
four year course planned to meet the needs of elementary teachers.
No graduates from standard high schools should be admitted;
such graduates would go to Chapel Hill, to Greensboro, or to
Greenville, or to private colleges offering courses in education . . ..
Both schools are well located to serve their respective sections,
and if properly developed and equipped should graduate at
least 100 elementary teachers a year."
�Teacher Education / I 83
During the next decade the histories of the two schools were
roughly parallel, because legislative action applied to both
of them. Cullowhee State Normal and Industrial School had
been upgrading its curriculum for several years, and by the
academic year I9I7-I9I8 it was offering two years of college
work. In 1921-1922 the high school had separated from the
college, although it remained on the same campus. Two years
later a plan was inaugurated to have the high school absorbed
by the local school system under the joint sponsorship of the
normal school and the county board of education. The local
public school after that time served as a laboratory and practice
center for the college.
Governor Cameron Morrison showed an interest in the
two western schools and pledged his support for an increased
appropriation and expansion of their programs. In 1921 the
General Assembly made Appalachian a standard two-year
normal. There, as at Cullowhee, the elementary and secondary
schools would be sponsored jointly by the county board of
education and the normal school. Physical plants and enrollments
grew, and in 1925 the legislature granted new charters to both
institutions and changed their names to Appalachian State
Normal School and Cullowhee State Normal School. Enrollment
continued to increase and the administrations of both began to
plan ways to expand the usefulness of the normal schools to the
areas they served. The tendency of normal schools in the nation
was to expand to four-year college programs, as state requirements
for the education of teachers were advanced. Consequently
the General Assembly in 1929 again changed the names of the
schools, to Appalachian State Teachers College and Western
Carolina Teachers College. The two were now qualified to
educate teachers for high schools and were admitted to membership in the American Association of Teachers Colleges, later
renamed the American Association of Colleges for Teacher
Education. Eventually both were accredited by the Southern
Association of Colleges and Schools. Their further development
into multi-purpose universities was discussed in a preceeding
chapter.
�CHAPTER
NINE
From the Heart) the Hand)
and the Head
To create handicrafts that are beautiful satisfies a basic human
need. Handicrafts arc creative, often emotionally pleasurable.
They are popular, cherished by their collectors and purchasers.
They recreate artifacts of the past and they become the art works
of the present and the future. They are usually the product of
the leisure time of their craftcrs. They are wonderful as an
avocation. Their sale brings added money, like surplus value,
to their creators, but it seldom brings in an income sufficient to
enable their makers to lead a good life. Handicrafts are, however, the products of the heart, the hand, and the head.
When people moved into the mountains, "took up land,"
built their cabins, made their homes, they had to be self-sufficient.
For their necessities and to satisfy their creative urges they
fostered and developed their handicrafts. They had to furnish
their mountain homes or log cabins with wooden articles and
furniture hand crafted from the native forest. They had to
make their beds, tables, chairs - all of their furniture. These
articles of wooden furniture were necessary, useful, and often
artistic. Corn had many uses. Cornmeal was a useful food for
people; corn fed livestock; corn shucks were used for bed ticks,
to braid collars for mules and horses, to make mats for the cabin
door-way and floor, and to make dolls for girls and toys for
children. Chair covers were made from corn shucks, pipes
from corncobs and reeds.
�From the Heart, the Hand, and the Head / 185
Basket making required skill and ingenuity. Baskets were
made of oak splits, willow switches, or wild honeysuckle vine.
They were used for barter, and the art of basket making was
passed on from father to son.
Many mountain craftsmen made musical instruments: banjos,
fiddles, .guitars, dulcimers, recorders, and shepherds' pipes. The
instruments were necessary for the square dances or "play party
games" or to accompany the singing of old ballads and carols.
Potters' clay or kaolin was plentiful and there were a number
of potteries in which churns, crocks, jugs, plates, pitchers,
and dishes were made. Moist clay was held against the potter's
kick-wheel and clay was shaped into the desired piece. These
shaped pieces were then baked in kilns.
There were iron mines and forges called bloomeries. In 1788
the North Carolina legislature passed a law granting three
thousand acres of cultivable land to anyone who would build
a forge and carry on iron making. These bloomeries were necessary for making iron for horse shoes, kettles, plows, the metal
parts of wagons. Three early forges were in Buncombe County,
and in 1820 mining began at Cranberry. The crude iron was
processed at the mine into bars. The bars were then bound together and hauled by oxcarts to blacksmiths. The pioneer blacksmiths made kettles, cranes, and irons for fireplaces, axes, knives,
nails, rifle barrels, and many farm tools. For generations members
of the same families were famous blacksmiths and gunsmiths,
like the members of the Boone family of Burnsville who have
made artistic pieces of wrought iron. Daniel Boone VI of Burnsville did wrought iron work for the Williamsburg restoration
and ornamental iron work for the Hound Ears Lodge.
Many mountaineers raised sheep, and most women carded
and spun the wool and wove the cloth for use in the house and
for clothing for all members of the family. Many of them took
pride in the beautiful bedspreads that they wove, and every
woman wanted at least one fancy quilt. Pieces of colored cloth
were woven, saved, and then pieced into the designs of these
quilts, which were and still are made in many pretty patterns.
The bedspreads or coverlets often called "kiverlids" were made
of wool woven on to a flax or cotton warp. They were dyed
into lovely soft colors with home-made vegetable dyes.
With the coming of the railroads and the highways the
mountain handicrafts declined. Cheap cotton cloth largely
�I
86 / Part II: A Changing Society
supplanted handwoven materials; and metal tools, utensils,
and objects could be bought from hardware stores more cheaply
and in greater variety than they could be made by village blacksmiths. Although mountain families had little cash, they bartered
eggs, chickens, dried fruit, herbs, furs, cordwood, galax leaves
for these "storebought" articles. Only a few women continued
to weave. The old women forgot how to read "drafts" (pattern
drawings) and to make the old familiar patterns.
The art, the craft, the skill requisite for weaving cloth and
designing quilts and coverlets were disappearing and being
lost in North Carolina when in 1895 Miss Frances Goodrich
was presented a forty-year-old coverlet as a gift. With the
coverlet was a "draft" for the "Double Bowknot" pattern.
Miss Goodrich, an Ohioan, and a woman companion were
living in Brittain's Cove twelve miles north of Asheville and
running a school there. These women were interested in the
social and cultural welfare of the mountain people. Miss Goodrich
was much impressed by the beauty of the coverlet. She sent it
to friends in the North and asked if there would be a market
for artistic handicrafts like coverlets, quilts, and hand-woven
materials. When she learned that there was an avid market,
particularly for woven items, she organized the women in the
neighborhood. They located old looms and experienced weavers,
especially the ones who knew how to do vegetable dyeing.
Younger women began to learn to weave from the older ones,
and the coverlets woven in the mountain homes and cabins
found a ready sale.
Miss Goodrich set up a roadside market near Marshall on
the main highway leading from Tennessee to South Carolina.
I-lere a man named Allan had had a stand for drovers during the
turnpike days. He had pens for the stock and accommodations
for the drovers. As a result Miss Goodrich chose the name the
Allanstand Cottage Industries. An annual exhibit of Allanstand
Crafts was held in Asheville, and in 1917 a permanent salesroom
was opened in that city to show these products, particularly
to the well-to-do visitors who were interested in creative crafts.
This venture was so successful that the Allanstand Cottage
Industries were incorporated. Except for a small dividend to
the stockholders, the profits were to go to the craftswomen
and craftsmen of the mountains. In 1931 Miss Goodrich gave
the Allanstand Industries to the Southern Highlands Handicraft
Guild.
�From the Heart, the Hand, and the Head / 187
Miss Goodrich thus was a pioneer in popularizing and preserving mountain crafts. Her aims were to give paying work to
women whose homes were too isolated to enable them to market
their wares; to give these mountain women a new hope and a
new interest; to save from extinction the old crafts and to produce
artifacts of beauty and value. In addition to coverlets, bedspreads,
quilts, the Allanstand Industries produced and sold table runners,
mats, pillow and dresser covers.
Mrs. George W. Vanderbilt was interested in mountain
people. To aid some of them to secure economic competence,
she established a school in Biltmore Village shortly after 1900.
She employed Miss Eleanor P. Vance and Miss Charlotte Yale
to teach the people carding, spinning, weaving, dyeing fabrics
suitable for men's suits. The original intent was to secure the
wool from the sheep on Biltmore Estate and to have the wool
prepared for weaving in the mountain homes. The woven
product was rough. Misses Vance and Yale went to the British
Isles to study the production processes used there. As a result
the wool for the Biltmore Homespun cloth was imported,
and the Biltmore suiting fabrics, exceptional in beauty and
wearing quality, were woven locally and with pride. The
weaving department of the industries grew rapidly. It was
under Mrs. Vanderbilt's personal care until it grew to such
size that commercialization was needed. Mr. Fred L. Seely of
Asheville bought the industries and moved the establishment
and personnel to the site on Sunset Mountain near Grove Park
Inn where it has remained. This weaving industry became the
largest project of its kind in the world.
In the summer of 1914 Rufus Morgan founded the Appalachian School. During the summer of 1913 he had visited
every home in the neighborhood. In those homes he found
rare old coverlets, blankets, Iinsey-woolsey, and jeans- all
hand woven. In the smoke houses and outbuildings were the
relics of handhewn looms and spinning wheels. These had been
discarded when "store-bought" cloth became readily available.
In the home of Aunt Susan Phillips he found a spinning wheel
and a loom still being used for weaving. There were many
pattern coverlets which she had woven before her eyes had
given out. Because of Aunt Susan Phillips and Aunt Cumi
Woody, Morgan decided to include hand work in his program
of instruction. He wished to train the heart, the hand, and the
head, and hand weaving fitted admirably into his scheme. On
�188 J Part II: A Changing Society
Demonstration of spinning and weaving at the Brinegar cabin on the
Blue Ridge Parkway
NATIONAL PARK SERVI CE
PHOTOS
one of his trips to Valle Crucis he found a comparatively young
woman who was weaving the patterns and designs of her ancestors but was adapting them to the needs of the present day. This
young woman, Mrs. Finley Mast, promised to teach Rufus
Morgan's sister Lucy Morgan to weave. Miss Lucy was then a
student in a Michigan teachers' college. Rufus Morgan urged
his sister to come, to learn weaving from Mrs. Mast, and to
teach it at Penland at the institution Morgan had named Appalachian School. Miss Lucy came. In 1923 she learned weaving
and began to teach it, both to the girls in the school and to the
older women in the community. There was a two-fold purpose
in teaching the people to w eave: to perpetuate this native craft
and to provide for the people a more abundant living. New
efficient looms were taken to the homes of the mountain women
and they soon wove "log cabin" rugs. Miss Lucy had to walk
to each home to teach the women to warp, beam, and "thread
up." By 1925 roads had been built and she could drive in her
truck to the homes of the weavers. Next a weaving house was
established, and it was difficult to furnish work for all who
applied for it. Then Miss Morgan and Miss Burt (who had succeeded Rufus Morgan) had to market and sell the woven
products. In 1924 there was a booth at the State Fair in which
Miss Morgan sat weaving. The State Department of Vocational
Education became interested and employed her as a vocational
�From the Heart, the Hand, and the Head / 189
education teacher. She received federal assistance for vocational
training for women and girls. Also $1400 worth of woven
goods was sold at the Episcopal Church convention in New
Orleans. She went to Chicago and studied for nine weeks under
Mr. Edward F. Worst, learning very complicated weaving.
Shortly afterward, in 1928, a pottery department was added
to the Weaving Institute. "Proff" Koch ofChapel Hill (director
of the North Carolina Playmakers) christened the organization
"the Penland Weavers and Potters." In 1928, $2400 worth of
goods was sold at the Episcopal convention and $r8,ooo worth
during the year 1929.
The Penland School was incorporated in 1929 as a non-profit
educational institution. It has six large buildings and a number of
smaller ones valued years ago at $240,000. In 1930 Miss Morgan
learned to make pewter plates and acquired a set of molds. Next
she exhibited these mountain products at the Chicago World's
Fair in 1933 and 1934. Here were sold all of the craft products
that had accumulated during the depression years. The school
course now includes weaving, ceramics, metal work, enameling,
woodworking, and design. Students have come to Penland
from every state in the Union and from sixty foreign countries.
In Tryon the Mountain Industries operated by Mrs. George
Stone, the "little lady of mountain industries," produce beautiful
rugs, splint baskets, chairs, porch furniture, and homespun
textiles. Mrs. Stone rendered a valuable service in creating a
demand for the products of the crude looms and tools of mountain
craftsmen. George Stone is manager of the Appalachian Hand
Weavers. In I 9 I 5 Miss Eleanor Vance and Miss Charlotte Yale
left Biltmore to start the Toy House in Tryon. They trained
boys and girls to make toys from native wood: turning, carving,
and painting them by hand. Miniature soldiers, animals, and
groups were among their products. The Blue Ridge Weavers
Shop was started by Mr. and Mrs. George Cathey. A hand
weavers' shop sells the popular homespuns woven in Tryon.
Another interesting handicraft industry was the Spinning
Wheel founded by Miss Clementine Douglas, a native of Florida
and a graduate of Pratt Institute in New York. Miss Douglas
had taught in Wellesley, Massachusetts, in New York City,
and for three summers had worked at a settlement school in
Harlan County, Kentucky. In 1927 she came to Saluda, then to
Asheville and set up at Beaver Lake a weaving industry which
was appropriately named the Spinning Wheel. Work was done in
�190
J Part II: A Changing Society
The insignia of the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild
The old draft of the "Lover's Knot" pattern discovered by John Goodwin. H ere it
is called" Summer and Winter." This kind of draft, preserved in a f ew family
archives has made possible the recreation of old w eaving patterns.
Draft for Lover's Knot Coverlet ( Instructions to the weaver)
"The two forward Shafts carries half the yarn, to put in your binding thread
you mustt tread the two forward shafts, and the fourth back ones, and the
blue to be put in by the draft it ought to be slaid low hang your treaddles,
one after the other beginning with the forward shaft and wright hand
treaddles."
�From the Heart, the Hand, and the Head /
The Lover's Knot, that has been traced to Scotland in the 1750's, is john
Goodwin's most popular pattern
191
�192 / Part II: A Changing Society
her loom room and in homes in the area. She visited the homes,
superivising the work, taking materials and picking up finished
pieces, and encouraging the weavers. She purchased an old log
cabin in the Reems Creek community, had it moved, and made
an attractive place for a salesroom. Subsequently she moved the
Spinning Wheel industry to the Hendersonville Road a few
miles south of Asheville, where a log house was used for Miss
Douglas' home and attached salesroom. Later she sold the industry, and the new owners discontinued the weaving and ran
the Spinning Wheel as a sales center for handicrafts.
Today handcrafted articles from Western North Carolina
are nationally known and handicrafts are flourishing. Penland,
the John C. Campbell Folk School, and the Crossnore School
still teach weaving. The fame of the Penland School is worldwide.
Visitors come from many states and countries and all are inspired
by the excellence, the variety, and the creativity of the craftsmen.
Particularly noteworthy has been the woodcarving at the John
C. Campbell Folk School. Mrs. Campbell and Mrs. Muriel
Martin, director of handicrafts for twenty-five years, taught
those in the neighborhood and at the school to "whittle with a
purpose": to carve crowing roosters, laughing mules, flying
birds, soaring angels, a four-foot high St. Francis, and the figures
for Christmas creches. Penland and the John C. Campbell
Folk School are production centers as well as schools. They
offer short courses in crafts as well as year-round craft programs.
In 1928 Mrs. John C. Campbell took the lead in organizing
the Southern Highlands Handicraft Guild. More than twenty
mountain schools and community centers interested in crafts
were included among the charter members. This guild established
standards for handicrafts and markets the products in selected
craft centers.
The V anderbilts are gone, but the Biltmore Homespun
shops continue to weave beautiful fabrics for men's and women's
suits. The Valhalla Weavers of Tryon weave cloth for suits
and for neckties. At Penland Ronald Cruikshank directs the
weaving of tapestries, knee blankets, and baby blankets.
Among the outstanding and successful craftsmen of Western
North Carolina are the Goodwin Guild Weavers. For six generations members of the family have been weavers of hand crafted
�From the Heart, the Hand, and the Head / 193
designs and materials. In 1951 Mr. John 0. Goodwin, the head
of the family, moved from Virginia to Blowing Rock. Mr.
Goodwin has done field work in collecting 527 different handloom drafts since 1907. He sets up the looms to weave these
designs that have been popular throughout American history
and that are still prized by interior decorators. The looms are
power operated, but skilled craftsmen are required to use the
techniques of the operators of hand looms. Much of the weaving
is done by hand and the weavers have to have hand loom weaving
skill in order to maintain high quality and authenticity. Four
hours are required to make a single-weave coverlet. The most
popular product is a double-woven design, "Lover's Knot,"
which takes sixteen hours to weave. Mr. Goodwin copied the
pattern and created his own "draft" before he became the possessor of a "draft" on yellowed paper that was over one hundred
years old. Other creations are shawls, afghans, place mats,
table cloths, and drapery materials. These are sold nationally
and are cited by American Heritage for their authenticity.
Under the North Carolina Fund for Watauga, Avery,
Mitchell, and Yancey counties a program has been organized
to encourage craftsmen of all four counties to make handcrafted
products: toys, dolls, wood carvings, quilts, coverlets, furniture,
wrought iron, and hand woven articles. The products of these
craftsmen are ingenious and often beautiful. One of their most
famous products is the Bader-Hofecker grandfather clock.
Made of Honduran mohagany, it is lavishly inlaid. Both Glen
Hofecker and William Bader are distinguished artists in wood.
The Blue Ridge Hearthside Crafts Association, a cooperative,
was organized to sell the products. It purchased two prestige
shops, and operates as Creative Crafts.
Special orders come to the various agencies for materials
for historical restorations such as that of the Vance birthplace.
Homespun and woven curtains were needed. There were
draftsmen who could produce them - replicas of those in use
I 50 years ago. President and Mrs. Woodrow Wilson had spent
their honeymoon at Arden, North Carolina. They became
interested in mountain folk - in their welfare and in their
crafts. In 1913 Mrs. Wilson ordered coverlet fabrics for the
Mountain Room in the White House, which she was redecorating. Mrs. Elmeda Walker, who lived near Marshall, was chosen
to weave the fabrics.
�194 / Part II: A Changing Society
Independence Hall in Philadelphia was being restored, and
a request came to Penland School to weave many yards of
green baize material for covering fifteen tables. The material
requested was green homespun dyed with vegetable dyes.
Since Penland did not have the equipment to produce material
in such a quantity, Mrs. John Littlewood of Ashe County dyed
and carded the wool. It was necessary that the cloth be forty-five
inches wide. The Penland looms were made for thirty-six
inch cloth. Therefore the Macomber Company in Massachusetts
built a loom for forty-five inch material. Colonel John Fishback,
Penland weaver, then wove the cloth on the wide loom. Mr.
�From the Heart, the Hand, and the Head / 195
The Woodrow Wilson honeymoon cottage at Arden
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO.
John Mulcahy, specialist in charge of the restoration of Independence Hall, praised the material as being a true reproduction
of that used when the Declaration of Independence was signed.
The making of hooked and braided rugs is another profitable
mountain craft. The rugs are made in the homes of individuals
and groups and also in the handicraft centers like that in Boone.
Rugs are often braided from loopers, by-products bought at
the hosiery mills. Hooked rugs are made at Crossnore and by
the Valhalla Weavers in Tryon. Block prints, silk screens, handknitted, hand-crocheted, and hand-fringed artifacts are made in
many mountain homes.
Richard Chase, the famous folklorist, collector of folk
ballads and tales, author of the Grandfather Tales and the Jack
Tales, rendered an invaluable service to the mountain folk
of Watauga County. He taught them folk songs, folk dances,
folk tales. Also he induced them to make folk toys and handcrafted articles. The money earned by Beech Creek folk for
these toys and creations enabled many Watauga County people
to lead richer, more creative lives and to enjoy greater economic
well-being. Richard Chase has left the mountains but Jack
Guy has taken the lead in continuing his work.
There are mare than two hundred small woodworking
shops in Western North Carolina and in East Tennessee. In
�196 / Part II: A Changing Society
Richard Chase, story teller ,folk singer, author, plays a fretless banjo
ASHEVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PHOTO
Wood carvers illustrate their work at the Asheville Crafts Fair
ASHEVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PHOTO
�From the Heart, the Hand, and the Head / 197
1961 they were organized into the Appalachian Woodworkers.
They make chairs, desks, bookcases, clocks, bedsteads, tables,
bowls, rolling pins, candleholders, and whittled or carved
items. Ed Purdom of Macon County and B. H. Moody of
Blowing Rock made all kinds of furniture and refinished wood
furniture. They designed and made pieces to the customers'
demands. They also made items that they believed would
challenge their creative talents. Ralph Smith of Bryson City
makes pleasing coffee tables. The Woody family near Spruce
Pine have made chairs for I 50 years. They specialize in ladderback chairs. S. P. Mace of Mars Hill and John Barnes ofFranklin
also make ladder-back and other types of chairs. A retired
Baptist minister of Spruce Pine, H. M. Stroup, makes the cabinets
for traditional grandfather and grandmother clocks of cherry,
walnut, or mahogany. He imports the works from Germany.
Many craftsmen specialize in making doll furniture. The miniature pieces are exquisite in both design and workmanship.
John Councill has a woodworking shop at Sands near Boone.
His craftsmen make small wooden items. Bowls, lamp bases,
book ends, gavels are turned out on many a mountain lathe.
Fruit such as grapes, apples, bananas are carved from poplar,
pine, apple, buckeye, cherry, walnut, and birch - all native
woods. Many carvers specialize in carving one item: a pig,
a duck, a squirrel.
Dulcimers, violins, banjos, guitars are still made by mountain
craftsmen. Famous makers of dulcimers are Ed Presnell and the
late Frank Proffitt. Odd S. White of Asheville has made violins
for many years.
When the village blacksmiths were no longer needed to
make guns, tires, axles, hubs for wagons, most of them sought
other occupations. In very few towns can one now find a blacksmith shop. In many a town, however, there is a machine shop
like Gunter's in Spruce Pine. These machine shops can make
or repair almost anything made of metal. Other smiths or
families in which there have been smiths began to forge wrought
iron objects like those used by the pioneers.
Pewter pieces, plates, bowls, trays, candlesticks are made at
Penland and by Dr. and Mrs. Ralph Morgan of Dillsboro. A
number of artisans do beautiful work with copper and brass.
Enameling is an antique art, and the products are popular.
The enamel is applied to a copper base. The copper is worked
into the desired shape, then finely powdered glass is sprinkled
�198 / Part II: A Changing Society
on the piece, after which it is fired in an electric kiln at I 500
degrees fahrenheit. Mrs. Joe Godfrey of Hildebran, who learned
the art at Penland, is one of the gifted enamelists in Western
North Carolina.
Many of the mountain craftsmen make jewelry of silver,
copper, wood, ceramics. Often these jewelers or gemologists
work with the semi-precious stones that are found in the mountains. They cut and polish the stones and design gold, silver,
copper settings for them. Stuart Nye of Asheville became
famous for designing and making silver and copper jewelry
in a dogwood pattern. He designed the first piece in 1933. Now
the craftsmen in the industry he started continue to use this
design and other flower shapes in metal.
Pottery making is one of the oldest crafts known to man.
Pots, pitchers, plates, dishes have been useful, well-nigh essential
to man from the beginning of time. Quite early man learned to
work with damp clay. Eventually he learned to shape it on a
potter's wheel and harden it by heating, ultimately baking it
in kilns. Fine clay from Macon County was ship,O~d to Josiah
Wedgewood in England in 1767. The Penland Pottery existed
in Buncombe County near Candler from 1831 until 1952.
The Pisgah Forest Pottery near the old Penland Pottery makes
pitchers, mugs and other pieces, specializing in a "cameo"
design that looks somewhat like Wedgewood pottery. It was
founded about 1900 by W. B. Stephen and his mother. Today
it is operated by J. T. Case, the grandson of the founder, and
by G. C. Ledbetter. The beautiful coloring, the delicate glazing,
the decorating are all done by hand. Wood from the native
forests is used for all the firing. Another highly successful pottery
is that of Davis P. Brown, called the Brown Pottery, at Arden.
Since long before the advent of the white man, the Cherokees
have made pottery. They make and sell many kinds of dishes,
pots, pitchers, vases that they have made. Lynn Gault is a noted
potter of Brasstown. He and eleven other artists have banded
together and commercially market their products in Gatlinburg,
Tennessee. Just a few miles from the North Carolina line at
Laurel Bloomery in Tennessee is the Iron Mountain Pottery.
This is highly successful and its products are prized by those
who buy them. The industry has provided much needed employment to people of the area.
Dolls have always been popular and doll makers in the mountains are often artistic. Mrs. Orus Sutton of Boone makes dolls
�From the Heart, the Hand, and the Head / 199
Indian potters at Oconalujtee Village
ASHEVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PHOTO
Note the variety of shapes achieved by gifted mountain potters
ASHEVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PHOTO
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Part II: A Changing Society
to resemble their little girl owners. Many mountain craftsmen
make dolls of corn shucks to represent the mountaineers as
caricatured in fiction: long, lean, emaciated. Others make dolls
with bodies of stuffed cloth, and heads and feet of dried apples.
A lovely doll fourteen inches high and called the Mary Crossnore
doll for Dr. Mary Martin Sloop is made by Miss Marian Brown
of Crossnore. These dolls are exquisitely dressed and wear shoes
made from kid gloves.
A number of different kinds of hearth brooms are made
and sold at various gift shops in the mountains. Other mountaineers make leather belts, purses, moccasins. Quite popular and
widely sold all over the mountains at gift shops and fruit stands
are wild fruit delicacies: jars of jellies, jams made of wild strawberries, raspberries, crabapples, wild grapes, and a conserve
from pumpkin.
The value of handicraft products made in North Carolina
annually is over a million dollars. Above and beyond the money,
the creation of these handcrafted articles gives unmeasurable
joy and satisfaction, for who does not enjoy making things
that are beautiful that he and others can enjoy?
�CHAPTER
TEN
Literature
Until shortly before the Civil War the literature about Western
North Carolina was not different from that of the frontier.
About I 8 58 there began the discovery of the region; and Western
North Carolina became a rich field for journalists, writers of
local color, folklorists, fictionists. These writers began to exploit
the peculiar language, customs, manners, and humor of the
mountain people.
Visitors were impressed by the contrasts with low-country
life and manners. Writers and tourists spread superficial accounts
of mountain life. People seeing a run-down mountain cabin
still say, "Look, there's a typical mountain home." By far the
majority of the mountain people, however, live in comfortable
homes. The minority live in shacks and suffer from penury and
lack of opportunity. What is the hope for the "poor mountaineers"? Some advocates urge that the younger people leave the
mountains and seek jobs in industrial plants in the lowlands.
If so, they may well become badly adjusted slum dwellers and
renters, and will often be recipients of welfare aid. Others advocate
that industry be brought to the mountains so that hill people
can live on their own land, drive into a neighboring town,
work in a local factory, and operate their farms after working
hours. This crisis of the spirit for the mountaineer in the face
of the modern world has been largely neglected by the literature
of the region to the present day. Our local literature, the subject
of this chapter, is largely concerned with the past and the picturesque, with some mixture of the grotesque. Some of the best
is strictly personal.
201
�202 / Part II: A Changing Society
It is illuminating to consider the mountaineer as he has been
treated by writers of fiction. Notable authors have written
about Western North Carolina and mountain life, and foremost
among them is Thomas Wolfe. Wolfe was both a Western
North Carolina writer and a writer about his region. No one
has written more graphically and more intimately about his
land and his people, and no writer from North Carolina has
ever achieved the fame and the respect accorded to Wolfe. Born
October 3, 1900, he ever afterwards celebrated the beauty of
October in "Old Catawba." His father, William Oliver Wolfe,
was originally a Pennsylvanian, but his mother, Julia Westall
Wolfe, was a mountaineer of mountaineers. She was related
to the Westall, Penland, and Patton families whose members
lived all over the mountains.
Wolfe had an abnormally prolonged infantile relationship
dominated by his mother. He was not weaned until he was
almost four, and he had beautiful curls to his shoulder. His
mother would not let them be cut until he was nine. In addition
to being overly protective, she must have had an almost "insane
nigardliness" and an insatiate love of property. Her stinginess
warped the social attitudes of the sensitive boy. He was selfconscious also about the lower middle class status of his family.
He lived with his mother at the Old Kentucky Home boarding
house at 48 Spruce Street. His father, a stonecutter, lived in
another house. W. 0. Wolfe had his faults, but he was a man
with gargantuan appetites and a generous soul. There must
have been a great contrast between the parsimony of Mrs.
Wolfe and the open-handedness ofher husband. This dichotomy
in the family possibly caused Tom to begin his search for a
spiritual father whom he found in Maxwell Perkins. Tom's
best writing is about Asheville and its people. They are seen
through the tortured eyes of a sensitive boy. Wolfe's major
works are Look Homeward, Angel (1929), Of Time and The River
(1935), From Death to Morning (1935), The Story of a Novel (1936),
The Web and the Rock (1939), You Can't Go Home Again (1940),
and The Hills Beyond (1941).
Only a part of Wolfe's work is about the mountains and
his people, but he has given the most graphic account extant
of family life and relationships among Asheville people. In
Look Homeward, Angel and The Web and the Rock he described
his boyhood, but perhaps the most complete account of mountain
life appears in the fragment of a novel, The Hills Beyond, that
�Literature /
203
"My Old Kentucky Home," where Thomas Wolfe lived
ASHEVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PHOTO
w as to be a history of North Carolina and of his family. The
family is fictional, of course, but it resembles a mountain family .
The narrative stops in 188o, twenty years before Wolfe's birth.
He was revolted by the bleakness of his environment, and he
was enthralled by trains because the sound of a train whistle
w as a symbol of escape. H e had contempt for his mother's people,
the m ountaineers, because they were the familiar and the known,
but h e sympathized with their loneliness, the barrenness of
their lives, and like them, he saw both the loneliness and the
grandeur of mountain life, its beauty and its sordidness. His
writings about the hillmen contain both ro mance and realism.
H e admired their courage and their independen ce, but h e
lam ented the fact that they were old and w orn out by middle
age by their hopeless struggle against their environment. H e
objected to the romantic stories of mountain life by writers
like John Fox, Jr. The great mountain b arrier that " rimmed
in life" w as the determining influence upon the destiny of the
people. Wolfe w as a rebel against the superstition and romanticism
of the South, but he admired the people for their courage and
their pro ud history.
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Part II: A Changing Society
His descriptions of his father, his mother, his brothers and
his sisters arc so real that the reader feels like one of the family
sitting before the fire and hearing tales of birth, death, ghosts,
superstitions, and gossip - such tales as epitomize the literature
and history of the mountain people. To Wolfe the mountain
man was racially pure, clannish, isolated, a hard drinker, quick
to fight, prone to violence, cruel, eager to engage in lawsuits,
and a sharp, conniving trader.
Wolfe remembered his mother's talk and her tales. He used
with unerring skill the dialect formerly spoken by mountain
people but now largely archaic. He described satirically the
fundamentalism, Calvinism, puritanism, and primitive fatalism
of their religion: their belief in a jealous and a wrathful God,
in Hell-fire and damnation. They believed also that fiddle music
and dancing were sinful. They had a false morality. A woman
made her relatives swear not to let the undertaker see her unclothed; another said she would rather see her daughter dead
than married to a drunkard. Divorced women were virtually
outcasts.
Wolfe believed that hill people should not become outmigrants, that those who left the hills were destroyed by the
degeneracy, the immorality, the prostitution, and the poverty
of life in the slums of cities. Not only were they exploited but
they lost the freedom and the healthy amusements of the hillmen.
Yet he described them unfalteringly as the "poor white litter of
the hills"; as tall, gaunt, slatternly, with snuff juice rolling down
their chins. They might be filthy, degraded, incestuous, infested
with rickets and pellagra; but they had a pride, an independence,
a virility, a zest for life. In his tales he recreated the life of a folk.
Critics said that Wolfe was too verbose, too incoherent,
too autobiographical, that his words burst like a pent up flood,
but William Faulkner said he might have become the greatest
of Southern writers. Certainly he was a man to "match the
mountains," the greatest writer produced by North Carolina.
He felt that literature was a transcript of life, and he sought to
transcribe the life of his people: his family with their weaknesses
and peculiarities, his Asheville neighbors with all their selfishness
and materialism. He described the slatternly people gaping at
strangers, the gaunt farmer, the dawdling Negroes, the fire and
brimstone preachers, the resort-town cupidity of the citizens
of Asheville, famed for its loveliness but ruined by pettiness
and greed. He described the frenzy of the "boom" as a result
�Literature /
205
of which everyone was going to get rich. But alas after the
"boom" there was the "bust" and a desert of frustrated hopes
and ambitions. He lamented the commercialization, the unsightly
billboards, the fencing in of natural attractions, the cheap tourist
honky-tonks, the bank president who became a convict, the
mayor who misused city funds and committed suicide.
Wolfe was called a "Judas Iscariot, a Benedict Arnold, ...
Caesar's Brutus, the bird that fouls its own nest, ... a viper
that an innocent populace had nurtured, ... an unnatural
ghoul to whom nothing is sacred, not even the tombs of the
honored dead, ... a vulture, ... a jackass, ... a baboon." Yet
Thomas Wolfe did return to Asheville seven years after the
publication of Look Homeward, Angel, and he was welcomed
with adulation. Today when his name is mentioned in Asheville,
faces become rapt, eyes glow, shoulders straighten, for Thomas
Wolfe was one of their own.
The most distinguished figure ever to come out of Western
North Carolina was Zebulon Baird Vance- governor, senator,
fabulist. Thomas Wolfe created a character and family remarkably
similar to Vance and his family. This character was Zachariah
Joyner. Wolfe gave a realistic, tongue-in-cheek account of the
settlement of the West and the political conflict between the
East and the West. Old Catawba was of course North Carolina.
The Hills Beyond is a fictional-historical analogy. Wolfe satirized
the selfish control of state appropriations by the East, its claim
to superiority on the grounds of birth, breeding, family, and
its descent from the "lost colonists," pointing out that the state
was more distinguished for its homespun quality than for its
aristocratic ancestry. Zachariah Joyner, a country lawyer from
the West, was elected governor in 1858. He attacked the "humbug
aristocracy" of the East, asserting that most early settlers had
come to eastern North Carolina because the English jails were
full and to keep from being hanged. Wolfe asserted that under
Joyner (Vance) the "representatives of privilege" had to bow
before the rights of humanity, that they should stop thinking
about where they came from and think about where they were
going. He described the Joyner family, their ancestry, the
patriarchal Bear Joyner, quoting myths, legends, stories about
"Bear" and Zach. These anecdotes are typical of mountain
humor that Wolfe learned in his youth. Many of them are in
the folklore about Vance. Wolfe said that to the hillmen Joyner
(Vance) was not only their Lincoln but their Paul Bunyan and
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Part II: A Changing Society
Davy Crockett in one. He was a "living prophecy of all that they
might wish to be," of what they might become.
Wolfe satirized the mountain attitude toward liquor - that
none was bad, that some was just better- and also the fundamentalist attitude that "gettin' drunk" was a cardinal sin- worse
than murder. Bear Joyner said that one man had killed another.
Zach was relieved; he had believed that the man had done
something really bad like "gettin' drunk." He took a dig at
mountain honesty and morality when Bear asked young Zach
if he had watered the milk, sanded the sugar, fixed the scales.
When Zach answered in the affirmative, his father said that they
would then have family prayers.
Speaking through Joyner, Wolfe wrote with great indignation
of the desecration of the mountains by lumbermen, saying that
"some vast destructive 'suck' ... some compulsive greed had
been at work: the whole region had been sucked and gutted ...
denuded of its primeval treasures." Then he showed his resentment of the disparaging treatment of the mountain people by
"exultant Ph.D.'s," tourists, "consecrated school marms from
the North," social service workers. He did not feel that the hill
people should be subjected to the condescending efforts of uplifters and dogooders.
Wolfe criticized lawyers and the law. Bear Joyner said that
he would make a lawyer out of his son because he wouldn't
work. Wolfe asserted that the lawyers and the courts were
not used to uphold the law but to subvert it for "personal
advantage and private profit." This is perhaps a nearly justified
criticism of our legal system. Equally he despised the materialism
of business men who devoted their lives to the pursuit of the
almighty dollar and who objected to spending money for
education because of resultant higher taxes.
Wolfe admired the courage of mountain people but he
felt that the veneration of the Civil War was useless and excessive.
Finally in "the Battle of Hogwart Heights" he made fun of
aristocratic pretensions. The Hills Beyond reveals Wolfe's great
gifts as a satirist and a mountain humorist.
There is much travel literature about Western North Carolina.
Colonel William Byrd in 1728 described the beauty of the
mountains. Colonel Henry Timberlake wrote his memoirs
�Literature / 207
in 1765; William Bartram (1773), Andre Michaux (1792),
and the Reverend Francis Asbury (1821) gave detailed accounts
of their travels. James K. Paulding wrote Letters from the South
(1817); J. W. McClung, Sketches of Western Adventure (1832),
Joseph Pratt, Incidents of Border Life (1839). ]. G. M. Ramsey
in his Annals of Tennessee (1853) wrote also of Western North
Carolina. William Gilmore Simms, the famous South Carolina
historical novelist, set parts of three books in Western North
Carolina locales. James Weir's novels are also set in this region.
Robert Strange in Eoneguski (1 839) wrote a novel of the Cherokees. This was the first novel written by a North Carolinian
with scenes within the state. He felt that the history, customs,
people of North Carolina could provide scenes and episodes,
exciting, interesting, and suitable for fiction. This novel deals
with the crossing of the mountains, the conflict with the Cherokees, and Andrew Jackson's fight with the Creeks. Calvin H.
Wiley, first state superintendent of schools, planned three novels:
Alamance, about the Regulation; Roanoke, about Eastern North
Carolina; and Buncombe, about Western North Carolina, and
he compiled a series of North Carolina Readers which were used
in the state. Other early writers about Western North Carolina
were Frances Hodgson Burnett with her Esmeralda and Lodusky;
Constance Fenimore Woolson with her Up in the Blue Ridge
and For the Mayor; and Mary Greenway McClelland, author
of Oblivion. John Cairns, Jr., son of the proprietor of the Reems
Creek Woolen Mills, was one of the nation's most eminent
ornithologists. His articles were published in the best known
scientific journals of the nineteenth century.
The Fisher River Sketches of Harden E. Taliaferro preserve
the way of life and the dialect used by the first settlers of Surry
County and their descendants. These stories were enacted and
told in the 182o's, written down in 1859. The "musters" were
among the interesting occurrences described. Musters were semiannual, in May and November, and the old "Revolutionaries"
were present: the "capting," "leftenant," "sarjent," and all
the "ossifers." "They knowed a thing or two about military
tacktucks." At the musters there was always plenty of "knockem- stiff" whiskey. On one occasion Hamp Hudson was supposed
to supply the refreshments, but while he was distilling the brew
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Part II: A Changing Society
his dog Famus fell into the mash tub and was distilled. When
Hamp reported this to the musterers their faces fell, but after
drilling they became so thirsty that they drank all of Hamp's
"knock-em-stiff' - Famus or no Famus.
Taliaferro described the picturesque dresss: the rawhide,
stitched-down shoes, a "Iinsey" tow and cotton shirt to the knees,
the dressed buckskin pants. People walked to meetin'; courtin'
boys and girls would walk side by side, the girls carrying their
shoes in a "redicule" until they got in sight of the meetin' house.
The boys were barefoot.
The young folks got together for grubbings, log-rollings,
reapings, corn-huskings, wheat-threshings. The girls would
have sewings and quiltings. On these occasions as soon as the
work was done, the fiddle sounded and they danced and courted
all night. For one young man to get the better of another in
"sparkin'" was considered legitimate and was called "cuttin'
out."
Dick Snow wouldn't give up his courting Sally Tucker and
said, "I never gins up a thing as long as there's a pea in the gourd."
Sally's folks were "Methodises" and kept "arter" him to "git
ligion." At the quarterly meeting he determined to "make his
jack" and he went up with the mourners. The "circus rider"
prayed over him "like he was beatin' tanbark off 'un trees in
the daid of winter." Dick tried gettin' ligion a whole week,
but then he backslid. Mountain youth married young. They
married first and "scuffed for their fortuns" later. Fighting was
a common occurrence. They "knocked with their fists, butted,
gouged, kicked with their feet." Bullies kept their thumbnails
long to "feel a fellow's eyestrings .... " In similar vein Taliferro
described many customs of the frontier society.
Rebecca Harding Davis gave personal and intimate descriptions
of mountain life as she saw it in the late 187o's. She described
Morganton as "caught on the shelving side of a hill." She traveled
on the Western North Carolina Railroad from Morganton
to the end of the completed line "in a chasm between two
precipices." Later in 1 88o this railroad reached Asheville. At
the end of the line there was a rough, temporary hotel where
her party spent the night. She wrote: " ... the gorge swarmed
with hundreds of wretched blacks in the striped yellow convict
�Literature /
209
garb. After their supper was cooked (over campfires) and eaten,
they were driven into a row of prison cars, where they were
tightly boxed for the night, with no possible chance to obtain
either air or light." The convicts lived in the most squalid
condition, their labor was Herculean, and hundreds of them died
that the railroad might be built and a gateway opened to the
west. Mrs. Davis and her party spent the next night at Alexander's,
twelve miles from Asheville. Alexander's was a noted stage
stop. Mr. Alexander, "like all other farmers in the mountains
'took in' travelers, gave them an excellent supper and comfortable
beds and sent them on the next day with a team of mules and
a shackly old cart up the steep trail to the house of the guide,
William Glass." They were on their way to ascend Mount
Mitchell. Later they visited Waynesville, of which she wrote
that they " ... found many such picturesque little villages as
this hidden in these interminable ranges, perched on sunny
peaks above the clouds, or nestling in gorges. . . . Half of their
unpainted, weather-beaten houses are always empty, the inmates
having apparently died, or gone farther into these sleepy wildernesses and then forgotten to come back .... There are always
one or two families of educated, well-bred people. They have
little money, but they feel the need of it less here than anywhere
else in the States. They live in roomy wooden houses, the walls,
ceilings, and floors frequently made of purplish fine-grained
poplar; which no Persian carpet or tapestry could rival in beauty;
they have no new books but they have read the old ones until
they are live friends ... ; they dress in homespun, and sit on
wooden benches, but knowing nothing of fashions or bric-a-brac
their souls sit at ease and are quiet, and they never feel the void
of an empty pocket." As Mrs. Davis's party approached Qualla
their road "had been a cartway roughly cut along the sides of
the mountains for about fifteen miles along the Tuckaseigee
River, but the spring torrents year after year had washed it
away, and neither white man nor Indian had ever laid a log to
repair it." It was then called a bridle-road, and from the description one can see the need for roads in Western North Carolina:
"[The] 'Nation' (the Cherokees) was hidden in isolated huts
in the thickets among the ravines of the Soco and Oconoluftee
hills. The 1500 Cherokees had ro,ooo acres under cultivation,
no village, no school, no gathering place of any kind. Grass
knee deep before the door of the little church. They were
wretchedly poor. Only in 1875 were they given possession of
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the land on which they had lived for more than 500 years. After
the party left the Indians, they came to a cabin: " ... built on
the slope of the little river. It was a sample of the better class of
mountain huts. The log walls gaped open in many places. Inside,
they were pasted over with newspapers, the ceiling hung with
hanks of blue yarn, red peppers, bunches of herbs, and Indian
baskets filled with the family clothing. The hut was divided
by an open passage into chamber and kitchen. One side of the
latter was given up to a roaring fire of logs." Mrs. Davis quoted
the woman of the house: " ... it's two months since I've seen
the face of women, white or red. That's what ails the mountingsthe awful loneliness. Whar I was brought up, five miles from
hyar, it would be a year that we'd not see a living face. But times
is mendin' now. They hev Sunday school an' pra'r some'ars
every two months. Us folks goes twenty miles to 'em. Go in
the mornin', an' stay all day. Exercises lasts till noon; then we
have dinner, an' in the afternoon we can see each other, and hear
the news. Last pra'r was powerful big; they was nigh onto
twenty folks thar."
Mrs. Polly (their hostess) told them of conditions in the
mountains. The people were pitifully poor and ignorant. There
were some men of seventy who had never seen a wheeled vehicle.
Mrs. Davis summed up conditions thus: "Near the Tennessee
line their huts are often merely sheds. They cook in a pot, and
sitting around it, eat out of it with wooden spoons. At night
a couple of boards are lifted in the floor, and disclose a hollow
in the earth beneath filled with straw, in which the whole family
kennel together. In the morning the boards are replaced, and
all cares of housekeeping are over . . . They are hospitable,
honest, and, in their ignorant way, God-fearing. Their sole
recreation is goin' to preachin' or pra'r two or three times a year
when some itinerant missionary penetrates the mountains.
Nothing could be falser than the sketches which have been given
of them that confound these uncouth but decent people with
the Pikes or swaggering ruffians of the West."
Sidney Lanier, esteemed Southern poet, musician, writer of
prose, stayed at Richmond Hill near Asheville, visited at Rugby
Grange, Henderson County, the home of George Gustav
Westfeldt, and spent his last days in the Wilcox house at Lynn,
near Tryon, where he died of tuberculosis in I 881. There are
�Literature
f
2II
memorials to him in Tryon and at Calvary Episcopal Church
in Fletcher. His last poem, "Sunrise," was written in Lynn and
dedicated to Westfeldt. Vivian Yeiser Laramore, poet laureate
of Florida, spent many summers in Western North Carolina
and wrote the "Ballad of the Silver Flute," praising Lanier as
the "great poet of the South enriching the folklore of his land."
Azure-Lure- a Romance of the Mountains, was a souvenier
of Asheville and Western North Carolina edited by Idyl Dial
Gray. In it one finds this excellent travel-poster description of
the region: "In Asheville an azure sky and a brilliant horizon
meet. Nature's artistry presents sparkling waterfalls, precipitous
cliffsides, the colors of thousands of flowers, singing rivers,
limpid lakes, bottomless pools, cloud-banked mountain-rimmed
peaks and the bluest skies under heaven in this land of perpetual
vacation.''
0. Henry (William Sydney Porter) is associated with Asheville
and Weaverville. He married Sara Coleman from Weaverville,
an author, and he spent the winter of I909 in the home of Mrs.
Porter's brother, John S. Coleman. He died in Asheville June
IO, I9IO.
Mrs. Frances Fisher Tiernan (Christian Reid) the popular
novelist, wrote a book about Western North Carolina which
she called The Land of the Sky. In this book she described the
lovely mountains, the blueness of the skies, the beautiful, fertile
valleys, the glorious sunlight, the cloud-shadowed ranges of
mountains which reached the sky. As a result of her book the
whole region has been aptly named "the Land of the Sky."
Shepherd Dugger wrote War Trails of the Blue Ridge and
The Balsam Groves of Grandfather Mountain. In the introduction
to the latter he included a poem "The Land of the Sky" :
Will you come to Grandfather, "The Land of the Sky,"
Where a banquet of glory is spread for the eye ...
Where the mountains do rear their summits above
The storm and the cloud to the regions of love....
Y e ones that are feeble, why linger and die,
Come up to the beautiful "Land of the Sky .... "
In I904 Horace Kephart came to Hazel Creek to write of
the Southern highlands. He had been able to find little written
about them, although he probably knew the novels of Charles
Egbert Craddock, pen name for Mary Noailles Murphree, and
those -of Constance Fenimore W oolsen. He became the Dean
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Illustration from "Christian Reid's"
Land of the Sky, the book that gave
the name to the mountain area
of American Campers and wrote The Book of Camping and
Woodcraft, which had its twentieth printing in 1960. He wrote
for Adventure Magazine, Field and Stream, Sports Afield, Outing,
and the Asheville Citizen.
In 1913 Kephart's Our Southern Highlanders was published.
T en thousand copies were sold of the first edition; in 1957 the
seventh edition was published. The book contains authentic
portraits of mountain life. Kephart described real mountain
people, not caricatures; he wrote down the language and expressions really used by the people. In Bryson City on the old Bryson
place there is a marker: "On this spot Horace Kephart, D ean of
American Campers and one of the principal founders of the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park pitched his last permanent
camp. Erected May 30, 193 I , by Horace Kephart Troop, Boy
Scouts of America, Bryson City, North Carolina." The tribute
w as justified because Kephart had fought valiantly for conservation, writing article after article urging the preservation of the
forests. He wrote: "When I first came into the Smokies, the
whole region was one superb forest primeval. ... My sylvan
studio spread over mountain after mountain ... and it was
always clean and fragrant, always vital, growing new shapes
of beauty from day to day. The vast trees met overhead like
cathedral roofs.... Not long ago I w ent to the same place
again. It w as wrecked , ruined, desecrated, turned into a thousand
�Literature /
2I3
rubbish heaps, utterly vile and mean. Did anyone ever thank
God for a lumberman's slashing?" There was an editorial in the
Asheville Times: "His eloquent appeal should be the textbook
of those who are interested in securing a national park for this
mountain empire."
John C. Campbell's The Southern Highlander and His Homeland
(1921), published two years after his death by the Russell Sage
Foundation, was prepared for publication by his wife, Mrs.
Olive Dame Campbell. This book aroused national interest in
the problems existing in the Southern mountains.
Wilma Dykeman Stokely, born in Asheville in May 1920,
is descended from old New York and North Carolina families.
Bernadette Hoyle wrote in Tar Heel Writers I Know: "Being
from the Middle South and the author of non-fictional studies
of the region, she is thoroughly at home with both her setting
and her characters" in The French Broad. Her novels are The Tall
Woman, Look to this Day, and The Far Family. With James
Stokely she wrote Neither Black nor White. The Tall Woman
tells the story of the Southern mountain people. "It is neither
quaint nor satiric, but it deals seriously with a community caught
in eternal change and post-Civil War problems." Lydia McQueen
is the tall woman. She was tall, not so much in stature as in
character and influence. "The writing is skillful, and the lilt of
the mountain speech of the time is musical to read." The novel
is rich in detail and in atmosphere and at times has the flavor
of some of the old ballads. Its theme is the erosion of both land
and character by greed. The characters emerge "breathing,
talking, living." The French Broad is a book that moves like a river.
"It has the continuous, ceaseless, smooth-flowing style that moves
relentlessly toward the sounding sea."
Wilma Dykeman's Prophet of Plenty is a biography of Dr.
Willis Weatherford. A fund-raiser extraordinary, he brought
the nation's conscience to bear on the problems of the mountain
people. In 1900 he was one of the few prophets of a new and
hopeful South, which was "bogged down in poverty, dominated
by Northern capital, suffering under discriminatory freight
rates, plagued by demagogues, and fighting for its life after
Reconstruction. There was one hope- education, education
for leadership, for jobs, for citizenship." Weatherford gave
inspiration and hope to Southern youth. He told them that
�214 / Part II: A Changing Society
regional competance depended upon industrial competence,
that the human resources were the heart of the region's hopes.
Weatherford built the Blue Ridge Assembly near Black
Mountain and brought in brilliant leaders to meet the many
eager young students. He became a leader of a region which
had been bypassed by American life. His work, his faith, his
ideas caught the imagination of governmental leaders and
philanthropists and made those in state and nation see that this
land of poverty could become a land of opportunity. His message
to those in the mountains was to look to the young people, give
them quality education and the region would grow great. He
was a champion of all races, and he pioneered in the formation
of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation. For decades
he was a leader on this commission and did much for race relations
in the South. He obtained the money, selected the staff, and took
the lead in gathering information for and publishing The Southern
Appalachian Region: A Survey (r962), financed by the Ford
Foundation. This survey revealed conditions in the mountains
and made recommendations for their amelioration.
John Ehle, author of seven novels and three books of nonfiction by the time of this writing, winner of the Sir Walter
A ward and the Mayflower Cup, is one of the ablest portrayers
of mountain life and character. The Landbreakers (r964) was
quite popular. The Road (r967) created a sensation and was
included in Reader's Digest Condensed Books. The Road is almost
a mountain epic. It tells the story of the struggle, the drama, the
conflict, the almost superhuman efforts required to build the
Western North Carolina Railroad from Old Fort to Asheville.
The tribute to the convicts is deserved. Most exciting was the
pulling of the engine over the mountain so that the 2,ooo-foot
tunnel could be attacked from both ends. The completion of
this link of the railroad was of vital importance to all in Western
North Carolina.
Fred Chappell wrote two novels, It Is Time, Lord and The
Inkling. He described Canton, called it Withers, and the Champion
Paper and Fiber Company he called the Defender Paper and
Fiber Company. He says the stench of the paper mill can be
smelled for miles. He asks, "What would the town do without
the paper company?" and answers with "What is it doing with
it?" His "Prodigious Words" appeared in Southern Writing in
the Sixties. John Yount, born in Boone, wrote a novel, Wolf
at the Door. A selection, "The Store," appeared in Southern
Writing in the Sixties. It contains a good description of a boy
�Literature / 215
going to a country store and peering at the candy through the
greasy, flyspecked glass.
"These are my mountains," said John Parris, who through
Roaming the Mountains and My Mountaineers, My People showed
his love for and appreciation of the people of Western North
Carolina. He continues: "If you are born in the mountains,
you can't put them out of your heart and soul. There is a peace
and quiet that makes you feel closer to God .... " Parris was
born in Sylva, November 23, 1914. He became a successful
newspaper man and a notable author. Nothing in the mountains
is an old or jaded story to him. Roaming the Mountains (1955)
originated around the firesides and homelife of his family and
his neighbors. Many of his tales he learned from his grandfather
William Riley Tallent, who had a great zest for life. The titles
of his chapters are indigenous to mountain life: "Hot Biscuits
and Sourwood Honey," "The French Broad Is a Gypsy," and
"In Huckleberry Time Courtin's a Pleasure." Parris does not
write in dialect but he uses idioms and descriptive terms which
create a colloquial feeling such as "He's a distiller of corn' likker,
and brother, hold on to your hat," "He's the overlord of a
one-room log cabin with a dozen mouths to feed and a passel
of hound dogs in the yard," and "In the Carolina Highlands,
June is a whip-poor-will."
One of the significant writers born in Western North Carolina
was Rebecca Cushman. She was an editor of the Southern Review
and a special contributor to the Christian Science Monitor. She
wrote Swing Your Mountain Gal, Sketches of Life in the Southern
Highlands in 1934. This book is not fiction; it contains a series of
sketches taken from mountain life. Each short narrative is a
deft character portrait of the rugged but dignified mountaineer.
The book makes a real contribution in that it is a spiritual interpretation of mountain life. Her mountaineer Guy Norman
is a man who leaves one with a quickened consciousness of life.
He is hospitable, unaffected, natural. He says: "We live jest
plain .... Life's jest the way you hold it up .... If you've done
that you're all right when you come to take your pillow .... "
Margaret Morley wrote the challenging The Carolina
Mountains in 1913. Muriel Sheppards's Cabins in the Laurel
created quite a stir when it was published in 1935, many people
in Mitchell County feeling that she exaggerated conditions
there.
�216
f
Part II: A Changing Society
One of the most authentic accounts of mountain life, people,
customs, and fiction appeared in the 1,500 page doctoral dissertation of Dean Cratis Williams, "The Southern Mountaineer
in Fiction." Dean Williams asserted that in the decades following
the Civil War the mountaineer became a caricature in fiction.
He became a type- uncouth, ignorant, violent, poor, a fundamentalist, a moonshiner, but hospitable and with feudal courtesy.
Stock characters in mountain fiction are the feudist, the witch
crone, a jealous mountain youth, an outlaw, a benevolent but
illiterate landowner, an idealistic teacher, a hardshell preacher,
a demagogue, a rich, heroic outsider, a beautiful but ignorant
mountain girl, the corrupt and stingy justice of the peace or
sheriff. The preacher and the sheriff find the teacher and education
threats to the power structure or to their personal positions.
Perhaps the greatest poet of Western North Carolina has been
Olive Tilford Dargan. Born in Kentucky, she moved to North
Carolina in 1906. She wrote five books of poetry: Semiramis
(1906), a closet drama in iambic pentameter; Pathfinder (1914),
lyrics about the North Carolina mountains; The Cycle's Rim
(1916), fifty-three sonnets on the death of her husband, the
prize-winning book as the best book of poetry of the year by
a Southern writer; Lute and Farrow (1922), lyrics of the mountains;
The Spotted Hawk (1958), which won the Roanoke-Chowan
poetry a ward. In addition to her poetry she wrote two volumes
of short narratives: Highland Annals (1925), and From My Highest
Hill (1941). Under the pen name of Fielding Burke she wrote
the novels Call Home the Heart (1932) and A Stone Came Rolling
(1935). In 1962 her fifteenth book, a collection of short stories,
Innocent Bigamy, was published. She lived most of her life in
Swain County, but in her old age she resided at the Blue Bonnet
Lodge in West Asheville. She wrote chiefly of the mountains
and mountain people.
James Larkin Pearson was born in the Moravian Falls section
of Wilkes County, September 13, 1879. His people were very
poor. There were few books in the home: a cheap Bible, a
small almanac, a dictionary, and an old Methodist hymnal.
Off and on he would attend the one-teacher free school. He
taught himself the alphabet by reading circus posters and studying
Webster's blue-back spelling book. When he was four years
old he began reciting poetry. One cold winter day he and his
�Literature / 217
father were riding in an old wagon. The father asked if he were
cold. He answered: "My fingers and my toes- my feet and
my hands- are just as cold as you ever seed a man's." His
first poem was "The Vision" (1895). In 1897 he composed "The
Song of the Star of Bethlehem" while he was clearing new
ground. This poem was printed in the New York Independent
and for it he received eight dollars. He became a typesetter and
the editor of several small papers. In 1910 he began to publish
a humorous paper, The Fool Killer, which he built up until
at one time it had a circulation of fifty thousand copies a month.
Pearson was admired by Upton Sinclair, who printed one
of his poems in the New York Times. Later Sinclair printed
"Fifty Acres," Pearson's best known poem. In 1953 Pearson
was named Poet Laureate of North Carolina. He is the author
of five books of poetry printed on his own press: Castle Gates
(1908), Pearson's Poems (1924), Fifty Acres (1937), Plowed Ground
(1949), and Early Harvest (1952). An anthology, Selected Poems
of James Larkin Pearson, was published in 1960. Pearson wrote
simply of "homey" things in a deeply lyrical vein. His poetry
has quaintness, local color. One can get the flavor of Pearson
from the following lines:
from "Fifty Acres"
I've never been to London,
I've never been to Rome;
But on my fifty acres
I travel here at home.
from "Here is Wisdom"
Old Andy never went to school
And never read a book.
But he who takes him for a fool
Will need a second look....
from "A Night in June"
The June-bug roosted under a leaf,
And the firefly winked at the cricket
The bull-frog sang from the lily-pond
To the owl in the ivy thicket.
There
of North
were by
Carolina.
have been a number of anthologies and collections
Carolina poetry. In these anthologies many poems
Western North Carolinians about Western North
The first such anthology, Woodnote.1·, or Carolina
�218
f
Part II: A Changing Society
Carols, was compiled by Tenella (Mrs. Mary Bayard Clark).
In this anthology was an anonymous poem, "Swannanoa."
In I 883 John Henry Boner published a selection of poetry under
the title Whispering Pines. This included "Hunting Muscadines
on the Y adkin" and "The Cliff' about Pilot Mountain. In I 894
Hight C. Moore published Selected Poetry of North Carolina and
in 1912 E.C. Brooks an anthology, North Carolina Poems. In
1941 Richard Walser edited North Carolina Poetry and in I948
North Carolina in the Short Story, in 1953 The Enigma of Thomas
Wolfe, in 1957 The Picture Book of Tar Heel Authors, in 1959
Nematodes in My Garden of Verse and in 1963 North Carolina
Poets.
Carl Sandburg, the poet and Lincoln biographer, bought
a 240 acre farm at Flat Rock, "Connemara," the former home
of Christopher Memminger, Confederate Secretary of the
Treasury. Sandburg was also a folklorist and a song collector.
One of the versatile men in Western North Carolina is
Leroy Sossamon. He is pilot, poet, bulldozer operator, newspaper
publisher, owner of furniture stores, accredited teacher, owner
of a steel construction business, a theater, Ford dealer, operator
of a mercy airlift and commercial planes. Having graduated
from Appalachian State Teachers College cum laude in I934,
he taught English and French at the Presbyterian orphanage
at Barium Springs. He bought one business after another,
including the Bryson City Times, which he publishes. He is
connected with the Sossamon Steel Company. He wrote Backside
of Heaven, a book of poetry, and sold an edition of I I ,ooo copies.
Henry Alexander Sieber, born in New York in 1931, spent
his boyhood in the North Carolina mountains. Influenced by
Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot, his poems carry a message of hope.
He assumes that man because of his religion and poetry must
not be defeated by life. Two of his books are This the Marian
Year (1954) and Something the West Will Remember (1956).
Lovers of Thomas Wolfe like the following lines:
What right have you to say
That Tom Wolfe of Asheville
And Brooklyn, New York
Didn't talk all the time
All the time with God
In Asheville
and
Brooklyn, New York.
�Literature / 219
A unique Western North Carolina poet is Jonathan Williams.
Born in Asheville in 1929, he operates an apple orchard near
Highlands. He is a book designer, lecturer, publisher, poet,
and operator of the Jargon press. His broadsides and book
titles include the following: Garbage Letters; The Iron Face of
the Sun's Child (1951); Red/Gray (1952); Four Stoppages (1953);
The Empire Finals at Verona (1959); AmenJHuzzaJSelah (1960);
In England's Green (1962). Williams's poems are included in
"beat" anthologies because they are "way out."
Miscellaneous poems about Western North Carolina and
by Western North Carolinians were Zebulon Baird Vance's
"The Little Patched Trousers," Martin V. Moore's "The Rivers
of North Carolina," Reuben]. Holmes's poem "The Valley of
the Ashe," and "Tom and Mollie" by the anonymous poet
laureate of Mitchell County. Struthers Burt was a novelist, but
he wrote a book of poetry, In the High Hills (1914). He felt that
poetry should touch the intelligent heart. Elliott Coleman came
to the Asheville School in 1928. He had published two books
of poetry: Poems of Elliott Coleman (1936) and An American in
Augustland (1940).
Among dramatists associated with Western North Carolina
are the following: Hatcher Hughes, Hell Bent for Heaven, and
Ruint (Pulitzer prize winner); Lula Vollmer, Sun Up; Thomas
Wolfe, The Return ofBuck Gavin; George Tedd,Jr., King Cotton's
Children; Hubert Hayes and John Taintor Foote, Tight Britches;
Hubert Hayes, The Red Spider, Blackberry Winter, and Smoky
Joe; Mrs. Bertha Herter, The Harp of a Thousand Strings; Edward
Richardson, Black Mountain, a play based on the ballad "Barbara
Allen"; Anne Bridgers, co-author of Coquette, who had a summer
home in the Reems Creek section; Cleves Kinnard, Common
Clay. Kermit Hunter wrote Unto These Hills and Horn in the
West.
Ellis Credle wrote Down Down the Mountains (1934). He is a
writer and illustrator for children. This was the first picture
book of the Blue Ridge country. Lois Lenski wrote children's
books like Blue Ridge Billy, which depicts mountain life and
�220
J Part II: A Changing Society
customs. Mary Hancock wrote Menace on the Mountain (1968),
the gripping story of a boy who becomes a man while his father
is away during the Civil War. Included is a fictional account
of the capture of Fort Hamby from the Bushwhackers. This
book was filmed for television by Walt Disney Productions.
Miss Hancock's work has appeared in The Progressive Farmer,
Extension, Saturday Evening Post, Sports Illustrated, Pageant,
Catholic Digest, and the VFW Magazine. Richard Chase is a
distinguished writer, ballad singer, and folklorist. For years
he taught songs, dances, and traditional games to mountain
children. He sang and collected folklore. He wrote widely and
well: Old Songs and Singing Games (1938), The Jack Tales (1943),
Grandfather Tales (1948), American Folk Tales (1948), Wicked
John and the Devil (195 1), and Soncf!,S As Preserved in the Appalachian Mountains (1956). Croyden Bell and Thelma Harrington
Bell wrote about animals and characters from Western North
Carolina: Snow (1954), John's Rattling Gourd of Big Cove (1955),
The Wonders of Snow (1957). Ruth and Latrobe Carroll moved
to Asheville in 1950. They wrote and illustrated fascinating
books for children: Peanut (1951), Salt and Pepper (1952), Beanie
(1953), Tough Enough (1954), and later, Tough Enough's Trip,
Digby the Only Dog (1955).
The history of Western North Carolina has been the theme
of only one previous book, by John Preston Arthur (1913).
He also wrote an interesting history of Watauga County. Foster
Sondley wrote a two volume history of Buncombe County.
Other county histories are Clark Medford's accounts of Haywood
County; Sadie Smathers Patton's writings on Flat Rock and
Henderson County; Clarence Griffin's books on Old Tryon
County and Rutherford County; Horton Cooper's Avery
County history: Margaret Freel's work on Cherokee County
and Lilian Thomasson's on Swain County, Judge Johnson Hayes'
The Land of Wilkes; Nancy Alexander's Here Will I Dwell
(Caldwell County); T. F. Hickerson's Happy Valley and Echoes
of Happy Valley, which deal with life along the Yadkin from
Lenoir to Elkin; and Arthur L. Fletcher, Ashe County: a History.
Histories of colleges are John McLeod's From These Stones (Mars
Hill College) and William E. Bird's Western Carolina College.
0. L. Brown's Blanford Bernard Dougherty contains much of the
history of Appalachian State University. Dr. Edward Phif<"'r
has written scholarly articles about ante-bellum life and conditio •.
in Burke County. Glenn Tucker wrote High Tide at Gettysburg;
�Literature J
221
Tecumseh; Vision of Glory; and Zeb Vance, Champion of Freedom.
Works of Cordelia Camp include David Lowry Swain, Governor
and University President; The Influence of Geography Upon Early
North Carolina; and Governor Vance: a Life for Young People.
She edited Some Pioneer Women Teachers in North Carolina.
Ina Woestemeyer Van Noppen is the author of four published
books in addition to the present one: The Westward Movement;
The South: A Documentary History; Stoneman's Last Raid; and,
with John J. Van N oppen, Daniel Boone, Backwoodsman: The
Green Woods Were His Portion. Harley Jolley had published in
1969 The Blue Ridge Parkway. George B. Watts wrote The
Waldenses of Valdese. Pamphlets by Fred B. Cranford, The
Waldenses of Burke County, and by Ruth Royal Poovey, The
Burke County Gold Rush, were prepared in conjunction with the
Burke County Cultural Heritage Project, pursuant to a grant
from the United States Office of Education. Con Bryan's Confederate Georgia, has passed through several printings.
A
number of other writers about this region are worthy of
mention. Bill Sharpe's North Carolina: a Description by Counties
and a New Geography of North Carolina contains much valuable
information about Western North Carolina. The North Carolina
Gazetteer by William S. Powell is indispensable in locating
quaint-sounding places and the sources of their names. Julia
Montgomery Street's Fiddler's Fancy (r955) is about the folk
of the Toe River in Mitchell County. It contains a true rendition
of mountain speech, folklore, and customs. Legette Blythe wrote
Miracle in the Hills, the inspiring story of Dr. Mary Martin
Sloop of Crossnore, and with Miss Lucy Morgan he wrote
Gift from the Hills, the story of Penland School. He also wrote
James W. Davis, North Carolina Surgeon. Davis spent his youth
in Wilkes County.
Jacob Carpenter of Three Mile Creek kept an interesting
diary. Horton Cooper discusses it in his history of Avery County.
Opie Percival Read, humorist, wrote The Captain's Romance
(1896), The ]ucklins (1896), Odd Folks (1897), and a number of
other novels. The ]ucklins is a romance about a schoolteacher
in Western North Carolina. Maria Poole describes the pervasive
superstitions that affected the lives of mountain people. Her
novels, such as In Buncombe County, give a most damaging account
�222 / Part II: A Changing Society
of mountain character. She gives a graphic account of a revival
meeting near Asheville. Rosser Taylor wrote Carolina Crossroads.
Logan B. Logan produced Ladies of the White House. Mrs. Edith
Erskine of Weaverville and Mrs Charlotte Young wrote several
volumes of poetry. Martha Norburn Mead wrote Asheville
the Land of the Sky. Bill Nye, the humorist, lived in Asheville, and
his syndicated column appeared in the Asheville papers. Helen
Topping Miller wrote The Splendor ofEagles, and George Bledsoe,
The Shadows Point North, about the impact of summer tourists
upon the mountains.
Lewis W. Green has written a first novel, And Scatter the
Proud, integrating six short stories about life in the Blue Ridge
Mountains. The setting is on the crest of Big Lonesome, a mountain traversed by the Blue Ridge Parkway. The characters
search for meaning in life. Green says: "The mountaineers
asked of the outlanders only that their pride be unmolested,
their self-respect honored, their dignity left intact. This courtesy
they extended to all others." Alberta Pierson Hannum, (Look
Back With Love) is full of sympathetic understanding and love
of the mountain people and their lore of bygone days. Each
chapter begins with an entry from the diary of Jacob Carpenter
of Three Mile Creek. She also wrote The Gods and One, April
Thursday, Avery County, and The Hills Step Lightly. The author
is an Ohioan, but long a resident of the North Carolina Hills.
Mrs. T. Henry Wilson (Dell B. Wilson) had published in
1969 The Gran4father and the Globe based on the Civil War
exploits of Keith Blalock and his wife in the Globe-Grandfather
Mountain area. Romulus Linney, a descendant of the "Bull of
the Brushies," the noted lawyer whose namesake he is, wrote
the novels Heathen Valley, about Valle Crucis, (1962); Slowly by
Hand Unfurled (1965); and a play, The Sorrows of Frederick (1966).
�CHAPTER
ELEVEN
The Lore of the Folk
Booted and spurred and bridled rode he,
A plume in his saddle and a sword at his knee.
Back come his saddle all bloody to see;
Back come his steed but never come he.
Riding on the highlands, steep was the way
Riding in the lowlands, hard by the Tay.
Out come his old mother with feet all so bare;
Out come his bonnie bride riving of her hair.
The meadows all a-falling and the sheep all unshorn;
The house is a-leaking and the baby's unborn.
But Bonnie James Campbell nowhere can you see
With a plume in his saddle and a sword at his knee.
For to home came his saddle all bloody to see;
Home came the steed, but never came he.
The song that tells this sad story can today be heard and enjoyed
by many people who have no idea of life in the country, let
alone of life centuries ago in Scotland, because in some localities
and in some families there have been men, and women, like
Frank Proffitt, who like to sing old songs, and men and women
who have wanted to preserve their songs or stories, or legends,
or superstitions, so that many people might enjoy and profit
from them.
But what importance is there in a song that laments a Bonnie
James Campbell that nobody can recall, except in this song,
223
�224 /
Part II: A Changing Society
aside from the possibility that he may have been the James
Campbell who died in 1594 in the battle of Genlivet? There is
no easy answer to this question. Frank Proffitt's answer may
be as good as any when he explained the value of a traditional
life in a letter quoted in the Carolina Farmer: "My folks was
of the poorest but they was of the highest moral standards.
Not knowing about books or letters, they stored in their memory
all of the best of the old proven ways and was forever busy
making things for useful and entertaining purposes." Proffitt's
tradition was one of people who did not depend on others for
values but who made their own standards out of what they had
inherited and what they had.
Ballads like "Bonnie James Campbell" were a part of the
way of life of the people who came to Western North Carolina
around the time of the Revolutionary War, and, depending
on the locality, in the decades before and after. But they were
not by any means the chief cultural tradition that evolved there.
Religious activities came to play a very important part in the
life of rural America, including Western North Carolina, and
the region became the nearly exclusive doma~ of pentacostal
and fundamentalist sects. As a result one of the chief cultural
traditions that developed was the singing of religious folksongs in
homes, churches, and at gatherings such as the camp meetings.
But there was for everybody the necessity of living not
just on Sunday but on all the other days of the week. The religious
leaders were often interested in stamping out the "Devil's
ditties" that were the abundant heritage of rural people from
Medieval times, but the influences of this-wordly necessities
and interests have helped preserve the secular materials to the
present day, through the use of some excellent subterfuges,
as well as out-right rebellion, on the part of the pleasure-loving,
the hunting and drinking men, and the spirited and fun-loving
youths. The austere fatalism and the visions of glory of many
fundamentalist churches were not able to uproot the traditions
of living pleasurably and vigorously.
There seem to have developed separate traditions of entertainment. In addition to listening to old songs in the solitude of
the home at a father's knee, in a mother's lap or at her side, or
at the foot of a grandmother's rocker, there was also the music
making, which as often as not involved either drinking or dancing
or both. The oldest instrument whose use among the rural
folk we may be sure of is the fiddle, and fiddle playing evolved
�The Lore of the Folk /
22 5
traditions of its own, styles of performance that included the
when and the where, and one of the most interesting wheres
was perhaps the fiddlers' conventions, where champion fiddlers
of several localities competed for recognition and sometimes
prizes, after long spells of practicing on their neighbors at dances.
When and how other instruments came to be added, in addition
to the fiddles, to make the musical ensembles that are still nearly
ubiquitous in the mountains is not certain.
To the fiddlers' contests and conventions may be added
singing conventions, where the singers of religious folk songs
are known to have assembled, sometimes for the awarding of
prizes for the best performances. Also rural customs in many
places were annual hunting expeditions and shooting contests.
The mountain folk are a sociable lot to this day, and while old
customs fade, new ones are added. For the most part, the camp
meetings are gone without a trace, but the "Singing on the
Mountain" is reminiscent of the older religious singin' gatherin's.
The modern mountaineer may go to the Asheville Folk Festival,
to the crafts fairs held in Gatlinburg and Hiwassee, to the fiddlers'
conventions that today are gaining in popularity and in the
attention paid them such as the ones at Galax, Virginia, and
Union Grove and at different times of the year in a host of
communities. The annual hunts seem to be less prevalent, but
the sportsman may go only short distance from his home to
the nearest stock car race to be with a great enthusiastic crowd.
Still, many people have the feeling that something has been
lost, that nothing like the past will be seen again.
Certainly the nature of community activities has changed.
The Appalachian natives, like other pioneer groups, engaged
in communal labor sharing, such as quilting, house-raising,
and harvesting, and these customs have almost passed away.
Just as important, perhaps, were the community entertainments,
the play-parties and dances. The play-parties, even in communities
where dancing was prohibited, were the harmless and hilarious
gatherings of young people, and many of the games were ancient.
The dances employed by the older folks were different from
those observed in England by Cecil Sharp. These activities
seem to have been superseded by institutions centering on the
school, the church, and the chamber of commerce.
Finally, some of the most perishable forms of folklore, the
oral tales, the superstitions, the legends and fables have been
subjected to the eroding influence of the media - printing,
�226 /
Part II: A Changing Society
schooling, and electronic devices. But some very interesting
tales whose progress from India over long centuries of oral
transmission has been traced are still to be heard in the highlands.
During the heroic age of Northern Europe there lived poets,
in Scandinavia called scalds, in Anglo-Saxon England called
scops and gleemen, who entertained and edified courts and
kings with their songs. The inhabitants of England before the
arrival of the Anglo-Saxons were the Celts, and Celts also
inhabited Ireland, Wales, and Brittany in France. Their poets,
the bards, also sang heroic songs and at times had the gift of
prophecy.
The modem folksingers, in their tragic ballads, may be
continuing a tradition that is descended from the influence of
these early poets. The lyric songs and love songs of the Appalachian singer seem more closely related to the poets of Medieval
Europe, its troubadours, minnesingers, and jongleurs. Since
no one knows the origin of a song that is truly folk (by one
widely accepted definition, folk songs are anonymous), some
of the anonymous authors of folk songs might have been
medieval poets.
After centuries had passed since the earliest English ballad
(in the thirteenth century) was written down, in 1917 Cecil
Sharp, an English folklorist, and Mrs. John C. Campbell
toured the mountains and were the first to make an important
collection of both the music and the words of the ballads there.
They visited White Rock, Allanstand, Alleghany, Carmen,
Big Laurel, and Hot Springs in Western North Carolina- the
Laurel country. They found that the mountaineers were direct
descendants of original settlers from England and Scotland who
had left their native lands in the eighteenth century and migrated
to America. Members of their families had lived in this secluded
region, some of them since the time of the Revolution. Because
of the difficulty of keeping in contact with the outside world
until the twentieth century, their language and customs had
remained in some ways much the same as those of their ancestors
in England and Scotland. Even in 1917 some of them had no
markets, no surplus produce, and barter was their chief medium
of exchange. Sharp and Campbell found that most of those in
whom they were interested lived in log cabins and had few
�The Lore of the Folk /
227
material comforts, but they were independent and self-sufficient.
They were a leisurely, cheery people in whom the social instinct
was highly developed. Sharp described them as physically
strong and of good stature, usually spare in figure, their features
as clean-cut and handsome, their complexions those of people
with out-of-doors habits, with superb carriages and a swinging,
easy gait.
Mrs. Campbell and Sharp collected 450 tunes. Sharp commented that in England only the older people sang ballads but
in the Appalachian Mountains ballads were sung by nearly
everyone - young and old, that singing was as common and
universal a practice as speaking. The fact has been forgotten
that singing is the one form of artistic expression that can be
practiced without any preliminary study or special training.
Sharp believed that it was as natural for children to sing as it is
to speak the native tongue. He found that mountain people
had the "delightful habit of making beautiful music at all times
and in all places." They were courteous and cooperative, and
he had little difficulty in getting them to sing for recording. He
learned to ask for "love-songs," which was their name for
ballads.
He found that mountain singers sang in very much the same
way as English folk singers, "without any conscious effort at
expression and with the even tone and clarity of enunciation
with which all folk-song collectors are familiar." One peculiarity
that he noticed was their dwelling "upon certain notes of the
melody, generally the weaker accents." Most ballad singers
sang without accompaniment, but occasionally they accompanied
themselves on the guitar or the dulcimer. Many singers had
extensive repertoires and none used printed song sheets. Some
few, however, had written copies, usually made by children,
which they called "ballets," a term used in England to apply
to the printed broadsides.
The Sharp-Campbell collection included fifty-five ballads,
the first thirty-seven of which were in the Francis James Child
collection of 305 ballads; the last eighteen were not known
or were not included by Child. Sharp and Campbell included
also sixty-seven other folk songs.
The major forms of entertainment- song and story- are
combined in the ballad, which is a narrative song. It tells a story
without characterization and without comment or moralizing.
The mood is merely suggested; the story is stripped to its bare
�228 /
Part II: A Changing Society
essentials. Although any stage of a culture may produce ballads,
they are most characteristic of primitive or isolated societies
like the mountains of Western North Carolina in the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries or that of the English-Scottish border
in the late middle ages. The difference between ballads and other
forms of poetry is in the way they have been preserved in the
memories of generations of common people who have learned
them, sung them, and passed them on orally to others.
The themes of ballads are those which appealed most to the
common people, most of them concerned with universal human
experiences: love and marriage, family relationships, struggle,
death, and the supernatural. Usually ballad stories end tragically.
Stories of domestic tragedies and ill-fated love affairs are common.
A great many older ballads deal with the supernatural, particularly
with stories of witchcraft, enchantment, demon lovers, and the
return of the dead. In most American versions the supernatural
elements are left out. Many ballads chronicle the raids along the
English-Scottish border during the late middle ages. Others
recount sympathetically the exploits of outlaws, notably those
of Robin Hood and Jesse James. Some ballads are based on
riddles, telling the story of someone who saved himself from
imminent peril by answering riddles correctly, usually through
his folk wisdom. A number of ballads are on religious themes,
and many make frequent reference to religious tradition and
ritual.
North Carolina's distinctive contribution to American
ballads is a series of brutal murder ballads which establish the
standard form for that kind of ballad in America. A famous
Western North Carolina ballad is about Frankie Silvers. Frances
Stewart Silvers (Frankie) murdered her husband Charles Silvers
at the site of the present Black Mountain Station on the Carolina,
Clinchfield, and Ohio Railroad, the mouth of the South Toe
River, on the night of December 22, I 83 1. She cut off her
husband's head with an axe, dismembered the body, and tried
to burn portions of it in the fireplace. The crime was discovered.
She was tried, convicted, and executed (the first North Carolina
woman to be so executed) at Morganton July I2, I833. Before
her execution she left a poem lamenting her fate. Her crime
and her execution have become the subject of a ballad.
Another famous Western North Carolina ballad was that
about the murder of Laura Foster by Tom Dula in January
I 866. Zeb Vance defended Dula, but he was convicted. Charlie
�The Lore of the Folk / 229
Davenport is reported to be the author of the following ballad,
which enjoyed great popularity in 1959. This song's popularity
was the kickoff of the modern "Folk revival."
Hang down your head Tom Dula, hang Down your head and cry;
You Killed poor Laura Foster and now you're bound to die.
You met her on the hill side, God Almighty knows;
You met her on the hill side and there you hid her clothes.
You met her on the hill side there to be your wife;
You met her on the hill side and there you took her life.
Phillip Houston Kennedy's study of the printed collections
of ballads found in North Carolina has revealed that in several
ways Western North Carolina is distinctive in the repertoire of
its singers (ballad collectors have found English ballads sung in
every state) and also in the amount of collecting that has been
done here. In the Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina
Folklore appear 399 mountain variants of ballads gathered by
six collectors (the number of piedmont variants is 267, by three
collectors; from the coastal region, I 37 ballad variants, by three
collectors). Twenty-five of the twenty-seven mountain counties
in his study were visited by collectors. He found the southwestern
counties the most sparsely collected, but found Watauga county
the foremost locality in the state for the number of songs collected
there, and in general the northwestern section is the best represented.
A further distinctive feature of the northwest is that the
most unusual ballads in the Brown Collection came from there,
including these examples: "Katherine ]affray" (Avery), "Robin
Hood Rescuing Three Squires" (Watauga), "Queen Eleanor's
Confession" (Avery), and "The Suffolk Miracle" (Yadkin). One
unusual ballad from the southwestern section is "The Boony
Earl of Murray" (Henderson). The rare ballads in the Cecil
Sharp Collection were from the singing of a Mrs. Gentry in
Madison County who was noted for her extensive repertoire
of old songs.
Fifty years ago ballad singers wandered through the mountains
singing ballads for bed and board. Most people loved the ballads,
but the Hardshell Baptists condemned them as "devil's ditties."
They declared: "The devil rides on a fiddlestick." Many ghost
tales were told and many ballads were sung before the winter
fires of the mountaineers. The love-song ballads were also an
inspiration for the love act.
�230
J Part II: A Changing Society
In Western North Carolina "the primitive melodic tradition
of the ballads was preserved also in the strange chants and longdrawn funeral songs." The tunes, "mournful and beautiful,"
embodied the spirit of loneliness, sorrow, and resignation of
the isolated mountaineers. The "infare," a heritage from the
remote past described sometimes in the tragic love ballads of
tradition, was a social event accompanying weddings. A couple
married in the morning, had breakfast at the home of the bride.
Then came the "infare" at the home of the groom. The frolicking
included folk dances, and the groom supplied the whiskey,
food, and sweets. In the evening after the bride and groom had
retired came the "chivaree." The young people of the neighborhood, fun-bent, would come with outlandish noises, hoping
to surprise and embarrass the newlyweds. Usually dancing and
drinking followed, with the groom again furnishing the whiskey.
Extensive study has been given to the musical traditions
that include the tunes of the ballads and folk songs and of the
instrumental music, which also reveals a kinship with old-world
traditions. This study has revealed a melodic process traceable
before the sixteenth century and bearing evidence of "the
uninterrupted continuation of a long-lived and downright
archaic tradition of music making among the unschooled people."
The melodies of the folk can be shown to belong to some forty
tune "families," consisting of melodic ideas which "have been
subjected to conscious and unconscious variation, adapted to
various uses, extended or contracted, but can be identified if a
tune is examined completely .... " It is only a music scholar
who is capable of revealing the basic melodic ideas in the countless variants and versions of the thousands of songs and the
multitude of styles that exist in the American folksong tradition.
The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore,
III, Folk Songs, contains many of the popular mountain folk
songs. This book has interesting illustrations, pictures of herb
gatherers, and of sorghum boiling. Folk songs have merely an
expression of sentiment rather than the action implied in a
ballad. Included are the following: Courting Songs such as
"A Paper of Pins;" Drinking and Gambling Songs like "The Lips
that Touch Liquor Must Never Touch Mine;" Homiletic Songs:
"The Wicked Girl" and "A Poor Sinner"; Play-party and Dance
Songs such as "Oh, Pretty Polly," "Peg in the Parlor," "Turkey
Buzzard," "Wish I had a Needle and Thread," "Too Young
to Marry," "Pop Goes the Weasel"; Lullabies and Nursery
�The Lore of the Folk / 23 r
Rhymes like "Bye Baby Bunting," "The Frog's Courtship,"
"McDonald's Farm," "Scotland's Burning," "Go Tell Aunt
Patsy"; Jingles about Animals: "Possum up a Simmon Tree"
"The Old Gray Mare,"; Folk Lyrics: "Sourwood Mountain,"
"Pretty Sara," "0 ld Smokey," "Kitty Kline," "Charming
Betsy"; Work Songs: "The Com Shucking Song," and "Old
Blue." Religious Songs included are "The Cumberland Traveler," "Rock of Ages," "Pharoah's Army," and "Jacob's Ladder."
Songs sung by Indians are "Ah, Poor Sinner," and "Cherokee
Hymn."
Among Western North Carolina collectors and singers
have been Dr. I. G. Greer, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Frank
Proffitt, "Doc" Watson, Dean Cratis Williams, Edith Walker,
Pearl Webb, and Dr. Amos Abrams. Dr. Greer collected over
three hundred ballads. At fourteen he could sing more than
forty ballads. Lunsford and Proffitt could sing over three hundred
from memory. At eighty Lunsford sang for ninety hours for
recordings by the Encyclopaedia Britannica Corporation. These
singers and ballad collectors awakened the pride of the people
in their traditional music. Alan Lomax wrote, "The first function
of music, especially of folk music, is to produce a feeling of
security for the listener by voicing the particular quality of a
land or of the life of the people. To the traveller, a line from a
familiar song may bring back all the familiar emotions of home,
for music is a magical summing up of the patterns of family,
of love, of conflict, and of words which gave a community its
special quality and which shape the personalities of its members.
Folk song calls the native back to his roots and prepares him
emotionally to dance, worship, work, fight, or make love normal
to his place. . . . On the American frontier men worked and
sang together on terms of amity and equality impossible in the
Old World .... The common man, the individual, is everything
in American folk song .... "
Professor George Pullen Jackson has advocated the thesis
that the white spirituals of the mountain people are the progenitors of the Negro spirituals. He believes that followers
of John Wesley and other revivalists, seeking inspiring revival
hymns, took popular folk tunes, wrote religious words for
them, and used them in their revival meetings. This activity
�232 J Part II: A Changing Society
A family sings together
constituted an American religious folksong movement. It
began in New England and spread southward, until the whole
South became the province of these songs. As the practice of
singing these songs died out elsewhere, it survived in folk communities in the South. Only the fact of a wide-spread movement
was new; in very early times singers had sung songs to folk
tunes. Singing hymns to secular tunes has been prevalent for
thirteen centuries.
When Cecil Sharp asked mountain people for songs, they
thought he wanted hymns. He had to ask for love songs to hear
ballads. Nevertheless, a few religious songs, "The Cherry Tree
Carol," and "Hicks' Farewell," are in Sharp's collection. Professor
Jackson feels that Sharp missed the opportunity to be the discoverer of religious folk songs, that revival and camp meeting
hymns used catchy folk tunes, and that many came from Baptist,
Methodist, and Presbyterian hymnals. There are thousands
of these songs. Many religious mountain folk believe these
folk hymns to be the most beautiful music on earth. Thus the
white spirituals are an important phase of mountain culture.
�The Lore of the Folk / 233
Artus Moser wrote in 1969 that group singing of hymns
from shaped note song books still occurs in many rural churches
of Western North Carolina: "Singing conventions meet in the
different communities, and go by such names as the North
Buncombe Singing Convention, the Haywood Singing Convention, the Dutch Cove Old Time Singing, the Old Harp
Singing in Transylvania County near Brevard." He also reports
that singing schools, conducted by itinerant music masters,
are still held in some communities. The singing school practice
is intended to teach the rudiments of musical knowledge, and
then all are encouraged to do as their elders do, to sing and enjoy.
Professor Jackson believed that "the chief source of spiritual
nourishment of any nation must be in its own past perpetually
rediscovered and renewed" and that there is a national unity
in the American folk song tradition. Jackson was a great pioneer
in the field of folk studies in his rediscovery of early America's
little known hymnals and tunebooks and the historical forces
that produced them. They were first used by the Baptists, but
the Methodists soon made the revival songs their own and
became the great spreaders of white spirituals. These white
spirituals are a much neglected body of folk music. They are
far more numerous and their use was far more wide spread than
the singing of ballads. Yet ballad collecting and singing have
attracted the efforts of hundreds, while the collecting of gospel
hymns based on folk tunes has been largely neglected. Southern
country singing inspired Jackson, and he began to study the
subject.
"Fasola" (the name of three notes of the scale as the singing schools taught them) singing was based on the shape-note
hymnals. These shape notes were musical helps that enabled
the musically illiterate to read the notes and to sing. There
were singing schools and normal schools for training singers.
The Sacred Harp (I 844), one of the most famous hymnals, went
through many editions, twenty-one by compilers in the Southern
states. "Singing Billy" Walker's Southern Harmony had universal
appeal in the South. It channeled the living stream of white
spiritual songs into the present and preserved it. There are
still Southern Harmony singings like the annual "Singing on
the Mountain" on Grandfather Mountain.
At the "sings," the leader holds the book in his left hand,
beats time with his right: down, left, up, right. Sometimes he
calls the beat audibly. If stanzas not in the book are sung, the
�234 / Part II: A Changing Society
leader "lines out" the hymns. The Christian Harmony (1805)
was probably the first hymnal to record revival tunes; the
Olive Leaf (1878) was among the last.
Among the widely used hymnals were William Hauser's
Hesperian Harp, the Social Harp by John Gordon McCurry,
the Sacred Harp with B. F. White as chief compiler and E. J. King
as co-author. There were many editions of the Sacred Harp
from 1844 to 1879 and even two editions in 1911. The Original
Sacred Harp, a later version, contained 609 tunes and 1226 names
of authors and composers, 861 of whom were from the Southern
states. Of these tunes "The Romish Lady," "Wicked Polly,"
"The Little Family," and other songs were based on old ballads.
Millions of the shape note song books were sold.
Many of the Scotch Irish elements in the "Fasola" folk songs
and hymns were secular; many recalled historical events; many
dealt with religious experience: bad men, bad women, biblical
events, anti-drinking songs. Many of the spiritual songs were
born in camp meetings. Watts and John and Charles Wesley
brought religious hymnody nearer to the masses by endowing
it with "personal emotion, spiritual spontaneity, and evangelism."
The village, town, and city church folk slowly abandoned the
South's indigenous songs. But the rural songs met the people's
tastes, and they felt that "God's music" was sung in the country
churches. This congregational singing used songs handed down
by oral transmission. They were often derived from ballads,
were "dressed-up folklore." The phrases, rhythms, harmonies,
stereotypes of expression, whole melodies often passed from
one channel to another. An ancient folk ballad might become
a hymn tune and then the hymn tune might be the origin of a
bawdy song. Hymns and camp meeting songs were often robbed
from fiddlers, fifers, harpers, and frolickers. Over nine hundred
published religious folk tunes sprang up in the mid-eighteenth
century. The tunes were mainly secular folk airs used in hymns
in the New Light and the Great Awakening.
Many religious ballads are found in the old manuals of country
singers. They are for individual singers, not groups. The sung
story is the thing. The singer tells the story in the first person:
the poor wayfaring stranger going over Jordan. They are similar
to the old-world ballads in form. More significant than the
ballads are the revival spiritual songs, for where one could sing
by himself to secular words all could sing in a gathering to
religious words. "Mountain songs," secular tunes with religious
�The Lore of the Folk /
2 35
words, have persisted in the Southern Appalachians, but have
generally passed out of existence elsewhere.
Folk music is a constantly flowing stream. There are eddies
and currents, survivals intact of ancient lore, and new modes of
creation. Legends, yarns, folk tales, folk songs, ballads are as
much a part of the life of a folk community as are its laws, customs,
and ways of making a living. They tell a good deal about what
the people admire and about what kind of people they really are.
" And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon
Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul
was refreshed and was well, and the evil spirit departed from
him." The harp or lyre was an ancient instrument of widespread
use. In Israel the young shepherd soothed the savage beasts with
a harp. Representing the ancient traditions of the Celtic people,
the harp is the symbol of the Irish people.
The Appalachian mountains are the home of another primitive
form of harp, a folk instrument that seems distinctive. The
Appalachian dulcimer may be taken, not as the most wide-spread
folk instrument, which it is not, but as a symbol of a folk tradition
that has its roots in antiquity, but which has developed distinctive
forms. It is properly a symbol, like the Irish harp to the Irish,
of the best of a traditional culture.
Attempts have been made to trace the mountain dulcimer
to origins beyond the seas, with imperfect success. Some writers
have even thought the instrument to be descended from the
Harp of David. This conclusion seems hardly justified. Among
many people who have voiced opinions on the subject, Jean
Ritchie of the Kentucky mountains has been one of the most
eloquent in the support of its native origin. In her The Dulcimer
Book she makes detailed comparisons of the dulcimer with the
Norwegian langeleik, the Swedish humle, and the French epignette
des Vosges, all somewhat related to the medieval German instrument, the scheitholtz. She concludes that the instrument found
in the Appalachians was "born" after years of experimentation,
that it is "adequate, eloquent, refined, a complete statement of
the mountaineer's life- its simplicity, sorrows, gaiety, beauty."
An enthusiast about the instrument, Julia Montgomery
Street describes the instrument thus: "The mountain dulcimer,
with two to eight strings, most commonly three, big tuning
�236 / Part II: A Changing Society
pegs, fretted fingerboard, and curved neck [all these fitted to
an oblong box played flat on the lap or on a table] has been
known and cherished for generations throughout the Southern
Appalachians, and nowhere else .... " She described the use
to which it was put: " ... for a solitary singer or intimate family
song fest, the preferred music was the melody of a sweet-singing,
plaintive dulcimer. The tune-box was generally swept [played]
by a girl or woman ... , " and it was either homemade or
handed down.
The relationship of the instrumental music of the Southern
Appalachians to the custom of singing ballads is uncertain. The
British ballads and the dulcimer both seem to be rarer than the
native songs and the other instruments. Both seem to belong
to the home. But many experts on the folksong tradition say
it has been one of unaccompanied singing.
Certainly, the instruments that are numerous and widely
played are the fiddle, the banjo, the mandolin, the guitar, and
today, the bass fiddle and electric guitar. The history of these
instuments in Western North Carolina is an unwritten story,
as much so as that of the dulcimer. There is of course no question
about the fiddle. This is a nearly universal instrument throughout
areas where Europeans live or have settled. Negro slaves in
colonial times provided the music for the stately dances of eighteenth century planters, playing tunes they learned from the
English. These tunes are still current in Western North Carolina,
and many of them can easily be recognized as directly descended
from songs heard in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, and
even Germany, Scandinavia. The ages of the tunes suggest that
the history of instrumental music parallels that of the ballads
and folksongs. Further, the instrumental tradition was retained
by the same cultural groups as was the rest of North Carolina
and Appalachian folklore. The instrumentalists did not live in
separate communities.
How extensive, and how important is this music? These
tunes are not limited to a couple of dozen only, "and they do
not all sound the same, as some people have commented to me
Uoan Moser] upon first hearing. Instead, it appears that there
are as many as two hundred distinctly separate fiddle tunes
along with many variants." But this music has yet to be given
the attention of people who have an interest in preserving folklore.
"There remains a vital body of material, yet to be explored,
�The Lore of the Folk / 237
more alive today than ballad singing or any other oral folk
art. . . . Published editions of this music are practically nonexistent." Cecil Sharp included only half a dozen "jig" tunes
in his Appalachian collection. "Yet, if popular usage by the
folk of today is any measure of the vitality of this material,
then one must note that in North Carolina alone, for every
festival or program of ballad singing produced today, there are
half-a-dozen fiddlers' contests, at least." In fact, for a century
these gatherings have been a traditional local event in many
communities.
Miss Moser believes that the instrumental music of Western
North Carolina is part of a heritage that belongs to general
European folk culture. The tunes themselves are part of a tune
heritage that belongs especially to the ethnic groups that settled
the region. These tunes are part of more than forty families of
tunes, including song, dance, and instrumental music. "Though
tunes show stylistic variations in certain areas, similar variations
of widespread tunes turn up in area after area. The lack of localized versions may attest the age of the tune families (one of
which goes back at least to the tenth century) or their small
number. ... " But the tradition is not just an inherited one. It is
perpetually creative of new materials along traditional lines:
"This music is part of a cultural heritage which extends back as
far as the ancient Morris dances and forward as far as modern
ragtime and jazz. The tunes the fiddlers play include sword
dance tunes which have been adapted to square dances, Scottish
marches inherited from bagpipe melodies, waltzes of a more
recent vintage, and tunes with a definite ragtime beat and tonal
organization.''
The introduction of new instruments into the folk tradition
was an important event in the development of a regional style
of music. The fiddle, the one folk instrument that came to America
with the ballads, was played to accompany dancing and for its
own sake. At some point, probably after the introduction of
the banjo and guitar, the fiddle became applied as an accompaniment to the voice, at the same time applying rhythms developed
to make dance steps. At first exclusively a lead instrument among
other instruments, in modern bluegrass, which developed from
the "old timey" string ensemble, the fiddle is used as an accompanying instrument, and the banjo, guitar or mandolin take
the lead part (or the singer).
�23 8
f
Part II: A Changing Society
The banjo, an American invention in its five-string form,
has in the mountain tradition developed distinctive styles.
One feature of this distinctive style is the use of the short, fifth
string, as a drone, sounded throughout the music, not always
in harmony with the music. Another characteristic feature
of the mountain banjo style is a system of changing the tuning
to achieve different keys without moving the hand from the
first position, and to play specific melodies. (This technique
is also used with the fiddle, in which case it is called scordature,
and has an old history.) Some authorities date the development
as having been complete as early as the r88o's. The oldest method
of picking the strings is variously named, but many people
know it as "frailing." There are a variety of other styles of
picking. In ensemble practice, the banjo was not known as a
solo lead instrument until the bluegrass era launched it into
national prominence as a solo instrument.
The history of the guitar in America is not well recorded,
but its popularity in Europe in the eighteenth century spread
to this country in the nineteenth. However this may be, most
mountain people say there were no guitars around until around
r 91 o. The guitar in the "old timey" string bands was a background
instrument until the recording era, when the possibility of
melody playing was introduced from outside. Although the
guitar is still used as an accompanying instrument, many individuals have become prominent as masters of a special, complicated
style, also their varied influences can be heard in bluegrass styles.
The bluegrass band is the modern version of the rural string
band that developed into ensemble practice through the
introduction of new instruments, the touring medicine show,
political campaigning, the commercial possibilities of accompanying dances, playing on the radio, and making recordings.
This tradition was at its heyday in the 1920's. The depression
drove the practice back into the mountains, as the Nashville
music industry develooed the "star" tradition. In the recent
decades, the advent of bluegrass music as a modernized version
of this older string band tradition signalized a rebellion against
the commercialization that threatened to take country music
away from its origin and into the city.
The amazing feature of the mountain music tradition is
that it embodies all the periods of its development, from the
unaccompanied singing of ballads and the solo use of the fiddle
�The Lore of the Folk / 239
A banjo picker
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO.
for dance music, through its modern manifestations. One of
the best places for one who is not acquainted with the mountain
traditions to encounter a great deal of what is still to be found
of them is at one of the music conventions that have developed,
mainly from the old fiddlers' contests, in Galax, Virginia (in
August), in Union Grove, North Carolina (at Easter), and at
Asheville, North Carolina (in July) .
Each of these large gatherings has over forty years of its
own history, but the custom of holding such gatherings is
much older. An interesting account of the earlier, less enormous
fiddlers' contests, was written by Louis Rand Bascom early
in the century: "The convention is essentially an affair of the
people, and is usually held in a stuffy little schoolhouse, lighted
by one or two evil-smelling lamps, and provided with a rude,
temporary stage. On this the fiddlers and 'follerers of banjo
pickin' ' sit, their coats and hats hung conveniently on pegs
above their heads, their faces inscrutable. To all appearances
they do not care to whom the prize is awarded, for the winner
will undoubtedly treat. Also they are not bothered by the note
taking of zealous judges, as these gentlemen are not appointed
until after each contestant has finished his allotted "three pieces."
�240 /
Part II: A Changing Society
The 1955 Mountain Dance and Folk Festival held annually in Asheville, directed
ASHEVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PHOTO
by Bascom Lamar Lunsford
At the Old Fiddlers Conventions at Union Grove about as much interest was
shown in extemporaneous performances on the grounds as under the big tent. This
is a scene from Union Grove in the 196o's
PHOTO BY ROUNDER RECORDS
�The Lore of the Folk /
241
The modern super convention has to some extent replaced
these smaller and more local affairs, and blue grass has made
inroads (but not the crooner style of commercial country music).
At each of these the variety of entertainment is great, and it is
greatest at the Asheville Dance and Folk Festival, where rank
amateurs, commercial artists, dancing groups, solo ballad
singers, and bands are all to be seen and heard. At the Union
Grove Old Time Fiddlers' Convention, at Asheville, and at
Galax Virginia's Old Time Fiddlers' Convention, the number
of bands is in the hundreds, and the time which is consumed
including all-night festivities is several days. Joan Moser recommends them to the interested: "The commercial exploitation
of these is far less than that of the ordinary folk festival. The
proceeds, for instance, usually go to local non-profit educational
or charitable funds, and for this reason the music is less likely to
be dressed up for audience appeal. It is performed in more traditional styles than is the case with more commercial and sensation
seeking festivals. This is not to say that showmanship and artistic
virtuosity are missing, by any means, but they do remain within
the bound of traditional practice." Although each of the three
festivals named draws crowds in the thousands and from far
away, there are a multitude of the smaller, local schoolhouse
variety of fiddlers' contests.
To a city dweller or a resident of the suburbia of which so
many Americans are a part, a remarkable feature of the mountain
culture is the extent to which work and recreation coincide.
Artus Moser describes the trait of community sharing this
way: "They learned to cooperate and work together, sing
together, dance together, as neighbors and friends. Some of
the very old people will tell you with much conviction that
they had more fun and pleasure when they were young than
the modern young generation, ... "
The square dance is the recognized dance of the mountain
people. With it goes the mountain music of the fiddle, guitar,
and the banjo. This music bears within itself its own unique
musical form with its rapid jump from key to key and its
expression of emotion. The square dance is the descendant of
the minuet, the Virginia Reel, and English and Scottish folk
dances.
�242 /
Part II: A Changing Society
Square dance groups meet outdoors in the summer
ASHEVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PHOTO
The majority of the people were fundamentalists and puritanical. They thought that dancing where there was bodily
contact was sinful. They condoned "play-party" games. The
square dance was an exuberant amusement at these play-parties.
It gave the energetic young people a means of enjoying their
healthful animal spirits. M any years ago Bascom Lamar Lunsford
of Turkey Creek (Buncombe County) organized the Mountain
Dance and Folk Festival in Asheville. It has been held every
summer since that time. Ballad singers and musicians and square
dance groups perform and compete. This competition has
helped to maintain and to spread the popularity of square dancing.
Then, too, there is music making for its own sake. These
get-togethers might be at several t ypical places: at someone's
house, out doors (often in the summer months), or at a store
or filling station. These musical get-togethers involve considerable
ritual: reverence for old players or listeners and deference to
their tastes, tuning up (an endless and hair-raising process),
taking turns at playing the lead (unless the fiddle player is elderly
and august, in which case he may always play the lead), and
usually drinking (depending on the presence of women). The
�The Lore of the Folk / 243
drinking ritual might impose a different role on the fiddle
player (who needs more concentration) than on the guitar
player (who needs to loosen up and steady his rhythm). Under
some circumstances drinking is always done covertly, behind
the house or in a car. The rules are strict.
Folk beliefs and superstitions have evolved from the folk
wisdom of an isolated people who had to make-do with what
they had and where they were. They used their herb remedies
for illnesses, the omens and signs for planting and harvesting
crops. They used practices that had worked, based upon their
actual experiences. They believed in luck, magic, nature, witchcraft. These beliefs rooted in common sense needed to have
added to them the results of scientific knowledge and investigation. When such results were unavailable, they relied upon
themselves.
Folklore is the seed, the plant, the natural growth by which
legends turn into myths. It has long been an integral part of
the lives of the mountain people. It was a product of their
primitive lives, their simple pleasures, and their struggle to
survive and make their lives as creatively rich and as pleasurable
as possible. The folklore of Western North Carolina is rich
with the stories, legends, ballads, games, songs, amusements,
and occupations of the mountain people. Lacking books, theaters,
amusements, they created an imaginative and indigenous way
of life for themselves.
Many of the folktales are based on pagan beliefs of other
millenia, which have survived as oral literature. When primitive
man could not understand death, sickness, lightning, and other
nautral phenomena, he attributed them to malignant deities,
such as witches and devils. To protect himself from these malignant forces he created benevolent spirits to save him from the
forces of evil. Eventually these spirits became his gods. Finally
the one-God concept evolved and the gods became God. Then
even though man wished with all his might to believe in the
benevolence of God, he still feared the devil, forces of evil,
malignant spirits, and the consequences of a remorseles destiny.
He blamed certain undesirable happenings upon fate, luck, chance,
the influence of witches and other malignant spirits. Folklore is
a characteristic of man's cultural heritage. Everyone is affected
by it, but quite possibly the more simple, ignorant, isolated,
�244 / Part II: A Changing Society
Bascom Lamar Luniford and Obray Ramsey make mountain music. They are
representative of numerous groups of banjo, fiddle, and guitar players who travel
miles to enjoy their favorite pastime
PHOTO BY AMERICAN MUSIC CONFERENCE
and illiterate a person is, the more greatly he is influenced by
folk beliefs.
Folk tales like the ballads were handed down by oral communication and transmission. Like the ballad singer, the folk
teller of tales "adopted not only the vocabulary and language
but also the technique of high-pitched and nasal speech of the
people, ... their soft drawl." These tales were a part of spoken
culture until a literary man like Richard Chase came along,
�The Lore of the Folk / 245
collected them, wrote them down, and thus made them available
to a wider audience than could have heard the native fabulists.
In the mountains of Western North Carolina there are many
folk tales and legends. Concerning these one must ask the
following questions: how interesting are they? how significant?
how widely are they told? to what extent are they believed in
Western North Carolina? One would say that the belief that
if a corpse were touched by a murderer it would bleed afresh
would be absurd. Yet a suspected murderer was given this
test in Ashe County, North Carolina, and the legend is that
the corpse bled. There are many legends about witchcraft.
There was a witchcraft trial in North Carolina in 1920. Belief
in ghosts was once involved to explain North Carolina's most
widely advertised natural mystery, the Brown Mountain lights.
These lights that can be seen over Brown Mountain from the
Blowing Rock highway and elsewhere have been investigated
by scientists and have been written about time and again. They
were the subject of a mystery novel, Kill One, Kill Two by
W. W. Anderson in 1940. The lights were investigated by the
U.S. Geological Survey in 1913 and 1921. They have also been
investigated by the National Geographic Society. The report of
the Geological Survey scientists stated that they were reflections
of automobile and train headlights. H. C. Martin asserted in
the Lenoir Topic that they were reflections of the lights of Lenoir,
Morganton, and Granite Falls. Hobart Whitman said the lights
were really over Hickory, Morganton, and Valdese and that
they merely appeared to be over Brown Mountain. Others
have asserted that the lights were swamp fire or will-o-the-wisp,
luminous reflections from phosphorescent substances. Many
people have explored Brown Mountain and have found no
cause of the lights. One evidence that the lights are reflections
is that there was no legend concerning them before the twentieth
century.
There is a legend that the man in the moon is there for burning
trash on Sunday. Many are the legends about forlorn lovers.
The most appealing of these is about the beautiful Indian princess
who, after the death of her lover, leaped from a cliff into the
river. Thus the Estatoe River received its name.
An interesting legend tells how the Indians obtained fire.
They had no fire. Three old witches over the hill did. The Indians
and their animal friends stole a firebrand from the witches. The
animals passed it from one to another until it reached the Indian
�246 / Part II: A Changing Society
village. Henceforth the Indians guarded the precious fire day and
night. This is reminiscent of the Greek myth about Prometheus.
The story of the origin of the woodpecker concerns a stingy
old woman. One day a wizard disguised as an old man came by
as she was baking cakes. He asked for a cake. She promised him
one but then decided each was too large to give to him. Because
of her stinginess he changed her into a woodpecker. A flower
legend is about a little girl who liked to look at the sun so much
that she was changed into a sunflower. The fuchsia is supposed
to belong to the devil. The purple bell that drops down is his
bell, the red petals that turn up are hell flames. The trees bowed
before Jesus, the aspen refused. Ever since, it has trembled in
fear. The mistletoe was once a large tree. Its wood was used for
the cross of Jesus. Now it is a parasite. At Clifton, Ashe County,
legend has it that a witch woman, Lyla Weaver, bewitched a
rooster and made a snake appear on the counter in the store, so
terrifying the merchant that he gave her a bolt of cloth. In
Watauga County Old Henry, supposedly a male witch, put a
spell on his daughter-in-law. Her family kept a stoppered bottle
hanging from the loft to obviate the curse. There is the belief
that the only way to kill witches is to shoot them with silver
bullets.
It was believed in Todd, N.C., that under the spell of a
witch crops will not mature or will wilt and dry up, that a
witch could bewitch horses so that they would die after trying
to climb trees and walk logs and fences, that when horses' manes
and tails are tangled, they've been ridden by witches, that
witches can't abide lye soap, that if you don't want soap bewitched
stir it with a sassafras stick, that if butter won't congeal you
should put a coin in the churn to attract the witch's attention
so the butter will come.
There are legends of famous ghosts in the mountains. Among
the most widely believed are those about the Lineback ghost
near Cranberry and the Polly-Place ghost near Haunted Spring,
one mile east of the Watauga River. This ghost is like a soldier
with brass buttons on his coat. In Watauga County a headless
dog was seen near the Cove Creek schoolhouse. There is a legend
that a traveler and his dog were murdered and buried under
the schoolhouse. Ghostly lights have been seen from Big Laurel
in Watauga County. Aunt Sally Simms of Pineola had a vision
in which she saw the devil, his wife, and four children come
into Billy's house. They danced, had music, and one of the
�The Lore of the Folk / 24 7
hellcats sat on the forelog in the fire. She threw boiling water
on it but it was not hurt. Then she saw a hand with a knife.
Shortly afterwards Betty and a boy named Ralph were running
away. Bill, Betty's brother, knifed and shot Ralph. In Wilkes
County strangers are told of Guy-scoot-er sky, the wonderful
steer with hind legs longer than his front ones for mountain
climbing.
Olive Tilford Dargan in From My Highest Hill quoted many
sayings such as the following: "You can't raise a child that
never falls out of bed. They die shure." "Fodder that has never
been wet when made into a tea will cure fever." "A writin'
spider means good luck." "To cure a baby's thrash get a strange
man to lift his shoe to the baby's mouth, blow in the baby's
mouth, say the three highest words in the Bible, or get a blackeyed man to give the baby a drink from his right shoe." "One
must have a calm spirit if she puts up beans that will not spoil."
She wrote of "yarb" medicines: mullein and shumake for a
swelled throat, boneset for "agu," pokeweed for "rheumatiz"
and spignet for consumption. For earache the remedy was
warm rabbit oil poured into the ear.
John Foster West recalled from his childhood in the Appalachians of North Carolina a lullaby:
"Whatcha gonna do with the baby?
Whatcha gonna do with the baby?
Wrope it up in the tablecloth
And throw it up in the stable loft.
Whatcha gonna do with the baby?
West recalled a toe game that the children liked :
"Big toe: "This old sow say 'Let's go steal wheat.'"
Second toe: "Where we git hit at?"
The Third toe says: "Massa's barn"
The little toe, when twisted, would say: "This little pig
say, "Wee! wee! wee! I can't get over the doorsill.'"
Many of our children's games had their origin in antiquity.
"Jacks" was mentioned by Aristophanes. The Romans played
"How many fingers?". "Blindman's Buff" and "odd and even"
were Greek. "Prisoner's base," "Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley"
were played in the Middle Ages. "Leapfrog" was mentioned by
both Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. "Anthony over," "Skip to
my Lou," "Scissors-Paper-Stone," "Crack the Whip," "Upset
the Fruit Basket," "Hide and Seek" have long been popular in
the mountains.
�248 / Part II: A Changing Society
A rhyme about "hide and seek" is Bucket of wheat, bucket
of clover, All not hid can't hide over. All eyes open, here I come.
Many games involve practical jokes. In "Barnyard Chorus"
only the one uninitiated gave the sound of the farm animals. In
"Barber" a girl would tie a scarf around a boy's neck, invite
him to be shaved and blindfold him. Then a little boy would
kiss him. The blindfold would be removed, and the boy would
be asked if that were not the quickest shave he had ever had.
There were a number of battle games like "Capture the Flag"
and many dramatic singing games like "Jenny Jones," "Old
Crony," "Old Grumble," "Old Crummle," "Old Grumly"
with onomatopoeic refrains like "chicky my chick my crany
crow." A witch would catch all the children and send them home.
An amusing guessing game was "Grunt, Pig, Grunt." A child
would be blindfolded and then would have to identify which
other child had grunted. Another guessing game was "Hackety
hack on your back, how many fingers do I hold up?" In "Blindman's Buff" the blindfolded one had to catch and identify one
of the players. In "Horns" a player would lose when he called
the name of an animal that had no horns; in the "Twelve Days
of Christmas" the player had to repeat all the gifts - the first
one to omit any dropped out of the game. "Prisoners Base,"
"Fox in the Morning," "Rover, Red Rover, All come over,"
"Drop the Handkerchief," "Jacks," and "Mumble Peg" were
widely played.
There were so many hog drovers passing through the mountains that the children made up a "Hog Drover" game: Hog
drovers, hog drovers, hog drovers, we air, A courtin' your
darter so neat and so fair, Can we get lodgin' here, oh, here?
Can we get lodgin' here?" The child playing the father would
answer: "No ugly hog drover gets her for a bride."
Riddles were a popular form of humor: On which side
does a sheep have the most wool? The outside. The mountain
people were fond of proverbs and picturesque sayings. They
are part of the folk wisdom and imagination: for every fog in
August there'll be a snow in winter; his wife throwed more
out the back door than he could tote in the front; as quare as a
biddy hatched in a thunder storm. Superstitions represent the
primal stage of folklore. One superstition is about a white horse,
an omen of good luck. If you see a white horse, kiss the right
hand and stamp it twice on the left hand. Thus the white horse,
like the first star of evening, is a wishing horse or a magic horse;
�The Lore of the Folk / 249
one who eats a bear's heart will have supernatural strength; if
you carry a lock of hair of a person you can control that person.
Some superstitions concerning domestic pursuits are these: set
bread to rise before sunrise; soap should be made in the dark
of the moon; a seventh son of a seventh son has miraculous
healing powers. Death and funeral customs include the following:
if a pregnant woman drinks too much water, she may drown
the baby; turn the bed tick before nine days and the mother
will die; a ringing in the ears is the tolling of the death bell.
There are many good luck omens, fetishes charms. Spittle, a
rabbit's foot, a small piece of corn, a buckeye, knocking on
wood, stump water are good luck charms. Folk ideas about
bees are interesting: swarm in May, worth a load of hay. The
principal sports, hunting and fishing, were subjects of folk
beliefs: fish will not bite when the wind blows; hunting is good
when the moon is in the south, when the air is still. "When
the wind is in the east, the fish bite least; When the wind is in
the west, the fish bite best; When the wind is in the south, the
fish bite in the mouth."
A folk hero is Junior Johnson, stock car racer and chicken
farmer. The legend of Junior Johnson has developed in Wilkes
County. Junior, the "charger," was the idol of the 17,000 people
who would drive out Route 421 to the stock car races near
Wilkesboro. On such a day the "good ole mountain boys"
could hear gospel preaching and shouting on the radio. According
to Tom Wolfe the South has preaching, shouting, grits, country
music, old memories, traditions, clay dust, old bigots, new
liberals, and the lust for racing. Junior was a "hillbilly" who
learned to drive by running whiskey for his father, a copper
still operator in Ingle Hollow. Junior grossed over $10o,ooo in
1963. Still the Wilkes boys in the apple shacks wake up in the
night, hear a supercharged car roar, and say, "Listen at himthere he goes!" Junior became famous for his "bootleg turn"
to avoid roadblocks, a 180° turn made by throwing the car
into second, stepping on the accelerator, and skidding the rear
end around. He was never caught in a car. Once he got through
a road block by using a police siren and a red light in his grill.
His admirers are usually in their twenties and wear mod clothes.
Very few arc clodhoppers. Junior has a huge income, 42,000
chickens, a road-grading business, and a good job with Holly
Farms. He is a hero a whole class can identify with. He stirs their
imagination. What he is they would like to be.
�This page intentionally left blank
�PART THREE
A Developing Economy
March II, I879, Major James W. Wilson, the engineer in charge,
wired the Governor: "Daylight has entered Buncombe County today: grade and center met exactly." The last shovelful of earth had
been lifted, the rails were laid through the Swannanoa tunnel, and
trains from Old Fort and the west met. The place they promptly
named Terrell's.
The year I88o marked the passing of an era and the ferment of a
new one for the mountain counties. As the rails reached a county
seat it experienced a little "boom." Lumber and tanning companies
moved in, new uses were found for wood, wide-eyed tourists converged
to experience the wonders that a few daring travelers had been describing for years. Small aggregations of local capital were thereupon
invested here and there in furniture factories and textile mills. Telegraph
had preceded the railroad by just a few months. The telegraph was
the nerve system and the railroad the arteries carrying materials essential
to the integration with national life that was beginning to evolve.
The forests in r 880 were great unbroken stretches of never-cut
timber, and the timber stands were interrupted only by the island
places where men in farms, valleys, and towns made their stands against
the wilderness sea of trees. As the fisherman is an intruder on the seas,
so then men were invaders of the forests. To make a field or pasture
it was necessary to kill trees, so men adopted the practice of burning
or stripping a stand of trees to clear land - treating the forest as an
251
�252 /
Part III: A Developing Economy
enemy to be conquered. Of course most of the houses of men and
their contents were won by toil from the forest. Still it was the enemy
that was everywhere and eternal. With the railroads came the first
lumbering concerns, and the forests were transformed into a marketable
commodity, only awaiting the axe.
But the farmer was not so immediately affected by the railroad
in the 188o's, except that things probably got somewhat better for
him with gradually improving markets and new markets for new
crops, such as the tobacco crop, then in its infancy as an industry in
Western North Carolina. A change in the weaving of people together
into society was surely taking place. County seats grew as centers of
influence only if railroads reached them, and in some cases towns
were created by the arrival of railroads, the town-maker par excellence
in America. North Wilkesboro eclipsed Wilkesboro, the county
seat, because of the railroad. The railroad now visits West Jefferson,
not Jefferson, the county seat. West Jefferson did not exist in 188o.
The growth of towns brought change to everyone within convenient
reach of one of these centers of culture. Branson's Business Directory for
the year 1884 reveals the extent to which business and manufacturing,
which today are concentrated, were diffused throughout the counties.
Creston, which today is merely a community, was the largest town
in Ashe County in 1884, while West Jefferson is today's largest town.
Canton in Haywood County was wholly created by the arrival of the
railroad in 1883.
And while tourism had been practiced on a small scale and the
area had been opened to the imaginations of outsiders by explorers
like Francois Andre Michaux and his father Andre Michaux, with
the arrival of the excursion train (still a phenomenon in the annual
excursions run from West Jefferson to Abingdon, Virginia) a new
era in entertainment opened up.
In 1880 there were old men who had lived out their lives never
seeing a wheeled vehicle. Of course a great gulf would continue to
exist between what were to remain the stern, uncompromising terms
of rural life and the possibilities opened up by the arrival on the scene
of means of making men closer together- mass communication,
mass transportation, mass production.
�CHAPTER
TWELVE
Hear That Whistle Blow!
The building of the Western North Carolina Railroad to
Asheville opened a window to the outside world. The previously
secluded mountaineers looked through "charmed magic casements" upon what was to them a "brave new world." As they
sat in their cabins, with the winter wind blowing through the
cracks, their fingers plucking banjo strings, they could hear the
long shrill wail of the locomotive's whistle as the train passed
Terrell's, now Ridgecrest, and started on the down grade to
Old Fort. The mountain man with the banjo would pick up the
tempo of his plucking until the rhythm of the strings matched
the rhythm of the wheels. His voice would run into a melodic
moan: "hear that whistle blow a hundred miles." The man and
banjo, train whistle and wheels were like one being: racing,
roaring, speeding, pulsating, vibrating on their way to the
wonders of the world outside the mountains. The men would
dream of getting out to Morganton, Raleigh, Washington,
and New York.
To the people of the mountains the railroad was more than
just engine, passenger and freight cars. It was their means of
escape, their ticket to adventure, to a new life, to opportunity
and excitement. It became a way of life, breathing, walking,
making love, dreaming. It became a symbol of freedom, of
hope, of escape from bondage, the bondage of loneliness. It
opened the door to the affluence of the outside world. It allured
men with the bright and shining promises symbolized by the
bright and shining rails. It represented romance as well as being
253
�2 54
/ Part III: A Developing Economy
an arterial system for carrying goods and services to market.
The railroad made both transportation and communication
easier. It carried the people and it brought the mail.
Before the days of the railroad and rural free delivery, post
offices were numerous, Buncombe County having thirty-four.
The United States government contracted with individuals to
carry the mail from town to town, and frequently the carriers
combined hauling the mail with the operation of a stage coach
line, sometimes even keeping a tavern at some place along the
route for lunch stops or overnight accommodations for the
passengers. Sherrill Inn, a saddle-bag type of house of logs at
Hickory Nut Gap, was operated until after 1900. Bedford
Sherill carried the mail from Salisbury to Asheville via Lincolnton
and Rutherfordton. His four horse Albany type coach carried
many notable passengers. Drovers also used the inn, often paying
for the services in kind: turkeys, a hog, or a steer. After the
Western North Carolina Railroad reached Marion in 1870, a
number of stage coach lines furnished regular services to points
in the mountains such as the Cloudland Hotel on Roan Mountain, and to Asheville, crossing the Swannanoa Gap and following
the Swannanoa River. Stage lines also fanned out from Asheville
in almost all directions. Tourists enjoyed the travel by stage
coach and the bountiful board and rural accommodations along
the various routes.
.
As early as 1827, when railroads in America were just plans
on paper, Joel Poinsett of Charleston is said to have dreamed
of a railroad to be built across the Blue Ridge Mountains, down
the French Broad River, and on to the Ohio Valley. In 1833 he
published a pamphlet advocating such a road. Meetings were
held in Asheville, Charlotte, and Knoxville. Judge Mitchell
King of the resort at Flat Rock was a staunch promoter, and
through his influence some preliminary surveys were made by
engineers, one of whom was connected with the College of
Charleston. An enthusiastic engineer wrote: "On the table
land of Buncombe, the very spirit of health will smile upon the
enterprise, and it will be hailed with joy by a flood of migration
from the south, which even now sends thousands to make a
painful journey to this delightful region."
More than fifty years passed before a railroad was ever built
across the Blue Ridge. In 1852 the General Assembly of North
Carolina, the railroad having been completed to Salisbury,
chartered a Western North Carolina Railroad to have a capital
�Hear That Whistle Blow! / 255
Hauling wood to build the Western North Carolina Railroad. The engine at the
front is the little Salisbury that w as hauled over the mountain to expedite the
digging of the Swannanoa tunnel
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO .
of$3,00o,ooo, financed two-thirds by state funds and the remaining third by counties and individuals, to run from Salisbury to
the Tennessee line. This was one of the many abortive plans of
the next forty years to build a railroad through every western
county.
In I853 Tennessee chartered a railroad to run from Cincinnati
to Paint Rock, expecting that North Carolina would build its
link across to the South Carolina border. A second charter was
issued in I855 for a Western North Carolina railroad, from
Salisbury to some point on the French Broad River beyond
the Blue Ridge, and further legislation provided for construction
west through the valley of the Pigeon and Tuckaseigee rivers
to connect with a point on a projected Blue Ridge Railroad
on the Tennessee River. Another provision was for an extension
through Madison County to Paint Rock, Tennessee. Surveys
were made and the construction began. The road from Salisbury
was completed to within a few miles of Morganton when the
work was halted by the Civil War. Soon after the war the line
was built to Morganton, in I 870 it reached Marion, and by
I 873 it was at Old Fort.
In I 870 East Tennessee achieved railroad connections with
Atlanta and Mobile, and Buncombe County's lucrative trade
from the passage of Tennessee livestock over the turnpikes was
lost. Asheville needed a railroad desp erately, but the odds were
�256 / Part III: A Developing Economy
against her. The Western North Carolina Railroad now became
a victim of financial difficulties. State aid through the sale of
bonds was voted by the General Assembly, but the bonds did
not sell for the expected amount because of lack of faith in the
state's ability to repay the money. In r871 the Assembly split
the Western North Carolina Railroad into the Eastern Division
and the Western Division. Corruption in politics swept onto
the scene. George W. Swepson, president of the Western Division, paid Milton S. Littlefield, a carpetbag lobbyist in Raleigh,
to use his influence in getting votes in favor of the bonds. Littlefield was to have ten per cent of the money raised from their
sale, and he spent money lavishly on the members of the
Assembly. When an investigation revealed the fraud, Swepson
and Littlefield fled the state. Later the Western Division was
merged with the Eastern Division.
Samuel McDowell Tate, Democratic businessman of
Morganton, served as president of the Western North Carolina
Railroad intermittently after the Civil War, being the choice
of the stockholders but not of W. W. Holden, Republican governor in r866, r869-187r. Tate continued to act as director
and as financial agent of the Eastern Division after 1871, and in
I 873 he was appointed by the United States Circuit Court as
temporary receiver, but after two months he was replaced by
William A. Smith, Republican. The troubles ot the road were
subjects of political maneuvering by both Republican and
Democratic parties in 1874, and in that year Tate was elected
to the state House of Representatives from Burke County.
In 1875 a coalition was formed between eastern and western·
Democrats. Tate submitted a bill by which the Western North
Carolina Railroad would be purchased by the state and
completed as planned. In return the western representatives
would support the calling of a constitutional convention to
abolish the local election of county commissioners and justices
of the peace, the method that was brought into operation by the
carpetbag constitution of r868. Henceforth the holders of these
offices were to be chosen by the General Assembly. Thus officeholding by Negroes in the eastern counties could be controlled.
Tate's bill was a clever device for getting the East to pay for
the railroad. The western members were determined to have
their railroad bill passed first. Objections were raised that the
western congressional district included I /7 of the area of the state,
r/8 of its population, but paid only r/IJ of the taxes. They were
�Hear That Whistle Blow! /
2 57
answered by the argument that until people could sell their
products and develop their resources they could not pay more
taxes and that when rail communications were established with
Georgia and Tennessee outside capital would be attracted to
the western part of the state. The bill passed the Senate in 1875,
and the state issued $85o,ooo worth of new mortgage bonds
to be prorated among the various creditors. Western Democrats
then supported the bill calling for a constitutional convention.
Construction was resumed in 1877 and the General Assembly
approved the expenditure of $7o,ooo annually for the work,
provided the money was available. Five hundred convicts,
most of them Negroes, were assigned to complete the construction. Utilization of convict labor was common in the Southern
states at this time, and in North Carolina they had been used
in making the cuts for the Spartanburg-Asheville Railroad
under a law passed in 1872. Upon completion of the Western
North Carolina Railroad to Asheville the prisoners were to
be employed in building the lines to Paint Rock and Murphy.
In I 877 the road was completed to Henry Station at the foot
of the Blue Ridge. Grading had been done beyond that point
and some tunnels had been worked on, but little progress had
been made. From Old Fort to Swannanoa Gap was a rise of
891.5 feet between two points only three and four-tenths miles
apart. Six tunnels ranging from 7 feet to 1,832 feet were needed,
and the road was laid out to curve 2, 776 degrees, the equivalent
of eight complete circles. All of the work was done by hand by
unskilled convicts using pick, shovel, and mule-drawn scrapes
and carts.
The story of the completion of the road from Henry Station
to Asheville is dramatic. For the first time in the South nitroglycerine was used for blasting cuts and tunnels. One cut 450
feet long became known as "Mud Cut." The convicts went
down each day to dig the mud out with picks and shovels, but
each night it filled with mud again. A dinky engine was used
to carry the mud out of the cut. Finally the men and engine won.
Another challenge came when the decision was reached that
the Swannanoa tunnel must be dug from the western as well as
the eastern end and that an engine would be necessary to take
the mud and rocks from the tunnel. W. P. Terell, engineer of
the little engine "Salisbury" directed the dragging of the engine
over the mountain on wooden planks using block and tackle.
Mules, oxen, and convicts dragged the engine three miles,
�258 / Part III: A Developing Economy
lifting it 900 feet in the process. The men laid planks, strained
up the mountain over the planks, relaid the planks ahead of the
engine, and started again. By taking the engine to the western
end of the projected tunnel they cut in half the time required
to dig it. The road had been surveyed to follow the courses
of streams and thus secure a gradual rise. For an air line distance
of three and four-tenths miles the road bed is nine miles.
Major James W. Wilson, an original contractor for the work
and after 1877 president of the Western North Carolina Railroad, completed the track to Asheville in October r 880. In that
year A. B. Andrews became president of the line. By r88o the
Democratic Party in North Carolina had come to regret having
supported purchase of the Western North Carolina by the state.
Construction of the line between Henry Station and Swannanoa
Gap had been slow, and "Mud Cut" had been the butt of
criticism by eastern newspapers that were preaching economy.
Completion of the two extensions to Tennessee would require an increase in state taxes for years to come. Zebulon
B. Vance, elected Governor in 1876, had been elevated to the
United States Senate in I 879 and Lieutenant Governor Thomas
J. Jarvis, promoted to the governorship, hoped to be re-elected
in I88o on a platform of economy and of increased state support
for public education. When William J. Best, head of a northern
financial group, offered to buy the road, pay the state for the
$85o,ooo mortgage, and pay $sso,ooo in first mortgage bonds
plus compensation to private stockholders, Governor Jarvis
called a special session of the General Assembly for March I 5.
There was little opposition to the proposal, the bill being passed
March 27. Best pledged that the road would be completed to
Paint Rock on or before July I, I88r, and to Murphy on or
before January I, I885. The new owners were to pay the state
an annual rent for each convict employed on the project. Best's
associates turned over their interests to the Richmond and
Danville Railroad Company, a procedure which had been
turned down by the General Assembly in I875· Thus the Western
North Carolina Railroad became part of an important trunk
line which in I894 was reorganized as the Southern Railway
Company, but the dream that the mountain area would share
a railroad to the state's Atlantic seaports was blasted.
The building of the Western North Carolina Railroad from
Old Fort to the crest of the Blue Ridge brought a new life and
�Hear That Whistle Blow! / 259
The first Battery Park Hotel, luxurious in its day, on the site of Battery Porter,
Civil War fortification
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO.
new hope to the people of the mountains but at a staggering
cost: $2,ooo,ooo for eleven miles of track and the loss of some
four hundred lives, almost all of whom were convicts, many
having been convicted of such minor crimes as vagrancy and
loitering because they had no means of support. Thus this epochal
railroad building was yet another example of minority exploitation so prevalent in American History.
Construction of the road to Paint Rock was completed
in 1882 and through service to Morristown, Tennessee, was
opened. The North Carolina part followed the French Broad,
and vast amounts of rock had to be moved to provide a road
bed. Nitro-glycerine was again used in blasting. It was manufactured near the mouth of Reems Creek and transported in
one-gallon jugs in one-horse wagons driven by Negroes along
the Buncombe Turnpike to the places needed.
After the railroad reached Asheville, many wealthy Northerners came to the resort to spend a few days or weeks, and
among the new hotels built for their accommodation was the
Battery Park, occupying the site of Battery Porter, the Civil
War fortification erected near Asheville. The Battery Park was
luxurious, and the view from its many verandas was magnificent
as the town was rimmed with mountains. Gay young people residing at the hotel took horseback excursions into the mountains.
�260 /
Part III: A Developing Economy
Hotel at Warm Springs, later renamed Hot Springs. The hotel was enlarged to
accomodate the crowds after the railroad reached the town
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO.
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The railway station at Hot Springs, typical of the depots along the line
Shortly after the completion of the road to the Tennessee
line, the management of the hotel at Warm Springs enlarged
the establishment, adding one hundred new rooms. "This
improvement comprises a western extension, six hundred and
fifty feet long, three stories high, verandas to every floor, extending the entire length of the new building, ... presenting a hotel
outfit, for accommodation of such a throng of guests, unsurpassed
by any Summer and Winter resort in the country." The hotel
�Hear That Whistle Blow! J
26I
accommodated one thousand guests and was said to be not
infrequently full to overflowing.
Next the Murphy branch was constructed. When the railroad
reached Pigeon Ford, now Canton, in I88I the station there
became the shipping point for livestock and a town developed.
In I 8 84 when the road reached Waynesville a great celebration
was held on April 4· People, many of whom had never seen a
train, flocked into town as the first official passenger train came
in. New settlements grew up along the line as the road pushed
west. Waynesville became a famous resort. In I 879 a large hotel
had been built, one-half mile from town, at White Sulphur
Springs.
Meanwhile a much talked-of road from Spartanburg to
Asheville to connect with the one to Tennessee was progressing without state financial support. The legislature of I 8 55 had
been railroad conscious. A charter was granted to the Greenville
and French Broad Railroad Company to join a road in the
course of construction in South Carolina. Not until I873 was
work on the line in North Carolina begun in Polk County.
This was to be the first railroad to cross the Blue Ridge in North
Carolina. The line reached Tryon in 1877, but the route planned
proved to be too expensive, necessitating a change, and the next
few miles went slowly. It reached Saluda by a climb of six
hundred feet in three miles at a maximum grade of more than
220 feet per mile in some places. The "Big Cut" about half way
up the mountain was seventy feet in the center and even deeper
on the upper side. Convict labor was used on the heavy grades.
The town of Saluda was founded while the railroad was under
construction and in 1881 it was chartered. It covered a square
mile with the railroad in the center. The first train passed through
Saluda in 1878. The town became a summer resort, principally
for people from Columbia, South Carolina. They were charmed
with the wide variety of wild flowers and other plant life afforded
by the thermal belt in Polk County and by the mountain scenery.
In I 8 85 the town of Tryon was incorporated to extend
one-half mile in every direction from the intersection of Pacolet
Street with the railroad. A hotel now known as Oak Hall had
been built in 1881 and the town had already become a winter
resort. These two towns in the same county had such different
average temperatures that Tryon attracted winter residents and
Saluda served as a summer retreat. The county began to attract
more year-round residents.
�262 J Part Ill: A Developing Economy
In I 874 the planned consolidation of the two railroads was
consummated under the name Asheville and Spartanburg
Railroad Company, and it finally reached Asheville in 1886.
Construction to Hendersonville had been completed by July
4, 1879. On that day notables from Charleston and Columbia
were in Hendersonville. Crowds thronged the streets and people
opened their homes to the visitors who had come by stage,
horseback, buggy, carriage, oxcarts, and on foot. As one train
approached from Charlotte and a special came from Spartanburg
a cannon was fired and the crowd cheered. Speeches were made
by famous men and the local band played. In the oak grove
near the station barbecued meat and other foods were served,
followed by more speeches.
In
1894 the Hendersonville and Brevard Railroad was built.
The engines were wood-burning, and fuel was obtained from
place to place along the track. After three years' operation the
company failed and the road was purchased by J. F. Hayes and
associates at a receiver's sale and later was leased to the Southern
Railroad. About 1895 Joseph H. Silverstein came to Transylvania County, and in 1901 he and a group of associates built
the Toxaway Tanning Company, organized the Gloucester
Lumber Company, leased a boundary of several thousand acres
of valuable timberlands, and built a large band sawmill. Meanwhile J. F. Hayes, millionaire who came to the "Sapphire
country" because of poor health, founded the Brevard Tanning
Company, manufacturers of tannic acid, at Pisgah Forest. The
tanneries made contracts with owners of tracts of chestnut trees
to furnish chestnut wood and tanbark to be made into tannic
acid, providing a new source of income from the forested land.
However, these contracts were a source of great hardship to
those furnishing the bark because the buyer's scales did the
weighing and because the bark had to be free from mold and
defects. It could be peeled easily only during the spring when
rains were frequent and at that time mold was hard to avoid.
Other lumber companies followed, and Brevard with three
hundred people began to have its first boom. Town lots were
selling for three hundred dollars, land in the French Broad
Valley was bringing from $25 to $roo per acre, and mountain
land from three to ten dollars. There were two trains daily into
�Hear That Whistle Blow!
I 263
the village. In 1900 J. F. Hayes built the beautiful Franklin Hotel
in Brevard. In 1901 he built 540 acre Lake Toxaway in Transylvania County. Soon he erected a rso-room luxury hotel with
electric lights, elevators, steam heat, and a power launch to
carry guests around the lake. In Jackson County he built the
Sapphire and Fairfield Hotels. He catered to the wealthy and
it was said that 200 millionaires were guests during the first
year of operation. Some of them invested in Western North
Carolina developments. Among distinguished guests were the
rubber magnate Edward Baccus, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone,
John Burroughs, Thomas Edison, R. J. Reynolds, the Dukes,
and the Nunnally family from Atlanta. A band, dancing, boating,
study classes for children were provided, and there was an
electric car line to connect the resorts of Fairfield and Toxaway.
By 1905 there were six trains a day through Brevard during
the season, for a few years. By 1907 business was falling off.
The Toxaway Company failed in I9II, Fairfield Inn burned,
and the 1916 flood destroyed the dam, the hotel closed, and
the wealthy guests went elsewhere. In the 1950's the dam and
lak.e were rebuilt by a new company, Lake Toxaway Estates,
and the company is developing an exclusive mountain-lake
residential community, with a new Toxaway Inn as well as
houses and boathouses around the lake, making this again a
vacation paradise.
As late as 1886 it was being written of Rutherford, one of the
two oldest counties in the area, "Transportation is by wagon
to the railroads of the adjacent counties, and thence to Charlotte,
Wilmington, and Charleston." That of course applied to cotton
and grain. The livestock went on the hoof. By r 887 Rutherfordton had its railroad. When the Carolina Central Railroad reached
that town, a dream of thirty years was realized. Chartered in
r 8 55 as the Wilmington, Charlotte, and Rutherfordton Railroad, it received aid from the state and from most of the counties
through which it passed. Rutherford County voted bonds to
pay for several thousand dollars worth of stock. The work went
slowly, but during the Civil War construction was completed
to Cherryville. By r88o it had reached Shelby, and by r887
trains were operating to Rutherfordton.
General Wilder, who owned the Cloudland Hotel and
most of Roan Mountain and had an interest in the Cranberry
�264
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Part III: A Developing Economy
iron mines, in the 188o's promoted a railroad project to connect
the rich coal fields of Southwest Virginia and Eastern Kentucky
with the South by a railroad across the mountains from some
point on the Ohio River. A similar promotion had been made
in the 183o's by Charleston men. This railroad was finally
completed in 1915. The Charleston, Cincinnati, and Chicago
Railroad Company, commonly called the "Three C's", was
chartered by a special act of the Tennessee legislature in I 887
and under the general laws of that state in I 889. The Rutherford
Railway Construction Company, chartered by the General
Assembly in I 833 to construct a road from Rutherfordton to
Pictured above in 1905 in Spruce Pine, N.C. during construction of C linchfield
Railroad: mules and wagons at the Clinchfield depot , hauling for MacArthur
Brothers, contractors for the construction of the C linchfield Railroad, which ended
at Spruce Pine at the time of this picture. In the upper right-hand corner of this
picture is a portion of the roof of the depot. Just beyond on the right are two
warehouses. All materials and supplies for the job were shipped by rail to the end
of the railroad at Spruce Pine until they could be hauled by wagon across the ridge.
The warehouses stand where the lower street business houses were later. The four
mule team in the foreground is across the location of what became the lower street.
The back end of the wagon is about where Belk' s Store now stands. As the camera
is pointed it would today take in all the area up to and including the Presbyterian
Church and Baker's Resturant of today. Hardly visible near the extreme upper left
hand is the edge of the small boardinghouse built by Taylor Phillips, which became
Topliff Hotel, whic..h burned. Today's Mayland Market is on the graded-down site.
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Sullins had a boarding house, barely visible. They charged 40
cents a day for room and board, including dinner to take on the job. Wages were
$1.10 per day for 10 hours work. Roads were just rutted tracks. A 4-mule team
could haul only about a ton and it took an expert to hitch up and drive the mules.
�Hear That Whistle Blow!
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26 5
the South Carolina line or to Gastonia by way of Shelby, whichever would be the most practical, had started construction, as
had the Rutherfordton, Marion, and Tennessee, chartered in
188r. The "Three C's" absorbed these lines, built the road from
Camden to Rock Hill and on to Blacksburg. It was in operation
by December 1888, and Rutherfordton was the northern terminus
of the road from Camden, South Carolina, until the road between
Rutherfordton and Marion was completed in 1890. In 1891
the company faced bankruptcy and the road was sold at auction.
With the reorganization, four corporations were formed representing Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South
Carolina. The North Carolina portion from Tennessee went
forward gradually, reaching Spruce Pine in Mitchell County
in 1902 from Erwin, Tennessee, and by 1905 it had reached
Altapass. In 1908 the Carolina, Clinchfield, and Ohio purchased
the road and pushed construction to Bostic, South Carolina,
and then to Spartanburg by 1909. At that time there were only
two buildings in Spruce Pine, on opposite sides of the Toe River.
In 1915 the northern terminus was reached at Elkhorn, Kentucky.
In 1924 a new company, the Clinchfield Railroad, leased the
line for 999 years. The Clinchfield is unique in that it cuts through
the mountain barriers. Three and one-half per cent of the entire
mileage of 277 miles is inside the fifty-five tunnels one of which
is 7,854 feet long. The road passes through a rugged mountain
country for almost its total length. It was said to have been the
most expensive railroad per mile to build, but it was of vital
importance in opening the mountain country through which
it passes.
When the Asheville ;md Spartanburg was completed to
Asheville, most of Northwest North Carolina was still without
railroads. In 1882 the Eastern Tennessee and Western North
Carolina, a narrow gauge road, reached Cranberry in Mitchell
County, where iron mines had been worked for half a century.
In I 89 5 the Linville River Railroad was begun, from Cranberry
to Pineola, where three brothers named Camp, of Chicago,
were engaged in producing lumber and tan bark. Not until 1917
did this railroad reach Boone, Watauga's county seat. In 1887
the Northwestern North Carolina Railroad, which operated
between Greensboro and Winston and Salem and was owned by
�266 / Part III: A Developing Economy
the Richmond and Danville railroad, proposed to continue its
line to Wilkesboro or to within a mile of the town if the county
of Wilkes would buy $10o,ooo worth of stock. County bonds
were approved by the voters and the road was completed by
I 890. As there was no railroad in Watauga, Ashe, or Alleghany
counties at that time, the new road to Wilkes County meant
much to the people of the entire section. At the western terminus,
now North Wilkesboro, not more than thirty people lived.
The Winston Land and Improvement Company bought the
two farms that comprised the area of the present town, and
created the town, with streets, alleys, business buildings, a school,
an opera house, a bank, and stores. Lots were sold at auction.
In 1895 a tannery was started by C. C. Smoot and Sons, North
Wilkesboro's first industry. Finally the Norfolk and Western
obtained authority for its Virginia-Carolina Railway to construct a road in Ashe County to Jefferson and Elk Cross Roads
(now Todd). The road was finished in 1914. An extension of the
line was built privately by the Hassinger Lumber Company to
transport logs from the Cowles Tract of timber land at the
Ashe-Watauga county border to present-day Fleetwood, from
whence the Norfolk and Western carried the logs to their
destination, the Hassinger band mill in Virginia. After the
timber had been cut the track was to have been removed, but
a group of business men, chiefly members of the Moretz family,
incorporated, bought the right-of-way, leased track and locomotives and extended the little branch to Deep Gap in Watauga
County. The train carried, in addition to timber, grain, farm
produce, and general merchandise for the company's store at
Deep Gap and for the public. The entire railroad with its crew
of two, George Burchett, engineer, and Raymond Luther,
fireman, ran for six and one-half miles. From 1924 until the
Norfolk and Western discontinued its service between Todd
and West Jefferson during the depression, the little train carried
on. The tracks were taken up in 1932. A number of similar
railroads were built in the mountains, serving the needs of the
localities until highways took their place.
For example Clay and Cherokee counties constructed their
own railroad from Andrews to Hayesville for hauling lumber
and pulpwood, the Hiwassee Railroad, popularly called the
"Peavine." A line from Pigeon River connected the Catalooche
Valley with Canton. Livestock no longer had to be driven to
market on the hoof, products of truck farmers could be marketed,
�Hear That Whistle Blow! / 267
Aerial view of Spruce Pine in 1972, a town created by a railroad. Note the strip
mines that mark the nearby mountains
HUGH MORTON PHOTO
a shrubbery and nursery business grew rapidly. The narrow gauge Chester and Lenoir Railroad which
reached Lenoir in I 884 later was made a standard gauge road
and was extended to Edgemont at the present Caldwell-Avery
county line. Consideration was given to building the East
Tennessee and Western North Carolina road from Cranberry
to connect with it, thus providing transportation from Johnson
City, Tennessee, through Caldwell County and on to Chester,
South Carolina, one of the many nebulous railroad projects of
the period. Twice the Carolina and Northwestern tracks were
washed out by floods, 1916 and 1940. After the 1916 flood they
were reconstructed, but by 1940 the line was discontinued,
as was the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina between
Cranberry and Boone after the flood.
The I 9 I 6 flood was disastrous to all of the railroads in
Western North Carolina between Marshall and Marion. The
Southern Railroad suffered seventy-seven complete breaks
between Statesville and Ridgecrest, and seven camps with from
two hundred to seven hundred men each were established to
rebuild the road. The Clinchfield between Marion and Altapass
�268 / Part III: A Developing Economy
was destroyed and was out of operation for over a month. All
highway bridges over the Catawba were washed out, and only
one road into Asheville remained usable, the one from Greenville, South Carolina. In Burke County two ferries were installed
until the bridges could be rebuilt.
There was pathos and humor, heartbreak and triumph in the
songs of the railroad builders, the engineers and the convicts
who so dauntlessly thrust the rails up the mountains, who dug
the tunnels and built the bridges, who dragged the locomotive
up the mountain so the tunnel could be worked at from both
ends. All of this romance and travail John Ehle has graphically
depicted in his novel The Road. The railroads were the entering
wedge driven into the isolation of the mountains. About the
railroad there grew up a folk lore and a balladry expressing the
hopes and aspirations of the people. The Gospel Train became
an image of fundamentalist thought. The "hell-bound train,"
an express train loaded with sinners and headed for hell on a
downhill grade with no brakes and with greased rails, became
a part of the folk tradition.
Forty or fifty years after the coming of the railroad it was
largely replaced by the highways and the trucks, the interstate
systems, the throughways, and the parkways. But about them
there has grown up no folklore and tradition equal to the romance
that the railroad inspired.
�CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
Agriculture
The Handbook cif the State of North Carolina prepared by the
Department of Agriculture (1893) furnished a description of
mountain farms with its inventory of each county's resources
and the use of its acreage. The counties still had most of their
bnd covered with trees, many of which would fall to the woodman's axe when the railroad came. For instance, 7/8 of Graham,
s/6 of Macon, 3/4 of Madison, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, and
Surry were still forested. Another way of saying this was that
Macon County included 39,000 acres of "improved" and
164,000 acres of "unimproved" land, Madison County 69,000
"improved" and 164,000 "unimproved." Farmers were advised
that if they would clear their timber they would be richly rewarded and that after they had cleared the land and had taken
two or three crops off it should be "suffered to lie at rest" whereupon grass would begin to flourish and fine stock might be
produced. The northwestern counties of Ashe, Alleghany,
Watauga, Mitchell and Yancey were especially suited to stock
raising, and with cultivated grasses "a deep rich lawn" would
flourish to the summit of the mountains. Ashe County had
already become significant in cattle production, using the
Devon or Shorthorn breed which was ideally suited to milk
and beef production and work oxen for farm use. Only Buncombe County had more horses than Ashe, and Haywood was
third in number of both cattle and horses. Watauga County
ranked fourth in cattle and fifth in horses for the area. On every
farm were a few hogs and sheep, the hogs for meat and the
269
�270 / Part III: A Developing Economy
sheep for wool. They were scarcely counted as wealth, being
valued at less than one dollar per head.
Throughout the area at least three times as many acres were
planted in com as in the next ranking crop, wheat. Com was
important for household use for "pone" and for whiskey. It
was the principal feed for horses and hogs. It could be planted
in land that was full of stumps, and no expensive tools were
needed for its cultivation. The school sessions were determined
in mountain areas by "before and after fodder." Thomas W.
Ferguson wrote in thinking back over those days, "the onearmed system of farming has been employed by ninety per
cent of our farmers ... to the impoverishment of their soils.
We plowed up our hillsides planting to permanent pasture.
We plowed up every foot of our bottom lands ... planting
them to corn and other depleting crops."
Other cereal grains, oats and rye, were of less importance.
Polk and Rutherford counties were planting about one-fourth
as many acres to cotton as to com, and Burke had 752 acres
in cotton in 1884. It was also experimenting with eight acres
of rice.
Certain trees were of great importance to the farm family.
Chestnuts were gathered for household use and to be traded
for necessities, and live stock and turkeys were fattened on the
nuts that fell to the ground. The trees were cut for fence rails
and posts. They were considered preferable to oak for their
durability. So plentiful were the chestnut trees that Margaret
Morley observed farmers chopping down trees loaded with
ripe chestnuts in order to pick the nuts. With the coming of
railroads, new markets were found for the chestnut tree. Early
in the twentieth century the chestnut tree blight was noticed.
A fungus, it was brought to the United States with a shipment
of Asiatic chestnut seedlings, and it attacked American trees,
probably first on Long Island. Carried by wind, birds and insects,
the blight spread southward along the eastern slope of the
Appalachians to southern Alabama and Mississippi. Efforts
to stop it were of no avail. Although at first it did not cross the
Blue Ridge, by 1924 Ashe and Watauga counties reported a
ten percent rate of infection, and by 1940 approximately eightyfive percent of the chestnut trees in the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park were affected. By 1965 the loss was complete.
Maple sugar was a popular sweetening on mountain farm
tables and was traded to local merchants for sale outside the
�Agriculture /
271
Chestnut trees throughout the region died, a great economic loss
ASHEVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PHOTO
area. It is still being sold in small cakes as a delicacy at gift and
craft shops. In the early spring when the sap started to run, the
trees were tapped and small wooden spouts inserted, usually
on the south side so the sun would strike them during the day
and make the sap run faster. About fifty gallons of sap were
required to make a gallon of syrup, and a tree would yield about
a gallon or a gallon and a half of sap a day. Buckets were hung
on the tapped trees, and every day during the sugar making
process the sap was collected and taken to the big iron pot where
it was boiled down. During this process the syrup had to be
watched constantly to prevent scorching. The syrup was transferred to a smaller pot and boiled longer to crystalize into sugar.
It was formed into small cakes for ease in handling. Sugar making
was often a family diversion, an occasion for camping on high
slopes where the sugar maple trees were growing. In the court
house descriptions of acreages of land in the nineteenth century,
a number of mountain-top tracts were designated as sugar
�272
J Part III: A Developing Economy
A sorghum mill extracts the juice, which is then boiled down in the iron pot
camps. Some of these passed through the hands of a land speculator, William Lenoir of Caldwell County. For each area that
he purchased he drew a plat and wrote a history in a notebook.
In Ashe County he purchased and then sold a tract to William
Horton May 15, 1842, which he designated as Nathan Horton's
Sugar Camp.
Widespread in the mountains was the making of sorghum
molasses. In October the sorghum grower set up his mil~ to
crush the juice from the stalks. His horse plodded around and
around turning the mill until all the juice was extracted. The
juice drained into large kettles or drums which were carried
to the boiler, a huge iron pot in which the straw-colored juice
was boiled down to the desired thickness so that "they" could
be stored in crocks or jugs. Seven gallons of juice were boiled
down to one gallon of molasses. Neighbors brought their own
crocks and apples, com meal, or potatoes to barter for "them."
Molasses was usually used in the plural. The rich and nourishing
molasses was a welcome addition to the monotonous winter
diet of the mountain people.
Apple and cherry orchards grew wonderfully well in the
mountains and were set out on most farms until they seemed
native to the region. Apples were among the products carried
by wagon to market in the rail centers, and many farms had
among their various buildings apple houses where the fruit
was preserved for family use and for sale later in the season.
Almost every farm had its springhouse for keeping milk,
meat, and vegetables cool. Prevalent also were smokehouses
for preserving meat.
Making whisky was an occupation of many mountaineers.
�Agriculture / 273
The distillery was as important as the blacksmith shop or the
grist mill. Zebulon Baird Vance sold a distillery to Colonel
William Lenoir. Many would take their jugs to the still which
they called "the grocery." During the Civil War the United
States Congress placed a tax on whiskey and required distillers
to obtain licenses. After the restoration of the Union, efforts
were made to collect the tax in Western North Carolina, and
mountain people did not look with favor upon the "revenuers."
Violations were frequent. True, most of the counties had their
licensed distilleries: Wilkes having fourteen, Burke, Polk, and
Surry, five each in 1884. Yet the illicit "stills" became legendary
during the 187o's, and words such as "blockaders," for those
who marketed the product illegally, and "moonshiners," for
those who produced their product at night to escape detection
by the "Feds" (revenue officers) became a part of the vernacular.
Randolph Abbott Shotwell spent some time at his brother's
plantation in the valley of the Green River in Polk County,
and he said that " ... having nothing to do, and nothing to
read, it was easy to fall into the habit of partaking ... from the
big brown jug, which is found in all dwellings in that region.
Polk County at that time ... seemed overspread with illicit
distillers. Every secluded ravine, every impenetrable brake, was
apt to have a sylvan satyr. ... Many of these rusty 'stills,' as
they are locally termed, might be concealed in a large barrel,
and can, therefore, be quickly removed from place to place to
avoid the revenue officers; though ... it was deemed safest
by the majority of the distillers to send a few gallons, and a sum
of money to the Revenue Headquarters for the district ....
Most of the Revenue men grew rich in a wonderfully short
period."
On the occasion of a visit with a neighbor, Shotwell's host
sent a Negro on horseback to "the still over the hill," with two
bushels of shelled corn. The distiller sent back one gallon of
whiskey, keeping one for toll.
Whiskey was made from a fermented solution containing
corn meal, sprouted corn, rye meal, and sometimes molasses
or sugar. First the corn was spread out and watered to sprout
it,. then carefully dried, and ground into malt and mixed with
the other ingredients. The solution was cooked, producing a
liquid called beer, which was then allowed to ferment, great
care being exercised to prevent its becoming vinegar. Next
the beer was "run" by being boiled. Attached to the cap of the
still was a coil, a piece of copper tubing, the other end being
�274 / Part III: A Developing Economy
The "moonshiners" hid their stills, but the smoke often gave away their location
placed in a container. As the beer in the still boiled the steam
condensed in the coil and passed on to the container. This product,
called "singlings," was put back into the cleaned still and the
process was repeated, called "doubling." The result was whiskey.
Its alcoholic content, "proof," was determined by the size of
the bubbles formed on the surface when a small sample was
poured into a vial. After the "doubling" the liquid was allowed
to flow from the condenser until the whiskey in the container
was of the desired proof, 100 proof (so% alcohol), or 8o proof
(40% alcohol).
When Carl A. Schenck, Vanderbilt's forester, tried to buy
the holdings of the moonshiners in the Pisgah Forest, he found
that they were the least likely to sell out of any of the residents:
"These men in their own interests were most anxious to remain,
because moonshining was possible only in the proximity of
cold and remote mountain springs .... They had their liquor
distilleries in the mountain coves, and shifted them from site
to site to avoid discovery. They went about armed, keeping
the others in awe and threatening death to any betrayer of their
�Agriculture / 275
secret .... If the sheriff actually seized a still and took it home
with him, he never fully destroyed it; he merely shot some holes
through the copper kettle with his revolver and allowed the
kettle to be stolen from his yard in the hope of seizing it a second
time and getting a second reward from the federal government.
Both the better element and the sheriff were afraid of the moonshiner."
Brandy too was distilled from the fruit that abounded in
the Southern Highlands, and "cherry bounce," as well, had
a fame that was widespread. Cherry Mountain was some miles
from Rutherfordton and the same distance from Morganton,
Marion, and Shelby, from all of which towns there were frequent
parties in the month ofJune each year. The top of the mountain
lies within a thermal belt, so the fruit is rarely killed by frost,
and the enormous quantities of cherries attracted visitors from
all the surrounding country. Sometimes as many as two or
three hundred young men, women, and children - whole
families- met in the orchards on the same day, especially on
Thursdays and Saturdays. "The meeting on Cherry Mountain
on the second Saturday in June ... was largely attended; persons
from Shelby, Marion, Rutherfordton, and other points being
present. A good deal of Amos Owen's "cherry bounce" was
imbibed by the crowd," reported M. L. White, Owens' biographer. Amos Owens owned Cherry Mountain, where the
cherry trees grew three feet in diameter. His poplar, chestnut,
and sourwood trees produced excellent blossoms for honey.
From honey, cherry juice, and whiskey Amos made the cherry
bounce.
Amos served in the Confederate Army, after which he
returned home and resumed his distilling without the required
legal formalities. For over forty years he made whiskey, and
during that time he served four years in prison, one for Ku Klux
Klan activities and twice for moonshining. His biographer says
that the judge, before passing sentence, chided: "Amos Owens,
stand up, ... why will you persist in your lawless course?
Look at me, I am sixty years of age, was never drunk, and have
never incurred the woe pronounced against him that putteth
the bottle to his neighbor's lips. What have you to say, why
the sentence of the law should not be pronounced upon you?"
Amos cocked one eye, cleared his throat, and with mock solemnity, said, "Well, Judge, you have missed a durned lot of fun
if you hain't never made, drunk, nor sold licker."
�276 / Part III: A Developing Economy
Farmers were eagerly awaiting the railroads, and farm
products changed as soon as transportation became available,
even at a distance. When the narrow gauge Chester and Lenoir
Railway reached Lenoir in r884, Watauga County farmers began growing a surplus of cabbage and potatoes; as early as
I 882 it was reported that "on the turnpike at any given point
a covered wagon or so is seldom out of sight." In r886, 8oo
crates of cabbage and 3,ooo crates of apples were shipped from
Lenoir. The following year during November and December
the following were shipped: I 356 crates of apples, I078 crates
of cabbage, 364 crates of potatoes, 657 sacks of chestnuts. Thirtytwo thousand feet of lumber were used to make the crates
alone. It was reported that on one acre in Watauga County
two hundred dollars worth of cabbage was raised.
The great new crop of the area was tobacco, the bright leaf
variety. Surry County led with 2,136 acres planted in r884,
but mountainous Madison County was second with I ,626
acres, and Buncombe was third with 947 acres. Every county
in Western North Carolina had at least one tobacco farm.
Production per acre ranged from 200 pounds in Cherokee
County to 503 in Madison County. Zeigler and Grosscup in
I882 estimated Madison County's yield as equal to $250,000
or $200 per acre. W. W. Rollins of that county had sixty tenant
farmers engaged in growing tobacco. "It is in tobacco that the
Madison County farmer has found his Eldorado," Zeigler and
Grosscup wrote. Uncleared land could be purchased for three
dollars per acre, and a tract of one and one-half acres when
cleared could be planted, cultivated, and harvested by a man
and two small boys for a harvest worth $900.
According to Nanny May Tilley the tobacco crop spread
from Catawba County to Burke County in 1875 when J. K.
Bobbitt planted the first crop. A warehouse was opened in
Hickory in I88o by the Hall Brothers, who distributed pamphlets
explaining tobacco culture and the advantages of the tobacco
crop. One was the small bulk, which would facilitate transportation. In Buncombe County experiments in tobacco production
had begun earlier, perhaps as early as 1854, but not until I878
did tobacco become an important crop. In r88o Asheville had
four tobacco warehouses that handled 7,ooo,ooo pounds of the
leaf, and Madison County had one warehouse. Alas, by the
end of the century the crop had gone into eclipse in most of
the counties. Some farmers who in the I88o's had twenty or
�Agriculture / 277
thirty tobacco barns by 1896 had none. Various explanations
have been offered. Tilley believed that the rank flavor of the
mountain tobacco was unsuited to cigarettes, which had become
very popular. The crop of the coastal plain was milder and in
greater demand. Haywood County persisted in bright leaf
tobacco culture until 1904, after which for a period of twenty
years or so no more was planted.
Then in 1923 burley tobacco was introduced in Haywood
by Thurmond Haynes, who sold his crop in Greeneville, Tennessee. By 1925 every county in Western North Carolina except
Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Polk, and Watauga was growing
burley tobacco on a commercial basis. Again Madison County
became the leader, planting 2,500 acres in 1925. In 1929 Ott
Tester, a former resident of North Carolina, brought from
Tennessee plants which he planted in Watauga County, producing
8oo pounds per acre, which sold at 21.2¢ per pound. By 1958
Watauga County ranked sixth in burley production in Western
North Carolina with a crop that sold for $1,04o,ooo. A tobacco
warehouse and auction was opened in Boone in 1939. The
problem in establishing a tobacco warehouse was to persuade
the tobacco companies to send buyers. The Boone experience
will illustrate. The project started through the activities of local
leaders. Mr. S. C. Eggers became discouraged at having to
haul his tobacco to Greeneville, Tennessee, to sell it. One morning
he began taking pledges from Boone citizens, and within three
hours he had $35,000 promised for the construction of a tobacco
warehouse. Then came a time of tension. A committee consisting
ofBlandord Dougherty, President of Appalachian State Teachers
College, Harry Hamilton, E. F. Lovill, attorney, and Congressman Robert Daughton sought and obtained the promise of
Will Reynolds of the Reynolds Tobacco Company to send
buyers if the other tobacco companies would do so. After offering
considerable resistance, Major Bullington of the American
Tobacco Company reluctantly agreed to send buyers to Boone.
The warehouse when completed was leased to the Hardy Brothers
of Mullins, South Carolina.
Through the influence of Robert Daughton a warehouse
was established in Ashe County and eventually a second one
was added. In 1958 Ashe County produced 2,218,ooo pounds
of tabacco which sold for $1,426,ooo. Daughton's own county
Alleghany has never produced as much tobacco as Ashe and
Watauga. Buncombe and Madison counties were the leading
�278
f Part III: A Developing Economy
A field of tobacco, the money crop of mountain farmers
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO.
Tobacco is auctioned in large warehouses
ASH EVILLE C HAMBER OF C OMME RCE PHOTO
�Agriculture / 279
burley producers. In 1965 there were four warehouses in Asheville.
Ashe County was third in production of burley and Yancey
ranked next, followed by Haywood and Watauga respectively.
Since 1940, acreage allotments have been in effect. In 1961
the average allotment for farms growing burley was six-tenths
of an acre, and the harvest was worth $1 s,ooo,ooo. Allotments
ranged from one-tenth of an acre to several acres. By 1958
TOBACCO ALLOTMENT DATA FOR 1968
County
No. offarms
Acreage
Allotment
Rank
in state
Burley Tobacco
Alleghany
Ashe
Avery
Buncombe
Burke
Caldwell
Cherokee
Clay
Graham
Haywood
Henderson
Jackson
McDowell
Macon
Madison
Mitchell
Polk
Rutherford
Surry
Swain
Transylvania
Watauga
Wilkes
Yancey
County
Burke
Caldwell
Surry
Wilkes
540
2,535
247
2,946
14
!9
194
217
685
1,917
IIO
285
70
238
2,809
963
6
55
7
215
72
1,663
8
1,795
No. o_ffarms
265
J,062
930
218.73
1,046-56
!08.35
1,400.65
447
6.74
68.64
84-53
301.51
947-22
42-47
107.85
24-56
76.80
2,066.71
470-36
I.75
23-46
0.94
70.18
23.13
727.75
1.83
983.05
Flue-Cured Tobacco
Acreage
Poundage
822
·48
682,635
405-96
9,287.81
16,790,906
I,30I.66
2,073,603
9
3
JI
2
21
20
15
!2
8
5
r6
10
18
13
7
24
I9
27
14
17
6
23
4
Rank in state
68
59
18
49
Source: "North Carolina Tobacco Report, 1967-1968," Bulletin of the North
Carolina Department of Agriculture No. 191, May, 1968, pp. 22, 20.
�280 / Part III: A Developing Economy
several counties were producing more than 2,000 pounds per
acre, Watauga County's 2,108 being the highest yield in Western
North Carolina. In that year the highest prices were received
in Buncombe and Madison counties, sixty-five cents per pound.
In 1968 the yield in Watauga County was 2,626 pounds per acre.
Burley is planted in a seed bed in early spring as is bright leaf
tobacco, and the successive stages of work are similar for both
varieties, but the curing is different. Plants are usually cut by
whole stalks, allowed to wilt overnight, then staked in the field
for two or three days for further wilting before being hung
high in well-ventilated barns with the stalks head down to air
cure. The latter part of November the leaves are stripped from
the stalks, graded, and tied into "hands," several leaves together,
and taken to market for auction. The money from the burley
crop comes along just in time for taxes and extra winter expenses.
Many of the farmers now work away from their farms and fit
the chores connected with their tobacco crop into evening and
Saturday work. Each ofthe counties in Western North Carolina
in 1964 had hundreds of part-time farms, ranging from 128 in
Clay County to 837 in Ashe County. From Buncombe's 2,471
farms, 1,o8o farm operatives work off their farms one hundred
or more days each year. Figures are similar for Wilkes and
Ashe counties. Tobacco is well-suited to part-time farming.
Agricultural cooperatives had been organized by the Grange
in the 187o's in some parts of the nation but not in Western
North Carolina. Farm periodicals emphasized their benefits
during the following decade. Wilkes County promoters discovered the value of these associations for agricultural development when in 1912 they organized the United Fruit Growers
of Western North Carolina in the interest of growing apples
commercially. In 1925 an editorial in the Winston-Salem]ournal
read: "Nowhere in Eastern America are finer apples to be found
than in the Wilkes County thermal belt. In a given area lying
along the sides and top of the Brushy Mountains there is a strange
atmospheric condition which wards off frosts and guards the
young buds of fruit trees from cold while in a premature stage."
The "thermal belts" and "verdant zones" on mountain slopes
are suited to fruit production because they enjoy longer frost-
�Agriculture / 281
free growing seasons than areas higher up the slopes and lower in
the valleys. A thermal belt results from the drainage of cold air
down a slope into a valley where it further cools by radiation
or losing its heat to space. Thus there is a belt through the Brushy
Mountains, the South Mountains, and on south through the
Blue Ridge in Polk, Rutherford, and Henderson counties where
above freezing weather exists between sub-freezing temperatures
on both higher and lower elevations on the hillsides.
One problem of apple culture is storage until the price is
good. The Brushy Mountain Fruit Cooperative Corporation,
organized in 193 I, and the Fruit Growers' Association, organized
in 1936, were aided by the Carolina Refrigeration Cooperative
Association which constructed storage facilities for apples and
meat. Encouraged by the county agents, similar cooperatives
were organized throughout Western North Carolina. While
most of them were short lived, they led the way to specialized
crops that were particularly adapted to the soil and climatic
conditions.
Henderson County in 1960 led the state in the production
of apples, with 2oo,ooo bearing trees and about ro,ooo new ones
coming into production each year. In 1962 the crop was valued
at $2,8oo,ooo. The county had fourteen packing houses and
three processing plants, the newest of which was constructed
by the Western North Carolina Apple Packing Cooperative.
More than r,soo people worked in harvesting and processing
the crop. Apple trees will grow on soil unsuited to truck farming,
another of Henderson County's specialities. Each year Hendersonville holds a five-day North Carolina Apple Festival, ending
with a King Apple Parade on Labor Day. A queen and her court
are elected and visiting queens from other festivals participate
in the activities, which include folk music, square dancing, tours
of apple orchards, and a coronation ball. North Carolina has
762 commercial apple orchards (ones with roo or more trees)
of which 622 are in the mountain counties. Haywood and
Mitchell counties also have extensive commercial apple orchards.
Polk and Rutherford Counties are producers of peaches.
Except in occasional years when late spring freezes ruin the
crop, the mountain area produces almost one-fourth as many
peaches as the sand hill counties of the piedmont.
The Extension Division of North Carolina State University
operates the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research Station
�282 /
Part III: A Developing Economy
Burley tobacco is staked in the field to start the wilting process before hanging it in
the barns to air-cure. Note the ever-present church
ASHEVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PHOTO
Apples grow well on the mountains. An orchard in bloom is a magnificent sight
ASHEVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PHOTO
�Agriculture / 283
in Henderson County. A staff of six scientists experiment with
crops that will help all farmers in Western North Carolina to
diversify their acreage. Such scientific studies are the culmination
of efforts by federal, state, and local organizations to aid farmers
in their methods of production and marketing.
At first the farmers' organizations had little influence in
Western North Carolina. They did not have much appeal to
subsistence farmers. Their warehouse movement and cooperative
idea, as mentioned above, were taken up where commercial
farming was begun. In Buncombe County the Farmers' Federation was organized in 1921 by a group of farmers under the
leadership of James G. K. McClure to purchase and distribute
farm supplies and market products grown commercially. One
warehouse was built, then another, until by 1928 there were
eight warehouses operating in four counties. Sixteen trucks
were acquired for wholesale and retail delivery service, thus
relieving farmers of the necessity of doing their own trucking.
When the Grange was revived in the South about 1930 a new
interest in commercial farming developed. At the demands of
some of the more progressive farmers, county boards of commissioners provided the matching funds necessary to employ the
county agents of the Extension Service, and the men chosen
for those positions came to be among the most important figures
in their respective counties. County "farm bureaus" sprang up to
work with the county agents, but as the members were largely
the commercial farmers, the "hoe farmers" were scarcely influenced by the organization movement of the 1920's. The depression of the 193o's was not felt as much by the self-sufficient rural
people of Western North Carolina as it was in industrial areas.
The income of the former had always been very low, and their
homes and farms lacked the conveniences of an urban or suburban
society, but the farms were almost completely owner operated,
and food and fuel were as readily available as they had ever been.
By 1920 51.2% of the population of the United States had
moved to urban areas, and since that time rural population has
diminished until in 1969 the farm population was just 5.2%
of the total. Although Western North Carolina remained
comparatively rural, the trend was felt in the out-migration
which between 1950 and 1960 amounted to 33% of the people
�284 / Part III: A Developing Economy
in Swain County and over 20% in ten other counties. As late
as 1960 only twelve of the twenty-four counties had areas
classified by the census bureau as urban. Much of the rural
acreage was being retired from farming. In 1959 43% of the
land in the twenty-four counties was included in farms while
in 1964 only about 35% was included. At the same time farm
size was increasing, the average acreage in 1954 being 62 while
in 1964it was So. The numberoffarmsin Western North Carolina
decreased from 52,161 in 1954 to 42,607 in 1959 and 29,955 in
1964. From 1954 when the area had 9,317 farms of less than
ten acres, to 1964, the number of such farms had dwindled to
2,575; farms of r,ooo or more acres increased from So in the
area in 1954 to 96 in 1964.
With these changes farming had become more specialized
and dairying increased, especially near the cities and towns. Buncombe County was second in the state in dairying in 1954, and
Henderson, Haywood, and Ashe counties ranked high. By 1964
the leading producers of dairy products ranked in the following
order: Buncombe, Henderson, Alleghany, Haywood, Macon,
Madison, Ashe, Yancey, and Surry. Alleghany has risen to
third rank. Cheese making had been experimented with in
Ashe County beginning in 1915 at Grassy Creek. The Dairy
Extension Service of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture was promoting the establishment of cheese factories
in several counties in the western part of the state. A number
of the factories were opened in Ashe County and considerable
enthusiasm developed there before W odd War One and poor
roads for transportation of milk and cheese combined to bring
an end to the experiment. Eventually the Kraft-Phoenix Creamery established a large plant in West Jefferson, buying from Ashe
County farmers about r ,5oo,ooo pounds of milk per month
in the spring, summer, and fall, and 75,000 pounds per month
in winter, for manufacture into cheese. Carnation, Pet, and
Coble dairies also bought milk from the farms in Ashe County.
Ashe County leads the state in the production of fine beef
cattle, the quality of which was improved when the State Board
of Agriculture purchased several fine pure-bred bulls which
were leased to responsible breeders of beef cattle. Haywood is
a close rival to Ashe in the production of high grade beef cattle.
It has been known for the quality of its herds since the introduction
of Durham or Shorthorn cattle in the r88o's. Robert Plott
introduced Angus cattle and T. Lenoir Gwyn established a fine
�Agriculture / 28 5
Pure-bred livestock fatten on the lush g rass of the mountain balds in Ashe and
Alleghany Counties- scene along the Blue Ridge Parkway
HUGH MORTON PHOTO
breeding herd of registered Herefords, these two herds forming
a foundation for the excellence of Haywood County's beef
cattle. Later Guernseys were brought in from Wisconsin by
by H. 0. Osborne to establish records in the production of
milk and butter fat.
The North Carolina Department of Agriculture operates
two veterinary diagnostic laboratories in Western North
Carolina, one at Murphy and the other at Waynesville, to aid
�286 / Part III: A Developing Economy
in the area's livestock production. Since 1908 the Mountain
Research Station has been operated jointly by the North Carolina
Department of Agriculture and the North Carolina State
University Experiment Station, first at Swannanoa in Buncombe
County and since 1944 on a 354 acre tract in Haywood County.
Research is conducted in dairying, with a modem milking
parlour, a lounging bam, a forty-stanchion conventional bam,
a calf bam, a dry-cow barn, and silos. Poultry research is carried
on with automatic incubators, a modem egg-cooling room,
a broiler house, a laying house, a breeding house, and a 3 r/2 acre
poultry range. Efforts are made to find superior lines for broiler
and egg production, and nutritional studies are carried on.
Burley tobacco research is provided with three curing barns
and a tobacco grading and pack house.
Deaa W. Colvard, a native of Ashe County with degrees
from Berea College and two universities, worked with the
Extension Service in Western North Carolina. With W. B.
Austin, a member of the State Board of Agriculture, he established
the Upper Mountain State Farm Experiment Station in Ashe
County. Colvard, now Chancellor of the University of North
Carolina at Charlotte, served as first superintendent of the station
in Ashe County.
Since 1910 poultry and eggs have come to be an important
item of farm production, with Wilkes County leading all others
in the region, ranking second in the state in 1954. In 1919 a
LEADING POULTRY PRODUCING COUNTIES
IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
1954
Wilkes
Buncombe
Clay
Surry
Henderson
Caldwell
Rutherford
Cherokee
Macon
Watauga
Haywood
Ashe
1964
$4,108,ooo
1,620,000
686,000
642,000
491,000
482,000
435,000
420,000
404,000
$19,53 7,019
2,748,675
1,885,894
4,708,043
517,082
1,551,102
700,223
1,654,281
816,222
994,263
902,917
1,397,120
Source: County and City Data Book, 1965.
�Agriculture / 287
World War One veteran T. 0. Minton began producing baby
chicks by incubator and established Champion Poultry Farm,
which became the largest one in the entire South, marketing
both fryers and eggs. Other Wilkes County men became commercial producers, and the North Carolina Mutual Hatchery
Association was organized. In 1954 Wilkes County's poultry
and poultry products brought a return of $4,108,ooo. In that
year Lovette's Holly Farms Poultry Company, one of the largest
of its kind in the world, was organized. In 1960 it paid out to
poultry growers about $1s,ooo,ooo. It has a national and an
international market.
There is a trend toward diversification of crops and emphasis
on truck farming, but corn is still the principal field crop in
Western North Carolina. Although the acreage has steadily
diminished, the production per acre has increased remarkably.
In 1925 Transylvania County produced an average of 25 bushels
per acre, the highest yield in the region, and Burke County
produced only 13 bushels, the lowest yield; in 1960 Watauga
County had the highest rate of production, 65 bushels per acre,
Transylvania County produced 59. I bushels per acre, and Burke
49 bushels. Rutherford County was lowest in the region with
40 bushels.
Rural electrification, which brought new conveniences to
the entire area resulted from the creation of the Tennessee Valley
Authority (TVA). Most of the activities of the TVA, which
included social planning, educational experimentation, and
relocation of families, did not greatly affect Western North
Carolina. The Rural Electrification Authority of the federal
government, formed in 1935, granted loans to rural cooperatives
to furnish electric power to parts of the lower South. The state
was stimulated to create the North Carolina Rural Electrification
Authority to encourage the building of rural power lines.
By 1951 85% of the farms in the state were supplied with electric power, and by 1961 the figure had increased to 97%- The
areas not being served by the Duke Power Company, the
Nantahala Power Company, and the Carolina Power Company,
�288 / Part III: A Developing Economy
Shocks in the field. Corn is grown on practically all mountain farms
ASHEVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PHOTO
or by locally owned establishments were provided with power
purchased from the TV A by the cooperatives, which are owned
by the consumers of the power. There are four TVA lakes in
Western North Carolina: Hiwassee built in the late 1930's
and three built during W odd War Two to step up power supply
- Fontana, Appalachia, and Chatuge. Chatuge and Appalachia
are on the Hiwassee River farther down than the Hiwassee
Dam; Fontana is on the Little Tennessee between Graham and
Swain counties. Santeetlah and Tapoco on the Cheoah River
in Graham County were constructed earlier by the Tallassee
Power Company, now Tapoco, Incorporated. The lakes were
designed chiefly for hydroelectric power, but flood control and
recreational use were also projected.
Not all mountain residents appreciate the TVA for two
reasons: vast acreages once under private development, in many
cases owned by householders, were purchased at prices which
the sellers found inadequate to purchase similar land elsewhere;
and the production of power necessitates the drawdown of
water in the lakes which sometimes curtails their recreational and
aesthetic value. Nevertheless the TVA has participated in hundreds
of demonstration projects such as farm and woodland manage-
�Agriculture / 289
ment, fire prevention activities, reforestation, and forest products
conferences. The TVA makes payments in lieu of taxes, which
are transferred to the counties where its properties are located.
Leaders in those counties frequently raise the objection to this
practice that the same land under private development would
be subject to much higher taxes and thus bear a greater share of
the counties' fixed expenses. The impact of the TV A in the
development of land and forest resources has not been as great
as might have been expected, and residents of the counties
concerned have mixed emotions concerning the project. Electric
power is now available to all, but people feel that they have paid
dearly for its use in giving up land that in most cases had been
owned by their families for generations. They especially resent
the fact that land in their counties today is selling for many
times what they were paid for theirs. Regional planning agencies
complain that the TV A has not exercised the wide scale influence
envisioned for it - to improve all aspects of the life of the region.
Community land and water development is receiving
increased attention in Western North Carolina. A district is
organized for a designed watershed. Aid is sought from such
services as the Soil Conservation Service, Agricultural Extension
Service, Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service,
county schools, county boards of commissioners, vocational
agriculture teachers, the Soil and Water Conservation Committee, Farmers Home Administration, North Carolina Division
ofForestry, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission,
utilities companies, lumber and pulpwood industries. More and
more land is passing out of the hands of farmers and into the possession of promoters of various kinds. The fact that 2,598,ooo
acres in Western North Carolina were included in farms in 1959
and only 2,pr,ooo in 1964 illustrates the changing nature ofland
use in the mountains. The 272,000 acres had been diverted to
other uses, such as golf courses, resorts, and industrial plants
with accompanying suburban development providing homes
for those who had migrated from farms to live near their work.
Many farm families supplement their incomes by work
related to the increasing year-round recreation development
in the mountains: the Great Smoky Mountain National Park,
the Blue Ridge Parkway, ski slopes, lakes, camp sites, hunting
and fishing sites, youth camps, and cottage and room rental.
This kind of development offers the greatest promise of well-being
to much of the area beyond the Blue Ridge. It is the culmination
�290
J Part III: A Developing Economy
of more than a century of effort to bring the poor in health, the
summer resident, the tourist, the retired couple, to the mountains,
and the more recent effort to attract and develop industry and
to provide for participation in active sports.
In 1970 in the coves and in the hills there are still those who
scratch out a meager existence on their little farms. Their "cash
money" comes from their fraction of an acre of tobacco allotment.
Many farmers are prosperous. They use business methods,
planned agriculture, scientific farming, the advice of county
agents, the help of the United States Department of Agriculture
and the extension services of North Carolina State University.
They have tractors, planters, balers- modern machinery. They
use the best fertilizers and contour plowing. They use every
means possible to prevent erosion. Many make a business of
breeding and raising beef cattle for the market, white-face
Herefords and Black Angus. Others are highly successful producers of thousands of chickens and eggs. These commercial
farmers are prosperous, highly respected and influential members
of their communities. Their future is promising. The subsistence
farmers need means to supplement their incomes. Local, state,
and national agencies are working and planning to provide a
better life for the people of the mountains. Great progress has
been made. Consolidated schools and technical training are
increasing the economic competence of the children of the
mountain people.
�CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
Timber!
As settlers pushed into Western North Carolina, they found
almost unbroken forest except on some of the mountain tops
characterized as "balds," where there was only grass or shrubbery.
Naturalists have estimated that in the mountains of North
Carolina were as many as one hundred kinds of trees. In the
highest forests, above four thousand feet in altitude, were black
spruce and balsam. The oaks predominated in altitudes up to
twenty-five hundred feet, and with them were mixed the
shortleaf pine, the hickory, the black gum, and the red maple.
Between twenty-five hundred and thirty-five hundred feet
the oaks decreased and the yellow poplar, hemlock, birch,
beech, ash, black walnut, and cherry predominated. Under
the trees shrubs, principally rhododendron and mountain
laurel, formed a dense growth. People told of walnut trees with
a diameter of eight feet, and of wild cherry trees reaching a
height of sixty feet to the first limb and with a diameter of four
feet, as well as hickory, maple, ash, and yellow locust of prodigious size. Throughout the forests were countless numbers
of the lordly and productive chestnut trees which furnished
not only wood but food for man and beast. Although the forest
was thought of as an obstacle to home building, it was the chief
resource of the people. In a small way the early settlers were all
lumbermen. Their principal tool was the axe, with which
they marked their trails and chopped the trees for logs to build
their cabins and for fuel. They girdled, cut, and burned the
trees they wanted to get rid of. They were as apt to build their
291
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f Part III: A Developing Economy
rail fences of choice black walnut as of pine or oak if the walnut
was handier. They burned the woodlands so their livestock
would have better pasturage.
Primitive cabins gave way as soon as possible to more commodious double log houses, to which additional rooms were
added from time to time, and a collection of log buildings
served various purposes: as barns, corn cribs, spring houses, smoke
houses. Porches were added to the houses, and in many cases
weatherboarding was applied to the exterior and sawed paneling
to the interior. The simplest way to make boards for this purpose
was to select a tall straight tree near an open space in the woods,
and to cut it with a cross-cut saw. The tree was then sawed
into lengths of from three to four feet and each was split into
boards of the desired thickness, by use of a froe, a long blade
made of iron or steel. The froe was driven into the end of the
length of wood with a maul or mallet. Much longer and smoother
boards could be made by sawing them, but the process was
slow. The log was mounted on a scaffold, and two men with a
long saw, one man above the log and one under it, would take
a slice from each side of the log until a square was formed. Then
one end was marked into the desired widths, one-fourth being
allowed for the kerf, the saw incision. Two men could saw
about one hundred feet oflumber in a day. For making furniture
or coffins this method was used. The lumber was sometimes
sawed at combination saw and grist mills. As late as I 884 Alleghany County had nine of these mills and Buncombe County
had fourteen. The two were operated by water power from
the same dam, and frequently stores and carpenter shops were
adjuncts, as at Alexander's mill on the French Broad. The water
power was produced by mountain streams, small but steady,
which filled the millponds. Such ponds, covering about an
acre of land, had dams of log cribwork covered with rough
boards. One sawmill had a millrace several hundred feet long
which carried the water to the wheel. The wheel had pockets
into which the water flowed from the race, turning an eccentric
which had been attached to the wheel. The eccentric pushed
up and down, operating a vertical frame in which a saw was
affixed. The log and saw were put in place and the water did
the work of cutting the smooth boards. Another water driven
sawmill had a wooden shaft attached to the water wheel. At the
end of the shaft was a crank assembly. The crank was attached
to a long saw with the teeth all pointing downward. The log
�Timber! / 293
A better log house
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO.
to be sawed was placed on a carriage with flanged wheels, which
could be pushed or pulled on wooden rails. The men would
push the carriage and log up against the saw, which went up
and down, cutting the boards. Two men could cut about one
thousand feet of lumber per day by this method.
Steam sawmills were being introduced in Western North
Carolina in the 188o's. Dr. J. B. Weaver had one in Asheville
and both Noah Spainhour and R. L. McGhinnis owned steam
mills in Lenoir, as did Edwards and Edwards in Hendersonville.
Mitchell County had three, owned respectively by A. Job, and
Baker and Buchanan of Elk Park, and J. B. Surles of Bakersville.
The sleds so often used on hillside farms and on rough trails,
the wagons, and many of the tools were made of wood. On the
trails it was sometimes necessary to rough-lock the sleds to keep
them from getting out of control. To do this, hickory saplings
or log chains were wrapped around the runners to create friction.
Wagons too were rough-locked by fouling the wheels so they
could not turn, the vehicle being slid down the steep hill without
accident.
Small home tanneries provided the leather for shoes, saddles,
and harnesses. Almost every community had a tannery, and
most county seats had at least one saddle and harness maker.
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The bark and wood of the chestnut yielded tannin, used in
tanning leather. John T. Staton of Saluda, in Polk County,
typified the village shoemaker. He was also a blacksmith, and
when anybody died he made the coffin to bury him. Later
tanneries offered employment to numbers of people.
In the 188o's the supply of timber in Maine, Michigan, and
other Northern forests diminished and lumbermen from those
areas came to the Southern Appalachians, scouring the area for
choice timber. There were still tracts of virgin forest in areas
where no roads had been built and where the inhabitants were
few. Such an area was the Pink Bed Valley at the headwaters of
the South Fork of the Mills River, a tributary of the French
Broad. Randolph Shotwell and a companion hunted in the
Pink Beds in 1870. They spent a night with G. W. (Wash)
Holden, who owned a fine bottom land on Hominy Creek,
with farm, sawmill, and store. Mr. Holden escorted them to
the Pink Beds, a trip of seven or eight miles of continual climbing
followed by a descent into a valley by a slippery rock path, to
the Hunters' Cabin. Erected for the use of hunters and cattle
herders, it was a mere log hut, with a slab floor and a gigantic
chimney, near the middle of the Pink Beds, a valley "two or
three miles wide and twelve miles long surrounded by lofty
mountains." Shotwell said the valley was fairly carpeted with
a species of wild flowers of pinkish hue, above which grew
immense beds of whortleberries studded with laurel blossoms
and sweet-scented honeysuckle. Probably the pink blossoms
were kalmia or mountain laurel; the "laurel" was rhododendron,
and the "honeysuckle" was wild azalea. Shotwell described
the forest timber which covered most of the valley as "lofty
and vigorous beyond anything I have seen in Western North
Carolina. A single trunk of a monster pine, I recollect as above
five feet through at the distance of thirty feet from the stump."
In I 896 the first forestry school was established in the Pink
Beds. The name "Pink Beds" was given by the pioneers to the
tract that still bears the name. Before settlers came, cattle were
allowed to graze there in summers, the owners being farmers
along the French Broad. In this secluded area the cattle would
not stray far nor damage cultivated fields, and fences were not
needed. When fall came the cattle were removed on the hoof,
and most were sold in South Carolina and Georgia. In the
�Timber! / 29 5
A timber sled used in skidding logs and for other hauling purposes on steep hillsides
ASHEVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PHOTO
winters when the cattle were gone, the deer came down from
the ridges and the farmers again made their way to the Pink
Beds, this time to hunt. Often bears were killed there too. No
families lived there, and only a few rude cabins for shelter for
hunters and drovers had been built. Later a few settlers did
move into the area, the most prominent being Hiram King,
who built a two-story frame house and operated a water-powered
saw and grist mill.
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The Pink Beds from the Blue Ridge Parkway
Hiram King House in the Pink Beds -
U.S . FOREST SERVICE PHOTO
restored
The lumbermen purchased large tracts of standing trees
to be cut later, owners sometimes retaining their land, at other
times selling outright. The price ofland shot up: one five thousand
acre tract of land that had been offered for sale at $750 in 1879
brought $10,000 from the Carolina Spruce Company in 1911.
Such land sales promised employment for mountain men as
woodsmen. They were needed to fell and trim the trees and
�Timber! / 297
to work as mill crews. One of the first markets was for railroad
ties. Then after the railroads were in operation, lumber could
be shipped to cities in regions where the supply had been exhausted. Sawmills began to multiply rapidly and steam saws
became common. Generally no thought was given to a future
crop, and the forests were damaged irreparably. One of the
most difficult parts of lumbering was to get the logs from the
mountainsides to the sawmills. In some places narrow-gauge
railroads were built and equipped with Shay locomotives and
McGiffert log loaders. The railroad line was laid beside a stream,
gradually ascending the ridge. Where the terrain became steep,
the track was laid back and forth across the hillsides, the trains
alternately going backward and forward to ascend the grades.
Sometimes splash dams were constructed of logs to accumulate
sufficient water to float the logs down the mountain streams.
When such a dam was opened the large flow of water thus
released carried the logs to the mill. A boom was built in the
Catawba River near Hickory by some owners of a band sawmill.
They bought logs in the mountains and had them delivered
by water to their boom, until it was broken by a flood and their
logs floated down to the Atlantic Ocean. The men learned to
fasten their boom securely at the riverbanks so that it would
not break when the water rose.
Early in the twentieth century a survey of the area between
the Blue Ridge and the Unaka Mountains by H. B. Ayers and
W. W. Ashe of the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Division
of Forestry estimated that ten billion board feet of log timber
had been destroyed in land clearing, five billion board feet had
been used locally in the construction of farm buildings and fences,
and only three billion board feet had reached a market. An
additional drain of about I, 272,000 cords of small timber went
into fuel each year. The residual stand of merchantable timber
was being culled by loggers who took only the more valuable
trees.* Severe erosion of hillside farms, evidence of fires on
eighty per cent of the forested areas, and widespread damage
from open range grazing of livestock were reported. One
* Rebecca Cushman, "Seed of Fire," book-length typescript, tells of an
interview with Granville Calhoun who had represented the Whiting Lumber
Company in Swain County. The company, chartered in Delaware, was
officially named the Graham County Land and Transport Company. Calhoun
told Miss Cushman about lumbering on Hazel Creek, now a part of the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the influence of the lumbermen
on the Hazel Creek community in which he had grown up.
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authority wrote, "Present conditions in the commercial and
industrial world and in the Southern Alleghanies point to the
rapid destruction of the virgin woods."
Asheville and the surrounding area provided a market for
much lumber because of the prodigious growth following the
completion of the railroads to the town. During the 188o's
country estates were being built near Asheville on a grand
scale. Senator Vance selected a small plateau on the North Fork
of the Swannanoa River and built a house in the style of an
English manor, of wood sawed nearby at the Burnett Mill.
The rooms were paneled in native woods: the library in wild
cherry, the dining room in black walnut and oak, and the living
room in curly poplar. The Burnetts knew of only one curly
poplar tree standing. It was five feet in diameter, and was growing
four miles above the wagon road. They cut the tree in fourteen
foot lengths and skidded it, one end on a sled drawn by a team
of oxen, down to the upper end of the wagon road. The house
was begun in 1880 and finished in 1886, although the landscaping
of the grounds was not complete until I 890. The estate contained
fifteen hundred wooded acres. Materials such as mantels, windows, and decorations were ordered from New York and were
hauled the eight miles from Black Mountain in wagons, often
ox-drawn. Senator Vance named the place Gombroon.
In 1878 Richmond Pearson, son of Chief Justice Richmond
Pearson, inherited a large tract of land high on the west bank
of the French Broad River. He named it Richmond Hill after
his father's home and law school in Yadkin County. Ten years
later the Richmond Hill house was built on a fine site overlooking
Asheville. Although the exterior of the frame house was not
remarkable for its beauty, the interior was fine. The walls of the
rooms on the first floor were paneled, the entrance hall in oak,
the library in walnut, the dining room in cherry, and the drawing
room walls were hung in pink silk damask. Pearson served as
a member of the United States House of Representatives and
then as United States Minister to Persia, Greece, and Montenegro.
He was an avid collector, and the house is a repository of paintings
and art works from various parts of the world.
George Washington Vanderbilt, grandson of Commodore
Cornelius and youngest son of William H. Vanderbilt, was in
�Timber! / 299
Biltmore House , Vanderbilt mansion
ASHEVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PHOTO
his early twenties when his father died and he inherited the bulk
of his fortune. Earlier, on his twenty-first birthday his father
had doubled the $r,ooo,ooo left the boy by the old Commodore.
He had built up a large library of his own on the second floor
of the family's Fifth Avenue mansion, and he spent much of
his time in second-hand bookstores adding to his treasures. He
had a wide knowledge of modern French literature, was thoroughly acquainted with the paintings in the family art gallery
and with the distinguishing characteristics of their artists, and
was a nightly visitor at the opera.
In the late r88o's George Vanderbilt purchased fifty-odd
farms and some ten country places heretofore owned by impoverished Southern landed aristocracy, and as might be expected,
the house and grounds that he developed were an exquisite work
of art. Richard Morris Hunt, the New York architect who had
designed the Fifth A venue mansions of the V anderbilts, was
chosen to make the plans. Hunt had studied at the Ecole des
Beaux Arts, and many of the mansions that he designed were
in the style of the French chateaux, as Biltmore House, Vanderbilt's mansion, was to be. Frederick Law Olmsted, known as
�300 / Part III: A Developing Economy
Great stairway in Biltmore House
ASHEVILLE C HAMBER OF COMMERCE PHOTO
the first and greatest of American landscape architects, moved
to the Biltmore grounds to create the most beautiful and elaborate
country estate in America.
The site selected gave the mansion a superb setting and a
breath-taking view. Indiana limestone was used for the house,
and a three-mile extension of the railroad was built to carry
materials to the location. Hundreds of craftsmen were brought
from Europe and from other parts of the United States to cut
the limestone and to do the elaborate carvings. A thousand
workers were employed for five years in building the mansion,
during which time Vanderbilt traveled widely in Europe acquiring paintings, tapestries, statuary, porcelain, and antiques for
his 250-room house, which was opened at a Christmas party
in 1895. The banquet hall seventy-two feet by forty feet with
�Timber! /
301
a seventy-five foot ceiling was designed for a magnificent set
of tapestries. The library, which has twenty-thousand volumes,
is enriched with a ceiling painted by Pellegrini for an Italian
palace. Vanderbilt was still a bachelor. In I 898 he brought his
bride to Biltmore. The former Edith Stuyvesant Dresser, she
was a member of the distinguished New York family of Stuyvesants, and she had lived during her girlhood with an aunt in
Paris, where Vanderbilt met her. She soon endeared herself to
everyone on the estate and to the mountain people nearby.
When Vanderbilt planned his estate, there was a little railroad
station called Asheville Junction on the banks of the Swannanoa.
The post office was called Best, and the village consisted of a few
ramshackle houses. Part of the land was below water level.
Vanderbilt decided to change Best into a model village. Olmsted
planned the village, but first more than 40,000 cubic feet of
earth had to be used to fill in the part that was below water level
and often flooded in the spring. Buildings first erected were
the Estate Office, All Souls Episcopal Church, a new railway
station, and the Plaza Building, which housed eight stores, and
had five apartments on the second floor. The church was of
Norman French architecture, but the houses were of English
stucco and timber style. The aim was to make Biltmore resemble
an English village. The houses were eagerly sought after, and
they were rented for from eight to twenty-five dollars a month.
Workers on the estate kept up the streets and the grounds, and
the rent paid for all the services. The village was incorporated
in 1903 and had a mayor and commissioners. Upon Mr.
Vanderbilt's death in 1914 the village was sold to George
Stephens. In 1929 it was taken into the city of Asheville. A
hospital and dispensary, now incorporated as Biltmore Hospital,
was founded by Vanderbilt. His daughter, Mrs. John Francis
Amherst Cecil, continues to aid the institution.
When Vanderbilt bought the fifty farms the forests had been
exploited until there were none left on the Asheville market.
The trees had been killed by incessant forest fires set by the
owners to improve the pasture in the woods. Most of the lands
in the bottoms along the Swannanoa and French Broad rivers
had been abandoned and were covered with sedgegrass. Olmsted
planned a model farm, an arboretum, a game preserve, and an
example of managed forestry, the first in the United States. The
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well-to-do young Gifford Pinchot was employed as forester.
He had turned down offers to go into his maternal grandfather's
office with the practical certainty of a fortune because he chose
to study forestry, principally at the French Forest School at
Nancy in Lorraine (his paternal grandfather was French). He
had just recently returned to America when George Vanderbilt
and Frederick Olmsted decided to put forestry into practice on
Biltmore Estate. As Pinchot's father and Olmsted were old
friends, the young man was invited to take charge of the forest.
Millions of acres ofland east of the Mississippi were as devastated
as those at Biltmore. Reclamation of these North Carolina
forests could serve as an object lesson to the nation. When Pinchot
began his work at Biltmore, the destructive logging at the hands
of the former owners had "been done with an eye single to
immediate returns and wholly without regard for the safety
of the forests, and fires had been permitted to burn unchecked.
There had been much injudicious clearing of upper slopes, which,
after a few years of unprofitable cultivation, were generally
abandoned to erosion." Pinchot made a study of the 7280 acres,
describing every bit of the forest, using squares of from five to
seven acres, and then divided the forest into compartments, for
each of which he mapped a plan for improvement cuttings.
He planned to harvest all of the old trees that were going back,
giving the young growth room and light to develop. He had
to train native lumbermen to fell timber where it would do the
least harm to the young growth, an idea that was contrary to
their usual practice of cutting out of the way all of the young
growth that would interfere with cheap and easy logging.
Each tree to be cut was marked by Pinchot. The cutting began
near Biltmore House, and because the wood there was very
poor it was simply sawed into cordwood length and left for
another gang to split into cordwood and unsalable brush. The
wood was then hauled to the railroad to be shipped. A sawmill
was soon acquired by Biltmore Forest, and a little later, as the
crews moved into more heavily forested areas, they lumbered
for saw logs. Drays or "go-devils" (sleds) were used to skid
the logs to the roads, where they were loaded on wagons and
hauled to the mill, a small portable circular one with a fifty-two
inch saw and a twenty-horsepower steam engine. The smaller
pieces of the logs were made into shingles.
One of Pinchot's responsibilities was to prepare a Biltmore
Forest exhibit for the Chicago World's Fair. Olmsted was in
�Timber! / 303
A monarch of the forest
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO.
charge of the magnificent landscaping of the fair grounds. The
value of managed forestry was to be sold to the public, the first
exhibit of its kind ever made in the United States. It showed by
enlarged photographs what the forest had been like and what
had been done to improve it. The division into compartments
and the plan for each compartment were shown by maps. A
pamphlet written by Pinchot was distributed free of charge to
visitors to the fair and to newspapers, and much friendly comment
was received. Pinchot wrote, "The attempt to treat Biltmore
Forest systematically derives a certain interest from the fact
that it is the first practical application of forest management in
the United States." He listed seventy varieties of trees found on
Biltmore Estate, with both common and scientific n am es. An
account of expenditures and receipts from the lumber showed
a profit, despite the expense of building roads from the sawmill
to the rollways, necessitating a road gang to keep the roads in
order.
After the World's Fair exhibit was completed, Vanderbilt
sent Pinchot to look for land higher in the mountains for his
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Part III: A Developing Economy
game preserve. Under consideration was the Pink Beds, a tract
of 20,000 acres, part of which Vanderbilt purchased. Parts of
the tract were by that time owned and occupied by farmers.
Pinchot recommended the purchase and then made several
trips to look over 8o,ooo acres adjacent to the Pink Beds, a region
of steep slopes, sharp ridges, and narrow valleys, with a high
percentage of mature timber. Vanderbilt purchased the land
and named it Pisgah Forest. Located in Buncombe, Transylvania,
Henderson, and Haywood counties, it was rich in virgin forests
because of inaccessibility, and Vanderbilt hoped to practice
forestry there at a profit. As the yellow poplar trees on Big Creek,
directly under Mount Pisgah, were mature and going down-hill,
Pinchot recommend cutting them and sawing the lumber at
the mill in Biltmore Forest on the bank of the French Broad
River.
About this time Pinchot became restless and decided to open
an office as a forestry consultant in New York. His replacement
as Vanderbilt's forester was Carl A. Schenck, a young German
who had just completed a course under Sir Dietrich Brandis, a
distinguished German forester who "might be called the 'Grandfather of American forestry,' although he never visited the United
States." Olmsted, Pinchot, and other Americans interested in
forestry were greatly influenced by Brandis.
Schenck arrived at Biltmore in 1895 and remained in the
United States until 1914, although he never gave up his German
citizenship. He had much to learn because the theories he had
been taught did not coincide with conditions in Biltmore and
Pisgah Forests. During his first months at Biltmore he lived
with the Olmsteds in their summer residence. They helped him
with the English language and with the affairs of the estate.
Schenck's first responsibility was lumbering and marketing
the yellow poplar trees in Big Cove Creek, which resulted
disastrously. He had a splash dam constructed to his regret.
It proved impractical.
Bad for the lover of nature was the destruction wrought
by the logs as they swept down the stream. Laurels framing
the bank of Big Creek were devastated, and the moss covering
the rocks was washed away. The beauty of Big Creek was de. strayed, the fertility of the cove was reduced by the acceleration
of drainage, and a loss of thousands of dollars was incurred.
The lower part of the Mills River through which Schenck's
logs must pass to reach the French Broad and continue to the
sawmill was lined with small farms, and many of the logs washed
�Timber! / 305
ashore onto the fields. The owners were furious and lawsuits
resulted. Vanderbilt had to pay damages to the farmers to get
his logs. Schenck was convinced that the building of permanent
roads into forests of marketable trees was the only satisfactory
means for transportation of logs, and many roads were built
during his regime as forester.
Another of Schenck's disappointments resulted from his
effort to restore old fields to forestry by producing seedling
trees. He hoped to grow the seedlings by planting acorns and
hickory nuts, five bushels to the acre, in shallow furrows made
with a bull-tongue plow and covered with dirt of another
furrow. Hundreds of bushels were planted with no success.
Rodents ate most of the seeds. Sedgegrass crowded out the few
that grew.
Forestry apprentices had come to Biltmore to work under
Pinchot and Schenck, engaging in nursery work and in constructing trout ponds and a fish hatchery. They worked without
renumeration so eager were they to learn forestry. In addition,
rangers were employed, four at Biltmore Forest and three at
Pisgah Forest. They were responsible for the progress of roads,
nurseries, logging, wood cutting, and for prevention of forest
fires and of trespass. Both Pinchot and Schenck had many dealings
with the mountain people because Vanderbilt's purchases were
in the higher altitudes, on the ridges and slopes, to which access
was necessary through the many interior holdings, usually of
small farmers in the narrow valleys. Pinchot wrote of the owners:
"They regarded this country as their country, their common.
And that was not surprising, for they needed everything usable
in it - pasture, fish, game - to supplement the very meager
living they were able to scratch from the soil of their little
clearings, which often were no clearings at all, but mere 'deadenings,' filled with the whitened skeletons of trees killed by
girdling."
"By immemorial custom and by law, the cattle and the
long-legged hogs ran free over ridge and slope and bottom.
You had to fence them out, not to fence them in. These people
dwelt and slept mostly in one-room cabins .... An open fireplace
was cookstove and furnace, with a kettle hanging from a crane."
Glass was rare, and windows were closed by solid board shutters.
Homespun was the common wear.
One of Schenck's most valuable apprentices was Overton
Price, whose mother was a Westfeldt and who lived at Rugby
Grange, one of the better-kept old Southern estates of the area.
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He knew the language of the mountain people, the country,
and the native trees. Later Price studied in Germany and returned
home to become Pinchot's secretary. In I900 Pinchot founded
the Society of American Foresters, with fifteen members, four
of them Biltmoreans, of whom Price was one. His treatise,
"Practical Forestry in the Southern Appalachians," for the
Yearbook of the Department cif Agriculture in I900 was prophetic
of the importance the outside world would soon attach to the
mountain area. He placed the emphasis on sound business measures and practical forestry and on producing repeated crops
of merchantable lumber. Three considerations were pointed
out: not only is the timber valuable, especially black walnut,
cherry, hickory, white oak, and poplar; but the forests control
the drainage basins of the rivers; moreover, the Southern Appalachians have a great future as a health and recreation resort because
there is no equivalent great forest region within easy reach of
so large a number of people.
Because of the number of young men who wanted to learn
forestry and the absence of a forestry school in the United States,
Schenck started one in I 897, and in I 898 he published a school
catalogue. He advertised the curriculum as a one-year course
in practical forest management with emphasis on field work.
A school room was built in the Pink Beds for summer use, but
in winter the lectures were given at Biltmore Forest. Those who
finished the course found ready employment.
Schenck in I908 sent out invitations to foresters all over the
nation to come to a forest fair in Biltmore Forest. The invitations
were in the form of a fifty-six page booklet in which his plantings
in each of sixty-three tracts were described. The cost was listed
as were the successes and failures of each plantation or tract.
Tracts were labeled and numbered, and persons attending were
shown these sixty-three extensive efforts at scientific forestry.
This fair was to be a visual demonstration. Schenck's booklet
was informative, inspiring, and humorous. A sample excerpt
indicates the extent of his efforts and those of the Biltmore
foresters and illustrates how these efforts provided guide lines
for continued practical forestry: "Tip No. 2. The plantation
marked No. 2, of Long Ridge, covers forty-five acres of steep
slopes which were cleared some sixty years ago; abandoned
for farming some thirty years ago; covered in I 89 5 with sedgegrass, and cut by deeply eroded gullies on the side facing the
East. In 189 5 Mr. Vanderbilt desired the entire hill to be planted
�Timber! / 307
in hardwoods. It was my wish to show him (and to all America)
that forest planting could be done ... at an expense of $s.oo
an acre." On this plantation he sowed bushels of chestnuts and
hickory nuts and set out on the north slope I I ,ooo yearling
chestnut oaks, ailanthus, black cherries, and hickories. On the
west slope where the sedge was heavy he planted some 20,000
Douglas firs, sugar maples, white and black walnuts, black
cherries, and white oaks. The cost of planting and work was
$241.06. Some of these plantings did well; others did not. He
did additional plantings in I898, I899, and I900, after which
time the plantation did well. He stated that Long Ridge, which
had been a nasty scar on a hillside, was now flourishing, and
added, "Nowadays it is a joy for me to crawl through this
plantation! I feel like the Lord on the Seventh Day of creation
when I am crawling."
Each of Schenck's sixty-three "Tips" dealt with similar
efforts and eventual successes. Many foresters came to his forest
fair, and from it they learned valuable lessons about conservation
and successful forestry. The whole tenor of the pamphlet indicates
Schenck's love for his trees and his work. This fair must have been
one of the finest actual demonstrations of forestry ever presented
to interested foresters.
In April I909 Vanderbilt discharged Carl Schenck as forester,
and forestry at Biltmore came to an end for almost forty years.
Although the Biltmore Forest School had no endowment or
support from public funds, it was self-supporting from tuition
fees, and Schenck was financially independent. His decision
was to operate the school on a field study basis, using land owned
by lumber companies in North Carolina, in the Adirondacks,
in Michigan, and in Oregon for working fields. In addition
he took his students to Europe for two to three month periods
to show them the results of sustained-yield European forestry.
And so the forestry school continued to operate until I9I4.
Meanwhile several forestry schools had been established by
American universities, and state boards of forestry were on the
increase. Under Schenck's influence Governor William W.
Kitchen of North Carolina issued a proclamation in I909 placing
all woodlands situated above contour line two thousand feet
under increased fire protection. Schenck's contribution to the
state and the nation was to emphasize the importance of privately
owned forests, properly managed and protected to enable them
to continue producing merchantable timber. The private lumber
�308 / Part III: A Developing Economy
companies regarded him as a friend. Reuben Robertson of the
Champion Fibre Company offered Schenck its Sunburst village
for the forestry school headquarters. Sunburst was a model
village built to house woodworkers, the buildings of which
were not being used. Schenck accepted the offer, and he and his
forestry school surveyed the whole territory near Canton.
The Champion Coated Paper Company was an Ohio concern
incorporated about 1896 by Peter G. Thomson who had obtained
from the Champion International Paper Company of Massachusetts a license to make paper, coating it on both sides at one
operation. Great profits were made, but Thomson owned no
forests, and he was buying wood from his competitors in Ohio.
He needed a supply of spruce for making pulp. The spruce
forests in the Smoky and Balsam mountains were the finest
in the United States. In 1905 the Champion Fibre Company
was organized, and from 1906 to 1908 it built its plant at Canton,
North Carolina. Thomson borrowed over $3,00o,ooo during
the panic of 1907 to complete the paper and pulp mill. Long
known as the Ford of Pigeon and its post office known as Pigeon
River, the place had only a few houses when the Western North
Carolina Railroad reached it. The name Canton was bestowed
by the General Assembly in I 894. The town had been the terminus of the railroad for two years and had developed accordingly.
By 1906 it had about four hundred people, but after the Champion Paper Company went into operation it attracted workers
and their families and by I 9 I 6 there were around six thousand
people living in Canton and two thousand more in the surrounding area. Mr. Reuben Robertson, Thomson's son-in-law,
was sent to Canton on a fifty-day assignment to make the plant
a successful one, and he remained for the rest of his life, more
than fifty years. Tanning was a sideline to the chief purpose of
the company, paper making, yet the tannic acid made there paid
for the wood. A process developed by Oma Carr, a chemical
engineer, was applied to chestnut chips to make pulp after the
tannic acid had been removed from them. The wood was reduced
to small chips and subjected to treatment in boiling chemicals
which dissolved the resinous material in the wood, leaving only
the fibre. After washing, screening, and bleaching, it was formed
in a sheet on a revolving cylinder covered with wire cloth,
�Timber! /
309
passed between rollers to wring out the water, then heated over
steam cylinders for drying. Wound on reels in continous rolls
as it appeared from the machine, it resembled cardboard or
blotter. This product was shipped to Hamilton, Ohio, to be
coated. At first, chestnut wood was essential to the plant for
production of tannic acid, and Robertson said that the company
came to North Carolina first for the spruce and second for the
many chestnut trees. The chestnut blight which appeared about
1920 was of cataclysmic importance to the industry.
Spruce was difficult to obtain because it grew only in the
highest altitudes, and after Schenck's survey revealed the great
extent of pine forests available a process was developed to make
a bleached kraft out of pine. Champion made the first white
paper of pine.
The company purchased lands, often tracts with nothing
ready for immediate harvest, but with "good forest reproduction
on them." It also purchased wood from the farmers and from
the national forests. The contracts with farmers contained a
clause stating that they could be cancelled if the wood was not
handled in accordance with sustained yield principles. It was
essential for the company that the forests be maintained for
perpetual yield.
By 1916 the Champion Fibre Company employed over one
thousand men and was worth ten million dollars. Fifteen carloads
of products left Canton daily. In addition the farmers had a cash
crop and the lumbermen a market for their waste products.
Supplies such as coal, lime, alkali, and sulphur were supplied
from Tennessee and Virginia.
After the days of the Forestry School at Biltmore, no forestry
program was carried on there until 1946, when the Champion
Paper and Fibre Company (the name had been changed) made
a contract with the estate to cut mature trees and do scientific
thinning in certain areas. Max Dillingham, forester in charge,
was a joint employee of the estate and the company. Natural
reseeding was carried on from seed trees in natural regeneration.
Of the 12,000 acres then in the estate, about 8,500 were in forest
land. Suitable trees were cut for sawwood and were sawed at
the sawmill on the estate and sold through a broker. Some forty
employees worked on the operation, under contract, using their
own equipment. All trees were marked before cutting, and all
brush and limbs were scattered evenly over the forest floor.
Champion built and maintained its own roads. Firewood was
�3 ro / Part III: A Developing Economy
cut for the estate greenhouses and sawdust was used in the barns,
so there was no waste.
The Champion Paper and Fibre Company has had enlightened
policies concerning the preservation of forests and the use of
the "sustained-yield" principle in its harvesting of and purchases
of timber and wood. It has made progress in solving its problems
of air and stream pollution. Report No. 5, Pollution Survey of the
French Broad River Basin made by the State Stream Sanitation
Committee (1957) criticized the company for discharging industrial waste into Pigeon River. The company spent $3,ooo,ooo
in 1962 and 1963 to develop a primary treatment system. Afterwards it began work on a secondary treatment system.
Mr. Vanderbilt in the early 1900's sold the timber rights
in Pisgah Forest to the Carr Lumber Company for twelve dollars
per acre, the contract to extend over a twenty-year period.
During the twenty years the Vanderbilt estate netted about
$870,000. Vanderbilt held that "private ownership of any
resource necessary to the general welfare carries with it the moral
obligation of faithful stewardship to the public." He said: "I
have stuck to forestry from the beginning and I shall not forsake
it now. For me to impair the future usefulness of Pisgah Forest
in order to somewhat increase present revenues, would be bad
business policy. But apart from that, it would be bad citizenship.
As I see it, no man is a good citizen who destroys for selfish ends
a growing forest." Vanderbilt might have received a much
higher price for the timber if he had waived restrjctions as to
methods of cutting under this sale, but he required that the
methods of practical forestry be followed. Overton Price wrote:
"Pisgah Forest, its mountainous slopes clothed in an unbroken
mantle of protective tree growth, is his monument. He transformed it by nearly a quarter of a century's efficient fire protection
from a forest characterized by scanty young growth, thin humus
covering, and impoverished soil, as the result of an injury it
had received in former years from excessive grazing and recurrent fires, to one whose silvicultural condition is probably
unequalled in the Southern Appalachians."
Although managed forestry was first applied in America at
Biltmore Forest, the United States Government had shown an
�Timber f / 3 I I
interest in forest conservation for many years. In 1876 the
Division of Forestry had been established in the Department of
Agriculture to gather statistics and disseminate information
on forestry. Proposals that the United States retain in the public
domain the timberlands that were still owned publicly were
made but not acted upon until I89I when the Forest Reserve
Act was passed and President Harrison, on the advice of Arnold
Hague of the U. S. Geological Service, set aside the Yellowstone
Park Timberland Reserve of over a million and a quarter acres.
This was the first U. S. Forest Reservation. The act did not
provide for the practice of forestry or for protection of the
forests. It merely withheld the land from sale or homesteading.
President Cleveland added 2I,279,840 acres to the Forest Reserves. Subsequent legislation outlined the duties and responbilities of those administering the reserves. Theodore Roosevelt
became President of the United States in I90I, and upon the
advice of Hoke Smith, Secretary of the Interior, Gifford Pinchot,
:md F. H. Newell, author of the act of 189I providing for the
reserves, he transformed forestry and irrigation into issues of
national consequence and won for them a high degree of public
acceptance. In his Annual Message, December 2, I 90I, he wrote:
"The fundamental idea of forestry is the perpetuation of forests
by use. Forest protection is not an end in itself; it is a means to
increase and sustain the resources of our country and the industries
which depend upon them." At that time the Division of Forestry
in the Department of Agriculture was renamed the Bureau of
Forestry with Gifford Pinchot as its head. In 1905 the Forest
Reserves were transferred to the Department of Agriculture's
Bureau of Forestry, and renamed the United States Forest
Service. The Forest Reserves were renamed National Forests.
So far, none of the legislation applied to the hardwood
forests of the Southern Appalachians, where there was no land
in the public domain. Efforts had been made to get the federal
government to preserve portions of these forests. In I885 Dr.
Henry 0. Marcy, a Boston physician, read before the American
Academy of Medicine in New York, a paper concerning the
advisability of securing a large reservation of the higher ranges
of the mountains of North Carolina as a national park for the
benefit of invalids. He said its advantages "would be of value
incalculable to millions yet unborn." Other proposals for a
national forest in the Appalachians were made, and after Theodore
Roosevelt visited Asheville in I902 there was a movement in
�312 / P.::rt III: A Developing Economy
Congress to have the United States purchase lands in the Appalachians for parks and reserves. Destructive floods had occurred
in the streams draining the Appalachians. These could be brought
under control if the slopes were properly forested. A fundamental
difference developed between the operation of the National
Forests and the National Parks. In the latter the virgin forest
is preserved; while in the former, controlled lumbering is
practiced. The efforts to establish a national park are discussed
elsewhere. Here the emphasis will be on National Forests, which
were provided for by the Weeks Law in 191r. By the year 1910,
the Forest Reserves had been increased to 25,605,700 acres, all
west of the Mississippi River. The forests were yielding a revenue,
one-fourth of the gross of which was distributed to the states
in which the forests were located, while the nation appropriated
$3,908,240.32 for operation. It seemed logical that Congress
could appropriate money to purchase forest lands east of the
Mississippi. Mr. James S. Whipple, Forest Commissioner of
New York, explained: "Without forests we can have but little
water. A study of this natural reservoir proves the importance
and imperative necessity of preserving our forests. Let us examine
it: The trees are part of it; the leaves on the trees are part of it;
the twigs, old logs, limbs, and fallen limbs are part of it. All
of these catch, delay, and hold back the raindrops as they fall.
If you will observe the conditions of the forest floor you will
notice that between the trees there are little basins in the ground,
caused by the roots of the trees holding up the soil. These basins
catch and hold the rain. Then underneath it all, formed from
decaying leaves, twigs, limbs, and logs for a thousand years,
is a black mold called humus. Thus humus has greater power
to take up and hold moisture than any other known vegetable
or animal matter. . . . [All of these are] parts of this perfect
reservoir, built on nature's plan, detaining, holding, and keeping
back the water, allowing it to soak into the ground to feed the
little springs, thence the creeks, and keep the water flowing
slowly from the hills all the year round.
"On the other hand, when the forest is cut away, the basins
are broken down, all obstructions to the flow of water are
removed, the humus is destroyed, and nature's reservoir is
swept away, allowing the water to run quickly into the larger
streams, causing destructive floods. Many times great damage
and sometimes unhealthful conditions follow. When the storm
is over, the flood subsides, the water is soon gone, and dry creek-
�Timber! / 3 1 3
beds appear." Federal purchase of forests in the Appalachians had
been endorsed by three Presidents but had been opposed by
Senators from the Northwest and by some Southern Senators
who were adherents of strict states rights.
The Weeks Act, passed on the fifteenth of February, 1911,
authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to recommend for
purchase lands he believed necessary for the regulation of the
flow of navigable streams at prices fixed by the National Forest
Reservation Commission. The seller of a tract was allowed to
reserve the timber and mineral rights, but all cutting of timber
and all mining must be done under the rules and regulations
established by the commission. The act provided that after
the purchase of tracts small areas that were included which
could be used for agriculture without injury to the forest or the
stream flow and not needed for public purposes were to be
offered for sale as homesteads in tracts not to exceed eighty
acres, and jurisdiction over such land would revert to the state
in which it lay. An amendment later substituted the exchange
of land for actual purchase. The terms of the exchange are based
on need of a national forest for a particular tract which is privately
owned, and desire of an individual to acquire a tract not essential
to the national forest. These exchanges are not on an acre for
acre basis, and a farmer might receive a forty-acre tract in exchange for a much smaller one. Thus small individuals holdings
not originally sold to the government have been acquired.
Since 1897 timber sales have been permitted in forest reservations, now National Forests, to residents of adjacent areas;
this practice has been important. Residents in the mountains
are permitted to engage in lumbering in the National Forests.
To illustrate, a farmer who owns a sawmill and who desires to
increase his income during the months that are unproductive
on the farm may apply to a ranger for permission to cut certain
trees that are overmature (no longer growing rapidly enough
to make it worthwhile to save them) to make way for vigorous
young stock. The farmer may know of such a group of trees.
The ranger measures the trees to determine their stumpage
value, based on the difference between their sale value and the
cost of producing it less a proper allowance for profit and risk.
If the amount due the government is less than $soo the ranger
is not required to advertise the timber for sale, and a contract
may be drawn up. Amounts involving a payment of over $soo
must be advertised. The purchaser may pay cash, or he may
�314 / Part III: A Developing Economy
arrange to make payments as he markets the lumber. The plan
encourages conservation as the farmer wishes to be able to
continue purchasing timber from the National Forest.
Under the Weeks Act National Forests were created in the
Appalachian region of North Carolina, the Pisgah in 1916 and
the Nantahala in 1920. The headquarters are in Asheville. The
purchase of Vanderbilt's holdings in Pisgah Forest was approved
in 1914 after his death although he had favored the sale. Mrs.
Vanderbilt asked five dollars per acre, which was less than the
average price of other tracts already acquired. Her feeling in
the matter was expressed in a letter to the commission: "I wish
earnestly to make such disposition of Pisgah Forest as will
maintain in the fullest and most permanent way its national
value as an object lesson in forestry, as well as its wonderful
beauty and charm; and I realize that its ownership by the Nation
will alone make its preservation permanent and certain. Accordingly I have decided to make as large a contribution as I can,
in order to help bring this result about." It must be remembered
that Vanderbilt had already realized twelve dollars per acre
for the timber rights sold to the Carr Lumber Company.
The Weeks Act was passed under the power of the United
States to preserve the navigability of streams and their watersheds.
A subsequent act, more far-reaching, provided for the purchase
of land for the practice of forestry, even where navigability of
streams was not in jeopardy. Purchases of additional tracts
were made and continued to be made until in 1966 there were
878,ooo acres of land in national forests in the twenty-four
counties of Western North Carolina. Of this, 48o,ooo is in the
Pisgah National Forest, the balance in the Nantahala National
Forest. A much greater percentage of land is in commercial
forests, most of which are being managed today in accordance
with the example furnished by the Forest Service. A survey
conducted in 1966 showed that 14% of all land in the twenty-four
counties is in National Forests, while 71.5% of all land is in
commercial forests. In 1967 Macon County had the largest
acreage of national forests, 148,016; Transylvania was second
with 87,466. The other four leaders were Haywood, 67,454;
Burke, 47,409; Buncombe, 3 1,874; Swain, 16,148.
In 1916 President Wilson proclaimed the creation of the
Pisgah National Game Preserve, the first concrete wildlife
management program for Western North Carolina.
Recognition of the multiple-use principle already practiced
was achieved in the "Multiple-Use Sustained Yield Act" of
�Timber! / 315
1960. The act named the basic renewable resources (water,
recreation, wood, forage, and wildlife) for which the Forest
Service is responsible. Once acquired, the National Forests
have been utilized in as many ways as possible to provide for
the recreational needs of the American people. The Forest Service
almost at once set aside the Pink Beds as a site for a federal deer
propagation program. Fawns were caught and reared there
and then transferred to begin herds in North Carolina and other
states. Trout were also propagated for restocking mountain
streams.
In I 96 I, the fiftieth anniversary of the Weeks Law, Secretary
of Agriculture Orville Freeman gave instructions to designate
the Pink Beds "The Cradle of Forestry in America." Consequently a visitor center has been created near the site of Schenck's
School of Forestry. It contains displays illustrating the multiple
use of forests. Visitors may then follow nearby trails for a view
of the region as it was during Schenck's regime.
The Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are administered
by four staff members and numerous associates at the Asheville
headquarters, heading the four facets of modem forestry:
water, timber, wildlife, and recreation. In the Nantahala National
Forest ten rivers rise: the Nantahala, Cheoah, Tuckaseigee,
Hiwassee, Valley, Cullasaja, Little Tennessee, Chattooga, Whitewater, and Toxaway. They feed large river systems, the Tennessee
and the Savannah. The area receives as much as seventy inches
of rainfall per year, and in some places it reaches one hundred
or more inches. Near Franklin, at the headwaters of the Little
Tennessee River, is the 5400 acre Coweeta Hydrological Laboratory, the only study area of its kind in the Eastern United
States. There the soil is as deep as thirty inches, and observations
are made of the effects of timber cutting, logging, fire, woods
grazing, and land clearing on the flow and quality of the water
and the silt content of streams. The aim is to develop methods
of forest management to obtain better and more abundant
water supplies. At Bent Creek Experimental Forest near Asheville,
studies have shown that forest soil stripped of its trees absorbs
less than one-fifth of an inch of rain in an hour, while properly
managed forest land absorbs up to four inches of rainfall in an
hour.
Nantahala National Forest contains 650 million boardfect
of saw timber and 400,000 cords of merchantable pulpwood.
In I956 the income from the sale of timber was $3 I7,000. Twentyfive per cent of all income from the sale of forest products is
�316 / Part III: A Developing Economy
Deer preserve
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO.
paid to the state to be used for schools and roads in the counties
in which the forest is located. An additional ten per cent is
appropriated to the Forest Service for improvement of roads
and trails in the forest. The timber operators who purchase
timber in the Nantahala National Forest had in 1956 an annual
payroll of $696,ooo, and year-round employment was provided
for five hundred people. As the volume of forest products
increases the above figures also increase.
In 1937 the State of North Carolina and the United States
Forest Service signed a cooperative wildlife agreement, which
has been revised from time to time. The purpose is to protect
wildlife, to plant fish in the streams throughout the forests,
and to regulate fishing and hunting, and a license for either
must be obtained from the state. State game, fish, and sanitary
laws apply except in special game-management areas inside the
forest, which in the Nantahala Forest are Fires Creek area north
ofHayesville, Wayah Wildlife Management area west ofFranklin,
Standing Indian area at the head of the Nantahala River, and the
Santeetlah area northwest of Robbinsville. In these the number
of hunters and the hunting periods for wild boar, bear, and
deer are restricted to maintain a sustained game production.
�Timber! / 317
A mountain angler on Lake Logan near Waynesville
HUGH MORTON PHOTO
A cook-out in a camp ground of the Pisgah National Forest
U.S. FOREST SERVICE PHOTO
�3r 8 / Part III: A Developing Economy
Hiker on a trail in a national forest
U .S. FOREST SERVI CE PHOTO
Special fees are charged by the state to hunt and fish in the Cooperative Wildlife Management areas. Twenty-three hundred
persons per year are permitted to hunt bear and wild boar with
dogs in North Carolina. Applicants pay the required fee and
engage in a public drawing for the right to hunt. Hunt fees
are refunded to those who lose out in the drawing.
There are 1200 miles of trout streams in the N ational Forests
in North Carolina, constituting fifty per cent of the trout streams
in the state, and brook, rainbow, and brown trout are present
there. The Pisgah Forest Fish Hatchery in Transylvania County
twelve miles from Brevard furnished nine- to ten- inch trout
for the streams and lakes of the Great Smoky Mountains National
Park, the Cherokee Indian Reservation, the Pisgah and N antahala
National Forests, and public trout waters in eight counties
ofWestern North Carolina, and eggs are shipped to fish hatcheries
in other states of the Appalachian area. A laboratory trains
hatchery p ersonnel.
Forest fire control has been so effective in the N ational
Forests that the average loss in the Nantahala is now one-third
�Timber! / 319
of one per cent. Towers and observatories at high points, w ith
observers always on the alert and with telephone and radio
service and roads and trails for the purpose, enable the fire
fighting crews to put out most of the fires within the first hour
after they start.
For those who like to camp or to hike, there are twenty-nine
recreation areas, twenty of which have camping facilities and
well-marked trails. In some areas the United States Forest
Service rents sites on an annual basis for families wishing to
build their own cabins. Typical of the camp sites is the J ack
R abbit Recreation Area on Chatuge Lake in Clay County ,
where camping, picnicking, boating, and water skiing are
possible. The North Carolina Wildlife Commission and the
United States Forest Service provided a boat launching ramp.
Said to resemble a Swiss Alpine lake, Chatuge has been called
the crown j ewel in TV A's system of beautiful lakes. Each of the
one hundred camping sites has a table, a tent platform, and a
fireplace. Fifteen miles away is the Fires Creek Wildlife Management Area, where campers may fish and hunt during the legal
T he Linville Gorge W ilderness A rea
ASHEVI LLE C H AMBER OF COMMER CE PHOTO
�320
f
Part III: A Developing Economy
Inviting trail in the Linville Gorge Wilderness Area
U .S . FOREST SERVICE PHOTO
season. Twenty-six miles of developed trails lead to the rim of
the mountains.
In 1937 the 2000-mile Appalachian Trail for foot travel was
completed. Extending from Maine to Georgia, in North Carolina
it winds over Roan Mountain, follows the boundary between
the Pisgah N ational Forest and the Cherokee National Forest
(in Tennessee), through the Great Smoky Mountains National
Park, and into the Nantahala and Chattahoochee (Georgia)
National Forests.
Three areas of unusual beauty are preserved within the
National Forests. They are Roan Mountain, Linville Gorge
Wilderness, and Joyce Kilmer M emorial Forest. The first and
second have been known by tourists for generations. Roan
M ountain, on the North Carolina-Tennessee line, is in late
�Timber! /
321
Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest in Graham County- marker
ASHEVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PHOTO
Vista ofJoyce Kilmer Memorial Forest from Snowbird Mountain Lodge
U.S . FOREST SERVICE PHOTO
�322 j Part III: A Developing Economy
June blanketed with blooming purple rhododendron, with
here and there beautiful stands of fir and spruce trees. Cloudland
Hotel closed about 1917, and in 1940 the United States Forest
Service purchased the area. Five thousand acres are managed
for recreational use, although no camping facilities are provided.
The Linville Gorge Wilderness has been admired by visitors
since it was visited by the French botanist Andre Michaux in
I 802. No road has ever been built along this stretch of the Linville
River because its banks are so rugged, with Linville Mountain
on its right and Jonas Ridge on its left. The latter is unique in
its strange rock formations that are visible for miles- Hawksbill,
Table Rock, and the Chimneys. Travelers on foot and on horseback have for years gone to Wiseman's View on Linville
Mountain for the panorama of the gorge and Jonas Ridge.
Along the riverbank and throughout the gorge are an abundance
of wild flowers and shrubs of great variety. Camping is permitted
in the Linville Gorge Wilderness but no facilities are furnished.
However, about five miles from Wiseman's View, at Linville
Falls, a campground is provided.
In Graham County in the Nantahala National Forest is a
38oo acre tract of virgin wilderness with trees hundreds of
years old, some measuring twenty feet around the base and
more than a hundred feet high, and a great variety of shrubs.
It is designated the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest in honor
of the poet-soldier who lost his life in France in World War
One, whose poem "Trees" is loved by the American public.
The trees are here for all to admire and enjoy. They enable
both travelers and residents, the city pent and the people of the
wooded hills, to get close to the heart of nature - to feel like
nature's noblemen. Let it be the resolve of all who live in or
come to the mountains that when a tree is cut a tree must be
planted.
�CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
From Indian Trails to
Broad Highways
In I879 there began in North Carolina a movement that was
to make possible the most far-reaching reform in the history
of the state. This was initiated by the Mecklenburg Road Law.
Prior to that time all road work had been done by the free-labor
system called the "labor tax" under which every able-bodied
man was obligated to give a certain number of days' work per
year for the upkeep of roads. The new law applied to three
counties, Mecklenburg, Forsyth, and Stokes, but it was available
to any county by action of the county commissioners if requested
by a petition of a specified number of voters. It provided for a
combination of free-labor and tax support for construction of
roads. The law was repealed two years later and then was reenacted. A new principle had entered the minds of the
legislators and of the people of the state.
Since I 867 various experiments with road building had
been tried. First, the township justices had been made responsible
for administering the state road laws and appointing road supervisors for their districts. The constitution as amended in I 875
assigned road control to the county commissioners, who were
chosen by the township justices appointed by the legislature.
However, in I 880 the General Assembly in special session
restored the township trustees' responsibility for roads. In I 887
the "chain-gang law" authorized the counties to assign to road
work convicts with sentences of less than ten years. Meanwhile
the practice of requiring every able-bodied man to work on
the public roads continued. The roads remained as bad as before.
323
�324 / Part III: A Developing Economy
Two professors at the state university, State Geologist ]. A.
Holmes and William Cain, a civil engineer, in a report to
Governor Thomas M. Holt in I893, wrote: "The problem of
better public roads, especially in the midland and western counties, perhaps outranks in importance all other industrial questions now before the people of the State." Holmes and Cain
recommended that all public roads be constructed and kept
in repair as far as possible by men employed and trained for
the work. They emphasized that railroads could in no way
substitute for roads. "Every citizen should be within easy reach,
over a good public highway, of the railroad, the county seat,
and the nearest market town."
It was the contention of the two professors that the state
lost $Io,5 I9,ooo annually because of bad roads in the middle
and western counties. The figures were broken down as follows:
"Loss on account of the cost of feeding, and loss of time by the
I34,000 country mules and horses in the middle and western
counties, during four weeks of impassable roads: $I ,6oo,ooo;
"Loss, on account of bad roads, of the time and maintenance
of 2Io,ooo country horses and mules, I05,000 wagons and
harness, and wages of 105,000 teamsters, during one month:
$3 ,948,ooo; "Loss on account of bad roads, of the services and
expense of feeding 25,000 town horses, and services of I2,000
teamsters, and wear and tear on I2,500 wagons and harness,
all of which could be saved by having good roads and streets:
$4,53I,ooo; "Wasted in working public roads in taxes and
labor: $440,000; Total: $10,519,000." They maintained that
the state could save this amount annually by installing a system
of good macadamized roads.
Rural Free Delivery (RFD) which was experimental with
a law passed by Congress in 1893 was impractical in Western
North Carolina because of the poor roads, although by 1898
it had become a permanent feature of the postal service. In
I 899 a Good Roads Association of Asheville was organized,
the first in the state. The private macadam roads on the Vanderbilt estate had demonstrated what might be done with public
roads. The association under the leadership of Dr. C. P. Ambler
built one mile of macadam road from Asheville to Biltmore
and campaigned for better roads in Buncombe County. It
cooperated with neighboring counties in holding meetings,
and a similar association was formed in Hendersonville. In I902
a North Carolina Good Roads Association was formed to work
�From Indian Trails to Broad Highways / 325
Post offices were usually in stores or homes
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO .
out a formula to help the counties acquire better roads through
federal support, extended use of convicts, instruction in road
building, and a course in road building to be offered at State
College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts and at the state
university.
Meanwhile some efforts were made by individuals or
corporations to attract the tourist trade to areas not served by
railroads, requiring them to invest private capital for roads.
Mr. S. T. Kelsey, one of the founders of Highlands in Macon
County, was employed to make a survey for a projected railroad
that was to follow the Blue Ridge through the Carolinas
�326 / Part III: A Developing Economy
and Virginia. He was impressed with the scenic possibilities
of the area which became Linville. Kelsey interested his friend
Donald MacRae of Wilmington, who in turn sent his son Hugh
to look over the valley. A corporation was formed to purchase
land and lay out a resort village. As the location was remote
and travel would be difficult, the company constructed the
Y onahlossee road in I 890 and I 89I along the southern slope
of Grandfather Mountain from Linville to Blowing Rock with
a branch road leading to the top of the mountain. The main
road was twenty miles long and from ten to fourteen feet wide,
and the cost of building was about $IO,ooo. Kelsey surveyed
and supervised the construction of the project, employing local
workmen. Joe Lee Hartley, who worked on the two-year
projec!:, described the task: "We had bush crews and log crews,
shovel and mattock crews. There were some 300 men working
on the road .... I walked five miles to work for 300 days. When
we got the road about half way done, up there around the side
of the Grandfather, we had a shack under the rocks."
In their I893 report Holmes and Cain called the road "an
excellent one for summer travel ... through one of the most
beautiful and interesting portions of the mountain region of
North Carolina."
The Good Roads movement grew in popularity and a Southern
Appalachian Good Roads Association was organized in I909.
Two years later the Southern Railway and the Atlantic Coastline Railway entered the campaign. Their officials believed
that good roads would encourage production and result in
more balanced marketing. A Good Roads Train was operated
in the mountains by the Southern Railway in I9I I. It contained
three coaches, one of which contained working models and
road building equipment, with explanations of how to build
and maintain good roads, and one a stereopticon and screen
showing good and bad roads. Railway officials and experts
from the United States Office of Public Roads gave lectures
in Marshall, Asheville, Waynesville, Sylva, Hendersonville,
Lake Toxaway, Brevard, Rutherfordton, Marion, Morganton,
North Wilkesboro, and Mount Airy.
The automobile had come into use on North Carolina
roads and streets, and a license fee of five dollars per auto was
�From Indian Trails to Broad Highways / 327
Copy of photo made by Donald McRae of the Linville-Blowing Rock hack on the
HUGH MORTON PHOTO
Yonahlossee Road at Wilson Creek in the 189o's
imposed in 1909, of which three dollars was returned to the
county in which it was collected.
In 1911 the General Assembly authorized construction of
the Central Highway to extend from Morehead City to the
Tennessee line, to follow the railroad. Work lagged and the
road was not completed until 1921. The plan was to improve
roads already constructed, making them thirty feet wide from
ditch to ditch and with no grade over four and one-half percent.
Buncombe County already had a good road from Swannanoa
Gap on the east to the county line on the west, a combination
of macadam in some places and sand clay in others. Sand clay
roads were cheaper to build than macadam and a county could
build more miles with its money. Sand clay roads required
constant attention, but they could be kept up by just a few men.
When the Central Highway Committee attempted to inspect
the entire route in 1912, its members had to begin the tour in
Haywood County, Madison County's roads not being in
�328 / Part III: A Developing Economy
condition for travel even in midsummer.
A scenic highway to be known as the "Crest of the Blue
Ridge Highway" was being surveyed in I9II, from Marion,
Virginia, to Talullah Falls, Georgia, where it would connect
with a good road to Atlanta. It was to enter North Carolina
in Ashe County via Beaver Creek and Elk Cross Roads, where
there was a good dirt road as far as Boone. The next thirty-five
miles, to Linville via Blowing Rock, would utilize the Y onahlossee road. From Linville to Linville Falls the road was under
construction, although there was not yet any surfacing material
and it would get very heavy in winter. Tourists would be
expected to stop at Linville Falls to see the gorge and the falls.
From that point the road would proceed close to the summit
of the Blue Ridge on an entirely new route with beautiful
scenery. The highest point on the highway would be Stepps
Gap, approximately 5,500 feet, only 1,200 less than Mount
Mitchell. Thence it would pass through the heart of the Black
Mountains where there had never been any roads. The road
was to lead through Asheville to Hendersonville and Brevard,
then pass the resorts of Lake Toxaway, Lake Sapphire, and
Fairfield Lake to Highlands, and on to Talullah Falls. At Asheville
the proposed road was to coincide with one already constructed
to the top of Sunset Mountain. This five mile macadam road
had been constructed by Dr. E. W. Grove as an exclusive automobile route, there being a separate road to the summit for
carnages.
The scheme for the scenic road originated with Dr. Joseph
Hyde Pratt, State Geologist, and the survey was made under
the auspices of the North Carolina Geological and Economic
Survey by students of the University of North Carolina during
their summer vacation. T. F. Hickerson, a member of the party,
reported that they spent ten days "very pleasantly at Dr. C. P.
Ambler's summer home before starting the survey at Bull Gap,
ten miles east of Asheville. There were no wagon roads between
Bull Gap and Stepps Gap near Mt. Mitchell, . . . there were
scarcely any trails that could be traveled in safety with a horse."
The section surveyed averaged 5,000 feet in altitude. The camp
equipment, including seven tents, ten folding cots, clothes and
two double blankets for each person, a stove and cooking equipment, tablewear, and rations, had to be packed on mules or
portaged a distance of about seven miles over the steep and
rough trails.
�From Indian Trails to Broad Highways / 329
In 1912 a portion of the road between Linville and Altapass
was constructed under the direction of Dr. Pratt, with one
hundred men. The Appalachian Highway Company had been
chartered to build the road, and people along the route were
giving the right-of-way and were encouraged to buy stock.
The portion between Altapass and Pineola was completed
before work was stopped because of W odd War One. The
surface was of sand, clay, and gravel. A toll road, it was expected
to entice more tourists to the area, to have them stay longer
and visit the inns along the scenic route.
Locke Craig, an Asheville man, became governor of North
Carolina in 1913. He designated two days in November of
that year as "Good Roads Days." These were declared state
holidays on which every able-bodied citizen was asked to strike
a few blows for progress. They were part of a series of Good
Roads Days in different states. Governor Craig went to his
home county and, donning overalls, worked as a common
laborer with the other citizens.
The first new road in North Carolina to be built by state
convicts was a seven mile stretch over Hickory Nut Gap of a
road which was projected to run from Asheville to Charlotte.
The General Assembly had provided for the upkeep of the road
after its completion, although it was to be turned over to
Buncombe, Henderson, and Rutherford counties for administration. The county commissioners of each county were to
appoint a commissioner to have charge of upkeep and maintenance of the road. Sol Gallert of Rutherford County had
prepared the bill authorizing state aid, and R. R. Williams
of Buncombe County presented it. The bill required that five
thousand dollars be raised locally for dynamite and tools. The
Coxe Estate in Asheville gave one thousand, the town of Edneyville voted a bond issue and gave fifteen hundred, and private
citizens subscribed $5,76r.6o. Gallert said, "I look to see the
time when these hills will be the playground of America, the
road lined with homes of summer visitors and the hills and
valleys dotted with the homes of our mountain people." He
estimated that the people of Rutherford and Buncombe counties
had up to that time expended $soo,ooo in turnpike tolls "in
the eternal damnation of their souls through cursing at being
stuck axle deep in the mud, broken poles, and having to lead
their horses up a wretched road they were paying the privilege
of driving over."
�3 30 / Part III: A Developing Economy
Governor Craig when he opened the road officially on
November seventh, 1915, declared, "I believe the most favored
spot on earth is here in the glorious mountains of North Carolina.
It is a land, an inheritance for us, with its marvelous climate,
pure water, its brooks and streams and rivers, where we have
no flies or very few of them, because a fly cannot live on these
rocks; no malaria and no diseases save those we can ourselves
get rid of."
The state university began in 1914 holding annual good
roads institutes at Chapel Hill, with lectures, conferences, and
exchange of experiences. Only three of the counties of Western
North Carolina were represented at the first instituteMadison, McDowell, and Rutherford. Many arguments as
to how to raise money for the needed roads arose at the
institutes. Practically all were agreed that the chain gang must
continue, but equipment and materials were costly, and gradually
the idea that bonds should be sold came up for debate. The
question was who should issue the bonds, county or township,
both practices being in use from place to place. In 1913 the
General Assembly passed several laws permitting specific townships to sell bonds for road building, and one general law was
passed which authorized townships to sell bonds upon receipt
of a petition of voters by the county commissioners. With the
responsibility left to local initiative, the building of roads was
to continue to produce a hodge-podge of good roads near the
county seats and very bad ones in outlying portions of each
county. Governor Craig appointed a State Highway Commission in 1915, and the legislature appropriated $ro,ooo as its
budget, to be used in advising the counties about road building.
A breakthrough in federal aid for highways came in 1916
with an act to be administered by the United States Department
of Agriculture. In order to participate, a state had to have an
organization to raise half the funds to construct and maintain
Federal Aid Roads. The next year the State Highway Commission was authorized to serve in this respect. Counties'
responsibility for roads was still emphasized, and they were
to furnish most of the state's half of the necessary funds for the
new roads. The General Assembly now authorized expenditure
of automobile license fees as a maintenance fund for a state
highway system. Eighty-seven of the state's one hundred
counties set up projects, and by January 1920 sixty-seven miles
of road were completed in spite of the interruption caused by
�From Indian Trails to Broad Highways / 33 I
Hub-deep
A casualty of travel on mud roads
World War One. The objective was a system of roads from
county-seat to county-seat.
Roadbuilding in the mountains presented problems, but
the railroads helped. During the winter of 1919-1920 District
Engineer H. E. Noell was assigned the construction of a road
over the mountain that had given the railroad builders so much
trouble, from Old Fort to Ridgecrest. The old road was passable
only in dry weather. It wound around the mountain as the
railroad did. At times the Noell party had to take a train from
Old Fort to Ridgecrest and work downhill toward Old Fort.
Later Noell was assigned construction and maintenance work
in Yancey, Mitchell, Avery, Burke, McDowell, Henderson,
Polk, Rutherford, and Cleveland counties. His headquarters
were in Marion, and to reach Avery County he had to travel
eighty-five miles via Morganton, Lenoir, Blowing Rock, and
Linville. On one occasion a team of two large horses was hitched
�332 J Part III: A Developing Economy
Fording the Swannanoa
to his old Ford car to pull him out of the mud, and when they
could pull no more an extra team was added. To work in the
northern part of A very County he had to travel from Marion
on the Clinchfield Railroad to Johnson City, spend the night,
and catch the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina
train (the narrow gauge line known as "Tweetsie") to Cranberry,
travel over the project perhaps by horseback, return to Cranberry
for the night, back to Johnson City for the next night, take the
Clinchfield to work in Yancey and Mitchell Counties, where
he used car or horseback, then to Marion by train.
Until that time in most of the highway construction in
Western North Carolina Asheville had been the hub, and the
outlying areas in the mountains that had no railroads were still
dependent on turnpikes. As late as 1915 Watauga County
marketed its produce by covered wagon down the Blowing
Rock-Lenoir Turnpike, a toll road which Watauga County
�From Indian Trails to Broad Highways / 333
residents had the right to use free of toll. For other travelers
on the turnpike a three-horse wagon cost sixty cents, and a
car, seventy-five cents. Mrs. Gwyn Barlow, who kept the toll
gate, said, "After they'd haul the mountain produce to Lenoir,
they'd fill their wagons with supplies for the mountain stores.
Often the wagons mired up hub deep." North Wilkesboro
was another gateway to the so-called "Lost Provinces" of North
Carolina: Watauga, Ashe, and Alleghany counties. The railroad
into Ashe from Abingdon, Virginia, had been built by the
Norfolk and Western only to tap the lumber resources of the
county and did not connect with any other North Carolina
point. Ashe County had closer relationships with Virginia than
with other points in North Carolina.
When Cameron Morrison of Charlotte ran for governor
in 1920 he spoke at Wilkesboro, promising support for roads
throughout the state. The "Lost Provinces" were unwilling to
support any movement for internal improvements unless they
would benefit, and Morrison was campaigning on a program
of good roads, a state system with county upkeep. Later he
devoted half of his inaugural address to the subject.
The 1921 session of the General Assembly established the
state highway system. Men from Northwestern North Carolina
played a prominent part in the legislation, with support from
both Democrats and Republicans. Chairman of the House
Committee on Roads was Thomas C. (Tam) Bowie of Ashe
County, and Rufus A. Daughton of Alleghany County was
the leader of Democratic support for the bill. Newspapers
called him the "Grand Old Man of North Carolina Politics."
Both Bowie and Daughton had served in the legislature for a
long time and were from the "Lost Provinces." D. D. Dougherty
of the Appalachian Training School in Boone was the intermediary to secure Republican support for the measure because
Frank Linney, State Chairman of the Republican Party, lived
in Boone.
A public hearing was held on the Daughton-Connor Bill
(Bowie's name was added later), and twenty speakers were
heard, one of whom was Dr. Mary Martin Sloop of Crossnore
School, whose speech was acknowledged by the Greensboro
Daily News as the best speech of the evening. She had long
�334 / Part III: A Developing Economy
Road scene near Webster
Family travel
engaged in mission work and knew "the horrors of the red
clay road."
In the House Bowie made the opening speech. Mr. Blaine
Coffey (Republican) read a telegram from Frank Linney asking
him to vote for the bill. In recognition of the priority of the
needs of Western North Carolina, Miss Exum Clement of
Buncombe County, the only woman member of the House,
�From Indian Trails to Broad Highways
f
335
was invited to preside at the third reading and passage of the
Doughton-Conner-Bowie Bill, which passed 102 to 14. The
Senate approved thirty-two to six, and a new era was about
to begin.
The act differed from Governor Morrison's proposal to
continue county responsibility for roads. The law was amended
many times by subsequent General Assemblies. The state assumed
control of 5,500 miles of hard-surfaced and other dependable
highways running to all county seats and to all principal towns,
state parks, and principal state institutions and linking up with
state highways of adjoining states and with national highways
into national forest reserves by the most practicable routes.
Special emphasis was placed on the development of agriculture,
and the commercial and natural resources of the state. The law
permitted the state to assume control of the state highways, to
repair, construct, reconstruct, and maintain said highways at
the expense of the entire state and to relieve the counties, cities,
and towns of the state of this burden. The law of 1921 authorized
a bond issue of $5o,ooo,ooo, a one cent a gallon tax on gasoline
to retire the bonds, and an increase in the price of automobile
licenses. A new highway commission was provided for with
at least three Republican members in a total of ten in addition
to the chairman. Each commissioner was to represent a highway
district. Governor Morrison appointed Rufus A. Daughton
of Sparta, John C. McBee of Bakersville, and J. D. Stikeleather
of Asheville as members for the western districts.
In addition to mapping out and beginning construction
of new road proposals, a number of roads already begun were
completed rapidly under direction of the commissioner. Among
these was the Central Highway, which in Western North
Carolina passed through Morganton, Marion, Asheville, and
Marshall, first designated as State Route 10 and later as U. S.
70 Highway.
Mountain terrain challenged the highway commission and
the engineers. Surveyors often had to use ropes and ladders, and
roads were built "over rocky mountains, under rocky mountains, and around rocky mountains." Sometimes a route chosen
was not the most direct and least expensive one. J. G. Stikeleather of the Ninth Division in routing Highway US 64 between
Franklin and Highlands decided on an expensive scenic route
along the Cullasaja River. Federal aid was denied for the more
expensive route, but the state built it.
�336 / Part III: A Developing Economy
Frank Page, Chairman of the State Highway Commission,
reported in 1924 an appraisal of the 1921 law. "It does not have
to be argued to them [the people] that roads have a civilizing
influence, that through these means of communication the
"Lost Provinces" of the northwest, beyond their impenetrable
mountains and two days' journey from the capital of their
state, have been brought within seven hours of respectable
speed. . . . The whole state is knit together in this net of highways."
By 1927, $us,ooo,ooo in bonds for road building had been
authorized, and road building continued. Four years later the
state assumed responsibility for maintenance of all of the secondary roads. The counties gave up equipment and prisoners
and the state established thirty prison camps for highway workers
under command of the State Highway Commission. Only
one county in Western North Carolina, Buncombe, had been
operating chain gangs during the nineteen-twenties. However,
eleven of these counties had leased their convicts to other counties
that used chain gangs. Prior to 1931 the State Highway Commission hired convicts from the counties for work on state
highways and assigned convicts from the state prison to such
work. North Carolina's laws had given the judge the option
of sentencing a convicted man to the county roads or to the
state prison, in case the sentence was for a term of less than ten
years.
Highway construction continued during the 1920's and
1930's with exciting new links being dedicated. For instance,
in 1926 a new highway from Cowee Mountain Gap to Franklin
was opened with a barbecue attended by hundreds of people
from Macon and neighboring counties. Before the road was
built most people in Macon County did their trading in Georgia
or South Carolina, traveling via the Talullah Falls (Georgia)
Railway. Persons wishing to go to Raleigh would take the
train to Franklin, travel to Cornelia, Georgia, and change to
the Southern Railroad to Greenville and Spartanburg, South
Carolina, and then back into North Carolina. Travel by mail
hack from Franklin was on a dirt road requiring seven hours
between Franklin and Dillsboro. The hack left Franklin at
four o'clock A.M. At Dillsboro the traveler took a train to Murphy
or Asheville. Most persons in Franklin read newspapers
published in Georgia or South Carolina because they arrived
sooner than the North Carolina papers.
�From Indian Trails to Broad Highways / 337
Chimney Rock, a natural phenomenon on the Hickory Nut Gorge R oad
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO.
Work on the projected "Crest of the Blue Ridge Highway"
had been halted when the United States entered World W ar
One and was not resumed after the war. During 1933 a plan
was made to connect the Shenandoah National Park with the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park by a parkway along
the crest of the mountains. Harley Jolley who wrote the history
of the Blue Ridge Parkway gave Robert L. Daughton, resident
of Allegh any County and member of the United States House
of R epresentatives, much of the credit for the plan. At first the
intention was to make the road self-liquidating by imposing
�338 / Part III: A Developing Economy
Civilian Conservation Corps worked on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The young men
were given a chance to better their education. Note that in the 1930's the CCC was
U .S. FOREST SERVICE PHOTO
integrated
tolls on the users; however, North Carolina had the objective
of removing all tolls from its highways, ferries, and bridges,
and Governor J. C. B. Ehringhaus was opposed to a toll road.
A sum of $4,00o,ooo from the funds allotted under the National
Recovery Act was set aside for the building of the road as a
"make work" project. (It is estimated that when complete
the Blue Ridge Parkway will have cost $96,ooo,ooo.)
A spirited rivalry concerning the route developed between
North Carolina and Tennessee. Boosters in Tennessee wanted
the parkway to cross through the northwest part of North
Carolina into Tennessee and pass through the mountainous
area to enter the Great Smoky Mountain National Park from
the north. North Carolina's promoters, many of them residents
of Asheville, wished the road to be confined to Virginia and
North Carolina, to enter the park from the southeast. Secretary
of the Interior Ickes finally, after a two year delay, chose a route
that led directly south from Roanoke to the North Carolina
line following the crest of the Blue Ridge to a point near Mount
Mitchell, thence toward Asheville and by Waynesville to the
park. The states of Virginia and North Carolina purchased
�From Indian Trails to Broad Highways / 339
CCC men learned to use power tools.
U .S. FOREST SERVICE PHOTO
the right of way and a scenic easement of four hundred feet on
each side of the projected road at a cost of about $2,ooo,ooo
each and presented the land to the federal government.
Actual construction of the road was awarded to private
contractors, but they were expected to employ as much local
help as possible. Work such as planting and stabilizing the
construction slopes, controlling erosion, and building fences
was done by men in CCC camps established along the route
and by emergency relief crews of men who lived nearby. Three
utility areas and ten recreational areas were constructed in
North Carolina. Much of the land through which the parkway
passed was far from improved roads, and living conditions
there had always been primitive. The opportunity to earn
thirty cents an hour was new to this isolated population.
Governor Ehringhaus asked Secretary Ickes to give priority
to areas where need for employment was greatest and where
�340 / Part III: A Developing Economy
A mountain wonderland
HUGH MORTON PHOTO
the most scenic areas were located, and Ickes agreed, so the
work was carried on piecemeal. Negotiations for the right to
build the portion through the Cherokee Indian lands were the
subject of controversy for five years. Eventually the state paid
the Cherokees a price agreeable to them and agreed to build
a state road for them from Soco Gap to the village of Cherokee,
and the right of way was obtained. After World War II that
stretch of the road was completed. The portion that will run
along the southeast side of Grandfather Mountain, now under
construction, remains the last unfinished link in the original
project. Congress assigned the Blue Ridge Parkway to the
National Park Service for maintenance and management.
Designed for non-commerical use, the parkway offers an
opportunity for quiet, leisurely driving and enjoyment of
natural scenery which annually attracts millions of tourists.
In I 970 it was used by I 2, 789,724 persons, and it had become
one of North Carolina's most important tourist assets.
�From Indian Trails to Broad Highways / 341
In spite of the state take-over of secondary roads in 193 r, their
condition had not been much improved when Kerr Scott became
governor in 1949. The new chief executive was a farmer who
had known the problem of the dirt road all his life, and he asked
the legislature to approve a secondary road bond issue of
$2oo,ooo,ooo and a one-cent-a-gallon increase in the gasoline
tax to retire the bonds. The state constitution required that a
proposal for a bond issue of that size must be approved by a
referendum, and opponents believed that the voters would
turn down the issue. But the people did not reject a proposal
that would get them out of the mud. Cities and counties with
good railway connections voted overwhelmingly against the
bond issue but rural counties won the election.
Additional highway legislation was made essential during
the Scott administration by the increasing number of times
per week the rural folk visited their nearby towns following
the improvement of secondary roads. The constantly increasing
number of motor cars and trucks caused city streets to be incapable of handling the traffic. The Powell Bill, so called because
State Senator Junius K. Powell's signature led on the bill as it
was introduced, provided state funds for municipalities.
Appropriations are based on population and non-state highway
system street mileage within each city and town.
Congress in 1954 provided for an Urban Planning Assistance
Program to finance overall economic development of counties
and towns, and subsequently the General Assembly passed
the legislation necessary for state participation. These two acts
led to area-wide studies to develop municipal thoroughfare
plans, and several cities and towns in Western North Carolina
engaged in long-range community planning which included
traffic handling. Among the first to do so were Asheville,
Morganton, Brevard, Mt. Airy, and Marion. The State Department of Conservation and Development created a community
planning division to cooperate with smaller municipalities in
developing their plans.
Scott, near the end of his four years in office, summarized
his success in road building: " ... when I leave the governorship
less than a month from now, North Carolina will have more
than doubled the mileage of paved roads it had four years ago.
New hard-surfaced roads will total 14,810 miles. That's 179
more than the 14,631 miles paved in North Carolina in all the
years previous to 1949.
0
0
."
�342 / Part III: A Developing Economy
VOTE ON THE ROAD BOND ISSUE, 1949
County
For
Against
Surry
Watauga
Ashe
Caldwell
Wilkes
Alleghany
Burke
Rutherford
McDowell
Polk
Yancey
Jackson
Madison
Cherokee
Mitchell
Macon
Avery
Clay
Swain
Graham
Henderson
Haywood
Transylvania
Buncombe
5.479
5.344
4.575
3,097
8,397
1,496
4,484
2,740
2,157
I ,588
4.351
3.794
3.738
3.449
2,788
2,374
2,039
I,29I
1,820
1,402
1,722
5,097
1,748
5,658
965
269
243
1,620
407
322
r ,586
3,229
737
323
54
393
262
296
85
546
251
52
155
II I
2,130
933
762
8,529
Source: Waynick, North Carolina Roads, p. 59.
In 193 I when the state assumed jurisdiction over the
secondary roads there were 54,000 miles of such roads in the
state. In 1961 the length had been increased to 58,ooo miles, of
which approximately forty-five per cent were paved. Yet the
western counties had only twenty-eight percent of their roads
paved. Roads are added to the state highway system by the
Highway Commission after petitions have been presented by
the citizens, if the said road meets the requirements set up by
the commission. Such addition is made on the basis of priority
rating.
Governor Dan Moore in 1965 asked the General Assembly
to approve a $3oo,ooo,ooo bond issue for a highway program.
It did. As required by the state constitution the bond issue had
to be adopted by referendum, and the issue received the overwhelming approval of the people of the state, 245,194 of the
320,000 votes cast. Working for the road bond program was
�From Indian Trails to Broad Highways / 343
the Governor's Committee for Better Roads, only four members
of which were from the twenty-four counties of Western North
Carolina. The governor no doubt knew that these counties
would favor the proposal.
The bill as passed by the legislature divided the funds into
three parts: for primary roads, secondary roads, and cities and
towns. Funds for secondary roads were to be allocated on the
basis of the number of unpaved roads in each county. The State
Highway Commission had in 1961 set up a fifteen-year plan
for road construction contracted for on a basis of competitive
bidding. No longer were highways to be built by prisoners
or free labor, although prison camps remained and inmates
were employed for highway maintenance and improvement.
After 1916 the United States furnished funds for highway
building but not for maintenance. Most of this money was
acquired by a four-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax. The funds were
available for primary, secondary, and urban roads, to be matched
by the state with equal funds. Roads in Western North Carolina
that were continuous through several states were designated
as United States Highways: 70 (the old Central Highway);
64, which from Morganton dipped southward through Rutherford, Henderson, Transylvania, Macon, Clay, and Cherokee
counties; 19 and 23, which passed through northward from
Asheville to the Tennessee line and westward from Asheville;
25 along the old Buncombe Turnpike; 74 from Charlotte,
which terminated at Asheville on the west; 421, 321, and 221,
all of which met in Boone, 221 connecting with Ashe and
Alleghany on the way to Virginia; and 21, which passed through
Surry County. These were primary roads and were frequently
improved and sometimes shortened in mileage. Yet many of
their miles were narrow, hilly, curving, and slow.
Almost half of the federal aid funds now are being allocated
to the interstate highways, a new series of national and defense
roads on which the United States has been working since 1941.
It was originally hoped that the system would be completed
by 1972. The roads are four-lane divided highways for the cost
of which the federal government pays ninety per cent. When
completed they will serve several counties in Western North
Carolina. The most important of them for this area is Interstate
40, which begins in Greensboro and passes through Burke,
McDowell, Buncombe, and Haywood counties. It will eventually
reach Los Angeles, and it is to be connected with Atlanta by
�344 / Part III: A Developing Economy
Interstate 26, with which Interstate 77 has a link through Surry
County on a route through West Virginia, Virginia, and North
Carolina. Interstate 77 connects with Interstate 40.
The Appalachian Region Development Act passed by
Congress in 1965 was described by Governor Moore as "the
most successful program yet devised to help people help
themselves." The priorities were established by the states
participating, and Governor Sanford named twenty-nine
counties in Western North Carolina to take part. The states
initiated their own programs. The plan was one of fundmatching, and in North Carolina the emphasis was placed
chiefly on roads, four lane corridors to swing out from the
Interstate 26 and 40 interchange at Asheville to provide new
and improved access to the market areas of Atlanta, Chattanooga,
ROADS IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA, 1961
Paved
Mileage
Alleghany
Ashe
Avery
Buncombe
Burke
Caldwell
Cherokee
Clay
Graham
Haywood
Henderson
Jackson
McDowell
Macon
Madison
Mitchell
Polk
Rutherford
Surry
Swain
Transylvania
Watauga
Wilkes
Yancey
Unpaved
Mileage
Total
Mileage
44·8
94.0
52-7
420.3
260.5
r88.r
102.7
58.2
45·0
146·7
18o.r
83.0
!82.4
I I !.7
102.9
62.5
II4.0
370.7
238.0
74-3
9!.7
87.6
234·0
76.4
345·1
581.4
188.9
539·0
367.1
358·3
350.0
143-9
!24-7
287·7
468.2
349·4
25 !.5
423-5
405.!
200.7
250·4
549-7
619-3
!09.0
2!7·9
364.7
859-9
200.8
389·9
675·4
24I.6
959-3
627.6
546·4
452-7
202.1
!69·7
434-4
648·3
432-4
433-9
535-2
509.0
26J.2
364·4
920.4
857-3
183.3
309.6
452·3
1,093-9
272.2
Source: North Carolina State Highway Commission, Secondary Roads Maintenance Improvement Construction, January I, 1962.
�From Indian Trails to Broad Highways / 345
and Cincinnati. Progress has been slow. By June 1968 two
by-passes had been constructed, one around Waynesville and
the other around Weaverville. Counties not touched by the
interstate system are Alleghany, Ashe, Wilkes, Watauga, Avery,
Mitchell, Yancey, Madison, Cherokee, Clay, Jackson, Graham,
Transylvania, Swain, and Rutherford. The Appalachian highways if built as planned will serve Cherokee, Graham, Swain,
Clay, Macon, Jackson, and Madison.
The fifteen-year plan of the State Highway Commission
(1961) classified its trunk and feeder roads on a basis of first,
second, and third priorities. Alleghany, Ashe, Watauga, Avery,
Mitchell, and Yancey counties were placed on second and
third priority lists, with no immediate plans for widening or
straightening many of their roads in the near future.
Although the section has a long way to go before its road
problems have been solved, anyone would probably agree
with John Harden, historian of North Carolina roads: "Hardly
any instrument of organized society is so vital to the people
as the highway. It is the link between country and town, the
route to the marketplace, the way of knowledge and education,
the artery of commerce, the call of adventure, the measure of
civilization.''
In North Carolina, the "Good Roads State," roads have
been all of these things. In fact, Western North Carolina owes
practically all of its progress since 1921 to its roads and its schools.
But the mountain region has always been discriminated against
by the legislature because lawmakers from the east have dominated the state government. Money begets money, and improved
mountain highways will pay tenfold dividends from the vast
numbers of tourists who will come to this region of beauty and
recreation.
�CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
Business and Industry
"R eader ... fix
your mind on a Southern 'gentleman' ....
Observe the routine of his daily life. See him rise in the morning
from a Northern bed, and clothe himself in Northern apparel;
see him walk across the floor on a Northern carpet, and perform
his ablutions out of a Northern ewer and basin .... " So Hinton
R. Helper follows this Southern gentleman through a day in
which everything he uses is of Northern manufacture. Helper's
diatribe against the South (1857) for allowing the North to do
all of the South's manufacturing could not have been directed
against Western North Carolina where most of the furniture
and textiles were of home or local manufacture. For example,
as early as r 820 cabinet makers in the part of Wilkes County
that became Caldwell County had establishments that made
furniture for people on order, serving a wide area. One employed
six men. And for a number of years before the Civil War some
German cabinet makers had a factory in Asheville and produced
from mountain woods fine work which they carted around
Western North Carolina and the neighboring states to sell.
It brought a high price from the well-to-do customers along
their routes.
If mountain people did change to "store-bought" household
goods after the railroads came, they later reversed to partial
self-sufficiency as may be perceived from this parody on Helper
from the Asheville Citizen in 1963, concerning Haywood County:
"Mr. Average citizen in Haywood finds products of his native
county on every hand. As he awakes in the morning, flips on
346
�Business and Industry / 347
the light- that ... is made in one of the largest hydro-electric
plants in the East; lifts his head from a foam rubber pillow;
shifts his weight to the edge of a companion product, foam
mattress; slips his feet into a pair of Haywood slippers; pulls
back the drapes made in Haywood. His pajamas were no doubt
made on looms with vital hard rubber parts made in Haywood.
He finishes dressing, getting garments from drawers of furniture
made in his native county. In the dining room he sits down at a
breakfast suite made not too far up the street from his home.
He makes a few hurried notes in his memo pad- paper Haywood
made - and obliges the wife by writing another note for the
milkman to leave more milk in plastic coated cartons, all made
in Haywood. Now into his $25 shoes- soles made in Haywood,
he is on his way to work .... Between the house and garage
his chest swells as he surveys the thick carpet of grass on his
lawn- result of Haywood made fertilizer. The car hums. The
fan belt turns the water pump circulating water through the
radiator hose- both items Haywood made .... He is greeted
at the office by his auditor who hands him an encouraging profit
and loss sheet for study. Needless to say the finer paper is also
Haywood made. The burley in his cigarette could have come
from one of the r,Soo farms producing burley in the county.
At lunch, a hot roast beef sandwich followed by apple pie with
ice cream reminds him that these products are perhaps part of
the $7 million farm income for the county. As Mr. Average
Citizen retires for the night, he gets to thinking ofhow Haywoodmade products played important roles in his life throughout
the day. Drifting off into deep natural, restful sleep, he is heard
to mumble: 'Haywood- the State's Best Balanced County.
Yes, sir, and about the most self-contained.'"
The history of economic enterprise in Western North Carolina
falls into four categories: individual enterprise, investment of
outside capital in the area, large-scale locally-owned businesses,
and consolidation of locally-owned industries by outside companies which are often holding companies and operate in a
number of states.
The one form of business that all in Western North Carolina
became accustomed to was the general store. Such stores were
distributed throughout the counties. In the nineteenth century
�348 J Part III: A Developing Economy
supplies for the most remote stores came from wholesalers
who were retailers as well. The supply merchant sent wagons
pulled by oxen and loaded with mountain produce to one of
the nearest large towns. The wagons returned with merchandise
to sell or trade at retail and also to provide rural merchants
with their stocks. Fred 0. Scroggs of Hayesville has the account
books, in beautiful penmanship, of Nelson Strange, his greatgrand-father, who was a merchant at Brasstown and Hayesville,
Clay County. His invoices show that he sent wagons to Gainesville, Athens, and Augusta, Georgia, and to Maryville, Tennessee.
Nelson Strange had six slaves whom he freed when they grew
older. He paid a local blacksmith $67.50 to make one of the
wagons for the long journeys. Among the items sold that were
on the account book in the year I 86o were these: coffee, vials
of oil, vials of drops, vials of peppermint, candles, castor oil,
snuff, tobacco, nails, sets of plates, calico, skein silk and ribbons,
vials of Godfrey's syrup, pens and envelopes, turpentine, preserve
dishes, flannel, wool, worsted, brush and blacking, borax, coffee
mills, plow lines, pen stocks, sugar, sets of knives, cigars, silk
handkerchiefs, tumblers, brimstone (sulphur used to preserve
fruit), sheepskin, fry pan and spoon, bridle and bit, 6oo fish
hooks, spelling books, shirts, pepper, rice, court plaster, soap,
paper of tacks, paper of needles, cinnamon, roping, pair of combs,
bell, suspenders, cravats, and powder and shot (by the pound).
A shoemaker made shoes on order in the store.
Among the items traded by the people to the merchants,
none were more important than crude botanicals used for drugs.
The catalogue of G. W. F. Harper of Caldwell County for 1876
offered for sale the botanicals that he had taken in trade, which
he described as "crude medicinal herbs, roots, barks, seeds,
flowers, etc. Goods neatly and compactly pressed in bales of
200 to 500 pounds each, and furwarded in prime order .... "
The produce book of the G. W. F. Harper store for the same
year shows that in September, October, and November, the
largest sums paid to individual customers totaled respectively
$59.60, $44.28, and $143.18. The items included the following:
burdock, mint, hellebore, flax seed, butterfly, beeswax, butter,
beth root or purple trillium, blood root, lob seal, Indian turnip,
catnip, may apple, skull cap, lion's tongue, feathers, dried fruit,
eggs, bitter root, boneset, seneca, star root, angelica, ginseng,
sassafras bark, lady slippers. The most valuable item was ginseng,
for which the store paid one dollar per pound.
�Business and Industry / 349
Collecting medicinal herbs
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO.
Calvin Josiah Cowles of Elkville and later of Wilkesboro,
Wilkes County, developed a thriving root and herb business
in that county in mid-nineteenth century. He traveled annually
to Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington, D. C., to do business
with northern merchants. Later Arthur Cowles moved the
root and herb business to Gap Creek in Ashe County.* J. D.
Cameron's Handbook of North Carolina for 1893 claimed that
North Carolina provided the largest supply and the greatest
variety of herbs for botanic medicines gathered in the United
States. At that time the Messrs. Wallace of Statesville gathered
herbs from the entire state, employing three hundred agents
in contracting for them and collecting them, chiefly in the
mountains. "On the Atlantic slope of the Blue Ridge," Cameron
wrote, "there are said to grow no less than 2,500 varieties of
plants used in the Materia Medica. . . . The yearly business of
the Wallace firm reaches nearly 2,ooo,ooo pounds in leaves,
bark, and roots." At that time ginseng h ad advanced from one
dollar to between two to three dollars per pound.
This field of business still survives. In 1970 the Wilcox Drug
Company of Boone is the largest crude botanical drug company
in the South, sending out trucks to buying depots and stores
*
Calvin Cowles' store records contain accounts of customers in northern
cities. One for r857 included sales of skins: bear, mink, otter, oppossum,
muskrat, raccoon, gray fox, rabbit, mole, and pole cat.
�3 so / Part III: A Developing Economy
to collect the herbs. It cleans, processes, and ships crude botanical
drugs: cherry bark, ginseng, passion flower, witch hazel bark
and leaves, and deer tongue. One million pounds of these herbs
are shipped each year. Associated with the drug company is
the Appalachian Evergreen Company which ships holly, hemlock, and galax leaves to all parts of the world. More than 2000
people derive part of their income from the sale of these products.
Other crude drug firms in operation in 1970 are the Blue Ridge
Drug Company in West Jefferson and the Greer Drug and
Chemical Company in Lenoir.
Except in Asheville there were few stores other than general
stores in Western North Carolina in the nineteenth century. A
few county seats boasted a hardware dealer, a fertilizer store,
and a drug store; a few businesses were specializing in farm
implements, and there were nurserymen in four places.
Investment in land for speculation has characterized the history
of Western North Carolina from the beginning, when tracts
larger than could possibly be developed were acquired. In 1796
a Philadelphia financier, Tench Coxe, purchased for himself
and associates more than soo,ooo acres in Buncombe, Rutherford,
and Mecklenburg counties. As the counties were divided so
were the lands originally belonging to Coxe and his associates
who were called the Speculation Land Company.* In 1819,
399,090 acres of the land were deeded to Augustus Sackett of
New York, and the company became the New York Speculation
Land Company. Sackett advertised land for sale and employed
James Dyer Justice as his agent. Men in succeeding generations
of the Justice family represented the company until 1920 when
G. W. Justice and Judge Fred McBrayer bought the remaining
land, approximately 10,000 acres. Throughout the hundred
years as land had been sold the mineral rights had been retained
by the company, an item of importance when gold was being
mined in Rutherford County.
From time to time other companies were organized for the
purpose of buying and selling Western North Carolina lands.
*
Tench Coxe probably never visited his lands, but another Tench Coxe
was admitted to the bar in Buncombe County between I804-I8I2. Coxe
created artificial towns and advertised them. Papers of G. W. Justice contain
much of Coxe's advertising.
�Business and Industry / 351
Such was a company of Pennsylvanians that acquired I 30,000
acres in six separate tracts which they advertised in the North.
The Baltimore Commercial, June 3, 1876, contained this description: "This part of the State is the land of corn and cattle,
clear streams, speckled trout, bouyant spirits, 'stalwart men
and bonnie lasses.' The mountains of Western North Carolina
are fine grazing lands to their very tops. . . . This beautiful
western country ... as a summer resort is justly admitted to
be the Switzerland of America."
An example of individuals who dealt in land on a large scale
was Calvin J. Cowles of Wilkes County who owned at one
time I4,000 acres in Western North Carolina chiefly in Wilkes,
Alexander, Ashe, and Caldwell counties and advertised his
land resources around the nation. The Cowles papers in the
Southern Historical Collection at Chapel Hill contain many
details of his land business.
Mining was promoted by S. C. Kerr, State Geologist, who
devoted extensive study to the mineral potential of Western
North Carolina, and outside capital was attracted for extracting
the deposits. Nothing like the gold fever, which had called large
numbers of people to Burke, McDowell, and Rutherford
counties from I 829 to I 8 33 and produced gold estimated at
from $6,ooo,ooo to $I6,ooo,ooo worth of the metal, occurred
again, but mining was an important enterprise in the area in the
last quarter of the nineteenth century.
The North Carolina State Exposition in Raleigh in I884 exhibited minerals and the Authorized Visitors Guide listed the state's
mines by counties. The following counties had iron mines:
Alleghany, 3 ; Ashe, 4; Cherokee, 6; Mitchell, 2; Watauga, 2; and
Yancey, I. There were gold mines in Ashe, I ; Burke, 7; Caldwell,
5; Clay, 5; Cherokee, 4; Jackson, 3; Macon, II; McDowell, 5;
Polk, 6; Rutherford, 4; Watauga, 2; Yancey, r. Copper was
mined in Alleghany, I ; Ashe, 8; Haywood, I ; Jackson, 9;
Madison, I ; and Watauga, 3. The mica mines were Ashe, 2;
Haywood, 2; Jackson, 3; Macon, 4; Madison, I ; Mitchell, I I;
Watauga, 2; Yancey, IO. There were also scattered sulphur, silver,
lead, corundum, and asbestos mines.
The Cranberry iron mines in Mitchell County had been
worked since the early I 82o's and were the most famous ones
�352 / Part III: A Developing Economy
in the state. The East Tennessee and Western North Carolina
Railroad was built from Johnson City to Cranberry to facilitate
the transfer of the raw ore to the North.
Mitchell and Yancey counties produced most of the mica
used in the United States. L. M. Warlick appealed to Thomas
Settle, Congressman, to prevent the placing of mica on the
free list of the tariff law that was being considered in 1893. He
pointed out that the chief competitor was India where miners
worked for from five to seven cents a day while in North Carolina
they earned from seventy-five cents to one dollar per day.
A mica mine in Mitchell County, the "Clarissey", was three
hundred feet deep and the mica at that depth was said to be as
fine grade as that taken from the top. A half interest in the mine
sold about r883 for $IO,ooo. Another mine near the Clarissey
had, up to r886, produced $IO,ooo worth of mica. Zeigler and
Grosscup believed mica to yield more money than any other
metal in Western North Carolina in the r88o's. The Ray mines
near Burnsville in Yancey County were considered the best
in the area, but both Mitchell and Yancey were mining large
quantities to be used for stove fronts and mica washers.
Mica continues to be extracted. For example the Deneen
Mica Company, Inc., employs forty-five people and ships its
product all over the nation and to foreign countries for use in
roofing, oil well drilling, and other fields. The Spruce Pine
Mica Company, which employs about sixty persons, produces
much mica for electronic equipment. However it imports
practically all the raw mica used from Brazil and India, certain
African countries, Australia, and Argentina, because local
production of fine mica is so small. The raw mica must be split
to a thickness sometimes of r/2 thousandth of an inch, without
scratching. Workers in Spruce Pine for several generations
have engaged in this painstaking work. Mica furnished by this
company was used for some of the parts in Telstar and for the
Apollo satellite program.
Feldspar, a byproduct of the mica mines, was for years piled
up as waste, but as time passed it became more valuable than
mica. The Feldspar Corporation, which has its principal office
in Spruce Pine, has plants in three other locations, two outside
the state, all completely mechanized. The Spruce Pine plant
employs 170 persons and produces feldspar, sand, and mica.
It is the largest producer of its kind in the world. Each plant
maintains a research laboratory. It is claimed that a fully automatic
�Business and Industry / 353
Mica mining from an open pit near Spruce Pine
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
filter plant to eliminate stream pollution returns the copious
amount of water used in the process of froth flotation to the
river free of contaminants.
The Ore Knob copper mine in the southeastern part of
Ashe County had been worked since the middle of the nineteenth
century, but a well-planned and systematic operation was
established after the Civil War and the mine became one of the
best-known in the state. A fall in the price of copper caused the
owners to shut it down in the r88o's. Efforts to reoperate the
mine were made unsuccessfully from time to time. During
the I950's the mine reopened but it closed in I962. The copper
ore reached by the present shafts was exhausted.
From Mitchell to Cherokee counties there are extensive
deposits of kaolin. In Jackson County near Dillsboro and Sylva
extensive works were established in the r88o's to refine the material before sending it to New Jersey to be made into porcelain
and pottery products. The Harris Clay Company, founded by
Charles). Harris in r888, is in operation today, the single producer
in North Carolina, having bought out its competitors. In I960
the Harris family sold the company to C. P. Edwards, III, but
it is still under the name Harris Clay Company. It employs
�3 54 / Part III: A Developing Economy
103 workers, owns hundreds of acres of land in Mitchell County
from which it will extract kaolin, and sells to General Electric
for the making of electric porcelain, to the Syracuse China
Company, and the Shenango Pottery Company.
Electric power for the mountain area was at first provided by
individual promoters. Asheville had a steam plant that produced
electric current for street lights and for the street railways.
Hydroelectric power in Asheville was first furnished when
William Trotter Weaver of Buncombe County saw the potential
of the French Broad River, acquired a location five miles from
the city and developed it. A granite dam was built and power
was produced for Asheville businesses and industries. Mark
Killian, who had a flour mill and a wagon works, built the first
water power electric plant for Waynesville about 1903. Then
in 1905 J. B. Sloan and others in Waynesville erected a power
plant on the Pigeon River that furnished power to the community
for twenty-five years. These two examples could be repeated
in various county seats in the annals of the early twentieth century.
Electricity was essential to the growing educational institutions.
The first electricity provided for Cullowhee Normal and Industrial School was made (1909) by use of a gasoline engine. A few
years later a local corn-and-wheat mill at the river was purchased
and a new electric generator was installed, which provided all
of the electric power used on the campus until 1939. At Appalachian Training School in 1915 a dam of heavy timber, ten
feet high, was built on the South Fork of New River and a
power house was erected on the bank, to produce electricity
for the school and later for the town. Boone's electrical needs
are still supplied by the university-owned New River Power
and Light Company.
In time municipal power plants were created in Elk Park,
Avery County; Bryson City, Swain County; Franklin and
Highlands, Macon County; and Andrews, Cherokee County.*
On the Broad River in 1926 Dr. Lucius B. Morse and associates
created Lake Lure by a dam across the Rocky Broad River
*
Most county seat towns built power plants for electric lights. Elkin built
a municipal plant in 1926, with a dam on Elkin Creek. It was sold to the
Southern Public Utilities Company which also moved into North Wilkesboro
and Mount Airy.
�Business and Industry / 355
and built a power house for the resort, as years earlier the dam
that created Lake Kanuga had been used to furnish power for
the summer residential community.
The next stage in the development of electrical power came
when the Duke Power and the Carolina Power and Light
companies absorbed existing companies and built huge dams
and power plants in Western North Carolina. The Carolina
Power and Light Company built a plant on the French Broad,
and on the Pigeon River they built one of the largest power
plants in the state. Duke Power Company created Lake James
in 1916-I923 from the North Fork of the Catawba and the
Linville rivers and from smaller tributaries of the two. It covers
65IO acres and has a shoreline of approximately 150 miles. In
1963 another plant was added which is eleven percent hydroelectric, 89 percent of its power being generated by steam.
The Tallassee Power Company built the Cheoah and Santeetlah
plants for industrial power to be used in Tennessee. Then came
the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and also the North
Carolina Rural Electrification Authority (REA) to stimulate
the building of rural power lines. The Nantahala Power and
Light Company built Nantahala Lake in Clay and Macon counties in 1942, with a shoreline of thirty miles and an area of 1605
acres. The dam is used for generation of electricity.
The topography, the volume and the even flow of streams,
the physical settings for power sites, and the abundant rainfall
evenly distributed throughout the year make the mountain
region ideal as a source of water-generated electric power.
The mountain streams are capable of developing tremendous
amounts of cheap and abundant water power, one of the area's
chief assets. North Carolina ranks first among the Southern
states in potential power.
Western North Carolina's first cotton mill, the Elkin Manufacturing Company, has been mentioned. Surprisingly it was
spared by Stoneman's raiders in 1865. In Buncombe County
John Cairns, a native of Scotland, came to Reems Creek in
I 868 and started a woolen mill. It had sixteen looms and 8 12
spindles. Farmers brought their wool to the mill and exchanged
it for material to clothe their families. Three types of cloth were
made: jeans, a rough weave; a hard finished material for suits;
�356 / Part III: A Developing Economy
and a soft material for women's dresses, skirts, and coats. The
mill operated until 1914 when it was converted to a grist mill
and made flour and meal until 1954. In 1869 J. F. and W. A.
Moore started the Green Hill cotton mill at Mt. Airy, with
twenty-one looms and 1000 spindles. It could produce 700
yards of sheeting and 250 pounds of warp in a day. In 1877 at
Elkin two new mills were started in I 877. The Gwyn ville Woolen
and Flouring Mills with 240 spindles was put into operation
by L. L. Gwyn and Alexander Chatham. It could produce roo
pounds of wool rolls and I oo pounds of spun yarn per day.
The Elkin Valley Mills with two looms and 240 spindles was
started for woolen manufacture. It also had a flour mill attached.
The Gwynville Mills has grown into the Chatham Manufacturing Company, one of the very large woolen mills, a
leading producer of blankets, upholstery material, woolen
suitings and apparel fabrics. Chatham purchased Gwyn's interest
in 1890. Alexander Chatham was succeeded by Hugh, Thurmond,
and Hugh Gywn Chatham, II. Mrs. Hugh Gwyn Chatham II
was a Morehead, and in 1957 Chatham acquired the Leaksville
Woolen Mills, the oldest continuous woolen mill in the South,
founded by John Morehead in 1853. The Chatham plant covers
120 acres, has soo,ooo square feet of floor space, and employs
2500 people. When Chatham prospers, Elkin prospers.
Mt. Airy has nineteen textile, hosiery, or apparel firms
among its fifty-seven manufacturers. Surry County has become
an industrial center, with textiles its leading product.
In the 188o's a number of villages had individuals who did
wool-carding, to relieve home weavers of that step in the home
manufacture of textiles: Weaverville, Robbinsville, Waynesville
and Pigeon Valley, Flat Rock, and Dysartville (McDowell
County).
Before the Civil War a group of four enterprising men,
Samuel Patterson, Edmund Jones, James C. Harper, and James
Harper, of Caldwell County started a cotton factory in the
village of Patterson. It supplied warp for home looms in the
area and was powered by the waters of the Y adkin River until
it was burned in 1865 by Stoneman's cavalry. In 1872 it was
replaced by a second mill, this time with eighteen looms, 960
spindles, and a capacity to produce 6oo yards of sheeting per
day, 250 pounds of cotton yarn, and 150 pounds of wool yarn,
its three products. A second cotton mill was founded in 1883 by
P. G. Moore and N. H. Guy. Within a few years a number
�Business and Industry / 357
of thriving mills were in operation in Caldwell County: the
Lenoir Cotton Mill (1901); the Hudson Cotton Manufacturing
Company (1904); Dudley Shoals Cotton Mill at Granite Falls
(1906); Falls Manufacturing Company (191 5-19I6); Southern
Manufacturing Company (I922-I923); the last three founded
by D. H. Warlick; Whitnel Cotton Mill (1907), established by
]. 0. White and J. L. Nelson for whom the community of
Whitnel was named; the Moore Mill at Valmead; the Steele
Cotton Mill ( r 9 I 8) ; by T. H. Broyhill and R. L. Steele; the
Caldwell Cotton Mill at Hudson by R. L. Gwyn.
Meanwhile in Rutherford County Simpson Bobo Tanner
and Raleigh Rutherford Haynes, with a number of associates,
built cotton mills along the Second Broad River. In I 887 Tanner
and J. S. Spencer of Charlotte and others including Haynes
organized the company and built the Henrietta Mills of which
Tanner served as general manager. In I892 Haynes built the
Florence Mill in Forest City, of which he was president until
he resigned to give his full attention to the Cliffside Mills in
1901. Meanwhile in 1896 the Caroleen Mill, of which Haynes
was a large stockholder, was built. Later S. B. Tanner and his
son K. S. Tanner built the Spindale group of mills and the town
of Spindale. The establishment of mills in Rutherford County
gave the farmers a sale for their cotton, the employees a livelihood,
and so benefited the merchants and the economy of the county
in general. Forest City, in lower Rutherford County, grew
into a very attractive city. It was earlier called Burnt Chimney
for a chimney which survived a fire at the small crossroads
community. A village had started there, was incorporated in
I877, was largely destroyed by fire in I886, and was rebuilt.
The name was changed by law in I 887 to Forest City. Three
years later a cotton mill was constructed but it failed in I 89 5.
In I 897 the Florence Mill with I2,200 spindles gave new life to
the town, a mill village housed workers from other parts of the
county, and the name Forest City became more appropriate.
Banks, newspapers, civic clubs and service organizations cooperated in making Forest City a model city.
Haynes had a railroad built to connect the mills at Avondale
and Cliffside with the main line from Charlotte and Wilmington.
The presence of railroads was essential to the development of
the textile mills in Rutherford County.
From I900 to I930 there was a new type of growth for the
textile industry in the South, a great migration of Northern
�3 58 / Part III: A Developing Economy
industries because of Southern encouragement, low production
costs, nearby raw materials, and non-union cheap labor. The
South profited greatly from this influx but the workers were
often exploited. In 1927 the average annual earnings in North
Carolina were $691 compared with $966 in Massachusetts, $1053
in Rhode Island, and $1029 in New Hampshire. Southern
workers survived not because of the low cost of living but because of their low standard of living. Except for rent, living
costs were higher in the South than in the North. Women and
children worked in the mills sixty-six and even seventy-two
hours per week. Longer hours and lower pay gave Southern
mill owners an advantage over Northern ones. The usual age
for beginning work was fourteen.
While most of the mountain people owned the land on which
they lived, it was necessary for them to leave their homes in order
to work in the mills. The companies built cheap houses, often
poorly constructed and cold, unpainted, high on stilts above
the ground, for the mill villages. Stores were operated by the
companies, often charging exorbitant prices but offering credit.
In 1910 Carroll Baldwin of Baltimore built a plant and mill
village near Marion because of available labor and railway
transportation. A good many Marion citizens bought stock
in the company, but a controlling interest was retained by the
Baldwin family, and following World War One conditions
became very bad. Miss Sally Baldwin who had inherited the
control lived in Baltimore and knew nothing of conditions at
the mill. Workers labored in two twelve-hour shifts, sixty-six
hours per week, in unsanitary surroundings. Tubercular employees spat on the floor. The dust-covered floor was swept while
the workers were on the job, but it was never scrubbed. Workers'
diet consisted of corn meal, bread, greens, salt back, very few
fresh vegetables, no fruit, little fresh meat or milk. The incidence
of pellagra was high. There was a song,
I'm going to starve.
Everybody will,
Cause you can't make a livin'
In a cotton mill."
In 1929 the stretch-out system was instituted; workers
had almost no rest periods. Twenty minutes were added to
the twelve-hour day. Workers were earning from $5 to $13 a
week. They decided to strike. Employees at the nearby Clinchfield
Mill joined the Baldwin strikers. They were helped to form a
�Business and Industry / 3 59
union and a charter was granted by the United Textile Workers
(UTW). As the local had no welfare funds to tide the strikers
over the period of unemployment, aid was sent from several
organizations outside Marion. Money sent from Northern states
was used to buy food. During the strike the workers turned to
mountain activities, carving and whittling, building furniture;
they had a string band with twelve pieces with a number of
two and three piece combinations and soloists. They composed
songs about their suffering; old tunes with new words covered
every phase of the strike.
Many workers were removed from their homes because
they had participated. The strike lasted from July till September
when an agreement was reached. Hours were to be reduced
and wages were to be increased as the company saw fit. There
was to be no discrimination against strike leaders. Those who
had been discharged were to be reinstated. The Baldwin company
was faithless. Another strike resulted. Six strikers were shot,
four in the back. Those accused as killers of the strikers were
acquitted on December 21, "so they could go home for Christmas," according to one member of the jury. Several union
leaders were convicted on charges brought against them by
the mill. Alfred Hoffman, an organizer of craft unions who
came in after the strike had begun, was fined $1000 and sentenced
to jail for thirty days for his activities in Marion. Labor conditions
have improved, but wages are still less than in the North.
Marion has other textile mills, the Clinchfield Manufacturing
Company, the Cross Cotton Mills, the Washington Mills,
five hosiery mills, two knitting mills, and at nearby Sevier, the
American Thread Company. Marion is served by the Southern
and Clinchfield railroads.
Valdese has an unusual history. It was an experiment in colonization by a European colony planted near the close of the
nineteenth century. It was developed by a group of Waldenses
who had for centuries refused to accept the dogmas of the
Catholic Church and instead worshipped as they believed the
early Christians had. Migrating to an area of narrow valleys
and steep mountains in the Cottian Alps in Savoy, now Italy,
they were able to eke out a living in spite of persecutions in
1476, 1555, and 1686. In the seige of 1686, made by the Duke
�360 / Part III: A Developing Economy
of Savoy at the command of King Louis XIV of France, many
W aldenses were massacred. Little groups that managed to
escape to Switzerland procured financial aid from King William
III of England. Using guerilla tactics and weapons purchased
with money from England, they were able to regain possession
of their valleys. Persecution did not end until I 848 when they
were granted full religious liberties and freedom of conscience
by the King of Savoy. The population increased so rapidly that
the small area that had long been their home was unable to support
them, and groups began to migrate to the Western Hemisphere,
going to Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Missouri, and Utah.
Thus it was that Marvin F. Scaife, president of the Morganton
Land and Improvement Company, who learned about the
crowded conditions in the Waldensian valleys, offered to sell
the Waldenses roo,ooo acres of land in the mountains of North
Carolina for $so,ooo, to be paid over a twenty year period.
The two farmers who were sent to decide whether to accept
the offer rejected the wo,ooo acres offered to them, and they
were taken to examine various sites until they selected a ten
thousand acre tract between Morganton and Connelly Springs,
about which they were not enthusiastic because of the poor
soil of sand, clay, and rock. Twenty-nine Waldenses and their
pastor Doctor Charles Albert Tron arrived in Burke County
in I 893. A corporation was formed with a board of directors
consisting of six Waldenses and three American members of
the Morganton Land and Improvement Company. A loan
from the land company enabled the Waldenses to purchase
simple tools to clear the land and put in a crop. Dr. Tron returned
to Italy and briefed others on conditions in the new colony.
Eight Waldenses from Utah and 128 additional settlers from
Italy arrived near the end of I 893. Extreme hardships and poverty
marked the first year in North Carolina. In the spring a hosiery
mill was arranged for, to be operated by John Meier, superintendent of the Oats Hosiery Mill in Charlotte, in a two-story
bam constructed by the W aldenses. All employees were to be
Waldenses unless the demand exceeded the supply of workers.
In I 894 Dr. Tron arrived from Italy and arranged to return 5000
less desirable of the Io,ooo acres contracted for and a reduction
of the debt from $25,000 to $r5,627.33· This included the cost
of sawmill, livestock, tools, and other items. After rude homes,
a store, and two schools had been provided, a surplus of lumber
was available for sale. Times continued to be critical and in
�Business and Industry / 361
I 894, after the experience of about eighteen months, the corporation was dissolved and the Morganton V•nd and Improvement
Company agreed to take back the land and resell it in tracts
of from forty to eighty acres to individual Waldenses at five
percent interest. The transaction left a debt of $1,500, which
Dr. Tron personally paid. In order to pay for their land
W aldensian young people found paying jobs. When Meier
moved his hosiery mill to Newton and then to South Carolina,
a number of workers went with the mill and sent back their
meager earnings, learning the trade and at the same time helping
to save their fathers' lands.
The stones that had to be gathered to make the lands suitable
for farming furnished material for warm, sturdy buildings.
The stone church was finished in 1897 at a cost of about $6,ooo,
workmen having contributed their labor at a pay rate of five
cents per hour. In 1901 John and Francis Garrou, Waldenses,
started the W aldensian Hosiery Mill, encouraged by W. C.
Erwin and A. M. Ingold of the First National Bank of Morganton.
By 1939 this mill employed 475 persons. In 1914 a cotton mill,
the Valdese Manufacturing Company, was started by John Louis
Garrou. By 1937 it employed 200 persons. In 1913 another hosiery mill was opened, followed in 1915 by the Waldensian
Bakery, which by 1940 had 140 employees and thirty-five trucks
and was one of the great bakeries of the Carolinas. In 1927 several
small hoisery mills were incorporated as the Alba-Waldensian
Hosiery Mills. By 1938 Valdese was known as the "fastest
growing town in North Carolina."
Notable in the economy of Western North Carolina is the
furniture industry. Furniture factories were established in the
foothill towns because of their nearness to the supply of forest
products and because of the labor supply. A number of companies
bought forest tracts and on them have begun practices of conservation and scientific forestry. Unusual is the fact that until
recent years virtually all of the furniture factories were owned
by Western Carolinians. Lenoir is the center of the industry
in the area.
Caldwell County has a tradition of furniture making. In
1878 Henry Reichert advertised the opening of a furniture
factory at Powelltown near Lenoir in which he would produce
�362 / Part III: A Developing Economy
"furniture of every description at the lowest prices and on the
best terms for cash or barter." He also offered coffins for sale.
In I 889 the Lenoir Furniture Factory was organized, the first
one in the town. It was owned by G. F. Harper,]. M. Bernhardt,
and C. L. Bernhardt.
Meanwhile in 1889 A. W. Britt and a group of associates
from Ohio moved to Asheville, purchased a small furniture
factory known as the Avery and Erwin Company, and a lumber
mill, both of which they operated until 1895. Hard times during
the depression of the 189o's struck their project, it was reorganized
as the Skyland Furniture Company, and in 1898 it went bankrupt.
The furniture industry during the 189o's was attempted in a
strip of eighteen counties reaching from Alamance to Haywood,
with a number of efforts being made in Marion. In 1896 Thomas
Wrenn founded the Catawba Furniture Company with sixtyfive workers in partnership with Henry W. Fraser, a former
textile manufacturer. The Marion Furniture Company was
organized by D. R. Raper who sold stock to the town's people
in public sales.
In Lenoir in 1907 Dr. A. A. Kent, F. H. Coffey, and others
established the Kent-Coffey Manufacturing Company to make
dressers, chiffoniers, and wash stands. The largest furniture
organization in Caldwell County began in 1905 as the Kent
Furniture and Coffm Company, with T. H. Broyhill, Dr. A. A.
Kent, and associates as owners. Broyhill bought his share of
the stock by furnishing lumber from his sawmill. In 1912 Broyhill
bought the stock of the other owners and the name became the
Lenoir Furniture Company, then the Broyhill Furniture Company. In 1919 Broyhill was joined by his brother]. E. Broyhill
and the firm grew to occupy six plants and to be the fourth of
the big five in the furniture industry in the nation, and is probably the largest family-held furniture enterprise in the world.
Other prosperous furniture manufacturers are Caldwell Furniture Company (1909), Lexington Mirror Company (1912), Fairfield Chair Company (1921), Hibriten Chair Company (1930),
Spainhour Furniture Company (1943), Hammary Manufacturing
Company (1943), Kincaid Furniture Company (1946), Blowing
Rock Furniture Industries (1946). In 1964 the Kent-Coffey,
Spainhour, and Blowing Rock companies were purchased by
Magnavox, starting the break with the home-ownership tradition. Employment in Caldwell County furniture plants exceeded
5000 in 1966.
�Business and Industry / 363
Lenoir and Caldwell County had a population of 54,723
in I967. There were in I960 seventy industrial plants with an
industrial employment of I I, I 52. Broyhill had four plants in
Caldwell County. There were twenty-four furniture factories
with seventeen related industries. The largest furniture companies
were Broyhill, Flair, Fairfield, and Caldwell. Other major
industries are the Alba-Waldensian Hosiery Mills, the American
Efird Mills at Whitnel, the Burlington Industries at Rhodhiss,
Blue Bell, Polk Manufacturing Company, and Hemlock Manufacturing Company.
Drexel Enterprises in Burke County is the third largest
furniture industry in the United States. Most of the Drexel
plants are in Western North Carolina. Others are in High Point
and in Kingstree, South Carolina. Western North Carolina
leads the world in the production of case goods. In I903 Samuel
Huffman founded Drexal Furniture Company. He was succeeded
by his son Robert. The company has nine plants with over
5000 employees and is the largest producer of bedroom and
dining room furniture. In I96I Drexal acquired the Southern
Desk Company and in I963 Heritage Furniture Company,
the best upholstering firm in the South. The I93 I sales of
$2,ooo,ooo have increased twenty times. Drexel has now been
acquired by the Champion Paper and Fibre Company.
The Henredon Furniture Industries of Morganton, Grand
Rapids, and Spruce Pine make beautiful and expensive furniture.
Net sales in I96I were $u,405,750 and in 1968, $24,375,265.
Net earning in I968 were $3,889,864. Property, plant, and
equipment are valued at $20,228, 759· The three enterprising
founders of the company were T. Henry Wilson, Ralph Edwards,
and Donnell Van Noppen.
Burke County with the towns of Morganton, Valdese,
Hildebran, Icard, and Glen Alpine is one of the region's oldest
and most prosperous counties. In addition to furniture, textiles,
and hosiery, there are Union Carbide and machine and iron
works. In I950 the population was 46,34I, in 1960, 52,70I
and by 1970 it had reached 60,364. Morganton in 1960 had
I2,ooo people, and in that year I2,5I3 persons were employed
in the county.
Brevard, the home of Olin-Mathieson and of a DuPont
photographic plant, has grown and prospered as these industries
�364 / Part III: A Developing Economy
have prospered. In 1915 Harry H. Straus made endless belts
for cigarette machines. In 1934 he began to use the fiber of seed
flax, a plant grown for use in linseed oil. In 1936 he built a factory
to use flax fibers for cigarette paper. Since the majority of cigarettes are manufactured in North Carolina and since Western
North Carolina rivers have waters with low mineral content,
Brevard was an ideal place for manufacturing cigarette paper.
Frenchmen were brought over to teach the workers. Mountain
people learned so rapidly that in six months the Frenchmen
were gone. September 2, 1939, the first cigarette paper was
produced at Ecusta. In 1949 Olin built a cellophane plant at
Pisgah Forest. Olin-Mathieson was formed in 1954 from the
union of Olin Industries and the Mathieson Chemical Corporation. This corporation controls also the Winchester-Western
Arms Company and the Squibb Pharmaceutical Company.
It produces cigarette paper, cellophane, chemicals, metals,
packaging, pharmaceuticals, sporting arms and ammunition.
Its annual sales exceed $7oo,ooo,ooo. At Ecusta and Pisgah
Forest lightweight printing paper, cigarette paper, endless belts,
cigarette filters, and cellophane packaging are manufactured.
In 1966, 3000 people were employed compared to 350 in 1939.
In 1939 the population of Brevard was 3000, in 1967 it was
5000, and in the Brevard trading area there were 8500. In 1965
Olin-Mathieson had a payroll in Brevard of$18,ooo,ooo.
In 1964 the DuPont company established at Brevard a photographic products plant to make medical x-ray films. It had
previously built there in 1958 a plant to make silicon for electronic devices. In 1967 the DuPont plant put $4,500,000 into the
Transylvania County economy, and its payroll and purchases
were $5,167,644· The company spent $39,00o,ooo in 1967 to
increase its facilities.
American Enka, an American branch of a Dutch corporation,
was established near Asheville in 1928. Its growth is one of the
success stories of American industry. In 1930 the company
produced 6,ooo,ooo pounds of viscose process rayon yarn.
Soon thereafter it developed high-tenacity rayon yarn for
automobile tires. In 1940 Enka produced 23,00o,ooo pounds,
provided jobs for 3000, and had an annual payroll of$5,ooo,ooo.
In 1948 a new plant was built at Lowland, Tennessee, with an
original capacity of 2o,ooo,ooo pounds of filament rayon.
This production has quintupled and Enka entered the nylon
market, first with nylon staple fiber and later with the more
popular filament yam. Enka was the first United States producer
�Business and Industry / 365
Enka Corporation, 1965
of fine denier nylon 6. In 1958 there was a large expansion at
Enka, North Carolina, which doubled the capacity of fine
filament nylon. In 1962 the company began to produce heavy
denier yarns for the carpet, tire, automotive, and home furnishing
industries. The North Carolina plant production of this yarn
has increased from 2,ooo,ooo to 45,0oo,ooo pounds a year. In
1965 another plant was built at Lowland, Tennessee, and the two
plants now produce 6s,ooo,ooo pounds a year. In 1957 rayon
staple fiber production was begun and a complete line of viscose
rayon products was manufactured for use in apparel, home
furnishings, carpets, industrial fabrics, and for blending with
natural and manmade fibers. Now 10o,ooo,ooo pounds of these
fibers are produced annually. In 1958 Enka acquired the Rex
Corporation and William Brand and Company, manufacturers
of wire and cable. In 1955 a new research center was built. An
addition was made in 1963. Enka in 1966 had over $215,00o,ooo
invested in plants, annual sales of$201,332,ooo, paid $57,607,000
in salaries, wages, and fringe benefits. Production increased
from 6,ooo,ooo pounds in 1930 to 375,00o,ooo pounds in 1966,
of rayon, nylon, and polyester fibers. Enka ranks (1966) 324th
in sales among the 500 largest United States corporations,
�366 / Part III: A Developing Economy
259th in invested capital, and 327th in net profits. In 1965 there
were 9000 employees on the payrolls of the entire corporation.
Then a $9o,ooo,ooo plant expansion created more than a thousand
new jobs.
Prior to the real state "bust" Asheville grew rapidly. From
1930-1960 the rate of growth declined. The growth rate of
Western North Carolina also declined. From 19 30- I 960 Asheville
had a net out-migration of ro,ooo and the Western North
Carolina region a net of 71,ooo. In Asheville since 1960 tremendous progress has occurred. Migration trends have changed and
Asheville had a net in-migration of 5000, but for the region
as a whole out-migration is still continuing at a reduced rate.
In 1965 it was predicted that Asheville would have a population
of 69,100 by 1970 and 147,500 by 1980 and the metropolitan
area 196,roo.
In 1960-1964 only four counties- Haywood, Transylvania,
Henderson, and Buncombe -had wages above the state average
and only Haywood and Transylvania were above the national
average. Seventeen of the region's counties increased at a rate
above the nation as a whole; but in only five counties did the
dollar value of the increase surpass that of the nation. In 1960
the average weekly earning in manufacturing was $73.78,
eighteen percent below that of the nation. Areas which have a
majority of manufacturing employment in capital-intensive
industry - industry which uses more capital relative to laborreceive higher than average wages.
AVERAGE ANNUAL WEEKLY EARNINGS 1964
U.S.
Ashe
Avery
Buncombe
Burke
Cherokee
Clay
$!02.97
64.J8
58.50
85.II
76.28
59·83
56-92
Graham
Haywood
Henderson
Jackson
McDowell
Macon
Madison
77-51
12J.JI
83-76
70.J9
75-40
64-96
67.69
Mitchell
Polk
Rutherford
Swain
Transylvania
Watauga
Yancey
60.21
68.28
75.63
60.79
ro8.99
65-34
73-37
In Asheville fifty percent of the manufacturing work force
are employed in above-average wage industries, but wages
have been seventeen per-cent below the national average because
productivity was lower. Many industries have recently come;
the workers lacked experience. While the value per man hour
productivity was for the United States $7.08, for Asheville it
was $5.70, and for Western North Carolina other than Asheville,
�Business and Industry / 367
$4.66. It
for high
soon be
technical
is important to attract industry that has a potential
wages. The handicap of inexperienced workers will
overcome if the state and communities will supply
training for such industries.
North Wilkesboro is the leading commercial center of Northwestern North Carolina. It has prosperous furniture factories,
cotton mills, hosiery mills. The first industries in the county
were the North Wilkesboro Brick Company, the C. C. Smoot
and Sons Tannery, and the Wilkesboro Manufacturing Company,
which made building materials. These developed during the
189o's. Forest Furniture (1901), Oak Furniture (1903), which
employed 300 men when it burned in 1954, Meadows Mill
Company (1908), which builds grist mills, Home Chair Company
of Ronda (1919), American Furniture (1927), Carolina Mirror
(1936), Peerless Hosiery, a Durham corporation, Blue Ridge
Shoe Company (1960), and the Holly Farms Poultry Company
are the county's largest industries.
Mount Airy, the northern gateway to the Blue Ridge Mountains and the leading urban area in Surry County, has a population
of 7200, a contiguous population of 2 5,ooo, and a retail shopping
area of 50,000. It has fifty-seven manufacturers employing over
9000 workers with a payroll of about $42,ooo,ooo. In addition
to the nineteen textile, hosiery, or apparel firms, Mt. Airy has
eight furniture or allied industries, and nine concrete or granite
companies are located in or near the city. The world's largest
open-faced granite quarry, covering eighty acres, has long
been famous. Industrial growth in Mount Airy has shown an
increase of 2300 new jobs in the last five years.
Boone is the only urban community in Watauga, Avery,
Ashe, and Alleghany counties. The leading industries have been
encouraged to come into the area by community leaders. The
International Resistance Company (now TRW), Shadowline,
the Blue Ridge Shoe Company, and the Vermont-American
Tool Company are the chief employers. Some locally-owned
concerns have been in existence for many years. The North
State Canning Company makes and cans kraut, utilizing one
of the successful farm products. A similar operation in Ashe
County is Beaver Creek Foods, Incorporated, which cans green
beans, providing employment and a market for the beans grown
in the area. There are twenty-six plants processing food and
�368 / Part III: A Developing Economy
tobacco products in Western North Carolina employing more
than twenty persons each.
Most vital to the economy of Watauga County is Appalachian
State University which has over six hundred employees and an
annual payroll of more than $2,ooo,ooo. More important are
the thousands of young people who have earned their education
at the school, enabling them to serve the area, the state, and
neighboring states where they are recognized as excellently
prepared teachers.
A shot in the arm to Watauga County has come from the
enterprises of the late Grover Robbins and his brothers Harry
and Spencer Robbins. In 1957 they started Tweetsie Railroad,
a popular tourist attraction. Next they developed Hound Ears,
and a few years later they acquired control of the Beech Mountain project which was already under development. An airport
has been constructed, and the 5600 foot gondola-equipped ski
slope, one of their seven ski slopes, is the highest in Eastern
America. There will be four golf courses and four thousand
homesites. There is a construction payroll of $r ,ooo,ooo. The
Robbins Brothers after acquiring Beech Mountain created the
Carolina Caribbean Corporation. It operates Beech Mountain;
The Reef in the Virgin Islands ; Land Harbors of America,
a deluxe camping site; and numerous other real estate developments. Its tourist attraction, The Land of Oz, is highly successful.
Fourteen of the counties have populations of under 20,000.
Thirteen have fewer than fifty persons per square mile. Jackson
County is one of these and will illustrate the importance of
attracting industries. W estem Carolina University at Cullowhee
has in addition to its faculty hundreds of other employees.
Next to the university the backbone of the economy of Jackson
County is the Mead Corporation. Mead's paperboard mill
began operations in Sylva in 1928 when chestnut wood was
still available. It came to Westem North Carolina because of
available lumber, and it pioneered paperboard production from
chestnut chips. In 1966 its payroll in Sylva was $2,2oo,ooo for
258 employees. The company's headquarters are in Dayton,
Ohio, and in 1967 it had a total of 21,000 employees and sales
of$633,092,360. Also important in Jackson County are knitwear,
blanket, and quilting plants of the Ham Corporation. Jackson
is one of fifteen counties in our study having fewer than five
manufacturing industries each that employ one hundred or more
�Business and Industry / 369
persons. There is not a single county that has not at least one
such industry. Ten counties had fewer than woo employed in
manufacturing, and each of ten had combined annual payrolls
of less than Jackson County's $3,665,000 in 1963. In 1947 three
counties had fewer than one hundred each employed in manufacturing; in 1963 Alleghany had 1,118, Madison had 639, and
Watauga 896 so engaged. Clay County lost 23% of its population
by out-migration between 1950 and 1960, and in 1963 it had
ninety fewer employed in manufacturing than in 1947. Other
counties experiencing out-migration of more than sixteen per
cent during the decade 1950-1960 were McDowell, Rutherford,
Wilkes, Watauga, Yancey, Ashe, Avery, Alleghany, Cherokee,
Macon, Madison, Mitchell. Out-migration has been discussed
before. Because of its incidence the following counties have a
larger percentage of people over sixty-five than all but four
other counties in the state: Alleghany, Ashe, Buncombe,
Cherokee, Clay, Henderson, Macon, and Polk. Many of the
ambitious young potential leaders have been drained out of
their home counties because of lack of economic opportunity.
In only three of the counties is the rate of natural increase in the
population as large as that of the state as a whole. An encouraging
observation is that while in most of the counties the nup1ber of
manufacturing establishments remained nearly the same in
1963 as in 1954, the number of persons employed increased
materially: Alleghany County 509 to III8, Ashe 540 to 1917,
Avery 336 to 484, Buncombe II,071 to 16,450, Burke 8,291 to
12,345, Caldwell 9041 to II,550, Madison 154 to 639, Swain
362 to 665, and Watauga 172 to 896. These figures indicate
that the increase of the gross national product of the United
States has been reflected in this area. Economists estimate that
for every one hundred new factory jobs there are seventy-five
other jobs created in real estate, finance, insurance, utilities,
transportation, communications, and local government (especially schools).
It is possible for Western North Carolina to continue industrial
expansion and to develop new products, and every effort is
being made by the planning organizations to utilize the opportunities and services offered by the state and federal government
for the purpose. Another excellent prospect for the area is in
the development of its recreational and tourist facilities, and in
this respect Western North Carolina has a positive advantage.
�370 / Part III: A Developing Economy
As late as 1937 the livelihood of the Eastern Cherokees was
earned chiefly by growing a variety of crops on small plots:
making sorghum from cane, filling their cellars with food for
the cold winters, picking wild huckleberries and strawberries for
market. Over 5000 acres of forest were being held as a common
property. Any member of the tribe was permitted to market
an assigned number of trees, for which he paid a percentage
into the common fund. Simply furnished mountain cabins were
the homes of the majority of the families, but there were those
who lived in sparsely settled mountain sections in smaller cabins;
'
while in the valley were many modem homes.
Since World War Two the Eastern Cherokees have been
changing from an agrarian to an industrialized people. Hundreds
are employed by White Shield of Carolina, manufacturers of
quilted goods; Cherokee, Inc., makers of one hundred forty
Indian arts and crafts products; and the Vassar Corporation,
which makes hair nets and other accessories for women's hair.
In 1963 a group of professional and business people organized
Cherokee Area Industries, Inc., to stimulate industrial and commercial growth. They purchased land for development of an
industrial park. The first company to lease a portion of the park
was Mountain Maid Company, employing thirty-five people.
In 1955 the Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual, Inc., was created,
continuing a reservation crafts program begun in the 1930's.
This cooperative markets items made by the Indians in their
homes, the profits being divided among the members.
�CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN
In Pursuit of Pleasure
Before the coming of the railroads and roads into the mountains
the usual visitor made his way laboriously to a hotel or boarding
house in a scenic spot, and there he stayed for the duration of
his vacation. Such a hotel was completed at Blowing Rock
in I 885. It had an ideal location at the crest of the Blue Ridge.
Fascinating nature trails were about the only diversion offered
the guests after they arrived. The trip up the mountain from the
railway station in Lenoir was made by hack or surry that met
the train, and on days when the weather was fine the ride could
be exciting. Blowing Rock was then deemed to be the ideal
tourist attraction in Northwest North Carolina. It was still a
straggling village two miles long approached by the turnpike
from Lenoir. From the turnpike one could see Jonas Ridge,
Hawksbill, Table Rock, Pilot Mountain, Grandfather Mountain.
Blowing Rock's 4200 foot elevation provided an ideal summer
climate. There were post offices in the village and at Green Park
at the top of the ridge. From the "rock" itself one could often
look down on a sea of mist, see the clouds rise and then see the
peaks emerge from the snowy billows: the Roan, the Grandfather, the Bald, the Yellow, and the Black Mountains. The
beetling crag, the Blowing Rock, is a great spur that hangs over
the "Globe" or valley of the John's River. It catches the currents
of air sent up from the depths. These currents will blow back
hats, handkerchiefs, and light objects thrown from the rock.
The Green Park Hotel near the Blowing Rock was built between
the springs of the New River which flows into the Ohio and
371
�372 / Part III: A Developing Economy
Hugh Morton on one of the crags of Grandfather Mountain
PHOTO COURTESY OF HUGH MORTON
�In Pursuit of Pleasure / 373
the Y adkin which flows into the Atlantic. The Green Park was
quite modern in 1 896 with fireplaces in all of the rooms and hot
and cold baths. The Blowing Rock Hotel one and one-half
miles north of the Green Park had nine hundred feet of piazzas,
a telegraph, a livery stable, and a ball room. The village of
Blowing Rock also had the Watauga Hotel, the Brady House,
and the Stewart House.
With the completion of the Y onahlossee Turnpike to Linville
along the side of Grandfather Mountain, guests at Blowing
Rock could ride to Linville by a hack operated regularly by the
Linville Improvement Company. There at Eseeola Lodge they
might tarry a few days. Linville had a nine hole golf course, and
Grandfather Mountain invited exploration. Grandfather is the
most rugged and picturesque mountain in Western North
Carolina. Its craggy peaks when seen at a distance have the rough
features of a Grant Wood type of American pioneer or grandfather. The mountain had been a landmark for the pioneers.
Daniel Boone hunted on its slopes. Scientists have claimed that
it is one of the oldest rock formations in the world. Some geologists have asserted that it is two billion years old. To climb to
the top of its peaks has always been a challenge to rugged tourists.
The Linville Improvement Company had vision when it built
a road to the crest of Grandfather Mountain. The turnpike that
ran to Linville continued to Cranberry, a station on the East
Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad.
The highest mountain in Eastern America is Mount Mitchell,
one of the Black Mountains. Above five thousand feet it bore
spruce trees. About 1912 its spruce was purchased and lumbered,
also the spruce at the head of Cane River. Lumbering and fire
destroyed most of these rare spruce forests. All was soon gone
except near the top of Mount Mitchell.
In 1914 George T. Winston pleaded with the people of the
state to preserve the forest on Mount Mitchell:
From out of the primal sea I rose on high
Above the clouds I kissed the sunlit sky,
My rock the oldest in the rock-built earth;
When I was born, it was the great world's birth.
Long million years my crumbling sides did yield,
To rain and frost and wind, a fertile field
�374 / Part III: A Developing Economy
For widening Piedmont plane and ocean shore.
Now nature kind assails my life no more;
At last in verdure soft and warm I'm clad,
Mid sapphire skies my emerald peaks are glad,
But hark! What frightened terror, new and dire!
"Tis human greed for gold! "Tis axe and fire!
0 mighty State, prevent this deed of shame,
This great dishonor keep from thy great name.
Under Governor Locke Craig North Carolina purchased
twenty acres near the top for a state park the first to be established. An association was formed to erect a monument to
Dr. Elisha Mitchell, geologist who lost his life on the mountain.
General Julian S. Carr of Durham, capitalist and philanthropist,
was the leader of the movement. In 1917 Governor Bickett employed a forest warden to protect the park from fire, to advise
tourists, to repair trails, and to look after the state's interests. In
1919 nature lovers noted that there were black bears, deer, wolves,
panthers, "boomers," "rough grouse," and snow birds on Mt.
Mitchell. Interesting trees were the Frazer balsam, yellow birch,
mountain ash, service (called locally "sarvis"), red spruce, red
cherry, hemlock, maple, oak, and white pine. Among the shrubs
observed were the rose rhododendron, the handsomest of the
species, the great rhododendron, mountain laurel, blueberries,
currants, gooseberries, red raspberries, hobble bush, and hackberry. Flowers and herbs mentioned by naturalists were wood
sorrel, trillium, clintonia, woodland aster, sharp-leafed wood
aster, yellow meadow lily, St. John's wort, boneset, meadowparsnip, grass of Parnassus, Oswego tea, saxafrage, purple
turtlehead, trumpet weed, black cohosh, Indian pipe, Indian
turnip, galax, tweyblade, and many kinds of fern.
A lumbering railroad had been built to get the logs down the
mountain, and when lumbering activities ceased, the Mount
Mitchell Railroad was put into operation to the "Top ofEastern
America." It ran from the Mt. Mitchell station on the Western
North Carolina Railroad to the summit of the peak. A 1917
advertising brochure described it: "Switchbacks cunningly constructed by an unexcelled feat of engineering, make the ascent
gentle and pleasant .... Mount Mitchell Railroad zigzags [up]
the mountainside, spans mountain gorges and ravines and climbs
almost to the tip of the majestic monarch of them all. ... "
Other high mountains that made up the scene as the passengers
rode up the mountain were Mt. Celo 63 57 feet, the Black
�In Pursuit of Pleasure / 37 5
The Blowing Rock
Mt . Mitchell Excursion Train
ASHEVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PHOTO
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO.
�376 / Part III: A Developing Economy
C)k hiohwa.y i"~cen1c
plen~or- the}fotor Rgad
. . . . . . __ _r
Mt. Mitchell Motorway
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO.
Trillium, one of the most beloved of mountain flowers
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO.
�In Pursuit of Pleasure / 377
Brothers 6620-6690 feet, and Balsam Cone 6645 feet. Train
fare was $2.50 for the round trip.
The route of the Mount Mitchell Railroad passed through
Montreat, the Presbyterian Assembly's summer home. The
passengers rode up the mountain in the morning, took lunch
at Camp Alice at the station near the peak, then went on foot
to the top, where Elisha Mitchell is buried. Camp Alice had a
large dining hall, and there were cottages and a tent colony for
those who wanted to spend the night to watch the sunrise.
After a brief trial the railroad proved to be impractical, and
a cinder-surfaced road was built for about twenty miles from
the town of Black Mountain to Camp Alice on Mount Mitchell,
with a rise in elevation from 2700 to about 6700 feet. The opening
of the Mount Mitchell Motor Road was celebrated by a large
party, guests of the Mount Mitchell Development Company
officials. They assembled at Black Mountain, went to a reception
on the mountain, had dinner there and returned for a reception
at Blue Ridge. This was a one-way toll road for automobiles,
with the cars traveling up the mountain until a certain hour in
the morning, allowing them time for the ascent before the downward traffic began in the afternoon. Among the strict printed
regulations was the one that "no colored person will be admitted
over the road except those going as drivers, nurses or attendants,
accompanied by employers." The speed limit on the road was
fifteen miles per hour.
At last in 1940 a free road was opened to Mt. Mitchell. The
route left highway U. S. 70 ncar Marion on state route 104,
thence to Buck Creek Gap intersection with the Blue Ridge
Parkway, then to the intersection with the former Mt. Mitchell
toll road. From that point the former toll road had been widened
and was being offered free under the supervision of the Pisgah
National Forest, the state, and the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The Brevard, Cashiers, Highlands area has been called "the
land of waterfalls." The natural beauty of the area is enhanced
by dozens of rippling streams and cascading waterfalls: Looking
Glass Falls, Connestee Falls, Dry Falls, Bridal Veil Falls are a
few. Outstanding is Whiteside Mountain, said to be the highest
granite cliff in Eastern America. Lake Toxaway, Cashiers,
Highlands, High Hampton are beautiful resort areas, a paradise
�378 / Part III: A Developing Economy
for vacationers and summer residents. A number of prominent
South Carolinians built summer homes in Cashiers Valley before
the Civil War. One of the best known estates was High Hampton,
the home of Wade Hampton, and another was that of Captain
S. P. Ravenel of Charleston.
Charles Jenks came to the area in 1872 to operate the corundum
mines in Macon County, North Carolina, and Rabun County,
Georgia. The mines closed in I 873 and Jenks went to Highlands
to regain his health. While he was there he was associated with
two men who came from Kansas in 1875 to plant a town, Captain
S. T. Kelsey and C. C. Hutchinson. They purchased land from
]. W. Dobson. Kelsey was a builder of towns. At Highlands he
built roads, erected buildings, advertised the resort. In I 890
the population was about 3 so. As a summer resort it was peopled
chiefly by people from South Carolina. In 1887 Jenks and a group
of New York and Massachusetts electrical and mechanical
engineers formed the Western North Carolina Mining and
Improvement Company. They purchased four hundred acres
on the top ofHogback Mountain, later called Mount Toxaway.
Jenks built a clubhouse for the company at the top and a wagon
road leading to it. Subsequently he purchased for the company
2300 acres of woodland and trout streams along Horsepasture
River and the Panthertown head of the Tuckaseigee River.
The company was renamed the Sapphire Valley Company.
The key to the mountain region is Asheville in the lovely
valley of the French Broad. It is set in an amphitheater of hills
and affords splendid views of Mt. Pisgah and the mountainrimmed horizon. Just east of Asheville the peaceful Swannanoa
unites with the French Broad. The elevation is 2250 feet and
the climate is mild and dry. From Asheville the valley runs
eighteen miles north and south. It is known as the Asheville
Plateau. At the North Carolina-Tennessee border, twenty-five
miles northwest of Asheville, a high ridge blocks the northern
end of the valley. Thirty miles south the Blue Ridge Mountains
form an escarpment. The tallest peak near Asheville is Mt.
Pisgah. The French Broad influences the wind directions, which
are generally from the northwest except in September when
they are from the southeast. The annual precipitation is thirtyeight inches, quite low for North Carolina. The growing season
�In Pursuit of Pleasure / 379
consists of a freeze-free period of 195 days. Floods occur at
about twelve year intervals. Snowfall has varied from .7 inch
in I93I-I932 to 40.6 inches in 1959-1960. The mean annual
temperature is 56°.
In I 793 Asheville was just a trading post called Morristown.
Incorporated in I797 it was renamed Asheville for Samuel
Ashe of New Hanover County. It was still a sleepy little village
with a population of 2610 at the coming of the Western North
Carolina Railroad (I88o), but it had had a varied history. A
year earlier the first telegraph line had been built into the town
and a public library had been opened. "Judge" Edward Aston,
mayor of Asheville, had publicized the town as a health resort
by letter-writing and by mailing out thousands of circulars
throughout the nation and European countries telling of Asheville's advantages as a resort for those who suffered from lung
trouble. The location seemed designed for man's happiness,
with grand and majestic views. After I 880 capitalists and health
seekers poured in. The Swannanoa Hotel was opened. A four
story brick building with "fire plugs on every floor," it had
Asheville's first bathroom. George Willis Pack stayed there and
had the bathroom built, walled in, and lined with zinc. Famous
visitors were Zeb Vance, Bill Nye, and James Whitcomb Riley.
On a balcony overlooking the street a band played a concert
every afternoon, and each night there was dancing in the ballroom. The Swannanoa rivaled the older Eagle Hotel which
also had a band. Excursion trains ran from Salisbury to Asheville
on Saturdays carrying young people to the dances.
Asheville became a mecca for those suffering from tuberculosis, and prominent doctors recommended it; others came
and established sanitariums. Its health assets were "a healthful
climate, pure air, good water, unsurpassed scenery and congenial
people." By 1890 its population had quadrupled to Io,ooo.
Dr. Gatchell, a native of Wisconsin who wrote the circular
that "Judge" Aston mailed out in such quantities, established the
first sanitarium for consumptives in Asheville. In I 875 Dr.
J. W. Gleitsmann, a German by birth, came to Asheville from
Baltimore and established the Mountain Sanitarium for Pulmonary Diseases. He wrote and read before the American
Public Health Association a paper "Western North Carolina
As a Health Resort." The paper was circulated widely - about
64,000 copies. Mr. Fred A. Hall came to Asheville in 1883 with
tuberculosis. He recovered and became a prominent citizen.
�38o / Part III: A Developing Economy
Lower Falls on Cu/lasaja River
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE PHOTO
Looking do wn North Mills River from Kramer's V ista near Bent Creek Gap
U .S. FOREST SERVICE PHOTO
�In Pursuit of Pleasure / 38 I
Looking Glass Rock, Pisgah National Forest
U .S. FOREST SERVICE PHOTO
Sliding Rock Falls, Pisgah National Forest
U.S . FOREST SERVICE PHOTO
�382 / Part III: A Developing Economy
S wannanoa Hotel A sheville
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO .
His case history and recovery were written of and published in
the Boston Medical Journal. As a result many others came seeking
health.
Asheville became first a summer resort. Soon thereafter many
visitors came for the winter because of the clear air and the mild
climate. In 1885 the city authorities began to clean up sanitary
conditions which were detrimental to the city as a health resort.
A new city code was adopted in 1887, in which were these
provisions : " [The commissioners may] lay a tax ... [annually]
on all dogs, and on swine, horses and cattle running at large
within the town ... ; [they] shall possess the power to prohibit
cattle, horses, or hogs from running at large in said town."
A sanitary chief and a sanitary inspector w ere appointed. All
citizens became increasingly conscious of Asheville's natural
advantages as a health resort and did everything possible to
promote this phase of the city's life. Soon other sanitariums
were established. Among them was the Winyah Sanitarium
started by Dr. Karl von Ruch. Many cases of tuberculosis were
treated in hotels and boarding houses as well as in sanitariums.
So widely and favorably known did the Asheville area become
for its beneficent climate and for diseases of the throat and lungs
that the United States Government shortly after World W ar
One built at Oteen a hospital for the treatment of veterans of
the armed services who had contracted tuberculosis. M an y w ho
cam e to Asheville for visits and cures remained and becam e
enthusiastic residents. They built homes, invested money, began
�In Pursuit of Pleasure / 383
Kenilworth Hotel
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO.
industries, and thus contributed to the city's growth. Following
World War One about three thousand persons were treated
annually for tuberculosis. Residing in the city were perhaps an
equal number of newcomers who were not under the care of
physicians. Each of these persons spent freely in the city. It was
estimated that the tubercular patients spent three million dollars
annually.
In the 1920's governmental agencies began to realize that
good public health was a social obligation. Federal, state, and
local governments built hospitals and sanitariums. As a result
Asheville and other popular health resorts were less frequented.
By 1928 most of the sanitariums around the city were forced
to close and the number of patients from other places became
neglible. Although Asheville then ceased to be a health resort,
it became a most popular retreat for tourists and retired persons.
This was true, to a degree, of all parts of Western North Carolina.
Chambers of Commerce, privately owned resorts, and organizations all over the mountains published handbooks, pamphlets,
brochures which stressed the scenic beauty, the recreational
facilities, the invigorating climate, the pure water, and the
beautiful streams of the region. Organizations were formed to
promote the tourist season- the summer months. To a great
degree the economy of the region came to depend upon the
number of tourists and summer visitors. Even more important
than the tourists are the thousands of people who have built
summer homes, second homes, or vacation homes in this delightful land.
�384 / Part III: A Developing Economy
Asheville is said to have had more and better hotels than any
city of the same size in the United States. The Battery Park
mentioned earlier attracted numbers of very wealthy visitors.
Kenilworth Inn, a big rambling hotel was built in r 891. The
Southern Railroad and George W. Vanderbilt owned stock
in the company. It was then one of the finest hotels in the South
and had 250 rooms. Fire destroyed it in 1909 and the rebuilding
was started in 1913 at a cost of $r,24o,ooo. Of English design,
it was a show place advertised as "the Healthiest and Most
Delightful Resort in America." With beautifully landscaped
grounds it stood on a hill overlooking Asheville and the Biltmore
Estate. It became a sanitarium in 1930 under Dr. William Ray
Griffin and Dr. Mark A. Griffin and was used for patients with
mental and nervous disorders.
Grove Park Inn, built by E. W. Grove, wealthy drug manufacturer, in 1914 on the western slopes of Sunset Mountain was
the epitome of elegance and comfort. At least five Presidents
have stayed there, and it has housed a full complement of wealthy
visitors. This hotel is still serving as a convention center of strong
appeal. During the 192o's Grove had the gracious Battery Park
hotel razed and the hill lowered. A new Battery Park rose on
the site, one that was in keeping with the technology of that
decade. A block away the George Vanderbilt Hotel and a new
convention hall attracted large gatherings.
In addition to the hotels, Asheville had more than one hundred
boarding houses, among which was one at 8r Charlotte Street
built about 1870 for Fanny Patton. It was closed in 1960. Burned
once, it was rebuilt. It and the Patton House next door were
the first Asheville houses to have running water. Aunt Charlotte,
who belonged to the household, was highly indignant and wanted
to know if Thomas (Captain Patton) hadn't taken leave of his
senses "bringing the privy in the house." There was a fireplace
in every room. There were wardrobes but no closets. An old
Negro servant named Margaret but called "Cookie" was asked
by a northern lady if she remembered the Civil War. She answered: "Course I does; that was when them Y ankces came
down here and took all us folks had."
Extravagant praise for Asheville is to be found in the advertising brochures which have been broadcast since r88o. Hinton
A. Helper wrote one titled "Nature's Trundle Bed of Recuperation for Tourist and Health Seeker," in which he claimed:
"The climate is not excelled by any in the world. The soil is
�In Pursuit of Pleasure / 3 8 5
rich and the lands productive. . . . The timber lands are the
best in the South. The mineral wealth is inexhaustible. The
manufacturing facilities are unsurpassed." One bulletin recounted
the economic growth from 1880 to 1890. Its author stated that
in 1880 the assessed valuation was $904,428, while in 1890 it
was $4,956,ooo. In 1889 $8I9,000 worth of real estate was sold
and I 84 buildings were erected. The C. E. Graham cotton mill
employed 250 and the Asheville Furniture Company had ninety
employees. A brochure of I 899 designed to attract industry
cited the different business establishments: one large tobacco
factory, two icc factories, three planing mills, twenty-six carriage
and wagon makers, the largest cotton factory in the South, two
laundries, machine shops, foundries, a roller flour mill, the
largest tannery in Western North Carolina, the largest bottling
company in the state, three greenhouses, two daily and four
weekly newspapers, one cornet band, two literary clubs, a
lumber business, four tobacco warehouses, two military companies, the Asheville Club, social and golf clubs. An Asheville
guide of 1904 praised the Kenilworth Inn, Theobald's Cafe,
Candy Kitchen, and Ice Cream Parlor. Mentioned favorably
were Clarence Worrall's Art Institute and Bon Marche, which
it called an outstanding store. A new auditorium was built on
the site of one burned in I903 and a new library was built on
Pack Square. The Biltmore Estate was open to the public on
Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. A Brochure described
"Zealandia," the residence of Mr. Philip S. Henry of London.
It had been so-named by Captain J. Evans Brown who lived
in New Zealand. Praised also was the Mineral Springs Hotel
run by Mrs. R. Cathey at Skyland, North Carolina. The population by 1900 had climbed to 14,694, and in the metropolitan
area were 27,000 people. There were ten miles of brick paving,
one and one-half miles of stone paving, one and one-half miles
of macadam, seven miles of brick sidewalks, twenty miles of
sewerage, fourteen miles of electric railway, and the assessed
valuation was $6,ooo,ooo.
A Road and Tour Book of Western North Carolina for I916
indicated further growth: thirty-eight miles of paved streets,
population of 34,000, seventy-five miles of sidewalks, I25 miles
of macadam roads, an assessed property valuation of$15,ooo,ooo,
a public library of I3,ooo volumes, a municipal swimming pool,
six banks, three hospitals, forty churches, 250,000 visitors annually.
�386 / Part III: A Developing Economy
The most extravagant promotional publication to that date
was Azure Lure published in 1924. The assessed valuation of
Asheville property was $8o,ooo,ooo and the population of
50,000 enjoyed sixty-four miles of paved streets. The booklet
emphasized the availability of water power, with II7,500
developed horse power and I,067,000 horsepower undeveloped.
Western North Carolina had fifteen golf courses, a small number
indeed, but golf in 1924 was in somewhat the same position
that skiing occupies today.
One of the cataclysmic events in the history of twentiethcentury Western North Carolina was the "boom and bust"
in Asheville. First came the highly-inflated Florida real estate
boom in the 192o's. Many fortunes were made- on paper;
then the boom collapsed. Before its collapse, high-powered
real estate promoters moved to Asheville and Hendersonville
and generated the enthusiasm that caused the runaway inflation
in real estate that resulted in the boom and the bust. In I 92 5
Thomas Wolfe visited Asheville and wrote to Aline Bernstein
that he had just returned from "Boom Town" where everyone
was talking about the progress and prosperity of Asheville.
He had drunk their com whiskey and listened to their glowing
talk of how they would soon be millionaires, of how Asheville
would have roo,ooo people by 1930. Yet, by 1926 Wolfe was
writing his sister regretting that while his mother had lost money
in Florida real estate he was consoling her with the idea that
Asheville would have a certain assured growth. He aptly added
that a few near-swindlers and near-thieves would clean up but
that the admiring boobs would lose their shirts and that Asheville
would never be the national capital.
In You Can't Go Home Again he described Asheville as being
no longer a small town. Its streets were teeming with life. The
look on people's faces was frightening: madness, frenzy, the
eyes glistening with excitement. People were intoxicated by
speculation in real estate- the idea of getting rich quickly,
suddenly, overnight. Real estate men were everywhere. Everyone
bought real estate - barbers, lawyers, grocers, bootblacks,
janitors. The rule was to buy, always to buy. Whatever one
bought and at whatever price, he felt he could sell it the next
day at a great profit. All of this buying was "on time," always
"on time," and the profits were paper profits- the millionaires,
paper millionaires.
In November 1930 the roof fell in. In the New York Times
�In Pursuit of Pleasure / 387
"New" Battery Park Hotel,
1920's
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES CO .
appeared a report from the Asheville Citizen, November 20,
1930, describing the closing of eight banks in Western North
Carolina, most of them in or near Asheville and Hendersonville.
These failures resulted from the closing of the Central Bank
and Trust Company, Asheville's largest financial institution
with combined assets of its banking and trust departments of
$52,645,191.43· Coincident with its failure, three Hendersonville
banks closed: the First Bank and Trust Company, the American
Bank and Trust Company, and the Citizens' National Bank.
Also closing were the Biltmore Oteen Bank, the Bank of Leicester
and the Clay County Bank. On the same day the Raleigh News
and Observer listed twenty-seven state banks that had closed in
1930 in Western North Carolina. The depression enveloped the
nation, but in Asheville it was a gigantic bust. John Mitchell,
Chief State Bank Examiner, blamed the closing of the Western
North Carolina banks on the real estate boom. The banks had
lent money on real estate at inflated values to such an extent
that they could not meet the demands of their depositors.
Catastrophic for Asheville was the failure of the Central Bank
and Trust Company. For seventeen years it had been perhaps
the most progressive financial institution in Western North
�388 / Part III: A Developing Economy
Carolina and it had done much to aid the region.
Jonathan Daniels in Tar Heels: A Portrait of North Carolina
(New York, 1947) attributed the origin of the boom to George
W. Vanderbilt and E. W. Grove. He felt that they had corrupted
the people of Asheville and raised false hopes. His accusations
and implications are unjust. Vanderbilt may have been a feudal
lord but he aided Western North Carolina. So did Grove.
Wolfe regretted that Grove tore down the picturesque old
Battery Park Hotel and replaced it with a modern building of
brick, concrete, and steel. Most people have thought that his
Grove Park Inn was magnificently picturesque. Vanderbilt's
estate and contributions antedated the twentieth century. Grove
Park Inn was built in 1912. The bank failure, the collapse, the
bust did not come until 1930. Even then it was not a completely
local affair. The stock market crash had occurred in October,
1929, the depression was becoming accelerated, twenty-seven
other Western North Carolina banks had already failed in
1930. Probably all of these failures happened because of the
failure of Caldwell and Company in Nashville, a gigantic
Southern financial institution. As a result of the failure of the
Central Bank and Trust Company, its president was sentenced
to prison and later Asheville's mayor committed suicide.
During the 189o's Warm Springs (in Madison County),
which had been a health resort since 1779, was renamed Hot
Springs, and a remarkable hotel was built there, the Mountain
Park. It was a handsome rambling structure, in every room of
which the sun shone. It had a large lobby, spacious parlors, onefourth mile of verandas. It had elevators, steam heat, toilets,
fireplaces, an orchestra, a music hall, billiard parlors, bowling
alleys, a golf course, tennis courts, and riding horses. Nearby
were the famed springs, which contained many mineral elements.
There was a spring house for drinking water and a bath house
in which baths were built in the springs themselves. During
the years when health-seekers believed in the efficacy of mineral
waters, Hot Springs was one of the most popular resorts in
Western North Carolina. Thousands came who were not ill.
They came because of the good food, the dances, the pleasant
company, and the recreational attractions of the hotel.
After the United States entered World War One as many
as twenty-eight hundred German prisoners were interned in
�In Pursuit of Pleasure / 389
the hotel. They had been members of crews of German ships
caught in American or allied ports and waters at the time of the
entry of the United States in the war. They gave band concerts
and enjoyed their stay in the beautiful surroundings. On one
occasion when it was rumored that they were to be transferred,
some of them poisoned the drinking water hoping to be made
ill to prevent their being removed. They used too much poison
and some of the prisoners died.
After medical opinion developed that the benefits derived
from the waters of the springs resulted from hydro-therapy,
and that the treatment could be given in any medical institution,
the decline in numbers who came to Hot Springs resulted in
closing the famous hotel.
Near Hot Springs is Lover's Leap about which there is the
legend of the Indian maiden Mist-on-the-Mountain, the daughter
of Lone Wolf. She loved an Indian brave named Magwa. Another
brave, the jealous Tall Pine, killed Magwa and the maiden
leaped off the cliff. About that time Tall Pine was killed by a
panther. Not far away is Douglas Lake, made by one of the
TV A dams. And some seven miles away is Paint Rock, famous
in Indian legends and a landmark on the first wagon road through
the mountains. On the cliffs are strange markings, now almost
indecipherable, which gave the rock its name. Formerly a
ferry was used to carry people across the river to connect with
the railroad.
Hot Springs, the town, has a beautiful location. It is completely
surrounded by mountains, is on an attractive river, and Spring
Creek flows through the town. It should attract many tourists,
but since the closing of the hotel it has withered on the vine,
had few tourists, and ceased to grow. Nearby above Spring
Creek is a camping and recreation area operated by the National
Park Service in Pisgah National Forest. Here picnicking, camping,
swimming are enjoyed.
Western North Carolina's attraction for tourists was enhanced
by the building of the Blue Ridge Parkway. It has been the scenic
route for millions of visitors from Northeastern United States
to this region, and these guests have been an inestimable boon
to the economy of the region. The travelers have fanned out to
adjacent resorts. Today's tourists are from diverse elements
�390 / Part III: A Developing Economy
Lovers Leap, French Broad River, near Hot Springs
of the population. Many of the earlier generation of tourists
were well-to-do middle-aged people who stayed one, two, or
three weeks at a resort hotel or "took the water" at a mineral
spring. They sought rest and relaxation. Often they were society's
elite. Those in this group still come but they are a small minority. Now the worker with a weekend or a week's vacation comes
and brings his family, or a number of men and families come
for a weekend of golf, or skiing. In some of the older resort
towns as in Blowing Rock the two groups clash. The long-time,
established summer residents resent the intrusion or invasion
by the tourists. They close their facilities to them. Linville and
Blowing Rock golf courses have become virtual private clubs
and have limited play by non-members. But the local businesses
cater to all who come. Every effort is being made to get those
who come to stay longer. Tourists are given the most courteous
attention, and amusements with family appeal are provided.
Tweetsie Railroad between Boone and Blowing Rock and
Ghost Town at Maggie Valley have appeal for all members
of the family, although they were designed for the children.
Horn in the West and Unto These Hills interest the whole family.
Beech Mountain has chair lifts, fishing, riding, hiking, in addition
to skiing and golf. It features a Disney Land type of amusement
�In Pursuit of Pleasure / 391
park, the Land of Oz, to which people ride by chair lifts.
Daughton Park on the Blue Ridge Parkway contains six
thousand acres, a lodge, picnic area, camp ground, twenty miles
of trails, scenic Wildcat Rocks and precipitous bluffs. Nearby
is the Brinegar Cabin where one can see hand-weaving demonstrations from May to October. The park was named for Congressman Robert Daughton from Alleghany County. At
Blowing Rock the denim manufacturer, Moses Cone, had
enjoyed a summer mansion located on Flat Top Mountain in
an estate with 3750 acres and two beautiful man-made lakes.
He died in 1908, and his will specified that after the death of
Mrs. Cone the estate would become the property of the State
of North Carolina. A few years after Mrs. Cone's death in
1947 the state transferred the estate to the federal government
to be used as part of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The mansion is
used as a museum and sales center for mountain handicrafts
of the Southern Highlands Handicraft Guild. The woven coverlet
given to Miss Frances Goodrich which awakened her interest
T weetsie Railroad, tourist attraction
ASHEVILLE C HAMBER OF COMMER CE PHOTO
�392 / Part III: A Developing Economy
Brinegar Cabin on Blue Ridge Parkway before restoration
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE PHOTO
Brinegar Cabin after restoration
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE PHOTO
�In Pursuit of Pleasure / 393
in hand weaving and started the revival of weaving in North
Carolina is on display there. More than twenty miles of unpaved
roads on the estate are reserved for pedestrian, horseback, and
carnage use.
Nearby, also on the Blue Ridge Parkway, is the 4000 acre
Julian Price Memorial Park. Price was formerly president of
the Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company. The park has
some of the most attractive camp sites in Western North Carolina,
and it offers fishing to campers.
Cataloochi at Maggie Valley and Blowing Rock Ski Lodge
(now Appalachian Ski Mountain) near Blowing Rock were
the first of the North Carolina ski resorts. Another is Hound
Ears in the Shull's Mills and Foscoe area of Watauga County
on the side of a mountain, the pinnacle of which resembles the
hanging ears of a hound dog. Each year sees new ski slopes put
into use, and around them residential communities develop.
Between two of the peaks of Grandfather Mountain Hugh
Morton, descendant of Hugh McRae, has built a mile high
swinging pedestrian bridge and at one end is a reception center
large enough to house a small convention. Each year since 1956
there has been a gathering of the Scottish clans from a wide
area, and Highland Games are held on the mountainside on a
weekend in July. Events on Saturday consist of highland dancing,
piping, track and field events. On Sunday after a worship service
and lunch the champions put on an exhibition, followed by a
"Highland Shoot," an archery tournament. Kilts and bonnets
are worn for the weekend making it a colorful occasion. Thirteen
clans, the Bums club of Charlotte, and the Saint Andrews
Societies of Charleston, Savannah, New York State, and
Washington, D. C. are the sponsors.
Since 1926 on the fourth Sunday in June has been held the
"Singing on the Mountain" on the slopes of Grandfather. For
twenty-three consecutive years there was no rain on this date,
and mountain folk considered the fact almost miraculous and
attributed it to the beneficence of God. The annual sing is looked
forward to and visited by thousands of religious people and
about as many who are just curious. Some thirty thousand were
present in 1957. On the day of the singing people travel to
Grandfather as they did to camp meetings a few decades ago.
"Grandfather Mountain is a symbol of the eternity of the hills."
People gather to hear the words of many preachers and to sing
the songs that they love. The singing is also a social event. Whole
�394 / Part III: A Developing Economy
One of the first ski slopes, Appalachian Ski Mountain
ASHEVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PHOTO
Chalet above
the slopes
Chairlift at
Beech Mountain
�In Pursuit of Pleasure / 395
Bagpipers on Grandfather Mountain at Highland Games
HUGH MORTON PHOTO
On the Parade Grounds at the Highland Games
HUGH M ORTON PHOTO
�396 / Part III: A Developing Economy
Singing on the Mountain
HUGH MORTON PHOTO
Ground breaking for final link of Blue Ridge Parkway by Governor Dan Moore
HUGH MORTON PHOTO
and Assistant-Director of the National Park Service
�In Pursuit of Pleasure / 397
An overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway
families, old friends, and kin, separated by mountain ranges
and hours of travel gather there to visit and to share their picnic
food with each other. This event, the largest mountain sing in
the Southern highlands, uplifts all who attend. Uncle Joe Hartley
who helped to build the Y onahlossee Turnpike in I 89 I started
the Grandfather singing in I924 when I25 members of a Sunday
school had a picnic on the slope of the mountain. After the picnic
they had some "beautiful singing."
Few people who enjoy the 507,I 59 acres, the I200 species of
plants, the I 30 species of trees, the 52 species of fur bearing
animals, the great natural beauty, the hiking, driving, camping
facilities of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park realize
the tremendous and long-continued efforts by many enthusiasts
�398 / Part III: A Developing Economy
View to the south from Clingman's Dome parking area, Great Smokies
HUGH MORTON PHOTO
before the park became a reality. The first campaign was by a
dedicated band of Asheville people and their supporters. October
29, 1885, in an address before the American Academy of Medicine,
Dr. Henry 0. Marcy, of Boston, advocated securing "a large
reservation of the higher ranges as a park." By I 892 destruction
of the forests was a cause of concern and Charles S. Sargent
with an editorial in Garden and Forest was the first to present in
print a plan for a national forest. A year earlier (1891) Joseph A.
Holmes, state geologist of North Carolina, had suggested to
Gifford Pinchot a great national forest for the Southern Appala-
�In Pursuit of Pleasure / 399
chians. The Biltmore Forest experiment no doubt influenced
both Holmes and Pinchot. In I893 the North Carolina General
Assembly passed a resolution in favor of establishing such a
park. It was presented to the House by Congressman John S.
Henderson in I 894, but Congress was not yet concerned.
"The first organized association for national legislation to
set up a federal park in the Southern Appalachian Mountains
was begun by Dr. Chase P. Ambler of Asheville ... in I899."
He presented the idea to his friend from Ohio, Judge William
R. Day. Day suggested that an Asheville organization be formed
which, assisted by the Asheville Board of Trade, would work
for a national park. Ambler, George H. Smathers, and Senator
Jeter C. Pritchard sought to interest the Southern press, doctors,
lawyers and other groups to get them to address petitions to
Pritchard asking him to use his influence to have a Congressional committee appointed. It was agreed that twenty to forty
thousand acres could be bought for one dollar an acre, and that
immediate action was imperative to preserve the forests, the game,
and the fish because lumbermen were destroying the forests and
tanneries were killing the fish.
In I 899 the Asheville Board of Trade organized a Parks and
Forestry Committee which obtained the aid of newspapers of
North Carolina and neighboring states in giving publicity to
the movement. It was soon realized by George Vanderbilt and
others that there was a need to include parts of North Carolina,
Tennessee, and adjacent states in a great eastern national park.
Therefore letters were sent to governors, senators, representatives, and influential people in North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia asking them to assemble in
Asheville November I I, I 899, to organize an association for the
promotion of a national park and forest reserve. Forty-two of
those statesmen, editors, and industrialists came and organized
the Appalachian National Park Association with the object of
obtaining a national park in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.
Efforts of the press, Congressmen, and interested citizens were
exerted toward that end. Five thousand booklets telling the
story of the movement were printed. January 4, I900, Senator
Jeter Pritchard introduced in the Senate the petition from the
Appalachian National Park Association. Reasons for urging
Congressional action were the natural beauty of the region, the
superb forests, the necessity of preserving the headwaters of
many mountain rivers, the healthfulness of the climate, and the
�400 J Part III: A Developing Economy
central location for the East, the South, and the Midwest. Much
support came from scientists and those interested in forestry.
Needless to say, the efforts failed. The nation was not sufficiently
educated to the idea of this national park.
After the passage of the Weeks Law in I 9 I I the Forest Service
established a Smoky Mountain purchase unit and began obtaining
options for the purchase of land belonging to the Little River
Lumber Company, but the purchases were not completed
because of World War One. The publication of the now famous
books by Horace Kephart and Margaret Morley created favorable
opinion for preservation of the forests in the Smoky Mountains.
Meanwhile Hugh McRae offered to sell the Grandfather Mountain area to the federal government for a park. A bill introduced
in I9I7 for its purchase failed to pass. Between I922 and I923
other bills were introduced, proposing purchases in various
locations. There were at that time nineteen national parks and
not one was in Eastern United States, where two-thirds of the
population lived.
The successful park movement grew out of the efforts in
Knoxville of Mrs. Willis P. Davis. In 1924 Dr. Herbert Work,
Secretary of the Interior, appointed a committee to study the
establishment of one or more national parks in the Southern
Appalachians. A southern Appalachian National Park committee
and commissions in Tennessee and North Carolina were created
to promote the park and to have a part in selecting its site. Harlan
P. Kelsey, a member of the Southern Appalachain Committee,
and E. C. Brooks, President of North Carolina State College,
were active workers. In I925 Congress authorized the Secretary
of the Interior to ascertain boundaries for three parks: the
Shenandoah, the Mammoth Cave, and the Great Smoky Mountain, and to receive offers of land and money for their creation.
Congress appropriated no money for the projects. Then the
work of the North Carolina and Tennessee commissions began
in earnest. State Senator Mark Squires of Lenoir, chairman of
the North Carolina commission, and Colonel David C. Chapman
of the Tennessee commission deserve credit for selling the idea
of the park to their respective states. The Tennessee legislature
voted $273,557 to purchase the 76,507 acres from the Little
River Lumber Company, and the Knoxville Chamber of
Commerce guaranteed one-third of the price.
Proponents of the Grandfather Mountain-Linville area and
lumbermen in North Carolina opposed the location of the park
�In Pursuit ofPleasure / 401
in the Smokies. The latter called forth the wrath of Horace
Kephart: "Why should this last stand of splendid, irreplaceable
trees be sacrificed to the greedy maw of the sawmill? Why
should future generations be robbed of all chance to see with
their own eyes what a real forest, a real wildwood, a real unimproved work of God is like ... ? If cut ... it would be a drop
in the bucket .... Let these few old trees stand! ... There is no
use talking about conserving the Smoky forest by turning it
into a national forest after the lumbermen get through with it ....
The only question is: Shall the Smoky Mountains be made
into a national park or a desert?"
By 1926 only $soo,ooo had been raised in North Carolina,
and most of that had come from the area near the park. Statewide
support had not been given. On April 22, 1926, a bill for the
creation of two national parks became law. North Carolina
and Tennessee authorized bond issues to meet the states' obligations for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Additional funds were needed, and John D. Rockefeller, Jr., established
the Laura Spellman Rockefeller Fund of $s,ooo,ooo to make
the park possible. North Carolina and Tennessee acquired
158,799.21 acres and deeded the tract to the federal government
on February 6, 1930. Effective work in developing the park
began in 19 3 I, and on September 2, I 940, President Roosevelt
dedicated it. Eighteen million dollars, it was estimated, were
needed for further development.
After man's exodus when the land for the park was purchased
in 1926, there remained ghost communities along the Little
Tennessee and Tuckaseigee rivers and on Hazel Creek, which
rises deep in the Smokies and runs for twenty miles to Fontana
Lake. It is fed by eight large streams and receives the flow from
the watershed of what was once the largest virgin forest in
Western North Carolina. Once the forest was alive with game,
the streams with fish. Around 1850 settlers came to Hazel Creek
and built log cabins. The slopes were excellent for cattle and
sheep, and hogs fattened on the forest mast. People lived off the
land, with an abundance of game. Granville Calhoun, pioneer,
entrepreneur, railroad builder, miner, jack-of-all-trades, lived
through the entire cycle of human "development" of Hazel
Creek. His family were among the early settlers. The first employment for people on Hazel Creek was offered when the Johnson
and Harris Lumber Company cut timber and floated the logs
down to their mill. A series of dams built across the creek held
�402 / Part III: A Developing Economy
the logs until the water was high enough to float them. In I 909
W. M. Ritter built a logging railroad and set up a large double
hand-mill which employed four hundred men. Each side of the
mill turned out one million board feet a month. From I9I I to
I928 Ritter cut 2IO,ooo,ooo board feet from this one creek and
was called the "hardwood king of the world." In 1890 copper
was discovered on Sugar Fork Creek and the Adams Mining
Company mined copper from 1900 to I905. In 1926 when the
states of Tennessee and North Carolina bought all of the land
from the people and turned it into the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park, owners were reluctant to sell. A fair price was
paid for the mountain and forest land, but what the sellers received
was insufficient for them to buy equivalent property near towns
like Bryson City. They took their money and began sorrowfully
to look for new homes. For them a way of life was gone forever.
Hundreds had to leave their snug mountain retreats, but only
death will take from them their memories of the "good old days."
John Wikle wrote in the Asheville Citizen "The bear goes
unharmed and the deer play undisturbed; where bare-footed
children once hoed corn, now bears wild blackberries. Where
once stood a great sawmill there is only a mass of vines and trees;
there is only a ghost hid in the trees where once people lived."
Hazel Creek now looks as it did in I850 when the first man came.
The people who once lived and reveled in a virgin paradise are
now the poorer inhabitants of nearby towns. But the park will
regain and retain the primeval beauty of the region.
The holdings of the lumber companies were acquired without
difficulty except for the 92,800 acres owned by the Champion
Fibre Company, almost one-fifth of the national park. This
company owned the core of the virgin timber, the slopes of
New Found Gap, part of Clingman's Dome, all of Mount Le
Conte, the Chimney Tops, the Three Forks, Greenbrier Wilderness, and Mount Guyot. Reuben Robertson, president of the
company, argued that the spruce on the company's holdings was
essential to its continued operation. Eventually Champion agreed
to sell all of its land in the park for $3,00o,ooo. The company
began buying its spruce in Canada, shipping it to Canton at less
expense than if it had built a railroad to the crest of the Smokies
to get out the timber.
Eventually the federal government bought additional land.
In I933 President Roosevelt allocated $I,550,ooo from Civilian
Conservation Corps funds for land purchase, and by 1935 the
�In Pursuit of Pleasure / 403
400,000 acres set by Congress as a requirement had been met.
The two states had contributed $4,095,696, the United States
$3,503,766, and the Rockefeller Memorial Fund $s,o6s,ooo.
Another gift of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., of $roo,ooo made it
possible for the National Park Service to purchase 1000 acres in
the Linville Falls area. The Linville Gorge had already been
purchased by the Forest Service as part of the Pisgah National
Forest. The combined falls and gorge are now certain to be
preserved for posterity as a "wild area." Camping facilities have
been provided at the falls. Together the falls and the gorge
provide one of the most breathtaking experiences possible for
weekend visitors or one-day picnickers. The Blue Ridge Parkway's last link is now being built the length of Grandfather
Mountain along a route between the crest and the former
Yonahlossee Turnpike, now Highway 221, creating a strip of
national park where many hoped to locate the national park of
the Southern Highlands.
Millions of people come to the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park each year. They hike along its winding mountain
trails, pitch their camps in its forests, and view some of the most
luxuriant plant life in Eastern America. "More than 650 miles
of horse and foot trails wind along crystal clear streams and
waterfalls, past giant trees, ... through the wild beauty of
spring flowers or autumn colors, and into high mountain meadows." The park offers guided nature walks along many of the
trails. There are also many self-guided nature trails. The famous
Appalachian Trail enters the park at Davenport Gap and traverses
it for seventy-one miles, leaving it near Fontana Dam. One can
hike the seventy-one miles in six to eight days, sleeping in trailside shelters. The park has some six hundred miles of streams
that add beauty and can be fished for rainbow and brook trout.
It can be lovely during any of the four seasons but it is probably
the most beautiful during the latter half of October when there
are clear days and cool nights and the coloring of the leaves
presents a panorama of almost unbelievable colors.
Many social and residential communities have been created,
some of them organized as private clubs, others because of
common interests. Among such communities near Hendersonville are Pleasant Estates, the Highland Lake Club, with clubhouse
and cottages open to the public, and Laurel Park; several clubs in
�404 J Part III: A Developing Economy
Tryon; Hound Ears Club and Lodge; and the Carolina Caribbean
Club at Beech Mountain. In addition, several communities
and real estate developments have club-like restrictions; among
these are Linville and Little Switzerland. A prototype of these,
a club that was successful for several years was Kanuga, near
Hendersonville. In the first decade of this century George Stephens
of Asheville organized it after studying similar clubs in the
Adirondacks, on Long Island, and in Wisconsin. A group of
Charlotte businessmen bought the tract of one thousand acres
and divided it into lots fifty feet by two hundred. Each of the
two hundred carefully screened members received a lot, which
he could not sell without the permission of Stephens and the
trustees. Dues were a sum of$ I 50 for ten years. The cost of the
houses built by the members was restricted to a minimum of
$400 and a maximum of$2500. Running water was piped from
springs on the mountain, and a dam provided a lake and a source
of power for electricity. The resort opened in 1909 and was used
for only six years. The flood of 1916 washed out the lake and
destroyed the buildings. In 1927 the Episcopal Church bought
the site for a summer conference ground.
Little Switzerland was started by Judge Heriot Clarkson
about 1910. The original purchase was for eleven thousand acres.
A company was formed; inns, camps, and homes were planned.
It was to be an attractive and exclusive colony with no lots
smaller than one acre. A water system was installed and lots were
sold to interesting and distinguished people. The altitude of
Little Switzerland is 3 478 feet and it has a beautiful setting and
magnificent views. The Switzerland Inn, owned by Mrs. Ida
Clarkson, was run in connection with six cottages and a Swiss
chalet. Twelve miles of scenic roads, two beautiful waterfalls,
flowers and mountain shrubbery, and unsurpassed scenery have
been the chief attractions. When the Blue Ridge Parkway was
planned to traverse the crest of the Blue Ridge it had to pass
through Little Switzerland property. Judge Clarkson objected,
saying it would take three miles of the company property two
hundred feet wide. Nevertheless the parkway was built to
bisect the property and it has added beauty and distinction to
Little Switzerland. This unique development runs for five miles
along the parkway and extends one-half mile in width. There
are many attractive homes on the spacious lots. Geneva Hall is
the community center and nearby are camps Glen Laurel and
As You Like It.
�In Pursuit of Pleasure / 405
Soon after World War One, camps for boys and girls were
established throughout the mountains. At first these were
rugged, designed to allow the campers to experience primitive
conditions. Often they were operated by local people who had
no experience or training for the work. No standards for sanitation
and healthful conditions had been established. But within a few
years the Southern Camping Association and the American
Camping Association were organized, and they carried on
regular inspection of member camps. Their seals of approval
were sought by camp operators and were looked for by parents
in selecting camps. In addition to the many excellent privately
owned camps there are a number of boy and girl scout camps.
One of Transylvania County's eighteen camp communities
is more than a camp. It is the Brevard Music Center, started as
the Transylvania Music Camp by James Christian Pfohl in
1944. An annual music festival has been held since 1946. Now
the Transylvania Music Camp is the summer home of the
Brevard Music Center. It has 250 student campers, more than
165 faculty and staff members. Nine regularly performing
musical groups present five concerts weekly during the summer.
Improvements at the center include an additional forty acres,
twenty-seven new buildings, and a new auditorium built of
redwood and stone. The Music Center attracts outstanding
young musicians, and there is a faculty member for every two
students.
Tryon, an "unspoiled paradise," has an exquisite setting.
Lofty mountains rear their peaks four to five miles away. About
them Mrs. Ella W. Peattie wrote the poem "These Be the Mountains That Comfort Me." The mountains provide shelter from
the cold north winds. The mean temperature for January, the
coldest month, is 43 °, the mean summer temperature 74o.
Nearby are the charming Pacolet Valley, the crystal-clear
Pacolet River, and 175 acre Lake Lanier. Sydney Lanier lived
near Tryon for several years before his death in 1881. In 1896
Tryon was visited by the vice-president of the Southern Railway
Company who helped to popularize the town. William Gillette,
actor and playwright, built an attractive home, now the Thousand
Pines Inn. Other prominent people came for the winter and
many built homes. They formed the Tryon Riding and Hunt
Club, the Tryon Country Club, and made the area a fashionable
riding and hunting country. An annual steeple chase and a horse
and hounds show are held. There are also an annual spring
�406 / Part III: A Developing Economy
festival and a tilting tournament. Attractive hotels are the Mimosa,
Oak Hall, Oakwood, Edgewood, Thousand Pines, and Pinecrest.
Two of them are open all year, the others only in winter. Prominent visitors have been John Burroughs, Fanny Hurst, Edward
Waldo Emerson, Admiral Robert W. Peary, the Reverend
Charles G. Sewell. Tryon is an artists' colony, and it has been
for half a century a handicraft center.
The Western North Carolina Associated Communities
(WNCAC) grew from a drive that began in Asheville. In May
1946 the Asheville Chamber of Commerce invited public
officials, leaders of civic organizations, and leading citizens from
twenty-three western countries to attend a dinner meeting and
discuss coordination and cooperation among the communities
on regional matters. No organization developed from that
meeting, perhaps because "personal acquaintance and confidence
... could not be stretched this far." Just about a month later,
some eighteen people, all from communities west of Asheville,
met together at Dillsboro in Jackson County in a meeting to
explore promotion of tourist business, roads, and other matters
of mutual interest. At this second meeting the Western North
Carolina Associated Communities (WNCAC) was organized.
Eleven counties were represented, plus Western Carolina College,
the Cherokee Indian Reservation, and Fontana Village resort
area. A projects committee recommended seven particular
jobs to be launched by the WNCAC: I. To develop the North
Carolina side of the Smoky Mountains National Park; 2. To
establish a museum for preservation of historical materials of
the mountain region; 3· To attempt to secure more adequate
accommodations for tourists; 4. To assist in the completion of
the Bryson City-Fontana Road; 5· To initiate a historical outdoor
drama; 6. To work toward the completion of the Blue Ridge
Parkway; 7. To encourage the organization of a Chamber of
Commerce in each community of the WNCAC region. The
organization of the Cherokee Historical Association and the
production of the drama Unto These Hills are accomplishments
of WNCAC. The play, poignantly concerned chiefly with the
removal of the Cherokees, provides seasonal incomes for one
hundred seventy persons and attracts tourists to the area. The
organizers of WNCAC began talking about such a drama in
1946, and in 1950 the first performance was given. The inspiration
came from "The Lost Colony," the symphonic drama by Paul
�In Pursuit of Pleasure / 407
Green which has been performed on Roanoke Island throughout
the summer each year since 1937. As the purpose of WNCAC
was to present a drama concerning the Cherokee Indians, the
cooperation of a local committee from Cherokee was essential.
Kermit Hunter was asked to write the drama. Then the Cherokee
Historical Association was formed to build a theater and produce
the play. On March 24, 1948, the historical association was
incorporated as a non-profit organization; officers were Harry
E. Buchanan of Hendersonville, chairman, Percy Ferebee,
vice-chairman, Mrs. Molly Arneach of Cherokee, secretary,
and Joe Jennings, treasurer. Funds were recruited by pledges
from people and organizations of eleven counties, the drama
was written, and the Mountainside Theater with access roads
was built. Contributions were made by Indian Service employees
and the Eastern Band of Cherokees, traders at Cherokee, and
the Catholic Church. A total of $29,286.75 was raised, to which
the North Carolina General Assembly was persuaded to contribute $35,000 in 1949. Veterans who were engaged in building
trades classes at Cherokee High School contributed much labor,
and many others worked throughout the year 1949. From the
first performance on July I, 1950, the drama was a success.
Then the Cherokee Historical Association turned its attention
to the Tsali Institute, a non-profit organization for the historical
and anthropological study of the Cherokee Indians. It built a
full size Indian village of about the year 1750, Oconaluftee,
toward which the North Carolina General Assembly appropriated
$25,000. Mud huts and primitive cabins in which Indians engage
in native crafts exemplify the life of the Cherokees. The Museum
of the Cherokee Indian is another product of the Association.
It brings together artifacts that trace the complete history of
the Indian, especially the Cherokees.
New developments for the Eastern Cherokees are the various
governmental service agencies such as a twenty-five bed hospital,
a forestry division, an agricultural and soil conservation service,
a water and sewer facility, the Neighborhood Youth Corps
of the United States Department of Labor, and a community
action program under the Office of Economic Opportunity.
The Boundary Tree Enterprise, tribally owned, includes a
lodge and motel and a building housing the showroom of the
Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual. Most of the motels, craft shops,
restaurants, and filling stations are owned and operated by
Cherokees.
�408 / Part III: A Developing Economy
"Chiefing"- Cherokee Indian wearing a Plains Indian war bonnet to attract
tourists
Friends of the band have deplored the resort to "chiefing"
which has been practiced by some of the men and boys. They
wear the feather headdress of the Sioux Indians of the Great
Plains during the tourist season and stand in front of gift shops
in Cherokee to attract customers. They charge twenty-five to
fifty cents to allow the curious to take their pictures and then
entice the people into the shops where the handcrafted products
such as baskets, pottery, and headwork are sold.
The United States Department of the Interior estimates
that five million tourists visit Cherokee annually. Their purchases
and the services they require are an obvious boost to the economy
of the Cherokees and the region. The reservation has been called
�Itz Pursuit of Pleasure / 409
by the Department of the Interior the model Indian reservation
of the country. It is a unique example of cooperation by the
federal government, state government, associated communities
and a particular community.
Two years after the opening of Unto These Hills, some of the
leading citizens of Boone including Mrs. J. B. Stallings, Mrs.
Leo Pritchett, Stanley Harris, D. J. Whitener and Mrs. Charles
Cannon of Concord organized the Southern Appalachian
Historical Association. This organization engaged Kermit Hunter
to write an outdoor drama Horn in the West. The "Horn" was
the call of the west, of the untamed wilderness and of freedom.
It is the story of the westward movement and the struggle of
a group of colonists for independence and freedom from oppression, unjust taxes, and legal injustice. It involves the movement
of the people across the mountains and their clash with the
Indians. Daniel Boone is a heroic character in the play, but
his deeds were not performed by the real Daniel Boone as he
was in Kentucky at the time the drama is supposed to have taken
place. The play is gripping, picturesque, exciting. It is great
entertainment. It has verisimilitude: that is, although the narrative
is fiction events could have happened as they are created for
the audience. The setting for the drama is a unique outdoor
theater that seats 2400 people.
Kermit Hunter explained the nature of his outdoor dramas
as art forms of three types: folk art built upon the manners,
customs, beliefs, and ideals of an earlier America; commercial
art, to provide dividends (tourists spend an average of $15 per
day per person); fine art, to portray scenes, characters, and ideas
based on fundamental and timeless truths and to give the audience
inspiration. Horn in the West is produced in the Daniel Boone
Theater on a tract of land purchased by the town of Boone.
Two other attractions are to be found there. One is the Daniel
Boone Native Garden, created by the Garden Club of North
Carolina to preserve and permit people to enjoy the native
shrubs, flowers, and trees of the area. The other is the Tatum
House, the actual log house occupied by generations of the
Tatum family and described by Charles Dudley Warner in
On Horseback. It was moved to these grounds and is furnished
authentically as a museum of rural life of the nineteenth century.
�4IO
j Part III: A Developing Economy
The Zebulon B. Vance birthplace in the Reems Creek area
of Buncombe County is a historic site administered by the
State Department of Archives and History. The site includes the
dwelling house and six farm buildings. One other log building
will be added. The restoration includes the original chimney,
two original fireplaces, paneling, flooring, rafters and foundation
rock taken from the old house. The dwelling contains many
pieces of furniture, weaving, tools, pots, artifacts used by pioneers
in the eighteenth century. The Vance house was built not long
after the Revolution, but it is associated with Zebulon B. Vance,
the state's Civil War Governor, Senator, soldier and orator who
attained "more honors than any other man in the State's history."
There is also a visitor-center-museum which has an exhibit
room, a lecture room, an administrative office, and rest rooms.
In McDowell County the Carson House is being restored
as a museum of history to "illustrate life in the Upper Catawba
Valley a hundred fifty to a hundred years ago." Built about
I 8 IO, the house served as the first court house when the county
was created in 1843, as a stage coach stop and a fashionable inn,
and during the Civil War as a "small exclusive school for girls."
"As eastern America searches desperately for recreational
outlets for its tens of millions, Appalachia becomes infinitely
more important as a preserve for people than as a site for new
industries."
Among the cherished heritages of mountain people are the
folk tales, the ballads, and the folk dances. Greater effort should
be made to preserve and to popularize these.
Tourist facilities are far different from what they were fifty
years ago. The highway and the automobile have been responsible
for the change. Formerly tourists were content to stay in rustic,
fairly crude inns, lodges, hotels. Now people drive as far and
as fast as they wish, and they will drive to where the most luxurious and attractive hotels and motels are to be found. The prices
are much higher, of course, but people are willing to spend
money freely for pleasure and luxuries. Far more "first class"
motels are needed.
The 1950's and 196o's have been years of the most rapid
tourist development. An area endowed with supernal beauty
and a delightfully cool summer climate had to be developed
and advertised. Some attractions there were, but many were
added, including winter sports. Roan Mountain in rhododendron
time, the Moses Cone Estate, Mount Mitchell, Grandfather
�In Pursuit of Pleasure / 4 I
I
Zebulon Baird Vance birthplace before restoration
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES C O.
Vance Birthplace after restoration
ASHEVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PHOTO
�412 / Part III: A Developing Economy
Mountain, Linville Falls, Wiseman's View, and the Great Smokies
should be on the itinerary of most travelers to the mountains.
The Kerr Scott Dam and Reservoir, a federal construction,
provides flood control of the Y adkin and its tributaries and
recreational facilities. It is one of several projected dams for
the Y adkin River system. Two new state parks are being developed, Pilot Mountain in Surry County and Stone Mountain in
Wilkes County.
The present trend is toward larger and more exclusive
resorts. The Robbins brothers were highly successful in developing Hound Ears. It appears that they are even more successful
with Beech Mountain. The Morton-McRae family who own
Grandfather Mountain have developed Invershiel, a residential
community in Scottish style. They have built a beautiful new
golf course and lake at the foot of Grandfather Mountain. Around
the lake and golf course they are selling home sites. Dr. Thomas
Brigham and Mr. and Mrs. George McRae who helped start
the Beech Mountain project are now developing Sugar Mountain.
A group of Winston-Salem men and the L. A. Reynolds Construction Company have developed Seven Devils, a resort and
residential area with ski slopes, a lake, homesites, golf and tennis.
Roaring Gap, in Alleghany County, a resort chiefly of people
from Winston-Salem has been enjoyed for many years. Nearby
the High Meadows Golf Club and Ski Slope have been added
recently. Today the area from Tryon to Franklin is a "golden
strip" filled with summer and retirement homes and resorts.
Skiing and other winter sports have been introduced. Many
of the homes are luxurious and are owned chiefly by people
from elsewhere. In Jackson County, for example, 2500 of 8ooo
property owners are from outside the state. Among the fine
inns in that area are High Hampton, Sapphire Valley, and
Highlands Inn.
In 1960 the total expenditures of all travelers in North Carolina
were estimated at $4o8,ooo,ooo. Out-of-state travelers spent
$245,ooo,ooo, North Carolina people $163,ooo,ooo. There was
an increase in travel expenditures over 1959 of 4-5°/0 , over 1948
of 167%. Including local trade engaged in by travelers the amount
spent in 1960 was $81o,ooo,ooo. From these figures one can
readily see that "the travel business in North Carolina is a vast
industry .... The travel dollar flows into a wide range of industries." The travel industry in the mountain region in 1960
brought in $58,8oo,ooo. This was 14.4% of the state total and
�In Pursuit of Pleasure / 413
Richard Nixon at the Roan Mountain Rhododendron Festival, 1958
HUGH MORTON PHOTO
I 0.4% of retail trade and service receipts. The total receipts of
businesses that serve travelers, including local trade, was
$I02,8oo,ooo. Western North Carolina's travel business is invaluable and extensive, but the region that contains the Blue Ridge
Parkway and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park should
have a greater share of the state's travel business. The roads from
the North and Midwest passing through North Carolina must
be improved. More broad highways and interstate routes are
needed. Northwestern North Carolina does not have more
than a few miles of four lane highways.
Two Winston-Salem journal editorials stressed the position
of Western North Carolina: "We need to tell the rest of the
world about all that this area offers, and we need to tell our own
people (like motel staffers, service station attendants, waitresses).
We need more popular entertainment. We must convince wives
that they should accompany their husbands on business trips
here, and we must persuade them- and all visitors- to stay
longer. . . . The fact remains that . . . recreational open space
is fast becoming the most precious commodity in America.
All that remains is some determination of how best to use this
land for the good of all of us."
�SOURCES
Much of the information consisted of oral history from lengthy interviews (some of the elderly persons are now deceased) :
D. Hiden Ramsey, Asheville
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Turkey
Creek
James Larkin Pearson, North
Wilkesboro
Dr. Benjamin Washburn,
Rutherfordton
Dr. Alfred Mordecai, Greensboro
and Blowing Rock
Granville Calhoun, Bryson City
John McLeod, Mars Hill
W. Ernest Bird, Cullowhee
Willis Weatherford, Blue Ridge
J. Walter Moore, Hayesville
Mrs. Maude Gentry Long, Hot
Springs
Worth Morgan, Forest City
Leroy Sossamon, Bryson City
Mrs. Marian Ingram, Robbinsville
Mrs. Lillian Thomasson, Bryson
City
Miss Cordelia Camp, Asheville
Mrs. Mary Jane McCrary, Brevard
Mrs. Nancy Alexander, Lenoir
Patton Phillips, Graham County
Gordon Winkler, Boone
S. C. Eggers, Boone
Miss Myra Champion, Asheville
Mrs. Carrie Winkler, Boone
James Patton, Chapel Hill
Clark Medford, Waynesville
Cratis Williams, Boone
George M. Stephens, Asheville
Dr. Edward W. Phifer, Morganton
Robert Conway, Dept. of Archives
and History
W. H. Plemmons, Boone, formerly
of Asheville
Mrs. Janice Whitener, Boone
James Stroup, Spruce Pine
Rush Wray, Burnsville
Daniel Boone, VI, Burnsville
Thomas W. Ferguson, Ferguson
Mrs. Annie Winkler, North
Wilkesboro
John Wikle, Bryson City
Lynn Gault, Brasstown
W. B. Stephen, Pigeon Forge
Woody Brothers, Spruce Pine
Edith J. Cornell, Boone
Mrs. Lexine Baird, Mars Hill
Harley Jolley, Mars Hill
Fred 0. Scroggs, Hayesville
Robbins Brothers, Watauga County
Mrs. A. P. Kephart, authority on
camping
Rufus Morgan, Franklin
Jason Deyton, Spruce Pine
John Foster West, Wilkes County
and Boone
Miss Doris Sparks, historian of
Patterson School
Mrs. Elizabeth McKibben Williams,
Waynesville
John 0. Goodwin, Blowing Rock
Jack Guy, Beech Creek
Richard Chase, Beech Creek
Don Lineberger, Brevard
Mrs. Daisy Feagan, Columbus
Weimar Jones, Franklin
Col. Paul Rockwell, Asheville
Alonzo Shields, Murphy
�Sources / 4 I 5
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Mead, and other companies, the National Park Service, and the U.S.
Forest Service were interviewed. Questionnaires were sent to twentyfour school superintendents concerning integration. Visits were made
to these schools: John C. Campbell Folkschool, Crossnore, Penland,
Western Carolina University, Caldwell Community College, Warren
Wilson College, and Tuscola High School.
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GENERAL WORKS, REGIONAL, COUNTY,
AND LOCAL HISTORIES
Alexander, Nancy, Here Will I Dwell (Lenoir, I956), A History of Caldwell
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Anderson, Robert Campbell, The Story of Montreat from Its Beginning, I8971947 (Montreat, I947).
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Arthur, John Preston, Western North Carolina: A History from 1730-1913
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Awle, Wm. Cicero, Centennial of Haywood County and Its County Seat
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Baker, Gladys, The County Agent (Chicago, 1939).
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_ _ _ _ The Civil War in North Carolina (Chapel Hill, I963).
Biltmore House and Gardens, pamphlet published by the Biltmore Company.
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).
Biographical History of North Carolina (Greensboro,
).
Bird, William Ernest, "Geographic and Historical Backgrounds of the
Cullowhee Area," paper read to the joint meeting of the North
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_ _ _ _ The History of Western Carolina College: The Progress of an Idea
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�Sources / 423
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_ _ _ _ "Brevard's First Boom," Ibid.
Boyd, C. R. Resources of Southwest Virginia (New York, r88r).
Brooks, James E., Green Leaf and Gold (Raleigh, 1962).
Brown, Cecil Kenneth, The State Highway System of North Carolina, Its
Evolution and Present Status (Chapel Hill, 193 r).
_ _ _ _ , A State Movement in Railroad Development (Chapel Hill, 1928).
Brown, Frank C., Collection of North Carolina Folklore, gen. ed., Norman
I. White (Durham, 1952), 7 vols.
Brown, Hugo Victor, A History of the Education of Negroes (Raleigh, 1961).
Brown, 0 Lester, Blanford Barnard Dougherty: A Man to Match His Mountains (Boone, 1963).
Buckingham, James S., Slave States of America (London, 1842).
Burkhead, L. S., A Centennial History of Methodism in North Carolina (Raleigh,
1876).
Camp, Cordelia, David Lowry Swain: Governor and University President.
(Asheville, 1963).
_ _ _ _ , Governor Vance: A Life for Young People (Asheville, 1961).
_ _ _ _ , "Handicrafts in Western North Carolina Highlands," typescript.
_ _ _ _ A Thought at Midnight (Asheville, 1969). The Asheville Teachers
College.
Campbell, John C., The Southern Highlander and His Homeland (New York,
1921).
Campbell, Olive Dame, and Cecil Sharp, English Folk Songs from the Southern
Appalachians (New York and London, 1917).
_ _ _ _ , Southern Highland Schools Maintained by Denominational and
Independent Agencies (New York, 1921).
Carolina and Northwestern Railway, People's Own Line (Richmond, 1877).
Cathey, Cornelius 0., Agriculture in North Carolina Before the Civil War
(Raleigh, 1967).
Centennial History of Clay County, North Carolina, 1861-1961 (Hayesville,
1961).
Chase, Richard, Gran4father Tales: American-English Folk Tales (Boston,
1948).
The Cherokee Indian, Qualla Indian Reservation. Booklet.
Chunn, Ida, Descriptive Guidebook to North Carolina Mountains (New York,
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Clark, Elmer T., Methodism in Western North Carolina (Lake Junaluska, 1966).
Cohen, John, "Introduction to Styles in Old-Time Music," New Lost City
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_ _ _ _ , The Balsam Groves of Grandfather Mountain (Philadelphia, 1909).
Dykeman, Wilma, Prophet of Plenty (Knoxville, 1966).
_ _ _ _ and James Stokely, Seeds of Southern Change: The Life of Will
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Eaton, Allen, Handicrafts of the Southern Highlands (New York, 1937).
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Griffin, Clarence W., History of Old Tryon and Rutherford Counties, 17301936 (Asheville, 1937).
_ _ _ _ , History of Rutherford County, 1937-1951 (Asheville, 1957).
_ _ _ _ , Western North Carolina Sketches (Forest City, 1941).
Gulick, John, Cherokees at the Crossroads (Chapel Hill, 1960).
Hale, P.M., In the Coal and Iron Counties of North Carolina (Raleigh, 1883).
_ _ _ _ , Woods and Timbers of North Carolina (Raleigh, 1890).
Harden, John, North Carolina Roads and their Builders, II (Raleigh, 1966).
Hayes, Johnson, The Land of Wilkes (Wilkesboro, 1962).
Helper, Hinton Rowan, The Impending Crisis of the South (New York, 1857).
Henderson, Archibald, The Conquest of the Old Southwest (New York, 1920).
Henredon Furniture Industries, Inc., Annual Report, (1968).
Henry, Mellinger E., Folk-Songs from the Southern Highlands (New York,
1938).
Herring, Harriet L., Passing of the Mill Village: Revolution in a Southern
Institution (Chapel Hill, 1949).
Hickerson, Thomas Felix, Echoes of Happy Valley: Letters and Diaries, Family
Life in the South, Civil War History (Chapel Hill, 1962).
_ _ _ _ , Happy Valley (Durham, 1940).
Hobbs, Samuel H., Jr., North Carolina Economic and Social (Chapel Hill,
1930).
Holder, Rose Howell, Mciver of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, 1957).
Hollingsworth, Jesse G., History of Surry County, or Annals of Northwest
North Carolina (Greensboro, 1935).
Holmes, J. S., Mount Mitchell and Mount Mitchell State Park (1919).
Housley, Jay, Brief History of Tapoco and the Great Smoky Country (Tapoco
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Hoyle, Bernadette, Tar Heel Writers I Know (Winston-Salem, 1956).
Illick, Joseph S., Tree Habits: How to Know the Hardwoods (Washington,
D.C., 1924).
Illustrated Guidebook of the Western North Carolina Railroad (n/d).
Jackson, George Pullen, Another Sheaf of White Spirituals (Gainesville, Florida,
1952).
_ _ _ _ , White Spirituals of the South Uplands (Chapel Hill, 1933).
_ _ _ _ , Spiritual Folk Songs of Early America (New York, 1937).
Jefferys, Grady, Crossties Through Carolilw (Raleigh, 1969).
Jenkins, Mark, Historical Sketch of Calvary Episcopal Church (Fletcher, 1958).
Johnson, Gerald W., The Making of a Southern Industrialist (Chapel Hill,
1952).
Johnson, Monte, "The Presbyterian," Religion in the Appalachian Mountains
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Judson College Catalogue, 1890-1891.
Kephart, Horace, National Park in the Great Smoky Mountains (Asheville,
1925).
_ _ _ _ , Our Southern Highlanders (New York, 1922).
Kerr, W. C., Western North Carolina (Raleigh, 1883).
King, Edward, The Great South (Hartford, 1875).
Knight, Edgar W., Public School Education in North Carolina (Durham, 1916).
Koch, Frederick H., Smoky Mountain Road (Chapel Hill, 1939).
Leach, MacEdward, The Ballad Book (New York, 1933).
Lefler, Hugh T. and Albert Ray Newsome, North Carolina: The History
of a Southern State (Chapel Hill, 1954).
Lewis, Charles Lee, Philander Priestly Claxton: Crusader for Public Education
(Knoxville, 1948).
Lomax, Alan, The Folk Songs of North America (New York, 1960).
Long, W. Ray, An Historical Sketch of Linville (n/d).
Lovvorn, R. L., Health and Health Services in the Southern Appalachians
(Raleigh, 1959).
McCrary, Mary Jane, The Goodly Heritage (Brevard, 1959).
_ _ _ _ , "Transylvania County, 1861-1961" Transylvania County Centennial Historical Souvenir Program (Brevard, 1961).
McLeod, John, From These Stones (Mars Hill, 1965).
McNelley, Pat, ed., The First Forty Years: John C. Campbell Folkschool (Brasstown, 1966).
Malone, Dumas, Edwin A. Alderman, a Biography (New York, 1946).
Manpower Education in Western North Carolina (Washington, D.C. 1968).
Mead, Martha N., Asheville in the Land of the Sky (Richmond, 1942).
Mead Corporation, Progress Report for Employees: Forty Years of Progress in
Sylva, North Carolina, (Typescript, n/d).
Medford, W. Clark, Land of the Sky (Waynesville,
).
_ _ _ _ , Mountain People, Mountain Times (Waynesville, 1963).
Miller, Leonard P., Education in Buncombe County (Asheville, 1965).
Milling, Chapman J., Red Carolinians (Chapel Hill, 1940).
Montreat-Anderson College Catalogue, 1913 through 1966, shows the
history year by year.
Moore, Hight C., Patton: Southern Highlander. A Biography of Reverend
Robert Logan Patton (n/d).
Morgan, Lucy, and LeGette Blythe, Gift From the Hills (New York, 1958).
Morley, Margaret, The Carolina Mountains (Boston and New York, 1913).
Noble, M. C. S., A History of the Public School of North Carolina (Chapel
Hill, 1930).
Mount Mitchell Railroad (Asheville, 1918).
Mountain Research Station. Pamphlet distributed at the station.
Niles, John J., Songs of the Hill Folk: Twelve Ballads from Kentucky, Virginia,
and North Carolina (
1934).
North Carolina Good Roads Association, Road Maps and Tour Book (1916).
Nowell, Elizabeth, The Letters of Thomas Wolfe (New York, 1956).
Nowell, Elizabeth, Thomas Wolfe (New York, 1960).
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Orr, Oliver H., Jr., Charles Brantley Aycock (Chapel Hill, 1961).
Pace, Herbert E., Fifty Years Ago Around Saluda (Saluda, 1957).
Parker, Haywood, Folklore of the North Carolina Mountaineer (Asheville,
1906).
Parris, John A., My Mountains, My People (Asheville, 1957).
_ _ _ _ , Roaming the Mountains (Asheville, 1955).
Patton, Sadie Smathers, "Madison County," unpublished typescript.
_ _ _ _, "Mills River Baptist Church: the History of the First Hundred
years," typescript.
_ _ _ _ , "Pages from the History of the Speculation Lands in Western
North Carolina," typescript in North Carolina Collection, UNC
Library, Chapel Hill.
_ _ _ _ , ·Sketches of Polk County History (Hendersonville, 1950).
_ _ _ _ , The Story of Henderson County (Asheville, 1947).
Pearson, James Larkin, Fifty Acres and Other Poems (Wilkesboro, 1933).
Pearson, Thomas, Richmond Hill Museum (Asheville, 1959).
The 191 6 Pictorial History of Haywood County, special industrial and resort
edition of the Carolina Mountaineer and the Canton Observer. Reprint.
Plyler, Alva W., "The Early Circuit Riders of Western North Carolina,"
address before the Western North Carolina Conference Historical
Society (Asheville, Nov. 14, 1917).
Pomeroy, Kenneth B., andJames G. Yoho, North Carolina Lands (Washington, D.C.,
).
Population and Economic Analysis of the Asheville Metropolitan Area and the
Western North Carolina Region That It Serves (Asheville, 1966).
Powell, William S. Higher Education in North Carolina (Raleigh, 1964).
Preslaw, Charles]. ed., A History of Catawba County (Salisbury, 1954).
Price, Charles L., "The Railroad Schemes of George W. Swepson," East
Carolina College Publications in History, I (1964), 32-50.
Price, R. M., Holston Methodism (Nashville, 1908).
Pringle, George H., Inventory of Assets of Jackson County, Jackson County
Chamber of Commerce, (n/d).
Proceedings of the North Carolina Teachers Assembly, Haywood White Sulphur
Springs, June 16-July r, 1884.
Putnam, John F., The Plucked Dulcimer of the Southern Mountains (Berea,
1957).
Richmond and Danville Railroad, Excursion Guide to Virginia and North
Carolina Health Resorts (r883).
Richmond and Danville Railroad, Summer Resort (1884).
Richardson, Frank, From Sunrise to Sunset (Bristol, 1910).
Roberts, Bruce, The Face of North Carolina (Charlotte, 1960).
Robertson, Archie, Slow Train to Yesterday (Boston, 1945).
Sage, Frances and Margaretta Williamson, Rural Children in Selected Counties
in North Carolina (Washington, D.C., 1918).
Sawyer, Harriet Adams, Souvenir of Asheville or Skyland (St. Louis, 1892).
Scarborough, Dorothy, A Songcatcher in the Southern Mountains (New York,
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Sharpe, William, A New Geography of North Carolina, 3 vols. (Raleigh,
1954).
_ _ _ _ , A Complete Guide to the Mountains of North Carolina (Raleigh,
19 53).
Sill, James B., Historical Sketches: Diocese of Western North Carolina (Asheville,
1955).
Small, John K., Flora of the Southeastern United States, 2nd ed. (New York,
1913).
Smathers, G. H., The History of Land Titles in Western North Carolina, (1938).
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Smith, Harvey L., Society and Health in a Mountain Community (Chapel Hill,
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Wilson, Mary Moretz, "Nineteenth Century Education in Watauga County," typescript.
_ _ _ _ , "The Deep Gap Tie and Lumber Company," typescript.
Wolfe, Tom, "The Last American Hero," The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine
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Wolfe, Thomas You Can't Go Home Again (New York, 1934).
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�INDEX
Aaron Seminary, I 58
Abernethy, Rev., Laban, 91, 154
Abrams, Dr. Amos, 231
Alderman, Edwin A., I33, 166, 167, 171, I74,
I79
Alexander's Inn, 39
Alexander, James Mitchell, 39
Alexander, Nancy, 220
Alexander Schools, I 57
Allanstand Industries, I 86, 226
Alleghany County, 3, 20, 48, 73, 92, 98, I 19,
136, I42, r66, 169,277,279,284,285,292,
333. 337. 344
Allen High School, I5I, I58-159
Allen Industrial Home, see Allen High School
Allen, Maria, I 12
Allen, Wilson, 42, 44
Anderson, Dr. R. C., 162
Anderson, W.W., 245
Andrews, 266
Anesthesia, use of, ro6
Appalachian Regional Commission, 119
Appalachian Regional Development
program, I 4 7
Appalachian School, 163, 164, 187
Appalachian State Normal School, see
Appalachian State University
Appalachian State University, 140, 145, 146,
147, I79-18J,2I8,220,277, 354,368
Appalachian Training School, see Appalachian
State University
Apple culture, 280-281
Arden, 84,87, 163, I93. I95. I98
Arthur, John Preston, 220
Asbury, Bishop Francis, 75, 77
Ashe County, 2, 3, 8, 20, 48, 73, 84, 93, 96,
!04, 108, II], II9, 137. J40, 142, 177, 194,
220, 245, 253. 266, 269, 270, 272, 277. 279,
280,28~285,286,]]3, 342, 34~ 353
Asheville, 8, 10, 16, 34, 35, 36, 37, 58, 70, 83,
84, 85, 87, 88, 91, 92, 100, I06, IQ9, III,
II5, IJ7, 1 I8, 126, 127, 141, 142, 143. '44.
148, 151, 158, 159, 167, 177, 181, I96, 198,
204,208-209, 2II, 214,220,222,225,239,
241,253,254,255,268,276,279, ]26, ]28,
366,378-388
Asheville-Biltmore College, see UNC at
Asheville
Asheville-Biltmore Technical Institute, 113
Asheville Farm School, I 59, 160
Asheville Female College, 37, 158
Asheville Male Academy, 57
Asheville Normal and Associated Schools, 159
Asheville Normal and Collegiate Institute,
I59-I6I
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, 87
Avery, Major Alphonso Calhoun, II, ]2, 33,
88, 91
Avery County, ], 20, 47, I IJ, I29, 137, IJ8,
IJ9, I42, I48, 149, I 58, '93, 220, 229, 277,
279, 3JI, 332, 342, 344
Avery County High School, 139
Avery, Isaac, 28, 89
Avery, William Waighstill, 28, 32, 91
Aycock, Charles Brantley, 93, IJ2, IJ6, 179
Ayers, H.B. and W.W. Ashe, report, 297
Bader, William, 193
Bailey, Judge John L., 88, 91, 92
Bakersville, 44, 4 7, 90, 29 3
Ballads, 226-230
Balsam Mountains, 1, 7, 53
Banner Elk, 8, I39, I62
Baptist, 32, 37, 7I, 72-74
Baptist, Free Will, 37, 73, 87
Baptist, Missionary, 73
Baptist, Primitive, 73
Battery Park Hotel, 58, 259
Beaucatcher Mountain, 36
Beaver Creek, 85
Bechtlcr's Mint, 57
Beech Creek, I 9 5
Bell, Croydon and Thelma Harrington, 220
Bellevue, 32
Belvedere, 3 2
Ben Lippen, 87
Benners, I. N., 127
Berry, S.V., 85
Bethel Baptist Assn., 73
Biltmore, 187, 298-301, 302, 307
Biltmore Forest, 302, 306
Biltmore Junior College, see UNC at
Asheville
Biltmore Village, 8 5
Bingham, Major Harvey, 8, I4
Bird, Dean William Ernest, 52, 220
Blackburn, Edmund Spencer, 98
Black Mountain, 37, 87, I69, 298
Black Mountain College, I I 5
Black Mountain Range, I, 40, 4I
Blake, Fanny, 83
Blalock, Keith, 8
Bledsoe, George, 222
Blount, John Gray, 4
Blowing Rock, 10, 85, 1 ro, 179, 197, 326,
3JI, 373. 375
Blowing Rock Assembly, 87
Blowing Rock-Lenoir Turnpike, 372
Blue Ridge Assembly, 87
Blue Ridge Hearthside Crafts Assn., I93, I94
Blue Ridge Parkway, II9, 337-340, 389
Blythe, Legette, 221
Board of Health, State, I04, I06, 107, II6
Board of Water and Air Resources, I I 5
Bonclarken, 87
Boner, John Henry, 2I8
"Boom and Bust," Asheville, 386-388
Boon, Samuel, McDaniel, and Thomas, 42
Boone,47-48, 167,195,267,277,367-368
Bostian, L. E., 82
Bowie, Thomas C. (Tam), 93, 333
Bowman, Jacob M., 45
Brasstown, 198
Brevard, 51, 83, 84, 155, 158,262,263,326,
328, 363-365, 377-378
Brevard College, 154, 158
Brevard Epworth School, see Brevard College
Brevard Institute, see Brevard College
Briar Creek Baptist Assn., 74
Brinegar Cabin, I88, 39I, 392
430
�Index / 431
Brittain's Cave, 186
Broad River, 57
Brooker, W. L., I4I
Brooks, E.C., 2I8
Brooks, Dr. J. E., I IO-I r 1
Broughton Hospital, 103, I I4
Brown, Davis P., I<)8
Brown, E.D., 82
Brown, Frank C., 229
Brown, James, I4
Brown, Lawrence, 100-101
Brown Mountain Lights, 245
Brown, 0. Lester, 220
Brown Seminary, 158
Brown, Brigadier General Simeon, 9
Broyhill, James T., 94,99
Brushy Mountain Baptist Assn., 74
Bryan, T. Conn, 22I
Bryan's Hotel, 47
Bryson City, 57, 130, 218
Buck Hotel, 3 5
Buell, Hillhouse, 84
Buncombe County, 2, 4, 14, 20, 28, 36, 37,
73, 77, 78, 79, 80, 89, 98, IOO, IOI, I09, IIJ,
II7, 126, 129, I36, I40, I43, I44, I47, I62,
I63, 182, I85, I97, 220, 232, 254, 276, 277,
279,280,283,284,286,292,304, 3I4, 329,
334.342,343.344.365-366
Buncombe County Health Department, 115
Buncombe Hotel, 3 5
Buncombe Turnpike, 39
Burchett, George, 266
Burger Mountain, 87
Burke County, 4, II, 16, I8, 20, 25, 30, J2,
33, 77, 84, 90, 91, 98, 113, 142, 144, 153,
177,220,268,273,276,279,287, JI4, 33I,
342,343.344
Burnett, Frances Hodgson, 307
Burnett, Fred M., 62, 29R
Burnsville, Hi, 40, 42, 90, 157, 185
Burt, Lucy, 164
Buxton, Jarvis, 84, 8 5
Bynum, John Gray, 32
Bynum, J.S., 32
Caesar's Head, 90
Cain, William, 324, 326
Cairns, John, Jr., 207
Caldwell County, 3, q., I8, 20, 45, 88, 93,
II3, I35, 136, 142, 153, 163,220,272,279,
342, 344. 346
Caldwell Community College, II3
Caldwell, Tod R., I6, 90
Calfee, John E., I 59
Calloway, Elijah, 93
Calloway, James, 93
Camp, Cordelia, 221
Campbell, John C., 68,213
Campbell, Olive Dame, 192, 213, 225, 226,
227
Campbell, Robert F., 8o;8I
Camp Meetings, 77
Camps, summer, 405
Candler, Coke, 100
Cannon, Dr. Gainc, 104
Canton, II6, 118, 119,252, 26I, 266,308
Carolina Power and Light Co., 355
Carroll, Ruth and Latrobe, 230
Carson House, 34, 4IO, 4II
Carson, Col. John, 28
Carson, Col. Joseph McDowell, 58
Carson, Samuel P., 28
Carter, H. B., 36
Carter, Sol W., hotel, 40, 42
Cashiers, 377
Catalooche, 90, 266
Catawba River, 90, 268
Cathcart, William, 4
Cathey, Mrs. George, 189
Catholic churches, 37, 85, 87
Cattle, 284-286
Civilian Conservation Corps, 338, 339
Cecil, Mrs. John F. A., 301
Central Bank and Trust Co., 142
Champion Paper and Fibre Co., rr6, 119,
308-3 IO
Chappell, Fred, 214
Charleston, see Bryson City
Chase, Richard, 195-196, 220, 244
Chatham Manufacturing Co., 94
Chatham, Richard Thurmond, 94
Chatuge Lake, 3 19
Chautauqua, teachers', I68-r69
Cheoah Range, 1
Cherokee, town of, 53, 340
Cherokee County, 3, 15, 20, 56, 74, So, 90, 96,
II3, 127, 136, 142, I5I, I82, 220, 276, 279,
286, 342, 344
Cherokee Historical Association and related
activities, 408
Cherokee Indians, 4, 21, 22, 53, 57, 89-90,
144-145. 175.209, 340, 370
Chestnut trees, 270-271
Chimney Rock, 57, 337
Christmont, 87
Christ School, 84, I63
Church of God, 87
Church, Harrison, 8
Cilley, Col. Clinton A., 89
Civil War, 6-I2
Classes, social, 6, 70
Claxton, Philander P., 167, 168
Clay County, 3, I 5, 20, 54, 56, 77, So, I04,
129, 137. I42, I5I, I 58, 173, 177. I78, 279.
280, 286, 319, 342, 344. 348
Clay, Harry, 101
Clement, Miss Exum, 334
Clinchfield Railroad, 264-265
Clingman, Thomas Lanier, 35, 90
Clingman's Dome, I
Cloudland Hotel, 45, 47, 254, 263
Cloyd, Uriah, I53
Clyde, II8
College of the City of Asheville, see UNC at
Asheville
Columbus, 58, 138
Colvard, Dean W., 286
Cone Mansion, 39I
Cone, Moses H., I79
Connor, R.D.W., 5
Conservation and Development, Dept. of, I I 8
Conservation, state agencies, 188
Conservative Party, see Democratic Party
Constitutional Convention of I 868, 123
Cooper, Horton, 220, 221
Cooperatives, 280-281, 283
Corn production, 287-288
Cotton manufacturing, 355-361
�432 / Index
Counties, formation of, 2-3
Court week, 27-28
Cowee Mountains, r, 53
Cowles, Arthur, 349
Cowles, Calvin Josiah, 349, 351
Cowles, Charles Holden, 98
Coxe, Frank, 58
Crab Tree Orphan's Home, SI
Cradle of Forestry, 3 r 5
Craig, Gov. Locke, 92, 93, 132, r8r, 329
Craigmont, S7
Cranberry, 47, rS5, 246, 263, 265, 267, 351,
352
Credle, Ellis, 2 r 9
Crest of the Blue Ridge Highway, 328-329
Crossnore School, I3S, I92, 195, 221
Cullowhee, 174, I75, 176, 178, 179, r8o, r8r
Curry,]. L. M., 128, 171
Cushman, Rebecca, 215, 297
Dargan, Olive Tilford, 216, 247
Davenport College, 76, 153-154
Davenport, William, I53
Davidson, Allen Turner, 90, 92
Davidson County (now Tennessee), 2
Davidson, Theodore F., 91, 92
Davis, E. Mac, 8 I
Davis, Rebecca Harding, 37, 208-210
Deaf, School for the, 96, I 3 I, I 32
Deer Preserve, Pisgah National Forest, 3 I 6
Democratic Party, IS, I6, 30, 89, 90, 92, 93,
94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, roo, 123, 132, 333
Dillsboro, I97, 336, 353
Diphtheria, I05
Disciples of Christ, 37, 87
Distillers, illicit, IS, 272-275
Dixon, George F., I2I
Dobson, 10
Doctors' fees, r 04
Dorland- Bell School, I 59, r6o
Dougherty, Blanford B., 140, r 79, r So, r 8 r,
277
Dougherty, Dauphin Disco, I79, ISr, 333
Doughton Park, 391-392
Daughton, Robert, 92, 277, 337
Doughton, Rufus, 92, 333, 335
Douglas, Clementine, rS9-192
Dramas, outdoor, 390, 406, 409
Ducktown Branch of the Western North
Carolina Railroad, I 69
Dugger, Shepherd, 2I 1
Duke Power Co., 355
Dula, Tom, 70, 22S-229
DuPont Co., 364-365
Dyes, for cloth, 66
Dykeman, Wilma (Stokeley), 2I3-2I4
Eagle Hotel, 3 5
Eagle Mills School, I 5 S
East La Porte, 53
East La Porte Male and Female Academy, 152
Ecusta Paper Corporation, I IS
Edgewood Academy, IJI
Eggers, S.C., 277
Ehle, John, 148, 2I4, 268
Electrification, rural, 287-2S9
Elias, Don, IOO-IOI
Elias, Kope, 51, 56,91-92, 175
Elkin, 49, 94
Elkin Baptist Association, 74
Ellis, Dan, S
Enka Corporation, 92, 364-366
Episcopal Church, II, 32, 37, S2-S5, S7
Equalization Board, 142
Equalizing Fund, IJI, I39, I40
Ervin, Joseph William, 98
Ervin, Samuel James, Jr., 98
Erwin, Alfred, 32
Erwin, Major E. A. M., 34
Erwin, W.C., 30
Etowah Institute, I 5S
Evangelical activity, 69, 7I
Evangelical and Reformed Church, 87
Fairfield Lake, pS
Fairview College, I 58
Family life, mountain, 62
Fancy Gap, I
Farmer, Col. H. T., 35
Farmers' Alliance, 95, 96, 97, 173, 175
Feldspar, 352-353
Fiddlers' conventions, 224-225
Fields-of-the-wood, 87
Fishback, Col. John, r 94
Fisher's River Baptist Assn., 73
Fiske, John, 5
Flat Rock, 35, 83, 87, 2IS, 220, 254
Fleming, Sam, 28
Fletcher, Arthur L., 220
Flowers, Col. C. W., I4
Folk, Col. George, 47, 8S, 91
Fontana, 288
Ford Foundation, II2
Fort Hamby, I2-I4
Fourteenth North Carolina Battalion,
"One-Eyed Battalion," 8
Frances, Michael, 90
Franklin, 53, 56, 57, 92, I29, 167, 173, 175,
3 I 5, 336
Franklin Family, 33
Freel, Margaret, 7 4, 220
French Broad Baptist Assn., 73, 74
Fruitland Institute, 157
Fullwood, William, 19
Fusion Period, 94, 97
Furniture Industry, 36I-363
Gaither, Col. Burgess S., 32, 33, 90
Gault, Lynn, I9S
General Education Board, 133
Gillem, Brigadier General Alvan C., 9, II, 12
Glade Valley School, I6r
Glen Alpine, 33
Glen Alpine Academy, 153
Globe Academy, 153
Goodrich, Frances, I86-187
Good Roads Associations, 324
Goodwin Guild Weavers, 192-193
Goodwin, John 0., 190-191
Gordon, Charles, 4
Graham, Dr. Thomas Alexander, r68
Graham County, 3, 20, 22, 56, 57, So, I04,
136, 142, 144, 172, 17S, 279, 2SS, 322, 342,
344
Granite Falls, 135, 245
Granny women, 66, 103, 105
Great Smokes, see Smokies
Grandfather Home, 162
�Index / 433
Grandfather Mountain, I, 393, 397
Grange, 95, 280
Gray, Idyl Dial, 2II
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, II9,
212,270,337.397-403
Green, Rev. J. B., 14
Green, Lewis W., 222
Green River Plantation, 58, I I I
Greene County (now Tennessee), 2
Greer, Dr. I. G., 231
Gudger, Hezekiah A., 91
Gudger, Jack, 5I
Gudger,J. H., 35
Gudger, James M., 32, 33, 36, 42,91
Guy, Jack, 195
Gwin, James, 10, I 1
Gwinville Mills, 356
Hall, Dave, ror
Hamilton, Harry, 277
Hamilton,]. G. deR., 17
Hampton, Wade, 53
Hancock, Mary, 220
Hankie, James Stuart, 83
Hannum, Alberta Pierson, 22
Happy Valley, 88
Harper, Ella, 20
Harper, G. W. F., 348
Harper, James, I 53
Harper, James C., 93, I 53
Harris Clay Company, 353-354
Hartley, Joe Lee, 326
Hawkins County (now Tennessee), 2
Hayes, J. F., 262-263
Hayes,JudgeJohnsonJ., 72, 74,220
Hayesville, 54, 56, 86, 92, 129, 138, 151, 173,
348
Hayesville College, I 58
Haynes, Thurmond, 277
Haywood Agricultural Society, 52
Haywood County, 2, 20, 40, 52, 75, So, 92,
113, II8, 126, 127, 136, 142, 143, 157, 158,
178, r82,220,252,269,277,279,284,285,
z86,J04,JI4,326,J42, 343,344,346-347,
J66,J67
Haywood Institute, 157
Haywood White Sulphur Springs, 51, 52, 169,
261
Helper, Hinton R., 346
Henderson and Brevard Railway, 262
Henderson County, 2, 20, 34, So, 96, IIJ, 142,
I77,220,229,279,28I,28J,284,286,J04,
J29,JJI,J42,J44, 365-366
Hendersonville, 8, 35, 74, 84, 87, ro6, 137,
143. I 56, 177. 262, 281, 324. 326, 328
Hickerson, T. F., 220, 328
Hickory Nut Gap, 254
Hicks, John 0., 151
Hicksville High School, also Hicksville
Academy, 151
Hicks, Rev. William, 158
Highlands, 53, 325, 328, 378
Hill-Burton Act, II2
Hinsley, Jay, IOI
Higher Education, Board of, 145
High Hampton, 53
Hinton Rural Life Center, 86
Hiwassee,
225
Hiwassee Railroad, 266
Hobbs, S. H., 5
Hoey, Clyde, 98, r8o
Hofecker, Glen, 193Holden, G. W. (Wash), 294
Holden, Gov. Wm. H., 15, r6
Holmes, J. A., 324, 326
Holshouser, Governor James, roo
Holston Methodist Conference, 75, 76, 77
Hominy Academy, 37
Hominy Creek, 37, 92, II7
Hookworm disease, 107
Hookworm eradication campaign, 107-109
Hoppeldt, Dr. J. M., 32
Horse Trading, 68
Hospitals, establishment of, I09-II5, 139, 154,
r62
Horton, Nathan, 272
Horton, William, 272
Hot Springs, 40, 83, II 8, I 6o, 226, 260
388-389
Hughson, Rev. Walter, II2
Hunt, Richard Morris, 299
Hunter, Kermit, 219
Hunting, 42-44, 51, 62, 64
Jackson County, 3, 20, 52, 53, 75, So, 92, 104,
IIJ, 136, 142, 143, 144, 173, 174, 177, !78,
263,279.342,344.353.368
Jackson, George Pullen, 231-232
Jacocks, Dr. W. P., 107
James, William, 59
Jarvis, Governor Thomas Jordan, 126, 251,
258
Jefferson, 48, 49, 85, 93, 98, 266
Job., A., 293
John C. Campbell Folk School, 164, 192, 165
Johnson, Thomas G., 36
John's River, 89
Johnstone, F. W., 83
Jolley, Harley, 221, 337
Jones, Edmund, 91
Jones, E. W., 153
Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, 320-pr, 322
Joyner,]. Y., 133, 135, 136, 171
Judaculla Rock, 53, 55
Judson College, 74. I 56- I 57
Justice, G. W., 350
Justice, James Dyer, 3 50
Kanuga Lake, Episcopal Assembly, 87
Kaolin, 353-354
Keener, Ulrich, 75
Kelsey, S. T., 325, 326
Kephart, Horace, 2II-2I4
King, Edward, 59
King, Hiram, 295-296
Kirby, Col. Isaac M., ro
Kirk, Col. George, 9, 16, 30, 91
Kirk-Holden War, r6
Knight, Edgar W., 137
Ku Klux Klan, 15, r6, 17, 275
Lake Junaluska, 86, r r8, 143
Lake Sapphire, 328
Lake Toxaway, 263, 328
Land Law of 1777, 4
Language, mountain, 68
Lanier, Sydney, 2I0-2II
Lankford, B. D., 51
�434 / Index
Laurel Fork, 129
Laurel Hill, r 29
Laurel Springs, 92
Lawyers, ror -102
Lees-McRae College, r62
Lees, Mrs. S. P., 162
Leicester Academy, 37
Lenoir, IO, II, 76, 88, 89, 93, 94, 107, 113,
153.158,199.267,276,293.331
Lenoir Rhyne College, II3
Lenoir, W. A., 153
Lenoir, William, 272, 273
Lenski, Lois, 2 I 9
Lewis Fork Creek, I 3
Linney, Frank, 333
Linney, James Polk, 14
Linney, Romulus, 222
Linney, Romulus Z., 89
Linville, 326, 33 I, 373
Linville Falls, 33, 328
Linville Gorge, 33, 34, 319
Literary Fund, 123
Literary Fund, new, 134
Littlefield, Milton, 16, 256
Little Switzerland, 87
Little Tennessee River, 57
Littlewood, Mrs. John, 194
Log cabin, building of, 59, 61
Lomax, Alan, 23 I
Love's Trading Post, 53
Lovette's Holly Farms Poultry Co., 287
Lovill, Captain Edward F., 179, 277
Lunsford, Bascom Lamar, 231,240, 242, 244
Luther, Raymond, 266
Lutheran Church, 85
Lutheridge, 87
Lynn, 210
McBee, John C., 335
McBrayer, Judge Fred, 350
McBrayer, Dr. Lewis Burgin, I ro
McCarthy, W.C., 154
McCoy, George, r62
McDowell County, 2, 3, r6, r8, 20, 33, 98,
113,140,299,330,331,342,343,344
McGhinnis, B.L., 293
Mciver, Charles Duncan, 133, 166, 167, J7I,
174. 179
McLeod, John, 220
McLoud, C.M., 36
McRae, Donald and Hugh, 326
McRae, Elizabeth, r62
Madison County, 2, 8, 14, 20, 51, 73, 74, 80,
8r, 91, 96, 98, 99, roo, 136, 142, 144, 172,
177,220,269,276,277,279.280,284,320,
330, 342, 344
Madison, Robert Lee, 173-180
Marion, 33, 34, 40, 70, 265, 267, 275, 326, 332
Marshall, 14, r6, 51, II8, 129, 193, 326
Mars Hill College, 74, 93, 113, 128, 156, 157
Mars Hill, town of, r88, I 57, 199, 220
Martin, General James G., 12, 85
Martin, Muriel, 192
Mast, Mrs. Finley, I 8 8
Mead Corporation, 368
Mead, Martha Norburn, 222
Measles, 106
Medical Society, State, 103, 104, 107
Medford, Clark, 220
Medford, Wid, 169
Medicinal herbs, 66, 105, 348-350
Meiggs and Freeman Line, 53
Men, mountain, 62-65
Mental Health, Department of, I I 3
Merriman, Augustus S., 14, 15, 90
Methodist church, 71, 75-78
Methodist circuits, 75, 76
Methodist districts, 75, 77, 86
Methodist Episcopal, African, 37
Methodist Episcopal (northern), 32, 37, 76
Methodist Episcopal, South, 32, 37, 76-78, 86
Methodist Episcopal Zion, 32, 37
Methodist Protestant, 32, 37, 75-76, 78
Mica, 352
Miller, Helen Topping, 222
Miller, Col. John K., 9
Miller, Robert Johnson, 84
Miller, William, 34
Mills, 6r, 63, 292, 293
Mills River, 51, 294
Mining, 351-354
Minton, T.O., 287
Missionary Baptist, 73
Mitchell County, 3, 8, 20, 44, 45, 73, 79, 80,
82, g6, 104, 127, 137. 142, 149. 177. 193.
269,279.331,332,342,344.352,353.354
Mitchell, Dr. Elisha, 44
Mitchell Institute, I 57
Montanic Institute, 37, 129
Montezuma, 158
Montlove, 83
Montreat, 8 5 -86
Montreat-Anderson College, 86, 162
Moody, B. H., 197
Moore, Charles Augustus, 92
Moore, Governor Daniel Killian, 92, 99, 101,
115, 343
Moore, Frederick, 92
Moore, Hight C., 218
Moore, Robert L., 156
Moore, Mr. and Mrs. Walter, 86
Moore, Walter E., 52, 92, 175
Moore, Col. William, 92
Moravian Falls, 93
Moravian Falls Academy, 153
Mordecai, Dr. Alfred, II o, I II
Morgan, Lucy, 164, r88, 189, 221
Morgan, Dr. and Mrs. Ralph, 197
Morgan, Dr. Rufus, 164, 187, r88
Morganton, 7, II, 25, 30, 33, 76, 83, 84, 88,
89,90,98, 103,112,114,131,132,153, 20~
245,253,255,275.32~ 331
Morganton Academy, 153
Morley, Margaret, 215-216, 270
Morris, B. T., 34
Morrison, Governor Cameron, 183, 333
Moser, Artus, 233, 241
Moser, Joan, 236
Moses, Edward P., 173-174, 178
Mount Airy, I, ro, 326, 367
Mount Mitchell, r, 40-41, 373-374, 375-377
Mountain Baptist Assn., 72-73
Munday, Alexander, 54
Murchison's Black Mountain land, 42
Murphy, 56, 87,90,92, 157,164,258,285
Murphy Branch of the W.N.C. Railroad, 261
Macon County, 2, 20, 53, 8o, II3, 135, 136,
142,167,177,178,198,269,279,284,286,
�Index
3!4. 325. 336, 342, 344
Murphy Institute, r 57
N antahala Gorge, 56
Nantahala National Forest, 314, 3I5, 3I6
Nantahala Range, 1, 54
National Forests, 3 I0-3 I6
Neighborhood Youth Corps, I49-I50
Nelson, D. B., I75
New Echota, Treaty of, 2I
New Found Mountains, I
Newland, William, 179, 180
New River, 93
Newspapers, 32, 37. 47, 53, 1 I7, 129, 245, 346
Newton, George, 79
Noble, M. C. S., J7I, 179
Nolichucky River, 45, I I7, rr8
Normal Schools, I66
Norris, Dr. amd Mrs. Henry, I I I
North Carolina Fund, I49
North Carolina Methodist Conference, 76
North Carolina State Board of Health, II5
North Wilkesboro, r 77, 266, 326, 333, 367
Nursing education, r 1 l - 1 r 3
Nyc, Stuart, I98
Oberlin Home and School, 158
Oconaluftee River, 2I, 90, I99
O'Henry (William Sydney Porter), 2rr
Old Fort, 30, 34, 214, 253, 257, 331
Olin Mathieson, I68, 363-364
Olmsted, Frederick Law, 299, 302
"Omie Wise," ballad, 70
Ore Knob Copper Mine, 353
Osborne, H. 0., 285
Our Lady of the Hills, 87
Out-Migration, 366, 369
Owens, Amos, 275
Pace, C. M., 34
Page, Frank, 336
Palmer, Col. William J., 9, I I
Parris, John, 2I5
Patterson, town of, 90
Patterson Mill, I o
Patterson, Rufus Lenoir, 88
Patterson, Samuel, 163
Patterson School, I63
Patton, Robert Logan, I 52- I 53
Patton, Sadie Smathers, 220
Peabody Fund, 128-129, I66, 167, r68
Peabody, George, 12~
Peabody Schools, 128- I 29
Pearson, Cam, 32
Pearson, James Larkin, 2I6-2I7
Pearson, Judge Richmond, 88, 9I, 298
Pearson, Richmond, son of the judge, 98-99,
298
Pease, Mr. and Mrs. Louis M., 158-159
Pell, Rev. R. P., So, 82
Penland, I63
Penland House, 45
Penland Pottery, r 98
Penland School, 164, I89, I92, 194, I97, 221
Phifer, Dr. Edw. M., rS-19, rr2, 220
Phillips, Aunt Susan, I87
Pigeon River, II7, II8, I29, 255
Pilot Mountain, 49
Pinchot, Gifford, 302-304
f
435
Pineola, 26 5
Pink Beds, 294
Pisgah, I29
Pisgah Forest, 262, 304
Pisgah Forest Pottery, I98
Pisgah National Forest, 3I4, 315, 3I7
Pisgah Range, I
Plemmons, Levi, 36
Plumtree, I 39
Polk County, 3, 16, r8, 20, 33, 57, 58, 96, 136,
!38, I42, !68, 26!,269,270,273,277. 279.
28I, 331, 342, 344
Poole, Maria, 22 I
Populist Party (People's Party), 94, 96, 97, 132
Poultry and eggs, 286-287
Powell, William S., 22I
Power, electric, 3 54-355
Power plants, municipal, 3 54-3 55
Presbyterian church, 32, 37, 7I, 78-82
Presbyterian, U.S., 79
Presbyterian, U.S.A., 37
Presbyteries, 79, So
Presnell, Ed., I97
Price, Overton, 305, 306, 3 ro
Pritchard, Jeter C., 91, 98, 99
Pritchard, Richard M., 99
Proffitt, Frank, 197, 223, 224, 23 I
Purdom, Ed., I97
Quaker Meadows, I9, 32
Qualla Boundary, 2 I, 57
Qualla Reservation, 22
Quilting, 66
Radical, sec Republican
Ravenscroft, Bishop John Stark, 83, 84
Ravenscroft School, 84-8 5
Ray, G. D., 40
Read, Opie Percival, 22 r
Reagan House, 39
Reagan, Dr. James A., I09, I54
Reconstruction, I 7, 30, 90, 94, 95
Reed, J. H., 36
Reem's Creek, 259, 355
Reid, Christian (Frances Fisher Tiernan), 2II,
2I2
Republican Party, IS, I6, 90, 94, 95, 96, 97,
98, 99, IOO, IOI, 123, I32, 333
Reynolds, Robert Rice, 98
Richland Institute, I 58
Richmond Hill Law School, 88
Riddle, Dr. J. B., I 12
Riddle, Dr.]. Iverson, I I 3
Ridgecrest, 86, 253, 267, 33I
Roan Mountain, r, 45, 47, 129, 320
Robbins Brothers, Carolina Caribbean Corp.
368
Robbinsville, 56, 57, 8I, 90, I72, I73. 316
Robertson, Reuben, 308
Rockefeller, John D., Jr., I33
Rockefeller Sanitary Commission, ID7
Rogers, David, 178
Rutherford College, 91, 154
Rutherford County, 2, r6, 17, r8, 2I, 33, 57,
98, III, II3, I27, I42, I5I, I6I, 263,264,
269, 270, 279, 281, 286, 287, )29, 330, 33 I,
342,344
Round Hill Academy, 157
Round Knob, I69, 170
�436 / Index
Rutherford, Griffith, 4
Rutherfordton, r, 2I, 57, 76, 84, r II, 254,
263, 265, 275. 326
Saluda, 261
Saluda Gap, 8, 3 5, 57
Sanford, Governor Terry, 145, 149
Sanitation Committee, State, II7
Scarlet fever, ro6
Schreiber, Virginia Bryan, 148
Schenck, Carl A., 274, 304-309
Schenck, Judge David, 22, 30-57 passim
School of Forestry, 306-308
Scott, Governor Kerr Scott, 143, 341
Scroggs, Fred 0., 348
Sears, Dr. Barnas, 128
Sebartle, Patty, I48
Second Broad River, 57
Sevier, John, 4
Sharp, Cecil, 21, I65, 225, 226, 227, 232
Sharpe, Bill, 22 r
Sharpe, Wallace, 14
Sharpe, Col. Wash., I4
Shotwell, Randolph A., 17, 37, 273, 294
Shuford, Abel A., 87
Sieber, Henry Alexander, 218
Silva Institute, r 57
Silvers, Frankie, 22S
Silverstein, Joseph H., 262
Ski resorts, 393-394
Skiles, William West
Slagle, Thomas, 54
Sleds, 293, 295
Sloan, J.B., 3 54
Sloop, Dr. Eustice H., 109, r 39
Sloop, Dr. Mary Martin, 109, 139, 200, 220,
333
Smallpox, ro6
Smather's Inn, 39, 5 r
Smathers, John C., 39
Smiley,]. E., 129,130
Smith, R. P., 66, So
Smokies, Great, 53
Snowbird Mountains, 90
Snyder Memorial Academy, Sr
Social and Residential Communities,
403-404, 412
Sondley, Foster, 220
South Carolina Methodist Conference, 76
Southern Education Board, 133
Southern Highland Handicraft Guild, 190, 192
Sossamon, Leroy, 2rS
South Hominy, 129
South Mountains, 21, 33, 57, 113
Spainhour, Noah, 293
Sparta, 4S, 92, r6r, r67, r6S
Speculation, land, 350-351
Speculation Land Company, 57
Spruce Pine, 191, 264, 267
Stacy, Rev. A. G., 153
Stearns Schools, r 3S
Stekoa, 53
Stephen, W. B., 198
Stephens, George, S7, 301
Stikeleather, J.D., 33 5
Stone, Mr. and Mrs. George, r S9
Stoneman, Major General George, S-12, S3,
I 53
Stone Mountain Baptist Association, 74
Stone Mountain Pottery, r9S
Stony Fork Baptist Association, 74
Strange, Robert, 207
Stream Sanitation Committee, State, rr 6
Street, Julia Montgomery, 22I
Strike at the Baldwin Mill, 35S-359
Stringfield, Major W. W., 52
Stroup, H. M., 197
Sullivan County (now Tennessee), 2
Sumner County (now Tennessee), 2
Surry County, 2, 20, 4S, 72, 73, 76, 109, 136,
142,269,273,276,279,284,286,342,344
Sutton, Mrs. Orus, 19S
Surles,]. B., I93
Swain County, 3, 20, 57, 75, So, 104, II3, I30,
I42,279,2S4, 3I4,342, 344
Swain, Governor David Lowry, 89
Swannanoa, r6o, 286
Swannanoa Gap, 7, S6, 257
Swan Ponds, 32
Swepson, George, r6, 256
Sylva, 53, 157, 174, 326, 353, 36S
Table Rock Academy, 153
Taliaferro, Hardin E., 207-20S
Tallassee Power Co., 3 55
Tanning,262,266,293-294
Tait, S. C. W., 32
Tate, Robert, 4
Tate, Dr. W. C., r62
Tate, Samuel McDowell, 256
Tate, William, 4
Taylor, Rev. Fitch, 155
Taylor, Roy A., roo
Teacher qualifications, 177
Teacher salaries, 135, 136
Technical institutes, 145
Tenella (Mrs. Bayard Clark), 218
Tennessee County (now Tennessee), 2
Thermal Belt, 2So
Thomas, Col. William Holland, his legion
of Indians and Highlanders, 7, 12
Thomas Col. William Holland, 21, 57, S9-90
Thomasson, Lillian, 129, 220
Thomson, Peter G., 30S
Tobacco, 51, 276-2So
Todd, 246, 266
Toe River (Estatoe), 44, r 17
Toms, Captain]. M., 34
Tourism, 371-397
Toynbee, Arnold, IS
Transylvania County, 3, 20, 51, 75, 77, So,
83, 104, 113, J42, I 55, 178, 279, 287, 304,
314,342,344.363-365.366-367
Trap Hill, r58
Travel expenditures, 412-413
Truett, George, I 5 I, I 52
Tryon, I89,2II,220,26I,405
Tryon County, 2, 20
Tuberculosis, 105, r ro
Tuckaseigee River, 53, 71
Tucker, Glenn, 220,
Tucker, James M., S6
Tucker River, II7
Tufts, Edgar, S2, r 39, r 52
Tufts, Edgar Hall, r62
Turkey Creek Camp Ground at Leicester, 77
Tuscola High School, 143
Tuscola Institute, r 5S
�Index / 437
Tusquitee Creek, 54
Tusquitee Range, I
TVA, 287-289, 355
Typhoid, 104
Unakas, I
Unicoi Mountains, 1
Union Grove Fiddlers' Convention, 225, 239,
240
Union League, 15
United Methodist Church, 78, 86
University of North Carolina at Asheville,
II5, 147-148
Valdese, 245, 359-361
Valle Crucis, 83-84, 85, 90, 187
Valle Crucis School, 163
Valley River, 56
Valley Town, 90
Vance, Eleanor P., 187, 189
Vance, Dr. Robert B., 28
Vance, General R. B., IO
Vance, Zebulon Baird, 30, 70, 90, 95, 98, 126,
205-2o6,z58,273,298
Vance, Zebulon B., birthplace, 410-41 I
Vanderbilt, George Washington, 85, 298-307,
310
Vanderbilt, Mrs. George Washington, 187,
301
Van Noppen, Ina Woesterncyer, 221
Wages in industry, average, 366-367
Wainwright, Mary Taylor, 84
Wainwright, Rev. Richard, 84
Walker, Elmeda, I93
Walser, Richard, 218
W AMY, 149, 193
Warm Springs, see Hot Springs
Warner, Charles Dudley, 27, 47, 152
Warren Wilson College, I 6o
Washburn, Dr. Benjamin, 21, 105
Washburn, R. C., 56
Washington County, 2
Washington, Lawrence D., 130
Watauga Academy, see Appalachian State
University
Watauga County, 3, 7, 8, I 1, 14, 20, 45, 47,
48, 77, 79, So, 82, 84, 85, 89, II3, 121, 136,
140, 142, 149, 152, 167, '77, 179, 193, 229,
246,266,269,270,276,277.279,280,286,
287, 3}2, 333, 342, 344
Watson, Arthel L. ("Doc"), 23 I
Watts, George R., 221
Waynesville, 51, 52, 54,106, II8, 129, 169,
173, 261,285, 317, p6, }38, 345. 354
Weatherford, Dr. Willis, 2 I 3-214
Weaver College, 37, 109, 154-155
Weaver, Dr. H. B., 109
Weaver, Dr.J. B., 293
Weaver, William Trotter, 354
W caverville, 40, 222, 345
Weaverville College, see Weaver College
Weaving, 66-67
Webster, 52, 92, IOI, 129, I73, 174, 334
Weir, Weldon, 100, ror
West, John Foster, 247
Western Baptist Association, 74
Western Carolina Center, I 13, II4, 13 I
Western Carolina University, 145, 146, 147,
173-180, 183, 354, 368
Western Insane Asylum, sec Broughton
Hospital
Western North Carolina Associated
Communities, 406-407
Western North Carolina Conference
(Methodist), 78
Western North Carolina Correctional
Center, r 14
Western North Carolina Land Company, 41
Western North Carolina Railroad, 16, 3o, 34,
51, 92, 126, 169, 174. 208, 214, 254. 255.
256, 258, 308
Western North Carolina Regional Planning
Commission, IT 8
Western Union Academy, 151
West Jefferson, 252, 266, 284
West Liberty Baptist Association, 74
Westminster School, 161
Wetmore, Thomas C., 84
Whiteside Mountain, 53
White Sulphur Springs, Waynesville, see
Haywood White Sulphur Springs
Whittier, 53
Wiggins Family, 57
Wilcox Drug Company, 349-350
Wildacres, 87
Wiley, Calvin, 37, 121, 207
Wilkes Community College, II3
Wilkesboro, 7, ro, 48, 74, 84, 92, 93, 98, 266
Wilkes County, 3, 4, 8, 12, 14, 20, 48, 72, 74,
76, 93, 96, 130, 135, 142, 143, 153, I 58, l 77,
~20, 249. 266, 273. 279, 280, 286, 342, 344,
346
Williams, Deon Cratis Williams, 216, 23 r
Williams, Jonathan, 34, 219
Wilson, Major James W., 33, 251, 258
Wilson, Dell, 222
Wilson, John McKarnie,Jr., 19
Wilson, "Big Tom," 42-+4
Winston, Dr. George P., I Ro
Wiseman's View, 322
Wolfe, Thomas, 202-206
Wolfe, Tom, 249
Women, mountain, 65-67
Woodfin, Nicholas W., 8, 90
Woody, "Aunt Cumi," 187
Woody family, 197
Woolson, Constance Fenimore, 207
World Methodist Center, 86
Yadkin Baptist Association, 72
Yale, Charlotte, 187, 189
Yancey County, 2, 3, 8, 20, 41, 45, 73, 79,
104, 136, 137, 142, 144, 149, 193,269,279,
284,331, 3}2, 342,344.352
Yancey Institute, 157
Yellow Fever, 106
York, Brantley, 154
Yount, John 214
�The rhododendron
of Southern Appalachia, like the mountain
people, developed from
hardy stock. Both have
come to grips with thin
topsoil as well as cold winters and warm summers. Man
and plant are proudly independent and evergreen.
Design by Sherry Waterworth
Dept. of Art
Appalachian State University
�about the authors
ina faye woestemeyer van noppen (1906-1980) and john james
van noppen iii (1906-1975) were professors of History and English,
respectively, at Appalachian State Teachers College from 1947 to
1972. Ina taught history and was one of the campus’ earliest female
professors with a doctorate. The Van Noppens co-wrote Daniel Boone,
Backwoodsman: The Green Woods Were His Portion (1966) and Western
North Carolina Since the Civil War (1973). Ina won the 1962 Thomas
Wolfe Award from the Western North Carolina Historical Association
for her Stoneman’s Last Raid. In 1973, the couple also won the 1973
Thomas Wolfe Award.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Appalachian Consortium Press Publications
Description
An account of the resource
This collection contains digitized monographs and collections from the Appalachian Consortium Press.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Appalachian Consortium Press
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Appalachian Consortium Press
Date Issued
Date of formal issuance (e.g., publication) of the resource.
June 1, 2017
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
<a title="Digital Scholarship and Initiatives" href="http://library.appstate.edu/services/digital-scholarship-and-initiatives" target="_blank">Digital Scholarship and Initiatives</a>
Publication
Digital Publisher
Digital Republication
Appalachian State University
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Western North Carolina Since the Civil War
Description
An account of the resource
<span>No region has undergone more dramatic changes in the last century than Western North Carolina. Published in 1973, </span><em>Western North Carolina Since the Civil War</em><span> takes a look at mountain people in Western North Carolina and their uniquely structured economic, political, social, and cultural systems. The Van Noppens specifically explore different qualities of the mountain people such as their institutions, traditions, customs, and arts and crafts. Beginning with a dark period of social and economic disintegration after the end of the Civil War, the study traces the mountain peoples' lives from isolation to economic booms all while maintaining their traditions and cultural heritage.</span><br /><br /><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=16HEVXp_k47cq3Up21GTY8PP15OvDuDL_" target="_blank">Download EPub<br /><br /></a><a title="UNC Press Link" href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469638317/western-north-carolina-since-the-civil-war" target="_blank">UNC Press Print on Demand</a>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Van Noppen, Ina Woestemeyer
Van Noppen, John J.
Subject
The topic of the resource
North Carolina--History--1865-
North Carolina, Western--History
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Appalachian Consortium Press
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1973
Language
A language of the resource
English
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
North Carolina
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
E-books
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed" target="_blank">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed</a>
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a title="UA 76 Appalachian Consortium records" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/9" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> UA 76 Appalachian Consortium records </a>
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Appalachian Consortium Press Publications" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/82" target="_blank"> Appalachian Consortium Press Publications</a>
Civil War
economics
history
Politics
social issues
WNC
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/bd92e4fbc33066336189ab94cb2cebd3.pdf
faafa5c5af75e827adb96e85cb965890
PDF Text
Text
�������������������
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah Journal Index, 1983-1993</em>
Description
An account of the resource
This document is a topical index to all 38 issues of <em><a href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/items/browse?collection=79" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</a>. </em>
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians, </em> later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal, </em>was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.</em></p>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Periodicals--Indexes
Sustainable living--Periodicals--Indexes
North Carolina, Western
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rob Messick
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1993
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
periodical indexes
PDF
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Acid Deposition
Agriculture
Alternative Energy
Appalachian History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Bioregional Definitions
Black Bears
Book Reviews
Cherokees
Children's Page
Community
Death and Dying
Earth Energies
Ecological Peril
Economic Alternatives
Education
Electric Power Companies
European Immigration
Fire
Folklore and Ceremony
Forest History
Forest Issues
Forest Practice
Geography
Glossaries
Good Medicine
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Health
Hunting
Katúah
Katúah Organization
Permaculture
Pigeon River
Plants and Herbs
Poems
Politics
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
Recycling
Sacred Sites
Shelter
South PAW (Preserve Appalachian Wilderness)
Stories
Transportation Issues
Turtle Island
Villages
Water Quality
Western North Carolina Alliance
Wilderness
Women's Issues
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/0af6f876cd851df118a0e27b06bd6952.pdf
5453315bc90cf3f65463f81f56c5674a
PDF Text
Text
�����������������������������
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians,</em> Issue 2, Winter 1983-1984
Description
An account of the resource
The second issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on various topics such as black bears, the Pigeon River pollution, effective political involvement, and bioregional citizenship. Authors and artists in this issue include: Martha Tree, J. Linn Mackey, Snow Bear, Marnie Muller, Chuck Marsh, Kathryn Stripling Byer, Sharyn Jayne Hyatt, Gayle Knox, Chip Smith, Van Wormer, and Joseph Chapman.<br><br>
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1984
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Black bear--Appalachian Region, Southern
Water--Pollution--North Carolina--Pigeon River
Political participation--Appalachian Region, Southern
Pigeon River (N.C. and Tenn.)
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Sylva Herald Publishing Company, Sylva, North Carolina
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
<p>Paradise Polluted<br /> The Pigeon River Story.......3<br /><br />Charlie & Russell<br /> Bear Hunters.......4<br /><br />There is Another Way<br /> by Snow Bear.......5<br /><br />Katúah Under the Drill<br /> Western North Carolina Alliance.......6<br /><br />Good Medicine<br /> Spiritual Warriors.......8 <br /><br />How the Humans Came to Be.......9 <br /><br />Council Meeting.......11 <br /><br />Our Mountain Woodlands.......13 <br /><br />Alma <br /> Poems - by Kathryn Byer.......14 <br /><br />On Becoming Politically Effective<br /> on Bioregional Level.......20<br /><br /><em><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em><br /></em></p>
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Bioregional Definitions
Black Bears
Geography
Good Medicine
Katúah
Permaculture
Pigeon River
Politics
Stories
Turtle Island
Western North Carolina Alliance
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/5f3f8b62bd6a3f9c717ec7bce721dab8.pdf
8dbe5987ca218068d745dd7a80a3c280
PDF Text
Text
PUBLISHED QUARTERLY
ISSUE THREE
SPRING 1984
ONE DOLLAR
�����������������������������
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, Issue 3, Spring 1984
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1984
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Corn--History
Seeds--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable agriculture--Appalachian Region, Southern
Organic farming--Appalachian Region, Southern
Forest management--Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Sylva Herald Publishing Company, Sylva, North Carolina
Description
An account of the resource
The third issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on topics such as corn and its importance in through the centuries, heirloom seeds and organic farming, and human impact on forests. This issue also includes an interview with then Jackson County (North Carolina) Commissioner, Veronica Nicholas, on power companies and women in politics. Authors and artists in this issue include: R. Otto Wylie, Martha Tree, Thomas Rain Crowe, George Ellison, Judith Hallock, Jody Segal-Friedman, Clyde Hollifield, Robert Zahner, and Snow Bear.
<br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
<p>Selu, The Corn Mother.......1<br /><br /> A Sustainable Agriculture.......2<br /><br /> Rebirth of the Sun Sister.......6<br /><br /> The Spirit of Corn.......7<br /><br /> Human Impact on the Forests of the Southern Appalachians...8<br /><br /> Good Medicine: Allies.......10<br /><br /> Kingfisher's Return (poem).......11<br /><br /> Power and Light: Veronica Nicholas.......12<br /><br /> The Little People.......18<br /><br /> Children's Education.......21<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em></p>
Language
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English
Type
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Text
Source
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<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
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<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
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Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
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PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Agriculture
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Education
Forest History
Forest Issues
Forest Practice
Good Medicine
Katúah
Poems
Politics
Reading Resources
Stories
Turtle Island
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c04c06016795d378da7269be5fab0d52
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Text
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Title
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Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
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The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
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1983-1993
Format
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journals (periodicals)
Language
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English
Type
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Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, Issue 5, Autumn 1984
Description
An account of the resource
The fifth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on topics such as Cherokee sculptor John Wilnoty, Celtic heritage, issues surrounding protecting wilderness areas, and ginseng's role in the mountains. Authors and artists in this issue include: Barbara Reimensnyder, Barbara Singer, John Wilnoty (Wilnota), Phillip Daughtry, Thomas Rain Crowe, Robert Zahner, Marnie Muller, Robbie Gordon, and Chuck Marsh. <br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1984
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
<p>Harvest.......1</p>
<p>Cherokee: The Old Days, The Old Ways.......3</p>
<p>The Work of John Wilnoty.......4<br /><br />Our Celtic Heritage.......6</p>
<p>The New Celt by Philip Daughtry.......7</p>
<p>"You Must Go Home Again" by Thomas Rain Crowe.......8</p>
<p>Wilderness, Appalachian Style Part III by Robert Zahner.......10<br /><br />Nuclear Waste in Our Mountains?.......13<br /><br />The Politics of Participation by Marnie Muller.......14<br /><br />Good Medicine "The Healing Darkness".......18<br /><br />Ginseng.......19<br /><br />Mountain Agriculture: a series by Chuck Marsh.......20<br /><br />Bioregionalism: Past, Present, Future by J. Linn Mackey.......22<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em></p>
Publisher
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Sylva Herald Publishing Company, Sylva, North Carolina
Subject
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Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Cherokee art
Cherokee Indians--History
Forest management--Appalachian Region, Southern
Appalachians (People)--History
Radioactive waste disposal--Appalachian Region, Southern
American ginseng--Appalachian Region
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
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English
Type
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Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Agriculture
Appalachian History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Definitions
Cherokees
European Immigration
Forest History
Forest Issues
Good Medicine
Katúah
Permaculture
Plants and Herbs
Poems
Politics
Radioactive Waste
Stories
Turtle Island
Wilderness
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/c5f08e481824615d18c6f5c6bd8ddef8.pdf
ab8164d46d387f7db9c40c17d5a6eb35
PDF Text
Text
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ATUAH
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ISSUE XIV
WINTER 1986-87
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LLOYD CARL OWLE...........................................................................1
8()()(3ERS AND MUMMERS...............................................................3
ALL SPECIES DAY .............................................................................6
POEM BY WILL ASHE BASON.........................................................9
GOOD MEDICINE..............................................................................10
CABIN FEVER UNIVERSITY.........................................................12
POEMS BY OLIVER LOVEDAY ......................................................13
KEEPING WARM: HOMELESS IN KATUAH ................................ 14
HOMEMADE HOTWATER...............................................................18
A STOVEMAKER'S NARRATIVE. ................................................19
NATURAL WORLD NEWS..............................................................20
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ISSUE XIV
WlNTER 1986-87
ART AND SURVIVAL
Lloyd Carl Owle is a Cherokee Indian, a
descendent of Yonaguska. He is field
director of the Save the Children Federation
program for the southeastern Indian nations,
but he is best known for his powerful and
expressive stone carvings. His works are on
display at the Qualia Craft Co·op and the
"Miz-Chief' store in Cherokee. NC.
Su 'The Work ofUoJd Ctul Owlt~ pp. 16-17
There is an old legend that says there
are two people inside of us. One is young,
and the other is old. These two figures of
the legend represent two different
viewpoints: the young one th:u does not
discriminate, that sees the world as a whole;
and the old one that is linear, that picks the
world apart and focusses on only one thing
at a time.
This is 1rue for us. Kids have to be
trained to think in a linear way. They take
to the other way naturally. When I was a
kid in school, I enjoyed looking at a Little
bug with all its intricacy and detail more
than doing English or math.
Even now I have 600 things in my
mind at any one time. As I'm working on
one carving l have a lot of other things
going on at the same time. They are all
pictured individually in my head, but I can
only put a part of what I see into any one
piece. Even so, when I'm doing something
with maybe ten ants and six people, it gets
very intticate and complex. I have to keep it
all in my mind at the same nme. I have to
see a piece from several different sides at
once. Either a person can see in that way or
they can't.
Size has always been strange to me,
too. 1 play with that. Neutrons, atoms,
planets.....all arc equally important to the
functioning of the universe. So in my
carvings a little ant can be as big as a
person's face, or a snake will be larger than
a person's body.
When I'm working in my shed at two
or three o'clock in the morning, I feel tuned
in to a different time. h is a time or a place
in my mind that is very primitive. My
carvings reflect this. One might say that this
"primitive" art comes from a place of deeper
vision. From this place the activities of life
have more meaning than they do to a person
of the modem culture. This is because these
things arc seen as being connected. Life is
viewed as a whole, rather than "my life",
"your Life", "their Life". This is a special
way to see Lhe world.
This power of mind is a gift that only
some people have. Medicine men have this
power, but they don't "make" it, it's already
within them. In the same way, art is a part
of a person. h's in their DNA, or their
life-soul, however it is called.
It is less an ability to consciously
make something happen than to let
something work through us. Sometimes I
have the feeling l'm just watching my hands
do something on their own. I just let them
go. Often, afcer working late at night, I have
to look at a piece again in the morning and
re-identify with it. It seems sLrange and
foreign, not like something I did myself.
And, in a way, that is true, because a good
angel came through and helped me.
This reminds me of the legend of "the
little people'; The "little people" represent
the different dimensions of the mind. All
the dimensions are here, and sometimes we
slip into another time or another phase of the
mind, and we find ourselves seeing things
in a different way. It feels SLrange to us
only because we have become separated
from ourselves.
The 'little people' are a sense that has
been given us to help us survive and protect
ourselves. Native American people have
always listened to that other voice. It is
something that has helped us to survive.
Call it ESP, call it good judgement, or
intuition-it is a way of thinking, but also a
way of communicating. The basic power of
the native medicine person was the ability to
bring up the thought in someone else's mind
that they were going to ge1 well. The
medicine person would not do this by
putting a thought from the outside into
another person's mind. They helped their
patients communicate with themselves and
the Creator so they would be well. If their
mind was not whole, they lYm sick!
Some people might say, "Why is he
talking about things like that in these
modern times?"
But this deep
communicauon still works for us, because
on thac level of the mind everything is
connected. We are simuhaneously tuned
into different times in the history of this
world, faraway civilizations of long ago,
different people living in differenc places, or
even inco space.
In dreams I've seen bowls with
arrowheads and similar designs on them that
are still buried in the ground. I know
someday they'll be found, not only in this
country, but in South America, and even in
Egypt in places along the Nile. I've seen
visions of a sculpture of a head with an
elongated face that they'll dig out along the
Nile someday. l put that face in a carving I
did. Someday they may try to relate that
carving back to the ancient Egyptian culture,
to the art I do, or even to similar carvings
from South America.
ART AS LANGUAGE
Masks, myth, music, art--anything
that arises from that deep place is a
language. Whether it's "Indians" from
North America, Indians from lndia, or any
other people, we can communicate through
that language. In that deep place we are
already connected.
People have to protect themselves and
the ways they have learned and survived.
The Cherokee tribe protects itself, its
customs, and its beliefs. The Hopi and the
people in India do the same. But art cotcrs
people's minds through the back door.
Something pleasing to the eye relaxes
people. It releases them, whether they are
creating it or looking at it. People of any
race or any culture in the world can see a
piece of art, and, simply because they love
and appreciate the beauty of it, they are
taken to that place where they experience the
same thoughts or feelings the artist bad
when be or she created it. By seeing it or
touching it, they can grasp that thought in a
way no one could explain with words. And
they also grasp that thought in a way that
doesn't threaten their beliefs. Art is a way
to communicate the differences between
people.
I'm not a doom-crier, but we need to
communicate -- blacks, whites, Indians,
Russians -· all of us. Our beliefs may be
- continued on page 25
KATUAH-page 1
Winter 1986-87
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EDITORIAL STAFF THlS ISSUE:
Scott Bird
Sylvia Fox
Judith Hallock
Rob Messick
Mamie Muller
Manha Overlock
Michael Red Fox
Chip Smith
Brad Stanback
Manha Tree
David Wheeler
EDITQRIAL ASSISTANCE:
Tom Hendricks
Mark Kelly
Brooks Michael
Jeff Fobes
Sara Jane Thomas
Julie Gaunt
EDITOR CAL OEACE
THIS ISSUE:
Asheville, NC
PRTNIEQBY:
Sylva furalQ
Publishing Co.
Sylva, NC
WRITE US AT:
Katiiah
Box 873
Cullowhee, NC 28723
TELEPHONE:
(704) 252-9167
COVER: "Primitive Fear" by Lloyd Carl Qwle
The ln1cmal Revenue Service hu declared .K.a.W&h a non-pr
organization under section SOl(c)(3) of lhc Internal Revenue Code.
All con1nbu1ions 10 K.ni!Jh arc deductible from personal income
y
WI.
.K!n1lb wishes 10 thank lhc Salisbury Community Foundation
for lheiT generous cran1 in suppon of our work.
JRV0CllTJ0R
Enter within
The cave ckep dark
:Below mountains
IVhere ln slup
tjona, 9reat black bear
And we to9ether clream
New patterns of existence
New futu res for the world
Green, blue, and white
Lcoki~back
From w£thin infinite ni9ht
Our souls m~fe
:Bri9ht amo~ the crystal stars
KATUAH - page 2
Here in the sowhem-most heartland of the Appalachian
mountains, the oldest mou111ai11 range on our continent,
Turtle Island, a small but growing group has begun to take
on a sense of responsibility for the implications of that
geographical and cultural heritage. This sense of
responsibility centers on the concept of living within the
na11ual scale and balance ofuniversal sys rems and laws. We
begin by invoking the Cherokee name "Karuali" as the
old/new name for this area of the mountains and for its
journal as well.
The editorial priorities for us are to collect and
disseminate information and energy which pertains
specijicafly to this area, and to foster the awareness thal the
land is a living being deserving of oiu love and respect.
Living in tlris manner is the only way to ensure the
sustainability of our biosphere and a lasting place for
ourselves in its continuir1g evol11tior1ary process.
We seem to have reached thefulcrtvn poim ofa "do or
die" situation in terms of a cominued quality standard oflife
on this planet. It is the aim of 1/ris journal to drJ its part in the
re-inhabitation and re-cultura1ion of the Ka1Uilh province of
the Southern Appalachians. This province is indicated by its
natural boundaries: the New River vicinity to the north; tlie
foothills oftlie piedmont area to tlie east; Yona Mountain and
the Georgia hills to the south; and tlie Tennessee River Valley
to the west.
Humbly, as self-appointed stewards with sacred
instructions as "new natives" to protect and preserve i1s
sacredness. we advocate a centered approach to tlie cor1cep1
of decentralization and hope to become a support system/or
those accepting the challenge of sustainability and the
creation of harmony and balance in a total sense, here in this
place.
We welcome all correspondence, criticism, pertinent
information, articles, artwork, etc. with hopes that Kmlttlh
wilf grow to serve the best imerests of this region and all its
living, breatlUngfamily members.
- The Editors
Winter 1986-87
�BOOGEAS AND MUMMEAS
While collecting material for his book
Cherokee Dance and Drama, Frank G.
Speck, on January 2, 1935, observed a
performance of the "Booger Dance" during
a social gathering at the house of Will
Pheasant in the Big Cove community on the
Cherokee Indian reservation.
He described the dancers as being "a
company of four to ten or more masked
men, occasionally with a couple of women
companions, representing people from far
away or across the water - Germans,
French, Chinese, Negroes.....Each masked
dancer has a personal name, usually
obscene, which is given upon request to the
host of the house party.... Europeans show
exaggerations of features--bushy eyebrows,
moustaches. chin whiskers, red cheeks, big
noses, ghastly white pallor, and bald heads.
Animal masks are occasionally worn by the
boogers when they desire to represent
themselves as hunters and then they carry
guns, bows, or clubs. Other equipment of
the boogers may be a dead chicken to
represent a wild rurkey, a dead lamb, or the
skull of a cow or a horse. Boogers may
distort their figures by stuffing abdomen,
buttocks, or shins. Some carry an imitation
phallus of gourd neck or wrapped cloth
concealed beneath a quilt of sheet, which
they expose when dashing toward women
and girls. Sometimes the gourd phallus
contains water, which is released, adding to
the burlesque."
The dancers would enter the house
acting at the same time clownishly and
violently--falling on the floor, swinging at
the men, and making rushes at the women
and girls. When questioned by the host of
the party, who acted as master of
KA TUAH - page 3
ceremonies, they said they wanted "Girls!"
and they wanted "to fight", but they were
mollified and introduced themselves with a
song and a dance solo by each member of
the cast.
The host then invited the group to
dance. Customarily, the boogers would do
one of the "winter dances", the Bear Dance
or the Eagle Dance. During the second
round of the dance, women from the
audience joined as the boogers' partners in
the dancing.
The boogers then left as boisterously
as they had come, some dashing into the
crowd of women and clumsily trying to
carry off struggling victims, amid screams
and laughter.
The Mummers
In lrcland, within living memory, it
was the custom for companies of young
men, called ''The Mummers" to go from
house to house during the nights after
ChristmaS wearing costumes and tall masks
of plaited rushes, performing a ritualized
drama of death and rebirth. The play was
ostensibly to raise money for a large
community dance, The Mummers' Ball, that
took place early in January, but the roots of
the custom go back into antiquity.
The mummers were led by a captain
who acted as master of ceremonies and was
responsible for the conduct of his tr0upe in
the kitchens of the community. In recent
years, the company consisted more or less
of eight basic characters: the Captain,
Beelzebub, Prince George (of England),
Oliver Cromwell, Saint Patrick, the Doctor,
Big Head (a musician), and Miss Funny
(the treasurer).
The captain requested entrance into
the house, and if it were granted, he strode
into the kitchen, proclaiming:
"Here comes/, Captain Mummer,
And all me men.
Room, room, gallant boys,
Give us room to rhyme.
We'll show you some diversion
Around these Chrisrmas times."
One after another the members of the
cast came into the lighted kitchen, declaring
in rhyme, and each introducing the next,
until the character of SL Patrick entered:
"Here Comes/, St. Patrick,
And tile reason I came
I'm in search ofthat bully
Prince George is his name.
And if I do find him,
I'll tell you no lie,
I'll hack him to pieces as small as a fly."
Prince George and St. Patrick then
had an altercation that ended when Prince
George drew his rapier (stick) and ran his
opponent through. The Doctor was called
for and entered, bearing
"...a wee bottle here in the waistband ofme
trousers.
Tlzey call it
Hokey pokey halicumpain.
Rise 11p dead man and jighi again."
the Doctor would say as he revived the
patient, and he would then call for Big
Head, who entered and played music for
two dancers to relieve the dramatic tension
of the perfonnance.
Miss Funny would then come in and
ask for money, "All silver and no brass."
At this point the show became more
- continued on next page
Wrnter 1986-87
�- continued
ijfonnal, and members of the household
were enco uraged to request songs and
<Wices, or to step in for a dance with Miss
Funny. At the conclusion of the event it
was customary for the people of the house
to try to guess the identity of the mummers,
and if there were girls in the house bold
enough, they might attempt to maneuver a
position where they could knock the mask
off one of the performers. The mummers
would defend their fellow by pushfog and
tickling, which frequently led to much
squealing and giggling. Then with a
farewell and good wishes the mummers
would depan into the night
In these days when people nightly
invite murder and violence into their homes
via their TV sets, the mummers' play may
seem bland and unconvincing. But it was
not as often seen in those days, and it was a
live performance: "Rhyme and action
render it all humorous, but the words are
clear. There are many young men, armed
with sticks, standing around your kitchen
who would like you to give them some
money," wrote Henry Glassie in his book
on the mumming tradition, All Silver and
No Brass,
Common T hreads
The two performances, boogers and
mummers, from disparate cultures on
opposite sides of the ocean, vary greatly due
to the differences in geography and culture.
Yet, even in such a superficial presentation
of traditions that had evolved through
centuries, certain srrong similarities stand
out.
First, the masks. These were the core
of the presentation. They lent a compelling
sense of presence to the dramas, and
plunged the audience, the familiar
household, and the players into a different
reality. This was a visitation from the spirit
world. T he masks were frightening, but
they could also amaze and delight. The
masked players were from outside the
bounds of convention. They could talk and
act in a way not permi11ed in ordinary
community life. They could speak of things
usually left unspoken. They could talce
deep tensions and transfonn them through
humor, song, and dance.
The second similarity was the time of
year. Both of these plays were done at
night as part of the winter season
celebration. Hayes Lossiah, who danced
the Booger Dance in Big Cove, said, "We'd
do it in the winter. It'd snow two, three
days, mebbe, after the dance."
"It was the performance of the
season," said Peter Flanagan of County
Ferman agh, Ireland of the Christmas
mumming shows.
'
KATUAH-page4
a• -
~-«¥ • I
t:llltec.,... ...._...,-.,.IT
The Booger Dance was sometimes
origins a nd the original purpose o f the
used by medicine men in the healing of the
Booger Dance-, for the Iroquois marked the
sick. These appearances would, of course,
transitidn between the old and new years
happen in any season needed, but: "In its
with <t winter celebration called the "festival
earliest form, the Booger Oilflce, 'strong in
of dreall'.IS~, which is. described by James
Frazer in bis book The Golden Boui:h:
magic', was undoubtedly ti mi ted to win ter
performance. since its association with
'The whole cel'cmonies lasted several
days, or even weeks, and formed a kind of
'ghosts', those of aliens, is believed to
bring killi ng frosts," said Speck.
saturnalia. Men and women, variously
The connectipn with healing shows
disguised. went from wigwnm to wigwam
smashing and throwing down whatever they
the original spiritual nature of the masks,
and should make us look closer to find the
came across. It was a time of general
purpose in the buffoonery of the winter
license; the people were supposed to be out
of their senses, and therefore not to be
Booger Dance.
The character and conduct of the
responsible for what they did ....On one day
mummers and th·e boogers is another
of the festival the ceremony of driving away
evil spiriis from the village took place. Men
similarity. In both performances the casts
showed highly exaggerated characteristics
clothed in the skins of wild beasts, their
of aggressiveness and clownishness. The
faces covered with hideous masks, and their
interplay bet ween the audience and the
hands with the shell of the tortoise, wem
performers contained an clement of the
from hut to hut making frightful noises; in
risque in both of the dramas, but it was
every hut they took the fuel from 1he fire
and scattered the embers and ashes about the
more highly ,exaggerated and exploited by
the boogers.
floor with their hands. The general
It is bold indeed to speculate on the
confession of sins which preceded the
origins of these two events of folk theatre,
festival was probably a preparation for the
when little p recise information is known
public expulsion of evil influences; it was a
about either. But the structure of the
way of stripping the people of their moral
mummers' play strongly reflects the old
burdens, that these might be collected and
cast out"
myth of the god of the new year killing the
god of the old that dates back to earliest
Clearly the booger masks of the
history in Europe and the British Isles. In
Iroquois were aiding in the exorcism of
other areas of Britain the same story is
demons - the pent-up emotions of the winter
enacted by the "wranboys" during the same
and the stale energies of the old year. This
could have been the original purpose of the
days after Christmas, who hunt and kill a
~n. the deity of the year past, in the name
Cherokee masks, as well, but as the
of "Cock Robin", who represents the
Christian missionaries inhibited the old
coming cycle of regrowth.
spiritual forms, and as European oppression
The Doctor of the mummers and his
anacked the Indians and their way of life,
"wee bottle" of "hokey pokey halicumpain"
the whites could have been given the
also provides a death and resurrection theme
principal role of devil-demon scapegoat to
act out and carry away the year's negative
symbolic of the regeneration of the year.
A solstice play would have had an
energies.
important role in an early agricultural
If we can accept, or even consider,
these intuitive conclusions as to the origins
community to teach the young and remind
of the mask dramas, we see that these two
the old that the changes of the year, while
cultures approached the challenges of the
dramatic and threatening, were a normal pan
of the yearly cycle.
winter season in very different ways: one in
The influence of the Christian church
an active, volatile way, and the other by
internalizing the energies of the season by
would have caused the substitution of St.
Patrick as the main protagonist, as it did in
re-enacting them as a story. But although
so many other holidays and rituals. But
very different from each other in their
original form, the two events seem to spring
then, as secular concerns became more
immediate, SL Patrick and St. George could
from a deep, common, spiritual matrix: the
need to maintain the community, first in the
have come to represent the relations between
Ireland and England, which had so much
changing flow of time, then of history.
bearing on the life of the poor Irish farmers.
That required that conventional social
This was of special significance in the
barriers be temporarily broken down to find
a new and basic starting point from which
divided communities of northern Ireland
the people could move together into the new
where those: tensions have continued at a
slow, smoldering bum for centuries.
year. It required exaggeration of the human
capacities for violence and foolishness, that
Wild Dreams
we normally do not wish to acknowledge,
that by laughter, movement, and song
The booger masks, it is currently
people could accept and come to terms with
thought, came to the Cherokee from the
their negativity and weakness.
Iroquoian culture of the northeastern
woodland tribes. This lends a hint as to the
u
Winter 1986-87
�rim
: . Al
look • mask plays ...,
ippc.r IO have bcea ~and iUJICiaiaiola4
pno..-doa1,;anachronisms from a primiliwi
put. Bus lookinJ
one misfit sec a
IOpbisaiCaled psycbolo&IW lbcnpy IO beal
. ,-
.....
*'ai"'
~DNA daal ~beck
the QDIDIDunity and ttansform the inner
demons that take shape in the world duriri1
the dadt winter months. We could extend
Land Roots
gradually faded away.
THE BOOGER D
ANCE
as witnessed by Tom Underwood
Tom Underwood is the proprietor of
the Medicine Man Craft Shop in Cherokee,
a long-time meeting-place for those
interested in Cherokee Indian artwork and
culture. Tom had tire rare privilege,
although he did not realize it at tlte time, of
being one of tlte few white people to see tlte
Booger Dance performed/or healing .....
I grew up in lhe Birdtown section of
the Cherokee Indian reservation. When I
was growing up, my dad had the only
automobile in that pan of the reservation, so
he was often called upon to be ambulance,
laxi, or messenger. I remember one day an
urgent message came for Bird Panridge, a
medicine man and a fine old fellow.
I was a boy, 12 or 13 at lhe time, but
I can remember it was getting dusky dark
when we neared old man Partridge's house.
My dad spoke a few words to a woman at
the door, and she motioned up the hill
behind the house. We walked up a rough
sled road through the woods. It was a pretty
good little climb, and when we got up there
we could hear people talking and chants
a'going on.
We followed a trail to a clearing
40-50 feet in diameter . There was a circle
of people around the perimeter of the
KATUAH - page 5
dwup
time from the deaceadanta o r die
Henry Glassie's statement that. "The
mummers (and the boogus) attacked the
forces that keep people ap:m."
The Cherokees and the subsistence
farmers of lhe Irish countryside shared the
heritage of a land-based small village
culture. Both groups came under the
dominance of the prevailing European
industrial culture. As their societies came
under auack, the conditions of life were
changed, and their cultures were changed as
well. The critical alteration was that, in both
cases, the strong, enduring ties to the land
that had nourished their people for centuries
were forcibly broken by the invading
culture. This was the crucial link. and when
it was severed, the masks, which
represented the spirits of the land, were
doomed.
Oppression became the primary
demon that haunted these peoples, and the
message of the masks changed. They
spoke about the invader. They spoke about
life and death in tenns the people could
understand. They were so strongly rooted
in the lives of the people, it took the
maskings 200 years to die, but once their
lifeline to the land was cut, their vitality
. \'ct.dle~-lhe---.
aiecblc.S
. . . . . . . . tlcllC .
' ia ~ . . . two eul1*'CS meet. n.
qirk ~ die .m1 •nmcn' .p1ay1 bas 4:0lne
acroa IM Waler oa the ·toa1 1trands".o(
And so, unfonunately, the last item
that these two traditions share in common is
that both are, for all practical purposes,
extinguished as meaningful communication
among the people. Although there are
elders alive who have done lhe Booger
Dance and the mummers' show, apparently
the dramas are no longer in use.
So it is relevant to question, "Why
even write about these traditions from two
culrures t hat are so distant from and so
unlike each other? Why pay so much
attention to old traditions that have already
passed away?"
It is tr ue. To study the mask
traditions, the kachjnas of the Hopi Indians,
which have been brought vinually intact
through the time barrier of modern
civilization, offer a much better subject for
study. There the myth stories of the land
and the e lemental beings still live in the
wbite-llci.nftcd immigrantS 10 lhcir anceslOR
in Europe. The booger spirits, too, lie
dormant in the mountain shadows. their
native home - sleeping, waiting to be
aroused once again.
The masks are looking for ne w
fonns, for new meanings, and for a new
generdtion to bring them alive . It would
require only that some of lhe hu mans
reconnect the vital link between themselves
and the land, and the masks and the spirits
they represenl would be resurrecled to chant
and dance and amaze the people in the
community circle once again.
They are old, litera.lly "as old as the
hills'', yet when lhe people call upon the
masks, they will arise and come, bringing
powers of invocation, communication,
liberation, and delight.
Resource Reading:
All Silver and No Brass: Henry Glassie
(Indiana University Press, Bloomington,
IN) 1975
Cherokee Dance and Drama: Frank G.
Speck and Leonard Broom (University of
California Press, Berkeley, CA) 1951
yearly cycle of mask celebrations.
clearing. In the center was a fire, and by the
fire lay a person all wrapped up, obviously
sick, and over him hovered another, the
medicine man. I didn't see it, but I suppose
the medicine man had given the pat.ient some
medicine.
Around this pair at the center were
about 15-18 people with masks of many
differenl kinds. Every one of them was
covered up with blankets or old raggedy
clothes, so no one could tell who they were
at all. They wore all kinds of scarey masks.
One was a hornets' nest - it was an old
hornets' nest with the eyeholes and a
breathing hole cul out. Most of the masks
were faces cut out of wood. The m:tsked
figures were dancing in a circle around the
medicine man and the sick person at the fire.
All of them were chanting. I knew the
medicine man was old Bird Panridge, even
though a mask covered his entire face.
That went on for a little while, until a
few of them noticed us, and then every bit
of it just quit. My daddy stated his business
and said that someone had an emergency.
maybe it was a death in the family, and that
he would carry the person back down.
The people in the circle never moved
another peg until we got out of lhe clearing
and over the hill. As we walked down the
hill, I could hear them taking up the chanl
again.
That was the only time I ever actually
saw the Booger Dance performed in
sincerity like it was done a long time ago. I
was just a boy, but I remember it very
vividly. My interest in it at the time was
very casual, but later l became much more
interested as I began to read and talk with
other people.
Masks were used in other ceremonies
as well, but the booger masks were usually
thought of as scarey masks. I have one at
home I've had for 50 years. My father
acquired it. It is very, very scarey-looking.
~
100-year-otd mask by famed Cherokee mask-maker
Will West Long
Winter 1986-87
�.
~LL SPtC~tS
DAY
by Marnie Muller
Ahead of the pageant, each person is asked to choose a
plant or animal that they feel closest to, that they would like
to represent at the celebration. Then there are mask-making
sessions with a great deal of storytelling going on during this
time about how individual creatures have helped the Earth
and how many indigenous peoples have regarded the Eanh
as the sacred being that it is. There are also stories of the
interdependence of all life.
"For more than 99 percent of human
history, the world was enchanted
and [humans] saw (themselves] as
an integra l part of it. The complete
reversal or this perception in a mere
four hundred years or so has
destroyed the continuity of the
huma n experience and the integrity
of the human psyche. It has ver y
nearly wrecked the planet as well.
The only hope, or so it seems to me,
lies in a reenchantment of the world.
Morris Berman
In his book The Reenchantment of the World, Morris
Berman explores the possibility of reawakening the integral
or participating consciousness of the human psyche through
a rich, sensual, ecological perspective of the world around
us. This visceral, int.ellcctual, full re-understanding of the
human connection with all life allows a deeper, more
ttuthful perception of our "place" in the universe and in the
specific place we inhabit
An exciting educational project which nurtures this
sense of "reenchantment" rooted in an ecological base is
The All Species Day Project. Successful as a school
curriculum activily or as a full-blown community pageant ,
All Species Day has provided both children and adults with
an opportunity to celebrate and become the myriad species of
plants and animal that co-inhabit _the place where we live. A_n
All Species Day event usually Ulcludes a parade, dramanc
presentations, storytelling, displays and a 'Creature
Congress'. The Congress is a rime when each person who
has represented a species can speak for or perform on behalf
of that species. During this time, species may dialogue with
each other in improvisational ways and can make requests or
pleas, for example to humans. The Congress is a rime for all
the species to convene and share a common vision of the
world with each other and to speak to each other about the
region they inhabit They can speak of its beauty and wealth
but they can also speak of problems they as a species may
face. All Species Day may also include a potluck picnic and
music and games as well.
With mask-making, movement and sound as well as
storytelling, drama and dance, the many plants and animals
and lifeforms that inhabit our world are able to "visit" and
share with us their stories and visions. The bear, the hawk.
the rainbow trout.... the cougar, the chickadee, the tunle... the
ginseng, the willow, the chestnuL..all can come join in the
festivities.
KATUAH ·page 6
"All Species Day offers an
educational fest ival in which
ecological r eality is brought to life
through a n organic, animistic
celebration wher e the ancient,
mimetic sense of identifying with
plants and a nimals is playfully
enacted in mask-making, parade,
storytelling and drama."
-Amy Hannon
The mask-making itself is full of fun and
creativity..and ingenuity. Some masks are made out of
"found" materials such as bark... while others are fashioned
from wood or gourd...and others from baling wire and paper
mache..or cloth or clay. Some paint their masks very
"realistically" while others superimpose images onto the face
of the mask of things that remind one of the creature.. .for
example, the trout mask may have a rushing stream pass
across its face. Also, costumes may be made ...and the same
motif may be used ... with clouds painted on the back of the
eagle.
Each person is given the opportunity to become
Winter 1986-87
�familiar with the sounds, movements and feelings of the
lifeform they are to represenL They are encouraged to caw as
a crow or sway as a willow or chauer as a jay. It is suggested
that their dreams at night may be helpful in getting them more
in rune with their choice.
In terms of originally selecting which animal or plant
they want to be, it is always helpful to first go on a field
trip... to a wild place... .leuing everyone "slow down" and
take a deep breath...and listen to the sounds around them.
Lemng them close their eyes and relax ...and settle in to the
place where you are helps to encourage a time for
daydreaming or reverie. It is in this kind of 'slowed down '
time that a choosing of "who to represent/ who to be" can
best happen. After each person selects their totem animal or
plant or lifeform, it is helpful, then, to consider the species'
relationship with the place where you are...the water, the air,
the wind, the sun, the night, the other plants and animals. If
it seems appropriate, everyone may be ready to "practice"
becoming/being their lifeform....through sounds, movement,
and imagination.
Afler masks and costumes are made and time is spent
getting prepared, it is then time for the celebration. It can be a
one-classroom event, a whole school event or an entire city
pageant. It can be splashy with full media coverage...or it
can be more intimate and less fuss.
All Species Day celebrations began in the early l 970's
and are now beginning to crop up in communities around
Turtle Island (Nonh America). The All Species Project,
located in Santa Fe, NM, assists groups and communities in
setting up an AU Species Day in their locale. This non-profit,
educational corporation offers several packets of materials
and information: Packet #I (sample press release, sample
poster, calendar listing, public service announcement, and
mayor's proclamation) cost: $7 ; Packet #2 (suggested
songs, some bibliography, short theater pieces, and
information on sets, materials.and costume making) cost:
$10 ; Packet #3 ( Newsletter/poster of recent events) cost:
$5. The address /telephone:
The AU Species Project
1349 Cerro Gordo
Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 982-2768
About All Species Day
"We have to bring back the animals and plants, and we have to do it
through the children. I've been looking for this for a while."
- Roberta Blackgoat
Big Mountain Navajo Elder
• cononucd on next page
KATUAH - page 7
�~LL Sf£C~tS D~Y in Greenville NC
" Self-unfolding, self-educating
for the sheer joy of it ...The
students were inspiring the
teachers with enthusiasm. 'This
is what teaching is au about', a
teacher told me."
-Amy Hannon
All Species Day Coordinator
for Greenville, NC
All Species Day 1985
Greenville, NC
Site: Sadie Sa ulter Elementa ry School,
Green ville,NC
Scale: School-wide
Inspired by the Santa Fe, NM All
Species Project , Amy Hannon, a parent of
three, initiated this effort at her children's
school in Greenville, NC. The event was
endorsed by the school principal, the
Enrichment Program director and the school
librarian as well as others.
It was a day-long, school-wide
celebration. Each student chose 10 be a plant
or animal and studied itS habitat, behavior
and ecological relationships. Several classes
focused on the sea and others on lhe coastal
plain as a habitat. In the hallways and
classrooms, there were 16 "centers" set up
for students to visit
School projects included murals,
models, poems, displays, dioramas, and
puppet show s. There were games,
including tbe Food Web game, as well as
storytelling. Students dressed in their plant
and animal masks and costumes paraded
around the school, singing.
ALL
All Species Day 1986
Greenville, NC
Site: River Park North, G reem ille, NC
Scale: Are:a-wide
Enthused by the wonderful reception
of "All Species" at Sadie Saulter Elcmenmry
School, Amy Hannon felt that it would be
good 10 expand All Sp ecies Day imo a
communiiy-wide event. She contacted the
director of Greenville Parks & Recreation
who liked the idea very much and offered
River Parle North. In addition, she gained
the support of the Pamlico-Tar River
Foundation, and the local chapters of the
Sierra Club and The League of Women
Voters. By applying to the NC Humanities
Commiuee, Amy was able to procure a
SP£Ct£S
D..ty
In a ll the world or living creatures (birds a nd fish,
mammals and insects, algae and fungi, trees & flowers, etc.)
AC'J'LV'L'TY
grant to fund storytelling, mask-making and
drama activities for the Day. She also
contacted a number of school and
community organizations working with
youth groups who might like 10 set up
displays. etc.
The result: A tremendous success! All
S pecies Day 1986 took place on Saturday,
May 3rd. Many species themselves
attended the festival: Carolina Raptor Center
brough t a Golden Eagle, Barn Owl, Great
Homed Owl, Red-tailed Hawk and Kestrel;
the River Park's nature center had a
community of tunics living in the touch tank
including Spotted Turtle, Painted Turtle,
Musk Tunle and Yellowbelly Slider; the NC
Museum of Na tural History's outreach
program brought a variety of snakes; a
display prepared by a representative of the
US Soil Conservation Service included a
dozen perennial grasses. The trees and
wildlife of the Park were also present .
The day was filled with narure walks,
storytelling, displays, and games as well as
the celebration itself. There was a parade
with the sound of drum beat and flute ...and
then an improvisational drama, "The
Parliament of Critters". Amy describes the
day: " Animals and their powers came to
light in stories told to small groups all day
long under the shade of a large Loblolly
Pine. Tunic. Whale, Rabbit, Fox, Crow
and Mouse spoke through the mouths of
s1orytellers ...Each story invited the humans
present to entertain the world from a bird's
eye view, as it were, or perhaps a whale's.
"The next step in the magic of A ll
S p ecies Day was to move from the
enchantment of hearing stories to actively
assuming the perspective of a non-human
species by wearing masks or face and body
paint, representing the creatures. In
preliterate societies it is serious busrncss to
discover the animals in one's soul.
Elaborate ceremonies and endurance-testing
vision quests prepare the way before one
can wear the symbol of Eagle or Bear,
Salmon or Wolf. At All Species Day it was
largely a children's game save for some
mature humans who would not have all
playfulness relegated only to children."
- continued on page 22
1J01UGSK££'J
3) How long has your species lived on Ea rth?
choose one you would like to represent for AU Species Day.
My choice is:_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
(common name)
(scientific name)
4) Describe your acti vities as the seasons cha nge from
spring to s ummer, fa ll and winter. (If your life s pan is
shorter than a year, describe your life cycle.)
belonging to the _ ..pl...,.a... l.........
nt.., a n jm,....a!...__ kingdom.
(circlt ont)
For the rest of this worksheet play the game: " If I were
a
" using the plant or anima l you have chosen,
and tell about yourself.
5) What is your place in the food web? (What food do you
eat? Who eats you?)
6)
Is your species in danger of ex tinction? If so, tell why:
1) Describe yourself. (Your colors, your size, your s pecial
features, your voice, etc.)
2) Where do you live? (Continent, geographical region,
habitat.)
4
KATUAH ·page 8
-
7) When all the other plants a nd anima ls, including the
humans, gather at the Parliament of Critters on All Species
Day to talk to one another, what would you like to say or do?
-
-
; " ' '
..
Winter 1986-87
�catkin, hair, scarab, pear, redwood, ragweed, lousewort, bear,
willow, leek, ear and cheek, euglena, spirolina, talon and beak,
raven, hemlocks, ginseng, volvox, stinkbug, rosebud, black widow,
hollyhocks, bluegill and kiwi vine, chestnut and pinion pine,
dolphin, sunflower, chinquapin and human kind, sagebrush,
endosperm, nectarine, arctic tern, onions, grunions, date palm,
bracken fern, orchid, grouse, sumac, mouse, rhubarb, baobab, lotus,
louse, lupine, lizard, fin and gizzard, phylum, xylem , trout and
wizard, wolf and whale, nettle, quail, earthworm, sycamore,
nutmeg, nightingale, elephant's eye, comfrey, rye, hawk's wing,
trillium, thistle, thigh, gland, goose, bark, spruce, panther, anther,
apple, moose, buzzard, knee, navel, pea, goat's horn, amaranth,
beaver, bumblebee, mushroom, fig, termite, pig, oyster, violet,
pigeon, maple twig, joe pye weed, alder seed, coyote, bluejay,
parsley and river reed, cannabis, petiole, oak tree, blue cheese
mold, salamander, rattlesnake, blackgum and oriole, large-mouth
bass and lemongrass, coral, laurel, sorrel, and sassafrass
Everyone who lives and breathes
With hide or feathers, scales or leaves
We invoke ourcellves in total range
To bring about the needed change
Poem by Will Ashe Bason
KATUAH - page 9
Winter 1986-87
�A Katuah Conversation with a Cherokee
native. Here a re his words about getting in touch
with each other, our world, and our own selves:
It seems to me that human beings probably do the
worst job of communicating of all other species on the
planet. We can't even communicate with one another. We
still have wars and such..... People who are sensitive and
conscious of the environment want to develop some kind of
communication with plants and animals. Since they're so
stuck in the mode of~. they try to communicate with
plants and talk with plants on that level. Our relationship with
the rest of the planet, though, is~ in most cases, and
so the communication has to come through .thnl level, not a
verbal sort of thing.
The human inability to communicate well with other
plants and animals comes from the fact that many of us have
separated ourselves from the very environment that provides
for us, living instead in an artificial, controlled environment.
We ~ in houses instead of using housing just as shelter.
When people are so completely self-oriented and out of touch
with themselves, it's hard to communicate with plants and
animals.
I had an experience when l was about founccn. There
weren't very many roads around where I lived. I was visiting
a friend who lived two mountains over. There was a
well-used trail going over there. Everybody had traveled it
for years and years; it was like a super-highway of trails. I'd
crossed this trail a hundred times - it was real familiar to me.
One time, it was dusk, "long shadow time", and coming
down the trail, all of a sudden I started to feel cold chills. I
was feeling something. The farther l went down the trail, the
more scared I got. All my instincts said to me: "Don't go any
farther, there's something down there that's going to hurt
you, don't go any farther." I ttied to push it a little bit more,
but then I just turned before I panicked. I walked away very
quickly, and it seemed that the farther I got away from that
place, the better I got. By the time I had come down the trail
a couple of hundred yards, I felt just fine. Then my rational
mind came over and said: "You're just imagining all this."
And I turned around and started back. The same thing
happened to me again. So this time I went back and took
another trail and everything was just fine.
Later on that night I came back through the traiL It
was dark, but nothing happened. I never again had that
experience, that fceling ...and I was looking for it when I
came back through. Well, when I got back home. I sat down
and talked to my grandfather about il, and he said that the
plants had been ta!Jdng to me. They had been communicating
with me in a spiritual sort of sense. He said that when we're
KATUAH- page 10
in harmony with things and meeting our responsibiltties as
human beings towards the other things, that the other forms
of life would be in communication with us all the time.
Things are coming to us all the time, but if we are so
self-indulgent within ourselves, focussing only on our own
ideas and thoughts, we block out everything else. He said it
all goes back to the separation ...our original sin is
separation ....and that the more people can hook into the
Great Life, the more control they will have over their lives,
and the more ability they will have, not only to communicate,
but also to listen. That was one of my first experiences
communicating with green things.
Since then, throughout my life, things like that have
happened to me. I have walked in the woods at night and
have stopped and had something reach out and touch me and
I'd look behind me and there would be nothing there. Then
something would touch me again, and I would look around
and sec that it was a limb from a tree. Now, my
rationalization would say that the wind had blown it and
knocked it down .....
Leaming to Communicate
My grandfather said every child should have a dog,
and I said, "Why, just because they're neat? " And he said,
"No, it's a way for a young child to learn to communicate
without talking." Even though dogs can't talk, they'll let
their needs be known, and so children can learn how to
communicate with them without talking.
Winter 1986-87
�When we communicare, it's imponant to pay attention,
to listen and to be conscious of aJl the communicating that is
going on. It takes practice. In this culture, communication
isn't valid unless it's words. Someone may be
communicating a message with all their being, but when
somebody else begins to act upon that communication, the
first person starts dropping back and denying that they said
that. It creates mixed messages. It happens all the time,
because we don't see that wider kind of communication as
reliable, trustworthy, and valid.
Animals like the dog species all communicate with
their noses. Everything's coming in that way. I was
watching a herd of deer the other day. They use their noses
and their eyes...and they use signals. The female of the
species flags, throws her tail up and waves it up and down,
and no one even considers discussing it, you know, like
"what'd you see?". They all leap and are gone, right now.
Signals..... As a boy I used to huni squirrels with a
blow gun. The nice thing about the blow gun is you could
miss a squirrel two or three times and it would not even
know you were shooting at i1. My hair was always long
then, and when they'd catch me or see me, I would make a
chattering noise with my lips and grab my pony tail and
shake it up and down, flipping it. Their response might have
been fear at first when they saw me, but I did the right
signals, and they stopped and we just went back and forth at
one another. hollering and waving our tails. It would get to
the point where I couldn't even shoot the animal because
we'd developed this communication, this relationship--even
if it was a little hostile on his pan because he wanted me to
get the heck out of his territory.
All of our hunting skills are from observation and
imitation of animals who are good hunters. That's where it
all starts. We've probably learned more from animals than
we have from each other. Imitation, though, is not a very
well-accepted thing in the dominanc culture. Everybody
wants to be original, and they won't admit that they admire
or wish to take on certain traits.
The Plant Spirits
It's our custom when we collect plants 10 give thanks
and 10 wait 'til the fourth one before we pick the species
we're looking for. And if it's a medicine plant, we circle it.
Someone can have lived in the mountains all bis life and
never found ginseng, although he has looked for it lots of
times. Then, finally, one day he may find it. My people say
it was hiding from him.
One time I went into the mountains with some people
that I was to show herbs to, and I wasn't doing it in the right
way. I should have stopped and explained how to collect
them. They were interested in ginseng, so I took them to this
particular place, because I had found ginseng there lots of
times - an incredible amount of times. It was like my "sure"
place to find it. r went there, and we walked up and down
that whole mountainside and never found ~plant. Well,
three days later my daughter came to me and said, "I wane to
find some ginseng, I've never found any". So we did all the
right things that we should do, and then we went out to the
same place, and ginseng was everywhere. It was a sunny,
fall day, warm and beautiful, but suddenly there was a wild
crack of thunder. I was still overwhelmed by that when my
daughter said, "Dad, here's a ginseng plan1." And that was
her first one.
I think attitude is important. If you go into the
mountains or the woods or the forest and you have a
"grabs-all" type attitude, where you're there to exploit and
there's no feeling, you may find some stuff, but you ~
will be successful. And if you're using it for medicine, it
may not work for you. You know what I mean.
The problem sometimes is tha1 people close themselves
off. They have c lear, defined lines of what reality is within
!hemselves. Some people are so strong about that, they inflict
u on other people as rules and such. So when 1hey hear
soo:icthing that is outside of their ordinary "reality", ii doesn't
register.
The western philosophy is almost desi~ned to separate
a p~rson from their environment. II is a war against the
environment. Look at what's happened since
industrialization. Western culture has changed the whole face
of the Earth, and it is destroying many of the plants and
animals. With that atcitude, it's hard to communicate with
plants .and animal~. The crux of the whole thing is
separauon. And until someone can come back and get in
couch with what's around them, it will be difficult to have a
right attitude.
The whole thing all comes down to the fact that
there's only one equation and that's ONE. There's only
ONE. And we're all pan of that ONE. We're not separated
from it. People suffer from intellectual separation - they're
not Wl1J.x separated, but they have a strong~ that they're
separated. The artitude of 'individualism' puts one at war
against their environment. So, it starts again. Everything
starts from where you're at. And so to get in touch with the
environment, you've got to get 2lll there, first of all. You've
got to start wilh yourself. And you've got to start serving,
being a servant You've got to help your own species in what
ways you can. All these things will chip away that
'individualism'. Trust, absolute trust, is what's needed.
Y'know, I've extended myself a lot in my life and
been whupped down, crushed, and badly hun. Well, there
was a point when I said, "I'm not going to do that anymore."
~n~ ~o I t?~ that tactic a while. I started becoming more
10d1v1dualisnc, and then I sraned to get more self-oriented. I
just didn't like the way all those things felt; I felt an
emptiness and a loneliness that I had never felt before. Then I
sat down and thought, "Well, it's better to extend myself and
be hurt than to feel this emptiness." So what I'm saying in a
simple way is: first of all, stan extending yourself...not in a
suicidal son of way, though. When your flags go up, when
lhe bushes say "Get the heck out of here" - listen. Or pull
back to a point where you can see that you're safe. and then
act. But it all starts with "self" and trust - and getting out
there and looking at plants and bushes and animals and
seeing how they live their lives. Start looking at your fellow
humans. Stan listening to what they say. And then stan
ruyfilg.
And then, all of a sudden, a plant is going to reach out
and snatch you, stretch out it's limbs and wrap them around
you or something. Or you may go for walk in the woods and
~et lost, and confounded •. when all of a sudden something
Jerks you and drags you nghc ou1. Then you will know that
the Earth has spoken to you. Because the Earth is not dead·
it's alive. Everything is alive.
/
KATUAH - page 11
vi
Winter 1986-87
1lAv 11\A
=>(!i>q •
�(.1l131N
What do horse logging, learning
disabilities, and the Sweetie Pie Bake-off all
have in common?
Answer: They are all classes and
evencs offered as part of Cabin Fever
University. Cabin Fever You is dedicated to
the proposition "that all seasons were not
created equal and that wQJ1llth and light gin
be found in mid-winter". If you are looking
to find that warmth and light....read on!
The idea for Cabin Fever University
came from Dick Kennedy, a resident of the
Cclo Community near Burnsville, NC. Dick
had participated in a similar project in
Detroit, Ml called "Open City". The basic
principle in both organizations is to facilitate
neighbors coming together to share skills,
ideas, laughs, philosophies, food, and
music. All the courses at Cabin Fever U.
are free unless someone's professional
skills and/or materials are needed. One of
the many positive benefits of the program is
that it promotes a feeling of unity within the
community during the winter months when
it is needed most
Seven years ago when Dick Kennedy
staned CFU, he bad to work hard to get 20
or 30 listings for that year. Now that most
people in the Celo area and others
throughout Yancey and Mitchell counties
know about the program, the work is much
easier, and the catalog has 80-90 listings
each year.
To organize the Cabin Fever
curriculum now, volunteers begin in
November to gather the listings from their
KATIJAH- page 12
DNIV€~SICY
neighbors and to print the catalog. Peggy
Tibbits, John Pence, Miki Rolett, Douie
Morgan, and Joanne Hodshon call all the
people who held classes last year and ask
them what they would like to offer this year.
Any new families who have moved into the
area are asked to panicipate also. Each
person making calls is responsible for
scheduling a two week period of time. Once
all the calling has been completed, the
schedule is checked for conflicts. The
catalog is then copied on Dick Kennedy's
copying machine. The entire job of
producing the catalog - including calling,
typing, layout, copying, and collating - can
be completed within a total time of 25
hours. They are sold for $0.75 each. Jn
1985 150 catalogs were distributed.
The classrooms for Cabin Fever You
are the homes of the people who offer each
course. All arrangements are made direclly
with the "faculty person" leading the course.
There are usually limits placed on the
number of panicipants allowed in each
class. Everyone in the Cclo area knows who
are the best cooks in the community, so
places at cooking classes are filled quickly!
The kitchen and dining room at the
Arthur Morgan School are used to host the
Dreams Die Hard Diner every New Year's
Day. Robin Dreyer opens for business at 9
a.m. as a New York City diner complete
with hot coffee, bagels, eggs, and an
occasional bag lady.
Sometimes the classroom is under the
wide-open sky as in the moonlight walk 10
Crabtree Falls offered by Sue and Lyle
Snider. Other events include printing on
clay with Catherine Brown, Contra and
Square Dancing (with live music and
callers), and Bad Food Night with Jan and
Beth Plummer - a potluck gathering
featuring the likes of macaroni and cheese,
frozen pizzas, and Boone's Farm wine.
The course offerings for CFU are a
blend of serious studies and frivolous fun.
If someone cannot find something in the
catalogue that sparks their interest, they
must be seriously devoted to staring at the
fire in the wood stove during the winter.
lf you do not live in Yancey or
Mitchell counties, you can stan a Cabin
Fever University in your own community.
Basically, all it requires is one person to
generate some interest in the project and a
small investment of money 10 produce the
catalog. Almost everyone knows a dozen
people. Call them and find out what their
interests are and what classes or events they
would be willing to offer. Usually people
are more than willing to get involved, and
oftentimes they have been waiting for the
opponunity 10 arrive. You would be
surprised what your friends, people you
have known - or thought you have known for a long time, are into.
If you have any questions about CFU
or are interested in staning a similar project.
call Dick Kennedy at (704) 675-5286.
- by Martha Overloc~
Winter 1986-87
�sequence: fire
sequence: dream
and winging the wind against the fog
sailing across the silence below; into the vision
and the atoms shirt
and the stars re-align
and the fog forms fractions
I the tea still gets cold before I've drunk it.
the heart's song resounds across the winds of time
there is no broken heart
there is love that is given through the shell that refuses
the circle of love is bigger than any wall of hate.
love is the loudest song of all
the path of love is like the mountain trail; stony, steep,
with many ups and downs
and getting from one place to the other that are only
a few steps across the gulf, but are many miles through reality.
and after the traveler has walked his last few steps
and has one last prayer to whisper
one prays that the path has led a full circle
to return from whence he came
to end as he began
a child created through love
"the path of love
is like the mountain trail.. ... "
Poems by Oliver Loveday
•
and should we have a moment to turn and reflect
no thought would be given to the trail blister
or the skinned knee, nor the moments of doubt and confusion.
time spent in the valley would leave memories of the tall trees,
the bright flowers, the laughter of children, and the cool,
clear stream.
and the high points would be moments of solitude and freedom
of far ranging vision and thoughts.
of seeing the eagle in flight
catching the first rays of the morning sun
and feeling the wind from far above.
sure the weary traveler would have a limp
with slumped shoulders
and a wind much too short to let his laughter run its full course
but there would be a twinkle in his eye
and a marked space in between his words that only the fire
of love could possess.
and there would be a strength in his manner of one who has run
his course, remained firm to his choice even when lhe path ran
the razor-sharp ridge top, when it would have been easier to
tum back to the lush son forest floor below.
the traveler has his moment of rest at the end of a race well run.
but when asked to run the next; a longer, harder trail.
the choicer stands to say yes and then is on his way
not even a glance backward. sequence: love. yes.
tonight, the path is well-lit
by a moon so bright it dims the stars
and reflects the clouds of steam
billowing from my nostrils.
As I drop into the cove the air
becomes colder, crisp, clear,
snapping with the intensity of ice;
but the only sound I hear is my own motion.
the cabin fire warms me as I recall
the walk down. Its hissing name breaks
the silence as smells of roast apple enters
my senses like the incense of a meditating Buddha.
I relax and listen to the clock reminding me
of my humanity while my time is measured by the
sound of boiling water for tea.
I breathe and feel my blood rushing through
my body like a million dreams cutting through
the silence. I smile as I lay down my pen
to listen closer. Outside a rabbit pauses
in the frost to curse the dogs and the Full Moon.
KATUAH-page 13
Winler 1986-87
�Keeping Warm in Winter:
Homeless in Katuah
All creatures need shelter ... a
home...a nest. As human creatures become
more and more dependent on the urban
economy, they become removed or
abstracted from the means to preserve their
own survival. No longer is it easy for a
human creature to be "native" with the
earth... to find shelter and gather food to
keep alive. One usually has 10 rent or own
"propeny" which may include a house or
apartment. No longer are community wells
or water sources available... usually one
must "pay" for the use of that very basic
many plant closings around here; others
never had a job to lose, nor the training to
get one. This brief look at this issue is
presented in hopes that a more humane,
viable, life-centered economy can be
developed in this locale and in this region.
The human "systems" here are not working
as well as they could ...families should nor
be financially forced off their
farms ... productive industries need to be
regionally owned so there is less chance of
multination,al-type plant closings... more
cooperative small businesses need 10 be
encouraged to start up in order 10 provide
steady employment. .. and on and on. Our
human "systems" need to be re-designed to
ensure right livelihood for .i!.11 inhabitants of
this area.
People who are homeless do not so
much need our sympathy but more our
empathetic push towards looking at
new/old ways in which our human
community can live comfonably and gently
within this land called Katuah.
At present, the three people
interviewed here are using the facilities of
the Laurentine Shelter in Asheville, NC run
by volunteers and the Asheville-Buncombe
Community Christian Ministries. Other
shelters in this locale include the Western
Carolina Mission, the Salvation Army
Emergency Lodge and a newly forming
independent shelter, the Hospitality House
which hopes to be able to accommodate
people during the day as well as evenings.
At present, uhere are not enough facilities to
meet the needs of the homeless people in
Asheville.
Here is the transcript of the interview:
element One may be fonunate enough to
grow a garden but often it only supplements
one's or one's family's diet. The truth is...
much of survival in the city requires
money-quite a lot of it.
The following is an interview with
three men in their 40's and 50's who grew
up here in the KatU'ah region who have no
shelter of their own to call home--no nest,
nor economic niche. Two of them grew up
in the country. For one of them, the city
expanded into the 'country' thus he became
urbanized by just staying put Another could
not make it by living in the country, so
moved into town. This interview is a
glimpse into their stories and their lives.
There are many more people like
them, men and women, who too are
homeless in this region. Some have lost
their means of livelihood because of the
KATUAH - page 14
K: Are you from around here?
AM: I grew up here in Asheville near Oteen.
K:What about your family; are they around
here?
AM: I have a mother living here now but I
can't live with her because she lives in one
of those low-income housing, so I'm out.
[Katiiah checked with the Housing
Authority and found that only families, the
elderly and the handicapped are eligible to
apply for housing assistance. Single
adults-male or female-are not eligible to
apply for any housing. A family can be any
two or more blood relatives living together,
so under that category AM. could apply for
him and his elderly mother to live together
as a "family"; however, there is a waiting
list. -Ed.J
K: When you were growing up, did you
live in town or out in the country?
JG:
Where we lived was out in the
country, still in Buncombe County, though.
K: Did y'all do any farming?
JG: Oh Lord, yes. All the time. Me and my
grandmother and granddaddy.
K: Was it tobacco fanning?
JG: No, just com and other food.
K: Did you sell any of it or just grow it for
your own use?
JG: Mainly, for our own use. We canned it
and used it ourselves. 'Had to back in them
days.
K: Can you share with us why you feel that
you need to use the Shelter.
JG: I was born and raised here in this
coun~ and you can't find a job nowhere.
K: Have you tried to find if there is any kind
of govemment way for you to get housing?
JG: Well, I don't have no income and you
have to have an income before you can do
anything like tha1. [Recently, the Housing
Authority has begun to accept applications
for people who have no income. However,
unfortunately, JG is not eligible to apply
because he is a single individual. -Edi
K: So, there's no way that the government
will help you to get housing?
JG: No. I know it doesn't sound right.
Winter 1986-87
�K: Have you been offered any possibility
for a work training program?
JG: No. I do know how to do bnckwork,
but I haven't been able to get work doing
that. [There is a training progmm available
in the area under the federal Job Training
Partnership Act, administered by the
county. -Ed.]
K: Did you grow up in this area?
DJ: Yes. In Asheville, right in town.
K: What has been your experience with
getting work-with getting by?
DJ: I haven't done much work at all in my
life, not at all. I've sold clothes. worked in
bars and banks. That's about it. A liule bit
of construction. I'm a diabetic and an
epileptic. I'm trying to get the disability.
That's why I cannot work at all.
K: Do you apply for disability through
Social Services?
DJ: Yes. For what good it does, I really
couldn't tell you.
K: How is it going?
DJ: Well, I was just turned down for the
second time. The first time it took me
basically about six months to even hear
from anybody. And I had at that time, the
first time, only one doctor who said I
should not work. And now this time, I had
three different doctors that told me I should
not work. And it took them about three
months to say 'no', again. So, now I am
going to appeal it, this time. Without the
shelter, really and truly I have no idea of
what I could have done. My parents are
divorced. My dad remarried and he just
recently rnoved back to the area. But he
doesn't even like to say hello. My mother,
she's basically in the same situation as JG's
mother. She's lives in low income
housing ... in Atlanta. My mom, she and I
get along very, very well but I only get to
sec her about once every two months
because of the regulations there about family
visitntion.
DJ: This area is a terrific place in the
summer but it sure gets cold in the winter.
K: What are the hours that you can be at U1e
Sheller?
DJ: Pretty much 6:30 in the evening til 6:30
in the morning.
K: Well, in winter, what do you do?
DJ: Just try basically to know somebody,
where you could go. What I've been doing I
go down to [a fast-food restaurant] and I am
lucky enough that they don't ask me to
leave.
K: It seems your choices are very limited.
DJ: I'm afraid a lot of days are like that.
K: Did you grow up in this area?
JM: Up in Madison County, out in the
country.
K: That's beautiful land up that way.
JM: Yeah, it's nice if you can make it. Some
folks go up as far as Tennessee for work.
K: All the way to Tennessee?
JM: Yeah, most of them do. You know, the
ones who've got steady jobs. Most of them
just farm down there.
K: Are there people who just stay and try to
hang on by the skin of their teeth?
JM: Yeah, a lot of lhem.
K: Do you think they're getting enough
food and keeping warm enoogh?
JM: Well, some of 'em is and some of 'em
ain't I guess. A lot of 'em sleep in old junk
cars.
K: Do any of them h:l\e land themselves?
JM: No, they're just out on the street.
K: Is there any place up that way where
people can spend the night?
JM: No, they don't have a shelter up that
way.
K: Are there any ch urches that informally
offer people an option?
JM: I don't think there are.
K: Are there any seasonal jobs available to
these folks?
JM: Yeah, chere're some jobs lhere in the
summenime. But it's like around here in
the wintertime, there just ain't nothing.
K: Well, what do people do in \~inter?
JM: They just do the best they can. There'rc
not lhat many really there, you know, most
of them are here in Asheville.
K: How many folks do you know that came
from Madison who need a place to live?
JM: Well, there's quite a few. There's a lot
of them around here and there's a lot of
them down in Greenville, SC. They just
stay around that mission down there as long
as they can.
"You set there, you stay
warm. If you've got money
to buy a cup of coffee or
something, why it's alright.
If you don't, they'll run you
off."
K: What's your story? Did you used to do
fanning?
JM: Yeah, we raised tobacco and stuff like
that. My daddy worked for the Southern
Railroad and we done farming and raised
tobacco, com and stuff like that. We sold
the tobacco and the other was garden
vegetables that we used.
K: Did your family stay up in Madison?
JM: No, my brother and sister both moved
to South Carolina.
K: What do you think needs to happen here
in the Asheville area in te rms of this need
for housing?
JM: I'd like to see them open up another
shelter so we can get some more people off
lhe street 'cause if it wasn't for the Shelter
I'd be out on the street myself. The Shelter
is one of the best things that happened here
in Asheville.
K: What do you do in winter? Do you have
to figure out how to keep warm from 6:30
in the morning til the evening, too?
JM: I sure do. Well, through the week it's
not too bad 'cause , you know, things open
up pretty early. Now, on the weekends,
there ain't a thing to do.
K:Hmrnmm.
JM: You know, you can't go in no cafe if
you ain't got no money to buy nothing. If
they don't sell you nothing, they're going to
run you out.
DJ: They don't appreciate that. Even at the
fast food resrourant I was talking about.
JM: Yeah, they don't appreciate it if you go
in there and just set. You set there, you siay
warm. If you've got money to buy a cup of
coffee or something, why it's alright If you
don't, they'll run you off.
K: What do you think wo uld be good,
particularly through the wintertime... would
you appreciate if there was a place, sav, a
church social hall, wher e you could. be
during the day...even have projects to work
on there?
JM: Yeah, that would be a good thing. For
people who ain't got no place to go during
the day.
K: If there were projects the.re, what would
you like to see there?
JM: Mainly, woodworking.
JG: Yeah, that'd be a good lhing.
DJ: Sure would.
K: When you moved to town from
Madison, did you have work for a while?
JM: Yeah, I worked last summer.
K: What were you doing?
JM: I stayed at lhe Mission down there [in
Asheville) last summer and people called in
there and wanted you to come out and
work. I worked just about every day.
K: Now this was at the Mission and people
would call up there?
JM: They'll let you work, you know, about
three days a week. They split it up between
everybody, so everybody gets a little bit of
it. Mainly, that comes through the
employment security office.
K: How long have you been in the county
here?
JM: Well, off and on for the last 15 years.
K: Before the mission was around, where
did you go?
JM: Well, mostly, 'fore they built that
mission I was working down in Greenville,
SC. You know, I had a preuy good job
down there and I could afford an apanment
and everything. But now, l ain't got
nothing.
K: What work were you doing down there?
JM: Construction work. And I've worked in
a lot of mills, too, you know, cotton mills.
K: And then, what happened to the work,
did it dry up?
JM: Yeah, they just started laying people
off, you know. They just kept the ones
who'd been there the longest.
- continued on page 23
photos by Mamie Muller
KATUAH - page 15
\\linter 1986-87
�the w
Lloyd C
Survfrol ofthe Clans
'This speaks of relationships, who our kinfolk are. The
names of the seven clans translate into the seven parts of the
world."
Tsali's Wife
'That woman is the center of the piece. All
to do with the matriarchal society.
'The strength of the woman: how strong she
can endure. She knows the dongers. She kno1
than tlie male's. You ca11't break her down."
Tsali's Wijj
The Family
'The mother, the father, the child. The mother's hand of
control, of survival, is close to the child. They learn from
her. The moving lines tie it all together, but the same themes
move through all my carvings. It's hard to speak of one
carving separate from the rest, because the ideas appear in
one fonn or another in all the different carvings."
�rR of ·
rl Owle
Releasing the Spirit of tlze Stone
'There's something in chat rock, and once I carve it, and you
can see it, the spirit is released."
life is going on around her. It must have something
How she can take care of the children, and how she
1ow to go on. Her system in a lot of ways is stronger
I
Tribute to Those Who Have Died
'The person is just barely there. Just a whisper, or a touch,
or a mention that she is there in the scone."
�-
--
Each line from the solar panel must have a gate valve
installed as close to the tank as possible. A boiler drain valve
must be installed at the bottom of the solar panel. Finally, a
vacuum breaker must be installed at the top of the panel.
by Avrarn Friedman
Did you know lhat more than half lhe electricity
consumed by the average American household is used to heat
water? If people employed alternative methods of heating
wacer, such as solar energy or wood heat, there would be no
rationale for the continued use of nuclear energy which
supplies only about 12% of the nation's elecnicity.
Unfortunately, many solar hot water systems on the
market today are "active" systems which depend on some
external source of energy to operate and which use
electronically operated pumps, sensors, valves, controllers
and elaborate networks of piping which leave homeowners in
awe and bewilderment. It is not uncommon for such
systems to remain inoperative for weeks, months, or forever,
because repair work requires so much technical expertise.
But solar energy systems do not have to be expensive
and complex. If the user is willing to play a small active
role, the system can be totally passive and all the fancy
gadgets can be eliminated. This article will outline how a
virtually maintenance-free system can be constructed
inexpensively.
Basic Principles
This type of system is called a "thermosiphon". It
requires that the bottom of the water storage tank be located
at least 18" above the beat source. In this case there will be
two sources of heat: a wood stove and a solar collector.
This system can provide 100% of a household's hot water
needs.
Since cold water is more dense, it falls to the bottom of
the system, displacing the less dense hot water to the top of
the tank. The cold water continually returns to the bottom
where it gains heat and rises to lhe top, etc. As more heat is
added, the tank "builds down" with hot water.
Components
The major components of the system arc a wood
stove, a hot water collector, a 40 gallon hot water tank. and
copper tubing.
Before any construction begins, a diagram of the
system should be shown ro the local plumbing inspector.
S/he can give you valuable pointers and steer you away from
possible dangers. Most inspectors are glad to help.
The Tank
Any available hor water tank can be adapted to use in
this system. It is best to use a new tank to be assured that it
will last for a good while.
Look for a tank that has at least two outlets on top.
The side outlets are for the thennosiphon loop pipes. The
top outlets will be used for the cold water supply and the pipe
carrying hot water from the tank to the house fixtures (sinks,
showers, etc.). The cold warer supply will enter the top and
travel down a "dip tube" to the bottom of the tank. Most
tanks already have dip tubes installed. Whenever hot water
is demanded in rhe house it will come from t.he top of the
tank where the water is honest, and is replaced by cold water
entering through the dip rube to the bottom of the tank.
Be sure to install a temperauue and pressure relief
valve at the tOp ofthe rank!
"Dielectric unions" at au outlets where copper pipe
meets the galvanized steel tank will protect both tank and
pipes from galvanic corrosion and extend the life of your
system.
Pipe Work
The next step is to insulate all the pipes and the tank.
ll is very important to maximize heat retention. Pipe
insulation and hot water "blankets" arc commercially
available and relatively cheap. The pipes should be secured
with pipe supports, clamps, or fasteners. Make sure there is
no stress on any soldered or threaded joints.
Maintenana!
If all work has been done carefully, the system should
be virtually maintenance-free. When the sun is shining or
when a fire is burning in the stove, hot water will be
produced and available on tap.
The only active role the user must play is 10 drain the
solar collector in the fall, before freezing weather sets in, and
to refill it in the spring, when all danger of freezing has
passed. This can be done by the operation of the two "loop"
valves and the boiler drain at the bottom of the solar
collector.
For more information, write: Friedman & Sun Design, Inc/
PO Box 657
Dillsboro, N.C. 28725
A PASSIVE SOLAB .\NO
~
Wood.stove Hot Water Loop
Virtually any woodstove can be easily adapted into a
thcrmosiphon system. There are several ways to do this, but
probably the easiest way is to coil ten feet of 1/2" copper
tubing and place it inside the firebox near the exhaust of the
stove. This requires that a hole be drilled in the side of the
srovc where the "intake" of the coil wilt enter from the
bottom of the tank. In addition a hole must be drilled in the
stovepipe, about 6" above the stove, where the coil exit.s and
runs up to the top of the tank- This creates a "closed loop"
between stove and tank. Whenever the stove is used. hot
water will be produced. One thing to remember is that the
pipe carrying hot water should run continuously in an
upward direction and about 3" from the rop. Never loop the
hot pipe above the tank and then down through the top of the
HEAT HOT \o/ATEP.
SV5TEM
tank.
Solar Loop
The solar panel is connected to the tank in the identical
fashion as the woodstovc. In this case the panel is the "coil"
and forms a closed loop with the tank.
If you are building your own solar panel, have the
intake at the bottom diagonally positioned from the exit at the
top.
The solar panel pipes may "T' into the corresponding
woodstove pipes instead of attaching directly into the tank.
KATUAH - page 18
~
.
l£='=
_..,..J'''~I " )
/
\
\
I \
I \
Winter 1986-87
I
�Homage to Prometheus:
A Stovebuilder's Narrative
I grew up with fireplaces and Warm
Morning heaters that burned both wood and
coal as a heat source during winter. As
ecological concerns became popular in the
late sixties, I became aware of several
air-tight, fuel-efficient wood stoves that
were available on the market. While they
offered a solution to one problem, they were
often beyond the budget of most of the
community in the area where I grew up.
There was also a cenain romance involved
in the "back to the land" folks who wanted
to be self-sufficient as much as possible,
which included building their own stove or
fireplace. The fireplace is considered the
most inefficient means of heat, but it is
unbeatable in conveying a sense of home to
a space in the winter.
During my college days I picked up
some welding skills in sculpture class while
at the same time learning a good deal about
fire and heating processes in pottery classes.
With lhis background, I was taking a
welding course at the local vocational school
when the need for a woodstove arose. This
offered us the opportunity to make a stove
as a class project By using as a model a
wood stove made domestically based on a
Finnish stove design, I developed a design
for a srove that utilized one-quarcer inch
steel plate, with three of the sides and the
bottom lined with regular fire brick. With a
baffle chamber and an air-tight door, this
stove offered many advantages that appealed
to my ecological attitude. While the welding
process is not the most balanced of
processes in the ecological spectrum, the
use of salvaged steel from scrap yards and
the ability to build a fuel-efficient stove that
could fit into the budget of most folks more
than balances this drawback. As more
people in my community became aware of
my stoves, there was a good deal of interest
in how to improve on the design. I received
a lot of practical advice and was given recent
articles and books about wood stoves.
The design I have developed offers a
versatile stove that can be customized to fit
individual needs while increasing the price
of the stove by little or nothing. By using
the size of a regular fire brick as the basic
unit of size for the box, I am able to offer
two sizes of stoves as a general idea of what
I can do. Recently I was commissioned to
build a large furnace using the same design
with simple modifications.
After building the furnace and several
examples of variations on the basic design, I
became interested in two new designs; one
being a wood cookstove that used the
firebox design and the second being a
modification of the barrel stove using large
pipe instead of an oil drum with its thin
walls. I began the wood cookstove three
years ago as a side project using whatever
steel was available at the end of other
projects. I spent as much time working out
the design on paper as I did actually
building the stove. This stove was recently
completed, but I have not used it enough to
be sure that a person can cook on it, bake in
the oven, and still not be run out of an
overly heated room. There are advantages
and disadvanrages in the design, but the
disadvantages should become minimal with
minor alLerations.
The second project proved much
easier to apply. After locating a section of
pipe two feet in diameter with half-inch wall
thickness, I designed a stove for a friend
who did truck farming for a living. He
needed a stove for his greenhouse that
would hold a fire all night and not bum out
after one season's use. The stove more than
satisfied that need. I used half-inch plate to
weld a "V" to the top of the horizantally laid
pipe to make a baffle chamber. With an
air-tight door, the stove was fuel-efficient
and easily adaptable to the space needing
heat
A current project is to modify my
original stove design to fit in the stone work
Weld a " V" of 112" plate in 2' pipe of
3/8' wall for a r ugged but effective stove
of the house a friend has built. The stone
was laid with vents for forced draft to
generate uniform heat. We are considering
separating the baffle chamber from the
firebox so that the forced draft can go
between them to increase the amount of
BTU's available. Being an anist, I am
interested in building stoves that are
customized to project an individual
statement for the home-owner, while
remaining cost-effective and fuel-efficient
I plan to explore the use of other fuels
and other building materials in the future.
Natural gas, while it is a non-renewable heat
source, is the most practical fuel for urban
residents. It would be easy to design
unique, efficient stoves of salvaged pipe
(cast iron sewer pipe, etc.) for this fuel.
Cast earthenware clay is another material
that has been largely ignored in this country
in recent years. While clay would not
withstand the shock of loading wood into it,
it could offer a lot of versatility in design as
a material for a gas stove.
l have fantasies of someday starting a
non-profit co-operative of stove builders to
meet the needs of the community and the
Earth Mother. While I would be glad to
share my ideas with others, I am also aware
of the need to get patents on som.e of my
original designs so I could continue to use
them without someone else gaining legal
control over them.
With all the advancement of the
innovative ideas, my favorite source of heat
remains the open-pit fire. I have done little
to improve on this design.
-Oliver Loveday
KATUAH - page 19
Winter 1986-87
I ,..1; I ,;'
�NATURAL
WORLD
NEWS
LOW-LEVEL RADIOACITVE
WASTE UPDATE
Natural World News SCNicc
In the present winter session, the srate
legislature will decide whether or not Nonh
Carolina will remain in the Southeast
Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact. If
North Carolina chooses to remain in the
compact, it wilJ receive all the low-level
waste from eight states in the southeast for
the next 20 years. If the legislature chooses
to withdraw from the compact, the state will
still need a smaller facility to accomodate its
own low-level waste.
State legislators and the governor arc
presently saying that the pros and cons of
both courses of action are being studied.
An underlying assumption of the
radioactive waste debate is that the nuclear
induscry will continue to operate its waste
generating power plants and perhaps even
add new nuclear plants to the grid in the
future. The debate, then, is presented 10 the
public as merely one in which we decide
where and how we bury the waste. The
idea of limiting our waste output is not even
discussed.
In this case, however, the waste
dump issue docs affect the source of a large
pan of the waste, the nuclear power
induscry. If North Carolina and other states
choose to handle only their own low-level
wastes, it creates a powerful incentive to
minimize the waste produced. It would then
become a problem each state must deal with.
It could not be passed on to "the other guy".
Electorates and governments would resist
the construction of new nuclear power
plants, and they might even press to shut
down existing plants.
This prospect terrifies the nuclear
induscry. This is the real issue at stake. in
the Compact debate. Nuclear industry
lobbyists are right now twisting arms in
~eigh, causing legislators to give indirect,
wIShy-washy answers to public inquiries
concerning their positions on Compact
m~mbership: "Right now I tend to favor
withdrawal, but I'm going to wait until all
the facts are in before I commit myself." lf
!cgislat~rs ~ait until the legislative session
is over, 1t will be too late to withdraw from
the Compact.
False issues are being raised to dilute
the public sentiment to withdraw from the
Compact. For instance, the fear is raised
that "if we go it alone we'll have to accept
waste from all other states", because we
won't have the exclusionary clause which
protects Compact members. But in reality,
KATIJAH - page 20
the Low-Level RadioacLive Waste Policy
Act of 1980 directs all states Lo either deal
with their own waste or to join a Regional
Compact. If every state complies with this
federal law by 1993, there will be no one
left to send waste to Nonh Carolina.
It is particularly disturbing that in this
process the will of the people of North
Carolina is being basically ignored. The
public is being "informed" of the situation
and "prepared" for what is to come in the
future. This is an arrogant posture for
public officials to assume on an issue that
the electorate is relatively well-informed
about.
Democratic government is only
democratic if the people realize their power
and exercise it. Legislators will operate
under the illusion that they can ignore the
p~blic until they arc proven wrong. The
V 1etnam War and Watergate are examples of
arrogant lawmakers learning about the
power of the people in this country.
le is obvious that the people of Nonh
~li~a don't want a regi~nal waste dump
rn tbetr state. But to influence their
legislat~rs l? act accordingly, the public will
have to msntuie a popular movement which
will r~nder the nuclear industry's massive
lobbying effon useless. We can not just
assume that the legislature will do what is
best for the public. Legislators must be
made to realize that their political lives
depend on voting to withdraw from the
Compact.
Citizens for a Choice on Nuclear
Waste (CCNW) has been circulating a
p~tition statewide demanding either
withdrawal from the Compact or a binding
referendum on the issue. To dare over 5000
signatures have been collected on the
petition, and it has been supponed by 20
legislative candidates. This is a good start
but it is not nearly enough.
'
All concerned people need to get into
action again, quickly. Circulating this
petition is just one of the iasks that needs to
be done. Legislators need to be called
written, and confronted directly. Publi~
demonscrations need to be organized and
well-attended.
In general, it's rime for us all to wake
up. If you live in Nonh Carolina and have
an opinion about low-level radioactive waste
being shipped into the state, call Governor
Martin at his toll-free number:
1-800-662-7952 and telJ him how you feel.
For copies of the petition, write to:
CCNW
P.O. Box 653
Dillsboro, NC 28725
MRS: BEHJND CLOSED DOORS
from Natural RigltlS Ncwslc11cr
The United States Coun of Appeals is
deliberating on the case of Tennessee v
Herrington. The lawsuit, initiated by th~
State of Tennessee to prevent conscruction
of the "temporary" storage and processing
facility for High Level Nuclear Wastes
known as the MRS (Monitored Retreivablc
Storage) which the Dept. of Energy (DOE)
wants to site in Oak Ridge. Meanwhile,
DOE operatives are quietly at work behind
the scenes to bring the nation's waste to Oak
Ridge irrespective of how the coun rules.
. Last F~bi:unry. District Judge Thomas
Wiseman enJorned DOE from submitting
any Monitored Retreivable Storage proposal
to Congress that was based on the "fatalJy
flawed" Oak Ridge siting study. DOE
appeale~ that injunctio~. arguing among
other things, that the Judicial branch has no
constitutional power to enjoin the Executive
bra~ch . from commu~icaring with the
Lcg1slauve .branch. As 1f to prove the point,
DOE conunues 10 engage in extensive
communications with senators and
con.gressmen in an effon 10 win suppon for
!h~1r ~RS plan, despite the court's
lnJUnCUOn.
Now it appears 1ha1 a bill to create an
MRS is being drafted by Senators Johnson
(D-LA) and McClure (R-ID) for
introduction as soon as the court
proceedings are concluded. Such a bill
wouJd shortcut the Nuclear Waste Policy
Act process and simply authorize DOE 10
construct and operate an MRS at the site of
the abandoned Clinch River Breeder
Reactor. 30,000 spent nuclear fuel
assemblies wouJd be rrucked to that site.
Suppon for the Johnson-McClure bill
is the trade DOE is offering the 34 senators
and 164 representatives in the 17 Second
Round Nuclear Waste Repository States and
the 12 senators and 53 representatives in the
6 states studied for the First Round
Repository. In exchange for help with
MRS, DOE is offering 10 slow First Round
studies and drop the Second Round
selection process entirely. By agreeing to
put an MRS in eastern Tennessee, these
senators and representatives could t:ruLhfully
bra~ about having kept nuclear waste out of
their home state in future re-election
campaigns.
It is not responsible waste
~anagement to put all the nation's
high-level nuclear waste in an open field
beside a waterway that flows through 8
states before washing into the Gulf of
Mexico. It is stupid and dangerous to truck
it~ over interstate highways; once to
Winter 1986-87
�Tennessee, t~e.n later to a final repos11ory.
But the. $4 b1lhon that the plan will cost is
~01 s~bJCCl 10 qramm-Rudman cuts because
It will be paid by electric ratepayers.
Hopefully. _those who worry about the
hazar~s o_f nvers and highways - and their
elc~~nc bills - will be powerful allies in the
pohucal battle ahead.
NUCLEAR FUEL SERVICES
AGAIN
'
from N1lu1"11l Righis Ncwslcucr
In the l 970's, Nuclear Fuel Services
Inc. (NFS) simply walked away from it~
reprocessing plant in West Valley. NY, and
left 10 state and federal agencies the
$400,000,000 task of cleaning up 560,000
gallons of _highly radioactive wastes leaking
from the sue. NFS moved its operations to
Tennessee, where it went into the business
of supplying nuclear fuel for submarines
and selling uranium bullets to the
international anns trade.
Congre.ssperson Edward Markey
(0-MA) studied the NFS plant in Erwin,
TN as part of a survey of nuclear waste
handling in this country. On September 18
1986 Re~. Markey !CP,?"ed to congress 1ha;
the. Erw1~ pla~t 1s a toxic nightmare,
ooi.mg rad1oacuve contamination into work
areas, into lunchrooms and other
non-working areas, and into the soil outside
work buildings. The plant has coniamina1ed
groundwater and off-site railroad land.
Even parts of vending machines had 10 be
disposed as radioactive waste.
In
addition. rndioactive waste buried on the
plant site linancially endangers state and
federal ta_xpaycrs". Markey is conducting a
congressional inquiry into union charges
1ha_t .NFS an~ NRC conspire to keep the
facility operanng despite safety violations.
/
. The Namral Ri2f1ts Newslecrer is
ava1/ablefrom tl~e ~atural Rights Center, a
non-pro/11 public 111terest law project of
USA; P.0.Box; Summertown, TN
';/MBJ·
EPA PIGEON HOLES CIIAMPION
by
Mi!Uc Buch•mlll
Environmentalists and friends of the
Pigeon River won a major legal battle this
month in the continuing srruggle to clean up
the long-polluted river.
U.S. District Judge David Sentelle on
Dec. I. dismissed a lawsuit brought by
Champion International Corporation against
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Sentelle ruled that EPA did not overstep its
autho_ritr _when it. took away North
Caroltn~ s i;ght. to write a _Pem1it governing
C~amp1on s discharge 111to the Pigeon
River. Champion was joined by North
Carolin.a in its .l egal challenge to the EPA
move; rntervemng on behalf of EPA were
the State of Tennessee, the Pigeon River
Acti~n Group (PRAG), and the Legal
Environmental Assistance Foundation
(LEAF)._ ~hampion has 30 days to appeal
the d~1s1on. If the appeal fails, both
Champion and North Carolina will have to
accept the terms of the permit currently
being drafted by the EPA.
. N_orth C~rolina's long history of
penmssive penruts has left the Pigeon River
below Champion's Canton plant
coffee-colored and nearly devoid of life, in
sharp contrast to the pure crout scream !bat
emerges from the mountains of Haywood
County above the plant. Efforts by PRAG
and the State of Tennessee led to the
unprecedented EPA decision to take back
pennitting authority from a state.
Key issues in the struggle are the
color of the river, which is still brown when
it crosses into Tennessee; and the elevated
temperature, which has consistently violated
Nonh Carolina water quality standards.
For more information, contact:
Millie Buchanan
Qean Water Fund
102 Tacoma Circle
Asheville, NC 28801
Pigeon River Action Group
P.O. Box 105
Waynesville, NC 28786
(704) 627-9774
BILLBOARD BLIGHT:
EYE POLLUTION SOLUTION
Natural World News Servu:c
. Recently, the meager efforts made by
legislators to deal with the advancing
onslaught of billboards grai.ing the
mount_ains have been compromised by hard
!obbymg on the part of the billboard
tndustry. To combat this unyielding
invading unsightliness, cicizens groups have
sprung up and are confronting the billboard
industry and its legislators. Carolina
Coalition for Scenic Beauty, with its 350
members in Hendersonville and chapters in
Buncombe County and Charlotte, has a
two-fold plan modeled after the new
Waynesville, NC sign ordinance: I) halt
ereccion of new billboards (there are now
over 17,000 billboards gracing the land in
Western Nonh Carolina and the NC coastal
tourist areas); 2) repeal laws which allow
cutting of crees to put up billboards.
f" ~inc m~mber governmental study
commission which held hearings for eight
months on possible sii.e reduction made no
recomendations to reduce the number
p_rotect i:ees, or meaningfully reduce th~
sii.e of billboards. Co-chairperson Senator
Bo Thomas was the only commission
member who recommended any meaningful
refo~ and he couldn't even get a second
for h1s_p~posals from the nine person study
commission.
One observer wryly commented that
she thought the commission was accing out
of self-interest when it was revealed that 2
members owned billboards, another rents
land for billboards and yet another member
uses billboards for his personal use.
Now is the time to get active! Write
your legislators, call them on the phone,
meet them face to face. Plant trees not
•
billboards!
For more info on ordinance guidelines &
legal advice, call:
Kay McNett
Southern Environmental Law Center
Charlottesville, VA (804) 977-4090.
I
Carolina Coalition for Scenic Beauty
POB 1433. Hendersonville, NC 28793
(704) 693-6776.
KATUAH- page 21
Winter 1986-87
�NATURAL WORLD NEWS - continued
BEARLY MAKING IT
Natural World News Service
Black bears in Katiiah are facing lean
times. In addition to the lack of hard mast
(nuts, acorns) resulting from the drought
this summer, Roger Powell (Dept. of
Zoology, NCSU, Raleigh) of the Pisgah
Bear Project reports that because of
increased hunting pressure bear "mortality is
outstripping reproductivity". Poaching
accounts for 50% of all kills, while legal
kills account for 30-40% of all bear
mortality. In addition, of the 15 bears
studied at the Pisgah Bear Sanctuary (one of
28 bear sanctuaries in NC) only one bear is
a breeding age female!
Previous studies reveal a history of
poor "population management".
Warburton's 1981-82 study of the Pisgah
Bear Sanctuary showed that, of the bears
being monitored, 60% were killed, 75% of
which were females.
~LL SftC~tS
D~~
22
• continued from page
In the drama perfonned at the end of
the day, Mother Nature expresses
"especially dear to me is Earth, the
blue-green gem io space, the watery Living
planet where I take delight in all of you and
in your spectacular diversity." Amy shares
with us, in her own words, the progress of
the play: "Then, one by one the critters
stood and named themselves. They told
each other about troubled times, poisoned
waters, disappearing forests, mass
slaughters. They confessed fear for the
future. They wondered aloud whether their
na.~Ln9
Pa.per n a.chi
rta.s~s
Making a head mask of paper mache
is simple in description, but often hard and
tedious in practice until, through much
repetition, some degree of skill is gained.
The fust step is to make a rough
frame of wire mesh to stiffen and hold the
paper mache as it dries. The frame will be
incorporated into the mask.
The best material for the frame is
regular chicken wire, which is both strong
and flexible. If the holes are too big to
adequately support the paper mache, two
layers may be used.
KATUAH - page 22
The N.C. Wild life Resources
Commission (N CWR C), whose stated
goals are to 1) maintain a stable viable bear
population, and 2) maimain an abundant
surplus for hunters is "not living up to their
mandate as wildlife managers" according to
Paul Gal limore, coordinator of the Bear
Action Network. T he NCWRC has
disregarded Powell's and Warburton's data
and maintains that although the bears are
facing hardships this year , the "natural
mechanics" are such that the bear population
normally fluctuates with mast production.
Fortunately female bears are denning-up
early, and the impact of hunting (legal and
illegal) may be lessened this year.
Recently, Tennessee shortened their
bear season to the last week in December
after research from black bear expert Dr.
Mike Pelton of the University of Tennessee
and the Tennessee Wildlife Commission
revealed that populations could be sustained
if hunting was restricted until after the
denning of females and cubs.
Clearly it is time to bring pressure to
bear on the NCWRC. The data is in and the
bears aren't going co be with us unless WE
take action.
young cousin s, the humans, understood
how all the world was alive, balanced and
beautiful, and how they were devastating
the entire planet.
"Meanwhile people playing 'humans'
sauntered in their midst, oblivious to the
creatures' plaints. Earphones covered their
human ears. The gaze of their human eyes
was fixed on television or computer screens
or o n literal mirrors. Mother Nature
assessed that they were hypnotized and so
wrapped up in thoughts of themselves that
they had forgotten their place in the magic
web of life.
"'But if we call Lhem, all of us in our
different voices, perhaps we can waken
them before it's too late,' suggested Mother
Nature. Three times a cry went up from the
The frame must be big enough to sit
over a person's head; sometimes it helps to
begin to form the wire frame over a log or
ball of adequate size. The frame must also
be formed so that the eye holes and perhaps
the mouth and nose holes will line up in
advantageous places that fit in with the
design of the mask, particularly if it is larger
than lifesize.
The frame needs only to give a rough
outline of the head shape, because the actual
contours can be filled in with layers of paper
mache. Bur the closer the frame is to a true
outline, the better, because building layers
of paper mache is slow work. Bend all wire
ends into the frame so that they do not catch
or poke.
Once the frame is constructed, strips
of newspaper I 1/2 to 2 inches wide need to
be cut. A lot of them! Paper mache work
demands a lot of newspaper, and the more
that is used, the sturdier the mask. The
major limitation is usually time and patience.
Call or write the NCWRC now. Ask
them to reopen Powell's data and restudy
his research. Ask for a moratorium on
killing bears. Ask for a shoner season (NC
has the longes t bear hunting season in the
Southeast). so the females and their cubs
have a chance.
Executive Director
N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission
.
512 N.SalisburySt. ~
IWdgh, NC 27611
.Br"'
To repon poaching or other violations, call:
NC.......... 1-800-662-7137
1-800-922-5431
TN.......... 1-800-262-6704
GA .......... 1-800-241-4113
VA .......... 1-804-257-1000
sc..........
For more infonnation, contact:
Paul Gallimore
Bear Action Network
Route 2, Box 132
Leicester, NC 28748
(704) 683-3662
throat of Lion, Owl and Hawk. Three times
a call from Gull and Frog and Dolphin.
Three times a call from Heron, Snake and
Oak Tree, un til finally the humans
responded. Then all joined ha nds and
danced to the closing music of flute and
drum."
All Species Day-Greenville Coordinalor
Amy Hannon is a pioneer in the creation of
ceremonies and community riwals with an
ecological focus. She holds a PhD in
Philosophy from Boston College where she
taught for seven years. A Winter Solstice
earth ceremony based 011 Amy's a1mual
solstice ceremony for Greenville was
adaptedfor our Kat'iiah region and appeared
inKmfla.b..lssue VI, Wimer84-85. , ,
Then a large bowl of flour-and-water
paste needs to be mixed. This is a legitimate
use for the cheap, white, bleached flour.
Fill the bowl about 1/3 full with flour, and
then dip some of the flour into a cup or
smaller bowl. Add water (enough to make a
thin soupy mixture) and stir until the flour is
thoroughly dissolved. The resulting
mixture may be added to the larger bowl.
Mixing it gradually in this way (always
adding the water to the flour) insures a
smooth mixture with no lumps. Add water
to the mixture unril it is slick and wet and
slides off a strip of the newspaper when you
run your fingers down it leaving only a thin
film adhe.ring.
Construct the mask, first defining the
general shape and then building up around
the ridges and hollows to emphasize the
finer features.
Paper mache should
optimally be added only one layer at a time
- continued on next page
Winter 1986-87
-
•y
.
�W~11rm
KeeJl))fting
Wimiteir:
nmi
ftmi
IHiommeiless
OC11h1illbl
- continued from page 15
K : Do you talk to m any other people who
have the problem of no wor k, too?
JM: Yeah, 1here's a !or of 'em righ1 here in
Asheville. I know a bunch of 'em sleeping
down here in these old junk cars. r don'!
know how they can stand ir, it's cold.
K: Did they try to get in the Shelter?
JM: Well, some of them do. And, you
know, they come in, slay awhile. Then,
1hey migh1 ger drunk and miss a night or
two and somebody else gets their place.
And there they are again.
"Most of the time, I'm not
even hungry. Two meals a
day, I can make it on that."
K: What about food? Do you get supper at
the shelter, then an early breakfast?
JM: Yes.
K: What about a midday meal?
JM: Well, mos1 of the time, I can go down
to the Christian Ministry down there to eat,
if I'm hungry. Most of the time, I'm not
even hungry. Two meals a day, I can make
it on that.
K: Is that midday meal available aU the time?
JM: Just during the week, five days a week.
K: So on Saturday and Sunday what can
you do?
11.a.'-t.n9
Pa.pet" 11.a.ch.e 11.a.s'-s
- continued &om page 22
to allow thorough drying. In any case, do
not build up more than 1/8 inch wi1hout
allowing a drying time, so that no wet spots
(which may rot) are left between the layers.
Usually the inside of the mask. or at least
the top, is lined so that the wearer is not in
direct contact with 1he wire frame of the
mask which will poke or catch the hair.
Lining can be made with layers of paper
KATUAH - page 23
JM: Well, on Sa1urday and Sunday, you can
go down 10 the Mjssion and they'll give you
a sandwich or 1wo.
K: Let's see t here's t he Mission a nd the
Shelter, is there any other place in town?
JG: The Salvation Am1y, bu1 all you can
s1ay is three nights a month.
K : Three night.s a month ?? Have you stayed
over at the Salvation Army?
JM: Oh, yeah.
JG: I can'1 stay a1 1he Salvation Army,
'cause I'm a local and they wilJ no1 keep a
local there, so they 1old me. They won't
even~ a local.
K: Is that true?! [Katuah called the Salvation
Army and was 1old 1ha1 Lhe Lodge was for
"ttansienLs" and LhaL "locals" were
discouraged from using it]
DJ: The only way [ got in was someone
from the Sheller called down there and sfild
to let me stay !here.
JM: If he hadn't called, you wouldn't have
got in.
DJ: That's exactly righ1. fm aware of it.
They Lold me LO get lost the next morning,
LOO.
K : Wha t a r e the requiremen ts for the
Mission?
JM: Their reqllliremems are an ID.
K: What does that mean?
JM: A driver's license or something to
prove where you're from.
K: Can a local person go to the mission?
JG: Oh yeah.
K: Is there a restriction on how many nights
you can stay there?
JM: Well, they go1 a program down there. If
you get on tha1 program, if they let you get
on tha1 program, you can stay 45 days.
JG: But you got to be alcoholic [or have
drug-rela1ed problems -Ed.] to gel on 1ha1
program.
JM: Yeah, you have 10 be alcoholic to get in
the program. If you stay there long enough,
it'll drive you 10 drink.[Jaugh1er] Even if
you never touched a drop of ii in your life.
K: So, really the Shelter is providing a real
service in ter ms of offe ring you an option.
Is th er e a ny r est r iction on the length of
days? I n other words, if you don 't get
'bumped', you can keep coming back?
JM: Yes.
K : Do you have to p resent an y ID at the
Shelter?
JG: They ask who you are and where
you're from, then they sign you in. And
you get a ticket the next morrung to get back
in the next night.
K: And bow many beds are there?
JG: Twenty.
K: I asked about food, what about clothing?
Are ther e clot hes ava ilable to you if you
need them? Coats, etc?
mache laid on the inside of the invened
mask or by glueing in pieces of lhin foam or
fabric. (Too much foam, however, makes a
mask stifling and stuffy.) Sometimes
padding is needed for extra protection for
Lhe nose or chfo or where the mask rests on
the shoulders.
When the shape of the mask looks
right, it can be painted, or colored paper,
fabric, or ornaments may be glued on.
Oil-based enamel paints adhere best to paper
mache and leave the best finish, but la1ex
paints will work also. Water-color pamts
DJ: Basically, clothes are available through
the Christian Ministry.
K: What about basic spending money? You
know, you need som e mon ey to get
by...JM, have you applied for a ny monies
or any kjn d of thing?
JM: No, I haven't. Now and then, I get a
day's work so I've made it so far.
K: So, you 've at least had some pocket
money, ever y once in a while. J G, what' s
your situation, a re you able off and on to get
a day's job?
JG: Well, just now and then.
"I know a bunch of 'em
sleeping down here in these
old junk cars. I don't know
how they can stand it, it's
cold."
K: Is the Shelter able to help you find work?
Does the E mployment Commission call over
to the Shelter a t aU?
JG: I don'1 1hink. I never heard tell of them
calling over there on account of you can't
call over there during the day. It's after 6:30
in the evening and til 6:30 in the morning
that the Shelter is open.[The Shelter does
encourage people to go over to the
employment office, though. -Ed.)
K: Would that be good, t hen, for a shelter to
stay open longer and connect in wit h the
E mpl oyme n t Commisssion a nd other
sources so you'd know about possible jobs?
JG: Why, sure that would be about the best
thing that ever happened. lf we had a "day"
sheller here to do 1hat.
K : Let me ask you a nother q uestion about
t he possibility of a " day" shelter... what if
no salaried jobs came up, but say "volunteer
jobs" came up, for exam ple, to work on a
project or to hel p out in some way.... would
that be something you'd like to know about?
Particularly, during t he winter so you could
keep occupied, indoors.
JG: Well, tha1'd be helping somebody that
needed it. Cause I know a wealthy person
ain't going to ask you to do some1hing like
that.
DJ: Why, it would be great! I sure 1hink it
would. It would be something to do, just
ge1 away from the boredom.
JM: It would keep your mind occupied.
--interviewed by Marnie Muller
will not work.
Now the mask is finished. Put it on.
Identify with it Practice the animal's (or
element's) sounds and motions in front of a
mirror. Forge1 what is inside the mask and
be the creature that is visible in the mirror.
To aid in the 1ransference of identity,
practice doing things and makfog noises
(privately at first) that you would not do in
your own body. Gradually an empathy
between you and the crea1ure of the mask
_,
will arise.
Winter 1986-87
�DRUMMING
LETTERS TO KATUAH
Hello Karuah,
Herc is a poem that I think you might find interesting.
Dark Ridge Creek is in Jackson County and I have walked
quite a bit of ii.
We are not down to the last trout yet. There are lois of
native speckles swimming around; a lot of rainbows, coo. If
you want to use the poem, feel free. Keep up the good
work.
11iE LAST TROUT IN DARK RIDGE CREEK
The only mate I have ever known
the only one of my kind to ever
swim beside me
lies on his side in still water
color fading like an autumn leaf
sinking to the stream's bonom
If I had voice
Dear Friends:
Your Fall, 1986 issue, centering on the subject of
death, is great! I especially appreciate the attention given to
DealinK Creatively with Death,
I would have liked to see more attention given to
memorial societies. There are nearly 200 of these societies
and they are the major consumer advocates in the funeral
industry. You might like to publish the name and address of
the Continental Association of funeral and Memorial
Societies and perhaps the names and addresses of societies in
the Appalachian area and nearby.
I was delighted to see you publish a detailed
description and instructions for building burial boxes. Along
this same line, a few paragraphs on dealing with the legal
details of non-professional bunal might be helpful.
Cordially,
Ernest Morgan
like the bird in the laurel
that can sing her young
from a tangle of twigs
and slow the sun's flight across the sky
I would not be alone
Our spawn
our children
once growing
breathing
wombed in a bed of gravel
lie smothered under a blankec of silc
as if dark grains of nighc
fell from the sky
and buried a thousand sunrises
Truly,
Thad Beach
Waynesville, NC
Many thanks 10 Ernest Morgan/or his contributions tQ
KarUah#J3.
The addresses of the memorial societies serving the
KatUah province are asfo/kJws:
ConJinelllal A.ssodalion cf FUMral aNl Memorial Societies
2()()1 s strtl!l NW (Suitt 530)
Washi11g1011, DC 20009
Dear Katiiah,
I so enjoy reading the Kllllahl I would like to lcnow
more about it, and if there is a group meeting, etc.
I have enclosed a poem about "A Place of Warmth for
Me".
Mtm0rial Society ofGeorgia
191 I Cliff Vality Way NE
A1/an1a. GA 30329
Blw Ridge Memorial Society
Bo;c2601
ArMvillt, NC 2/WJJ
East Tt1111essu Memorial Society
Bo;c 1057
KnoJC11illt, TN 37919
Memorial Society ofROQ/IOke Valley
Bo;clJIX)l
ROQ/IOke, VA 24014
As to the legal details of Mn-professional burial, all
sources say, "Consult Tlie Manual' (Ernest Morgan's book
Dealing C&tivefy wjth [)emh>."
-The Edif()rs
Keep up the journal; the reading is great!
A PLACE OF WARM1H FOR ME
rve searched for my own special place,
Where nature's views reflect in my space.
My very own plot of ground,
Where I could live year 'round.
A cabin, small, I'd build,
With flowers on the window sills,
A happy place, where I could dream,
As I listened quietly to a stream.
Then, when winter's full of cold and snow,
A log fire burning all aglow.
The smoke rising ever so high,
Like an Eagle in the sky.
I've wandered far and near,
My place must be full of cheer,
Where peace and Jove abide,
With God close by my side.
I'd dream, I'd sing, I'd write, I'd paint,
You'd never hear me say "I can't."
l'd look from my mountain top, oh, the beauty I'd see,
I'd be just as warm, happy. and content as I could be.
Sincerely,
Barbara Ann Satterfield
Sylva, NC
KATUAH - page 24
Wimer 1986-87
�INITIATION
Wrapped in buckskin
Anllercrown
the wind was her king
down in the grove
where the trees whisper.....
Shandoah ..... Shandoah
she runs with the deer
to her place of power
she sleeps on the Earth
Her Mother's heartbeat
in her ear
She receives her Mother's smile
knows what to do
She walks with the deer spirit
to the river of life
falling starS in her eyes
Moon bath
Swimming
She is born
She is rising
The river is sweet
She drinks from iis blood
She anoints herself
and lays in the thicket
full and ripe she falls
into the world of 1he undreaming
She forgets 1he meaning
of her Mother's tongue
of her Grandmother's sorrow
She wears the robe of shadow
She mee1s her test
with the promise
that she will live
in all that is
that she will awake from the dream
to be reclaimed
that lhe river flows on through
her body
and will always empty
into her heart
-Colleen Rcdman·Copus
More Thoughts On Death
ToKat6ah:
Dear Friends,
I enjoyed the issue on death, that
cheerful topic. h is something I have been
thinking about a lot recently, in connection
with my praccice of the "Tac Kwon Do"
karate technique.
The ancient warrior codes all pivo1ed
on !hat stark moment when the warrior was
face-to-face with his own death. that was
the focus of all their rules of conduct and
practice. Whether it was among the
Japanese samurai, the Celtic chieftains or
the American Indian braves, the key
principle was to meet death wherever it
came. or, even, 1n the words of Mushashi,
the 15th century Japanese swordsman and
philosopher, " If you have a choice, seek
your death."
The concept of facing one's death
was also central to lhe "spiritual warrior"
practices of, say, Tibetan Buddhism and the
classic case of Carlos Castenada's Don
Juan, the Mexican b.IJUQ.
The practice of the warrior was of
course concerned with facing death for
pragmatic reasons, but to a large extent it
was also because of the depth and meaning
it brought into their lives. Sometimes it
takes an encounter with death to wake a
person up to the richness of life. The
warriors saw themselves as examples to the
people, as well, teaching them to regard
death fearlessly. In those times, war was a
personal thing a point of honor. It was
fought as much for the glory as for the
conquest. The battlefield was a
testing-place, an initiation. Compare that to
the craven coward with his finger over the
nuclear button, who would sacrifice an
incalculable number of lives to achieve his
own ends. For these men, death is no
longer real. Their lives, and all of our lives,
arc diminished as a result.
For the warrior, living in close
proximity to death was the only way to live.
The teaching there is that this is the human
condition. It is the same for all of us, all the
time. Even if we do not make it so
graphically clear by seeking our own death,
"Death is always over your shoulder"( in the
words of Castaneda's Don Juan). We
would benefit greatly from having teachers
brave enough co tell us that 1he way to die is
the way to live.
Thank you for bringing the notion of
"death" into the Katuah Journal. This is a
much-needed discussion, as our culture
purposely avoids the idea of death.
Death is something to be swept under
the rug ...flushed down the toilet ... carried
out like the trash. Out of sight, out of mind.
The main reason for this, I think, is
fear. Our culture is scared to "death" of
death and tries to protect its people from
having to face the experience of death
during the course of their lives. And so we
as individuals are left to meet our own
demise unprepared and unfamiliar with
death. This only promotes confusion and
deepens the fear. and so the spiral of
alienation continues.
The results of this have been
disastrous, both for us as people and for the
planet as a whole. A tremendous amount of
energy and resources go into insulating
ourselves from lhe world and propping up
the fallacy of the individual ego. We would
rather sacrifice whole species of other
creatures than allow and accept our
individual death.
Our neurotic fear of dying has
contributed in a large pan to the
overpopulation of humans, the
degeneration of the planetary environmoot,
and our own alienated lifestyles. Of course,
the fear of death is not totally responsible
for this, but coming to terms with our own
monality and realizing the importance of
death in our lives would go a long way to
helping us change our attitudes and
accepting our place in the world.
Thank you for helping to lead us a
few steps in this direction.
Sincerely,
Ava Livingston
Roanoke, VA
My best,
E. Thornton
Charlotte, NC
>'I'
KATUAH - page 25
Winter 1986-87
U \IU\.., •••,.It
AC'.,.,..,, -
~ATITA ;f
�- continued from page 1
different, bm we need to take counsel
together. This was desirable before, but
since the splitting of the atom, this has
become a necessity.
I carve a lot of pieces with figures that
have what I call "visionary eyes". There is
fear in those eyes. Those eyes have seen
the bomb, and they're afraid. I guess I'm
afraid too. I ge1 the feeling I had as a kid
when I read in the Bible of how "They shall
have sores and splotches, and so many
wounded, and so many of the people will be
killed".
At the time of the Chernobyl accident
they said 1he Chernobyl plant was
unprotected and without containment, but
later it turned out that the reactor rug have all
of that.
There are lots of those
graphite-cooled nuclear plants within range
of us. If four or five of those were to have
a meltdown, it would change the nature of
life on this planet.
When I was in the siitth grade, I was
pro-nuclear. I was really for it. "What a
wondeiful ideal All that energy!" But we
didn't know about nuclear waste.
We're primitive when it comes to
dealing with our nuclear waste. We think
we can bury it in holes in the ground, and
that it won't go into the water, and
everything will be alright. Bm how delicate
the world isl
I guess everything is beautiful to me.
Everything has its own way. When I see
people out there, all together, by the
millions, it's beautiful the way that they
move. But again, speaking face to face is
beautiful because o( the way people are and
the ways they are different.
I try to communicate through my art.
I think of people touching my carvings
when I make them, because I know that the
love and affection I feel are not for me to
keep to myself. Any artist knows his or her
work is for all people. An is to help bring
out a lot of things about the Creator and
how we have come to be humans living as
we do. An is also about how to improve
ourselves to be better people. Through time
artists have helped us more than almost
anyone else to figure out who we are and
what we're doing.
h's a healing feeling to know that
God does give us the power to do all these
things to feel better or 10 appreciate life
more. I ask God to make or to bless each
carving that 1 do and ask that people can
appreciate and take care of ii. Bui it's just
art It should just be appreciated as art, but
I guess every artist does feel some
attachment to their work. I would like
people to understand the thoughts and
feelings I put into my carvings. Otherwise
they might use a carving for a doorstop. Of
course, that's o.k. too, I suppose. It's a
rock-it'll hold a door open.
But a rock is not "jus1 a rock". The
rock I carve is the old pipestone: s1eati1e or
chloride schist. It gets a nice finish when I
sand it, and it turns darker as people handle
it
Rock seems primitive, but one
wonders whether it's back in time or
whether it's in the future. Rock itself is
alive. Rock has been ~where and seen
~thing. Rock has traveled the tracks of
the stars. It has traveled through all of time.
Each time the Earth has gone 1hrough
another cycle, the rock has become more
condensed. There is an incredible amount
of history and eitperience condensed in each
chunk of rock.
I search out my own pipestone to
carve. I see things in the rocks: arms, legs,
faces, animals, spirits - all the things of the
universe. Sometimes where granite and
quartz come together r see designs.
When I carve, often I will leave some
of the rock in its natural state. Then, along
with all the other creatures I represent, the
spirit of the stone is in the carving, too.
PASSING IT ON
people and had no way to eitpress that. So
they got upset about it and went to war with
the world.
Maybe we could have at least a small
effect on the problems of the future--the
neglect and the abuse.
Maybe by
communicating or working with some an,
people could be more happy, more creative,
and perhaps they would be less abusive.
It's o.k. to use something, whether
it's land or a creative gift, as long as you
give something back. That's why l like to
show carving to a lot of kids: to give
something back.
Sometimes on Saturday morning I
like to have kids and their parents who are
really intcreSted come over here, and I show
them how to do some of the carving. Kids
are smart, y'know. Often I.bey know more
than adults, because their view of the world
has not been broken and fragmented. There
is as much or more in their minds than in an
adult's, bul they don't have the mentnl tools
to explain it. There are adults like that, too.
A lot of people in prison have seen the
world in a different way from the rest of the
Interview by Martha Tree, David Wheeler,
and Michael Red Fox
Joe Roberts
258· 1038
734 Town Mountain Rd
FRIEDMAN &
8
Asheville, NC 28805
~
DESIGN, INC.
-
ENERGY SYSTEMS
THAT PAY FOR THEMSELVF.S
AVRAM FRIEDMAN
OESlGH~TECHNICIAN
KATUAH - page 26
garmiN Water System
.........
Ul. IRAVIOl.U PURIFICAllOtl AHO FILIERIHG SYSIEMS
SOlAA PAOOUCIS • WAIER ANALYSIS
HWY. 107
PO BOX657
DIUS80RO. NC 28125
RANDALL C LANIER
704 293 51112
AT. 68 BOX 125
CULLOWHEE, NC 28723
Winter 1986-87
�A CHILDREN'S PAGE
WHAT Wll..D ANIMAL
WOULD YOU LIKE
MOST TOBE?
Darby,8
Miles, 5
A mountain Jion...because I've
A rattJesnake...because I
like their colors.
always liked them...and
because I could run fast.
Jason,5
Tshu-Tshu, 5
A rattlesnake...because I like
how their tail is rattly.
A bluejay"'because I like
how they ny and how they drop
their feathers.
Karl, 7
Tyler, 8
A squirrel ....because they're
kind if you don't pick them up.
Being a squirrel, I can climb up
trees and I can run fasLand
I can live in a 'treehouse'.
An eagle. ...because I Jike to be
high....when you're an eagle it's
easier to hunt for food ....... .
ah, lunch!
Lars,8
A robin...because you're able
to fly ....you'd be free...you'd be
able to see everything•...
no limitations...
Amanda,7
A wild bird...a cardinal
I think it would be neat
to see how they live......
and because I could fly
above the sky•..
Sara, 7
Ariel, 7
A deer...they seem so quiet...
they look so nice...they look
gentle,too...
Jay, 8
A mountain lion...because
they like to roam in the
mountains...and so do I.
A squirrel....because they'd
be protected, not too many
creatures could get at them.
I would like to be a squirrel
because people can't climb trees
as well as they can.
We welcome original drawings, stories, poems, ideas, or
Thanks lo Rainbow Mountain School, Asheville, NC
KATUAH - page 27
comments by individua1 children or groups for this page. Let
us know what the children of KatUah are doing!
Wiruer 19116-87
�J.........
.,..~ -
'"'"'"'• A.Aov: .·
fO~ ·n•e.
atUGN0 ntE RULf.S:
' A NOTE ON NEW GRAMMAR .
\.
We all learned in school dw •a
pronoun must agree widl the object oi the
JP. RfN~ 3
G~T'N6RCNG
The Spring Gathering will be happening 7) Katuah ecology in the 80's
again in April. We would like some input 8) Drumming
from our readers on activities they would 9) Living outside & inside (dealing with)
like to have available. Here are some to
the 80's economy
choose from. Let us know if these 10) Dowsing
suggested topics or others would make 11) Sweat Lodge
interesting workshops for the gathering:
12) Community planning, etc.
13) Spirituality (individual and as a whole)
l) Herb identification and usage
Anyone interested in being on a
2) Tree identification
steering committee to bring this gathering
3) Primitive strucrure construelion
together please write to us at Katiiah; Box
4) Wilderness survival techniques
873; CuUowhcc, NC 28723.
5) Crystals
6) Wild food foraging and preparation
Thi powerful GOl..OEN EAGLE
nlH abon lh11iu.
tlus tull
•Mic••
co!0< dllllJ' , .._...,.11114
°" T·
~~RTS Of 100'<. NUHRUNk COT·
C4I011.S11Ytr.[cru, wi.tc
SinJ•Ad11111S.XL
$hor1SIHnT: AduK·$10.00ppd.
l ontSlunT: Adolt·S14.00ppd.
1\!age>
1
J
~
unnCJe
'Na
&~r~~l ~
~
All designs, except Golden Eagle. also available
in sweatshirts. Feather or tracks imprinted on
sleeve.
r ~1IOnl1t;:;:;~~;.;;;;.,N1;.1ls.,.....
w
:
103311, l1l11mRd..
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111. NC 281M(104)456-3003
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Eip. 0•1•1-- - - -- --1
I
Lens $1HW toc:l•dH dtlall• d pnlll of lta!Mr
°" 110 ... Sallllactioa 1 1 0< 1111JmWlull . - _
Addru•------ -------- --t
!,
~• When looking over the Kl1Uh
Journal. English teachers and sharp-eyed
proofreaders cringe and soflly curse the
KaWAh staff for the recurrence of sentences
such as: "The attitude of individualism puts
one at war against their environment."
The pronoun in that sentence is used
in a way that violates the precepts of
orthodox grammar. But the orthodox
grammar assumes that the basic unit of the
human race is the archetypal "he", an
assumption that we can no longer subscribe
to because it leaves the feminine half of the
population as non-entities - just one of the
subtle ways we are all taught 10 disregard
women and their role.
Trying to overcome this has led to
various complexities in the alternative
printed media. If we were to write out the
above sentence, for instance, it would
read, "The attitude of individualism puts one
at war with his or her environmenL"
Rather than encumbering our
sentences by writing out "his or her", "he
and she" each time, we have often chosen to
refer to them collectively as "their" and
"they", so that in fact that "someone"
potentially has become two, and the
pronoun agrees with this possibility. That's
not any harder to under~tand than it was in
sixth grade, is ii? (Or is it still just as hard?)
Some may be pleased at this change,
others may consider it th e rankest of
heresies, most probably could care less. But
language is a process and subject 10 change,
and there probably will be other changes as
we continue to modify our language to
conform to the conditions of our lives.
We welcome comments and
suggestions on this, as we do on all aspeclS
of the KluYah journal.
Changing our speech is another way
we can participate in creating ourselves a life
suitable to face the rimes we live in and the
times that are to come.
"'""'- ------------- - -t
i
i
'- CMck ......... FR(( COlOll CATAUKO ol all eur W1tdltt. Gl•pll••'OU.LU INQUllll[$ UMTlO
CIBII!NlE§IE
NAWRAL FOOD STORE
&DELI
~C1Un»1UNC'll'1UlilE
AM»
IHl~llllOLOGV
cn...nmc
107 Merrimon Avenue
Asheville. rt.c.
(704) 258·90 J6
KATUAH - page 28
MALAPROP'S
BOOKSTORFJCAFE
160 Broadway
Asheville, NC 28801
(704) 253-7656
BOOKS - CARDS - RECORDS
Where Broadway
61 HAYWOOD ST., ASHEVll..LE, NC 28801
(704) 2S4-6734
Meets Menimon
Andl-240
Open 7 Days A Week
Monday - Friday
9:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Saturday
9:00 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Sunday
1:00 p.m. - 5 :00 p.m.
Winter 1986-87
�a
•
~
S
· 4.!'J!sv:t./J•.:.l
'Jf1-.Jh ,, 'J.i ~,1 ~~o
:rro ~,.,
DECEMBER
21
ASHEVILLE, NC
"A Festival of Lights: A Winter
Solstice Celebration" with Unity of the
Mountains. 6:30 pm. 70 Lexington Ave.
Donation. Call 669-9276.
MARCH
JANUARY
10 & AS HE VILLE,NC
17
Literacy Workshop to train
volunteers to teach people how to read.
10:00 am to 4:30 pm. Pack Library. More
info: (704) 254-3442.
"Parenting for Peace and Justice"
conference with Jim and Kathy McGinnis at
University Hills Baptist Church. Contacc
Joanne Frazier (704)372-9140.
16-17
tANCEL THE COUNTDOWN
17
27-1/4 HOT SPRINGS, NC
New Year's Meditation Retreat with
John Orr. Southern Dhanna Retreat Center;
Rt. 1, Box 34-H; Hot Springs, NC 28743
COOKEVILLE, TN
Tennessee Alternative Growers'
Association Annual Conference at
Tennessee Tech Aqua Facility. For more
information, contact TAGA; Rt. 6, Box
526; Crossville, TN 38555
Major national action to protest
Trident missiles and "Star Wars" testing,
Cape Canaveral, FL. For more information,
contact Rural Southern Voice for Peace;
1901 Hannah Branch Rd.; Burnsville, NC
28714
30-1/4 W AYNESVILLE, NC
New Year's Retreat at Stil-light
Center. $5.00/day. Pre-register: Rt. 1, Box
326; Waynesville, NC 28786
CHARLOTTE, NC
6·9
17
20-22
ASH EVILLE, NC
Martin Luther King Prayer Breakfast. 8:30 am. Asheville Civic Cenrer.
WAYNESVILLE, NC
"Numerology" workshop with
Karol Kettering. $20. Stil-light Center.
Pre-register. see 12/30-1/4.
ABINGDON, VA
Teach Our Children Well Festival in
honor of Martin Luther King. 3:30 pm.
Washington County Library.
18
The Cente r for New Prioriti es is now
open, in Asheville, NC, for all groups
dedicated to working towards genuine,
life-oriented, change for the community.
Office space, small meeting space, and
kitchen facilities are available. The Center
plans to sponsor workshops as welJ as
provide a place for groups to network. In
January, there will be a meeting of all
groups-environmental, peace, social action,
spiritual, cultural, etc-who are interested in
participating in the formulation of the
"scope" of the Center's goals and activities.
For more infonnation, call (704) 254-4714
or write the Center, 54 Starnes Avenue,
Asheville, NC 28801. The Center
appreciates donations, large or small, to
help wilh its upkeep and activities.
GERTON, NC
24
Drumming Workshop/ African &
Haitian, featuirin~ Darrel Rose. Potluck
lunch & potluck dinner. $ 25. (partial work
scholarships available). Call (704)
625-9722 (ask for Martha) or wrire P.O.
Box 65, Genon, NC 28735
FEBRUARY
13-15
W AYNESVILLE,NC
Group study weekend: "The Yoga
Sutras of Patanjali". $20. Pre-register:
Slil-lighr Center. See 12/30-1/4.
Rainbow Family Tribal Gathering '87
By a council decision at the 1986
Rainbow Family Tribal Gathering in
Pennsylvania, the 1987 gathering of the
continental Rainbow people will be held in
the Appalachian Mountain Bioregion from
July 1 - 7.
The Rainbow Gathering currently
brings together 10-15,000 people during the
week of the event, although people arrive
long before and stay long after at the site.
They gather in remote natural settings to
promote and practice an alternative lifestyle
free from the constraints of the dominant
culture. Everything is free and shared
communally at the gatherings. The
temporary village takes care of its own
food, medical, sanitary, and security needs,
and prides itself on leaving behind a site that
is clean and green. The stated goals of the
gathering are peace, unity, love, and respect
for the Mother Earth. All are welcome.
Scouts are moving into the National
Forest lands in Appalachia to search for a
suitable site on which the Rainbow family
can gather in July. They arc looking for
1987 NEW IJOJlLt>
eyer,£ Of' e£L£BRAT'LON8
eAI..£N1>...t1t JOURNAL
about a 50-acre area of flat or rolling
meadows and open woods with a good
water supply. The site must be remote from
towns and paved roads, yet must have
adequate parking for 1,000 or more vehicles
somewhere nearby. T o discourage
unwanted interference, the site should be
accessible only by several miles of trail or
road that is closed to vehicles.
If there is anyone in the bioregion
who knows of a suitable site with a stable
ecosystem and soils that would not be
dislocated by a great amount of human
activity, please contact the Rainbow scouts
at the Rainbow regional center:
~ !ftl' ~
~
Rainbow Family of Living Light
Box 1097
Newport, TN 37821
8 1/2" x 1", 160 p ci9es, over 100 cfi.cin s
cind tUus trcitlons. r\vcilLci&te f or Sl l.80
ppcL. from:
For more information on the
continental Rainbow Gathering. contact
their publication:
All Ways Free
Box664
Bearsville, NY 12409
Cross-Cu t turat CaLe nr:!ar
Journat of Celebrations
New 1Jortc£ Ce!e&r citt.ons
L
P .O. Box. 6054
CfmrCotte , NC 28207
......
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~__.
KATUAH - page 29
Winter 1986-87
�Ridge mountains with facilities available to rent for
groups or individual retreats, either guided or
unstructured. Send for information and seasonal
calendar of healing, iransformativc events to: Indian
Valley Holistic Center: RL 2, Box 58; Willis, VA
SCIENCE CENTER dedicated to the understanding and appreciation of the
natural world. For membership or visiting info,
write P.O. Box 2771; Gainesville, GA 30503.
24380.
AMRITA HERBAL PRODUCTS - Comfrey,
Eucalyptus, or Golden Seal Salve, Lemon or
Lavender Face Cream. Made with natural and
essential oils and love. Send for brochure: RL I,
Box 737; Floyd, VA 24001.
HEROES CONCERT - Music and stories about
Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and other
champions of peace and courage. For mformauon and
bookings, contact: Meg Macleod, 160 Flint SL.
AsheviUe, NC 28801 (704) 254-6484.
APPALACHIAN PATCHWORK - Mountain talcs
and songs by the Appalachian Puppet Theatre.
Cassette tape S7.00 from: Appalachian Puppet
Theatre, 355 Cedar Creclt Road, Black Mountain,
NC 28711 (704) 669-6821.
HEALTH and FITNESS SELF.CARE CENTER: A
private centet offering comprehensive programs or
scientifiealJy and medically docwnented approaches
to opumum health and fitness. Seminars,
worlcshops.and private consult.a.lions for individuals,
famili~ and businesses. Contact: Jeffrey Brown;
HFSC; POB 278; Lexington, NC 27293 (704)
2464919.
ASHEVILLE I BUNCOMBE COUNTY SOLID
WASTE ALTERNATIVES PLANNING
WORKSHOP: A design for handling solid wasics
in any urban contexL SIS from Long Branch
Environmental Education Center. RL 2, Box 132:
Leicester, NC 28748.
TWO PAPERS - "How to Stan a Co-op" and
"Steps Toward Forming an Auto Repair
Cooperative" by Dr. Rodney S. Wead, PhD.
Available from Appalachian People's Service
Organization; P.O. Box 1007: Blacksburg, VA
THE LONE RECYCLER - Comic book adventures
of humankfod's early struggle to combat
wastefulness. $4.00 pp. from Long Branch
Environmental Education Center. Rt. 2, Box 132;
Leicester, NC 28748.
HOLOGRAPH1C ASTROLOGY - Every pan of a
hologram contains all the info about the entire
hologram, and each cell in your body contains all
the genetic data about your whole body. Similarly,
every body contains all the information about the
entire solar system - you are the solar system and
each of your planets is one of your potentials. Chnrt
&. Consultation, SS0.00 Harriet Witt Miller (704)
684-0810.
MOON DANCE FARM HERBALS - hctbaJ salves,
tincnues, &: Olis for birthing & family health. For
brochure, please wriic: Moon Dance Fann; RL I,
Box 726; Hampwn, TN 37658
DRUM WORKSHOPS - for children of all ages.
therapeutic massage - Relaxes the body &:
mind ...Call Martha for more info 11 (704)
258-6016
FAIRGLEN FARMS offers organic, biological
fCltil.i7.ers for fann and garden. Send SASE for price
list Biologically-grown produce to sell? We arc
interested in acting as cooperative marlccting agenis
with other growers. Write: Route I, Box 319;
Clyde, NC 28721.
DRUMS - Custom handcrafted ceramic dumbecks &:
wooden medicine drums. CalJ Joe at (704)
258-1038 or write to:
Joe Roberts, 738 Town
Mountain Rd.; Asheville, NC 28804.
24060.Frce.
CUSTOM CELTIC HARPS • A'Court Bason;
Travianna Fann; Rt. I: Check, VA 24072.
•AS WE ARE" - Women's music by Pomegranate
Rose, a four-woman group playing lively original
music. Cassette tape available for S9.00 ppd. from
Rt. 2, Box 435; Pi1tsboro, NC 27312.
CRAFTS FROM SALVADORAN AND
GUATEMALAN REFUGEES lN NICARAGUA:
cards, plaques, boxes, puzzles, paiches; This trade
benditS refugees dittctly. Brochure from:
Dry Creek Coopemive Trading
918 Jennings Ct.
Woodbury, TN 37190
I CAME TO A MOUNTAIN - by William Walters.
A book about the Light Ccntet (in Black Mountain,
NC) and the power of prayer for peace in the world.
Includes a look at the Center's activities for peace
and their prayer tours around the world. Avai lable
for $9.00 pp. from New World Bookstore, WNC
Shopping Center, Hwy 70, Black Mountain, NC
a non-profit organization.
FOUR WINDS VILLAGE • health and spiritual
retreat; home for children in need. For visiting info,
write: Box 112: Tiger, GA 30576.
28711.
FLOWER ESSENCES - Harmony with Nature&:
SpiriL Gentle emotional support during transitions,
specific issues, relationships. Opens
communications. Self-adjusting, non-toxic,
awareness "tools" for improving the inner quality.
Correspondence to: Elaine Gcouge, c/o Patchwork
Castle, Celo, 3931 HWY 80 So.. Burnsville, NC
28714.
"PEACE THROUGH MUSIC" - Ethereal &:
Tranquilizing Celestial Music tapes by Medicine
Wind/George Tortorelli. Plus exotic Bamboo
FluteS, rate scales. Send for free brochure: Medicine
Wind Music, 86 NW SSth St., Gainesville, FL
32601.
ACCESS is a fiee telephone information service on
peace issues including military spending,
environmental impacts of military activity, connict
resolution, etc. Your only charge is your
long-distance phone call. ACCESS # Is (202)
328-2323.
KATUAH • page 30
APPALACHIA 1987: THE SIMPLE LIFESTYLE
CALENDAR - Distributed by Appalachia Science
in the Public Interest to fund their work of
developing, an appropriate technology for
Appalachia Photos of the "Children of Appalachia"
by Warren Brunner. $6.00 pp. from ASP!; Rt. 5,
Box 423; Livingston, KY 40445.
"CELEBRATION SPACE: Songs to Celebrate
Life" - A cassette tape completely produced,
performed. and recorded by mem bets and friends of
the Floyd County community to raise money for
the Floyd County Community Hall. This audio
songbook contains IS original songs and chants and
3 traditional songs to learn and sing in your own
community. The sound quality is uneven, but the
energy, spirit, and joy shine through.
For the cassette tape with lyric sheet (ppd.), send
SI0.00 to the Floyd County Community Hall
Project; Rt. l, Box 735; Floyd, Va 24091.
At ARTHUR MORGAN SCHOOL 24 students and
14 staff learn together by living in community.
Curriculum includes creative academics, group
decision-making, a work program, service prop:ts,
extensive field trips, challenging outdoor
experiences. Write: 1901 Hannah Branch Rd.;
Burnsville, NC 28714.
WEB WORKING is free.
Send submissions to:
KA1GAh
P.O. Box 873
Cullowhcc, NC 28723
Winter 1986-87
�MediciHt'-' Allies
K.IJJiilJ.Jl wants ta communicate your rl@ughts and
feelings I() the other people in the bi.oregi.onal province. Send
them to us as letters, poems, stories, drawings, or
plio~ographs. Please send your contributions to us at:
Kmfmh; Box 873; Cullowhee, NC 28723.
The Spring Klu.U.ah. Issue XV, will focus on Women's
Issues. The deadline for all submissions for that issue is
January 31.
Please send your ideas for future themes for Kaiiia.b.
ISSUE EIGHT · S UMMER 1985
Celebration' A Way of Life . Katuah
18,000 Years Ago • Sacred Sites • Folk
Aru in lhe Schools • Sun Cycle/Moon
Cycle Poems: Hilda Downer • Cherokee
Herit age Center • Who Owns
Appalachia?
BACK ISSUES
full color
T-.s6irt.s
ISSUE TWO · WINTER 1983.84
Vona - Bear Hunten • Pigeon River •
Another Way With Animals • Alma •
Bceoming Politically Effective .
Mountain Woodlands • Katuah Under the
Drill - Spirilual Warriors
In the traditional Cherokee Indian
belief, the creatures in the world today are
only diminutive forms of the mythic beings
who once inhabited the world, but who now
reside in Galuna'ti, the spirit world, the
highest heaven. But a few of the original
powers broke through the spiritual barrier
and exist yet in the world as we know it
These beings are called with reverence
"grandfathers". And of them, the strongest
are K.ma.1i. the lightning, the power of the
sky; Utsa'natL the rattlesnake, who
personifies the power of the earth plane; and
Yynwj Usdj, "the little man", as ginseng is
called in the sacred ceremonies, who draws
up power from the underworld.
Each is the strongest power in its own
domain. Together they are allies: their
energies complement each other to form an
even greater power. As medicine allies,
they represent the healing power of the
Appalachian Mountains.
The medicine powers of Katuah have
been depicted in a striking T-shirt design by
Ibby Kenna. Printed in 5-color silkscreen
by Ridgerunner Naturals on top-quality,
all-cotton shirts, they are available now in
all adult sizes from tbe~joumal.
"To show respect for this
supernatural trinity of the natural world is to
in tum become an ally in the continuing
process of maintaining harmony and balance
here in the mountains of Karuah."
To order, use the form below.
ISSUE NINE · FALL 1985
Tho Waldcc Forest · The Trees Speak •
M ia:rating Foresu · Horse Logging •
Star1ing a Tree Crop • Urban Trees •
Acom Bread · Myth Time
ISSUE THREE • SPRINO I984
Sustainable Agriculture • Sunflowers •
Humm Impact on the Forest • Childrcns'
Education • Veronica Nichotas:Wcmm
in Politics • Little People • Mcdicme
Allies
ISSUE TEN · WINTER 19&5-86
Kate Rogers • Circles of Stone • Internal
Mytlunatting • Holistic Healing on Trial
• Poems: Steve Knauth • Mythic Places •
The Uktcna's Talc • Crystal Magic •
"Drcamspcalcing •
ISSUE FOUR · SUMMER 1984
Water Orum • Water Quality • Kudm •
Solar Ecbpsc • Clearcunin& • Trout •
Going to W ater • Ram Pumps •
Microhydro • Poems: Bennie Lee
Sinclair, Jim Wayne Miller
ISSUE ELEVEN· SPRING 1986
Communily Planning • Cities and tho
Bioregional Vision • Recycling •
Community Gardening- Floyd County,
VA • Gasohol · Two Biorcgional Views •
Nuclear Supplement • Foxfire Oomes
Good Medicine: Visions
ISSUE FIVE - FALL 1984
Harvest - Old Ways in Cherokee
Ginseng - Nuclear Wute • Our Celtic
Heritage • Bioreg1onalism: Past, Present,
md Future - John Wilnoty • Healing
Darkness • Polities of Panic1pation
ISSUETWELVE - SUMMER 1986
Livmg in the Garden • Sbiitakc • The
SICRCI Scuab • NC Nuclear Rcfctcndum •
Sun Root.s • Aquaculture • "HILAHl'YU":
The Form ation of lhe Appalachian
Mountains • WISC Woman Herbal • Good
Medicine: Tobacco
ISSUE SIX · WINTER 1984-85
WinLCt Sobticc Earth Ceremony
Horscpasturc River • Coming of lhc
Light • Log Cabin Roota • Mountain
Agriculwrc: The Right Crop • William
Taylor· The Future of the Forest
ISSUE THIRTEEN· Fall 1986
Center For Awakening • Eliubelh
Callari • A Oenllc Death • Hospice •
Emel! Morgm • Dealing Creatively with
Death • Home Burial Box • The Wake •
The Raven Mocker · Woodslore and
Wildwoods Wisdom • Good Medicine:
The Sweat Lodge
ISSUE SEVEN - SPRJNO 1985
S11Stainablc Economics • Hot Springs •
Worlccr Ownership • The Orea! Economy
• Self Help Credit Union Wild Turkey •
Responsible Investing • Working in the
Web of Life
J<AIUAH: Bjoregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians
Box 873; Cullowhee, North Carolina 28723
Back Issues
Issue# __@ $2.00 = $_ _
Issue# __@ $2.00 = $_ _
Issue# __@ $2.00 = $_ _
Issue# __@ $2.00 = $_ _
Issue# __@ $2.00 = $_ _
Complete Set (2· J3)
@ $18.00 = $ _ _
For more info: call Mamie Muller (704) 252-9167
Regular Membership........$10/yr.
Sponsor.......................$20/yr.
Contributor...................$50/yr.
Name
Address
Enclosed is$
I() give
this ejf an exrra boost
on
City
State
Zip
I can be a local contact
person for my area
Area Code
Phone Number
...
T-Shirts: specify quantity
color: tan
S_ _ M_ _
L_ _ XL_ _
@ $9.50 each............$_ _
TOTAL PRICE=
postage paid
KAWAH - page 31
$_ _
Winter 1986-87
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, Issue 14, Winter 1986-1987
Description
An account of the resource
The fourteenth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on varied topics such as the work of stone carver Lloyd Carl Owle, a comparison between the Cherokee Booger dance and the Irish Mummers dance, human beings' place in nature, and an interview with people who are homeless. Authors and artists in this issue include: David Wheeler, Marnie Muller, Tom Underwood, Will Ashe Bason, Martha Overlock, Oliver Loveday, Avram Friedman, Millie Buchanan, Colleen Redman-Copus, Martha Tree, David Wheeler, and Michael Red Fox.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1986-1987
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
Lloyd Carl Owle.......1<br /><br />Boogers and Mummers........3<br /><br />All Species Day........6<br /><br />Poem by Will Ashe Bason.......9<br /><br />Good Medicine.......10<br /><br />Cabin Fever University.......12<br /><br />Poems by Oliver Loveday.......13<br /><br />Keeping Warm: Homeless in Katúah.......14<br /><br />Homemade Hot Water.......18<br /><br />A Stovemaker's Narrative.......19<br /><br />Natural World News.......20<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Sylva Herald Publishing Company, Sylva, North Carolina
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Appalachians (People)--Social life and customs
Human ecology
Native American--History
Cherokee Art
Homeless persons--North Carolina, Western
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Alternative Energy
Appalachian History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Black Bears
Cherokees
Children's Page
Community
European Immigration
Folklore and Ceremony
Good Medicine
Habitat
Katúah
Katúah Organization
Pigeon River
Poems
Politics
Radioactive Waste
Turtle Island
Water Quality
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https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/7e7d24eb4270ddd2fe219a5da68fd1f1.pdf
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Fall 1987
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BIOREGIONAL JOURNAL OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS
THE MOUNTAIN BLACK BEAR
�(uTiJAR,
P.O. Box 873 Cullowhee, NC Katuah Province 28723
Note new address, inside!
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
Postage Paid .
Non-profit Org.
Permitt12
Cullowhee, NC
28723
�The Life and Death of Bear #87.... 3
Glady and Tire Pisgah Bear Project
Bear Story...... ......... ................. 6
bySam Gray
Issues (and a Few Answers)
for che Black Bear:..................... 8
An lmerview
with Dr. Michael Pelton
The Challenger: ......................... 11
The Wild Boar in the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park
cougar...................................... 12
a poem
Good Medicine: .......................... 13
"Finding Allies in the World"
"Me and My Walker Hounds"...... 14
by Robert McMahan
"Smells Like Money to Me:" ........ 16
a report on Champwn l lllUnlJJional
by Jay S. Geru
Bear ................. ........................ 18
THE BLACK BEAR IN KATUAH
Exactly four years ago this autu!IUl,
Katua/1 began publishing. Our first issue
spoke to the sacredness of these mountains
and to the journal's intent to explore how
we humans could better understand our
relationship to this region and how to more
sensitively inhabit this place we call home.
Because the totem spirit is the living
soul of a region's natural life community, in
the second issue of the journal, we
searchingly asked "Who is the totem spirit
of the Karuah region'? Which is the species
most closely connected to the spirit of these
IDOWltains?"
The black bear,
called Yonah by the Cherokee,
answered:
"/am a mountain in my body.
Dark like the hills at midnight.
Fur covers my back
As the darkjirs clothe rhe ridges.
l am massive.
Rock is in my bones.
My growl is the thunder,
voice of the mils...
a poem /Jy Scott Bird
Green Politics in Katuah .............. 19
by Richard Harrison
Natural World News ................... 20
Modem Science Restores
Ancient Indian Maize
Prt>tecting Our Mountain Werlands
DOE Hot Meals Program
No Problem with Tobacco
Showdown ar Flat Creek
NC Legislators Want Dump
Peregrine Nesr Discovered
Turtle Island Talking.............. .... 23
Al.ookatPeaceNer
Old Galaxies:............... ............. 23
a poem by Michael Hockaday
Drumming: ............................... 24
Letten to KatllQh
Littering: The Same Old Story ..... 27
/Jy Michael Hockaday
Fa11 Calendar of Events ............... 28
Webworking....................... .... .. . 30
So in that issue we began our quest co
meet one of the most ancient inhabitants of
these moumains--the black bear. The cover
of the issue displayed Martha Tree's
powerful drawing of the black bear spirit
gazing up at the vision of the golden eagle.
Within the pages of that second issue was a
story-myth of the role that bears played in
creating the human race and there were tales
of encounters with the animal world by
Snow Bear. Also there was a story about
the exploits of two old bearhunters, Charlie
and Russell, now both passed on .... and
other black: bear lore.
Now four years later, we find
ourselves coming full circle. Again, we are
asking "Who is the Black Bear?" and "What
is our relationship to Yonah?" In this issue
we are investigating in particular the future
of the black bear here in southern
Appalachia and the chances of its survival
Concern for the survival of the black
bear is not just an isolated case of kindness
to a single animal species. The health of the
entire Katuah bioregion is reflected io the
health of the black bear. What is at stake is
the present aod future existence of the
bear's forest habitat -- the old, spreading
trees capable of providing nuts and space to
den; the herbaceous plants that grow up in
their shade; the fertile soils rich in leaf-mold
and teeming with micro-organisms that
suppon their growth; the clear running
streams that spring up among their roots;
and all the other creatures that depend on
and at the same time create the conditions of
the climax growth stage of the Appalachian
forest This is the balance that the mountains
have been growing toward for millenia.
The bears were not put here to be our
teachers; the welfare of the human race is
immaterial to them. But if the humans
would humbly respect and learn from
Yonah, the black bear would show us that
the conditions of the climax forest are in the
long run the best living conditions for us all.
The life of the black bear is not only
closely linked to the spirit of the land, but,
as the Cherokee legend in this issue's
"Good Medicine" column indicates, it is
also joined in some deep and mysterious
way to the spirit of the human inhabitants as
well. Feelings about Yonah run deep, andlike any deep feelings-they are complex and
inextricably mixed with emotion. TI1e bl:ick
bear takes many forms in the minds and
emotions of humans....
..... Yonah as rhe mother bear, the
Great She-Bear of the night sky, a cult
figure in ancient times, the spirit of the great
Mother Earth, massive in stature and a
bountiful provider, warm and comforting,
yet quick UJ anger and ferocious in her rage.
.....Yonah as a funny, playful clown
wlw entertains the tourists as they motor
through the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park, drawing them out of their
cars to cadge snacks and goodies.
.....Yonah at the heart of the chase,
the hunt, the annual tracking of wildness by
the domestic llllmans.
..... Yonall as the shadowy figure,
dark and savage, that takes shape in our
fears just outside the safe boundaries of the
setrlement clearing. waiting to maim tile
unaware and steal tire fruits of civilized
living ...... Yonah, the medicine animal,
who, like the land, sleeps away the winter
in a cave or a hole, dreaming powerful
dreams and returning with knowledge from
the underworld within the heart of the
mountains.
.....Yonall as the wise one who can
show how to live close to rhe true spirit of
these mountains.
The black bear may take any or all of
these forms within the human mind io our
quest to know this ancient creature. Like
any proper spirit, Yonah is elusive and
impossible to pin down.
But if we are to continue for long here
in these mountains, we need to look inward
and touch outward to learn the wisdom that
the black: bear holds.
.
-·~
- The Editors
pr
�fi,ATUAH,
EDITQRIAL STAFF nus ISSUE:
Scott Bird
Mamie Muller
Rob Messick
Michael Red Fox
Martha Tree
David Wheeler
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE:
Judith Hallock
Sylvia Fox
Jeff Fobes
Anne Muller
Arjuna
Cover: Blue Mountain Printmakers
New Sharon, ME 04955
Back cover drawing: Laurie Pierce
EPITQRlAL OFFICE rms ISSUE:
Worley Cove, Sandymusb Creek
The Southern Appalachian Bloregion and Major Eastern river systems
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
PRINTED BY: Sylva Herald Publishing Co., Sylva, NC
TELEPHONE:
(704) 683-1414
WRITE US AI:
K1JJW1h
Box 638
Leicester, NC
Katuah Province 28748
Here in the southern-most heartland of the
Appalachian mountains, the oldest mountain range on our
continent, Turtle Island, a small bw growing group has
begun to taU on a sense of responsibility for the implications
of that geographical and cultural heritage. This sense of
responsibility centers on the concept of living within the
natural scale and balance of universal systems and principles.
Within this circle we begin by invoking the Cherokee
name Kattiah" as the old/new name for this area of the
mountains and for its journal as well. The province is
indicated by its nanual boundaries: the Roanoke River Valley
to the north; the foothills of the piedmont area to the east;
Yona Mountain and the Georgia hills ro rhe south; and rhe
Tennessee River Valley to ti~ west.
The editorial prioriries I or us are to co/leer and
disseminate information and energy which pertains
specifically to this region, and to foster the aware11ess rlwt rhe
land is a living being deserving of our love and respect.
living in rliis manner is a way to insure the sustainability of
the biosphere and a lasting place for ourselves in its
co11tinuing evolutionary process.
We seem to lwve reached the fulcrum point ofa" do or
die " sitttation ifl tenns of a qua/iry standard of life for all
/i11i11g beings 011 this planet. As a voice for rhe caretakers of
this sacred land, Katiiall, we advocate a cemered approach to
the concept of decentralization. It is oiu hope to become a
support system for those accepti11g the challe11ge of
sustainability a11d the creation of harmony and bala11ce in a
total sense, here in this place.
We welcome all correspondence, criticism, perti11ent
information, articles, artwork, etc. with hopes that Kauiah
will grow to serve the best interests of this region and all its
living, breathing members.
H
Diversi1y is an imponant elcmen1 of bioregional ecology. bolh
n:uural and social. Jn line wilh I.his principle. ~h tries IO serve as a
forum for I.he discussion of regional issues. Signed articles express only
I.he opinion of I.he aulhors and are not necessarily I.he opinions of I.he
KatUa/J edil°" « slalT.
- The Editors
the other galaxies...
You open the way.
In the last issue of Kattlah, we mentioned that with this
current issue, we would be changing from our traditional
newspaper formal to a new magazine format
As you can see, we are in the process of reconsidering
the wisdom of that change. We would appreciate your inpu1
as well in this decision. Would you rather have a more
durable, but more expensive maga1ine format or a less
durable, but less expensive newspaper format for Kari/ah?
Please share your ideas, suggestions and preferences
with us. We appreciate your feedback.
The lnicmal Revenue Service has declared KJJtilnh a non·proli1
organilnlion under section SOl(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. All
coniribuuons IO KillHPli are deductible from personal income l!lX.
�THE LIFE AND DEATH OF BEAR
#87
by David Wheeler
"Poachers Tune In On Sleeping
Bears" declared lhe page one headline in lhe
Asheville Citizen on the morning of January
17, 1987. Poachers had shot and killed an
older female bear in her winter den site in a
hollow cree within the confines of the
Pisgah Bear Sanctuary below the Blue
Ridge Parkway.
The bear was number 87 of lhe bears
who had been radio-collared for radio
telemetry tracking by members of The
Pisgah Bear Project, a research program
being carried out by Nonh Carolina State
University (NCSU) scientists and students.
The radio collars emit a sustained signal that
is tracked by directional antennas to plot a
precise location of the animal to give a
picture of its range area and its daily
movements.
People all through the mountains
were shocked and angered that the poachers
had located the helpless bear by monitoring
the signals from her collar. When the
poachers found her location, they had
climbed her tree and shot her between the
eyes while she was asleep, and then had cut
down the tree to rettieve her carcass. People
were particularly outraged because Bear 87
was about to give birth when she was
killed.
"Glady" was the name The Pisgah
Bear Project researchers had given Bear 87.
At the time of her death she had just turned
11 years old - a remarkable age for a bear in
a region where few bears roam the woods
for more than six years before they are shot
Glady had been trapped and collared
in June of 1984 and was well-known to the
staff of The Pisgah Bear Project, who had
"Glady" was the name The Pisgah
Bear Project researchers had
given Bear 87. At the time of her
death she had just turned J1 years
old - a remarkable age for a bear
in a region where few bears roam
the woods for more than six years
before they are shot.
monitored her movements almost daily since
that date. In the subsequent two and
one-half years of contact, she had been
recaptured five times and had provided a
wealth of data on her habits and
movements. In the June previous to her
shooting she had been caught, measured,
and released. She was 125 pounds in
weight, 148 centimeters (58.25 inches) in
length, and 79 centimeters (31 inches) in
chest circumference at that time.
Glady had lived the life of any wild
sow-bear for the first eight years of her
life. ..She was one of the two cubs born that
winier of 1976 in the warm darkness of her
nwrher's den, and rhat small space was all
she knew for the first four nwnrhs of her
life. Jn the <kn she nursed and grew from
one pound to four or five pounds by rhe
rime her nwrher climbed our of her den
bringing her cubs with her.
Even beneath rhe rrees, the lighl of
rhai April sun mu.st have been intensely
bright to Glady's young eyes. Her mother
continued ro stay near the den site for
another monrh, nwving little and gradually
beginning to eat rhe tender young grasses,
branch lertuce, and squawroot (Conophilis
americano) C()ming up through rhe leaves.
As rhe spring progressed, Glady and
her sibling followed their mother down to
her spring range area, and, as food became
more abundant, their mother put on weight,
and rhe cubs continued to grow and gain in
StTengrh.
That first summer was a tklighr for
rile young cubs. They stayed close to rheir
- continued on llCll page
Phoio: NC Wildlife RC50un:es Commission
KATUAH- page 3
FALL 1987
�._....___....,._...,. ·=-- .. ........... - • --.-... - ... -·· _._....
mother and are buckberries under the tall
trees, blackberries from the choked jungles
along the open streambanks, and then
browsed the open hillsides and forests for
the succulent moL1ntain blueberries. They
also raided yellowjacket nests for their
larvae, and ate ants and grubs from rotten
logs their mother tore open with her long
claws.
Once they watched from the groL1nd
as their mother robbed a bee tree, slopping
ow globs of the sticJ..y honey and delicious
larvae, oblivious to the stings of the enraged
bees And, if they \Vere lucky, they would
occasionally find carrion th.Ill was not too
spoiled lying in the woods.
Mother ta11gh1 them to climb trees, to
hide, and to wait motimilessfor her return.
Tirey developed short. powerful legs 10
climb the mountain slopes and, although
their eyes were never very useful, their
noses became keen and sensitive as they
became accustomed to the seems of the
forest.
Then in the fall, they joined their
mother in gorging themselves on ripe acorns
and hickory mus to build up fat to insulate
and feed them during their winter den time.
The cubs contented themselves with
scooping acorns up from the ground with
their front paws and dextrous lips, but their
mother often went high into the oak trees,
bending and cracking branches to bring the
acorns, rich in protein and oils, within
reach.
Dllring this time the cubs and their
mother were moving almost constantly,
While male bears sleep lightly.
often lying on the grou11d with
011/y a laurel thicket or broken
brush for cover.female bears put
more energy into finding a warm,
secure den and sleep deeply,
stirring little duri11g rheir whole
rime of dorma11cy.
using every possible minme to fortify their
bodies to endure the winter's fast. The
young bears were tired and, when at tire
beginning of November the food supply
declined and their mother started for tire
high country to find an isolated den site,
they were glad.
They did not enter the den
immediately, but for one month they
lingered in the vicinity ofthe den site, eating
what they could find, b111 not going far to
forage for food. Finally, however, their
mother showed them how to ingest a fecal
plug of old leaves and twigs to stop
elimination, and they followed her into the
den. Their first year was over,
While male bears sleep lightly, often
lying on the Rro1md with only a laurel
thicket or broken brush for cover, female
bears p11111wre energy into finding a wann.
secure den and sleep deeply, stirring little
during their \\ihole time of donnaney.
Tiie small family of bears did not
leave their den to defecattJ or urinate during
their four-momh denning period. By a
miracle ofphysiology not duplicated in the
animal world, bears recycle their 1-.aste
water through their kidneys a1ul mrn the
nitrogen from urea waste compounds back
into protein.
So, although Glady was gaunt and
disheveled 1\'lren size emerged from the den
in the sprinR. the remarkable metabolism
and amazing endurance of her species had
brought her through the wimer with no
unus11al stress. Yet she was h11ngry,
grumpy, disoriented, and in no mood to
appreciate tire beauties of spring in the
mountains. 8111 as food magically appeared
in the forest, she grew in strength and
confidence. She became eager for another
year of roaming the slopes with her mother
GLADY'S RANGE
(South and cast or Mt. Pisgah. straddling lhe Blue Ridge Parkway, Pisgah N:irional Forest)
KATUAH - page 4
FALL 1987
�and hu sibling.
Glady thoughl the summer to come
would be a repetition of the last, and so she
was dismayed when in late June their
mother drove the two cubs away with fierce
growls and threats, when an amorous male
bear began to move close to her feeding
area.
The two yearling bears stayed close
together for companionship during that
summer and fall, but they separared into
individual dens ar the onset of winter.
Glady was on her own then, but she
stayed close to the familiar areas of her
mother's home range. She saw her mother
several times. but as long as it was not
mating season, her mother did not seem to
mind her presen~. It was two or three more
years before Glady went into estrus, but as
soon as it became evident that she was
sexually ma11ue, another large male began w
stay close to her and eventually mated with
the young sow-bear.
Glady continued to roam her range
and feed during the summer and the fall,
while, unknown to her, another unique
adaptation was taking place within her
body. The two fertilized blastocysts that
were to be her first cubs did not implant to
the uierine wall, but instead floated free in
the uterus while blueberry season moved
into acorn season, and Glady began intense
feeding to gain weight for her winter
dormancy period.
The acorns were plentiful that year,
and as Glady moved uphill to la11guish in
the vici11ity of her den site, the blastocysts
implanted themselves to her uterus and her
cubs began to grow inside her, perfectly
timed to emerge within her den in the dead
of winter.
I/Glady had notfoundfood enough
to bring her up to a weight that would
support reproduction and /actarion, through
the "delayed implantation" process, as it is
called, she would have passed the fertilized
blastocysrs and terminated her pregnancy
with little trouble and at a very slight
physiological cost.
Although she did not know she was
pregnant, Glady took unusual care in
picking a den site that year, and finally
found a tree of wide girth with a decayed
core and an opening, small and safe, high
up the trunk.
Glady bore two cubs in the den thaJ
winter, although she was hardly aware of
the fact. Even their insistent nursing did
little to disturb her winter sloth. But when
she awoke again that spring, she found she
was the mother with two cubs looking to
her to introduce them to the world.
So life continued for Glady lhrough
good yC3l"S and bad until June of 1984 when
Dr. Roger Powell of the Zoology
Dcpanmcnt of NCSU and other members of
The Pisgah Bear Project research group
caught her in a leg snare trap baited with
odiferous sardines.
The project was three years old al the
time, and Powell and his crew were
trapping, collaring, and releasing bears in
the Pisgah Sanctuary with several specific
KATUAH-page5
objectives in mind. Telemetry studies were
providing data on the bears' movements and
range areas. Trapping operations and the
co!Jars were also aiding in collection of
information on monality and reproduction
statistics, to be used in evaluating the bear
sanctuary and in drawing up guidelines to
help determine state management policies
and set hunting regulations. Simultaneously, bait station surveys (sec p. 9)
were providing population indexes, and
work had begun to determine exactly how
much food for bears the forest does
provide, which will shed additional light on
the findings about the females' home range
areas.
The study has also shown that
almost half of the human-caused
mortality among the study
animals has been a result of
poaching.
Now, although the study is not yet
completed, some results are beginning to
come clear. The bait station surveys show a
population decline in the sanctuary from
levels in the late 1970's. The decline seems
to have halted, "and," cautions Powell, "that
technique gives only a rough index, so I
would hesitate to say how significant that
decline is."
The study has also shown that almost
half of the human-caused monality among
the study animals has been a result of
poaching.
"1be Project has been in the press a
lot lately because Glady was shot in her
den," says Powell, "and our findings on
poaching have been what the press bas
emphasized. There is no question that we
have documented poaching in the Pisgah
Bear Sanctuary, but there's a lot more to the
Project than evidence of illegal hunting.
"From the habitat work that graduate
student John Zimmerman is doing, for
instance, we're getting to the point where
we should be able to predict bear use habitat
and develop models for what is good bear
habitat here and what isn't. That could be
very valuable to the Forest Service and the
Wildlife Resources Commission.
"We arc also developing a probability
curve that will tell us for a bear of any given
age what the probability is that it will live
longer. I feel good about our reproduction
data - it appears that the standard litter size
here is between two and three cubs - but
we're still missing some critical
survivorship data on cubs and yearling
bears, so we can't say for cenain whether
survivorship is greater than or less than
reproduction."
The Pisgah Bear Project's best work
has been in what it has found out about bear
spacing patterns and social organization.
The study has determined that although
female bears elsewhere often guard an area
to protect food sources, there is apparently
no territoriality in the Pisgah Bear
Sanctuary. By following the interactions of
neighboring females, masters candidate
Peggy Horner demonstrated this by
showing that they used the same areas at the
same time without conflicts. Project
members are now considering the
hypolhesis that male bears define their
territory, not by food avaiJability, but by Lhe
availability of females.
"What the bears appear to be doing is
predicted by most behaviorial and ecological
theories," says Powe!J. "But these theories
were mostly developed for smaller creatures
with shon life·spans, like hummingbirds
and anolis lizards, which give a lot of data
in a shon time. Bears have different time
spans, but they appear to be working on
basically the same rules. Thar's exciting to
me. That means we don't have to rethink a
lot of our behavioral and ecological theory."
S incc food availability is a basic
factor in the female bears' social
organization, The Pisgah Bear Project is
also measuring food production levels to see
how they compare with levels in other study
areas and what behavioral effects derive
from this. This is done by loeating marked
study sites in different areas of the
sanctuary, which a.re then visited regularly
by Project workers and every bit of food
material of three major indicator food
species (squawroot, berries, and acorns) arc
gleaned and weighed.
"The habitat here is tremendous" says
Roger Powell. "When I get out there and
actually sit down and pick berries at one of
these sites, I'm impressed by how
productive they are, and I can sec how, if
you found a good berry site and ate berries
all day, you could get faL"
'That's why I was enraged when I
found out about Glady's killing.
Had she been killed legally, I
would have been sorry, but I
would have accepted it. But to
have tracked her down by radio,
inside the sanctuary, inside her
den absolutely enraged me.
There's no sense to it."
Until the time of her death, Glady
played an imponant pan in the NCSU
reasearch. Erran Seaman, a graduate student
working with the project team, said, "Bears
can live on toward 20 years if they're not
disturbed. However, Glady was the oldest
female we knew of in the sanctuary. They
simply don't survive to live out their full life
span. We don't have many that ate over five
and one-half now.
"That's why I was enraged when J
found out about Glady's lcilling. Had she
been killed legally, I would have been
. continued on page 25
FALL 1987
�Bear Story
by Sam Gray
She was nuzzling and pawing at a spikenard
root as big as her face when she first heard the
hounds. Hunger was not the motive for grubbing in the dirt. She'd
eaten well for the past month. The aroma was the thing. A
discreet peace and a clear mind were hidden there in the array of
smells released from the bruised starch of the rhizome.
Reluctantly, she raised herself up into the October dusk to
KATUAH - page 6
FALL 1987
�listen to the baying orison coming to her from
another world. She could make out two separate
packs of dogs and an indeterminate number of
hunters. They were way down the mountain,
working back and forth across cold traces, getting
their bearings. Some of the voices were familiar;
old hounds that knew her ways, ancient choruses
that cried, "We've come." There were young,
strong voices too. It would be a long race.
She left the aromatic peace of the spikenard,
made her way into the violence of the night. She
moved upslope and to the northeast, leading them
away from the tree where her cubs were perched.
Her body and mind were quick and clear - water
moving among stones. By the time she sprang from
the upper timber into the wet grass of the Old Field
Bald at the summit, her strategy was shaped. She
paused in the shadow of a laurel clump to pant and
listen.
111e bald was lambent and still, except for an
owl cruising among the ash trees hunting rodents.
From the clangor in the distance, she beard an old
hound announce fresh scent. The other pack had
diverged and was moving to the west. She snorted,
sighed, and plunged down the north slope, gaining a
deeper darkness and in moments a tiny rivulet that
offered a quick drink and possibly some effacement
of her trace.
Further down, the creek was joined by a
tributary and between the two streams was a
quarter acre of doghobble bushes. She leaped into
them, using her body to plane down the entangling
mass, gain a foothold, and leap again, until she had
crossed it and stood panting and listening. The
dogs would be an hour getting through it.
On previous chases, she bad, from this point,
worked her way around the massive side of Cold
Mountain, weaving back and forth from stream to
doghobble patch to boulder field until the dogs
were beaten flesh. It was her mountain.
Tonight, however, something or everything
was different. Something beckoned downslope and
to the west. She had gone but a little way in that
direction when she pitched forward, tumbling
among rocks and moss and mud, moaning
uncontrollably. The bear had been struck down by
an insistent, sharply certain knowledge that reached
her across the great heart of connectedness: her
cubs were gone. By what wings or winds !his
message had come to her cannot be told, but it was
the truth. For at that moment, under a tall tree a
mile away, a man, exulting in the certainty that she
was elsewhere, was triumphantly holding aloft in
each hand a squirming, mewling bear cub, grasped
by the nape of the neck, bathed in torchlight and
terror.
With a single thrash and roll of her body the
bear massaged her anguish into the moist earth
beside the watercourse - and quickly left it there.
The game was changed. Before the capture of
the cubs, her strategy was determined by the need to
protect them, even sacrificing herself if necessary.
Now she must survive to breed again. And in
another place. For nothing held her to Cold
KATUAH-page7
Mountain now.
For the remainder of the night the bear moved
with unobstructed intention and speed down the
great slope of the mountain. At first light she was
lumbering along a gentler slope miles from the
dogs. the hunters, and the pain. Ahead of her were a
few apple trees, a meadow, an ancient fence, and
beyond these, indistinct in the morning mist, the
outlines of a cabin.
It was his habit to rise early and in good
weather to sit on the porch to watch the light gather.
For half a century, be had done this in all seasons,
liking best to sit in autumnal silence, reading the
sun's progress among the hickories, red oaks, and
maples of Lickstone Ridge - the leaves taking the
light inside themselves and then giving it back,
changed and revalued. He was an old man sitting
alone, lost in early light and dreams, when he saw
something moving out among the apple trees.
His first thought was, "It's Trudy." Trudy had
gotten up early, before him even, and was out there
in her old black coat picking up the last of the
apples.
He slowly and unwillingly Jet go of this notion
along with the brief joy it had borne him and forced
himself to acknowledge that it wasn't Trudy. She
had been dead now for over a year. The form
emerging from the mist was not his wife, but a
bear, and it was coming closer.
The bear covered the ground between them
quickly and darted under the cabin at a point where
the sills were raised on rock pillars two feet from
the ground. The unnailed puncheon floor inside the
cabin began to rumble and raise as the bear moved
around underneath. The old man stood in the
doorway and watched the tremors until they ceased
and everything was still. The thrum of cicadas,
jarflies, and gnats pulsed in his ears. He felt strange
- alive, but unsteady. Ile turned, groped for his
chair, sank into it. The dreams in his head began to
swirl together, and the images superimposed
themselves on each other and over the mountain
landscape before his porch.
He opened his eyes. Two men were standing at
the bottom of the porch steps. One of them was
calling out his name:
"Quill, Quill! Wake up, Uncle Quill!"
A haze suffused everything and through it, as
if from a great distance, he recognized bis
neighbor. Vance Callahan, along with bis son, June.
The old man struggled to his feet, and, leaning on a
post for support, stared blankly down at the
apparitions below.
"We been huntin' bear all night. We're
roundin' up the dogs now. You seen any, Uncle
Quill?"
The old man continued to stare, then cleared
his throat as if to deliver some oratory. But all he
said was. "No. No, I ain't."
Vance Callahan said something the old fellow
couldn't quite make out, and then the two figures
were gone.
The old man continued to lean against the post
and stare out into the warm October afternoon. ,
FALL 1987
�ISSUES (AND A FEW ANSWERS) FOR THE
SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BLACK BEAR:
An Interview with Dr. Michael Pelton
by Paul Gallimore and David Wheeler
indicate that just prior 10 that time few bears
were seen anywhere. They had been killed
up to the most remote areas. The historic
sites were Bone Valley up Hazel Creek and
under Thunderhead Mountain on the west
side. But it wasn't too many years after
1934 that the black bear population began to
climb. The black bear population in the Park
has been in the range of 400-600 bears for
many years, and this breeding nucleus
supplies the surrounding national forest
areas.
Dr. Michael Pelton has been studying
the blac/c bears of the Guat Smoky
Mowttains National Park. and the Cherokee
National Forest/or 17 years as part of his
job as professor in rhe Department of
Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries at the
University of Tennessee. In the course of
his research he has trapped, tagged, and
released more than 1,000 bears. He has
helped to develop research methods that are
now standard techniques in s111dyi11g bears
and other mammals worldwide. He is an
iruernationally-k.nown authority 011 bears,
and travels to o ther countries to advise
research efforts.
In talking with him, he is relaxed and
friendly, a person appreciative of wildlife,
who just happens to have an extraordinary
knowledge of the creatures of the forest
around us.
Katuah: We've heard an estimate of
2,000 bears in the Southern App:ilachian
Mountains. Did that come from you?
Pelton: That is a rough estimate that
we came up with when we were puuing
together the Tri-State Black Bear Study back
in 1978. It's based on a combination of
things: what we know about actual
population density in the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park, bait-station
surveys, and kill data.
Historically, state game and fish
commissions have taken the number of
bears reponed killed during hunting season
and assumed that number is 20 percent of
the population, and as long as the sex and
age ratios stay about the same, they assume
everything is in a steady state.
When the Park was set aside in 1934,
the repons I get from those early records
KATUAH - page 8
I say 400-600 bears, because they
have dramatic population fluctuations
depending on the hard mast (acorn and nut)
situation. A crop failure sends the
population way down, but then all the
females are ready to breed the next year, so
that with a good harvest, it soars right back
up. It's a boom and bust cycle.
Last summer during the drought
everyone was concerned about the mast
crop. We all thought it was going to be
serious, especially following the poor mast
crop of 1984, which set the stage for a
tremendous number of cubs to be born in
1985. That whole generation was in
jeopardy, but the shonage never developed.
The harvest was spotty, but it wasn't
disasttous, and a lot of young bears should
have left their mothers and dispersed this
summer.
Kat fiah: It seems that if the times
were hard for the bears, the percentage
taken during the hunting season would go
l!J2 instead of remaining steady. That would
make kill data an unreliable estimate. It
would seem that they would need to have
some hard figures to actually know what is
happening to the population in the region.
Pelton: Estimating population is
complicated. There are a lot of variables.
The sex and age ratios have been holding
steady, but it would be good to know more
than the age srructure and the kill data to be
able to tell what's actually going on. People
who work with populations can take age
structure statistics, and they can prove to
you that a population is heading toward
extinction; then the next minute they can
prove that the same population is expanding
fantastically.
Censuses arc tough. That's what we
tried to do for so many years in the
Smokies: capture/recapture using various
techniques, anything we could think of to
count bears. It was a very intense research
project on a small area. It's totally
unrealistic to talk about doing something
like that on a regional basis even one time,
much less year after year.
Ideally, I would like to do what they
are doing in Pennsylvania: there they trap a
lot of bears - a good percentage of the
population - in the summertime, and then
when the hunter kill data comes in during
the fall, they compare the ratio of
tagged/untagged bears. They feel like they
are right on in terms of the bear population
in Pennsylvania.
The bait station index is the best
method we have right now (see sidebar).
It's rough, but it gives us more information,
and it's a feasible method that could be
carried out throughout the whole Tri-State
bear range.
We've gotten good correlations
between bait station results and what we
actually know about population density in
the Smokies. For instance, for a long time
we figured that the density of bears in the
Cherokee National Forest was one-half that
in the Park for a lot of reasons - road
access, higher than usual poaching, and so
on - and when we got in some bait station
data, it indicated that the bait station talce
was about one-half what we were geuing in
the Smokies. It told us what we thought
we'd find out.
A friend of mine Died the bait station
technique out in Idaho, and it correlated
very well to what we found in this area.
They're using it in Michigan and are
very optimistic about it out there. Georgia
Died it in the Chattahoochee National Forest
for three years, and they are now going to
make it a permanent part of their
inanagernentprogram.
It's a general index, and it works very
well, if you don't expect more from it than
that.
Katuah: When you say the Tri-Staie
area, what does that encompass?
Pelton: It's basically the same as the
area known as the Blue Ridge
physiographic province (Katuah) in the
states of North Carolina, Georgia, and
Tennessee. The bear range is basically the
federally-owned lands in this area. The
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a
focal point for this range. We can call an
area a discrete range as long ns there are
connections between its various pans, and
the Park is connected to all the major
national forest areas surrounding it. But
there is a very definite line of human
habitation between the Cherokee National
Forest in Tennessee and the George
Washington National Forest in Virginia that
cuts those two bear populations apart
The assistant head of the wildlife
department in Virginia called me last year to
see about meeting at the state line to discuss
reconnecting the national forest areas by
means of wildlife corridors or conservation
easements.
FALL 1987
�Katiiali: Wouldn't corridors make
bears more liable to poaching pressure by
concentrating their numbers in a narrow
saip of land?
Pelton: This is a new idea, and I
don't know exactly how wide a corridor
should be to protect bears in this kind of
country
South of here we've seen black bears
dispersed down hardwood corridors along
riverbanks that are just a few yards wide.
They are very vulnerable in th:u situation.
The best survival habitat is~ of cover,
and the wider the corridors can be, the
better.
I don't have much hope for anything
outside the federally-owned lands. The rest
is gone. Down in Louisiana they are
reclaiming some abandoned farmland and
putting it back into bear habitat, but I don't
think that will be the case in Southern
Appalachia. Once the second homes and the
strip developments are there, they're there
forever.
K atua/1: Is the region approaching
its carrying capacity for bears?
P elton: I can't speak much for the
North Carolina side of the mountains, but
from what I can tell in the Cherokee
National Forest. it's not near the carrying
capacity.
The mast production there cenainly is
not optimal. A lot of these forests arc 40-60
years old now after being essentially wiped
out during the '30's, and they're just
beginning to reach mast production
capability, so there's room to grow there.
Wit h more control of illegal hunting
activi ries. the density in the national forest
could approach that in the Park, which is
approximate!y one bear per 1,000 acres.
K at fiah: What do you think arc the
cumulative effects of human habitation on
the bears?
Pelton: "Cumulative effects" is a
specific term for a relatively new idea tha t
has already been applied to the grizzly
s.ituacion our west. It means to take all the
bits and pieces of impact and put them
together to see how they fit in terms of an
overall effect on the species you arc looking
at.
They are doing that in a very
sophisticated way for the grizzly, and a
Forest Service employee is going to develop
a cumulative effects model for the
Chauahoochee National Forest as a case
study for the Southern Appalachians. That
will involve him looking at all the
population parameters he can dig out of our
data base and adding up all those factors:
roads, timber management, number of
people, bunting, and so on.
Essentially, he is going to t.alce each
of those factors and index it with some son
of value system that is weighted in terms of
its assumed impact.
Pe lton: I don't think it's going to be
that sophisticated. This is just a one-person
project.
My personal concerns are, first,
sustained, long-term mast production, and,
second, access and how that's used.
My first question is: is the clearcut
technique setting into motion a situation
where they are going to be perpetuating
non-mast-producing species for eons of
time?
If there is a marginal cove hardwood
setting where there was a good oak
component, and it is clearcut , then that oak
component is lost forever, either because it
is replanted in white pine, or because it
comes back in poplar, and they return in 60
• 80 years and cut it again when the poplar
is large, but the oaks haven't had a chance
to get started.
f ve been ta.king the Forest Service to
task for that. They argue that the oaks reach
maturity in 80 years and start downhill after
that, and that they need to be cut at that
point. rm not convinced that the data would
support them on that, particularly with white
oak, which is the most important one. I'm
not a forester, but from all the data that rve
been a ble to dig o ut, they do not reach
maturity until 120-150 years, when they arc
reaching peak acorn production.
O ur second poi nt is that the trees
should be allowed to sustain their peak for a
c:untinued on nCXI page
TENN.
N.C.
s.c.
GA.
BLACK BEAR RANGE IN THE "TRI-STATE REGION"
(Source: Tri-Stntc Block Bear s1udy, 1978)
KATUAH-page9
BAIT STATION SURVEY
K at uah : Will it take atmospheric
deposition into account?
The bait station survey was developed
as a relatively inexpensive method that is
easy to implement and provides a standard
data base of relative density, distriburion.
and activities of the black bear that could be
easily implemented throughout the whole of
Katuah.
The bait, three panially opened cans
of sardines, is hung at least 10 feet high in a
small tree, so that it is necessary for a bear
to bend the tree over to get at the cans.
These stations arc spaced a1 one-half mile
intervals along routes selecte d to
systematically cover the chosen sample area
at the density of one bait site per mile. Baits
arc placed during the month of July, when
bear activity is highest.
The s lope; aspect, ele vatio n;
oversto ry and unders tory vegetation ;
d istance to the nearest road; timber
c::= -
..,.ne....t; nmal past.
1u4
disllDce to die
1lle
or bear
sanctuary
bat,
boundary are noted for
each bait site to aid in analysis of bear
habits. movements, and habiw preferences.
Each bait station is revisited five
nights after it is set. Marks of tampering arc
very clear, and the percentage o f baits taken
is used as a comparative index value to give
an idea of the bear population in different
areas over the course of time.
The more widespread the usc of the
bait-station method and the higher the
degree of consistency that can be achieved
in its usc, the more value it will have as a
research technique in the Southern
Appalachians.
The bear range in Tennessee and
Georgia is being monitored with bait-station
surveys c onducted by the Tennessee
Wildlife Resources Agency and the Georgia
Depanment of Natural Resources. The
National Park service carries out surveys in
the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Isolated surveys are being done as pan of
research projects in North Carolina bear
sanctuaries.
An annual, region-wide bait station
survey is immediately possible and
dcsircable as a means to provide uniform
data among the differe nt p o litical
jurisdic tions and agencies of Ka tuah.
Coordina ti o n by a n i ndepe nde nt
organization or the US Fish and Wildlife
Service could enhance the value o f such a
survey.
All that is lacking is a committment
from the US Forest Service and 1he NC
Wildlife Resources Commission to make a
region-wide black bear management swvey
a reality.
~
FALL 1987
�• oonunucd rrom pm·ious page
period of time to get the best mast crops. So
I've been pushing them to increase the
rotation time to 120-150 years.
There is also a problem regenerating
oaks. foresters just haven't been abk to
work that ouL Some of them are certainly
interested, but all they have been able to do
is to go into a stand before they cut it and
see if there's enough advanced regeneration
(oak saplings) beneath it so that there will be
some oaks coming back. If they cut too
early the oaks will be out-competed by tulip
poplars and other sun-loving, pioneer
species.
"It would help immediately
also the effect of gener:il use of the ro:id
forcing individual be:irs to shift their home
range to another are:i.
A be:ir chooses :in area for a home
range because it's a good habitat :irea. :ind if
he has to shift it over. he will either have to
shift over to land that is not as good for
habitat or he will push another bear over to
poorer land. The more marginal the
situation, the more vulnerable the bear
becomes.
I've said before that road
development should be restricted where
there is more than one-half mile of road per
square mile of forest.
Kai1ial1: But gating roads would
if the Forest Service defined its
job as more than just timber
management. Like the Park
Service and the state game and
fish agencies, they need to play a
tripartite role in managing the
forest: biological management,
enforcement, and information/
education."
"MARK TREES" MYSTERY
For many years naturalists have
speculated on the meaning of the trees found
in bear habitat area that have been
purposcfulJy scarred with clawmarks. As
;
yet, no one has been able to decipher the
meaning oflhe "mark trees".
Marie trees are not randomly scattered
through the brush. They arc always on a
trail and usually on a ridgetop along a very
distinct game trail. Any species of tree may
be marked. They are always live· although
sometimes a tree may be killed by extensive
marking. The marks arc definitely made by
bears. They are always head-high, and
sometimes bear hairs can be found caught in
lhe b:irk of rough-skinned trees.
The marks can be vertical or
horizontal, but arc most oflen horizontal ns
differentiated from the venical marks they
leave \\hen they are climbing a tree.
There are several theories as to the
meaning of the m:irks. One thought is that it
is females and males signalling to one
another during the breeding season.
Another idea is that the marks signify
the dominance hierarchy among the males,
panicularly during the mating season when
they are competing for fem.1lcs.
They could also be territorial markers
placed by an adult female to warn away
other females from her range area.
Whatever the interpretation, the marks
are of great imponancc to the bears. Tree
marking appears to be highly ritualized.
Some trees are marked once and never
marked ag;1in, while others :ire marked year
after year. But if a tree is marked repeatedly,
the bears - even different bears - wiJI walk
in the same footprints to get to the tree.
Trappers used to take advnntage of this and
set their traps around a previous footprint
close to a mark tree. They knew that if a
bear returned to the tree, he would follow
the cJ<.isting footprints and be a sure ca~
help.
Pelton: Cenainly, unless they use
that road to make a clearcut.....
It would help immediately if the
Forest Service defined its job as more than
just timber management. Like the Park
Service and the state game and fish
agencies, they need to play a tripanite role in
managing the forest: biological management, enforcement, and information/
education.
They don't do much enforcement.
For example, they only have one man on the
whole southern Cherokee National Forest.
One person can't do anything in an area like
that.
They also don't do much educating of
the local people about what the forest means
and how it serves them. In the northeast
people are more accepting of bears. Up
there if a person killed a bear out of season,
he'd get reponed. People would gee irate
about it! Here you don't see that. It's a
long-tenn educational problem. People need
to learn about the animal.
The Forest Service has not been
fleJ<.ible enough about alternative
silvicultural methods that might be
applicable in cenain areas. They tend to
generalize and say that they don't have the
time or the personnel to try some other
alternative Conn of cutting.
The second concern is roads. We are
finding that road density may not be as
imponant as how the road is used by
vehicles over time. There are two effects of
roads. There's the direct effect of hunters
using that road to kill a bear, and there's
- Mike Pelton
KATUAH - page 10
FAI.t 1987
�Attirude is very imponant as well. In
Vennont, the Forest Service didn't have any
trouble getting their mar.agemcnt plan for
the Green Mountain Forest accepted. There
they staned out on the right foot. Their
approach was to question, "What's unique
about this forest, and what docs it provide
that won't be provided any other way?"
The black bear was one resource they
mentioned. Another was large saw timber
grown on a long rotation. That just isn't
available outside the national forest
anymore. We have the opponunity to
provide that as well
Vermont also has some very strict
land use and zoning laws. I saw them in
action, and it's impressive. When anyone
wants to do anything to change the land,
especially above a cenain elevation, they
have to appear before a board and justify
their planning, even if they own the land.
Pel ton: A lot. ....I have a lot of
respect for the animal, more and more as
each year goes by. I am constantly amazed
at what it is capable of doing.
There's a special relationship between
humans and bears that has existed through
time. There's a theory floating around that
says it is because of the bears that we are
here. As far as we know, the only place in
the world where there hasn't been ttaccs of
pre-historic bears is in central and southern
Africa. and that's the focal point of the
development of primates, and the thought is
that had there been bears there, the primate
species would never have been able to
develop and evolve as they did.
Bears were always imponant to the
early culrurcs, but even in the present, there
is an instinctive attraction that people have to
the animal. Perhaps it's its human-like
characteristics. I don't know what.
Today I think people are drawn to the
bears because they are symbolic of our
remaining wild lands.
Katuah: The black bear has been a
major pan of your life for the last two
decades. From your long experience with
them, what have they come to mean to you
personally?
Resource Reading on the Black
Bear:
-The fragmented Forest, Larry D. Harris
(Univ. of Chicago Press, 1984)
- The Sacred Paw: The Bear jn Nature,
Myth. and Literature. Paul Shepard and
Barry Sanders (Viking Press, 1985)
- The World of the Black Bear, Joseph V.
Wormer (Lippincott, 1966)
- Mammals of 1he Grea1 Smoky Mountains
National Park, Alicia and Donald W. Linzey
(Univ. of TN Press, 1971)
- The Mammals of Nonh America, E.R.
Hall (John Wiley & Sons, 1987)
- Bear Crossjn~s: An Antholoc of Noah
American Poe1s, Anne Newman and Julie
Suk, eds. (New South Co., 1983)
- The Tri-State Black Bear Study (by
university faculty and government agencies
in TN, NC, and GA - available from the NC
Wildlife Resources Commission; 512 N.
Salisbury St.; Raleigh, NC 27611)
THE CHALLENGER:
THE WILD BOAR
IN THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS
NATIONAL PARK
There is competition between the black bear and the wild
boar ... The stiffest competition is in years of a poor mast
crop, for then both species are trying for the same acorns.
In the early 1900's George Gordon
Moore, a wealthy English businessman,
decided to entenain clients by creating a
game preserve in the area of Hooper's Bald
in the Snowbird Mountains. He built a huge
enclosure of split chestnut rails and brought
in a variety of big game animals - bear,
buffalo, elk, and the European wild boar.
The game park was a miserable
failure. The fence broke down, the animals
escaped, and vinually everything was shot
in the open woods .....exccpt the wild boar,
and they have been in the mountains ever
since.
Boars (Sus scrofa) are shy and
secretive, so they are not often seen by
humans, but they are impressive-looking
animals. Average adult weight is 120-150
pounds, but individuals close to 300 pounds
have been captured. Their long tusks are
vicious-looking and can produce terrible
wounds, but boars are generally shy and
avoid humans whenever possible.
The wild boar species is native to
Russia, eastern Europe, and western
Europe. In their native territory their major
predator was wolves, which had already
been exterminated from the Appalachians
when the boars were first imported. A
bobcat or occasionally a bear will kill a
young piglet, but otherwise they have no
natural predators in the mountains.
After their escape, the boar population
readily naturalized itself in rhe
Appalachians, and in time the animal
became a high-profile big game species in
both Nonh Carolina and Tennessee. People
from all over the country came to bunt wild
boar in the wild mountains.
At that time it was still legal to
free-range domestic bogs in the forest. The
two breeds had a lot of contact, and at one
point hog cholera almost wiped out the wild
strain. The two strains are of the same
species, so they interbred freely. Even in
1973 ttappers caught two or three black and
white spotted boars - the sign of mixed
breeds. None of those have been caught
lately, so it is assumed that the domestic hog
characteristics have been eliminated.
Inevitably the wild boars moved into
the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The first sightings were on Parson's Bald
and Gregory Bald at the west end of the
Park. The Park administration immediately
recognized the threat from the wild boars
and began a trapping program to catch the
animals using hogwire enclosures.
It was a futile effort. The hogs spread
eastward, and now the entire Park is
occupied by the species, although they favor
continued on next page
KATUAH - page 11
FALL 1987
�- continued Crom P&&C 11
the western end.
On the Tennessee side of the Park
hogs can be removed by trapping or
shooting by a special team of hunters.
They can only be trapped on the Nonh
Carolina side of the Park. In 1986 over
1,100 wild boar were trapped or shot
within the Park boundanes. Officials
have no guess whether that is 10% Or
90% of the boar population.
Whether or not the wild boar can
be eliminated from the Park is no longer
in question. The Park is a huge area over 500,000 acres - of which a large
pan is only accessible by foot trails, and
a large pan of that can only be reached
by climbing cross-country through the
thickest kind of brush. These
inaccessible areas harbor a breeding
nucleus of boar that multiplies
exponentially in years of a good acorn
harvest And immediately bordering the
Park, the Nonh Carolina and Tennessee
wildlife agencies are developing and
promoting the wild boar as game
animals.
Wild boar do an incredible amount
of damage wherever they go. Their
rooting can tum over great areas of the
forest floor as if it bad been tilled. They
are a great threat to the many endemic
varieties of plants that are found in the
Great Smoky Mountains and exist
nowhere else in the world. There are
rare plants here that are in great jeopardy.
Wild hogs will root up
salamanders. They will wallow in the
only water sources at the higher
elevations and silt them and foul them,
so that the water is undrinkable. They
spread diseases to other wildlife species.
The damage they are creating is serious,
and much of it is permanent
There is competition between the
black bear and the wild boar. In a direct
confrontation a grown bear will kill an
adult boar, but these occasions are
infrequent
The stiffest competition is in years
of a poor mast crop, for then both
species are trying for the same acorns.
Bears have an advantage in that they can
climb into the tops of the oak trees and
feed on the acorns before they drop.
Bears arc also safely in their dens
during the cold winter months, while the
boars have to continue to forage for food
in all weather. To make a dent in their
population levels, the best time to hit
them is at the end of a hard winter. They
are in poor condition then.
The wild boars' biggest advantage
is in their remarkable reproduction
capacity. Under the best conditions
female bears, when they become
sexually mature at three and one-half or
four and one-half years of age, can have
only two or three cubs every other year.
Female hogs become sexually mature at
six to eight months of age. After that
time they can have two litters of four to
eight piglets each year! The boar
population is dramatically affected by the
acorn crop. In a poor acorn year, rhey do
not reproduce, but when the acorn crop
is good, the boar population
mushrooms. In that kind of situation the
piecemeal control being practiced in the
Park is not effective.
.
- Mike Pelton
KATUAH - page 12
cougar
thick velvet fur rippling
bone muscle sinew moving
eyes sharp clear piercing
you pulse
through the dense night air.
lithe fluid lean
slipping through pathways
known only to your kind
you stalk life itself
in the still luminous forest.
/#
fr
gn(ilie: Martha Tree
poem: Mamie Muller
�Finding Allies in the World
We have been told that the Indian people native to Turtle
Island saw the world differently than the Europeans do. They
saw the world as a spiritual place, where Spirit took shape
and existed in the many forms of the Creation.
We have been told that the Indian people believed in
power, and they sought power, but the power they sought
was spiritual power and not power over others, such as the
white people seek.
We have been told that every rock and tree, every bird and
every animal, each living thing in the world is an ex:pression
of some aspect of the spiritual energy of Creation. Each
entity has its own spiritual personality, so to speak. The
native people saw some of these personalities as particularly
good and desireable, and they would seek out these spiritual
beings and ask their help for the tribe and the people so that
they could get along in the world. They called these beings to
become the spiritual allies of the tribe.
We have been told that an individual could also seek a
spiritual ally to strengthen some pan of his character and
balance his personality. Preparation was an important part of
this. Just because someone wanted an ally, it did not mean
that the ally would come. First that individual would go to a
medicine person. The medicine person would give them
medicine to attract the ally - a feather, some hair, or perhaps a
bone from that animal. And the medicine person might give
that individual some advice on what to do and how to act and
give that person a song with which to call the desired ally.
Then the seeker would go off alone into the forest and fast
and pray for that spirit to come.
Sometimes, we were told, an ally comes to someone
without that person even asking. A Cherokee man in the
generation of our grandparents' parents was knocked into a
river by a bear, who then pursued him into the water and
slapped him down several times and clawed him. The bear
went away leaving the man with scratchmarks and bruises,
but did not kill him. The medicine people in the mans' village
told him that Yonah had chosen to be his ally and would help
and protect him. The medicine people said that it was
apparent the bear had followed the man into the water to be
sure he was marked. Always after that the man was called
"Man-Who-Bear-Knocked-1nto -Water". One does not have
to be mauled to realise the presence of a spirit ally, but people
today are so domesticated that some have allies and are not
even aware of it.
We were told that once a connection with the spiritual
realm was made, that people then spoke to their spirit allies in
a tone of command. The Creator, and the Sun, the Moon,
and Fire (which is the power of the Sun on Earth), are
primary Jl9Wers, and these were always asked very politely
to share their power. But other spirit beings were told what
was needed, not arrogantly, but in a way that ex:pected their
cooperation.
We were told that even Kanati, the lightning, must
sometimes be taunted and mocked before he will bring rain.
Someone could speak to him in such a way, saying, "Kanati,
you are considered a great power, yet there you sit, while I.be
humans and all living things here below stand in great need
of rain. Ha! ls this the best you can do?" But when speaking
to Kanati in that way it is a1 ways wise to stand in a place
where one can take shelter quickly.
KATIJAH-page 13
We have been told, however, that although it would not
work to beg a spirit ally for its help, one must always thank
an ally sincerely for coming and lending its power. And
nothing is given for nothing. A human must always serve an
ally and think well of it to keep the spiritual connection
strong.
Yonah, the bear, we were told, is a spirit representing
great physical srrength and endurance. The bear is strong in
the ability to survive, because it can eat almost anything. It is
also moody, and its temper is ferocious. In its build and its
appearance, the bear shows it is closely related to the
mountains. And since the red wolf, the elk, the panther, and
!he woods bison are gone from the mountains, Yonah is the
last symbol of animal strength remaining here.
But, we were told, a spirit does not need to be large and
physically strong to be a powerful ally. The dragonfly is a
very small creature. It is not fierce. It is very delicate and
beautiful, but the dragonfly is a very strong power in the
world.
We have been told that the golden eagle is a strong power
both in the physical body and in spirit. The eagle could fly so
high into the sky that he would disappear from the sight of
those watching from the ground. When he returned and sat
on a branch, he had such a regal look about him that the old
ones would say,"Surely, he has spoken with the Creator."
But, we were told, the Cherokee people did not consider
the bear to be one of the str0ngest powers in the mountains,
because they knew where the bears came from.
The bears, it is said, were once humans, a clan of the
Cherokee tribe called Ani-Tsa'guhi. One boy among them
would spend a lot of time in the forest, until one day his
mother noticed that he was starting to grow hair all over his
body.
"Stay in the village with us," she begged. "You spend all
your time in the woods. You hardly eat with us anymore."
"I am going to go to the forest to live all the time," the boy
replied. "There is plenty of food to eat there, and I like wild
food berter than com and beans. Why don't all of you come
with me? There is enough for our whole clan to eat."
The clan met in council, we were told, and they decided to
go with the boy to live in the forest. He told them that first
they must fast for seven days. So they did that, and after that
time, they went away from their village.
We were told that on their way, they were met by a group
of messengers from the other villages, who had come to beg
them to stay in their homes. But the Ani-Tsa'guhi could not
be persuaded. In fact they were already starting to grow hair
on their bodies.
"We are going into the forest to live forever," said the
Ani-Tsa'guhi. "There is plenty for us to eat there. But when
you hunger, come into the forest and call us, and we will
offer our bodies to you that you may eat our flesh. Do not be
afraid to kill us, for we will live forever."
And we were told that the Ani-Tsa'guhi taught the
messengers the proper songs and told the messengers how to
call them. Then, singing and dancing, the clan went away
into the forest. As the messengers started back to their
villages, they turned around for one last look, just in time to
see the last of a line of black bears disappear into the trees.
Therefore it is said that Yonah, the bear, is Cherokee, but
is not Cherokee. The bear is considered a brother, bur there
are stronger allies, like Fire and Water, and the trinity Kanati~
rattlesnake, and ginseng, living in the mountains.
#-
Tlu!se words are spoken by a traditional Clu!rokee.
FALL 1987
�"ME AND MY WALKER HOUNDS:"
An Exposition on Bears and Bear Dogs by Robert McMahan
When I was seven years old, my daddy
would take me hunting. He didn't force me to go. I went
because I wanted to go.
I'd say, "Daddy, you goin' bunting tonight?"
"Yep."
"You care if I go with you?"
"Nope."
Well, I'd go with Daddy. He'd lay out aJI night
long. I'd make it 'til about midnight. They'd always
cook a hot dog or fry some bacon on a stick about then,
and I'd stay up for that, but lhen I'd go to the sleeping
bag.
As I got up to 10 or 12 years old, I got to listening
to what they were listening to: the dogs. I got to be able
to tell which dogs were leading, which dogs were
behind, how long it was going to take this dog to catch
up, or how far ahead lhat dog was from the pack.
I started possum bunting when I was
14 or 15 years old. I'd borrow a certain
redbone hound dog from my uncle. I lived
in the very last house on the paved road,
and I'd walk down to my uncle's house on
lhe highway, borrow that dog, and walk
back up to the top of that mountain. I
enjoyed doing that. I caught some possums
using a .22 and a two-cell flashlight. Most
of the time that little two-cell flashlight
wouldn't shine more'n three or four limbs
up on the tree. If the little possum wasn't
there, I'd grab my dog and go. l didn't pay
no attention to walking three miles in lhere
to that tree.
Finally I got enough money to buy
my own dog. A good dog cost $50-75.00
back then. It made it real big for me to know
that !hfil dog belonged to~I started out bear hunting with an
older man namedWade HaJl. I was about 22
when I first went out with him. The whole
first year I hunted, I never saw a bear. We
- oonlinued on ne.<tl page
KATUAH - page 14
FALL 1987
�had some good chases, and we had some
good times, but the bear just didn't show.
I start breeding and training Walker
hounds in L976. The United Kennel Club
(UKC) recognizes six breeds of hunting
hounds: blue tick, English, redbone, Plort,
black-and-tans, and Walker.
Walkers are making their mark in the
bear hunting world. They're coming along.
The reason these Walker dogs are
coming along is that people are breeding
them carefully. They're wanting to get the
best. and they'll go where they have to to
get the best. But anybody with a hound dog
will tell you, you can breed the best to the
best. but your wodc is still cut out for you,
because you still have 10 train that dog.
You're going to wear out a lot of shoe
leather to make those pups into bear dogs.
There are different things to look for
in a dog. Myself, I'm looking for a good,
medium-nosed dog. I don't want a real
cold-nosed dog that can trail a track two
days old. Sometimes that pays off: I've seen
it happen that a dog will start on a cold trail
he could just barely smell, go over the
ridge, and a bear will be laid up there. If a
bear gets in an area where there's mash
(mast), he'll stay there 'til the mash is gone.
But you can waste a lot of time that way,
too.
I also want a dog that'll go when I
tum him loose. I don't want one hangin'
'round my feet. He's got to go 'ti! he
strikes.
The mouth is another thing. I like a
dog to have a good bay mouth when he's
trailing or running and just "hammers every
breath," as I call it. That way I know right
where the bear is at. And when he comes
into the tree (trees the bear), he needs to
change over to a good, hard, chop-mouth
sound. You can tell when a good one does
tree.
Color is imponant too. I don't want
no ticks in a Walker. I like big spots. If I
find small spotS about the size of a quarter
all over the dog, that tells me that's not a
pure-bred dog. What's color is color, and
what's aint, ain't.
Before I go out there and breed to
someone else's dog other than my own, I
just about have to see how M's bred and
raised his dog. I have to see what that dog
does when it trees a bear or a coon.
One thing to get straight: the dogs are
the main factor in bear hunting. The greatest
pan of the sportsmen in this area, all they
want is to hear their dogs run, hear a good
race, and see a good fi_ght The grea[er pan
of them is not interested in killing a bear.
We carry a rifle. We're legal - we don't
believe that's illegal - but killing 1he bear
isn't the main thing.
To get a good gun dog, now, you do
need eo gee him on a bear kill. You kill one
to him, because chat really perks a dog up.
He feels like he's accomplishing something
then. He's got a taste of what he's supposed
to be doing. But you don't have to kill every
bear that a dog gets after. You could take
one bear a year for a pack of dogs, and that
pack will go in next year and run you
anol.ber bear.
Some people say. "You get more
game from a bound dog." Well, that's not
true. We hunt with our dogs, because that's
KATUAH- page 15
what's important 10 us. I don't see any :;pon
wha1soever in still hunting. That's why I
don't deer hunt. You go up there early of a
morning, get behind a tree, and sit there
about two hours, and wait on a deer to
come up. That deer doesn't even know
you're there. He's grazing, and you stick
that gun barrel out from around that tree,
you shoot that deer, and he's a dead deer.
He never knew what hit him.
I could see doing it for I.be meat, but
in this area here there's nobody who has to
depend on deer meat or bear meat to
survive. There's no point in going out there
and just shooting it.
1lle way we bear hunt is in a group.
It takes at least seven men who get along to
make a good group. l could go bear hunting
by myself, but more than likely I'd be
fighting a losing battle. I couldn't stay up
with the dogs, because when a bear is
jumped, he'll turn and run. An
averaged-sized native bear, a 100-200
pound animal who's been born and raised in
these mountains, can run eight to ten hours
or even longer. There's no way one man
could stay up. But if you've got a good
group of seven men, you get someone on
one ridge, one on another, and one on
another. There might be three dogs after the
bear, and then when he comes my way, I'll
turn my dogs loose to see what they can do.
.....you could tap Sam on the lzead
with your foot, and everything in
him would just rattle. He was
broken ruJ. to pieces.
When a bear is jumped up and
running, he might be a mile ahead of the
dogs, but they can run him then with their
heads down. A bear hunter can tell every
one of his dogs by its bark. The whole rime
he's listening to the chase, he's got that
sound down pat He can tell which dog is
which, and he can tell what it's a-doing.
You can't tum a young pup on a
track, because there's so much other game
in these woods. You loose the well-trained
ones first. Ihu'll stay on the bear. But if
you go ahead and tum out 15 dogs, you're
gonna have 10 that don't even know what
they're out there after. They're going to be
ahead of your dogs trailing the bear, and
they're going to jump a deer or whatever,
and - wham! - there's a big blow-up.
You don't want more than seven dogs
on the chase up to the point where they stop
him. Then you turn your young dogs in on
that. That's the way you make bear dogs.
I've known limes when somebody
saw a bear cross the road, and ~body
got excited, and J<Ymbody jerked their dogs
out. Ir didn't take that bear l 0 minutes to get
tid of che dogs, but it took us three days to
find chem. Not one dog got after the bear and we'd~ 1hat bear!
You can put as many dogs as you like
on a bear that's 75 pounds and up, and
they'll never kill that bear. That bear's
gonna take care of himself, he's dangerous,
and he'll kill a dog.
Everybody's got their own opinion
about breeding and raising dogs, but I
believe that if you're going to get a bear,
you've got to have dogs that'll fight.
You've got to have dogs chat'll nip at his
heels and let him know that they're there
and not be scared of that bear in no way.
If you have dogs that'll fight that
bear, that bear's gonna have to do one of
two things: he's either going have to run
and get the bell out of there, or he's going to
have to get into a tree.
A bear will kill a dog - he will, there's
no doube about it A bear'll slap a dog, but
his intention is 10 get the dog pulled into
him, to get a mouth hold on that dog. If he
gets a mouth hold on that dog, that's a dead
dog. You can make it up for that dog, he's
gone.
We turned out one last year named
OJ' Sam - as good a dog as I've ever seen
turned after a bear. He was an English dog,
and while I've been acquainted wi1h some
dogs that were as gQQd as that one. but as
far as being any better, they're hard LO find.
This wasn't but an averaged-sized bear, and
we turned Sam and the rest of the dogs on
it, and in 15 minutes that dog was dead.
What happened that panicular time
was that we turned the dogs on one bear,
but a bigger bear had crossed this other
one's path going another direction. The
bigger bear didn't run; he wailed for the
dogs, and by the time we made it up to
there, you could tap Sam on the head with
your foot, and everything in him would just
rattle. He was broken all 10 pieces.
Personally, in my opinion, a bear's a
beautiful animal. If you are out in the
woods, and you happen to see one, chey
look real pretty just because you so very
seldom get to see one.
But once you put the dogs on a bear,
it's different. It's a fact of me saying, ''l'm
going to stop you," and him saying, "No,
you're not." If I win the battle, I've got him;
he's mine. Then he's not so good-looking. I
mean, he looks good, but not near as good
as he was standing somewhere all alone, no
dogs, up there.
But if he kills or injures one of my
dogs, when we finally get enough dogs on
him to get him stopped, he's not
good-looking at all.
Once a good dog gets on the trail of a
bear, he'll be there. He'll be there 'ti! he just
totally gives out. When a dog like that gives
out, he'll be two days before you find him,
unless you know tight where to go gee him.
because he's going to go out there
somewhere and lay down. I'v.: carried
several out of the woods. Even afeer two
days, they'll walk four or five s1eps and fall
down, walk four or five steps and fall
down. It wasn't that the bear hu·: them in
any way, it was just 1hat the dog I 1d, as the
old saying goes, "busted a gut."
When a bear is shot, we Lake it to
someone's place, Clarence Hall's or maybe
mine, and we lay him ouc and chop him up,
and we take the meat and put it in10 liule
piles, one for each man who's hunted wilh
us. Each pile has the same amount of each
part, and we put those in freezer bags, and
carry that meat home. I like bear meat in the
fall of the year, but I don't like it frozen too
much. Several people down here call me
every year, asking if I've got any bear meat.
If I've got it, they're welcome to it. le does
me good 10 see them eat it.
- continued on page 26
FALL 1987
�Onphic by Rob Messick ~
"SMELLS LIKE MONEY TO ME"
by Jay S. Gertz
The campaign to get Champion
International Paper Company to clean up the
Pigeon River is not a new one. This
long-term crisis has currently been reheated
by a groundswell of opposition
downstream, fanned by recent federal
concern, and fueled by Champion's
incendiary ultimatum: 'We cannot afford the
pollution controls necessary to clean up our
wastes, and we will close down rather than
clean up!"
By putting the people of Canton and
Haywood County under the fear of
widespread joblessness and the subsequent
spectre of economic collapse, Champion has
amassed quite a constituency of vocal
proponents. Many residents believe that the
environmentalists, the citizens of Newpon,
TN, and all others who just happen to want
a clean river in their backyards are
black-hearted scoundrels pushing poor,
little, old Champion to the brink of
bankruptcy and ruination.
Nothing could be further from the
truth. Champion International, a huge,
multinational corporation based in
Stamford, CT, does have the resources and
power to return the Pigeon River to its
former crystal clarity. For Champion to bold
the citizens of Canton economic hostage in
this matter is patently unfair.
Champion's claim that they cannot
meet their own clean-up costs tarnishes their
corporate image and philosophy. It is also
KATIJAH - page 16
Other industries and
individuals now see the
Pigeon River as a potential
resource again, not only in
economic terms, but in terms
of its former g Lory as a
free-flowing, living stream.
ironic, because Champion Corporation was
a major factor in crearinft the economic
structure prevailing in Katuah today.
Champion Fiber Co. came to the
mountains as the brainchild of Ohio-based
industrialist Peter G. Thompson in 1905. At
the height of the timber boom, Thompson
and other nonhem industrialists purchased
400,000 acres of steep forest land, built a
pulp plant on the banks of the Pigeon River,
and began construction of a mill town,
which he named after Canton, Ohio.
Thompson showed great foresight in
his undertaking. He shrewdly profited on a
rural, unindustrialized area with an
abundance of timber, a constant source of
water for pulp processing, and a cheap and
unlimited native labor supply. By 1914 the
Canton mill employed 1,000 people, and the
population of the surrounding area had
jumped from 400 to 8,000.
There was not a diversity of interests
in the new company town of Canton. As in
the other towns that sprang up ar that time,
the single-interest economy was dominated
by the controlli.ng industry in the area, the
timber interests.
In Haywood County, Champion
become the guiding force for the entire
locale. Following the pattern of industrial
development then current in Appalachia, the
company controlled the jobs, the political
system, and the surrounding natural
resources.
The people of Haywood County were
hard-working members of an isolated,
agriculturally self-sufficient, indigenous
mountain culture. Like other mountain
people, many of them sold their land for
ready cash and forsook the hardship of
farming the difficult terrain for the promise
of steady work and wages.
This migration to the mill towns and
industrial centers denoted a turning point in
mountain life. It marked the beginning of
the modem era, in which mountain people
gave up their independent ways and became
a part of the cash economy.
By 1930 the Champion operation in
Canton was the largest in the United States.
Today Champion International is the founh
largest company in the forest products
industry. They are ranked as the 86th largest
company in the world. Their sales in 1986
FALL 1987
�topped $4.3 billion. Champion is the
second-largest private landowner in the US
with 6.5 million acres of timber. They also
own oil and gas fields with reserves of 2.5
million barrels of oil and 2.2 million cubic
feet of gas. From mills in the United States,
Canada, and Brazil, Champion produces
3.3 million tons of pulp, 815 thousand tons
of newsprint, and 2.5 million tons of paper
annually. Champion's six chief and 15
executive officers receive $6.25 million per
year with additional incentive compensation
of$2.8 million annually.
Canton and Waynesville's 2,300
Champion also uses 43 millio11
gallons ofthe Pigeon River daily.
This constitutes 90% of the total
stream.
Champion employees contribute a mighty
share to the wealth of that international
giant. They make one-third of the country's
total of coated papers (including duplicating
paper and most of the nation's dairy-type
containers). In 1982 the Canton mill used
2,162 cords of wood and 956 tons of coal
per day to make 1,620 tons of paper and
board per day.
Champion also uses 43 million
gallons of the Pigeon River daily. This
constitutes 90% of the total stream. The
wastewater is extremely discolored by
tannins and filled with other organic
compounds. This "din". although not
dangerously toxic, renders the Pigeon River
unfit not only for aquatic life, but for
commercial and domestic use as well.
Champion Fiber was once the sole
lord of a tremendous mountain fiefdom. The
Pigeon was its personal river - itS chief
resource, its sewer, and its ttansportation
system. Other industries and individuals
now see the Pigeon River as a potential
resource again, not only in economic tenns,
but in terms of its former glory as a
free-flowing, living stream.
Prior to 1900, the Pigeon River was
as pristine a mountain stream as one could
find in eastern North America. One could
see the bottom through ten feet of water.
Bass were prevalent, and upriver the
speckled trout were plentiful. Sun perch,
borneyheads, mullets, and hogsuckers
could be caught by the string in a matter of
hours. Mud tunics and muskrats could be
trapped by the water's edge. Other riparian
species lived by the Pigeon in great
numbers.
Now highly-colored tannins and other
compounds enter the Pigeon at Canton.
From this point on into Tennessee, the
Pigeon River no longer has the natural
vitality necessary to suppon typical aquatic
life. The sparkling clarity of the Pigeon bas
given way to a murky, smelly, and
sometimes foamy brew.
Above Canton the Pigeon River is
designated a Class A-ll trout stream, and the
water can be used for drinking or food
production. Below Canton the river
supports some atrophied "garbage" fish,
like carp, goldfish, and suckers. The
municipality of Newport, TN finds the
Pigeon so noxious, that although the river
flows through their city, they get their
drinking water from the French Broad, six
miles away.
The Southern Appalachians of the late
1980's are home to a greater variety of
corporate interests and economic livelihoods
than ever envisioned by the early timber and
mineral barons. One of them is the
recreational industry, which includes
fishing, hunting, camping, hiking,
white-water rafting, kayaking, etc. A study
recently published by two professors at
Walters State Community College estimates
the direct recreational benefit of a clean
Pigeon River at $7.3 million per year. This
does not include a projected increase in
agricultural use or productivity along the
river. or new industries. or a rise in real
estate values or development
Yet the river cannot be any sort of
asset to anyone, as long as Champion views
the Pigeon as its own and refuses to clean
its wastewater any further.
Champion lntemational, with annual
assets in excess of $6 billion, claims it
cannot afford to clean up the Pigeon River.
Over the past ten years, Chamfion has
earned $1.28 billion, paying $62 million
just to stockholders. If Champion spent $60
million in colorant removal, their projected
earnings would be reduced by $7 .8 million,
which is only a loss of 8 cents per share.
Champion's corporate philosophy is
summed up in a document entitled l l i
Champion Way. According to this
document, "Champion wantS to be known
as a company which strives to conserve
resources, to reduce waste, and to use and
dispose of materials with scrupulous regard
for safety and health. We taJce panicular
pride in this company's record of
compliance with the spirit as well as the
letter of all environmental regulations."
In the mid-1960's Champion did
begin instituting pollution abatement on the
Pigeon. At that time only sludgeworms
could live in the river. Gradually other
life-forms returned to the water, but not in
vast numbers or in the great variety of
former times.
Champion no longer
provides the only source of
livelihood in these mountains, and
they can no longer dictate a single
use for the river.
Today, Champion's North Carolina
wastewater permit docs not meet up with the
stricter federal standards of the Clean Water
Act, and Champion claims that it is
economically impossible to bring the river
up to legal standards.
For Champion to claim that a fouled
river is necessary to its business operations
should be an outrage to all the citizens of
this region. Presently existing waste
handling technology could reduce the color
pollution by 95-99%, and with 23% profits
last year and 40% profilS projected for this
year, Champion can cenainly afford to be
cleaner.
Another statement from ~
Champion Way points out the vast gulf
between the corporate ideal and the hard-line
stance of the Canton management:
"Champion wants to be known as an open,
LESSONS TO BE LEARNED
FROM CANTON'S PLIGHT
Despite financial headlines
proclaiming a bull market on Wall Sacct and
a rosy financial picture, the national
economy has been sluggish throughout the
1980's. Champion Paper Co. has
maintained a dominant place in the national
financial picture by a drastic streamlining
program begun in 1983. Shut-downs and
layoffs arc pan of that program. They have
laid off27,400 employees nationally in five
years. They have divested huge scgment.s of
their industry, such as brown paper
packaging, envelopes, cardboard boxes, a
distribution network, and an insurance
company.
Andrew Sigler, Champion CEO,
plans to "meld remaining business and
boost return on equity from single digits
into the top quaner of US industry." The
only way to grasp this potential 16% leap is
to cut costs and raise productivity. The
company intends to save $400 million (or
10% of its costs) annually.
This may explain the company's
bard-line stance on the Pigeon River plant.
The Canton mill is already 79 years old, its
rate of return is dropping as newer plants
with more modem technology arc built, and
it is obvious even to the plant management
that it has outgrown the river that feeds it
Champion will very soon, perhaps already,
be faced with a choice of expensive
modernization at the Canton mill or closing
the plant and moving to greener J>3StureS.
The decision, in fact, may already
have been made. Champion will finish
planning on a state-of-the-an mill in
Halifax, NC in 1989. They could decide to
close down in Canton and write off the
capital loss in corporate wees.
In that situation, they could only win
by taking an uncompromising stance on
pollution abatement. They would either
force the EPA to knuckle under and
maximize profits from the last days of the
Canton mill, or they would provide
themselves an excellent cover under which
to pull out of Haywood County: it would
then appear that it was the EPA and the
"damn environmentalists" and not the profit
motive that caused them to leave.
Whether Champion chooses to
squeeze Canton or to leave Canton, the
outlook for that mill town, whose whole
livelihood depends on the outmoded
Champion plant, is bleak. Hindsight, of
course, is 20/20, but it is obvious now that
Canton should have begun years ago to
diversify itS local economy, preferably with
smaller, locally-owned businesses. It is also
in times like these when the value of a
strong agricultural sector is clear.
Hopefully other towns will learn from
Canton's plight. The temptation is great to
give over to large outside business interests,
when it seems that they have the power to
make local residents pan of the American
Dream. But the end result is inevitably
economic peonage. The giant corporate
interests do not come here to give money;
they come here to taJce it, and they will stay
only as long as their profit interest is served.
In these times it may seem like
bucking the economic tide, but stability in
- continued on nexl ~&•·
- continued en MJCI page
KATUAH-page 17
FALL 1987
�continued from prcv ious page
1ru1hful company. We are committed to the
highest standards of business conduct in our
relationships with customers, suppliers,
employees, communities, and shareholders
In all our pursuits, we are unequivocal in
our suppon of the laws of the land, and acts
of questionable legality will not be
tolerated."
This sta1ement from a company that
threatens 10 sink an entire region inio a
depression if its excessive profits margins
are not upheld.
Champion no longer provides the
only source of livelihood in these
mountains, and they can no longer dictate a
single use for the river. Champion must
begin to accept the variety of commerce and
the multitude of changes that have come to
the mountains in recent years.
If Champion would uphold its values
of corporate excellence, it must stand by
words like these: "If change has a most
valuable lesson to offer, perhaps it is that
we need not be victims of it, if we can
accept it as an opportunity to grow and
achieve. In this sense, we believe that the
best companies are the ones with operating
styles flexible enough to make necessary
changes ..... " (from the Champion
International 1986 Annual Repon)
~
-wntinued from previous page
the long run is best maintained by making
decisions locally about the land, its
resources, and the economic sustenance that
is based on them. Perhaps now it is again
time 10 reclaim part of the mountain tradition
of self-sufficiency disrupted by the arrival
of industrialism to Appalachia.
The days of an economy based on
subsistence farming are past, but the more
people who move into locally-based, basic
production, such as producing food or
finished wood products; or who serve the
need for healing that draw people 10 the
mountains; or who pioneer new, more
appropriate occupations, the less
catastrophic will be the corning changes in
Haywood County and elsewhere.
Canton and its individual residents
would do welJ to de-emphasize their
dependence on the Champion plant before
the Champion company does the same.
Local governments and far-sighted banks
who would like to keep 1he local area
functioning and in1ac1 could begin now to
inventory local resources and opportunities
and begin making money available for
training and business loans to put the
Canton economy on a firmer footing. An
inventory of goods and materials imponed
into Haywood County would also indicate
needs that could be locally filled.
The hope that Champion Paper can
provide continuing security for the area is a
strong one, but in the end a strongly
diversified local economy will best
withstand the ·vagaries of the industrial
economy. Corporate interests are not always
the same as local interests. Champion
Company is a huge business complex and
responds 10 changes in the economic winds
far distant from the Southern Appalachians.
To Champion executives in S1amford,
there are many thmgs more important than
the welfare of a small, isolated mountain
town. To someone who lives here and sees
their job threatened by shifts in corporate
~
economics, there is not.
KATUAH- page 18
Bear
In the core of the thing is darkness
It is our final judgement
While we sleep it paces outside our door
It is the first time It has been around us
So closely. Steaming shit in early morning.
Maybe our private poems will never leave our heads,
Thoughts about confrontations.
Fear of opening that door.
Maybe our pirate poems will leave our books
And enter into our nights
And bring us Interrupted dreams
Of half knowing and fear until we awake
And wonder over ignorance.
It is the current tracking we must be
Concerned with, tables turned.
Hunting signs that read Know Me or Keep Out.
Except for untamed few of us,
We know only edge of mountain forest
Home to the black bear.
The word now is totem
The word out is guns and dogs down
Radios, cages, baiting - unholy
The apparition before us is round
Ginseng, Raccoon, Kanati, Bear, Wind, Earth gathered
With one place empty, Us.
- by Scott Bird
FALL 1987
�/
GREEN POLITICS IN KATUAH
Wlien Ille animals come to us,
askitlg for our help,
will we k11ow what tliey are saying?
When the plants speak to us
iii their delicate beautiful language,
will we be able to answer tllem?
When tlie planet lierself
sings to us in our dreams,
will we be able to wake ourselves,
and act?
-Gary Lawless, Eart/J First!
can developed countrjes contrOI and dictate nctions
to 'underdeveloped' nations. All people, no mnucr of
what sex. color. creed, sexual oricnta~on or heritage
must be empowered 10 have conLrol over the
decisions which nffect their own lives We must live
with a dedication for nonviolence in all aspects of
our lives.
Green panics are growing ~roughout the
world today. Most notably are the West Germon
Greens who during the lasl election won 8.3~ of
the national voie and the same proportional number
or scats in the Bundestag. Other pmies exist in
1131y, France. England, Canada, Cosu Rica, Brazil,
Sri Lanka and Spain.
It was an incredible evening. lhlll night in
Amherst. MassachWICUS siuing with several hundred
other people listening to G:iry rc:id his pocuy. We
had already spent three days and nights discussing
our ideas on wh:it the green movement is and what
is happening in our own areas th:it is 'green'. Gary's
words soothed our spirits and connected us all with
our most fundamental belief-th:it we must live in
harmony with all of nature.
We have to develop a new p;irodigm for our
world, one which follows a love and understanding
for our role within nature as equals tO all other
species, not as dominntors. We arc not, as our
indus1.rial society purports, doing 'battle with'
nature. As we recognize this fact. then we can see
better how to reorder our lives nnd rcl::uionships
with each other and the planet. This new paradigm
must begin in our own local communities and
regions, be it Katuah, the 01.nrks, or wbcrcvcr.
During the I950's the civil rights movement
began as a struggle by the peoples of color to
empower themselves and take their n:uuro.I and equal
place in a white dominated and contr0lled society
and to change th:it society. This movement later
IJUnsformcd into a celebration or peoples' or color
bcrilllge and history and contribution to our world in
freedom and oppre,sion. Later an lhe sixties. the
emphasis v.'35 on community control. anti-war,
feminism; and then in the seventies, aw;in:ness of
en\·ironmcntal concerns and problems. l':ow in the
eighties all or these concerns and energies for change
arc drawing together into the grocn movcmenL
Many people throughout the world are
becoming awnrc Ihm specific io;sue activism, though
icrribly necessary, doc.~ not change the root causes
of the problems. Green politics is a holis11c view of
life on Eanh. ft is based on the premise th3t we
cannot pursue growlh for growth's sake without
regard for its impacL It insists on the necessity tO
chnnge our foc11s from quantity to quality of
lifestyle. No longer can men dominate women; nor
KATUAH- page 19
There are now over 75 gnssroot gTCCn
organizations throughout the United StateS. They
are networked togelher under an orgooization based
in Kansas City. Missouri called the CommittteS of
Correspondence. named afru the original grassrooc
movement agnirul colonial rule in America.
As l lhink of my community witlun Katunh
I see many 'green' activities, though they may not
Ten Key Values
Ecological Wisdom
Grassroots Democracy
Personal & Social Responsibility
Nonviolence
Decentraliuition
Community-based Economics
Postpatriarchal Values
Respect for Diversity
Global Responsibility
Future Focus
have been labeled as such. Take, fer instance, the
Stone Soup Restaurant in Asheville, NC. A
worker-owned business, it is celebrating its
tenth-year anniversary this year. 'Thue ue also the
small business incubators located ii Waynesville
and Marion, NC which provide a location and
technical small business assisiaace to infant
businesses for two years each. After this time the
businesses move out into the community and new
'babies' move in. The Self-Help Credit Union is
another example. This organimtion h!lp<; employees
buy businesses which are closing, as well as sun
new ones, throughout the state.
The Swnnnanoa Valley Project 1s a case or
local people taking contr0l of the direction of their
community's growth and doing som~thing positive
to unite them all. Through meetings with the local
residents, they found what people liked about
Swannanoa; what they didn't like: w~nt they wanted
to change; where the investments of the people were
used by the banking institutions whether within or
out of the area; where did their community's garbage
and waste go; and where do the valley's youth go
when leaving school for good. This gave lhc people
of lhe Swannanoa community a power to move in
ways which they could truly affect their area's life.
After reluming to Katuah from the
conference in July, I helped tO set up an initial
meeting to sec who in the area was interested in
green politics. Over SO people auended from all
around this area - Brevard, Hendersonville,
Asheville, Madison County, NC. Since then we
have organized a group called lbc Western Nonh
Carolina Greens which has adopted the JO key
vat ues or the Commiuees of Correspondence as its
philosophical foundation.
At our August meeting we filled out a
questionaire to find out each person's views and
ideas about how they would want the regional
organization IO be involved politically, i.e. field
Green Party candidates, support 'green' Democratic
candidateS, or present green positions on specific
issues IO the voters and traclitional candidaies. There
was overwhelming interest in working on
cnvironmen131 issues as well as presenting a 'green'
position on local issues. Other interest arens are:
organizing a town meeting or open forum with
minutes being submitted 10 city/county
government; promoting voter registration/
participation, particularly people of color; assisting
local government and group recycling efforts; giving
auention to low-income housing with a view to
appropriate residential development in order tO
avoid growth which forces people out or their
ncighbolhoods and communities; and adding support
to ongoing community groups and organll.ations.
Monthly meetings are planned as well as
separate 'green' value study groups. Times and dates
will be announced in the Western Carolina
Coalition for Social Concerns Calend:lr (always on
display at Pack Library in Asheville, NC); on
WCQS: Malaprop's bookstore in Ashe,·ille. as well
as uca newspapers. For more information call
704/2.54-6910 or write:
W.N.C. Greens
P.O. Box 14-1
Asheville, NC 28802
Next Meeetlng: Sept 30 (see calendar p.28)
Thi.r article was wriuen by Richard llarri.fon
who has returned from a national grun
conftreru:e which took place this swnmer (see
Katilah Jssiu XVI). I/ere he shares his report
with us as it relates to our bioregion.
FALL 1987
�PROTECTING OUR
MOUNTAIN WETLANDS
NATURAL
by William 0. McLamcy, PhD
WORLD
NEWS
MODERN SCIENCE RESTORES
ANCIENT INDIAN MAIZE
For thousands of years the Cherokee
Indians have had a distinctive variety of
maize, or "com" as it came to be called by
the European seulers. Ii was derived from
the Harinoso de Ocho strain of maize found
in northwestern Mexico, and it has long
been a scientific mystery how the variety
made its way to the Appalachians without
leaving a trace of its passage between
Mexico and the eastern mountains (see
Krufuill. #3).
In 1981 Dr. William Brown, retired
president and general manager of Pioneer
Hi-Bred International Inc. of Des Moines,
Iowa, the world's largest producer of
hybrid com seed, was visiting his friend Dr.
H. F. Robinson, former professor of
biology and at that time chancellor of
Western Carolina University in Cullowhee,
NC. During that visit, Brown noticed that
some Indian farmers on Lhe Cherokee Indian
Reservation in Cherokee, NC were still
growing the old flour corn, although it had
been contaminated by cross-breeding with
varieties of commercial yellow dent com,
commonly grown for s1ock feeding. The
two decided to collaborate on a project to
restore the Cherokee white flour corn,
develop an improved, pure seed, and give it
back to the Cherokee fanners for their own
food supply and for distribution as ground
meal outside the reservation.
The project was begun in 1982, and
the first two years were directed at making a
basic improvement in the Cherokee flour
com. Test plots were planted and seed that
had the characteristics of the original maize white kernels free from indemations, or
"dents" - was selected from the harvest.
The second stage of the program was
begun in 1984 and is almost completed. The
objectives of this pan of the project are to
purify the seed by eliminating all of the
characteristics not found in the original
Indian maize and to improve the yield.
Brown and Robinson are working to derive
flour com with shorter stalks; more ears of
com per stalk; ears with eight or ten rows of
kernels; and com free of tillers, or extra
stalks. Taller com, or stalks weakened by
tillers, may fall over and rot. The native
Indian maize typically grew on stalks much
taller than modem hybrid varieties.
Among the techniques used by the
scientists was the creation of "selfed
one-generation" plants. In this process, the
silks of a forming ear of com are dusted
with pollen from the same plant, a kind of
forced inbreeding to help eliminate foreign
characteristics.
KATUAH - page20
Plantings in fields in Cullowhee and
Bryson City were harvested last fall, and the
superior 10 percent of some 200 tested
plants was saved to provide seed that was
planted this spring to create the superior
variety of flour com. The seed from that
crop will be harvested this fall and will be
given in carefully measured quantities to 20
Cherokee farm families for planting in
1988.
Thus, after five years of work,
Brown and Robinson will be able to return
to Cherokee farmers a seed that will produce
Cherokee maize in its historic white,
smooth, flour kernel form.
The Cherokees will be able to grow
the maize for their own use as cornmeal,
hominy, and grits, as they have
traditionally, and it can also be ground into
meal for commercial sales. The scant supply
of it now available stays in demand at a
premium price. The appeal of the pure com
meal could make it an important product for
tourist sales.
And for the scientific world and the
rest of us, the result will be the preservation
of a locally-adapted species of native Indian
maize that can continue itself here in the
Appalachian Mountain region.
(Source: Western Horizon: May, 1987)
One of the least appreciated resources
in Karuah is our wetlands. While we do not
have environments as extensive or
immediately impressive as the floodplain
forests, cypress swamps, or salt marshes of
the coastal plain, our own mountain bogs,
pocket swamps, and beaver ponds are
important pans of the uplands ecosystem
and all the more precious for their scarcity.
And they are under the same pressures as
the lowland swamps - mainly dredging and
filling for "development."
Section 404 of the Clean Water Act
states that anyone who wants to do any
modifications of a wetland area must first
get a permit from the US Army Corps of
Engineers. lf that seems to you like setting
the fox to guard the henhouse, your
instincts are sound. In fact, no agency of the
federal government has a worse overall
environmental record than the Corps.
On the other hand, to make any sense
at all out of our dealings with the
government, we need to understand that it
does not function like an ecosystem. !1 is
often at cross purposes with itself. From a
practical point of view, what matters is lo
identify the good individuals and the useful
offices.
Recently, a two-acre swamp just
upstream from my house came under
assault by crews using bulldozers. chain
saws, and fire. It was a spot I have to pass
on the way to town, and I have delighted in
watching the maples be the first trees to tum
red in the fall or scanning the edges for
colorful or unusual birds - redwing
blackbirds, yellow warblers, and perhaps an
occasional teal.
I would prowl the edges noting where
the deer (so scarce in this pan of the
mountains) had taken advantage of the
protection of the thick growth and had
found a small, dry spot in which to bed
down.
During spring and summer evenings
the frog concert would entertain me as I
went past, and I would sometimes see the
muskrats and beaver who lived in the
vicinity of the marsh.
The tiny swamp even offered
downstream residents like myself a
modicum of flood protection.
Local rumor had it that this delightful
lµ'Ca, so full of natural life, was destined to
be a trailer park. I wasn't happy about this.
Since I knew the law, I phoned the Corps
Regulatory Branch in Wilmington, NC to
report the situation.
I was dubious abouc what the result
of this action would be, but, to my
amazement, a biologist from the Corps was
on the scene within two days time.
While my reaction was not fast
enough, nor the law tough enough, to save
all the swamp, the owner was forced to
modify bis plans and the habitat hangs on.
More importantly, that visit was the
beginning of a series of Corps actions in the
mountain area that are enhancing the
prospects for the survival of our mountain
wetlands. In some cases itll has been
removed and landowners ordered to carry
out restoration work; in other cases filling
has been prevented.
FALL 1987
�Neither the law nor the agency are
perfect. We have much better control over
filling than ditching. Small projects are
sometimes exempt. There are questions of
interpretation, and the answers have not
always made me happy. Nevertheless,
contractors and developers in Karuah can no
longer claim ignorance of the 404 permit
process.
So we have a tool to use. One of its
limitations is that all of North Carolina is
administered from the Corps Wilmington
office some 400 miles away. With this in
mind, a number of people in organizations
in North Carolina have been trying to get the
Corps to establish a regulatory office in
Asheville. If you would like to help, write:
Col. Paul Woodbury
US Corps of Engineers
P.O. Box 1890
Wilmington, NC 28402
Tell Colonel Woodbury that our
wetlands need protection, that it is the
Corps' job, and that you are not sarisfied
with the service we are getting. Suggest
they open a permanent regulatory office in
the mountains.
Not all of Katliah is in North
Carolina, but the situation is similar in other
states. The bulk of the Corps' traditional
work - the damming, dredging, canalbuilding and ditch-digging for which the
Corps is so infamous - is in lowland areas,
and so are their offices.
Before residents of other states call on
the Army Corps of Engineers to intervene in
I.heir local sicuations, they might want to
check with local conservation groups. The
regulation branch in Wilmington, I am told,
has a good reputation for dealing with
conservation issues, and I am certainly
impressed with the integrity of the
individuals l have dealt with. Other district
regulation branches may be equally
conscientious, but I do not want to be
blamed for loosing the proverbial fox into
anybody's henhouse.
Ecologically, our high-elevation
wetlands are our most critical habitat. They
are imponant stopover points for migrating
birds whose flyways pass across the
mountains. They are home for endemic,
marshland plant and amphibious species that
are found nowhere else.
Other animals pass through the
micro-marshes, some feeding on the rank
growth, others preying on the smaller
animals, and all taking advantage of the
protection afforded by the swamplands'
dense cover.
If you see what looks to you like a
wetlands violation, call Bob Johnson at tfie
Wilmington office at (919) 343-4641.
If you want to learn more about this,
ca1l me at (704) 524-8369.
Oraphic by Rob Messick
D.0.E. HOT MEALS PROGRAM
Natutal World News Sct"icc
Natural World News has recently
learned that the US Department of Energy
(DOE) has finally come up with a solution
to the bothersome nuclear waste crisis:
we're going to eat it!
The vehicle for this dramatic
breakthrough is the Byproducts Utilization
Program (BUrP). This seemingly
innocuous scheme is the cover under which
the doebo1s plan to recycle nuclear waste
into the private sector. An early plan was to
resurrcc1 "low-level" contaminated metallic
hardware from nuclear plants as
dinnerware. Now the doebots are planning
to irradiate food with cesium 137 to help the
food industry control spoilage organisms
and give fresh food a longer shelf life.
Developing cesium 137 food
irradiation facilities (there arc plans calling
for 1,000 such facilities) would serve the
DOE in two ways:
First, if the doebots are allowed to
create an artificial market for Cesium 137,
then they can put pressure on Congress to
repeal a 1982 ban on the hazardous
reprocessing of civilian spent fuel rods,
which have accumulated in dangerous
amounts in temporary storage pools at the
nuclear plants. Congress originally
institu1ed the ban to prevent circulation of
the material to keep i1 secure from terrorists.
Secondly, reprocessing would
allevia1e the waste problem by reducing
radioactivity up to 55%, thus encouraging
the use and production of more nukes and
more waste, and would generate plutonium
enough to satisfy the Pentagon's appetite
well into the 21st century.
The food irradiation plan is being
continued despite knowledge of potential
health hazards as cited in the Congressional
Record, S1788, February 4, 1987: "The
application of ionizing radiation alters or
damages food cells. It also creates reactive
chemical intermediates known as free
radicals, which react with food constituents
to fonn potentially new compounds in the
food called 'radiolytic products' or RP's.
Some of these compounds, called 'unique
radioly1ic products' or URP's, formed
during radiation exposure are no1 known 10
exist previously in foods."
In the US House of Representatives,
Rep. Doug Bosco has introduced "The
Food Irradiation Safety and Labeling Act of
1987" (HR 956). Senator George Mitchell
has introduced a companion bill in the US
Senate. The two bills would stop food
irradiation plans until safety studies are
completed and contain strict labeling
regulations for irradiated food products.
Unless you would like to be served
up a plutonium/cesium 137 economy, you
might want to write your Congressional
legislators and express your support of the
bills.
Cesium 137 - all you care to cat!
BURP!
NO PROBLEMS WITH TOBACCO
Nanni World NeWl Savice
"We do not have a problem of
pesticide use on tobacco," said NC
Agriculture Commissioner Jim Graham, as
he announced that an NC Department of
Agriculture (NCDA) task force of inspectors
has been specially trained to detect the use
of herbicides (particularly Dicambra and
2,4-D) on smoking and chewing tobacco.
The toxic herbicides kill the tobacco plantS
prematurely and yellow the leaves, making
it appear that they have been cured in the
field. The herbicides are highly poisonous,
and their use is illegal on tobacco and food
plants.
According to a report in the
Agricultural Review. the official publication
of 1he NCDA, the specially-trained
inspectors will fan out to every
tobacco-producing county in the state to
stamp out any traces of illegal herbicide use
on tobacco bound to domestic or foreign
consumers.
The inspectors will visually check
tobacco crops for signs of illegal herbicides
and will pull leaf samples for lab analysis.
Offenders, who endanger the health of
consumers and the reputation of the North
Carolina tobacco product, will be hit with
strict penalties, Graham promised.
Commissioner Graham also sent
letters to all of the major domestic and
export tobacco companies to explicitly
assure them that the North Carolina tobacco
crop is uncontaminated with poisonous
chemicals, and that there is no problem in
the North Carolina tobacco fields.
- NATURAL WORLD NEWS continued
K.ATUAH- page 21
®Xt
page
FALL 1987
�- NATURAL WORLD NEWS continued
SHOWDOWN AT FLAT CREEK
NalUnl World News
The signs appear all around the Flat
Creek Community on billboards, telephone
poles, and motor vehicles:
STOP VULCAN QUARRY!
Vulcan Materials Company, a national
corporation
headquartered
in
Winston-Salem, N.C., has leased 99 acres
and plans to blast 400 feet into the Eanh to
mine the granite substratum below the Aat
Creek Community. The angered community
residents are not going to let it happen.
Vulcan says there is enough granite
to work. three shifts a day at the quarry for
55 years. How does that weigh against the
risk to the health and well-being of Aat
Creek, its watershed, and its people?
Aat Creek itself would suffer. Any
water that leaks into the 400-foot-deep pit
during quarrying operations would be
pumped into Aat Creek. That water would
be laden with sediment, wastes, oil,
chemicals, hydraulic fluids, and other debris
from the mining operations.
Vulcan is required to maintain only a
75 feet buffer strip between their operation
and the waters of Flat Creek.
"Seventy-five feet? That's the same
as for my septic tank!" declared an irate
residenL "What do they think they are doing
here?"
The ground water beneath the Flat
Creek watershed would also be heavily
impacted. A letter received June 24, 1987
from the North Carolina Dept of Natural
Resources and Community Development
listed four impacts a quarrying operation
could have on ground waters around the
site:
1. When the overburden above
bedrock is stripped away, the water storage
for the underlying fractured rock aquificr is
removed. This can affect the flow of water
in nearby wells and springs.
2. The blasting of bedrock can disrupt
the flow of water in the fracture system
supplying bedrock (drilled) well sand
springs.
3. Dewatering the open pit could
lower the water-table in the vicinity.
4. The exposure of fractured bedrock
in the quarry can result in contaminated
water entering and contaminating drilled
wells in the vicinity.
Constant blasting and the noise and
dust from the cavalcade of trucks and heavy
machinery will affect the two hundred
homes and the two schools that are within
one half mile of the quarry site.
Vulcan already operates a quarry in
Enka that blasts six days a week. The noise
and the residues of the blasting dust are
impossible to conttol. The new Enka High
School, only two years old, is already
starting to show cracks.
Vulcan Materials Company has leased
the 99-acre propeny in Flat Creek rather
than purchase the land. Leasing relieves a
company from any liability if water, air,
propeny values, etc. are negatively affected
by their panicular use or misuse of the land.
A public meeting was held at the Flat
Creek Elementary School August 6 in
response to the announcement of the quarry
plan. Over 600 concerned citiz.ens ancnded.
KATUAH - page 22
For an area such as Flat Creek to
become a "community'', a petition has to be
submitted bearing the signatures of at least
20% of the citizens. Within four days 60%
of the people of Flat Creek had signed a
request for community status, and within
one week Flat Creek formally became Flat
Creek Community· a voice united.
The concerns among the Flat Creek
Community residents arc valid and
immediate. With threatened water and air
quality, daily explosions, increased traffic
flows, and potential lowering of property
values, it seems safe to say that Vulcan
Materials Company would be more
responsible and wiser 10 choose an area that
offers less risk to humans and the
environment than within the Flat Creek
Community.
NC LEGISLATORS WANT DUMP
Nlllnl World News Service
The North Carolina General
Assembly bas decided, at least for the time
being, to remain a member of the Southeast
Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact and
to receive all the low-level nuclear waste
from the member states for the next 20
years.
In both the House of Representatives
and in the Senate motions to table
withdrawal legislation won overwhclmi_ngly
by margins of 66-32 and 39-IO respecuvely
during the last days of the session. Most of
the western representatives voted for
withdrawal.
The three weeks of the legislative
session saw an intensive campaign by paid
utility company lobbyists to influence
legislators. Their cffons apparently had
effect, as the legislature passed RB 35,
which calls for a Siting Authority that is not
accountable to either the public or the
legislature to decide on the location of the
radioactive waste dump.
If there is any positive benefit from
these votes at all, it is that the roll calls
indicate which legislators deserve to retain
their posts and which need to be replaced in
the primary election next May. Then we can
try again next session.
Our work is cut out for us.
For more information, contact:
Citizens Concerned about Nuclear Waste
P.O. Box 653
Dillsboro, NC 28725
or
Ron Lambe, Nuclear Waste Task Force
WNC Alliance
P.O. Box 157
Spruce Pinc, NC 28777
PEREGRINE NEST DISCOVERED
NC Wildlife Reaowces Commission
Thirty years ago the peregrine falcon,
the fastest of the birds of prey, was wiped
out of the Southern Appalachians largely
due to damage from the pesticide DDT.
For the past four years NC Wildlife
Resources Commission (WRC) staff and
volunteers have been "hacking" young
peregrine falcons at several l<?Cations i.n t~e
Katuah province to re-establish the bird m
this pan of its native range.
The program seems to be paying o~f.
A pair of the peregrines have made a nest ~n
the Pisgah National Forest. The female ln1d
two eggs in the nest, one of which hatched a
young chicle, who only lived for three
weeks before dying of unknown causes..
Nevertheless, Allen Boynton, project
leader for the WRC, was exuberant.
"This is the first nesting pair of
peregrines in the state in 30 years," he said.
"All the people in the project arc thrilled."
When biologists learned the sole
falcon chick had died, they quickly sent for
another peregrine chick that had been born
in captivity. When the chick arrived, it was
placed in the nest, a mossy area on a rock
ledge.
"When the adults returned, they flew
aroung the nesting site, looking at the
chick," said Boynton. "The chick staned
begging for food whenever an adult
peregrine would land on the ledge. After a
couple of hours, the birds settled down.
Several days later when I returned, I saw
one of the adults feeding the chick.
"We put the foster chick in to hold the
adults at that nesting site and to give them
experience in raising a chick," said
Boynton. "We'll continue to watch for
return birds, as well as releasing more
falcons in future years."
The peregrine project has released 45
young falcons in the state of Nonh Carolina
in the four years of its existence. The project
is funded by the Peregrine Fund, a national
organization dedicated to re-establishing the
peregrine in its native range, and taxpayers
who marke<l the Non-game W1l<llllc
Checkoff on their state income tax returns.
The US Forest Service and the US Fish and
Wildlife Service have also provided funding
and personnel for the project. ~
FALL 1987
�PeaceNet
In tenns of networking continentally and globally, an
invaluable resource is PeaceNet. PeaceNet is computer-based
communication system helping the peace movement and the
environmental movement throughout the planet cooperate
more effectively and efficiently.
With a large minicomputer based in northern California
connected to Telenet, a common carrier, PeaceNet can
facilitate letting subscribers communicate globally, usually
through a local phone call. PeaceNet is compatible with
virtually any personal computer or computer terminal
outfiued with a 300 or 1200 baud modem.
P eaceNet has more than 1,000 subscribers including
the Coalition for a New Foreign and Military Policy as well
as Earth Island Institute. PeaceNet now also serves EcoNet.
PeaceNet has an electronic mail system which allows one to
send and receive messages to and from the other PeaceNet
subscribers and from Telex and University systems around
the world. It offers easy-to-use tools for posting events on
international bulletin boards, preparing joint projects through
electronic conferences, and finding out the latest information
on environmental and peace issues.
In addition, PeaceNet can provide computer
conferences, like specialized bulletin boards. By using
this conference tool, a geographically spread out
organization can carry on frequent and responsive
communications. Some organizations use it to facilitate
group decision-making and task sharing processes,
long distance. Conferences can be set up in private
fashion for a small group of users or they can be
established as a public resource.
PeaceNet also has databases which provide
easy access to large quantities of information and allow
for custom searching and output (printing) fonnats.
Databases include: lists of speakers, organizations, and
foundations as well as bibliographic, legislative and
project infonnation.
PeaceNet is a non-profit project of the Tides
Foundation, based in San Francisco. So far, PeaceNet
has been funded primarily through grant and gifts.
Soon, though, fees from users will help it become
financially independent. PeaceNet's rates arc extremely
reasonable. Fll"Sl, you pay a $10 one-time sign-up fee.
This gives you a user's manual and a free hour of
off-peak computer time. Then you pay a monthly
charge of $10, which gets you another hour of
off-peak computer time each month. Every additional
peak hour is $10 and every off-peak hour is $5.
Sometimes, initial fees are waived and sometimes
discounts arc available.
If you are interested in finding out more about
PeaceNet, writeorcall:
PeaceNet
3228 Sacramento St
San Francisco, CA 94 I I 5
(415) 923·0900
,
Oacc it caac to ac j1st after the leans
had catirely flllca ia the forests,
whca cn1 loacsoac whip-poor-wills had goac,
that s1rely it is c111g• jHt to breathe
aad be, or take nothcr's h11d i1 Inc,
sighiag to behold the old Milky Way
dastiag the hcucas with a t&gae woader.
Why do we aeed sach passioaatc delights
whca we may fi1d aew streagth ia elder aightsT
S1rcly te feel preaeditated s11
wara oa yon sh11lders all the S1aaer,
or to gaze 1po1 fresh saow i1 wiater,
is charge enough to wholly fill our days.
So whcace comes the dark mysteries we breed,
huiag to s1ffer, or at least astond
the world, and her followers arouad usT
We hue forgottca what we oace beheld:
that life is what we make ef it: ao more.
Tho1gh sickless cater as ia awcfal forms,
our lowed oacs die eatirely, lcuiag aoae,
aid weights of tragedy 11chor fi1e joys,
of 11 iastaat we may feel sweet gladacss,
seeiag though it fades, that it still eadares.
So wherefore the sad, regrettable maaT
Builg oace drau such sercadipity,
10 time is left to sorrow or coaform.
Each murmur of aatare souads iHiolate.
by Michael Hoctadag
~
•
,.
~
~
'furtlt ls/Olld is tht o/dlnew nativt namt for North Am.:rica
KATUAH - page 23
Old Galaxies
Cnpluc by Rob M~s1d: ~
�DRUMMING
LETIERS TO KATUAH
Persimmon seed, I am ....
let me glisten in the sunlight
to paint you colours,
gold, bronze, amber forever.
let me be free to grow
to bear....
to watch my young sway,
to grow, to bear.
let me not lay
on the cold, damp ground
trample me not
for the Eanh is my food
and the sunlight my wonderment
Dear Katuah,
I am writing you I.his leuer because while visiting wiLh
our new friends Ann and Michael at the Rainbow Gathering
here in neighboring Graham County, we were given a copy
of your paper.
During our visit lo the gathering, my wife and I found
I.hat our love for the mountains I.hat we live in was revitalized
and reinforced by Lhe people's love and respect for nature
and their desire to preserve our planet for generations to
come. They also helped to remind us to judge only a
person's deeds, not his looks or possessions.
My wife and I both work at Mountain Park Medical
Center in Andrews where we live. Some of our co-workers
were quick to judge the Rainbow brothers and sisters by
looks alone, never trying to understand what they stood for
or believed in.
I am 37 years old and can still remember what the
sixties meant. I may have served in the Navy during that
time, but I always believed that everyone should follow their
own hearts and not be absorbed in the masses. We must
remain individuals, yet not do anything to hurt any other
living c reature, no matter how small or seemingly
insignificant they may seem. My wife and I both stop for
animals when driving, getting out and carrying turtles to the
side of the road in the direction that they were heading.
Getting back to why I am writing this, we would like
any information pertaining to groups or activities in this area
that we could attend or help at. We would like to help
preserve our bioregion for all time. Also, please let us know
about subscribing to your journal.
Kelly
(Kelly and Deborah Jones
Andrews, NC)
Persimmon seed, I am....
betraying the man.
Bern Grey Owl
Raleigh, NC
Dear~
Dear Katilah,
Someone showed me your summer issue and I
noticed that your next issue, in the fall, is going to be on the
black bear.
As a bear hunter, I may have something in common
with you. I want to see the black bear population flourish in
these mountains.
Here are some things that concern me about the present
state of affairs: Jllegal hunting. In some areas in these
mountains, poaching is rampant. What we need is good
enforcement of the hunting laws. There needs to be enough
personnel to do this. Illegal hunting doesn't do any of us
legal hunters any good.
Huntini: season in NC. The hunting season here in NC
actually opens too soon(@ Oct 12). You see, female bears
need time to get in their dens; they go into their dens earlier
than the males. For the black bear to reproduce, it is very
important to protect the females during this time. Also, they
may still be caring for cubs at this time, and the cubs need the
protection, too. Other states around here don't start up their
season 'til later. That's what we need to do in NC. Although
it's illegal, I have seen hunters shoot a female bear with cub.
Radjo Collars. Some hunters rely on tracking bears
with radio collars on their hunting dogs. To me, this takes
the sport out of it
.B.fil..l:ill. Although it is illegal, some hunters bait for
bears. The law against this needs to be enforced as well.
Having good hunting laws and the personnel to
adequately enforce them is our best bet in ensuring a healthy
black bear population for these mountains.
anyone, - HELP!
The word has been out long enough about scarab
beetle larvae (see .K_illiiM. #12). After getting sick at yet
another Rainbow Gathering, I'm pissed. The time for
pondering has passed. It's time for Rainbow people to quit
scratching their asses and produce a large enough crop of
these critters to eat all the shits of a gathering. The larvae can
be scooped up at the end and returned home. If it's a very
cold gathering, a few candles in jars should keep their
appetites stirred. The shitters won't fill up, and dysentery
will become history.
If not the Rainbow Family to lead the way of the
future, who? 'Cause the larvae are coming to the world to
clean up one of man's (sic) greatest problems with or without
the Rainbow Family (unless the poles shift first... ..)
I am but one person at a lonely Rainbow outpost, who
can only do so much, like write you and send a few starters
for new colonies.
I kept them alive all winter!
They are ready! Let's go! The time is NOW!
Sincerely,
Corry
M.C.
Rutherford County, NC
KATUAH - page 24
FALL 1987
�The Lessons of the Hunt
"Patience," says the stately Heron
As it stands in the shallows,
Waiting for a fish or frog
To obligingly swim by.
and isn't he
contained in she?
(She wishpered) isn't
he in herand
here and male in
side of female? Isn't man in
woman, prince in princess
God in Goddess? Isn't
Ibis a very narural thing
in a very natural world
Yes! i said
(an excited fool now) Yes!
HE is in HER!
Yes! HEARE
H*E*ARE
"Patience," says the tiny Jumping Spider
As it dans along a vine,
Its huge front eyes alert
For an insect's telltale twitch.
"Patience, "says the coiled Rattlesnake
As it lies beside a log,
Waiting for an unsuspecting mouse
To follow its accustomed path.
"Concentration," says the Heron
As, one slowly moving foot at a time,
It stalks
A shining minnow.
HE*R HER
And i saw this planet as a
veiled cruxible of
pressured light and
She laughed and said
even the Y chroma
some's an
X standing on
one leg and
i laughed too.
"Concentration," says the Rattlesnake
As the mouse scampers closer,
For there can be
But a single strike.
"I see and understand," say I
dr.iwing by Troy Settler
Will Ashe Bason
Check, VA
"And thank you for your gifts.
Now I can tread the inner paths
To seek my own prey, Truth."
e Douglas A. Rossman
- continued from page 5
In his normal tone he resumed, 'The
sorry, but I would have accepted it. But to
have tracked her down by radio, insjde the
sanctuary, inside her den absolutely enraged
me. There's no sense to it. Someone
hunting, even poaching, outside the
sanctuary is likely to pick up transient
males. But invading the sanctuary means a
poacher is likely to get one of the females,
which are the breeding element of the
population."
To protect the other bears, all radio
collars have been removed, except for three
bears the Project team has been unable to
catch. Removing the collars has hampered
the study this year, but Roger Powell says,
"We're fairly confident that we have figured
out a way that we can continue to collect
data that will put the bears in no jeopardy of
poaching - but we're not talking about it yet
"Our project's handling procedure has
one of the best safety records for least bear
injury and monality of any large mammal
study in North America. I feel good about
that. We've put a lot of care into handling
lhe bears promptly and safely, so that it has
minimal impact on them. It seems that all
that care has been worth it."
bears have to live with people. We need to
"Those of us who want to share
the world with other creatures need
to learn as much as we can about
them ....."
learn as much about the bears as we can,
because I've got a feeling that most people
are not ready to immediately stop changing
the world to suit themselves.
"Those of us who want to share the
world with other creatures need to learn as
much as we can about them, because there
are a lot of people out there who don't care.
"We need to get to the good things
and keep them good, before other people get
to those things and change them."
c
..
CD
And, when asked if he thought that
the bears had anything to teach us, he
replied softly, "The whole world does.
"I don't see the bears out there trying
lO change things. They're living with the
world the way it is. It seems that every time
we change it, we mess it up. We're better
offleaving it the way it is."
KATUAH - page 25
~~E.'11.~~
c
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~
::>
:~e:~~~
I
3
~
.;..;~ri:l:lllL.IC~ ~~;;s;.::.::..;;...;;;..:;:c;::i;z..;:m:;~.a.:.;..l:ll;;L...:;~-=---':.;._.::.:...:::::=::......11..;:,;.;;.:.;...J ;
FALL 1987
�- continued from page 15
Every year our club has a bear
supper. Our wivcs'll cook bear meat. They
fix ii about five different ways - baked,
barbecued, stcwed.....any way you like it.
And they make potatoes, bread, coffee, all
the side dishes. It's a fine time, and it
doesn't cost nobody a dime. You can cat
bear meat 'til you can't eat no more.
At the first part of the season when
our club gets together, we take up a
donation. Everybody pitches in $3-5.00,
whatever they can afford. We put that
money in an envelope, and one guy hangs
onto it. If anybody's dog gets hun, and has
10 go to the vet, that money pays for that
dog, no matter who's dog it is. A group of
guys sticking together can 1113kc up that bill,
where one guy can't afford it.
We depend on Forest Service land to
hunt. Bears like to go back into the deep
woods. They always have, and, as long as
there's a mash crop every year, they always
will. For the last five or six years the mash
has been spotty. If you go back deep in the
mountains, you might find a big, bumper
crop of mash on one mountain and none at
all on another mountain. But I believe that
as long as the Forest Service controls that
land, and keeps people from building
summer cottages there, we'll always have
bears. They'll always be here.
The hunters aren't going to destroy
the bears, but the poachers nre something
else again. They arc something the Wildlife
Commission doesn't like; the sponsmcn
don't like them; and the ochers don't like
them either. But as long as there's man and
womnn on the face of this Earth, there's
going to be murders, there's going to be
robberies, and there's going to be poachers.
Hunters themselves are going to have
to protect the wildlife. And they can do that,
because they are out in the woods, and they
can report any violations that they see going
~
on.
l'nwiJona Ptr1Mal S..rv1ct
Fill,,,. You< 8oolt Netds
In 5r«1ahzed fjelJa
--=~
UlTIIAVIOlET PUlllFICATIOH AHO FILTERING SYSTEMS
SOlAll PRODUCTS · WATER AHALYllS
OAJtY HEMSOTM
8oola.ltr
~ Htleh«is Sbopplq Ctntu
~ Nar1b c.rouna 28'07
RANDAU. C. LANIER
~2
.HWY 107
RT. 68 BOX 125
CUUOWHEE. NC 28723
Chinese
Acupuncture
and
Herbology
Clinic
SCOTT BIRD
GREG BLACK
(704) 683-1414
683-4795
342 Merrlmon Avenue Ashevllle, NC
(704) 258-9016
•.,.(notli«r Small lluslnut Jor IJorCd P£ACe ...
'1\iilee,
'ltUll~I 'Na~rcm
BOBCAT
T-SHIRT
SHORT SLEEVE T: $10.00 ppd.
Colors: Ecru, White, Sliver,
Se.foam (It. green) Teal
LONG SLEEVE T: $14.00 ppd.
(Includes Paw Print on Sleeve)
Color1: Ecru, Sliver, Teal, White
Satisfaction assured or return for full refund.
Please Indicate size, color,
sleeve length, quantity.
--t<c.,_._ _
l :::I
ICIU ........_M,w . , -.IC-!lO'I-._,
~a..
Introducing the BOBCAT
This full color design Is hand-screened on
T-SHIRTS OF 100% PRESHRUNK COTTON
IN ADULT SIZES S,M,L,XL
We •I.a have a line of sweatshirt• and kids T-Shlrts
KATU All - page 26
c~•-..;::=:=:=:=:=:
C WSA
~I
Natural Food Store
& Deli
160 Broadway
Ashevllle, NC 28801
Where Broldway1Neta
Mamnon Ave & 1-240
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
Monday-Saturday: 9am·8pm
Sunday: lpm·Spm
(704) 253-7656
FALL 1987
�Littering: The Same Old Story
~
by Michael Hockaday
I think it happened by accident,
but it's hard to decide about some
things. I'd bad it with a bag of fruit
left aging on its own too long. It was
time to go, so I brought it with me on
my morning walk over along the
pastures where the creek doglegs
toward the big oak mountain. I
stopped to toss those too-juicy pears
toward a neighbor's cows clustered at
the far end near the cornfields,
leaving the bag by the wayside. I'd
get it on return. Which I did, and
found myself colJecting bottles,
broken mostly, and cans: glass,
plastic, aluminum. Beer cans were
understandably the worst offenders,
especially Budweiser, the King of
Beer. Obviously Bud isn't wiser, and
I still didn't understand.
How quiet it was late Friday
morning just coasting into the noon
daze .... .leaves falling together in
little groups or spiraling away one by
one. Crickets caroled their tiny insect
syrunphonies, or were they lullabies
being put sleep by the vivid sunshine?
Crows were growing less raucous,
but the bluejays sure were arguing. I
kept on with it, listening and cursing
some.
It was hard not to have bad
thoughts against those who
offhandedly dumped some of their
junk on ~ nieghborhood, this
stretch of public, county dirt road to
boot! But I thought: I too am a
litterer, though I don't break bottles
against treetrunks or creekrocks, or
cast my cigarette wrappers where all
the world will see. Call that pride,
ability? Ignorance? Carelessness?
KATIJAH - page 27
No, I don't litter like I used to . Yet,
as a consumer, I do my share of
littering, for to buy and to throw
away is interwoven.
So there I was collecting
garbage in my own neighborhood,
which seemed at first a little
embarrassing. I'll admit to being
stubborn, but I didn't get it all. And
I'm glad no one drove by. Those
candy wrappers left seasoning for the
last few weeks in the autumn sunshine
had dried, melted, and broken into
slivers that stuck to the blades and
stalks of grass and weeds. I really
couldn't pick them up without being
quite meticulous, and it's true: the
shade of my own front porch was
calling me.
Pausing in the road in the hot
noon light, I remembered why I fear
walking barefoot through these
countrysides, crossing creeks at
random, drying my feet in the cool
shore sand: broken glass, jagged tin.
Sparkling like mica under current,
hidden under soft fall leaves.
Dragging it all back home, I found
out one thing: within an arrowshot of
this old farmhouse I call home, a
large grocery bag had been filled
with that dirty stuff: garbage, junk,
waste. Nowadays our roads are
becoming dotted with more silver,
red, black, orange, and less natural
greens or the clear, plain color of the
dirt of a Georgia country road. Why?
I felt confused and very ignorant. It
is more than a process of becoming
an adult.
A lot of conflicting thoughts
and new questions came and went in
my mind. Was littering a form of
possessing, of exercising the right to
litter the space around you, especially
the place you grew up, the land you
claim as yours? At first I believed the
stuff I carried home was left by
people driving through, or were my
own neighbors littering? Could
someone pay me to do this? Do I want
to be a waste disposal unit? Hello,
Mr. Dumpster. Or free to walk the
woods and forest paths like I did the
first year I arrived from a dirty city,
going barefoot through the upland
meadows, moving casually through
deep grass, not finding any hurt but
vinerash or stonebruise to my naked
soles? And I would love to have those
days again, though the past won't be
reclaimed. But in the present, in
today's world, does it seem too much
to expect strolling barefoot through
these hills, or to thoughtlessly race
and dive into these lakes becoming
clearer, yet thus more poisonous?
Do you know where the
honeysuckle clusters around that
locust comerpost where the roads
meet and the pavement starts? I found
a pile of broken bottles there. And
you know along the creek where the
bitter, purple ironweed prospers in
the low spots - I am finding layers
upon layers of old junk: tractor tires,
glinting slivers of old mirror glass,
red velvet dance shoes dampening to
tatters and dust Old garbage, family
trash. The same old story. Quite
usual. But still I feel a useless,
impotent sense of despair as I see the
simple, local, beautiful places marred
by littering. Society at large won't
solve it. Neither can I. That night I
spent more time gazing on the feather
of the grand Milky Way,
appreciating clear, silver, tremulous
stars. A cool wind stirred and
freshened me.
FALL 1987
�evenrs
3
WILLIS, VA
"Healing the Family in the
Wise Woman Way" - finding and preparing
herbal medicines with Kathleen Maier and
Sherry Willis. Indian Valley Holistic Center,
see 9/19-20.
SEPTEMBER
12-13
ASHEVILLE, NC
RIVERFEST - "C'mon down
to the riverside!" for the grand finale of
French Broad River Week. Call (704)
254-8131 far more information.
18-19
3
ZIONVILLE, NC
"Whole Brea1h Bodywork"
workshop at Polestar Re11eat Center with
Ginny Wright; 604 Mt. Vernon Ave.;
Charlotte, NC 28203
ASHEVILLE, NC
New Priorities Conference on
Peace, Social Justice and the Environment..
3-4
Includes featured speakers, workshops,
panels and fellowship. Sponsored by
Katifah and many other organizations.
Asheville High School. $10 registtation,
includes lunch; childcare $2. Info: (704)
252-3036
Is There a Future for the
Southern Appalachian
BLACK BEAR?
4-9
18-20
TOWNSEND, TN
Tenn. Environmental Education
Association Conference at the Great Smoky
Mountains lnstitu1e at Tremont; Townsend,
TN37882
GREAT SMOKY MT'NS.
"Research on the Wild
Mammals of the Great Smokies" with Dr.
Michael Pelton. $40. Smoky Mountain
Field School; Department of Non-credit
Programs; 2016 Lake Ave.; Knoxville, TN
37996
A Wlldllfe and Habitat Conference
September 29, 1987
WILLIS, VA
"Health and the Human Mind"
- the fundamentals of body electronics with
Richard Lowenthal. $95 + $20 room and
board. Indian Valley Holistic Center; Rt. 2,
Box 58; Willis, VA 24380
21
FALL EQUINOX
BREAKS, VA
Stage productions "South of
the Mountain" and ''Talcs" by the Roadside
Theater. For more info, write: The Roadside
Theatre; Box 743; Whitesburg, KY 41858
22-27
BRASSTOWN, NC
Coker Creek Anists' Creative
Clothing Workshop. John C. Campbell Folk
School; Brasstown, NC 28906
9-11
Owen Confemice Cent.er
UNCA, Asheville. NC
19-20
19-20
STAUNTON, VA
Earth First! Appalachian
rendezvous and action against clearcutting in
the George Washington National Forest Meet
at North River campground, GW NF. For
more info, call Roland Knapp at (606)
259-0252.
Sponsored by:
Environmentlll Studies Program. UNCA
Soul.hem Appalachian Black Bear Fe.dcnltion
Long Branch Environmental EducDtion Center
KAWh.Biorcgio03l Journal
27
WILLIS, VA
"An Afternoon of Personal and
Planetary Healing" - circle on Mother
Mound with Tom Williams. Donations.
Indi~ Valley Holistic Center, see 9/19-20.
30
ASHEVILLE, NC
Green Politics. Regional meeting of the WNC Greens. Montford
Community Center. 7pm More info: (704)
254-6910.
OCTOBER
15-18
HIGHLANDS, NC
"Fall Landscape Photography
Workshop" with Sam Wang - exploring and
photographing fall in the beautiful Highlands
area. $250. The Appalachian Environmental
Ans Center; P.O. Box 580; Highlands, NC
28741
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC
The Black Mountain Fall
Festival. Traditional music, dance, and stories
by Gamble Rogers. the Houseband, Peter
Ostrousko Band, Wild Asparagus, David
Wilcox, Golden Rod Puooets and others. $30
for the weekend. Write: Grey Eagle and
Friends; P.O. Box 216; Black Mountain, NC
28711
16-18
2-4
ZIONVILLE, NC
"Healing Wise," a weekend
seminar on herbal healing with Susan S.
Weed. $125 or daily, includes camping,
meals. Sun.- "For Women Only". Contac1:
Phoenix Productions; Rt. 2, Box 59;
Zionville, NC 28698
25-27
WA YNES VILLE, NC
"Spiritual Astrology: Symbols
of the Self" - using the birthchan as a
mandala to center the Self among the
various roles we play in life. Michael
Thurma.n at Stil-Light Theosophical Retreat
Cen1er; Rt 1, Box 326; Waynesville, NC
28786 (704) 452-4569
25-27
KATUAH - page 28
HIGHLANDS, NC
"Elders' Circle of the American
Indian Council - elders from the Six Nations,
Hopi, Pueblo, eastern and western Cherokee
will speak at the Mountain; 841 Highway 106;
Highlands, NC 28741 (704) 526-5838
WA YNESVnLE, NC
"The Modern Woman and
Spirituality" with Elisabeth Peryam.
Discussion, group work, ar.d worship for
women at Stil-Light. See 9/25-27.
FARNER, TN
"Wild Foods and Medicines"
expedition into the woods with Snow Bear.
$50. Pepperland Farm Camp; Star Route;
Farner, TN 37333. (704) 494-2353
2-4
HOT SPRINGS, NC
"Courage, Kindness. Commitment, and Humor" retreat with Bo Lozoff.
$50. Sou1hern Dhanna Retreat Center; Rt. l,
Box 34-H; Hot Springs, NC 28743
CEDAR MOUNTAIN, NC
Sierra Club "Outing Skills
Workshop" - essentials of backpacking,
knots, food drying, map and compass work
and much more. $20 includes meals. Write for
info before Oct 1 to: Shirl Thomas; P.O. Box
272; Cednr Mountain, NC 28718
17-18
WILLIS, VA
"Introduction 10 Pennaculture"
principles of cultivation with Thelma Snell.
Indian Valley Holistic Center, see 9/19-20.
17-18
2-4
23-25
FARNER, TN
"Primitive Camping Skills" learn to stay warm, dry, and well-fed wilh
what lhe forest has to offer. See 10/2-4.
FALL 1987
�- .. '
21
KNOXVILLE, TN
The Roadside Theatre presents
"South of the Mountain''. See 9n.2·27.
25-29
WAYNESVILLE, !'liC
Good cookin' at Stil-Light! "A
Vegetarian Thanksgiving - The Role of Diet
on the Spiritual Journey." $20. Sec 9n.5.
27-29
HOT SPRINGS, NC
"Medicine Wheel/Mamlala
The Circle of Peace" with Louise Sunfeathcr
and Jennifer Gordon See 10/2-4.
14
Rob Messick
23-25
YELLOW SPRINGS, OH
Conference: "The Self-Reliant
Community" with Jeffery Bercuvicz, director
of Rodale's Regeneration Project; Sue
Jackson; William Berkowitz - identifying local
skills, talents, and capital and using them to
take the community's future in hand. $50 +
$20 accomoclations. Prices include meals.
Contact: Community Services; P.O. Box 243;
Yellow Springs, OH 45387
WILLIS, VA
"Rebirthing Weekend" Michael McDowell. $50. Indian Valley
Holistic Cenier, see 9(1.7
24
W ILLIS, VA
"Healing Old Wounds" rele:ising the past. Tom Williams. Indian
Valley Holistic Center, see 9n.7.
UNICO I ST. PAR~ GA
"Earth Skills Workshop" for
the whole family with Eustace Conway.
Contact: Linda Rigell; Rt. l, Box 1426;
Clayton, GA 30525.
28-29
DECEMBER
7-8
13-15
FARNER, TN
Caving expedition. See 11/6-8.
5-6
SMOKY MT'N PARK
Winter
High
Country
Camping. The Smoky Mountain Field School.
See 9/19-20.
11-13
14
GREAT SMOK Y MT'NS.
Winter Field Botany. Smoky
Mountain Field School, see 9/19-20.
23-25
BRASSTOWN, NC
Fall Dance Weekend. JCC Folk
School, see 10/4-9.
WILLIS, VA
"Trusli ng In tu it ion"
following the inner voice. Tom Williams.
$60. Indian Valley Holistic Center. See 9n.7.
14
RADFOR~VA
"Leaving Egypt" - stage
production by the Roadside Theatre. See
9/22-27.
20-22
CHAPEL HILL, NC
Economics As If Earth Mattered
Conference with Herman Daly and Paul
Wachtel. Center for Reflection on the
Second Law. (919) 847-5819
WAYNESVILLE, NC
"Intuition: Gateway to
Knowing" - "Intuition is not psychic
phenomena.... It is the Soul and its expression
in form" - Joyce Keane. $20. Stil-Light, see
9n.5-27.
HOT SPRINGS, NC
''Tibetan Buddhism: Traditional
Methods for Spiritual Growth" - the Ven.
Tubten Pendey. $75. Southern Dhanna, see
ion.-4.
11-13
BRASSTOWN, NC
18
Olde Follcs Party.
19
Children's Pany. JCC Folk
School, see 10/4-9.
30
HALLOWE' EN (Samhain) the ancient Feast of the Dead.
30-11/1
HOT SPRINGS, NC
''To Leap Like :i Tiger: A Zen
Weekend" with B:irbara Rhodes. $86.
Southern Dhanna, see lOn.-4.
NOVEMBER
1-14
BRASSTOWN, r\C
"Log Cabin Building" course
with Peter Goit. JCC Folk School, see
I0/4·9.
6·8
FARNER, TN
Caving expedition to Cloudland
Canyon. Basic safety. geology instruction by
Snow Bear. Pepperland, sec IOn.-4.
6-10
HOT SPRINGS, NC
"Meditation Retreat for
Women" with Anna Douglas. $112. Southern
Dharmn, see ion.-4.
KATIJAH - page 29
FALL 1987
�STIL-LIGllT THEOSOPHICAL RETREAT
CENTER • a qu1el space for personal mcdiLntion,
group interaction through study and community
worlc, and spiritual semin:lrs. Contact Leon Frankel:
RL I, Box 32.6; Waynesville. NC 28786
CRAFTSPEOPLE -send price listings to Gif1td
/lands of NC, 331 Blake St; Raleigh, NC 27601
(Au'n: Bcm Grey Owl) - unique shop presenting
35-40 craflers' worlcs in Raleigh's City MlrkcL All
aafts considered.
ROCKIN' Willi BILLY B • Do the Dance of tht
Dragonfly or the Rock 'Roll of Photosyntthsis in
the "Music and the Natural World" workshop.
Available for bookings for schools or loc3l groups,
Jan. 29-Fcb. 4, 1988. Great motivation for kids!
Call Ken Voorhis (615) 448-6700.
FUTO~S
by Simple Pleasures • affordably p1iccd
Send SASE for info to: Simple Pleasures; Rt. I,
Box 1426; Clayton, GA 30525 (404) 782-3920
I HA VE ACCEPTED the responsibility to
participate m a powerful and imporunt cetemony to
be condut1Cd in Nov. '87 inside the Great Pyrnmid
in Egypt. I believe this wo1k will help uncarth
ancient and new information crucial to the
well-being of our planeL I h:ive received guidance
Lhm in order to go on this mission. I would have to
be sponsored. Plc.ise send don:itions t0: RL 2, Box
58; Willis. VA 24380 (att: Journey to Egypt) Tom W illiruns..
...AnJ I/it £11r//1 limf
APPLE TREES • grafted old-fashioned and
contemporary. Send 50 cents for catalog: Henry
Monon: RL I, Box 203; Gatlinburg, TN 37738
ASTROLOGICAL
CHARTS.
7-pllge
intcrproLntions of planets in signs and houses with
plancwy aspects. Easy to read. Great gift for the
newly-born. Send SS. name, date, time, and place of
birth 10 Touchstone; Rt. 2, Box 314·K: Vilas. NC
28692
ORGANIC FERTILIZERS, herbs, and
organically·grown, local produce at the WNC
Farmer.;' Market! Look for the Fairglen Farms stall.
units F and G in the wholesale area of the Farmers'
Market; 570 Brevard Rd.; Asheville, NC (704)
2524414
ELEMEl'.'TARY SCHOOL TEACHER, certified,
creative, self-motivated, and organized needed at
Valley School, a parent-governed 11ltcmati"e school
in Monongahela National Forest, WV Resume,
references to: Teri Kutsko; I Kirt St., Elkins, WV
26241 (304) 636-2979
THE APPALACHIAN HERR NEWSLETTER:
explonng the potential for herbs as ca.\h crops m
Appalachia. Subscriptions $12/yr.. Write:
Aopalnchj3n Herb Newslwcr • ASPI; RL 5, Box
423; Livini;sion. KY 40445
LAND TRUST in I.he forming on 57 acres near
Boone, NC ~king famihcs wiLh strong visions and
resources to manifest a peaceful place for our
children to grow in love nnd to survive the coming
of the new age. Paul and Susan Del Rios; RL 2,
Boit 314; Vilas, NC 28692 (704) 297-4937
ROSE AROMATICS • essential oils have been
healing body, mind, spirit, since ancient EgypL A
most plcasa.nt therapy! Dabney Rose; 108 Church
Rd.; Asheville, NC 28804 (704)254-9551
PURE HONEY • unheated and unfiltered. Poplnr,
locust., and sourwood. One of nature's blessings!
Price and ordering info from Jimmy Holladay, the
Beekeeper; P.O. Box 908; Black Mt'n., NC 28711
(704) 669-9788
.. ANQ THE EARTH LIYEP HAPPILY EVER
AEJ.El.· stories from folk U11ditions all around the
world chosen lO help protect all living beings by
bringing the world society a few steps closer lO
peace and respect for au life. Edited by Floating
Eagle Feather. $7.00 ppd. (All profits go to
Greenpeace and the Peace Museum). Order from:
Wages of Peace; 309 Trudeau Dr.; Metaire, LA
70003
ALTERNATIVE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL - At
Arthur MorgJll School 24 students and 14 staff lc:im
together by living in community. Curriculum
includes creative academics, group decision-making,
a work program, service projects, extensive field
trips, challenging outdoor experiences. Write: 190 I
Hannah Branch Rd.: Burnsville, NC 28714 (704)
675-42.62
DRUMS - Custom handcrafted ceramic-dumbecks 8c
wooden medicine drums. Call Joe at (704)
258-1038 or David at (704) 253-2846, or write ta:
Joe Roberts, 738 Town Mountain Rd.; Asheville,
NC 28804.
TECHNOLOGICAL
APPROPRIATE
COMMUNICATIONS • low-tech, economical
telephone systems for the altcmntive community or
farm. 2· 100 phones, a.utomatic or human-assisted
systems available. Write: TAC; PO Box 936;
Gatlinburg. TN 37730
MOON DANCE FARM HERBALS· herbal salves,
tinctures, & oils for birthing & family health. For
brochure, please write: Moon Dance Farm; RL I,
Box 726; Hampton, TN 37658
PEPPERLAND offers a vericty of outdoor education
for church, school, or civic groups
year-round. We will help you design a program for
your group. Send for information packet to:
Pcpperlnnd Farm Camp: Star Route; Farner, TN
37333
program~
1988 SIMPLE LIFESTYLES CALENDAR •
PhOlos of "CraftSpCOple of App:il:ich1a" by Warren
Brunner and suggestions for simple hvmg for each
day. S6.00 from Appalachia-Science in the Public
Interest; Rt. 5, Box 423; Livingston, KY 4~45.
All proceeds benefit the work of ASPI, n non-profit
corporation.
CHEROKEE INDIAN LANGUAGE classes. For
info, \\rite Robcn Bushyhc:id; P.O. Box 705:
Cherokee. NC 28719
APPLE TREES • Old·timcy and popul.1r
contcmpor.uy varieties on sumdanl, semi·, or dw:irf
stock. Send SASE for prices: Jeff Poppen: Long
Hungry Creek N~; Red Boahng Springs, TN
37150
ARCHITECTURAL ADVICE ANO DESIGN:
Adam Cohen; RL 2, Box 217; Check, VA 24072
SOCK-A-DOOZ PUPPET PETS • Walk 'cm, talk
'em. make 'em Oy. Wag their tails, you can try.
They will love you. bug you if you're blue. Now
PUPPET PETS can be your friends too.
Handcrafted by Bonnie Blue; 78 1/2 Pauon Ave.
(#10); A.~hevillc, NC 28801
FLOWER ESSENCES • Harmony with Nature &
SpiriL Gentle emotional suppon durmg tr.lllsitions,
specific issues, relationships. Opens
communications. Self-adjusting, non-toxic,
awareness "tools" for improving I.he inner quality.
Correspondence to: Elaine Gcougc, c/o Patchwork
Castle, Celo, 3931 HWY 80 So.. Burnsville, NC
28714
DAYSTAR ASTROLOOICAL SERVICE· natal,
transil, comparison charts. Very accurate. Only
S3.00 each. Chris and Will Bason; Rt. 2, Box 217:
Check, VA 24072 (703) 651·3492
KATUAH ·page 30
APPALACHIAN GlNSENG CO. - Stratified seeds,
seedlings, roots. Send for price list to: P.O. Box
541; Dillsboro. NC 28725
WEBWORKlNG is free.
Send submissions to:
Kil.l.uAh
P.O. Box 638
Leicester, NC
Katuah Province 28748
FALL 1987
�. /¥IDJ1lh wan~s to commtmicate yoiu· thougltts and feelings to the other people in the
b1oreg1onal province. Send them to us as letters, poems, stories, drawings, or
photographs. Please send yo1u contributions to 11S at: Ki:Wklh; Box 638 ·Leicester NC
Karuah Province 28748.
'
'
'
"Home" is shelter....."llome" is the heartll....•"Home" is conun11nity. Share yotu
plans, sketches, and dreams with the others in tlie bioregion in the winter issue ofKm.tklh.
The deadline/or conrriblllions is October 3.
What does spring make you think of? Send your ideas to us for the spring isme.
Mtdfrfnt- Alllts
BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH AVAILABLE
ISSUE lWO- WINTER 1983-84
Yona - Bear Huntus - Pigeon River Another Way With Animals - Alma Becoming Politically Effective Mouniain Woodlands - Katiinh Under lhe
Drill - Spirilwtl Warriors
full rolor
T-snlrts
In the traditional Cherokee Indian
belief, the creatures in the world today are
only climinuitive forms of the mythic beings
who once inhabited the world, but who now
reside in Galuna'ti, the spirit world, the
highest heaven. But a few of the original
powers broke through the spiritual barrier
and exist yet in the world as we know it.
These beings are called with reverence
"grandfathers". And of them, the strongest
are Kanati, the lightning, the power of the
sky; Utsa'nati, the rattlesnake, who
personifies the power of the eanh plane; and
Yunwi Usdi, "the little man", as ginseng is
called in the sacred ceremonies, who draws
up power from the underworld.
Each is the strongest power in its own
domain. Together they are allies: their
energies compliment each other to form an
even greater power. As medicine allies, they
represent the healing powers of the
Appalachian Mountains.
The medicine powers of Katuah have
been depicted in a striking T-shirt design by
Ibby Kenna. Printed in 5-color silkscreen
by Ridgerunner Naturals on top quality.
all-cotton shins, they a.re available now in
all adult sizes from the Kanfoh journal.
"To show respect for this supernatural
trinity of the natural world is to in turn
become an ally in the continuing process of
mnintaining hnnnony and balance here in the
mountains of Kau.iah."
To order, use the form below.
ISSUETHREE-SPRING 1984
Sustainable Agriculture - Su.n nowen • Human
Impact on the Forest • Childrcns' Education
Veronica Nicholas:Woman in Politics - Linle
People - Medicine Allies
lSSUE FOUR - SUMMER 1984
Water Drum - Water Quality - Kudx.u ·Solar
Eclipse· Clearcutling - Trout - Goin& to Wal&¥
Rom Pumps - Microhydto ·Poems: Bennie
Lee Sinclair, Tun Wayne Millet
lSSUE FIVE. FAU. 1984
Harvest - Old Ways in Cherokee - Ginsen& •
Nuclear Waste • Our Celtic Heritage •
Bioregionalism: Past. Present. and Futute -
John Wi!nol)I • Healing Darkness - Politics of
~
ISSUE SIX· WINTER 1984-85
Winter Solslice Earth Ceremony • HcrKp&Slurt
River - Corrung or the Ugbl - Log Cabin
Roota • Mountain Apiculturc: The Ril!lt Crop
- William Taylor ·The Future or the Forest
ISSUE SEVEN · SPRING 1985
Susiainable Economics - Hot Sprinas - Worker
Ownership· The Great Economy - Self Help
Credit Union - Wild Turkey - Re'J'Onsible
bwesting • Working in the Web of Life
lSSUE EIGHT· SUMMER 198S
Celebration: A Way of Life. Kauiah 18.000
Years Ago • S6Cred Sites • Folk Aru in the
Schools - Sun Cycle/Moon Cycle Poems:
Hilda Downer· Chcroku Heritage Center•
Who Owns Appallchla?
lSSUE NINE· FALL 1985
The Waldee Forest - The Trecs Spcalt •
Migrating Foresu - Horse Logging • Starting a
Tree Crop· Urban Trees • Acom Bread • Myth
Tune
ISSUE TEN· WINTER 19&S-$6
Kate Rogers - Cin:les or St.one • lntemal
Mylhmaking - Holistic Healing on Trial •
Poems: Steve Knauth - Mythic Places • The
Uktena's Tale • Crystal Magic •
"Omu-nspcalcing"
ISSUE ELEVEN - SPRING 1986
Community Planning • Cities and the
Bioregional Vision - Recycling - Communil)I
Gadcning· Floyd Counly, VA • Gasohol •
Two Bioregional Views - Nuclear Supplement
Foxfire Games - Good Medicine: Vasicns
ISSUE n«RTEEN - Fall 1986
Center For Awakening· Elizabeth Calllri. A
Gentle Death - Hospice - Ernest MoTgan •
Ocaling Creatively with Death - Home Buri.al
Box • Th" Wake • The Raven Mocker •
Woodslore and Wildwoods WiJdom • Good
Medicine: n...s..-Lodge
lSSUE FOURTEEN. Winier 1986-87
Uoyd Carl Owtc - Boogcn and Mummc:n AD
Species Day - Cabin Fever Un ..cnlty •
Homeless in KatUah - Homemade Hot Wall:r
Stovcmakcis Narrative - GooJ Medicine:
lntmpeci"5 Conummication
ISSUE FIFTEEN -Spring 1987
Coverlcls • Wom:m Forester · Susie McMahan
Midwife - Alternative Contraception •
Bioscxuality - Bioregionalism and Women Good Medicine: Mlllriacharial Culwn: - ~
ISSUE SIXTEEN - Swnmcr 1987
Helen Waite - Poem: Visions in a Garden •
Vision Quest - First Flow - Initiation •
Leaming in the Wilderness - Cherokee
Olallenge- "Valuing Trees•
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------KAJVAH: Biore~jonal Journal of the Southern Appalachians
Box 638; Leicester, NC; Katuah Province 28748
For more info: call Marnie Muller (7().1)683-1414
Regular Membership........$ IO/yr.
Sponsor..........................$20/yr.
Contributor.....................$50/yr.
Name
Address
City
Area Code
KAJVAH -page 31
~ess!
t1ot£r.t"'
Enclosed is S
to give
this ejfon an exrra boost
State
Phone Number
Zip
Back Issues
Issue# _ _@ $2.00 = $
Issue# _ _@ $2.00 = $ - Issue#_@ $2.00 = $ - Issue#_@ $2.00 = $
Issue# _ _@ $2.00 = $ _ _
Complete Set (2-11, 13-16)
@$19.00=$_ _
T-Shirts: specify quanticy
color: tan
S_ _ M_ _
L_ _ XL_ _
@ $9.50 each............$_ _
I can be a local contact
person for my area
TOTALPRICE=
postage paid
$_ _
FALL 1987
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, Issue 17, Fall 1987
Description
An account of the resource
The seventeenth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on black bears: their place and future in southern Appalachia. Authors and artists in this issue include: David Wheeler, Sam Gray, Paul Gallimore, Mike Pelton, Robert McMahan, Jay S. Gertz, Scott Bird, Richard Harrison, Michael Hockaday, Martha Tree, Marnie Muller, Rob Messick, Richard Harrison, William O. McLarney, Bern Grey Owl, Will Ashe Bason, Douglas A. Rossman, and Troy Setzler. <br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1987
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
The Life and Death of Bear #87: Glady and The Pisgah Bear Project.......3<br /><br />Bear Story by Sam Gray.......6<br /><br />Issues (and a Few Answers) for the Black Bear: An Interview with Dr. Michael Pelton.......8<br /><br />The Challenger: The Wild Boar in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.......11<br /><br />cougar: A Poem.......12<br /><br />Good Medicine: "Finding Allies in the World".......13<br /><br />"Me and My Walker Hounds" by Robert McMahan.......14<br /><br />"Smells Like Money to Me": A Report on Champion International by Jay S. Gertz.......16<br /><br />Bear: A Poem by Scott Bird.......18<br /><br />Green Politics in Katúah by Richard Harrison.......19<br /><br />Natural World News: Modern Science Restores Ancient Indian Maize | Protecting Our Mountain Wetlands | DOE Hot Meals Program | No Problem with Tobacco | Showdown at Flat Creek | NC Legislators Want Dump | Peregrine Nest Discovered.......20<br /><br />Turtle Island Talking: A Look at PeaceNet.......23<br /><br />Old Galaxies: A Poem by Michael Hockaday.......23<br /><br />Drumming: Letters to Katúah.......24<br /><br />Littering: The Same Old Story by Michael Hockaday.......23<br /><br />Fall Calendar of Events.......28<br /><br />Webworking.......30<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Sylva Herald Publishing Company, Sylva, North Carolina
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Black bear--Appalachian Region, Southern
Bear hunting--North Carolina, Western
Black bear--North Carolina--Fiction
Black bear--Mythology
Animals--Poetry
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
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Journals (Periodicals)
Agriculture
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Bioregional Definitions
Black Bears
Cherokees
Community
Good Medicine
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Hunting
Katúah
Katúah Organization
Pigeon River
Poems
Politics
Radioactive Waste
Stories
Turtle Island
Water Quality
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·.
~UAl:i~ ®URNAL
...
ISSUE 22 WINTER 1988-89
seeds of survival
$1.50
�When strong-hearted people keep on singing the Song of Creation,
they will find the true path, forgotten by many,
so Grandpa David says.
When prayer and meditation are used rather than relying
on new inventions to create more Imbalance,
they will also find the true path.
Mother Nature tells us which is the right way.
When earthquakes, floods, hailstorms, drought, and famine
will be the life of every day, the time will have then come
for the return to the true path ...
-from Meditations with The Hopi
~LJAH JOURNAL
P.O. Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
Postage Paid
Bulk Mail
Permit #18
Leicester, NC
28748
�Global Wanning and Katuah .......... 3
by Kim Sarulland
Fire This Time ............................. 5
by lyfich Crabawr
Bioregions: The Context
for Reinhabiting the Earth .............6
by Thomas Berl)
Earth Exercise .............................9
by Marnie Muller and
2.oa Rockensrein
Poems and Drawings
by Kore Loy McWhirter.............. 10
Drawing by ESTHER
An Abundance of Emptiness......... 12
by Richard lowenJlia/
Reviews:
Thinking like a Mountain
Talkfog with Nawre .................... 14
Options For Regional Currency:
The LETSystem .......................... 15
by Fred MignoM
"Chronicles of Floyd" .................. 16
by "Granny" DeLauney
Knife, Axe, and Saw.................... 18
An lnrerview with Dorry Wood
Natural World News ................... 20
111c Bear Clan ...................•........22
Poem by luci11da Flodin ................. 23
Drumming: Letters to Kalllah ....... 24
Wcbworking .............................. 30
the Earth stirs in her dream
she wakens and arises.
she comes! she comes!
great in her gifts, striding with purpose.
each step an age in the evolution of life.
she is moving.
she will not remain to stagnate in our wastes.
she would be healed.
and we would break
through our brittle egg casings of separateness
to rejoin this planetary life community.
we are too powerful
to remain so ignorant
the change is begun.
we can cry out in pain or rejoice in our healing.
we Loo need to move. to work for the change,
to pray that the balance be restored
and, moving. we will be swept up and carried in the
wave of her motion.
�STAFFTI-IIS ISSUE:
Will Ashe Bason Rob Messick Mamie Muller
David Wheeler Chip Smith Christina Morrison
Kim Sandland Richard Lowenthal
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE:
Scou Bird MlU'lha Tree Jack Chaney John Creech Andy Half-Baker
Lisa Franklin Sam Gray Michael Red Fox Marsha Ring
COVER by Martha Tree
INVOCATION by Andy Half-Baker
PUBLISHED BY: Kart1ahJournal
THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BlORECION
ANO MAJOR EASTERN RIVER SYSTEMS
PRINTED BY: The Waynesville Mo1111tai11eer Press
WBITEUS AT:
KatWih Journal
TELE Pl JONE:
(704)683-1414
Box 638
Leicester. NC
Kaufah Province 28748
Diversity il> an impor13111 clcmcn1 of bion:gional ecology, both
n3tural and social. In line with this princ;iple, the Katiiah Journal
tries 10 serve as a forum for the discussion of n:gion:ll issues. Signed
article.~ express only the opinion of the authors and are nol ncccs.o;arily
lhc opinions of lhe Katuab Journal editors or staff.
The ln!Cmal Revenue Service ha.~ dcclru-ed KaJU4h o non profit
organization under sccuon SO I(c)(3) of the In LemaI Revenue Code. A11
contributions IO Kartlah arc deductible from J>C™lll3I income uu.
invocation
From the deep dark place in ourselves,
Through the darkest part
of the changing year,
Through the darkness
of the turning world cycle,
We know of troubles facing us,
and of hope bearing us on.
Birth, death, rebirth.
Spring, Summer. Fall. Winter.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
lltrt in tht southern-most heartland of the Appaluchian mounlllins. thl"
oldest mountain range on our continent. Turtle Island, o small bur growing grmip
has begun to take on a stn.ft of responsibiliry for tht imp/icarions of 1ha1
geographical and cultural heritagt. This .ftnse of ruponsibiliry ctnters on 1~
conupt of living within the natural scalt and balance of univtnal system.1 a.1d
principles.
Within this circle wt begin by invoking the Ch1•ro~e nam11 " Katiu.ih"
as the oldr
new nameforthi.1 area of the mountains and/or iu journal at well. 1he
provmce u indicated by its natural bawuJaries: rhe Roanoke River ~'allt•v ta th~
narrh: ti~ foothills of the piedmont arta to the east: Yona Mountain and the
Georgia hi/1.1 to the sowh: and the Tennessee River ~'allq 10 the we.11.
J'he editorial prioririu for u.1 are to colleet and disseminate 111/ rmatirJn
o
and energy which ~rtains sptcifically 10 this region. anJ rofoster the awarelll!u
that the land is a living being deserving of our love and respect. Lfring in thi.s
manner is a way to insure the su:uailrability of the biosphere and a lasting place
for ourselves in its continwng evolutionary process.
We seem to have reached the fulcrum point of a• do or die • situation in
terms of a quality sta/ldard of lift for all living beingson thi:r planet. Asa voice
for rhe carttak.trs of this sacred land, KariJah. we advocate a centered approach to
the co11cept of tkcentralizaiio11. /1 is our hape to become a .1uppor1 system/or
rhase accepti11g the challenge of su.staiMbilil)' and the creation of harmony and
balance in a total sense, here in this ploce.
We welcome all co"espondence. criticism. perti11e11t informa1io11,
articles. arrwork, etc wirh hopes that Kariuih will grow 10 urve rhe best intt:rms
of this regio11 and all its living. breathing mtmber.1.
-The Editors
We all grow and change.
Darkness is followed by light,
Sickness is followed by healing.
As Gaia goes around the circle
We reap what we have sown,
and plant new seeds for the coming light.
rrs NOT NICE TO FOOL MOTilER NATURE
�-~·
~
•.... •-:....i. ..•••·••.,,..........-: .,.• .........·• ""·. \ ....\, .••. . 1 • ••••• "• •••••.............. •·:. ; , ........ :· ; ...... .
{~~~~~ ... ~··· ....--~
·~.··
...~ .. .
GLOBAL WARMING AND KATUAH
By Kim Sandland
Just to satisfy a yearning for the breaking down of
barriers, this wricer is currently taking classes in the
beautiful, dramatic language of signs. a language
expressed with the bands and body and interpreted with
the eyes and the heart. My "sentences" arc stiJI a little
sluggish, my rtngerspclling a little awkward, and my
boots rattle around my ankles at the thought of
confronting a real live deaf person with no one's hands
around but my own. But someday. when I'm good
enough. sign language will allow me to enter the world
of the deaf and communicate with them. They will
understand me and I will understand them. It's all a
matter of knowing how.
There is another world that this human being would
like to know how to enter, another barrier to break
down. It is the barrier that prevents many people from
seeing and understanding the impact of human activities
on their Earth. It is the world in which many humans are
unable to interpret the language of the Earth, nor to hear
the voices of despair, cries of defilement, and pleas for
care.
Gary Miller, of the Depanment of Environmental
Studies at the University of North Carolina at Asheville,
hears the voices. In a recent interview, Miller outlined
the here and now of the global warming trend, the
depletion of the ozone layer, the increase of ozone
pollution, and acid rain - - all are similar in their origin
and require the same solution, says Miller. For Kauiah,
the pressures of environmental catastrophe are already
apparent, and growing worse.
Oak decline is taking place on our slopes, and
drought like that we experienced over the pa.~t <;everal
years may exaggerate · and acceler,11e - that decline.
Miller a!lributes chat decline to a number of different
factors, including poor forest management practices
earlier in this century. like the harvest of prime trees,
leaving poorer trees which are more vulnerable to
adversity. If the greenhouse effec1 has staned, the
climate will only get warmer, and intense summer heat
and drought may make plant communities vulnerable to
wiY1h@1e ecosystem~ !\!re :irlll
je@pudy, !l!lld m!ly ~sa;p]pem ....
S1l!lclb. as the s:plrl.1ce-ffir ~osyitem
~yjpical @f aihe lb.ii.gh.er S@11.11tllaem
ApJP!lh1clmh1llll elev!lti~:ins, tfot
exm!I!ljplle. 111ds we bow."
invasion by disease, insects, and fungi. Plants and the
animal communities they suppon may not make the
necessary adjustments to severe climatic shifts in a shon
period of time. They need long-term evolution, Miller
says.
Whole ecosystems are in jeopardy, and may
disappear - - such as the spruce-Cir ecosystem typical of
the higher Southern Appalachian elevations, for
example. This we know. We have known, says Miller.
about acid rain since the 1870's, and about the
"greenhouse effect" since before the turn of the century.
Unfonunatcly we arc only now monitoring the changes
induced by these pollution effects and may yet be a
couple of years away from cfTectivcly implementing new
control legislation.
In 1988 we experienced the effect of increased water
temperatures and decreased water volume in our streams
and reservoirs, Miller says. Higher water temperatures
mean less oxygen concentrated in the water; less oxygen,
increased coxins, increased temperatures will mean less
fhh. For Katuah, this affects not only our fishermen.
but our trout industries as well, Trout fisheries ha\'e
already begun relying on well water, which has less
oxygen capacity than stream water, and so have turned to
(con1111ucJ on nest pegel
W1.NT£R. - 1988-89
Drawing by ROB MESSICK
Jeot.Uan Journa!
p~ 3
�(continued from previous page)
oxygenation systems, powered wilh electricity, powered
by fossil fuels.
Increasing populations, resulting in higher nitrogen
pollution from the burning of fossil fuels in power
plants, factories, and automobiles, coupled with the
temperature inversions characteristic of mountain
valleys, will fill our mountain air with unbreathable
substances, says Miller. During lhc past summer ~zone
pollution reached the highest levels ever recorded in our
"Refusing to learn the issues, refusing to raise
taxes and refusing to commit resources to
resolving environmental problems, will result
in an uninhabitable planet. Deferring action
until later will only cost us more in the long
run."
area. More air-conditioning will be desired by people as
the years go by; more air-conditioning means more
burning of fossil fuels, and more pollution, in a
never-ending cycle of waste and want. It's already
happening.
More people will be here, too. Miller believes it is
impossible to consider the ramifications of current trends
for the Katuah bioregion alone, because what happens in
other bioregions will have a direct effect on Kattiah.
Rising ocean waters, increasing greatly over the next
20-50 years, are likely 10 flood coastal areas. Coastal
communities, both marine and human, may be
devastated. Our wetlands, the coastal estuaries, the hean
of lhe seafood industry and the basis of the foodchain for
all species, will be destroyed by advancing seas. Sixty
to 65% of harvested fish and shellfish now spend pan of
their life cycle in the estuaries, says Miller, and they will
be affected. People have already begun flocking to the
mountain areas to escape hot climates; people will come
in droves, bringing their indusuies with them, as the
coastal economies and environments are changed. There
will be more fossil fuels consumed, more water
consumed, more native habitat destroyed here in Kattiah,
in the face of an already-shrinking resource base which
is falling 10 the effects of global warming and global
waste.
We know about all lhis. We know about hot
summers [which will grow hotter), and about
temperature inversions [which will only serve to make i1
hotter and harder to breathe, for all species), we know
about increasingly severe storms and drought and
landscapes of fallen trees and wi1hered undergrowth.
We know because we have read it, heard it, we have
already seen it. But is it 100 late for Katuah? Gary
Miller has some defini1e ideas.
There arc 1hree keys to understanding and action,
according to Miller, which m3y not undo what is already
upon us, but may save a pan of whnt we have for future
generations. The first is education. Gary Miller believes
that we should have a national required curriculum in
environmental science in all our schools. Says ~iller,
"The future of our planet depends on how well people
understand the issues." Many people are not aware;
they don't read, and they don't understand. lf we read
and understand, we can change our own wasteful
behaviors, and we can demand more of our politicians.
Part of education, says Miller, is comprehending the fact
that solutions are expensive. Refusing to learn the
issues, refusing to raise taxes and refusing to commit
resources 10 resolving environmental problems, will
result in an uninhabitable planet. Deferring action until
later will only cost us more in the long run. This has
always been the case.
The second key is consuming less, doing with less.
As Miller says, every time you lhrow it away, you waste
energy, because it must be recreated, using virgin
resources and more fossil fuels. And waste must be
disposed of, or incinerated when we run out of room for
disposal. More air pollution. Miller believes that all
people could cut their use of elecuicity by 40-50% today
and srill live comfonably, provided they give up their
need 10 live in a totally regulated environment with
temperature fluctuations of only a few degrees. Miller
calls it, "a new e1hos--try 10 live with less or do
without," and we can begin it in Karuah. It's not so
new, because some of us have been hearing it for years.
We can participate at any of several levels of activity:
recycling, avoiding plastics, wearing sweaters inside in
the winter. We can promote mass transit and drive our
personal cars less. We can conserve fossil fuels by
pursuing solar energy and other alternative energy
sources, excepting nuclear power. In the realm of
electoral politics, we need to investigate politicians'
records carefully, vote for pro-environmental candidates,
and demand more leadership from them. We can send
money to organizations trying to save lhe rain forests
(and those working on behalf of the temperate forests as
well), which are vital to our atmosphere.
"If we do not, we will lose our freedom of
choice as nature takes over, causing hurricanes
of magnificent force, high temperatures we can
not tum off, ultraviolet radiation and skin
cancer, air we can not breathe, a scarcity of
drinking water, and deserts where once there
were forests."
And the last key, says Miller, is planning. For
Katliah, this means that local and regional officials must
decide what is the true human carrying capacity of this
region, taking into consideration dwindling water
supplies, protection of habitat, and disposal of waste.
This is not being addressed by local planners and
officials, says Miller. An obvious example is lhe plan to
have incinerators handle the solid waste overload--and
anything, says Miller, with lhe potential of c?ntrib~ting
to air pollution, compounded by temperature inversions,
should be ruled out. Indiscriminate promotion of the
area in an effon to attract new mdusuies and more people
should be curtailed, until we understand what a
shrinking resource base will mean to us in the near
future.
We must make these difficult decisions now, says
Gary Miller. If we do not, we will lose our freedom of
choice as nature takes over, causing hurricanes of
magnificent force, high temperatures we c~ not rum off,
ultraviolet radiation and skin cancer, air we can not
breathe, a scarcity of drinking water, and desens where
once there were forests.
To those who don't hear, we must find a way to
communicate, a language of respect, conservation,
pro1ec1ion, and realization, to be shared among all
species. We must find that language soon, lest our
message have no ears to fall on.
WtNTDt - 1988- 89
�FIRE THIS TIME
by Lylich Crabawr
"God give Noah tM rainbow sign.
No more willer, fire~ time.•
• Block spiritual
Looking around at the forest about
me, l soe great imbalance. I see the forest
suffering as a result of acid rain,
clearcuuing, and the drought we have been
having. These are clearly the result of
human influence. The world is in need of
healing.
But each imbalance has within it the
conditions that will restore equilibrium. That
is also true in this case. There is a change
coming, and it is coming on much faster
than people think. We are presently caught
up in a cycle of drought. This is not going
to go away next summer. We might get a
reprieve next summer. it might not be as bad
as this year, but the following summer will
be, and the summer after that will be as
well.
Some drastic climatic shifts are in the
making. Different areas might become
weuer, drier, colder, or hotter. These
changes will occur for no apparent rilyme or
reason. The Southern Appalachians happen
10 be an area that is becoming hotter and
drier. In fact, I think this area is going to
dry up severely.
There is going to be a massive die-off
of the forest. We are seeing that already.
The Black Mountain Range is being
denuded by acid rain. Already there are
streaks of dry places on the ridgetops.
panicularly around rocky cliff areas, where
the water drops out quicker. If there is no
rain, those dry ridges have no source of
water. Lower down on the hillside, water
collects and drains down. But as the
moisture falls off and the water table drops,
the ridges suffer the mosc.
Already, the dries! varieties of plants
live on che ridgecops: scrub oak, scrub
pines, mountain laurel, and grasses. Those
are the species that are adapted to living up
there. Ginseng. the orchid species, or big
poplar IJ'CCS do not live up there.
ln effect, what is going 10 happen is
that the dry ridgecop conditions are going to
move down the hill. As the climatic change
intensifies and conditions become more
severe, the poplar cove associations will
become scarce as 1he dry ridgetop
community moves down into what were
once rich, moist coves. The moisture-loving
species will hold out longest alongside the
creeks. But then 1he smaller, higher
watersheds will dissipate, and 1he dry
conditions will move fanher and fanher
down. There will be a terrible decline in the
little streams now running through the hills.
r do not know if major rivers will dry up,
but they are going to become a 101 smaller.
How far ii will go, J do not know.
We have somewhat of an advantage in that
we have a number of micro-climates and a
vancty of different plants here in the
mountains. That will help lo offset the worst
aspects of the change.
When the forest dies off on 1he
ridges, greal amounts of dry tinder will be
left on the.hillsides. And as the dry weather
continues, there will probably be
tremendous firestonns burning off that
highly flammable material. That is going to
create an incredible amount of pollurion over
the temperate forest 1,ones, which will speed
up the degradation of the atmosphere and
intensify the "greenhouse effect" a1 an
exponential rate.
On these steep slopes, if the tree
cover dies off and fires burn off the organic
maner on the top of the soil layer, the soil
will be washed down the hillsides very
quickly, because the vegetation and the leaf
mulch is what holds the soil in place. If rhe
vegetation dies on the ridgetops, the soil is
going to come down. Strip a hillside now
and see how fast it gullies; see how fast the
streams silt up and die. There is always
more erosion in time of drought.
The situation here is going to be
similar to that in the island nation of Haiti
where the native people cut the wood off th~
hills for cooking fuel. With the vegetative
cover removed, che tropical rains washed all
the soil off the mountainsides, and the forest
could never grow back.
The Appalachian mountaintops are
basically granite rock with a couple of feet
of soil on the top. They will be eroded
down to bare rock. This is already
becoming evident. Mt. Mitchell has two to
three times as much rock showing on its
face as it used to have.
Eventually I believe we will have an
environment here similar to that of northern
New Mexico: bare, rocky mountaimops and
fenile valleys. There will be perhaps trees
and streams in the valleys, but all around us
1he hills will look like New Mexico. It
won't be unattractive. New Mexico is a
wonderful locale in its own way. But it is
going co be sad 10 see the species disappear
that live here in these rich coves.
Conditions might stabilize before
then. They might become more disastrous
than that The weather is not necessarily
going 10 be consistcnL Just because our
summers are going to be horter, that does
no1 mean tha1 our winters arc going to -be
warmer. We may have even colder winters,
but with more drastic changes, like sudden
storms followed by warm spells, or terrible
fronts coming down out of Canada.
I do not perceive the greenhouse
effect as causing worldwide desert,
however; ii is causing worldwide drastic
weather changes. Tl is not getting hotter
everywhere, but climate fluctuations arc
getting more extreme.
The Carri bean and the Gulf of Mexico
recently experienced the wors1 hurricane
within memory, Hurricane Gilben. Gilben
produced the lowest pressure ever recorded.
But as the climatic shift progresses, we may
see cyclones and hurricanes the likes of
which we cannot imagine at this time.
Massive thunderstorms may produce
corrential rains. There may be floods like
thO'iC this area experienced in 1916, but the
effects may be worse, because there will be
no vegetation on the hillsides to hold the
water and the mud.
The Anasazi and other pueblo Indians
in New Mexico and Arizona had a similar
experience. They suffered a drought and the
vegetation died off on the tops of the mesas,
so that when it did rain, nash noocts came
down the valleys, destroying their crops and
gullying out the fields, before the land
became dry again. Where they once had
com and squash growing at the edge of the
creek, the water was now running in a
trickle at the bonom of a gully 20 feet deep.
This made irrigation impossible for them,
and the uncontrolled erosion would carry
away more of their precious bouomland
(c;onunucd an pqc 26)
1.Jl.NTER - 1988-89
Eiching by ROB MESSICK
XAt.i&M Joul'~ p~ 5
�Bioregions:
The Context for Reinhabiting the Earth
by Thomas Berry
Tlwmas Berry's new book The Dream of the Earth has recenrly
been published by Sierra Club Books. Ir is regarded as a major book
of our time. This excerpt provides an excel/em introduction to his
work on bioregional thought and humans' relationship with the
planet.
T he universe expresses itself in the blazing radiance of the
in the vast reaches of the galactic systems. Its most intimate
expression of itself, however, is in this tiny planet: a planet that could
not exist in ilS present form except in a universe such as this one, in
which it has emerged and from which it has received its life energies.
The planet presents itself to us, not as a uniform global reality, but as
a complex of highly differentiated regions caught up in the
comprehensive unity of the planet itself. There a.re arctic and tropical,
coastal and inland regions. mountains and plains, river valleys and
desens. Each of these regions has its distinctive geological
formation, climactic conditions, and living fonns. Together these
constitute the wide variety of life communities that may be referred 10
as bi0tegions. Each is coherent within itself and intimately related to
the others. Together they express the wonder and splendor of this
garden planet of the universe.
Slar'S and
The human species has emerged within this complex of life
communities; it has survived and developed through participation in
the functioning of these communities at their most basic level. Out of
this interaction have come our distinctive human cultures. But while
at an early period we were aware of our dependence on the integral
functioning of these surrounding communities, this awareness faded
as we learned, through our scientific and technological skills, to
mnnipulare the community functioning 10 our own advantage. This
manipulation has brought about a disruption of the entire complex of
life systems. The norcscence that distinguished these communities in
the past is now severely diminished. A degradation of the entire
natural world has taken place.
Even though humans as well as the other species are in a
stressful situation, few of us are aware of the order of magnitude of
what is happening. Fewer still have any adequate understanding of
its causes or the capacity to initiate any effective program for the
revitalization of these life systems upon which everything depends.
Disruption of the life process has led to a severe disruption of the
human communicy itself. If social tunnoil and international rivalries
have evoked significant concern. the disruption of the eanh's life
systems remains only a vague awareness in the human mind. This is
strange indeed when we consider that the disruption of our
bioregional communities is leading to a poisoning of the air we
breathe, the water we drink, the soil and the seas that provide our
food. We seek to remedy our social ills with industrial processes that
lead only to further ecological devastation. Indeed our sensitivity to
human conflict over the sharing of earth's resources has di~tracted us
from the imperiled condition of these resources themselves. a peril
associated with the loss of topsoil, the destruction of forests, the
desenification of fruitful areas, the elimination of wetlands and
spawning areas, the exhaustion of aquifers, the salinization of
irrigated areas, the damaging of coral reefs.
The urgency of a remedy for this situation is such that all social
groups and all nations are called upon to reassess the entire
human-earth situarion. As was indicated by Edwanl Schumacher, we
must rethink our industrial approach to "development." This
rethinking involves appropriate technologies, but also appropriate
lifestyles, and, beyond those, appropriate human-earth relations.
The most difficult transition to make is from an anthropocentric
to a biocentric norm of progress. If there is to be any true progress,
then the entire life community must progress. Any progress of the
human at the expense of the larger life community must ultimately
lead to a diminishment of human life itself. A degraded habitat will
produce degraded humans. An enhanced habitat suppons an elevated
mode of the human. This is evident not only in the economic order,
but also throughout the entire range of human affairs. The splendor of
eanh is in the variety of its land and its seas, its life forms and its
atmospheric phenomena; these constitute in color and sound and
Drawing by ROR MESSICK
loltNTER - 1988- 89
�movement that great symphonic context which has inspired our sense
of the divine, given us our emotional and imaginative powers, and
evoked from us those entrancing insights that have governed our
more sublime moments.
This context not only activates our interior faculties; it also
provides our physical nourishment. The air and water and soil and
seeds that provide our basic sustenance, the sunshine t.hat pours its
energies over the landscape--these are integral with the functioning of
the fruitful earth. Physically and spiritually we are woven into this
living process. As long as the integrity of the process is preserved,
we have air to breathe and water to drink and nourishing food to eaL
The difficulty has come from our subversion of this integral life
communily, supposedly for our own advantage. In the process, we
have tom apart the life system itself. Our technologies that do not
function in harmony with earth technologies. With chemicals we
force the soil to produce beyond its natural rhythms. Having lost our
ability to invoke natural forces, we seek by violence to impose
mechanistic patterns on life forces. In consequence of such actions,
we now live in a world of declining fertility, a wasted world, a world
in which its purity and life-giving qualities have been dissipated.
The solution is simply for us as humans to join the eanh
community as participating members, to foster the progress and
prosperity of the bioregional communities to which we belong. A
bioregion is an identifiable geographical area of interacting life
systems that is relatively self-sustaining in the ever-renewing
processes of nature. The full diversity of life functions is carried out,
not as individuals or as species, or even as organic beings, but as a
community that includes the physical as well as the organic
components of the region. Such a bioregion is a self-propagating,
self-nourishing, self-educating, self-governing, self-healing and
self-fulfilling community. Each of the component life systems must
integrate its own functioning within this community functioning to
survive in any effective manner.
The solution is simply for us as humans to join
1he earth community as participating members, to
foster the progress and prosperity of the bioregional
communities to which we belong.
The first function, self-propagation, requires that we recognize
the rights of each species to its habitat, to its migratory routes, to its
place in the community. The bioregion is the domestic setting of the
community just as the home is the domestic setting of the family. The
community continues itself through successive generations precisely
as a community. Both in terms of species and in terms of numbers. a
certain balance must be maintained within the community. For
humans to assume rights to occupy land by excluding other lifeforms
from their needed habitat is 10 offend the community in its deepest
structure. Further, il is even to declare a state of warfare, which
humans cannot win since they themselves are ultimately dependent on
those very lifeforms that they arc destroying.
The second bioregional function, self-nourishment, requires
that the members of the community sustain one another in the
established pallerns of the natural world for the well-being of the
entire community and each of its members. Within this pattern the
expansion of each species is limited by opposed life forms or
conditions so that no one lifeform or group of lifeforms should
overwhelm the others. In this function of the community we include,
for humans, the entire world of food gathering, of agriculture, of
commerce, and of economics. The various bioregional communities
of the natuml world can be considered as commercial ventureS as well
~\NTt:R. - 1988-89
as biological processes. Even in the natural world there is a constant
interchange of values, the laying up of capital, the quest for more
economic ways of doing things. The earth is our best model for any
commercial venture. h carries out its operations with an economy
and a productivity far beyond that of human institutions. It also runs
its system with a minimum of entropy. There is in nature none of that
sterile or toxic waste or non-decomposing liner such as is made by
humans.
The third function of a bioregion is its self-education through
physical, chemical, biological and cul rural patterning. Each of these
requires the others for its existence and fulfillment. The entire
evolutionary process can be considered as a most remarkable feat of
self-education on the pan of the planet earth and of its distinctive
biorcgional units. An important aspect of this self-educational
process is the experiential mode of its procedures. The eanh, and
each of its biorogions, has performed unnumbered billions of
experiments in designing the existing life system. Thus the
self-educational processes observed in the natural world fonn a model
for the human. There is presently no other way for humans to
educate themselves for survival and fulfillment than through the
instruction available through the natural world.
The fourth function of a bioregion is self-governance. Ao
integral functional order exists within every regional life community.
This order is not an extrinsic imposition but an interior bonding of lhe
community that enables each of its members to participate in the
governance and to achieve that fullness of life expression that is
proper to each. This governance is presided over in much of the
world by the seasonal sequence of life expression. It provides the
order in which florescence and exuberant renewal of life takes place.
Humans have iraditionally inserted themselves into !his community
process through their ritual celebrations. These are not simply hu1l13ll
activicies, but expressions of the entire panicipating community. ln
human deliberations each of the various members of the community
should be represented.
The fifth function of the biorcgional community is self-healing.
The community carries within itself not only the nourishing energies
that are needed by each member of the community; it also contains
within itself the special powers of regeneration. This takes place, for
example, when forests arc damaged by the great storms or when
periods of drought wither the fields or when locusts swarm over a
region and leave it desolate. In all these instances the life community
adjusts itself, reaches deeper into its recuperative powers and brings
about a healing. The healing occurs whether the damage is to a single
individual or to an entire area of the community. Humans, roo, find
that their healing takes place through submission to the discipline of
the community and acceptance of its nourishing and healing powers.
The sixth function of the bioregional community is found in its
self-fulfilling activities. The community is fulfilled in each of its
components: in the flowering fields, in the great oak trees. in the
night of the sparrow, in the surfacing whale, and in any of the other
expressions of the natural world. Also there arc the seasonal modes
of community fulfillment, such as the mysterious springtime renewal.
In conscious celebration of the numinous mystery of the universe
expressed in the unique qualities of each regional community, the
human fulfills its own special role. This is expressed in religious
liturgies, in market festivals, in the solemnities of political assembly,
in all manner of play, in music and dance, in all the visual and
performing ans. From these come the cultural identity of the
bioregion.
The fururc of the human lies in acceptance and fulfillment of the
human role in all six of these community functions. The change
indicated is the change from an exploitive anthropoccntrism to a
panicipative biocentrism. This change requires something beyond
environmentalism, which remains anthropocentric while trying to
limit the deleterious effects of human p~nce on the environment.
�(continued from previous page)
We have limited our discussion so far to the inner functioning
of the regional communities because these provide the most
immediate basis of survival. If these communities do not fulfill their
most essential functions, then the larger complex of biorcgions cannot
fulfill its role. Each of these bioregions is. as we have noted.
re/a1ively sclf-suscaining. None is fully self-sustaining since air and
water flow across the entire planet, across all its regions. So it is
with the animals. Some of them range widely from one end of a
continent to another. Birds cross multiple bioregional, and even
continental, boundaries. EvenruaJJy aJI bioregions are interdependent.
Tllls interdependence is presently accentuated by the toxic waste
poured into the environment by our industriaJ society. Such toxic
materials are borne across entire continents and even across the entire
planet by water and atr. Such an extensive continental problem
would not exist, of course, if each of the various bioregions
functioned properly within its own context.
The larger functioning of bioregions leads to a consideration
that the canh be viewed primarily as an interrelated system of
bioregions, and only secondarily as a community of nations. The
massive bureaucratic nations of the world have lost their inner vitality
because they can no longer respond to the panicular functioning of
the various bioregions within their borders. A second difficulty with
these large nations is the exploitation of some bioregions for the
advantage of Others. A third clifficulry is the threatened devastation of
the enrire planet by the conflict between bureaucratic nations, with
their w~aponry capable of continental, and even planetary,
devastation. To break these nations down into their appropriate
biorcgionaJ communities could be a possible way to peace.
The bioregional mode of thinldng and acting is presently one of
the most vigorous movements taking pince on the Nonh American
continent. Its comprehensive concern is leading toward a reordering
of aJl our existing establishments: political-legal, commercialindustriaJ, communications, educa1ional and religious. At present all
of these establishments arc involved in the devastating impact of
indu~trial society on the natural world. The human arrogance they
manifest toward the other natural members of the life communities
remains only slightly affected by the foreboding concerning the future
expressed by professional biologists and by others who have
recognized that the imminent peril to the planet is not exactly the
nuclear bomb, but the plundering processes that are extinguishing
those very life systems on which we depend.
Yet the numbers of those speaking and acting and leading
in. pro~rams of reinhabiting the eanh in a more benign
relauonshtp with the other members of these natural communities are
growing constantly. This movement, often referred to as the Green
Movement, is fostering an ecological or biorcgional context for every
as~~t of life, for educarion, economics, government. healing and
rehg1on. So far, the movement remains a pervasive and growing
m~e o~ consciousness that is groping toward a more precise
an1culanon of its own ideals, its institutional fonn and its most
effective programs of action.
othe~s
. Of primary imponancc in Nonh America is identifying the
vanous bioregions. To do that requires a sensitivity akin to that of
the s~amanic personality of tribal peoples. While bioregions have
~nai~ geographic boundaries, they also have cennin mythic and
h1stoncal modes of self-identification. This idenrification depends on
ourselves as we participate in this process, which only now we begin
to understand or appreciate.
/
Excerpted by permission of Sierra Club Books from The Dream of
the Earth, e>I988 by Thomas Berry.
Available 11 bookslOfes around the region or by d!rec1 mail from: Sierra Club
Store Orders. 730 Polit Street. San Francisco. CA 94 IOCJ. (Prepaid orders only,
enclose S 18.95 plus SJ.00 for pomge and handling.)
Towards the Legal Recognition
of the Rights of All Species
Finally. II 1s beginning to dawn on us humans that the wider Earlh
communlly with whom we exist have nghts, IOO. Afl species have rights··such
as the right IO habi1a1. the right to breathe clean air, the right to have access 10
good water, elC.··and it is lime for these rights IO be legally rocognued.
In The Dream of the Ear1h, Thomas Berry refers to The World Charter
fur :>lalure which was adop1ed by lhe U.N. in 1982. This chnncr can be a
valu:ible. dynarmc tool for draftJng a regional or local Ch.:incr for Nature. Citucns
groups. study grou~. 13Sk forces or individunls could speamcnd this effort IO 3dap1.
the charter lO 1he specific region where they live (or t0 draft an entirely new one).
The document can then be submitted to one's !Own council, county commission,
state legislature. etc. for adopuon.
Having the righ1s of other species be lcgnlly rccogni1.cd is an imPortnnl step
111 bnnging ourselves and our species more in balance with the Life community m
which we part.icipal.C.
If you arc interested an receiving a copy of The World Charter for Nature,
wr11e: Mamie Muller. KatUiJh Journal, P. 0. Box 638. Leicester, NC 28748,
Katililh Province.
Earth exercise:
a guided exercise designed for
personal/community/Earlh healing
Getting in touch with our own interior heaJing resoun:es as
well as those of the planet itself is an imponant facet of any
environmentaJ, political, or social effon. Often we see ourselves
as bucking the cultural ride and feel a sense of futility. Yet, it is
important to see the work that we each do, as an individual and as
pan of an organization, from a wider perspective.
The body wants to heal itself, the planet wants to heal
i1self. We need to let ourselves feel a pan of this wider biotic
system of self-healing. We don't have to invent or create a
"make-believe" connection, all we have to do is give ourselves
the opportunity to see these wider connections that eiUst.
There are many "spontaneities" within us that can be
tapped into in order to pnnicipate consciously in this heaJing
process but we need 10 get beyond our "everyday" mind to do
this. Exercises such as the one here can provide a
non-threatening, comfonable way to begin this process of getting
in touch with these resources.
As we become more familiar with this way of seeing, our
"everyday" self can more easily shift into this wider perspec1ive
as well. Even our breathing in and breathing out can gently
remind us of our intimate connection to the wider Earth process.
Another aspect to invite into this conscious participation is our
dreamworld, which so often remains isolated from our "regular"
consciousness.
This (next page) is a guided exercise for groups assisted by
a facilitator which was originally designed for and used at the
afternoon sessions of the second Annual New Priorities
Conference held this fall in Asheville, NC. The Conference
theme was: "Wake Up and Dream!" The exercise is intended for
both experienced as well as inexperienced facilitators.
-Mamie Muller
W'\JlfJ'Ejl - 1988-89
�Let every pan of your body feel a sense
of being relaxed .. .let an inner smile
come to you.... to every pan of your
body. (wait I minule or more)
Now that you arc becoming deeply
relaxed.... let yourself settle in to
yourself... ...to a place that feels very
secure to you....... very loving......very
beautiful... ...Let yourself feel "at
home" there. (pause)
Experience fully a sense of your own
well-being. Feel i.mmcrsed in it. Let Lhat
weU-beingness pour over you like
sunshine.
( wait 1 minute or more)
Earth Exercise I
cksUjnd blJ narnie nuller
cuut Zoa R.ocfunsui-n
In.structiollSfor faci/ital()r
Design the selling in the form of a circle whethu
indoors or out.Side. If'JOU/eel it is appropria1e.
have some taped music quietly playing as people
come in and se11le down (for uample. Kitaro's Silk
Road or some othu soothing music). Once all are
present. have everyone get corr(ortable. llandbags.
books. papers, should be m owsilk of the
bo1uularies of the circle. You, asfacilita1or, should
be si11ing as part of the circle. A.s 'JOU share this
t'.Urcise. be sure to speak slowly and distinctly in a
quiet. gentle manner. Be sure to leDW! quiet time
bcuween each phrase.
As you are feeling your own sense of
well-being...of joy.... begin to feel the
well-being of those around you ...feel
wannth and sunlight coming to this
circle hcre...immersing us all in a sense
of Life and well-being. (pause)
As you breathe in and out... .feel the
water coursing down from the
mountains... bringing life and
well-being to all....feel the roots of
trees as they grow deeper into the
soil..... feel the autumn leaves laying
themselves one on another as they
become pan of the eanh....ex.pericnce
Lhe plants around soaking in wamuh
and light from the sun.... making food
for themselves and for all... .listen 10 the
melodic call of the birds in the forest
trees. Watch the hawk circle in the
sky.......Feel the wind blow gently
across your face ....(pausc)
llere is a suggested "script" which you are
welcome to adapt for your own use.
...............Ex.er-ci.se.................
Right now, we will do a
relaxation/guided exercise having to do
with your well-being, the well-being of
others and the well-being of the planet
Just relax and enjoy it. Images,
thoughts or feelings may come to you;
don't be concerned as to whether you
are getting visunl images or not, just let
it happen. If at any time in the process,
you feel uncomfortable with this
ex.ercise, simply open your eyes and
wait for the rest of us to finish.
Let's begin.
Close your eyes, if you'd like..... And
begin to relax ...Take a deep breath
in .... pause for a moment .. then breathe
out ...Breathe in again .... pause.....and
breathe out Continue to breathe in this
way, and let yourself begin to relax as
you do this breathing. Breathe
in.... pause....and breathe
out..... Breathe in... pause....and
breathe out
Focus your attention on the place inside
yourself where you are pausing
... between breathing in and breathing
out.
(wait 1 minute or more)
Let your muscles begin to un-tighten
and relax .....Lct your whole body feel
free and comfonable.......... Breathe
in..... pause.....and ...... breathe out.
IJ\NTER. - l 988 - 89
•
Feel the self-healing that has been going
on....on this planet... for thousands of
years .... (pause) Feel yourself a pan of
this process.....(pause) ...you are pan
of this life-giving process...even your
breathing in ...and your brca1hing
out.. .. brings life.....
(I minute or more).
Now let us together imagine that this
sense of well-being is being restored
throughout our entire community
..... throughout our whole mountain
region. (pause) Let us imagine
well-being nowing through any painful
or distressed areas of our community
---both our human community and our
wider ecological community..... Let us
feel a healing an<l a strengthening taking
place.... Let us feel a sense of
empowenncnt coming to all who are
afflicted. The well-being of each of us
is integral to the well-being of all of us.
Feel a sense of health and sufficiency
being available to all in our community
here.
Envision yourself as an importanl pan
of this healing and restoring that is
begiMing to take place in our
community. Sec how you, in an
on-going way, fit into this process.
(pause)..Fecl yourself a pan of the
Life-giving energy that will help ~tore
this community to a full state of
weU-being.
(1 minute or more)
Now imagine the entire planet........fecl
the tangible. intricate connection of all
life.... .Fecl the planet itself being
restored to a state of well-being
...(pause).........Though it is much
threatened right now, the planet is
working vigorously towards
self-healing. As your own body acts to
heal itself... from a cut or wound
...sense the planet's ability to work
towards self-healing.... Begjn to feel the
undercurrent well-being of the planet
itself....Feel yowself a pan of this
process.
(1 minute or more)
Return now to your secure place within
yoursclf...and let your own well-being
be strengthened.....and be renewed
...(pause). Experience deeply the
well-being that is at the hean of things,
and let yourself remember this sense
fully. (pause)
Now, gently, come to this circle
here...... Begin to arise out of this
meditation. (pausc)....As you begin to
arise out of this meditation. let yourself
know that this ability you have to see
things in this way is available Lo you
whenever you need it. ..... Now come
and be fully present Lo this circle, here.
-end-
InstructiollS/or facililator
Agiun. you may want to play sootl11ng music softly
for a few momtnts to give people timt to -come
bock". Lock aroUNJ the entire circle Olld ma.Jr.t f~#
each ~rson ts alnght and is 'with you".
;crediisc
The concqxof"ll\lltt smile" is dn..,, from TOO<ll WO)<llO
Traruform Strus Into ViJa/111 by ManW. Ch1a. The
imagery or autumn leaves layina lhcrruel•cs one on
anolhcr comes from lhe poem "Autumn" by Ycvgcny
Ycvlahenko.
l'CSOlll<JCS'.
A good ldvanccd l'C9QWCe is Wor.tiitg l/Uilk O..i (Applibl
MtdllaJ1on for f111ui11vc Prabla..-Salvifll) by Margo
Adair. Wingbow Prus. 1984 Available from Boolq>eoplc
2929 ri!lh S1r«1, Bcriu:ley, CA 94710.
Mtdita1/ng wull Cliildun by Deborah RoU\an and
Spwsilig 1-d by Mmy Mwdock ltC good for begimeo
mdcbMen.
�we are buUdinge a house
I wondre wille we evre real/ye live inne rharre place
wille we die inne ine
I nevre go rhere
ine is imaginarye space contained
I amme ftdfilled
imagininge irtefromme thisse distance
looking uppe ane ine as w the nighte skye
baskinge...no, skewered ande roasringe
inne irres vasre brillianre promise
I canne imagine livinge there
butte I cannorre imagine tllisse bodye
seuinge f oote inne the doore
we are buildinge rhisse house withe oure handes
withe woles moved bye oure bodies ande oure lives
closinge oute the skye
we looke oute the windowes
ro gette oure bearinges inne the worlde
we enrre tlzroughe the doorwaye to become sometlunge
otlzre thonne whane we have beene
I muste come zo ourgrowe tllisse comainre
we are makinge
lilce anye orhre cru.slllCeanne
mye lwde shelle
I amme softe inside
I musre reste ande growe winges
inne tllisse place tharre keepes oute the worlde
thenne openne a/le the doores ande windowes
takinge mye daughrres bye the hande
flye oure everywhere
I aname thisse womynne
I speak withe herre voice
she has beenefarre
she has seene the manye wayes
110 one beinge cannefarlwme a/le herre visionnes
I amme rhisse womynne
I canne feele a/le man11re ofherre senses
swellinge ande flowinge inne herre bloode
she is worthye ofyou.re deepeste arre11do.11ce
a/le creanues grea1e and smalle
va.sre ande f ewe
are honoured bye herre giftes ande blessinges
I amme thisse womynne
I canne see through alle herre harde walles
o\·re alle herre higheste rampartes
the warmrhe inne the brigluc roomes ofherre hcarte
the joyouse wisdomme
abundan1e ande ge11ero11Se
inne the da.rke ferrite groU/lde o/ lierrc soulle
I amme thisse womynne
I COJllU! telle you
she bearres no mysterye or angre so greaie
thatte itte deserves none youre moste trusti11ge
ande rendre regarde
I amme tllisse womynne
emered ande conJained
I speake withe herre voice
~iUM Jo\lrna.£ P"'Jll 10
W\.Nn:Jt - 1988- 89
�"
somerimes the goldenn.e-handed one
wille arrende you
she wille rouclli! youre woundes
ande tlieye wille openne
bloominge like tlli! manyejWwres
a place w reste
cradlinge youre sorroM-'t!S
she canne do no wronge
alle lierre ministrationnes
are rlie rainnes' attendance
onne thirstye growule
she willes you tender/ye backe to life
you cann.e joinne thisse downpourre
amonge the greaifulle herbes ande grasses
reachinge joyous/ye
withe youre manye-petalled woundes
goinge to seede
thisse softe-spokenne invirationne
w 1111! springe
ofllJ!rre unconditioMOlle generositye
....
.....
.....
"•
-~
thisse lwu.se is tire cauldrenne
where we drive 01ue lives inne withe everye 11aille
a/le horde lessonnes are learned inr1e iues newe raftres
withe oure booces onne
we walke inne or oute 011ne the dayes irte ope1111es irres dnores
irtes walles ca/le to us inne oure sleepe
come 111110 me I wille give you reste
I .amme watchinge tire vaste surface of yo1u face
like the oceamU! forre signes of re11u11e
yorue habintalle morio1111es to a11de fromme mye shores
are so like the tide
tharre I waslie owe to sea ande re11une smootlw
Olide more rare eache time you release me
the hmLl·e standl!s onne the edge ofshore ande sl11Jllnwes
irce is the liglulumse visible
inne the dangerouse ande beawiftule fogge we trm:elle
to reaclie orie tJJwthre
sometimes I amme the lande creature/you rite sea 011e
the house is wliere we meete ande pane
inne otLre bootes and inne 01uejinnes
washinge inne ande owe ofi11es dnores ande windowes
like anye commormefLSlre
or mysteriouse glwste watchre-womynne we/le sunge
who changes herre skinne to jinde love owe of herre elemente
wlw longes forre a place to harboure
a/le tlU!se unruleye weedes ande l11Juntes/11eedes ande wantes
you are bttildingtll amme imagininge 1/iisse house
011ne the slwre ofoure lives givenne ovre
we are maldnge oure betides
le11e us lie inne themme tellinge tW lies
k>'LNTER. - 1988-89
• I slil11ed wmingc withe t's mne
highc <;choolc bccnusc I wns bored antic I
hked lhc rrcnche and<: oldc cnglishc wayc
of domgc 1.l11~e; the waye the wordes
lookc antic rcctc ... htr.c lhc!yc don1.c stoppe
butte s1ghc into !he! nexte a huJc. Nowe I
~ulle do iue to slowe mysclfc ande the
wortdc downc ju.st a little.•
poems and drawings by Kore Loy McWhirtcr
�completion.
Thus, paradoxically, consumerism is actually the undoing of
prosperity and abundance because it both fosters and feeds on the
feeling of lack., and of identification with only human creations
instead of the whole of creation. This leads to enslavement to
unending desires and to the frantic acquisitiveness of our culture.
How can we avoid panicipating in this mad delusion of
"consumerism" and "conquest"? l low can we be psychologically
heahhy and ethically aware? Undeniably, we are all somewhat
susceptible to the massive hype and pervasive illusion that surround
us. Under this influence, we tend either to resist our society and its
materialistic preoccupations or to acquiesce and "go for it".
Unfortunately, either way we end up trapped in reaction, and
emotionally chained, because both resistance and acquiesence involve
a kind of bondage.
ln order to neither resist nor acquiesce, we need to learn to
identify with that within us which is already complete, already
fulfilled, and to gradually merge with this inner Being which does not
always need "more". Without this inner development, it is very
difficult, if not impossible, to avoid being "possessed" by the
dominant thought-fonns and desires/reactions of mass culture.
An /1bu11d arice. of
€mpti11es5
by Richard Lowenthal
Our planet's deepening ecological crisis has recently been
forcing us to reassess our culture's most basic assump1ions and
attitudes about nature, society, technology, and prosperity. In
particular, it is now urgent tha1 we understand our culture's
pathological preoccupation with consumerism.
In earlier times, "consumption" referred 10 a disease, namely
tuberculosis; today it refers to an accepted social norm. Tuberculosis
was called a "wasting disease" which caused a person to gradually
weaken and "waste away". Is it possible that modern mass
consumption is also a wasting disease, causing the human spirit and
the Eanh itSClf to "waste away"?
Through this consumer mentality, our cul1ure has become so
out of touch with nature that we arc threatening the Eanh's capacity to
be a functioning suppon system - not only for ourselves, but for the
entire Life community of the planet.
Consumerism can easily be likened to parasitism, in which the
parasitic organism (the human species) lives off of and gradually
destroys the host organism (the Earth). In fact, Western industrialism
and "prosperity" has always been based on a profound disregard for
the Eanh and an unbelievably arrogant intention to "conquer nature".
What really concerns me most is the feeling behind labelling
people "consumers". For any culture to identify its members as
"consumers" is quite degrading. le reduces the complexity and
grandeur of being human down 10 the lowest - and saddest · common
denominator. To be a "consumer" is to feel anxious, hollow, waiting
to be filled ... cons1antly trying to fill the void inside, desperately
buying things to block lhe feelings of emptiness and isolation. ft is a
state of continual, ceaseless hunger without any lasting satiation or
X.Otuah Jo14rnQ£ pa<Je 12
I am here reminded of Homer's Odyssey and his story of
Ullysses' encounter with the Sirens. As Ullysses' ship approached
the island of the Sirens, he recalled the warnings of the sorceress.
Circe. She had told him that if he and his men listened to the
hypnotic singing of the Sirens, they would steer towards those
rapturous voices even against their will, and be smashed to pieces on
the rocky shore. It took considerable ingenuity and strength of will
for Ullysses and his crew to get safely past them.
So how do we, on our own Life journeys, get past the Siren
songs, the hypnotic allure of consumerism and immersion in
appearances? Ullysses' tale dramatically shows us that we mustn't
delude ourselves into underestimating their influence upon us. One
of the most dangerous characteristics of modem materialism is its
insidious seductiveness, its open-armed invitation to those places in
us that feel most insecure and needy. "Come," murmur the Sirens of
consumerism in unison, "I will feed you, care for you, fulfill you,
satiate you. What you need, I can supply! I am yours ... (and you are
mine!)".
Obviously what we really need is the awareness and inner
resolve to steer clear of the hypnotic spell of our modem-day Sirens.
Just like Ullysses, we need to understand the nature and power of
these forces which can lure us into a spiritual 'wasteland' of illusion.
Jn order to free ourselves from Life-denying, illusory "consumer
prosperity". we need to face and identify our modem-day Sirens.
Here are some that J have identified for myself....
The Siren of Induced Need and Desire
We are subc.onsc1ously l13incd by advertising (and ofttn school and family)
to believe that we always need something ouisidc of ourselves to help us feel
okay. The undcnmble purpose of commercial advertising is to get us to foci
vulnerable and 111COmplctc, usually by playing on our <:exual and social desires and
fears. And the purpo:>e behind &his, of~. is to crtalt "n~· and &hen make
money from the "needy" in any way possible. Jn the swkes1 tcnns, whnt'~
happening is lha1 our $C11SC of inner self wonh and dignny 1s deliber:uely being
undermined, so we will buy lhctt message and thcirproducL Adverti:;crs know lhal
fulfilled and self-assured people aren't c:isily hocked; thus, their job is to nmplify
our fears and m'iCCuntie~ v.hilc prc1cnding to .\tn:nglhcn and help us.
The ltUly diabolical lwisl in this sccnano is &hut when our needs and
de~res ate increased, our capacity for happiness and contcnuncnt co11cspondingly
decreases. What rcsulLS is a preposterous but deadly catch-22: we arc told, in
innumerable sublle ways, "You aren't happy, bill you could be happy by chBngmg
your ouiu circumstances .••.Of course. since there ate alway:; bt11tr eircums1D11Ccs
to aspire to, what you have and who you 11IC 1s never good enough, so you aren't
happy, but you could be by...eic."
So, ·round and 'round we go-unul we choo.i:e to get off this vicious
•merry• -go-round. llS viciousness shows up in painful and continual comparison
of who we are wilh who we supposedly could or should be-as well as in
1.11.NlDl - 1988-89
�judgement and comp:irison of Olhers. It presents appearances as ultimate reality,
denying the inner essence. IL affirms only what we IW and havt, not who we
inherem.ly art.
This judgemental aunospherc is all around us in our socicty--at school, at
work., at home, even in bed. In fact. oftcn 11's such an integral pan or our lives
that we aren't even aware of this subtle negauvity unless we're the obvious
victims of judgement .
The way to recognize compllllSOO and judgement is that it is always
sep:uative and contracting rat.hec lhan inclusive and exp:ins1vc. IL causes us to feel
defensive. different. "better" or "worse". and to close our hcarlS oo real hum31l
conlllet-and it inclines olhets to react t0 us in the same way. To avoid lhis Siren.
we need to cultivate discernment and empathy, which are humane responses
instead ofjudgemenull reactions, and t0 embrace this moment, os it acrually i.s.
'Ln many ways our f!Ujht from nature
ancl c!esire to remake the wort:<£
arises from our fear of the unknown, the
uncontrollable, and ultimately of death.
The Sirtn or Unlimited Prognss and Technological Sah·ation
One of our most cherished modem beliefs is thru the natural world is not
designed for hum:111 comfort and lhus needs cictens1ve remodeling. This belief was
our key LO Pandora's boit. and it h3s motivated our rclcntlc.~s b3ttlc with nature,
with all ilS ierrible and unforeseen con.sequences. We h:lve acted as if the Earth and
a.II its plant and animal life exist to be used or abu.~ by humans, and we h3ve
ignOICd the fundnmental oneness and iolCtdependcncc of all life.
Underlying all this is a profound misunderstanding of the Structure of life:
we have ignored the foct that nature - including human mllun: • is inherently
imbued witll form, limits, structure, and boundaries. We apparently forgot - or
wiUfully denied - that we too are bound by ccnain nntural and ~iritual laws. rn
Greek tragedy, the hero is always brought down by a tragic naw known as
"hubns"··a blind arrog;incc which denies limits and auempts to usurp the power of
the gods. The desire for power over ll3lUl'C is our tragic naw--and a nlllll'al proccs.~
of rctribuuon has been set 1n motion. The uue place for limitless creative
'progress' is in our social and spiritual m3turation.
in mampulnting and
"conquering• physical n:ality.
.
£ven proponents of "prosperity consciousness• can be mesmcriied by this
Siren. lf one secs the universe as absolutely unlimited, doc:; this automnucally
mean that Lhc Earth's resources are also unlim11cd? ...that every person has a
"divine right" lO unlimited wealth and prosperity? Will we continue to ci1pcrience
"abundance" if, through our own doing, our p131lct's ecosystem becomes mcapable
or supporung life?
Allowing oneself Lo become a participant once agnm m the vibrancy of
lhe 113tural world and to begin to appreciate the beauty and wisdom of limit and
form is a step toward freedom from this Siren of "No Limiis".
"°'
The Siren or Domestication and lnsu1111ion rrom Reality
In many ways our night from na1urc and desire to remake the world arises
from our fear or the unknown, the unconuollable, and ulumately of dcalh
I once wa' on the Slaten Island ferry. cm.~g New York h:lrbor at n1ghL
when suddenly I had a vision of all those immense towers and all lhJl light and
glare functioning tO obliterate the mght. to !iOmehow shut out and dwarf the
darkness. the realm of death and lhe unkllown. Daylight helps us feel safe and m
rel31lvc conucl--everything is clear. distinct, visible, and the ego likes thaL Night
is a different mauer aliogethcr-disunctions and shapes blur and blend. the familillr
becomes unfamiliar, nnd the sun disappears. leaving us "in the dark". And then...
thousands of star.1 appear in lhe heavens, rem1nd1ng us of mlimtc ~. not only
'out there', but within us as well.
This is quite intolerable for lhe ego bent on conuol. to order 10 preserve 11S
illusion of omnipotence. lhe ego mu.st crcate an altcmntive reality which shuis
out change. decay, death. silence, diutness. And lo and behold, with modem
technology bolstered by advertising, we have seemingly accompli$hed !hi.~. We
insulate our homes so we don't h3ve to feel lhe heat or the cold; we light up our
houses and our strcelS lO negate lhe night, and lhe glow from our c1ues blocks out
the stan; we have radios. TV's, lape players. etc. 10 enien.am us and keep silence
at bay: we wash and scrub and dcodoril.e and disinfect our bodies, our dishes, our
clothes, our noors until everything is spotless-so clean that there is no place ror
germs and decay and death tO g;un a foolhold·-or so adverli<;tt$ would have us
imagine.
k1tNTER. - 1988-89
We also shut away the darker side of ourselW!s--1.he irrational, angry,
lustful, sad or murderous rcelings that m1gh1 puncture our illu.~ion of control--and
uy our best to be "nice". always in control. Of course, this means it simply
won't do to be spontane00s and child-like. No, when we "grow up" we have to
behave like adults and plan everything. But boring and dcrulcning as this may be,
111. lcast it's safe-and lhe ego despcr.uely need!. to feel safe, because deep down we
know that this separate ego is itself an illusion. So nuher th31l face this and get
catapulted inoo another level or awareness, we cleverly devise count.less avoid3nce
mechanisms to distract us from the uuth.
There 1$, however, a huge dose of divlllC humor in au this-because having
to be in control actually feels terribly consuicting and uncomfortable, while
letting go of control and entering the !low of the moment feels bolh liberating nnd
very safe-after we eitpcriencc lhe fear and move through 1L Every time wechnnge,
every umc we let go of lhe past, we die a liule-but we're also reborn: and if we
continually ICL ourselves die t0 lhe past. we're also continually reborn. The cosmic
joke is: this is the power and immon.a.lity lhe poor frightened ego is constantly
wanting, but II has lO be willing to "let go" lO get lO 1L
Tbt Sirf'n or Over-orodutlivlty and Wasterulntss
This siren has had a dcvasm1ing impact on the environmcnL Its internal
"logic" goes like lhts: Westerners arc led to believe th3l somelhmg temble will
happen if they don't continually 111cn:ase their GNP, so they·re always pushing LO
grow. construct, or manufacture more and more goods. These goods are
increasingly dc.~igned to be disposable or 10 qUJCk.ly become obsolete. Afier all, if
people throw more things away, thcy11 have to buy more later, and I.his increases
production and profits. Perfunctory hp service is paid to the Idea of recycling. but
the dommant message sull "in lhe lllI" in this cuhure is that 1t is perfectly fine t0
waste resources 1r this increnses bolh eonvcrucnce and production. Even fwther, if
we're really "prosperous• m this cuhun:. we're able to throw things away at wall
and replace them (with "new, improved" ones. of course!)
:Every time we "throw somethiruJ
away " (where is "away"?) ... we add to
the out-of-control "9arha9t,fi,cation" of
our planet Home.
In olher words, waste, squandering, conspicuous consumption, gadget
mania, ond total d1~n for the environment are our measuring sticks for llow
"prosperous" we are! This attitude has more to do with ecological suicide than
prosperity. Every Lime we "throw somctlung away" (where 1s •away"?),
especially non-degradable pla~ucs and styroforun, we add to lhe out-of~ontrol
"g:irbagilication" of our planet Home. If lCllAnlS ever ucaled a house the way we
treat our planet. they'd be evicted immcda:ncly, and the Board of Health 11oould
prob:lbly condemn lhe property!
We've been vainly trying lO send our garbage abroad and to p:iy other
nauons to take 11 off our hands. In 1988 we've witnessed the sad spccll!Cle of
masses of g:irbage and medical refuse washing up on our beaches. again and again.
Thus, it's now impossible not to recognize that our garbage and our attitudes are a
major ecological problem. Yet the visible garbage is only the 1ip of the
iccberg--what about nuclear contanunatlon and other invisible, highly t0xic
effluvia?
True prospcnty would never give nse to such an absurd and ecologically
harmful "modus operandi". Conscious pl:lncwry 51ewardship clcrnands th.11 we be
awarc of waste and ac11·v~/y srop supponing 1L We can recycle most house.hold
wastes: we can simplify our live~ nnd decrease our "needs•: and we can help
Olhcrs do lhe same. In this way conscrvatlon can go hand-in·h:lnd with a d«pcr
prospenty that honors Life.
The Siren or Pain Avoidance and Addklion to Pleasure
People have always sought plca.wre and tried tO avoid pain, but modem
society has turned this iendcncy into a quas1·religious and fanatical faith. On
every side we are beset by messages and infCICllCCS that pleasure is "good• while
pam is "bad", and that we should always feel eitcited, happy. and carefree-which
mean~ that we must deny and suppress our pain at all co:.IS. This attitude can be
br117cnly obvlOU.,, as in most advcrus1ng; it can also opcr.llC very subtly, so 11 can
be difficult to pinpoint and counteract iL, effccis. One effect, though, is feeling
illi.IJy about eitpcriencing pain--it somehow <;CCII\~ almos1 un-American to be in
pain! But growing up can at times be difficult and painful. In order to become
mature adults. we sometimes have LO go through and learn from painful
�Book Review:
11iINKING LIKE A MOUNTAIN:
Towanls a Council of all Beings
by John Seed, Joanna Macy, Pat Reming, Ame Naess
1988; New Society Publishers; 128 pp.; $9.50.
Thinking Like a Mow11ain is a deep ecologist's prayer book.
Running Lhrough ils collection of essays, poems, rituals and
workshop notes is a pervasive sense of the emergence of Gaia, the
living planel, not as a quasi-scientific hypothesis, but a living
presence, a goddess.
The book's opening invocation by John Seed is a good
example:
"We ask for lhe presence of the spirit ofGaia ...Wc call upon
the spirit of evolution...We calJ upon the power which sustains the
planets in their orbits, that wheels our Milky Way in its
200-million-year spiral."
Directly relevant to the defense of eanh, Gaia is experienced
not only as presence pervading all, but as Seti', the larger Self of
which everything is pan. Experiencing the planet body as one's own
is for Seed the radical bean of deep ecology and something he
discovered Lhrough his own direct action defending the rainforest near
his home in New South Wales. "J was literally part of the rainforest
defending herself." "... we arc the rocks dancing."
This point 1s most powerfully made in 'The Testimony of
Graham Innes" which includes a p1C1ure of Innes buried up to his
neck as part of a campaign defending the Da.intree Rainforest against
the onslaught of bulldozers. "A slow dawning of awareness
(occurred) of a hitheno unknown connection. Eanh bonding. Her
pulse became mine, and the vessel, my body, became the vehicle for
her expression."
In addition to direct action, Seed suggestS a variety of
methods for inspiring the experience of deep ecology including
prayer, poetry, wilderness vision quests, and ritual of the sort
provided in thjs book.
Indeed "The Council of AU Beings" ritual developed by Seed
and Joanna Macy and described in the book by Macy and Pat Fleming
deserves detailed auemion. The ritual consists of three stages. The
first is entitled "Mourning."
Drawing on her experience with despair workshops. Joanna
Macy observes that the destruction of our life suppon systems is the
deepest and most pervasive source of anxiety in our time, that this
destruction is happening now, felt in our bodies as depression and
despair that we fear expressing because of the taboos set up in our
society. The first stage of the ritual acknowledges this despair - the
pain involved in the devastation of our soil. the loss of our forests,
the extinction of species, the poisoning of our breathe and blood, air
and water. The aim of the ritual at this point is to have the
participants "hear within themselves the sound of lhe eanh crying."
The second stage of the ritual is entitled "remembering."
Through both guided fantasy and active mimicry, panic1pantS reenact
the entire evolutionary journey of the cosmos, the planet and life on
earth acknowledging the real physical links of this journey built into
the coding of our genes.
The last stage of the ritual is the council itself with each
participant speaking for another life form and acting out the drama of
the contemoorarv olanetarv situation from a non-human perspective
as well as taking rums playing a human.
Jn addition to the ritual, the book contains poems by
Robinson Jeffers. Gary Snyder and Joanna Macy. an essay by Ame
Xatuah Journal pQ.CJe 14
Naess, beautiful rainforest illUSII'lltJons by Duilan Pugh and much else
useful for all of us working to generate the experience of deep
ecology.
It is interesting that in a collection of eanh prayerl> and
mvocauons to Gaia such as this, the selections are. w11h one
exception, the work of contemporary Western poets and authors
rather than excerpts from various Native American U'llditions which
have long revered the Great Spirit, Father Sky and Mother Earth.
(That one exception is a rcnrution of Chief Seattle's 1854 Duwam1sh
speech.) While the authors have undoubtedly been influen~ed by that
tradition, they represent what seems 10 be a new revelation shaped
both by contemporary science and contemporary vision. Their
poems, prayers and ritual evoke a spirit and offer a general fonn
rather than provide verbatim formulas. They begin to forge a path
into the teachings we must all be about the task of discovering and
inventing if the world of our children, let alone the world seven
generations hence is to survive as the rich luxuriant planet we have
known.
l must add that there is a healthy emphasis in the book that
ritual is not an end in itself but preparation for action by generating
deeply felt recognition that defense of the earth is self-defense. To
this end we join in the book's invocation: "O stars, lend us your
burning passion."
~
-Amy Hannon
Prinls by PAM and LIU TllOMAS
Book Review:
TALKING Wfl'H NATURE:
Sharing the Energies and Spirit ofTrees, Plants. Birds, and Earth
by Michael J. Roads
1987; H.J. Kramer, Inc.; 151 pp.; $9.95 (cloth)
The night was cloudy and I was alone with a book by the fire. So
l feh preny good Lo begin with,considering that's one of my favorite
places to be. but I was oot prepared for what the book would d~ to
me. As I read into it my heart opened and my sense of bemg
expanded. At midnight and half way through Lhe book, 1 could
contain myself no longer. I jumped out of my seat, rushed out the
door and flung my arms out 10 the night just as the wind blew the last
cloud from the moon and rushed past me in unbounded joy.
Ir's ha.rd to know what else to say about this book that really
matters. It is not as simple as the title implies, and yet in a very
deeply powerful way, it is simply about "talking with nature". It
brings that whole concept into an accessible reality. It is a sharing of
an unfolding that will touch you as deeply as your own untoldmg lies
within you. h holds vital pieces of wisdom, cruth and lighL It is
~
sweet nourishment.
• reprinted from 1~ EducOlional Resourct COOJ>(T(JJivc N~.tlt111er
IJ'\.N1£R. - t 988-89
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An Original Idea For Ka!Uah Oirrcncy
Options for Regional Currency:
A Look at
Local Employment Trading System
(LETS)
This network also increases the amou nt of personal contaet
between neighbors.
Reminding us of our true
interconnectiveness, it's a tool for the reweaving of ancient
pauems.or !Jibe and village. l~'s about simplifying and taking
respons1b1hty for our collective economic behavior. T he
LETSy~tem is an altemalive as well as a supplement to rhe
convennonal economy that can be implemented right now.
A LETSystem is a network whose members use a local
currency to allow them to 1rade foods and services without
necessarily having access to federal dollars. Members have
accounts which start with a balance of zero. Goods and services
which members want to obtain or provide arc listed in a monthly
mailing.
There are currently about 50 LETSystems operating around
the world, with much experience to draw from. Computer
software for operaung the ne twork is readily available. A
videotape, and a game which models the workings of the system,
can be used in educating folks about iL
Prices are stated in 'green dollars', a quasi-currency
equivalent in value to federal dollars. The lOtal of all member~·
account balances always equals zero. At any one point, there are
some accounts with a positive balance ("in credit") and some
accounts with a negative balance ("in commitment"). A stntement
of one's transactions and balance is received with the momhlv
mailing. A charge is deducted from each accoun1 monthly,
according 10 use, to cover the operating cos1s of the ne1work.
For example: John cu1s firewood. Pe1er 1s a weldcr, and
he wants wood bu1 has no money. John doesn'1 need any
welding done. Thai's usually where ii stops. However, if John
and Pe1er are members of a LETSystem, then John delivers the
wood, and Peter picks up the phone. He dials the LETSy,tem
answering machine and says, ''Hi, this is Peter, #48, plea~c
acknowledge John, #83, $75 for firewood. " This informauon 1s
fed to a computer. which increases John's account by 75 green
dollars and decreases Peter's account by 75 green dollars. In
tum, John employs a carpen1cr. the carpenter has a haircut, gels
some clothes made. buy~ food from a farmer. The farmer now
has a way to pay for a welder. so Peter gets to work again. In
this network people need never be unemployed because of a lack
of federal dollars in the communily.
Many transactions are likely to consist of pan green dollars
and pan federal dollars, as members take care of their needs for
cash. The LETSystem is compatible with the conventional
monetary system and simply increases the amount of local
economic activity.
What I sec happening as a next step is people who are
juiced up about tltis taking the time to consider the details. Then a
group of peo~le who feel clear about it can get the ball rolling by
actually starling a LETSysiem and organizing an educational
workshop designed to ium larger numbers of people onto the
network.
We are c~rr~ntly ro:m.in.g a LETSystem for the Floyd
County community in the Vtrg1ma portion of Katuah.
compiled by Fred Mignone
-rtprinrtd from Educauonol Rtsouru Coopt'raJi\'t', Box 80, Floyd. Virginia
24(~/
If you wo uld like to know more abo ut LETSvstcms
tha l a re c urre ntly fun ctioning in Cana da a nd the L.S.
as we ll as audio-vis ual ma te rials, send a d olla r to:
Lands man Community Servi ces, Ltd., 37 5 J ohnston
Avenue Courtenay, BC V9N 2Y2 C anada.
Olhcr rosourus:
Economics as If tht Earth Rtally Ma11utd: A Ca1alyst Guide 10 Socially
Conscious lnvtsting. Su'ian Meeker-Lowry. 1988. New Society Publishers,
P.O. Bo~ 582, Sama Crur., CA 95061
"The Local Employment Trading System•. Wholl! Earth Revitw, r-;o. SS.
Summer 1987.
Oraw1na by ROB MESSICK
W'l.N'J'ER - 1988- 89
X.OWah Journot pGCJe 15
�tft.e cft.t'ontcie.s of fCoycL
At the time of the change there were so many
wildly imaginative approaches 10 transformation; all
worked some, some worked a 101! What a time for
adventure and opponunity.... shining days.
One thing I remember, there was n lot of knitting
and darning going on. People just staned to draw up
the rough and tattered edges of the life cloth and sewed
them back together. One of the signs of it was the
coming of prosperity; all over people got together good
shelter and strong gardens, 1here was a 101 of local
commerce and baner. health re1umed 10 1he land and
birds came back. and bear. The people 1hrived no
maner what the weather. The seasons began 10 make
sense 10 1he people and they noticed the changes and
understood themselves.... they were able 10 help each
other, so prosperity returned.
The apprentice pa1h came into focus again. People
all of a sudden began to think of what they knew as a
gift and a tool of their trade. The work people did was
recognized as a pan of 1heir lifesong and deserved 10
be honored. Quality returned, and guild houses;
young folk traveled from guild to guild getting a taste
Text reprinted from EducatiolllJI R~ouret Ctnru Nt'Wslcutr:
Bo~ 80: Floyd, VA
24091
Drawing by 10
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of the difference, then they would take their pick. At
first everybody kept jumping from one 10 the next,
midst alot of smoke and dust, but it settled pre11y
quickly and folks could hear their intuits, which
always speeds things up. Now the choices usually are
clear. Of course, all the decision-making was helped
along greatly when we re-connected with our ancestral
helpers: the others or our group in the past, present and
future, who all want the same thing. They reminded us
that discipline Le; just remembering what you want.
And, of course, a big, big change came with the
passing of the age of leadership. We know now it was
really just a thought, but it projected such substance
and energy it was difficult to see thru it for a while....
like a heavy fog on the ridges. Bui by and by it lifted
and nobody needed a leader anymore, we all fell a
sense of purpose and had a plan, of course that
brought order - real orderliness like the way water
moves along, or fire bums, or a rock splits along a
line.
When I look back to the before rime, it's hard to
believe how all our lives were ordered by confusion.
Our power circuit was unplugged. So. or course, the
~
change was awesome at first, but 11 quickly became
normal... ..i1's easy to forget
I'm so glad 10 have seen these times.
-by Granny DeLauney
p
�.KNIFE, AXE, AND SAW
•
or
" Getting Pocketknife Religion"
Recorded by David Wheeler
Darry Wood thinks of himself as an
anisan. The word is French and refers to
someone who works in the middle ground
between an artist and a craftsperson.
"/ am happiest when I am creating
fimct1onal objects that are beautiful," he
says. And that sums up his work, whether
it is his house built of hand-hewn logs.
drawings, sculptures, cabinetwork,
museum-standard replications of the
eighteemh and nineteenth century clothing
of the Sowheastern Indian tribes, or the
self-made hand tools that he uses in these
projects.
Darry is also a master of primitive
camping techniques and the ancient native
technologies that have come w be known as
"Earth skills."
To whatever project he undertakes
Darry brings his fme sense of observation,
an intense power of concentration, and a
love for natural materials. These personal
qualities are constantS in all of his work.
As we calked at his homestead on
Buck Creek in Clay County (NC), Darry
scraped hair off a deer skin stretched tight
on a wooden frame preparatory to
brain-tanning the hide to condition it. The
rhythmic scratching of /us wahinle, as the
hide-scraping tool is called in the LAkota
Indian language. pwicwated his words as he
e.tplained that primitive skills were not
simply techniques, bill a way of life.
Katl1ah. You've JUSt returned from
doing an "Eanh Skills Workshop" wilh
Snow Bear and Bob Slack at the Unicoi
Staie Park in north Georgia. How do the
skills that you teach at those workshops
benefit the students?
Dorry Wood: We focus on making
fire without matches, going into the natural
environment and finding food, making
shelter without the use of metal tools,
brain-tanning, and 01her practical affairs of
life.
To me, these are primitive skills in the
highest sense of that word. People often
think of "primitive" as being crude or
obsolete. and I suppose a lot of people
would say that what we do in our
workshops is obsolete. h's not something 1
would care to debate with people who have
n much different system of values. But I see
what we are doing ill> "primilive" in the
Latin sense of the word meaning "the first,"
"the most basic" - "primary."
In practicing these ancient teehniqucs,
people inevitably touch back with
themselves, with who they really are. In this
day we are so insulated from lhc natural
world by plastic. aluminum, concrete, and
glass. we forget that we are of the Earth,
and that it is not Wi nn-Dixie and the Blue
Rjdge Mountain Electric Co-op and other
X4c.UM Jou.rna! p~ l 8
institutions !hat sustain us. It's the Mother
Eanh that sustains us, and by practicing
Eanh Skills people begin to see that in a real
way.
As we cook over an open fire, put our
hands into the flesh and blood of the deer,
and learn how to sharpen our knife and our
axe so that they'll serve us in the best
possible way, we can feel the simplicity of
life as it was in another time, and yet still
retain a feeling of just how relevant it is for
us in this time to take pan in the life process
as it has been continuing on this Eanh for
lhousands of years.
Our lifestyle has become so
dis-integrated, that living on a primitive
level for just 48 hours helps people
reintegrate in a way that lhey didn't realize
was possible.
What r teach are the basic skills of
life. It's home economics; it's rediscovering
our birthrighL
K: Even the practical techniques that
you talk about are highly sophisticated on
some levels. You showed me an adz.e in
your workshop that was made out of a
branch that was growing off the tree at just
the right angle, and showed me a ncshcr
that had a thong which went over your
wrist, so that it made your forearm into an
actual pan of the tool. Those tools show an
awareness of engineering lhat is more than
logical.
DW: Perhaps a more precise example
of what you arc talking about is the sticks
that make fire. Everybody has heard about
making fire by rubbing two sticks together,
it's almost legendary. Ir the knowledge of
how to create fire by friction were lost, it
would be very difficult to reinvent. There's
no telling how many thousands of years
human beings Strived to do this before
somebody succeeded. It must have been a
magical moment when a human being first
brought fire into being with his or her own
hands.
To actually bring fire, everything has
to be just so. h's not something one can
fake. The design of the tools has to be just
right. All the details of the fire-making
process have to be followed carefully or no
fire appears. This sk11l, or science,
whichever you want to call it, evolved over
lhousands of years. and while there arc
minor variations in method based on local
traditions and local material:., the basic
technique is always the same. Although this
is primitive, it is very specific. Like so
many things, it's easy when one knows
how and when one pays auention.
One of the basic facts of life in
America today that 1 have yet to face up to is
the operation of a computer. I know nothing
about it. And yet everywhere people are
doing it, and for a lot of people it has
become second nature, yet for me it's still a
great mystery. But ever since I was a kid I
have been making fire by friction and
preserving hides by brain-tanning, and all of
that is about as lhrcatening to me as making
a sandwich.
K: But operating a computer involves
only the pan of our brain that works with
logic. If someone is walking out in the
woods and sees a certain crook in a certain
kind of tree, and says, "Hey! There's my
adze handle," that involves knowledge and
logic but also an intuitive sense that does
not come into play in operating a computer.
OW. Let's say ii like this: to live in
the natural world requires a much greater
level of awareness than what most modem
people are used to manifesting.
I've thought about this a lot. In my
boyhood I was around some native people
who came as close as anything I could think
of to being prototypical savages. These
were native Creek and Seminole people
living in the Everglades of Florida, who,
unlike the Cherokees of these mountains,
were not exposed to the white people's
schools and churches throughout the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Yes, they had some European goods;
they had guns and they had cloth; but they
spoke very liule English. The old man who
taught me how to make moccasins, for
instance, was named Billy Bowlegs III. He
welcomed me to watch him at his work,
from which I gathered that my young
sma.n-alecky level of awareness was preny
shallow compared to the level of this
100-year-old man, who from behind could
tell that a crow was in his com, grab his
single-barrelled shotgun and, hardly
glancing more than once at the crow, could
knock it dead
l.1tNJER - 1988- 89
�I saw that happen !>CVeral times when
people to go into the forest and create a
lifestyle. Put me down in the American
• hardwood forest with these basic tools.
primitive hunters in the times before
give me a linle time, and I couldn't imagine
European contact must have maintained a
a more ideal situation.
remarkable intensity of awareness to be so
totally at home in the wild environment. It's
It shocks people when I begin a
workshop by saying that w-hen they get
hard for us to imagine how finely-tuned
home from the hardware store with a
were the senses of those native people, w-ho
brand-new, American-made knife, they
lived with, and in some ways like, the
don't have a tool that is ready to use. The
animals · on the Eanh in a natuml way.
assumption is that a tool comes from the
store ready to go. The one cutting tool with
K So a simple thing like sharpening
which that is probably the case is the saw.
your knife 1s a staning point 10 reawaken
Saws work on a different principle, and
some of thnt.. ..
come from the manufacturer as good as they
DW: Surely. If I have anything real
arc going to geL
at all to offer people, something that the
But axes and knives need a whole lot
of work. It's very subtle, but the basic issue
average modem person docs not know and
needs to know, it is the knowledge of how
is the angle to whlch the manufacturer has
to sharpen a knife. That is the basic lecture
ground the bevel of the cutung edge. !l's all
that I give at almost any workshop situation
wrong for-doing practical work. h's way
that I'm in. h's the opening hand; it's the
too thick:
Before I use a br:ind~new knife or ~
foundation from which all the rest builds.
If we are going to create a viable
axe,) first do considetable filing OP it to
••
lifestyle in a natural environment, the basic : •
remove the n)etatjust behind the edge, So as
operation, upon which all the rest are built,
to taper it and thin ii down, .so it will
is to rune up a knife so ii will be performing
peni:trate wuhouL resistance. Once 1 've
done that, l hone a fine cutting edge on it
at the highest level. To do otherw11;e 1s like
asking a concen violinist to go on stage and
~with 11 stone. American.made knives
play Paganini with an inslJ'Umcnl that is out
genccally come with the bevel ground to
of tune. It's just not reasonable to do. And
40-45°, which is much too obtuse for most
cutting operations. So I immc0u11ely take a
yet that same level of ignorance is where
file and readjuSt that to an 20.25u angle.
most people are operating when they an: out
in the woods with a knife or 'an axe. Their
almost half as thick as the epge tMt they$11
tool is dull, because they don't know how
you. before I put ir 10 w6rlc. Most people
to manage it in a way that will make life
don't know to do that , h's not in the BfJ}'
easy and comfonable.
Scout Haiidbook. lt'i; not in '3ny of the
Witness the choice of word~ that we
common pl:tces where B ~rson might
have developed in the English l:in~age to
Cl';pc<;t lO iud such a thing.
say "in trouble" or "in danger." We ~·
"Sharpening the Ktiife" s my basic
"We're not out of the w6ods yet," imJ>ly"ng
sermon. It's a beginning)Jlace. It's a key
for us to open ourselves up so that we can
that to be in the wood. is to be in a
hazardous state and that we are~e and free
begin to look oeeper.
If someone is seekin& enlightenment
when we get out of the wOOds. That's the
implication. But l totally reject rhat pq1nt of
11 nd their kl!ife is dull, they have the
view, for I am safe and at home when I am ~roverbial canoe~ the horse.
~
in the woods.
\
"\...
.It 1s .ror thnt reason that I don't
K: This priruidve lifestyle involves
an awful Jot of sophi~ticnted physic~ and
pamc1pate in any workshop where I am
advenised, and this has happened, as one engineering !
who is teaching "survival skills." That's
\
._
how the army writes its manuals dedicated
DW: That's beCnuse these arc thing
to teaching people how to hve m the narural ~ lhat peopTe haven't rhouglit vet)'. much
. nbo\lt. To sharpen a knife rcg_ujres ~IJ!Y.
environment. They call it "survival skills."
But to me survival skills are knowing how
two-minutes, once someone knows liOW.1
0
to cross Peach_tree Street without getting run
do lL
J. . , . . /
It's all relative io v.hat one bas been
over by a taxicab or how to walk through
the ci~y at night wi~out getting mugged.
exposed 10 and what one's condluoning is.
But give me my knife and set me down
It takes me at least one hour lO communicate
to someone else an understanding of what's
somewhere in the eastern hardwood forest,
going on down there where the steel meets
and I'm just like Bre'r Rabbit in the briar
patch. I'm home.
the stone. I find, however, that if someone
pays attention for an hour, then they can
K: And so "keeping your knife
bring a knife to useable condition in just a
sharp" is a way for people to live their lives,
few minutes.
even in a modem context.
K: But it's not just the knowledge
DW: Right. l call this "pocketknife
and the understanding, it's also nece!>sary to
religion."
practice the motions.
The folding knife is our basic unit. If
we have our pants on, our knife is with us
DW. That's right. Mastery comes
at all times: that's the fundamental tenet of
with repetition, but there's nnother element
pocketknife religion. Proceeding from there
as well.
to the axe and the saw, we build our holy
fn hunting, even when someone
trinity. It is knife, axe, and saw that enable
acquires a skill and can perform it well, that
I was a kid, and I've often thought that the
1
of itself is not enough. When the moment
comes to strike. one has to be able to bring
one's full auention to bear on the necessary
action. One has to be there with awareness,
or else the arrow doesn't shoot the deer
through the hean. Mastering skills like that
requires practice beforehand, but that
split-second moment of action aJso requires
a "present awareness" of an intensity most
people can't comprehend.
That is one reason I go outside and
either shoot my blowgun or shoot my bow
and arrow at least once every day. It helps
me to tune myself up, because these are
things that I have done for a long time, and I
know that I can hit the bullseye when I get
myself very calm and very still and
concentrate on that bullseye with what I
think of as "a savage intensity!
It's the same reason Ted WilJiams had
such a good batting average. A sponswriter
asked Ted one time how he could hit the
baseball so well, and Ted offered what I
thin~ is one of the most famous quotes in
Qa.seball, "I keep my eye on the ball."
Jt's simple, yes, but the difficulty lies
in hllving the presence of mind to do it in the
J>recisc moment. I know how to shoot the
bOW and the arrow, but I don't hit the
bullseye every time, because most of the
time I'm up there loafing - manifesting
verage flakey behavior. But there arc
momen~ when I wake myself up, and I
look intensely at that bullseye. I don't have
to thmk about technique at that moment; I've
practiced the technique for year.;. What is
required is tile determination, in that
moment, 10.put into practice what I Jcnow
how IO do. If· I can concenuare my aucntion
for that one split instant, the arrow goes
clean Into the center of the target. But
oftentimes I don't seem to have the
motivation to oo it at that level. Of course
ihe,old-time P,Cople living on the Eanh lrad
to do it, or they would have starved.
It may not be a weapon; it may be a
tQOI that l have in my hand. If I intend to fell
a tree with an ~e. to do it efficien~ly I have
to deliver the bu of my axe precisely to a
little pinpoint-sized spot that I pick out on
the bark. Then the next cut has to intersect
first precisely. The way most people flail
away at a tree with an axe, it looks like a
be~ver's been working t~ere, whereas a
skilled axehandler leaves JUSt a few large.
clean chips.
fill e
K· Some people are predicting an
economic collapse. saying that our whole
economic system is going to be changed on
a scale more catastrophic than the Great
Depression. Do you think that these ~kills
and the awareness they engender would be
of great practical value in a situation like
that?
DW:
I would think: so. The
awareness these skills create would be
particularly valuable. I'm not prophesying
it, but should such a coll3pse come, there is
no doubt but that we would have to do
things much differently. How we would
live, God only knows. There are not
enough deer in the woods that everyone
could wear deerskin clothing. In fact there's
((DllJinucd on p.tg~ 23)
WlNJER - 1988 89
Drawing by ROB MESSICK
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~
~
~
~
WORLD
.
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"WATCHIN' 'DEM
BOMBS GO BY"
Nlllllt&I World News Savia:
A convoy of three ~ked trucks
accompanied by five escort vehicles pulled
out of the Pantex plant in Amarillo, Texas.
The trucks carried nuclear weapons or
nuclear weapons parts. There was no way
to identify the trucks or their cargo except
by the distinctive "goalpost" antenna~ tha~
extended up the sides and over the dnvers
cabs, but they were being watched: As they
emergl!d from the plant gates, a smgle car
swung in behind the convoy, and word
flashed ahead along !heir route.
As they proceeded east along the
interstate, newspapers were alerted ~nd
sign-carrying dcmonstrntOr.> called at.tenuon
to I.lie presence of the bomb ~ruck:; m each
major city as the nuclear shipment roll~d
through town. The single sedan stayed. with
the trucks and their anned guard vch1cle$.
sometimes talking pleasantly with the
drivers over the CB radio and staying in
contact with a central switchboard in
Oklahoma City by cellular phone.
Before sunrise on the morning or
November 5, 1988 the convoy approached
their destination at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Thiny miles west of the town 12 more
vehicles joined their esc?"· but these cars
were unanned, full of noisy protestors. and
carried signs warning "H-Bomb Trucks
Ahead." As the trucks entered the town
limitS, the unofficial escort pulled ahead,
and as the big rigs pulled up to the gates of
the Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Components
Plant, they were greeted by shouting
demonstrators waving signs and banners.
This was Nukewatch.
During the week of October 31 November 5, tlie Oak Ridge Environmental
Peace Alliance (OREPA) joined the
nationwide Nukcwatch action by monitoring
the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge. Volunteers
maintained conslllllt surveiUancc at the Y-12
gates waiting for the specially designed,
unmarked "safe secure trailers" (SSTs) that
transport nuclear warheads, weapons
components, and nuclear ingredients for the
Department of Energy (DOE) .
Communication networks between Oak
Ridge. the Nukewatch headquarters at
Oklahoma City, OK and other weapons
:Kcitiuah JolU'f\Ot PQ'}e 20
installarions trncked nuclear convoys across
the nation.
. .
On the first day of monnonng,
OREPA truckwatcher Stephen Clements
followed a weapons transpon vehicle and
escon cars from the Y-12 gates, through
downtown Knoxville, and north ~n
Interstate 81 to Gaithersburg, Maryland in
the suburbs of Washington, DC. The
Washington Post followed up on the stozy,
and a reporter learned from a D~E
spokesperson that the truck wa~ carrying
97% pure, bomb-grade uranium to a
research reactor ai the Bureau of Standards
in Gaithersburg. A rcpon appeared in the
Post the next day.
The public scrutiny makes the DOE
nervous. They give possi?le t~s!'l as the
reason for their paranoia, but It 1s mo~
likely that they would rather that people did
not know that unmarked radioactive
shipments are passing down the highw~ys.
Nukewatch believes that people have a nght
to know how close nuclear war is to th.cir
personal Jives. Nuclear weapons production
becomes real to people when they realize the
truck they arc passing on the interstate 1s
loaded with parts for n~clea_r warhe~ds.
When shipments of radtoactt~e uranium
passing through an urban neighborhood
suddenly become visible~ it .brings home the
lesson that the first v1cums o f nuclear
confrontation are those affected by the
environmental hazards of nuclear production
and nuclear waste.
The Oak Ridge Enviro11mental
and Peace Alliance
Bo:c 1101
Knoxville, TN 37901
Call (evenings): (615) 588-9370
ISN'T IT OBVIOUS?
Nawral World NcWfl Savic:e
The North Carolina Forestry
Association has announced that with the
Western Nonh Carolina Development
Association's Forestry Commission it will
be launching a $30,000 "educational
campaign" to convince people in the
mountain area or the state of the benefits of
the clearcu11ing technique or logging. the
method preferred by loggers and the US
Forest Service for its economy, speed, and
ease of managcmenL
The camP,aign will be panially funded
by a $9,000 grant from the US Forestry
Association.
Clearcuuing has been coming under
strong and often bitter auack from all
manner of people in the mountain area or
Katuah. Besides being aesthetic~lly
unpleasing to humans, clearcutttng
diminishes already scarce wildlife habitat by
fragmenting valuable cover areas and
favoring yellow poplar and other
non-food-producing tree species over
valuable mast-producing species, like oaks
and hickories.
The US Forest Service: has also been
criticized for clearcumng trees on a short
rotation schedule, causing mast·bearing
trees to be removed before Ibey can enter
their period of highest produ~tivity •. and .ror
replanting clearcut areas wtth whne P.tne
trees which create vezy poor habuat
coodltions for most wildlife species.
USFS PLANSTOINCREASE
HERBICIDE USE
N.wn! Wodd News Service
The US Forest Service (USFS) has
released a draft environmental impact
statement that indicates that the age~cy
intends to increase the use of chemical
herbicides and prescribed bums in the
National Forests of the Southern
Appalachian Mountains.
The "vegetation management"
proposal covers the National Forests in. the
mountain areas of North Carolina,
Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia and Kentucky
and isolated areas in South Carolina and
Alabama a total of 5.2 million acres. It
defined V:ork in the areas of site preparation
(for planting of white pine ttees). corridor
(trails, roads, and utility linc:s> '!lainten~ce,
hazardous fuel reduction, wildlife clennngs,
and timber stand improvement operations.
The statement also considered the
impact of mechanica! and manu.al methods
of land clearing and stte preparation.
The statement was in the form of
eight alternative plans for management,
varying in intensity. The plans ranged fr~m
"no clearing" 10 clearing or preparing
173,000 acres each year. Under the most
intense regimen proposed, 3.3% of the
forest lands under study in the mountains
would be cleared or worked each year.
Herbicide use options varied from no
chemical treatment to treating 57 .~ acr~s
each year. Aerial spraying. by heh.copter 1s
considered in three of the eight opuons, and
1he alternative preferred by the USFS
provides for aerial applicauon~ ?n ru~ged
terrain and along some u11l11y lines.
Herbicide brands to be used would include
2,4-0; 2,4-DP; Tebuthiuron; Triclopyr. and
others.
.
The draft impact statement designates
a lOO·foot unsprayed buffer area around
wells, screams, springs, and private land
boundaries. and a 300-foot buffer .~ea
around private residences. No prov1s1on
was made for herbicide drift. The report
deemed that the poisonous spra}'.S ~ou!d
have "no significant effect" o~ w1ldhfe_ m
the spray areas and that se!ecuve sprar1ng
would minimize accumulauon of chemJcals
in the food chain.
These standards are unrealistic and
inadequate, and the persistent ~isoM being
used will have a strong negauve effect on
the plant and animal communities that live
on and in the forest soil and water.
Using heavy chemicals for economy
and convenience connicts with the USFS
mandate to protect the area's water sources.
The Appalachian public lands repre~~ts the
last large-scale habitat areas rem:.umng to
many species of wildlife. The l?resence of
str0ng and persistent toxic chemicals :vould
only contribute to the general degradauon.of
these already weakened and embattled hfe
systems.
.
.
Removing vege1a11on by chem1ca1
means takes money that could have
provided j~bs for moun~in ~sidents. The.se
jobs could improve the s11uat1on for counues
that have a low tax base because they
contain large percentages ofNati~nal.Forest
lands. Money spent on chcrrucals is divened
16'1.NTER. - 1988-89
�away from 1his region 10 gian1 chemical
manufac1uring conglomerates that arc major
producers of highly hazardou~ waMes.
The USFS draft environmental impact
sm1cment on vegeiation managcmcn1 seems
di-conceived and irresponsible. The public
will have the opponunity make commcnis
on the proposal until f-cbruary 17, 1989.
"Altcm:uive A," which provides for
"no treatment" is the only one of the
alternative plans that docs not in,'Olve the
use of 1ox1c chemicals. This is the bes1
choice for the fores1s until the USFS can
come up wi1h a be1tcr proposal 10 safely
manage the lands under their care.
Subm11 your comments to:
Bjorn Dahl, Fort·st Superl'isor
USDA Forest Scn•ice
Box 2750
Asheville, NC 28802
MRS HEARINGS
HeJrings on the proposed Monitored
Retrievable Storage facility for high-level
nuclear waste will be held in Atlanua, GA at
the Westin Peachtree Pl111.a Hotel from 9 am
- 5 pm on January 17, 1989.
For cronsponarion i11/orma1ion, write
Bo:c 291: Mars I/ill, NC 28754.
Biodiversity Bill Dies Will It Rise Again?
Nllllnll Wedd News Scr'liicc
HR 4335, the Nn1ional Biological
Diversity Conservation and Environmental
Research Ac1, did not pass the Congress
this year. Perhaps, however, i1 was a taste
of legislation to come as Congress auempts
to remedy what is now commonly
recognized as an environmental crisis of
monumental proportions: the mass
extinctions of other species stemming from
pollution and overdevelopment by the
human race.
The bill, sponsored in the I louse of
Representatives by Rep. James Scheuer
(D-NY) outlined a national policy for the
conservation of biological divcrsi1y and n
federal strategy for maintaining living
~ies and their habuat~ . The bill called for
a national research center devoted
exclusively to promoting understanding
about the conditioni. necessary to maintain
biological diversity and setting government
conscrvn1ion priorities. It also would have
amended the National Environmenial Policy
Act 10 insure that biological diversily y,ould
be required as a salient fac1or in preparing
environmental impac1 siatemcnis.
Ahhough the bill failed to pass the
Congress this year, it had wides11rcad
suppon and should be 11 s1rong contender
for passage in the next session of the
legislature. Write your representatives!
1"'lNTt:R. - 1988- 89
EIS ORDERED BEFORE CUT
BELOW CHEOAH BALO
Natural WDlid News Service
In 1979, during the days of 1hc
ill-fated Roadless Arca and Review
Evaluation II procedure (RARE II), the
Cheoah Bald area was the largc:.1 roadlcss
area in the National Fores1 lands in l\onh
Carolina, measuring 23,000 acres of
unbroken wild terrain. Roadlcss tracts
provide valuable wildlife habitat,
particularly for black bears, which arc
na1urally shy of roads, scnsi1ive 10 human
access, and rcquin: large, continuous range
areas in which 10 move.
Bui Cheoah Bald did not receive
wilderness designation in 1979, anCl when
the RARE II procer.s was nbandoncd, the
Fores1 Service moved quickly to cut roads
into 1hc area so that large tracts would be
removed from "roadless" status. Some
clearcuuing has already been earned out m
the area.
In 1987. however, when 1he US
Forest Service (USFS) announced plans to
clearcut ano1hcr 400 acres in 16 lr:J:CIS of
varying sizes in the Cheoah Bald area, the
Wilderness Society and other conservation
groups raised an outcry, and the USFS
consented to carr.• ou1 an cnvironmen1al
impact statement·(EIS) on the proposed
logging. This move sets a precedent,
because never before has 1he USFS
presented a full EIS for a clcarcuning
operation.
The usual procedure before a timber
sale is for a cursory "environmental
'ascr.sment" which inevi1ably produces a
verdict of "no significant impact" on the
environmen1 and rubber-stamps the timber
sale proceedings without serious
examination.
The crucial difference 1hat won the
Cheoah Bald area special consideration was
that the Appalachian Trnil passes through
the timber sale a~a. and some of the cuts
would be qui1e close to the trail, while
01hcrs would occur in vistas considered to
be among the mos1 spectacular along 1he
l,OOO·mile length of the trail. The Forest
Service's preccdcnt-seuing move, then. was
ra1her the resull of an aesthc1ic, rather than
an environmental, impact.
Other areas studied in the RARE II
proposal, the Big Creek area in Madison
County, NC, the Nolichucky area on the
.Nonh Carolina-Tennessee state line near
r:twin, TN. and the Wildcat area, which
adjoins the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park, also lie along 1hc
Appalachian Trail. Big Creek is a valuable
habiuu area as well as a scenic asset. as it
borders a wilderness area in the Cherokee
.National Fores1. that would be cxp:inded to
create an unbroken habitat area of 25,000
.acres if Big Creek were also designated
wilderness. Timber sales are planned in the
near future in Big Creek and Wilclca1, and
2,000 acn:s of the Nolichucky area arc to be
designated as available for logging, but
because of possible scenic disruption to tmil
hikers, these areas have an advantage in
their fight to ~m:Un primarily habirac :uus.
Aesthetic beauty does denote a
healthy. functioning forest community, and
it also is important for humans 10 find solace
from a ubiquitous civilization. However,
environmental needs ~ist even when they
arc no1 vi~iblc to human beings. There arc
01her roadless areas slaccd to be opened up
for clearcu1ring that will receive no special
consideration and no environmcnial impac1
Statements. Roads and timber sales will both
be pushed through in these areas, unless
citizeni> stand up for the rights of \\ildlife
and the habitat that suppons them.
Some of these areas are:
• Upper Wilson creek - 6,530 acres.
inventoried in the RARE U s1udy. A timber
sale will be proposed for this area m 1989.
• Linville Gorge Extension - 2, 138
acres adjoining the Linville Gorge
Wilderness Arca now slated to be opened
for timbering.
• Balsam Cone - a 13,529-acre area
on the eastern slope of the Black Mount.a.ins,
adjoining Mt. Mitchell State Park and
encompassing six peaks over 6,000 feet, of
which 3,400 acres arc to be managed for
shon·ienn or longer-rotation logging.
• Middle Prong Extension - 2,265
acres near the Sunburst Recrca1ion Arca on
the Pigeon River in Haywood County tha1
will be opened to longer-rotation logging.
• Snowbird Wilderness Study A~a a large 8.490 tract high in the Snowbird
mountin of Graham County, NC and
adjacent to a roadless area in the Cherokee
N:uional Forest of Tennessee containing
prime habitat area, some natural balds, and
groves of virgin timber. Thi:. area was
studied for formal wilderness designation
by the Forest Service, but wilderness sta1us
was declined in the 15 -year draft
management plan, which is presently under
appeal.
• Tusquitce Mountains - a
16,720-acrc area studied under RARF. II
;;outheas1 of Andrews, NC.
• Chunky Gui - 12,446 acres near 1he
Tu~uitcc Mountains area. 5,600 acre:; arc
slated to be opened to intensive logging.
• Southern Nantahala Wilderness
Extcnsionr. - tracts totalling 11,402 acres
that adjoin the Southern Nantahala
Wilderness Area, the Chunky Gal tract, and
wilderness areas in Georgia, studied as pan
of RARE II. 8,000 acres are proposed for
short-1enn or long·term logging, and the
'Trail Ridge road and timber sale is soon to
go up for bid.
• Fishawk Mountain - 4,890 acres
southeast of Franklin, NC that is to be
opened for shon-tcrm and longer-term
logging rotations.
For illfom1ation on how you can
participate in habitaJ preunurion ejfons on
t/1£ public lands, conuzcr:
Forest Voices
Box 1275
West Jefferson, NC 28694
{T
Petc.r Kirby
The Wilderness Society
1819 Peaclllrt'e Rd. NE
Atlanta, GA 30309
,..
p;I/
XAti&ah Journm p'"JC'- 21
�t
t:t
1
tt
41..li.r.i
lhe honeybees. Can you gather those without being s1Ung? And
lhey also cal odle.r inseclS, grubs, and rotting carrion. Do you have
lhe SIOmach for those foods?
•And in lhe fall !he bears eat lhe mast, the acoms end !he
nuts or the forest trCCS, lO ge1 faL for the win!Ct. The bears also
love lhe persimmons, pawpaws,and gropes lhlU grow in the woods,
bul the mast crops are what keep lhe bears alive in their dens.
"Wild foods arc powerful foods. Although they e.a1 li1lle
meal, black bears can grow lO 500 pounds In siz.e in these
mounlllins, although the females are generally less than I 50
pounds and the males less than 250 poWlds. Bears are strong! They
brealt branches from oak trees IO reach the tasty acorns. Bears are
fast! They can nm for eight to ten hours and can ouldisl!UlCe several
p:icks of dogs if need be. Bears are agile! They like best to run
through the thickets of lawcl and ivy IO lose their pursuers. Wild
foods give the bears their strcngth and endwance.
•Because you do not grow a black fur robe lhnl is warm and
beautiful, but are naked and hairless, I feel SOIT)' for you. You must
use olhcr furs and materials for clothing, and you musl have a den
to live in lhe year round."
And lhc Bear Old Man told them more things, and some of
the people listened carefully. and these in their own minds called
themselves the Bear Clan. and they put small images of the blnck
bear among the other objects on the swen1 lodge aliar and by their
sacred springs from which nowed their pure drinking waler.
And these humans began IO create a habimt for themselves
based on the word.s Yonah had 10ld them. They bulll lhemselvcs
dens 10 live in that were m3dc of rock boulders or heavy logs. so
1ha1 their homes were massive and cave-like, cool in lhe
summertime and wann in lhe wintcrS.
They walked I.he woods in the spring and found the wild
ramps, buL instead of enllllg !hem all, they replanted some in lhc
fore.q~ near lheir home den.~. and lhe ramps multiplied and sixcad.
They followed the c:rccks and picked lhe early branch leuuce
and ne11le leaves, but they would leave a number of lhe plant
people growing and kept lhe Slrenms running clear and
unobstructed, and always spoke a word of thanks to lhc plant
people as they gathered them, so !11at the green things would
conunuc tO feed the humans.
In their hollows and coves lhcy grew fruit 1recs, bolh
cu!Livatcd and wild, and among lhe trees they placed h1YC.10 or bees,
for they knew that this would please the Bear Old Man.
In olher fields they culLivalCd blnckberries, blueberries, nnd
raspberries close 1ogclhcr, as they grow on the mounminlops. and
m the summer they moved among the berry bushes foraging their
food much tn the manner of bears.
They tended gardens of corn, spring greens. squash,
climbing beans, and lhc roo1s of potatoes, onions, and
rich-smelling garlic. They let the polcewced. creasy greens, and
bmb,;quancrs grow, for Yonah told them the.~ greens were some
of the mo'l nutriuous of foods. Bul bccau.-.c the humans did no1
have the suong digestion of the bears, they had 10 hnng heavy
loo~ of wood lO their home dens 10 cool these foods 10 mnke them
pablllble.
In the woods the Bear Cbn encouraged lhc wild fruit trees.
The)' helped these trees wherever they found them growing by
keeping down the other uees around them 10 give lhc fruil uces
sp:icc nnd light. They spent a 101 or ume wandering through lhe
woods. jusl watching the IJ'CCS, plllDLS, and animals growing, and tn
I.he proper seasons they would come upon feasts of the succulenl
THE BEAR CLAN
Long ago, a young boy of the Chcrolcecs led his entire clan
away from I.he SCllled life of the village IO live in I.he forest. and
these people were lral'ISfonned inlO blaclc bears. Thus, says the old
Oicrokee legend. ~ the bear nation first crcalCd.
The spi:ril of the Wild Boy. who first led his people to their
new life in I.he wild, grew old and changed int0 YOO!lb, the Bear
OldMan.
Yonah returned once more 10 the sculemenlS where he had
lived before. He found his rebtives, I.he humans, much changed.
The villages were now large, and many new people lived there,
suange and different from the native people, with skins as pale as
fall mushrooms and hair of all shades of color instead of the
lustrous black of his own people's hair. Yet YoMh spoke lo lhe
humans, newcomers as well as the remnining native people, and
those who wanled IO live closely wilh the lnnd heard his words.
"You cannot wm int0 bears and come live in the foresl
with me as my people did once before. Times have changed; lhnl
way is closed, and ii perhaps may never be opened again. Bul I will
tell you what I.he bears know about living in the moumam forcslS,
Md, if you follow my insuuelions and conlinue 10 give the bears
honor and respect, you will be able 10 live here forever."
And the Bear Old Man lOld the People;
"The stcepesl mouniain land can support one female bear
for every six or eighl square miles. Males arc more of a luxury, and
the mounl3ins allow one only every 30-50 square miles.
"lmngine bemg able lO find all you needed for life within
six or eighl square miles of tnnd! You humans may no1 be able IO
do this. You do not have a warm fur coot growing on your back.
You do no< have the strong digestive system of a bear, who CM\ cal
anytlUng!
•And you humans have seriously overbrcd beyond the
capabilily of the land lo sustain you. You need to reduce your
numbers so lhat you can live with the land. lkmg crowded 10gclhcr
so closely is a filthy and dismal way IO live. Your numbcn> are so
great lhal you cannot forage in the open woods, bul must lend
certain plants and humbly serve their needs, in.'tcad of the plants
serving you, as il should be m the world.
"Truly, your lives arc going to be miserable ones indeed
until you learn IO control your numbers. The firsl duly of any
specie) of l:irgc animal is 10 cn~ure that enough off$pnng live 10
conlinue lhe Cllislcncc of the species. Bul lhe second duty of the
species is to limil lhc1r number' to what the land can pro,ide for.
Paying Ollention 10 those simple rcahues would <1erve you far
bcu.cr than your prcoccupalion with "good and evil," which in truth
do no1cx1st m the world. Yet, if )'OU aire for the water and the soil
ond lend your plants, you will be able 10 make a living in l11e
mountain.\, although you will never know the true freedom of
being a block bear m the wild world. Bui do not complain aboul
your lol, ror you have brouglu this on yourselves by your own
doing.
·em as lhe belll'S cat. Bears ea1 the CMly greens m I.he spnng
·branch lcuuce and sungmg ncu.lcs from lhc cn:cks - and dig ramps
from under the leaves on the forest noor. Squawroot is a special
food reserved for I.he bc3rs, and you canoot cal that.
"lo !he summer the bears cal the many bClncs and the fruits
• serviccberries, wild plum~. wild cherries • thaL grow on lhe
moum.ainsides. They alw fca.\t on the sweet honey 8lld lilrVae of
(conunucd on p. 26)
Print by ULA 11-IOMAS
WtNTER.. - 1988-89
�(conllnucd from page 19)
not enough wood in the woods for
everybody to heat with wood! Those of us
who do these things arc taJc.ing advantage of
unique situations which in no event would
be available to the greater population.
So I would not want people to think
that learning these skills would guarantee
their survival. The real value of learning
these old techniques is to gain a feeling of
greater self-reliance. I don't usually use the
tenn ''self-sufficient," because it would be
foolish under any circumstances to uy to be
totally sufficient unto one's self. But I think
that to be more self-dependent is a great
virtUc. Going into the woods and learning
to identify ccnain plant and animal species
can help you in your life - even if you never
have to know them to survive.
Another economic shakedown is
certainly possible. I don't know whether it
will ever come to that, but 1 do know that
when I am able to do something even as
basic as being able to identify the plants and
the other animals of the forest, I gain a kind
of self-respect that helps me go on and face
up to whatever it is that has to be done.
K: But doesn't it also add a sense of
depth and meaning to the processes of life?
DW: It cenainly does for me.
Strangely enough, when I am doing my
thing right, concentrating totally on what I
am doing, I sometimes get a linle flash of
insight into the fact of our monali1y. Death
is an aspect of life that is important to face,
but most people in our culture prefer to
avoid it. We would rather live as if we were
never going to die, as though we could
maintain our present state of existence
indefinitely. But if we look at it for just a
moment, the obvious conclusion is that we
are mortal: our bodies arc going to perish
and in some way go back to the Eanh. And
when I am living my life correctly, I am
preparing for my death by getting myself a
little calmer and a little bit more in tune with
the overall plan.
K: Coming to terms with that has a
lot to do with achieving that "savage
intensity," doesn't it?
DW: I think it does. Exactly! To live
life to the fullest is what we are talking
about. That's what real "savage intensity"
is: right there in that moment to let this fine
brain that our species has inherited be
working in such a way that it's got us
breathing the most air, hearing the most
sounds, smelling the most smells, and
seeing all that we can see in that moment,
fully. And when that happens we are not at
all self-conscious about it.
K : If one were self-conscious, it
wouldn't be happening.
DW: That's right. In that state the
brain is not thinking as much as it is
processing the natural senses. Then
anything we do and anything that happens
arc spontaneous responses.
K: There is also a beauty to a
spontaneous action, because it is instinctual,
naturally graceful, and right.
DW: Often times I get too romantic
about this aspect of my work, but I do
believe that there is enough substance there
that I can insist 1ha1 when everything i~
1. st.um&Ce4 upon tt.
wnUe watcfil.rn.J a &I.rd t.n fCLcfot.
on one of those flrst. wuUl.s t.firou!Jh t.fie wooc!s
of my mountoln home
reU int.a l.t mmost.
&ut was lns tont(y &«Mn &y Us lmmcnsi.ly
Thls 9l.anl.. remnant of fmun &.fell, r..runfl. sia(a(;Jmtus rcad1lntJ
t.ft.yward
um( trotted over surrounded by Hs ci..rcfo
aU of me f ithnlJ msidc the cirdc
ant( 1 watd\a( the
uy
und h .r.t.crwd t.o llw voi.ccs from whuc the r oo ts had. &«.n
and r..hcy t.oCd m e thc st.or I.cs
. . . of the 9i.unt trees •. of thc t~mc when thc chcstnut.s
towued over thc mounwins
.... uu 'i'-'"ns
anc! l f t!t part of I.he cages whU:fi arc t.hi.s (Qnd
and h."'w 1. was welcome.
kllNTER. - 1988-89
Drawing by MAR1llA TREE
flowing just right, I have momenlS lha1 arc
almost ecsraric.
When shooting the blowgun,
sometimes as I raise it up, I can feel where
the cen1er of lhc target is. And when I shoot
il, I can sense the flight path of the dan, my
consciousness follows i1 all the way 10 the
bullseye, and I know even before it hits that
it's going to be right on the mark.
Other times I might be working on a
piece of wood at my bench, and, although I
know I am shaping it, I'm not aware of any
intellcc1uaJ process going on. I'm just aware
that my body is moving in a rhythm, and
that a wonderful result is occurring between
this natural material and the tool I am
holding, which m many cases I have made
myself.
Even though I will never get rich
doing what I do, the possibilicy for making
a modest living and at the same time
enjoying myself is going to keep me a1 it the
rest of my life, as long as I have eyes and
breath. Again, it's what I think people are
seeking through spirirual disciplines that are
supposed to lead to enlightenment or
happiness. When it's done well, this very
ordinary, everyday process of creating
useful things for a living can accomplish
that.
That's why I, with mock seriousness
and yet with real sincerity, say that this is
religion 10 me, this business of tools and
material and trying to c:1;trac1 the best I can
from them. In doing so. I realize my highest
potential and that of the tools and the
material - having them all working together.
�DRUMMING
LETIE RS TO KATUAH
Dear KO!Uah,
Have you ever wondered why so few Americans have suff.cient
interest in environmental problems, and their solutions, to join
organizations, such as the National Audubon Society, (one of the largest
environmental organizations with a membership of only about 0.2
percen1 or our population) and support i1 in its efforts to solve our
environmental problems?
Dear K01Uah,
... I found the Ka1Uah Journot at a restaurant named Stooc Soop in
Ashe,•ille, NC and was nourished by both. J found the work you are doing very
empowering and wish you all good energies in continuaLion. Tiie EARTH is
healing thanlcs to us all!. ..
Sincerely,
Maria Tncp:icz
DearK.J.,
Greetings in the light. I'm writing to thank you for the Fall issue. Also
thanks for printing my letter in the "Wcbworking" section. The Kim Sandl:ind
anicle "Gin of the Chestnut• was very informative. My prayers arc with you.
I'm the prison librarian. I place copies or KJ. on the magwine rack when I run
through with them.
With love, in peace,
Riek
And upon Mocher Earth I crouched,
And the Voice wns within ....
New Beginnings
from the Drum quietly echoed.
New Begionings
from the fcathcrcn:atioo in prayer.
New Beginnings
in lhecircle of service for my
brothers and sislefli
as
my oolh providcth for mankind
your feather lay gently
when the Drum had 'llOken....
simply the lasting vision,
New beginnings,
all my relauves.
- Bern Gn:y Owl
Dear KatUah,
...I was in W. Virginia for the fll'St ume this spring for
the Wildflowcr Festival m Blacltwater Falls State Parle- it was
grc:u Cun! Met a man there leading a field trip who had this
lfemendous encrgy...a native of W. Virginiit..He said he got up
every morning and said: "This day is gomg to be a 101• and
added "It usually is.• This prompled the following poem:
Yesterday is aln:ady gone ..•
Tomorrow will get here when ...
Today is all I've really gOL..
And It's gonna be a 10!
Many than.ks,
Barbara Wickersham
Knoxville, Tenncsste
Drawing by ROB MESSICK
You could take any 300 Americans, load them on n jumbo jet LO
some dcstinatioo, and there would be immediale and great con<:cm when
they had the slightcsl awareness of any problem with lhe plane's
environment. indicated by such events as decrease m cabin pressure,
increase in cabin temperature. sudden appcamnce or unnatural odor, etc.
And everyone, or course, is concerned when there are immediate and
obvious changes in the earth's environment in their vicinity. Who is
bored when they arc aware of an eanbquakc. volcanic eruption, tidal
wave, hurricane or tornado?
Yet very rew people I know, especially from my former habitat
(Long Island, NY) exhibit any emotlon, other than polite, sbon-term
interest, turning tO boredom, when I try to discuss the implications of
the discovery of a large bole m the 01.one layer in the atmosphere over
the South Pole. Their general viewpoint is something like •1 don't sec
how they can say It LS caused by escape to atmosphere of chemicals used
as refrigerants or aerosol propellants. Anyway, it is all to teehnical ror
me, and I don't believe there's anything to worry abou1 anyhow.•
A high government official, when told destruction of the ozone
layer could cause a great increase in the incidence of skin cancer.
responded with "People will have to learn to use more sunmn cream,
wear hats and wear datlter sunglasses.• This, or course, is hardly a viable
solution to the problem
In regard to the acid rain problem: it is rather difficult for the
non-teehnically oriented person to undcrsllll1d and accept bow smoke
from powethousc stacks containing combusuon products or a fuel
contaminnm (sulfur) can be convened, at very high altitudes, through
contact wi1h the ozone layer in the presence of the ultra-violcl
component of sunlight. into another gas. This. when absorbed into
water (rain, snow, or fog) in the aunosphere produces sulfuric acid.
Up on Long Island I listened to radio station WNEW. The ir
weather man seemed to be environmentally con<:emcd, so I wrote and
suggested he give. as a pan of his repons. the acidity (ph) of the most
recent precipitation to indicate its potcntial to cause acid ram damage.
He replied, · 1 think it is a good idea, but since acidity is expressed as ph
few people would under.;tand whal I was rallcing abouL Therefore, there
would be liule interest in the data.•
People, when faced with problems hard 10 understand and whose
solutions will cost them and change their lifestyle prefer, instead, to
look for and emphasi7.e reasons, mostly irrelevant, which will allow
them to believe there are really no problems and to proceed on the basis
that everything is alright.
II might be well to reeall tha1 in January 1987 ano1her
spaceship, the Challenger, and its crew were destroyed because lhosc in
ch3rge ( exccutiv~ of NASA and M<>rton-Th1okol) refused to listen to
their engineers about a problem with its boostet rockc1 seals. They
continued to proceed with the launch to save money. save face. and
maintam a good press. One of the results or their proceeding was that
they did none of the above.
One can only hope the same fmc does not befall the spaceship
Earth because of the ~me short-sighted, mista.ken awwdc on the pan of
the go,'CITlmcnt and the public m, so far, refusing to heed the advice and
warnings of expens and envll'Ollmentalists on the problems mcntJoncd.
as well as on many more.
There is one cond1uon that might prevent it. Those "m
authority" might come to their senses soon enough to prevent it because
they, also. arc ridmg this space ship. (edited)
J. J. Combes
Newland, North Carolina
ltJlNTER. - 1988- 89
�The Third
Dear Sirs:
t-.1r. Runer was in town last week nnd solved my puulemcnt. Earlier in the
month I hlld received the autumn issue o( your journal and had no idea who sent ii.
Wh:it a ~utiful piece of work on my favourite subject • the American Chc.~tnut.
I re:id every word nnd learned so much. Would you please sent me four copies
of this issue tO be used in my missionary work with <;0mc friends in Pcnnsylv:mia.
There are st.ill rolks up there who remember the talcs their folks told of this
1ru1gnificen1 tree.
Yours truly,
J.N. Salv1ro
Kensington. MD
NEW ZEALAND(IP
CHESTNUT
GROWERS ASSOCIATION INC.
P.O. Box 1328, lnvercargill
New Zealand
Dear Sir:
We would be pleased 1f you could supply us w1lh a copy or the Fall 1988 ediuon or
the KatUah Jourlll.ll which has cx1ensive nniclcs covering chcslllut rcscatth.
Cordially yours.
NEW ZEALAND CHESTNUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION INC.
ERNEST NEW
Executive Director
Dear KmUah,
Carolyn and I just got your letter and papers t1us morning. The enclosed
paper has been in circulat.ion for two years:
"You art invittd to con1emplme tht idta btlow, to sinctrtly short your idtas
about a just and ptactful world:
Cltarly lift on tht planet is in jeopardy. What will it takt to revtrst tht /tar,
tht weapons, the pollution, tht monopoly, tht inttr'Vtn/Wn ...and project Uft toward
abundance, coopuation, and environmental and social compassion? /low can wt
txperience such a miracle? "Consciousness crtatts form" /Seth/. PleaJe bt
prac11cal. fless than 500 words/ Art you willing to bt published? __yes _no.
Please include your llD.ml!, address. and a short tkscriptwn ofyourself.
It is our intention to circulate tht comributions, to create a conllnuwn and an
on-going forum
Facts. feelings. ideas. positivt creations art welcomed.
Transformation is inevitable. It is cltarly the will of the human race to live on
abundantly wt// into thtfuturt. Spirit awakn!
Send your responses to:
NamMt~ Consciousness
Box578
Ctnter Barnsttad, NII 03225
P.S Feel fret to copy and distribute"
My answer is: That best friends must bond around common pnnciples: to
share. care, heal, and enhance life locally in BIOCELLS by the thousands in every
BIOREGION. Each aulonomous cell is joined to the biorcgion by commitment to
the values.
Please share this invitation to respond with your readers.
Thanks,
Bruce
Center Barnstead, New Hampshire
I've got news for you. A Higher Jntclligencc has hlld me to know some
information about the way the Universe functions. What I learned was tha1 the
computers that we arc all growing so fond or arc a Gacan trick. The plan is Iha! the
h~man race will dump all their intelligence into those neat plastic boxes, then Gaea
will tum off the power. and it all will be gone. Then we'll be free! And we'll find we
dJdn'l need It anyway.
love.
l
..,'\.NTER. - 1988- 89
hildegardc
North American
Bioregional Congress
by Lisa Franklin
This summer I represented Katuah at the third Nonh
American Bioregional Congress (NABC Ill) held in a small
outdoor school nonh of Vancouver. B.C. Magical things had
happened to me while traveling on route to the congress, so I
came expecting more. 1 wasn't disappointed. It seemed that
an incredible exuberance just bubbled out of everyone.
At the morning circles we shared songs. information
and a sense of harmony that spread 1hroughoul 1he day. The
committee mceungs revealed an amazing array of qualified
and .in~onne~ individuals s~aring their ~nowledge. Some
spectaltzed in water qual11y, some in permaculture,
education, forest management, green cities, herbs. dow~ing,
etc.
Ideas were bounced around, scenarios entenained, and
a lot of creative. intellectual energy zipped about. The
previous congress resolutions were reviewed and any
proposed changes were brought before the plenary during the
last couple of days. This process was an inspiration to me
personally, and several different projects are now a part of
my life due to these idea sessions.
1 have begun working on an All Species Project in the
Asheville Alternative School and have been working with
education about organic agriculture and promoting local
production of organic produce. The proceedings from NABC
111 will be published in the spring of 1989 and will give
explicit deiails of the comminee discussions, their decisions,
and 1he plenary votes on issues brought before the whole
assembly.
Throughout the congress we were honored with
presentations from various native peoples from Tunle Island.
During many of these, we wept openly for the pain in their
lives which they shared with us. We took to heart the plea for
help that was extended by them. These people are asking to
be allowed to live their Lnlditions, as arc all native peoples
around the world, so that this spirituality can help to heal the
planet. May we each do whatever we can to let il be so.
The evening biorcgional presentations were a stream
of creative, honest ways of sharing the pain, humor and love
felt for the different partS of Tunic Island and the state of the
environment. The presentation for lhe Karuah bioregion was
well received and consisted of a Cherokee welcome song, a
creation myth, a slide show accompanied by banjo picking,
poetry, stories of home and family, and slides wi1h
commentary on lhe soulhem Appalachian trail
Late night drumming and dancing helped folks
loosen up after lots of intellectual discussion. It was a time
for physical expression and fun.
In the shon period of one week, we 300 or so people
bonded togclher into a tribal group, which no one wanted to
leave. Throughout 1he week, each person was working,
talking, lhinking, living, and breathing to find ways for all of
us to exist in greater hannony with our Mother Earth and all
the living things on it. We realized that we were seeds to help
the next shifl in consciousness happen and that we can help
the earth survive by loving her and not getting discouraged,
and by allowing that love to come lhrough our intellect to
solve problems. So at the week's end, reaffirmed in the
purpose that brought us together, we allowed the wind to
scatter us again so that each could set in motion the changes
needed everywhere to evolve life lo another level of
awareness. This is the energy that can help prevent worst
case scenarios in world problems and bring about change. I
am honored to have been a pan of it.
To obtain a copy of the Proceedings ofthe Third North
American Bioregional Congress, send $8.00 to:
Seth Zuckerman, P.O. Box 159, Petrolia, CA 7555
¥
Xo"'°" Journal ~ 25
�(continued from page 5)
each time it rained, so they moved on. They
still had water enough to drink, but the land
would no longer produce food.
Flash floods might come through my
little cove and take out my bottoms, as
happened to the Anasazis. The creekbcd
might suddenly become such a gorge that I
couldn't build a bridge across it, because it
was draining such a big torrent each time.
On the other hand, a mudslide might come
down the valley, and where my house and
fields once were, might suddenly be tree-top
high with ~ clay and boulders. That might
be the way of it I am not very optimistic.
As the cycle deepens, big fronts of
weather will be created. When big fronts get
moving, they move farther before they can
be dissipated. Strong, fast-moving cold
fronts could come down out of Canada. The
Sll'Onger they are, the further south they a.re
going to go. There may be routine freezes
in Miami at that lime, because the turbulent
weather will suck the winter fronts further
south, meaning more violent snow, cold, or
whatever, with each approaching front As
soon as a cold front dissipates, there may be
a SIJ'onger front approaching from the south,
bringing up warm, moist air or rainstorms
that thaw the ground and confuse the plants'
growing cycles. All one can say for sure is
that the climate will become turbulent and
unpredictable.
In ages past as the Earth evolved and
the climates changed, as in the wanning and
freezing periods in the time of the ice ages,
the process of change was a gradual one
talcing place over thousands of years. Plants
and animals had a chance to migrate, and
everything could adjust to maintain the
equilibrium. Species were extirpated,
cenainly, but many life-forms were able to
maintain their range in suitable habitat
conditions.
That is not the case this time. The
most disastrous element of these changes is
that everything is happening so fast, that
this time the desen plants in Arizona will not
have a chance to migrate to Kauiah to
replace the forest trees. And the plnnts here
are not going to have a chance to migrate to
New England or to some place more
habitable. They are simply going to die! The
difference is that this change is an artificial
one; it is not induced by natural causes. The
whole world is threatened, and, like a
patient thrashing around in a fever delirium,
the change is going to be convulsive and
simultaneous. There are not going to be safe
havens to flee to, because the change is
going to be happening everywhere at once.
It is going to be world-changing. It is going
to take a high toll on the animal and plant
species we live with today.
With the vegetation gone and the
soil gone from the hillsides, the damage
done will be permanent. There will come a
time when the world will get weuer again,
but it might be in 100,000 years. Of course,
we might get lucky and it might take only
10,000 years. To regenerate the vegetation,
of course, would take eons longer than that,
but I do not believe that conditions here will
ever again be the same as they are now.
The greenhouse effect is a cycle
already in motion, and it's not going to
Stop. The government does not even admit
that there is a problem yet The government
admits we are in a drought, but they assign
it to natural causes and will not admit that
the pollution, the ozone, or the nuclear
waste, are threats to our survival. The
government has just begun to mention skin
cancer as a possible effect of the degradation
of the atmosphere. Skin cancer is the least
of it! It may take 20 years to get skin cancer,
and someone could starve in six weeks.
The governments will recognize the
problem in a few y~ when it is too late to
do anything about it. Even if they said
tomorrow, "We've got a serious problem.
We're going to cut all traffic, you can only
use your vehicle half as much. Burn half as
much gas. Bum half as much wood. We're
going to shut down half the plants. We're
going to cut worldwide energy use in half,"
it would still be too late.
In the first place, a cutback in energy
consumption will never happen as long as
the profit motive is the first priority. But
even if we could make an immediate change
in the way we live, we might slow the
oncoming cycle down or we nU$ht not slow
it down at all, but we are not going to avoid
it. At this point it is snowballing. The
causes are all tied together, they are already
in motion, and I do not see any way that we
are not going to have to bite the bullet. We
caused the problem, and we are going to
have to face it. Basically Tdo not feel called
to conjure or to pray for relief from this
problem, because the only relief now is a
healing, a realignment of the Earth's
energies.
AJJ that we can do now is to try to
avoid contributing to the problem, do what
we can on behalf of the world environment,
let people know what is happening, and
prepare ourselves physically, mentally, and
spiritually for whatever future is coming.
But just in case, I'm going to plant
some cottonwood trees around my place and
put some western chokecherries in along the
creek.
Lylich Crabawr is an Appalachian
native of Scottish descent. He lives with his
family in a moUlllain cove also inhabited by
turkeys, hawks, owls, a pileated
woodpecker, gnomes, and others of the
Little People. He wrote on "Circles of
Stone" for Katuah Journal 1110.
_,
(continued &om page 22)
wild fruits freely offered.
They also encouraged the young nauve chestnut trCCS with
prayers and songs, and whenever they chanced t0 find a U'CC bearing
nutS, these were e:igerly distributed to all parts of the region and
planted, wntchcd. and aided. Their efforts began to produce results.
for more and more cheSUlut trtcS began to grow without the killing
disease cankers. The magic of the Beat Clan was known to be
powerful, because it was causmg the chesuwt trees IO appear where
they h3d dlsappeared before.
In olhcr fields the Bear Clan planted nut uec.~ • cultivntcd
chestnulS. filberts, and walnuts - and they mode sure to gnlbcr
acorns from the foTCSt each year (su K:11Uah /19 - ~ds.), so that in
the fall among the Bear Clan lhcrc was a frenzy of activity when,
lilce the bears, they hurried to store enough food for the winter
But, because they could not line their bodies. with fnt like their
relatives the bears. they lined the insides or their home dens with
dried foods and nuts tO last them through the winter months when
snow covered the mountaintop.s and nothing grew through the
frozen ground.
Because they did not have the powerful mow teeth of the
bears lha1 could crush hickory nuts and acotru1 to a fine powder,
they hlld to grind lhe.ir foods between stone wheels. This they did
and combined the com and nw flours together inlO the llllt cakes
they tiokcd in their healed ovens.
One winier sciveral families tried swallow111g fecal plugs. a.~
the bears do to close their systems, so they oould fast and steqi
through the winier months, but that expcrimCTit came to a messy
end, and they round thnt they were humw after all. with human
limitations and a human nature that they hnd IO follow.
By living like the bears. the Bear Clan came to be more
like the bcnrs in their bodies and their ways. They tended 10 be
heavy and hairy. The men were strong, oftentimes quanelsomc, and
sometimes ferocious, even among others or their own clan The
molhcrs were wide. soft, and co1y, with enormous laps to snuggle
into. Tiie young women were also large, and were known as strong
fighlCIS if aroused, and ricrocly 1ndcpendcnt. Tiie women ruled the
home dens, and the cave-like shcllCIS were wann retn::11S where food
was plentiful even 111 wanter, and the young ones grew rapidly.
Among their own the Bear Clan were mostly jovial.
fun-loving, and playful. But lil:c their relatives in the woods, they
were somcumes moody. seemingly inOucnced in a dramatic wny by
the cycle of the seasons and the tides of the moon.
Bear Old Man saw the many changes, and he was glad. He
visited the Bear Clan often and brought them the best dreams
during the long nights of winter. Many or the dreams were
personally enhghlClling. others granted special powers of healing or
working with the elements, while others were strange or prophetic.
so that the Bear Clan shared a deep knowledge among themselves,
although 11 was never spoken.
And the Bear Old Man spoke ID the mount.ain spirit.s, and
they provided well for those who followed the way of the block
bears, and the Bear Clan lived full lives for generations beyond
counung In the hills of Katilah.
,,#
p
WtN'TEJt - 1988-89
�(corwnucd from page 13)
experiences as well as pleasurable ones. So if we deny our p:un, we never get lO
grow up. we never have to grow up (we 1maginc)... wc'll be "forever young" ...
The cruel irony is that this "faith" has been turning us int0 a culture of
spoiled, self-indulgent "takers" who want nothing more than to suc..le at the
breast of our bountiful tcchnolog1cal "mother". Think about TV-bound "couch
potatoes"; tremendous use of both legal and illegal drugs: the fanuwic rise in "Cast
foods". "convenience" storCS, and quick fixes of every description. The need for
immediate gratification is an infantile trait, and inability to dc:il with p:iin is a
sure sign of emotional and spiritual imm111.urity.
This siren of pain avoidance can be extremely elusive and dangerous
because its message often comes across in a cheerful, breezy, thoroughly
innocuous way, as if getting rid of pain was such an obvious benefit that nobody
could even question iL The real meaning is far from cheerful, though. The
underlying theme invariably implies that life on Eanh i.\ difficult and painful, so
we need to create an artificial, human-made reality to escape from our fear and
pain. This is expressed quite openly in most drug advcrtisemenis--and then people
nnively wonder why we have such a "drug problem" m this country! In one ad for
a "p:iin-ltiller", a jaunty, successful businesswoman is portrayed in action. while
the background music sings. • r haven't got time for the pain, I haven't got room
for the pain, etc.".
But what happens to the pain we supposedly get rid of? What if pain is a
messenger, come 10 tell us of a potential or present problem in our lifestyle?
What then? Answer: we've lost (at least temporarily) a clue LO our health and our
inner identity. But the pain will show up somewhere (or sornellmc) else, JUSt hke
our garbage on the beaehcs--thc problem is merely put off and avoided, not really
gotten rid of at all. Obviously, we haven't succeeded in our quest 10 eradicate the
problems and pain of living-in fact, we seem to have increased them, if we look
at what's happening around us. The truth is, It's impossible to outwit nature, and
pain and pleasure arc both natural aspecis of life. Pain is a signal, a vital
indicaior. Denial of pain is really denial of information that is being relayed to us
by our body/being.
Only if we're willing lO embrace the full range of cmotions--lO experience
the hcighLS of rapture and the depths of pain-are we able to reach full maturity.
Our planet and our cul lure is in a massive "healing crisis", and we as individuals
need to be able to empathize with the p:iin our world is expcriencing... thc pain of
the animals, the planlS, the sky, the oceans.... not deny it, if we arc to be able lO
assist in the healing. And we need to feel our own pain and the pain of our
brothers and sisters everywhere. if we arc to develop compassion, wisdom. and
wholeness. There is no quick fix, and the only way out 1s through.
The Siren or lud ividualibm 1o1ud Nou -com mun io ri
This Siren works to undermine our sense of interrelatedness and
community. The frontier-era ethic of "rugged individualism" seems lO have given
way to a consumer-Oriented ethic of "p:issive individualism" ·-which combines the
isolation and separateness of the former with the neediness and passivity of the
"ideal consumer".
There arc, however, powerful human needs which can only be met through
communicauon and interaction, and when community breaks down, no amount of
consumption of things can fill this gap. The truth is that we arc individuals and
members of many diffeccnt communities-both social and natural. But in western
culture we've made individualism our god and tried Lo banish the idea of
community, even associating it with "Communism".
Some striking examples of individunli.sm run ramp:int are:
The glorijicaJion of the auJol'fWbile and the tkcline of railroads, trolleys and other
forms ofpublic transportOJiorr. Most cars on the road have only one or two people
in them. walled off from others within their mobile mctalhc box. Work. home,
friends arc often great disl3Jlccs from each other and so the dependency on the
aut0mobilc is reinforced. Urban design often glorifies the car more than human
interaction so the isolation becomes more "set in stone".
The tkJ)<ndency orr recorded SOWlds. Creating music used to mcan getting togc1hcr
with other people. either to listen or 10 play an instrument or sing. But toda> it's
much simpler to JUSL put on a record or a casscue without having LO socialize or
put out any cffon. This is wonderful up to a point-·but when people arc out in
public with tiny earphones in their ears, oblivious IO the sounds of life :iround
them, and intent only on lheu inner cxpcnencc, perhaps it's become another way
to create separation and isolation and to deny rclatiomhip.
"/he corrtinued diminishment of J)<Oplts' ho~ life. The M>Cial dimension of
homclifc has been steadily shrinking--from the cxtcndcd family, lO the nuclear
family, lo :.inglc-parcnt familie:., t0 couple$ living together -..ithout children, to
people living alone. The extended family has practically disappeared m western
culture. And aclual homelessness has been increasing at a very frightening pace as
well.
JlNTER - t 988-89
the l'fWVt towards instantarrtous food. Eating used LO be a basic, shaied form of
communion. But today, cooking and c:iting togclhu i:; no longer nccessruy-cxccpt
for rare holidays. Instcad,the food industry offers us thOU!i:lllds of prcfabricalCd
foods. Wlmt we've lost in term~ of nunurance nnd nourishment 1s noc made up for
by the variety and convenience of industrial food products. There is also a
profound difference between supcrmarkelS and old-world style markets
-supermarkclS are not conducive lO socializing.
Siren or Spir ilual Mater ialism and Dependency
Even those who are "aware• can be caught by consumption mania and the
drive for "more", whether it is material . psychological, or spiritual.
Mother Teresa, while visiting the US, felt strongly that Americans are the
poorest people she'd ever seen-lost amidst a multitude of possessions. separated,
starving for love, she said. With little cultuml acknowledgement or suppon of
the non-material dimension, it's often hard to maintain awareness of our inner
essence. Thus, we may be 1ost' in this deeper sense as well. This loss of self leads
directly lo the povcny of soul Mother Teresa describes.
The result, of course, 1s that we look outside ourselves for our power and
satisfaction. We often project our own power onto authority figures or 'sy~tcms'
such as churches, astrologers, psychics, doclors. 'channelling', and spiritual
groups. We then look to these sources for dirccuon, validation. The guidance
received may be quilc helpful. but the use being made of 11 fosterS unheahhy
dependency. The emptint$ and hunger underneath IS sull there, as is the denial,
the desire to gloss 11 over. But u is only through jOUmeying inio the hean of that
emptiness that the cycle can be broken, and our inner abundance can f1owcr.
To be and feel abundant is a state of experienced "beingness•-a stat.e of
wholeness, fullness. satisfaction. love, gratiludc. Gratitude is the essence of true
prosperity consciousncss--to embrace all of life, to be humbly and truly
appreciative of our daily food. our breath, our friends, our growth--even our pain.
It is a deep reeogn1uon of, and rcspecl for, the inter-connectedness of all living
things.
The
All of these Sirens, and others, are best able to entrap us when
we feel ourselves alone, separate from the human community and
from the wider Eanh community. When we feel rooted in the wider
Reality of the true human spirit and of nature, the consumption
mentality has less of a hold on us. In fac1, it becomes decidedly
unreal.
Our culture wilh iLS emphasis on constant consumption hides
an elemental cruth from us -- one 1hat is essential for us to rediscover
in breaking our bondage to the consumer mentality: namely, that
"emptiness" is an imponnnt aspect of any essenrial growth cycle. It is
only when we are able 10 appreciate a stale of true emptiness (the
'creative void') ... thal we are capable of seeing what we need and
what we don't need...that we are able to see the amazing abundance
of creation. It is then, in a spirit of gratirude and humility, that we are
able to experience our own inherent abundance.
When we experience this 'beingness'., we no l?nger ha~e lo
heavily iden ifv ourselves with our belongings, beliefs, projects,
money, etc. We no longer need to create our identity that way.
Human beings do seem to be "identifying". creat.ures, 1hough--so our
only option is to upgrade what we. tdenufy with. As.we l~am lo
identify with more universal, fulfilhng values and re~nt10nsh~ps, we
can honestly feel complete with or without those things which we
"consume" or have been "atLaChcd to".
We who believe in conscious growth and a deeper sense of
prosperity for ourselves and lhe planet ha~e the res.ponsibility of
re-creating community and ways 10 share this sense ~th each other.
Ritual sharing, celebration, and all the . vaned forms of
communication/ communion are things we need in order 10 feel 1n1ly
alive to feel prosperous and fulfilled. This is so imponant--and we
have 'so much to unleam...and so much to learn about living together
and with ourselves and the Eanh. But we've got to do il, if we truly
wish to enjoy the abundance that's available to all of us an<! the entir~
Life community. True abundance is a fonn of love, and like love, .tt
grows when we share it, and it withel'!t when we gra~p and clutch 11
tightly 10 ourselves.
�The Planetary Initiative
The Watauga
Land and Water Conservancy
"Open land and pure water for
all...for all time to come" is lhe motto of lhe
Waiauga Land and Water Conservancy, a
group forming to work in the upper
drainage basin of lhe Watauga and New
Rivers.
The group is not an advocacy group,
and want to reach out across all political
lines to form a broad-based group to acquire
wilderness and agricultural land through
donation and purchase. They envision
leasing land to farmers when appropriate
technology would be employed.
The Conservancy is still in the
fonnarive stage. 501 (c}3 non-profit status is
being sought.
For more information, contact: Gay
Gingrich (704) 963-5614 or Lowell Hayes
at (704) 963-5835.
• Su.son Rttd
DE.51GNS
by Rob Messick
lllus1ra1lon & Design
In Pen & Ink and Colore<I Pcnc II
An estimated 1.5 billion people will
be participating world-wide for the third
annual World Healing Day, an international
observance aimed at raising our awareness
of global issues. The event is unique in that
all participants will be located around the
world in more than I 00 countries, and all
services will be held at 12 noon Greenwich
time, 7:00 AM EST. More than 500
peace-related organizations and all major
religious faiths will be included in lhe event,
with emphasis on prayer, meditation, and
song creating a global mind link ac one hour
in time to express the desires of people to
live on planet Eanh.
The initiative was originally taken by
the Texas based Quanas Foundation in
1984. The first World Healing Day was
held on December 31, 1986. with more than
500 million participants. The size of the
global event grew to 800 million in 1987.
The event is presently coordinated by
the "Planetary Commission", a world-wide,
non-denominational, non-political organization without headquaners, structure, or
fundraising activities.
Interested persons are invited to
attend the local observances.
(In Asheville, NC: local
observances will be December 31, from
6:30 11111il 8:00 AM at Central United
Methodist Church, 27 Church Srreet. For
further information contact Gloria Free ar
(704) 274-7539, or James Cassara at (704)
252-2819.)
Workshops. ..
at Ille NC BiodomeCommuniJy
Waynm-lflt, NC (704) 916 0273
Integration of Creative Landscape
Design
Instructor: Bob Gow
The family's food & family fun; Landscaping
shelter for animals and friends; Food
production as an artistic expression; Designing
our evolving bioregional landscape
J a n. 21 $30 (or $25 w/ other garden or
herb workshop)
The Herbal Medicine Chest
lnstructor: Cindy Heath
Herbal Remedies that may ta.Ice lhe place of
aspirin, antihistamines, antibiotics. pain killers
and other commonly used drugs.
We will be making an herbal remedy to take
home.
February 4 $30 (or $25 w/ other garden
or herb workshop)
Relationship Enrichment
lnstructors: Jofannie Karla & Marie Rocchio
A workshop for commiued couples.
Overnight arrangemcntS available.
For infonnation: (704) 926-1625
March 4 & S $185 per couple
The Nursery for Home Use and Profit
Instructor: Bob Gow
Exploring gounnct vegetable production,
flower and herb cultivation, rock gardens, &
landscaping with native cultured materials.
March 28 $30 (or $25 w/ other garden or
herb workshop)
P 0. 13<>X :!hOI • Boone. '-C: 2tlti07 • 7Cl4J754 h0!17
e1ti11ae "''"'""''""
uA
..Her/Ju/JJ111 e1i11ie
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THE ALTERNATIVE HEALING HOT-LINE
1-800-544-4980
A frtt 10 thr public r~fttr.tl '(_"nlcf' .Jod N-'lk>n.11 \.V"fn<-.,,
~witchbo•rd •
...u... tti....Ji., o..,~, I tt,
1':\TTO~ \L DIRECTORY OF 1101.ISl IC
PRACTITIO"lt:Rs. H•:ALERS, SCl1 001 <;,
Cl-:'-'Tl'RS & RrTRF.ATS
l'hon~ lh~ HOT·llNE fO find ouf how )nur pr•ctia,
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(701'-) ?2t,-027J
A'. C.
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�WORKSHOP ON
FORMING A
LOCAL LAND TRUST
The Nonh Carolina Natural Heritage
Foundation announces a two-day training
conference on March 17-18, 1989 to assist
people in forming a land trust (local land
conservancy) and designing land prote~tion
projects. The goal of the conference 1s to
assist the formation of more non-profit land
protection organizations and to strengthen
the communications network between
people and organizations interested in
protecting the land.
.
Topics covered at the workshop will
include: definition and history of landtrusts;
organizing, building, and maintaining a land
trust organization; land protection methods;
and tax laws. A training manual and
extensive reference materials will be
provided.
The workshop will be held at the
Ka nuga Episcopal Center near
Hendersonville, NC. The event is expected
to cost $90 per person, which includes two
night's lodging and five meals.
For registration information, write to:
The NC Natural Heritage Foundation
P.O. Box 11105
Raleigh, NC 27604
or call
The NC Natural Heritage Program at:
(919) 733-770 I
'.M-'.EDlClN'.E ALLl '.ES
In the traditional Cherokee Indian belief.
the creatures in the world today are only
diminuitive forms of the mythic beings who
once Inhabited the world, but who now reside
in Galuna'ti, the spirit world, the highest
heaven. But a few of the original powers broke
through the spirilual barrier and exist yet m the
world as we kno w ii. These beings are called
wilh reverence •grandfathers·. And of them,
the strongest are Kanatl, the lightning, the
power of the sky; U/sa·nati, the rattlesnake.
who personifies the power of the earth plane:
and Yunwi Usd1, "the lit/le man·. as ginseng is
called in the sacred ceremonies. who draws up
power from the underworld.
Each is the strongest power in its own
domain. Together they are allies: their energies
complement each other to form an even
greater power. As medicine allies, they
represent the healing powers of the
Appalachian Mountains.
The medicine powetS of Katuah have
been depicted in a striking T-shirt design by
Ibby Kenna. Printed in 4-cofor silkscreen by
Ridgerunner Naturals on top quality, all- cotton
shirts, /hey are available now in all adult sizes
through the Kalanu bioregional mail-order
wpplier.
Order shirts from: KALANU
Box 282; Sylva, NC
Katuah Province 28779
Please specify size: Sm.. Med., Lg.•
X-lg.
~~
~ WINGS WAY CONSULTANTS
Multi-Level Wellness
Nutrients for Body, Mind, Spirit
J..~~
.......
Rr
,._1.~.
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L1l6e
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Cl.nu 5.>q, and mor~
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ft • • t:n• io~u'
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Bluebird Bol• nlcalb~ .;;,!-1>
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PO Bo~ 12"1
Mnklon. NC Z8734
~/
'ljo
'1..: . ,•'
.,,~B.irbara R<'nnen,nycfpr PhD
~· ·
rum
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wor115
I
IN
Ashiko Dr ums
738 Towu Mou.nl&i.A Rd.
Aabnille, N.C. 28804
(704) 258-1038
-
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A so:
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Natural Food Store
&Deli
/"\ edrc1Ne 0RvM~
c ~RAMIC
Ou111bcc.k$ ...
S+R 1'f5
Member NC Water Ouahly AS$0Ciatlon
RANDALL C. LANIER
704·293-5912
1.11.NTEJl - 1988-89
HWY. 107
RT 68 BOX 125
CULLOWHEE, NC 28723
KRLRNU
Soec1J1z1N9
Woo,f eN
WATER PURIFICATION EQUIPMENT
SOLAR PRODUCTS
Send requests to: Lucille Griffin;
Rt. 2, Box 42; Newport, VA 24128
KHLRNU
(704) 688-7016
All natural
ANNOUNCEMENT
The American Chestnut Cooperators'
Foundation reports a very good harvest of
American Chestnut seeds this year and has
nuts available to willing cooperators. The
seed is free and will be shipped with
planting a nd care Instructions. The
Foundation requires only a brief annual
progress report on the seedlings each
September.
P 0. Box 282; Sylva, NC;
Katunh Province 28789
LUCHIA MAISON
1>i...A .. f1
.....
'/-a fumf- 'L Jf(lltL
841 Highway106
Higlilands, NC 28741
(704) 526-5638
Write for a f ree price list,
f rom :
Send $3.00 & long S.A.S.E. for Samples
& Catalogue
Box 1477
Old Fort, NC 28762
Members of the Elders' Circle of the
American lndlan Council will speak at a
weekend event at The Mountain Camp and
Conference Center in Highlands, NC on
March 17-19. They will present the native
perspective on important environmental,
social, and political issues.
The fee for the two-day meeting will
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~
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WANTED: LAND in western NC. Family seeks 5
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ContaCt Rob Messick (704) 754-6097.
r:o:
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Burt Kornegay, experienced guide. Sliclcrock
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Robert Martin. Jr. and Jeanne Moore; Rt. I, Box
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llEIRlOOM GARDENING and Saving Your Own
Suds, pamphlet with specific Instruct.ions on
growing, harvesting, and storing non-hybrid seed.
Sl.00 w/ SASE. Also, SEEDS . Sl.00/packec
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CAROLINA MTN. MACROBIOTIC CENTER
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Ridge mountain~ with facilities available to n:nt ror-
groups or individual retreats, c11hcr guided or
unstructured. Send for information and c;ea.<ional
c:ilcntlar or healing tr.IClsfonnativc e•·ents to: Indian
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Kattiah Journal
P.O. Box 638
U:scc,tcr, NC
Katliah Pro•·1nce 28741!
kllN'TEJl - 1988-89
�Send articles, drawings, and photos of what interests you about
the Katuah region for the spring issue of the journal.
The KatUtih Journal wants to communicate your thoughts and
feelings to the other people in the bioregional province. Send them
to us as letters, poems, stories, articles, drawings, or photographs,
etc. Please send your contributions to us at: Kau'lalr Jo11.mal. P. 0.
Box 638; Leicester, NC; Katuah Province 28748.
The summer issue of the Kati1aJ1 Journal will deal with the menning
of.1h.e word "Peace" a~ a dynamic process that can replace
e:iusung structures of domination with vibrant new relationships.
BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH AVAILABLE
ISSI IE 11-IREE ·Spring 1984
Sustainable Agricuhurc - Sunnowers Ruman Impact on lhe Forest - Childrcns'
Education - Veronica Nicholas:Woman in
Politics· Lui.le People - Medicine Allies
ISSUE FIFTEEN ·Spring 1987
Coverlets • Woman Forester - Susie
McMahon· Midwife - Altermuivc
Contracepuon - Biosexuality •
Biorcgionalism and Women - Good
Medicine· Mauinlchal Culwrc - Pearl
ISSUE FOUR· Summer 1984
Water Drum • Wnter Quality - Kudzu Solar Eclipse • Clearcuuing - Trout Going 10 Waler - Ram Pumps ·
Microhydro - Poems: Bennie Lee Sinclair,
Jim Wayne Miller
ISSUE SIXTEEN - Summer 1987
Helen Wane • Poem V1s1ons in a Garden
• Vis ion Quest • First Aow • Initiation •
Leaming in the Wilderness - Cherokee
Challenge· "Valuing Trees"
lSSUE FIVE - Fall 1984
Harvest - Old Ways in Cherokee Ginseng • Nuclear Waste • Our Celuc
Heritage • B1orcgionalism: Past, Prescm,
and Future • John Wilnoty • Healing
Darkness - Pol iucs or Participation
ISSUE EIGHTEEN· Winter 1987-88
Vernacular Architecture - Dn:ams in Wood
and Stone • Mountain Home - Earth
Energies • Enrth·Shellercd Living •
Membrane Houses Bru~h Shelter ._
Poems: Octobu Dusk - Good Medicine:
"Shelter"
ISSUE SIX - Winter 1984-85
Winter Solsuee Earth Ceremony
Hor.;cpaswre River· Coming of lhe Light
• Log Cabin Roots • Mountain
Agriculture: The Right Crop - William
Taylor - The Future of lhe Forc~t
ISSUE SEVEN - Spring 1985
Sustainable Economics • Hot Springs Worker Ownership - The Great Ecooomy Sclr Help Credit Union • Wild Turkey Responsible Investing • Working :•1 the
Web of Life
ISSUE EIGHT· Swnmer 1985
Celebration: A Way of Life • K:11iiah
18,000 Years Ago - Sacred Sites - Folk
Ans in the Schools • Sun Cycle/Moon
Cycle Poems: Hilda Downer - Cherokee
Heritage Center - Who Owns Appalachia?
ISSUE NINE- Fall 1985
The Waldee Forest - The Trees Speak Migrating Forests • Horse Logging •
Starting a Tree Crop • Urbnn Trees •
Acom Bread - Mylh Time
ISSUE NINETEEN ·Spring, 19&8
Pcrleandra Garden - Spring Tonics •
Blueberries· WildOowcr Garden$ - Granny
Herbalist - Rower Essences • "The
Origin of the Animals:• Story - Good
M.:<.licm.:: "E'U~cr· - Be A Tree
ISSUE THJRTEEN - Fall 1986
Center For Awakening· Eliuibcth Cnllllri
- A Gentle Death - Hospice · Ernest
Morgan - Dealing Creauvcly wilh Death Home Burial Boit - The Wake - The
Raven Mocker - Woodslore and
Wildwoods Wisdom - Good Medicine; The
Sweat Lodge
ISSUE TEN· Winta- 1985·86
Kale Rogers - Circles of Stone - Internal
Mylhmaking · Holistic Healing on Trial .
Poems: Steve Knaulh - Mythic Places •
The Uk1ena's Tale - Crystal Magic • Drcamspeaking.
ISSUE ELEVEN - Spring 1986
Community Plnnning • Cities and the
Biorcgional V1s1on - Recycling Community Gardening- Floyd County.
VA • Gasohol ·Two Biorcgional Views •
Nuclear Supplement • Foxfire Games •
Good Medicine: V!Sioos
ISSUE FOURTEEN - Winter 1986-87
Lloyd Carl Owlc - Boogcrs and Mummers
- All Species Day • Cabin Fever
University - Homeless in Ka1iiah •
Homemade Hot Water • Stovemakcr's
Narrative - Good Medicine: Interspecies
Communication
ISSUE TWENTY· Summer, 1988
Preserve Appalachian Wilderness
Highlands or Roan - Cclo Commuruty Land Trust • Arthur Morgan School Zoning ls.~ue - "The Ridge" - Farmers and
lhe Fann Bill • Good Medicine: "Land" .
Acid Rain - Duke's Power Play Cherokee Microhydro Projcc1
ISSUE TWENTY-ONE· Fall, 1988
Chcslnuts: A Na1ural History • Restoring
lhc Chestnut • "Poem of Presetvntion and
Praise" - Continuing the Qucs1 - Forests
and Wildlife· ChestnUlS in Regional Diet
- Chcslnut Resources - Herb Note • Good
Medicine: "Chnngcs to Come• - Review:
W~rf: legends Li~
/'
~UA~QURNAL
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For more infonna1ioo:
(704) 683-14 14
Leicester, NC KatUah Province 28748
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Address
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, Issue 22, Winter 1988-1989
Description
An account of the resource
The twenty-second issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on the relationship between humans and the environment. Authors and artists in this issue include: Kim Sandland, Lylich Crabawr, Thomas Berry, Marnie Muller, Zoa Rockenstein, Kore Loy McWhirter, Richard Lowenthal, Fred Mignone, "Granny" DeLauncey, Lucinda Flodin, "Esther," Rob Messick, Amy Hannon, Pam Thomas, Lila Thomas, David Wheeler, Martha Tree, Bern Grey Owl, and Lisa Franklin. <br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1988-1989
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
Global Warming and Katúah by Kim Sandland.......3<br /><br />Fire This Time by Lylich Crabawr.......5<br /><br />Bioregions: The Context for Reinhabiting the Earth by Thomas Berry.......6<br /><br />Earth Exercise by Marnie Muller and Zoa Rockenstein.......9<br /><br />Poems and Drawings by Kore Loy McWhirter.......10<br /><br />An Abundance of Emptiness by Richard Lowenthal.......12<br /><br />Reviews: Thinking Like a Mountain | Talking with Nature.......14<br /><br />Options for Regional Currency: The LETSystem by Fred Mignone.......15<br /><br />"Chronicles of Floyd" by "Granny" DeLauney.......16<br /><br />Knife, Axe, and Saw: An Interview with Darry Wood.......18<br /><br />Natural World News.......20<br /><br />The Bear Clan.......22<br /><br />Poem by Lucinda Flodin.......23<br /><br />Drumming: Letters to Katúah.......24<br /><br />Webworking.......30<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, printed by The <em>Waynesville Mountaineer</em> Press
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Human ecology--Appalachian Region, Southern
Global warming--Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Black Bears
Community
Ecological Peril
Economic Alternatives
Education
Forest Issues
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Katúah
Poems
Politics
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
Stories
Turtle Island
Water Quality
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/2f5c7a65526cf67e7320e0c5525d2492.pdf
a25df4140491bff73a4b9d4c92436ab2
PDF Text
Text
ISSUE 23 SPRING 1989
$1.50
BIOREGIONAL JOURNAL OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS
�~LJAHjOURNAL
Postage Paid
Bulk Mail
Permit #18
Leicester, NC
28748
P.O. Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
�THE PISGAH VILLAGE:
A Window into Ancient Ways
..~..-··-·-···-"·-·- ··..·-----··-··-..··-......~..
......
·'
- .......
-
-......· -..
Pisgah Village:
A Window into Ancient Ways ..............!
by Kim Sandland
Planet Art in Katuah............................. 5
by Denise Newbourne
The Green City as Thriving City.........8
by David Morris
Poplar AppeaJ .................................... l 0
lJy Doug Elliott
Written and Illustrated by Kim Sandland
Clear Sky: A Composite Portrait... .... 13
by James Rhea
"A New Earth" ................................... 14
by Jerry Trivette
College as Community Resource .......16
by C.B. Squire
Wild l ovely Days ............................... 18
Poems by Elizabeth Griffin
Photographs by Gil Leebrick
Natural World News..........................20
Reviews:
Sacred Latu/ Sacred Se.x
Rapuue of the Deep .....................23
Stopping the Coming Ice Age ............25
Drumming: Leuers to Kafllah ...........26
''Sudden Tendrils" .............................28
a poem by Michael Hockaday
Events Calendar................................32
Webworking .....................................34
On a low rise above the Catawba River there
was a village .....Once, long ago, the village
flourished ..... Flanked by magnificent forests,
with mountains rising abruptly on the western
side, it stood on floodplain soils, with fields and
gardens enriched by seasonal deposits of sih..... lt
has long since been abandoned. and now it lies
underground, a ghost town enslirouded in the
mystery of its demise.....Remains of posts in 1he
ground delineate where homes once stood. cold
heanhs contain fragments of roasted nuts and
seeds and the bones of deer and small game
animals.....Picces of hand-formed and decorated
clay ea.nhenware. tempered with the sands of
village paths, litter old floors .....When one stands
in what was probably once the cemcr of the
village, there is a pervasive aura of kindred
association and the lingering question of why was
this village abandoned by its rcsidcnls 600 years
ago.....
The old town has been named the Pisgah
Village by mhaeologists presently excavating the
Cn1awbn River site. Ken Robinson of Warren
Wilson College and his field workers are only
now uncovering the village, and it will be some
time before a thorough picture of its rcs1den1s'
wiy of life is pieced together. Excavation hns
already taken months of work, and the project will
continue through October of 1989. Laboratory
study of the artifacts recovered from the site,
photography. drawing, mapwork, and
comparisons with other sites will take much
longer.
NOTE. The exact locOUO!t of the "Pisgah VI/Inge"
article 10 protect tlit #le fro111 po.r3iblt
di!.turlJanus before ucawJlion rs c:ompltttd.
is 1101 11l•tlf 111 thU
Archaeology allows us to reconstruct the
lifeways of chose who lived here before us. II
allows us to determine the distribution,
availability, and use of natural resources by
peoples of 1he past; climatic conditions; cultural,
behavioral, and spiritual traditions and their
material representations. Archaeological fieldwork
can also tell us when - and possibly even why •
such cultures dlsappeared.
The Pisgah Village is one of thirty
promising sites that were identified in McDowell
County. North Carolina. Three of the sites were
tested for future study, but this is the only one
currently under inrcnsive study.
The site is interesting. says Robinson,
because of its location at the edge of the mountains
on the boundary between 1 very differe nt
wo
geographical situations. This was not typical of
late prehistoric settlements. The Pisgah village
presents lhe first opportunity for study of what is
possibly a definitive boundary between the
ancestors of the Cherokee and the ances1ors of the
Catawba peoples. whose culrurcs were evidently
very differenL
Anifac1s so far recovered indicate two
occupations of I.he village sire - the first from about
500-1000 AD, the second from about 900·1500
AD. The focus of the current research is on the
later occupation, says Robinson. He hopes to shed
some light on why the Pisgah Village site was
ab3ndoned.
Widespread disruption of narive settlements
throughout the Southeast occurred around
1450· l 550, and the dissipation of such
(oonunucd on p:ige 3
�~LJAHjOURNAL
·-
EDITORl AL STAFF THIS ISSUE:
Will Ashe Bason
Michael Red Fox
Richard Lowenthal
Rob Messick
Christina Morrison
Marnie Muller
Kim Sandland
David Wheeler
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE:
Scou Bird Manha Tree Jack Otaney John Creech Jay Joyce
Marsha Ring Patrick Clark Chip Smith
COVER by Rob Messick
INVOCATION - a poem, •world.~ by Elizabeth Griffin
PUBLISHED BY: Kauiah Journal
PRINTED BY: The Waynesville Mow11ainecr Press
WRITE US AT:
Kail1ah Journal
Box 638
Leicester, NC
Katuah Province 28748
!ELF.PHONE:
(704)683-1414
D1vcrsi1y is an 1mport:tn1 elemcm of bioregional ecology, both
nawrol and social. Tn line wath Iha~ principle, lhe KaJ1'ah Journal uics 10
~e as a forum for the discussion ot regional Issues. Signed arucles e~rcss
only lhe op111ion of the aulbors and arc not necesSill'il)' Ille opanions of the
Karliah Jounw/ tduors or stnff.
The lmcmal Revenue Servtce bas declared Kat11ah a non·pront
organiza1ion under seer.ion SQl(cXJ) or Ille ln1cmnl Revenue Code. All
conuibwions lO Katiiah are deductible from person.al income tl.it.
tNVOC.ATWN
the vJorld is as W9- are
TH£ SOtll'HERN APPALACHtAN BJORECJON
AND MAJOR EASTERN RJVER SYSTEMS
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
Herc m lhe souLhcm-most hcattlund of Lhc App:ilnchian mounuins, 1he oldest
mounlllan range on our continetll, Turtle lslnnd; a small bu1 growing group h:is begun
IO mke on a sense of responsibilhy for Ille implicau(ln.~ of lhl11 gcogr.tphicnl nnd
culturol heritngc. This sense of responsib1li1y c:cnu:rs on lhe conccp1 of hvmg w11hin
the ruuural ~ and bal3nce of universal sysiems Md pnllClJllcs.
Wilhan dus circle we began by invoking Lhc Cherokee mime • K;u.Ualt' a.~ lhe
old/new name for this nrca of the mouniains and for ii.s joU!Tllll as well The province is
indicated by •L~ naUDUI boundarie$! the Ro:inokc Ri~cr Valley 10 the nonh; the foollulls
of the piedmont area IO the cast: Yona Mount.am nnd lhc Georgia halls lO lhc :>0u1h: and
the Tennessee Raver Valley to the west.
TI1~ editorial pnootieli ror u:; arc t0 c:o!Ject and disseminate mfonnar.ion Md
energy which pcrL'llllS specifically LO lllls region, nnd IO ro.u:r IJ1e awareness 1h:u 1hc
land i~ a hvmg be.mg de$CMng of our love and rcspeeL Livmg in this manner is a way
IO ansuro the su.~n:ibility of the bao.~phcrc and a la.rung placc for ourselves m 11.S
continuing cvolutlonary process.
We seem IO h3ve readied Ille fulcrum Point of a• do or die • si111t1tion m t.cnrn;
of a quality standard of life for all living beings on !his planeL A~ a voice for lhc
can:lakcrs or llus saarcd land. Kaniah. we advoc:uie a c:enlefed approach 10 Ilic cooccp1 of
dccenlnlli1..otion. II is our hope 1 become a support sysicm for those acocpong lhe
.0
challenge of SUStninabilhy and lhe creation of harmony and balance an a total sense,
here an this place.
We welcome all correspondence, critlcism, perunen1 infonnation, articles,
an work, etc. with hopes th31 K.a.tWib will grow ID serve lhe best in1eres1S of lhis region
and all us li11'11lg, breathing members.
-The EdilOrS
let us desire only
that consciousness
,r
Of life
in which the cosmic will
and the will to be
are.,one
Some of lhe K01iiah JourfllJ] Staff: (le1i IO right)
Foreeround: Andy Ha!I-Bak.cr Middlr: David Wheeler, Mamie Muller, Rob
Messick Standing: Will A.She Bason. Christina Morrison. Chip Smith,
Rithiud Lowenlh3l. Lisa Franklin
Sprt"'J, 1989
�(continued from page J)
well-developed, thriving cultures has never been
fully understood. Robinson feels lhat CJCcavauon
of the Pisgah Village may lend some support 10 the
theory that early Spanish explorers had a
devastating effect on native aboriginal peoples.
lt has long been surmised that Spa.nish
explorers, led by Hernando De Soto and Juan
Pardo among others, came up from the east and
Gulf coasts through South Carolina and then
inlMd to the Little Tennessee River. The routes of
these explorers have lately been re-evaluated,
however, and much evidence now indicates that
they came along the eastern edge of the mountains
~ perhaps even as far east as the Catawba River.
Some of the ac!ual records from the DeSoto and
l>ardo expcdhions contain references to what are
now believed to be villages in McDowell County.
a hand in decimating these large animal
populations.
The burgeoning human population.
unchecked by disease and nunurcd by abundance,
reached a saturation point. The time from about
8,000 BC to I AD is called the Archaic Period.
when human living took on a very different
approach. In the woodlands the Archaic peoples
hunted small game - primarily deer - fished. and
collected plant foods. They were only seasonally
nomadic, capitalizing on the migrations of
animals, the spawning of fish, the maturing of
nuts, and the flush of ripening benics.
The people of the Archaic Period were
efficient enough in their hunting and gathering that
the search for food did not take up all of their time;
they also pursued other endeavors. They made
basketS and mats which have been found
preserved in sites in the dry Southwest desen.
They made hand-polished stone articles - some
done very anistically, others left undecorated fo~
utilitarian use. Graves from the Archaic Period
contain tools, weapons, red ochre (a pigment
associated with ceremonies), beads, pendants, and
dogs - all mcticulo_usly placed to accompany the
dead into an aflcrhfe. Their stone hunting points
were made with stems to be attached to sbaftS, an
innovation from the time of lhc Palco-Indians.
The earliest evidences of human occupation
in the Southern Appalachian Mountains date from
the Archaic Period. They consist of isolated find.~
of a distinct type of projectile point used for
hunting - the Morrow Mountain type - dated to
4500 BC.
The Woodland Period
The Woodland Period of human habirotion
The Spanish brought conflict and murder
along wi1h their pack trains. They also brought
Q.iseases - smallpox, measles, tuberculosis, and
influenza - the likes of which the native population
had not experienced on this continent. The
Spanish, according to their own writings, burned
villages, kidnapped and enslaved natives, abused
the native cullure, and spread their imponed
diseases. They formed trade alliances with some
of the native tribes and introduced European
materials. The full extent of the cultural and social
disruption caused by the introduction of these
trade goods is only now being realized. Robinson
hopes that study of the Pisgah Village site will
provide new links in the chain of undenaanding.
extended from about I AD to 1600 AD. Three
primary developmentS marked the transition from
the Archaic to the Woodland cuhural iypes:
· the development of pottery for cooking,
storing, and transporting food and other items:
- the cultivation of vegetable crops to
supplement hunting and gathering:
- and the first pcnnanent settlements.
People of the Woodland phase settled in
river valleys, where seed-bearing plants thrive.
and became almost sedentary. cultivating native
grains and then com. gourds, and squash as these
crops were passed nonh from Mexico. Projectile
poinis became smaller and more finely crafted.
The bow and arrow replaced the spear and the
dan.
Woodland peoples traded across long
distances. Mica from the Southern Appalachians
and shells and fossilized shark's teeth from the
coastal areas appear in archaeological sites
throughout the southeast
Burial practices continued the tradition of
placing grave goods to accompany the dead. Some
individuals were bwied in elaborate earth mounds,
indicating some status or rank among their feUow
villagers.
Some of the Woodland Period peoples built
tremendous carthworlcs for purposes that are still
unclear to archeo-historians. They show a
remarkable diversity, some being mathematically
executed, others shaped like serpents. birds, and
other figures. The full extent of some of these
landscape sculptures was fully realiz.cd only after
observers could fly above them.
In some pans of the Southeast during the
Woodland Period, clements of what is called
"Mississippian culture" appeared. Mississippian
culture was characterized by temple mounds
(eanhworks which were the foundation for
ceremonial centers). village) fortifLed with
encircling palisades of stakes. copper tools and
jewelry, and inrncruely designed ceremonial an.
The v.intings of early European explorers of
the 15th century describe palisaded towns with an
ehtborate soctal development and material culture.
(continued on JXl8C 4)
The First People
During the last lee Age a land bridge JOined
Asia and Nonh America acrosi. chc Berin~ Strait.
Many scientist:. believe that prehistoric people
followed the large game animals into the new
continent by this rou!e, and by the year 10,000 BC
the first humans were well-established in both
Nonh and South America. These Palco-Indian
people. as they arc called. were nomadic hunters.
They had no settlements, and the only evidences
of their culture that have been round arc hunting
weapons (stone spear points and darts), chipped
stone knives, choppers and scrapers used for
processing game meat and cutting wood, and
animal bones thnt are evidence of their big game
kills.
By 8,000 BC the glaciers had retreated, and
the climate became wanner. Many of the big game
animals - species of horse. camel. rhinoceros, and
bison not seen today. the great ground sloths and
the woolly mammoth - became extinct on this
continent Some scientists believe that humans had
Spr~"'J. 1989
Ken Rotmisnn and
visiring school class
t!t.Omi1U! parrially
ew1WJ1ed grid
.fllUl1re OJ PiSgaJ1
Vi/Inge.
Pho•o by Morme1 Mulltf
�(col\Ullucd from p:ige 3)
In the Southern Appalachians, lhis Mississippian
tradition, borrowed from cuhural influences 10 the
west is called "the Pisgah tradition" by
arch~eologists. Peoples of the Pisgah tradition
were the direct ancestors of the Cherokee.
The Pisgah tradition of lhe late Woodland
Period with its Mississippian influences, marks
the pi~nacle of the cultural evolution of native
peoples in the Southern Appalachians. Although
some cultural traditions persisted until the rime of
the Cherokee Removal, the native way of life was
altered forever with the arrival or white explorers
and seulers.
Pottery fragments, called sherds, cons~ilute
the majority of anifacts from the Warren Wilso11
excavations. Pottery vessels were fashioned from
coils of clay, shaped and rounded. Some of the
containers hnd handles or thickened runs and were
tempered with sand before firing for extra
s1rCng1h. Some were plain and undecorated, while
others bore complica1cd panerns created by
stamping the unfired vessels with carved wooden
paddles. Cords or nets were also used lO l~ve
fiber impressions in the wet clay, and des1~ns
were also incised with small, sharp. marking
tools.
Plnin and decorated clay tobacco pipes have
also been recovered, as well as small s1one and
clay discs. believed to be counters or gamepieces.
Also found were clay and soapstone beads and
polished stone gorgeis. A hole was drilled into
each of the ornaments so that it might be worn
around the neck.
The Pisgah rradition was a way of life
which allowed individualized expression of talent
and beliefs. During this phase livelihood was
secure enough to allow time for artistic
embellishment of functional tools. Carved
soapstone bowls were made in sizes to hold from
Relics AJong the Swannanoa
The Pisgah tradition is best represented by
archaeological discoveries made on the campus of
Warren Wilson C-0llegc in Swannanoa in Kan'.iah.
Artifacts found there preview what might be
uncovered at the Pisgah Village site along the
Catawba.
The Warren Wilson site snw four penods of
habitat ion by native peoples. The earliest
occupation daies back nearly to the beginning of
!he Archaic Period, The snc has been disturbed by
erosion, dig~ing. and more recently by plowing.
Disturbed sues are more dlfficull to interpret,
because artifacts are misplaced, and feature.~ such
as building foundations, heanhs and r::rosh pits are
scauered. Despilc such disturbances,
archaeologists have learned a great deal from the
Warren Wilson site. No anifacts later than the
Pisgah phase have been. recovered ~1 Warren
Wilson. Its residents vanished someume 1n the
mid- l600's and never returned.
two quaris to 1wo gallons of liquid. Polished stone
axes were found, some grooved to be anached to
shafts, others designed to be hand-held. The
excavation yielded monars and pestles of stone for
grinding seeds, nuts, and drie(benies. and caches
of red and yellow ochre and graphite used for
paint pigments.
The villagers who occupied the Warren
Wilson site lived in rectangular dwellings. Over
the years. the sunken posts rotted and left dark
circular Stains in lhe earth, like perfect shadows.
ghoslly visions of the past. The walls were Likely
made of waule-and-daub, a mixture of clay and
grasses. Mose of the dwellings were not within the
village itself, but in outlying farmsteads.
In lhe center of each house was a raised clay
fire basin for warmth and cooking. The heanhs
and the storage vessels buried nearby contained
evidence of the foods these early people utilii.ed,
among them hickory nuts, waJnucs, buuemuts,
acorns, persimmons, maypops, grapes, bl~ck
cherries. and chesmuts. There were also remains
of com, squash, beans, and sumpweed, all of
which were cultivated. Trash pits contained the
bones of 30 species of animals, including bear,
deer, bobcat, weasel, mountain lion, squirrels.
turtles, snakes, frogs, and turkeys. From the
distribution of foods, it is sunnised that the Pisgah
(conbJlued oo page 24)
EXCAVATION
OF A PREHISTORIC SITE
An archneological cxcavarion site is chosen
because of the discovery of surface artifacts.
because of a promising location that looks likely to
yield evidence of occupation, or because th.e area
is threatened by development or by destruction by
vandals.
Fieldwork begins with a surface collection
of artifacts. Surface finds are ploued on a detailed
map of the site, because their distribution may in
itself reveal important information.
The plow zone is scraped away and sifted
through mesh screen 10 separate out any artifacts.
Below the plow zone may lie a surface
undisturbed by the activities of lauer-day humans.
A grid of stakes and Jines is then laid out
over the site, usually in a true nonh-south
alignment, to correspond with grid l~nes mark~d
on a site map. The area of each gnd square 1s
usually one square meter.
Soil samples may be taken with augers to
determine distinct strata and/or the presence of
hidden constructions or features (visible item
which cannot be removed from the site and taken
to the laboratory, such as house floors. burials,
cooking fire pits, etc.).
Selected grid squares may be excavated at
random if the site is large. Small sites may be
excavated entirely. Test excavations help 10
determine where to concentrate digging e!Tons.
As the squares are excavated, the wall of
each square 1s left intaCt m display lhe stratigraphy
(visible layering) of the soil.
Small layers, and sometimes whole strata,
of soiJ are removed using shovels or trowels, and
the exposed surface is levelled. M~terial from each
level is sifted and soned. The an1facts recovered
are bagged, labelled with their exact location in the
soil stratigraphy. Soil samples are taken from each
stratum 10 be examined in the laboratory. for even
mJcroscop1c elements in the soil {such as pollen
grains) may reveal information about the nora of
the area and the climate (such 11s periods of
drought and rainfall).
Each exposed surface level is mapped and
photographed, and details arc recorded in field
notebooks.
Features arc very carefully u~covcred ~s
they appear in the strata. To d1~turb lh_e1r
placement would be 10 destroy the rnformauon
they contain. Small dental picks, 1ooth~:ushes,
and even fine paintbrushes may be uuhzed to
remove the soil from artifacL~ and features.
Laboratory analysis of the artifacts. notes,
maps, drawings. and photographs may take
months, possibly years, of additional work once
the fieldwork is completed.
.
Artifacts and features from each gnd and
srratum and their relationships to the other finds
through~ut the site, will reveal the lifeways of the
people who once lived there - their t<?Ols,_ trades,
rituals, subsjstence. An archaeologist literally
delves into the relationship that ancient peoples
maintained with the world around them.
Archaeological fieldwork reveals details .of th~t
relationship. It may te~ how lo~g lhat ~elauonship
was sustained, and Dllgh1 possibly potnl to clues
as to why it came to an end
;st:t'
Sprtng, J!189 •
�Art
by Denise Newboume
Dream f rQl}ment . ••
Slt.e fell oslup that mghl and as she dre<uttM her spirit was
luult'd through the long spiral tunnel and inII) till! scars.
M1uri-dimtJtSional ribbons with Jhimmering citcu.ils drifted past
aJ incompreJumsiblt spuds Slie realized she was in 1/ie center of
the 1rwi.rplanetary in~rface, a place similar to a radio sroJibn
w/ll!re lJfU! can nW'. into past <JNlfimue choices and possibilities
for any piaMt, and/inc tune w tlic path ofgre01esr harmony.
"Hmmm," she wondered, .,what can that p01h possibly be
for the eartlrr Finding ow ~·as as simple as speaking the roMS
that most corresponded with Earth's vihrationaljreqrumcy ar tlie
prese111 tu~. No soonu had llll! said "John Wayne" than she
fo1uld lu:rself in a lwlogram oftill! Earth.
Her SU&Sitivc a.11ral rectpum M-Ve overw/11:/med a1fv.~t
with an almost 1111/Jearablt colkaion of hurrlingferocities,
terrified srreaming, and lrnpelt!Ss fwiliry. She re111(Ji/led calm,
knowing from experience tll/Jl often tire jint reception ofsuch
planets was the hardest lmagu of marching soldiers appeared
before her, rows ofmen 1n unifonns, who turned on their heels
and became long rows of ballerinas, all dressed in the same rum
dolng rl~ uact SOllW hops and twirls while myriads of musicians
all played variatwns of the SattU'! song. A smal I number of
"others" hod them wrapped in strings, wl11ch the>• kept rig/rt, and
twisted tfl/!nt this Wtl)' and tllDt, like puppets. Then she noticed
thOl'-fand:. of beings sitting i11 tlie darkness.paralyzed The
dancers and musicians wen' used to dii-en rheir anention from
tll/!ir dl!.rperarely repres.ud condition.
Then di/! Sct!nario began to change
the people in
darkness bt:gan to wake 11p and cw the strings. They swpped
allowing tl.e cloned do.nurs and arrisrs to llypnoti:e them and
started dancing tlll!mSelvts. Nor imuating any form, they simply
followed wh1tre their own bodies led tht!ITI. The "official" artisu
also stopptd their/~en.sh reprodJJJ:twnr ofprescribedforms
long en1mgh w listen to the songs and dances from wid1itt They
all begD11 listen.ing to and performing thdr own unique songs and
danus. and helping otlll!rs learn
tlll! s~. More and 1111>re
strings were cw. and tlle ligliJ gr~ brigluer wilh t!llch ""e's gift
of color. until of/ the beings became a mandala ofilrlerw<J\'tn
harmony and beawy.
Her anelllion tllrMd to a man in a belly dancers silks and
veils, doing rhl sinuous, anciefll dance of binh She looked
closer and saw it war .. John Wayfll!! "What a nice resolurilln,"
slie mused to herself. "It doesn't seem so hard looking at ft from
oUlhere.··
"'do
We are now witnesses to the ultimate dead-end created
when reason attempt~ to dominate spirit, men to dominate
women, science to dominate an. and "civilized" peoples ro
dominate "'n:uive" ones. The5e are all external eumples of a
fundamental split and sttuggle within e:ich of us. We have come
so far from our primordial heritage of wholeness. that many of us
arc at a los:. as to how to regain it We are still StrUggling to learn
lhnt our fundamental problem is not any category of people. but
the \'Cry existence of ~~teg~es.. 9ur problem ~s nOt science.~
power. not an, not ~pintuahty; n 1s the pcrcepuon of these tlnngs
as sepanuc rather than facc1~ of a unified whole.
,\ key clemenr of the 1houglit sys1cm in which we perceive
each Other ns lw lhan whole 1s the notion lhat some people arc
creative and Olhm arc no1. Thi:. is extremely discmpowcring
becllusc the power to cn.:.ltC is a cenrral attribute of divinity in all
n:ligions. Thi~ c~tivc now from within provides us with 1he
knowledge of our own power. b:iJance, and self-wonh. lf we
believe that we do not have this rcgcnenitive power, then we
promote scarcity for ourselves and others. So here we all nre
amidst terrifying psychological scarcity collectively creaccd by the
majority of the population who for one rcawn or another do no:i
belie~ they arc creo.rivi- nnd powerful The planet cnn only a1wn
the pence thut com~ from wholenes.~ when the beings who
comprise it acknowledge •heir own and each others' wonh
An. ai. we know 11 today. b a mirror for our plnnewy
condiuon. There arc some people who do it. and they are n:vercd
:is if they have something others do not. There is a funher
dhtinction between "fine" an and "folk" an, with the unplicarion
that fine an is somehow nobl~-r and better than folk., because it is
non-funclionnl. TIUs 1s the alienating idea that an is only real if it
is removed from the daily now oflifc.
When a peoplCli: he.1.rlfclt. arti~ cxprcs.sion is_ lo;-t or
s~tenurically extingu15.hcd, they begin to feel empty inside and
often beccmc caught up in a funle effon to saiisfy themselves
with utemal g~. 11us exu:mal grasping often IC3ds lO the
phenomenon o! ~ictiveness The fact &tlat ~e !'ow ha~oe whole
societie~ c:."pcncnang desperate levels of addlCtlOn :uid_
1is
a11endan1 destruction is a signal that it is ume forchoosmg to heal
ourselves. One way we can do this is by tapping our unique
expression~ and bl~ing ourselves llild the planet ~;th the
creative energy that Oows from our spinL
Our culrural definition of an needs to expand from the
activiucs or an elite few to that or all people. Jose ArgueUes, in
his latest book Surfers ofthe luvuya, provides such a definition:
"You've all gott.t undcrsuind th:tt you're artists. Nothing fancy,
but anists of life. anists of reality....Anything that's harmoniwl.
that's an. This is an imponnn1 point ... since the planet's got to
(conunllCld on PQ&ll 6)
SJJrin9' 1989
~ ~~~ - 1'.!'9'1 ~ y
�be cleaned up and rehnm1omzed, there isn't any1hmg that isn't
Planet An." With this kind of definition. an becomes intrinsic to
the flow of life. \Ve are now beginning to realize that a11y
expression that comes from our own spirits i'> valid, even if it
docs not confom110 formerly prescribed ideas of'' an".
To see an as a force for hnrmonizing our world is also to
odd a higher di~s1on '?f social respon~i~ility to it. 111~.
question "Will this conmbute to harmomzing our plam:t?
becomes a standll!"d pan of the creative process, and an irnpon:mt
criteria for whether or not 10 mar.ifest nn idea. Also integral 10 a
holistic perspective is the understanding that an and science are
not separate but are indivisible facets of a life-oriented culture.
This understanding would ~1e a much-needed ~1al . .
responsibility for everyone m all areas of human producuvny
What exactly is Planet An? It is about reclaiming our
concept of an to encompass all forms of exchange with our
world. An is the language our species has used to communicate
with the universe for thousands of years. Primitive an focussed
on the intimate relationship of a tribe to it~ particular homeplace
and all of its inhabitants. Now our homeplace has become the
entire planet and beyond...aod our an has begun to rcllect this
reality.
Planetary an is a conscious awareness of the whole Life
community in which we participate and a strong intent to
.
hannonize with it. lt is vital to our species' survival that we shift
to this more active engagement and interplay with the universe. Jn
this way. the many facets of our reality become intimately woven
toget.hcr...our own interior world, our human cultural
communiry, our planetary life community and the rest of the
universe.
How does the Harmonic Convergencu fit in with all this?
Broadly speaking. the purpose of the Converge.nee wa.s 10
reactivate our ay, an:ness of the earth as a consc1ou~ b<:ang and to
pro-.idc a time to rcatlirm our choice to co-create with her. Those
who consciously made that cho1ce at that umc are the people
Arguelles is now calling the "Eanh Force".
By next year, Arguelles feels that this Earth Force will
begin to manifest itself as a global and cultural phenomenon. He
also feels that all need 10 move in a much more direct, mobilized
way. By the second anniversary of Hannonic Convergence, he
sees the opponunity for a Rainbow Peace Event. That would
signal that the Campaign for the Earth has coalesced and bonded
enough in the underground to begin 10 manifest as an alternative
force of allied, planetary, non-government organizations moving
in concen to take measures int0 our own hands.
When I think of "art camps" and the "alternative force of
allied, planetary, non-government organizations", the bioregional
movement comes to my mind. We are a ready-made resource of
diverse people who are awan: of the Earth's aliveness and are
choosing to assist with her healing process. Karuah is a very
supportive communuy for Planet An, and a strong network is
already fom1ing. Here are some examples of Planet An going on
inKatuah...
Heart Dance
Pat Sharkey, who lives in Floyd, Virginia, makes beauoful
jewelry from crystals and stones. One lhing she has learned from
working with crystals is that our own bodies operate in a similar
way ... that is, they can be programmed, and they amplify
energy. These conceptS have inspired her to create ways for an
and science to become pans of a whole... through sacred dance.
"Dance is like a gridwork, a system of conduction," she
iold me. "By encompassing tones, using our bodies as
conductors by arranging them in specific geometric
configurations, employing corresponding herbs and stones, and
consciously utilizing the energy gridwork of Icy lines on the
planet, we can attune oarselves to move any specific energy
through, and use it for healing."
This kind of work could be done at key sites alJ over the
eanh ...those places that amplify energy as well as those in need
of healing. She Stressed the impon.nncc of a disciplined
preparation of daily meditation for at least a month before coming
together to do sacred dance.
"The more preparation, the clearer the channel, the more
juice we all reccive...the more we personally understand
-something, the more authentically we can put it out to others."
One way that planetary art is manifesting is through
networking. Jose Arguelles, one of the key figures in the 1987
Harmonic Convergence, helped to found The Planet An Network
in 1983. According to Arguelles. it is far too late for anything
else save for artists, from all medias, 10 converge and produce
inter-media performance rituals and other forms of planet art.
He feels that these performance rituals should be simulcast
via satellite to as many cities as possible to raise the
consciousness of humanity. He sees this as a higher purpose of
our extensive system of mass communication. When we are able
10 liberate this media system from the forces of fear and
domiruuion we will have an incredible tool for dispersing
immediate visions of peace.
Astrologer Amero Alli envisions "the emergence of
multiple 'art camps' ...clusters of resonant core groups dedicated
to varied forms of planet an." Again.. the indicauon is that this
an js a grassroots, collective phenomenon.
Some of the elements for such activities could be music,
dnnce, comedy, drama and sign language, combined with visual
an. lighting, costumes. holograms. crystals and audience
participation. There is no limit lO the possibilities!
Drawing by Sbe.IJ Lodge
The example she gave is for a Hean Dance, in which men
and women would come together nnd fonn into a Star of David
...men forming one triangle, women the other. Rose quru:ii;
would be in the center. Pora month beforehand each pamcipant
would have spent time meditating daily on healing between men
and women. They would then come together in meditation and
symbolic movemenrs. and allow their energies to interact for the
purpose of healing. The same concept can be used with any
symbol, for any healing purpose, anywhere on the planet.
Groups could begin travelling 10 other countries f~ the expres.s
purpose of performing sacred dance there to amplify the energies
of hannony and healing.
"This is a way we can utilize all the systems we've learned
- astrology, numerology, the tarot...and combine them in
perfonnance through our bodies. High technology has become
so overspecialized that no one can see the whole anymo.rc. By
using our bodies as holographic componenis we are going back
to lhe source of all recbnology...our inner beings."
Pat is interested in organizing an Earth Dance gathering,
and in exchanging inspiration and info with others interesled in
this idea. Her address is P.O. Box 606, Aoyd, Virginia, Kaulah
Province 2409 l.
SprLf19, 1989
�Orandmottu
A planetary art exhibit ...
The popular Gmndmothc:r band in Asheville, North
Carolina is a group tha1 is already doing visionary planet an. The
group is composed of four women who each play several
different insD"Uments and sing h:innonics 1ogelhl'r. They arc a
visual, muhi-me<lia band. incorporating inro !heir performances
creative movement, sign language. masks, costumes. acting and
comedy. Their inclusive approach 10 music provides an
enthusiastic vision of peace. leaving nudiences with a tremendous
feeling of satisfaction. l talked with Deb Criss. one of 1he
founding members of Grandmother, on her thoughts about Pl:lnet
The People of Lhc One Song
UV!NG ART F!Xll/B!T
An.
Her inspiration for Grund mother crunc to her when she
was visiting lhe pyramid sites at Palenque. Mellico. She sa1 for
long periods of time in the part of the complex that had been the
Mayan's theatre. There :;he had visions of "blending ri1ual art
into a music concert with respect to 1he four elemems and a ~ensc
of oneness with 1he eanh, using costumes and masks. and
finding ways io reach ou1 and dec~se 1he distance be1wecn
audience and performers.''
''The original vision l had was for an intentional way of
doing a show, beginning by smudging the area, a group prayer
and quie1 rime of positive thought We could then play with
1oncs, color, and lights, blended with modem-day music 10
induce frequencies tha1 unify heart, will, and higher mind.
People of1en become uncomfonable when things are quiet,
sacred, and serious for 100 long, so comedy is also an important
part of our shows."
Grandmother is very community orienled ... at one of their
shows !his past fall four women joined 1he show for theatre and
signing. One of them was an 89-year·old woman from
Waynesville, the "honored Grandmother" of the evening. "I feel
1hat i1's important 10 in1cgra1e all ages, so that we all have a fuller
understanding of the circle of life," said Criss.
Their group is a dynamic process of consensus, and
chooses to be open to additional aclS (with prior pl!lnning) being
part of the show. "Grandmother is the ancient spiri1 of the winds
Lhrough lime that speak through the earth to all people ... if
s..meone feels that inner voice speaking through them. it is good
10 claim it and find a way to express ii. We hope 1hat
Grandmother is a catalystic agent to inspire others 10 do this."
For more information about Grandmother, call Deb Criss
at (704) 253-4831.
Contact Improvisation
Also going on in Asheville is the quie1 revolution of
Contact Improvisation, a newly arising dance form. Its emphasis
is on releasing individual and group creativity through
spontaneous movement rather than following a specific 1echnique
or choreography.
More than traditional dance forms, Contact relies heavily
on suppon and cooperation among the dancers. II strengthens
both the "I" and the "we" because the movements come from
one's own center as well as being shaped by one's interactions
with the other dancers. It's a way for 1 physical body to learn
he
trust. •. in a literal fashion, through physical imerac1ion. rn
Contact, there are no wrong steps or movemcn1s---1here is only
more or less fiowing, depending on how relaxed, trusting, and
sensitive the dancers allow themselves 10 be.
Contact is also p:utidpatory rather th:m perfoml!lnccorlented. fl is primarily an expenence for the d:lncel'li instead of
for an audience. The movemenlS spring from deep v. ithin and nre
a continual source of surprise, even 10 1he dancers This makes 11
nlJ the more dynamic to Y.itness. Audience and dancers are
brought together llS both expcnence in different ways the
everchanging now of movement coming from spiri1 into form.
Leigh Hollowell and Christina Morrison are co-1e.'lching
the first Conmct Dance class in Asheville. Chrisuna had auendcd
a Dance New E11gland Conmc1 ln1ensivc la.~1 summer and
rerurned home excited 10 share this fonn with others. She
immediately began teaching friends in Celo and talking with
Marnie Muller abou1 the possibility of a regional Dance Kn11"1Ji.
Spring, 1989
(continued on pago 29)
Who are the People of the One Song?
They are ILf a1ul nwre ...They are inspiratian ...
/>a.rt 14ah.ng into furure ..Funue leaking into
past. We invite rlrem into prese111 being ro help
us remember rite word.f to The One Song Singing
in rite liearrs and mitids ofall Earth's People.
Tile People of rlie One Song is an art exhibit centering
on the clay pottery faces and masks by artisl/poner Jane
Avery-Grubel. The faces, strikingly adorned with
beadwork, .shells, and feathers by artiM Jeri Dewey,
represent a culture of people dr:Jwn from archetypal memory
of natural tribal living. and from the vision of a futuri.~1ic
tribe we may become.
Out of lhe faces have come stories, written by local
poet Colleen Redv.onun, tha1 1ell of the uibe's dreams,
ri1uals. roles. and relationships. The exhibit will also fua1ure
many local crafts people's works such as baskets, jewelry.
clothing, musical insuurnents, pottery and herbs that v.ill
repre~ent the tribe's anifacts of everyday living and
celebration.
The People ofThe One &mg is a \ision of a tribe
leading resourceful, crea1ive, peaceful lives in relationship
with the Earth and each other. The concept is an expression
of 1ime transcending--a merging of pa~r. pn:o;en1, and future
10 cn:ati: a cuhure of our wildcs1 d~a~...one that may have
been...could be.
The artists involved sec Thr People nf'The o~ Snr.g
as a modcl....''Through art we can nffirm a fuum: that i~ noc
so dependent on modem 1echnology. Most c~cry1h1og
cxhib11ed can be made, grown, or found m na1ure 111e
show is a ·work in progress that we are continually crra1ing
and recreaung, jus1 as we create our every day rc;tli1y. It's
like opening our minds and doing an archeolog1cal dig into
1hc: future."
Open through April 1989 at Old Church Glllery. M:un
Street. Floyd, Virginia, Katuah Province 24091. For more
infonnation or to schedule additional gallery engngcments: _-~
(703) 7-i5-4849 or 745·3316
~
e
•
"-I
...
>Can.ah Jourrnal pCMJe 1
�THE GREEN CITY AS THRIVING CITY
Implications For local Economic Development
by David Morris
This April, David Morris ofthe I nstiture for Local Self-Reliance will
be the key1Wte speaker for the WNC Environmental Summit '89.
Here is an article from the conriner110/ bioregionat publication Raise
the Stakes that highlighis some ofhis thoughrs.
In discussing the greening of ciLies. one is reminded of Lhe
slogan Lhat the French s1udents used in 1968. On their posters they
said "all that we want to change is every1hing," which comes from
that famous ecological dictum, "everything is connected to everything
else." When we pull a thread, we may in fact unwind a sweater.
The 1wo fundamental assumptions underlying the way we've
designed our communities nre the assumptions of cheap energy and
cheap disposal cosis. Jn constant dollars, a barrel of oil that cost five
dollars in 1910 cost a little over a dollar in 1965. The cost of
lhrowing away a ton of garbage remained preuy much the same from
1900 to 1960. We could lherefore ignore lite operating inefficiencies
and wastes of the systems that we developed.
Cities reflect that inefficiency and waste. Our cities are
dependent creatures. A city of 100,000 people impons 200 tons of
food, I 000 tons of fuel and 62,000 ions of water a day, and dumps
100,000 tons of garbage and 40,000 tons of human waste a ye:ir.
We've accepLed long disaibution systems as the price we pay for
progress and development. Jndeed, we've elevated separation to
Lhe status of vinue and internalized those principles into our way of
thinking about our local economies.
J was recently reminded of how much we take 1ha1 state of
affairs for granted when Twas in a SL Paul, Minnesota res1auran1.
After finishing lunch. 1 got a toothpick, and of course all toothpicks
now have an obligatory plastic wrapper. The word Japan was primed
on the wrapper. Now, I thought to myself, Japan has no wood, bur
it has been considered economical 10 take pieces of wood and send
them LO Japan, wrap them in plastic and send lhe whole thing back: 10
Minnesota. Thal toothpick embodied 50,000 miles within it. Well,
not to be outdone, Minnesota just set up a fac1ory. Ir's producing
chopsticks and it's sending them to Tokyo.
This brings to mind an image of two sh1ps passing each other
in lhc Pacific, one carrying lildc pieces of wood from Japan to the
United States, and the other carrying linle pieces of wood from the
United Slates to Japan. That is economical only if one acceplS the
twin assump1ions noted at the outset - those pillars upon which our
economic system has been established.
This impon-expon paradigm is the way our economy runs. It
is also the way our waste economy runs. Washington, D.C., for
instance, was becoming overwhelmed by its. hum:in wastes, and paid
a consulWlt $150,000 to come up with a solution. He suggested they
barge them to Haiti. That recommendation was approved by D.C.,
but Haiti vetoed lhe idea. Haiti decided though they'd been offered
the wastes of the c:apiLal of the Frtt World, they preferred nOL to be
shat upon.
The integrated planetary economy was supposed to make us
more secure, but has it? Global trade expands and so do planetary
tensions. For example, developing counaies arc now exporting more
and more food to the developed counaics to eam the hard currency
necessary to repay debts that they incurred primarily to build up their
expon indusaies. lndusaial development and utilizacion both have
increased. The developed counaies are in an inlCTesting protecrionis1
free trade dance, a pas de deux of late planelruy economics. in which
each country tries desperately to preserve ac lease some amount of ils
sovereignty and its productive assets. at the same rime trying not to
interfere with free trade and the mobility of resources.
Capilal has become the lubricant for the planetary economy, the
grease that lets the planetary machine functioo. We fervently believe
lhat capital should flow at least as freely as raw maLerinls and
products. Last year 20 times more currency was iraded than was
needed to underwrite world trade.
We are more reluctant to embrace the unimpeded rnobili1y of
the third factor of production: labor. But we're inching up to it Six
months ago the Council of Economic Advisors recommended
abolishing all barriers LO migration in order t0 improve the economy.
JC.cu .(ui.h ) o"rnal. p~ 8
We've lost sight of the underpinning of a society - lhe sense of
community. Mobility is not synonymous with progress. Weve
ignored Benjamin Franklin's advice: those who would trade
independence for security usually wind up with neither. We have
made tha1 crade and in the process have become an increasingly
dependent and insecure people.
But now the rules have changed. Cheap energy and cheap
disposal are no longer available. Despite the recent drop in oil prices,
lhe cos1 of energy has risen more than 1000 percent in the last 15
years. Disposal costs have risen even more dramatically. In 1975 it
typically cost about three to five dollars to dispose of a ton of
garbage. Today in the U.S. it costs between $30 and $50 to dispose
of that ton of garbage. In 1970, to dispose of a barrel of hazardous
waste cost berween $5 and $10 a barrel •• although most companies
just spilled ii on the side of the road. Today, to dispose of hazardous
waste costs abou1 $300 a barrel, and for many companies the
disposed hazardous wasce now has a legal liability attached to it that is
po~ntiallyenormous.
What's imponant to note about these price changes is that they
have changed not because or the real world exhaustion of supply, but
because of a change in political a1tirude. The rising price of oil did
not occur because oil began running out, but because OPEC
artificially limired the supply. The cost of W3SlC disposal did not rise
because we suddenly ran out of dump space but because
communities, by establishing new disposal rules, anificially limited
the supply. We consciously and willfully changed the cost of doing
things the traditional way.
One of lhe enduring legacies of the environmental movement is
that it bas managed to begin to move the price of doing things to the
cost of doing things. The price is what an individual pays; the cost is
what the community pays.
Let me give you a specific example of price versus cost Rock
salt is used 10 de-ice roadways. lls price is very cheap: one to rwo
centS a pound. There is at least one alternative to rock salt, made out
of plant mau~: calcium-magnesium acetate. It can be produced a1
present for abou1 20 cents a pound · 10 to 20 times more than rock
salt. That's ilS price. However, rock salt has some problems. It
corrodes the undcrbody of cars, it corrodes bridges, and ill New
York City, Coosolidnted Edison has found that it causes a great many
problems in the electrical supply system which runs through the
sewers.
Sprlf\9. 1989
�Sewer water, c1111yi11g dhsulved rock sah. can corrode
insulation and lay bare wires. A neoprene gas can be genmued and if
a spark occurs. an explosion can send manhole CO\et'S flying. By
one estimate Consolidated Edison spends S75 million to n:pa.ir
damage caused by rock sah. Thu's part of the cost of roclc salt.
Another cost is polluted groundwater and the devastation of
vcgetntion. New York S!Atc has made an informal esumate that the
acruaJ, internalized cost of rocl salt is 80 ccnlS a pound. Which
de-icer should you buy?
The individual is unt1warc: of this cost. It is the n:sponsibility
of the community 10 make price and cost similar.
Even though the rules have changed, we haven't yet adopl.Cd a
new paradigm, a new way of organiting our knowledge and our
information. One of the principles of that new paradigm should be to
extract the mnximum amounl of useful work ecologically possible
from the local resource base. Thar sounds like a very modest
proposal, but it has profound repercussions. As we begin to obtain
more and more u~ful work, we (ind thnt we've begun to be more
and more self-reliant and self-conlll.incd.
ls self-reliance economical? Whnt do we mean by eoooornics?
Whnt do we value in our economic system? Those who praise the
global economy and trade as the underpinnings of our economic
henlth invariably point to the benefits of comparnrive advantage and
just 11s invariably point to the example of bananas. Surely local
self-reliance docs not mean raising our own bananas in the United
States when the clirruue 1s so much more favorable in Guatemala.
Il may be cheaper to impon those bananas. once again,
depending on what the price is versus the cost. Bananas that come
from Central America cooie from countries that do not pennit unions.
arc produced by companies that do not pay any iaxcs, and are grown
by production methods that have no environmenta: regulations. I
submit that if you ca.lcuhued the number of dollars that have been
spent by the Unil.Cd Sratcs in military intervention in Central America,
and dh'ided by the number of bananas that 11.rC imponed into the
United States, you would find that it's very costly co tmpon bananas
rather 1h:ln 10 grow them you~lr.
When we look at c<:onornic signals, we need ro look at them in
a holistic sense. first, we arc leamio&, as our s)",\tems get ever
larger, tlw the downi.hle rhks get com:spondingly gru.icr. Twenty
years ago when we wked about a cau1strophe, it meant a flood or an
earthquake. Today when we talk about a catastrophe we mean the
end of the ozone layer. the end of the human species. Local
self-reliance also has a downside risk: you could try '>Omething and it
might not work. but the risk Is modest.
Second, locnl self-reliance leads to a diversity of
cxpcnmenmion. As communities experiment with differcn1
technologies, we advance on the learning curve. Third, local
sclf-reliBnCe by definition reduces pollution by improving efficiency.
Fourth, local sclr-rcllancc Is economical because It recycles money
internally for more productive purposes that would otherwise have to
be spent on maintaining the system. A crude estimate that r made
recently :;uggcstcd that 15 years ago the United States was spending
between one and three percent of its overall income for system
maintenance and cleanup. Today we're spending almost 15 percent
of our income fOI' that purpo~.
And finally. an advan1.1gc of local self-rcli.tncc is that we begin
10 channel our ingenuity into developing new bodies of knowledge
that may be appropriate 10 a world that is in a vef} dlITcn:nt cond1tioo.
The technologies that we're developing 1n North America, for
example, art technologies appropnatc to ruuions that arc resource· rich
and pcople·poof. But ISO percent of the world's popufauon li\lcs in
countries that 31C rc~·poor nnd peoplc·nch.
ff you try 10 make the United State~ !>Clf-~ufficicnt or
sdf·reli:mt, the technologies you develop tO do so will be neither
appropnaic nor comp:inble wnh the needs of dc\•eloping nat.tons.. Bui
if you move towazd m:tking our tknsely populated and rcsou~-short
cities sclf·rcliant the i«hnologicsdcvc:lopcd \I.Ill be appropnate to a
resource-poor 1.1.orld. The kno1.1. lcdge generated can become a fll!ljor
export commodity.
But the pnmary benefit or local sclf·rcliancc J~ not economic;
it's psychological and ~oc1nl. II improves decision nuldng because
the costs or the decision fall on the smne community. We do not
separate the productive process over long.dhtllllC~ Psycho.logicall)'.
we improve the setf-<XX1fidencc 11nd socunty of our commuruues. We
begin to miniaturize the economy. h means achieving v.hat Fritz
Schumacher, one of the great cconomim of our time, dreamt of:
local productton tor local markets from local rcsourct$.
SprU\9• 1989
ls that theory or is that pr3Cticc? ..yeu: it rums out that in ~c
scrap metaJ industry, the scale of producuon IS much smal~ than 111
the raw matcrittls industry. The best ex.ample J know of is 1he steel
industry, where the newest technology is called the mini-mill. They
used to be called neighborhood mills. but the industry decided t.h:u
that would rais.c the image or Mao 1.e-<long's backyard fumaus. aod
they didn't feel this was good advertising.
Miru-mills use 100 percen1 scrap, and arc very sm:all- 200.000
tons a year average produc1ioo. A raw ore-based, vcnically
integrated steel mill produces between two and three million ions a
year. The healthiest. fastest-growing pan of the steel indu~try is
based on scnp that comes from regional matb:ts and products often
sold regionally.
Another example 1~ the chemurgy movement, created SO yean
ago by scienlisti-. from around the world concerned with using the
then-large agriculrural surpluses lb mdustrial products. In 1932. the
ltalian ambass3dor 10 Oreat Bnlllin arrived at the coun of St James
dressed in a sun made or milk. That is, Italian scientists had
discovered how to weave the casein in milk into clolhes.
Tn 1941, Henry Ford, a devotee of the chemurgy movement,
unveiled his biological car. The car body was made or soybeans. lhe
fuel came from com, and the wheels were made of goldenrod. The
soybean plastic body weighed hlllf as much as a steel-bodied car, so
the car was more fuel·eflic1cnt. lf you dented it modestly, the dentS
could be knocked back out. The C11r was wanner in the winter and
(COISinuoj ... pq• lO)
Green C ily
11
How-To 11 Mnnual---Just Published!
"Cities need to be<ome more 'green'. They must be
transformed illtu places that are life-enhancing an<l
regenerarfre." • PelCr Berg
<:rr~a Ci11 as a "how-to• m~nual (Of mdlv1<tUllts and O(JJ.n11AllOns
antcmo1ed an a :iuswnablc future. tis intnl3C i.s &hat urban att.aS Cllll Cl.isl
lunnonlou\I)" with na111nll 1ysu:im • :md 111nctudca bolb practical mid visL;xury
:aw1tcut1on1 lh11I •re uppllc•btt 1;; ny ci17 or 1ino11. lbcte ts also 1
~ 1ts11ng of volllllUlet o.:uv11a with i:lc:a. llbout gctllftS: wried and womns
0
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with lbc hl·annu.:11 ne11;1p;pcr lfluu tM Suills llld Olhcr public:atiol\1 for ~i:
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31251, Son 1'111nt11COCA 9413t
�POPLAR APPEAL
written and illustrated by Doug Elliott
W hen I tell northerners Lhat 1 built my house almost
entirely of poplar, including the framing, rafters, interior
panelling, and exterior siding, they seem confused. When I go on
to say that there arc a 101 of old log cabins in 1hc Carolina
mountains built from large poplar logs. they look a1 me like I'm
crazy.
I'm finally learning that to a nonhcmer, the word "poplar"
refers to the aspens and other related trees whose wood is light,
soft. and vinually useless for house construction. After a bit
more discussion, we finally ge1 our terminology straightened out,
and I get the response, " Oh, you mean 'tulip tree'".
Yes, this magnificent tree has many names and even more
uses. It is not a crue poplar, but was so named because iis leaves
are attatched to its branches by long petioles (or leaf stems) that
allow the leaves to move m the breeze in a manner not unlike that
of a quaking aspen.
The tulip poplar is actually in the Magnolia family . ' l ts
scientific name, Liriodendron tulipifera, translates roughly to
m~ "tulip-bearing lily tree". This is a fitting name for the ttee
because itS flowers look like a combination of a tulip and a lily.
They are a light greenish yellow and each of the six petals has a
blaze of orange at its base.
OUJ ofa giant tulip tree
A grem gay blossumfalls on me;
Old gold andfire iu petals are.
Ir flashes like a/al/Ing swr.
- Maurice Thomas
A large tulip poplar lit up wilh hundreds of these large,
cup-like blooms in spring is a magnificent sight indeed.
The tulip poplar is the king of the magnolia family. 11 is
considered to be the tallest hardwood tree in North America. In
the old forests of the southern Appalachians il has been known to
attain a height of 200 feet with a straight ttUok 1en feet in diameter
and clear of branches for eighty to one hundred feet .
The largest tulip poplar on record is the "Reems Creek
Poplar" in Buncombe County. It was I98 feet 1all with a ttunk IO
fcec I I inches in diameter four feet above the ground. When it
was burned in April.1935, it was believed to be the largest tulip
poplar in the world, possibly over a thousand years old.
"But despite the splendor of its dimensions. there is
oothing overwhelming about the Tuliptree, bm rather
something joyous in ilS springing straightness, in the
candle-liU blaze of its sunlit flowers, in the fresh green ofus
leaves, which being more or less pendulous 011 long slender
sralks, are forever IW'ning and rusrling in the slighres1 breeze;
this gives the tree an air ofliveliness, lightening iJS grandeur.
So even a very ancieltl tUlip tree has no look of tld abou1 It,
for not only does it make a swift growth in youth, but in
maturity it maintains itself marvelously free of<kcay.
This look of vitality comes partly from the vivid paleue
from which tire Tullptree is colored. The flowers which give
it 1/Us name are yellow or orange a t base, a liglu greenish
shade above. Almost as brilliant are the leaves when they
first appear, a glossy, sunshiny pale green: they deepen in
tint in summer, and in awwnn tum a rich, re1oicing gold.
Even in winter the tree is still flOt UJllldorned.for the .•.cone
remal'ns, candel/Jbrum f as/Uon, erect on r/le bare twig
...(1111Iil) all the seeds have.fallei1."
- DoNJld Culross P~
Each of the seed cones 10 which Pcauic refers can produce
l 00 or more seeds. Each seed is located a1 the end of a
blade-shaped wing, called a samara, which keeps it airborne. On
windy days 1hcse seeds whirl like tiny helicopters and are
dispersed over great distances. Because they are released
gradually all through the winter, the seeds arc important to
wildlife. They are ca1cn by many kinds of birds as well as by
squirrels, chipmunks. and other small rodenlS.
On a bright snowy day rwo friends cross-countty skiing in
the Pisgah National Forest were surprised to see a white-footed
mouse scampering all over I.he snow, so busy collecting and
devouring freshly shed tulip poplar seeds that ir seeme~
eomple1cl y unaware of their presence.
Old Uses
Indians had many uses for the rulip poplar. Us.ing fire and
stone tools, they carved dugout canoes out of large straight
sections of the ttunks and taught pioneer se1tlers the an. One of
the first accountS of this was in 1590 in Thomas Harriot's brief
and true report of the new-found land of Virginia:
" ... rite irrhabitams that were neere 10 us doe comrtlQnly
make tlleir boars or Canoes of the fomi oftrowes (troughs), only
with the helpe of fire , ltarcl~IS of stoMS and shels; we have
known soml! being so great ...tluu they have carried well XX men
at once besides much baggage· 1/ie timber being greor, ta/,
streight, soft, lig/11, & yes tough ...".
Captain John Smith in 1612 reported canoes large enough
to hold 40 men.
Daniel Boone made such a canoe 60 feet long, capable of
carrying five tons. Into it he loaded his family and all their
possessions and in 1799 they floated from Kentucky down the
Ohio River and on into what was then Spanish territory. The tree
is still known as "canoewood" in some areas.
Poplar blossom time is very important to beekeepers. The
poplar is one of the most dependable sources of nectar in the
Southeast The yield of nectar per bloom is possibly the highest
of any plant on the continent and has been calculated at an
average of 1.64 grams - or about one third of a teaspoon - per
flower.
During a favorable season, poplar nectar is secreted so
abundantly that honey bees and other insects cannot carry i1 away
as faSt as it appears. Sometimes one can feel the nectar dripping
down like a gentle sticky rain when sranding under a blooming
wlip tree in a light breeze. (People who park their shiny new cars
under tulip trees often complain about this.)
Because the poplar blooms early in the season, many
honeybee colonies are not strong enough 10 fully utilize the
abundance. For StrOng hives, however, harvesLS of 100 pounds
of hooey per hive have been recorded during just the three week
poplar bloom. The honey is dark in color and is sometimes called
Spf'tn9. 1989
�"black poplar honey". When held up to the light, however, it can
be seen tha1 it is actually a deep amber-red in color. Though it is
not as light as locust honey nor as sought-after as sourwood
honey, it has a rlch full-bodied flavor that can sweeten fruit
salads, yogurt, tea, and other beverages. Poplar honey goes well
on pancakes, waffles, cereal, biscuits, cornbread, and other
baked goods. Rarely a day goes by that I don'1 eat some.
If you want the ultimate tulip-poplar-tasting experience, sip
the nectar straight from the flower like the bees do. You need to
find a freshly opened blossom within reach. Pick or lower the
blossom carefully without josrling it. Then lick. the drople1s on
the inside of the petals, and taSte tha1 ambrosial Sometimes the
nectar collects in a puddle on one of the lower sepals. If the air
has been warm and dry, the nectar will often be thick like syrup.
After one taste, you will know you have imbibed the nectar of the
gods!
In European gardens the tulip poplar is one of the favorite
"exotic" American ornamental shade trees, and it has been so for
mOTC than 300 years. In fact, the tulip poplar was first described
botanically in 1687 from a specimen that had been brought from
the New World and was growing in an English garden.
In the early part of the 18th century John Lawson,
Surveyor-General of North Ol.rolina, reponcd a hollow tulip
poplar "wherein a lusty Man had his Bed and Household
Furniture, and lived in it till his labor got him a more fashionable
MMsion." Of course the senler's "more fashionable mansion"
would probably have been no more than a log cabin made of tulip
poplar logs. There is many an old tulip poplar log cabin still
standing today and new ones arc still being built
Using Poplar Lumber
The first significant cutting of poplars in the new world
was by settlers who were clearing ground for farming. They
knew that where the tulip poplars grew, the soil was the richest.
Today this still tends to be true. Ginseng hunters look for stands
of tulip poplars when SC'Jnning distant mountainsides in search of
the moist soil that characterizes good ginseng habitat
lt was not until two decades after the Civil War, when the
r:>ilroads began 10 penetrate the rugged mountainous areas of the
Southern Appalachians, that the huge poplars and other southern
hardwoods were harvested. In those days only trees over 30
inches in diameter, each yielding more than 400 board feet in
lumber, were accepl.ed at the mills.
In some areas tulip poplar grows in almost pure stands. In
1912, a tract of land near Looking Glass Rock in Transylvania
County yielded 40,000 board feet of tulip poplar lumber per acre.
Nowadays loggers are pleased IO get 10,000 board feet per acre.
Foresters call tulip poplar a hardwood because it is a
broad-leafed tree, like oaks and maples. Pinc, fir and other
conifers arc called softwoods. The wood of tulip poplar
however, is as soft and workable as white pine. Because the
extensive heanwood is a yellowish tan in color, it is known as
"yellow poplar" in the lumber business. The sapwood is creamy
white and has been used as interior panelling. When used in this
capacity, i1 has been called "whirewood". Because of its lighmess
and strength. ii is used for boxes and crates. Yokes for oxen
were often made from tulip poplar, because it was so easily
carved. lt was one of the favorite materials for building aircraft in
the days when airplane bodies were built of wood. Poplar wood
has the ability to return to its normal shape after being
compressed under great pressure. This property accounts for the
wood's popularity for building barrel bungs.
Poplar lumber is used extensively in the furniture-making
industry. Its porosity and ability to take glue makes it an ideal
core upon which to glue fine wood veneers, and, because it
talces a polish beuer than any orher native wood. poplar wood is
itself often used as a veneer.
Kiln-dried yellow poplar wood makes a good framing
lumber for house construction. It is moderately lightweight, yet
stronger than spruce, fit; or white pine. Unlike the whole poplar
logs used in cabin construction. milled, dry poplar lumber has
little tendency to split when nailed. The Nonh Carolina Building
Code accepts graded poplar lumber as a framing material.
However, it has been infrequently used in recent years because of
the.abundance of low cost softwood timber, such as Douglas fir
and spruce, shipped in from the western Sl4tes. As the supply of
western softwoods decreases. tulip poplar may come back into
more common use.
Dead and Rotting Wood
Tulip poplar is also valuable when dead and rotting. The
stumps decay quickly and provide an ideal habitat for various
wood boring beetles. These beetles and their larva are one of the
favorite foods of the majestic pilca1ed woodpecker (often called
"wood hen" by mounroin folks). The pileated woodpecker is so
named because of its brilliant red crest. It 1s our largest
woodpecker. almost as big as a crow. These and other
woodpeckers regularly visit decaying tulip poplar. and some
people purposely cut poplar slumps high or use the Jogs in
gn:rden beds near the house in order to artmct them.
Dead tulip poplar is also the favorite growing medium for
cenain fungi. most notably the delec1nble oyster mushroom
(Pleurorus osrrearus). Oys1er mushrooms arc one of my favorite
'Aild mushrooms. l learned to identify them by Clll'Cfully studying
them in mushroom field guides. They arc f.urly easy 10
recognilC, hence they are one of the safest of the edible wild
mushrooms. They grow in cluster:., usually out of the sides of
logs or stumps. They vary from a creamy. "oyster" whi1e to 1.1n
or gray in color and arc distincbve because the gills run down the
entire length of the stem. They arc delicious in soups. on p;ista.
and can be saut6ed and gently stewed lO make an elegant side
dish. Once l had oyster mushrooms fried in fritter batter, and
(conunucc1cmJllil&e30)
they actually tasted like oyster mttcn..
~'°"""
J--'
9"'JS t t
�The bark of the poplar tree can be remo1Jed in the spring
and early swnmer and has been used in many ways. Large sheers
of Ir were used by the Indians as CO\'trings for wigwams,
wickiups, lodges, and orher living quarrers. In the Nonfl
Carolina mountain.s, poplar bark has bun used as siding on
frame houses. When I first disco11ered it on some homes near
Burns11ilfe in Yancey County, I was suuclc by ir.s rustic, }'et
eleganJ beaury.
As I was building my own house at the time, I wonted to
/ind ow how poplar bark siding wa.f made and how long it wollld
last. Wizen l asked around, however, it seemed tlw.t most of the
builders of these hauses Jw.d long since passed on, but t~y had
left a legacy ofpoplar bark. siding thol was sdll holding up well
qfter 70 or more years.
1 finally found one older man who was a poplar bark
crafts11w..n, and he tk.scribed tlie process UJ me. In early swnrner
when the "sap's running", large sheers of the bark are removed
from mediwn-sized trees. The bark is carefully pried off tlie trunk
with a to0I know11 as a "tan bark spud". This tool hark.ens back to
the days w}ien the collecting ofoak, chestnut and hemlock bark
was o pan ofevery timber cutting operation. The bark was sold
to tanneries as a source of tannic acid. A spud could be
Improvised mu of a stout curved stick with a chisel-like edge
carved on one end. Those made by blacksmiths look somewhat
like a small-lieaded spade.
After 1/ie bark is remo11ed, it is cut illro large rectangular
sheets, taken ro a barn or other dry p/act and "stacked and
stickered" like green lumber with na"ow strips ofwood between
each sheet of bark to allow air to circulate. Rocks or other
weights pilled on rop of the stock ofbark en.sure that the sheets
stay flat and do not curl up as they dry After a month or two of
drying, rhey can be cut 10 length and nailed like slung/es onro the
building.
Armed with th8se minimal instructions. and a lift·long love
of tulip poplar, I knew I had to onempt co/leering bark 10 cover at
lea.rt part ofmy house. A friend who was building ms own lwuse
was about to CUI some poplars on his land 10 use as suppon
beams. He told me that if I'd help him cut them and haul them
down to the building site, he'd help me get the bark.
The first tree we/tiled was aboUI afoot in dianieter, and it
fell uphill. We trimmed off the upper br01iches, until we had a
length ofclear trunk abou1 30 feet long. With 1he chainsaw, we
mode one long CUI throught the bark down the entire length ofth4
l.og. Then, staningfrom the bonom, with one of us on eilkr side
of the log, wt wenr at it with the bark spuds, ourf111gers, hate/let
blades and whatever else we collld improvise to genJly pry the
bark from the log.
. .. -
TIU! nt•wly formed cambium layer benn•e11 the bark and the
sapw(l(Jd was sofr, slippery and Yer)' juics. As the: bark gave way
10 our efforts arul .tepararedjrom ti~ rrunk, it made a slurpy
hissing noise. !Ve gradll(l//')! worked our Wll) up the log . The
bark was coming ojf bc:outifully. When wc:j1r1ally reached the
11pper end oftlu: log, tire remaining section f1f the bark StpcJrated
wirh a rtsowuling hollow "pop"
We stood up and ~ere congrarularing ourselves on a job
well dmu:, when we heard a noise. lt>okinR down we sow our
newly-skinned log heading off down the hi/IT ltsfreshl)• removea
bark had created a trough t/IQJ was slick.er tlllJll any bobsled run,
and b>· rhe time that log left that piece of bark, it had picW up a
terrific amo1u11 of speed and momenlltm.
It we111 careenin,g down the mountainside, and all we co11Jd
do was watch in astonisl11T1enl as thoJ log leapt over rock ledges
and crashed through thic~ts. It fi111Jlly .rropped uh0111 fl!ry yards
down the hill when i1 collided with a srump jusr above rhe house
.tire.
We breathed a huge sigh of relief. If it had nor been
sropped by the s111mp, that .flippery bauering ram would hove
done considerable damage to rhe ho11se founda1io11. Afrer rhar, we
senved a rope to each log before we removed ilS bark.
I found ow larer rluJt mountain loggers hove a word/or a
log sliding down a nwu111ainside. TluJt log is nball·hootin'," and
it is recognued as a serious danger in logging steep f1W11n1al11
,f/opes during spring and s1unmer. As one old logger told me,
'Them poplar logs is bad/or that. Wilen the sap's up, that bark
can slip off a log you're dragging and if tha1 log gets loose and
goes a balf-Jwotin' down the mou111ain, buddy, 'hit can kill a
ma11l"
The bark of small poplar trees can be scored and folded
into carrying 11essels ofall sizes from berry baskets to backpacks.
/11dia11s daubed the seams with pine pitch and used them as W(ller
buckets.
I was first introduced to bark basketry by my mountain
neighbor and friend Paul Geouge, wlio has been mak.i11g baskets
for years. I was enchanted by the way he explained their simple
practicalily;
"So you've been out fishing all morning .following the
creek up in.lb the nwuntain.t. You're cau:hlnJl some of 1/iem nmive
speckled trour, bUJ afrer a while the srream gets too small. So you
call it quir.s and head up onto the ridge/or rhe long walk home,
There you TUii into the biggest patch of ripe huckleberries you
halle ever seen.
~You'd 1011e to take some of them berries lwme, hut you
ai11'1 go11101hing to carry 'em in. Whor collld you do?" Paul asks
wirh a twinkle in his eye. "Well, if you knew how 10 make a
berry basker, you'd just find you a young poplar rree, make you
a poplar bark basket, and tote tllUn berries home. Now they'd
taste mighry g()()d after a fish dinner! ...
Between the ower layer of the bark and the sapwood is a
layer rich in fibro11s vascular material known as bast. When
rorred under controlled condirfons it can be used to mah ropes.
twine and other cordage. Ir was high/}' valued by Native
~ricansfor rhese tiles
Poplar bark has also been 11sed medicinally as a tonic and a
remedy/or fevers, stomach ailments, dysentary, rhe1unari.sm and
gour. It is a source oftulipiferine, an allt:aloid that acrs as a heart
stimulanr.
/
2
! ff.'"
• Doug Elliou's most recent book, (that includes step-by-s1ep
instruetions on how to make a rulip poplar bark basket) is entitled
Woods/ore and Wildwood Wisdom. It can be ordered from him
at Possum Productions; R1 1, Box 388; Union Mills. NC 28167
for $10.00 post paid.
Sprl·"'J· 1989
""''
.... -
�CLEAR SKY
a drawing by James Rhea
The concept for the drawing derives from my years
growing up in the southern foothills and hearing Cherokee
follclore, and being fascinated by their lifestyle and contributions.
I have always been inspired by other culrun:s, especially so called
primitives. This picture is pan of a series of portraits of healers or
philosophical leaders, who arc inspirational to their people,
representing cultures throughout the world.
From that I envisioned a change of bean from a life of war
and bloodshed to one of service and ~ce. This choice was
indicauve of several individuals who laid the foundation for the
later culturnl flowering of the Cherokees.
Clear Sky is more of a composite of an ideal figure lhan a
definite ponrait. The Cherokee people in the late l700's were in a
state of despair and desperation because of the encroachment
upon their lands and military defeat by European scnlcis. SC\'Cral
individu:tls came to the forefront to encourage and inspire their
people. To the Cherokee. they were lcnown as beloved persons.
both men and women. They felt a need for a transition or
integration into white society, but at the same time they hoped to
retain the best of their past for cultural survival.
Clear Sky's dress is typical for the time. He wears a blue
EngltSh bro3dcloth shin and has a Spanish trade blanket around
his waisr. The necklace is wampum with a silver gorget. The
eamngs are archaic beaten copper with slit earlobes. The hair is
trimmed with a dyed egret feather ornament In his band he holds
a turkey feather (an with natural bead work. a sign of respect and
dignity.
lsk.agua CJtr Clear Sky was listed in Duane K. King's book
CMrolcee Indian Na1ion as being present and signing a document
protesting the tt'Catment of Chickamauga Cherokees by the
Americans. The petition was sent to King George m of England
aslcing his government to intervene. At the time of the signing, or
thereabouts 1789-1791, he changed his name from NeMnoataah,
or "Bloody Fellow" to lsk.agua. "Clear Sky."
Spr~nAJ.
I used several sources Ill compiling his dress, ornaments
and general demcaner. but the most informative was the JnditlJIS
of the Southeastern Un11ed States by John R. Swanton,
Smithsonian Anthropology.
James Rhta lives in an old farmhou.st in a rural pan of
Cabarras CoUllt)'. Ht is illlertsttd in organic gardening and
environmental issul!S and spends time canoeing and hiking for
inspiration and peace of mind. His artwork includes tM subfecrs
of wildlife as well as portraits. "In gentral" he says •1 favor
world peace and holistic liftstyks".
,/
1989
Xat-~ )o\UnoL ~ 15
�II
a
Early, al tine o'clodt IWO sbocb ol-an
anbqaUe Wlft felt. Tbc boule D
cuM:d mid
ew:rytbing WU ID mowmelll.
The bcns fell to the paid fJOm lheir room
ud set up a pi.tifol cry.
You cm see chat the white people mR
diffaalt bc:ings from us, we are made
or.red clay. they of white sand.
About lbe J'Cll' 1811 IOIDC of the
Cleroba cbamed ud Olha'S
RCtiwd. in various ways.
cQ11111mictricw from lhe Oral
Spirit. all lr:Dding IO discredit die
ICbane ol c:ivilization.
See 10 ll dw you get back your old
Beloved Towns.
Yoor mother is not pleased you punish
each other so ha1d.
I have told you what the Gn:ac Spirit's
will is, and you are 10 pass on iL
la on:tcr that you might know bow things
want to tell you
what happened bcrc in the Nation ju,st the other
day.
~Pl in die Wkl IDday, I
Jusr dne rughis ago I was at a Wk in
C>o&1mally. To tha1 place came~ man and two
women who to1d that while they were on 11
journey, Ibey came eo an unoccupied house near a
hill called Rocky Mountain and enlCttd it in order
to spend the night thcte.
Just as it had become dark, they heard a
violenl noise in che air.•.As !hey went outside to
sec abou1 ii they saw a whole crowd of Indians
~g on I.be hill from the sky•...
nding on small black horses...their leader
beating a drum. .•came very close.• .They were
much frightened .•.•.
"Don'1 be afraid. we arc your brothers
and have been sent by the Great Spirit
10 spcalc co you.
The Great Spirit is dissatisfied that you
arc n:ceiving the white people into your
lnnd•.•..
You sec that the hunting is gone, you
are planting lhe corn of the white
people. go and sell ii back to them and
plant Indian com and pound it in the
manner of your forefathers. do away
with the mills.
The Mother of the Nation h~ fOtY.lccn
you. •. her bones are being broken
through the grinding. She will return co
you if you put the white people out of
lhe land and return to your fonncr
manner of life.
If you don't believe my words then
look up at the sky."
They did and saw the sky open...an
indescribably beautiful light and in it four white
houses.
"Such houses you are to build in your
Beloved Towns...
for white men who can be useful to
the Nation.. . ."
I mn not Ible IO delcribe lhe creat
perplexity into which we C11D11 Jasa ...L
Our dwelling bowie was in die most violent
mDVellXIH IO lhu it seemed IO be Deir II> be
falling in.
.. .a strongviolent noise beard
from the W.N.W. _ .and stteaks of
l.ighlning.....
This morning between 7 and 81>'c1ock we
felt tw0 more shocks without the sli1thtcst noise.
...our house was r:rembling..•the roof moved.
The m:es were in movemen1 wilhout !he
slightest wind.
It is true, the white people must all go from
lhe Nation; boWevcr, 4 smiths, S()tne school
ceachers a.rid those who arc building mills
for us a.re to be toleralbd. but later. they too
must return to their own country..•..
Some of them anribuce the occurrence
co the sorcerers; some, to a large snake
which must have crawled under their house;
some to the weakness and old age of the
eanh which will soon cave in.
. •.they held a grand feast and celebrated a
great medicine dance. .• ..
. . .if they believed and obeyed, then game
would abound, the white ll1!ll1 would
disappear. . • .•
.• .instead of beef and bacon they would
have venison, and instead of chicken they
would have turkeys.
. . •we heani today from a traveler
tb:u in Taloni. •. thiny miles from here
along the road to Georgia. in a field 13 sink
holes appeared as a result of the earthquake.
the largest of \\<hich is 20fcet deep and 120
feet in circumference and is. • .full of
gn:enish water.
. . .he would like
to know whether
lhe end of 1hc world
were not near. .•• •
sprin9. 1989
�J
...many lndians believe that the white
people were responsible because they had already
taken possession of so much of the Indian land
and wruned still more.
The Great Spirit is angry...and be wanted
to put an end to it through eanhquakes.
, Soon after the eanh had tremble4 an Indian
was silting in his house in deep thought, his
children were lying sick in front of the fire.
...a tall man appe~ clothed entirely in
the foliage of ihe trees, with a wrca1b on his head.
..carrying a small child in his ami.~ and had a
larger child by the hand.
"The small child on my arm is the
s
ClJC:it Spirit.
l am not able to tell you whether the
Great Spirit will soon destroy the
earth or not.
1be Great Spirit is not pleased that
tbc lndillll$. have sold so 111uch land
to the white man.
:rugalo, wl!K:I\ is now possessed by
white people, u; the r~t place the
Great Spirit created.
There in a hill he placed the firs& fire.
for all fin: comes from the Great
Spirit.
. . .the white people have built a
house on th3t hill. They should
ab:lndon th~ place; on thru hill there
~hould be grass growing. only then
will there be ptaee.
...the Indians no longer thank the
Great Spirit before they enjoy the
fust fruits of the land. They no
longer have dances in his honor
before they eat the first fruit~.
You arc sad because you thin.le your
childn:n m ill, they are not renlly ill.
but have only taken in a. little dust.~
•.. he gave him two small piece5 of bark from a
certain tree ••• and told him to cook them and to
give the drink to his children. and from that they
became weU right then.
7
...the residents of one wwn fled into the hills and
tried to crawl into hiding in the ho!~ of lhe rocks
in order to escape the danger of I.he hail stones, the
size of half bushels. which were to full .••..
...numbers of the aibe.. .abandoned their bees.
their orchards, their slaves, and everything else
that might have come to them through the white
man, and...took up their toilsome march for the
mounwns of Carolina.
..•mills. clothes, feather beds and iables
- worse still •.. books, and domestic cats!
This was not good· theieforc the buffaloes and
other game were disappearing. The Great Spirit
was angry. and had withdrawn his protection.
The Cherokees must return to the customs
of their fathers. They must kill their cats, cut
shon their frocks, and dress as became Indians
and warriors. They must discard all the
fashions of the whites, abandon the use of any
communication with each other except by word
of mouth, and give up their mills. their houses,
and all the ans learned from the white people.
~ Oicrokecs arc at this time in a
rcmarlc.able manner - occasioned by the late
shocks of the eanh ·endeavoring to appease
the Anger of the Ore3t Spirit
They have revived thcnr religious
dances of ancient origin to appease the
Anger of the Great Spirit....with 115 much
solemnicy as ever was seen in worship In
our churches. They then repair to the water,
go in and wash. These ablutions arc
intended 10 show that their sins are washed
away and that they are cleansed from all
defilements.
These fanatics or prophelS tell them
that the Great Spirit is :ingry with them for
adopting the manners, customs, and habfo;
of the white people who, they think. are
very wicked.
Some of the females an: mutililting
fine muslin drcsses and arc told that they
must discontinue dancing n:cls and country
dances whieh have become very common
ampn~l the young people.
. . .!here is llllk
...in the space of 3 months the moon
would again become black. and thereafter
hail stones as large as hominy blocks would
fall, all cattle would die Md soon the earth
would come to an end.
A sorcerer said uncil then there would
be peace; how things would be after thnt he
did not know.
that a new earth
will come into being
in the Spring.••..
•• ,it has bc!en revealed by the Great Spirit
th:u there would be an intense darkm~ss and that it
would last three day~ - during which :lll white
people would be snatched away as well as 1111
Indians who had any clothing or household
articles of the white man's kind.•••
•.• they should put aside everything that i:.
similar to the white people and that which they had
learned from them, so that in the darkness the
Great Spirit might not mistake them and snatch
them a~ay.
... many llre doing away with
their household articles and
clothing.•.•
The above ma1trial if parr fJf a /011ger work in
progress. Jr is drawn entirelyfrom actual occounLS
uf the events ~ntitmed, a.s recorded in ltrrers and
diaries from the period, many of wlrich were
locared in rhe Mortn•ian lfrchh'es In
Winsron·Salem, North Carolina.
5
�Imagine what could happen over, say, the next five
years, if similar projects were begun in cities and
communities all around the region and beyond....
A Look at the Black Swan Center
By C.8. Squire
College students encouraging community economic
development in the community that surrounds their campus? Thai
is exactly what's happening in the Swannanoa River Valley. The
effon is being carried out by student-faculty teams from Warren
Wilson College working ou1 of the BlacJc Swan Center.
The Black Swan Center. named for Black. Mountain and
Swnnnanoa, !he two towns in !he Valley it embraces. is currently
located on the Wnrrcn Wilson campus and serves as a community
resouN:e organization for the entire area. A key ob)ective is to
explore how small colleges can "serve as catalysts in their own
backyards for community and ce-0nomic development projec ts,"
according to Black Swan directors Laura Temple Haney and Louise
Solomon.
Initially funded by grants from the Z. Smith Reynolds
Foundation and the Broyhill Family Foundation, the Center
operates with a work/study crew made up of students and faculty
advisers responsible for various individual projects of the Center.
This "work crew". made up of fifteen students majoring in
Sociology, Environmental Studies, Social Work, Political Science,
and English, meets regularly to review their various projects
centered around !he "community economic developmem" concept.
The Black Swan Center grew out of lhe Swannanoa Valley
Projcc1 (SVP), a land-use planning and economic development
study carried out in 1985 by Swannanoa Valley residents and
Warren Wilson College Staff, faculty, and students. Funded by the
Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation and TV A, the SVP found that
most project participants wanted the Valley to reverse its downward
economic trend "while remaining an essentially rural area wilh a
viable economic base." It became apparent thm what wa!"> needed
was an ongoing community resource center to serve these needs.
Thus, the Black Swan Center was born.
The vital importance of a community planning and resource
center such as this cannot be overestimated. Tf we wish to
preserve and enhance the quality of life here in Kaniah, in ways thar
nre ecologically and economically sound, we can no longer allow
the haphazard and Shon-sighted type of growth and development
that has predominated for decades. The key factor in reversing this
trend and in finding truly workable solutions is to encourage local
initiative, self-reliance, infonnalion exchange, and cooperative
effort. This can be a very powerful grassroots movement, with
far-reaching effects, but it demands susmined local commitment and
involvement. This k:ind of sustained effon can best be supported
JCQti&Qh
Journot pc:M)e
by citizens and businesspeople acting in concen with local academic
institutions. After all, should we not make the mo.st of all of our
available local resources, in order to assure the contin ued
well-being of our communities? Only in this way can we
intelligently deal with the tremendous forces of change that are
confronting us. It is now critical !hat we re-learn and re-create the
an of community - and projects such as the Black Swan Center arc
beginning 10 lay the groundwork for !his crucial renaissance. In
fact, this dynamic pilot project has already achieved tangible
results. Imagine what could happen over, say, the next five years,
if similar projects were begun in cities and communities all around
lhe region and beyond. ...
A key objective is to explore
how small colleges can "serve as
catalysts in their own backyards
for community and economic
development projects" ...
In its first year, the Black Swan Center has been focusing on
three essential components: (I ) A community economic
development class for Warren Wilson students to prepare them to
work in the Center; (2) development of a college work crew made
up of faculty and students which operates and coordin:ncs Black
Swan ruitivitics; and (3) a community-based education course for
Valley residents designed to promote new business ventures,
develop rural leadership Skills and teach community economic
development concepts. AU three components are in place, with the
community-based education course starting in March.
Organalcd by Lisa Waners, a Sociology mnJOr, the course,
"Community Development and the Economy in the Swannanoa
Valley,''. is ~imed at .~elpmg Valley residents (l) "gain the
leadership skills and ab1hoes that can make positive changes in the
lives of the people that live in the Valley; (2) explore the
Swunnanoa Valley community and its resources; (3) understand the
problems facing the local economy; (4) seek: solutions. and; (5)
determine what small businesses might succeed in the Valley."
16
Sprl.n.g, 1989
12
�As Lisa points out. this type of course was designed by the
Highlander Center in Tennessee and has been used in such
co~uniri~s. as Jellico,_Tennessee, and Dungannon, Virginia.
Unlike tradiuonaJ educauon, the course doesn't separate learning
from doing, theory from practice and education from work. "When
Y?U put 'community' in front of 'economic development'," says
Lisa, "it means ordinary citizens revitalizing their communities and
stimulating quality economic development from within rather than
waiting for the 'expens' to do it, or for outside industries 10 come
in and provide jobs." In the long run, "community economic
development doesn't only mean jobs. because ic can aJso make the
difference in peoples' environments and quality of life."
exploring options for municipal structures for the community of
Swannanoa. He is also helping to draft a legal document that can
be used as pan of an offical petition to the state to incorporate
as a township.
Christy Allred, an Environmental Studies major, and
Katherine Crum, a Social Work major, are working with TV A 10
identify fanners in the Valley who are interested in growing
specialty crops such as shiitake mushrooms and baby
watennelons. Two workshops are planned, one in May, the other
in the fall of 1989, that wiU bring Canners from Buncombe and
Madison County together 10 discuss agricultural problems and
trends facing the area and how to effectively market specialry crops.
The 10.week course will be fnciJiiated by Louise Solomon
and Laura Temple Haney, both faculty members at Warren Wilson,
and Marilyn Bass, of the YMJ Cultural Center in Asheville. In the
second part of this course, they will be joined by Tim Richnrds, of
the Small Business Technology Development Center, and Dana
Smith, of the Self-Help Credit Union, who will specifically instruct
participants on how to work with a business idea.
One of the more impn:ssive activities growing out of the
Black Swan Center is a waste management center, directed by
Melissa Gildersleeve, an lntercultural Studies major. Alrendy in
operation on the College campus, the Center includes a processing
pavilion for rccycleable items, including a baler for cardboard and
specially designed "drop-off' bins for recycling glass, cans and
newspapers. The waste management center grew out of a class
exercise in an Environmental Policy cl:iss artd has resulted m the
recycling of much of the 25,000 lbs/yr. of ttash generated by the
collegc--trllSh that had been caned to the county landfill at a cost of
up to Sl2,000/yr. Melissa bcheves that within a couple of years the
college's waste management costs will be entirely covered by
n:venucs from recycling. Her bu.~iness plan includes e~panding the
College's program by establishing five more "drop·off' collection
sues in the Swannaoa Valley, possibly as early as this spring.
While important to carrying out the aims of the Center, the
course in communicy economic development th.is spring is by no
me~ns ~h~ center's sole: agenda_. A small ~usincss development
project is in progress with the rum of "keeping more money in the
Valley" by encouraging businesses in the area to buy from each
other whenever possible, explained Brad Brock. another Sociology
major and one of the Business Development coordinators for the
Center. He added that the Black Swan Center and the Swannanoa
Valley Ch:tmbcr of Commerce have almost completed a business
directory of the Valley with one section made up of chamber
members and the other. "the green pages". listing all valley-owned
businesses.
Brad and his partner. Rebel Bailey, an Environmental
Studies 1113jor and owner of a flourishing backpack business. have
a!so been working with Nonh Carolina REAL Enterprise (Rural
&onomic Alternative Leaming, localed in Raleigh, North Carolina)
10 design a curriculum on developing student-owned enterprises for
Wam:n Wilson College. Fffty people attended a five-pan series of
workshops called "Business Basics''. Post-workshop follow-up
has resulted in consulting sessions with four entrepreneurs with a
"good strong prospect" for getting a business up and running in the
Valley. Still another project for Brad and Rebel is the Stan-up of a
breakfast club, modeled after the Briarpatch program on the west
coast, that will provide networking opponunities for local
entrepreneurs and owners of small businesses in the Valley.
Another Black Swan project, headed by Heidi Erick.son. :in
Environmental Studies and Education major, is a literacy program
with a new twist-worlting directly with the business community to
improve literacy. Heidi explains that those unable to read and write
are often reluctant to tell their employers or their lack of reading
skills. But one area employer, Charles D. Owen m, has agreed to
have a literacy project operating at his plant site, with employees
receiving half-pay for the time they spend on learning to read.
Heidi's project has already trained 12 people at Warren Wilson
College to teach such courses.
Still another project of the Center involves working with the
Alternative Energy Corporation. based 1n the Research Triangle
area, in developing a "Community Energy Campaign~ for the
Valley. This project plans to help weatherize non-profit buildings
anc,1 to audit heat loss in college and community
buildings-including the former Carver Alternative School property
in Black Mountain which the county has just acquired from the
town's Parks & Recreation DepanmenL Eventually, with this
campaign, the Center hopes to help the community save much of
the 40 miJlion dollars a year or so lhat leaks out in energy cosrs in
the Swannanoa Valley.
Dan Scbeuch, a Political Science major, has been working
with Swannanoa Valley residents and the Nonh Carolina
Department of Natural Resources and Co1TUI1un1ty Development in
Sprt.nq. t989
Although all the ~tudents working at the Black Swan Center
have different 'main' projects they are working on. they all have
one thing in common. Each panicipates in one another's
programs... wch as lending the experti~e the1y have gained in
desktop publishing, to knocking on doors of local businesses. to
picking up the College'!\ waste and recycleablcs from around
campus once a week.
For the future, chc Black Swan Ccnu;r hopes 10: organize n
Swannanoa Valley community work day: perhaps relocate the
Center more into the heart of the community: encourage other small
colleges in Appalachia to explore setting up a similnr program. and,
in general. coordinate the community development projects and
courSCS and the starrup of at least one student-run entesprise.
One of the most promising aspects of this entire project is for
the Black Swan Center to serve as a working model for other
insututions in the region. They. too. may want to embark on a
similar cooperative program of community development that., in the
words of the Center's grant application, "will overcome the
'LOwn-gown' barriers that separate so many colleges from their
neighbors."
To quote Gnscom Morgan, son of Arthur Morgan who
founded the Cclo community in Yancey County. and who bjmself
for the last four decades has inspired and assisted the cause of
community through his association with Community Service. Inc.;
"We need fol,k colleges-people's colleges...not jus1 for intellect.uals
or whites, b11t to do what Highlander College (now Clllled
Highlander Center) has done for Appalachia and the South. lf we
had folk colleges 10 which the working class and rural people from
across a region could come and htive association with the
intellecruaJs--then rerum to their local communities with the strength
and conviction of their own culture--tbese different groups of the
common people could reinforce each other.•
Morgan's dream is being rcallz.ed by a group of pioneers:
so~ fifcecn students with very diverse background.<>, two faculty
advisors, and an involved community•..... You are welcome 10 visit
this dynamic center or call for more infonnation.
The Black Swan Ctn1er, 701 Warren Wilson Road, Swanrwnoa,
North Carolina 28778. (704) 299-9306
�wlld lovely days
the wild lovely days
come
with a wind tossed violence
they awaken
a tantalizing bitterness
of memory
the spring morning of lilacs
the wilting high noon
of orange poppies
the late afternoon sun
of autumn marigolds
and now
the great wheel of night
spins with dazzling circles
of blue and gold light
�dancer
the tender talents
of earth swelling
with rapture
birdsong and blue sky
fluttering encore
a thousand thousand
leaves turning
rich dark colors
awaiting
opulent carnage
exalted limbs rising
against dark skies
crucible
answer
I who hurried thru lhe years
running this way and that
sometimes strangely knowing
sometimes weeping beside the road
spent at last, alone
bereft of all I sought
you came to me
slowly without my knowing
you touched me
the stream carries me
my face is wet
I am submerged
I will not let
fear of drowning
darken the bright water
all that rs bright and clear
filters thru the translucent waves
of faith, the ineffable substance
that fills the
yearning crucible
with timeless light
endless peace
Selections from the book Wifd Lovely Days. portraits of moments In time and nature expressed in complementary words and images.
THE POET·
THE PHOTOGRAPH:R;
Ellmboth Griffin Is an artist, poet, and former lawyer residing in
Highlands. Katuah Province.
Gii Leebrick is an environmentally concerned falher, husband, mediator,
photographer, and director of the Appalachian Environmental Arts Center in
Highlands.
�.:•····;••·....................................
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....
....
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~
~
i{ NATURAL \~.
: wORLD :
~
~
~
~
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i:
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:I
..
NEWS
..
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~~~~~.·~··· · · ~·.·.·.•.•.•.·.·· · · ....~::::::!:
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PANTHERTOWN RESTORED!
Nllllnl World NCWJ Str-i=
In one Inst expression of disdain for
Congress and the Appalachian b1orcgion, the
Reagan administration m the la.~L days of its reign
took away money slated for the pun:hase of the
Pa.nthenown tract high in the headwaters of the
Tuckasegee River.
Through an arrangement with Duke Power
Company, which wants to run a high-voltage
power line across pan of the Panthenown area,
Congress hod appropriated $8 million to buy the
remainder of the propeny for inclusion in National
Forest Jnnds. Under a rechnicaliry the our-going
administration stole away that money. plus $47
million for other land appropriations. to pay the
costS of fighting the famous Yellowstone fire and
other fires that occurred in the summer of 1988 in
drought-soicken western states.
On March 13. 1989, however, the Office of
Management and Budget reversed the order, and
put the money back into the special Land and
Water Conservation Fund, where it is once
available for land acquisition purposes.
It is expected that the Panthcnown purchase
will be able to be completed this summer.
COLEY CREEK IS SAFE!
Systems Research Group, to review the Coley
Creelc plan. The study group pointed out that fuel
prices would have to escalate considerably lO make
the Coley Creek project economically viable.
However, cbe consultants' review found
that the most economical approach would be to
emphasize "demand-side programs." These
programs hcreate" extra energy by promoting
conservation on the pan of utility customers
through steps such as rewarding customers for
efficient energy use pancrns and helping to cut
down on energy consumption by wealherization
programs, promoting energy-efficient appliances,
etc. A more careful and judicious use of energy
reduces the need for increased energy production.
The report showed that through energy
conservation Duke could make avnilable the same
amount of energy that the Coley Creek pumped
storage project would have provided. but at
one-third the cost. The repon outlined five
different demand-side programs and gave
srep-by-srep directions for their implement.arlon.
Bill Thomas, co-chair of rhe Jocassee
Wate~hed Coalition, said, "h could be very
imponant for a company like Duke to stan a series
of pilot programs in energy conservation. Even if
they weren't completely convinced that this was
the best way to go, they should :u least experiment
and find out for themselves what programs wo11ld
work and what wouldn't."
"In September the Nonh Carolina Utilities
Commission will hold a series of six hearings at
locations across the stare to gather public comment
on a proposed least-cost planning rule that will
include demand-side management items. A good
tum-out by people s~ak.ing on behalf of these
measures wouJCI show the COinmission where the
public suppon lies."
The Jocnssee Watershed has obtained a
reprieve from funher depredations by Duke
Power, but efforts continue to gain binding
legislauve protection for the basin through
designation of the Thompson and the \v'hitewater
as Wild and Scenic Rivers. (The Horsepasturc
River already has protected stntus.) Preliminnry
studies have already been completed, and show
very definttely that further srudy is justified.
"We need to g~t legislacors to press the
North Carolina Natural Resoun:es and Community
Development Department to complete their sruclies
so that the lcgislat.ion can proceed," said Thomas.
"We arc asking people interested in the future of
the Jocnssee Watershed to contact their state
n:presentatives and ask them to get involved with
this.''
...AND NOW CHAITOOGA
Duke Power Company has announced that it
is postp<>ning indefinitely the Coley Creek Pump
Storage Project, which would have done
devastating environmental damage in the beautiful
Jocassee Watershed area in the foothills of the
Blue Ridge.
Officially, the company said that a review of
fuel prices and the economics of the pumped
storage alternative convinced them that providing
power by coal plants or combustion turbines was
economically more advantageous. What the
company did not mention was that they had met
stiff resistance to the project every step of the way
from the Jocassee Watershed Coalition, a
broad-based organization of hikers, hunters.
fishermen, and environmental groups. which may
also have influenced their decision. With a grant
from the Babcock Foundation. the coalition had
hired an independent consulting firm, the Energy
~
)o"'nat P • 20
Officials of Rabun County, Georgia and the
Associated Consulting Group are conspiring to
build a jetpon on a mountaintop in the upper
reaches of the Chattooga River, which is
designated as a Wild and Scenic River.
Preliminary design studies of the site
illegally conducted by Associated Cousulting at the
request of the Rabun County government have
detennined that they would need t.o level the entire
mountaintop to make room for the jet planes to
land. The jets would take off and land directly
over the river and roar over remote wild areas in
their flighL
The potential impacts on the Chattooga
watershed would be devastating. They include
massive sedimentation, wildlife habitat
destruction, and noise pollution, as well as the
fouling of the water and air. The remote and wild
character of the Chattooga whitewater run would
be severely degraded by the low-altitude
overflighcs.
The US Forest Service has refused ro talce a
position to protect the "wild and scenic" status of
the Chattooga despite their legislative mandate
under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to do so.
The agency has even backed down from an earlier
comrninment to require an Environmental Impact
Statement for actions affecting any Forest Service
site. The American Rivers organization and a
coalition of local citizens is working on behalf of
the river. They say, ''Since t.be Forest Service has
refused to direct the county away from the
Chanooga site, citizen voices are essential to
prevent the Chattooga site from bemg selected.
The county and Associated Consulting are known
to have a bias in favor of the Chattooga site, and
only overwhelming public sentiment against lhe
site can change their minds."
Make yourfeelings known! Write:
Associated Consulting Group
3 I5 W. Po111::e de Leon Ave. (Suite 125)
Decatur, OA 30084
Kenneth Henderson, Forest Supen·i,s()r
Cl111ual100d~e National Forest
508 Oak St. NW
Gainesville. GA 30501
American Rivers
801 Pennsylvania Ave. SE (Suire 303)
Washington. DC 20003
WHAT'S AN EIS?
(or JUDGE HALTS VULCAN)
There will be no rock quarry in Flat Creek nt least not anytime soon.
Vulcan Matenals Company had planned to
dig a 58-acre, open-pit quarry near Weaverville
despite protests from local residents until
Buncombe County Superior Coun Judge Roben
D. Lewis voided Vulcan's state permit early this
'd
year. Some 450 North Buncom be rest ents
snowed up at the last public hearing in October of
1987. Most were against the quarry projecL The
group fonned the North Buncombe Association of
Concerned Citizens, which filed suit against
VuJcan, a Fortune 500 company, and several state
officials. Residents claimed in their suitS tha1 the
mining permit was issued 10 the company despite
evidence from expens that the quarry, which
would have been sited about two miles nonh of
the town of Weaverville, would deplete and
pollute area groundwater.
Spri-n9, 1989
�INCINERATORS THREATEN
AIR QUALITY
Jllmnl World News Service
"Cloudy skies" would be the long-term
weather forecast for meb'OpoliUUl Knoxville and all
points downwind if four new waste incinerators
were to come into operation in the area.
Three proposed incinerators in the
Knoxville area and one that is already constructed
1hrea1en 1he Great Smoky Mounrains National
Park, only 40 miles downwind, and the already
beleaguered mounrains of the Kan1ah province.
Cum:n!ly, air in the Smokies ranks it among the
ten most polluted of all the National Parks. It used
to be that the Park was only "smokey" during the
summer months when natural chemicals from the
forest vegetation combined with panicles in the
air. Now, even on a clear winter day, the view is
noticeably hazy. An estimated 70% of the pall is
due to air pollution.
The Department of Energy (DOE) has built
an incinerator at the K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant
in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. According to engineer
John Patton of the Division of Air Pollution
Conttol for the State of Tennessee, it is licensed
under the Toxic Substances Control Act to burn
radioactively contaminated polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCB's) and other wastes which are
generated at the DOE facilities at Oak Ridge,
Paducah, and the Ponsmouth Gaseous Diffusion
Plants. The incinerator bums only propane gas
now, but when it goes on line in the summer of
1989, it will burn 3000 pounds of r.idioactive
waste every hour. A similar incinerator was
defeated in Rocky Flats, Colorado through public
opposition.
A private company mis-named the Safe
Ecology Group is proposing to build another
incinerator on Bear Creek Road in Oak Ridge that
will bum low-level radioactive waste for volume
reduction. According to Lisa Finaldi of the Nonh
Carolina Clean Water Fund, this incinerator will
take low-level radioactive waste from states that
are members of radioactive waste compact
agreements, such as North Carolina and New
York, reduce the volume of the waste, and then
send it back to the states for disposal. The
capacity of this incinerator will be 10,000 pounds
of radioactive waste per hour.
Also in the site selection stage is the East
Knoxville mass burn incinerator that will be
operated by Foster-Wheeler Power Systems of
New Jersey. The proposed incinerator will bum
900 tons of municipal garbage a day.
According to a Solid Waste Authority
spokesperson in Knoxville, "The incinerator and
recycling will be used to decrease landfill
dependency.''
Opponents of the incinerator,
however, declare that incineration will decrease the
recycling incentive, since the operating company
has a flat guarantee from the city and the county
that it will receive a certain amount of waste to
bum 10 produce electricity. Recyclers fear that
quota will be filled by waste that would otherwise
be potentially recoverable.
. Electricity sales will not cover operation and
maintenance costs for rhe incineraror facility. A
group called CARE in Knoxville claims that the
Solid Waste Authority did not compare the cost of
incineration, which will come to $370 million over
a 20-year period, with the coStS of alternative
methods of reducing solid waste, i.e. commercial
Sprl.ncj, l989
and household recycling, baling (compressing
THE FATE OF THE ROSE
garbage), and composting (brush, leaves, etc.).
Even with an incinerator, about 40% of
from• n;iort by N~ Blmhlrdl
solid waste must be landfilled. A new landfill will
Years ago the Agriculture Depanment
be needed in Knox County whether there is an
incincr.1tor or noL Incinerators actually raise the brought the multiflora rose into Virginia for soil
cost of disposal, because incinerator a.sh is a conservation and to attTact wildlife. Now the state
hazardous waste and must be sto1ed using encourages the eradication of this plant and may be
expensive protective techniques in special making a mistake that will tum out to be far more
serious than the spread of the shrubby muhiflora
landfills.
The CARE group also points out that, even bush. Montgomery and Grayson counties have
with air pollution conttols, incinerators pose a passed, and Floyd county is considering,
risk to public health that carries an incalculable legislation to force landowners to keep the plant
cosL The most dangerous chemicals cannot be from scrting seed on their propeny.
Farmers say that the roots of this plant arc
seen or smelled.
hard to lc:ill. Pulling multiflora roots out of the
Finally, next door to the proposed site for ground usually causes tbero to start new plants.
the Knoxville mass bum incinerator, the Dixie The multiflora grows in too many out-of-the-way
Cement Company may bum bai.ardous waste in a places to keep it all cut. Therefore, the st.ate
convened cement kiln.
recommends herbicides to lcilltbe plant - herbicides
that are particularly apt to contaminate
groundwater. Dicamba and 2,4-D arc both on the
list of pesticides which the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) considers most lillely to
leach into groundwater. Piclorfam, which is also
on the EPA leaching list, is conrained in the pellets
ofTordon, a restricted-use herbicide.
SLUDGE ISSUE STILL STEAMING
Though 2,4-D is not restricted and is
classed only as a "possible carcinogen," it may
soon be reclassified, because recent studies by the
National Institute of Cancer have shown a link
There is a new development in the bat!le between 2,4-D and cenain types of cancer. As
over the fate of Buncombe County's sewage 2,4-D breaks down, it can form products of
decomposition rhat are more toxic than the original
sludge: Advanced Alkaline Stabilization.
With encouragment from the Buncombe formulation. Like Tordon and Dicamba, 2,4-0 can
County Commissioners, the Buncombe also be contaminated with nitrosamines, which are
Metroplltan Sewerage District (MSD) has agreed cancer-causing. or more immediate concern is the
stress which pesticides put on rhe kidneys and
10 hold a hearing on this waste treatment process,
which mixes sludge with kilned lime dusr other pans of the human body.
William
(quicklime). ~ng pathogens and raising the pH agronomy at Wes1 Bryon, associate professor of
Virginiu University Wiil> quolcd
of the mixture, thus binding heavy metals and
making the resulting material suitable for in the Roanoke TimtS of January 29, 1988 that
herbicides cannot eradicate the multiflora rose and
spreading on farm pastures. The hearing is are not wonh using. He also mentions a natural
scheduled to be held in Asheville on March 21.
rosette disease
Foes of che sludge incinerator say that che control called Missouri. Thiswhich is spreading
this way from
disease, spread by
outcome of that hearing will detennine their future a mite, can accomplish what the herbicides can't
strategy. "If the MSD continues to favor the and kills the multiflora in a few years.
incineration process," said Paul Gallimore of the
(conlinucd on next .-ae}
Long Branch Environmenral Education Center,
"we will push for a review of the Environmental
Protection Agency's health risk assessment that
OK'd the incinerator proposal.
"The EPA assessment is flawed. They
looked at only one possible pathway for airbome
pollution from the incineraror to enter the body by air inhalation - when actually there are four
other possible parhways - through direct
contamination of food, food grown in
contaminated soils, dermal exposure, and
inhalation of contaminared soil or dust.
"After some method - any method - of
sludge treatment is chosen, the next step is to put
pressure on the MSD to righten up industrial
pre-ueatrnent standards for wastes. Carcinogens
and heavy metals should not be allowed to leave
the point of origin regardless of the waste
treatment technology selected."
The MSD has agreed to institure a pilot
operation to tesc the feasibility of composting
sewage sludge no mauer what treatment process is
used for the bulk of the county's wasre.
"This is very positive," said GaJJimore.
"Where an incinerator will give out in 20 or 30
years and have to be completely replaced at great
expense, a composting operation just keeps
turning out the humus. Biological microorganisms
just don't quit."
�(CQn.tinucd from pag$ 21)
MOUNTAIN PEOPLE SAY
"CUT THE CLEARCUITING"
Nanni Wcxld News Savice
The Western Nonh Carolina Alliance
(WNCA) bas launched a public campaign to
Fuade the US Forest Service (USFS) to change
us primary timber management technique,
even-aged management. Under that scheme
patches of the National Forests up to 40 acres in
size an: cut to the ground so that the resulting
regrowth is of uniform size and easier 10 harvest.
Alliance members held an anti-clearcuuing
protest demonstration in front of the Forest
Service headquarters in downtown Asheville.
Banners and signs proclaiming "Cut the
Clearcutting" were hoisted by the protesters who
want the Forest Service to adopt a timber
management strategy that relics heavily on
uneven-aged management, which is based on
careful examination of individual siteS and logging
prescriptions that call for the thinning of
undesirable trees as welJ as the removal of good
sawtimbcr. so that future growcb is improved.
Uneven-aged management requires greater
expertise and auention to detail on the part of
foresters, and the Forest Service claims it docs not
have the budget to suppon these extra demands on
its staff.
Demonsttators lined the sidewalks in front
of the USPS offices with tree stumps to ~give the
flavor of what a forest of stumps looks like," said
WNCA member Monroe Gilmour. Also displayed
was a 90-foot long petition containing over 1,700
.names of Katuah residents opposed to
clearcuning.
The campaign was also carried into local
ranger districts at several meetings held to give
local community members a chance to speak about
proposed clearcurs in their immediate areas.
Over 100 Clay County residents auended a
community meeting in Hayesville to protest
planned clearcutting in their county. Retired
fores1cr Walton Smith, chair of the WNCA Timber
Management Taste Force, told the gathering that
since the clcarcuuing method was iniri:ued the
qualit) of the timber production had substanrially
declined. Smith noted that the growth of sprouted
limber, as found in clcarcuis. was substantially
faster, but produced trees of poorer quality than
trees grown from seed. Sprouts produced a
cross-grain growth that created a weakness in the
lumber, he said.
Smith recently walked scveml clearcuts with
USFS Regional Supervisor Bjorn Dahl. Smith
said Dahl was "quite surprised'' to see a tract under
uncven-:iged management thnt W3S full of young
seedling trees. whereas the clearcut areas were full
of sprouts.
In another meeting with Forest Service
personnel and a.ides to legis!Ative representatives,
150 Madison County residents met to protest
proposed road construction and clcarcuning at the
top of Bearpcn Ridge. The residenis complained
that the road and the clearcutting operation would
cause sedimentation in Hickey Fork Creek and
would destr0y the trout hatchery there. The cold
creek waters offer challenging fishing for rainbow
and native brook trout
The steep. remote forests in the Hickey
Fork Creek watershed ~ovide excellent habiiat for
bears and other wildlife, and the area is popular
with bunters. Many in the assemblage were bear
hunters who were concerned that the new roads
and the clearcutting would cause bears to shy
away &om the area. They were especially alarmed
JGcitilah 'o~Ml P • 22
to learn that a stand of large white oalcs on top of
Bearpen Ridge were t0 be included in the clearcut
The hunters. who were all familiar with the woods
and wildlife in the area. agreed that this .stand was
one of the most imponant mast-eroducing areas in
the region and that it was heavily used by bears.
After hearing their concerns, Frank Roth of the
USFS indicated that he would set aside an acre of
so of the largest trees so that they could continue
10 provide wildlife food.
The WNCA is plannning a "Cut the
Clearcuuing" rally on April 15 at 11 :00 in the
City-County Plaza with music, talks, and
presenta1ion of a protest pe1itioo to USFS
officials.
For copies of the petirion in favor of uneven
-aged forest management, or more informt111on
on the "CUI the Clearct1tting" campaign, write or
aJil:
The Wesrern Nonlr Caro/iM Alliance P.O. Box
18087 Asheville, NC 28814 (704) 258- 8737
To win $50 in the "Ugliest Clearcut Photo
Contest," send entries 10 tlU! Alliance by April I.
Bjorn Dahl, Regional Forester US Porest
Service Box 2750 Asheville, NC 28802
(704) 2574200
.
.............
PEREGRINE FALCONS FLEDGE
While the Natural World News often seems
gloomy. here is a linle light:
Scott Ball. a temporary eml'loyec of the NC
Wildlife Resources Commission's Nongame
Program, perched high up on Whiteside
Mountain, observed lhe first confinned
naturally-bred peregrine falcon to fledge in the
Kal\fah province since 1957.
With the help of volunteer falcon wa1chers,
wildlife biologists found five pairs of peregrine
falcons defending territories at mountain cliffs last
ycor Three of these pairs made nesting attempts.
Two pairs each raised a single chick to fledging
age.
Wildlife biologists seem cau11ously
optimistic. While this level of reproduction will
nol sustain 1he newly-established peregrine
population, these successful auempts may augur
well for the fuwre of this magnificent predator in
Karuah.
Biologisis will continue releases of young
captive-bred peregrines for several more years. but
will release a smaller number each year. ln 1988
18 young falcons were released along the Blue
Ridge near Mt. Mitchell and on Grandfather
Mountain. Biologists have released 63 young
peregrine falcons in the mountains since the
restoration effort began in 1984.
If five breeding pairs can be csmblished in
the Southern Appalachians, the program's
emphasis will then switch to protection and
management of the nesting peregrines.
Excerptedfrom a report by John_ Alderman
\..:
CHEMTRONICS SPEWS POISONS
Toe infamous Chemtronics plant in
Swannahoa. North Carolina has dumped hundreds
of thousands of potinds of a highly toxic industrial
solvent into the air over the past several months,
despite pleas of a company chemist to install
equipment that would h.ave caught 90 percent of
the chemical.
.
The plant has released 256 596 pounds of
tetrachloroclhylcne, which is acutely or chronically
toxic. according to \he US, Environmental
Protection Agency '<EPA). The .solvent i~ also
believed to destroy ozone in Jiu; high atmosphere,
allowing increased pen~~at1on 9[, l;larmful
ultra-viol~t radi;nio.o from ~he sun.
Terrachloroethylene is also a suspected carcinogen
and contribwes 10 s111o,g and air poJtutfon close to
the Eanh's.$urface.
.J
•
,
Cbemtronics senior sc1entiSt, John Tylldall.
who charted the releases. said a11
9ne.poln1t 'The
cnvfronmental . impac~ (<~f the (eleases) is
enormous. and wt:. need \o act on this situation
immediately." He has since beep laid off by
Chemtronics.
Plans were approved for the installation of a
recovery system to capture the escaping solvent,
but Chemtronics' parent company, Halibunon
Corporation. never advanced the money to pay for
the lnstaUa1ion, according to a ~ll_en;llronics
official.
rn other recent and' rel~ued news,
negotiauons between the companies responsible
for dumping toxic industrial wastes at the
Chemtronics Supcrfund site in Swnnnanoa have
broken down, delaying clean-up of the former
military munitions plant there. according to the
EPA. Chemtronics, along with former owners
Northrop Corporation and Ce~nese Corporaiion
cannot agree on who should pay how much.
The breakdown in ncgotialions means a
delay of months and possibly years in the clean-up
operation if the disagreement 1s submiued to
litigation. according to EPA official John
Bomholm.
Celanese Corp. bought the now-polluted
propcny in 1959 and made explosive!\, solid
propellants, shells, rocket motors, and chemical
agents the.re. Northrop Corp. bought 1he facility in
1965 and continued the military contracts. Jn 1971
Ainronics. Inc. leased the site and continued the
work through its Cbemtronics division.
Chemtronics bought the plant from Northrop in
1978, about the same time the EPA discovered the
presence of more than 50 organic chemicals which
had leaked into the surrounding soil and
groundwater.
In another recent corporate shuffle, the
Halibl.lrlon Co. has dissolved its Chemtronics
branch. and has turned the Swannanoa plant over
co its Je1 Research subsidiary
"We'rl! going LO be a lot more responsible
company environmentally," said Bob King, Jet
Research vice-president. "Jct Research makes
warheads and other explosives for the military, but
the processes will not involve the release of
dangerous substances into the air and
groundwater, as was the practice at the plant for so
long."
-SprLnq, 19U
�REVIEW:
Sacred Land Sacred Sex RapIUTe ofthe Deep:
Concerning Deep Ecology and Celebrating Life
by Dolores LaOuipelle
(Pinn Hill AIU; Silvcncn, CO; 1988)
'7n this kind of learni11g, there is no knowledge, in the usual
stnse, to process and convey; thert is instead a deepening of
anenlion to the pattern ofall lift around you, so tltat you ~gin to
/Jw 'JOllT life accordUtg to thal pattern.• - DoWu LaC•Ue
"Biorcgion" is a word of power. It encompasses what
scientists call an "ecosystem," but goes beyond the mechanistic
limitations of scientific nomenclature. A bioregion is clearly a
community, a land alive - plants, animals. soil, water, sunlight, all
the elements of life womng tOJCther. each sustaining the others.
"Bioregion" is a word with the nng of rightness to it.
The word "biorcgional" follows. It is descriptive, "panalcing
of the qualities of the lioregion," but it is a little longer and the truth
that resonates in the original noun is just ever so slightly
diminished.
But "bioregionalism" is a word that cmies no force
whatsoever. Whenever the odious "-ism" is added to an otherwise
usefuJ root idea, it completely drains whatever value for powerful
communication that original word may previously have possessed.
That simple suffix, just three letters, hardens a worthwhile
approach to life into a dogmatic school of institutionalized thought,
limits flexibility, and rums a life-giving relationship with the natural
world into a set of precepts to be debated pro and con in sterile
classrooms.
"Deep ecology" is an alternative phrase inspired by
Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess to define the auth of our
individual and collective relationship to the natural world.
The phrase has drawbacks. It is based in part on the Greek
word meaning ''study," because ecology was developed as an
interdisciplinary course of i:nstroction to explain the relationships
between the different elements of a place and how they work
together to sustain life. Now, however, the word "ecology" has
grown beyond the idea of "a course of study" to mean an acrual life
community and the web of relationships on which i1 depends.
"Deep ecology" lacks the evocative sense of a phrase like
"furure primitive," which describes people living in the world.
"Future primitive" predicts a technology thar is sophisticated to the
point of simplicity. It refers to a people whose culture is beautifully
complex rather than needlessly complicated, because it is based on
primal values as well as biologically accurate observation.
Yet, while the actual choice of words may be somewhat stiff,
the definition of "deep ecology" is eloquent. lt is ecology with a
difference. The essential tenet of deep ecology is that there is
intrinsic value to life in all its fonns. To fully understand deep
ecology one must identify one's "self" as "all that lives." This in
tum demands perceiving the world with more of our brain than the
neo-conex, the seat of the intellect. Sensual and instinctual
responses are as valuable for survival as intellectual analysis. It is
also assumed that a full realization of the principles of deep ecology
requires that one acts on them - it is necessary to defend the Earth
and to work at changing our culture.
This is what living is all about. This is "bioregionalism" as it
should be.
"Deep ecology" is useful as a t:ranSitional concept to describe
our odysse.Y back into the world. It is not the perfect turn of phrase,
but usage ts what lends definition, and those who are maJctng the
strongest stance for the Eanh are doing so in the name of deep
ecology. It is deep enough to suffice until we simply can say
~being," and other people undersmnd.
~ing,
Because that is what it is all about, isn't i1? Being, simply
here. Yet in these times that is such a complicated mauer.
And it is the hardest of all things to express. The sages have always
said, "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.•
And that is where Dolores LaChapelle steps in. She has
attempted the impossible - and done it valiantly. Her book Sacred
Land Sacred Sex Raprure of ti~ Deep oies to communicate in
words what can only be known through experience: the essence of
deep ecology.
Dolores LaChapelle herself is well aware of this paradox,
which is faced by anyone who writes. And, like all writers, sbe
feels compelled 10 wrestle with iL
So in writing about deep ecology she takes another approach.
Like a hawk, Dolores circles, circles. She first describes the
essential mystery by describing the conditions of itS absence, and
tells us the story of how we Lost touch with it. She then directs us
10 teachers who can demonstrate ic our animal relations in their
rituals; authentic members of primitive cultures; scientists and
psychologists who explore our deeper self And she introduces us
to guides who can help us to find our own way: sage, the drum, the
gourd rattle, Tai Chi, ritual, and, of course, the mounulins.
Sacred land Sacred Sa Raprun of the Deep is a beautiful
book - as deep in the telling as in the subject maner - created
through a blend of hard scholarship, an unswerving dedication to
the sacred, fierce passion, and the life experience of one of the true
elders of our clan.
(continued on next page)
�(continued rrom page 4)
(cantinuad fJom ~ 23)
It is a difficult book, because I.he closer one approaches lO the
essenr:ial truth, the more do ideas become unbound. ~e more do
words betray their meanin&. But Doto~ La Chapelle is a_
woman
of great intellectual stamma. Th~ stones and observatt.o ns we
encounter along this convoluted JOume.Y arc ~th ~mg and
wonderful. and each episode of the book is absorbing m itself. But,
tnken together, the insights delineate an infonnational fiel~ that
conveys a full sense (not mctely a pinned-to-the-board analysis) of
what deep ecology is all about
Impossible as it is to transmit an experiential stnte through
linear type, the book Sacred land. Sacred ~G ROf~"e of tlu! Deep
expertly i.rtfoans inclividuaJ cxpenence. It 1s a trauung manual that
reaches the reader how to open up to the deepest elements of his or
her own life joumey.
After reading Dolores LaChapelle's book, we know the
danger signals to watch for in our culture and in our own psyche.
We know where io look and how to call for instruction. And we
know what it feels like when we reach hannony, the center of the
world We arc prepared to experience the sacred.
Hopefully, the day will come when the concept "deep
ecology" is obsolete, books will no longer be needed, and our
minds won't be enmeshed in ideas. Then we won't have 10
sacrifice U'CCS to our earnest attempts IO explain the Mystery. Then a
story, a night of love, a smile, or the wind moving a leafy branch
will be communication enough. But until then we should be glad
we have teachers such as Dolores LaChapelle.
• reviewtd by David Whultr
#'
"AFFORDANCES"
From
Sacred land Sacred Sex Rapture of the Deep
phase peoples cultivated most of their food, and supplemented their
crops with native foods hunted and gathered from the forest.
There was a ceremonial center with room coougb for large
gatherings, built on raised earthen mounds. Ther~ wer~ semisubterranean eanh lodges. progenitors or those bwlt dunng the
historic Qualia phase by the Cherokee.
.
.
Pisgah phase peoples ma.de cane mats, the 1~prcssions of
which were found in graves, even though the actual amcles no longer
remained. Graves were dug in the floors or dwellings, and the dead
were usually buried in a flexed posicion (lying on their sides in foetal
position). They were accompanied by turtle shell rattles, bone
neck.laces, tools of srone and bone, and pottery.
Support Your Local Ar<:haeologist
The Pisgah Village sue in McDowell County has been
excavated primarily with volunteer labor, much of on the pan of local
residents. Robinson is grateful for such suppon; in fact, it was local
interest that made excavation possible in the first place.
Archaeologists usually receive funding to conduct retrieval of
information only when n site is threatened by development The rather
comical image of the archaeologist busily sifting through the din in
front of a moving bulldoi.eris all too real
Robinson urges everyone who discovers artifacts or a possible
archaeological site to contact him at Wam:n Wilson College, or get in
touch with any archaeology laboratory. such as those located at
Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, the University of
Tennessee at Knoxville, or Appalachian State University io Boone.
Archaeological sites are resources to be preserved, protected,
and revered. It is only by careful recovery of the infonnatioo they
contain, which often takes many years of study, that we will benefit
from these historic resources. At a time when population saturation,
disease, and decimation of our narura.I resources threatens our very
survival, we cannot afford to desrroy the evidences of our region's
past, which might perhaps offer answers for our fu1ure.
Persons i111erested in leaniing f11()re abow archaeology can
contact the Archaeological Society of Norrh Carolina; Research
Laboratories of Archaeology; Universiry of Non/1 Carolina, and the
Friends of North Carolina Archaeology, NC Depanmenc of Cu/rural
Resources; 109 E. Jones St.; Raleigh, NC 27611.
Archaeologist Ken Robinson may~ co111acted by writing him
a1 Warren Wilson College, SwannallOQ, NC 28778 or calling (704)
298-3325.
~
"The affordances of the environment are what it offers
the animal, what it provides or furnishes, either for good or ill."
"Afford." as a verb, is found in the dictionary, but (James J.)
Gibson (of c.ome11 University) made up I.he word ''ajforda.nce." He
explains that this word refers to both the environment and the
animal (including the human) "in a way that no existing tenn does.
It implies the complementarity of the animal and the environment."
This is precisely why I think this word is so important In
our culture, we tend lO think that humans have discovered all these
amazing things; in some ways we believe that these things didn't
even exist until humans found them. I've been trying 10 break
down this laner presupposition throughout this work; first, by
showing how the affordancc we call the gourd gave us agri.culture
and later with other examples. Once you begin using this word,
you will find that every day you will realize how nature provides
affordances for us to use. It's all there before us - it's not
dependent on humans to figure it out This is a giant step forward
in overcoming our culturallr,-induced split from nature.
These affordanccs 'arc the way specific regions of the
environment directly address themselves to particular species or
individuals. Thus, to a human, a maple tree may afford 'looking at'
or 'sitting under,' while 10 a sparrow it affords 'perching,' and '? a
squincl it affords 'climbing.' But these values are not found inside
the minds of the animals. Rather I.hey are...a reciprocal interchan~e
between the living intentions of any animal and the dynamic
affordances of its world ...The psyche .. .is a property of the
ccosysLCm as a whole."
_,
- Dolores LoChopelle
'
FOR FURTI!ER READING:
Dickens, Roy S .. and J(JJ'MS l. McKinley. Frontiers in the
Soil: The Archaeology of Georgia (Chapel Hill; Fronriers Pub. Co.;
1979)
Hudson, Charles. The Southeastern Indians (Kn<>xville;
University o/Tennessu Press: 1978)
Keel, Bennie C .. Cherokee Archaeology: A Study of the
Appalachian Summit (Knoxville; University of Tennessee Press;
1976)
Mathis, Mark A. and Jeffrey J . Crow. The Prehistory of
Nonh Carolina: An Archaeological Symposium (Raleigh, NC Div. of
ArclUvesandHistory: 1983)
McHargue, Georgena and Michael Ro~rrs. A Field Guide to
Conservation Archaeology in North America (PhUadelphla: J.B .
Uppincorr Co.; 1977)
Wetmore. Rwh. First on the Land: The North Carolina Indians
(Winston-Sa/em; l<>hn F. Blair, PublishQ; 1977)
Wa.m:n Wilsoo College will offer an archaeologic:al f"icld 1thool 1his
summer lhnt wdl focus on the Pisgah Village site. SllldclllS will lc4m survey
and excavation leehniqucs mid will also be involved in lhe aruilysls of altifact
and site da.13.
Contact: Kt11 Robinson. Proj«t Dim<:t.or; Box 5277; Warren Wiison
College; Swanannanoa. NC 28778 (704) 298-3325.
s
�Video Review:
"Stopping the Coming Ice Age"
Dirccled by l.JuTy Ephron
Produced by the Institute for a Future (57 minules)
Looking back, it ~eems tha1 1988 was ~ ye:ir for
important, "new" environmental issues and concerns to surface.
ln particular, ibis was the year in which the idc.i or lhe so-called
"greenhouse effect" finally gained public acceptance. if not
notoriety- a year lhat saw record-breaking drought. hurricanes,
and forest fires. Suddenly, the idea of global warming was
appearing everywhere in che media, and it seemed that concerned
scienliSlS and poliricians were unanimous in their suppon for the
global warming scenario.
However, this unanimity is an illusion, media coverage to
the contrary. ln fact, there is much contr0versy within the scientific
community ns to the chmatic effects and socio-polilicctl
nunificalions of the greenhouse effect. It is far from cenain that the
climate changes we're seeing arc leading to/caused by global
warming. In fact, there is ac1ually considerable evidence that points
to a very different conclusion: lhn1 1he planet may be teetering on
the brink of another Ice Age.
One of the foremost proponents of this laner view is John
Hamaker, a mechanical engineer who has cx1ensively analyzed
clima1e and ecological paucms, and hn.<; developed a comprehensive
and holistic approach to understanding global climate change. His
lheories, expressed in h.is book The Survival of Civiliza1io11, arc
now being supported and dissemina1ed by a foundation called
"Institute For A Fu1urc", which re<.-ently created a remarkable video
pr~ntation: "Stopping the Coming Jee Age".
This video is inspiring, frightening, challenging, and very
infonnative, as it takes us around the world in search of answers.
While Hamaker agrees that the greenhouse effect is a very real
Lhrea1, he believes - and backs this up with hard data and expert
opinion - that it will [ll2l.warm ihe Eanh unifonnly, but instead will
increase the temperarure differential between the equator and the
poles, causing increased thermal convection, atmospheric
turbulence, and rapidly shifting and biz:zare weather patterns.Jn
this scenario, high winds moving from the equator tow111ds the
poles will drop their abundan1 moisture in the h.ighcr latitudes in the
form of snow and ice, often creating drought condicions in the
temperate regions. He believes that lhe tropical and sub-tropical
zones will indeed get hotter, but the tempenue zones arc likely to
get cooler and drier.
Hamakcr"s understanding of the greenhouse effect talces us
far beyond the popularized, watered-down information available
Lhrough the mass media because he explores deeper levels of cause
and effec1, process and purpose. The mos1 profound information
presented in this video concerns the connections beiween lhe
greenhouse effect and the development of an ice age, and the
importance of understanding long-tmn cycles (100,000 years!) of
clima1e change. The video demonstrates the causal connections
linking together all the different environmenuil/atmospheric
phenomena that combine to bring on an ice age:
1) soil erosion and demineralizntion
2) the subscquem weakening and dying of the forestS
3) the resulting increase in insect inrestations, forest decay,
and massive fortst fires
4) I.be dramatic increase in C02 released into the atmosphere
by these na1ural causes, which induces the greenhouse effecL
5) and m the 20lh century - as opposed to 100,000 years ago
man-made pollution and our destrUCtive tampering with the natural
balance of life are intensifying and hastening the process.
According 10 Hamaker. an ice age performs a vitally
necessary natural function. As tbe glaciers advance and then
retreat, they move and grind up immense quantities of roclc,thus
spreading gravel and rock dust over much of lhe Lcmperate zones.
This process, along with the winds that help distribute lhis rock
dust even further, gradually l'Cllllneralizes the soil· which feeds the
planis and forests, promoting rapid and healthy growth • during
which lime the plants breathe in much of the excess C02 in the
atmosphere • wh.ich gradually stops the greenhouse effect! The
plants of the world breathe in C0 2, use the carbon, and release the
o>cygen back into the air whlch we, and all other animals, breathe!
SprLnq, 1989
Thus, n primary function of glaciation i~ to ttminerali1.e and
help reforest the Eanh. The reason this video is called "S1oppfng
the Coming Ice Age" is that Hamaker thinks we humans can indeed must. if we wanr our cwilization to survive • reminemlizc
the Earth oursefres. We ourselves can fulfill the vital rolt pluyed
by an ice age, rendering ~uch a geological event obsolete.
This means, however. that the government~ and peoples of
nil countric:; and regions would need to make it a top priority to
remineralize our depleted ~ils, and also to engage in massive
reforcs1ation projec1s, planting billions of trees worldwide.
Without hc:aJthy forests, we have no chance at all of slowing the
ttemendous C02 buildup which fuels the greenhouse effect. As the
video pu1s it." The trees of the world are our best friends now. and
only they can save us". Obviously, then, we also need 10 i;iop
clear-cutting our foresis. both here and in the tropics, and to limit
our fossil fuel burning, wh.ich has been accelerating the greenhouse
process. Only by doing all these things, says Hamaker, can "e
avoid horrific consequences for humani1y in the very near foture.
The audacity of this theory and lhis proposal lies in its utter
simplicity and common-sense quality. Yet many people may not
heed H.ama.ker's message and information because we have become
so enamored of "high- tech" solutions and shon-tenn planning,
gratification, and profit. Hamaker's plan demands a clear
understanding of our planetary dilemma. and a deep comminnent t0
creating a viable future, as well as some sacrifice or comfon and
convenience. The video concludes with these questions: "Have we
got the guts to do it? How much do we really want to be here?"
Whether or not Hamaker's proposal is ever implemented on
a large scale, we can all do things individually and collectively to
help educate people and help heal the planet. The video pointS out
1hat even if these theories aren't totally "provable", or even
completdy accurate, we should X1ill do the things Lhat Hamaker
suggests, for 1he sake of ecological balance, conservation, and
planetary sanity.
rn addition to the ideas discussed in this review, this video
explores JDl!.W! other aspects of our ecological and social dilemmas •
many more than can be dealt with here. There is so much vital
information presented, within such a comprehensive framework,
that this video ranks as a definite "must see'· for anyone at all
concerned about environmental issues and social change.
• "Stopping The Coming Ice Age" is available for $20 from:
lnstitue for a Future, 2000 Cenfer St. Berkeley, CA 94704. For
info on other offerings of the lnstirutc call 1·800-441-77Cll
• To arrange a showing or this video in the Asheville area, or for
more information, call Richard Lowenthal ar(704) 251-2526. ~
LOCAL RESOURCE I ACTION INFORMATION
• The December t988 issue or "American ForeSIS" m;igirant (published by
the American Forcsuy Association) 11 cle110~ almo~1 ent.Ucl)' IO tropical
defore.suuion, lhc gJCCnhou.sc effll(:I, and lhc prc.~ng n~ to ref~ the e:inb.
II highlights the AlSOCiotion's nx:ently-formcd Olobal Ro-Leaf prognun, which
aims to cducaLC Americans aboul Ille vil,DJ 1mpc:111.a11CO of rcfottsuulon. lllld to
"cl'Cl!IC a new ruulon31 nctwort. (If c1ti~n aetiv1su· whU:h will, 11 i• hoped,
plant at l~t 100,000.000 ll'Ce.$ nntiOCl·wiclc over the ne~1 sc~eral ycatt. For
more informalion, wriie to: Amcriciln Forestry Association, PO Box 2000,
Washinguin, DC 20013
(202) 667-3300
· WNC Alliance "Cut l.M ~Jng" c.imJiaign (st.o pege22 ! :
P.O. Box 18087, A&be\'IUC. NC 28814
(704)2$8-8737
• Forest Voices - •an /;jormatlon netW'Ofk lhat assi.sls citiz.cm m pal'_llcipating
in
1hc planning and managcmcmt or the Pisg:ih and Nant.ahala .h'!uional
(919j.182-36'33
Fol'CSIS"· P.0 Box 1275. West. lcffttiOn. NC 28694
• Adopl a Tree· a muhi-faceted ~on which "works 10 make the vital
connection between (IC(ll>lc 111d ttee•' and wcrts &c!;tly will\ rtfon:St3tion:
P.O. Box 144, Supr Gnwc. NC 28679
• The Fctwwy 1989 publ~ "Mounuun ~Al Risk! the FulllTC of
the Southern Appalachlari National ~13" )160+ pages, intludina 1ru1ny
cxccllentchart$ and appendices). Available on rcqucst from:
The Wilderness Society. 1819 Peaclusee Rood N.E. (Suite 714) Atlanlll , OA
30309
Drawing by rob mcJSlc:k
(404) 3SS-178l.
�What a wondetful journal! - a beanening combination of slwp-eycd
icalism and full hearted poetry. I feel rve encountered a true compt111ion.
Thanks IO D3ve Albert who passed iL on with your review of my book.
J0311na Macy
Bctb:ley, CA
DRUMMING
LETIERS TO KATUAH
Friends in Kallia.h -
"In the field or opponuni1y, it's plowing lime again.·
Those or you working in the cnwonmenllll. public henlth, resource
ma.nagcment fields may be questioning (tllllhority?). 1f your profe.~slOllal
orienllllion is on the same path as your human development and land~lhie
perogntivc.
My Friends at Katliah Journal·
Your publication is beautiful and 111Spirlng. I n:c:eived a
complimentary copy {Auwmn, 1988) conceming the great chcsmul n:vival.
and enjoyed lhe entire journal.
I visil I.be Kaul.ah bioregion each year (feeling very Sll'Ongly lhat I
was and am "born" lheic.) I am so cooccmcd about lhe negative human
impact on this n:gion, and would be in~ed in anylh1ng I could do for
l'CSIOnllion. rd<Xallll.ion. pl'CllCCUon, eu:..
Blessings.
Nancy Llgnitt
Olalhe, KS
P. S. • Forgive my ignorance-.could you please lei me lmow the
correct pronunciation of "Kanlah1"
(Sure! Probably o lot of otltu ~pie have b4ie11 woNlerilog, IOO. bul
Soy, "lea - TOO • ah.•
jiut did11'1 d/Jre IO osk. Reody, fl/JW?
Guruu!Mil!
• eds.)
Dear Kat.Udl •
Many friends or mine propose pcrfeclioo (In lhe ronn or intcrpCtS0031
peace) as a .solution 10 Ille llul:aL or wincllOCl. I tell them, "Hey, I don't
think we've got Ume.• l think I saw the snmc thing happening In Katli.ah
JourMl 22 bul in an opposilC way. Thete the dhugence of individual,
corpome. and govtmmcntal behavior from the ideal was plCSClllCd so
forcdully as tO make any suggesuon of solutions ou1 or place. i wnnl tO
argue lh41 in both lhcsc in.~ ideals malfunction when they an: mnde
JWOX}mn1e goals rather !ban guiding beacons.
One p;ndox of idealism is lhlli lhe greai.cr the con1ras1 bdWllCll lhc
IC.Ill and ldCal behavior of people, the more wfficuh it Is to argue lhal Ille
JdcaJ is naturul (to them). the mon: claboralC mast be the explanation as to
how they got so aberrant. and lhe tw rusonablc it IS to hope Ibey will Ulkc
the 1113Jly.111lUly steps from one to lhe other. Usually the conimst is sortened
:wt hope ~by thc stnuch or cenlUries, millenia or aeons presumed 10
inluvcne between ~ and ideal But in the presclll crises the conuast and
~are ui=ased. Wh'fl
Wlw I see happcnmg 11 thal lhe apocolyplic p0!>'iibili1y of our
cnviroomcn141 and mililllrist trues is malung people shnnk the middle
ground bctwcoo rc:il and ideal, mlllung them tlunk the ldeol m1m be nuained
right away, u we are to survive. The resuh Is that the I~ ome lhctl) is left
for clunge. the mocc of 11 is demanded. We use ideals to get at wlufs trul)'
wrong bul then in a cnsis rrusiake lhcm Lo be a pracllcal progTI1111 for se1ung
thmgsright.
In conuas1. thc closer we appro:ich disaster 1he mote focused should
be our analysis, the less suidcnt OU/ Judgcmcnl.s, the more specafte and
llmillld our prcscripuons. Out ideals C:tll still gwdc 11$ bu! from a dl$UIJIOC.
subonlloate to a goal of swvival as a ~ics w11l1 a 5uswnable OIOde or
exislcnc:c. Once that is a,s_'>ll'Cd weC1111 resume lhc ncYCJ endulg wOlt or
moving oursclvt$ and the world IOW8td the 1dc;al
Respectfully yours.
JlcltOwley
M:idison County, NC
I would like to begin gcncmting plans fora small compt111y of
icsponsiblc people co promote land S?ewardsbip lllld conscrvlltion of natural
resources. We11 provide professi01131 and 1.CChnico.I consulUttion and CSU!blish
bioregi.oJllll criteria for environmerually sensitive site devclopmcnl
silviculturc, archiiecturc. fanning. wau:r use. nnd small Cl\C.f&Y production.
rm intcreSICd in communicating with others who an: ready with ide:is
for lll!lking ~ TRANSmON to perpetual livelihood in a Clll'CCr lh;t1 will
reward our f11111ilies as well as our PLANET.
Sincetely.
Steve Ovcndcn
Box;JS
Pntmcuo. Ft. 34220
Dear Katllah Friends ·
I saw the "Sheller" issue of your journal and especially love and use
the Invocation (to WlnlU) - k's so beautiful to say. l was CMCCived and born
8lld also love those moun1auJS and tree$ tllld fresh air and flowing creeks.
1banlc you so much- .. the issue I saw wns bcauuful. iruly.
Blessings,
JUlllUI Forest
Octr0it. Ml
Docs my dog bite1
Lady. Lhat dog's so old
lllat he'd only gum you
If he caught you
if he even hnd the gumption
toehaseyou
which he don'L
Why do I keep him?
Hah!
Lady, that'~ the best watehdog
ICYCJhad
bar none.
How do yau mean?
Why, he don't chnsc chldtcn•
or run hvestoek
or keep me awake
barking all night.
Burgl:!n7
Lady, 1fyou see
anylhing around here worlh r.i.cahng
point ltOUI
and l'll nulc:e )'OU
a 11!31 good price on 1L
'Ccpl mlybe my dog.
• RonJohnson
Spn."9, 11109
�:
..
equal "p:lttllCrSlup" with all Olher living entities. I dream of a world whcie
long-sllllldmg cu1Lu!'111 tr3d11ions are honored and s upponcd, bolh in
hCICIOgcncous groupings of oil kinds of people living 1.ogcthcr and in more
isolntcd, sell-conlllined indigenous communities.
h 1s being said · and even channeled · lhal we are entering o pcnod
of 30 to 50 years of ca1BClysmic changes on the eanh. Some beings will
pass on in this ume of purging, while othetS will come in to !like iheir
place. Some or us wiU sUllld in the forefront of change and IJUllsmut.ation
while others of us wiU follow close behind. Let us begin then LO create the
v1s1ons that will ullimaiely provide the blueprints for our future on !his
planci., and begin to eultiva1e the liUlc poclu:IS oC mmly and wholeness Lhal
will evemually be the models from wrueh the rest of humanity cnn draw
msp1r.11ion and duectioo. The time has come_ dear comrades, lei us dream
...
together·
Jay Joyce
Asheville. NC
·.
Dear Friends·
c.ome. dream 11 liuJe dream with me.
As we all sil~ inexornbly tnLO thc not-so-nif1y nmcties. its becoming
clearer nnd c:ltlim dial life as we trow it mLISI be draWcally altered if we ait
to reverse the lides or ecologic:il desuuction gaihcring fon:e nround the globe.
h is clearly ume for us iocn:aie new visions for the rurure. lO look iownrd
the 2 lst centW')' with a sense of hope and purpOSe and direction, and OOl just
foreboding. And it i.~ in this spirit that I'd like to offer a few personal images
far a new bcguming, an altcmru.ive futun: - and LO invite compatriots
everywhere to color in these prclimm111Y skcu:hes fwther.
Farst of all, I sec a plllce where boclc:ynrd fences have been lOOI down,
and neighborhood gmdens, quiet ~cs, play SUUCUUCS. and gathering pl:ices
sprawl acro&s the land insicad. Theo l see community ocntcJS blossoming
:i.mong the dctri~ of ab:lndoncd school buildmgs nnd agmg warchow.es,
where recycling proJCCU, compost dumps, and communru gardens repklce
blllciclOp parking lots; and where weekend Ilea mnrkel.nnd bloclt panics.
moon celebrotions, and ecology fairs fill those huge l<>nely spaces. where
computer nctwolks and refemil scrvtCCS and gallery car~ keep people in touch
Greetings Brochers and Sisu:ss of Ka111ah •
r love you all and pray with you always, and alwoys my heart is so
full wbeo I receive my copy of Ka1Uah JourMl. ll takes me back to the
Appalachians and the memories flood m.
r thought tha1 if your magazine came OUI be fan: Lbc equinox, you
could pnn1 something from • Aoccwoo,• the Maori name f<W" New Zealo.nd.
since ii seems 1hc chcslnut arucles (KOJiiah Journol #21 · ed.) cre:it.ed some
communicauon.
We rue organizing o gaihering on a friend's propeny 111 lhe end of o
rood in a Nal.iOlllll Par1t, one or the mos1 beautiful places m lhe world. This
is the only gruhcring this year as our annual "Towards 2000"
workshop-oriented gathcrin~ wcrcn'1 held this yu.T. The annual nonh island
"Tc WaiOU3" glllhcring hosn't happened foe lhc l3Sl two yClll'S or our "Hui
Waiata." which is a musical glllhcring.
Although there arc loL\ of open-minded folk and mony good things
bnppcning here. we are going through a phase of fcwct gnthcrings ond feel the
need for folk t0 gel tQgct.hcr to share their ideas and views and feel strong in
their commitment to healing lhe Earth along with other brother! and !isters.
Hopefully, our pthcring will provide llus opponuru ty, as it's mo
progre$$ive area wilh communities. ocgaruc forms. and iCs a long way rrom
any ctties or polllllion. so a lOt of naturul beauty along wilh a good growing
climiue which has aurnc1ed 1'11311Y ovcneas follt. so we have an opponuouy to
share Lbcir visions, as ITIOSl of them come from a vccy comamintued Northern
Ht.maspbcrc.
As USUllJ, alu:malive folk find 1t hard to deal with local authorities,
but this is one of the few areas where people can make the effort ID be pin of
local dc:cislon·makmg and help make folk fll01C aware of what is hnppcrung
to our Mother and the roles W$ can play IO bcal Her and OUl1iClves.
with each other.
t look forward also LO a time when we all learn LO lhink about each
thing we "tlvow away" long enough to decule how u can be recycled or
properly disposed of. I imagine a place· ll Smithsonian of the mind. if you
will • whc:re a few old TV's, microwaves, electric am-openers. wa1apiks,
air-purifiers, etc. are kept in a museum lO remind us of whal we almost
buried ourselves in . .• while the rest oC them ~ no longer nccdcd or
wanted. I dlcll!n or a time when we no longer use tars, and freeways a.re no
longer necessary eitcept roe skalcboordulg, sledding, skhng, bicycling, and
wllldsurfing. I envision a scienlifx: communny thal seeks ou1 ways to gel
rid or the nukes, cleanly, lO biodegradc the phlsuc. 10 trunsfOJ111 ihe 10X1e
chemicals, IO clean up thc :ur and w.ucr, to cure the diseases, and IO develop
stmplincd, life-nunuring ways Cot all ihe criUCIS still 3.m0f18 us LO reinhabil
the pbneL
I look forwllr<l to a lime when children learn IO love leaming, when
they arc iniegmtcd into ihe life of their communities and when !hey Ill'!:
openly adcoowlcdged and supponcd ror the grC&l comnbutions they mlllcc to
our lives. 1 imagine a ume when people enj()y learning a> much ttbout lheir
loctll ccosySlCITI as they now blow about the plol developments of the lalCSI
soap opelilS and lhe lifcstyles or lhc rich and famous. I envision a time: when
bUIDQll betn.gs 1cam LO QCCepl I.be Cllc:1 lha1 !hey tnhab11 one small niche m the
pta& an:le of the eanh's ccosysicm end therefore leam IO uucmct m loving,
Drllwmp by Sheli Lodge
Love,
Pc1ctOay
16 Jarrow Plac;c
Christchurch 3 New 7.ea1ruld
�Earliest February I begin
searching along a neighbor's hedgerow
for just a tendril of the coming miracle.
Or gatlog as one stricken upon the si Us of morning
when the fir'lt dreamy memories of daffodils return.
l breathe a wisp of a vast movement stirring and alluring me.
Deep in e veins of southern sloping woods.
I know beside the coldest laughing waters
bubbling and glittering in the soft. buucry sun
some rich, mysterious. fragile awakenings unfold.
Long before the geese come winding surely homeward,
I discover and behold an anicle of r.ransfonnation
that by narure disregards mere joy or faith or sorrow,
to which uncr defeat or sheer victory remain the same.
So even in this old hean of winter full of woes.
the barrer1 season ofdui.t and frost is washed clean away.
And this, I suppose. is why l wander seeking ccnitudc.
ruming a 11one over by the path, or gazing above treetops.
or gliding clflike lhfouJh the forest's solemn ~lonnadtli.
for in this ~un-goW rime as the eaith starts siirring,
c:ven the ~' n dcith of my brother is cased and gree
the
ve, delicaie, relentless mari:h of Spring.
Alt. 1i\U..
~ '""
1'4Wah )ournal p«UJe 28
- Mitliattl Hockaday.
Sp rlfMJ, l 989
�Planet Art
conunucd rrom page 1
Christina then found Leigh Hollowell who had srudied Contact
extensively on the West Coast and who was also very interested
in seeing Contact happen in this area. Leigh enthusinstically
agreed to co-teach a ContAct class with Christina. They knew
that if they wanted to have people to do Contact with, they would
have to help create a Contact community first.
Leigh love:; Contact because "it's natural - it'~ not based on
socialized preceptS but on an open exchange with other people in
the reality of the present moment." She is aware that for many
people dance classes and physical education have been
emotionally painful and repressive, because they were not
encouraged to learn their own natural movement but to imitate
others. Her main goal is "to provide a positive movement
experience for people so they can become friends with their
bodies and learn to perceive it as a resource of creativity."
I asked her how she felt that Contact would affect the
larger community, and she said. "Because it is not based on any
one culture's movement and is a form naruraJ to all human
bodies, it is an effective way to trunscend barriers between
people..• it would simply create a more trusting, and therefore
more peaceful, community."
l have been panicipating in this dance class since
November and have been able to experience it "first hand". ln
Contact dance, we maintain a ''point of contact" with another
person, and it constantly shifts as both move. When we try to
control where the movement goes with our minds, it becomes
stiff and awkward. When we stop trying to control and simply
focus on the point of contact, that point guides us in a flowing
way towards movements that are easy and spontaneous. Our
minds are shocked at how well we can do without their control.
Imagine a society in which we allowed our interactions to come
from our point of connection instead of our differences!
For more information about Contact Improvisation, call
Leigh Hollowell at (704) 252-4475.
Art here in Karuah has begun to reflect the reality of our
connection wilh the planet.... making art-all fonns of creative
expression and ritual-a pan of our daily lives. By
acknowledging the sacredness of our co-existence with the rest of
~Water Systems
WATER PURIFICATION EQUIPMENT
SOLAR PRODUCTS
Membar NC Water O~lty AasoclaOon
RANDALL C. LANIER
704-293-5912
HWY 107
RT 68 BOX 125
CULLOWHEE, NC 28723
che universe, we are beginning 10 harmonize with it
Many of us, though, have closed off our energies to the
vision of a hnrmonit.ed planet because it seems so elusive and far
away, and we don't like feeling disappointed. Others have
refused to sec and accept the truth of the planet as it is because il
is painful .. and think that if they "shut their eyes it will go away.•
The tnJth 1s that the sooner we open our eyes and accept what is
there, the more effectively we will be able to deal with iL
In a book called The Path of Ltas1 Resistance, a simple
and effective method for manifesting a choice is given. This
method can apply lO planetary as well 3S personal mmsfonnation.
lt is lO constantly hold in our minds two things ... exactly what
our vision is and the full truth of our current reality. It is based
on the idea that "in order 10 ge1 where you want to go, you need
to know where you are."
Since we are all planet anisrs, this technique needs to be
widely understood. As we hold our vision firmly in mind and
continue to acknowledge what's happening now, new nod
unexpected ways of achieving our goals will come to us. Jn order
10 do this, we need co be aware of the deep, undercurrent
regenerative processes that exist around and within us that we can
tap into. As more and more of us choose to love and accept our
planet and all her inhabitanlS no matter what is happening, the
easier it will be.
A lot is happening in our region, and J'm sure there are
many more people here with ideas and enthusiasm to contribute
towards a biorcgional program of Planet An. Some suggestions
arc... a traveling multi-media show that would tour the region to
network and share bioregional idens...communicy rituals for
healing the la.ad... restoring our environment with "Clean-Up
An" events... synchronizing with planetary peace and art events
... All Species Day with parades and festivals ...Joining in the
preparations for Earth Day '90. There is no linu1 to what we can
dol...there is no shonage of things to rcharmonizel
It's time to find out who we all are as anists and get our
networks in place. At the next K.atuah Gathering we can come
together and bntinstonn. t can be contacted by wrirtng P.O. Boll:
278, Asheville, North Carolina, KatUah Province 28802 or _,,
~
calling (704) 253-4831.
~
DE.S IGNS
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l'bollt' I~ HOT-UN£ fo Rr>d Cltli how yo1it pr•cti«,
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N•tloMI Oirttto •
Sprl.fMJ, 1989
.u
Jler/Jg11J111 eti1tit
'lljaee, 'Ry~r 'Na@r~
FREE COLOR CATALOG
e1ti1te1t At11p1Utct11re
Drt~PillOW'I
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Fur R/J1111I, ThtalT~, & S11f-&mpow1rmtt11
Send S 2 ror fuU-<:olor caulog/ Custom onlcrs llYlilablc
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P.O. Box 178, Asheville, NC 28801
(70-4) 25).431
�POPLAR APPEAL
Green City
conunucd rrom p.9
cooler in the summer. and it wai. quieter - if you knock on steel and
then knock on a soybean, you unders1and the sort of deadening
chMIClerislics on the inside of lhat car.
The dreams of Henry Ford and the rest of the chemurgy
movement were postponed. but they seem to be resurfacing again.
Russell Buchanan. a scientist in Maryland, envisions the rise of
botano-chemical complexes, as he calls them, rather than
pcrro-chemical complcitcs, as we learn to eittract from cellulose the
same things that we extract from pcuoch~micals. One ts a
hydrocarbon; the other is a carbohydrate. Compare these words and
they're basically the same. One of the differences. however, between
a botano·chcmical complex and a pcrro-<:hemical complex is that it's
easy 10 transport oil over long distances, whereas it's not easy to
transport plant mauer over long distances. So botnno·chemical
complexes will tend to be locally based and rurally based near their
sources of raw material~ and supplies.
Local self-reliance can become an economic developmem
strntegy, and cities ate the best place to try it out, for several J'C3.'\0llS.
Mose of us live in cities. Cities tend to be large enough 10 have an
internal market, and can in fact become laboratories. Cities are
concentrations of science and technology. They have the ingeouil\',
the expertise and the machine toolshops to build prototypes and try
them out. Bur what is your nearest city's research and development
budget? h's probably zero.
The local self-reliance scenario is not inevil3ble nor is it even
probable. It depends on political decisions. Economic development
must be seen as a means to an end and not an end in itself. Alben
Einstein once said that perfection of means and confusion or cods
characterize our age. We're so mesmerized by technology and
development that we forget to ask, "Technology for what?" and
"Development for whom?" We have become consumers of change,
bul we don't know the difference between change and ,erogress. To
Bertrand Russell progiess is ethical and change ls scientific; change is
inevitable, while progress is problematic. In other words. progress is
valw:·laden and as we change, we need to ask ourselves, "Will we
progress?" We can have a green city within a brown world by
moving all or our production and disposal systems for away from our
city. But 10 truly embrace the ecological motivation behind a green
city, we must ~ome responsible for the wastes that are generated
for our convemence. And the only way to do that is 10 begin 10 return
that loop of production, use and disposal, b.'ICk to the community.
Marcel Proust once said that the voyage of discovery consists
nm In seeking new lands but in seeing with new eyes. It is in seeing
O!Jf communities and our citi~s with new eyes, in pursuing a globe of
Vlllag~s and not a global village, that we begin to create a new
paradigm.
@ lnsli1utc for Local Sclf·Rcli:incc. 2425 Ulm Sucet, t<W WllSbinguin. DC
2000!>. Also w1lh pcnnission fl'Ofll Raise IM Stt1lls. Planet Drum Foun<bLinn,
P.O. Box 31251, San fran(isco, CA 94131. This anlclc appc:arcd 1n Winter 19118
issue.
M.El>1.CtNE ALLtES
'J-SK1.1t'J
tQllUnued from page 11
h wru; always a rare
oy~rer mushrooms - that is.
und special occasion when I found
until I su1J1cd roaming the hills with
my older mounuineer buddy Theron. Theron was rai~ed
gathering roots and herbs at his grandmother's knee, and he
knows the woods well, but he had ulw11ys been wisely hesitant
about sampling unidentified wild mushrooms •tllc first few times
in our wanderings when we found some oyster mushrooms.
Theron would help me gather them and he would carefully
examine them, but be always declined to share the harvest nnd
rnke some home to em. However. after heming me talk so much
about how good they were (and seeing that I was still thriving),
he finally tried some. He and his wife enjoyed them immensely,
and from then on it seemed that. with Theron's help, I was
hardly ever without oyster mushrooms.
From Theron I learned 10 visit areas 1ha1 had been logged a
few years previosly and look on tulip poplar stumps after a spell
of rainy weather. In the$C Meas we could find man)' pounds of
the savory mushrooms in any season of the year. We often found
enough to dry and store for times when the fresh ones were
scarce.
When Theron and I sn down together and share a meal of
oyster mushrooms and other wild edibles, I think about what a
strongc pair we make: me, a naturalist from the Oat land with a
university education, and him, a tradjtional mountain wood~man
and fanncr who barely finished eighth grade. Yet we both realize
that if we hadn't met and been open and receptive 10 each other's
knowledge. neither of us would be earing this delicious wild
mushroom supper. Traditional knowledge and book learning can
go well together.
©1989 by the tlJ.Uhor.
Reprl111edfrom Wildlife in North Carolina Magazine.
"Ranger Doug" EUiolt, as he is known to rite cltildren i11 the
group, is an excellent naJuralist, but is also known as a lively~
storyteller and ''a real nice feller."
p
A Directory to
North Carolina's Natural Areas
(published by 1.he NC Natural Heritage Foundation)
As pan of its important work in rare and endangered
species identification and habitat preservation, the North Carolina
Natural Heritage Foundation, a non-profit organization, has
compiled the guidebook, A Directory to North Caroli11a's Namral
Areas. The compact guidebook features dC!ieripcions of more than
100 natural areas open to the public in the state. The descriptions
of each aro:i include infonnntion about natural history, geology.
1111d uuvcl information.
To obtain copies of the book, send S5.00 10 the NC
Natural Heritage Foundation; Box I I 105; Raleigh, NC 27604
Each is tl1c suongcst power 1n iis own domain.
Together !hey lll'C allies: !heir C1111tgics complement each
01hcr m rorm an e\'et1 greater power. As medicine ollics,
they rcpre«ent 1he hc;Uing powers of lbC Appalnahian
In lhe tr.1d1uonal Cherokee Indian belief, lhe Moun1:11ns.
TI111 medicine powers of Kl!uiah Juve been depicted
crca!Ure\ in the world lOclay arc only d1minu11.ive forms or
the mythic beings who once mlUlbucd the world, but who in o ~1r1l.;ing T-shin design by Ibby Kcn11:t. Printed in
now fC$idc in Oal11na'IJ, lite 5pmt world. the highest 5-coloc silksi;irccn by Ridgerunncr Nnwr.ils on top qu:ility,
he;ivcn. BuL • few of the ongmal powcr~ broke lhrough !he all-couoo shin.~. 1hcy arc avallnble now in all adul1 shes
!!p1riLUAI barrier and exist yet m the world a~ we know il. from KALANU; Boit 282; SylYll, NC 28779.
These beings arc called with rcv.:rcncc "grandfalhas" And
or tl1cm. the suonges1 arc K.allilti, lhc ligh1mng. thc power
Pl~ specify ~ir.t: Sm .• Med., Lg.. X·Lg.
or the sky; utsa·nau, 1he r:mlcsn:tke, who pcrsoniries the
Prke: S9.SO pOStf131d
power of lhc cnnh pL'lllc: lllld Yunwi U!ldi, "I.he li1Llc !Mn".
W.98 pns1pa1d for NC re.-i!knts
as ginseng is called in I.he S!Crcd ceremonies. who draws up
JlOYo er from lhc underwocld.
"To .f/ww TU~l"lftx lhlS lll{lctflOllll'DI /Tinily of thl:
Miura/ world iJ 10 111 111111 bcc0t1v t111 ally tn thl: con1i11w11g
fll'OUS!. of niai111<Un111g harmony and bal1111Ct htrt 111 thl:
moll/IJJJJJU of Ka1Uah"
Spri.f19. 1969
�Emironmcntol Politics:
11Vlou.nttiln Ug'hl H!!:twork
Lessons from the Gras.'>routs.
Bob Hall. Editor
Mountam Light Network is an eclec1ic, 1n1entionally
group of people living in the Kaulah srea. Th<:
tntercsts of the group include 3 deep commilnlCnl to 1nd1vidu:il
llnd planct:u) peace. and to ecological hannony, with emphasis
on coopera1ion between human, animal, plant and mineral
kingdom~ . Other areas of interest include subtle energies,
h~::iling, and techniques for utilizing new forms of power. Many
w11hin t~c: g_oup n:lion::ite wi1h N?tive Indian philosophies and
r
;;eek to h~c in ~~c1ous balanl'c ~nh the land. The mu;ority are
involved in hohsuc heallh, explonng new paths now developing.
Some _ re invot:--ed in the Anciem Wisdom and spiritual
a
<li-•c1phnes. Survival and food 11toragc are also of interest to
many individuals
We meet 4 times a year at the Franklin Communitv Center
on Sundays. at 2:00 PM near the Sol"iccs and Equino11tes. There
iU'C tables for those who wish to 5ell products or promote ideas;
many books arc available a!; welt. We feature a speaker at each
meeting. We have a directory of names. skiUs and intrn-~1~ Our
aim is to provide a time and place for communication and
exchange of ideas to become neighbors in a loose-I.nit network
of people in our area.
Part1c1pauon in meetings is free and open to all people of
Like mind. This year our meetings an: on March 19, June 18.
September 17. and Dcccmbct 17, 1989. For more anform:uion,
call (404} 746-2454.
~structured
ln.'itltule for Soul hem Studies, P. 0. Bo>< SJl,
Durham. f\C 17702. 1988. ~7.00. 12? pgs.
Whal can you do when an our·of·slalc corporation
an_nounc~
plans for a hazardouli was1c rrearment facility a few
nulc:s from your home. or when stare officials ~ay 1hey wan1 to
pave 11 highway through your neighborhood? Where can you
mm for help if real esta1e developers wuh close ties 10 local
politicians decide to build a condominium or shopping center in a
sensitive water;hed are;i?
_
How much energy should you devote 10 door-to-door
organizing, or seeking auention from the media, or gelling
involved in elecrorul pohtics?
For rhe past three yc:.m;, lhe lns111u1e for Southern Studies
has conducted an investigation of environmental and land·u>e
controversies in one state, Nonh Carohna. rn a remarkable
number of cases. locnl citizens groups · even lhosc in relatively
!solatcd. rural areas • have won s1gnifican1 victories ag:unst
1mpress1ve odds. They h:ive beaten well-endowed corporations
and forced state policym:ikcu to change regulations, enforce
ex1snng standards, and enact new laws.
_Th~y have built ad hoc coalitions and enduring
orgamzauons, occas1onally across rucc lines, more often across
class and cultural divisions within the white community. And
they have moved from crisis-oriented, hit-and-miss organization
to sophisticated political lobbying and effective electoral activi~m.
The key ingredients of these successful citizen-led
camprugns are described in dwlll in the first chapter. The next 10
chapters chronicle the episodic. fragmented, yet growing
cnv1rorunental movcmenr in consc.rvwve North Carolirui. The
focus h less on the grim threats to life as we know it than on why
pe~p~e respond, whar they do to win, and how grassroots
acuv1s_m and electoral politics (including lobbying and voter
educanon) imersec.1 to produce i.nstitutionru change.
The result 1s a storybook of grassroots experiences. a
handbook that lets our own past teach us bow to wodc. for a bener
future. And while the location may be Nonh Carolina, the
common lessons running through these stOrics are plainly uc;cful
to people throughout the Soulh Md beyond.
- excerpted from tlie preface
,..0 &..ot4(;t" WA.) I " '
..nw i-c.t
t,_f
------
TPC.. two ~Kt H~O M&.L.01.0
AMO I loll', 1' C.111''1 HO!ISf..l
SprL119. t 989
JUST RECEIVED'
Mountain Treasures at Risk:
The Future of lhe
Soulh~rn
Appala&llian Nalional Fonsts
by Laura E. Jackson
The N:uional Forests of the Southern App11lachian
Mountains are the last remaining habitar area available for many
species of pl3Ilts and wildlife. The book Mountain Treasuru ot
Risk says that these valuable habitat areas should be managed
from a regional viewpoint and offers valuable infonnation tQward
rcaliting n new vision for forest management which emphasizes
the values of life suppon and ~gional biodiversity.
Handsomely bound, profusely documented with photos,
tables, and charts.
Copies free on requ~t from The Wilderness Society; 1819
Peachm:c Rd NE (Suite 714); Atlanta, GA 30309.
... Katuah Journal is not just lull of Information. It is
also full of images, and we appeal to all visual artists
interested in ennching lhe pages of this journal, plus some
exposure for you, to send us copies of your work Many
times we need graphic images that are specific 10 a given
article, yet there Is often space to put Images that are not
specific You would be surprised the kinds of
synchronicities that can happen when you send wori< in•
Drawings in Ink. prints, photographs, borders, symbols.
and cartoons that you think have some relevance to the
journal are all welcome Don't be shy. we need your talent
and image·ination to help visual-eyes a clearer relation
with Katuah ...
�evencs
2-8
BRASSTOWN, NC
Spring Music and Dance Week. Music.
StOries, dance, nature. John C. Campbell Folk School
28906.
8
BLOWING ROCK, NC
Ocan-up of the Glen Burnie Falls Trail .
Blue Ridge Group. Sletra Club. Call (704) 264-3931.
MARCH
8·9
HIGHLANDS, NC
Chiefs from the Native American
Elders Circle meet at the Mountain to discuss
Ecology and An. ''TIJU care how you place your
17-19
moccasins upon tM Eanh,step with care,for the
faces oftM I unve generarions are looking up from
Earth waiting their turn for life." $137. The
FARNER, TN
Leam "Wild Foods and Earth Medicines" with
Snow Bear at Pcppcrland Farm Camp: Sw Route: Farner,
37333. (70<!) 494-2353.
™
IJ.16
GATUNBURG, TN
Womyn·s Weekend Rctn:at: Spccilll Gu=
Grey Cal, Lucinda F1odin. Write 10 P.O. Box 936:
Gatlinburg. TN 37738 for more info.
Mountain; 841 Highway 106: Highlands, NC
28741 (704) 526- 5838.
NEW MARKET, TN
sn> (Stop the Poisoning!) School a1 the
Hishlander CcnlCf. Learn bow to figllt 1nduslrinl pollution
For more info, call (615) 933-3443.
30
UNICOI, GA
"Spring Earth Skills Workshop''
with Snow Bear, Darry Wood, Doug Elliott, and
Yanna. Leaming the ways of the woods. $65.
Comact Bob Slack at (404) 878-2201.
31·1
HENDEltSONVILLF., NC
Workshop on Local and Regional Land
Trusis. Kanug.a Episcopal Center. For more info call
(704) 692-9136.
WAYNESVILLE, NC
Kanna m Daily Life-A Spiritual Rctrcal,
with John Algeo. Stil·Light Tbcosopbieal RCllC41 Cent.er,
Rt I, BOA 326: Wayncsy1lle, NC 28786 (70<!) 452-4569.
Neighborh ood" confcronce sponsored by Asheville
League of Women Votcts. Time and place TBA. Call (704)
258-8223.
ASHEVILLE. NC
A six-we.:k course. "Finding Your Path
with HC3rt", begins a.t the Spiritual Growth Foundation.
(sce4/l). The focus will be on finding our "lruC vmce• and
expressing Lhc lifc-affinmng energy of l1W" Heart's desire.
17·18
ASHEV l LLE, NC
Red Foll/Second ll.311gin', play prcscnltd by
I.be Roadside ThcatTC. S)l3rU'lnburg. SC. For ume and
location. call (606} 633-0108.
nLACK MOUNTAIN, NC
Robm Williamson. •a wl1.lltd of words and
music:.· "'I h~ hunter ond the hu11ted howl 011e howl.•
McDibbs'; S6 tdYanc~ door. 8pm, 119 Cherry Si.,
Black Mtn., NC 28711: (704)669-2456.
ASREVlLLE, NC
" Betw"n a Rock and a Hard Place:
Westtrn
No r th
Carolina's
Noclur
17
14-16
21-23
IS
ASHEVCLLE, NC
"Cut lhe Clearcutting!" says
WNCA. From 1t am. Music, dancing, speakers.
City/County Plaza, Asheville. Write Western
North Carolina Alli:lncc; Box 18087; Asheville,
NC 28814, orcall 258-8737
15
ASHEVILLE, NC
The Enrth First! Road Show wilh
Roger Featherstone and Susan Grace Stoltz,
audio·visuals, news on EF! issues and actions.
Lipinsky Auditorium, UNCA. 7:30 p.m.
Students $1. General admission $3. For more
info, call (704) 251-6144.
18
31·2
APRD..
1·30
CHEROKEE, NC
William Holland Thomas.
"little
ASlll-:VlLLE, NC
Hum.an Potential Education Foundation
Spring 1989 Conference, "Healers and the Healing
Proces:~." For regiwation and brochure conw:c Human
Poumlial Educlllion Foundation, Inc.: R1. s. 89 Tt1nyrud
Rd.: Greenville. SC 29609.
white
chicr or lhe ChclOkec. cxhibiL OicroJcoe H~14Sc MUNCwn
and GaJlcsy.
I&8
28-30
ASHEVILLE, NC
'Commumcation and Healing." a lWO·Jllll
28-30
NEW MARKF.1', TN
STP (Stop I.he Poisoning!) School Bl the
Highlander Ccntcr. Learn how to fight tndu.suial pollution.
~3/21-23.
wotlcshop focusing on inner commumon and outer
communicauon as Yilal tools for bcaling ourselves Md our
rclalionsh1ps.
10-Spm each day.
Led by Richard
l.owenlhBI. M. A. Spiritual Growth Foundation: 891
Haywood .Rd. (704) 252-3508.
2-5
PISGAH FOREST, NC
Rockclimbing clinic for beginners
Tedmiques, safely, gear. S28S. Eagle's Nest Camp; 43 Hart
Road: Pisgah °Fon:.'ll: NC 28768. (704) 877-4349.
X.~.Jo~
pgqe 52 ·
29-31
FARNER, TN
KATUAH SPRING GATHERTNO.
Come celebrate. dance, play, meet. and talk with
the family from all over the region (see
announcement next page).
mustratlons by Jackie Taylor-
�JUNE
29
MOUNT AIRY, NC
18th
Annual Ml. Airy Fiddler~
Convention. A weekend of lrod1tion:il Appal3chian Music.
Bring instruments. tenlS, food. Regiwruion SlO.
2-3
SWANNANOA, NC
Environmental Summit '89: Ethics,
Economics and the Environment. This 5th annual
summit will focus on environmental problems of
immediate interest in WNC. and on how
environmental and economic realities affect each
other. Keynote speaker: David Morris of the Inst.
for Local Self-Reliance. Warren Wilson College.
9am-4 pm. $5. For more info or to preregister call
(704) 298-3325, ext. 250.
9· 11
CLOUDLAND CANYON
Caving weekend w11h Snow Bear as
instruc1or and guide. Equipment provided. Call (704)
494-2353 for more info.
9-11
WAYNESVILLE, NC
"Mythology - The Modem Search for the
Holy Grail" with Joy Mills. Stil-L1ghL See 3/31-4/2.
MAY
llRASSTOWN, NC
June Homecoming Music/Dance Weck.
English counuy dancing wi1h Jim Morison. John C.
Campbell Folk School, 28906.
11·17
5-7
WAYNESVILLE, NC
"Music as Meditation" with Diana
Dunningh:un. S20/day. Sul-Light Center: See 3{31-4/2.
21-25
HIGHLANDS, NC
Nature Photography Workshop.
Prc.rcgisicr. Appalachian Environmental Ans Center. Sec
5/12-14.
6
LINVILLE, NC.
Grandfather Mountain Prorilc Trait
wildflower hilce. Blue Ridge Group, Sierra Club. Call (704)
2974098.
6-10
PISGAH FOREST, NC
Whi1ewa1cr Canoe Clinic for novices and
m1crmedia1es. $455. Sec 4/2-5.
12-14
lllGllLANDS, NC
Spring Landscape Retreat Photography
Workshop. Pre-regisicr: Appalachian Environmental Arts
Ccnicr; Drawer S1l0: Highlands. NC 2874 I (704) 526-4303.
19-21
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC
The Black Mouniain Spring Festival.
Three days of traditional music and dnnce at Black
Mountain College/Camp Rockmont. Brave
Combo, The Horsenies, Grandmother, David
Wilcox, Phil and Gaye Johnson. For advance
tickets call Grey Eagle and friends, (704)
, 669-4546 from 2pm- IOpm.
o~ ~3. &q o.ncL 3o
o± -p e.p~et' la.rd.. ~ t()J\ft'l
7f.n
~
u.a -to
~~N.b..ooY
19·21
flfGllLANDS, NC
Wildflower Pho1ogruphy Workshop.
Pre-rcg1s1er. Appalachi$ Env1Tonmcnt.al Arts C..:nicr. Sec
qy'~
5/12-14.
u.ou.aL I~~
~ o..cliN~ a.r0.wo¥k shO(:.>s ~ o...d.uJtto
19-21
MILLBORO, VA
EARTH FlRST! Appabchian Rendezvous.
Talk, drum. s.we au things wild. For more info, write: Box
2(>6; Millboro. VA 2.4460 or call (703) 997-9448.
BRASSTOWN, NC
May Crafl/l)ance week. John C. Campbell
Folk School 28906.
27-29
WHITTIER, NC
Cclebralion on lhe land al Union Acres
Communuy. All friends of Kauiah welcome. For more
Info., ca11: Cynthia and Roy Gallinger, (704) 293-9230.
spil.NJ,
1989
µ~~.
~ u.;tl.L ~ -t:hL-
NEW MARKET, TN
STP (Siop the Poisoning!) School a1 lhe
Highlander Ccnier. Leum how IO figh1 indu.~trial poll111Jon.
Soc3nl-23.
19-21
21-27
().rd_
a.rd. ch.U.dA.t.n '
Pre-registration, by April 15: $15.00 adult
$10.00 child under 12
After April 15:
$17.00 adult
$12.00 child under 12
.For mon: infonnalion,
write: Snow Bear and Khallsa; Pepperland Farm Camp; Siar Route: Farner. TN 37333
or call: (704) 494-2353 or (704) 586-3146
�vfEBWO~
SEEKING TO JOIN OTHERS m a mlllllally -.upponivc
comml.INly. Singl.c mamn: womon. ll'lis1-1eac.htt can offer
skills: early childhood education. llU, earth llb111:, wri!Jnl
Wn1c Alwyn MosJ., 1007 Turner SL, Blacksburg, V/>
24060: ("10'3) SS2·6331
VAGABOND GUJBETR01TTNG Stale of tlw Art.
Revised Edition., by M.L. Endicoll. One of lhc moll
compRhensivc insuucticm manua!J ror <yro uavelcrt
SUS; Enchlridlon lntemational, Cullowhcc, NC 28723
ASCENSION Beg1111ttr's Mon.uJJ. a self-help boo1t for
auaining lhc touchable ruii1y of lhc ASCENDEO <taic.
usually lhou&ht to be bt!yood Raeh. By Theodore A
lluoody, Ir~ $13.SO pp; &lcctic: Pren, 205 Pigeon SI.
Waynesville. NC 28786.
WlNCS WAY bttbal products. For pnce list. wme: Box
1477; Old Fon. NC 2.876Z
EUSTACE CONWAY- Ou.ide and !Udler of (ll1lnit1ve
£arlh Skills wilh cmphasi.t on rue blll1dln,. hide tanning
she.Iler. and fongilla. He ILachti at public schools, parks
cnvimnmencal oont.en, .and cJuscs ol .all tinds. For tllOl'C
informllion coniact lum II' 602 Deerwood Drive,
Oastonii. NC 28084 or oall Allcln Sianlcy al (704)
872-7972
FUTONS by Simple Pte.uuru affordably priced. Send
SASE for Info io: Sunplc PICU\lrtJ: RL I. Box 1426
Clayton. GA 30S2.S (404) 782·3920.
APPAJ..ACHIAN GINSENG CO.• sua.tified seeds.
PEPPERLAND ofrcn a variety of ouldoor cdu.eation
po,grams for chl.Wdl, school. or cMc gn>Up& ycu· round.
Wo will help you ~pl a pogrom for your group. Send
for infonnwon J*1c.ct to: Pcppcrland Fum Camp; Sw
RoUlA!; Farner, TN 37333.
R£AllERS' REACTIONS AND INSIGHTS wanic.d
i.ganling lhc "consum«" culun we five in, and lhc idea of
"consumaism" u a lifestyle.. Plcue write to Richard
Lowenthal, 53 Greely St.. Asheville, NC 28806 (or call
seedlings. roots. Send for price li51 io: P.O. Box S47
Dillsboro, NC 28725.
M. TR& DESIGNS: UlllSIJlliom and Der;gn • Beyond lhc
p!l&CS of lhis journal, I work DI penal. colored ponril. ink. QI\
paper. md t.lik. F'mc and graphk an to cxircu and cnh...,.,
our livea. Logos, btochuru, boob. ponnl1ure, window and
wall h&ng~. Concct Manha Tree (704) 7S-4-«l97.
STit.·UGHTTHEOSOPHICAl..RETREATCENTER -a
qu1c1 spaeo for JlC'nOnal medilali<m, aniup inc.cractioo
lhrough study, and community .-011<. and spintual
smiinU$, Contact Leon Frankel; Rt. I. Box 326;
Wayncs•ilk. NC 28786
WANTED: LAND 111 WQt.cm NC. Famlly f«b Sor mon:
ICtCS. prd"crobly near Cullowhee. IO pr<S<TVC and evcnlll.ally
inhllbil. U}'OU have or kno..•of afford.&blc l111d, oonlll:t Bob
llld Miry Davis; 213 Wcrunorcland Cc., Ccorgetown. KY
40324 (502) 8634167.
MOON DANCE FARM HERBAl..S · herbal salvC$,
tinc1111cs. & oil• for b1nh111g a: family health. For
bcochure, pt.,,.e wrii.:: Moon Dance Farm; Re. I. Box
726; Harnpcon. TN 37658
FREE t..ABOR • I would like ID learn about beekeeping and
building New Ag< Housing Willing to wo1'k for free during
summer. All I ask b a pl- for my tcnl and .., occasional
muL Con11e1 ClvU Irwin; 1712 Whhc /we.; Knoxville:. TN
37916 (6lS) 673-0653.
BUCITT RESISTANT CHESUIUT ·hybrid
AmcricanlCluncS 0wman c:hcstnut treea • blight rcsisW\I
timl>C!r pc>wth form. productive orchard crop wilh luge.
sweet CQily·pcc\ed nuu. Cbutnut Hill l'luncry; RL I, Bo>.
34 l·K: Aadiua, FL 3261.S (904) 462·2820
ORGANTC FERTIUZERS. belts, and arganically-groMI.
local produce 11 the> WNC Pannen' Marked Look for the
FaiJglcn Fanns slllll. units F and 0 in lhc wholesale 1tU of'
lhc F.umcn' Matkrl; 570 BteVud Rd.; Asheville, NC ("104
252-4414
Trudeau Dr.; Mc.Wrc, LA 70003.
CENTEJl FOR AWA.KENlNC scck:ing 2 full-time, live.in
volunlccn w/ main1cnance and/or n11ural food prep
eitpericnce. RmManl. Wri1e; Human Services Allianoc
Bo• IS42; WinSIOn.Salcm. NC 27102 (919) 761-874S.
APPROPRIATE PASSIVE SOLAR des1111. blueprints
and full wor.king dnwings for homes, shopt. and sheds
Cr.,•llve dr1fling .....yow- ideas or ours. Harmony
Sunbuildets; P.O. Bo• 194; Suiv Grove. NC 28697
SONGS OF LOVE ANO NATURE by Ron Lambe
fcawring the voice of Hearuingcr wilh Slcphen Klein,
Pi&no. Lavaul<r Lieder Records; R1 I, Box I JS;
Bakcnvillc, NC 28705. (704) 6884791.
B~c I01J.r111!1 inlo o f«alm of Evolution.ary lodvt:llllD'e
by Pauick Clerk. A inu: -=ounl of a bicycle tnp from
NATURAL FOOD SlORF. for ulc in Brevard, NC.
E•ccllcnt IOCllion. $80,000 CJOS1 sales. Growlh poienti&I
Owncn n10ving. mus1 p•U ii on. Call IDiubcth (704)
293·9534 evcnin&J.
ORCANlC FOOD PRODUCING CO-OP
land.
aqwprncnl, apcrienced fannen provided for members The
Bioclomc Pannet~lup; Rt. 2. Sox 184; Waynesville.. NC
28786. (704) 926-935$.
ECO HELP NEEDED Long 8r111Ch Envlfonmcn1al
Education Ccrue:r D«dJ volwileetlN!ICnlS 10 help "'•lh
orchards, gardens, farmworl. rainbow 1tou1.
cmrgy-efficimc bllild1ng. cnvimnmmtal/wildlifc/pmn1·
cul11m issues and organizing. Room and boatd negntiable.
Paul Calllmoce; l.BF.EC; RL 2. Box 132; ~icc.icr, NC
28748
YOU CAN CO HOME AGAIN· A Down To &rth
JOURNEY INTO THE SLICK.ROCK Wildcmcu Atca
Boys. falhu-son. falher-daughter cxpcdttJoN. Learn
ob<•rvttion and woodcraft in lhe deep woods. Bun
~gay, upericnced guide Slicktock ElpeditionJ; Box
1214; Cullowhec. NC .28723.
AMRITA HERBAL PRODUCTS · Comfrey. EucalyplUS
Oii C.olclcn Seal salve. ~mon ar LA•cncler (ICIC ctam. Medo:
wilh natural and c=nlial oih and love. Send for brochure
Rt I. Box 737; Floyd, VA 24091.
HAND.CARVED WOODSPIRITS. ln)"ucal hiking ital~
FINDING OUR "PATH WITH HEART" c.QI be v11al t0
O\lt health Ind ~•lfoxprasion. I offer guidcl<:e lhrou&h
courueling, spimual 111uncmm1. ..1rolog1cal rcadings
WOJbhops, common·llCJUC ftedbt.ell. For more info or an
appoin1mcnl, call Richard Lowenthal , M.A . (704)
2Sl·2526. Sliding scale fcea.
ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITY on bcauuful land~
Cbualccc, NC sr<king r1milirs domring gi:c11tt
c:oopenlicm and self·sufficlen<:y. Based on Jpiricual Ind
ocological valuea. Pcoperty now av11f1ble. Call (404)
77S.S7S4 for info.
Wuhinglon, D.C 10 Ille au1boc's native home of
Cullowbcc, NC. following muah of lhc Bluc Ridge
Parkway. Avai1oblc for $7.95 pose paid from Dandylion
Publicatio111. 47 Pmola. Sc., Ashcvillc NC 28801.
COMMUNION WITH NATifRA • Long proclauncd to be
cclcsual •tan &fOllllding their radiance on Mot.bcr !!viii
flowers ""' the rcvcl11ion of lhc plan!. Come •hllfe in
NATURA'$ sacred play. moyonunUJe facililJtin&. 3931
Hwy 80 S. Toe River, Bunuvillc. NC 28714 ("104}
6~-4806
CARDE.NERS arc ..-UJated t0 v11u our Parad~ Gardens
for insirucuon and inspirauon (!'reel and/or peicmial plan11
sale (cheap). Artisu .re 1nvncd IO c:omtt and c:ru1c 1n tile
gllda> • painUng. drawing. and phDioanplty arc cnMunged
We oho ba,·• • cabin avtJ.IAblc mcxcrumgc for warlcin& in
lhc ganlcn. Mount.m Gardens; 3020 White Oak Creek;
Bunuvillc, NC 28714 (704) 67S·S664.
and wall hAAgmp by SICVc Dunc111 For broch1... plcuc
write Whippoorwill Swctio; llt 4, ~ 981; Manon. NC
28752.
MEDITATION CUSHIONS Crom Carolina M<>mUll
Do.signs. Troditionll ancl mllwblo 1.afus For free bnx:hurc
wrii.e; RL I. Boa 31·8: Hot Spnng1, NC 237<13.
HANDMADE RATTI..ES fot the 'JMlual warrnor or hcal~r
made wilh maic.rial• provadcd by !he animal ltin1dom.
<;:oncact: Jc._ HltnS Bathrict.-; SW Cm.notill AttifilC~
1307 lvcnon St.: Allmta. GA (404) 588-0296
•
INDIAN VAUEY RETREAT· 140 acrci in Blue Ridge
mountains wilh faeilitiea available to rent far group1 or
individual ll!lra!S. dlha 3J.1ided or unstn1C;1Ul1>d. Send for
infom111ion and seasonal c1lo.ndar of h.e aling,
transfl>ITil&live evcnlJ lo: lndu111 Vllllcy Holislic Center
RL 2. Box S8; Willis, VA 24:180
h.Alld TN! Earth Li•ci /lappity Ever After - .caries from
folk lrlditioni all ltOWld the wtidd chosen to help prolt:Ct
all living beings by bringing 111'1 world soc1ecy a few steps
do5Ct to peace and ~l for 1111 fife. Edited by Floar.ing
Eagle Femhcr. $7 .00 ppd. (All profits go IO Clrempacc IJ1A!
!he Pcau Museum.) Order &om: Wages of Peace; 309
704.251 ·2526).
•
MOTHER'S BREATit HERBAL PRODUCTS high
quali1y b"fbal c•"'""· oin1ments, and 011J, lov1n1ly
aa1cd. Send for free brochure 10 Re . 2. Ro• 251. Vllas.
NC2K692
EARTH REACH EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 1cae1Un1
pnmitivc skills 10 children md adulu.. Roben Manin. Jr
and JC&1111C Moo!\!'. RL I, Box 178-A. Fcnum, VA 24088.
BEAUTIFUL EUCIUOE MOCCASINS Custom aitcd to
your f~• AO narural ma1erials. Sof!SOle $2.5/lw<holt
SSO. Send tncm& of your fool to Na1ivc American
FoQ1wcar, 47 Panola St., Alhevillc NC 2.8801; 7~
2:Sl·22.SO
WEBWORK!NO is &cc 5""J •ubmis.1u1cu to:
K01"4Jt J<><1rnal
P.O. Bo• 638
ui=ler.NC
Kall!ah Pro"incc 28743
SprinlJ, 1999
•
�The Kaulah Journal wants to communicate your
thoughts and feelings to the other people in the
bioregional province. Send them to us as leners. poems,
stories. articles. drawings, or photographs, etc. Please
send your comnbutions to us at: Katuah Journal; P. 0.
Box 638; Leicester, NC; Karuah Province 28748.
•
The summer issue of lhc Ka11iah Jo11.rlllll will deal with the
meaning of the word "Pence" as a dynamic process lhal can
replace cxisung SU"Uctures of donunation with vibrant new
relarionships.
Please send us descriptions and contact infonnarion for
individuals and groups in your pan of the province that are doing
lhings that are helping co create peace Ill the world.
We would also Hke to know what is your definition of
pence. We would like to get a collection of the mo.~t interesting and
accurate definitions of that elusive idea.
BACK ISSUES
OF KATUAH AV All.ABLE
$1.50
-··
ISSUE FIFTEEN Sprin& 1987
Coverlets - Woman Porcsler - Susie McMdwl
Midwife . Alternative Conlncqmon •
Bio>CJtualily - 81orcgionalism ~ Women Good Mtdic:inc: MmWdlal Clll~ ,_,
WWJ[fl~-
ISSUE THREE SPRJN(l 1984
Sustain.thlc Agriculture . SunOowas Human
lmpac1 on lhc: Forut - Childrcns' Ed11c111ion
Vct0nlca Nicholu·Woman in Politics Llitlc
tsSUESIXTE:EN-Summerl987
Helen Wauc: Poem: Visions 111 • O~ .
Vision Que,r1 - Fim Flow - ln11ia1ion •
1.umina in lhc Wildemeu • Cherokee
Cllallcngc "Valuing T,_.
People. Mcdlrinc Allies
•
ISSUE FOUR - SUMMER 198'1
W11c1 !>nun Water Quably Kudtu Solar
Ecli~c Ctc:arcuttin& T1out • C.omg IO W111r1
Ram PllmP" • Mic:rohydro - Pocnu: Bennie
l...ec Sinclair, Jim Wrync Mnlcr
ISSUE EIGITTE.EN WUUO' 1987 88
VcmacuIIT Atchiittl\ITC - Dl'c;ams an Wood Q!
Sione - Mount&Jll Home - E.Ulh l!ncrJi.. •
Eanh-S!u:hcrcd Livmg • Mcmbr- Houses
Brush Shchci - Poems· Ot:to«r Du.d • C'oOOd
ModX:.nc: "Sheller"
ISSLF. FIVE - FALL 191!4
llarv1:11 • Old Ways in Chc1ok"" GinKng
Nuclear Waste: • Our Cchic Hcri1•ge
Biorcgionalism: Put. Ptuc:nt. and Fu1ure Jahn Wilnol)' • Healing Dlltkness Politics or
ISSUE NINETEe.N -Sll'Ulg. 19811
Pcrloandra Cltdtn Spring Tonics · Blueberries
WUdOo11>cr O•rdcns Granny Hcrbalis1 •
Flll"'l:r Es.cncea • lho Origin of lhe Animal :
Stoty -Good Malicmo: "Po.. cr" • Be ATroe
Paructp:iliDn
ISSLIE SIX. WTNTER 1984-85
Wini.:r Soi.ti« Eanh Ceremony· H0<scpiu1u;i,
ISSUE TWENTY · S11m1na. 19811
l'reM!rve App.alathilll WildcnlU.J • Hi,ghbnll
of ltoan - Cel<1 Community - L.nd Trun •
Arthur Miqan School • Zoning 'Wuc • ·'"The
Ridgo" - Fanncrs Ind lhe Fann Bill • Cood
Mcdir.:lnc! ''Lind" · Acid Rain · Duke"• Po..,cr
Play Chaoic< Microhydro ProJCCI
Rt\CT Com1111 ol lhc Llshl • Log Clbm
Roo1a- MoUlll&in Apicullurc: Tho Righi Crop
- W11l1am Tayl11< The Fuiun: of lhc: Forc.t
ISSUE SEVEN SPRING 1985
Su.'ll&JA•blc Ec:onomic:J Hot Srrinp - Worlte;
Ownership - The Great &onomy - Self Help
Crccjj1 Union Wiid Turlt.cy - Rcsponslbl•
lnvuting Workitlg in Ilic Web of Lite
JSSUE EIGtrr - SUMMER 1985
Celebra11on: A Way of Life - Kat\Wl 18.000
Ye&l'J Ago • Sacred Sil.Cl - Follc Ans in lhc
School& - Sun Cyc:l~oon Cycle • Powu:
Hilda Downer Chcsolcu Heritage Caw:r •
Who Owns Appaladlhl?
ISSUENTNE- FALL 1985
The
Wal~
Forest - Thi> Tfl'cS Spc:alt •
Milf&llng Foruts • llcme Logging - Stanmg a
Treci Crop Urb&n Trees · l\oom Btc«I - Mylh
Tane
~-
ISSUE Et.EVEN SPRINO 1986
Community Planning - Cities and the:
Biotcgional Vision - Roc:yclmg Community
Gardening- Floyd County, VA - Ouoliol Two Biottgional Views • Nuclear Suj)plema11
FoiU= Oarne.s. Good MtdldM: Visions
Box - The Wake - TI1c Raven Moclcor
Woodslorc and WildwoodJ Wildom Oood
tsSUETWEHTY-ONE · Fall, 1988
Chc:stnu~ A 1~i.1ura.1 Hl11ory • Rostoring w
Cheiulut. ·p~ orl'rcs<!rvation Uld Praise"
Canunuing the Quesl Farella and Wildlife
Chos1ru111 in Regional 011~1
Chcsuuu
Ruoun:u - Hctb Noic - Good Mcdn:mc:
"Changes 10 C<!me" • Rev~ Wkr# le&~Nls
Medicine: The Sweat lodge
ISSUETBN ·WINTER 19l!S-86
Ka1c Rogas • Circles of Slone • lnicmal
Mylhmalcing - Holl•lic: Healing on Trial
Poem$: Sieve Knaulh • My1Juc Pbc:c:s The
Uklona's Talc:
Cry11al Magic -
Li~
ISSUE FOURTEEN - W-mi« 1986.t7
Uoyd Cul Owlc. Boogers and Mwnmcn - All
!SSUETWENTY TWOWin1ct", l9S8-89
Cilobal Wmnaig and Kat4ah .irire This T~ •
Thom.u Deny on "Biorcgsons" - Eanh E.xcrase Ko~ Loy McWluru:r • All Abundance oI
l'..mplincSJ - LETS • Chninicl.. or Flo)'d - o.ry
Wood lnlcrf!ICW The 9.,.., Clan
ISSUE THIRTEEN · Fall 1986
Ccnlcr For Awakening - Elinbc:th Callari A
Clc:n1lc Dca1h • Hosp>CA! Eincsl Morgan
Dealing Crcalivcly with Dcalh Home Bunal
Species Day - Cabin Fcve1 Uni•aaity •
Homelcu !JI Kaiuah • Homcinadc Hos Wiler
S1ovanJtkCf'5 Narrauvc • Good Meche.inc::
lntmpcci.. Conununication
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - ,,
~UA~
QURNAL
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--------
For more info: call Mamie Muller (704) 683-1414
Boie 638; Leicester, NC; KatUah Province 28748
Regular Membership........ $10/yr.
Sponsor........................$20/yr.
Contributor.....................$50/yr.
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Sprl.nq, 1989
ro give
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person for my area
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, Issue 23, Spring 1989
Description
An account of the resource
The twenty-third issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on varied topics such as the ancient ways of the first people groups in Appalachia; "Planet Art;" tulip poplar trees; the Black Swan Center; and environmentally-friendly economics. Authors and artists in this issue include: Kim Sandland, Denise Newbourne, David Morris, Doug Elliott, James Rhea, Jerry Trivette, C.B. Squire, Elizabeth Griffin, Gil Leebrick, Michael Hockaday, Sheli Lodge, Rob Messick, David Wheeler, Dolores LaChapelle, Martha Tree, Laura E. Jackson, and Jackie Taylor. <br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1989
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
Pisgah Village: A Window into Ancient Ways by Kim Sandland.......1<br /><br />Planet Art in Katúah by Denise Newbourne.......5<br /><br />The Green City as Thriving City by David Morris.......8<br /><br />Poplar Appeal by Doug Elliott.......10<br /><br />Clear Sky: A Composite Portrait by James Rhea.......13<br /><br />"A New Earth" by Jerry Trivette.......14<br /><br />College as Community Resource by C. B. Squire.......16<br /><br />Wild Lovely Days: Poems by Elizabeth Griffin | Photographs by Gil Leebrick.......18<br /><br />Natural World News.......20<br /><br />Reviews: Sacred Land Sacred Sex Rapture of the Deep.......23 Stopping the Coming Ice Age.......25<br /><br />Drumming: Letters to Katúah.......26<br /><br />"Sudden Tendrils" a poem by Michael Hockaday.......28<br /><br />Events Calendar.......32<br /><br />Webworking.......34<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, printed by The <em>Waynesville Mountaineer</em> Press
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Cherokee Indians--History
Excavations (Archaeology)--North Carolina, Western
Mixed economy--Appalachian Region, Southern
Poplar--North Carolina, Western
Community development--North Carolina--Swannanoa River Valley
Human ecology in art
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
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<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Appalachian History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Book Reviews
Cherokees
Community
Earth Energies
Ecological Peril
Economic Alternatives
Education
Electric Power Companies
Folklore and Ceremony
Forest History
Forest Issues
Geography
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Katúah
Poems
Politics
Reading Resources
Recycling
Shelter
Turtle Island
Villages
Water Quality
Western North Carolina Alliance
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/0d9900eecbaa84dc53b477e07072e743.pdf
fa0c060dc360f4bcedc42ca0ae593baf
PDF Text
Text
Postage Paid
Bu._M~
Permil 118
LeiceS1er, NC
28748
ISSUE 24 SUMMER 1989
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Dee~LD~~~~r~i~~................................ 3
7...............................s
Life ~~I::rr~~~~
Hiroshima Day 1989 .............................7
Direct Actioo! ....................................... 8
T'AI: PEACE
by Patrick Clark
Planting a Tree of Peace.......................9
Community Building and Peace......... IO
by Richard Lowen1Tial
Peacemakers: A Resource Listing....... 11
Ethnic SurvivaJ. ................................... 14
Black Mountain Pairing Project.. ........ 15
"Battlesong" ........................................ I6
A Poem by Heather Pirrillo
Growing Peace in Cultures................. 18
by Mamie MuJ/er
Review:
The Chalice and the Blade..................20
Natural World News...........................22
P eace. As we cxplon: the meaning of
this word in the Kanlah pro,·ince. we find as
many subjective definition5 as there are people
working to manifest lhem. Yet, is there an
underlying sense that ties together the different
perspectives and the work all these people are
carrying on?
The answer for us came very lute one
night while we wen: gathered to prep3te the
spring issue of the KatUa.h Journal. Someone
by chance called up from the I Ching the
hexagram T'ai, entitled "Peace." The sign was
composed of three yin lines over three yang
lines--illusuating n smte of vibrnnr balancing.
The yin energy, which represent<> the
receptive or yielding quality of nature, is above
the yang, moving downwnrc.1; and the yang
energy, which represents the active or creative
principle. is below the yin, moving upward.
Abovt
IMow
The Receptive Eanh ( K'un)
The Creative. Heaven (Ch'lcn}
A Children's Page...............................25
The ~I reads•
Drumming........................................... 26
"111is hel<agram dcnotc.s ;i urne m nature when
Heaven seems to be on E:lrl.h. Hc:ivc:n has pixed
11sclf bcnCJlh Ille Eanh. and so lhcll' powers unite
Events Calendar..................................28
\Vebworking....................................... 30
in deep h:lrmony. Then ~and blc..~'illlJ;S dc.lecnd
upon :Ill living lhmg&."
In this hexagram. the I Ching emphasius
that peace is not a sunk .st.:ite but r.uher one of
dynnmic balane"C, alway:. changing as conditions
change. Jn the world of nuture and m the world
of the human, everything is in motion. It is in
the midst of this swirling interplay of forces
which create this Life. rhat we begin to feel n
sense of hamiony, of communion, of
rightness...that could be: identified as peace.
When "'e do not cultiv:ue this hannony,
then Life becomes •·our of b:ilancc." Finding
balance and maintaining b.·llancc-, both
personally and culturally, is a process of
continuous exchange. When the exchange is
balanced. simple 1hough it sounds... peace
brings peace.
In this world of diversity :ind disparate
value systems. peace does not depend on "an
absence of con0ic1", but rather on the way we
get through the e-0nnic1. II is 1he embracing of all
the life forces. even those in apparent
opposition.
As we strive to preserve the habitats tha1
maint..'lin life and ro bring about specific political
and economic changes. we come to recognfae
the connec1cdncss of all things. In 1his way, we
produce changes rhat are Sll'Ong and enduring.
People like those listed in the pages of
this issue of Kattwh Journal, nnd many others in
the region, arc an lnspinuion to all of us In tl1eir
ded1ca11on. The way they go about workin~ for
change ii. itself crearing new ways of relating.
And the new rcJ31ionships 1h3t are now
incubating llJ'C the Ir.Isis of a new culture.
Eventually chc insti1u1ions of society, which are
simply renccuons of the basic relationships
escablishcd :1mong ourselves and other living
1hmgs, will be transfonncd.
"May the Spirit so stro11g in the ~hadow and
stmm
Hold fast 10 what is righ1,
A11d S!irt!ly as JOU breaJlre the gentle air of Peace
This ia11d shall shefur in the light of love
Tlzis land sl:all shelter in the light "
Blessed beThe Ednors
(l'w fn>m I CIU11g "'T~
BooJ;. o{CiuJntu.1ranslllle<l sn1et
ClcmwJ by Richard Wilhdm Uld ill1o Engluh bt Cory F.
Ba)'llCJ. Sons l1ria from "l.a:id ol l.i&Jil" ias ro:orded 11) 1~
Ta-vtdtil/Weawrs)
�STAFFTHlS ISSUE:
Scott Bi.rd
Patrick Clark
Andy Half-Baker
Rob Messick
Marnie Muller
Mart.ha Tree
Richard Lowenthnl
David Wheeler
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE:
Susan Adam
Abby Bird
John Creech
WiJI Ashe Bason
Jack Chaney
Jim Houser
Christina Monison
PiCllllte
Rodney Webb
Chip Smilll
Morgan Swann ...and !honks IO Jake ror lnte-nighl brownies
COVER by Martha Tree
INVOCATION from "Meditations with Animals"
by Gerald Hausm:m
PUBLISHED BY: Ka1U1Jlr Joumal
THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BIOREOION
AND MAJOR EASTERN RIVER SYSTEMS
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
PRINTED BY: The Waynesville Mou11raineer Press
EDITORIAL OFFICE THIS ISSUE: Globe Valley
WRITEUS AT:
TELEPHO.'IE:
(704) 683-1414
KarUtiii Jour11al
Box 638
Leicesier, NC
Kaufah Province 28748
Divemty is an imponant clcmcru of biorog101Ul ecology, bolh
lllllUral ond social. In hne w11h I.his principle, lhe Kotuah Journol lrics
io serve a,~ o forum ror lhe discussion or regional issues. Signed anicles
cJtpn:ss only lhe opm1on of the 3uthors and are 001 ncccss:irily lhe
opimoos of lite KotUah Journal editors or sulff.
The lnierrutl Revenue Service h3S declared Ka1uah a non-profil
SOl(c)(3) of lhc lntem:il Revcnu.: Code. AU
contributions 10 Ka1U1Jh ore dcdLICllblc from pcrsont1I income twt.
orgnnl~tion under section
_,
SPIRIT FEATHERS
Death feather of the crow
puts my enemy
to sleep
Crow feather
Crow feather
Life feather of the Jay
makes my mind
awake
Jay feather
Jay feather
Peace feather of the crane
turns my enemy
into me
White crane
White crane
(Creek Indian)
Here in the southern-most heartland of the
Appalachian mountains, the oldest mouni.ain range on
our continent, Turtle Island, a smaU but growing group
has begun to take on a sense of responsibility for the
implications of that geographical and cultural heritage.
This sense of responsibility centers on the concept of
living within the natural scale and balance of universal
systems and principles.
Within this circle we begin by invoking the
Cherokee name" Katuah" as the old/new name for this
area of the mountains and for its journal as well. The
province is indicated by its natural boundaries: the
Roanoke River Valley to the north; the foothills of the
piedmont area to the east; Yona Mountain and the
Georgia hllls to the south; and the Tennessee River
Valley to the west.
The editorial priorities for us are to collect and
disseminate information and energy which pertain
specifically 10 this region, and to foster the awareness
that the land is a living being deserving of our love and
respecL Living in this manner is a way to insure the
sustainability of the biosphere and a lasting place for
ourselves in its continuing evolutionary process.
We seem to have reached the fulcrum point of a
" do or die " situation in terms of a qualicy standard of
life for all living beings on this planet. As a voice for
the caretakers of this sacred land, Katuah, we advocate
a centered approach to the concept of decentralization.
IL is our hope to become a support system for those
accepting the challenge of sustainability and the
creation of harmony and balance in a total sense. here
in this place.
We welcome aU correspondence, criticism,
pertinent information. anicles. artwork, etc. with
hopes that Katliah will grow to serve the best interests
of this region and all its living, breathing members.
-The Editors
Su mmer. J989
�DEEP LISTENING
by David Wheeler
"We cannot make a change. We musr be rhe change
we wish I() create."
- Mohandas K. Gandhi
There occurs occasionally a unification of spiritual belief and
political activism in which the literal applica1ion of a spiritual
principle becomes a potent lever for social change. The resulting
techniques are so powerful that they arc a1 once a tactic for solving
a problem a11d also lhe solution 10 the problem. It might be said tha1
in that situation the means and 1he end are one and the same. But m
ac1uality, when those si1uations occur, there no longer arc
diffcre.ntiated "means" or "ends." There is simply a continually
unfolding process of change.
The mos1 prominent case in modem times is non-violent
direct action as pr.tcticed fim by Mohandas Gandhi in South Africa
and India and then later by Martin Luther King, Jr. on th is
continent. The principles of non-violent direct action have
revolu1ionized the role of social protest in the world 1oday. F.ven as
people pro1est specific instances of injustice, they also set a positive
example of how to resolve social conflicts and raise a posi1ive
spiri1ual consciousness a1 1he same time.
Today ano1her method known as "deep listening," is
curren1ly being developed even as it is being applied. It, 100, will
also be noted as one of those powerful unities of spiritual and social
practice.
Herb Walters is a founder and presently a s1aff worker with
Rural Southern Voice for Peace (RSVP), a small group of
dedicated activists promo1ing peace issues throughout the southeast
from a base in the Celo Community on the Soulh Toe River near
Burnsville, Nonh Carolina. From his experience as a counselor of
disturbed and delinquent adolescents, as a member of the Society
of Friends (Quakers), and as an insrructor in the principles of
connict resolution and non-violent direct action, Herb has come 10
realize the power of the Quaker tenet of "listening."
The basic principle of deep listening, as practiced an
"Listening Project!>'' organized by the RSVP staff, is simple in the
extreme: it is listening - without opposition or judgement - to the
emotions, wishes, and fears of ordinary people living in ordinary
communities. Ye1 the simple act of listening holds great potential
for organizing political movements for social change,
Listening Projects are often held in communities which a.re
facing a crisis situation or divided by a controversial issue.
''Listening Projects are basically a process for geuing activists 01Jt
into a community," says l lcrb. On a political level there arc two
reasons for getting organizers into neighborhood~. One is tha1 an
order for a movemcn1 to expand its base, i1 must reach out to ney.
segments of the population - people who mtty fed hopeless or
powerless 10 bring about change or people \\hO may be ovenly
hostile 10 ch:inge.
Listening Project volunteers go to the homes. of people in a
target community and approach them dircclly about ll1cir concerns
on issues as 1hey are felt wilhin that community. The volumeers
often find that If they are successful in drawing people out, they are
breaking new ground in exploring feelings about issues thnt the
people themselves may never have examined before. Responses
vary from door lo door. Sometimes people fall into the standarJ
modes of thinking. But in many cases. by examining their true
feelings about maucrs they had never considered deeply before.
people find themselves identifying or accepting entirely new
uppro:iches to old problems.
The second reason for getting organizers into neighborhood~
1s the basic organizing principle, "start where people are at." Pa!it
experience has shown that if organizers go into neighborhoods with
the mtenl lo conven residents to preconceived ideas on issues.
however log1c:tll)' devastanng these arguments might be, they meet
with limited success. The Listening Projc:GIS are based on the
wisdom that if activi~ts are willing to listen to the people, the people
themselves will tell about how the larger issues directly affect their
lives.
Often people respond to the issues in a more immediate
manner than acuvists' in1ellee1ual formulations. A Lis1ening Project
in St. Mary's, Georgia found that local rc-~idents fell the presence
of an atomic submarine base as an abridgement of their fishing
rights. Another Project with the Shenandoah Peace Co:iJuion in
Virginia found that people's pnmary C-Oncem was the lack or yoULh
activities or programs, which related to problems with drug./alcohol
abuse and vandalism. By responding to this concern. the Coalition
is ov~oming the isol:ition that many peace groups feel from their
communities as well as pointing out the social effects of excessive
military spending.
But tnere 1s aJw a third and more profound rctlSOn for going
into 11 community and becoming involved with local people's
concerns· deep lis1ening is a powerful tool 10 bre:ik down
stereotypes - on both sides of 11 conversation - and to thereby
overcome polarization.
Herb states that, 'The fact 1s that a 101 of people out there in
mainstream America don't join the pe:tcc movement because they
don't trust us. They sec the peace movement in terms of
stereotypes. A part of the listening process is to overcome that
barrier by letting people's common humanity come through and
finding a common understanding. Oftcn a real truth does arise, and
we lind that people do care. They re-.iJly care; they ju~t don't know
what rodo."
But people in the cuhural mainstream arc not the only ones
who arc limited by n:mow thinking. "Acrivbt~ in the peace
mO\'emcm have a 101 or fears and sterco1ype:; of the \'cry people
the>: arc trying to rench," says Herb. "At 1he same time a.~ they are
talking about 'outreach,' movemcnt people distance themselves
from the majority of the population by working in the safety of their
own liule groups and using the media to convey their rn¢ssage.
"I see listening as direct action, because through 1he
Listening Projects we go right 10 1he people. they don'! like )'OU
and what you are doing. that's all the more reason to go right to
them. That's non-violence: go right IO the people who are against
you and find out why. Find wh:u you can do to change the
pol:uiz:llion thac's happening, instead of always keeping your
disl:Illce from !hose people."
rr
In a Listening Project. organiz.ers :ire first trnined in a specittl
session with a RSVP staff person in "111.:h they draw up a survey
questionnaire. learn communication skills with which 10 approach
{con1mued on peg~ 4)
Su.mnu:r, 1989
Drawmg by Rob Mc.ssicl;
>C.'1tiwf1 Journal p119e lS
�peop e, and le.am Lhe crucfal djffercnce bet ween ordin:iry and
''deer u listening.
"Normally," says Herb, "when another person 1s speaking,
we .ire thinking of ways to put our own point across. Deep
listenmg calls on us to let go of our own egos for awhile. We
suspehd judgement. We try to become that other person so that we
can really understand their fears and hopes. We listen, and we
accept the fact thut they are different, that they have different ideas.
and we concentrate our attention on their esscmial humanirv, that
p:in of us that we all share."
·
This is called "seeing the light in the other person" in the
Friends' way of speaking. II creates its own kind of magic.
Opposition dissolves without opposition to foed on, and people at
first hostile or indifferent often feel encouraged to open to deep
feelings and emotion~. A relationship of l111St is begun that can
cross the b:irriers of stereotype and polarization. Differences are
"starting points" and come to be seen as interesting pcrspecuves on
shared problems and common simations.
"lnilinlly there 1s mistrust or some retuctance," says Herb.
"but when the person realizes that the volunteer isn't there to
conven them or to judge them, they begin to say what they acrunlly
think. Wha1 often develops is a relationship of openness and trust,
:ind the person speaking often opens to change in a way that they
never have before.
"They feel safe. They might talk about their fears. They
might say, 'We need mon: nucle:ir weapons.' But instead of giving
a reaction. the volunteer ju.st says, 'Why do you feel that'?' and
really listens to them and draws them into talking about their deeper
feelings.
"Listeners often find themselves in the position of being
facilitators for an internally motivated conversion, as the person
they are talking with begins to think about questions like the nuclear
arms race or the local bomb plant on an emotional level. In the
course of one conversation real change can happen in people \.\ho
would never have gone to a peace group meeting. it's a fascinating
process."
Groups contemplating undenaking a Listening Project art
warned that they must be willing t0 make a long-term commitment
to the community they are about to enter. Experience has taught the
RSVP staff that a Listening Project evokes a mong and often
unexpected response. People are "hungry to be listened to," as
Herb says. and, although volunteers may start out expecting
rejection, interviews more often than not end up with the resident
saying, "Do you reaUy have 10 go? Can't you stay just a little
longer?"
Many people feel hopeless and powerless. They have a sense
that they are being manipulated a.nd swept along by forces far
beyond their ability to controL They often feel that wishing for
change is only causing themselves needless pain. Having someone
actually want to hear what they have to say is an empowering
experience. h is an offer of hope. It makes them feel that perhaps it
is wonhwhile to do away with the psychic numbing in which they
taken refuge. But if visitors offer that hope during a visit and then
never return again, lhe result is detrimental, and people could be left
in a position worse than their original condition.
A group muSt be prepared to offer avenues for action that fit
the concerns and abilities of the people of lhe community. It may be
~legislative network thnt contacts elected reprcsenl!ltives on specific
lSS~es. It migh~ be a church meeting or a fund-raising project. The
ob;ect of entenng a community and taking the time to listen is to
rea~h_people so they might find 1heir power and take leadership.
This 1~ a long process and requires a corresponding degree of
commument, but it offers its own rewards for activists willing to
muster the patience to see it through.
Drawing by C"'la YllOlll'll' f,f1llsaps. I /111 1rtu1~. Smi,Ley .\11.11V11a1n llltlt School
Ollr) In thL lad.son COMnI) P~~ /llttwork's /(}/Jr! · ~·1swn of Pcau" conu.rt
/J/I
In our society, contr0ver:.ies arc customarily settled by
deb:ue. One side is suppo~d to overcome the other with the weight
of logic. The format is argument, and the focu:. is on differences how "we'~" right and "they're" wrong. In deep listening the
interviewers focus tirst on the common ground. the opinions upon
which they R$fee wnh the person with whom the)' are talking. In
Lisfening Pro;cct training se_,sions it is said:
"You may disngree with ninety percent of" hat a person h
telling )OU . If so, focus on the :ucas of agreement first. Build a
relationship of rrust: then you can look a1 the differences."
.
In deep listening. disagreements have a place, but tha1 p13ce
1s way do""n the scale from the primary position they custom:uily
hold in political discourse, and lhey are never allowed to dim the
vision of "the light within."
What could be gender than the companionable acr of
listening? Yet practittoners have found it to be a technique of grear
power with far-reaching social effects. The source of that power
lies in going beyond the ego and getting down to lh:u place where
lhings change.
. O~e experience invol~ed lhe Piedmont Peace Project (PPP).
a. b1-r~c1al g_rou~ of lo~-rncome people, which undenook a
L1stemng Project Ill the mill town of Kannapolis. Nonh Carolina to
broaden community participation in their program. lmerviewers
!'Cwmed with a.wealth of infonnauon about the concerns of people
!n the communny and how to express these concerns as organizing
issues.
Members of the PPP, including a couple int.rocluc:cd to the
group thr~ugh 1hc Listening Project, attended the 1988 convcnuon
of the nauonal SANE/FREEZE organization. SANE/FREEZE was
~.ungry f~r commun~ty ~ontact and welcomed the PPP delegates.
I he low·rnco~e. mrnonty people from Kannapolis brought the
conce~s oftheirc~~unity bi.:fore the policy-making committee of
the na11onal organ_1zauon and helped influence SANE/FREEZE to
stre_ss the conn~cuon between military spending and human needs
dunng the conung year.
.. Bui _for this group the rewards were not all in the realm oi
poh11cal mnuence. The PPP hai; found that deep listening
empowers member:; of< 1hc g~oup as well a:; the people of the
~ommumty. ~e L1liten10g Pro;eet offered a ~cn~c of involvement
m the ~~1unHy. that PPP member:; felt h:id been lacking.
.
.. It exc111?.g and P.<>wcrrut to ~ircc1ly experience ~eople's
lives, says Herb. ~s a Lllitemng Project volunteer. you will meet
people for the ~JI'St umc who will open their lives to you in a way
some of your fryends never have. Tiu:se community people will calk
ro you about things that will move you and touch you deeply."
:s
(C()lltinued on p:ige 24)
Summer, 1989
�LIFE IR I TOIIC CITY
wrirten and compiled b!J Juclith I la/le >Ck
The city of Oak Ridge is located in eastern Tennessee.
near 1he regional hub of Knox\'ille. Its two primary
industries are nuclear technologies research and m(lnufacturing
components for nuclear warheads, which are carried out on the
government-owned Oak Ridge Reservation. Over 15,000 people
work on the 37,000-acre site, which is man1gcd for the Depanmen1
of Energy (DOE) by Martin Manetta Energy Systems, lnc. The
ciry's location in the heart of TV A's electrical power empire and its
proximiry Lo 1-40, a major east-west expressway, make Oak Ridge
well-suited for its role in the nationwide US nuclear weapon!>
complex. An estimated 680,000 people live within a 50-mile radius
of the nuclear producuon facilities at Oak Ridge.
The Oak Ridge Reservation is located in an area of rolling
hills in the Clinch River drainage system of !he Tennessee River
basin. All the sireams in the reservation flow into the Clinch River,
which joins the Tennessee 23 miles downsiream.
Oak Ridge is an integral pan of the national nuclear weapons
complex which is controlled by the Depatunent of Energy. The
Oak Ridge Operations (ORO) office of the DOE oversees a uranium
production empire that includes the Oak Ridge Reservation and
oi.her nuclear facilities in the midwest.
There ore three primary weapons production facilities at Oak
Ridge:
The Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Component Plant fashions the
internal componems of H-bombs and plays a pan in the production
of every major nuclear weapon in the US arsenal.
The sprawling Oak Ridge N:uional Laboratory specializes in
energy research, pnnicularly with nuclear technologies, and in the
production of radioisotopes for commercial sule.
The Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plunt hjs been on
standby since 1985 because of a decreased demand for enriched
uranium. The plnm currently serves as a waste dump for Y-12 and
ORNL.
Approximately half of Y-12's 7,000 employees do
production work, processing, fabricating, and assembling
uranuium and lithium compo111mrs for t/le nation's nuclear
warheads. For example. Y-12 receives deuterium (heavy waJer)
separatedfrom river warer at DOE's Savannah River plam in South
Caroli11a, combines It with lithium and shapes the compound into
tablets thllt are sent co warhead a.{sembly facilitit!$ near Amarillo.
Texas. Y-12 also recycles e11riched uranium cnmponents from
mothballed warheads that have been 10ken apart i11 Texas And it
makes precision equipme111 and weapons-testing components for
DOE weapons labs in California aJUJ New Me:dco.
--Our Own \Vorsi EMmy • p. 111
Secrecy and Control
From us inception nnd in
large pan 10 the present, 0.1k
Ridge, the firs1 atomic city, has
been a "secret city.'' In the name
of n111ional security, its deadly l~l!'4~f;~JA;J-'tll~~:!~
workings have been kept hushed.
This is wha1 drives the "see
nothing. hear nothing, say
nothing" attitude that has allowed
the present· day problems of
nuclear we.ipons proliferation.
cnvironm1:ntal destruction, and
dcterior:iting public health 10
evolv.:.
In early 1943 the residents of
\\'hen l, a small turnu ng
communny 1n enstcm Tenne~scc..
were ~mddenl\ 11prl)otcd,
/Jarl)el! 1111.:.fc11ce and a serle.1 of
scc1mry gates .mung up around
Summc• , 1989
their land. and crude houSinl tlvown wgetlu:r for a di/ferettt ldnd
of conununity. Thllusands of construction workers - their 11umber
1Nenmalty reached 47 .500 - heaved up enormous experimemal
srructures in which tlwusan.ds of scie111i.Hs arul production workers
would make maJerialsfor the first aJomic weapon.s."
-·Old 01rn Wom Ent1rry. p.112
111e nev. community, Oak Ridge, was k.epl under strict
government control. Its citi.rens, under the jurisdiclion of the
Ma.nhauan Projec11 set into motion production of the nation'~ first
atomic bomb. On August 6, 1945, the secrecy was broken when
the "Linle Boy" bomb devastated Hiroshima nnd led to 1he end of
World War ll. The enriched ur-.inium-235 that fueled that honible
explosion was produced at Oak Ridge. 11uec days later, Nagasaki
was dei;troyed by a plutonium-produced bomb, another kind of
nuclear weapon that had been re.~carched at !he O.tk Ridge Lab.
Nearly 200,000 city 1'C$idems died in the two blasts. These bombs
changed the nature of war by changing the technology of weapons.
Humankind now had the capability to destroy the world.
"In 1948 the AEC'sfirst chairman, David Utienrhal, urged
that the atomic (ndustr)' 'enlist a widening area of our economy,•
by sending its roots deep and wide into the same soil that /uls
nourished the auionwti11e and other industrial gianlS, the soil of
competitive private ittdustry."
-OurOwn Worst Enemy. p.116
T he commercialization of the ruom in Oak Ridge came when
Union Carbide was installed as lhe sole contractor. At about the
same time, 1he AEC cook steps that seemingly decreased
governmental control or Ouk Ridge. In 1949, after seven years of
total control, the city was opened 10 the public and passes were no
longer needed to enter. In 1959, residents voled 10 incorporate and
established their own municipal government. This communi1y
autonomy was a farce, however.
In reality, "the institutional changes made Oak Ridge a town
run by two companies--Carbide and tire governme11t- eaclt
bufferi11g the other from various forms of acco1111tabiliry and
e.wctirig a deep measure of comrol "
·--Old Ow11 Wor.rt £ntmy. p.116
Worker safety and health at the Oak Ridge Reservation nlso
fell prey to the policies of secrecy and control. 'T11ey wen: almost
c-0mpletcly neglected in the interest of greater bomb production.
lnjured and exposed workers were examined and treated
exclusively by a special team of radiologists, who kept comple~
control over the employees· medicOLI record!i. Losing coun cases
were prevemed. sometimes with hush money, and only winnable
ones were brought to trial. The AEC both set nnd enforced the
rudiation standards, and kept sccrct unpublicized medical research
on the effects of radiation. In 1956, Carbide and the AEC raised
the plant's allowable limit for
radiation levels on clothing and
h:inds to eight times the
previously existing lmut. This
wus part of an aggressive
111!.:e-back \:ampaign launched
after the Oil. Ch1:micll and
Atomic \Vorkers union local had
advanced
numerous
n.:commcnd.111ons tor safety
improvements.
The fu:.t aucmpt 111 outside
regulation of the cnvironrncnl tit
Oak Ridge was m 1975 when the
l!nv1ronmcnU11 Prorection Agency
(EPA) first gr.mtcd :\ational
Pollution D1sch:ugc Ehmin3tlon
SysL pem11ts to Oak Rtdl:e
cm
facilni es The permits \\t:re
(rommllell on ~gc 6)
00 l'hoco
'Kiltunr, J ournnt pu
5
�Burial Grounds: A Legacy of Hazard
(continued rrom page 5)
diluted by exemptions, however. For example, the pcnnils did 001
monitor mercury, PCBs, and other toxics, or waterborne
radioactive wastes. Still. between 1975 and 1983, Union Carbide
monitors reported 740 violations. The EPA "canied" DOE in spite
of itS non-compliance, and in 1980 renewal pennits were drafted.
Poisoned or Protected?
After World War 11, there was a surge of activity 10 build
H-bombs. From that time to this, the US and USSR have each
produced arsenals of nuclear weapons numbering in the tens of
thousands to "murually deter" each other. Now large areas of both
the Soviet Union and the US are unlivable due to excessive
radioactive contnmination. Cancer monalities are increasing. Money
has been squandered, and local economies have become
bomb-dependent. "National security" has lost its original meaning.
And lhe bomb-1n1cks keep rolling.
The H-bomb project involved the handling and disposal of
huge q11anti1ies of toxic and radioactive materials. When lilh1um
was detected in lhe annosphere after the test explosion of an early
Soviet ;i , imic bomb, research centered around separating the
lithium isotopes. The process finally adopted used massive
amounts of mercury to make electrochemical cells. Oak Ridge's
Y-12 Plant was the site chosen for this activity. In this second
surge of activity :u Oak Ridge, most of the US markelS for mercury
were bought out.
Burial grounds at the Oak Ridge Reservation are shallow
unlined t.renches in 1he eanh holding toxic and radioactive wastes.
They contain everything from "low-level" radioactive waste
(meutls, gloves, clothes, rags, e1c,) to chemicals in drums, solvents
and depleted uranium. Incoming, off-site waste shipments have
been buried with records of their contents inaccurately kept or lost.
Most are covered with earth now, but during waste dumping, they
were left open. Of1en the crenches filled with water during periods
of heavy rainfall.
The contents of some of the burial grounds are classified as
Steret because of the kinds of radioactivity they contain, which
places chem outside of state and federal jurisdiction. All the
dumping are;is were originally sited for accessibility, and scam
attention wos paid 10 I.he geological and hydrological characteristics
of the area. Since the rainfall is 60 inches annually, there is a
shallow water table and an extensive surface water system.
Contamination, i.e. sirontium-90 and uranium, leaks into the water
table in all directions, and is carried by water runoff into streams
during times of henvy precipitation.
'7he leakage from the burial grounds has contaminated not
only nearby rocks and soils, comprising a large surface area, but
has carried a tremendous amo11111 of radionuclides, thereby
conian11naring stream beds a long distance from the si1e.
Considering the length of 1he radioactive half-lives contained in the
waste, it is doubtful 1/Jat the reserva1ion itself or its surrounding
areas can ei·er be returned to a natural s1a1e." -Deadly Dc/t nse. p. 112
"/rt low doses. radiation causes lung, bone and other kinds
of cancer, leukemia. premature aging, birth defects, sterili.Jy, blood
composition challges and caiaracts ofthe eye. Because radiation
ltas the highest impact on growing cells, yowzg children,fe111ses
and embryos are the most readily affected. Radiation can also
cause genetic mura1io11, the complete effect of which will 1101 be
known for gener.a1fons. The likelihood of developing cancer.
disease or generic effecis is related tO the OJ11ow11 received by 1he
tndivid11,a/, lhe rart ofexposure and the rype of rudiarwn. "
Oak Ridge Reservation
Wltn Nearby Towns and Strums
--Deadly 011/tnst. p. L25
Dams and SetUing Ponds: Last Line of Defense?
N
t
1
J
•
'
"' ....
"/Ji the excitement, Y-12 misplaced a huge portion of
mercury. A J9n Union Carbide audit. compiled largely from the
memories ofoperaiing perso1111el, estimated char 2 .4 million pounds
were losr between 1950 and 1972. Of 1hi.f anwunr,Jederal officials
could not accou111 for I .9 million pounds (they speculated that
much of ii lies w1dernea11t rite Y-12 buildings used for lilhiwn
separation): 475,000 pounds wound up i11 one Oak Ridge creek;
and 30,000 pounds were lost through airborne vapors."
--Our Own Worst Enemy, pp.129
Mercury contamination has been just one environmental
problem 1n Oak Ridge. After 46 years of "haste and waste"
production schemes, the extent of environmental destruction has
been shocking.
"With a col/ec1ion of unlined pits, unfiltered stacks, lifeless
streams and a willingness to use the Great Ouuioors as their
filtration system, ORO's waste managers have wagered that
dilution is the pollurum solwio11·-tluu a Jwrde of migrating wastes
will grad11a1/y dissipote their toxic quali1ies as they meatUier around
a11d ojf1he reservaJion."
However, "Former Oak Ridge health physicis1 Karl Z.
Morgan says tlwr ORNL 1estsfow1d radioactive con10mi11an1sfrom
Oak Ridge Reservation 111 river sediment as far away as the
Mississippi River."
-·Ow Own Worst £Mmy, pp. J32, 136
Xau'.ulfi Journat pa9e 6
"The restrvaiion's three major facilities were built virtually
top offour lfibutaries of the Clinch River in order 10 exploit
1hem as sewers. White Oalt. Creek carries ORNL's wasces, Poplar
Creek receives ORGDP's and £as1 Fork Poplar Creek and Bear
Cr1rek carry Y-12 's."
--Ow Own Worst Enemy. p. 133
Ofl
Two of the creeks, White Oak and East Fork Poplar Creeks,
were dammed, according 10 the DOE, 10 create a "last line of
defense to keep ORNL and Y-12 pollumnis from exiting the sites."
These and other small dams "...have a rwo-fold function
fim, the highly contaminated water in streams becomes di/wed in
the large impowzdme11ts created by the dams; second, impounding
the water allows time for radionuclid& UJ bind U) particles and seu/e
otu, thus creating settling ponds. Both functions are supposed 10
serve to lower the total radia1ion co11111 in wasu! streams eman01i11g
from 1he facilities In tliis way 1hefacili1ies try 10 use tire primitive
and inexpensive method of dilulion to reduce the concemrations of
radioactive co11tami111Jtio11 to 1/te level required by lax federal
Standards. Those sra11durds do not limit the total 01n<1111Jt of
polluwnt.f tlw1 could be disposed of each day.
HSe\·eral problems have resu/!edfrom rhis practice ofdil111i11g
waste. First, during heavy rainfall the system fails: the lakes
behind 1he tlams can IW longer act as set1lin11 ponds. their waters
rise a11d become turbulent, and largt amounts of radionuclides
t1W\'e over rite dam and into the Clinch Rfrer. Second. rite beds of
these se11ling ponds, over time, lrave become so filled with
radioacti-.:e sedill'.en1 1ha1 1/ie process of binditig a1ui sc11li11g om
ll'hicli is supposed to occur becomel less possible."
--DeadlyD~feJUe.
p. 107·108
SumttWT, l 989
�Air Releases
For fear of their enemies, humans have unleashed powers
have already caused great destruction and threaten co destroy all
life unless they are curbed. Governments seem blind to the fa't lhat
our greatest enemies are the weapons used to Lhrcaten our human
"enemies."
. Our paranoid fc:ar of o~er ~umans has doomed us to a path
that, 1f we connnue to follow H, will lead to the certain desuucrion
of all life - not in a grand holocaust, but as vicrim to a slow toxic
wasting disease.
'
t~at
A study done by rhe Office of Environmental Audit of the
DOE in 1986 found 1hat, at 1he Y-12 Plant alone, I.here were 233
b!-lildings with 350 s1acks thn1 rekased one or more pollu1ants to thi:
au. Only a few had filtration controls. Eighty-six of the s1acks
e!llined U-23.4, 235 or 238. "Normal operational releases'' of
airborne uranium had come to 12,870 pounds during Lhe plant's
history. Accidents and spills at the Y-12 plant have released
unknown quantities of uranium.
"EPA Sraiistics show tlUll the Oak. Ridgt Reservation and the
Fernald Peed Marerials Producrio11 Ce111er lead all DOE facilities in
rel~asiflg radioactive particles 10 the atmosphere Oak. Ridge area
resulenrs are exposed ro airborne radio11uclides measuring 50
mremfyear 10 the lungs and 8 mremslyear to the bone--jive times
gremer than a proposed EPA limit.''
-OivOwn
1Vors1E~emy,p.137-138
A new i.tlcinerator, slated to go on-line in the summer of
1_989, will increase the risk of air pollution. This incinerator,
ltcensed by the EPA. will bum radioactively contaminated PCB's.
Another incinerator in the Oak Ridge area has also been licensed to
bum low-level radioactive waste. (sec KattJalt Joivnal, Issue 23)
"Incineration releases radionuclides such as tritium,
carbon-14, and iodine inro tlte air, and can also create the potent
car~inoge11 dioxin.This radioactivity is carried by prevailing winds
wl11ch blow northeast and southwest along 1he valley without
crossing the ridges."
-Deadly Defense.pp. 115.74
For 1he r.akc of evcry1hing I.hat lives we must resist this
destructive impulse in ourselves and stop our slow slide into
oblivion by stopping the production of all nuclear weapons now.
References:
Our
01t111
Worst Enemy. The lmp()CI of Military Production 011 the
Up~r
Sow/I • wriucn by Tom Schlesinger with John Gnventa and Jullet
Merrifield and published in 1983 by The Highlllnder Research and Educnuon
Center (RL 3, Box 370: New Market, TN 37820).
D11adly Defense: Military Radioactive la!ld/llls - wnuen by Marvin
Resnikoff. Lisa FiM.ldl, 11t al.• and published by I.he Radioncuve Waste
Crunp:iign (625 Bro:idway, Scc:ond Floor: New York City, NY 10012)
IF '\'1~ J)()N''I1 S'l'() 1>,
'1111l~lll~ '\'II.1I.1 JJJ~ N<>
ONJ~ 1 1~:.~r<ltllJ~\Jlhis
6
By BriJNJINs FirUtin., Grade Jt,S"'°""JMOW!lmn JllgliSdwol An En1ry 11t w 1989
"\/LnonofPeace" <:onJl!SI spcnwr~dby 1neJOl:UoltCowd1ptauNtrwort
The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace
Alliance (0REPA) and other co-sponsoring
groups are orga.ni~ing the "NEVER AGAIN:
March for Peace and the Environment" action on
Hiroshima Day, August 6. 1989 in Oak Ridge,
TN. You and other individuals and groups rrom
the region and the nation arc invired to aucnd.
This action is seen as a major event in this "Year
of Resistance." People from diverse
backgrounds and understandings will come
together to create a large, compelling turnout,
which will non-violently demonstrate that the
issues surrounding peace and the environment
can no longer be ignored.
The focus of this action is lhc Y-12
Nuclear Weapons Pinnt managed by the United
Stares Department of Energy in Oak Ridge. The
goals of the march and weekend activities arc to
make a statement for:
· the cessation of production and
deployment of nuclear weapons.
- the environmental restoration or the
weapons production facilities, and
• the use of the talents and money now
being wasted in weapons production to be used
for goods and servic.~s which meet human
needs.
March for Peace and the Environment
Hiroshima Day
August 6, 1989, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Oalc RUJgt E11~/ronmental Ptau Alliantt
P.0, Otn llOJ. Kno1CVill6. TN 37901
(615) S7l-2322
Si.unmu, 1989
During the days between Jliroshima Day
3nd Nagasaki Day, a Peace Caravan will
proceed from Oak Ridge to the Sav:inn:ih River
Bomb Plant near Aiken, SC. to Warner Robins,
GA, ending up at the Kings Bay Submarine
Base in Sl. Marys, GA on Augusi 9.
Free camping 1s available Saturday and
Sunday at the peace camp. It is a primitive
camping situation and campers should come
prepared. The camp is 30 minutes east of
Knoxville JUSt minutes off Interstate 40. Please
pre-register for maps and information.
./~
P'
Schedule or Events
Saturday, August 5:
12:()()..6:00 pm· Check-in at Peace Camp
5:00-7:00- Check-in and Potluck Snacks,
Laurel Theater, Knox.ville
7:()().8:00 • Premiere of the ftlm 811.iltling
Bombs. Laurel Theater
8:()().12:00 - Social, music, Laurel Theater
8:30-9:30- Ecumenical cnndlelight vigil at Y-12,
Oak Ridge
10:00-12:00- ''Dan~ Against Destruction•
Sunday, August 6
12:00-3:00 pm · Regisuarion, Alvin K. Bissell
Parle Oak Rid;;e
I:00-4:00 - Non-violence trrumn~
4:00-5:00 - Aflinity groups meeung
3:00-6:00 - Music, speakers, "Uranium: Tm.ii of
Tears"
6:00-6:30 - "NEVER AOAIN: M:irch for Peace
and the Environment• 10 the Y·I 2
gates
6:30-7:00 - Rally nnd non-violent civil
diso~dience
7:00·8:00 - Jail vigil
8:00-9:00 · Community 5h:iring
Monday, August 7
Morning - Peace Caravan depans Oak Ridge
�''Do
by Patrick Clark
The Oak Ridge EnvironmenUl.l and Peace
Alliance (OREPA) began in June, 1988 for the
purpose of organizing a rally at the Y-12
Nuclear Weapons Components Plant in Oak
Ridge, Tennessee. This very successful
non-violent demonstration on Hiroshima Day,
August 6, 1988 saw 170 people march on the
plant to oppose the processes of nuclear
weapons-making. Five people were arrested in
1he first cases of civil disobedience 10 occur in
Oak Ridge, a major clement of the national
weapons production complex.
Since the 1988 Hiroshima Day event
OREPA has continued to be active as well as
producuve in its research. uncovering and
presenting before the public spotlight the
realities of the Y-12 operations and the nuclear
industry t1t Oak Ridge. OREPA participated in
emerging "Green" world vision looks at issues
not as isofaled and separnte, but as co-dependent
nnd interrel:i.1ed. The Bomb, a deadly monster in
itself. produces a trail of devastation from the
mines where the raw uranium is taken from the
ground, along the route by which it is shipped to
the plant, 10 where its by-products are buried or
released into the environmcnL
This process, supposedly vital to national
security, involves mine tailings, highway spills.
accidental releases, and radioactive waste. Is it
in 1he imeres1 of "na1ioual securily" for our
governmem to poison the environment and hllrnl
the local people? Bomb production is causing
this environmental destruction constantly,
whether the final products are detonated or noi.
Oak Ridge is a cenier of highly
concenttated nuclear activity. It is "a disgrace to
Katuah" and "a blight on the countryside," says
Smith. ''What they do at Y-12 is repugnant. The
bombs are produced to kill men, women, and
children. The whole operation is laced with
secrecy, illegitimacy, and intimidation.
Employees are threatened with loss of their jobs
if they discuss what they do. There is noihing
resembling a free exchange of ideas. This runs
counter to the values our country was
founded on and how humans should treat
each other. Thepublicdoesn'thave
access to what's going on there.
The DOE produces a noxious brew
of chemicals that is released into
the surrounding airand
water. Hidden in their
~
fog of secrecy, they
use 'national
~
security' as
justification
for all this."
engages in periodic31 tracking of
nuclear weapons shipmen is) in the
~
foll of 1988 and has testified at
scoping hearings at Oak Ridge.
The group was the guest of lhe US
Dep:mment of Energy on a tour of
the various Oak Ridge facilities. ft hns
also developed a slideshow uboul the
situation at Oak Ridge and actions taken to
correct itThe presentation has been shown
to over 50 church, school, and environmental
ln the arena of nuclear warfare, human rights,
groups.
peace, and environmental issues go hand in
The group has also joined the Miliwy
hand.
Production Network. This is a coalition of
national and local groups concerned with nuclear
OREPA was founded on direct acuon.
weapons production facilities thro1.1ghout the
"Direct action is people raking responsibility for
country. Delegates from the member groups
protection of their offspring and the planet.
meet periodically 10 generate strategies for
Direct action is not letting those in power decide
developing public opposition to the production
wbat is best for us. This involves sincerity,
of miliu'lry weapon.~
dedication, t\lld, at times, risk. Direct action is a
Because of its involvement with the
very powerful personnl sutement of one's
nuclear weapons industry at Oak Ridge, OREPA
values."
has become a fairly credible counterweight to the
Smllh says that bis experience in 1he
government operations there. The group has
Y-12 demonstration was a moving and
become known as a voice: for alternative views
empowering one. It made him realize thnt one
of Oak Ridge.
person can make a difference. "There 1:> no
reason to feel helpless and like you're not being
hurd. Direct action shows you this."
Whal is lhe conne~tion that prompted
Oak Ridge is 45 years of environmental
OREPA to adopt both environmental and peace
debL Heavy me1als, PCB's, and toxic organic
issues in LO its title? According to Steve Smith, a
chcmlcnls have constantly been release-0 into the
founding member of the group. the peace and
surrounding creeks. and rndioactivity is
environmental is:;ues are inseparably linked. The
~tUafi
1ounml Ptl941 8
dispersed into the air. Deadly wastes which even
the government has no1 tabulated have been
buried around the city. P-01luted radioactive
groundwater is carried in10 the creeks during
periods of heavy rainfall .
"Many questions remain,'' says Smith.
"What is the migration of the deep-well
injections. for instance? We're not getting
answers. There are obviously lots of serious
problems there."
OREPA's immediate goal is to curb
weapons production ac Oak Ridge. Uhima1ely
the group is seeking a complete halt to the
production of nuclear weapons and a timely
clean-up of the military mess. This requites
exposing the rationale behind nuclear armament
to the general public.
"Let's stan a debate on what's fueling the
arms race," says Smith. "What are the economic
realities hidden behind the facade of national
security? The money tied up in the rums race is
phenomenal. Part of OREPA's goal involves
funding other work for the people employed
there. Suggestions include research in solar and
other
renewable
energy
alternatives.
as well as clean-up
of the exisung damage.
They are not presently fulfilling
any useful function, anyway.
"The Sovieis are ""illing 10 negotiau::
the people in Europe don't want nuclear
weapons. The US cannot continue to Justify
its arms production within this current world
situation."
The next eight months are important ones
for world peace. Vital decisions arc being made
in Washington which will set the nuclear policy
agenda for the next 50 years. The government
can go 1wo ways according to OREPA: it can
continue 10 build more nuclear weapons for the
fu1ure, or it C3II clean up what it hns done so far.
Whal will decide !his is people getting involved.
How can people get involved? There nre
three main ways:
I) by becoming informed and informing
others;
2) by taking pan in the political process.
Write letters. attend public forums, call your
representatives, demand 1hat our opinions be
hew-d and our money shifted away from nuclear
weapons bujld-up; and
3) be in Oak Ridge on August 5 and 6 for
the 1989 Hiroshima Day March for Peace and
the En\'ironment.
Dr""'"'I "1 F.dJiL l/aJJ, 9111 ~rodL Jtlltk111 a18ht& Ri~ lllgh
School, Gl#nvil~. ftltXtlt Caro/111(J, an ollry '"rite 1989 • Visfo>i
tJf P~~· COflldl •poN<Jritd by w lad.son COIU'oly P~ocr
,,. #
,
NdWtlTt
~
Summo.;r, 1989
�PLANTING A TREE OF PEACE
by David Wheeler
In the spring of 1987, a group of parents
and peace people in White County, Georgia
went to the Superintendent of Schools to ask
thnt some pan of the school curriculum to be
devoted to peace education. They wanted to
balance the unrestricted military recruitment
activities that were being carried out on the high
school campus. l11e superintendent sent lhe idea
on to a committee, declaring that he was a
veteran of the Kore::in War and ''a patriotic
American." Needless to say, the idea was stifled
in 1he bureaucratic framework.
Months latl!r the parents returned with
another proposal. This time they sugges1ed
involvmg the students in a llaudenosaunee
(Iroquois} Indian ceremony called "Planting lhe
Tree of Peace." At the original Tree of Peace
ceremony, the Six Nations {lroquo1s)
Confedcrocy was formed; and pans of the US
Constitution were actually modeled on 1hat
confederacy. The proposed latter-day ceremony
was planned to coincide with the observances of
the bicentennial of the signing of the US
Constitution... ~ well as remind studencs of the
Indian heritage of this land.
Within this historical context, the second
suggestion was accepted, and the group
contacted Jake Swamp, peace chief of the
Iroquois Nacion, who has brought this
ceremony to many places around che world. He
Q£l'CCd tO conduc1 the event.
Weeks or publicity and preparation
preceded the ceremony. School children wrote
invitations to 1heir local and national elected
representatives asking them to auend. A local
journalist helped the children write a press
:innouncement to be released to community
newspapers.
When Jake Sw:1mp ;UTived. he fir:;t spoke
to the eigh1h grade children at their school. He
opened his Ullk by giving 1hanks 10 the spirits 01
all things 1kn live and the Grc;it Sp1ri1 over all,
and told the children that 11 was imponani tel
open C\ery gathering by recognizing the: spirits
of the '' orld.
He nlso spoke to high school soci:il
studies cla~ses and gave a presentation at an
assembly in the elementary school. At 1he
assembly fifth grnde children presented him with
gifis they had made..
When he ~poke to second-graders in their
classroom. some of !he children were frightened
of h.im at first, but Swamp calmed their fo:irs by
telling them of lhe tradition of the peace chief
among his people. He said he never fought, as
that would bctr:iy his trust to his tribe. but r.uhcr
worked to promote peace amoni; his people and
in the world.
The next day, Swamp wen1 wuh his ho~ts
to the S:lutee-Nacoochee Presby1
erian Church
and spoke to the younger children. His message
in the children's sermon was that we should
remember to give thanks for all things. and lhnt
every gathering should open with a prayer of
thanks.
Summer, t 96C}
prophecies that the day will come when the wild
strawberries will rcrnm no more, and all that
will remain for the people will be the leaves of
the plant. It will be lhat way for everythmg.
Swamp said. The day will come when most or
lhe living beings of creation will be gone 10 a
beuer place where none or this pollution and
destruction is happening. Yet, even 1hen, we
must sull give thanks for what remains to us.
Afcer Swamp's presentation, lhe group ai
Sautce placed a white pine tree donated by a
local landscaper into :i large hole, nnd the
children present covered the roots with dirt.
Then four children. representing the four
directions and the four races or the world, tied
four ribbons· red. black, white. and yello\\ - to
1he tree to mingle together in the wind. Other
children came forward and also deconued the
tree with ribbons.
Traditional lndian dancers from the
Cherokee Indian Reservation, led by Richard
Crowe, then performed craditional Cherokee
social dances. A group of women from the local
community presented Jake Swamp wnh ll
beaded bell lhnt they had m.nde depicting the
White Tree of Pence surrounded by a.II the
peoples of the world. The ceremony was
completed with a gigantic pot-luck feas1.
Tree or Pence Socic1y
That afternoon the Tree of Peace
Ceremony was held at the Sautec·Nacoochee
Community Center. Over 100 people attended
the gathering. Elected official~ who Wt.'TC present
were recognized and given a chance to speak.
Girl Scouts paraded around the site carrying the
fings of many nations. symbolic of international
uniry.
When Jake Swamp ~poke, he cold the
story of The Peacenu1ker, who first brouglu
peace. to the constlltltly warring tribes of the St.
Lm~rcncc Rivcr-ca'1em Grc:u Lakes :irc.i nnd
drew them together to form the lroqu<us
Confederacy. In the \\'hite Tree of Peace
ccrcmony, lcgc:nd s:iys that the Pcncc:makcr tore
a t?reat white pine tree from the ground. Ile then
bid Adodarhoh, originally the licrcest of the
tribal W;lf chiefs, to be the fin;1 of the warriors to
thro\\ his weapon!' into the hole which opened
into an underground river and carried them
away. The tree was replaced in the holt:, and
The Peacemaker declared lh:u, "The Y.hi1e roots
of this tree will go out in nil 1hc dirc!Ctions, and
lhe children of filJ 1.hosc present will be able to
gather together under the shade of this Tree of
Pcl::icc for all time to come."
fake Swamp again emphasized the
imponance of giving thanks :ind :.aid that no
matter hov. bad things might seem 10 be, it is
imponant 10 give lh:mks for what we have. Ile
gave as an example the wild strawberry plant,
which is very sacred to th1: lribcs of the
Huudenosaunce. It 1s said among the
Haudenosaunce that thing~ migh1 indeed be bad
now, buc !hey know th;u someday things will be
worse. because it is given in the tribal
The Tree of Peace is thriving in Soulhc:m
Appalachian soil The white pine pl3nted in
Sautee was surrounded with wildflowers, set
around its base the following year. Oo New
Year's Day, 1989. bulbs were planted around
lhe rrce, which bloomed later in the spnng. The
tree is kept mulched and tended by the children
and aduhs of lhc community. It il> ;i focus of
e:1ch year's New Year celebrauons and the
annUjl community fo~1ivals which :in: held at the
cen1er.
Because it wns positi\'c nod nonconfronianonal in ns nature, 1hc Tree ol Peace.:
ceremony softened 1he members of 1he school
bo!l!d They cnme to ~c-e that to 1he loc:il group,
"pence·• meant brillgb.g pc•ople :oge1/1a rnther
than splimng the rommunny apart. l11crcfon:. in
191)9, community members w.:rc allowed to
perform ti peace pl.1y at the sd1ool. T/ie Peace
C/11/d tdls the story ot nn American girl and a
Ru~siun boy who become tricnds and evcnrn:illy
bnng 1hc:1r countric<>' leaders 10ge1ticr to discuss
di~armament (sec: p. 15). The piny was also
presen1cd in a pubhc p¢rfonn:ince. which was
:mended by the whole school board, 1he county
commissioners, and other eh:cted officials. The
play was supponed in pan by local businesses.
It was filmed for TV by the CNN Networl.;, and
the t0\\11 enjoyed the "idesprcad nucntion it
received.
11lc :.pirit of peace has brought changes 10
a small, rur.1.l 1own in Kaniah.
(prepared v.11/i tlic 11.:tp ofJ(}{JJmt Steele)
Rc:.aun:c; r/:( Grwl law of Pc.:JU and TN! Co11.1111ui1on
0/1/11: UrnudS1aus of./tr111:nca. Tr~ ol Pc!ICCSocicty,
c/o Jake Swump. Box 188·C Cook Ro.1!1: Mohawk
Nauon: YUi Hogamburt. NY 13655
�.
Community Building and Peace:
The Vital Connection
A look oJ The Fou11datio11for
Commu11ily E11courageme111
by Richard Lowenthal
Most people, ii questioned, would say that they deeply
desire peace and a sense of community in their lives. Yet, despite
this longing, most people usually have very little idea of how to
creartt pe3Ce and community, and thus end up fceHng stymied and
hopeless about it - which le~ incvitabl y to resignation and
apathy (two of the of1-dei;eribed hallmarks of the 80's). We need
only to look at the course oflhe "peace movement" over the pasr
two dCQndes, 10 sec this discouragement and disempowcrmcnt at
work. Ccnainly, the peace mov.:ment has had an important
impact on many lives and on our social consciousness, but in
some crucial respects the movement has been remarkably
ineffective. ls our -planet really nny more peaceful now thnn it
wns ten or twenty or thiny years ago? ls meani11gful disarmament
(as opposed to the token disnnn:uneot now being righteously
touted by the superpowers) any closer to becoming a reality?
Despite all the efforts of varied peace groups and peace-minded
citizens, we are all still churning out more and more nucle:ir
weapons. every day of every year - and movement toward la..~ting
peace and improved intemationru relations has in most respects
been negligible.
Why is this? Why has lhe peace movement had such
difficulty gaining headway and achieving tangible results? And
why do many people srill dismiss the goal of peace as an
impractical, visionnry dream? For that matter, why is the peace
movement often exactly that· unrealistic and impractical? As we
prepare to enter the last decade of the second millenium, it is vital
thnt we understand these questions and seek to nnswer them - for
the answers we seek may well be crucial to our survival.
Ooc oflhe most positive and provocative approaches to
these questions is that taken by The Foundation for Community
Encouragement (FCE) in Knoxville TN, a non-profit
organiiation based largely on the seminal work of Dr. M. Sc0tt
Peck and his most recent book Tiie Different Drum: Comn11111iry
Making and Peace. The book's introduction begins with a
deceptively simple yet astonishing statemcni: "In and through
community lies the salvation of the world." It is astonishing • and
not at all simple - because the dist.resSing truth is that "most of us
have never had an experience of true community." Thus saying
that community will be our salvation is like crying "to describe the
taste of artichokes to someone who has never eaten one." Until
we can truly experience ond savor the taste. texture, and feeling
of community, there is simply no way to comprehend Dr. ~1.-ck's
opening stntemem. Then four paragraphs into th~ inu-oducuon to
·.
.
.·
.
this amnz.ing book. Dr. Peck very mildly expresses his views
about peacemaking - in the procC£S answering the questions
expressed earlier in this article. His words are wonh quoting 1n
full: "... initially. r thought this book should be entitled
'Peace-Making and Community.' But that would put the can
before the horse, for I fail to see how we Americans will be able
to communicate effectively with the Russians (or any people of
other culrures) when generally we don't even know how to
communicate with the neighbors next door. much less our
neighbor.; on the other side of the tracks. True communication.
like the charity it requires, begins :1t home. Perhaps peacemaking
should start small. I am not suggesting... that we should abandon
global peacemaking cffortS. I am dubious, however. as to how
far we can move toward global corrununity • which is the o111y
way to achieve intemntional peace- until we learn the basic
principles of community in our own individual lives and personal
spheres of influence."
The book goes oo to explore the essence of community,
and the process of community-building through sharing,
vulnerability, communication, and real relationship. Dr. Peck is
careful 10 explain the difference between "pseudo-community"
and the experience of true community, and an understanding of
this differece is crucial to understanding FCE's mission and
philosophy. While community is characterized by openness,
inclusivity, risk-taking, and genuine appreciation of the
differences of personalities and opinions, "pseud~community" is
based on rigid expectations and beliefs, exclusivity, maintaining
an appearance of community, and the squelching of confrontation
and differences. As FCE puts it, ''Through the power of genuine
community, we seek to offer opportunities for people to bridge
differences and reconcile conflicts with authenticity and
integrity.''
In practical tcnns. FCE's focus extends into several
different areas - all, of course, related to the an (or science?) of
community-building. Its primary focus is to share the experience
of community through powerful weekend programs called
Community Building Workshops. The effectiveness of these
workshops is made evident by the fact that in 1988 over 50 were
conducted throughout the United States, just three years after the
first workshop was offered • which happened to be the 011Jy one
presented in 19&5! In 1986. twelve were conducted. and in 1987
lhere were thirty. These weekend workshops are exll'Cmely
cxpericmial in narure, as well as participatory - there is very Httle
intellectunl material presemed, and no lecturing at nil.
This does not mean. however, that intellectual awnrcne:;s is
discounted ·quite the contrary! In fact, one of the strengths of the
workshops is that awareness nnd community grows ouc of
evc:ryone's total experience within the group scning, and not out
of some framework or organiwrion imposed on the group (a.~idc
from some basic ground rules for the weekend). Since there is
very little to grab on LO in order to pigeon-hole or intellectualize
what's happening, and the group leaders are not teaching. or
lecturing, or giving directions (with a few exceptions),
(c:ontinuol cm Ne Z.:J
Drnwing by Rob Messick
Su.mnu:r, 191t9
�Peacemakers
for the Katuah Bioregional Province (a partial listing)
American Friends Service
Committee
Asheville Aikikai
Pc<JCe Program
92 Piedmont Ave. NE
AtlllllUI, GA 30303
(404) 458-0460
939 Riverside Drive
Woodfin. NC 28804
(704) 258-1330
Dan P:ilmcr, lnwuctor
Amnesty Internntioruil
The pltilos()phy of rukido 1s much different from
that of rnt>il f/llJl'tial ans; rather than mttting an Oltachr
head-on, studl:nts of aikido lrrarn first how 10 get ow of
the way. Then we are 1augl11 l10w to capture an Ollachr's
energy and redirect /J, so thr amounJ of tnugy pw fnto
the a111Jck. is returned 10 the aiiacku.
In a1kldo practice an attQ(.ktr is immobl/iud Ira
such a way lhnl, t'Vtn if ht dou11'1 know how to fall, he
is brouglll 10 the ground "'ithDUI bting hurL Tht idea is
lo immobilize him. The purpose of aikido is 10 ruolv~ a
violent conflict without harm 10 one's st.If ar to an
auacktr. Practitioners of aikido do 1101 considtr an
attacking person as an t11emy. An attacker is simply
pr&rcflting us with on opporruniry 111 practice Instead of
ignoring an attadc. we learn ID embrace iJ and use 11 as an
opportunityfor personal spiritual ~w:lop~111.
Tht! most Important thing a/Jou.I nikido i.f Ml
self-defense. but self-control It is necessary IO learn to
control one's own tnergy o.!ld one's own balance before
one can control SOPU!ane. rlsc'J tnergy and balance. Once
on4 lia.r mastend st/f-conlral. con1101/ing someone else
is no1 so dlflicult.
The physi.cal practice of nikido techniqUl!s
enhances Jht: developmMt of the spirit. Bodily
txptrltndng tlu! principles of nikido 111 training, one gets
a btJlt!r feel/or 1he ~truual D$pt:CIS of ti~ practice than a
reading of tlte p/tilosophy could give. Then agam. one
canMtjust practice, <1ne OIJO has 101hinJ.. l1 worlcs both
ways.
· Da11 Palmer
Soul.hem Region
730 Peaclurce (#982)
Atlllll1.3, GA 30308
ConUICt Judi Hom
Appalachian Peace Educalion Center
114 Coun Sll:'CCl
~~\.ACJf1.
Abingdon, Virginia 24210
(703) 628-4366
~~
.
~4-
...,
/.
1g:
~
(')
q:
'."
~0Nc~,~~
The Appalachian Ptact Education Cl!llttr is a
coalition of~Q(;e groups in the southwestern Vlrginin
area as wall as a membership orgallizatio11. Tht! coa/i1io11
i11clu1Us Jhe Sou1liwes1 Peace 1'111e /11 \Vise a11d Lu
counties. Pellplefor a Just Pt(l(;e in IVytltcvillt:, S1wkms
fur Pt(l(;t and Environrrwt1al Concerns 01 Emory and
lltnry College, and the Ctn1raJ America Group.
Beyond War/Peace Tree
RI. 3, Boit 30-E
Clntksvillc, GA 30523
ConW:t: JllllCl Schaller
The Center for Peace
.Re. 11. Boit 369
Scvicrvillo, TN 37862
Central America Resource Group
Box 7411
Asheville, NC 28802
Coalition for Justice
in Central America
Box299
Blacksburg, VA 24063
(703) 951-7953
ConlllCC N:111cy Qcnlhncr, Nik Jones
Cumberland Center for
Justice and Peace
Scwancc, TN 37375
(615) 598-5748
ConUICc John M. Gcssell
Ecumenical Project for Int ernational
Cooperation
734 w Locus1 Sc.
Johnson Ci1y. TN 37C)()J
Ecumenical Peacem:ikers
Bo~66
Swllllllllll03, NC 28778
Fellowship or Rt'cundli:iliun
f'. 0 Bm 2-71
Nyad, NY IO'JC.O
A Ieng t1~ peo.I' or ani:u11< n 11 fuel QJ11(Jn11
0tlv acu,1t1u has pr1Jll'ded sll(lport ond drc:ft CG.w IIille
ID pc.ople conmkring (MS cr.llor::roly t1on.
s .. nunar.
1989
Foundation for Communily
EncouragemenL
7616 Gleason Rd.
Knoxville, TN 37919
(see article page IOJ
J ackson County Peace Network
P.O. Box 1872
Sylva. NC 28779
(704) 293-9230
Conmtt Cynlh13. Gnlltngcr
A VISION OF PEACE
Tht Jackson Coumy Pear:c Nt1work fJCPNJ
brings M.ar.e issues into tht Iota/ .1hcools through the
Vi.tiofl of Peace Con111s1, a y~arfy e»cnt 1ha1 awards caslr
prius for the moJt ~anmp/ul siattmenu on pcllet
1/it1~ by high ~chool 111iJcnu worJUnK in tire. wrmen or
visual arts. Tht contest is hi!ld wrth the pu11UJs1on of
the Board of Edurm1on ulUJ l 'mc-11 of Ptut"c projtCf.f art
uqu1rM rla.u><-ork In some '" ' t:laJJ<'S. Thi! a>nlt.JJ tr a
gerttle. rwn-a>n;ront•ulon:il wav 111 tnCO«T<l,Ef. mulaiJS to
respQ/1d 10 t/w prewng ls1 .. c oj1hc nut;lcm tlvcut, ,,.hJch
t.t a Jiron£ uifl:.u:1m! 011 J"Wll ptoplt"s 1lunJ.mg.ye1 u a
sub;cct tluu lS f11r..:elJ taboo 111 tire /;nots or 1n an
dulfo ut i.1/hadults
In 1987 JC!'N i. f one of11> IDcol orgw: • tans
w #"ft e.vt: 1he NC Go.cr11 1 " " rd for Ouuumding
\ufunr.. Ser.rec Theuwardwusli-tllte1cd1abtdur1n
large nwzsive II) ti.I! su us of w 1 uion of />ca t:
Cc.r.11'..si
• l'ar Mor.• t 11111! Cynllua G ,/11111;tr
Hand$ In Outreach
BoxOne
Pen!Md, North Carolina. 28765
Hands In Outreach is a Yancey Counry-ba..rcd
educational sponsorship progr(llll for "third world"
child.rtn Now in iu sixth ~ar, it is "'"ently
responsible for the tducatian of 68 indfrldJUJJ cllildren
undtr sponsorship and has ht!lped 10 form a rural
wo11~n.s· kniJ1i11g ctn/tr which today has frained !Mre
than 50 formally illittra/e girls. \Villi a membership of
only 140 sponsoi-s. this .rmall and very pusolllll ouirtach
has substantially con1ribu1ed not only 10 r,ons1ruc11ng
rwo uw schools, bw a/$0 rwo complete school llbraries.
Hands In Outreach is l:ome-bostd and is directed by
author Don Willcox andfiber artist Louise Todd Cope.
The Highlander Cenler ~
RL 3, Box 370
New Markel. TN 37820
{615) 933-3443
Con1ac1: John Gavcnw. R~ Din:clllr
Sinu 1932 Tht lllghlandcr Ct!ntcr has s.en'ell us
an tducatialllJl umcrfor 1h11 30uiheas1 on issues such as
civil rig/Its, labor ISS~S. tllt tnvironllft!ll/, 'll'Ol"Ur saftty
and hlalth The Ctnter i.1 noi.•l:o$ling the STP Schools
10 encourage grassroots s1ra1egits 10 counter 1ndu.strial
pollution ond programs 10 help communil)' ITU!m~rs
understand tht local and global pokier srrw:tures that
infl~ue their lives. EMange progranr.r art. being carried
on with groups i11 Indio. NicaragUJJ, Sowh Afrit:a, an.d
other countries around tht! globe.
·John Gavtnta
Ellie Kincade, M.A.
(Conffic1 Management)
21 Hillcnd31c Rd.
Asheville, NC 2880S
(704)1Sl-6St5
"We have so often liMed htroiJm wi1h warfare,
bottling, conq~st, and victl)ry. t/taJ a difftrurt notion of
huoism, OM that allows us 111 su nurturing and
sustaillin1 as ltvoic activiries, is difficult 10 develop. Yet
1his rs whal must ht! doM Wt nud ta vol~ actions Ira
"1hu:h one i~nll/its with, raihtr than opposq, another
bt!1ng or way ofbl!111g The idea of bottling or fiahlU.g is
only one of 1ht: ways of dealing with /tar. Ci!r/llct, alld
difftrtncc. Of1en that which we rtjtct and oppose is tht
w:ry ~rson or position 1l:a1 w.- 11ted lo 111c/ude in our
tn:brau. Acctptance 1s tl:t:' art of making the obstacle tht!
pa1h: thtrefore tmbrace tJ~ tncMy.
Thi~ 1s lht ltrson of thi! rivu guldt, Fact the
dangtr, mow toward 11 ThaJ's where t/r.t: currtn1 u tl:t
stro11ges1, and 111<·i// CJJrry ,vou around tht obstaclr. Uu
II.
Ir: 31k1do, a Jup1mcu numt.il urr , tht tea. hu
turn from your auacJ.trs. Move
rrght in ~r.u 10 rlielfl, See tliz "'vrfdfro"' their po1111 of
M.'Ou/d sm;, '"Blend Ntlltt
ltkntih w1tli 11'.e U.l"IJ and llrqnu:lrlJll;for~d.
Oppcfl(IUS arcl1i:d), ti"nt :tar; u-.crgy A Upl W lift
Tr.at'~ are Mil p:issne. 1ilkcr. fr m ai1:1do./r m
l.t11 11 m 11'.e 11wr 1kty Ja~:nd i:n alcnnts.s an on
abuuy 1 uspond tlllJ1 u co1 :plrtt Our fir I 11ul Is lo
ht Ill' 1 lr:adu
OU( (fi.n lives the /st' t r;j ""'
"'" sto·icJ Ir. /ac.t w au )' art "'" hi:> on! 10
dJsaJ~tT wla.J: tfJPl tr.;'®1
Women m 11"' W1I~ b CJ.w; Ga!l:md
{[rem EJ1k Kinca:dtJ
Xotunh Jo .. uw[
pmii:
t1
�Peacemakers
Peacemakers
Peacemakers
Peace Room
'V Madison County
The World Grune lnstituie
Uruvcrsity City Science Cemcr
3508 Market SlrCct
Phihdclphia. PA 19104
(215) 387-0220
The Peace Room is structured sa tlllll row dmo and
"inretligcnce reports" from all ovu the p/Olltt CD!l bl!
collected. proccssl!d and applkd by its rl!starch staff 10
dl!\list crtoti~ stratl!giesfor solving basic human riud
problems. The rcstarch is 1htn madt a1'Uilablt 10 world
leatkrs and tht general public through rl!SCOfch rqx>rts and
cxpu1tntiJJ/ World Game Workslwps.
90 Mill Ctt.ek Rd.
M:trshall, NC 28753
(704) 656-2280
Contact: Drew Langsncr
Mnrtin Luther King, Jr. Center for
Non-violent Social Change
449 Auburn Ave.
Atlanta, GA 30312
Plowshare Peace Center
Box 1623
Roanoke, VA '24008
(703) 985·0&08
ConlllCl: Pul Prat;ilJ
Plowsharl! Peace Center is on education and
rts0u.rct cemu on issu.ts relating to social ju.slice, peace,
and non·violtnce. Plowshare wa.r ts1ablished by pcoplt
of various rtligiDu.s D!ld philosophical persptctivts who
sh,art a commi1rmi111 10 nonvioltncc as a way of life.
This commitmtnl flows jrom the spiritual Olld ptrU>rral
conviction tho/ active lovt is rht only power by which
evil is overcome O!ld tlu! only suflicic111 /xJs1s for human
society.
Blacksburg Adopts a Sister
Mountain Light Nelwork
RL 1Bo~229
Dillard, GA 30537
(404) 746-2454
COllUICl: M:srinn McCracken
"The Mountain Light Netw0rk. is an intuuional/y
unsuucwrtd asstmbfagt ofgroups D!ld indi>'iduals i111l:e
IYNC and North Gtorgia ana who havt a dup
ct>mmitmenJ to 1ndivuiuaJ and global peace ··
New Providence Peace Committee
70'3 W. BroodWQy
Maryville, TN 37&01
Contacc Jean Myers
North Carolina
Educalion
Peacemakers
Center
for
Peace
214 Piusboro SL.
Chapel HiU, NC 27514
(919} 929-9821
Offering work.shops and courses on education in
w 1111Clear age ond confliCJ resaluiion.
Northeast Georgia Peace Council
Rt. I. Box 319
Baldwin, OA 30511
(404) 778-0579
Com11cc Patsy Gailey
sec
"Wt short a commitment to a peaceful world We
we IJ.lliud in aclcnowltdgmg that Peop~ Evtrywhut Arc
Crta1al Equal (PEACE)."
Peace Links:
Women Against Nuclear War ~~
!:e~~.
Blacksburg, Virginia hos become the 78th US
corntnJJ!lity to join the US.Nicaragua sistu city program.
Tiit link became official on April 11, 1989 l<'licn 1ht
Bladcsbu.rg J'own Council decided (in o 4~3 ''Ole) to odop1
San Jose de Bocuy, Nicau.ragu.a as 1rs s1Jttr Cit) Tlit
srsru city program btrween the US and Nicaragu.a is an
offshoot of Sisur Cities ln1ernatlonal, a program
initiated b)' Prts1de111 Eist!llhower ur 1956 to es1ablish
greater fricndJlup (Jlld u.ndcrst011durg 1Ntwtt11 the people
of the US and other nationJ thl'ough ptrsonal conUJcl ...
Mcmbl!Ts of the Si.tttr City Co1t1111111u (SCCJ
told the Council 1ha1 they hove vizcd to avoid politici:ing
rht issue. But, givim tht current mood of the country,
thi.t 1s very difficult to accompltsh. According 10 Rev
IVoody Lta1:h. Virginia Tech Pre.sb)'ttriOll minister,
fom1er Council member, aJUJ chair of the SCC. "IVhat is
intended 1s for one human contlTlu.nity, Blacksburg. 10
a11emp1 10 build bridges offri.:ndJhip and u.nderstonding
with D!lOther humon cammu.ni1y, San Jose tk Bocay. It is
the hope of 1he Co1M1f1tu thDl the Town Council will
be able 10 htlp the town transcend po/11ical differtnccs
through this project. It is one way 1ha1 we CDfl say 10 tht
children of the town and to 01hu UJwns; We believe thal
hurrta11 beings CIUI work 0111 differtnccs when thtir
go11crT11M111S COllllOI .• '"
Al leas/ two
mambers have already visited
San Jose tk 8ocoy, and childrtn from Margaret Becks
Elementary School in Blacksburg are currently engaged
1n a ptn pal pro;cct with srudt!llJS in Bocay The
Commillte haptS these exchanges wll/ ltod ro regular
tducational and cultural exchanges bttwun the 1wo
conurnuuties~.
• by Mariann Caine
(tu.trpttdfrom the New River Free Press)
~f~·'~
I• Wf •I
NC 28802
(704)684-mo
.~
Contacc Jennie Eblen
Peace Links is a non·projit, non-partisan
orgoniumon commllltd 10 increasing awartncss of and
Cl)nctrn aboUJ the issues of world peace and IN 1hrt!a1 of
llJIClt!llrwor.
Irr Asheville, Peace Links hos1t!d three Soviet
In 1985. promottd o "Kids S~alc Thtir
Pt!DCt" program in 1he public Schools. and sponsored
"Rock 'n Rtgister, • a musical concl!r/ for voltr
rl!gistrotion Far "Peace Day 1989." tht group will
sponsor 1he childrtn's play "PtfJU Child.· (sup. 15)
• )CMit £b{e11
wa~n visitors
Peace Links
• 3509 Kcstetwood Rd.. Knoxville, TN 37918
- Box 566, Mountain Home. TN 37684
• 235 Hamburg Rd., Bake~ville, NC 28730
• 734 W. Locust St., Johnson Ci1y. TN 37604
Credo of /lie Peaceful Traveler
Gr01cfu.1 for the opportu.nily ro travel and to
uptritllct the "l>'Orld and be~ ptau begins w11h
the indlvr'dual, I a/flmt my personal rtspollSlbiliry
and conunitmtlll IO:
• journey wilh Oil opui mind and gelllk heart
.at:ctpt wilh grace and gr01ilud41he diversity I
Coniacc Judy Sheclccl, Hetb W3ltcts
Rural Southern Voice for Peace (RSVP) was
fou.ndi:d 111 198/ in response 10 a m:ed on /ht part of
people w/lo /tit o call 10 worlc for peace and 1us1ict and
against raci.rm. bu.J were i.toloted in snwll. and often
coflSl!rvarive, rural comm11.1U11u scattartd 1hrougl11Jul IN
sowheast.
The group ~gan in a cold ba.s11111tnl room with a
$4f)/) donation and o oorrowtd zypewmu. It has grown
1n10 a well·known and respected regional peace
orga11ila1ion with thru paid staff people, filling an
important niJ:h4 in the spct1rum of social change work. in
the South and providing hope and insp/raJion to
volu.nttcr aciivisrs Md local citizens.
RSVP provides o monthly newsleucr 1ha1
amplifies tlit of1err small, and ~t significant, activities
that local people are organizing in their own
commu.nitics and connects these events within 1/tt
context of change that is beginning at the grassroots in
the rural Sowlt.
In 1984 RSVP began lls Rural Ntrworking a.nd
Training Program in which RSVP staff people visittd
small 1owns and solllhern cilic;r providing training O/ld
suppon for organi:crs. As a result of this program, 12
new group$ have bttn formed and 20 l!Jds1ing groups
h11Vt bun rtvitaliud and Strtnl{thtncd. This wori.
eumplifits 1ht commi1me111 ro commu.n11y organizing
and citizui empowerment tht.u has cl1aracttriud RSVP
tinl:e its inception.
A recent brtak1hrouglt in neighborhood
COmmJJnications is the Ustcning Project idea, which is
bwtg dtvl!foped in procriu by I ltrb Walters ofthe RSVP
staff. (Sec report on page J) RSVP offers training and
conStd101ion for groups who wan/ to initiate Luttning
Projects in their area.
Peace Advocacy Network
8945 Sh:illowford Drive
Knoxville, TN 37923
t/ICOll.ll/Cf
• revere and protect the flQ/uroJ tnvironnt(n/ which
sustains al/ life
• opprcclOl.e all cultures I discover
- respect and tllallk nry hosufor their welcome
• offer my hand ln/rlendslrip (() tvtryon.e I meet
- support rrovtl services 1h.o1 short these views
aJUJ act upon 1ht1r1. by my spirit, words and
actions
• encourage 01htrs to travel tht world ln pttl«.
• from The First Global Confcrcnoc on Tourism:
A Vi1al Force for Peace (October 27, 1988)
x.atl.iah Journat page 12
~ura.f Sou//, cm Uice fo,. Pea.ct
1901 Hannnh Bmnch Rd.
Burnsville, NC 28714
(704) 675-5933
Peace and J ustice Committee
3219 Kingston Pike
Knoxville, TN 37919
Peace TreeJCovenant
Box82
Snu1ec, GA 30571
Peacemaking Committee
Nacoochee PresbylCrian Church
Box 87
Sa111ee, GA 30571
S'4mm4lr, 1989
�,
Peacemakers
~t:'3s
Peacemakers
in the Nuclear A . , g e
Warren Wilson College
Swannanoa, NC 28778
(704) 298-3325
Coniact: Doug Banleu
· options in the Nuclear Age l!XistJ 10 ma/cc
wt:ll·informed uniw!rsity faculty members available OJ
spcakers (free of charge) for well·establisht!d conununlty
groups on topics pertaining to national security • the
arms race, 11urorism.1111ervenJion, t/te economy. etc.
1'he aim of Options is ({) hrlp p~ople learn the
issues and develop .rophistica11'on in analysis of the
complu questions uwolved. It is our belief 1ho1 people
ore ~st ab/t to ll!orn and arrive at their own conclusion
afttr hto.ring a range of opinions on policy choi<:es. The
Options program does not take an advocacy role. The
program strives 10 provide the comprehLnsrvenns.
openMss. and integrity on which any substantive
cducatio!IJJ/ exanunation of the iss11ts depends."
Pax Christi - Virginia Tech
Peacemakers
Soviet-American Video Exchange
for Children
Vagabond Globetrotling:
State of lite Ari
(S.A. V.E. fotCh.ildtcn)
Boll 1838
Cullowbee. NC 28723
(704) 293-9534
Conmcc Howw-d lUll
by Mru'Cus Endicou. A book on conscious iouring,
tMlilnblc from lhc publisher.
S.A.V E wrll coordinate the exchange of
student-produced vidto tapes hl'twecn Russian and
American schools at tl:t! ;unror high fevel Tilt' principal
objective is. of course. 10 foster awareness • awcvencss
that Strips awoy tire fear of the unblown. A11 added bonus
wjff be the St/f·owarene.ss that comu from ezpfaining
one's own situation w others
The undulying intMt of tht pro;rer goes beyond
fX!OCl!. Peace is o gfrcnfor surviwd's sa/ce, but there ts a
more subtle and/ar·rtat:li111g aware11<1ss that may also be
engendered: the consc10u.rntss ofs/:ared space, ofshored
r(J:.fponsibility for the globof tnvironment, When
friendship replaces r1ustrust, 11 is much easier to see that
tire health of the planet a/fem us all.
• /foward /fi/f
Transylvsnians for Peace
Box 451
Brevard. NC28712
(704) 884-1633
Con1$t Connie Nash
Coniacc Cale O'Hare
20/20 Vision
"Encmyof1/1e Week''
"My command!Mnt 10 you is this· love your
enemies. Pray for those who persecme )'OU.• Paz Christi
has a custom of praying for an "Enemy of the Wetk" at
l!acl1 meeting. The custom arises from our desire 10
follow Christ's command to love tvuyoM, evt'n those
who oppose us or hate us. A prayer lealkr chooses a
person. gtoup. or organization that is in some sense an
entnry. The praytr leader explains in what sense that
person. or group ls an entmy. and then leads a Sincere
prayer for tht wt/I-being of that entmy.
• RL I, Box 1037, Sau.tee, GA 30571
(404) 878-3459 Conuicc Joan King
• 20/20 NC I I th Congressional Dis1I1c;t
P.O. Box 5855, Ashevrllc, NC 28813
The 20f20 Project is a national, grassroots
lobbying organ11ation 1ha1 works thro14JJr Ct>ngrtssional
districts. Any cilutn can becor1ll! pclitica/fy involved at
trucial points i1t rk political syntm by paying S20 per
year and taking only 20 minutes per month to wrrre a
letter to a Congression11/ reprtst!nralive about a cho~n
pofitical issue.
Through the 20/ZO Projea people's effortS can be
maximiud. and they can become poliucalfy involved
with very li11/e t!J!ort
· Krtty BoniSkl!
71 Woodbury Rd.
Asheville, NC28804
Contact: John Sicvens
Enchiridion lntcmation:il
Box2589
Cullowhce, NC 28T.l3
Vietnam Vets for Peace
840 Marion Ave. SE
Atlanw. GA 30312
War Resisters' League • Southenst
©l W Chapel IUll SL
Durham, NC 27701
Wnr Tax Counseling
.t15 Kmharine lane
Wood:llOCk, GA 30188
(40-l) 928-8"..52
Conl:ICc Robert R:mdall
Women's International League
ror Pence and Freedom
• 28 Queen Rd.; Cruidlcr, NC 287 I5
203 01cy SL
Blaclc.sburg, VA
(703) 95 I-0032
Peacemaking Task Force of I be
Asheville Presbytery
Peacemakers
Conlllct: Mllry K!ly uutd
• RL 5, Box 694; Franklin. NC 28734
·Rt. I. Box 486; MotglllltOn, GA 30560
Conwc Barbara Newell
Earth Quilts/ Regional Project
Norma Bradley
296 Monlford Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801
(704) 25J· 079 I
"Designed from the elements of the Earth and
crt.ated within the Earth"."Combinlng the traditional an
of quiltmakmg with lqvt of the mountain environment,
Norma Brod/ey, arusrlsculptor, assists school groups and
others in crealing their own CtJmmw11ty 11ar11t S(u/ptJVt
using nntivt materials.
Physicians for Social Responsibility
• 5 Alpine W:iy, Swnnnnnoa, NC 28778
- Box I 15, Moun.run Home, TN 37684
SANE
- Box 11274, Asheville. NC 28804
• 108 N. Blue Ridge Rd .. Black MounlaUI, NC 28711
- 108 Morchc.'ld SL, Morganton. NC 28655
Southern Dharma Retrea t Center
RL I, Box 34-H
Hot Springs, NC 28743
In Sanskrit, the c/aJsical language of l11dia.
dh31'ma is the word for wisdom. /or mtnd tSstnte or
11atural low, It is bl!lit•ed 1/mt greed. hatred, and
ignoranc:e (or our 1nab1/ity to su ourst/1-rs a.~ we really
are) art states of11Und that hinder the growth of wisdom
and undtrstanding, rJnd art the fundamt11tal caures of
hultlilfl sulfcrlnlJ It is also believtd thar through 1h.practret of llU!diwtio11, a focu.rtd a11en11011 , tltest states
may be dmoNtd und replaced with more politr~'I staks,
such as con".passton and /cJndness.
Tiit goal ojthe Southern Dlwnr.a Retu Ctn/tr
.<11
is 10 pro•ide a ,·01nfortub/t 11<11hmng pluct, rtmo•ed
from tht t\·cryd/JJ dwractions of lift, and to crtatt' <Vt
atmospliue of quut r(flect1on where one can nurture a
stnse of~Iler and wu:o1-er till' 1tmhs w11Jiin 11'.e heart.
x.ntuurl Jo ... rnat pa9c 13
1i~ JeconJ anncw/ Peactfest, ~ponsurcd b) PO;( Christi · \'irgiflla 1'ech 011
Su.n.;fuy April 16, 1989, il!lr.ia,,d hwulrtds OJ srwknt.t and /o<al r~.1idr111110 a
brr.rfit conurt cdtbraJrnf /J('a <'. • photn by MariJnn Ca111<'. COW1C$)' of the
.Vt" Rrvtr fru Press
�'.PEACE CWLLD
0 ne of the most familiar peace quotes IS
Gandhi's "If we wish to create a lasting peace.~. we w1U
have t0 begin with the children." This autumn, the
children of the Asheville, NC community will share !heir
own vi~ions for aunining world peace in the mus1caJ
fanwy.Peact Cliild.
The Ptacr Clrild play taltes place m the ycur
2025, when the world is already at peace. I! uses the
device of a s1ory1cllcr to cxpl:un how children helped
bring peace 10 the world. The script and music ha"e
incredible power as the children unfold their wisdom on
life, wur, and peace.
This play which has been produced iniemmion.11ly
since 1981 and is unique in that the author invites t.ach
producer 10 rewrite the ~ript to lit the community. the
ume, and especially the cast of children of their particular
selling. The members of the cast arc involved m
dlscu.~sions on peacemaking throughout all rehearsals and
ate given the chance to have their own ideas put into the
script. The priority is 10 involve community children in
the Peace C/rild process, so that •the central experience or
Peace Cliild comes when the children performing 11 feel
that they themselves are the pc3CC children of the story."
The Peace Child Foundation administers all the
Ptact Child activities. They supply communities with a
Study Gujdc and necessary production support as well as
coordinate national and intern:11ional tours. Peace Child
was the first production to use the •space Bridge"
program, a satelliic link between the US and USSR. Jn
1985 Peace Child toured the world with a special
Soviet-American Ptact Child tour in 1986. For mo.re
information,conuicc
Peace Child Foundation
39n Chain Bridge Road
Fairfax, Virginia 22030
(704) 3854494
The Peace Links' producL is scheduled for
ion
September 30, October 1 (Pence Links' "Pence Dny.
1989") as well as performances for schools. If anyone is
interested in volunteering, in buying advertising in the
production's program, or in general information, please
call Jennie Eblen at (704) 684·5530.
Ethnic Survival
The Frie11dsllip Quill
~rh.: frimdship qwlt is n tradition in this COU/llry
that camt witll 1/u: peopl~ wlio Stllll!d l11ut/rom 01hu
plaC Wt wonted 1 find d luimef or our friendship qui.ft
t!S.
0
in the Sovw Uman in a place somewhat 11/te our own
lrome It 1/V.lkl!s Tnl! glad 10 1hinfc af 1/rL long journey that
our quilt offriendship has had and thaJ 11 hasfound you
The quilt has marry/11n11y and sad and 1111eru1ing
stories. The pa11trn aroUlld 1J:e edges is a traditional oM
ca/ltd 'Flying Gttse'. 1'hey artflying around /ht world ro
brillg us 1oge1htr 111 growing UJ;l}erstanding so that we
con becomt/ri11nds/rom our distant places In this way
we can bring peace to our lands, our children, ourfriends,
and ourselvt:s...
In tht corntrs ofIlle bordl!rs where tht gttst ort
flying art tht phases of the moo11. May sht help us to
renwmber 1 change wil/mgly and gracefully, to become
0
wll/ll is ntctssary to bring our /ropes and visiollSfor
ptoCt to lift.We /rope 1his quilt of/ritmdship has brought f rom
us to you the living thoughts and patltml /ropes with
which it was made. Thalllc you/or receiv111g it and giving
it a lromt 1n your llvt:s.
·from The Book of Quiltmnkers
H
Thmy women and mui wlro are members and friends
o/ tht Ctlo Commu11i1y in 1he South Tot River Valley
crtartd 1ht quilt. ft now li\•es in a school in Klrosta by
the Black Sta. For mort lnforma1ion. con1ac1 Kori Loy
Wildrclcindt; Box 340. Rt. 5: Bur/IS\lille. NC 28714.
Ribbon Around the Earth
crc:ue, on pieces or fabric, images or personal meaning
In 1985, thous:inds of people gathered in
Wash1ng1on, D.C. to lie a RIBBON AROUND THE
PENTAGON on the 40th anniversary of the bombings of
Hiroshima tllld Nagasaki. The Ribbon was compost<! of
27,000 pJCCC:> of fabric on which people from every iiate
and many nauons had placed symbols of "what 1hey
could not think of to be lost forevct" in 1he event of a
nuclear Wllt. S1te1Ching 15 milcs-3/ound the Pentagon.
on to the Whiie House and around the Capitol, the
Ribbon bcc:unc a gentfo remmdet th:u the earth and all 11.s
peoples are vulnerable in this nuclear age.
Since lhc 1985 event. the Ribbon panels have
become pan of local events and have traveled worldwi~
10 be in major displays. "Making ribbons" has Dc:en
adapted as a peacemaking acuviLy in such places ;u Sri
Lanka, Israel. and South Africa to addresS conOict.s m
lhcsc regions.
Today there is a new mission--10 tie a Ribbon
Around The .Earth in 1992. Conunuing in our cffon.' of
~lf.Cll{lrc~sion , we "ill expand our original vision to
representing our concern not ju~t for nuclcar war but
other pressing global issues mcluding hunger, poveny,
human righlS, and the environment. lmagme an
abuncL1nce of colorful ribbons in simultaneous displays
around the world m nauons' cap1Ulls. across borders, 1n
political hotspots, and m ~crt.d pl;ice~
You can begin your own scgmenl showing what
you cannot think of as lost forever. A p;inel of sturdy
cloth, of any color, finished size l8"x36". including a 2·
top:.11tchcd bordct. Embro1Jery, appliquc. bauL., quilting.
knitung, needlepoin t. weaving. paanung. c1c. ~y be
u'itd. Finished scgmcn~ should h:ivc 9" ues or bias wpc
sewn mto each comer so they may be ucd together
C3$ily. On the bad; a piece of "pcllon" mterfoc1ng coultl
be used to write in pen, matkCI"S, or Lyping 11bou1 you and
your Ribbon SC&Jllent
JCcituah Jou1 nu( p«IJC 14
Ribbon Around the £:.anh iti 1992
8SS tv'. ltjfrrso11 St.
M lingron. VA 22205
Elnh bas approxim:uely 5000 ethnolinguistic groups...and only 159 UN members.
M oM of these nations' boundaries were cn:ated
nnd are m:tlnt:i.ined at gunpoint Mo~t of the
world's wars are civil ww-s being waged by
ethnic groups fighting for their cultures' sur.ivitl
against hostile nation states. The prOQ:sS of
colonization has left Africa. Asia and pans of
Latin America in nearly arbiir.uy political pieces.
War is bOLh the cause and I.he result of this
siluation.
How can we revolve our Planet into a
place tha1 honors and fosters diversity?
Educating ourselves about the problem is a good
pince to sl:lrt. We need 10 put pressure on our
eleci<!d representatives to end our military nid to
nations which use these weapons to abuse their
ethnic minorities who rightfully desire their
independence. We can bring our vision of One
Planet peacefully shared by many peoples into a
world m:1de more and more receptive to such
ideas by the realization of the magnitude of our
common problems and the absolute necessity of
our cooperation for survival. We are in need of
a second wave of decolonization. The first
wave saw the breakup only of the European
global empires. The second wave will see the
breakup of the smaller empires which they left
behind. There will be no real peace here until
we see our planet as a whole and end our
wasteful and violent defense of artificial
boundruies.
The Eanh's healing Chris1s is the
ecological disaster we are fast waking up to.
We will have to cooperate to survive. We are
one pl:l.Det. and this simple fact is n million times
more imponant than any demarcations we have
theorized and armjed into being. The age of
nations is ending and a new age beginning.
What good is a Kalishnnkov against I.he
pollution of the Oceans, what good are jet
fighters against the greenhouse effect. We will
cooperate or we will cease to operateentin:lyl It
is stone cold obvious thm the way out of this
mess is by learning 10 look at this world as a
unity instead of as meaningless political
frogmenLS and in pooling our resowces and
intelligence instead of using them to confound
each other. We will survive by becoming more
reasonable, and become more reasonable ns we
survive. The Earth is becoming one
community. We are building a true planetary
culture. This does not mean an end to our ethnic
differences, rather we are building a community
of communities, n culture of cultures in which
we will provide each other wilh a safe pince to
prosper. The EmplTCS have had a vested in1erest
in etimimuing differences but the emerging Earth
community will have an interest in protecting
cultuml diversity as a valuable asset.
,,
-Will Ashe Baso11
Suggcstbi Res<iurcc: Cultural Sur~iviJJ Ml.ig:11jnc. 11
D1vin11y Avenue Cambridge. Ma:.
~huscts 02138
�In 1984 rhe glasnosr ("openness") policy
was as yet unheard of in the Sovic1 Union. But
during that year people from !he small mountain
town of Black Moun1ain on lhe Swannanoa
River in Buncombe County, Nonh Carolina sent
a lecter to another small town, the Sculemenr of
Krasnaya Polyana in the Caucasus Moun tams of
Black Mountain residems made the first
Russia, suggesting the two townships open
exchange visit to Russia. They were wannly
relationships wilh each other to promote peace
received and returned with gifts and good
and goodwill between their two nations.
wishes for the people of lllack Mountain from
Miriam Willey of Black Mountain said,
the people of Krasnaya Polyana. Two more
"We stancd the Pairing Project because we saw
Black Mountain residenLS journeyed to the
that the nuclear arms race depended on our fear
Soviet Union in June of 1987. They returned
of the Sovie1 Union, which was inflamed in the
with a large :,;Iver samovar and four originul
e:irly Reagan years to support the military
pain1ings as gifts for the town.
build-up in 1his country. We thought 1hat the
Then in December of 1987, while Reagan
only way 10 end 1he anns race was 10 get to the
and Gorbachev were holding meeungs in
rooi of that fear, so we began to develop direct
Washington, DC, Chairman Kulii and Elena
coninct with the Russian people. And it has
Filonova, a school-teacher, visired Black
proved successful."
Mountain for five days. The meetings were
The letter from Black Moun1ain to
warm and cordial nod the people of Black
Krasnaya Polyana was one of 1,000 sem from
Mountain had no doubts th:u Chamnan Kuli1
American cities to countcrpnn cities in the Soviet
was most sincere in his "wi,;hes that the
Union under the auspices of the Ground Zero
American and Sovier people would collaboro1e
organization. Black Mountain wac; fortunate in
in friendship."
being one of 65 towns which received a reply
"His deep dedication 10 peace mruches our
from the Soviet Union. The response was an
own, and we see this relationship continuing to
enthusiastic leuerfrom Valentin Kulii, Chauman
flower in furure yeurs," in the word.~ of Miriam
of the Executive Commiuee of the Soviet of
Willey.
Krnsn:iya Polyana, which is comparable 10 the
During the visit Chairman Kulii was
position of mayor. The relationship between the
presented wilh a mou111ain dulcimer and a peace
two towns was officially initiated in November
quilt as gifts for the people of his town. Plt1ns
of 1985 through a letter 10 Chaimmn
Kulii that was signed by tJ1e Mayor, the
Board of Aldemien, and 100 residents
I
of Black Mountain.
"When Reagan :md Gorbachev
were holding their fin.1 summit meeting
in Geneva in 1985, we fell that we were
recapitul:uing :tt the grassroots wha1
was happening there at the national
level," said Miriwn Willey.
More than 50 Black Mountain
residents began the work of exchange
by preparing a packet contajni_ng
photographs and a 22-pagc descnpuon
of their town, leuer.; from high school
slUdents, and a copy of the local
newspaper to send 10 their Russian
sister city.
Throughout 1985-86 the Black
Mountain group held educational
lectures on the life and culture of the
Soviet Union, sponsored a film festival
of Soviet films. and celebrated the
1,000th anniversary of the Russi.an
l'ltcto, top: Am~ricuflJ (left It> flghl) l'otly Cod.v, D1t111t! and Claudell(!
Orthodox Church with a community
Iii/I :.hare u ml!JJJ witli R11.u1(1fl/nr.r.d.r 1n Kra.1na)'a fo/yana
worship service. In 1986 a group of 16
Above W/llu Wt:olh(tford, prts1dtnt of thl' Blad:. /lfoun1a111 l'umng
l'rojcct, (/ef/J muu Chairman \'altlllm Klllii of Kru.~naya 1'11/yana.
were also made to co-sponsor a sisrer cities
friendship calendar, featuring photographs of
Black Mountain and Karasnay:i Polyana and
notations of both Soviet and American holidays.
A 1989 Sister Town Calendar was produced,
and I, 150 copies were sold in this country. The
$3, 150 raised will be used to sponsor future
exchange delegations. A 1990 calendar is
planned, to be produced by the people of
Kmsnayu Polyana in the USSR.
ln September of 1988 n delegauon of
visitors from Black \fountain visited Kmsnaya
Polyana for 1hree days. This was the first time
foreigners had been allowed 10 siay overnight in
the town, as there arc no lntourist hotels there.
Instead they shan:d facilities used for
vacationing military people and found
thcm.o;elvcs around a night bonfire with members
of I.he Soviet Defense Department and their
families.
There are plans for more el(ch:ingc
delegations between Black Mouniain and
Krusnayil Poly:ina. Yuri Filonov, a te.1cher of
Englhh and German. will teach at Warren
Wilson College in rhe neighboring town of
Swannanoa this summ..:r. More lcctun:s
and educational progr.ims have been
held 111 the Black Mountain Libr:iry.
High SC'hool and middle school :.tudc;n~
in Black Mountain are now
<."Om:sponding "'ith their counterparu in
Krasnay:i
Polyana, building
relationships that will extend into I.he
nel(t generation.
Ag:tin, Mmam Willc:y spe.1h for
the J>t!Oplt: of Black Mounlllin: ~we feel
we have overcome the enemy image.
We no"' have a totally different
conception of the Russian pe~1ple 1h:1n
we did before we Marted the project.
We didn't reali7.e "'c'd have so much
fun, and we couldn't h3ve received a
bener reception from I.hem
"The Pairing Project 1s our
statement th:11 we Jive in :in
inu:rdependcnt world, :ind \\C can't
have enemies in a nuclear age. There's
100 much at si.:1kc.
"lt's slow, bur n's very
exciting, because it's working."
~
Da>1dWIW'tla
Summer, 1989
�•
•
''lalua."
"H1nm?"
"Do you know why I brought ;yo1t lzere?"
"Mm-ll!Ylm. Same reason as alwa. s: you have some big, bad
y
1iews to 1ell me."
"Yeah ... Well, db )'OU know what it is, then?"
"I think so. You've been drq/1ed. haven't you?"
"... How'd you know?"
"Easy. Logic. We J1ave11't liad a fight, a11d you've not met
any girls •.J dbri't tlti11k-·so it couldn'1 have been w say that you
want to break up. Your family never figlus, so it couldn't be
domestic problems. And you just got your job, so I didn't really
t/1ink you could have lost it already Anyway, you're nineteen, and
there's a war. \Vluu else could there be?"
"I see. All riglr1. Madan/I! Fortune-Teller, so whm had I
planned to say next, if you're so smart?"
"Mmmm .. I don't know. What?"
"Just this. Laura: I'm going. I'm really going. Arid, l.Altra
... I want you to know. . it's/or you that I'm going. J'd hare
myself ifI didn't go, if I backed out, if I leJ (/()w11 my f<Jmily and
my courury--..as I very easily could, you know. J'm scared of
dying. Bur because ofyou, I ca11't risk hating myself. God!
I.Aura, I'm going to war!''
•
*
sining ml)bile in rhe quiet night hush, rich leaves rustling ow
beyo11d our embrace to caJch the wind-1his is love
a liglu glows from 1/ie parlor. so/1 frosted glass with the
vague shadow ofa pail11ed rose mu1ed 011 tlie lilce curtain
no one sees
kiss me quickly
this is love
the lwing chains have ceased squeaking.
a faraway distant train swells ils terrible /Ul111U)ny--tlie
sadness of le(IVing brings us yet closer w each other, an excuse,
like 1he non-existent chill ofperfiuned sow/tern June 11igh1
to draw a tender breaJh
as one···
a11d we'll do a.u:tthingfor each oilier?
•
f shl)u/d have see11 tlte missiles. the bombs. the um:rdesola1e
co11/1tSion when i looked into those eyes ofyours.
bw i only saw the stars.
•
•
•
(Jrruneas11rable)
--Do you care?
(Doi)
--Can you see?
(Wiry (/() I brood)
·-Anytlli11g wonhwlule?
(About the world's injZLrtices)
Child Why Q1'eslion
Healthy Respect Fot: Metaphysics, Papa
Bui Do You Love Me?
Son Were/ In A BcUll)•sphere Wi1/i Bebe
•
Circu.Jaring
In The Vomit Of Armageddon
Yes
/Do
•
*
i was watching my feet, wa1clii11g the light pass over them an
su11day: the leaves like cookie-cutters split a11d nfracted the light
illlo animal images on the sidewalk aJid on my shoes.
the day was calm, perfectly.
to fall u1 love.
i /liNer imended
i should have seen
tlie ripples in tire s1uuigli1-
bur 110 alas (a lass!) i,
afool, glancing up from 1n)•feet,
tripped
over yow sJw(/()w into the glorious pools of
your eyes,
wo swift to hear your liglu "helloH
or t'Ven to liear my ow11 splash.
i came gasping to the surf as soon as
ace
l could--dripping, rivuletS coursing dbwn my back-bw yow smile sunned me automatically
dry.
•
•
•
•
•• •.• yes. but are you cluvalroLtS? Do you not recognize
your duty to your Lord God and ro llis ~oyal Jligh11£Ss your
appointed Mas1err
"Yes, yes. yes; pleose stop it, Chloe, I want to sleep. dear"
A pause. "Gaah--wai11, do yo11 /01·e mt!? I don 'r think su.
realfr. Gawain, tllere ts a war ou1side our "indow. A war.
Ga\\YJin, t/,.) yo111Uldcrsta11d what I say? Ga11ai11. Please, Gawain,
go fight Jn U! You're fW1 gelling too old, are you. dl:ar heanr
"Chloe. Chloe. Chloe, Cltloe, do I lia~e to suffer to make
you huppy? Jlave you no faith 111 me? Ridiculous woman-gojeed
your peacocks!"
•
--How much?
Wlsen 1 look irr your eyes, i seem)' own reflection.
•
•
•
*
•
•
oops. the shell ofthe earth, it's a li11le cracked, spi1mi11g,
flingi11g hurtling, off-bala11ce-.,get the/at kid off
our ml!fT)"go
·ro1u1d
A1id ill Chicago, at 2:00,
the s1111 setS i11 six mimttes and ti~ buildillgs break aftto
reveal a sub1trb neighborhood benvixt gre1mspring hills
Time lriccough.s
-my black-eyed susan, you are. my sun, my soul. m.y self-··
(tire plw1ie rings.)
111/ien i look into your eyes
(the phone rings.)
when i look--". . a singing telegram/mm a mr. martin 1111/ier kiflg,jr.
will .\'Oil acceprtlte cluuges?" wiry- "we shall 01/er come, we
shaDover
come, we shall over come .•• ~
four niliety-five p/1~ tax.
i love you. susan!
romeo and juliet lli!Ver intended JhiI..
i had a dream once, too, in teclmicolor.
The transient w1frerst•
swells and re1·olves. Stars wing by, rlie Rock of 118tS
and splrere 11msic •.•
hear ii."~ sliall! overcome.
•
•
•
UNICEF is selling cl:ancc:s r/us Christmas 011 o clwi,i:: one
peace or a milliM pieas. A wlwppcr ofan honor. Bl4t ir's lb(>
bad. Thi") 're Mt making any mu11ey offit .•
aml the W1t1e11burghers a1 I! making a mint peddlfng pardnns,
�•
•
*
they are fighting for love.
*
well, my first dJlly is as citize11 of the universe. but what I
wanr to k11ow is, why i'm me and not you ... have i got a special
mission or something? it's weird to think that i'm alt there is. what
if i'm11tst imagi11iflg the whole thi11g? rw. i dbn't really believe
lhaI.. bm, you know, i could think: "i'm the whole u11iverse.'' and
chen, i'd be a citizen of myself.
•
•
it's because he's a truck driver. momma. you know that.
the only tiling i11 che world that could part /Um from that
eighteen-wheeled swee'/iean of his is Iris draft card. if uncle sam
yells for him. he's there, one mad rush to the from line where he
.na11ds,for all the world like a devoted sclwolkid saying 1/ie pledge:
perjealy composed/ace, heels together, hand to forehead in salute.
i ca11 just see Jtim. but if i_calt him. 111>w, if it's ll.llt that's yelf/11g
for him to come save one of his own babies from drowning in t/11!
plastic swimming pool, he says, "you get him out casey, i'm
working 011 the tra11smission." the transmission! my God!
momma, iin tl()t really bitter oranythi11g; i'm 1w1 lotally jealous
of1ha1 gas-guzzling baby ofhis; ; jus1 /01·e him, tnQnuna •••
•
•
•
•
They really love me. They 0011'1 wa11t me to die. U11cle Sam
j11S1 don't carry no weight with me. I c011'11uulersrand why tltis
di.s1an1 relatio11, unknow11 kin, who I never seen before, should all
a s1"1de1t turn up, just when he needs me, and ask me to up and die
for him. When I got family andfrle11ds who loves me more1n him,
who cares about bein' gold-placed in God-thick glory? Thb Uncle
Sam ofmine is askin' 100 nwch. Besides, I love my cou.mry. She
don't need any more murder on her record than she's already got.
•
•
•
~mommv!"
"ah,j11si a minwe. gail.--wlzat jimmy?"
"mommy •
·)-est'
"mommy, wlw ls Godr
"God is love, jimmy. don't pull on monuny's skirt-·!
mommy's on the telepho11e: let's not talk to mommy now, okay,
jinuny? we ca11 talk about this later.-excuse me gait go ahead."
"mommy, where is God?"
"i11 htave11,ji1runy. now go play ouwde 011 your big wheel
for a while."
"mommy; how come God does11't come to the world a11d
give people hugs sometimes, mommy?"
"oh, gall! your kidding me. no! i k11ow you can't just suy
that in a resraura11t.---i don't k11ow,1inu11y. jimmy! look at
mommy wizen she's talking ro you now, i asked )'OU to go
nwside, didn't i, young man?"
•
•
•
God is Love, love is God, God is love •. .
•
•
•
the h11ge11ess of the earth
smothers them
they are caug/11
ben11ee11 the growul
and the infini1e ozone-bl~
b1a their love is deep and great mul hean-crescenooing.
they are
fighting and loving blindly, passionately
(ca11 you see it?)
look imo their love-shot eyes.
just look
•
*
•
wlllll js tlie worrh of this love? they dje like
•
•
•
mes
•
•
romeo and ju/fez never imended JhiI,
i should have
k11ow11 when i went to ba11le for you, dear,
i should ltave k11own,
•
•
*
standing 11p in too-shon sluule
eyes sweatiflg salt--the sky
U>O blazing clean w cry
•
Yet oo they k1ww
how whar when where why they go?
screaming, Jitavillg blood to
rouge the barre11 dust,
•
•
so.
shall i die for you, the11?
shall i die for you?
and kill a thousand
because i love and serve one?
one God, one Belief, one Way, one Cou111ry, one
Mother, 011e Child, one Man. one Woman,
One anw11g miflio11s?
given time. i could team ro love them all.
•
•
•
i should have known, swinuning up from 1Jwse pools that
how easily I could h/1\le drowned there. had you
are your eyes,
asked me 10 pick up
a sword.
a dagger,
a bayonet,
a machine guri,
a bomb
a11d prove my love co you·-·
well. i should liave k11own,
as you knew. didn't you,
a/Id wisely showed me
that somebody's blood could prove nobody's devotion
and thlll w lo\·e t)fll!
is to love all.
is11't that what you mea111?
looking into your eyes.
i see tlU! reflection of the universe,
don't i?
oon't i?
*
•
•
one more time/or the time, J;e steps inside the frame,
Md out again.
and looks back ar d~ impressio11 he has left-·
see tire image ofa yowig soldier
, young sol·
, young
my mother lived i11 hiroslrirM.
•
• )'Oil·
•
•
rlu.• men, the lleros. the womcm. die cowards, thtt cowbays,
tiil' soldiers, a11d the priesL\, the rabbis, a11d the martyrs, the
be11ei;oh111 dictarors, till! politicians, and sumebody'l dog
and the childro1!
Photo by Rob Mc5Sltk
�Reflections On
Growing Peace in Cultures
by Mamie Muller
The universe irself can be turbulent,
tumultuous...so whatever peace is, it needs 10
acknowledge that dimension of re:ility. Binh
and death and dying...:md composting..and
change exist in the universe...so that, too. needs
t0 be included in an imaging of peace. Female
and male exist in cite uaiverse...other spt'cics
exisr...the eanh itSelf wanants our anention...so
peace, if it is possible. needs co acknowledge
and honor all those relations.
And dreams ...cx.ist in this universe ...and
memory...and our interior psychcs ....nnd
love...aml absence of love....Can peace
ace-0mmodate the ranges of all th:it? When I
stretch r.he boundaries of my mind and hean and
each time- say "that, 100"...somehow peace stnys
with me, and so I wonder as to ir.s nature and
origin.
As l d.:lve into my concep1/h1ngu:ige
reservoir, the closest thing tlr.n l can say peace
is---is "to be intcgro.1 with". Being integral with
someone, something, some element... means
that in some way I participate in a .rlwred
existence witl1 I.hem and appreciation of that
shared existence contains in it, for me, I.he
possibility of shared pence.
For peace, though, to be more than just a
personal experience or an event between two
entities, ii is essential 10 look to 1hc scale of the
sodoc11lmral. h is here that our human stories
unfold. Culture, 1 r.hink, is best thought of in its
most hteral. biological scn~--as a medium in
winch to grow something. such :lS bacteria. It
seems that th<: tendency towards culture is
i11here111 in our very make-up. I !ere we are...a
spccies...h:wing grown in communily-fonns for
hundreds of thousands of year.. That occurencc:
was preceded by an even more ancient fom1ing
or single-celled organisms imo mulu-cellcd
ones. We seem to be truly crcnturcs of culture.
Thomas Berry talks nbout trc111sge11etic
mlwral coding, The passing on of "deep
mformation" is an essential aspect of the
function of any culture. Divcr.>ity among
cultures can Ix: ~tounding---language, foods,
color.;, designs. sounds, songs. in~trumc:ms,
dances. ceremony, ::m:hitecture--but the:
fl'arufcrc11ci: of i11fomw1icm---is a comrm)n tr3it
Does, as Thom;1s suggesl'i, our cultural coding
pasi. on infonn:11ion ...i11 as clt:111c111al a 11ay a.r
c/1ro11u15omes do?
Doe~ our consciousness have no active
part to play in the process of evolution?'! Cm
we in fac1 nunun: or crarl imentional cultures
that cnfumcc our panicip:nion in the planct:iry
prt>Cess? Thomas speaks or the universe as
having a psychic dimension...from ib very
inception. Not an ntlditivc nor an extra
ingredient, it is rather. he insi~ts. an elcmcmal
facet of our phy:.i..:al universe. So lei us say th:u
the universe, from the beginning, ha:. been
psychic 10 itself--through itself. Then, the
question becomes: can hununs pltticipatc in this
elemental dimension? Can human culture:;
consciously allow for the recognition,
utilization, and celebration of this full rcnlity?'!
It is at this level that we begin im1uiring
about thC' possibil11ies of peace. The univer:;e
constJnt!y infonns itself. Can we luunm~t be
1nfo1111Cd? h :.cem) that one of the roles of an
organic functional culture is to enhance 1hc
indi\ id11als' ability t~) he.-u· rhc "infonn.11ion" of
the univc.rse.
Our relations amongst ourselves nre
intimately interwoven in U1c fabric of the
universe. Unless we explore and 11ckno~ledgc
!he univcri-e in a// the dimensions in which 11 is
preseming itself to us, we remain isolated and
enelol>ed.. .in~'ap~blc of the exuberance required
for ongoing "re!Juonship"...of any son,
whether human-co-human or human-to-earth.
Western culture's dcufness and myopia
tO\\,ird~ thi:. "inlorm;uion" scern 10 h.we
occum:J b<!cause of it:. limited recognition of the
depth of 1he naturul world*.dcscribing 11 as
nll!re landscape and inanimate treasure uove.
The pos:.ibilily for communicauon... much less
for communion has thus become practically
impos:.ible. Yet ironically 1t is here whc~ a great
deal of cultural healing mus1 take placc....1n the
re:i..lm of hum:1n-eunh relations. Our p:;yches
need t0 reconnect in a one-to-one
correspondence with these deep psychic
inl1uences of the universe and renew a sense of
bondedness with the n:uuml world.
The infomu1tlon or the universe reveals
ltself 111 many \\ ay~ ... but ont of the sirnple)t,
closest ways 1s to listen to one's homcplac.e--to
1hc c:nurc ecological life community in whi~h
onc·s human community b immersed. "Bcmg
integrJl with .. suggests 1hc need to pcrcdve a
sense of the natural scale 01 things so that we
can more appr<1priatcly and fully be able "to be
integrJI w11h" all the varied levels.
In 1enns or ecological sc.1lc, it seems that
human culture can bci.t relate to the natur.tl
world ar. the lc\'el of the regional scale. Going
beyond the neighborhood or covc.. beyon<l the
li:>cal ...one comes to the n:gionnl. It is here: lhnt
Summ1:r, 1989
�one can notice whole ecosystems at v.ork (or :11
play). Watershed, geolo~ic:il form:mon,
similarity in plant nnd unirnal spccles...all these
11.rC best comprehended nt the rcglon:tl
level...\\ hich h3s us distincl though "soft"
n:itur:tl boundaries. A region is wulknble,
know:ible -.nnd in crnfting hulll:l11S)Stems10
interface \\ith the ecological systems, this as the
sc:ile nt \\ hich 11 ts ntikcs the most sense 10 ..be
integr:ll v. ith".
Encouraging nccurntc, full pcrccpuon of
reality is cntical in developing cuhural model111g
~ystems that will funcuon ru.lcqu:ucly. 11lc m:irk
of a :.tiflmg culture, 11 seems, is one in whicl1 the
range of sh:ued perceptions of reality remains
quite restricted; one in which, for exnmplc, the
many ranges of red arc referred to only as "red",
thus ignoring the myriad hues of thlll family of
color. A restrictive culture relegates drcamtime
to the realm of the subordinate and gmnts
nonexistence to ull bUl n mengcr spectrum of
sounds and senses. An nlivc. functioning
organic culture. on the other hand, nurtures
individuals' facuhies of perception and
encourages their scn~c of rootedness in a shared
realiry--both in terms of the human :ind natural
\\Odd.
EncoUt3ging the development of :iccurate
feedback mcch:inisms within I.he infrastruclurc
of a culture is also essential. lf a culture does not
3llow for appropriate fcedb3ck, then 11 W:k of
internal vibrancy occurs...promoting
fossilization of thought P,:tttcms. activi1y, and
environs. Spedfie nurufestations of culture
such as archuecture, roodbuilding, commerce,
food producuon, communications, b:lnking.
govern~ e1c. become highly rigid and unduly
reinforce the status quo.
How can a culture allow for a sense of
fluidity as well as solidi1y? llow C3l1 we come
iogether in community-forms without
domesticating ourselvei; to death .•.ns \\ell ns the
planet? How c;in we, not just individually but in
a socio-cultural sense, a~·knowledge the whole,
rich, diverse range of the dep1hs of the naturJI
world as well :is the human psyche? It seems
the more in 1ouch we arc with our sense of
bondedness to 1he wider Lifo conununity. the
more access we have to resolving thc:.e
questions.
Exchange between humans onJ the
nalural world t.ak~ pince nt evcrv level whether
we acknowledge it or not. Our fuc:uhing in 1111d
our breathing out ••. our intake of food nnd our
rele:isc of wnstcs as \\ell ~ mnny other
fimctions clc:irly icll us 1h:l1 we live In the pl:mct
not on it and we arc a part ofthe dynnrruc
process nOl apan from it. I low c:in we nurture
the growth of cultures \\hose infrasuucturc
designs acknowledge this in1mute ongoing
exchange?
Cultures usu:illy reflect 11 com:munny's
sense of its human hentnge but u is esscnu:d thni
they rcllcc1 a sense ofthctr ecological hcniage :is
well. 11115 mtim: ey of hum:in CXISlCllCC Wlth lhc
n:itUr.J.I world needs 10 be recognized not JUSt on
the biolog1cal, chemical level bu1 on the
psychic/l>pirltunl level us well Our very sense
of personal nnd cultural idemi1y needs to
incorpom1e 1he ccolog1cal l111ncnsion. Only
\\hen we begin to undcr&iand and l'ncour.igc
these "conditions" fur pcncc...cun we come
closer to growin~ pe11cl! 111 c11lturcs...
Summer, 1969
Some concepts to consider for growing peace in cultures...
res~ct for dhe~ty ~UllC:llOO of SJ!CCICS llS w..11
a:s e.uemun:uJOa of ethiue peoples has become :i StVCtC
thrc:u throughout lhc pl;inct. ID add1uon to etbic:al
constderau~. bomoccnuy and d1m1msh~nt ol
m:uufcsuuaos o( hfe llIC 21so blologlc:ally un,.1se. 1be
lolth lllld ~bihty of rmy sy m wh.:tha hum;in Of
ccologd. rest m a gcnumc rcsp:c1 lllld cclclKatmn or
bhluc as u.ell cultural diverS1ty
beyond dominanrr Mmy culturtS lll\e become
c:nucn:bcd m:i • domiruon °'er" JWod J:m 11.' u C'.'ld.."ll:cd
m term, of gender, rllCC. ctlum: hcn1Jgc, species lllld/Of
cge. This dom1n1on pi)Sturc c::iuscs ph)'MC:&I,
psychologlc:ll, sp1.ntu~1. cc-011omic: lllld cnvaronmcntnl
~ufflX':lllOO, A mocc babncc:ll. cqu1ubli: dyn:umC' mo.tel a
n:qu1n:J 1n which mu1uality is 1hc b:is1~ r~1hcr than fol\'e
Of co.:rccmcnL
tuvp,rntion No longer does rul\lieJ 111d1v1du:ihsm or
Da.rw11w111 compc11t1on pro-.Jc tm ulllm:UC mo.let fOI'
suN1val. Cooper:.11on 1111d symbio11~ nrc now being
recognized as csttr4i:il nspccts or our biologknl hcntasc.
Coopc:3lion. CQ-C1.1si.cncc. and conlUcMcsoluuon need w
be 01 the bc3r1 or :a "'br.uu culture. Vclucs iUCh u
cmp:ithy and imporuncc ol ie:im"ork !so need w be
rccbimcd.
11ppropri:ue 'cale Dimensions or sale occur
l!uougbout lbe Jl:l1.Ur.ll 11.-orld Crom die microscopic to die
lllXtOSIX>pic. Sak ~ :also 1111pon;u11 in terms ol hummJ
11ttavity. In f:ict. ii is an csscnlbl dcmcnt tn dcsl,nmg
for qu:il1l)' ol we-.11;hc1bc.r an tmns or technology.
c:cooomks, archi1cc1urc Of 1111y odlct l1lU Emplmlzing
appropri.ale sc::ilc CDCOU1'3btl the shlfl rrom D bi&flly
c:crunhzcd and bicrnrcluail mode IO one lh3.t IUPJIOIU
clivcrsificntioo mid dccenlr.l.liution It also nud,cs us to
rc-cv:Wi:uc the b:lsic :ugumcms ol ccntr.1h1.:111on such o~
ns110113l sccuri1y, cconom1e &t:ibahty tluoush
coloni:llism, homogcncny anJ eullur:il supcr10111y. We
begin to recognize the l!eW to oplorc hum:in 'c:ilc,
\•illage·JJ:llk 1llld rcgion·sc:ile modcls.
ao••crnancc All mhnb11:rn1~ <>f M
communny h:ive nghL~ 11m.J nrc cnu1lc<l 1<1 panlc1p:11c 1n
appropriule
dccision·making lh31 concerns their \HI! lleint
Governance. in particular, is directly uffctlCJ by sct1lc.
We arc n:llcctcd by nruJ reflect our $WTOumhntt. II lhc
boundario:.s 11re defined 1n IOO large 11 l!Qlc, 1hcn It Is
d1ffirult for 1nh:lbi1.'.lll1S to ~nsc: thr.mselvo n.s a p:ut of
and p:uucip:uang an 11 self.governing process
lktcrnlm~ ~ scale: the level 111 v. h1ch dce1S10nS
shooW be rn:Uk (commumty-lmcd. rcgton:ll), and the
type ol pnxcss to be ~ {m:ipuy rule. conSCISLIS. etc:..)
11rc all pan of a culture's re trcttunng towtirds
sclf-go~
=
opportunlly for rlgbr lhelaaood All uihab UlnU
entitled to the oppanumty for i«Unng food, $hella.
jCqXl1diung thclt owa 11;'Cll being.
clothing. et:.
"''llioul
ol thl:ir fellow mhab1lllllH Or that or l~
en• arorunem. Ernplmis oa co:nmun11y ~ cconomu::s
c:m c:tlCQ<lilll!C this kind ol rcspocmblc dcsJin and
~lsion-nul:u...- Dc\'CloplRgllll CCOllOm) \tr4 I
gJIJUS
1u dependence on the "anh cc<momy" allows fur
pcn:cptlOll or rc:al cOStS. 11Us llllJUSU llJC l<b of progrc.u
and dc•clcprmnl to encompass •be 11;cll being nr lhc
CIUICC Life rommunuy.
lhlll
1uillllnability The ccologial life 5)5tcms vmhill a
region lltC p31t of lh: 11.-t:ict sclf·susuitihlg pbncWy
system It as auc1Jl th:u ow hum:m sysums begm to
rcf1a:t and support tbiJ sitstmmb•luy principle. \\c need
to develop "'11)'S to ev;iluatc our hum3tl ICliVIUCS
(qnculturc, forestry. ~th eve. tr.111q>0rl:lt1on.
banhng. u.'21Cf use.. Clelgy use. cu:) an lh3t ~ We. In
la=t. need to k:lm how 10 "rcillh:lbil" the boal!>CCgiOn m
wludl we h\C, to accumcly lllldusund JtS ccol0£ical
c:irr) 111g apxuy. and to design l01ro"lltds rcgion:il
suffi 11.!llCy.
inlrrdcpt"ndrncc Acknowledgement ot 1ntcrdcpcndcnt'C
entoulllges the bioccntnc dc5ign of hum:m sysians. nus
1ccoJ:nh1on nl~o allows for a creative :iwro:ich 10
n.:s1hcuc nnd £unc1101JJI uspccis a.> wcll. i;uch ns opumurn
cap~c11y for rc.~ancc and cnh:lncc:mcn101 st1troundinv,
mcorporauon oC 11. md, w.:itcr, .sunlight 1n de~tgn:
CORS11.kn.H10R of gcogtaphfcal/Sp;IU:ll rtxcmcnt: Dlld
llcs1gning with illtcr.spccics communion In mmd.
lmpOrllnCf
uf
rccdbotklre~poos" circuits A
10 receive infonnauon lllld
cullure needs 10 be :ible
respond to 11_.through reflccuon, cvllluauoa. 11nd
pou:ruill! lld;ipt3U00 or ch:mgc. CIC. Prcscnlly. u o~s
lh:ll COlllempallt)' cultures do not 113\'C lldcqu:i:e response
CtrCUllS bw1t m. Far ~. cuhur:ll dqlcndencc Oil the
DUtomOblle JCSUllS in anordinalc consmnptJoo or bumm
ll me and fossil Cuc.I. Yet. bccmlsc of 1111 cntrtllChtd
u:insporution industry th:u is rcinforctd by p"Cl'lllncn1
m 11;'Cfl 11S pnvau: indastry. crcah-e options ror eulwnl
rcconstclbuon arc
not lldcqu:ucly supponed...sucb 11J
cL'Slgnlng urban vilbges wt= u.ukpbce ll1ld bolncpbcc
tile nc:ucr to cXh other, prodllciog cnvironmcnta:lly
Slb12lll;lble \'Cllicles. etc.
meaM ror transrcrcoc" or illfonaatlon All culwrts
have ways for the passing oa ol infonn:uion and wisdom
rrom gtOC1111J011 IO gcnc:rauon. The xcumulatcd opericncc
or o eullUIC am be siurcd Uirough suirytelling. an,
llC'lldemics, child-rearing, education, ~. It is impllfWll 11>
OJ1Jll'C:Cl3LC and parUclp:iLC in the craf'ung of this orpnlc
ronn Of "i.torl1l:C lilld rctncval".
:!»lCrtdntY or ur~ The Dddrcss or 1he tbu De No Snu
Nee N:111on 111 the UN Conference of Non-g1wcllllllCnul
Orgunlrntions m Geneva 111 1977 voices ttus concept
n~ eloquently: '"The origmal 1nstJUaaon1 dilCCt lh3l \\C
.i.ho ,.1111: 11bou1 on the E:ulh arc IO apn:.ss a grC3t
respect. rm nfk.cuon. ll!ld a grauiudc toward all lhc spmts
v.1rich Crute 11114 support life-Our roocs 11n: d«p Ill I.he
btidJ 11;'hae 'll'C hYC.-The soil 1s rich from Che bono of
thousmJs ot our gcncn1lQnS. E:i::h or 11S 'll'CfC crated 111
1hoic l:uu1s and ii u our dU1y to u1.c grm c.c ol
them We wtik nbou1 11.ilb a pCl1l respect. for the f.:rth
Is 1 '":tY SXtCd plxe." Eadl cuhurc can help 1his srnsc
ol the~ of W'c 11ourisb bolh Oii lhc ~ _,
,.'Cll as euliunl level.
crlrbrali!ltl Dnd renectioD Culnuc Hau lijJCCttS'
medium
sh.lrcd ~ ~wen llS shmd actlcr:lncc.
I
tlOCll. n:ltural cckbr.1lioD as v.-cll as c:ultwal mod:s
of rdlcaion cnh:m:c our cupxtl)'
commU!UOll v.1111
the rcsa of the unhcrse-aot jtlS1 on lhc pcrsoo;il ~I
bul on t.'ic mnmumty-widc level. Comcaous rct ruuon
n::d llrprccllllion of llll1113t!/caltur:ll as \llCll lll coolotial
hc11mgc."both "3SarW and h1Uor~I .JS II rorm Of
ckmentnl nourishment Ulllt c:m only come m 1 Slwcd
ror
ror
form.
-Mamie Muller
�The Chalice and the Blade
Tht wor.t of Muri1a GimbUJas (The Gods and Goddtssts of
Old Europt, 1000 to 3500 BC: Myths, Ltgtnds and Cult
/mag1t), Mt:rlin Stone (AnciMI Mirrors of 1Yomanh11od) and others
haw! pionurtd tk uplora1ion ofour species' trut: cultural origw. Now with
tk publicalion of The Clullce anti lhe Blntlc ( 1988), t~ tvitk11ct of this
research along with Eisfcr's f4peful inttrprttmions Is[Ultllly r'ttzeliing brQOder
rtaduship such that Ashley Montagu calls it "the IMSt impottant book sinct
Darwin's Origin of Specit.r". llrre are two rtsf)OllSts to its t:iJllltlll.
Emoft.e B'r<lCZ:
Tlte Chalice a11d rite Blade confirms my long-held belief
that ''once-upon-a-time" there were peaceful societies
(partnerships) in existence on this planet. This gives me hope that
we can muddle our way into a personal and global peaceful
coexistence. After two readings of the book, the following
points su>0d out:
•Tue scientific and 1eehnologicnl advanccmcn[S of this century
have allowed us IO ~amine nnd re.evalU11te e.arlia a.rchcotogical
findings. The initrdisciplin:uy upprooch or t.ntcrprctlng "finds". lhe
bte:ikthlO\lgh in es.rbon-14 d:ltlng, and \he dendrochronological
dating method yield a diffetCtJl body or work and data on out
histOry.
••conqu~1· of noturc h:is no1 always been the prime mover of
Out species.
• PoJytheislic religious life does not equal anti-christinn ccvility.
•Art is a form of symbolu; communkmlon, and much depend.~
on who is interpreting the symbols.
•The "might mllkes right" philosaphy is 1111 abbenu.ion. ..not the
nonn.
• tntultivc knowledge ls a part or the sciences.
• "That's hisiory..•
1nd lluu's a fac1· is nn unncccpiable answer to
quesliOllS asked.
"The domuwor (JX!triltehal) mode or socw order is 111opproprinle
nnd dangerous tO our further e11olvcmcnL. edSICOcc and fulW'C,
Riane Eisler believes that we are presently al a crossroads.
We can continue as we are...and it is inevilable that we will
destroy ourselves...or we can try to emulate and rebuild the
peaceful societies which did exist. After reading Tile CIUJ/ice and
the Blade. I was convinced that peace is possible. The number
of role models for us to identify with has been widened
immeasurably by this book, There can be a choice for pence and
equality even within the confines of our civiliuition. History
goes in cycles, und unlike what we've learned in school, it is
never a fiJCcd point. It is forever changing, evolving. It is our
responsibility and challenge to investigate, to question, and to
look at presented ''facts" with an unquenchable thirst nnd
unending enthusiasm.
I would like to share with you some of the books. in
addition to The Gita/ice and rite Blade that have made me yearn
for and ponder the idea of peace:
General Readers hi p: Think on These Things by J. Krlshnamurti:
Too of Ltodarslup by J Header; Grt!ui Politics by C. Sprcm:ik; Grun
Alternative by 8. Tab:: Going Out of Our M111ds by S. Johnson: IOOth
Monhy by K. Keyes; Johnny Got lfis (iun by D. Trumbo: Da1:u of
Angtr by H. Lance: Peace Pilgrim by A. Pilgrim: St:t!1fs of Pt:ou II)' J.
L:irson; Gandhi on Ptaet by M. Gn111lh1; Jlov.· Can Ont Sell th( Air.
Edit.:d: Chop Wood. Corry \\'attr by R. F'aclds.
Chi ldren 's Books: W.tlwm Wants A Dolf by C. Zolo1011:
Friend.r by H.Hcmc; Quarter-Note Cow Pou byJ. Poucr. Mrnou by H.
Bmgham: Chu:ktn Stew by K. Kasla: Kuper.I oft~ Earth by M.
Cuduto; Tru II Niu by J. Urdy; lJ-.< B.imb and tht General by U. Eco:
BuJll!T Boule Dool. by Dr. Seuss.
Emou B'rar:. an a'td reada t1nd sr.J10lar. 1s the ot<na
of frf.Jfuprop'.J
Boo*stor~ and Cofi ill AJMvillt. NC. Si:t 011gina1td tlu! suhutft "A11othtT
STt111/I Bus111t.fS for Pcau# tmd uwitl!s otkr smafl b1131nes1: ow11as to 11•1n
kr 1111tS111g iI on clttir logos and ad•·~rflSt'mtlllS.
tt.Uo Clu thr i.e:
The Chali ce and The Blade was given to me by a
woman-friend juSt after this past Winter Solstice, and it has llad a
profound effect on me. Scrangely enough, it had b<:cn shown to
me several months before, but I was not aurncted to it. l think
when I saw it the first time I thought it was another
mytho-psychological analysis of "feminine" versus "masculine"
values. I was in a spa.cc of trying to explore my own sense of a
ne\li masculine ethos and I didn't want to read what I thought
would be a book on women's archetypes or psychological
explorations. I needed a more grounded sense of what 11 means
to be human n.t this time in history.
When I finally opened up the book, and actWllly began to
rc~d it, I couldn't put it down. Instead of being t.he psychological
or mystical volume I expected, I found a remarkable CJCploration
or "our history, our future." as ii says on the cover. Riane Eisler
has taken a look at the entire sweep of human cuhurnJ evolution
from a new perspective. that of t.he pannersbip, or "gylanuc"
viewpoinL Her central thesis is that all the bases of human
culture, arts. and civilizntion were developed at a time in which
women and men were both respected, in which sexuality was
free, and where the technology was of nurturance, not
destruction. This is, in shon, the lost "golden age" of myth and
legend. It really happened! I Our dr~ms of 1he future have their
firm b:isis in a past which has been denied to us because of
:indrocratic m1sinterpre1ation of both human nature and the
archaeologicfil record. For example, we carry with us the image
of early "man" holding a club with which to hit something over
the head and kill it; in actuality the fin;t technological invention
was probably ll vessel of some kind, either for ga1henni
vegel!lble foodstuffs or for cradling children. These were. of
course, invented by early women.
The implication!> of tJ1is viewpoint are ~taggcnng: this book
is justly receiving gre:u acclaim from a wide range of ~ources.
The concept of n lost · m:m1archal golden age" is central to 1he
more spiritual trends in feminist thought, and i!> a heartfelt belief
Summ..:r, 1989
�or wish of modem 01anic neo-p:igans. In fact, Feminist
Spirituality is frequently criticized by more materUlist viewpoints
for not being grounded in an historical rcal11y. Tltt! Chaliu ar.d
tht! B~adt! J?UlS t~e lie to these doubt~ about the vnlidity or
Feminist Spintu:ihty by scrupulously an:ilyzing the historic:ll and
an:h:ieolog1cal record to suppon its premise
A lot of emphasis is placed 1n the book on the imponance
or Cretan or Minoan Civilization to the development or Western
culture, This highly technologically advanced civilization, which
":is at its height about a thousand years before Class1c:ll Greece
(ca. 1400 B.C.E.), honored both women and men equally. was
nol3bly non-warlike. and "orsh1pped the Great Goddess. Who
has not marvelled at pictures of the bull·leapers, the
Snake·Goddess statues, or the dclic:ue painung or lilies and
dolphins which adorned the walls of the grc:it J13lace at Knossos'?
And let\ not forget the Labrys. or double-axe which is today a
prominent iron of Lesbian/Amazon cuhure. 'fbe origin of this
symbol b m the Goddess· religion of Crete,
The Clzaltee and tlit! Blade ts an inell.pcnsive volume,
published by Harper nnd Row. It h llVilllable in your local,
regular bookstore (if it's not sold out), or m the library. Since
it's inexpensive, it doesn't have glossy color photos of the
Minoan art treasures mentioned in the text. I found it useful to
have a couple of an or nn.:hacological books by my ~idc 10 be able:
to :.1~e lhe wonderful scenes of young Mino:in men with flowers
in 1heir h:mds, of priestesses performing the rites of the Gre~ll
GodJess. My dreams have not been the sanu: since!!
Another imporum1 fe:11urc of I he Chaliu and the Blade is
its e:\plorntion of the ":.tuntcd morality" (>f b1bhcal law in reg:ird
to \\'Omen. Quoung Eisler: ~we have been taught ttul the
Judeo·Christian trndnion is the greatest mornl ndvnnce of our
species. The Bible is indeo.I primarily concerned .,.. ith what is
right and \\tong. But what is right and wrong in a dommator
society is not the same as what 1s right and wrong in a
pannership society. There nre...many teachings in both Judaism
and Christinnity suitable for a panner!>hip sy:.tem of human
relations. But to the extent that 11 reflec1s a dominator society.
biblical morality is at best stunted. At worst, it is a
pseudo-morality in which the will of God is a device for covering
up cruelty and barb.1ri1y."
When I learned ancient hhtory in gmde school. the
assumption was that law and moraJ11y began with the code or
Hammlll1lbi or the Mosaic Laws. ln reality, these dominator law
codes were set up after the overthrow of legal and moral systems
which valued all human life, female and male. and which
governed peaceful, not warlile, wcieties. ln addition, the
classical Greek ideas of libcny and democracy (for free men
only) were but watered·down versions of the earlier tr.1ditions
which had their origins in pre-androcrauc societies such as
Minoan Crete. In fact, Pythngonis and Socrnte~ were pupils of
women Thcmistoclcn and Diotema, respectively.
Much of myth, classical, Biblical, and othcrwi~. rccounis
how the Goddess was ovenhrown, r.ipcd and murdered. These
myths developed as justifications for the continued
dominator/;indrocratic rule following the dcsll\ICtion of the earlier
pea~ful, agricultural societies by wnrhke. pastor.ii peoples from
the more margmal area:; or Eurasia. Riane Easler also recounls
how the partnership or gylanic mode of society has periodically
resurfaced, only to be suppressed again. Some or the teachings
of Jcsu~ reflect a loving vision of peace and hannony; the later
church fathers supplanted this with 3 warlike and hierarchical
"Christianity." 1·hc very word "hierarchy" W3S coined to
describe the organiution or the c:irly church.
The word "gylany" or "gylanic" has been formed by Riane
Eisler to describe the type of society which flourished in ancient
times and toward \\hich v.e must move today if our species is to
survive; it is a combination of "gy." denvcd from the Greek root
word gyne, meaning woman, and "an." from andros, or lll3II.
The letter ·1· between the l\\O is for linkin&. and is derived from
the Greek lytln or Iyo. This verb has a double meaning: to
resolve (as in analysis) or to dissolve or set free (as in cul3.lysis).
This word and its origin sum:. up the m:un thesis of the
book: that how a society organizes the relation~ between the two
hnlves of humaniry (men and women) hn~ a profound effect upon
all its ins1i1utions and vnlues; and the direction of its cultural
evolution, pllrticulnrly whether it will be peaceful or warlike.
tmmer, 1989
Needless to say, in a technological era where the "bl:ide" is a
thennonuclcar bomb or a nerve gas canister instead of a S\\iord or
slingshot, this is a matter of the very survival of our species.
While The Chalice and rite Blade focuses m:iinly on the
w3ys rcl:uions between \\Omen and men are constructed a~ a
gauge of how totalitarian or warhke a society is. there are
abundant references to way:. in which men, particularly
"sensiuve" or "effeminate" men arc oppressed by androcr:lcy. As
we know. and as Eisler points out, these warlike and t0tali1arian
wcietie~ (H111c:r's Germany, Khomeini's lran, etc.) arc the most
opprc:.sive 10 women and to peaceful tendencies in men or 10
:>pintual m1nori1i~ (Jew , B:iha'is. etc.).
• Iow a society organizes the relations
bcl\\CCn the two halves of humanity (men and
women) has a profound effect upon all its
ins1i1u1ions and values, and the direction of its
cultural evolution, particularly whether i1 will
be peaceful or warlike.
ln regard to the issue of maleness and warlike values, nerc
1s Easler· viewpoint: "For 1mllcnia men have fought wars and
lhe 8l:1de has been a male symbol Bul this does not mc:in men
arc inevnably violent Md w:irhkc. Throughout rcconlcd hif.tory
then: have bcc:n peaceful and non-violent men. Moreover,
obviously there were both men and women in !he prehisiorico.1
societies v.herc the po\\ er to give and nunurc, v.hich the Olnlicc
symbolh:C! , was supreme. The underlying problem is not men
o.s a sex. The root of the problem lies 1n a social system in v.hich
the power of the Blade 1s idealized - in \\hich men nnd women
D.1'C taught to equate true lll3sculinity with violence and dominance
and to see men who do not confonn to this ideal as 'too soft' or
'effeminate'."
It IS apparent thllt the vision or I gyJanic SOCU:ty is thal of
crcauvc dynamic interpersonal relations \\rit large: the vision of
gentle loving \\Omen and men living in harmony \l.ith nature 1s
\\hat \\e offer for the reemergence of the future partnership
society which must be the p:ith of humanuy's future. The basis
of any society and culture h the way one person relates to
another. This is true for woman to woman, man to man or
mlln/~oman relationship:.. Now i~ the time for us co carry our
vision forth mto the new world which is being crcrued by all the
human vi:oionarie!> nnd poets who sense the turning of the cosmic
wheel.
The human species is obviously facing a crucial period in
history: either we will full b:ick into a kind of androcratic
tcchnofascism in which women will be slaves. free sexuality will
be suppressed, and the organisms of the planet will choke on
human filth or be incinerated/radiated in a nuclear holocaust; or
v;e will somehow develop :a new culture which values
nunurance, h:is respect for life and hum!lnlly in all its variety :md
sc:icual flowenng, and rinds ways to meet its material needs
without ciitinguishing other species and tenninaJly fouhng it
nest. Khomeini and the Morul Majority understand how
Feminism. civil rights. free SCltunlity. ecology. and peace nrc
linkcJ, and they oppose them all with a vengc.ncc; we who reali7.C
how these values are pan of our vbion and hold the key to our
~urvival must continue co become \\hat we want in the world and
create the myths in our laves which will be the stories for our
people to live by.
The Cho.lice and rlie Blade has given me hope. In this time
of rc-<lcdic1uion to the principles wh1ch l have cherished in my
heart for years. this book has mengthcned my "·ision and
nllowed me co feel pan of a past and a future or joyous. loving,
harmonious women and men, liv1ng in deep commimion \\ith the
Ennh and iis creatures. Wbo could ask for more'?'?
M1hJ Gwlvu: u a co-/oWllkr of 11il ClllnNrl.JNi Grtt11 ColAl!Cil aJlJ a/rt~111
con111bMtor to its publicat1on g1«nhgh1 Prcst111ly. lw spuids hls 111r11 both
in DMrham NC and NOJhv1//t, JN whtft /ormaliz1n1 his 1ra1111ng 111
bctanical stiul1es. This revi~ 1.f rtpr111ttdfrom grccnlighL
�Lhcm: conscrva1.1on: improving and rtp:tirmg Lhe
city/cowuy d4uibution system; and coop:nwng with the
towns oi Woodfin and WcavcrvtlJc 111 developing the Big
Ivy River v.'aler supply.
ALAR • A • LA MODE'
poUutanis. These regubtlons wtll be dlscusscd 8l public
hearillgs on August 4 m Rllle1gh Md Augu.st 9 in
Owlott.c.
Chemical mduStrics were the l:lrgcst &OW'CC of
polluwus. Olhcr lasge cooLObutors we.re furniture,
tcllule. pbsucs and rubber, p1per. nnd prmlln& and
N..unl World Ne•1 ~ace
publishing industries.
C:.,111wba and fors)th counties were the wont
Even as Federal health officials tty to calm
growing concerns about aJar sprayed :apples, Ilic
En · lronmcmlll ProlCCl.ion Agency d«idcd to Ill lcw
t.empomnly remove Abt from 1 h$t or acccpublc
chcmk:al sprays.; During a sub<ommauce hearutg on the
Al:ir-m. Scru!tor John Wamcr of Vqmia Wied Prwdens
Bush, • to cxcrc:asc some cri~iJ control" to PfOLCcl lhc
apple indusuy dependent on Abt spraying. while other
sen310ts suu.ed thcu ()\\.Tl hes11.ancy IO fccJ their children
Haywood C:OWU) wu next, and was the only westertn
county to cxccod 2 million pounds, th3nks mostly to the
Champion Paper mill ""hicb reported rclC4Sing 3.S
million pounds of tolic air pollution, mcludmg 810,000
lbs of the carcinogen chloroform, 660.000 lbs or
hydrochloric acid, ll!ld 66.000 lbs of sulfuric acid whach
conttibut.cs 10 :.cid rain. D:iyco reponcd 1.7 million tons.
Figures for other Western counties ase:
Ru1bctfonl - I IO 2 milljoo lbs.. Primary so~ - Reeves
Brothers, l.S million lbs. and Broylull Furniture
lnd~Lties. Transylv111u.11 • 500,000 to I million lbs.
Primary source - Ecusta divisiron of P.H. Gl3dfcltcr.
Buncombe - S00.000 to I million lbs. Primary sources •
Chnsc Packaging, 270.000 lbs; Chcnuronic~ (Jct
Research Center), 263,000 lb$: Andre11 lndus111es.
110,000 lbs or tcLtacbloroethylcnc, a carcinogen.
Mitchell " S00.000 t0 I million lbs. Primary sourccHcnredon Furniture lnduSl!ies, 600,000 lbs. Burke S00,000 IO I million. Hcndc™>n - 250.000 10
apple products.
CHAINSAW BANDIT
STILL AT LARGE
Nat.uni Wockl Newt Servico
As of lhLS rcporung, Beech Mounuin Town
Police and the Avery County Sherirrs Oc:p:inmcnt still
have no wspccis in tl1c ~11uct1on or lhrc:c b1llboan1s.
TOO signs we.re allegedly toppled by a chain-saw on
Wcdllcsday, r.tiy 17. Appal\:lltly, lllCIC was some public
SUpporl ror thl~ 3Cltion.... l~e pa.id odvcrtise~nt,
llunking Ille Wlkoown pcrpcuntor. appeared an a local
pgpc:t soon a!W. ll tC1Cmr as if 111311)' n:sidenls were llJl1ICl
wilh the "•sual pollution c:cale4 by the b1llboords. and
I.bey wished to COQ>lil'QllC people to frequent only those
rnctCh:inis who do noc use b1llbootd.s. IL is believed th.1t
the absen.:e or 111mcit:m legal tcguWion concarung
billhollnb drove lhlS 1nd1..idual IO tcek ~ oulSidc of
thc law ro lddreiS a c:ammunuy concem.
FORCES OF NATURE
Naunl WOl'ld Ncwa Scnlu
On April 6 we were all rcrn1nalcd or the inoltOtllblc
atnCtion or gravity. This point was espcclllly brought
home 10 three ttookcrs on l_.O near the Tcnnc.ssce SIALC
line v.llo r«ea"ed l'lllhct lur11c bouldct applicauon~ 10 the
side or their llllCtOMrnJIClli u huge rock slabs ri]!pCd o/T
from the su:cp wall of rock Fonunrucly, no one was
h1111. A retaining wall mode a vnln attcmpt to Slop lhc
slide, but was~ crushed. The rock~idc clO!iCd lhe two
westbound lallC$ roe su ~as an cstim111Cd IS,000 to
20,000 cubic yanls or d111 and rock had io be movod;
dyn.wit.e c:hlllgC$ were 5Ct to dislodge uruubk! 11111LCriol;
and steel mc..'h nets were wung on cables between rock
bolts set m the chff r11ec..
Every lime U'\IC.k 11ec1dcn11 hliic 1'11~ h;.ippen. 11
~minds us: 11 c:ouJJ ha•e been nukes!
SEWAGE WITH YOuR SUPPER?
Nall.nl Worll N
Sa>ioc.
In Alhcvalfe. No1tl1 Carohllll •octn dttc.iued by 1
1..m-to-onc m:irgm a bcm1' muc lh;it v.ould ll3•e h:ld
them drinkma 11".c w:iiu of the French Broad Raver.
Supporters of the bond ruuc Cb!llltd WI the French
Bro:id 11o :ii.ct 11 .ufo, but opponcn11 ll01Cd ih:n the rc;tl
l>S:la WllS that n:ssd.:nts "''CfC nol ready ID dnn\; poll~
hvtf"'1lla IO lh:u bus 11CD proplc !Ind dc'-elQpcri coul'1
CXINI\
I profi OP Wllllll cd llfOV. II
U~m from A
vii looau th
pbn , II pos.s
5
fund
hclp
"'"'""--""•ill.~
Thea ... dlC othct ~able
meet ~ 11tc;1 • w11 r n
~tu1~1
Journ"L pC•(I 22.
rTll1I \
\1lltiblc IJ)
Ill lbc fuwrc among
School disuicu from New Yori.: lo Los Angeles
LO Miami ha"e sioppcd serving AIAMaintcd apples in
their cafeteri:ls. Alar h:is fOI' )'C4rS bcc:n linked to aincc.r in
11nillllll LCSLS, but recently when o report by the Nuturul
Resources Defense Council recc1"cd n lot or :itll:mion,
public opinion pushed tbc EPA mto nct1on. The
company which mtlkes Alar cont111ues IO msbt the
product is snfe and has plans to shin their market to
owside the us.
500,000 lbs.
CONSERVATION COUNCIL OF
NORTH CAROLINA PROMOTES
PESTICIDE LEGISLATION
NaNRI World Ne"'• S..lYk:e
Myo11c 1111ereswJ can ob1a111acopyof1hl' rtpc
>rtfor $20
from t~ North Caro/ilia Envirollh:tlllal Dtftnst Fwul
clo StepMn L(llitus: 128 llargtll St . Raleigh. NC
27(J()J.
NEW RIVER SCENIC
DESIGNATION IN JEOPARDY
The Conservation Council or Noni! Carolin:a has
joined forces with Lhe Agrac:ultur3J Ra:soun:es
Cenier/PESTcd to publish I pcsttctdc -ic:nda for 19S9.
Some of the bills they arc promoting in the NC
Legislature are HB-389 ""hach would increase the atri:il
application buffer which 1s cum:ntly only one hundred
Uodu the state-federal pLln of 1976 which
declared 26.S atilcs of the New River a Scenic:
foci (1'11111111 OCC'41•ed bwk11ng, and S8·274 whk.h wuulJ
require all pcs1icidc applicators to J>O$l notice of thcu
Waa.crw11y, Nonh CAtolina wiu to 11cqui1c; i>C<lnn;
e:tsemenis «land along Ille nvcr. Howcvct. since 1976
activities. For furlhcr information conL:lct Nonc:y
Barnhardt, Legisbuve Agent, Pcsllc1dc Project of lhc
COll3ervatJon Council or NC, Ch~pcl Ifill. (919)
942-8991.
"STATE OF THE AIR" REPORT
Natuml Wotld New' Sa-vice
Last year. ror the first time. more than 800 North
Carolina 1ndus111cs were required to file with tho s1111e
rcpons on releases of the 328 cbcnucah mdiC41cd m the
1986 fcdcml "right-«>~know" SWtUIC:;.
The NC Envi.ronmentlll Dclcn~ Fund ( NCEDF),
compiled Lhcsc: reports and found th~t. <tatcwadc.
indusUlcs emutcd nearly 100 ma Ilion pounds of lhclit air
polluunts. 12.7 million or which arc Cllrt1nogcll$.
According lo the NCEDF, these cm1WO<U arc cnurcly
legal, and therein hes a probkm. "Touc au polluuon an
l'onh Carolina is aJrncm tolollly unrc11ul.'l1Cd." according
IO NCEOF dltl!ClOr S~vcn J. U..1ta,, 1andl unlcs§ we
dose the skic.s io polJw.c:l'l, lilt cnu-;.siODJ wdl n:rnui the
e:isiest way for Noctl1 Ouolma 1nduwic:s 10 get rad or
ll:at.:irOOus w.wc."
Nawn! World News Sez\.icc
only 33 acres or scenic cascmenLS have been ~wrcd by
lhc s:wc. In the s:imc umc period the number of priYDte
lwldowncrs on the river h3.s jumped 300%. anJ iowns of
Jcrterson and Wcs1 Jefferson, NC are currently
considering opening a one million gallon per day v.ucr
Lreattncnt plant which would utilize lhc river LO dispose
of IJ'elUOd discharge.
Nllkcd Creclc. a Lribur.:uy of the New River and a
disch!lrge sllc for treated water, "wns named :is n •toxic:
hot spot' an 1111 EPA repon just rele:i.~ by lhc Oivi~ion
or Environmcn1.11I Manngc.mcnt,• according lo Jonct
Hoyle or the Blue Ridge Envaronmcn111I Defense l..caauc
(BREDL). Ms. Hoyle fears that, though the move
unprecedented. Congl'CSS could revolcc lhc design;won ot
S<:cnic Rivet. •sCC3U111 lhe \ollu.:s for which (Lhe nvcrl
wa.~ protected arc not being prcserved,. .. wc fear
WICOntrollcd dcvdopmcru tluc:liens the dcsilJl.ltion".
In resJ!Qnsc to this threat. Rep. Judy Hunt
(0-Walilugl) has mt.roduccd legisl:ation IO speed 11p Ilic
aqumuon of c~scments ami began in ~nest lhc
tmplcmcnwtJun of the scc11.1c nvcr pbn drawn up for die
l,
New )'l:O.ll'S a.go. The measure~ nx:c.-cd house approval,
and a·.. 1uu 11e11on 1n the Senate Envuonmenul
Comnuuce.
In :a pMSibly re.bled m31tct, SCllOl.IC Bill 119!\ lhc
N:nural Hm~ Wll!Ct bill 1nll0dllffil by Scn:uor
MIUC Blilllghl 11ofll 1ncn::isc the e.\CISC Slllmll l:l\ from
Sl.()()/1000.00 tO $2.00 pct $1000 00 Under lhe new
bill, COU lleS would rceei•-c S0.50 of a:h doll:ir of Ul
me.om- SO.ZS WO'Jld go tO 11.':llU nnd .rcwcr do\'dapmcnt
wh ' 11noL'r.:r SO 25 would go io tic: Rec~uon lllld
Nat I He
c Tr Fund to buy !And for g.un.bnJ
f
and
p.uks. 1111 b II
tn rt Cl
lCtl S2.S mubun doll.in per )C 10 l1C
d lor land aqui uum Flori , S .:!h CarollnA
Summer, 1989
�Tennessee :ind Maryland :uc altcody succcsi.fully using
1l11s 1cchn1quc for preserving 1hcir nalurJI an:a.~.
IfNC rtsllitllJS urr 1nltrts1td in wntawng their Stnat(Jrl
rtgarding this bill, the addresJ ts: Lrgtslu11~t Building,
Raf~1gh 2761 I Phone; 733-11 JI Fot r1wri! tnforfniltiOll
call Jim Stt•ens (9191782-2686 or Btll Jlof""m·
(919)7.Sj.J)Zi}
Tt:
TRANSPORTATJON
I MPROVEMENT PLAN?
maHers
PUBLIC SERVANTS
IGNORE PUBLIC
Nirural Wotld Newt Scrvic11
Residcnis or Buncombe County were ou11agcd 10
discover that a suue highwoy improvement., p;ickagc
included a plan for a four lane loop to run through
SwannanO.'.I, lhrough Recms Creek and Ox Creek
Valleys, to lhe Enka-Candler aren. Trnnsporiauon
Secre13ry James Harrington said in a leuer 1.ha1 a loop
around Asheville would be needed IO lmndle the mcrenscd
1n1mc from nn upgraded US 19-23. John Hill.11 resident
of Ox Creek Vlllley. voiced lhcdcepconccm or oVCT 100
people who attended a planning meeting about the issue:
No one asked [u:;J, or 1he people in Mudison County,
wbclhcr we wnnlCd lhcir lives changed forever, or hcuvy
lrucking brough1 in from the Ohio Valley, or 1f we
w.inlCd rapid dcvclQpment as in lhc urblln 31'.cas.•
The public feeling is that sUJtc officials could
~vc trouble and cmbanassmenl if lhcy would consult
wilh locnJ rcsidcnLS befotc uying 1 force 1hrough new
0
1~ for developmea1.
Natunl World News Scrvacc
On April 3rd lhc state Utilities Commissmn ruled
thar Duke Power Co. cnn go ahead wu.h plans for a
transmission line through lhc bc:lutiful Pru11hert0wn
Vnllcy in Jackson County. lhus dissolving a Scpicmbcr
1988 reslr.lining order, and ending a hard-foughl balllc by
lhe Jocasee Watershed Coalition. lhc WNC Allinnce, ond
the Conscrvnuon Council of North Carollnn. Thc~c
groups fonnnUy prolcsltd lhe roulC lilSt year, s:iymg thal
Dulc hnd not eumincd altcmativcs LO their planned route
lhrough die "Yosem11e of the E.c.1", und Lhnt a proposed
offer from the Tenncsse Valley Au1homy might be
the:ipcr nod elunina1e lhe need for lhc tin~
Hun1cr Lovin~. co·foundcr or Ilic Rocky
Sununer. 1989
own llands
BeflCll Mountain We co no• wea~ l:i<
1t11ery resioen1 uomeowrl!!• or 111s1tor 10
Beech Mouniaon. however a grOWtng numoer
01 ~ .vould l1•e to 111ank you tor aoklg ,•,hal we
llavP .van1eo 10 co ro1 some time bul door t ha~ 1110
nel"e
You have macie our moun1a1n a more 1Jeau111u1 r.1 .. ~" '£> u.. t.
vL1•1 HQO<lh;lly oaver:•sers will nave lll(lre 1cmkc' I - u oeau!ilul
mo..in1ain" 11 t" .. lulure & \\ II 001 POLI.DTE th~ " 1" btl'tlOlilOS
DELP STOP BILLBOARD BLIGHT
Frequent only merchants who DO NOT use billboards
Mounuin Institute with her husbnnd Amory, ~'Uggestcd
a conference held lllst fall al Warren Wilson College
t.h:i1 lhere was no need for adJitional energy cnpacily lllld
lhn1 all encrllY n«Wi could be met by practicing least-cost
planning and cfhc1cncy improvements which would
acwally increase the profiis of the power comp:uues
without incurring lhC S36 m1lhon pnce Lag of lhc line,
wltich will surely be passed on to consumers.
The Commission disngrc.:d wilh this :1SSC5Slllcn1.
saying ·11tc evidcoce clearly ~hows that Duke c:ucfully
and diligenlly planned !his projccl by examining a wi\lc
:irea of Western North Carolinn, n:irrowing the poi;s1blc
route nli.cmati\'CS, lllld sclccung J rou1c which m1rum1ud
1hc impact on the en11ironmen1 and cus1ing
dcvelopmcni". The Commilision decreed lha1 allcm:ile
roulCS suggesltd by lhe cnvironmenw.I groups were too
long and 100 c.itpcnsivc. They nlso d1smi!iscd the TV A
proposal, elaammg lha1 lhc TV A did not prcscn1 a
pe.rsua.'ilvc :irgumen1 that its proposed rotes for Naniahala
customers would be lower fl13n Duke's.
A bill has been introduced 1n10 lhc NC Ocnet:ll
Assembly by Rep. ~1arie Colton (D-Buncombe) which
would give lhc Commission authority to review power
line siung plnns.
01
SAYING "NO! " TO THE DUMP
Niawrat World Ne'Nj Sav"'~
0
CUTIING A LINE
you for t~~ ino
arid e 1rnma:an9 tl".e I>• !boards on
Natunl World News Scrvk<
Thci SS.6 billion Transporboon Improvement
Plan (TIP) being heavily pushed by Govenor Jim Manin
iOIS II leystone of bis "good rQ.ad$ for progress• Slll!C
1m11gc, passed 1he House of Rcpresenuuvcs. and is
upec1ed 10 p:iss lbrough lhe Scruue wi1hout effcclivc
oppos1lllln. The Bill culls for a massive road-building
progr.lm Wilh the CVl!lltlUll goal Of bringing 0 rruuor four
l:ine road "within ten miles of llny North Carohn:i
n:sidcnl.• nod paving many or ttic din roads.
A fow represcnt111ivcs hnvc e.xpr~d concern
bccuuSj: 1he bill IGClcs lln)' mention of mnss 1rw1Sil ns n
means of ll'!illsportauon unprovemcm, and lhc lawmakers
may :111cmp1 t.0 block p:issage unul su!:h wording can be
included Proponcois of TIP sny 11 is 100 ln1c for an~
StK:h coosidcruuon :llld l'1osc concerned should have r.uscd
their objcc:tilons long ago, allCmplJng IO change lhc bill
now could posslbly kill iL
The bill would Ix\ fonded by a five ccn1 gas lll!I.
Millly rcsidcnis. especially m Ille Kaulah region.
rear lhe bill is :i prune cxrunple of ovcr-dcvclopmcru..
The ncw 1ra~-port.alion scheme would strongly mcrcnse
access 10 nnd lhrough lhc mouniains and have a profOtJnd
environmcnw.I and soeiul impacL
l•
iu~ You!
Trees 1,000 feet awny from a WllStc dump :u Oak
Ridge, Tenncsscc were cut down and c:imed away.
because I.hey were emiuing to~ic amounts of rad1odon.
Under prc.~t rcgulntions, !heir hobiull would no1 be
C:OO.\idcred ll.~ ~
A1 a pubhc hearing in Madison Count)', a
woman loll! lhJS sw~ and lhcn posed some simple
questions 10 lhe panel of four pale men in dark suiis and
one dnrk-sktnned woman repre~ung lhe North Cwobnt1
Low Level Rodio;icti~e Wasic M411agc:men1 Aulhomy.
"Would you drink wai.cr from a ~pnng 1000 feet
from d1t Oak Ridge nuclC3t dwnp? Would you offer this
water 10 your child?" Every head on Ille panel nodded
affinmllively.
TI1e woman gestured IO 1hc panel and faced lhe
crowd, •1 give you the cxpens on low level rndiu.'ICtive
wnu: dumps!"
Over 600 people, many of them obviously cld\!rly
fanning couples, showed up for the forum on u
Wednesday evenang, ll'lldiuonnlly church naght in Ibis
predomuuntly Baptist c:ounl)'.
G1'11SS roolS politics mov~ like o pr.ime lire when
3 hot ~p.irlo; wikc.s. In this- caie lhe networl 1h111 fonned
lhc Cbme of public 0111.n1gc wus lhc local min1stty,
Voluni.ccrs from 1.lie Mud1.;on Em·ironmcn111l Allfonce
contacted muusu:r.1 who cnllcd other preacher; nnd urged
ll1c1r congregaLions to exercise I.heir duty of E3flh
stewardship, one of lllC precepts of lhe soulh.un Baptist
cn:cd.
Earlier 1n April :ing.:r flared in Jl.lacoo and Polk
Coun1.ics as The Aulhomy's 1rnvcling road show,
designed IA.'I soothe fcars.lllld cool u:mpcr~. found i1SClf in
an equally unplc:a.'l:lni hill S.:lll. The meeung in Polk
Counly dlcw more than 1,000 ouendec.s..
Local residcnis no1cd Lhe impact of lhcse
meeung.s - never before had lhcy seen so ITlilllY people of
hke mind a1 one l~lion. Said Polk County $hCriffs
deputy Chris Abul, "I guess everybody just WDnl'I to say
'no' to lhc dump."
J11nc1 Hoyle, director of Blue Ridge
EnvironlllC1ll.al Defense l..cque, calls North Carolina "I.he
chump of lhc SE" for staying m lhe SE Comp:icl. lhc
c1gh1 SL:ltt organWiuon lhal picked Nonh Carolinn to be
the recipient or lhc rcgt0n's radioactive WllSIC for lhc next
20 yC81'$.
Jonci reminds us 1h.:11 some or lhe w11S1C will
remain toxic for 117 million years, EnvironmCllllll1sis
lhink lha1 wch state $hould h3tldle us own waste.
lnsu:<ld or conuunmrumg a new aren, lhe siate's low-level
mdiooctive was1es should be stored nbovc ground al
nuclear puwer plnrus. which produce ~ of lhcm. nu~
way they could be monil(Jl'Cd until a va:iblc long-u:nn
waslc disposal technology is developed. To dll1e, all
existing dumps in lhe rnin-ricll east have lc!lked, even lhe
ones drat meet r;um:nt regullltions.
The Aul.horily 1s 10 come up with at least two
cundid:ue locauons in Nonh Cnrolinn lau:r lhis year and
to have picked a "preferred siie" by Nov, 15, 1990.
Hopefully tbe loud "No• from Katuah wlll no1 only
JcOec1 the dump. bu1 will also prod the ·cxpcns· to
rcthinlc their nuclear policy.
SOUTH CAROLINA BANS
NORT H CAROLINA WASTE
Natural World Ne"'s SG\'lc:c
By cucutiveorder of Gov. Carroll CampbeU. as
or Morch I, 1989. the •U!IC of South Carolin" has
prol1ibitcd 1hc di.~~1 or was1e from :my Sllltc &hat
refused ID di!i:p()S(l of the WtilC 11.scl[ The b:in elfoc:ICd 32
~Ulles and Puc:t10 Rico. Hans1ll Truesdale, heud of the
SOUlh Carolina Dcpanmeo1 of Hcallh lllld E.nvi.ronmenml
Controls H:uardoUJ Wasic Division say~. "WG hope our
ac;IJoos will encoUl3gc other sutcs IO move toward
developing their own h:u.ardous was1e managcmen1
pro~·. In 1987. Nonh CAroht13 gcnerultd 2.8 billion
pounds of l=dous wute, most or which w11S sent to
ou1-0f-Slal.C disposal Cac1litles.
JCotu~\
Jo1.1rna( PIMJlll 23
�(~ fmlll P11C4l
Wh:it is then: 10 keep someone from •1ctung go• nnd
•becoming the olh11r person~ so successfully tl\31 !hey come away
from a Lls1ening Projec1 full of rc:icrionary nnhudes? Again. m
Herb's mind the answer goes back to thn1 shared essence of
humrurity, which is deeper than any dogma or se1 of idc:is, but i~
expressed rnther in 1em1s of vnlues.
'111c antidote 10 polariz;uion :ind separation," he say~, "i\ to
recognize 1he oneness or all life and oi all hum:inity. We in soc111I
chMge work need to recognize that all of us, even those people
1iliho are racist or militanst or $eem like they are ou1 to desuoy the
l!ruth. are a pan of the great ltfe, and within us au is !he potcnual 10
ch:inge :ind 10 let go ot old iJcas that are destr0ying life. There h
definitely that potential.
The source of lhat power lies
in going beyond the ego and
getting down to that place where
things change.
'The way I en\ 1sion 11, 1s to look 111 11 person :ind 1111.a.gine
them just coming out as 11 new born inf.int, That h3by isn't a r.1ciM.
th:11 baby 1sn 1 n milu:inst, that b:iby doesn't w11111 to destroy the
\l.Orld. Tb:11 new baby is allvc. lbnt's the essence of hum:mny
Thst's in every p;:rsoo in society,
-nu11's what we: arc listening for, b:i~iC31Jy. We: ;ue probing
through all the cr.iziness. all the accumul:11ed ideas. th:it may h:ivc
made a person into a m1l11ans1, or a r<1cis1 or an environment·
destroyer, 10 find 1he essence 01 who that person is. f'or 1hc
essence is good."
The idcolog1cal content 1s pare, but only a pan, of .1
convers:uion. In deep listening the: process of communication 1!> the
major emphasis. If a listener 1111d a resident cnn reach a poin1 where
they arc each staring right into I.he other's bare and unadorned "'1111,
then together they arc atl3ckm& racism, mil11arism. and 1he other
1te1J,:1tive aspects or our i:oaety for the r11C1Gm, the: nulit11nsm, iuid
the rest an: the mdv.clhng fear m people's bean~ raised to a
pcrm311ent place m the mstituuons of society.
Hezb ~ys that, "Underlying all the problems is fear. Our
b:lsic fear IS one of rejection. We \I.ant 10 be loved and rc~pcctcd. If
we don't gc1 llu11 in !lie wuy we need 11, \l.C use power to get it.
That's why it gets back to spiriwa.I values. h gets back to people's
need to experience love, communny. caring. nnd connection. Those
:ire the fundmnental needs of :ill hum:inity, lllld if we can find w:iys
to make that possible for 311 people, I think all the problem~ we: ~cc:
would stan d1ssolving.w
"Love, community. canng. and connecuon." Herb defines
his peace work in tenns of the~ values... When be speaks of
·peace; he spc:ik. of the concept in the broadest po)siblc: \Cose.
He decries the divisions tha1 sometimes arise bc1ween people
involved in promoting non-violence:, doing soci:ll justice work, or
helping IO prc::.crvc the c:nvirunmem He fet'ls that :ictiv1sts would
help their cause by ~tressing the connec1cdness o[ 1hesc 1s~uc' lie
considers the penod he wotl:cd ns a youth counselor as being part
of his "peacework" an.I whhes :ill people involved In 1h:u kind of
healing worl.: would realm: 1hc conncction lhc:y share v.1th the pence
niovcmcn1. He .s.iy!( he 1~ ''~)rkmi: for peace v.h.n he is weeding
hb garden.
or
Poliucs is usuully perceived 3\ II sc:nes c:intpaigns 10 be
c:uncd on unul the foe is vanquished and ,;dory is ~chievcd l·or
llcrb, polincs 1s process .und the process 1~ nevcr-endmi;,
whelhcr 11 is tor empowerment or tor he:iling.
In an mfomul moment he slid, "Yeah, you know, hstening
ts an incredible procc)s. I'm still trying to 1ncorpora1e 11 rr.ore
d~ly in my person:il lire. 11·~ easier IO v.ork it on the political
level in some ways.
"What was it someone said? 'Listening is the rim let or
love.'
"In a sense the Listening Project actually says. 'I love: you.
No mauer who you nn:, no mauer what you're doin~, l love the
essence of who you nrc.' You may hate wha1 a person 1s doing, but
wha1 you !lfe basically ~11y111g is 'I love yo11.' That's where
listening is non-violence, too."
~
{tontillued rrocn page 10)
p:1rnc1panii; m1m n:ly on 1iicinsd• ~ • thc1t own mner n:sourccs
nnd ability to share llnd 'Communicate. In a very~ ~. the
~etpant... create the "orklihop ·and isn"1 this \\h:!t community
1s about anyway? Lc:anung to t;1p IOlCI our iruhv1Ju:il and group
r ·sources, and to be co-crc:uors rnthcr th:m ·koocrs" nnd
followcn; "?
As a group rntwcs out of "pseudo-c\'lmmunny and IO\l.ard
real community. it tends to pas~ through scverul d1\1Jnct phases,
which Dr. Peck and I·CI.! ro:fer 10 ns "i:haos" :ind "cmpuncss"
After the supcrf1Ci:1h1y nnd f.:ilsern:ss of pscudo-communny
begins to \H::U- thin, conflicts begin 10 emerge, nnd pe<.>ple usU11lly
lil:ln irymg w fa, convert. or ch3.0gc each Other. The rc:sulltn!l
rcscnnnent llild nngcr. nobody likes being "faro"· des1ro>s nny
feeltngs of group harmony (illusory as 1hcy may h;i\ e bet'n). nnd
the group descend~ into confusion nnd "cha()>'".
Then llfter a period of turmoil and soul·sean:hmg. group
members gradually lc:im ·"uh the tacditntors cxcnsion31
guidance • 10 let go or lhcir prcconcc1vcd 1de:i~. expccunons, IUld
pcrsonal agendas. They begin 10 emp1y themselves of these
b.'lrriers and blocks, which have kept them lt:cling ~p!lr.lte :ind
un:lble 10 Just be tlrere with the others. Thh cmpcying process cnn
be d1fl icult and painful . but on the other side of this "valley ot
the: shadow of death" lies the cxpc;ncncc or Peace. ot JUSt Being.
,1nd listening, and sharing m co11unun11y ·an CKpenence that
seems to eocomp3Ss all oppo~itcs and embraces joy and sorro''.
nll kind) of religious ei1pn:ss1on anJ 11thtism. activity and
rcccpu-.ity, love and feat. Although a panicubr group m3Y noc
rellCh a sustained c~pericncc of genuine community (qwic ~!ten.
groups tend to re' en b3clc 10 cha()) 11ntl/or pseudo-community
~incc these modes ol rc:bung 11re more familiar and, in a sense.
~fer· though not really), every group goe.1. throug~ an emptying
process and at least touches on, or Wp!> into, the Bemgncss of
commum1y. ( Having auended one of thei.c v.eckcnd worhbops,
thi' "ritcr can auesl 10 the :iccur:icy of 1he abc)\'e dcscripuon I
Xa1uiU1 Journn! pCUJC 2·1
"Through 1he power of gewune
commzmity, "e 1ccl to offer opportumries
for peopfo 10 brufgc tliffcrc11ces mid
reco11cilc c·miflzcts u uh a11thr11ucit) anc/
111tegrity "
ln :idd111on to 1has pnnury fe>..--us, FCE 1s alw m the
process of elp:uuimg its focus on comm11nily 11etworbng nnJ
refcrra.I servu:c:s. The gwl 1s to pre.wide n~sht11Kc and d1ra
"t1on
for people v. ho an: seeking to lmk up wtth other; for a ~ctlic
purpose, or arc 1C:UChing for community organiz.iuons or groups
that c:in asSJSI 1hem m their hc:lling, le:1ming. grov.th, nnd/or
sharing. The unllcrlymg recog11lt1on here IS thM rcr~ "1s not 311
1sol:11ed phenomenon, but nithcr a pan of what might be called
the community movement" • 11 movement initiated by such group~
as Alchoholics Anonymous nnd ib t\\lelve siep program, the
growth of social :tc1ion groups, and the women's movement.
l'CE i~ thu~ engaged 1n su:ad1ly bu1ld1ng new links· and
sm:nglhcnlng e)tl,Ung ones· in the hv1ng mterconncctcd chllin of
community "·hic.h may prove to be.-, m truth, our s;ilvauon.
For funhcr mform.1uon about FCE
and its umnnunuy Building Wort..~hops, cont.1ct:
The Fouo<hltion for Community
Encuun1gemenl, Inc:.
7616 Glc:iwn Road
KnO%\ille, T~ 379l9
-~
(615) 690-43~
p ·
Summtr. t 989
�We had some visitors from
the Soviet Union. They wanted to make
friends with us. We wanted
to understand them... Crystal
Peace means that
I am loved ...Alyson
from a drawing by Alyson and Crystal
Peace is love
peace is caring
peace is sharing.
If I didn't have any
peace,
it wouldn't
be any peace in my
heart .......... Beth
1
I
Peace means to be
a friend to me
Peace means to be
kind to others
Peace means to be
nice to others
Peace means
harmony to me ....Virg1
nia
Peace is like
Flying in
The sky ........Justin
Peace means not
hurting animals.... Sefton
Peace
is loveing
and harmony and
careing for others
and animals.
I love cats........Star
These are some respo11ses w the l.lhat. ls Pce1ce?
Coruest held ar Aslievil/e Altemarive School, an
experimental public school in Asheville, Nc>rtlr Carolina.
Organized Olld compiled by Abby Bird. age 11
Kstuah's Cliildre11's Page Editor
l<.At1.1uf1 )01.lT!'lUt p!UJ~ 25
from a drawing by Virginia
Summc.r. 1Q89
j
�TIP/ F.ROS
Your womb wraps around me,
encloses II.lid holds and keeps me,
nnJ lets me come
nnd co. in and out.
DRUMMING
Gomg out, away from your bcanh,.)our embrace
I JOumcy 1n ecstasy, and I live in p;im.
lETIE RS TO Kt\ TUi\H
I am Earth walking on Earth, worlds I am
or micro :ind rtl3CTO cosmos. wali.ing through.
I glimpse the dn:3m - enthralled. in awe. 1n rapture •
then lose 11.~aod wander about. .. lost
in Isolauon - desolation - despair.
Dear Katuah,
L011JS OF Tiil! HEART:
Coming soon to a mounuun valley near
you - 8.6 billion dollars worth of road
consuuc1ion. Thats right, Nonh Carolina
Governor Jim M.utin wants all of his c11iunry co
be within 10 mile$ of a four·hnc wpcrh1ghw:1y,
and. 1f by chance you're hindered by a du!>ty ol'
travel road - don't worry - he want) to pave
those, 100. Access 1s but a n1ckel·a·gallon
g:u-tu increase away, so h11 saving North
Carolina's reputation as a ·good roads for
progre~ sta1e• is a freebie.
Say you're not sure about all th1\'>?
Ughtcn up. Those who ~tanJ 10 profit the most
politically and financs:illy (our mayors, our
county comnuu1oncrs, and the independent
Chambers of Commerce) have been lobbying
your state legisl310~ to push h:ud for the
passage of the new slllle •Transponauon
Improvement Plan (TIP)."
Why, shoot, 11's already p:issed the
Uouse and with :ill the hand shakm' and back
~lappin' between this country club governor and
the aforc·mcnuoncd 5pccial 1111en:,ts. the Senate
will surely figure that the: whole \Hile i~ bclund
TIP,
Slow down? Come oft 1t. Secretary of
Tran5portation Jim llumngton and h1' \hop arc
alrc;idy two Mcp:. ahtlld. Not only dOC$ he kno~
the governor personally. but he's had m:ips
pn:pmd that will prevent confusion 1 the lcx:il
dcclston-m:lling level. :o;o need to worry about
\\'ho's gomg where \\ith this TIP!
So, \\Ith this much 1ns1ght into )Our
future. don t lose another nlght s sleep Raleigh
lus once again grasped the moment and fulffiled
our needs: our need for a hl&h gas w; our need
for greater DCCeSS for more and mon: outlandCIS;
our need for mon: highway traft11c, Including
hazMdous waste b~ed ea.~t. and our need for
increased development prenurcs along sull
unpubllcir.cd hii;hway comdors.
Why, r.hoot, there's no need 10 fuss' r.;o
need 10 look ror a bus' C1vthwion rn all ih
urb:ln glory v.ill soon be as close as the nc:1:1
ex11. Your Valley, KAtlWI Province, Southcm
Appalachb. USA.
01' Rl1Stus
Kutw1h )ourn"t p119e 211
To go naked on thh ~.
To m3kc a soft bed
In the fragrance of pmc needles
To open an eye
To the d.uk cool of night
And the brilliance of ~13.J"5
To "'-:ilk m the sun's cares:.
On bare ~houldcr.t.
To cat wild strawberries
And golden com.
To drink
Of pure, cold mounun stre~.
And bathe tn tumbling occ:ms.
To wau:h and wonder.
To be a pan of this hvmg E:i.nh.
So v.hy
Do I measure out my hfc
Jn shOpPmg malls anJ ban~
Jn hosp11..tls and cars
And air-conditioning,
Jn the v1olcncc ol ciucs '!
The wisdom or 1hc uboriginc,
The Pcn:in, the Kuna, the llopr.
• ,\fury d~ /,a \'ulet1t:
Government
lsnnold nun
Onhts knee,:,
With dry, shn~ cited bps
Then I enter you again:
I come in.•.seeking... nccding
your c:mbrncc,
renewal-rcdi:.covcry-rebinh.
Your womb encloses me, holds me tight,
indulges me in bliss. in sleep, in
cirummg I awake still within you,
lounge !>wec1 moments in between,
then slip OUI of you i;emly, bravely then 10 face·
perhaps cmbnce - the new light
- ktnr
Dear Ka11Wl.
Ple:ise include my name on your m3iling
hst for the • Biorcgional Journal of lite Southern
Appalachians." I am a firm ?el1~ver 1n
bioregionnli:.m and hope that by JOmrng your
cnu~e that I can help deliver a message that so
urgently needs to be heard.
I um n graduate from Texas A&M
Un1vem1y with a degree in Forc~try and I am
currcntly a member of the Green Party. I would
hkc 10 sum a correspondence with other
concerned pcnons living in the Asheville area,
and tf 1 can be of any assistance to your
orgnm1.:111on please let me know.
Sincerely,
, W. Eric Becker
7408 LunilllS Lane (1132)
Pcrry~rg. OH 43SS1
Rcce~scd
To R:\'e.tl thc roots of h1~ teeth.
He kneels
At the hc:Jld 01 some SU!Jl'S
Which lc:id up to a place or sancwary
And sells wind up sold1cn
To a young boy
Bothcm:I by the old nun's
Gummy smile.
• 11111
llouser
C/984
Dear Kaulah,
Sure have missed getting the Kau'i:lh.
Thank you so much ror your enlightened onJ
rn1clhgcnt coverage of our region. Such a
blessed rehcf lrom the nightly news,
newspapers and such. Lo1.-e the idea of cictcndal
wildemcs~ areas. and .,.ouldn"l 11 be neat and
umcly 10 have bicycle and toot paths 10
crisscross all the mt~ ("'here po~blc ?)
Love,
Kalinda Wycoff
Sumrtlct, 19811
�HELLO? HELLOl
Poems
offering
seldom
have I lhought
about
this
by Charles Rampp
begins with M e -
everything
seems
gift
for Me.
enjoyment
but
it
also ends
here
unless We
make
it
rules.
real
I
by
touching
ever so gently
its
opposites.
harmless
sparks
matches
fingers'
air grip and l'rn
dancing
light ,
joyous.
to see that we nre doing an issue on Peace what it means and w~t ii can mean. 1
would like to add a note of tl1anks to all the
people who have resisted the contagious call
to wnr most dirc4ldy by not becoming
soldiers. Either by doing an Alternative
Service to military "service". by deciding to
dissociate from military "service" while in
it, or.refusing 10 panicipate with it in any
way 10 the first pince, Conscientious
Objectors deserve a song of gratitude wbich
springs from some of the deep, moving
pools of integrity that can flow from the
human psyche.
If an individual hears from an inner
voice that "militarism is wrong" or that it
"denies the sacredness of life" or "the
enemy is us" or "violence begets violence"
and acts on this voice by doing nothing, or
not participating in the further disruption of
life, or by doing something to try, beyond
violence, to change the medium of forces
that createS the disruption - perhaps, we are
permitting oun;elves to accept responsiblity
for tlte horrors we have made for each other
and allow conflict resolution to happen. Too
often we have let the chaos of wnr, or
suspected war, determine the rest of the
pauem for human and non-human being.
There is also a sea of great sorrow to
be recognized for the many people who
have died in the ebb of violent authority and
its many manifestations. Those who hnve
protested or objec1ed to brutality ll!'ld
discrimination and come to futal blows with
ils way, the innocem who have been killed,
and the unconscionable wru.te of human life
to attempt to prove group or individual
power all have something to teach us: we
are coming to a climax ns a species. from
which we must find decisive ways of social
order that acknowledge diversity.
symbiosis, ond the human shadow as
panners within the biosphe~ and ii:;
1en11city.
- Rob Messick of Peace First!
•
Oy,
cold
,whisking
light's
compassionate malh
like
a matador"s
cloak
across
a turtle's
nose
It is a joy ...
Summu, 1989
IN o. WC>l"k:I \~v.£.-lo QJT LAW
u.>o.r,-t.o rv'\QM. pto..cd'
peace
lntely.
suddenly My
hand
finds
emptyness in pockets
\
If +hut. 1$ Q.""i ONt. LE.ft A LIV£'
ID LtKE tc u.ntu wt*.h ~
To Lhe &iitors:
.In reac~ion to Exxon's role in the recent
oil spill, I d~cadcd to return my credit cards and
to. boycott JtS products. J run hoping that this
might become a mass tactic if enough consumers
~ill ~~ow ,th.c~r rejection of corporate
111sens1uv11y by JOming.
Enclosed is my letter 10 the president of
Exxon.
For ecological snn11y,
rreside111.
Daniel Gruham
Ex.xnn Company
Chapel Hill, NC
M.Qma 's SoNiJ
.
P.O. 80:1: I 322
llou.sron. TX 77251
Cl!orl..es of Zacfu:.rlJ movi."'} f o nvard. lnto raln ,
stn9ln9 cta.morol.ls marches of oCcf. hu0\1S,
a nc! thunder i;rl.es 0 1.lL n&r tra9tca£ name
wni!~ lM drops p ta.IJ a j anci.f uC LUM ,
a nd fuird. they com e down to JaU. upon u s aCC w asps anc! mop~s .
c!andcli.ons , d.ai.s i4:S,
tetri.ers , t4b&i.es, &ws, co1vs, f;eans ,
otd. roof s, odd. st.ones, a ncl you!
Get w e&., my son,
I had bun looking forward 10 rtuiving my
E:uon credit cord, l>ur ofter rhe slwmrfu/ way :f(>Uf
company ucred in tltt u cenr oil spill. I co11 M longer
acctpr ii . It lws becomr: r/cal' from \larlous m:wJ uport.,
1/uu
company was not rtady for o spill thr.f JIU, an.I
/uu cut bad on vuaf emergency plans, This 1111111
disregard fur l>/J/' comuwn licrirwgt is poor c111rr:nship
and 1/are111e1u rlre frog1lt lltl.tJSl<:m iLwlf.
I am returning my cudir curds aJ11.l 1<ilt urge 1lll
my ftithds and organua110MI t ontcurs to do till' same
1U11il your comp1111y realius that 1hr comnwn gtiod of tht
planet i.s much more 1mponan1 1l:m1 the rlror1-1crm
prr.'fits t{ your l.QtporUJwn
)'<I'"
f i.nd JOY i.n the downpo ur I
tkaven s:ends iL, ca.rt.Si n:cc~ves U.,
so w a c!r Lnfl. LL, w ash uur &ocCLe$,
quench our s plrHs, and. &y the 9L 9, tt.ve.
vi.n
GeL Lir~. m y d.or(lnCJ. a nd keep LL wLth
you Ln l.M dri.u wtUU:rm:ss of C19e.
a rcmcm&ue.c! surnm u·s 1£ci11 w hen you were
Le•~ ancL w l th you r rtothu and she saM!, "Yi.sl"
llo ouL and. pta.y W\ a.he r a\.n, ln a spouL
of Ci£luld. 9Cor 1J thaL f or9Lv"5 our sl u&&ornesio.
Say "Ycsl- . ~r Zac:fmr 11,
us you S~"'J yo'4r warn.or 's SOnlJ•
sa11 ··yes!" a nd "Yi:sl ~ C19uin.
M1gh1y smuuly,
(.flgn~)
- 1'Lcf.anl• Bridl)~
Drawing on tins page by MIOILina Herring, drawmg on prcc;cdtn& poac by Chll<ld
Hugey. Both for ·v,.,ons of Pc.ooio" con'"'- Jackson County p......, Nc1..,01k.
Kutuah )ou.rna.t pa9.; 27
�eveors
JUNE
18
FRANKLIN, NC
Oury Bonnelle specking on •The
Ascension Principle.• Mounuun l.igbl Network. 2 pm Dl
M:icoo Community Ccnlet. Hwy. 441. For more info.
call: (40l) 746-2454
llOT SPRJNGS, NC
'Wind Swirls lhc Low.~ l...cuvcs: 1':u Chi
lnterptay• with J11y Dunbar and K3Lhlecn Cu!rick.
Exercises for mdividuals nod partn¢rs m r11i Chi Ch'Ullll,
a Chlne:ic mn11inl Ml end moving mcduallon. No
experience, no pnnncr needed Prc-regisicr. SOO. Soullicm
Dharmo Rcll'Clll Ccn1a, see 6(.30.7(1.
21·23
HIGHLANDS, NC
Workshop, •Techniques for Nature
Phoiograophcrs" with Gil Leebrick. Bm Len. wildlife
photographer, and bomnist Sill Wylde. S250 includes
accommodations. Appalachian Environmenl!ll Ans
Center. Box S80: Highlands. NC 28741 (704) .526-4303.
26-30
GOODE, VA
Chllnnnel Mel&Y at vortexes 1111d sacred
sites in the northern Blue R1dic w11h Rev. Daniel
Chesbro, Tom Williams. Pilot MounLllin, Peaks ol
OllCr, New River, Fairy Stone Parl.. "lmportnnl work
ioward cxp:inding lhc Light." Confon:n.::e, lodging S225.
Pre-register. Rt. I, Box 310·A: Goode. VA 24556
'30-7n
26-30
21·25
HOT SPRINGS, NC
·seven Day Zen Soul Recharge• with
Sandy Oentai Stewurt. abbot of Squifrel M1'n. Zcndo,
Piusboro, NC. Prc·regrsu:r: S 160. S1;>u1hern Dbarma
Retre111 Cenicr: RL 1. B()lt 34-H: HOt Springs, NC
28743.
HI G ll l.AN DS, NC
"Landscape Pho1ogrnphy m 1hc Blue
Ridge." large f01tOa1 camera workshop with 0111.c.ebrick
:md Sllln Tomi la. S2SO. See 6'21-25.
28-30
HOT SPRl NGS , NC
Vipass:ano Mcditntion with Cirol Wilson
Pre.register: S70. Southern Dhnrma Rc1rt:at CcnLCr, see
6/30..7fl.
JULY
ASli EVlLLE, NC
"Mounlllin Sweet Talk; a 1wo-ac1 play
fe:uuring The Folktellcrs, Barbara Freeman am.I Connie
Rcg:lln·Bhuce. The play feriturcs stories and music of
Appalachia presented by two very accomphshcd
pcrfom1ers. 8 pm ThUl'Sll:iys through S:uurdays. 3 pm
Sundays a1 lhc Folk An Center Theatre, caM of
A!ihevillc. milepost 382 on lhe Blue Ridge Parkway.
Ticket\ SlO, S8 in advance at MalJprop's.
l-8/13
6-8
LINVILLE, NC
J41h Annual Grundfother Mountain
Highhmd Games. Piping and drumming, lhghland
dancing. S~ottish alhlctic$. harp, fiddle. tr:lCk and field,
ttilidh For more info, wrilC Grnndfa1hcr Mounw.in; Bo"
128; Linville. NC 28646
7-9
NEW MARKF.'r, 1 N
STP (Slop the Poisoning) School uL the
H1ghland.:t CcnlA:f. Tactics. strJlcgy, 1111d nc:twurkini; for
lh05e wocking LO stop industrial polluoon. Prc-rcg1su:r.
C:!ll Highlandu 01 C6JS) 933·3443.
12-16
lll Ci ll l.Al'\OS, 'llC
"Edible V1s1ons· worksho11 un food
pl101ogniphy. Wild foods lor:ig1ng. Mllrlha Strawn. Head
of Phologr.1phy. UNC·ChJrluuc. S250 Sec 6/21-~5.
19.23
lllGHLANDS, !\C
"l.lllld 3nd l'cuplo: A Dcs1g" AppnXll:h•
pho1ogm11h> worl.slmp wi1h Jay Dus:ird S2!i0. See
W.Zl-25.
~•Luuh
)ounmt
JHlfJC
28
AUGUST
llOT SPR INGS. NC
Vipassano McdiLJtion with John OrT.
Prc·registcr: S60. Soulihlm Dhnrmn Rcttc:it Center, s.:c
6/30-?n.
4-6
LAUR INUURG, NC
The Summer lnsu1u1c on ·Tc:iching
ConOict Resolution. sponsored by Ptofcssional
D<l"clopmcnl Team. "Conflict i.s fXl" of living /1 can /Nd
IQ ~10/mu and ck11ruc11on Or, 1hrougl1 rraming and
pracuu, -..·~can /tarn IQ wtluc conf/ir1 as an opportumty
for clwngt and i:ro-..ith." S:J.10 1ncludcs room and
tioard.Wrnc to: NCCPE/NC-ESR. 214 Piiuboro St..
Ch:lpcl Htll, NC 27516.
Dr:iwing by Rob Messick
WAYNESVI LLE, NC
·Techniques
for
P-crso"nl
Sclf·Transfonnntion" with Bing Esaudoro. S1il-l.igh1
Rcucnt Ccn1cr; RL l. Box 32~: Waynesville, NC 28786
(704) 452-4569.
23·27
25-27
NEW MARKET, TN
STP (Stop lbc Pois0ning) School 3t the
Highlander Center. Tactics. str:11cgy. and nc1worklng for
those wor¥ing lO stop mdusltial pollution. .Prc·cegistcr.
Call Highlnndern1 (61S) 933-3443.
HlGHLANDS, NC
•women's Adventure Weekend" •
bnck.·packing, visuati1.0tion. relPation wllh Nnncy
Shaw Discussion; lier Mo1hu·~ Daughter For info,
write The Mount.1in; 841 Hwy 106; H1~hla11ds, NC
28741.
25-27
f>.11
9-13
lllGUl.Al\OS, NC
"Ahcmattvc Londscapc· • pho1egn1phy
wo1kshop with M;anlyn Bridges. author/photogr.apbct of
Morlm1gs: AeTlal t'ic11 $ oj Sar.red lAndscupa.
Tran~cending the u~u:il w;iy of pcri:civing the
environment IO :irrwe aJ new way$ UJ whicli 10 view the
Earth. S250. See 6121-2S.
18·20
uo·r
SPRl ... GS. NC
Three I.ilks on "Zen and Western
Philosophy" by l..ou f'ior.h1rom. PhD. ord;uncd Ztn
monk formerly wi1h the Ztn C"111m11n1I) ol NY
l'rc·rcgutcr: S.7.5. S ;u1hc:1n l>hQrll\ll Rc1rca1 Ccnttr. $<.'C
fi/30-7(1.
SEPTEMBER
1-4
ll OT SPRINGS, NC
Mindfulnc~s Mcdiution and Everyday
Life: Rclntionships and SeAualily wilh Sui;an
AugcMtcin. "MinJ/Mfncs, m~diturion endbl~s u..• to src
life IJJ II (ICllUJl/y is Ill ,,, IOtality • Ptc-rcgi~ti:r: 590.
Southern OharmJ Rcirc.a1 Center, sec 6/30-7n.
1.5·17
WAYM-.SVI LLE. "C
Thc Pr.ii;11cc of ·n1Ct:1pcutic Touch" with SuL1
Ccrmak1~. S11l-Ught Rc11ca1 Center: Rt. I. Box 326:
Wa)111:svillc. NC 28786 (70-IJ .!52-4569.
0
1'1·'22
,\Slll,VILl.1~,
NC
tn1crn11tu>n,1t C1111fu, nu en l'mlcways,
Gr(tntH1J1. or.ii R1vcr..c1ys l lit 11'.-v \fort Btriu11jul
llihon Inn f're·regmrauon r~q111rcJ fill more mfo, Cllll
t\pp::il;1,h1an Con~nau1n ('7Qel) 2C.2·2CJ6.$.
Su1111nc1, 191}9
�~Water Sys1em1
WATER PURIFICATION EQUIPMENT
SOLAR PRODUCTS
Mamber NC Waler Ouallly As50C1a11on
HWY 107
RANDAL!. C LANIER
RT 68 BOX 125
704·293-5912
CULLOWHEE, NC 28723
(704) 26+-7242
31 S E. King Street, Boone NC 28607
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-'-~~~~
Clti11ue "''11p1111ct11re
DESIGNS
b~
"'
n t:D'LC'LN'.E A.LL'L'.ES
Jlerllgiglll Cli11it
Rob :'.. l~s~ic k
lllustmlion & Dt>~1~n
in Pen & Ink and color«< l Pc·n•il
Mil llARY
RADIOACI IVE
LANDFILLS
This c1l11<•n g111dt• I~ 1h1 htst compl"l'hcrwve
wn cy ol tht rud1<>il(Cb\·c (ontaminallon •••used b>
th' pn>du<l1<>n .,1 m1dl'1r ''"~P•ln'
Vr1111/y Urfrnst nplJms h<Jw nu<l.:Jr weapoM
4t< madl' hl1W rddh»lrh\'<.' "'~''" '' gt·1wra11-d, Jnd
whl'rc lhl' ronlJm1nJtl1111 I• >prc,1d1ng; the 16
pnnMn nudcar \\ ,)..trcm-.. JJi.,litic,. •re ,•x.01m1rh..J tn
•
d1•t.11I
In dddlunn tu ttu murt· than bO mdP", di.,gr.im'
phoh._, and 1o1bl1» In th1~ li't}.p.1gcbt1<.1lo., t>Mh 11r.:kr
".l«ompan11"ll "' a dr.1ma11c ~-«ulur II" 22 m.tp
shl1wtni; lran•p.. r1,111t111 mu It's u<t.J in lh•• m.111Ufo(·
tu r, u1 nucl"·.u \\ .:apon'
To ordt•r, >•.'0•1 :>I~ lo L•lt•r.ilurt· Pepi , K.1d10.I•
W,,_t, ( ollllj'.llJlll,
N'"' Y<or~ , ='' IXll2
Ill,.
!>~5
llJ'UJd\\'d\ , 2nd floor
"''-=....
.=..,~
'I
I~
~~ BARE.ESSENTIALS :J
....
Natural Foods
....
Organic Produce
Biodegradable Diapers
•: Bulk Herbs, Spices, & Grains :.
Vitamins & Supplements
Wheat, Salt,
& Yeast-Free Foods
Dairy Substitutes
•: H air & Skin Care Products :.
lu 200 West Kini! Street. Boone NC 28607 Ill
~ \....
~~"="
704-264-5220
~·
In 1bc 11adiuonal Cherokee Indian belief, the
cremurcs in the world 1odny an: only diminuiuvc fonns of
the mythic beings who once inhabilcd the world. but
who now re$idc in Galuna'li, the spirit world, the hlghCSl
hca~cn. Bui a few of the original powers broke lhrough
lhe spirilU31 bamcr and .:itlSI yet ln lhe world as we know
•L These beings 111e c:lllcd wilh revcn:nce "grundfathc.rs"
And of 1hcm. the suongcst 111c KQl\Qti. the lighllling, the
power of the sky; Uis:i'na1i, I.he raulesnake. who
personifies the power or the earth plane; and Yunwi Usdi,
"the liule mnn", as ginseng is culled in the sncnd
ceremonies. whodr.iws up power from lhc underworld.
Each LS the sllongest power m its own domwn.
Togclhcr they arc :iUics: their cncrg.ies complement each
other to ronn an even grca1tr power. As medicine allies,
they repl'\!SCnt the healing pQwcrs or the Appalnehian
Mount:iios.
The medicine powers of K!!ltiilh have bctn
depicted m 11 striking T-shirt design by Ibby Kenna.
Printed in 4-color silkscreen by Ridgcrunner Naturals on
top quality. all-couon shins, they~ &\·ailnble now in
311 odu.11 si1.cs through the Kalanu bio.regioWll mall-order
supplier.
Onler shirlS from: KRL RNU
Box 282: Sylv;:i, NC
Ka1Uah Province 28779
Plc:ise specify ~1.e: Sm., Med., lg., X-Lg.
_J~
Cost: S9.50. 111Cludcs ~ge
(NC raidcna plo:ae .xi S~ ulC$ LU.)
-~~~
'PJ~e,, 'JWJ\!WI 'Naty.r~
KRLANU
T·SHIRTS. SWEATSHIRTS
For ADULTS and CHILDREN
BIOREGIONRL BOOKS
ANO TOOLS FOR LI UING
IN APPALACHIA
ORIGINAL HAND·PRINTED
NAT URE DESIGNS
CALL or WAITE IOI'
FREE COLOR CATALOG
Natural Food Store
& Dell
TI11: bc$t ICJlt on 0.:Cp Ecolo y.
Saacd Land Sncred Sex.
Rapture
160 Bl'OIM1Wsy
Ashevllle, NC 28801
Whef'9 ~ tNeta
t.llrrlmon Ave & J..2«>
or Lbe Deep
by o,iton:s l:lOrnpcllc
wt' ~lror:.Jd bf! glad 1/wrw<' l'.a•cJ uuchcrJ.Judi as
Dolum iAG/iapellt • • Kli!Ual1 J0111ll3112J
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
Monday-s.tulday: llam·Spnt
Soodsy; lpm-Spm
P. Q
S\4rn rner, 1989
S23.00 (l'ricco lncludcsJIOlb£<!)
r.:a
OrJu[rom: KflLRNU
Bo~ 182, s,l•a, NC, KDI~ Pr"'·'nt:"
~'C ,~,,/Lille ..,t,f j~ .~Ja
28189
�DRUMS· Custom handcrafted ctramic dumbccks &;
wooden medicine drums. Call Joe Roberts al (704}
258-1038 or write to: n8 Town Mountain Rd.;
Asheville, NC ~-
ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITY on beautiful land
nc:lf Cherokee, NC scclr.ing families dc.<;iring gr;:41cr
cooperauon and sclf-wfficiency. Based on Spiriwal
and ccolog1cal values. Propcny now av:iilablc. Call
(404) 778-8754 ror info.
Tht
NatiqnQ/
Dlrtclor;y of Hollmc
Practi1ion.tr1. llt!oltrs, Schools. Centers, and
Rttrc.its is looking for listings. Make your skills
nv:ulablc. Prices and more info on re11uc~t: MichJcl
Rosenblum: The Notional Directory.... ; P.O. BoA
I'.!733; GaincsviUe, FL 32604
FOREST BIOLOGIST • PhD. to teach
corw:rv:ulon, pllllll i.:u<onomy, gcncrlll biology,
wpcrvisc work crew (studenlS) m mo.nugemcn1 of
600 acres of college foco:i;L Rescarclt with undergrads
encouraged Send resumt io: V. Collins: W11rren
Wilson College: 701 W11min Wilson Rd.:
Swannanoo. NC 28n8
THE VITAL CONNECTION
WANTED. LANO in We$tem NC. Family seeks 5
or more acres. preferably ni:ar Cullowhcc, m
preserve :uid eventually inhabit If you have or know
of al!ord:iblc lmld, con1ac1 Bob wid Mary 0Jvis; 213
Wcsunoreland Ct.; Ccorgetown, KY 40324 (502)
863-4267
Long Bn1nch
Center needs
~olurucctS{mtcrns 10 help w1111 orc:h:1rds. gllrdens,
farmwock, rainbow trou1, cncrgy-cfficienl bwlding,
cnvironmenuiVwiJdlifc/pcrmacuhure issues nnd
orgamring. Room and board negoti3ble. Paul
Gallimore: LBEEC; Rt. 2. Box 132; Lcic;c:;ter, NC
28748
rituals, roles, :ind relationships from I.he on:hctypul
memory of the pnst., present, and future. S3 to
Colleen Redman: One Song Scribe; l;loic 634;
Floyd, VA 2A091.
M. TREE DESIGNS:
lllustrauo11~
and
Dc~ign
•
Beyond the p:ige> of I.his JOU!nill, J worJ. m pencil,
colored pencil. ink, cul p3pcr, uml batik. Fine and
graphic :ut IO express and enhance nur lives. Logcx,
brochures, book.,, portraiture, window :md wall
h:ingings. Contact Manha Tree (70-1) 754-«>97.
SUMMER CAMP· June 19·30, ages 6-10; Jul)'
1(}.22. ngus 11+ in th~ mounwms o{ MaJ1"°n Co..
NC. Raising the ccolog1Clll consc1ousncss or ruiurc
gcncr:mons. For info, wnlC: John or Dory Brown;
RL I, Boir. 84·B: HOI Springs, NC 28743.
ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITY m lhe Smoky
Mt'nt. of east TN. 10 acres wi1h creek. springs,
views, good nc1ghbor$. Be 11 p-.irt for S8500. Dill
Leslie (615) 4S3· IS38.
STIL·LICHT THEOSOPHICAL RETREAT
CENTER • a quic1 space for Jll!tSonnl mcdi1111ion,
group inu:rocuon lhrough study, and communit)·
work. and ~-pirituul semlll!ln>. Contacl l..eQn Fcankcl;
RL I, Box 326: W11> oesvillc, NC 28786.
ECO-HELP NEEDED
Environmental Educa11on
Tl/£ PEOPLE OF Tl/£ ONE SONG • booklet or
SlOrieS and poems that tell or the people's dreams,
EUSTACE CONWAY· Guide and teacher or
primiuve E:uth Skills with emph:isis on fire
building, ludo tanning. ~helter, nnd foraging. He
lenchcs at 11ubhc schools, park~. c:nv1ronmcnwl
centers. and classes or ntl kinds. For more
1nfom13ll0l'I contact him ill: 602 Deerwood Drive,
G:i."lonia, NC 280114 or c:n1I Allcin St:llllcy :it (704)
872-7972
ADVENTURE FOODS • dehydrated foods for
people who work or play 1n 1he groat ouldoors.
Entree> and Jide dtsli~. Send for menu and prices.
Jemi's O:irden Greats: tu. 2, Box 276; WhittiC!l", NC
28789 (7CV.) 497..4113.
MOTHER'S BREATH HERBAL PRODUCTS high quali1y herbal cxll'tlcis. ointments, and oils,
lovingly created. Send for free brochure 10 Rt. 2,
Box 251: Vila.~. NC 28692
JOURNEY INTO THE SUCK.ROCK Wilderness
Arca. Boy~. fo1.her-son, rau1cr-<bughiu ellpcditions.
Learn obscJValJOll and woodcraft in the deep woods.
Burt Kornegay, C><pcricnced guide. Slickrock
Expeditions; Box 1214; Cullowhcc, NC 28723.
MOON DANCE PARM HERBALS· herbal salve.~.
tincture~ . .t oils for birthing &; family health. Rlr
brochure, plea~ write: Moon Dance F31m; Rt I,
Box 726: H.lmpt0n, TN 37658
FEEL EARTH beneath yoor feet - wear moccasins.
Custom, r.mdilion:ll Plains lndlan style of ellcskin.
S50 adull: S35 chlldtcn; SIS baby. Send foet tracing
to: P<1tricl Clark.: 47 Panol:i: Asheville.. NC 28801
or co.II 2S t !!250.
ADOPT-A· TREE. Trees are the gte:lt consc.rY!ltors
of the pllntL The Adopt-A·Tree program will bc:lp
mnkc the viUll connection ~wC(ll individual people
and mdividwl ttccs. Don:itioru acccpied. For more
mfo, wnte to Box 144. Sugar Grove, NC 28679
SKINFOODS • fresh. hund-mado herbal skin
prcp;u-:uions a1 to:01$0nable prlc~ Send for price lbt:
106 E. Main St.: John~ City TN 37601
LEAD TESTS • h yuur plumbtng leaching
IClld into )"Our dnnlingwal.C'r? Find out
for sure • lcad·testing Int from the non-profit Clean
W::ucr F~nd or NC. All you nc.;J for 512. Send a
check w/ nJmc and address to CWF; 138 E.
Chcstnul SL: Asheville, NC 28801
poisonou~
HAND-CARVED WOODSPIRITS, mystical
hilung staffs, ;ind w:tll hangings by St.eve DullClln.
For br«hurt, plca.-;c write Wb1ppoorw11l Studio;
Rt 4, Box 981; Marion, NC 28752.
FOUR WINOS VILLAGE • health and sp1t11ual
rctre11t: home for chd.Jren m need. For VlSiting mfo..
write· Box 112; Tiger~ CA 30S76.
ORGANIC FERTILIZERS. herbs, and
organiClllly-gruwn. IDC:il produce 31 the WNC
Farmc~· ~1.id:ct! Look for the Fairgkn Farms sun,
uniL~ F and C 1n the wholc-<ak area ol lhc Farmrrs'
M;irket: 570 Brevard Rd.~ A~hcvillc, NC (70.l)
252-4414
NEEDED: CHILO-LOVING PERSON who loves
lO cook to be a nanny and housekeeper for my four
children. Hows, wages neg01iable. Rm. t1nd bd.
available. Asheville are<1. Cnll Morgan (704)
689-5382.
RM DESIGNS · I use the media or pencils. colored
gou::iche. pen and ink, and photography m
cre:itmg unique line :md grnphic nn I cnn make
di11gr:1111~. logo!<, fini~hcd prints, nnd dei;igns ror
brochures, <:alcndcrs. cards, book.$. eic. Mandal!ll nnd
symbuls nre my tendency among OLhcr s1ylcs.
Contacl Rob Mess1rlc (704) 7>1-6097.
pencil~.
ARTS CAMP • nn intcgrutcd ;in c~p¢ricncc for
cluldrcn 4-14 at Marshall Primary School monungs.
Chiltlrcn's Ans tn lhc MounuuJl.'I. For schcdul~ mro.
call BclSCy StllQChaJ ut {70-1) 689-4699 or El11..:ibcUI
Roberts :u (70l) 2S!l-8647.
EARTH REACH EDUCATION ASSOCIA TIOI'
ltJching prin1111ve skills to c.bildNn and adulLS.
Robert Marun, Jr. 11nd Jeanne Moore: Rt. I, Box
178-A: Fcrrum, VA 24088.
GREENS BIBLIOGRAPHY over 800 entries on
tho: intcmimonol Green pntt.ies 11nd movcmcru. SS
{domcst", include! postage) w J;iy Michael Ochs:
443 Mnrkc1 SL: Williamspon. PA 17701.
WE.BWORKING 1~ tree. Sent.I submissions Ul:
Kotc<ah Journal
P.O. Boll 638
Lc1cc.~1cr, NC
Katuah Province 28748
Si.unmt:r. 1989
�The KatUtih Journal wants 10 communica1c your thoughts and
feelings 10 the other people in the bioregional province. Send them
10 us as letters, poems, stories, anicles. drawings, or pho1ographs,
etc. Please send your contributions to us at: KatUah Journal; P. 0.
Box 638: Leicester, NC: Katuah Province 28748.
ISSUE THREE- SPRING 1984
Siutainabl4 Agricul1111c. Sunnowcts • Human
lmp•cl on th1t Forc!l'.I - Childrcns' Edue&1lon
Veronica Nicholu:Wonum in Politics • Uulc
People-Medicine Allies
Wild habitat is disappearing. The wild creatures are
disappearing and wilJ be gone unless brave humans Ulke note and
act. The imponance of habitat to biodiversity and the effect of
human beings on the natuml systems in Southern Appalachia will
be the topic of the foll issue of the KatUah Journal. For aUthings
wild!
Topics for funher issues include Children; Wellness; and
Crealing Nurturing Cultures. Please send ideas, suggestions,
anwork, and possible anicles on these and other subjects.
BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH AVAILABLE
ISSUE SIXTEEN· Swnmcr 1987
Helen Wal10 • Poem: Vls1ons in a Oudcn •
Virion Qucn • Fini Flow • lnilutlon Lctmina in !he Wilderness • Chciolcec
Challcngi: - -Valuing Tn:ca"
~LJAH JOURNAL
ISSUE FOUR SUMMER 1984
ISSUE El<lHTESN - Winier 1987-88
Water Dnlm Water Quality • Kudzu . Sow
Ech!'S¢ . Cl411'CU1ting Trout - Ooing to Wallu
Ram Pwnps • MictQhydro · Poems: Bcnrut
lee Sinclair. Jim Wayne Millet
Vc:mamJlu Aichiiecllll1' DrCfnU m Wood and
Stone - Mouniam Home Earth Energies
EanJt.Shcllered Llving • Membrane Houses
Brush Sheller • Poems: Octoll£r Ou•k • Oood
Mcdlcinc: "Shella"
lSSUE FIVE FALL 1984
IUNefl . OW Ways in Chctolcec - Oinscng 'luclcill' Waste • Our Celtic Heritage •
Biorcgionalism: Past, Prcunt, and Futuro •
John Wilnoty • Hc31ing Dllllcncss - Politiei of
ISSUE NINETEEN · Spring. 1988
Pcrlcaodra C.nlen • Spring Toma Blucbcrrics
WiWOowcr Gardens - Cranny Hi:rbalin •
Flower Es~ -rbc Origin of 11¥: Animols·
Stary Oood Mcdlcme. "Po,,.ct" Be ATn:e
ParucipnllOn
ISSUE SIX· WINTER 19114-SS
Winier Solstice Eanh C=rnony • Ho11Cp3S1111c
R1vcT Coming ol the Ught - Lo11 c.hin
Rooca - Mountain Agra.:ul1urc: The Righi Crop
WiUiAm Taylor The Fuwr" of the F~
ISSUE TWENTY - Summer, 1988
l'racrvc Appa!Khian WI.~ • Hlghbnds
of Roan • ~lo Communuy - Land Trust •
Arthur Morpn School Zonma Luue - '1'bc
Ridge• • Farmers and the Farm Bill . Ooocl
Mi:dicmc: "Land" • Mid Rain Dukc'J Pov.er
PIAy • ChclOk.ec Microhydro Projoct
lSSVE SEVEN · SPRING 1985
Sus1Jlinabl4 Economic$ · Hot Spring$ • Worker
Owncnhip - The Cn:al Eeunomy - S~lf Help
Credit Union • Wild Turby · Responsible
lnvcsung · WQtbng"' tho Web of l..ifo
lSSUE EIGHT · SUMMER 1985
Cclcbnuion: A W~y of Ufc • Kiuuah 18.000
Ycan Ago . SIK"Rd Siles Folk Ans "' the
Schools Sun Cycle/Moon Cycle PO<lllls:
Hilda Downe: - Chcralccc Heri1J1gc Cenlto:f •
Who Owns Appaladua?
ISSUE NINE- FALL 1985
The Waldcc l'orC1t The Trus Spuk Migrating Porests • Horu Logging Swting a
Tree Crop· Urban TYCCS - Acom Bread - .Mylh
ISSUE TWENTY.ONE · FAil. 198ll
Ch4Stnu1.1: A 1'111Ural Histmy • Rt11or1t1g the
Chulnut ·Poem of Prcsctva&IQO and Prai""•
Continuing !he QuCSI • Forests and Wildlife
Cllcsmuu in Reaional Diet
Chu1nut
Re.sources Hotb Note. • Oood Medicine:
•Changes 10 Cmnc" - Review: W/lu41 uimdl
Li~
8IOREGIONAl.J0oRNAl OF ™E SOUTMERll APPA~IAN$
ISSUE ELEVEN SPRINO 1986
Community Planning • Cities and Ille
Bi.mgional Vision • Recycling . Community
Oindenlna· Flo)'d Counly. VA. Oasohol Two Biorcaional Views Nuclear Supplement
Foar11c 011111C$ - Oood Medicine: Visions
ISSUE FOURTEEN- W1111er 1986-&7
Uoyd Carl Owlc Boogcrs and Mununas - AD
Species Day - Cabin Fever Un1vcrsil)' Homclcu in Ka1uah • HumCl!Ulde Ho1 War.c
Siovcmatcr"1 N11tTa11ve • Cood Mcd1cmc:
lnicnpcc= Communicallon
ISSUETWENTY-'IWO-Wintcr. '88.S9
OlobaJ Wamnng • Fire Thi. Tune Thomu
Bcny on ·sioreaio#J" - Eu1h Ellmi.sc • Kon:
Loy McWhinu An Abundlnceof£mp1incss
L£TS • Chton1clas of Floyd • Dany Wood
lSSUETIURTEEN. Fall 1986
Ccn1er For Awakening- E11Wicth c.Jlm - A
Ocn11., Du.th • Hospice - Emc.11 \foraan •
Dcalin1 Crc•tively with Death • Home Burial
Bo~ • The Wake - The Raven Mocker Wooclslorc and WIWwoods Wi<dcm - Good
Medicine: Thai Sweat Uxfl:"
ISSUE FIFTEEN -Spring 1987
Covcrlets • Wonu.n l'or-CSlct -Susie McMalwl
Midw1(c • Ahemalivc Contraccpuon Bioscxualil}' • Biorcgional1SJJ1 and Women
Ooocl Modicme: MJllriachuial Cultuni • ~
ISSUE TWENTY-TIIR.E.E ·Spring. 1989
Pisgah VUlaac · Plmcl At! - Orccn City Poplar Appeal "Clcu Sky" • "A N"w E.vtl1"
Bbc:lr. Swan - Wild Lovdy Ou-µ • Rov1c:w1:
Soucd Land. Sacud Sa, Ir• "'" - Poem:
truavtes . The a-Chin
T111111
ISSUE TEN - WINTER 1985°86
Kate Roac:s - Circlet of S101111 • ln1cmal
Mythmaltilt& • Hoh•lic Hco.ling on Trial Poems: Sieve Knaulh • MylhiQ PlacC$ • ~
Uk1ena·s Talc - Crysial Magic: •
"On:.mspcaltina-
~U AH JOURNAL
P.O. Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
For more info: call Mamie MuJler (704) 683-1414
Regular Membership........ SlO/yr.
Sponsor.........................$20/yr.
Conmoucor.....................S50/yr.
Name
Address
City
Area Code
Summer, 1989
Enclosed is S
ro give
this ejf an extra bOost
on
State
Phone Number
"Sudden Tmirils"
Zip
l can be a local contact
person for my area
Back Issues
Tssue it __@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue 4# _ @ $2.50 = $_ _
rssue # _@ $2.50 = s__
Issue#_@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue#_@ $2.50 = $ _ _
Complete Se1 (3-1 J , 13-16,
18-23)
@ S35.00 = $_ _
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
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The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
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1983-1993
Format
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journals (periodicals)
Language
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English
Type
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Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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<em>Katúah Journal</em>, Issue 24, Summer 1989
Description
An account of the resource
The twenty-fourth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on peace in the mountains: settling controversies; a look at the Oak Ridge Reservation; and promoting peace through community building. Authors and artists in this issue include: David Wheeler, Judith Hallock, Patrick Clark, Richard Lowenthal, Heather Pittillo, Marnie Muller, Rob Messick, Will Ashe Bason, Marnie Muller, Milo Guthrie, Mary de La Valette, "kent," Jim Houser, Charles Rampp, and Melanie Bridges. <br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1989
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
Deep Listening by David Wheeler.......3<br /><br />Life in Atomic City by Judith Hallock.......5<br /><br />Hiroshima Day 1989.......7<br /><br />Direct Action! by Patrick Clark.......8<br /><br />Planting a Tree of Peace.......9<br /><br />Community Building and Peace by Richard Lowenthal.......10<br /><br />Peacemakers: A Resource Listing.......11<br /><br />Ethnic Survival.......14<br /><br />Black Mountain Pairing Project.......15<br /><br />"Battlesong": A Poem by Heather Pittillo.......16<br /><br />Growing Peace in Cultures by Marnie Muller.......18<br /><br />Review: The Chalice and the Blade.......20<br /><br />Natural World News.......22<br /><br />A Children's Page.......25<br /><br />Drumming.......26<br /><br />Events Calendar.......28<br /><br />Webworking.......30<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
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<em>Katúah Journal</em>, printed by The <em>Waynesville Mountaineer</em> Press
Subject
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Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Peace movements--Appalachian Region, Southern
Community life
Oak Ridge (Tenn.)
Sister Cities
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
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English
Type
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Text
Source
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<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
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<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
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Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
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<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
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PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Children's Page
Community
Ecological Peril
Electric Power Companies
Glossaries
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Katúah
Poems
Politics
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
Recycling
Transportation Issues
Turtle Island
Villages
Water Quality
Western North Carolina Alliance
Women's Issues
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/cbf32695fba405c0cff45e3e9c54db62.pdf
616631b2f61e4f3060a633a13326ea4d
PDF Text
Text
$1.50
ISSUE 25 FALL 1989
.
for all things wild
I
,..
�October 27, 1989
"Restoring Biodiversity in the Southern Appalachians:
A Strategy for Survival"
Owen Conference Center, University of ~orth Carolina Asheville
A major conference bringing together scientists, educators, government land managers,
and conservationists to speak about the condition of the Southern Appalachian habitat and
the necessity to
initiate new programs for habitat
preservation
and restoration to
maintain the
the southern
diversity of life in
mountains.
For more
information
call (704)
251-6441
Registration: $20.00.
October 28
October 28
"Wild
in the Streets:
The Feral Ball "
"For All
Things Wild"
Warren Wilson College
Swannanoa, NC
Issues and strategy
discussion among activists
directed to arrive at means of restoring
biological diversity in the Southern
Appalachian region.
Speakers: Reed Noss, Laura
Jackson, Robert Zahner, Peter Kirby,
Jamie Sayen, David Wheeler. Open
discussion period.
Registration: $5.00. For more info:,
call (704) 298-3325 (Ext. 250).
rock to the music of
Grandmother
and
One Straw
We call upon the spirits of the wild!
Come costumed as one of our native
mountain species - or to express your
own wildest self!
8:00 pm. Location to be announced.
Postage Paid
Bulk Mail
Permit #18
Leicester, NC
28748
P.O. Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
�The Great Forcst ........................... 3
by Sam Gray
Restoring the Old-Growth Forest........5
by Robert 'Zahner
Regional Planning
for Habitat Intcgrity................... 8
by Laura Jackson
A Question o f Value ...................... 10
hy Dm·id Wheeler
Closing the Gate
on Forest Devastation ................ 12
by Anna Muir
Poem: "Sparrow Hawk" ................. 13
by Julia NUlllllJJ/y Duncan
A Place for Bears ......................... 15
An Interview with Dr. Michael Pelton
Poem: "There Fell the Rain Healing" .. 16
by Annelinde Metzner
Eastern Panther, Where Are You?...... 17
by Patrick Clarlr.
Oak Decline ................................ 19
by Hetllher Blair
People and Habitat ........................ 2 1
by Chip Smith and Lee Kinnaird Fawart
Perpetual Wild Sanctuaries ..............23
Natural World News..................... 24
Drumming ................................. 26
Living Green .............................. 29
Baner Fair................................. 30
(Natural) Resources ...................... 31
Events Calendar........................... 32
Webworking ............................... 34
1'"iirt. t 989
To sense what ls happening In the
mountains, we begin by perceiving
the Southern Appalachian region as
an ongoing. functioning. organic
euent. ..within the greater biosphere.
We can then tdenUfy ourselves and
our species In relation to It and sense
our place within Its evolutionary
history and cycles of renewal.
From the perspective of the whole
we are one species among many each \vith its own contribullon to
make. each wilh its own demands for
habitat. When there is a disturbance
in the pattern of the whole. the
effects even tu ally reach every
inhabitant.
Human beings have been here for
very few of the millions of years the
forest has been patiently growing
within a dynamic balance. In recent
times. our perception of these forests
has often lacked wisdom and
humility. resulting In actions
destructive to our home.
We can sense our relationship to
the whole, but we will never be able
to encompass It with our Intellect
alone. We are in it and of it. This Is
the Great Mystery of existence.
Intuitively we can perceive this
Mystery.
We can revere It and
celebrate lt. And by acting tn concert
with the Life cycles, we can come to
know It more fully. This knowing
then leads us to respond.
In thls issue of Katuah. we look at
biodiversity and habitat ln the
Southern Appalachian region and
how they are being disrupted.
Finding out about the current
situation In Katuah prompts us to
acuon--to speak out. protect. restore.
Throughout the articles. it becomes
apparent that to truly understand this
region. we need to experience.
acknowledge, and serve the region as
a whole.
-The Editors
Biodiversity is defined by ecologist Recd Noss llS "a
full complement of the native plant and animal species in
their natural or normal patterns of abundance."
Biodiversity is the foundation of evolution in any
biorcgion.
Habi tat is defined as an interdependent community of
life that supports the various species that live within iL
Habitat is the foundation of biodiversity.
�STAFF THIS ISSUE:
R.ichacd Lowenthal
Christina Morrison
James Rhea
Manha Tree
Rob Messick
Mamie Muller
Chip Smith
David Wheeler
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE:
Scott Bird
Jack Chaney
David Red
Kim Sandland
Heather Blair
Sam Gray
Marsha Ring
Morgan Swann
Thanks as well to Joe and Rhea and the Mountain Garden.
We offer special thanks for the influence of
Grandfather Mountain.
COVER by James Rhea
PUBLISHED BY; Ka11"1h Journal
PRINTED BY; The Waynesville Mountaineer Press
EDITORIAL OFFICE IBJS ISSUE: Globe Valley
W&ITEUS AT:
TELEPHONE;
(704) 683-1414
Katt1ah Journal
Box 638
Leicester, NC
Katuah Province 28748
Diversity is an imponant clement of bioregional ecology, both
nmwaJ and social. In line with this principle. the KatU/Jh Journal lrics
to serve as a forum for the discussion of regional issues. Signed articles
express only the opinion of the authors and are not necessarily the
opinions of lhe Ka1Uah Journal editors or staff.
The Internal Revenue Service has declared KatU/Jh a non-profit
organization under section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. All
contributions to KatU/Jh arc deductible from personal income tax.
'LNVOCA.TWN
Do you think you can take over the universe
and improve it?
I do not believe it can be done.
The universe is sacred. You cannot improve it.
If you try to change it, you will ruin it.
If you try to hold it, you will lose it.
-from imsage 29. Tao Te Ching
attributed to Lao Tzu
™E SOUTHERN APPALACillAN BIOREGION
AND MAJOR EASTERN RIVER SYSTEMS
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
Here in the southern-most heartland of the
Appalachian mountains, the oldest mountain range on
our continent, Turrie Island; a small bur growing
group has begun to take on a sense of responsibility
for the implications of rhar geographical and cultural
heritage. This sense of responsibility centers on the
concept of living within the natural scale and balance
of 1miversal systems and principles.
Within this circle we begin by invoking the
Cherokee name "Kaufoh" as the old/new name for
this area of the mountains and for its journal as well.
The province is indicated by its natural boundaries: the
Roanoke River Valley to the nonh; thefoorhills of the
piedmont area to the east; Yona Mountain and the
Georgia hills to the south; and the Tennessee River
Valley ro the west.
The editorial priorities for us are to co/leer and
disseminate information and energy which pertains
specifically to this region, and to foster the awareness
rhar the land is a living being deserving of our love
and respect. Living in this manner is a way ro insure
the sustainability of the biosphere and a lasting place
for ourselves in its continuing evolutionary process.
We seem to have reached the fulcrum point of a
" do or die " situation in terms ofa quality standard of
life/or all living beings on this planet. As a voice/or
the caretakers ofthis sacred land, Kac-Uah, we advocate
a centered approach to rhe concept ofdecentralization.
It is our hope to become a support system/or those
accepting the challenge of sustainability and the
creation ofharmony and balance in a total sense, here
in this place.
We welcome all correspondence, criticism,
pertinent information, articles, artwork, etc. with
hopes that Kac-Uah will grow to serve the best interests
of this region and all its living, breathing members.
-The Editors
f"~U..
1989
�It may be that
s.ome little rcx:::>t
of the sacred tree still
lives.
"-lou-ish it then,
that it may leof and
bloom and fill
with singing birds.
- Q,lock Elk
Until recent time a great inland forest overlay the eastern
ponion of Nonh America-a continuous biologic fabric extending
from Nova Scotia to Alabama, west along the tributaries of the
Mississippi, and boundaried in the east by the pine barrens and
lowland marshes of the coastal plain.
This forest had its origins in an ancient circumpolar forest
system that dominated the temperate zones of Asia, Europe and
Nonh America in the Eocene epoch of the Teniary Period (50
million years B.P. [Before Present]) when the continents were
closer together. In spite of the intervening continental drift,
successive ice ages and vast chasms of time, there remain, to this
day, striking botanical linkages in the existing forest remnants of
these continents. This is panicularly evident in genera such as Acer
(maples), Panax (ginseng), Cory/us (hazels}, Populus (poplars),
Cornus (dogwoods), and Rhododendron.
(continued on ncxl page)
f'ca!t. t 989
Ji:.ati&ah Jo\lrnQL p1i9e 3
�(continued &om page 3)
The vast inland forest of Eastern America was geophysically
dominated by the long spine of the Appalachian Mountains which
determined the Forest's biological stTucture and diversity.
Contemporary references to what remains of this forest employ
terms such as "mixed mesophytic", "eastern hardwood" or
"temperate deciduous" to describe it. For purposes of this essay,
acknowledging its extent, its ancient origins, its astounding
diversity and resilience, its immense productive capacity, and its
profound effect on various human populations over the past 10,000
years, it will be telllled "The Great Forest".
When ecologists first began attempting to describe temperate
forest ecosystems, they developed the model of succession and
climax growth. This model, describes a developing forest that is
undergoing a series of stages in which pioneer plant communities
and their associated fauna colonize the area and are then replaced by
successor communities of larger trees until a forest of dominant
trees, known as the "climax forest" establishes a stable equilibrium.
This climax old gTOwth would cominue until some "disturbance"
such as fire, disease, climate change or human impact takes out the
climax community and the succession cycle begins again.
The succession-climax model is a useful one for
understanding the ecology of the Great Forest. It helps us to
recognize the importance and relative stability of old growth forests
and it describes how biotic communities in a forest maintain and
transform themselves over time as they respond to discontinuities
and disturbances, panicularly those caused by humans.
The first humans in the Great Forest were nomadic
gatherer/hunter groups who arrived after the last glaciation some
10,000 years B.P. These groups ranged over many thousands of
acres of oak-chestnut climax growth as well as other forest biomes
and while their impact on the forest was small by contemporary
standards, it was nonetheless important. Fire was the principal
instrument of ecologic change and was to remain so even into
recent rimes.
By 1900, the only remaining large boundary
of the original Great Forest lay in Katuah - the
Southern Appalachian highlands. Within two
decades that too was gone.
Seventeenth century Europeans observed and commented on
the burnings. "The savages," wrote Thomas Morton, "are
accustomed to set fire of the country in all places where they come
and to burne it twize a year, viz: at the spring and the fall of the
leafe." The purpose of the burnings was no less than ecosystem
management: facilitation of travel, augmentation of browse area for
game, encouragement of desirable herbage such as blackberry.
raspberry, and cenain grasses. the increase of mast-producing trees
Uke oak and chesmut on the drier, warmer soils of a burn area, and
the destruction of vermin and pests such as fleas. Selective burning
by the lndfans promoted a mosaic quality in the forest ecosystem
and created areas in many different stages of succession wilh
extensive boundary areas and a greater variety of game and plant
habitats - a phenornonen ecologists refer to as the "edge effect".
Thus the Indians practiced their own subtle kind of forest
management and husbandry. So subtle in fact, as to be undetected
in early European descriptions of the Great Forest. When 17th and
l 8rh century promoters of North American real estate extolled the
"natural" abundance of the land, they were unaware that they were
describing an ecosystem that the natives had been shaping for
thousands of years.
Other imponant aspects of the complex relationship between
the Great Forest and its native inhabitants escaped the notice of the
Europeans. As William Cronon points out in his masterful
ecological history of New England, Changes in the Land, a central
fact of temperate forest ecosystems is their periodicity. The
overlapping cycles of light, dark, long days, short days,
waxing/waning of the moon, the flow of sap, the rurting of deer,
spawning of fish, the matings of turkey, bear and frog, the fruiting
of plants and the migration of birds... these and myriad other
contrapuntal rhythms of the Great Forest's energy cycles were
understood and celebrated by the natives. Their own life rhythms of
seasonal nomadism, work, ritual and play were evolved from the
greater cycles of the forest . The European immigrants' experience
of natural cycles, on the other hand, had been filtered for over a
millenium through a culture offixed abodes and a social hierarchy
that discouraged nomadism as well as wilderness.
It is in the context of the periodic cycles of the forest that
Native American spirituality can best be understood. The Indians
did not attempt to manipulate, through magic and ritual, these
cycles to their own ends and were often confounded or amused by
the imprecatory prayers of the whites seeking the blessings of good
harvest and fortune from an awesome and distant god. Rather, their
own spiritual practices were designed to attune and inform
themselves to the subtleties of the forest's cycles. The
anthropologist Bronislow Malinowski recognized this when he
wrote in Myth and Primitive Psychology, "Magic never originated;
it never was created or invented. All magic simply was from the
beginning, as an essential adjunct to all those things and processes
which virally interested man (sic)." The natives inhabited an
animated forest world that was alive unto its fanhest recesses with
seen and unseen powers. Their task - the task of mind - was to so
organize themselves as to develop understanding of and
consonance with these powers.
When Europeans began to arrive at the Great Forest of North
America in sufficient numbers by the mid-17th century, they were
not disposed to recognize the animated universe that sustained the
natives. They could not or would not see the forest that the natives
knew, nor could they recognize the subtlety and intelligence behind
the Indians usage of the forest as habitat, susraining process, and
sacred ground. The European immigrants faced the Great Forest
with a conflicting array of perceptions and attitudes. The forest was
at once a threat and an opportunity.
The dominant sentiment in regard to the forest was that it was
an enormous commodity. Coming from lands long divested of
forests held in common, the right to extract and expon timber
almost at will was an overwhelming prospect 10 early
entrepreneurs. Wood was the main raw material for residential and
commercial building on both sides of the Atlantic, but it was even
more in demand as an energy source. Seventeenth and eighteenth
century industries in metallurgy, glass making and ceramics
required enormous amounts of wood for firing furnaces and for
charcoal. Individual household consumption was also extraordinary
by european standards. Peter Kalm, a Swedish naturalist visiting
colonial eastern America in 1749 wrote," an incredible amount of
wood is really squandered in this country for fuel..." As early as
1640, Boston was experiencing wood fuel shortages and most
major New England and mid-Atlantic settlements were soon to
follow.
foll, 1989
�The principal commodity that the Great Forest represented to
the E.uropeans was the land itself. Their original concepts of real
propeny were derived from the manorial system of feudal Europe
and can be ascenained by reviewing the terms or the Royal Charter
to the Massachusetts Bay Company:
"To have to houlde possess and enjoy the aforesaid
continent, lands, territories, islands, hereditaments and
precincts, seas, waters, fishings, with all and all manner their
commodities, royalties, libenies, prehemynences, and
profitts that should thenceforth arise from chcncc, with all
and singular their appunances and every pane and parccll
thereof unto the said councell and their successors and
assigns for ever."
The comprehensive, medieval, abstract quality of these early claims
underwent an evolution as they passed through the lexicon of 17th
and 18th century New World institutions, but the focus on
"commodities, royalties, liberues and profitts" never changed.
What also wen1 unchanged, leading to countless
misunderstandings and much bloodshed, was the European
assumption of the sovereignty of propeny rights granted through
'legal' title 10 Land. To the natives, the notion that parcels of land
could be considered commodities, bought and sold like cattle,
boundaried, possessed, 'improved', divided and sold again or
transferred to heirs was absurd. For them, land tenure was a
function of usage and usage was linked 10 the mobility that was a
central part of the strategy of resource management based on
periodicity. The Indian villages moved from habitat to habitat to
find maximum abundance with minimal work and reduced impact
on the land while the Europeans, in fixed abodes on their titled
propeny, worked long hard days 10 intensively farm or 'improve'
land with the eventual result being ecological degradation. It was
the concept of 'improvements' - replacing forest with fields and
pasture and the building of sheds, barns and homes - that soon
became the colonial justification for dispossessing the natives. A
people who moved around on the land and worked it so lillle could
have no justifiable claim to possess it. There were plenty of
references in the bible and in Calvinist theology to back up such a
sentimenL The unimproved forest with its native inhabitants was
eventually seen as an affront to progress, and Christian community.
r"u, t 989
With God's backing the righteous began to exterminate or conven
the savages and 'improve' the Great Forest out of existence.
The decimation of the Great Forest proceeded in two fairly
distinct historical phases - the first, occurring in the colonial period
and lasting until about 1850, can be termed pre-capitalist. It was
characterized by the deforestation patterns of an agricultural
economy. The best land was cleared for field crops and pasture.
Commercial extrnction of timber for energy or wood products was
confined to terrain accessible by human/animaJ power. The second
phase was indusoial/capitalist and it continues to the present day.
Utilizing machinery, organized capital, and cheap local labor, the
forest was harvested to satisfy national and international timber
demands. As habitat for the incredible diversity of wild plants and
creawres was impoverished, fonunes were amassed by men far
away who were never required to look upon the devastation. By
1900, the only remaining large boundary of the original Great
Forest lay in Katuah - 1he Southern Appalachian highlands. Within
two decades 1ha1 too was gone.
As humans, we have known the forest in many ways - as
home, as sustenance, as sacred ground, as repose, as commodity,
as teacher, as refuge. Our species is only now realizing the extent
of its power 10 diminish the radiance of the Great Forest. We are
beginning to understand a glimmer of what was... for we were once
forest-dwellers. Today there is an archetype becoming known in
the human spirit ...of regeneration. There is an embryonic
recognition of what we have lost and of what we must restore. We
cannot continue as we have done. The forest calls 10 us to come
back, for our own sake and for the sake of all our relations
dwelling therein.
The quotation from Black Elk that begins this essay captures
this hope for us when he speaks of the roots of the Sacred Tree the Tree of Life. The Sacred Tree, a universal symbol of
regeneration of both the human spirit and of the Earth, nourishes
our memory to recall that though the Great Forest has been felled, it
cannot and will not ever leave us.
wriuen by Sam Gray
plU>co ofJoyce Kilmer Memorial Forest on page 3 by
larry Tucker
x.at.Uah JounuiL p!UJ•
s
�Restoring the Old-Growth Forest
by Robert Zahner
A thing is right when it rends to preserve
the inregriry, stabi/iry, and beauty of rlze biotic
community. Ir is wrong when it tends
otherwise.
- AldD Leopold (I 949)
We stand at the threshold of a great
decision. We are on the verge of re-defining the
importance of our mountain landscape, its
natural habitats, and the Life forms they support.
Science has shown tha1 such habitats are vi1al to
planetary life support systems where natural
communities of interdependent plants and
animals can maintain reservoirs of biological
diversity.
When extensive logging destroyed the
primeval fores1s of the Southern Appalachian
Mountains, a critical factor for biodiversity,
habitat continuity over large areas, was
eradicated. During the century between 1830
and 1930 forest clearing and burning ravaged
native bio1ic communities and terminated
unknown numbers of plant and animal species.
Habitats were fragmented, and many surviving
endemic species were left in smaU, isolated
communities.
ln the first quaner of the twentieth century
the Southern Appalachian National Forests were
established as watershed preserves. Federal
conservation policies permined many forest
habitats to begin the natural process of restoring
themselves. This regrowth ecosystem, or
second generation forest, was similar to the
original primeval forest only in that it still
contained most of the original plant and animal
species. Today, after 60 to 80 years of recovery,
the new forest is still maturing, still unfolding its
species composition as new niches are created in
the complex progression toward what modem
ecologists term an "old-growth forest." But it
still has a long way to go to reach biological
maturity.
There is now the potential to restore a
diversity of species that would resemble the old
primeval forest. There is also the danger,
because of present National Forest management
plans, of losing much of the restoration already
gained. The United States Forest Service
(USFS), administered by foresters who are
highly competent timber managers, interprets the
Congressional Multiple Use-Sustained Yield Act
of 1960 with a strong bias toward harvesting
commercially mature timber. The Act states
implicitly, however, that al/ resources of the
Notional Forests ore to be managed for sustained
yield. Other acts of Congress go on to define
natural diversity as a vital resource of 1he public
lands, and mandate that this resource shall be
maintained through habitat preservation. This
paper is written with the intent of furthering
public knowledge of this important
environmental issue.
Three Levels of Diversity
lo the despoilment and fragmentation of
the original forest, three levels of diversity were
either destroyed or placed in jeopardy: ( l)
genetic diversity within species, (2) species
diversity within habitats, and (3) habitat
Xatium Jo~rrmt P"9e 6
diversity within landscapes. We have no record
of how many species were irretrievably lost, but
1oday we are beginning co count the numbers
that are presently endangered and threatened
with extinction. Let us consider how lhese three
types of diversity are essential for a healthy
bioregion, and how all three can be restored as
the new forest grows toward biological
maturity.
Genetic Diversity: A great many
species counted as rare today could again
become more abundant if we allow natural biotic
processes to evolve unmolested.
For example, in the forest of today the
mountain gentian plant (Gentiana decora
Pollard)_grows singly or in small colonies in
damp, rich wooded habitats, generally isolated
from other members of the species by unsuitable
habitats. Gentians are pollinated by several rypes
of inseclS who are able to cross-fertilize separate
colonies of the plant. Thus, if undisturbed by
human activity, pollen exchange will increase
genetic diversity within the gentian species over
an ever-increasing area of 1he mountain
landscape. This renewed generic vitality is
critical to the future well-being of the species, as
human-caused environmental changes continue
to force all forms of life to adapt to such stresses
as aunospheric pollution and accelerated climatic
warming.
The same situation is true for literally
thousands of species of plants and animals
throughout the mountains. Each example
f"~U.. t989
�requires its own special sening, but the common
theme is natural balance. An endemic terresual
mole salamander, Ple1ho<k>n1ordani, is a highly
significant insectivore in the world beneath the
leaf litter of a mature hardwood forest. This
salamander requires large areas of ~ontinuous
forest cover to afford geneuc n11gra11on among
populations. Thus. when the cwopy overhead is
fragmented or removed. breeding populat!ons of
this animal disappear to reco.,,er only w11h the
re-establishment or the mature hardwood fores t.
Many species of reptiles. amphibians, and
anhropods w11h limited mobi:ity have similar
requirements for genetic exchange.
Conditions that promote generic diversity
arc essential so each species can adapt and
evolve, panicularly in light of the accelerating
environmental changes expected in the next
century.
Species Diversity: The next scale of
diversity is that of species within habitats. This
is often misinterpreted by federal land managers
to mean "the greatest number of differe nt
species for each given unit of land."
It is well kno wn that the na tural
succe ssio n of weed y species occupying
disturbed sites provides a wealth of diversity in
te rms of to tal numbe rs. The Southern
Appalachian Mountains today abound w ith
disturbed sites, the result of Jar.d clearings, road
bui lding, comme rc ial and reside ntial
development, forest c learcuuing, agricultural
activity, and wildfires. Therefore. the weedy
plants and small animal species that characterize
early succession habitats are most commo n
throughout lhe region.
But what about species diversity in other
habitats once prevalent in the primeval forest?
Two hundred years ago a north-facing site at
3,SOO feet elevation in the Blue Ridge
Mountains would likely have supported a mature
oversrory of 20 or more tree species, with many
large trees over 200 years old. The midstory
would have been composed of perhaps 20 or
more species of smaller trees of all ages, from
reproduction saplings fillin1 canopy pps to
very old species adapted to live out their lives in
the shade.
Many tree species, such as basswood
(TUia ~rerophylla VcnL), yellow birch (Betula
alleghaniensis Britt.), buncmut (J1111lans cinera
L.), mountain maple (Acer spicatum Lam.),
mountain winterbcny (Ila mofllana T . and G.),
ycllowwood (Cladrastis kentulcea Rudd), and,
of course, American chestnut (Castanea delllQta
Borich.). were more common in this ancient
foresr lhan they are today.
Shrub spec ies were numerous, and
carpeting !he ground in many places were large
colonies of painted trillium (Trillum undulatum
Willd.), baneberry (Actaea pachypoda Ell.),
do g-tooth violet (Eryrhronium americum Ker.),
um brella-leaf (Diphylleia cymosa Michaux).
jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisema triphyllum Schott.),
and many fem species.
Rotting logs provided substrate and
micro-habitats for many S1>ecies of fungi.
mosses. splecnwons. and all the attendant
invertebrate and small vertebrate animals that
were essential to the health of the entire larger
community. The large trees. living and dead.
provided food, shelter, and breeding situations
for many birds and other venebrate animals that
require a biologically mature. undisturbed.
mixed hardwood forest habitat. The mature
forest was a dynamic biotic community that
f'Q{L, t989
supported a large array of
interdependent species.
!'\one of the plants or
animals mentioned above is
exceptionally rare today. although
a number of today's threatened or
endangered species. such as the
small whorled pogonia (lsotria
medeoloides Rafinesque), could
well have been present in such a
habitat. The particular
corn/Jination of these species.
however, taken together as a
functionmg ecosystem. is today a
rare occurrence.
What species m ight be
present on such a site today'!
Following the indiscriminate
logging and burning at the the
tum of the century, conditions
were so severely altered that the
second-grow t h forest now
consists typically of a mixture of
60 to 80 year o ld oaks and
hickones, with perhaps fewer than 10 other tree
species. More prominent today are the
m1d-successional species: yellow poplar
(liriendendron tulip/era L.), eastern white pine
(Pinus strobw L .), black locust (Robinia
pseudoacacia L .). sourwood (Oxydendron
a rboreum L.), sassafras (Sassafras albidum
Nee s.), and stump sprouts o f Americ an
chestnut. Scauercd individuals of most of the
original species are also present, but the species
composition is so drastically altered that the
highland forest is typically c lassified as
~oalc-hiclcory" ralher than "mixed hardwoods."
Large cavity trees arc rare. The large
decomposing logs that typify biologically mature
habitat are largely absent from today's regrowth
forests.The number of undcrstory and ground
cover species are now reduced, retaining those
that thrive on disturbance, such as species of
berries (Vaccinium and Gaylussacia) and
rhododendron.
Early succession habitat caused by human
disturbance is the only habitat type that is
well-represented on the second level of
biodiversity, the diversity of species within
habitats. But the forest communities are slowly
maturing, and species enric hment is occurring
gradually in those habitat s that arc left
undisturbed. Biologically mature habitats, or
old-growth mixed hardwood forests, are again a
possibility within the next century.
Just as genetic diversity within a species
is e ssential for adaptation for survival in a
changing enviro nme nt, so spec ies d iversity
with in a habitat is essent ial for the whole
community of interdependent plants and animals
to meet the demands of evolution. The future of
those species combinations best adapted to old,
mature hardwood forest communities depends
on the integrity of the entire habitat.
Habitat Divers ity: Differentiation on
the third level of biological d iversity, that of
habitat diversity in the regional landscape, has
also been gradually emerging in the Southern
Appalachian Mountains throughout the second
half of this century. The national forest-; provide
large, contiguous blocks of forest area. which,
if they continue to be left und1stur_bed. ha~e the
potential to mature into a mosaic of diverse
forest habitats, each accommodating its own
composition of species, and all together making
provision for the genetic diversity essential for
species evolution. The key requirement for this
regional diversity lies in maintaining a continuity
of undisturbed habitats across the landscape.
Disconnected habitats that are left to
mature as isolated fragments cannot serve as
more than small rcfugia for generic material.
Such limitation confines ecnetic variation within
the boundaries of each of these tiny habi1a1 areas
and restricts the potential for evolution to
respond to future changes in the cnvironmenL
The current policy of national forest
management is to accommodate landscape
diversity by pwcscrving fragments of old growth
stands dispersed throughout a landscape that is
predominantly even-aged
st~nds .of
commercially valuable tree species wnh
provisions for a few important species of game
animals. This concept of diversity is analogous
to the preservation of species in arboretu ms.
bota nical gardens, and zoos. Cen ainl y a
bead-lily (Clinronia borealis Raf.) in a cultivated
garden has lost most of its wild "lily-ness,"
because a wildflower removed from its natural
habitat is no longer serving its role as a strand in
the web of life. In like manner, a fragment of
old-growth forest preserved in a landscape of
managed young forests has lost its essential
nature, as it is no longer a pan of the web of
biological e volution in the region its generic
material serves.
At the level of habitat diversity. just as at
the two lower levels. the ability or an entire
bioregion to adapt and survive environmental
change depends on the diversity of its natural
habitats. The greater the number of mature
�REGIONAL PLANNING FOR HABITAT
INTEGRITY
by Laura E. Jackson
Laura Jackson is the author of the study
Mountain Treasures at Risk: The Future of the
Southern Appalachian National Forests, a
comprehensive overview and critique of the US
Forest Service's Land and Resource Managemem
Plans for the six national forest areas of the
Southern Appalachians.
Laura is completing graduate work at the
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at
Duke University. She wrote the sllldy in
cooperation with Peter Kirby, regional director,
and other staff members of the Southeast
Regional Office of the Wilderness Society under a
Stanley Fellowship grant The book is published
and made available by the Wilderness Society.
Mountain Treasures at Risk is an excellent
resource for anyone who is concerned about
habitat i11 the Sowhem Appalachians. The text is
clear a11d to the point. The graphs and tables are
pleasing to the eye and revealing in their content.
Forest issues are de-mystified in a way that only
someone with a clear comprehension of the
dynamics involved could articula1e. 8111, most of
all, Laura Jackso11's suuiy is invaluable because it
is wriuen by someone with no ves1ed economic or
poli1ical in1eres1 in 1he Appalachian public lands b111 rather by someone with 011ly the interests of
1hefores1 01 liean.
The book talks in a straigluforward way
about tlie effects 011 the forest of below-cost timber
sales, over-roading, and the i11equities i11 budget
and emphasis show11 i11 Forest Service
management programs. The swdy co11clt1des with
guidelines/or managing the Sowhern Appalachian
11a1ional fores ts 10 protect wild la11ds a11d the
biological diversity they harbor, meet recreatio11al
and aesthetic demands, and restore the forest
1wilo1.
011 page one of Mountain Treasures at Risk
the report states that the two major flaws i11 the
Forest Service ma11ageme111 approach is the
agency's emphasis 011 commodity ex1ractio11from
the mow11ai11forests Olld their failure to recog11ize
the Somhern Appalachia11s as a regional habitat
system (in other words, a bioregio11).
/1 says, 'This report is the only ctunulative
analysis to dote to examine the Forest Service's
plaru for thil unique nwumuin environment." This
is true. Many t/1a11ks.
In the following article Laura Jackso11
explains further the differences in understanding
that result from viewing the Ka11'iah provi11ce a11d
its disti11ctive habitats as a whole, rather than
breaking it into administrative pieces....
·DW
Mountain Treasures at Risk is available at M
charge by writing to tht Wilderness Society Southeast
Regional Office at 1819 Peachtru St. NE; Atlanta, GA
30309. (Jlowevtr, consider making a volU11tary donation.
Tht reference is wt// worth It.)
>C.at i'.&ah Journat paqe 8
T he fragmentation of Souther n
Appalachian habitat is the familiar result of a
utilitarian value system that prizes goods
production and consumption over a healthy
relationship with our land. Forest managers ask
how their stands can fulfill national timber
quotas. State governments ask if thei r
wilderness fragments arc sufficient to satisfy
recreational demand. But their questions are
framed within self-imposed limits of vision that
reach only to the orderly edges of administrative
boundaries. Consequently, they are too narrow
in scope to address what arc now the most
critical issues. In this age of dwindling native
populations, dying mountaintops, and other
large-scale ecological catastrophes, we must
adopt a broad regional perspective in order to
evaluate and implement essential environmental
solutions.
The regional framework provides a logical
context by which to approach land management
decisions. The natural expanse of an ecosystem
(like a prairie, desert, or mountain range) with
its local resources, indigenous populations. and
traditional activities, can suggest
environmentally appropriate patterns of growth
and development. Requiring collaboration
among public agencies and private owners, the
regional perspective is gaining support around
the world as the solution to maintain ecological
systems and the integrity of the
human/environment relationship.
As the dominant land manager in the
Southern Appalachians, the US Forest Service
is in a position to best exemplify the philosophy
of regional stewardship. Currently, however,
the agency is under extensive criticism for its
unimaginative, homocentric planning and
management techniques. The Forest Service
conuols approx:imatcly three million acres in six
Southern Appalachian national forests. Despite
the contiguity of these lands, each national forest
is administered as a separate unit. Staff vision
and authority stop at the legal boundaries. As a
result, individual forest planners have set
inconsistent standards for managing shared
animal populations, lost opportunities to protect
roadlcss areas that straddle state lines, and
purposefully altered rare habitat in order to
incroduce elements already common on adjacent
private lands.
In the Katuah province, towns and private
inholdings comprise about half of the acreage
within official national forest boundaries. These
lands support agriculture, industrial forests,
developed and roaded recreation, and other
human-altered environments. Consequently they
have attracted hardy, invasive wildlife that
thrives in modified senings and displaces native
mountain species. A crucial role of federal
stewardship, therefore, is to promote natural
habitat continuity as a public investment in
biological diversity, clean air and water, and the
Southern Appalachian wild native heritage.
A satellite's-eye view of the Southern
Appalachian Mountains shows the Appalachian
public lands as a green island standing alone
above lowlands crowded with human beings
and the products of their ac1ivi1ies. This
mountainous ecosystem of tremendous natural
beauty and scientific importance is also in
increasing demand as a source for consumptive
supplies. A closer look would show public
forests fragmented by private inholdings,
development spreading across newly-cleared
hillsides, and wildlands straining under
increased resource use. Yet, to date, the core of
the Southern Appalachian habitat survives
relatively intact.
Invisible from overhead, yet just as real in
its effects on the highland forests, is the
administrative fragmentation that further stresses
the region's habitats. Southern Appalachian
forests fall under the jurisdictions of five state
governments, as many federal agencies, and
dozens of counties with differing objectives for
the use of their mountain commodities.
Countless private corporations also make
decisions based on their own perceived interests
in the resources of the Ka1uah province. The
accumulated effects of numerous land-use
decisions made in the isolation of corporate
boardrooms, federal office buildings, and the
offices of county or state agencies threaten 10
mortally fragment Katuah's natural systems and
desuoy their ecologi.cal functions.
If the administering agencies could view
the mountain region from the viewpoint of our
imaginary satellite hovering above, their
perspective and consequently their management
priorities might be changed:
• From overhead, it is clear that the
Southern Appalachians are a biological island,
the last remaining large block of forest habitat in
the southeast. Many areas can contribute to the
regional and national timber supply, most of
them better than these steep mountain forests.
But where better can we look for wilderness,
and the shady, moist storehouses of
undiscovered ecological value?
• The region's remote ridgelines and
pristine streams constitute rare wildland linkage
opponunities for migration, genetic exchange,
and the daily roamiogs of wide-ranging
mammals. These travelways could also extend
to wildlands in the Central Appalachians to the
north, and perhaps south into the Florida
peninsula as well, to ensure strong, adaptable
populations of black bear, mountain lion, and
other large predators. Broad corridors
connecting natural habitat areas along the length
of 1hc Appalachian range would serve as
ecological escape routes in cases of severe
environmental stress, whether of human or
natural origin.
rau.
19e9
�•The Appalachians are the headwaters of
all the great rivers east of the Mississippi. If
streams and rivers are not pure at their origins,
they can never be clean anywhere along their
length.
The expanses of forest that cover the
green mountains are also a fountainhead of
valuable oxygen in an increasingly polluted
armospherc.
• A regional perspective would correct the
misconception that each national forest should
provide the public with equivalent proportions
of all resources. The southeast supports an
abundance of cleared fields, thickets or young
"pioneer" trees, and the understory plants and
animals associated with early successional
habitats. However, areas of contiguous, remote
forest and old-growth comrrunities are precious
and rare. Species plentiful in one nationaJ forest
might be uncommon everywhere else; therefore
these should be preserved at the expense of
more ordinary forest uses.
• Research priorities and resource
inventories also attain broader significance when
framed in a regional perspective. State wildlife
officials and federal land managers currently
repon environmental characteristics in terms of
acres, head counts, and dollars. Such data arc
easily tabulated and readily available by state and
ownership category. Yet these quantitative
measures fail to capture the more comprehensive
information that is critical 10 effective habitat
management
Ta!L, 1989
• To ensure that resource u1ili7.ation docs
not deplete an ecosystem's natural variety,
managers must monitor across the landscape.
They must mitigate the encroachment or
common edge habitat into the diminishing forest
interior. They must delineate and protect
multi-state blocks of continuous forest and
migration pathways. Responsible stewardship
also requires improved biodiversity
measurements, the promotion of ecologically
rich old-growth stands, and the restoration of
degraded lands. These and other research
objectives necessitate inter-agency cooperation.
working relationships with private landowners,
and a more holistic view of the natural
environment and our relationship to it.
The responsibility for regional planning
docs not lie solely with public agencies.
Farmers, industrial foresters. university
administrators, even individual homeowners
must ask how their lands contribute to the
environmental landscape. Particularly those who
profit financially from Katuah's natural features
- the outfitters, resort managers. and members
of the entertainment and service sectors that
surround public lands - should suive to maintain
the integrity of the regional environment both as
a business investment and as a means to
compensate the land for its free use. Private
landowners can do a great deal to strengthen the
vitality of the region by managing their land to
help reconnect the broken pieces.
The time has come for landowners and
managers to acknowledge their shared
responsibility for environmental stewardship.
We can no longer afford to view properties as
discrete units unto themselves. to be modified,
unadvised, by their current legal authorities.
Businesses, families, and public agencies arc
but temporary guardians of many tiny pieces of
the Eanh. Yet the natural processes that permit
our physical survival, as well as foster creative
imagery and inspiration, besr operate
unconstrained by anificaJ divisions. In order to
maintain for the future the fundamental
life-support systems of humans and other
species, we must begin to counter the legacy of
fragmentation with a commitment to
environmental unity.
We must explore land uses that do not
deplete the Eanh's suitability for the other life
forms with whom we exist. We must instill a
deep appreciation for nature and natural
processes in our schoolchildren. We must not
insist on using. viewing, or populating every
available surface, so that truly wild expanses
may sustain the large animals who suffer in our
presence. Much to their credit, federal agencies
in the Southern Appalachians arc now
experimenting with cooperative management
programs. These require our encouragment and
participation. Ccnainly sacrifices of power,
pride, and privacy will be necessary to restore
our suffering environment Yet their significance
wanes beside the tangible and spiritual rewards
of a cooperative survival mission never before
attempted and never more important.
x.atfulh Journm pCUJe 9
�A Question of Value
by David Wheeler
The decades between 1880 and 1920
were the years of the timber barons in the
Southern Appalachian Mountains. This was the
great "logging boom," in which virtually all the
first-growth, "virgin" forest was cut off the
Appalachian slopes.
Fortunes were made during those years,
but the money did not stay in the mountains.
The wealth went to the corporate magnates and
investors in the eastern cities and in Europe.
When the ravishing of the Appalachian forests
was completed, the big companies headed for
greener forests to the west, and the local people
were left with a strong dependency on the
wage-earning system and without the means to
support it.
Today the old-growth forest, the first
forest, is gone, but the view that the forest is a
collection of resources, there for the use and
benefit of human beings still underpins our basic
attitudes and policies toward the Appalachian
woodlands.
The US Forest Service exemplifies that
attitude. Their policies and priorities suue plainly
that they consider the growing of hardwood
timber to be the fir.a purpose of the Southern
Appalachian national forest land.
In the Jefferson National Forest in
Virginia, two-thirds of the Forest Service budget
goes into timber-cutting and road-building,
which is directly tied to logging operations. In
the Nantahala-Pisgah National Forest, 40% of
the budget is allocated to timber and roads.
Beyond that, a good portion of the
adminis1rative budget (which comprises 25% of
the overall budget and is tallied separately) also
goes to overseeing timbering and road-building
operations. Only 3.4% of the NantahalaPisgah's annual budget goes to monitoring and
providing for the needs of wildlife.
The road-building that logging operations
demand is the most expensive and damaging of
all the activities carried on by the Forest Service.
This is particularly true in the southern
mountains where the slopes are steep and highly
erosive (see page 12).
The justification for this continued
environmental destruction and human intrusion
into remote habitat areas is the familiar "jobs and
money" refrain. Much ado is made of the timber
shortage that would result if unconstrained
logging in the national forests were to be
stopped. Timber industry lobbyists declare 1ha1
old-growth forest is wasteful, that there is
already more than enough land set aside for
habitat, and argue against evidence that shows a
forest diminishing in native diversity and
threatened in its ability to provide the clean water
and air that help to nourish life on the planet.
Unhappy over the timber quotas set in the
Forest Service's Land and Resource
Management Plans for the National Forests in
the Southern Appalachians, the timber interests
demanded, and won, an agreement from the
Forest Service to sponsor a timber demand
study, thinking that would give them leverage to
XQt\mh Journc:i! pa9e 10
Phoro by Roo Musick/Profea Ligltthawt
further increase the Forest Service's emphasis
on timber cutting.
The result was the "Southern Appalachian
Timber St udy" prepared by a team of
researchers headed by J. Edward de Steiguer of
the Forest Service's Southeastern Experiment
Station. The repon exploded like a bombshell
onto the environmental scene.
First, rather than verifying a strong
demand for hardwood lumber from the National
Forests, che repon found that the prices offered
had actually been decreasing over the last
decade!
. And, rather 1han showing that the
Nauonal Forests were making an important
contributi?n co the region's timber output, che
report pointed out that che National Forests
contribute only 10 percem of the regional timber
supply. And this 10 percent is largely wood of
poor quality, used mostly for making pallets and
boxes, but also for railroad ties, mine props
plywood, chipboard, and finally paper pulp. A
portion of the better-quality hardwoods are used
as veneer woods and in the manufacturing of
furniture, decorative trim, and hardwood
floorin~, but the study mentioned in passing that
a growing percentage of best hardwoods were
being exported out of che country 10 buyers
overseas!
The Forest Supervisor's office in
Asheville, NC stated that only 700 jobs
throughout the North Carolina mountains were
directly relating to timber harvesting in the
national forests. In rhe Ka111ah province only
rwo counties, Graham and Swain, are dependent
on logging in the national forest as an important
pan of their overal I economies.
But the forest, like anything that lives, is
much greater than the sum of its parts. The cash
price of the standing timber is a paltry amount
compared to the true worth of the forest. How
could one appraise the rich diversity of life in
Karuah, unequalled in the temperate zones of the
world? We can on.ly be grateful for the priceless
blessings of dark soil, pure water, and clean air.
We cannot calculate the inestimable value of the
fragile quality of wholeness.
There has been much controversy lately
about clearcutting and the methods by which
timber is cut in the National Forests. However,
as biologist Glenda Zahner has said, in the face
of the perceived dangers to the survival of the
whole Appalachian habitat it appears that the
question is not how timber is taken, but whether
timber should be cut at all in the Southern
Appalachian narional forests.
Well-known are the infamous national
forest "below-cost timber sales" that have come
to light in the past few years. These are sales in
which the expense of the wood, site access and
preparation, and the administrative management
of rhe sale are not covered by the price received
in the sale con1rac1. Thus, the Forest Service has
actually lost money selling timber in many pans
of the country, including the Southern
Appalachians.
Figures collected for 1987 from the six
National Forests in the Southern Appalachians
(including the Pickens Ranger District of the
Sumter National Forest in South Carolina) show
that the Forest Service lost $5.5 million dollars
in that one year alone from their disastrous
timber policies.
Below-cost timber sales constitute an
unauthorized hand-out 10 the lumber interests
from the agency • and thus from the US
taxpayers. The $5.5 million deficit from one
year of clearcutting the forest could pay 275 of
those 800 working timber-related jobs in the
North Carolina national forests one year's salary
of $20,000 to leave the forests uncut and to
protect them as viable and living habicats.
The succeeding generation of trees that
replaced those carried away during the great
Appalachian lumber rush are now reaching 60 to
80 years of age. The trees are approaching
sawlog girth and soon their growth rate will
begin to slow. This is the age of economic
maturity (not to be confused with biological
YaU.1989
�•
maturity, which is anywhere between 200 and
500 years of age). This is a critical decision
point in our policy-making: is the forest to be set
back to the staning point again, or is it to be
allowed to continue on toward the old-~wth
stage to provide optimal habitat for the native
foresr species?
The Forest Service has made its position
clear. On page 33, de Steiguer's "Southern
Appalachian Timber Study" said, "From 1977 to
1986, the National Forests progressively
increased the harvest volume of all stumpage
products except softwood pulpwood. Real
prices fell during the same period. In fact, the
price lines are pracrically a mirror image of the
volw11e lines." The report showed that the rate
of timber cutting in the Southern Appalachian
National Forests doubled from 63 million board
feet in 1977 to 126 million board feet in 1986,
even as prices were declining.
Wise business practice would suggest
witholding supplies when t.he price is low. The
Forest Service has done e1tactly the opposite
during the last decade, selling more and more
timber for less and less money. Because timber
quotas have been determined on the basis of
political considerations rather than a response to
the real market, taxpayers have been paying for
the privilege of having the National Forests
clearcut by the timber industry.
At the time of this writing, the Forest
Service is planning to again double timber
cutting levels in the Southern Appalachians
between 1986 and 1996. If timber sales continue
10 lose money at the same rate that they are now,
then the money lost on below-cost timber sales
wiU also double during that time.
Under the current versions of the Forest
Service's Land and Resource Management
Plans for the Southern Appalachian national
forests, almost 2/3 of the national forests are
deemed suitable for logging, and all of that area
is scheduled 10 be cut within the next 50 years.
The narural cycle of succession leading to an
old-growth, climax forest habitat will be cut
short throughout two million acres of the
national forest lands. Oak trees, many of which
will be just beginning to produce the acorn mast
so important to black bears and many other
forest inhabitants, will be toppled in clearcuts,
and a portion of the cut-over areas will be
burned or sprayed with poisonous herbicides
and planted in straight lines of white pine trees,
which create inferior habitat for most forest
species. The large, open clearcut areas left to
regenerate naturaUy wiU invite yellow poplar
trees to invade and take over land that may have
been dominated by oaks and other tree species
that prefer some degree of shade. Clearcuts do
encourage diversity - a diversity of weedy plant
and animal species at the expense of increasingly
rare old-growth habitats.
Today the old pattern of lumber
extraction is being renewed as "the international
timber commodities market." Once again,
Appalachia is being relegated to the position of a
t:olonized economy from which raw materials
leave the region for processing elsewhere, along
with the power and the profits.
The United States is vinually the only
country in the world with the capability to
produce temperate hardwoods for expon. Most
of the American hardwoods, particularly the oak
lumber that is most in demand, come from the
ratt.
1989
Appalachian Range. Canada is supplied almost
enurely from the nearby Nonhem Appalachians.
Because they are of higher quality, the northern
hardwoods are also preferred in the
discriminating European market. Buyers in the
Far East, however, are more price-conscious,
and increasing amounts of Southern
Appalachian wood has been sold in Asia.
It is difficult to determine how dependent
on foreign sales the mountain timber industry
has become, because lumber to be shipped
overseas is shunted from logger to wholesaler
and perhaps to several brokers before it finally
reaches its port of embarkation. The US
Depanmenr of Commerce conveniently requires
no records of the point of origin of exported
lumber.
Industry representatives and Forest
Service analysts say that of the total amount of
hardwood cut each year, only 40-50% is large
enough and of a quality that could be considered
for export. They estimate that approximately
20-25% of that export-grade wood is sent
overseas. However, because this is the
highest-quality material of the wood species that
are most in demand, the economic value of the
exponed hardwoods is much greater than their
percentage in volume and is very important to
the hardwood market as a whole.
Distribution of Annual Timber Removals
in the Southern Appalachians. 1980-1986
Fnrms
25.5%
Miscclb ncous
Owner.>
l1riV"J tC
52.8%
Nauona I Forests
10.0%
Oz hcr l'uhlic Aboencics
1.9%
S~ Moun1ain Treasun.sOI Rislc
Much of the expon trade in hardwood is
in kiln-dried, rough-sawn lumber. which is
processed in foreign plants and used for
cabinetry and furniture manufacturing. The
country of Taiwan is among the largest buyers
today. UnHke Japan and West Germany, which
produce furniture largely for their own internal
consumer markets, Taiwan manufactures
furniture for export, mostly to the United States.
The Taiwanese furniture industry is modern and
efficient, and labor in that coumry is so cheap
that they can pay to import lumber from the
United States and then ship finished products
back 10 sell at competitive prices in this country.
John Syme, forest economist at Clemson
University says, "Quite a lot of the furniture
manufacmrers, panicularly in North Carolina,
Tennessee, and Virginia, are buying fumimre or
components produced in Taiwan and other
Pacific Rim countries and then selling them
along with what they manufacture domestically.
This is typical of chairs in particular, and other
items that have a high labor content."
It is possible that consumers in the town
of Sylva, Nonh Carolina could buy furniture
that was made in Taiwan of wood that was cut
within 25 miles of their own home. While they
might notice that a piece is stamped "Made in
Taiwan," they probably would not notice that
the price tag includes fees for shipping the
materials halfway around the world and then
shipping the finished product aU the way back
again.
To stimulate a market that is not
fast-paced enough for their liking, timber
industry profiteers are supplying materials to
keep alive wood-based industries in countries
that, due to misuse and overpopulation, have
already displaced their native forests. On paper,
the hardwood timber industry generates great
profits at the export game, but little of the money
made ever returns to the region where the wood
was originally grown. The materials are sold
from the mountains with a minimum of
processing - jobs are being shipped away along
with the wood. II is the brokers and traders in
the large eastern cities who benefit from timber
exporting. They are few, bur they benefit
greatly.
Sending raw materials to have value
added elsewhere is not advantageous for the
regional economy, but ultimately it is the forest
that pays the greatest price. Ir is the Southern
Appalachian lwbicat that is being cut and shipped
away overseas. It is the black bear's food
supply, the shady canopy protecting the ginseng
plant and the delicate ladyslipper. It is the cover
that hides the thrush, rhe tall guardians who
draw down and measure out the pure running
water. It is the integrity of the biological system,
that subtle sense of balance that is intangible, yet
so important.
Here again is that persistent question of
value: for what we are losing, what do we gain?
The approach that sees the forest trees as
materials for human use requires chat the trees be
cut down and carried away - extracted - before
they are of value.
But the other approach that sees value in
the wholeness of living communities requires
that humans keep their hands (feet, and wheels)
off large areas of the foresL The Southern
Appalachian national forests are a significant
land area in the Southeast. They could be a
magnificent habitat area. Timber cutting, which
supposedly is providing the greatest economic
benefits, is proving to be a public liability
instead. The national forests in the Kan1ah
province are providing very litcle timber, very
few jobs, and very litlle money to the local
people. Yet for those scanty benefits the
mountain forestlands are suffering inestimable
damage to the natural habitat chat will take
centuries to repair where it is reparable at all.
It is time 10 bring our forest policies back
into balance with the forest.
The "Southern Appalachian Timber Study" by de
Steiguer. ct al., is available from tlze USDA Forest
Service; Box 2750: Asheville, NC: Katuah Province
28802. This anicle also drew heavily on the excellent
resource Moumain Treasures at Risk by Laura E.
Jackson (see page 8).
�Let's Close The Gate To Forest Devastation
by Anna Muir
"Our forests are national rreasures nor national rreefanns."
- St1u11or Wye/le Fowler, Jr. (D-GA)
As far as land use is concerned, the key to
protecting the Southern Appalachian forest
habitat is to deny human access. Access means
roads.
"In 1985, narionalforesrs in the sowliern
Appalachians contained 4 ,95 J miles of
permanent Forest Service roads. The agency
plans ro add 3,263 miles of new road ro this
transportation sysrem by the year 2030 in order
to meet increased timber sale levels. The
resulting 8,2 14 miles will surpass rlie distance
from Denver, Colorado, to New Zealand. In
less than 50 years, these national forests will
support alrrwsr two miles of road per square
mile of land, nor including state, county, or
private roads."
budgeted $13,600 per mile c road gentle slopes
o
and $22,700 per mile/or sreep slopes."
- Laura E. Jackson, Mountain Treasures at Risk
Timber sales add up to a net liability for
the Forest Service and thus for the US
taxpayers. In the Southern Appalachians alone
logging cost taxpayers $5.5 million in 1987. It
is a vicious paradox, because preliminary road
building doom;; any chance that a timber sale
might clear a profit before cu1ting even starts.
Present policy states that the only viable
method of timber cutting is clearcutting. Under
repeated clcarcuning the original forest is never
given a chance to grow back, thus clearcuuing
represents forest fragmentation and species
discontinuity on the grossest scale. But loggmg
depends on the expensive permanent roads
installed at the taXpaycr's expense. No roads, no
clearcuts.
- Laura£. Jackson. Moumain T~ at Risk
R oad const ruc ti on c reates severe
disruption throughou t many square miles of
national forest habitat. The soil erosion and
stream siltation associated with logging
operattons arc predominately the result of the
roading necessary to remove the timber. Great
amounts of topsoil, D"CCS, and native herbaceous
plants arc displaced all along the many miles of
roads pushed into the forest habitat. Roading in
steep areas undercuts soil and rock structures,
maximizing erosion, often res ultin g in
rockslides and soil slumping.
"Access is rhe demise of bear habirar, and
anybody with comrrwn sense will tell you that.
The bear in the Piedmont has been wiped out
and replaced wirh people. For every mile of
road you punch imo these rrwuntains and leave
open, you're jusr pulling anorher nail in the
bear's coffin." - John Collins, wildlife blologw and
big gamt program coordinawr, NC Wildlife Resources
Commission. quoted 111 Wildlife in Nonh Carolina
rrrJg<UIJIL
In an inter-depanmental memo released to
the public, US ForeSt Service Regional Forester
Jnck Alcock stated that, "Approximately 98
percent of all recreation (in the national forests)
takes place within three-fourths mile of a road."
Oisregardfog the obvious question of where is
one to find a patch of national forest that 1s nor
three-fourths mile from a road, the regional
forester's statement gives some idea of the
tremendous negative impact of forest roads on
the natural habitat and how tremendously helpful
closing roads would be to the rejuvenation of
that habitat.
'This is a wasteful program that continues
a Jcind offar red calf existence even in these days
of tremendous budget dejicirs ....ln the last si.:c
[!Seal years alone the Forest Service constructed
3,725 more miles of road than needed, by its
own projec1ions, for rimber harves1ing. Such
unnecessary roadbuilding was1es the taxpayers'
money, while valuable fish and wildlife habirar
is destroyed."
- Sen. Wyche Fowler. Jr (D-CA) on the floor of
the US Stnate. July 29. 1989
The primary purpose of the forest roads
in the Southern Appalachian national forests is
to bring in logging trucks. The Forest Service
has claimed that the mosaic of roads interlacing
the national forests is necessary to support the
jobs and money generated by timber cutting.
However, this claim has been proven false.
Timber sales on the national forests have
actually been losing money in recent years (sec
p. 10 ), and a primary reason is the cost of road
building in the steep mountain terrain.
"Across rhe nation, approximately
one-half of all Forest service rimber expenses
are artribwable to road costs. Road construction
is expensive, particularly in mountainous
regions where many national fores rs are located.
Planners for 1Jie Jefferson (Na1ional Foresr)
Jc:.citUah Journm
p ~ 12
197S
11l6S
19115
2030
T OTAL REGION.
• Past, Current, and Projected Forest Service
Permanent Road Milage on the Southern
Appalachian National Forests, 1974-2030.
Soun:..
flfowitam Trtasuru ill Risk
"The excessive logging scheduled for
remore and sreep terrain requires a degree of
roading that will severely degrade rhe moumain
environment. Within 50 years. 3,263 miles of
new, permanent roads are pro;ecred for rhe
Sowhern Appalachian national foreslS. Road
consrrucrion is rhe most damaging activity
conducted in norional fores1 management. Even
miligalion ml!asures cannor prevent erosion, soil
compaction, and habiratfragmentarion - ongoing
results of road consrruction and subsequent
use." - Laura E. Jackson. Mounu11n Treasures at Risk
The greatest damage by forest roads 1s to
habitat values as they occur in remote areas of
the national forests. And the most damaging
aspects of the forest roads are those caused by
"cumulative cffectS" - those incremental changes
that considered together add up to debilitating
qualitative changes in the overall environment.
Here is an example of "cumulat ive
effects:' A road was bulldozed to a clearcut site.
The logging trucks and heavy equipment went
in, did their job and, after some months, came
out, leaving a treeless forest area compacted and
criss-crossed by caterpillar tracks.
Some of the loggers were bear hu nters,
and they noticed bear sign while they were
doing their work. So, that fall, trucks with
kennel boxes mounted on the back raised dust
up and dow n the road, until the bear s were
hunted out, and the hunters moved elsewhere to
finish off the season.
Now familiar with the area, some of the
hunters brought a picnicking party to a pleasant
pool they found in the creek flowing beyond the
logged-over area. The following year some of
the families rerurned to the clearcut to pick
blackberries. And o ne of the teenagers
remembered the picnicking party when he and
his friends needed an isolated place to park and
drink beer, so four-wheel-drive vehicles
careened up into the forest several weekends in
succession.
The Forest Service, noticing all the use
their small, rough forest road was attracting,
upgraded the road to "meet the traffic demand"
with the result that tourists in their large cars
could ride all the way to the top of the ridge to
enjoy the view .... And so it goes.
Each of these uses is not significant in
itself. Each is legitimate in its own way. But.
compounded together, the overall effect is
devastating to the natural habitat that once
existed on that ridgetop, protected by several
square miles of impenetrable forest. Cumulative
effects all too often add up to a habitat
destroyed.
f"l:ltt, t 989
�"Anyone who can't see that open roads
hurt bear habitat has got to be blind."- John
Collins, wildlife biologist and big game program
coordilliltor, NC Wildlife ReS(Jurces Commission
Besides the direct monality due to road
kills and increased hunter ingress, roads are a
primary cause of the forest fragmentation that is
one of the greatest threats to habitat in the
Karuah Province. Roads mean people, and black
bears and other large forest-dwelling animals
shy away from traffic-bearing roads, so that
large areas of previously umouched habitat, far
wider than the actual area of the roadbed itself,
are eliminated with the construction and
subsequent use of new roads. Thus, the
creatures native to the old forest are pushed into
smaller and smaller range areas that are less and
less desirable as living spaces as roads are
constructed in areas that were once prime
habitat.
New roads also mean wide strips of
cleared land and carry "edge effects,'' one of
which is rapid invasion by early-succession
("weed") species of plants and animals, deep
into the once-unbroken foresL
Multiple Use M o dule
(MUM)
Rud NDM ill NaJural Areas JoMrnol
"Mr. President, we already have an
excess of Forest Service roads through our
national forests ...."
- Sen. Wyche Fowler. Jr.
(D-GA) on the floor of the US Senate.July 29, 1989
In the interest of habitat preservation, not
only should the US Forest Service halt its
road-building program in Katuah completely,
but in key habitat areas existing roads should be
closed, erased, and planted with fast-growing,
hardwood, pioneer tree species to restore the
natural character of the once-roaded areas as
quickly as possible.
Closing forest roads completely and
permanently would open large expanses of
forest in which the black bear and other
old-growth dependent species could roam
freely, strengthening the gene pool, and
rejuvenating and expanding the present
populations. Closing roads is a necessary
prerequisite for any programs to reintroduce
large carnivorous animals, such as the mountain
lion, to restore proper predator/prey balances in
the forest. Closing roads is a key pan of any
program to restore old-growth habitat in the
,
Southern Appalachian Mountains.
SparrowHawk
The sparrow hawk became his friend,
though distrusting him at first,
not seeing that when the man found it
entangled in fishing line at the junkyard,
he meant anything but harm.
But it softened as he sat in the
dark room beside it
silent, his eyes averted,
letting it discover that he held it captive
only because he cared
and would offer freedom when the May hills were green
and the air sweetened and warm.
Trust came when he fed it chicken
and trained it to fly from his fist
at field mice and grasshoppers,
nurturing its strength and confidence
to face the world again.
Yet he was reluctant to give it back
to the endless sky and distant Blue Ridge,
saddened not to hear its chirp
or feel the light talons as it lit on his head
or see the solemn brown gaze;
but his time with the hawk was borrowed,
and as it flew beyond the pines vanished with the stirring breeze he was glad to have known 1t at all.
- Julia Nunnally Duncan
T11Ct, 1989
D1awU1g by RobM~sick.
�TA
by Heather Blair
fg[(,
1989
�A PLACE FOR BEARS
An Interview with Dr. Michael Pelton
(This 1nttr11itw 1s a continuation of a
conlll!rsation btg"" ill issut 17 of the Ka!Uah Journal.)
Katuah Journal: What are the basic
clements for good bear habitat?
Pt/ton: In 1970 we questioned
southeastern state fish and wildlife agencies
about bear habitat Respondents indicated across
the board that black bears need good food
sources (acorns and berries) and thick
understory cover of some type There seemed to
be common agrccmcnt that these were necessary
clements for good bear habitat.
1bc third element is privacy - some degree
of seclusion and remoteness. Of these three
clements there is no doubt that the
privacy/protection element is the most irnponant.
Black bears are omnivores and have a broad
food habit. Throughout their range in North
America nuts and berries are always present.
Where these arc present the species will survive,
but only if there is some degree of privacy.
Kattlah Journal: Then how about the
effect of roads?
Ptll()n: Road density and rramc volume
arc the two factors that interact to determine the
degree to which a bear will avoid crossing or
even coming close to a road.
The animals can be affected in two major
ways. First, the road may make the habitat less
desirable. Therefore they shift their home range,
usually to a less desirable habitation. Thus they
would be more vulnerable to monality, as they
would have to move around more to find
adequate food, denning sites, or cover.
Secondly, a road may result in direct
monality. Besides obvious factors like road
kills, the mere presence of a rood invites people
to use ii. The more it is used, the greater the
possibility that hunting will be one of those
uses.
Katuah Journal:
Are there other
cumulative effects of roads?
Pelton: Certainly. Once a road is in place
and opened, it attracts all kinds of human
intrusion, whether it's logging or hunting.
The Twelve Mile Strip (an area between
the east border of the Great Smoky Mountains
National Parle and the Pisgah 1"ational Forest) is
an imponant dispersal area from the Park. It is
also a major hunting area. However, the Twelve
Mile Strip is essentially devoid of a resident bear
population. There is a high degree of road
access, which means heavy hunting pressure,
and the 1-40 freeway separates the Twelve Mile
Strip from the national forest, which is ccnainly
a barrier to bear migration.
A recent ttaffic surve)' we did on l-40
found that during the daytime a vehicle passed
the counting point every three seconds. At night
the traffic slowed to one vehicle every seven
seconds. The only real land bridge is the steep
ridge that runs over one tunnel. We also know
that there arc 13 or 14 culvcrtS in that area which
could be used to cross under 1-40, but we don't
f'11U, t 989
~ "11-Rltea
know if they arc being used. From road kills
we've found, we do know that bears do
occasionally tty to cross the highway.
When traveling the coastal area of Europe
last year, l found it very interesting to see their
road construction techniques. At locations where
we would "cut and fill" in this mountainous
countty, they "bridge and tunnel." It struck me
immediately that the "bridge and tunnel"
concept, for whatever reason they used it, is
ideal for animals in that it leaves large corridors
for dispersal movements, in contrast to the "cut
and fill" method that we use at present
The availability of acorns
drives the dynamics of the black
bear population in the Southern
Appalachians.
Katuah Journal: That's interesting,
especially since another major freeway is being
proposed up the 1-26 corridor into Tennessee. It
seems like it would be time to bring up
something like that.
You have also talked about acorns and
their imponance to the black bear population.
Pelton: The availability of acorns drives
the dynamics of the black bear population in the
Southern Appalachians.
Black bears react to this concentrated
energy source in amazing ways. Ecologically,
physiologically, and behaviorally they go
through a ttemendous change each fall.
Bears tty to incorporate prime acorn sites
into their home ranges. But acorns produce
sporadically, and in any given year black bears
will leave their traditional home range areas and
travel for miles to congregate at oak stands that
have abundant acorns.
During this "feeding frenzy," as we call it,
they sometimes seem to ignore a human
presence in situations in which at any other time
they would have jumped into the bushes and run
away. They also show much more tolerance for
one another at these focal eating areas. There
seems to be larger numbers of animals in smaller
areas than at any other rime of the year.
It also appears that bears can shift their
ability to digest various foods, particularly to
assimilate the fall mast more efficiently. Acorns
account for their ttemcndous fall weight gains,
which arc all put on as fat
Considered together, all these changes
point to the importance of acorns as a source of
food for the black bear. During the fall months
they put on their most significant weight gains.
This fat accumulation must carry them through
the winter denning and into the cub-bearing
season. We have been able to correlate the
availability of white oak mast and the percentage
of females lactating, and we found a direct and
significant relation to acorn production. More
dramatically, in the event of a failure of the
acorn crop, there is an almost complete faillll'C of
black bear reproduction. If alternative mast
c rops fail as well, it could mean w inter
starvation for the animal
The size of the acorn crop also directly
affects black bear mortality. A scarcity of mast
necessitates greater movements on the part of the
bear population. This makes them much more
vulnerable to all the factors of monality. It
affects them coming and going: natality
(reproduction) and mortality.
For example, in Tennessee this year the
state fish and wildlife agency is having to deal
with a lot of three year old male bears moving
out of the Great Smoky Mountains Narional
Park and ending up in Gatlinburg and
Sevierville. There is a dominance hierarchy
among black bears, and the subadult males of
two or three years of age tend to be the ones
who get kicked out and have to disperse to new
ranges.
This example fits in with events that
happened in 1984 when there was a tremendous
mast faillll'C. No cubs were born that year in the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park. That
meant that all the females were available to be
bred in 1985. Therefore, they all had cubs in
1986. These are the young bears that are now
(conlinuod on peg~ 16)
XAtUAh Journot Pll98 t 5
�bein& forced to look for new homes. It's
interesting how this situation today was
precipitated by the events of five years ago.
Katllah Journal: How docs clcarcuuing
affect black bears?
Pelton: My main concern is that
clearcutting may be subtracting from the
"principal," 10 put it in economic terms, of mast
producuon. There is a trade-off between the
summer mast that is produced for a few years
and the years of hard mast production that are
lost when oaks arc cut down. But my main
concern is that it appears that foresters still don't
have a full understanding of how 10 carry out a
clearcut and have predictable results in terms of
good, strong oak regeneration. We have made
numerous observations on the Pisgah National
Forest. In those instances it seemed that they
were not getting the regeneration they should
have. Thus this becomes a major concern. Once
a srand is cut, it may be lost to acorn production
for many, many years.
Another concern is denning. Bears do
sometimes den in the areas of thick undergrowth
created by a clearcut, and that's fine, but where
dogs are used for hunting, there is greatly
increased hunting pressure. The bears seem to
sense their vulnerability. The more exposed they
are, the more apt they arc 10 leave and abandon
their cubs. Female bears in particular need
secwe sites, such as large cavities in old, hollow
trees or rock crevices, in which to den. The
more secure the denning site, the more likely
they are to stay put.
Twenty-five or 30 years ago clearcuts
were hundreds of acres in size. Over the years
they have been shrunken in size until now they
are down to less than 40 acres in the Southern
Appalachians. These are beuer for most forest
species. It means more unbroken. contiguous
areas. Smaller cuts spaced apart seem 10 be a
more logical cuuing regime. Adjacent stands
should be allowed 10 mature to mast-producing
age.
Katllah Journal· What specifically could
we do to help improve habi1a1 for 1he black
bears?
Pelton: I think we need longer timber
rotations. I still contend that we need 10 examine
rotation times in light of the importance of
acorns 10 bears and other species. I have a
feeling that the rotation times need 10 be
lengthened to give the forest as a whole a chance
to be as it productive as it can be 10 produce the
food that is necessary. That production time
varies a lot from one variety of oak 10 another,
but I think that the rotations are probably still too
short
The other need is, as I mentioned before,
that foresters pay a 101 more attention to oak
regeneration when they cut. They need 10 make
ha1
sure that regeneration is advanced enough, 1
there are enough young oak seedlings and
saplings on the ground, so that maple or tulip
poplar or any other species don't overwhelm the
oaks and take over the site. Clcarcuts should
also be spaced so that acorn-producing stands
are adjacent.
roads. We have had a history of roads being
opened and closed, opened and closed,
re-opened and closed again in response 10
various political pressures.There needs 10 be a
consistent and Slandard policy throughout lhe
region regarding roads. Without it, there's no
doubt that roads are going to be quite detrimental
to black bears. Even gated roads arc being used
for illegal hunting. Total closwe may have to be
undenakcn.
The state agencies in North Carolina and
Tennessee are bolh putting a lot of thought into
their bear sanctuaries. It migh1 be timely 10
examine the sanctuary boundaries in relation to
where timber management activities and roads
will or won't be, so that lhe efficiency of the
system can be enhanced. They could make sure
I.hat the boundaries of a sanctuary take advantage
of a cenain prime white oak stand, for instance.
I think we need to learn more about designing
sanctuaries, but with a liule bit of thought and
planning, perhaps the system could be improved
considerably.
Dr. Michael Pelton has studied the
black bears in the Sowhern Appalachians/or the
last twenty years. He is recognized world-wide
for his knowledge and experience with bears
and has advised bear research and restoration
projectS in Norrh America and Europe.
Rtcortkd by David Whukr
Transcribtd by Marsha R111g
Edictd by Kim Sandland and Dovid \Vhttltr
About roads .. .ln a report I presented in
1985, I said that under present conditions black
bears needed 10 have wilderness or
quasi-wilderness, because of the indeterminate
policies of the Forest Service about closing
'Jfu:rc fell tl1e min liealin9
forty rlays
am! w e were fwatl ng, we w ere spfushi"'J
am! Caugfi£119
boos wUh our rwses in f wwers
aml throu9h tlui trus, nug9ets of s unlU)ht
and •v•rywhcr• 9run reachL"'] to fwld us
bark to touch am! 9run sprou ts, forgotten
in corners wfu:r• 9run had com. rw more.
C£u
7Mr• /eJ1. tlu& rain fu:ali"'],
mil£"'] am! f a!l£119,
remLmli"'J us of paths. rivulet.s /or9otten,
paths unilwtujit of, ways too new to Lrn<UJi.ne,
the joy of clesctmt unforesun, abandoned
to tlu& twists of mud am! stone, un.ltwwn,
new, quid.Ly. abrupt, steep.
rai,n remlndL"'J to fall w'tlwui ceasi"'],
fall 9Uully, /all gratefully,
fafl, lo119Cr and try f or tlu& bottom,
Ln mud, Ln stornJ, Ln green, Ln greetJ$St
magnif£ceru;e of rain,
the rain that falls ~lL119.
f"aCL, 1989
�ArlWOl'.I: l¥y JamM Rhea
If you ever talk to an old-timer, and you mention the word
"panther," be prepared for some emotion-laden and perhaps
superstitious stories. Human fear of the unknown has influenced
and shaped the Eastern panther's destiny. Because of this fear the
Eastern panther has been almost completely wiped out in eastern
Nonh America.
This article is an.anempt to decipher myth from reality and
to present evidence for or against the existence of the Eastern
panther today.
TI1e following is an example of the typical panther story
told to an old-timer of today by his or her parents:
'The night was dark and still. Daddy put a log in the
fireplace and then tricked us liule'uns in bed. The only sounds
were the hoot of a screech owl and inseccs serenading. And then,
all of a sudden - a clt1unp, on the roof!
Wha1's that, daddy?'we asked in fright.
They got us children down and we gathered around the
fire. We could hear the creature pacing back andforch above our
heads. It was rryinR ro claw up some shinRles!
'Don't be afraid,' Mommy cold us, 'it'll be alright.'
Daddy grabbed his gun from the wall. We knew it wasn't
a/rig Ju. Then there was a loud, piercing scream! We knew it was
the call of the painter."
Is this scenario accurate - or is it just exaggerated mountain
folklore? Was the Eastern cougar, or "painter," as it was called
by the mountaineers, so bold as to come up to a human home and
threaten to attack and kill humans? Do panthers still exist in the
Southern Appalachians? What were, or are, they really like?
Cougars were almost completely eliminated in eastern
Nonh America soon after it was seuled by European immigrants.
The attitude toward the great cat was the same auitude which
caused the "taming" and destrucrion of the wilderness. The
settlers anacked the animal, fearing it would prey on livestock
and humans. Also, the destruction of the deer population through
over-hunting and land-clearing, and direct hunting of the Eastern
cougar saw this subspecies to its demise.
1"aCC.. l989
According to Robert Downing, former Forest Service
officer in Clemson, South Carolina, the Eastern cougar (a
subspecies which differs from the Florida panther, western
panther, and twenty-seven other subspecies of Nonh American
panthers), is as elusive as the answer to the questions asked
about it. Many factors complicate the picture. First we must
understand the habits and peculiarities of the panther.
A cougar (Fe/is concolor) will live almost anywhere there
are deer, or enough of the other animals of its prey base, such as
racoon, opossum, rabbit, skunk, and fox. Deer, however, are by
far the preferred prey of the cougar. All predators are best
adapted for a specific prey animal. The deer is the right size and
speed for the cougar and has come to be almost the cougar's only
food source. ln Mexico where deer are few or non-existent,
panthers prey on smaller rodents solely. This means that the
panthers must spend more time and energy to kill more animals,
but also shows their exrreme adapuibility. Unlike bears. panthers
will not eat the meat of an animal they have not killed themselves.
Occasionally an individual panther will acquire the habit of
preying on livestock, although that occurrence is rare. Cougar
are not and have never been a real threat to livestock. Wild boar,
however, are definitely a possible prey animal for the cougar
(which has implications for restoring balanced ecosystems in the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park). Panthers feed only once
every week or two. They kill only when hungry, usually eating
pan of the deer and caching or hiding the rest to finish later.
Robert Downing is called at least once, and sometimes
several times, a month to investigate reponed sightings of the
Eastern panther. He is presently rraining other Fish and Wildlife
officials how to identify and verify rracks and scats. Only a
rrained expen can tell the difference between a panther track and
that of a large dog. Cats walk with their nails retracted (to keep
them sharp). except on rare occasions when they are in a hurry.
Panther scats average one and onequaner inches in diameter, and
are smooth like those of a bobcaL Another panther habit is to kick
up a pile of din and leaves on the edge of its territory and urinate
on it. This habit is also shared by bobcats and foxes, so it takes a
trained eye to determine the difference. Tracks are difficult 10 find
in the mountains because the ground is either hard clay or the
(continued on p:ige t8)
JC.at ®h Jo1mmC. pa9e t 7
�FRONT
COUGAR
"'"~
(continued from page 17)
constant rain washes the tracks away. Snowfall helps to locate
tracks, but high mountain winds, subsequent snow storms, and
melting make tracking in winter as challenging as any of the
seasons.
With so many sightings reported, Robert Downing finds it
hard to believe they can all be wrong. But it is also hard to
understand why there has never been an Eastern panther hit on
the highways, when 5-15% of the Florida panthers (another
subspecies) arc killed each year on the road. Perhaps the Florida
panthers find roads more desirable to navigate than low, rugged
wetlands. a problem the Eastern cougar would not have.
Cougars were formerly common throughout North and
South America. where they existed mostly on deer, bison, and
elk. Today only small pocket populations survive, mostly in the
western United States. Panthers are loners, rarely traveling in
groups or packs. An individual cougar in the west occupies a
10-20 square mile territory. In Florida each panther uses 50-60
square miles because the population pressure 1s not as great
There is no regular mating season for panthers. They will
breed any time of the year once they come to maturity at three
years of age. However, breeding for any one panther occurs only
once every two tO three years. The two or three kittens in each
litter are raised by the female. After weaning at two to three
months of age, they accompany the mother on hunts.
The panther ranges in length from five to eight feet,
including the tail, and weighs from eighty to two hundred
pounds. Their call varies. It can be soft like the cooing of a dove,
a rattling growl, or an eerie shriek -- sometimes described as
resembling the scream of an old woman. The panther does not
scream when it is about to attack, as myth would lead us to
believe. The bark of the grey fox is sometimes mistaken for a
cougar call, although there is no resemblance. Some owl calls
have even been mistaken for panther howls.
In Florida, and many eastern states, panthers are protected
as an endangered species. In western states cougar are managed
by state fish and wildlife departments as a game animal. In
Texas, there i s no protective legislation for the cougar
whatsoever.
A known population of panthers exists in Manitoba which
has spread west into Ontario, and south into the Upper Peninsula
of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota Maine is an ideal habitat
for the panther, as there are large areas with no public roads and
large deer populations. But so far no panthers have been
officially sighted there.
Before there can be any action taken to protect the Eastern
cougar and its habitat, the presence of the Eastern cougar must be
confirmed. Roben Downing has written a report fol' the USDI
Fish and Wildlife Service entitled: "The Current Starus of the
Cougar in the Southern Appalachians." In it he describes recent
reports, historical aspects, searches for sign, and research needs.
The Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service pooled their
resources and sponsored Roben Downing's study when the
controversy came to a head in 1977. At that time several groups
threatened to bring suit against the Forest Service unless it hailed
timber harvests in an area where several cougars had reportedly
been seen. If you think you have seen a cougar or its sign, this
repon may help you to determine a true sighting.
The conclusion of Robert Downing's study is basically that
there is yet no conclusion as to the status of the Eastern cougar.
Although it seems fitting and right for panthers to be inhabiting
the southern mountains, not one official sighting has been made.
Until then, panther advocates have no basis for demandfog
protection for cougar habitat
The best thing one can do at this point is to get a copy of
"The Current Status of the Cougar in the Southern
Appalachians," learn all one can about tracks and panther habits,
and keep one's eyes and ears open when roaming the hills. The
true spirit of native Appalachia will shine forth when species such
as the panther (along with the American chestnut, gray wolf, and
black bear) are existing together in stable and self-sustaining
populations.
Roberr Downing's reporr, "The Current Sratus of the
Cougar in the Southern Appalachians," is available from rhe
Denver Wildlife Research Center; Department of Forestry;
Clemson Universiry; Clemson, SC 29631.
The Earth First! Biodiversity Project is collecting data for
an Eastern Cougar Study. Your help is needed to document
cougar sightings and habitat use in the eastern states.
If you see a cougar, remember as accurately as
possible the location; a description of the animal including height,
length, approximate weight, length of the tail, and distinguishing
marks; a description of the terrain; and an account of the event
Send information to: Eanh First! Biodiversity Project
2365 Willard Road
Parkersburg, WV 26101
Cougar tracks have four toe pad marks in a
semi-circle ahead of the larger metacarpal pad. There are usually
three lobes on the back of the metacarpal pad. The tracks of adult
cougars measure 2 3/4 inches or more in width. Cougars have a
central lead toe on each foot, and the two middle toes are not
symmetrical, but one is normally farther forward than the other.
Dog tracks appear similar to cougar tracks, but the toes arc
almost directly opposite each other, and claw marks arc always
visible ahead of the toe marks. Bobcat tracks are similar in
appearance to cougar tracks, but smaller. The tracks of a young
cougar will appear the same as those of a bobcat.
If you see a cougar track, make a plaster cast.
Here is how:
I) Prepare the ground surrounding the track by removing
any debris. Carefully remove any loose objects in the track itself.
2) Take a strip of light cardboard or plastic long enough to
surround the track, fold it into a circle and fasten lhe ends
togelher. Set it around lhe track.
3) Mix Plaster of Paris according to directions on package.
Once mixed, plaster sets quickly, so be prepared to pour
immediately.
4) Pour the plaster slowly over the track, taking care to fill
all the recesses, especially the toe marks, to avoid air bubbles.
Pouring too quickly will disturb the track. Pour plaster one inch
over the track.
5) Allow the plaster to harden. Then lift the cast and
carefully wipe away excess din and debris.
/
raet,1989
�Last fall, when the mornings turned c
turned to gathering firewood, we didn't hav
south-facing slope behind rhe cabin was doned
oaks. We discovered enough snags just along
the wood stove stoked all winter, and without I
summer I've found enough dead and dying oak
house next wioter, too.
Oaks are treasured trees -- valuabl~ fo~~r. !f!l~per
provide, valuable for their shady canopy and
wood and their sturdy beauty. But something is
oak forests of sourbcrn Appalachia. Since the
ll980's,
we've seen an increase in the mortality of oaks la
~land
h3nlwood fcxests throughout the eastern United ~ This
phenomenon, called• decline, has been o b s e r v e - y
since the early 1900's, bat foresucs~.ud 1
are just beginning to tmensi.v~ it! Ciiiil'di
k
is having on the forest ecosystem.
Oak decline is not caused by a single discaa odDlilllPa. bot
a series of interactions between environmenw strelles,
diseases, and insectS. A healthy oak ~ will begin to dec:Uae
when it is subjected to unusual stress, such u drought; fiosl
iniury or spring defoliation by insects. This causes physiological
changes in the tree and its root n~omes vllJn~ IO
lltlCk by the annillaria root'l'Offungus (Ari1tiJJaria metled), wllil:b
aormally lives on roOlS of dead trees. This runaus killS put oflhe
mot sySl!Cm, further weakening the tree and making it sa~
above ground auaclc by other diseases and iosects. The
two-lined chestnut borer (Argilus bilineatus) is often fond in
uees at this stage, its larvae making meandering galleries dna&b
the inner bark and eventually girdling the tree. As the aee
declines, ns growth slows down and the crown dies bact. Tbe
dead branches exposed as the leaves die are the most obvious
signs that a tree is being seriously stressed. If good condieiom
return, a young, vigorous tree may be able 10 recover, bat an
older tree will continue to decline and eveniually die, UiUll1y iwo
to five years after the stress first occured.
The U.S. Forest Service has been conducting surveys
throughout Karuah to determine how widespread oak decline ~
and which areas arc affected most severely. By combining aerial
surveys and data collec1ed on 1hc ground, resarchcn have
de1crmincd that oaks are declining in all southern upland
hardwood forests, but the damage varies greatly in different
areas. Oak species in the red oak group (including bhd. scarlet
and nonhcrn red oaks) are much more likely to decline lhan !hose
in the white oak group (white and chestnut oaks). Oak decline
1ends 10 be grca1cs1 in areas where trees naturally grow most
slowly -- on ridgc1ops, on shallow, rocky soils and on southand wes1-facing slopes.
Age is a fac1or, too. "Declines arc, by and large, diseases
of ma1ure trees." according to Sieve Oak, forest pathologist with
the Forest Service. "However, chronological age may not f>e the
best measure of tree maturity. On a high quali1y site, an
80-year-old black oak might be considered middle-aged, but on a
poor site the same ttcc would be a senior citizen, and probably
more prone to decline".
Oak seedlings arc relatively intolerant of shade so they
••id
br
'°
have a hard time establishing themselves under a forest caoopy.
Once a dominant tree dies and more fight reaches the g10lllld.
1hey tend 10 be out-competed by fas1cr growing seedling -yellow poplar, maple, sourwood, black locust In order 10 be
sure !hat oaks will be present in the next stand, it's generally
agreed tha1 there must be a substantial number of oak seedlings
and saplings already growing in tbc undcrstory before lhe
dominant trees die.
"If it doesn't maucr what kind of trees replace declined
oaks, then decline is of no consequence because some
regeneration will happen", Sieve Oak says. "But given the
problems of oak regeneration, it's not at all clear !hat oaks wilt
replace themselves after decline".
Understanding the biological causes of oak decline and
where it tends to occur gives some clues as to why we are seeing
ao increasing number of dead oaks in the green mountains of our
bioregion. Kan1ah forests were almost decimated by the "cut ou1
and get otlt" logging practices which prevailed around the tum of
!he century. As a result, the majority of these next-generation
forats are now in the 60 10 90 year range -- the age al which
oaks become more vulnerable to the stresses that cause decline.
1llc long-1erm drough1 we arc experiencing is surely a
contributing fac1or. Overall, the raie of global wanning since
1970 is higher than a1 any earlier recorded rime. If our heedless
consumption of fossil fuels continues to blanket the earth with
increasingly heavier layers of carbon dioxide, the drought stress
caused by higher tcmpcra1ures will have dire consequences for
the whole ccosys1em, and oaks may be among the firs! obvious
casualties.
Oak decline is also predicted 10 increase with the steady
advent of the leaf-hungry gypsy moth as It chews its way south
into these foresis. The gypsy moth, an insect pcs1 introduced 10
Nonh America in the ninc1eenth cen1ury, is expected 10 cause
significant amounts of defoliation in the near future.
One of the major current concerns about oak decline is the
impact it has on wildlife. As their crowns die back, declining
oaks produce less hard mast (acorns) and the nutritional value of
the mast may not be as high. In one declining stand surveyed, the
acorn yield was predicted to be 58% lower over five years than
would be cxpcacd in a hcahhy stand.
"Acorns arc very high in fa1 and carbohydrates", explains
Lauren Hi1hmn. Forest Service wildlife biologist. "They arc one
of 1he highest energy foods in !he forest".
This shortage creates a grave situation for all animals
which depend on acorns for fall and winter food -- black bear,
deer, eastern wild turkey, racoon, squirrel and other small
mammals. The populations of preda1ors such as bobca1, cougar
and raptors a.re also adversely affec1cd by decline, since much of
their prey consists of small mammals dependant on acorns.
According 10 Hillman, decline also decreases the diversity
of acorn species. Having a variety of mast in the forest, she says,
"cushions failure in one crop which may have a poor production
year. Given periodic hard mas(shonages, this could be a critical
fac1or for wildlife survival".
And !he impact of oak decline on wildJife wilJ be even
grca1er in the future because many dying oaks will be replaced by
(continued oo page 20)
foU, 1989
JC.atimn Journa! p1i9e 19
�olher species of trees which won't produce any hard mast.
"Black bear reproduction is directly dependent on. hard
mast availability", continues Hillman, and she asscns that 1f oa1c
decline continues to jcapardizc this food source, "the black bear
.
.
might not stnive".
If we consider long term trends m climate, the s1e~dy
advance of the gypsy moth and the current age of our .f?"=sts, 1.t is
reasonably safe to predict that oak decline is.a cond1uon wh~ch
will not be disappearing in the near future. Is 11 a problem which
needs to be addressed by forest management practices. or should
oa1c decline be viewed as one factor among many in the evolution
of a continuously changing ccosyst~m 7
.
The oak-dominated forests m the mountains of southern
Appalachia arc a result of land use history ov~r the last 200 years.
Past agricultural use of the land, woods _grazing, fire control and
the chestnut blight have all contributed to the present
predominance of oaks. But given ~hat we know a.bout ~ak
regeneration, it's a fair bet that there will
fewer oaks an K~u3!1
forests in the future if some oak decline management 1s!11
undenaken. If the resultant changes in wildlife habitat, species
diversity, wood supply and aesthetic valu~s are acceptable, t~en
there isn't any reason to try 10 reduce the impact of oak decline.
In areas where there is liule or no interference by humans, such
as in designated wilderness areas, oak decline and other n~tural
events are allowed 10 run their course. Then the ?Utc.ome 1s not
influenced by the imposition of management ObJecuves which
determine which resources to promote, oflen a1 the expense of
other resources.
However oak decline is increasingly being perceived as a
problem of fo~st health in forests which are being managed to
maximize one or more of these resources. The recently released
Draft Environmental Impact Statement co".ering the Grassy Gap
and Wesser timber sales in Nantahala Nauonal Forest. is one of
1he first public documents to address oak decline as a
consideration in the action alternatives.
The environmental and topographic factors which inc~
the incidence of decline cannot be altered by forestry pracuccs.
However there arc silvicultural treatments which can reduce the
effects of decline if the objective is to maintain a vigorous oalc
forest.
be
One such treatment is thinning. Reducing the density of
trees by thinning, especially when the trees arc ~l~tivcly young,
should help alleviate water stress. However, 1h1~mg can cause
an increase in armillaria root rot fungus, and u may actually
increase moisture stress if decline is already in progress by
exposing more of the soil surface to the drying effects of the sun.
Another management strategy involves encouraging oa1c
seedlings and saplings to grow in the understory of o~ stands
which arc declining, or which arc at high risk for dechne. As
noted earlier, oa1c seedlings under the shade of mature trees tend
to be out-competed by more shade tolerant species. If the growth
of these competing seedlings, saplings and shrubs is controlled,
the young oalcs will be in a position to talce advantage of
increased light when the mature trees arc gone.
The method chosen to control competing understory
vegetation is likely to cause some. controversy, si.nce .using
herbicides appears 10 be more effecuve and economical m the
shon tenn than cutting down the competing plants by hand.
Hopefully, this decision will be carefully considered in view of
its potential long term costs.. Much more needs t~ be ~nown
about the complex interacuons of these che1D1cals rn the
ecosystem before herbicides arc given a seal of appi:oval.
.
Some silviculturists advocate a second phase m the crcanon
of a vigorous stand: cuning down the declining mature trees.
From a silvicullural point of view, harvesting the big trees allows
enough strong light to reach the ground for the oak seedlings to
begin growing rapidly. Forest manag~rs "!BY .also .choose to
harvest declining trees based on economic obJCCUves, 1f the trees
can be sold as timber.
Harvest methods have been at the center of a great deal of
debate recently, with clearcutting generating most of the
opposition. And the controversy is likel>: to become eycn ~ore
intense with this issue, because clearcutung has been identified
by many silviculturalists as the most effective way to manage.oalc
decline. They affirm that if ~equate numbers of oak Sec<!lmgs
and saplings arc present rn the understory, clearcumng a
declining oalc stand is the most reliable way to ensure that ~e
following stand will be less susceptible to the stresses which
initiate decline.
The major harvest alternative to clcarcutting is managing an
uneven-aged forest by selectively cutting small groups of trees.
This harvesting is done periodically, usually every 10-20 .Y~·
and the trees arc selected in such a way that at least three d1sunc1
age classes will remain in the forest Uneven-aged stands are
valued for containing a diversity of ages and species of trees and
for their basically intact forest canopy.
However, oak decline is more likely to increase in stands
which arc managed this way than they arc in clearcut stands,
because uneven-aged harvest requires more logging road
construction, as well as more entries into the stand. This means
there is increased potcmial for soil compaction, i:oot system
damage and mechanical damage to the trees which arc not
harvested. These injuries decrease a tree 's resistance to the
stresses which cause decHne.
Skillful horse logging would subs1amially decrease lh~se
risks and would make uneven-aged management a beuer option
for declining stands. Unfonunatcly, neither the timber industry
nor the Forest Service consider logging with horses an
economically viable practice. Small woodland owners, without
the market pressures of big business, may find that using horses
to log decline-prone areas, thereby creating space_ for youn.g
vigorous trtts 10 grow, is a good way 10 m:in11ge de.chn .. on 1he1r
land and encourage biodiversity.
.
Oak decline is a biological fact in the forests of Katuah.
Watching robust, bountiful oak trees slowly lo.se th~1r stren~th
and die is an emotional experience. Oak decline is an issue which
gives us a chance 10 discuss what we value most about our
.
forests, and how we want 10 influence future forests by the
decisions we make now.
Photo abow, armillaria root rot fungus, courtrsy c{Strp~tt W. Oak
f"llU,1989
�PEOPLE & HABITAT
While many view the pastoral scenes and
remote majesty of the Southern Appalachians as
all-enduring, trends in human population
l migration and unrelenting resource extraction
have had monumental effects upon wildlife and
the diverse flora of their native habitat. Today
litlle remains unaltered by the effects of human
activity. The landscape we view today is a
threatened glimmer of what was once, but it still
exists as one of the most diverse ecosystems on
the North American continent.
A universal tenet that holds true for every
form of life is the ecological principle of
carrying capacity: a given habitat can only
suppon so many individuals of any given
species. Beyond that threshold the numbers of
the given species begin to decline or that species
begins to impinge on the ability of the habitat to
function and support other forms of life.
The principle of carrying capacity holds as
true for human beings as for any other life form.
The difference is that we are so insulated from
the greater environment by the barriers of
civilization, that we often do not realize the
impact we are having on local, to say nothing of
distant, habitats. In the case of homo sapiens the
situation is funher complicated by the effects of
a highly-developed technology, which adds an
additional element to the equation by magnifying
the impact of a given number of individual
humans.
Bioregional awareness leads us to become
as regionally self-sufficient as possible, so that
we restrict the impact of our presence to our
own bioregion. We also realize our
responsibility to accurately determine the
region's carrying capacity for human beings and
to limit our numbers accordingly.
A historical perspective of human
manipulation of the Katt.lab province will help
raise the question of the proper carrying capacity
for human beings in our bioregion - the level
that allows for the preservation of wild habitat.
land already subject to conditions of dire
overpopulation. The Old World represented a
virtually inexhaustible well of humanity that
flooded over the new frontier. After the
mountain highlands were first penetrated by
DeSoto in 1540, the question of access was of
paramoum importance in the development of the
Southern Appalachians.
The Indian culture tied to the land and her
offerings was rapidly overrun by the streams of
white-skinned settlers that moved in along the
major Indian trails 'through the Shenandoah
Valley and from the Atlantic Tidewater area,
widening the trails into roads as they went so
that others could more easily follow.
The first small communities sprang up
along the river valleys and larger coves of the
Watauga, French Broad, Little Tennessee, and
Hiwassee watersheds. Although few and far
between, their presence was marked by the
agrarian need for cleared land. The bottomlands
and wellands were cleared or drained firs1, and
!hen trees were felled on the side slopes to make
room for more fields and pastures. As the first
sertlemen1s became towns, the clearings spread
deeper into the mountains following small and
muddy roads that wound along the river and
stream tributaries.
Early In habitants and First Immigrants
The Cherokee Indians and the indigenous
people before lived in balance with their world,
utilizing the offerings of their Eden. Sources
estimate the native population co be about
22,000 individuals throughout the entire region
in the early 17th century. This number is
somewhat lower than pre-Columbian levels
because of war and disease brought by white
settlers. (Today, that number would be
considered only mediocre actendance at Fulton
County Stadium in Atlanta.)
The native people manipulated their
environment with a technology based on fire and
scone tools. Even though they had developed a
sophisticated system of agriculture before the
arrival of the first white people, it is clear they
never exceeded the ability of the region to
support them. They did not interfere with the
capability of the habitat to provide for other
forms of life; quite to the contrary, the native
people relied on that capability for their
continued existence.
The arrival of the first Europeans,
however, changed conditions drastically. The
first immigrants represented the overflow from a
1'a!L, 1989
Plwlo by Rob MusidJProject Ug/llhawlc
These first settlers lived largely off the
land, much in the manner of their native
predecessors. Like the Indians before them, the
white settlers annually burned off the forest
floor. However, because of their greater
numbers, this had a much greater effect on the
forest than it ever had before. Even so, until the
end of the 19th century most of the mountain
highlands remained an impenetrable wilderness.
Daunted by the richness of the New
by CHIP SMITH and
LEEK. FAWCETT
World, the Europeans regarded the productive
capacity of the land as limilless, leading them to
farm and hunt carelessly and without regard for
the future. Because they were completely
ignorant of ecological balances, they
exterminated game species of animals and birds
and slaughtered the native predators so that their
domestic livestock could free-range in the
woodlands. Hogs and turkeys were particularly
well-adapted to the forest environment and
thrived on 1he fall mas1 provided each year.
Once fattened, these were gathered into large
"droves" and walked along the "drovers' roads"
to markets in the piedmont
Mountaineers also traditionally foraged
for medicinal roots in the forest. As commercial
demand for these natural remedies began to
grow, medicinal roots became a prime baner
item in town and at the crossroad country stores.
As wagonloads of ginseng and other potent
roots and herbs began to roll down the twisting
mountain roads to the eastern cities, the rate of
trade began to threaten the survival of ginseng
and other herbaceous forest plants.
The Industrial Era
Grinding mills and small saw mills were
the height of industrial production in the
highlands until the mid-I 800's. The barter
system was the usual means of exchange. The
US Census estimated the population in the 18
western counties of North Carolina ac 200,000
in 1890. The lifestyle was still based primarily
o n subsistence agriculture, hunting, and
foraging.
However, in 1880. the first train into the
mountains pulled inco Asheville, and the
Southern Appalachians were changed forever.
The railroads represented a new degree of
access, and they brought exponential population
growth, absentee land ownership, and industrial
commerce.
The population of the city of Asheville
(which today is only somewhat greater than
65,000 people) mushroomed from 2,000 in
1880 to more than 10,000 by 1890. Tourism
also arrived on the rails, and sanitariums and
luxury hotels offered all the comfons a tired and
ailing flatlander could desire.
Commerce was the primary reason for
pushing through the railroads, and in the
Southern Appalachian region, commerce meant
timber. Large traces of land, often
30,000-200,000 acres in size, were opened up
to exploitation and soon surrendered their
bounty. Temporary company towns were built
at the base of major watersheds and railroad
lines extended into the highest coves.
The early timber barons were
industrialists, not foresters, and they neither
knew nor cared about the ideals of sustained
timber )'ields and forest regeneration. Their
mastery of the new steam technology gave them
access to the most remote reaches of the
mountain forest, and the destruction they
wrought there was unprecedented. The damage
to the species composition of the forest was
irrevocable, as was the damage to the soil. By
the early 1930's 80 percent of the mountain
(continued on page 22)
JC.awc:ih Jo'4rnat plMJe 21
�(continued from pqc 2 1)
landscape had been burned over. Little was left
to shield the soil from the area's high levels of
rainfall , and severe flooding occurred in 1896,
1901, and 1909, and periodically into the
1940's.
A mountain native, the Reverend A.E.
Brown provided first-hand insight in an
interview in the Manufacturer's Record ip 1910:
" ... these mountains were full of sparkling
brooks and creeks which required a two or three
week rain to make them muddy; today a few
hours of rain will muddy them .... Many of the
mountain streams are dry throughout the
summer and fall, while in winter, the waters
descend in torrents and do vast damage
rendering wonhless the bouom lands... The
sides of mountains have been denuded of their
topsoil and bouom lands have been overflowed
and swept away... "
Shortly after the end of World War I most
of the timber barons had tom up their tracks and
moved on to the Pacific Northwest. By 1930
only a few companies, such as Champion
Corporation, were left In the wake of the timber
rush, and at the onset of the nation's worst
drought and the chestnut blight, little was left for
human or beast.
The Present-day Forest
(or Wha t You See Is What Is Lefi)
Between the I 940's and the I 960's the
population of the Ka1uah province remained
static or even dropped The mountai n binhrate
remained high, as it had in the past, but many
young folks left the mountains to find wage
work in the cities of the east and the midwes1.
The bumpy roads offered a way out of the
mountains tO seek the American Dream.
During the 1960's and the I 970's,
however, a change took place. The isolation of
the "backward" Appalachians began 10 look
appealing to flatlanders sick of noise, crowds,
and pollution, and perhaps sick at heart at the
manner in which they earned their wealth. The
very isolation that had protected the mountains
from industrialization for so long now proved
their strongest attraccion. City-dwellers realized
that they could "have" that isolation - all they
lacked was a way 10 get there. Thus began the
era of the four-lane. The Appalachian Regional
Council brought in federal money 10 help state
governments upgrade old roads and build
modem expressways.
During this same period agriculture
declined sharply in the mountains - and with it
declined the traditionally high binhrate that had
always characterized Appalachia in the minds of
outsiders. With the construction of new roads,
in-migration became the driving force in the
population growth of the Ka1uah province.
Today the rate of biological growth (che ratio of
the binh rate 10 the death rate) remains at flat
zero or in fractions of a percentage point (0.07
percent in 1984), while the rate of in-migration
continues 10 rise dramatically, putting the overall
population growth of the Southern Appalachians
well above the national average. The number of
retirees translcx:ating to the mountains raises the
percentage of monality, but a look at the figures
shows the dominant influence of migration on
the regional population.
Lack of access has always been the
limiting factor on growth • the growth of human
populations, economic development, and
Xat®h Journal pa9e 22
industrialization - in Appalachia. Lack of access
protected the wild nature o f the mountain
habitat. Now the cork is out of the bottle. The
sporadic stream of in-migration has turned into a
flood. As over-populated Europe once offered
an inexhaustible supply of humanity to fill up
the New World, the large eastern cities now do
the same for the mountains, as the in1ersu1te
highway system offers an easy means of travel.
Along with the increaSe in new residents,
there has been a tremendous increase in demand
for recreational opponunities in the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park and the
national forests. Today, human management and
human use penetrates 10 the deepest reaches of
the forest on 4,900 miles of forest roads and
touches every aspect of life on virtually every
acre of the mountain forest habitat.
Meanwhile, wildlife has been pushed
back to the most remote areas of the forest in
search of food and safety due 10 the clearing
necessary for roads and development and the
associated noise.
Environment Committee assures us that al l this
developmen t can proceed with no impact
whatsoever on the "beautiful mountain scenery
that is so imponant to all of us" - in fact, it'll be
even beuer, because there will be more people
here to enjoy it wilh us.
Typical of this approach is the l-26
Corridor Association, a coalition of Western
Nonh Carolina industrialists, developers, and
their followers, who believe it is imperative 10
immediately upgrade the present Route 23 to
interstate proportions through Madison County
10 the Tennessee state line providing a d1rec1
connection between Asheville, Johnson City,
TN, and the large industrial cities of the
mid west.
Jerry Grant, the biggest developer in the
Katuah mountains, provides the following
insight via the /-26 Corridor Association
Newsletter: "We would be on the way to
somewhere - not the end of the line. We think
Asheville and this region are extremely fortunate
10 have an excellent liveability factor. We are
able to attract the right kinds of industry."
Those who still espouse this approach
have not yet realized that whenever we perceive
something as a resource, then it is automatically
for sale. And once sold, it is no longer ours. It
is gone.
In another public relations publication of
the l-26 Association, WNC at the Crossroads:
Crisis or Opportunity?, this theme of
development continues:
"Improving the US 23 gateway to
interstate standards opens the entire Ohio Valley
and Nonheastem US to the WNC mountain
expenence....Imagine how many more travelers
would discover WN~ if traffic now using I-77
and 1-75 could re-route via 1-26 through the
scenic Southern Highlands.... An interstate
would produce many business opportunities
away from its interchanges. Well-designed and
The North Carolina Highway Bill
(or Come One, Come All!)
This summer in Nonh Carolina the state
legislature passed a $9.1 billion Highway Bill.
Governor Ji m Manin's plan is 10 place "every
resident in the state within 10 miles o f a
four-lane road," build by-passes around seven
urban centers (includi ng Asheville), pave
10,000 miles of secondary gravel roads by
1999, and the remaining gravel roads in the state
by 2006 (see page 25).
To hear the road boosters talk, the new
roads are going 10 bring in all the good aspects
of industrial culture and none of the bad.
There's big bucks in it for everyone, we are
told, and, because we live in the mountains,
things will be as nice as they always were. The
;
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PR(S(NT 4 LA~ES
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f'aU:, 1989
�perpetual wild sanctuaries
It ts both a form of reverence
and a human need that we learn
at this time to intentionally leave
some wild places alone forever.
At this lime In Earth history. our
human species Is severely and Irreversibly
tmpacttng the ecosystems of the planet. As an
acknowledgement of our reverence for Life and
for the sake of our planet's biological heritage.
ll Is Important that we lntenllonally leave
perpetual wild sanctuaries where humans do
not enter....places where the non· human life
fonns tnd1genous to a pan.tcular area arc able
lo proceed lndeflnltely. undisturbed by human
presence. judgement. or Intentions.
This Idea Is not wtlhout precrdrnt. In
New Guinea there arc small areas of natural
vegetation left amid lands that have been
ovcr·grazed and ovcr·cut for cooking fuel.
These small fragments of natural diversity are
the burial grounds. rabu areas. sacred to the
spirits of the ancestors. where It Is blaspht>my
to tread.
In old English estates. amid the
Impeccably kept lawns and gardens. there Is
one comer kept wild "for the fairies • that Is
never entered These are probably areas that
would difficult lo matntaln anyway. and these
days the tradition Is most likely kept with
tongue tn cheek. but ll Is slill kept, as ll has
been for generations.
In the small country of Costa Rica the
newly-established tropical dryland forest
national park Is divided Into three pans: one
pan ts open to appropriate commercial use.
one pan Is only open to tradltlonal native use.
and the remainder Is not open to human use at
all.
Here In Katuah. there have always been
energy centers and sacred sites endowed with
spiritual power that were never entered except
by lndlvlduals or small groups of people who
felt compelled to venture there to fulfill a
specific spiritual mission.
ThJs idea could be easily translated lnlo
our own lime. lf people took ll to heart. Small
areas could be set aside on small tracts of land.
but setting aside a mountain range or large
areas of the forest to be forever undisturbed by
human presence would make a significant
difference tn the conditions of habitat and. no
less Importantly. would transform our
relationship to the land.
It Is both a form of reverence and a
human need that we learn at this lime to
Intentionally leave some wild places alone
forever. All who feel so tncllned are Invited to
set off an area of land - however large an area
for whJch the tndlvldual or group feels ll can
accept responsibility - as a perpetual wild
sanctuary. This could be done by purchase.
decree. or by personal witness. The areas could
be regarded as sacred shrines. devlc
dwclllng-places. burial grounds. or liberated
1.ones. In whatever manner It Is undertaken.
this commitment tnvolvcs a responstbtllty lo
respect the boundaries and lo urge others who
might come tn contact with the area to do the
same. It also Involves educallfllt the young
about the nature of this area and the purpose
for selllfllt ll aside. that they might be willing
to continue the practice.
ll Is time lhts Is brought forward as a
serious suggestion.
May all beings live wUd and free!
Plca.\C !lend any commcnis expressing your
rcacuons, dreams, or visions about a perpetual wild
sanctuary lO KatiUih Journal: Box 638: Leicester, NC
28748.
(conlJnUOd from Pl&C 22)
developed interchanges therefore not only
enhance the corridor's immediate environs, but
also seive as gateways which entice additional
development into surrounding counties.
"Regionally, the 1-26 gateway will
increase traffic throughout WNC. Thus,
thousands of businesses - both established and
yet-to-be stand to benefit...The US Chamber of
Commerce has determined that each additional
100 manufacturing jobs have the following
positive (sic) benefits on a given locale:
Non-manufacturing jobs .. ...............&!
Population increase...................... 202
Family units .............................. I 02
Increased school enrollments............ 61
(t ndguote)
The effects would certainly be positive for
the developers and real estate speculators who
stand to make a lot of money selling off the
mountain habitat. For current residents,
however, land booms do not necessarily mean
more jobs. They do mean higher taxes as the
local people absorb the costs of expanded water
supply and waste disposal services to provide an
infrastructure for the new industries. They do
without fail mean over-crowded schools, higher
crime rates, increased noise. congestion,
sedimentation. air and water pollution.
Richard Stiles. an economist for the
Western Nonh Carolina Tomorrow group, a
primary motivator behind the push for an 1-26
corridor, actually maintains that an
interstate- level highway would be less
ecologically damaging than expansion of the
present Rt. 23. He says that this is because an
interstate would have only limited access, rather
than being lined with development.
Such an analysis shows a complete
ignorance or disregard for the idea that there is
any limit to the regional canying capacity for
human beings.
T11U, 1989
Ptn:cmage Change in !>()pulation Size. Ra1c of Na1ural lncrcase.
and Net Mignuion Rate for lhc Average of !he Eighteen
Wt"stcm Counlle• of We.tern Nonh Carolina, 1940-1980
LEGEND:
- - Rate of PopulallOD Change
-""" ··· · Net Migrabon Rate:
· • • - - Ra1e of Natural ln~ase
25
20 -
15 10 5-
0-5 ·IO·
. :?Q -
1940-50
1950-60
1960-70
1970-80
(1971 l'"'JOC- )
Source: S«io-£c()namlc OverviLW of W~s1u11 Vorrli. Carol1NJ
fo r ti!, Vtu11aMla PusaJi VaiwNd Fou compilttl by the
.•t
Sou1hnn Appalachian Ccnlef, Man Hall College, Mars Halt,
NC
Direct displacement by the interstate
construction and resulting commercial
development will remove thousands of acres of
relatively undeveloped habitat. Migration routes
and range areas of different animals will be
disrupted by the cut-out, paved-over, and
fenced-in interstate route.
A new interstate route will greatly increase
fragmentation of habitaL The forest north of
Asheville will be severed by a route comparable
in size and volume to the 1-40 interstate. Instead
of one habitat area • however patchy and ragged
it is at present - there will be 1wo smaller areas.
The local gene pool, already in disucss, will be
divided in half once again.
However. the most damaging effect will
be the ucmcndously increased volume of traffic
that will pass over the new highway. A new
superhighway will mean more use. more
commerce, more in-migration, more human
demands on the already over-stressed
habitat. We long ago overshot the capacity of this
region to suppon the weight of our population.
As access opened the mountains to the ravages
of unrestrained technology at the turn of the
century, so now is it bringing in unrestrained
numbers of human beings. We arc the greatest
threat to habitat in the Southern Appalachians.
Rather than manage the forest to meet our
unending demands, we need to manage
ourselves. our numbers and our way of life. that
the forest may continue. In the long run, this
would be the best for all the inhabitants of the
mountain forestlands. ourselves included.
This process requires values that are at
once new and at the same time very, very old.
These values arc the substance of the biorcgional
vision. We need to learn/remember them and
pass them on. Only then will we be able to
approach a reasonable carrying capacity of
human beings in the Katuah province of the
Appalachian biorcgion.
~
Xot.Uah Journot p119e 23
�J
CAPTIVE BEARS FREED!
"ROAD MANIA" SLOWED
NabJral World News Service
Senator Wyche Fowler, Jr. (D-GA) led the US
Senate lo adopt an amendment to the interior
appropriations bill that cut the road-building budget of
the US Forest Service by $65 million.
Vowing lO curb "road-building mania" in the
Forest Service, Fowler called on his Senate colleagues to
pass the amendmenL They responded 55-44 in favor of
the measure. Twenty-rive million of the recovered money
would be returned to the federal treasury. The balance
would be used for stewardship programs, habitat
improvement, and land acquisition.
In calling for support of the amendment, Fowler
cited a Congressional Research Service study that found
that road construction was the most environmentally
damaging aspect of the Forest Service timber program.
OTTERS MAKE A COMEBACK
... AND A GETAWAY
Natunil World News Service
CARNIVOROUS PLANT LISTED
Norural Wbrld News Service
NllUnl) World News Service
Recent events in Cherokee drew attention to the
plight of caged and exploited black bears. One evening
this summer, several bears were "liberated" from
Saunooke's Bear Den show by unknown individual(s). A
large hole was cut in the outer wall of the enclosure,
through which the bears escaped along the creek into the
surrounding woods, and hopefully into the Great Smoky
Mountains National Parle.
The outcome for the escapees is unknown:
Saunooke has made no comment as to whether or not the
bears were quickly recaptured or escaped into the wild. In
any case, this evem effectively brought the bear's
situation to the attention of local media.
People for the Ethical TreaUTient of Animals
have annouoced plans to protest in Cherokee on
September 9, 1989. They have been warned off by the
Chief of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation,
Jonathan L. Taylor. A clear message appeared on August
15, 1989 in the Asheville Ci1iz11n-Times that any animal
rights protesters would be arrested and prosecuted for
"interfering• with the reservati.on practice of exploiting
bears. lo a pointed way. it is clear that on the
reservation, as in many areas or Katuab. the rights or
humans to exploit the bears supercedes any rights of the
animal species.
Loss of freshwater wetland habitat has
eliminated or threatened many plant and animal species
throughout the country. The US Fish and Wildlife
Service has recently proposed to add to the Endangered
Species List the mountain sweet pitcher plant (Sorrounio
rubro ssp. jonesii). Native only to a few motmtaln bogs
and streamsides in southwestern North Carolina and
northwestern South Csrolina along the Blue Ridge
Divide, the mounuiin sweet pitcher plant has been
reduced from 26 known historical populations to only
10. The pitcher plant has been the victim of drainage of
bogs. flooding. convctsion or the land for agriculture and
grazing, various other forms of land development, and
collection. Eight of the remaining 10 populations
survive on private land where they may be subject to
habitat alteration and collection by fanciers or
carnivorous plants; the other two are situaicd on State or
South Carolina lands. but are also vulnerable to
recreation and illegal collection.
The mountain sweet pitcher plant, like other
carnivorous plants, traps and digests insects for food. 11
grows up to 29 inches in height, producing showy.
typically maroon flowers gracefully suspended on single
tall stems, each covered with a hood. Insects. attracted to
the mouth of the pitcher by sweet secreted nectar, crawl
or fall into the pitcher. Their escape is prevented by a
smooth slippery surface just inside the mouth of the
pitcher. and by stiff hairs lining the interior or the pi!Cher
tubes, pointing downward. The insects are digested in the
enzyme.filled fluid secreted int the pitchers.
The mountain sweet pitcher plant and its related
species have long inspired curiosity and wonder. Unless
they are protected and s:ived they will soon inspire only
memories. Your comments can be addressed to the
Asheville Field Office: US Fish and Wildlife Service;
100 Otis Street (Room 224); Asheville, NC 28801.
ACID RAIN A PROVEN KILLER
NabJral World News Service
A link between acid precipitation and a wsease
which bas killed thousands of dogwood trees may have
been proven by US Forest Service plant pathologist
Robert Anderson and colleagues. Dogwood anthracnose,
or dogwood blight, caused by Disculo fungus species,
was first found to be infecting trees in the Northeast and
the Pacific Northwest about 10 years ago (see Kotuoli
Journal #21). Since then, it has spread lO many of the
Southeastern states and caused high mortality among
both woodland and ornamental dogwoods. More than one
quarter million acres in Kllttiah have been affected by the
disease.
Otters, absent from the Smoky Mountains
following excessive trapping and logging activities
during the 1930's, are making a comeback. Not only are
they successfully surviving in several reintroduction
sites, they arc claiming ierritoric:; across mountain ronges
from their points of rcintr0duction. Nine nvcr otters
were rclea.~ into thc Little River on the Tennessee side
of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and at
least two have crossed into Nonh Carolina drainages.
The ouers arc eluding the tracking efforts of
researchers. even though fitted with surgically-implanted
radio transmitters. Kim Dcl..o'1ier, wildlife biologist for
the Park. says, "Most of them have moved extensive
disuinces from the release site to other drainages. We
really don't know why they are moving so much."
Recently, biologists have been able to track the otters
only by air. A few oucrs from a 1986 release project an
the Cades Cove area of the Parle also were sighted later in
Nonh Carolina waters.
FtShermcn have expressed concern that ottcrs will
destroy game fish, but analysis or oner scat from river
banks bv University of Tennessee researchers revealed
that scat piles contain no trout bones.
"Trout are fast and much harder to catch," says
DeLozier. Instead. the otters prefer slow-moving fish like
white suckers. daces, sculpins, and hogsuckers, says
DeLo1Jer. For the ouers, •...these slow-moving fish ate
like picking sweets from a candy store."
The next proposed release of river ouers will Ulke
place as early as this winter in a watershed on the Nonh
Carolina side of the Park...but don't expect them to stay
there for long.
Xai.imh Journal pmJe 24
The disease is chanictcrized by putple-rimmcd leaf
spots. followed by twig, brunch. and stem cankers. Trees
ID the forest • parucularly trees growing ID moist
environments at high elevations - suffer more from
anthracnose than omrunental dogwoods located where the
disease can be controlled by cultural practices. Among
wild dogwoods, the disease is expected to continue 10
spread throughout the South.
In the past researchers had not been successful m
producing anthracnose symptoms on trees which had
been inoculated with lhe Disculo fungus in the
laboratory. In the recently reported experiments. one year
old dogwood seedlings were exposed to various levels of
simulated acid rain at a Forest Service lab. The seedlings
were then exposed to Disculo inoculum and the
subscquem rate of infection was noted. Exposed to the
fungus alone, the trees showed no sign or the blight. but
as the rain acidity levels were increased there appeared a
corresponding increase in infection. Research is
continuing to determine if the acid rain/anthracnose
connectio~an be observed in dogwoods growing under
field cond111ons.
Anderson's work will be helpful in effons to s:ive
the tree that bears the North Carolina state nowcr.
Perhaps more importantly. however, his experiments
have proven a link bclwecn acid rain and plant disease and
decline. It is commonly accepted that airborne pollution
is contributing 10 the deaths or red spruce and Fraser fir
treeS at high altitudes in the mountruns, but Anderson's
experiments offer the first scientifically accepted proof
that acid min is a major culprit in any instance or forcs1
degradation.
The logo above symbolizes the commitment of
the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League to protect
the integrity of the New River. The group is demanding
that the State of North Carolina carry ou1 its
rc.~nsibility to protect the river as a fcder:illy-dc.~ign:ncd
Wild and Scenic River area. The New is presently
designated a Wild and Scenic River for 26.5 miles or its
length, but this designation is threatened by an alarming
rate of de,•clopmcnt along its banks and a proposed water
treaUTient plan! upstream of the fcderally-pro1cc1cd zone
(sec Ka1t1aliJourna/ If 24).
Join the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense
League's efforts on behalf of the New River. Contact
BREDL: Box 1308; W. Jefferson, NC 28694.
raC!., 1989
�.
SAHC TO REVISE PROPOSAL
Nmural World News Strnce
The Southern Appalachian Highlands
Conservancy (SAHC) has announced !hot il will drop o
proposed National Scenic Area Proposal thllt the group
hnd drafted as potential leg1slauon 10 define m:inagemcnt
policy for the 24,000 acres of spcc18Cular landscape
known as the Highl:inds of R0311.
The ongin:ll propos:>I met w11h protest from local
l:indowncrs and building conl13Ctors who felt thllt lhcii
propcny rights would be violated by the plan.
The SAHC sud m a prepared sl3tcmcm, "Since u
has been our hope from the beginning !hot a proposal
could be drafted which met with the approval of all
part1e~ •... SAHC has withdrawn 1ts proposal for lhe
present and 1ntcods IO revise the same <;<>as IO hopefully
'™=Ct the conocms of local l'CSldcnts md landowners.•
The conservauon group pbns to hold both formal
and informal mceungs with all CO'ICcmcd to come up
wilh a new and belier proposal for keeping inl.3Cl the
beauty of the Roon Highlllnds.
NC ROAD BINGE
Nonnl World News Service
The North Carolina state legislature
overwhelmingly passed a bill o~ July 26 that will
contnbute greatly to mushrooming development in the
Klllliall province. By a House vote of 95-19 and a Senate
vote of 39-11, lhe legislature raufied a highway package
rood bill calling for S9. I billion for road construction
throughout the Slate.
In campaigning for the bill carher, Republican
GovClllOI" J1m Martin vowed IO bnng every resident of
the state within 10 miles of a fow--lanc highway. The
bill would fund major road-building and road-widening
projects and pave thousands of miles of ara,-cl roads.
Pnrndox1cally, the governor turned against his
own bill when Senate Democrats added a provision to use
incrca~ vehicle sales taxes for 11110 years to fund pay
raises for 1eaehcrs and swc employc:cs. But legislators did
not respond to the governor's last-minute call to tum
down lhe revised bill.
Among the projects IO be funded by the massive
highway constrUCtion act are widening of US 23 in
Madison County 10 cn::ue a four-lane roadway between
Asheville, NC and Johnson City. TN: widening of US
19-19E between Mars Hill and Ingalls m Avery County:
expansion of US 19 between Bryson City and Andrews:
widening of US 441 soulh of Franklin: and construction
of a loop IO circle west of Asheville between 1-26 and US
23.
1"c:i[(, I 989
FRIENDS OF GRANDFATHER
temperawrc in the river, which would cause populations
of fish and olha- life to decline.
Geologically, the Grandfather Mountain Window,
where some of the oldest rock exposed on earth juus out
of the gl'OWld, provides a unique glimpse into the past. 11
is estimated lhat Grandflllher Mountain is between 625 to
680 million years old, placing its formation during the
Precambrian era, a time when life still existed primarily
in the seti. and microorganisms were prom111CnL
Fncnd~ of Grandfather is c , rently securing
501(c)3 non-profit status with the Elisha Mitchell
Audubon Soc1c1y. It has also received suppon from the
Blue Ridge Group of the Sierra Club and is worlcing with
the Trust for Public Lands. To become involved or 10
send a donation to the Friends of Grandfather Mountain
Fund please write to them at: P.O. Box 239: Sugar
Grove, NC 28679.
Nonnl World Ne"°' Service
On !he northwest slope of Grandfather Mountain
hes 1,200 acres for sale. 900 acres of lhis is owned by
lhc Wilmore Corporation, headed by John Williams and
Hugh Monon. A master pion has been drawn up which
any developer interested in buying the property must
agn:c to. Tiie sellers see this master plan. which includes
a ski slope, shopping mall. convention center, golf
course, and 200 or more homesiteS as being earned out m
an envll"Ol\mentally conscious way.
Friends of Grandfather Mountain is a group of
concerned local citir.ens working to keep these
envuonmentally sensiuve areas mtact by initiaung a
media cnmpaign and an effort to purchase the land. By
purchasing the land and placing it in the care of a
conservation organi1.auon, perhaps future generations can
enJOY at least one moun1:1m whose i.rrcplacable beauty
lives unscathed.
In protceting the land, douns of species of plants
and animals would also be protccted. Many vnriwes of
irces, and several rare nnd threatened plants and animals
eiust on and near the 900 acre tract up for sale. Of pnme
botanical concern are the Blue Ridge goldenrod and the
Hclleri bla7jng star, both growing on the Profile Cliffs
directly above the endangered land. These species are
listed as critically globally imperiled by the Natural
Heritage Program. The Blue Ridge goldenrod is also
CODSJdered endangered by the State of North Carolina.
DU"CClly off the Shanty Springs Trail arc bent avcns and
lnuhng wolfsbane. These bcauuful plants arc also
globally imperiled. Their ap(>C3rllllce is considered rare
nnd highly localized.
The proposed development would also displace
hundreds of animal species mcludmg: deer. racoon,
opposum. red and grey fox, bobcats and an occasional
bear. Newly discovered is the presence of the northern
Oying sqwrrcl, a "Jlt'CiCS endangered in the Sl&IC of North
Carolina, just above the glade on the Shanty Springs
trail. These small, nocturnal creatures seem 10 be
declirung because of changes in vegetation and habitat
disturbance. The population of these rare squirrels at
Grandfather Mountain is the farthest north the species has
been discovered in the state. Also, disturbing the territory
below the hacking site for young endangered pe.rigrine
falcons may reduce the chance of the mature birds
renuning lO breed in lhal area.
From the westtm slope of Calloway Peak, the
highest peak in the Blue Ridge Range, spring three
pristme streams which form the headwaters of the
Linville and Watauga Rivers. Both rivers are currently
being proposed for designation as Outstanding Resource
Waters. The Watauga River may be unable to support
additional treated wastewat.Ct, awaillng further LCSts by the
NC Division of Environmental Management. Wastewater
treallllent standards for the nver have already been made
motC Stringent, and in some 111.S1allCC$ new pcnmts have
been denied. Any silt or 1dditional emuent into lhcsc
headwaters may ruin the nver"s quality. Of critical
imponance is the potentinl increase of average water
ACID VEINS
Narunl World Ne"°' Sen-a
The final mslallment of a ten year study on acid
rain for the Kau1ah biorcgion has recently been released
by Lhe Environmental Prolec:tion Agency. The final
rcpon states th:11. 1f current sulfur emissions continue et
the present rate, 129 streams in the region will become
acidic within SO )'ClltS, and 203 additional sueams will be
occasionally acidic.
Researchers also projected the possibility of
increases in sulfur emission during the same 50 year
period. Starling with a steady inc= of 20% in the first
10 years and continuing for 15 years, then leveling offin
the next 2S years. At lhis level 159 streams would
become acidic:, and 340 would be potcntJally vulnerable
IO periodic acidification.
Presently there are no S11C811lS in KatWlh that are
considered aciC:ic, and jUSt lhree are eswnated IO have an
ac1d-ncutrali21ng capacity or lower than 50
m1cro-equ1valcnts per liter • the estimated vulnerability
threshold or streams becoming temporarily acidic during
heavy snow melts and rainstorms.
Sulfur dioxide, wh.icb is convened in the
atmosphere into acid, 1s primarily produced by
C031-buming power plants and other industries.
Oxides or n11.rogcn arc released in approxim3tely
similar amounts by automobiles and industry. Even
though the CIU"Tcm presidential admlnlscraUon has
proposed a 10 million ton reduction in sulfur diollidc
emissions and a two million ton reduction in nitrogen
oxide releases over the next decade. one of lhe best means
to reduce poisonous emissions is energy conservation,
which lessens lhc need for both existing and proposed
power plants.
Here are some organizations that offer catalogs
contammg energy-effiCIClll products: Tiie Renew America
Prop:t: 1001 Connecticut Avenue NW (Sutte 63&):
Washington, DC 20036 (&02) 862-2999 and The Rocky
Mountain Institute: 1739 Snowmass Creek Road: Old
Snowmass. CO 81654.
�Gathering
I dream the spirits gather,
Gather in a space outside my
Room. They call my name over
DRUMMING
And over, I stand
Before them and their voices are
The howling of wolves, lhe cooing of doves,
LETIERS TO KATUAH
We are in another place,
They are touching me,
I feel like a candle
With a tall flame,
They give me messages,
When I wake I can only remember
The voices of doves,
Of Wolves, and the way
We wavered over this world,
Dear KatUah.
I'm writing to thank you for sending the
Katilah Journal all the way over to Swil.l.erlandl h's
very important lhat people sian to think and care more
and more about our environmental problems ALL
OVER the world!
I'm looking forward to your next issue!
The seem of sandalwood.
- Palricia Claire Peters
YourS sincerely.
Christine Moser
~t:.~S·
p$.
o-t$S
~ ri..~ \)~ tjl{C\;1!1
~G·s~~s
.~'.tS ....o~
,.c9v~st:.•S v
J\}t>G1!i :iS ~~
Dear Friends at Katrlal1 Journ(l/:,
Dear Katilah Journal People,
Your summer '89 issue on Ptau in the
Mowttains was a moment of serendipity for me as well
as good energy and inspiration. It connected with my
moment of comple{ing a silk screened print inspired by
and incorporating the Cherokee words for Water and
S~
7~(~:t;;)are:\JA 0' (pUJL'-)
Phone~ally pronounced:
~
-
q Ma.
Justice prevails - this time - in S.E. Georgia. If
here, anywhere! Your publication is excellent, keep it
running. Can we do an exchange with you?
At this time, it's a little out of balance, but the
best we can do. h's all part of the same problem greed and power.
Pax,
Martina. John and Donna
St. Mary's, GA
~
L/A1.,;1
-tho 1t1 :JU..
Several Cherokee people (Laura King, Pheasant
Driver, Mary and G.B. (Going Back) Chiltosky) helped
me with this identification and pronunciation.
~ 1hi1 G: spoken with urgency because water is
critically essential to life.
yours, delighted and connected,
Margaret Gregg
Jonesborough. TN
love Story
! lie wirh the Eanlt
Ukea lover.
Embracing Her
Enfolded in Her fragrance
In the heat of Her body
Through langucrous swooning afternoons
And rhythmic pulsing nights.
She is
With me
Dear KatW!h folks.
A new book is out. that all serious gardeners
and fanncrs should have. h's called Secrets of the Soil
by Peter Tomkins and Christopher Bird (Harper &
Row, 1989). Please try to get a copy!
- from Knotts Island, NC
Arowuim£
Inside me.
Oneness.
Greenness.
Wilderness.
Wildness.
Swirling in the spiral
Lost in Mystery.
Knowing the Unknowable.
-Mary dt La Va/ttte
Xatiulh Jou.rnal p1i9e 26
f'aU., 1989
�Dear Friends.
Greiuly enjoyed your spring issue. ns usual.
need to call your attention, however, to what I consider
the Planet Art article's wholely uncritical appr~~al of the
current 'crystal craf.e'. So I thought I would send along
Earth F1rster. Karen DcBraaJ's brillnnt linlc piece on
crystals as an 31ltcdote. from 'Live Wild or Die', n recent
Eanh First! dcnvauve. Please consider pnnting 1L
Sincerely.
Bill McCormick
Crozet. VA
Enclosed anic:lc {b) Karen OcBf.131):
Crystals. Their shimmering beauty vibrates
deep into your being, helping your being, helping you
setf-actuahzc wuh healing powers und guided
imageries. Cool and hip, right? New age and stylin',
yes? But at what price? Well. hell, can a price be put
on spirituality? Can a price be put on how the earth
feels when her powerful energy trnnsm1uers and hc:llers
arc ripped from her bowels for a profit, be u monetary
orspmtual?
The ripping (np off) of crysuils from the earth
is causing her to ulcerate. Great eroding <;ear; rc,ult
from the hungry hordes scouring the U.S.N:uional
Forcsts (mainly in Arkansas) and areas in other
counties, such as Mexico and Brazil. Armed to the
teeth wuh screwdrivers, shovels and bulldozers,
new-age hucksters and spiritual profiteers.
well-meaning heaters and seelcers of the sacred arc
mining and tearing at the earth with no thought of the
cost to her. The environmental impact of our
spiritually starved, buclc-hungry droves is not a
consideration.
Think about it. The next time you stroll by
Toots for Fools (no kidding) or any other nashy
crystal store in Santa Crut or elsewhere, and sec those
t.v. si1~ cryslJlls glimmering in the display window,
think about the hole it left when it was wrenched out
by its roots. like a bloody wisdom t00th from a gum.
And all those smaller oncs... thcy aren't laying around
the forest noor like pine cones.
"It resembles Gold Rush Days." said
Montgomery County Sheriff James Carmack in
Spectrum (Dee. 23, 1987). when asked about crysllll
seekers in the Oucitn National Forest and surrounding
areas in Arkansas. According to Carmack, people
vandalve the area by stealing crystals from legal mines
and digging illegal muics. These all cause erosion. The
Forest Service liberally grants crystal mining permit,,
3Ccording to Spectrum. but the fees generated don't
begin to cover the cost of m:>nitoring the mines or
contr0lhng 1llcgnl hunters.
Sure. crystals are poweiful. But maybe they are
where they are for a reason. Leave them there, where
the earth c11n use them as she sees fiL It is mter.:sung
thnt newagc folks, who profess to care for the earth are
so blinded by the crystal light that they are dcstr0ymg
whnt they profess LO love. Their cryswls are bloody.
Docs our endlessly raped earth need more of this?
The NFS and the crystal-hungry massc.~ need to
hear from environmentalists: crystal mining 1s yet
another massive wounding that our earth doesn't need.
We need to heal ourselves by healing the earth.
Boycou crystals! If you own them, don't O:iunt them,
which encourages others to get them. Let the NFS
know th3t you don't want them to grant any more
crystal mining permits. Let people know that crysrols
belong to the earth!
''
• J
'·
I
.'
Draw111g by Sw Adams
Dear KatUah,
I picked up the wonderful winter issue of your excellent and much needed publication at the Tremont Center in
the Smokies. This issue has changed my perception and my life. I hope to live in the area some day. although I mny
Opl to have a cabin in the woods of Kentucky or Indiana. It has been a dream LO live m the forest for a long time • by
a stream. I wish to support and join the struggle for unity with the planet we inhabit. for stopping heedless
exploiUltion and destruction, for nurturing life. I am in the process of nunuring my own life (much damaged in
childhood). This nunurmg is most harmonious with the healing of the planet.
Thanks for your work,
Starfire
Forest Voices
I
Sleeping on the wall of the world
arching over the sun with the c11n•e
off est trees
or
wlwse tips are rwe11ry leagues high
i11 the morni11g light
casting golde11 leaf shadows
in this green place.
The high wind
orchestrates irs wisdom
with the forest:
Be at peace with the fly
and pain of bursitis
Let the heali11g ofthe pla11et
be pan ofyou.
Be one with me
2.
Hush, the gods of the forest
are speaking.
They toss the sun with their fingers.
The liale gods rising
from the growui
are staffs oftruth,
each blade ofgrass
a word of wisdom.
3.
listen,
the voice ofthe wmer sings,
the naiad ofthe stream
whispers
10 the silent one
who rests by her way.
The butterflies above
are mating
and the weefolk
are white water rafting
dow11 her tiny rapids
in small spherical crafts.
She says thar happiness
is here with the jwnpingjish
alld the drops of rain
quietly sampling
the edge of1he storm.
Here hidden and safe
I would wish to stay.
4.
W01erfa/ls
in nLrlung laugluer
as white fire ascends
in balance
ofcoll/I/er energies
providing
one another's needs
in mandala
of reality,
body alld spirit.
-S111rfire Soledad
f'p(t, 1989
�(conlinucd from page 7)
habitat types represented in the landscape, the
belier the possibilities for rhc survival of rhc
whole. Older, more mature forests musr extend
over many contiguous sites, not just on ridges
and in coves, for successful migration of
species. For life to adapt 10 changing conditions,
reproduction of all but the most highly .inobile,
weedy species must occur on adjacent sites.
Following the mosr recent ice age, forest
communities migrated at a rare of only a few
miles per century as the climate v.'nmled over rhe
course of thou,ands of years In the coming
century, species tha• cnmnnsc marurc fore t
communities musr migrate ar a rate perhaps I0
times faster, an impossible feat from isolated.
fragmented habiratS.
Optimum regional biodiversity, therefore,
requires a continuity of habitats across the
landscape in a mosaic of mature communities
that includes all topographic conditions: ridges,
nonh and south slopes, coves, streams and
gorges, balds, and bogs. FederaJ protection has
recently been extended 10 many of rhc latter
communities (at least those thar are not
commercially imponant) as Congressionally
designated Wilderness Areas. But nearly all of
the remainder - the large areas of contiguous
second-growth forests that arc now
cconomicaJly mature - is destined for violent
disturbance before the tum of rhc cenmry.
Defining Old-Growth Forests
Forests managed for commercial timber
and wild game species provide a great diver:;ity
of plant and animal species through logging and
other planned disturbances. Therefore, it is the
conclusion of Forest Service policy makers that
timber and game management activities meet the
legal requirement for biodiversity. The one
condition that managed forests do not meet is
that of providing for the types of natural
diversity in critically short supply: those
associated with mature old-growth forests. The
condition "old-growth" is defined by the
Southern Region of the US Forest Service as
any forest stand over 100 years of age. This
completely arbitrary definition fails to meet the
biological requisites for a mature forest, because
it simply means that any forest stand older than
an economic rotation for commercial timber
harvest is classed as "old-growth."
From the biological standpoint, an
old-growth forest contains trees in all age
classes, including dying, standing dead, and
fallen dead trees. Because most of the trce
species that comprise old-growth stands in the
Southern Appalachian forests do not reach
biological maturity for 200-400 years (and
pcrhnps longer 10 be wcll-rcpresenied in t11e
dying and dead tree categories), the present-day
second-growth hardwood forests must be left
free of disturbance for at least another 150
years. Even then, many micro-habitat niches
provided by old windthrown trees, standing
dead snags, and rotting logs will not become
available until yet another century has passed.
More imponantly, most of the plants and
animals of our second-growth forests represent
mid-successional species, which are not those
that will eventually be present in the climax
communities. The maturing forests of today will
undergo dynamic changes in species
composition when left undisturbed until they
reach a condition of biological old-growrh.
JCGtwm )o"rnaL paq~ 28
Artwork by Joma RN!a
Herc we should dispel several common
misconceptions regarding old-growth forests.
First, old-growth srands arc not decadent.
On the contrary, they arc dynamic and teeming
with life. As old crees fall. many new niches are
created for other plants and animals, both in the
canopy overhead and in the rotting wood on the
forest floor. Many microhabitats undergo
constant micro-successions of plants and
animals, as new niches arc created and old ones
disappear.
A second myth is that "old-growth" is
synonymous with "wilderness." This is
cenainly not true in eastern Nonh America,
where we have very liulc true old-growth in
areas that have been Congressionally designated
as "Wilderness." There is one important
difference between the two. Legal Wilderness is
by definition for hwnon beings. a commodity
for people to enjoy as a recreational experience,
and it is managed as such by the public
agencies. Old-growth forest is for bioro,
preserved for the intrinsic value of all the
various forms of biological diversity therein.
Managing for old-growth, however, does not
exclude use by people. rn fact, old-growth
forests enhance benefits such as recreation,
wildlife habitat, visual quality, and stream
quality, as well as providing for essential
biological diversity.
Restoring Old-Growth Diversity
We return full circle to the opening
paragraph of this paper. "Today we stand at the
threshold of a great decision" - one of the most
imponant for public land use since the creation
of the national forests.
Current management plans for the
Southern Appalachian national forests call for
widespread timber harvest, largely by
clearcurting, for most of the 60 to 80 year old
second-growth stands that have reached
economic maturity. There arc provisions in
some forest management plans to temporarily
preserve five percent of each harvested
component (approximately 50 acres for each
1000 acres harvested) for old-growth .
However, these temporary reserves are only
fragments surrounded by young managed
stands, and even these may also be harvested in
the future. Tree species in the young stands
created by harvesting will be heavily biased
toward those with known commercial value,
such as eastern white pine, yellow poplar, and
the red and white oaks. This would reduce
natural diversity ai.d would also reduce the
potential for genetically stable communities in
the future. An orientation toward timber
management is not going to maintain regional
biological diversity in its broadest sense.
The United States IOOth Congress stated,
"The Eanh's biological diversiry is being rapidly
depleted at a rate without precedent in human
history....Mosr losses of biological diversity are
largely avoidable consequences of human
activity ....Mointoining biological diversity
through habitat preserv01ion is often less costly
and more effective than ejforrs ro save species
once tltey become endangered." (Quoted from
H.R. 4335. 1988, emphasis added).
We frequently hear reports of
distinguished biological scientists warning that
human-caused destruction of naturaJ habnats is
the single most serious threat to survival of life
as we know it on our planet. The loss of genetic
diversity and the loss of entire ecosystems arc
occurring at an accelerating pace around the
world. The Southern Appalachian Mountains arc
a pan of this grim picture. But the existing
public lands have the potential to restore the
natural diversity provided by the old-growth
forests currently missing from the Appalachian
biorcgion. Unbroken, naturally-functioning
habitats must be restored here to provide the
basic life suppon systems necessary to carry all
forms of life through rhe unfolding ecological
catastrophe of our times.
We can overcome rhc mental blindness
that would have us believe that providing
commodities for people is the uhimote use for
the Appalachian national forests. We can expand
our vision to keep in mind the value of habitat,
the foundation for all life. Whole and healthy
habitats provide the necessary elements for the
continued survival of the entire global
ecosystem.
Robert Zollner was a professor of
forestry at Clemson Universiry specializing in
the ecology of Sowhern Appalachian hardwoods
until lus retirement in 1988.
f'~U.. 1989
�LIVING GREEN
<O Christoph and Mary-Clayton Endcrlein
The Oreen Movement is more than 1 political ideology because Green vallltS also involv~ how we live every
day. This list is for thl>se who have lhe "Green Spirit" and would like IO i~rponlle II further tnlO _daily
living...Only by activating the ilel1IS on lhis list, can our grea1-grea1-grea1 gra~c~1ldren have an opponunuy.
interacl directly wilh lhe grea1 whales, lhe elephanlS. the ravens, lhe wolves. This hs1 was created by Interspecies
Communication board member ChrisU>ph Enderlein and his wife Mary-ClaylOll. Feel free IO copy. bul do llOl change
i1 wilhoul permission.
'°
Recycle paper, glass, and metals
.
Recycle motor oil, dispose of hazardous waste responsibly
Use cloth diapers
Reuse egg cartons and paper bags
Avoid using styrofoam
.
Avoid disposable plates, cups, utensils
Use rags instead of paper towels
.
Use paper bags, not pa~r towels to drain ~se
Give away rather than dispose of unneeded nems
IO. Use the back of discardable paper for scratch paper
11. Be responsible and creative with leftover food
12. Use the water from cooking vegetables to make soup
13. Mend and repair rather than discard !llld replace
14. Invest in well-made functional clothing
15. Buy bulk and unpackaged rather than packaged ~oods
16. Purchase goods in reusable and recyclable containers
17. Buy organic, pesticide-free foods
18. Avoid highly processed foods
19. Eat foods from low on the food chain
20. Compost your food scraps
21. Grow your own food (even small kitchen gardens)
22. Volunteer to start or help with a community garden
23. Suppon your local food co-ops
24. Discover where the foods and goods you buy come from
25. Buy locally grown produce and other foods .
26. Use glass and steel cookware rather~ alu1TU11um
27. Volunteer to maintain local parlts and wilderness
28. Buy living Christmas trees
29. Plant trees in your community
30. Learn about the plants and animals in your re~on
31. Discover your watershed and work to protect II
32. Oppose the use of roadside defoliants in your area
33. Use non-toxic, biodegradable soaps and cleansers
34. Use non-toxic pest control
35. Don't buy products tested on animals
36. Keep hazardous chemicals in spillproof containers
37. Put m a water conserving shower head
38. Take shoner showers
39. Tum off the water while you brush your te~th
40. Put a water conservation device on your toilet
41. Learn where your waste and sewage goes
42. Learn where the energy for your home comes from
43. Suppon your local utility's conservation programs
44. Hang your clothes out to dry
45. Be sure your home is appropriately insulated
46. Weather-seal your home thoroughly
47. Heat your home responsibly, with renewable energy
48. Don't bum green wood
49. Choose the longterm investment of solar energy
50. Tum off lights when not in use
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Ta!!.1989
Drawing by Rob Messi<:lr.
51. Tum down your hot water heater
52. Lower your thcnnostat and wear warmer clothes
53. Buy energy efficient elccuical appliances
54. Keep your car engine well tuned
55. Drive a fuel-efficient car that uses unleaded gas
56. Walk, bicycle, carpool, and use public transponation
57. Shop by phone first, then pick up your purchases
58. Use rechargable batteries
59. Research socially-responsible investments
60. Suppon local credit unions
.
61. Suppon local shops and restaurants. not chruns
62. "Adopt a grandparent" from the local senior center
63. Volunteer to cook for senior citizens
64. Provide for children in need
65. Hold a community potluck to meet your neighbors
66. Pick up liner along highways and near your home
67. Sponsor a clothes swap
68. Become involved with community projects and events
69. Organize or panicipate in community spons
70. Be responsible for the values you express
71. Educate yourself on global and "Third World" issues
72. Participate in sister city and cultural exchanges
73. Learn about the cultural diversity in your region
74. Work for global peace
75. Learn how your legislators vote, let them know your views
76. Be an active voter and anend town meetings
77. Vote for candidates who support green values
78. Become involved with your child's school
79. Encourage your child's natural talents and interests
80. Organize or join a toy co-op
81. Put toxic substances out of reach of children
82. Teach your children ecological wisdom
83. Listen to your children's needs and suppon their dreams
84. Discourage the use of violent toys in your household
85. Communicate openly with your co-workers and friends
86. Acknowledge someone who provides quality service
87. Work to understand people with different values
88. Be conscious of the struggles of oppressed people
89. Unlearn cultural sexism and racism
90. Acknowledge individual spirituality in yourself and others
91. Donate blood if your health permits
92. Explore ways to reduce the stress in your life
93. Practice preventive health care
94. Exercise regularly and eat wisely
95. Bring music and laughterinto your life
96. Learn about the medications you put in your body
97. Practice responsible family planning
98. Learn First Aid and emergency procedures
99. Take time to play, relax and go into nature
JOO.Decrease TV watching and increase creative learning
IOI.Have fun and be joyful!
JC.atiuah JournGt p!MJB 29
�Whether you are a New Age prosperity
afti m1a11onist or an idealistic pauper avoiding
guilt by association with money, either way you
look at it, inflation has deemed our dollars paper
symobls of wealth that does not exist. A
practical person cannot help but wonder how
long before the big balloon pops and blows all
our preny greenbacks away.
There is a low-level anxiety present
concerning our inflated economy which has
prompted many people 10 s1ockpile food. move
back to the land, and in many other ways be as
self-sufficient as possible.
This awareness is helpful in keepi ng us
on our 1oes and ready for change, which is
inevitable, even if it is unpredictable. However,
survivalist consciousness can be devastating if
you spend all your energy preparing for the fall
of the existing order and deny yourself the
bounty of the present, which is all we have
really got.
It seems important to balance respect for
the preseni solu1ion of problems within 1
he
world in which we live, however imperfect,
with a vision and steps LOward an economics
rooted in life.
Barter Fairs offer a deeply satisfyin g
eicperience for those who long to participate in a
tangible, life-oriented exchange system, where
true value is considered.
As an example, here is a trade I witnessed
at a Saner Fair in Idaho a few years ago:
George had an anvil that Dennis wanted,
but all Dennis had brought to trade were
moccasins, which George did not need. Dennis
kept coming back to George longing for that
anvil, which George could not find anybody
else to take. Meanwhile, George had found
some gorgeous jewelry he could not live
without, and in talking to the crafter he
discovered that she was looking for some
footwear. George told her about Dennis. They
did a threesome, and the goods shifted hands.
All three lightened !heir loads and left richer.
Ideally the three people involved in the
trade did not translate their goods into money
value and compare their worth that way. They
each il~d a.a abundance of something of which
they no longer had a need and convened it into
something they preferred to carry around with
them. The anvil may have been worth $150
new, but to George it was just unused heavy
baggage. Those jewels might have carried a
hefty price tag at a craft fair. but since George
had such a yearning gaze and such an open
smile, the artist easily chose to exchange them
for Dennis' moccasins, which could never have
been sold for so much money, but fit her feet
like her own skin, to her infinite comfort and
delight.
BARTER
FAIR
All judgement on money ethics aside,
bartering goods and services without the value
translation of money is a stimulating,
heart-warming, and enlightening activity. The
true value of things is discovered to be
subjective. The shifting of a fair full of items to
their most valuing recipients is wondrous in its
unfoldment; the grounds for transfer are
infinitely variable.
The phenomenon of the modem American
Bane. Fair originated in the Pacific Northwest, a
r
region with a well-developed bioregional
awareness and a strong emphasis on
self-sufficiency . The fairs are held
semi-annually. The autumn fairs, coinciding
with harvest season, are heavier on agricultural
produce. In the spring, people bring more
handmade items produced during the long
winter. Both fairs are rich in reunions of
friends, music-malting. sitting around campfires
late into the night, and all the peripheral activitiCl>
of the time and place.
Barter Fairs are different than flea
markets, although many people do bring used
clothes, tools, and other goods to trade. They
are more akin to the county fairs in the country.
There is a spirit of festivity and pride in personal
accomplishment and a sense of the bounty that
comes of humanity working with nature. They
are a celebration of the fruits of this union within
a region of Earth.
There is no reason I can see that Saner
Fairs need to remain unique to the Northwest.
Our southern highlands, historically short on
money and high on resourcefulness, seem
naturally suited to generate and support this kjnd
of community celebration and self-sufficiency.
Barter Fairs carry on a spirit with ancient
roots in prehistoric times, when wandering
tribes periodically gathered together in great
council circles to define and experience their
cultural autonomy. During later agric ultural
periods fairs continued to stir human souls.
Now in the age of K-Mart when you can hardly
find a service station for your car, and pliers fall
apart after one use, it is especially good to come
together to celebrate our connectedness and
support each other in our skills. Barter Fairs in
Katuah will breed a healthy blend of personal
pride and community empowennent.
(Anyone with ideas on a good location to
hold a Baner Fair in Kat1'ui11, please contact me.
The main considerations are a flat place large
enough to accommodate camping, parking, and
trading for l ()() or so barterers and some daytime
visitors; a good water source; and reasonable
access by larger vehicles.)
- Morgan Swann
wrire clo KatUahJournal,
orcaU (704)298-1770
'1\iaee, '1Wll~l 'Nat\Jri\ls
KRLRNU
T-SHIRTS. S WEATSHIRTS
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AND TO OLS FOR LIUI NG
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The besl text on Deep Ecology,
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Where Broactw.y ~
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~240
by Dolores LaChapclle
"...we should be glad 1/ia1 we have teaclws such as
Dolores LaC/iapelle." - Katu:ih Joumnl 1123
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
Monday-Satu rday: 9am·8pm
Sunday: lpm·Spm
$23.00 (Price Ulcludes postage)
NC resikrus plt!4Se add S'k sales tax.
Orderfrom: KALRNU
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f'at!, !989
�The dates are set. The location is chosen.
The Fourth Norch American Bioregional
Congress (NABC IV) will be held August
19-26, 1990 in the Gulf of Maine Bioregion on
the shores of Lake Cobboosseecontee ("where
the sturgeon leap" in the Penobscot language)
just west of Augusta, Maine and the Kennebec
River.
This Congress finds the bioregional
movement at a critical juncture. The burgeoning
ecological crisis is going to test the depth of the
movement's commilment. The stakes are high,
and while Third World countries are currently
taking the brunt of the ecologicar impact, we 100
feel the
pressur~
here in North America
a.~
the
fortes maintaining industrial society struggle 10
keep their power.
But times of crisis are also times of
change. What we are witnessing could possibly
be the last days of induscriaJ civilization. A great
deal depends on what we do in the decade
ahead. The bioregional movement could be at
the pivot point of a great change, or it could end
up as just another bit of flotsam sucked down
the tubes. The values we hold to and the actions
we take are what will decide. At NABC IV we
will have an opportunity to clearly state those
values and decide how we will put those values
into action.
Excerpt from World Charter for Nature
NABC IV
The Eanh is calling to us. Are we ready to
listen?
A delegation of bioregional folks from ·the
Kaulah province will crave! to the Gulf of Maine
for the NABC IV. We would like to see the
Southern Appalachians well-represented at the
Congress. Make plans now if you are interested
in attending.
For information on the forming Katuah
delegation, contact:
K011"1h Journlll
Box 638
Leicester, NC
Kanlah Province 28748
(704) 683-1414
For information on the Congress, contact:
Gulf of Maine Biorcgional Network
61 Maine St.
Brunswick, ME
Gulf of Maine Bioregion 04011
• Leopold, Aldo; A Sund Country Almanac; Oxford;
Oxford University Press, 1949
• Lovelock, J.E.; Goio: A New look at Life on
Earth; Oxford; Oxford University Press, 1979
A Shon List of Sources and References on
Biodiversity and Habirat Relevant to the
Southern Appalachian Forest
• Margolin, Malcolm; The Earth Manual: I/ow to
Work on Wild Land Wi1hou1 Taming /1, Berkeley:
Heyday Books, 1985
• Berger, John J.: Restoring the Earth: /low
Americans An Working to Renew our Damaged
Environment; New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986
• Maser, Chris; Tht Redesigned Forest: San
Pedro, CA; R. & E. Miles, 1988
• Berry, Thomas. Tile Dream of 1h11 Ear1h; San
Francisco; Sierra Club Books, 1988
• lfuxton, Barry and Melinda Crutchfield, eds.:
Tiie Great Fores/: An Appalachian Story: Boone, NC;
Appalachian Consortium Press, 1985
• Cooley, James L, and Jane H. Cooley, eds.;
Natural Divtrsi1y in Fores/ Ecosystems: Proceedings of
tht Workshop: Alhens; Institute of Ecology, University
of GA. 1984
• Frome, Michael: Strangers in lligh Places;
Knoxville, TN: University or Tennessee Press, 1966
• Gordon. Lorimer C.: S1and flis1ory and
Dynamics of a Southern Appalachian Virgin Forts/; Ph.
D. dissenation, Duke University DepL of Forestry and
Environmental Studies, 1977
• Harris, Larry D.; Tht Frogmenltd Forest: Island
Biogeogrophy Theory and 1he Prtstrvo1ion of Bio1ic
Diversi1y; Chicago, IL: University or Chicago Press,
1984
• Jackson, Laura; Moun1oin Treasures al Risk;
Washingion, DC; The Wilderness Society, 1989
• Kulhavy, D. L., and R. N. Conner,
eds.;Wi/derntss and Natural Artas in Eas1ern United
States: A Monogtmenl Chai/tinge; Nacogdoches, TX;
Stephen F. Austin State University, 1986
1"titL, I 989
• Ma.stran, Shelley Smith and Nan Lowerre;
Mountaineers and Rangers: A flis1ory of Federal Fores1
Monagemenl in 1he Sowhern Appalachians. 1900-1981:
Washingion, DC; US Dcpan.mcnt of Agriculture, 1983
• Michaux, F.A.; Travels 10 tht Westward of 1he
Alleghany Moun1oins in the States of Oliio. Kentucky,
and Tennessee in 1he Year 1802; London; Barnard and
Sulizer, 1805
• Myers, Normnn Or., gen. ed.; Goia: An Atlas of
PIOlll!tory Monagtmem: New York; Anchor Books, 1984
• Nash, Roderick F.; The Righ1s of Nature: A
History of Environmental E11iics: Madison; University of
Wisconsin Press, 1989
• Norse, Elliot A.; Conserving Biological
Diversiry in Our National Fortsis; Washington. DC; The
Wilderness Society, 1986
• Norton, Bryon G., ed.; Tht Preservation of
Species: Tht Value of Biological Diversity; Princeton,
NJ; Princeion University Press. 1986
• Pringle, Laurence and Jan Adkins; Chains,
Webs, & Pyramids: Tht Flow of Energy in Na1ure; New
York; Thomas Y. Crowell, 1975
• Raven, Pete.r H.; The Global Ecosys1em in
Crisis; Olicago:The MacAnhur Foundation, 1987
Adopted by the United Nations
General Assembly
(9 Nov 1982)
".... I. Nature shaU be respected and iis essential processes
shall not be impaired.
2. The genetic vinbility on the earth shnll not be
compromised; lhe population levels or all life forms, wild
and domesticated, must be at least sufficient for their
survival, and to this end necessary habitaL~ shall be
safcguan:lcd.
3. All areas or the canh. both land and sen, shall be
subject to these principles of conservation; special protection
shall be given to unique areaS, to representative samples of
nil the different types or ecosystems and to lhe habitats or
rare or endangered species.
4. Ecosystems and organisms, as well as the land,
marine and atmospheric resources that are utilized by
humans. shall be managed to achieve and maintain optimum
sustainable productivity, but not in such a way as to
endanger the integrity of those other ecosystems or species
wilh which they coexist.
5. Nature shall be secure.<! against degradation caused by
warfare or other hostile activities.
6. In lhe decision-making process it shall be recognized
lhat humans' needs can be met only by ensuring the proper
functioning or natural systems and by respecting the
principles set forth in the present Chnner...."
This UN Charter can serve as a starting point for
local areas and regions to draft their own Charter for
Nature. Legally recognizing the rights of other
species is a critical step in bringing our species' syslem
more in balance with the Life systems in which we
pa rt id pate.
If you would like a copy of the entire UN
Charter, send a SASE to: Mamie Muller, Katuah
Journal, P.O. Box 638, Leicester, NC 28748 Katuah
Province.
Please keep us in touch with your efforts. Ho!
• Seed. John, Joanna Macy, et al.; Thinking Wee
A Moun1oin: Towards A Council Of All Beings:
Philadelphia; New Society Publishers, 1988.
• Shands. William E. and Robert G. Healy; Thti
Lands Nobody Won1ed: Washington, DC; The
Conservation Foundation, 1977
• Shands, William E., and John S. Hoffmnn, eds.:
The Greenhouse Ef!u1. Climate Change, and U.S.
Fores1s; Washington, DC; The Conservation
Foundation, 1987
• Spurr, Stephen H., and Bunon V. Barnes; Forts/
Ecology {3rd edition); New York; Wiley and Sons,
1980
• United States Congress: Technologies to
Main1ain Biological Diversity; Washingum, DC; Office
ofTechnology Assessment, 1988
• United States Department of Agricult.ure, Forest
Service, Southern Region; Atlanta, GA; Land and
Resource Monagtmenl Plans and Final Environmenlal
Impact S101emen1s:
C!Jauaboochee-Oconec National Forests
(Georgia), 1985
Cherokee National Forests (Tennessee), 1986
Nantahala-Pisgah National Forests (North .
Carolina), 1987
• Wharton, Charles H., and Harvey L. Ragsdale;
The Values of Unmanaged Notional Fores1s in 1he
Sou1hern Appalachians; Atlanta, GA; The Georgia
Conservancy. 1983
�evenrs
SEPTEMBER
19-22
ASHEVILLE, NC
"Parkways, Greenways, Riverways: The Way
More Beautiful" linear parks conference. lnt.crdisciplinary
discussion of al1ematives to preserve the scenic landscape
againsl development, pollution, billboards, and
commercialism. Sponsored by the Appalachian
Consonium. Great Smokies Hilton. Regis1rotion: $~25.
For more info., call (704) 262-2064.
,,
22-2'
. rt'
~J/\(
~-
/
,,r /
"\' ~ . .
)
-J V\J
<:--.._//
Ii= ::J ~ r
HOT SPRINGS, NC
"Walking Gently on the EartW' ~
with John and Penelope Youngb L
J
ynam1cs o evo UJ1on a t. e I ig so~ 't,.;p "
psych_ology ...a new evolutionary mysn.~sm.
Reading: The Dream of the Ewth b~ Tf":mas
Berry. SI 10. Sou~ern Dharma RylrQal C\\J'te~ RL ).
°·
/
(
OCTOBER ,
~
·
C,f{EROKEE, NC
Cherpkee Indian Fall Festival. Crafts, dance,_
stickball, archery, blowguns. exhibi~. midway. o..ilyadm~n: $3. A,! lhe Indian Ccremon,il\l Grounps.
3_7
Box 34-H; Hol Spnngs, NC 28743
t~
¥"' \ ) ,/
V--V \~
ASHEVILE NC
P
Child ~musical fantaS al>oul children
.
•
. .
eace th •
\, Y1
bnngmg peace to c world. Thomas ,vohe Audiionum.
Advance: S6 aaulls, $4 children and sr. citizens. Door: $7
d SS ~ . (704)
_
684 5530
an
·1
n
"I~ ~his r_etreat we will explore togetJ1er n
spmtual1ty of the Earth 1n harmony_w1
· if
J ·
nd h ·nS· hff ,, ~th
d
22-24
r
~
)
MORGANTON, WV
"
John Henry Blues feStiv#. ~usic,
workshops, theaLCr, more. Greer P•vill~. W~ver (
Park. Contact: Ed Cabbell; John HeorWl
SQl\iety;
Box 1172; Morgantown, WV 26507. 0fl4)~9 60?.
ASHEVILLE, NC
'11ie 'Dream of the 'Eartli.
'I1iomas 'Berry, autlwr of '11U '1>rtam
'Eart/i, 'flli{! sfum with us his concerns a6out mu
pfanet anti What fu means 6y "reinventin9 tk
fuiman at tk species kveC. 9:00 AM Iii Noon. Al
the Jubilee! Community Ccmer, 46 Wall StrccL For
more info, caJJ Mamie Muller (704) 683-1414.
23
ASHEVILLE, NC
African Drumming Workshop with Darrell
Rose. Noon 'ti! 3 pm. S20. At Troy Set7.ler's For
directions and info.: (704) 683·3405.
Evening African Drum performance with
Darrell Rose and Michael Saleen. Al Stone Soup, 9 pm.
FINCASTLE, VA
Firsl Annual Southeastern Men's Conference,
"Male Initiation and Isolation· wilh poet Rohen Bly,
James Hillman, Michale Meade (storyteller and musician
in the Ccllic tradition). and John Stokes, tracker.
Jn the post the "emotional bodies" of men were directly
ae1iva1ed by the interaction with elders, grand/others, and
mentors...What happens when the grandfathers are
aistant? ...How to hold to the duryofa father and not lose
the passion of a son? ...How to explore the rage, grief.
s'lro.me, anger, and joy inherent in the male psyche?
Registration: $450. For more info, wriie Fred Stephens;
'Box ~2; Raleigh, NC. or call Doug Lcaster(919)
782-2900.
·FILLED·
Write to bll put on mailing Ii.st for next year.
1
5-JS
MADISON, VA
"Wilddmcss Leaming Quest" - exploring lhe
viild, exploring ~e self. Sl60. Sevenoaks Pathwork
Center; Rt. I, BOX'~; Madison, VA 22n1.
17-20
'°6-8
JONESJWROUGl:f, TN
NAP~S Na~al Sl~rytelling Pe$,tival
fcaturirig mllJly famous nam~ in story·tellirjg. S5°'adull
»<>j·membets, S2S chi\dtt.n, $125 f~milie$. For ~re
inp>.• write f4ation3J AssQciailon for th~ Pn:se._rvalion &l\d
pcrpc1uati6o of Storytelll{lg: Box.__309; Joni;s,boroug~ .
37659foc call
~l~ 75~·2171.
- )
™
23
14-19
!p'tOXVl,LLE, TN
~nnual mecling of the Natural Areas
Assoc!lidon, \lllldentlal land conservation and restoration
organization. The fust day of the meeting will be devOLCd
1o th~lJibila.t of'lhe Soulhem Appalachian Mountains.
PulilcffiiViteb.. Hrau Regency Hotel. Contact J. Ralph
JordaJ;\TV ~; Norris, TN 37S2S (615) 494-9800.
.,_)
I
20.22
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC
The Black Mountain Fall Festival wilh
,.s
lRASSTow ll, NC
~
/ ,.....
Vassar Clements, Allen Fontenot and the Country
Fall Festival al the JobD C. Campbj)ll Folk
dljuns. Roy Bookbinder, Rhythm in Shoes (step dance),
SchooL-'Mus)c. craftS, country danci1,1g. · )ohn._C.
• and more. Grey Eagle and Friends; Box 216; Black
Campbell Follc Sch09l; Brasstown, ~c· 28906,
Mountafo, NC 28711.
11·15
H.IGHLANDS, NC
20-22
HOT SPRINGS, NC
"Visual EnvironmentaHsm· photography
"The Song of Creation al Harvest Time•
workshop in the field and in lhe dnrkroom wilh Robert
harvest celebration in the Jewish tradition with Lynn
Glenn Kelchum and Michael Wilder. $250 includes
Goulieb, storyteller and rabbi of the Nahalat Shalom
lodging. Appalachian Environmental Ans Center: Box
Community, Albuquerque, NM. SI LS. Sou.them Dharmn
5SO; Highlands, NC 28741. (704) 526-4303.
Relreal Center. See 9/22·24.
12
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC
WomnnSong at McDibbs. "Socilll concern
through harmony." S3. 119 Cherry St. (704) 669-24S6.
27
ASHEVILLE, NC
Thomas Berry will give the sermon at the
Equinox service of the Jubilee! Community. Service
begins at llAM 46 Wall S1rcc1. {704) 252-5335
ASHEVILLE, NC
"Mountain Sweet Talk" - a lwo-acl play with
the Folktellcrs, Barbara Freeman and Connie
Rcgan-B lake. The Folk Art Center Theater. Thursdays
lhru Saturdays - S pm: Sundays - 3 pm. TickctS: SS
advance from Malaprop's; SIO dooc. Reservations, cnll
(704) 25S-l l 13.
29- LO/I
ASHEVILLE, NC
"Restoring Biodiversity in the
Southern Appalachians: A Strategy for
Survival" conference on mountain habitat
13-19
24
NEW MARKET, TN
STP (Slop the Poisoning) School al the
Highlander Center. Tactics, strategy, and networking for
those working to stop industrial pollulion. Pre-register.
Call Highlander at (615) 933-3443.
30
CULLOWREE, NC
Moumain Heritage Day at WCU campus.
Clogging, shape-note singing, exhibils, crafts, food,
musical events, kids' shows. For more info, call (704)
227-72ll.
30-10/l
SWANNANOA, NC
Women's class on Jamaican culwral ceremony
with Rev. Queen Mother Azula. For more info, call:
(704) 29S-3935. The Eanh Center; 302 Old Fellowship
Rd.; Swannanoa, NC 28776
12-29
HI GHLANDS, NC
"Praying Feel and Dirty Hands"
Intergenerational Peace Conference led by Stepanie
Nichols. Carol Powers (The Peace Network) and Bob
Alpern. Programs on US/USSR cooperation, connict
resolution and non-violence, overcoming slrCeotypcs,
more - "leading people into action." SSS includes meals
and lodging. The Mountain Camp and Conference
CenLCr; 841 Highway 106; Highlands. NC 2S741. (704)
526-5S3S.
14
AS HEVILLE, NC
"Danger Down Under" groundwnter pro1CCli011
workshop. Health risks, citizen action, simulations.
Keynote: Larry and Sheila Wilson of Highlander Center.
S:30-4:00. Owen Conference Center, UNCA.
Pre-register: S15 to Clean Water Fund of North Carolina:
l lS Person St.; Raleigh, NC 27602. For more info, call:
(704)251-0518.
(Sec ad on back cover.) Pre-registration: S20 to
"Resloring Biodiversity..." c/o Box 233; Hot Springs,
NC 28743. For more info, call: (704) 251-6441.
27
ASHEVILLE, NC
Earth First! Road Show with Dakou Sid nnd
Roger Featherstone. Music and rabble-rousing. Stone
Soup, Broadway and Walnut. al S:OO pm. $4.
28
ASHEVILLE, NC
"For All Things Wild" Forest
Rescue Action Workshop. Strategy meeting
for activists wishing to help defend and restore
Appalachian habitat. (See ad on back cover.)
Pre-regiStration: SS to "For All Things Wild" c/o Elmer
Hall; Box 233: Hot Springs, NC 28743. For more info..
call: (704) 29S-3325 (ExL 250).
Drawing by Rob Messick
f"aCC., l 989
�10-12
28
4
ASHEVILLE, NC
·wt1d In the Str••h: The Feral
Q.all· Do.-..:• with Grondmother o"d
Strow
Com•
c::o&-tutT\ed
o.s
your
Q,...
BLACK MOUNTAIN , NC
David Wilcox, vinuoso local songwriter, at
McDibbs. S4. See 10/12.
fovortt•
~"·"'• onlmal or bird ... or .som•tN""S
10-12
MADISON, VA
"Living the Sacred Round: Lessons from the
Medicine Wheel.• Sevenoaks Pa!hwork Center, see
1W15-18.
wlldl
B 00 """" Loccrtlon to be c:>l'V'C>unc:.ed
10-12
CAMP NEW HOPE, NC
Celebrating the Dream ofthe Eanh
Earth, isn't this whaJ you want
28-29
WA YNESVlLLE, NC
"Chi Kung: An Ancient Taoist Mysiery" with
Ellen Hines of the Chinese Acupuncture and Herbology
Clinic, Asheville, NC. S50 includes room and board.
Contact S1il-Light Retreat Center; Rt. I, Box 326;
Waynesville, NC 28786 (704) 452-4569
NOVEMBER
4
FLETCHER, NC
"Improving and Maintaining Soil Fertility," a
conference sponsored by the Carolina Farm Stewardship
Assocuiuon. $15 includes lunch. For more info., call
Fairglen Farms (704)252-4414.
invisibly to arise in us?
11
(Rilke)
Reflecting the key Lhemes of Thomas
Berry. the conference will focus on the cerebral
as well as ki11esthetic interpretations of the
Dream of the Earth. With Miriam Therese
MacGillis, Amy Hannon, Marnie Muller, and
others. Workshops include: "Evolutionary
Remembering," "Exploring the Dream through
Movement and Sound." Annual Conference of
the Center for Reflection on the Second Law.
Info: CFRSL; 8420 Camellia Dr.; Raleigh, NC
27612
Cost: $9.50, includes postage
(NC residents please add S~ sales tax.)
raU,1989
CELlNA, TN
TN Alternative Growers Assoc. Fall
Conference. Includes soil improvement and backyard fruit
production. At Sta.nding Stone State Park. info: (615)
232-7777.
DECEMBER
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC
Mike Cross at McDibbs. Shows at 8 and 10
pm Tickets SIO in advance. See 10/12.
..
...
Please specify size: Sm.. Med., Lg., X-Lg.
11·19
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC
Livingston Taylor at McDibbs. Shows at 8
an 10 pm. Tickets SS in advance. Sec 10/12.
15-17
Beer & Wine Making
Supplies
•: Bulk Herbs, Spices, & Grains :.
In the traditional Cherokee Indian belier. the
creatures in the world LOday are only diminuitive forms of
the mythic beings who once inhabited lhe world, but
who now reside in Galuna'li, the spirit world, lhe highest
heaven. But a few of the original powers broke through
the spiritual barrier and exist yet in the world as we know
it These beings arc called with reverence "grandfathers".
And of !hem, the sirongest are Kanali, the lightning, lhe
power or the sky; Utsa'nati, the rattlesnake, who
personifies the power of the eanh plane; and Yunwi Usdi,
"lhe little man•, as ginseng is called in the sacred
ceremonies, who draws up power from lhe underworld.
Each is lhe sirongest power in its own domain.
Together !hey arc aJJies: tJ1cir energies complement each
other 10 form an even grcatct power. As medicine allies,
they represent the healing powers of the Appalachian
Mountains.
The medicine powers of Katuah have been
depicted in a striking T-shin design by Ibby Kenna.
Printed in 4-color silkscreen by Ridgerunncr Naturals on
top quality, aU-couon shins, they are available now in
all adult sizes tllrough the Kal:mu bioregional mail-order
supplier.
Order shirts from: KRLANU
Box 282; Sylva, NC
KatW!h Province 28779
SWANNANOA, NC
Marketing Alternative Crops seminar at
Warren Wilson College. Call Fairglen Farms (704)
252-44 14 for more info.
2
Natural Foods
rt'.ED'LC'LN'.E A.LL'L'.ES
WAYNESVILLE, NC
Weekend Meditation Retreat with Dorothy
Abbenhouse, president of the Theosophical Society in
America. $60. Stil-Light Retreat Center. See 10/28-29.
Vitamins & Supplements
Wheat, Salt,
& Yeast-Free Foods
Dairy Substitutes
•: Hair & Skin Care Products
111
200 West Kina Street. Boone NC 28607
\.•
'\..,_
704-264-5220
~~':"'
WAYNESVILLE, NC
Discussion and practice of "The Yoga Sutras
of Patanjali" wilh Leon Frankel. $60. Stil-Light Retreat
Center. See 10/28-29.
224'. broadway
ashcvi.lle. n.c
288o1
704-252-8404
=•
Ill
..
carolina costume
compaey
_J~ .._________________,
1
=-~
MOON
Gilts of Celebration
(EARTHWAY BOOKSTORE)
Books • New Age Music
Wildcrafted Herbal Producu
Gemstones • Unique Cards
Magazines • & More
WATER PURIFICATION EQUIPMENT
SOLAR PRODUCTS
Member NC Water Ouallly Assoeiallon
RANDALL C. LANIER
704-293-5912
HWY. 107
RT . 68 BOX 125
CULLOWHEE, NC 28723
(704) 264-7242
315 E. King Street, Boone NC 28607
e1ti11ese .,4(11p1111(/11re
DESIGNS
111tli
Jler/Jp/gl/I e/iHi(
by Rob Messick
lllustralion & Design
in Pen & Ink and Colored Pencil
P O Box 2601 • soone. NC 28607 • 1704)754-0097
78 EMT CMESTNUT STREET
AS>il:VIU.E. NC 28801
704 2S8-llOl6
M.C. M.VEBE. M.S., Ao.0.
UC. ACUPl.INCT\JRIST
EU.£H Hll<ES M.Ac.. ¥ M.
UC. ACUPUNCTIJRIST
�LEAD TESTS • Is your plumbing leaching
poi.~onous lead into your drinkingwatcr? Find out
for sure • lead-testing kit from the non-profit Clean
Water Fund of NC. All you need for Sl2. Send a
check w/ name and address to CWF: 138 E.
Chestnut St.; Asheville, NC 28801
MOCCASINS, handcrafted of elkhide in the
traditional Plains Indian style. Water-resistant,
rcsolable, and rugged - great for hiking! Children's
and infant sizes available. Write: Blue Feather
Moccasins; Box 931; Asheville. NC 28802. or caU
Patrick Clark at (704) 253-5047.
BLIGHT RESISTANT CHESTNUT - hybrid
American/Chinese Dunstan chestnut lJ'CCS - blight
resistant, limber growth form, productive orchard
crop with large, sweet easily-peeled nuts. Chestnut
Hill Nursery: Rt. I, Box 341-K; Alachua, FL
32615 (904) 462-2820
APPLE TREES - old-timey and popular
contemporary varieties on standard, semi-, or dwarf
stock. Send SASE for prices: Jeff Poppen: Long
Hungry Creek Nursery; Red Boiling Springs. TN
37150.
UNION ACRES, an alternative community for 20
families based on principles of stewardship,
equality, consensus, and simplicity. Spaces
available. Apply to Caroline Grant: Rt. I, Box
61-J; Whittier, NC 28789 or call (704) 497-4964.
ADOPT-A-TREE. Trees are the great conservators
of the planeL The Adopt-A-'Ire.e program will help
malce the vital connection between individual people
and individual trees. Donations accepted. For more
info. write to Box 144, Sugnr Grove, NC 28679
CHRISTIAN MA TCH-A-FRlEND seeks to bring
together Christian men & women. Interested
persons, advenisc free. We arc non-profit. For
information please send a self-addressed envelope io:
Gospel Ministry. P.O. Box 654, Clinton, TN
37717.
RENEWAL PROGRAMS- I provide individual and
corporate renewal programs for businesses &
organizations interested in healing themselves and
providing empowerment 10 others. Write: Kathie
Pieper c/o Pieper Associates, Rt. I, Box 238
Waynesville, NC 28786.
NEEDED: CHJLD-LOVING PERSON who loves
Lo be a nanny and housekeeper for my four
children. Hours, wages negotiable. Rm. and bd.
available. Asheville area. Call Morgan (704)
689-5382.
NEW AGE - group forming. All interested in
shnring about spirit to spirit communication,
channeling, visualization, healing, chakras, tarot,
etc. Emphasis on spiril and our connecLion lo
Mother Earth, visualizing positive growth and
nunuring. ConUICt Theresa C&rlson, 7501 Ruic Rd.,
Knoxville, TN 37920.
PEPPERLAND offers a variety of outdoor education
programs for church, school, or civic groups
year-round. We will help you design a program for
your group. Send for information packet to:
Pepperland Farm camp: Star Route; Farner, TN
37333.
"THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT' - a complete
rcpon on our changing environment for the next 60
years. $17.00 poslpaid, or write for more
information. Lorien House, POB 1112, Black
Mountain, NC 28711-1112.
APPALACHJAN GINSENG CO. ·stratified seeds,
seedlings, roots. Send for price list to: P.O. Box
547; Dillsboro, NC 28725.
DRUMS ·Custom handcrafted ceramic dumbecks &
wooden medicine drums. Call Joe Roberts at (704)
258-1038 or write 10: 738 Town Mountain Rd.:
Asheville, NC 28804.
THE PEOPLE OF THE ONE SONG - booklet of
stories and poems that tell of the people's dreams,
rituals, roles, and relationships from the arthetypal
memory of the past, present, and future. S3 to
Colleen Redman: One Song Scribe; Box 634;
Floyd. VA 24091.
MOON DANCE FARM HERBALS - herbal salves,
tinctures, & oils for birthing & family health. For
brochure, please write: Moon Dance Farm; RL I,
Box 726: Hampton, TN 37658
WOMANSONG - ongoing choral group forming.
Songs of beauty, meaning spirit, fun, peace,
cooperation, sisterhood. Come and sing! Mon.
evenings, 7:30-9, Asheville, NC. (704) 254-7068.
X-citUah Jo1mmL pci9e 34
SEA KAY AKlNG - Come enjoy peace and
solitude traveling with the rhythms of the sea.
Classes. day trips, overnight tours, custom charters.
Kayak/Sail boat tours to the Bahamas. Kayak tours
to Costa Rica. For more information contact:
Chnrlie Reeves, Sea Level Inc. POB 478 Tybee
Island, GA 31328 (912)786-5853
ORGANIC HONEY - Tulip Poplnr, Sourwood
and WildOowcr. From Patrick County, Virginia. No
chemicals. no white sugar, no heat, ever Strained
through cheesecloth and packed in heavy glass
canning jars. For a 4-oz. sample of our premium
sourwood and our catalog, send $4 to: Wade
Buckholts & Megan Phillips; Route 2. Box 248:
Stuart, VA 24171. (703) 694-4571
LO cook
NAMASTE FAMILY needs brothers and sisters to
join us in Lovi~g. Giving, Growing. Send Sl2
donation for writings and videotape to Namast~
Family; RR2, Box 578: Barnstead, NH 03225.
THE WATAUGA LAND AND WATER
CONSERVANCY • is a not-for-profit charitable
trust set up to protect the values and ecological
settings which sustain us both spiritually and
economically. If you are concerned about the purity
of the headwaters and watercourses, and the
preservation of wild and agricultural lands GET
INVOLVED. Write to Quality Living Publications,
POB I, Valle Crucis, NC 28691
"MAGIC AFTERNOONS" - for children at the
Unitarian Church of Asheville. An an program with
Linda Metzner in music, Norma Bradly in visual
arts, and Barrie Barton in creative movemenL It
begins Sept.ember 18th. Call 254-7068 for details.
NATURE LOVERS' COMMUNITY· Christians
only. SIOOO gives you life time ownership rights
on .5 acres. Whole prope.n y consists of 45 acres of
wooded calm and privacy. Write: Gospel Ministry,
P.O. Box 654, Clinton, TN 37717.
ITS THE ACHOO! SERVICE - Patch the clown
brings laughter and fun to the hospital. Join him
and the Gesundheit Institute at 2630 Roben Walwer
Place, Arlington, VA 22207 or (703) 525-8169.
PURE SORGHUM - and sorghum based desserts
toppings and chocolates. Handmade in the
Appalachian foothills. Free sorghum recipe brochure
send SASE. Candy sampler (2-KY Buckeyes &
2-Bourbon Balls) $2.00 postpaid. Golden Kentucky
Products, POB 246, Livingston, KY. 40445. (606)
453-9800.
MOUNTAIN DULCIMERS • made of black
walnut, red cherry, or maple. Tops available in
wormy chestnut, butlernut, sweetgum, sassafras,
western cedar and other woods. Contact: Mize
Dulcimer Company Rt. 2, Box 288, Bloumville,
TN. 37617 (615) 323-8489.
WEBWORKING is free. Send submissions to:
RHYTHM ALIVE • Handcrafted African- Style
Drums, workshops, learning tapes. drumbags. and
accessories. Please send SASE to Rhythm Alive! 85
Phenix Cove Rd. Weaverville, NC 28787 (704)
645-3911.
Drawing by Rob Messick
Kat1'ah Journal
P.O. Box 638
Leicester, NC
Katuah Province 28748
:r~u;.1999
�The Karuah Journal wants to communicate your thoughts and
feelings to the other people in the bioregional province. Send them
to us as letters, poems, stories, anicles, drawings, or photographs,
etc. Please send your contributions to us at: Kattiah Journal; P. 0.
Box 638; Leicester, NC; Kan1ah Province 28748.
The Winter 1989-90 issue of the Katuall Journal will be
concerned with the challenges and opponunities involved in
"Raising Children into a New Consciousness." We are interested in
hearing first-person stories, alternative schooling information,
children's resources (books, places to go. etc.), and any other
creative or pertinant ideas. Don't forget the canoons (kids love
canoons!).
BACK ISSUES OF KATUA H JOURNAL AVAILABLE
' ,!,!';;..,
~
~-
-
The Spring 1990 issue of the K atuah Journal will be
focusing o n "Wellness in the Mountains." We are looking for
information and articles on those who contribute to the healthful
quality of life in our southern mountains; especially through
accivities which promote self-responsibilicy and a high level of
wellness as the nonnal living state. A broad look at wellness might
include topics like stress management, spirirualfry, retreats and
adventures, service to others, Earth stewardship, having fun,
education, family and other relationships, fitness and nutrition, or
other areas of a satisfying lifestyle.
lncluded in the "Wellness" issue will be a directory of goods
and services related to wellness. There is no cost for a listing in this
directory. Please send in your name, practice, and a shon
explanation of your work or product, if you wish to be listed.
ISSUE EIGHT · SUMMER 198S
Celebration: A Way of Life · K.uuah 18,000
Ycan Ago • Sacred Sites - Folk Ans in lhe
Schools Sun Cycle/Moon Cycle - Poems:
Hilda Downer - Cherokee Heritage Cenaer Who Owns Appalachia?
.
ISSUETHREE SPRING 1984
SUSllllJUlble Agricuhure - Sunflowcn - Human
lmpac1 on lhe ForcSI - Childtcns' Education
Veronica Nicholu:Woman in Polilics - Uule
People - Medicine Allies
ISSUE FOUR ·SUMMER 1984
Water Drum Water Quality • Kudzu • Solu
"i Eclipse · Clurcu1ung · Trout • Ooing IO Weier
~I Ram Pllmps . Microhydto - Poems: Bennie
Lee Sincl&ir, J1m Wayne Miller
ISSUE FIVE · FALL 1984
Harves1 • Old Ways m Chcrolt~ • Ginseng •
Nuclear Waste - Our Cehic Heritage Bioregionahsm: Put, Prucnt. and Future John Wilnoty Healing Oatkness • Politics of
Partlcipation
ISSUESIX - Wl.NTER 1984.SS
Winter SolsticG EAl'lh Ceremony - Horsepasturr
River - Coming of lhe Ligh1 - Log Cabin
Root• • Mountain Agriculture: The Right Crop
- Williun Taylor . The Future of lhe Forw
ISSUE SEVEN • SPRING 1985
Sust1111able &:onomM:s • Hot Springs • Wortcr
Owncnhip - The Gru1 Economy • Seit Help
Credit Union • Wild Turltcy - Responsible
lnvCS1m1 • Working in lhc Web of Life
ISSUE NINE - FALL 1985
The Waldce Fo re11 - The Trees Speak Migrating Forats - Horse Logging - S1ar11ng a
Tree Crop · Urban Trees • Acom Bread • Mylh
ISSUE FIFTEEN - Spring 1987
Coverlets • Woman Forester • Susie McMahan
Midwife - Ahcmativc Contraception •
Bioscxuolity - Biorcgionalism and Women Oood Medicine: Mairi.=hal Culture . P1t1Jrl
LSSUE SIXTEEN - Summer 1987
Helen Waiae • Poem: Visions m a Garden Vi11on Ques1 • First Flow • ln1llllllon
Learning in lhc Wilderness • Cherokee
Olallcngc - "Valuing Trees"
Time
ISSUE TEN · WINTER 1985-86
Kate Rogers • Circles of Stone - lntemal
Mylhmalting • Holistic Healing on Trial •
Poems: Steve Knaulh - Mythic Places - The
Ulttcna's Tale - Crystal Magic •
ISSUE EIGHTEEN · Winier 1987-88
Vernacular Archiaecrure . Drcanu in Wood and
Stone • Mountain Home • Earth Energies •
Earth-Shchcied Living - Membrane Houses •
Brush Sheller • Poems: October DMsk. • Oood
Mcdic111C: "Shclaer"
~g·
ISSUE ELEVEN SPRING 1986
Community Planning • Cities and the
Bioregional Vision • Recycling · Community
GIJdenin&. Floyd CoWll}', VA - Guohol Two Bt0rcgional Views - Nuclear Supplement
Foxfire Gatnes • Oood Medicine: Visions
ISSUE THlRTEEN · Fall 1986
Cenaer For Awakening · Eliu.bclh Callari · A
Gentle Death • Hospice - Ernest Morgan Dealing Creatively wilh Oealh • Home Burial
Box • The Wake • The Raven Mocker •
Woodslore and Wildwoods Wisdom · Oood
Medicine: The Sweat Lodge
LSSUE FOURTEEN . Winier 1986-87
Uoyd Carl Owle • Boogcn and Mummers - All
Species Day • Cabin Fever University •
Homclca in Katuah - Homemade Hot Watu
Saovernalter's Narrative • Good Medicine:
lnaerspccics Communication
~UAt;)OURNAL
ISSUE NINETEEN - Spring, 1988
Perlcandra Gorden - Spring Tonics • Bluebarics
Wildnower Gardens - Granny Herbalist •
Flower Essences • '"The Origin of lhe Arumals ·
Saory • Oood Medicine: "Power" • Be A Tree
ISSUE TWEJIITY - Summer, 1988
Preserve Appalachian Wilderness - Hig)ilands
of Roan - Celo Community - Land Trust •
Arlhur Morgan School - Zoning hsuc • "The
Ridge" • Farmers l1ld lhe Farm Bill - Oood
Medicine: "Land" - Acid Rain - Duke's PowcT
Play • Cherok~ Microhydro Project
uve
Regular Membership........ $10/yr.
Sponsor.........................$20/yr.
Contributor .....................$50/yr.
Address
Enclosed is $
10 give
this ejforr an extra bOost
Zip
I can be a local contact
person for my area
Area Code
"'"'· 1989
Phone Number
ISSUE TWENTY-FOUR · Summer, '89
Deep Listening • Life in Atomic City - Di.reel
Action! · Tree of Peace - Community Building
Peacemakers • Ethnic Survival • Pairing
Projcc1 - "Baulesong· • Growing Peace in
Cultures - Review: The Chalice and the B/Dde
P.O. Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
Name
State
ISSUE TWENTY-THREE - Spring, t 989
Pisgah Village - Planet An • Green City •
Poplar Appeal - "Cl- Sky" • "A New Eanh"
Black Swan - Wild Lovely Days • Reviews:
Sacr('Jf land Sacred Sa, / cc A1e • Poem:
"Sudden TaOils"
lSSUETWENTY-ONE - FaU, 1988
Chestnuts: A Natunl History - Restoring lhc
Chestnut - "Poem of Preservation and PnUc"
Continuing lhe Quest - Forests and Wildlife
Chestnuts in Regional Diet • Chestnut
Resources • Herb Noie • Oood Medicine:
"Changes to Came" - Review: Wliue u1ends
For more info: call Mamie Muller (704) 683-1414
City
-·-
ISSUE TWENTY-TWO - Wintu, •gg.g9
Global Wanning - Fire This Time • Thomu
Berry on "Biorcgions" • Eanh Exercise • Kor~
Loy McWhirtcr - An Abundance of Emp1iness
LETS - Chronicles of Floyd • Derry Wood
The Bear Clan
Back Issues
Issue#_@ $2.50 $_ _
Issue# _ _ @ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue# _ _@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue# _ _@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue#_@ $2.50 $_ _
Complete Set (3-11, 13-16,
18-23)
@ $35.00 = $_ _
=
=
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, Issue 25, Fall 1989
Description
An account of the resource
The twenty-fifth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on biodiversity and habitat: forest ecosystem, old-growth forest, regional planning, forest devastation, black bears and Eastern panthers, and living green. Authors and artists in this issue include: Sam Gray, Robert Zahner, Laura E. Jackson, David Wheeler, Anna Muir, Julia Nunnally Duncan, Annelinde Metzner, Patrick Clark, Heather Blair, Chip Smith, Lee Kinnaird Fawcett, James Rhea, Rob Messick, Marnie Mikell, Patricia Claire Peters, Mary de La Valette, Sue Adams, Starfire Soledad, Christoph and Mary-Clayton Enderlein, and Morgan Swann, <br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1989
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
The Great Forest by Sam Gray.......3<br /><br />Restoring the Old-Growth Forest by Robert Zahner.......5<br /><br />Regional Planning for Habitat Integrity by Laura Jackson.......8<br /><br />A Question of Value by David Wheeler.......10<br /><br />Closing the Gate on Forest Devastation by Ann Muir.......12<br /><br />Poem: "Sparrow Hawk" by Julia Nunnally Duncan.......13<br /><br />A Place for Bears: An Interview with Dr. Michael Pelton.......15<br /><br />Poem: "There Fell the Rain Healing" by Annelinde Metzner.......16<br /><br />Eastern Panther, Where Are You? by Patrick Clark.......17<br /><br />Oak Decline by Heather Blair.......19<br /><br />People and Habitat by Chip Smith and Lee Kinnaird Fawcett.......21<br /><br />Perpetual Wild Sanctuaries.......23<br /><br />Natural World News.......24<br /><br />Drumming.......26<br /><br />Living Green.......29<br /><br />Barter Fair.......30<br /><br />(Natural) Resources.......31<br /><br />Events Calendar.......32<br /><br />Webworking.......34<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, printed by The <em>Waynesville Mountaineer</em> Press
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Forest management--Appalachian Region, Southern
Human ecology
Black bear--Appalachian Region, Southern
Regional planning--Appalachian Region
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Acid Deposition
Appalachian History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Black Bears
Community
Ecological Peril
Economic Alternatives
European Immigration
Forest History
Forest Issues
Forest Practice
Geography
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Katúah
Poems
Politics
Reading Resources
Transportation Issues
Turtle Island
Wilderness
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/1f2e1b45f5e29afd5e7816d6d6f26b51.pdf
e62be1d7412c88f48ec27a25918ab429
PDF Text
Text
ISSUE 26 WINTER1989-90
CHILDREN
$1.50
�~LJAt-t JOURNAL
P.O. Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
Postage Pa1d l
Bulk Mail
Permit #18
Leicester, NC
28748
�Coming of Age in the Ecozoic Em .............. l
by Tlwma.1 Berry
Kids Saving Ratnforest................................4
b) Sama/a l/ir.H
Kids' Treccyding Company............ .......... 5
ConOirt Resolution and the Family............ 6
by Ellie Ki,,cade
Developing the Creative Spirit. ...................!i
h\· /.i1uia J1c1mer
The Balloon is a Unicom ............................9
b) Art.1p1ri1 Swdio
Birth Power.................................. ............ 10
b) luc111da Flodin amt .Wanlru Pnk111s
Birth Bonding........................................... 11
b\ Jan \'erJiaexhe
Coming of Age in the Ecozoic Era
The Magic or Puppetry:
An Interview with Bonnie Blue................ 12
by 111omas Berry
by Chriltinll \.forri.w11 uiul Karc11 n mk1m
Horne Schooling..................................... 15
II) 001111 Wnmiward and Trilli Scver111
Ceremony................................................ 16
Trailin/llud
Mother Earth:
The i\atur;1l Classroom.......... ..... .. ... . •IX
111 Sma11 Grie.mwicr
Bmdegradable Diapers............................ 1R
lw Al'l\'a .Ill/ Romm
Resources............ .................................. 19
Gardening Tips tor Children ............ ..... 19
by T<>m )'n1111gblood-Pe1er.e11
\
i\atural World News............................... 20
"From the
Diary of a ~1odem Child".......... .. 24
by Roh Messi< k
Pocket Culture::.......................................24
by \Viii A.1/ie Basm1
Drumming......................................... ..•. 26
Fon:st Rescue:
An Ecological Manifesto.............. 29
Webworking.......................................... .30
We are now at the end of the Cenozoic
Era of the planet Eanh's 4.5 billion year history.
During the Cenozoic time which has been
occuring for the last 65 million years. most all of
the lire fom1s with which we are familiar came
to their foll development. The Cenozoic is nlso
when we humans came into being. I lowever.
this era is rapidly being tcm1inated.
Not only the human, but even more so.
1he functioning or the entire planet is being
altered. The climate, the chemistry of the
atmosphere. 1he wa1er and the soil, our relation
to the sun, all the bio~ystem' of the planet, e\en
the geological structure of the planet: all 1he'e
are being altered in the most extensive
transformation that has ta.ken place on the planet
Eanh in the last 65 millicm years. So extensive
is the d1ssolu11on of the life systems of the Earth
during the past century that the viability of the
human cannot be taken for gr-Jnted.
T he long-term survival of our children
depends on understanding the depth of what is
happening to the planet at present--it is essential
to admit that what b occuring 1s nothing less
than biocide. It also depends on rekindling a
relationship between the human and the natural
world that is far beyond the exploitive
relauonshi ps of the industrial mode. A different
kind of prosperity and progress needs to be
understood which embraces the wlwle Life
community. All our human institutions,
professions, all our programs and acti vities need
to funcuon now m this wider Life community
context.
It is time to evoke the emergence of a new
E.'Uth period which can be identified as the
Ernzoic era. Even now the shift is beginning to
1;ike place in which a relationship or mutual
enhancement between humans and the naturnl
world is being regarded no1 only as possible but
essential to planeiary survival. I low do our
chtldrcn fit in wilh 1his change . .
Hea/1hy £111"irm1me111
Our children need a healthy Eanh in
which to live. A sickened planet is not
conducive to healthy children physically, or to
their emotional or psychic security. Continued
conu1mination of water, soil, air and other life
syMems by unnecessary and unsound
production practices is jeopardizing their future
existence ao; well as that of the planet.
Children need pure air and water and
sunligh1 and fruitfu l soil and all those living
fonns that provide the context in which human
existence can be properly nunured. Only if this
context is kept intact and an appreciation of it is
passed on will we fulfill our obligations to our
children and to the planet.
Membership in the l ife Community
Our children need 10 be able 10 see that
they are members or the whole Life communiiy
of the natural world about them, not just
members of a local or even global human
community. Human society as such is an
abscraction. The only real community is the
entire community of the natural world. No pan
of this integral community has either existence
Dra1< tng by Rub Mo.nick
t 98S
c:ontu1ucd an p. 3
�J<eLlAHJOURNAL
~STAFF THIS ISSUE:
Andy Half-baker
Rob Messick
Marnie Muller
Rodney Webb
Chip Smith
Richard Lowenthal
Christina Morrison
James Rhea
David Wheeler
Heather Blair
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE:
Stephen Bartlett
Will Ashe Bason
Susan Griesmaier
Michael Havclin
Scott Bird
Jack Chancy
COVER by Zack Brick, age 6, of Floyd Community.
Reprinted from the Blue Mountain School Calendar
(for sale from Colleen Redman; Box 634; Floyd, VA 24091)
THE SOUTHERN APPALJ.CHIAN BIOREGION
ANO MAJOR EASTERN RIVER SYSTEMS
PUBLISHED BY: Kanlah Journol
PRINTED BY: The Waynesville Mountaineer Press
EDITORIAL QFACE nus ISSUE:
Worley Cove, Sandy Mush Ouk
WRITE US AT:
Ka1Wih Journal
Box 638; Leicester, NC; Katuah Province 28748
TELEPHQNE: (704) 683-1414
Ka/UahJournaJ is on SkYland BBS, Asheville, NC.
For information, call (704) 254-6700.
Diversity iJ an important clcmeot or bioregional ecology, bolh
nalUral and social. ln line wilh !his principle, the Kataah Journal tries
io serve m a forum for lhc discussion of regional issues. Signed aniclcs
express only the opinion of the authors and arc not necessarily lhe
opinions of lhe Kataah Journal edilOl'S a staff.
The ln1U1181 Revenue Service has declared Kataah a non-profit
organiulion Wlder section SOl{cX3) of the lnicmal Revenue Code. All
contributions IO Kataah are deductible from pcrsooaJ income tax.
'LNVOCA.TWN
I think ouer ogoin my smell oduentures,
My fears,
Those I thought so big.
For ell the ultol things
I hod to get
And to reach,
And yet,
There Is only one greet thing The Only thing To Hue,
To see the greet doy thot downs ,
And the light thot fill s the w orld.
- Inuit song
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
Here in the southern-most heartland of the
Appalachian mountains, the oldest mountain range on
our continent, Turile Island; a small but growing
group has begun to take on a sense of responsibility
for the implications of that geographical and cultural
heritage. This sense of responsibility centers on the
concept of living within the natural scale and balance
of universal systems and principles.
Within this circle we begin by invoking the
Cherokee name " KatUtih" as the old/new name for
this area of the mountains and for its journal as well.
The province is indicated by its natural boundaries:
the Roanoke River Valley to the north; the foothills
of the piedmont area to the east; Yona Mountai11 and
the Georgia hills to the south,· and the Tennessee
River Valley to the west.
The editorial priorities for us are to collect
and disseminate information and energy which
periuins specifically to this region, and to foster the
awareness that the land is a living being deserving of
our love and respect. Living in this manner is a way
to insure the sustainability of the biosphere and a
lasting place for ourselves in its continuing
evolutionary process.
We seem to have reached the fulcrum point of
a "do or die " situalion in terms ofa quality standard
of life for all living beings on 1his planet. As a voice
for the caretakers of this sacred land, Kat"'1h, we
advocate a cenlered approach to the concept of
decentralization. It is our hope to become a support
system for those accepting 1he challenge of
sustainability and the creation of harmony and
balance in a total sense, here in this place.
We welcome all correspondence, criticism,
pertinent information, articles, artwork, etc. with
hopes thaJ Ka/Uah will grow to serve the best interests
of this region and all its living, breathing members.
-The Editors
~
k)t,nt.er ,1989-90
�Coming of Age in the Ecozoic
E r a-continued from p. 1
or life apan from the other members or the communiry.
We arc awkward at this manner of thinking because many
of our religions as well as humanist traditions carry a cenain
antagonism toward the natural world. But now the refusal to
acknowledge the intimate membership in the corrununity of Earth
is leading to their own destrucrion as well as that of the planet.
The next generation can survive only as functional members of
this larger community. Our children are instinctively aware of this
wider sense of identity. We need only foster I.his awareness.
Earth Literacy
Our children also need to be literate about the Eanh. They
need to learn not only how to read books composed by human
genius but also how to "read" the Great Book of Nature. Again,
absorbing this Great Book is natural to children. Alienation from
this primary educational experience has been, in our generation,
the source of unmeasured disaster to every aspect of human
existence.
A true prosperity requires being able to understand the
language of nature. Native peoples know this language. II is
primarily the language of the Earth, a language of living
relationships that extend throughout the universe. We have here
within this Nonh American conrinent a superb natural setting in
which our children can become Eanh-literate, capable of
undemanding what their world is telling them.
Energy Awareness
Our children need to understand how to function with the
energy of I.he sun and wind and the water rather than with the
energies of fossil fuels or of nuclear processes. Our inabilny to
use these other energies properly has led to a situation in which
the planet Earth is covered with grime and poisons. These toxins
are not only eating away with their acids the very stones and
structures of all the great cities of the world, but they are also
harmful to the planet itself.
The understanding of more benign energy forms and the
skills to interact with them effectively are absolute necessities for
the survival of our children in a sustainable life context. In
addition, it is imponant 1ha1 these energy systems be designed
with sensitivity and a sense of appropriate scale.
Our children also need to understand the healthy limits of
their bioregion's capacity to provide energy and to suppon life.
They need to be encouraged to envision a way of life that can be
compatible with Lhose natuml limits. Helping children get in Lhe
habit of conservation as well as recycling is an imponant step tn
encouraging them to co-exist with the rest of the life community.
Food
Our children need to learn gardening. The reasons for this
reach deep into their mental and emotional as well as into their
physical survival. Gardening is an active participation in the
deepest mysteries of the universe. By gardening our children
learn that they constitute, with all growing things, a single
community of life. They learn to nurture and be nunured in a
universe Lhat is always precarious but ultimately benign. They
leam profound reasons for the seasonal rituals of the great
religous renditions.
More immediately, however, i'> the question of physical
survivaJ. With the ever-increasing loss of soil on which
food-growing depends, with the rising innaiion in the economic
sphere, with the need for food grown in a proper organic context,
and with the crowded situation in our urban centers, the capacity
of our children to grow a significant umount of their o~n food on
very limited areas of Eanh will become an increasing urgency.
Elementary education especially might very well begin and
be developed in a gardening context. How much the children
could learn! A language related to life! Emotional responses 10
blossoming and fruitful plants. social cooper:11ion, death as a
source of life. They could learn geology and biology and
ascronomy. They could learn the sources of poetry and lner.iture
and the ans. They might even be saved from the sterile and
ephemeral world of Atari.
WUller. 1989- 90
Participawry Role
Our children need to be prepared for their role in the
fruitful functioning of the Great Earth itself, the first and greatest
of all "corporations". They need to learn that the underlying role
of all human corporative enterprises is to enhance the functioning
and meaning and value of this primary corporation, the planet in
which we live. If the Eanh becomes bankrupt there is no future
for anything that lives within the Earth.
The remarkable achievement of the Earth in its natural state
is its ability 10 renew itself and all its living forms. There is a
minimum of entropy in the Earth system_ Energies arc cycled
recycled indefinitely. The infrastructure renews itself. No
human process can do this. NeiLher automobiles nor Madways,
nor subway systems, nor fossil fuels, nor railways, n..ir power
plants, nor nuclear generating plants renew themselves_ They
Inst but a few years and then rust away and the resources of the
planet arc no longer sufficient 10 renew them.
A completely different role of the human in relation to the
Earth begins to identify usclf. One which functions in a different
fashion and with different ideals from the highly entropic,
exploitative manner in which our culture functions at present.
Recognizing our intimate membership in the whole Life
community and becoming literate in its wisdom and language,
our role becomes that of dynamic panicipator. ln recognizing this
intimate connecLion, we begin 10 understand and align ourselves
with 1he natural world's capacity to be self-emerging,
self-propagating, self-nourishing, self-educating, self-governing,
and self·hcaling.
Experience of the Sacred
Our children need to understand the meaning and grandeur
and sacredness of the Eanh as revelatory of the deep mysteries
and meaning of the world. Rather than teaching them to disdain
the natural world as unwonhy of their concern. it would be most
helpful if our religious traditions would move toward a stronger
emphasis on the glorious phenomena of the universe about us as
modes of divine communicauon.
In a special manner, through celebration and ceremony,
our children need to observe and esteem the spontaneities of
nature in our own bioregions here in the different areas of Nonh
America; spontaneities that give expression 10 genetic diversity
which is the most precious endowment of the living world.
Without 1he marvelous variety of living forms that swim in
the sea and live and move upon the Eanh and ny through the air,
our own human understanding, our emotional life, our
imaginative powers. our sense of 1he divine, our capacity for
verbal expression; these would all be terribly diminished. If we
lived on 1he moon, our sense of the divine would reOcct the lunar
landscape: our cmouons. sensitivities and imagination would all,
in a similar manner. be through a lunar mode of expression.
So with our children, they are what they are and have such
remarkable expansion of life because of that share in the natural
world that they have here within the Nonh American continenL
The radiance of their surTOundings is even now reflec1cd in the
radiance of our children's countenances.
Sc11se of History
Our children need a sense of their historical role in creating
this coming ecological age. 1hc F..cozoic. This future world is
something that has never existed before within the context of the
whole planeL We are involved in an irreversible sequence of
planetary developments. For the first time an integral form of the
planet Earth wi1h all its geological contours, its living forms and
us human presence has become possible as a vital, functioning
plane1ary whole expressing itself in its unbroken sequence of
splendors tn movement and song and an infinite variety of color
in the sky and throughout the continents.
There 1s truth in the expression--· The Dream is at the heart
of the Action. The greatest gift we can give our children is to
assiM them in their dreams of a planet of pure air and water and
sunlight and soil. where the community of all living beings can:.,;l!I'
~·
nourii.h in the celebration of existence.
A
Thomas Berry noted geologian and awlwr of The Dream of the
Earth (Sierra Club Books, 1988), is presently collaboraring with
physicis1 Brian Swimme on a new book, The Universe Story.
l'lb •'lnoenu Reny
�~iftFJ. §trfilkT~ ~ftfp
$11~~ ~ ~~T:P41
in
'!8~&11.
illus~uon
by Jermain Mosely
Mrs. Woods' science class at
Asheville Alternative School has
been studying forests and
rainforests in particular. We went
to the "Discovery Place" in
Charlotte to see an exhibit on
Rainforests and have studied
about forestry in class and at
Holmes State Forest.
We have learned that if all the
rainforests are destroyed then our
oxygen will decrease a whole lot.
We have also learned that the
rainforests are ancient. They are
very special and important to us.
They give us many products as
well as 1/2 the world's animals
and plants.
Our class is getting together and
making money to help save these
forests So far we have almost
made $300. With that we will be
able to buy 10 acres of land out of
a rainforest in Belize .
Jc.iiWcih Jo1Ul1Q( pllc:Je 4
'
•I
We have been raking people's
leaves in our neighborhood for
$1.50 or more if the yard is really
big. All of the people's yards we
have raked, have given a little bit
extra. One boy in our class raked a
medium size yard with his friend
tor a man and got $30.00.
We have worked very hard on this
project and hope that we will
encourage other people to pitch in.
We put pictures in the halls of our
school. A few nights ago we had a
woman named Mrs. Jeanne
Cummings come to our school to
show some slides of her
'Earthwatch' trip to a rainforest in
Borneo. We had live entertainment
and refreshments that night. It
was very exciting for all of us.
Do whatever you can to help save
the Rainforests, it is important to
all of us and we hope that these
Rainforests will survive.
/
By Samala Hirst
kll-ntcr, 1989-90
�Ph""'' b~ Karen W•tkin'
Hey, all you people out there,
have you heard of the new business Kid's T reecycling Co.?? !!
It all started when our teacher started talking about
how imponant trees and recycling are. We think 1hat
this is a great Saving-The-Trees business and a grea1
class project.
We sell all sorts of recycled paper producls like paper
1owcls. rissuc and 1oilet paper. On 1hc lirst day we
only got two orders. Then we got more and more
orders every day and week. We have $65.00 so far.
Do you know when we get older there won't be many
trees lefl? There won't be hardly any paper. Don't let
1hat happen! We all need to recycle. S1art now at
Kid's Treecycling Co. We are in third grade at
Asheville Alternative School. South French Broad
Avenue. A ... hcv1llc. NC 28801. Ourtcacheris
Victoria Maddux. You can call her in the evening at
{704)- 645-4593. Call now and become a "Recycling ..
Ci1i1en"
-·-hy: llana Craig. l.arJ Weaver, Ken;. Wahcr,\Vill lknnen.
Molly Ru ... h and Alesia Summey.
l./UlU:t, 1989-90
�Conflict Resolution
and the Family
Conn1ct. Every family has it. Household chores,
homework, messy rooms, schedule connicts, ~pace invasion~.
values collisions, power struggles, and scape-goating have all
been long-srnnding and universal sources of stress in 1hc
American family. The quality of family life. though, is
detennined not by \.\hethcr or not a family has conflict but by
what they do with it.
It is commonly recognized that parents have a great
innuence on the overall process of dealing "'ith the inevitable
conflicts that plague families. What is frequently overlooked.
however, is the contribution that children have 10 make in the
conflict resolution process. Children are our greatest source of
inspiration and creativity; they have internalil.ed fe\.\er rules and
limitations and "yes--bu1--tha1 wouldn't work bccause"s and have
a natural spirit of discovery that can set the stage for new and
more expansive ways of thinking.
This article is based upon my own experience as a par.:nt
and as a conflict management consultant and educator. coupled
with the perspectives of my daughter Dana. age 14, and my son
Nick, age 10. We will citplore three imponant variables which
operate to affect an individual\ or a fomily'~ response to conflict:
Spirit, Personality/Well·Being, and Skillfulnes5.
by Ellie Kincade
Spiritff he Spirit of Possibilit)
Spuit is the auitude with which we approach problems and
conflicts, and is the foundation of the process of resolution.
Thomas Crum, author of The Magic of Conflict. makes two
imponant points about the nature of conflict:
ConOict js a na111ral phenomenon. We see it everywhere in
nature - the magnificent beauty of mountains, canyons, beaches
was formed by eons of connict. In our human relationships,
from the intra- and interpersonal through global levels, the
choices we make determine whether the intense energy inherent
in conflict will be a del.tructive force or as Crum says. will be
"the best sandpaper around for smoothing out our lives"
ConOict js noi a comest. Winning and losing are goals for
games. 001 for connict resolution. Resolving connict is rarely
about \.\ho\ right: it's aboul the acknowledgement and
appreciation of differences.
Dana's summary of a positive spirit toward conflict is:
*Trust one another.
,. Approach problem situations with lo\'e. (Y?u can
love someone and be angry at the same nme.)
t.n.rtrt'r',~90
�•Be flexible and willing lO undersl:lnd another's
point of view.
Nick adds:
•Take responsibilny for your own "stuff' and
realize thal whal you do affects others.
•Anticipate your own and others· needs and try to
prevent conflicts from happening.
•Have a sense of humor, even when there are
problems!
Every family has to find its own unique way of
discovering and fo:.tering a spirit of possibility for dealing with
issues. Families who creatively integrate faith, hope. charity. and
love, and playfulness into their everyday lives develop the
flexibility. willingness and perspective to change gracefully and
powerfully over time. They bring this creative power 10 every
conflict or advei;ity they face.
The family who believes that it is possible to find win/win
solulions (rather than win/lose solutions) to their conflicb. finds
them! A fringe benefit of lhis philosophy about confl1c1 1s that
children (and eventually 1heir parents too!) learn that what they do
and say makes a difference, thnt conflicts can be resolved v. ithout
baules and that problems lhat seem "impossible" to solve arc
really just challenges to human flexibility. compassion and
creativity.
Dana defines respect as the wtllmgness to allow each
person the freedom to express their true and unique self.
Affirrmng differences, making allowances, and building on those
differences facilitate conflict resolution. We've grown up with
homogeny as an ideal. Think about the all-American metaphor of
the "melting pot" where cliversity becomes lost ma kenle of drab
glop. Consider, instead. 1he image of a salad where each
ingredient maintains its discrete qualities while adding volume,
texture, nourishment, variety, and beauty to the whole.
Each individual's personality de1ermines their preferences
and style in dealing with conflict. Nick emphasizes that often he
needs space and wants to be left alone when conflict arises; when
he "cools orr· he is better able to talk about it. Dana usually
wants to talk things out nght away, bu1 sometimes wants time 10
think things out alone. She stresses the importance of asking one
another for what we need and being considerate of our different
needs. Individual differences rue, in fact, one of the greatest
resources in problem ~olving. Division of labor conflicts can
often be easily resolved by having family members volunteer for
their "favorite" chore. For example, Dana and Nick bo1h like to
cook: I much prefer the mindlessness of cleaning up afterward.
Dana likes carrying in the firewood and Nick builds and tends the
fire. or cour.;e those preferences and inclinations do change in an
evolving household, so frequent communication and negotiauon
arc a musr.
In a favorite 'Peanuts' car1oon. Sally is complaining, "I
hate everything! I hate the whole world!" Charlie Brown
responds. matter-of-factly. "I thought you had inner peace."
Sally replies. "I do, but I still have outer obnoxiousness!" We all
have outer obnoxiousness. the level and intensity of which is
directly relatec.! 10 our general state of well-being. One's state of
well-being (or lack 1hereof!) may be lhe most significant factor
affecting the individual's ability to respond to conflict with
tolerance, flexibility, creativity and a "Spirit of Possibility."
The three of us agree thnt a bad day at school or work,
exhaus1ion. pressures of upcoming events, or a general sense of
malaise is often the root of our outer obnoxiousness which can
lead 10 conflict. Here are several things families can do to
enhance 1he well-being of individuals and the family unit:
Herc are some fun ways families can develop and exercise
the "Spirit of Possibility":
•Play games like, "There's Not Only One Way 10 Do Anything".
Discover throogh brruns1onnmg the many f>O"-s1h1l111cs m a snuauon.
How many different wa)'~ arc there to m:ike p<1ll<!akcs? To plant a tree?
To w~h a window? Wc"vc ycl IO find an acuvity lhal can he done m
JUSl one way. Make the jOlhl)' or brrunstonnmg commonplace. so tl1'1l
11 occurs more na1urally in connict snuauons.
•Keep 1rnck of "Impossible Things• that happen an the world Read and
d1SCus.s news s1orics, historical evenL~. sporting accomplishmenb.
amazing inventions, ulcs of survival and raniaslic JOumcys, and mo~l
1mporwuly, personal life cxpcncnccs m lhc accomplishment or "The
Impossible". For example:
Remember when ...
..."Nick almost gave up finding a shark's t0olh at the beach-and then
found live!"
·~"Grandma 105t her diamond ring m lhc gnx:cry ~iorc parking 101 and
wcnL b:lck lhat nighl and found 1L"
..."Dana though I she'd never be able to afford her trip to the Soviet
Union and !hen raised all the money for tile lrip by selling hct pocll)
books."
Our true contcmpornry heroes arc ordinary people in ordinary
cin:umslallCCS who occomplish cx1100td1nary tilings.
• Acknowledge. and celebrate seasonal changes and cytlical
llllnsfonmuions, e.g. watch 1hc moon wax and wane. gardcM grow.
birds migraic. cocoons spin and haich. seeds di\-pc.rsc. Notice and honor
developmental changes in ram1ly member;: e.g. have celebrations m
honor or landmark events. bcginnmgs. endings. and annavcrw1cs-·
there's always something IO cclcbrutc, rrom lo<;t w:cth to maJor rites of
passage. American l1'3d1tion I\ lacking in mual. Look to other cultures
and uad11ions and creaic your own! Gncve the losses and welcome the
new growth !hat rollows
Personalil~ Factor~
and Well-Being
(I) Eyeball the week ahead 10 alert one anolhcr abou1 high ~lre5' limes
and ask for cxlr'd supJ10n, e.g. Nack mak<:S school lunches when Dana
has a track meet so she can get some cxtnl rest: Dan3 covers dinner
when I need to prepare for a worlc'\hop. Communic~ning m advance
•Experience and affinn your conna:ledn~ to tile world·•ll·latgc Mike
family dcc1s1ons about what contnbuuons io m:t.lcc 10 commumty and
global service projects. The needs, a~ we look around u•. arc
overwhelming. Learning lO make choice~ aoout how to u<c: our
personal energy and rc~rces 1s a b;i~1c hfc skill for hvang m th" age.
Remember the story of 1hc person at the edge of the '>Ca, tossing
beached si.arfish back mto the occan. A man appro:1chcd und '"I.ell,
"Why arc yoo bothering to do tha11 Then: arc so mnny. Whm d11Tcrcncc
docs it make io save a few?" 11ui person p3uscd. thought. smiled nnd,
tossing ano1hcr \lllffitj\ mto 1hc sea, replied •1t make' a diffcrcnc.: to
that one:
•explore mull1-cuhurnl perspectives by cncuuragmg c~changc~
through pen.pals. ho,11ng mtcmauonal ''i\ltOrs, or travel D.> your
g1fl·shopp1ng lhrough catalog., that \upport collage mdu\trlC\ 1n
,·nrious cuhures around the world. Dana involved our cnurc famil)·.
from C03Sl to coast, in her ci111..cn-diplnmacy trap to lhe Soviet Union
lhis past summer She enhanced our ·spirit or Po~1l>1hty" by making
her own dream come true and ~he created a network of connectedness
bctwc:cn many Sovic:ts and Americans \\ho share the larger dream or
world peace.
&.>Lnte.r, 1989-90
about schedules 1\ connic1 pn:vcnuon!
(2) Milke \tree;,; mnnagcmcnt a family alTair. Take walks. have joint
"temper tantrum'· 10 let off sicam. talk about your drc3111s, give one
anolhcr massag~. have ·,1op-:icuon hug~· (prionty hug> can mltrTUp!
any ac11vi1y, C\cn an argument). Plan healthy menu.' together, hsien lO
music. dance. LAUGll A LOT! llavc nightly snuggles before bed.
Every f;tmily ~ds to discover and invent 1ts own 'tlC'' managcmcn1
plan Suppon one another's mdl\·1du.al \l.l'CSS marugcmcnt programs,
IOO. Dana ruid Nick ga>c me space for mcd11auon, racqlldball, or naps.
Tran.•;pona110n to tllcir 'JX>rb. academic and ~ul cvcnL~ is a pnoruy
for me.
(3) Learn w1lh your ch1IJrcn wmc tools for ccn1ermg. n:laxauon 8lld
sp1r11ual renewal Pra)'Cr. mcd1ta.t1on, visunli1.ation, brealhmg, }Oga,
dance. ~ns. and CCr1ilm man1al JI'\.\ (p:llllCUlllfly the nuid, powerful
and non-v1oleni ans suc;h as a1k1do and T11.1 Cha). arc all ways to
develop a relaxed, Oc.ublc. balanced. aucnuvc, and strong poMllre.
From tl11$ ccnicrcd siate at is easier to move with confidence and care
through life's ngors.
(oontiml<d an~ 23)
�Developing the Creative Spirit
by Linda Metzner
Imagine a warm, lazy summer's day, sky very blue.
You are on your back watching clouds roll by. What do you
sec there in the clouds? How docs it sound to you? Can you
move the way the clouds move?
What are the possibilities? Can your imagination take
you places you've never been before? Are there new ways to
get there?
If we are not utilizing the body-mind's creative
capabilities, we are allowing ninety percent of the nco-conex
--the largest and most recently-developed pan of the brain--to
go unused, an ocean of untapped potenrial. The work of a
lifetime, in tenns of mind evolution, is to make new
connections, to use the heart-mind, the whole brain and the
nervous system, to crave! to new realms on new paths, 10
envision and create ever-greater inter-relationships among
things.
A deeper goal of the teaching of creativity. and of an,
is to offer a starting-point, a vocabulary of the spirit, tools
for climbing through the changing terrain of the mind. The
dilemmas of our lives are dealt with by looking not just or the
problems but with them, around them, inside and outside of
them, and beyond them.
Imagination, "the ability to create images not present to
the sensory system;· involves the creation of thousands of
physical connecting links between neurons in the brain. If the
neurological structures for creative thinking are allowed to
develop in childhood, regardless of the end product of the
imaginative thought, then the resulting system of abundant
connecting links will be available to the adult as well.
Joseph Chilton Pearce, m his book The Magical Child.
speaks about a cenain point in childhood, especially between
the ages of seven and eleven, where vmually any suggestion
can be adopted and utilized by the child, if it is given without
doubt or ambiguity. Wnlking through fire, healing ~·ith the
hands, clairvoyance, many typ;!S of "paranormal" abilities arc
really extensions of creative thinking exhibited by children
given "pennission" to experience them.
Here are a few travel tips for the lifelong journey of
nunuring the creative spirit within ourselves and others:
Play. relax, go slow. New ideas will come from places
that are beyond your conscious control. Make time for
them.
Listen to your dreams, your flashes of insight, your
intuition. Try not to label mind processes as weird or
useless. Don't be shocked if you hear of other sounds,
colors, or beings a child is conscious of. You arc tapping
into a world Edith Cobb calls "common-plus-cosmic".
Give yourself guidelines for creative activities.
AJlow the mind to play with one or two small features,
and explore all the possibilities: a few colors. a few
textures, a musical interval or timbre.
Try to have material that presents ever-increasing
challenges, but stay grounded in past work. In teaching
music, try to stan with the body, with movement. for
every new idea introduced.
JC.Qiiuih
Journat p1t9e 8
"Compe1itions are for horses, not anists" (Picasso).
Don't compare, rate, evaluate or "improve" anyone's
work. Ask the anis1 to tell abou1 ii and get some insight
into her/his thinking.
Have some open rime, some open space, and some
open materials. Keep a box of bright colored papers,
scissors, glue, fabric. markers, pencils; loose clothes for
movement: a variety of sound-makers; typewriter or tape
recorder for stories.
Study and learn. Be aware of how others are taking
new leaps and exploring new territory.
Look for examples in life of an going outside old
boundaries: murals, mobiles, architecture, pantomime,
storytelling. This is the same evolutionary process found
in frogs, flowers, and blue-footed boobies.
Look at how it's been done in other places. In Africa,
animal forms become patterns on cloth; in Bali, girls
dance as goddesses in a trance state; in China, a five-note
scale played on bamboo pipes forms an orchesrra. Other
cultures have already transcended some of the artistic
boundaries that we've inherited in ours.
After working alone, try working with one or two
others. Your ideas may expand synergbtically, way
beyond what you had alone.
Learn simultaneously to respect others' crearions as
you create your own. Sometimes this calls for quiet
listening or watching others, or spending time with
someone else's finished work. What new ways does
he/she open up 10 you?
A mind that craves new solutions, new paths. can leap out
of trenches of conditioning and make miracles happen. This.
after all, is how the Universe 1s being created, even as we
speak!
RESOURCES:
CATALOGS
• Animal Town CoopcraU\'C Ventures
PO Box 2002. S:tnlll Barbara. CA 93102
• Chmabcny Book Scrvice
2830 Via Orange Way Su11.c B, Spring Valley, CA 92078
• Geode Educational ()pllon~
PO Box 106, We.~1 Che.qcr, PA 19381
• Music For Lillie People
PO Box 1460, Redway, CA 95560
• Suzuki Musical lnsuumcnis
PO Box 261030. San Diego, CA 92126
• World Music Press
11 Myrtle Avenue, PO Box 2565, Danberry, CT 06813
SUGGESTED READING
Adams, James. The Cart 01ld Feeding of Ideas. Addison· Wesley. 1986.
Amabile, TCIC.~ Growing Up Creative Crown Publishers, 1989.
Cobb, Edith. The Ecology of lmDgina11on in Childhood Columbia
Umvcrs11y Press, 1977.
Gardner. Howard. Frames of M111d: Tht TMory of Multiplt lnttll1gtncts.
Basic Books, Inc. 1983.
Pearce. Joseph Chihon. TM Magical Child and TM MallU;al Child Matures.
E.P. Dunon, New York. 1977
Piening, Ek.lcchan:I and Lyons, Nick. Educating as an Art, The Rudolf Si.cincr
Mciliod. The Rudolf Si.cuicr School Press. NY. 1979.
Reck, David. TllL Music of tM IVholt Earth. Charles Scribncr'5 Sons, NY.
1977.
~
lmdo Merzner reaches Orff music and co.directs Anspirit, a
srudio of creorive orrs in Asheville. NC. She is a composer 011d
arranger and direcis rlie choral group, Womansong.
H.l~nter, 1989-90
�The :Balloon Ls A. Unworn
These ukas /or cJ.vfik>plrJ.9 c:reattvit!I i.n mlldrcn '""
s!Jared U'ith us from A.rtspu1t, 11 i;reato-e art..s studio 1n
Asm:i•1Jle, NC. 1'!4:mbcrs 1nc{Ulk: 1'frls A.rrwld. (day). 'BarrU:
'Barron (m<wcment), Norma 1Jradky (paper), Vicki.
aadh~UIJ (ft/x:r ), and lmdu 1'f4Urwr (musu;).
Xak.e a sefJ-portrait with pieces of coCored.
paper. Choose the coCors that
you.. IJorr.. as smaU:
' - mmn the most to
or as i.ur9e as ~ou Llke.
1.nter , 1989- 90
�by Lucinda Aodin and Martha Perkins
We need co recognize how imponant it is that women
take back their power· the natural power of creation is ours.
While a woman feels most in concrol of the birthing experience
in her own home, it is most important that she be able to
exercise her power wherever a binh should happen.
Women often do not realize the tremendous reservoir of
power that is theirs to tap into when they are delivering a
newborn. Birthing a child is the most powerful activity that our
bodies can perform, and a woman who can binh with power
will be a better mother and a stronger woman. No matter where
a baby is born, the mother should be able to accomplish it with
the full power that is inherent in the act and with the dignity of
womanhood.
We recently viewed a slide show of binh as represented
in an throughout history from cave glyphs to modem
obstetrics. Traditionally women are shown birthing upright,
strong and confident. A woman helper ·or sometimes a man •
is behind her; a midwife is below and in front of her. Paintings
and drawings from around the world and throughout the ages
of history all depict this trinity of birth... until modem times.
As the picrures draw closer to the present, the woman
sinks fanher and farther back into the images until she
disappears from the picture altogether. In recent photographs of
operating room situations the woman giving birth is not even
visible. She is flat on her back. her whole body draped except
for a gaping vagina, which usually has been cut. She is not
mother or a person, but a thing. Watching those slides brought
home instantly what has happened since our birth power has
been stripped from us.
functions of her body, mind. and spirit, and she is delivered.
She is not giving birth, or delivering her new-born life. She is
being delivered, which implies that she is being set
free ... "Deliver me from this childl" ... who is then taken away
to the nurseries, to the bath, to be re-warmed after its small
body is chilled.
This separation creates much emotional hardship for both
parents and child. But the love of a mother and a father is
amazing. It reaches beyond the hardship and bonds in love
with their child • but childbirth and bonding does not have to
be so hard.
We tend co think of power in terms of its mis-use rather
than thinking of power as being healing and strong. A
woman's birth power is power in its pure sense: power that is
not manipulative, not selfish. Birth power is selfless. Labor is
a series of overwhelming surges of energy, powerful waves.
Binh is a power act. It is one way in which a woman quests for
a vision and finds her pince in this life. In giving birth a woman
must exercise the ultimate strength of yielding. In yielding to
her labor she draws on the energy of the life foroe. Our culture
tends to consider yielding as an act of weakness. But in giving
birth, yielding is the strongest act. h is the strength of the
whole uruversc that brings a baby into chis world.
When birth is a narural act of power, a woman is not
delivered. She embraces the power of her womanhood, yields
to the strength of her body and her spirit, and gives her baby
passage into his or her own life. Watching births we have
learned that a midwife's job is to guide a woman into her
power· to work with a mother, to educate her, and to help her
to use her innate knowledge. It is amazing to watch the change
in a woman as she comes into her power.
Entering a hospiial a woman feels small and
insignificant, like a pebble amid the looming technology. It is
unnerving. The situation is out of her control and her mate's
control as well. Every intervention tells her that she knows
nothing about the procedures of birth and that her instincts arc
not to be truSted. The hospital staff is in command. She is not
IO yield tO the power of birth. Rather, anaesthesia takes over the
We arc successful as midwives when at the end of a
birthing the woman says, "I did it. Thank you for helping me."
If a woman says,"I couldn't have done it without you," we
have not done our job well enough. The mother deserves the
credit. After all, she has done all the work. If someone were to
ask us, "What is the job of a midwife?", we would reply, "To
give back chc power."
.
~t.UA.h
.
.
JounwaC p"'.JS 10
�•
To rcali1.C the binhing power we must first relearn the
birthing process. It is an ancient process, a wise way, and
generations of humaniiy have proven that it works. Then,
anned with our knowledge, we must demand 1ha1 our
institutions change with us. Our hospitals. doctors, nurses, anJ
midwives have to allow us as women to have control over our
own health - no, we as women must take control.
Families will never be srrong until we take back the
power of birth...and until we have power and strength in the
family. we will never truly heal the Eanh.
Lucinda Flodin and Manha Perkins art both motlU!rs a11d
work togetlier as a midwife team in the area s11rrn11ndi11g their
lwmes in the Doe River watershed.
by Jan Verhaeghe
Midwives nuending home binhs know the success of
their calling-the welfare of the mothers and babies in their
care-depends in pan on the special time immediately after
birth. No midwife worth her salt, excep1 in a m.iner of life or
death, would take a b:lby from the mother.
What exactly is binh-bonding? Birth-bonding is the
uninterrupted time immediately following binh when 1hc
mother and baby establish the foundation for their
relationship by re-connecting in every aspec1 of their now
separate lives. The most intense and the most important
period for birth-bonding is the firlit two hours but cenainly
Iasis until the baby falls into 1he deep steep infants experience
St!Veral hour.; after binh.
During bonding, mother and child becollll! linked
psychically in a way that defies our ability 10 analyze the
experience. The newborn is extremely impressionable and
everything that happens during this period leaves a deep
imprinL The natural longing of 1he baby is to re-establish i1s
cquilibrium--to be wann, 10 be held, to suck. to hear a
familiar heartbeat. To be separated from the mother at this
time must leave a la.sung and discressed memory. I believe
bonding is visual, tactile, aural, oral, olfactory, and
hormonal and occurs most easily when the mo1her holds her
baby and interacts wi1h it through the senses during 1hc
sensitive period immediately following birth. The "en face"
posilion--touching and being touched, hearing and being
heard, feeding and being fed. learning each others
smells-are complex interactions that occur with case when a
baby is placcd--and left--in its mother's arms.
The mos1 immediate person to bond wiih a newborn i~
the mother, but it is very important that fa1hers also bond
with their infantS. Fathers who have had 1he opponuni1y to
bond with one child but not with another 1ell 1he same storie_,
as the mothers of these children. Fathers of C-sccuon babies
often are better·bonded with their infants than the mother
simply because a woman who has just undergone major
surgery cannot give her full allention to her infant Siblings
bond wi1h an infant v.ith outsianding positive results as .... ell.
Many well·mcaning physicians and hospnal personnel
feel tha1 a mo1her's holding her baby for a few minuies on
!he delivery table constitutes "bonding". However, true binh
bonding means mother and baby are nm scpara1ed for hours
or even days following 1he birth. While the imponance of
binh-bonding has caugh1 the auention of many hospitals, us
~,it.er,
l 989•90
specific meaning and significance has often become sacrificed to
hospital routine. For citample, the widespread use of anaesthesia
in hospiial binh.s continues to be common practice.
My first three binhs in 1hc 60's were under Demerol
and Scopolaminc, an amnesiac. With "scope;• a mother
"forgets" the birth Cltperiencc and is too drugged to look at her
baby who is also drugged. Twenty-four hours later, I was given
my first look at my baby. I had no memory of the binh, and the
baby seemed a perfect stranger. Having missed out on sucking
during the minutes following birth, the baby seemed not to know
what to do the first times at the breast, and I invariably felt
rejected by each of my babies. I also felt inadequate as a mother.
With each baby, a kind nurse suggested trying again later and
went off to the nursery to give the baby a bottle. As a result I and
many other women often questioned our ability not only to
breastfeed a baby but to care for an infant. Later on many of us
found little satisfaction in raising our young children.
b:lby but to care for an intan1. Later on many of us found
linle satisfaction in raising our young children.
I am fonun:11e to have had another chance at childbinh
and an opponunily 10 experience birth-bonding with two
babies. With these babies or the 70's, one born in a hospital
but with no drugs, the other born at home attended by a
midwife, 1 breastfed with ease and confidence. In addition, I
never felt any alienation from my babies, never knew
post-partum depression, and experienced child rearing as a
joyous and fulfilling experience--in my 40's.
As a result of my mid-life binh experiences. I became
a labor suppon person, childbinh educator. and activist.
Undoubtedly the most important a.~pect of my las! 1wo binhs
was the binh-bonding I had with my babies. Meeting and
observing many mothers and babies over the last eigh1 years,
I am convinced 1hat bonding has a profound effcc1 on how
we parent and on how our children grov. spiritually as well
as mentally and physically.
When I first became nctive with childbinh in the RO's,
I could not help bu1 noiice that mothers who expressed joy
and who had an air of serenity about them as they dealt with
their children were mothers who had drug-free deliveries and
who were not separated from their newborn. ln 1nlking and
corresponding with moihers who had experienced binh
bonding with one child but no1 with another, I found the
same story over and over. There were many more
difficulties of every kind where there was linle or no
bonding. These babies had problems feeding, cried more,
were often unhappy as toddlers. The mothers often fell
rejected by the babies, were frequcnily depressed, and
questioned their abilities 10 mother Where there was
bonding, the opposite was true.
While no one wants a mother to experience any more
pain than is necessary, the use of anaesthesia in whatever form
is 1he factor most likely to prevent bonding. While an epidural
anaesthetic (injected between the layers of the covering of 1he
spinal cord) allows a woman 10 be awake, it canies with it
many risks that make funherintervention likely. With an
epidural, a woman mus1 lie almost motionless for a long time
which compromises the baby's oxygen supply often making a
C-section necessary. Even if she avoids surgery, she has no
control over her body from the waist down and often
experience~ headaches which further inccrfen: with the bonding
process.
Natural childbirth may seem an impossibility 10
women v. ho have been taught 10 fear the experience.
However, with preparation and loving suppon. the great
majori1y of women experience childbirth a:; an exhilarating
even! with binh·bonding the a.\pcct that has the most positive
long-term effect.
Jan \'erliaeghe lives in tlw Hendersonville, NC are.a and
provides c/Uldbirrh prepara1im1 for ho~ and hospilJl/ bin/~
XcltUM )o"-rt1.GL PIMJC
l
l
�The Magic of Puppetry
An Interview with Bonnie Blue
by Christina Morrison and Karen Watkins
Karuah: How did you become a professional
puppetee11 You said it was a gradual process?
Bonnie: J used 10 be an extremely shy,
sensitive, unself-confident person. And going
from 1here 10 an outrageous puppe1eer... you
could ask why such a change?
Kanlah: Was it the positive response to your
gift with puppetS?
Bonnie: I didn't have the confidence to see my
gif1s. ll was playing with children. And by
doing voice exercises, breath exercises, mime,
developing charac1er, realizing what my body
was doing when I was hunched over and
covering my hean. And just grokking those
things, understanding them, made me open
up. That's all. I just got to break my own
rules.
Katuah: And do all those things your puppets
were doing!
Bonnie: Yeah, through the puppets I got to do
them. And I got 10 realize how fun it was to
run around my universe smashing my rules
and "supposed to's." And then I got to see
this whole new person in here that I liked!
You know, self-likin~. It's so much fun
teaching self-liking. Kids like themselves...
they say, "I made rhis puppet and irs great!
Bonnie says it's great. I know it's grear!"
Kau1ah: Do you make your own puppets?
Bonnie: Yes. Snooge was the first puppet I
built. He's a three foot tall abominable
snowman with a 2 year-old personaJity. So he
says things like, "You! Come! Give me hug!
Oh ho, that tickle Snooge; that make me
happy!" (laughter)...That kind of lovable
fella. And the show was a take-off on
Scrooge; that's bow we got his name.
Ka!Uah: How do you manipulate them? On
strings?
Bonnie: I know ... well, I'm glad you're here.
(laughter)
Frog: You know, its a funny thing about
peoplc--thcy'll laugh al anything, won't you?
AHAHAHA!! Oh, look at that- there's a gnat!
Bonnie: No there's not ...
Frog: No wonder I've got a headache...
Frog: Right up thcre ...comc on you liule
guy...(hystcrical laughter) HUSH! You
might sea.re him away! ... bcre be comes!!
(buzzzzz·---slurp!I) 1 LOVE GNATS!!
Bonnie: And the other hand makes your ann
move, and T don't have more hands to rn:ike
your feet \lr'alk.
Katuah: Oh that's great! The kids must go
wild. I bet they can talk to him for hours and
cell him all their feelings...
Bonnie: Yeah, they do. and I.hey wanna touch
him a loL.
Frog: Get their hands in my mouth ...
Bonnie: These arc moving mouth puppets so
they·~ not on strings. I play with Mr. Frog
most often in the classroom- he's a good lap
puppet. Snooge is hard lo put on my lap, but
Frog here...
Bonnie: He does a series, Frog here. He comes
to the classroom and helps me teach. First of
alJ, l teach three forms of character. Physical
character-when they build their own puppets
they think about how we look and our
differences, like hair color, etc. The second
fonn is vocal cbaractcr-nol just talking but
sound effects:
Frog: Hi! (deep, froggy voice)
Frog: .... Nyaat...... ncooow .....secceccuurp! !
Kawah: HL Frog!
Bonnie: And the third form is movcment--how
lo move their hands when they're making it
talk. And within moving character you have
the concept of gravity. For example, you
Frog: Hello...about time I got outta my basket.
);:Q Li4an
l
''
( .
don't let a puppet float because frogs don't
float - they jump up, they come down. So we
do this and he helps me teach gravity. The'
way I do it is he begs me 10 make him walk:
and I say, "I can't, I only have one hand-one
hand's in your head, see?
Frog: Aaarrghhh!!.... But I wanna walk!
Bonnie: I'll make you hop!
Frog: I don't wanna hop. I never liked to hop.
I wanna WALK!!
Bonnie: So then he'll say, "Hey. haven't you
been teaching these kids how to use puppcts7"
And 111 say "Yeah". And he'll whisper to me
-and I love making puppelS whisper cause the
whole class is listcning·--hc'll say...
Frog: ...Maybe a couple of them could help me'
walk ...??!
Bonnie: So we do. A couple of kids come up
and each takes one of his sticks and I say.
"Now before you sum, remember we have lb
exaggerate everything with a puppet. We're
gonna lift each leg high in the air, bringing It
far forward ... "
Frog: Jllicelegs,huh?
Jomrm! pa«Je 12
I
I
1\:
Winter, t 989-9l
' f
I
1
•ll
�Bonnie: And then down just a linle in front of
the other leg... And then I get them going
really fast and Frog'll say, "Oh this is so
exciting! So exciting! I get 10 walk!" And his
legs are going everywhere and he goes
"AAAHHHHI!" and falls down! Major
crash!... And then he goes:
Frog: .... UUUUHHH ..... .AAARRRGHHH!!
....(painfully pulling his legs up) How long
have you two been walking, anyway? Don't
you know you don't pick up both feet at the
same time? That's hard on the old frog belly...
(J1ysrerica/ laughter)
Bonnie: (to us) Are you alright? h's a
wonderful way to show teachers how 10 use a
puppet to teach a concept.The kids don't even
know they're learning about gravity... they'rc
having fun.
try, even when it comes to folding a piece of
cardboard. Third graders will say, "I can't; do
mine!" And I'll say, "Silliness!, of course you
can! If r gave you a snowy hill and a piece of
cardboard you'd bring it back to me loonng
like a rag!" And then every time, no mauer
what it looks like, I'll say, "Perfect!,
wonderful!, you guys are so good!"
Katuah: Do you stage any productions in your
program?
Bonnie: No, I don't have time. First I do a
demonstration of puppet types. I bring in
shadow puppets, string puppets, rod puppets
and scenery puppets--trccs that talk. And full
size body puppets like Momma and Baby
Dragon.
Ka!Uah: And they're getting their bodies into it,
so it's not just this abstract concept.
Bonnie: According to Dr. Joseph Chilton
Pearce, who wrote The Magical Child,
children ICMn best when rhey use their bodies.
That's why they'll be banging, clicking,
rocking ... and then they're told to sit ~till! But
a lot of rcachers now are using this idea. They
say,"When r reach syllables, we drum!
Katuah: And your kids also make their own
puppets, right?
Karuah· They must love having a puppet to take
home.
Katuah: And do their kids get out of hand when
they're with you ... because they need to let
loose?
Bonnie: No, actually they don't. The thing is
that Lhcy're not very creative - they're afraid to
try. In classrooms where the teachers are
saying "very good," "good for you," "my
class is so great!"-- the kids can't wair. They
Slllrt throwing their voices right away, they're
anxious 10 explore new ground. But where
the teachers are afraid and need to have
"proper" behavior, the children arc afraid 10
Wlnter, 1989-90
Bonnie: I encourage the teachers to follow up.
And after creating and learning to use I.heir
puppet I let each one come up and do
something wilh their puppet for the class. So
they really discipline themselves and focus on
it and create an imaginary friend ... and. you
know?, its not really imaginary anymore.
Katuah: Most kids are taken out of their
imaginations and into "reality" way too soon.
And all the creative potential that's losL..
Bonnie: It's true. The imagination is a preuy
special space. C first learned this watching
mime anists. Totally blank scage and they
create imagcs...pulling ropes, falling in love,
picking a flower. And the audience secs the
flower, a yellow flower and it smells like a
daisy ....
I do a story called "The Fishes' Wishes",
where puppets are by a nver, going fishing
and there 's a troll under a bridge and all that.
And once a 3 year old came up afterward and
said, "How come your feet aren't wet after
standing in that river all that time?" So there's
a magic that goes on between audience and
performer... that realm of imagination where
you can walk without your body and be there
with other people. And it's a place of extreme
pleasure.
Katuah: It's also unportam for kjds to work
through their feelings with fantasy. Like dolls
--it's play therapy. But \\.hen they get past
second or third grade they get messages that
it's not ok to pretend. they're not supposed to
play dolls (especially boys). And puppets give
them that okay.
Bonnie: Yes. They bring in an old sock,
knick-knacks, buttons, lace, etc .. and I
provide the furl) hlllt and moving eyes.
Bonnie : Oh gosh, they love these puppets.
First they glue the fabnc mouth pieces
together, which 1s prcuy challenging, and I
take it as an opportunity to affirm them.
Number one, when you're working with
puppets you cannot fail. Anything you do 1s
brilliant, and the more you do of it, the beuer.
So they make brides, punk rockers, little
girls, a lot of dragons. Then I say, "Go home
and empty your junk drawers!" And the next
day they bring in all kinds of stuff to decorate
them. Fabric, nut shells, boule tops, yarn ...
and we lay a big pile on the table and I insist
that the children do all the choosing.
And some teachers just can't sra11d it. They'll
say, "Red and orange don't match". So I say,
"But it doesn't maucr with a puppet- the
wilder the beuerl Let's see what it looks like."
Its just the "shoulds" we all learned as
children that they're passing on ...
Kaniah: So you leave them t0 create plays on
their own.
Bonnie: 1 think kids are pretty willing to
pretend up until third or fourth grade. Mostly
sixth grade is the oldest age I work with.
People are afraid to try puppets with older
kids.
Kauiah: Why?
When I introduce Momma Dragon I
say, "One of the things we're going to study
is character- physical, moving and vocal
differences". And while I'm doing that I'm
putting her head and hands on and I say, "Has
my physical character changed, by the way?"
And they say, "Yeah!" And I spread my body
out and start breathing really deep and take a
big, slow step. By then they're backing up,
staning to squeal. Then I slowly tum around
and make her look at one of the kids who's
not backing up 100 much. And then I come
forward and swallow that child!
Katuah: Oh my Goddess! You're kidding!
Bonnie: No--the head is so big it could
encompass your whole body. And then she
stands up and says "YUMMM• " And that's
how I begin the program.
Then they stan thinking about what they want
to make, and the second day, we glue the
mouths of the hand puppctS together. Then the
third and founh days we finish the puppets
and the fifth day we do skills ... breathing,
talking, eye contact, gravny, moving. sound
effectS.
Bonnie: In America, people think puppets are
for children ... in the European countries
people know puppets are for all ages. And
puppetry is also fairly new here, whereas it's
thousands of years old in Europe and the
Orient.
I love the origin stories. I know there used to
be puppets of Jesus that opened and closed
their eyes and mouths, and most of these were
burned during inquisition times--and I
imagine so were the puppeteers! And in Java
the puppeteer has been their spiritual teacher
for cons. He goes from village to village and
sets up his scrim and docs a shadow
production for 2 or 3 nights ... and of course
they don't have lights, so they use the fire. In
India and Java they call the veil of the shadow
scrim the "veil of the worlds".
Kauiah : There arc so many ways to use
puppets that most people aren't aware of. I
taught French 10 a kindergarten using a puppet
who only spoke French. He'd tell me he was
embarasscd cause he couldn't speak English
and was afraid the kids wouldn't like him. So
immediately the children said, "tell him we'll
continued on next page
JC:ol.UM Jo14rnoC pcaqe 13
�speak in his language!" And they all wanted to
learn French so they could talk to Giuseppe.
Bonnie: How perfect. I'd really like to work in
the depths of the education system and give
teachers the tools to usc ...altcmatives. Most
are so frustrated with all the paperwork. They
say, ''I used to be able to do art work with the
kids but I don't get to have fun with them
anymore."
gone into ans. And their parents have grown
up with very little ... but through this program
they meet so many different kinds of artists. It
gives them an idea of the world other than
T. V. and their own backyard.
When I first staned "'ith Mountain Ans I was
just going to perfonn and teach abou1 puppets.
And then I gor the idea for having kids make
1he1r own puppets and so much has come out
of it--all the characters- I had no idea.
Katuah: Do you ask teachers to stay in the
room while you're there?
Karuah: Getting the kids involved ... expressing
rhemselve~. Thar's the magic of i1.
Bonnie: I like the teachers to be there and pick
up on it and help our. And I've also had
teachers inhibit the class wnh their "supposed
to's". Especially with the sound effects. That
drives teachers crazy 'cause they've spent all
year teaching the kids not to do those things.
And then I'll say,"Lct's hear your voice. let's
hear it loud!", and the kids arc going wild and
the teacher's looking at the door...(laughs)
But they've got to realize they can let it all
loose. They can take a puppet and be fun and
make the kids laugh and they won't lose
conrrol or respect, they will gain it. If they
dare to share with a child in their realm, then
they've gotten inside and can teach much more
effectively. If they'll go into the child's world
rather than criticizing the child for not being m
the institutional world ...
Bonnie: The primary value is definitely
expression--in every form. in any form--and
the accep1ance of that expression. Self
acceptance: teachers accep1ing their
self-expression, children accepting theirs.
teachers accepting children. and children
accepnng teachers.
At the end of my program when the kids
introduce their puppets 10 the class. every
once in a while I'll get a teacher who'll do it,
too, and the kids love it! They'll say."Wow!.
she made a voice for her puppet"' And I know
the teacher might feel like an idiot. especially
when she's supposed to be a standard in a
group and she's asked to do things that are
real weird and silly. So going through and
daring to feel that sillinesi. and create an
expression--daring 10 do that is. I think, the
greatest transformer. I've seen it first of all
with myself, ho11. brave I've gouen, and I've
seen it with the cluldren.
In 1his process I've taken a close look at life
and how we hold ourselves, the way we look.
our hean area. With a puppet. if the bean's
covered you know how Lllat feels • it's sad.
And with love you're throwing it out. With
anger, you cover it, tum it away. look down
the long nose. I teach those types of
expression.
Katuah: Their world ...
Bonnie: It's not even the teacher's world - it's
the 'supposed to be' world. And they were
taught 11 and they're still trying to be very
good at it. But there are lots of exceptions...
like Mrs. Thompson in Brevard. She takes her
lcids out and teaches them to plant trees and
grow seeds and mke care of animals. She
teaches respect for nature. And she docs ii on
her own.
Katuah: What's your feeling about the
Mountain Arts Program?
Karuah: You're reaching a 101 about human
relations and the self--much more than just
"puppets".
Bonnie: h's wonderful. The thing I love about
it is we're touching the really rural
communities. If it wasn't for Mtn. Ans those
kids wouldn't be gelling hands-on contact
with artists very often.They have strong
spons programs but not a lot of funding has
Bonnie: Teachers will say, "Kids that never
talk have their puppets talking!" Or, "I learned
so much about this child from his puppet and
what it's saying."
Sometimes I see children who might be abused
at home and they'll punch their puppet or the
JC.citiwh Journa! pciqe t 4
puppet 1s very aggressive and wants 10 chew
and bite. So I might say to the puppet,
"What's your name?" And the puppet says.
"None of your business". And I say, ''Well
aren't you glad to have a boy like this?" "No.
I hate him." And I say, "But he sure did a
good job making you. that I can say for sure".
And the puppet gets quieter, softer ... So I
plant a little seed of positive. It's all I get ume
to do but it could be taken so much funher.
That's why I encourage them to hug the
puppet...
Katuah: And make friends with their puppet.
Bonme: Yes. Because they're expressing to
themselves, talking 10 themselves. Another
1hing about problem children ... If you have a
class of twenty-eight kids and one or two are
hyperactive or disruptive, the teacher usually
puts them in the hall because she doesn't have
1ime to deal with them. So I know that child is
lacking love. Love really heals a battered
child. So the disruptive child I find. which
doesn't happen much 'cause with puppets
even those children arc usually pretty
engrossed ...
Karuah: They just want a little more attention
from you.
Bonnie: Exactly. And that's what I give them. I
give them what they wanr. I make them come
up front and hold my hand. I'll pat 1heir hand
or put my hand on their shoulder if they'll let
that happen. And I'll say, "you need to hold
my hand, that way if you don't hear my
message with your cars, you'll feel it from my
energy". I reach them about communication
without words. I'll use gesture and mime and
rouch because the problem children need to be
touched.
Katuah: Do you wish you had more time to
spend wnh each group?
Bonnie: Definitely. It'd be nice to teach
puppetry as a full time cumculum. If you have
a good puppet teacher you can have art and
thearre in the same school. .. and you don't
have to use only puppets. You could combine
creative writing, theatre and an .•. And you
might be doing Midsummer Nigl11's Dream so
conum:cd on p. 28
WLntcr, 1989-90
r
�by Doug Woodward and Trbh Severin
There arc many different reasons pan:nts
might want to teach their children ut home. As
parents, the two of us panscularly want to
nurture in our children the 4u.1lities of love
crcativuy. mdcpendcnr thinking, enthusiasm for
learning, a po~11ivc ..elf-1mage. and a spim or
co-opcra11on (rather than compctiuon) with
others.
As there is no altcmauvc school in Macon
County where we live, we at one point were
seriously considering moving to an arc:1 that
offered a good choice in alternative education
Then we heard mention or homeschooltng and
decided that maybe the quality education we
sought could best be provided right here at
home.
The "social problem" often mentioned in
connection with homeschooling gave us pause.
however. We were afraid that our young one>
might become isolated at home and not have
enough interaction with other children. Our
worries were needless. We found that there
were many other families involved in
homeschooling m our area, and that there were
plenty of activities planned to bring the
homeschoolers together. The more we read and
the more we interacted with other families, the
more assured we were that the "social problem"
of homeschooling was not a problem at all. As
we watched the children interactmg in small
groups, we could not help but think it was a
favorable co.1trast to the usual social experience
found in a classroom of 25 or 30.
If, like us, your family is interested in
homeschooling, you might find that you are not
as alone as you might think at first. Even in rural
Registration
The suuc of North Cnrolina requires that 11 child
be registered by age seven for public, private, or
homeschooling. For informauon on Ille requ1remcnis f0<
regis1ntlion of homcschoolcrs, wmc:
Staie of North C..olma Division or Non·Public EdllCllltOn
c/o Ron Helder, DIJ'CCtor
532 N. Wilmingion SL
Raleigh, NC 27604
(919) 733-4276
The states of Virginia and Tennessee regmcr
homcschool children through the county bonrd$ of
education. Contact your local board for mfonnalioo.
areas the homeschooling population h
significant, and chance~ are that the.re will be a
support group dose by.
Homeschooling support groups can serve
1heir member' in a number of ways. l.c:r's loClk
at the children first ·1 hough it\ true that the
parents can direct the kids toward rradit1on:d
mu~ic cla;scs, sports activities, and classes for
special skills. socializing with other
homcschoolers has benefits all its own. When
families get 1ogc1hcr, the age grouping is vertical
and scattered. not horii.ontal as is found in an
onhodox classroom. A ~ix-year--0ld might learn
1he needs of an infant. share thoughts with a
teenager, and deal with adults on a personal
level r.ither than as authority figures. Harmony,
tolerance, and cooperation are fostered.
Even wuhin the fun activities,
opportunities for learning abound. For example,
our group pressed apples this fall. Children
involved in the ga1hering, washing, chopping,
pressing, and bouling of organically grown fruit
are likely to come away with more than just the
mste of juice in their mouths!
Adult members of a support group always
have their own skills 10 share, whether they use
these skills in the course of earning a living, or
whether these are activities that they just love
doing. And do not forget the emerging skills of
the children. They, too, have something
imponant to teach the adults. if we will listen.
Family activities • planned so that bo1h
spouses can panicipate - are the heart of the
social opportunities in a support group.
Potlucks, field trips, campouts, and service
projects are but a few of these.
On the other side of the coin, mcntorship
Finding Help
for Your Homeschooling Program
Magazines
llomt EdJ<c011011 MogortM
Box 1083
Tonaske!, WA 98855
programs offer a one-on-one growing and
learning experience. Here a child can select an
adult who offers a skill m which he or she 1s
interested. The child makes the contact and
together the child and the adult work our a time
when that skill is being used and the young one
can ohscrve or participate.
Support groups also offer the parents
infoimation to help them get staned and to aid in
dealing with legal requirements. The group can
also provide curriculum help, creative ideas,
workshops, connection to state or national
homeschooling organizations. and plain old
empathy!
We greatly appreciate the nexibility and
choice involved in homeschooling. The
children's love and enthusiasm for learning has
been fostered by studying subjects in which
they are most interested and when the readiness
is there. We srudy subjects in an integrated
manner. always making it "hands on" as much
as possible. If the children become interested in
Indians, we get involved in native dance,.music,
cooking, crafts, st0ries, and more. Since we
continue to be actively involved in bicycle
touring, canoeing, and ,backpacking, we just
take the cllildren along. We can spontaneously
take off on an adventure withowt the hqsS'le of
school schedules. A family field trip is a highly
educational expcriem.:c:! •
Leaming togettier continues to be exciting
and challenging as our falJlily-continues io.make
its own path into eCluca[lpn'. No longer do we
~lk about relocating to anoiher ~a in S8anfh of
an education that fits our children's needs, for
we've found it right here ~t home.
A Bcka Book Publications
Box 18000
Pensacola. fl.. 32523
Calvcn School
IOS Tuscany Rd.
Bnllimorc. MD 21210
Oak Meadow School
Bol 712
Blacksburg, VA
24060
Gr11wing Witlwut Sclwo/111g
2869 Massnchuscus Ave.
Cambridge. MA 02140
The Sycamon: Troe
Ttaching Books and Matt rlals
CoSta Mesa. CA 92627
Rainbow Resource Center
The loc:al library is a good place to begin your
search for aYllllable homeschooling mrucrials. Some local
libraries have worked with homeschooling groups in
pun:hasing books, petiod1cals, and assisting in the
Organlu t ions
National Homeschool Assiocialion
Box58746
Seattle, WA 98138
(SOO) 486-135 I
(S<rvius: o quarterly newsle11u. teoclttng rt-'Ourct
file, homuclwol trove/ directory, tttn·IO•lttn program,
apprtnticeslups and mtntorships for homtschooltrs.
student uchan~, oN1 o 11twslt11tr digest ~rviu.)
k'lnwr, l 989-90
Box 365
Taylorville, lL 62568
2179 Meyer Place
John Holt's Book and Music Siorc
2269 Massachuseus Ave.
dcvelopma11 or vcrucal files on homc.schoolmg.
Cambridge, MA 02140
lnrorma tlonal Book1
Educational Spccuums/
JltNnlSdtool RtDtkr
Bluestocking Press
Box 1014 (Dept. AF2)
by Mad: and Helen Hegener
Ttaclt Yowr Own by John Holl
Pliurvillc. CA 95667
�-If! 1' SUI., J11,,t'J1, Sf
(If/ ye fl1•f -nt•i/e ~ ff, , -Ae"
·Ceremony
/ 6it1 rP'U -Aeor ,,,, e.t
/1t fo r~11r 11'1/t(f (
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c'"'J'"' ye, I httf /.rL
1v?Ake 1~~ pt1fh $wt"o'/I, tf,.f ii
fhe br~w 'J' ffte f 'r jf ,
1
ff! f: M~Js, CJ,"Js, ~,>t, y;,,.Jf
fJ/ f' lf,.f
111 ftt.
I /;/II rtsf "'",...;-...,I
/h'/o 1""" >tt/J$f 1ft4J
e '14W '4/e..
On f ye, I iyl"re,,.
Sf,lf
11
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Cini
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11J4~t Ifs?"#, Sht~"1, tf,.f if '114 r,4d
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ifte hnnJ "/ /(,e se<n.J hill
~! ~t
Jf lls Valle~s, 1?.ivtrf, L~s,
1
7fe,~, C/r4'~eJ; 1df
r of 7'e f4rft.
e
/ /,/&/ r,#11 ftear n.e !
/hfo 'f""4r m//{ff ~o au..~ ti '1e~ /,(~
Ohse,,f '/'' I iH>tff.,rc..
"WJii<~ ii~ /'"'It, SmooH,1 f/,o/ if Jn'!J read
-/4t br~w 1 /f,e
tJ,1 hi//
rJ
tk Omalia 1"£an prayer Urtmtm!J introtfucine a
new6orn dsi!tf to tk natural worUf.
Ofun, in cqnttmporory cultuns, tk new5orn is fo~
introtfuutl w tk fiuman cOtlflflunity and to tk tfiviru
orrftr··out not spu.ifially to tk natwTJl ul0rl4.
!Here in tliis urem.ong, tk naturof wo& is atftfresstd
rllrectly in anrwuntin9 tk arrival of tk diilrl into tk
mUfst of tk wfwfe Lift community.
'Ifijs is
Illustration by James Rhea
.t, '
==
........
Q .,,,.
��Mother Earth The Natural Classroom
Early one morning, I sat outside with my
dnughtcr reading a children's ~tory .. h "'as a
story dealing with bircb, habitat, animal
adaptations. predators, and camoullag_c. In the
middle of the story. we nouccd the 11n1est bare!
dan under the eaves of our garage. How did ii
get lhrough? It :.queaked underneath such a
small space. !low hard to believe. More careful
observation ~howed uo; there was indeed a
hidden nest. We could h.'lrcly see the bits of
l\\igs showing through. What a pcrf.:ct
accompanimem far the story we were reading.
It was one of those wonderful examples of
~ynchronici ty. One 1.hat Nature is so famous
for, if only v.c arc patient and obscrvan1
CnOUl!h .
~ If only classroom tC.'lching could h:ivc
more moments like that in science or
environmental studies. In my teaching
experience, I have noticed how attuned to nature
students become when they arc allowed. More
often than not, experiences like that arc reserved
for "field trips," and those occur too
.
infrequently. We are usually forced to bnng
natural science inside the classroom rather than
r.ake the students directly to the Eanh.
Twenty years ago, when l first read Si/enc
Spring, 1 was amazed nt how we were S?
closely intenwined to the Eanh. Why didn't we
pay nuention back when it was written?
Couldn't we have avoided many of our recent
environmental pitfalls? Now, as we enter the
L990's, having had some very harrowing
cnvironmenrol disasters, it is clear that schools
can no longer ignore the imponance of teaching
and providing hands-on experiential
cnvironmenlal programs. Leaming has to extend
beyond the boundaries of the classroom.
For the past three years, I have been
involved with the Nonh Carolina
Adopt-A-Stream Program which is part of lhe
National Save Our Streams Program. The
Strcam Program activities are primarily
bands-on, very environmentally conscious
lessons. Since our school is a five-minute walk
from a stream, we are able to rcgulnrly take
advantage of the opportunity to visit the stream.
The children considered the activities
wonhwhile and fun - and could see that they
were making a difference. The program
integrated well into our second and third grade
cwriculum by including science, social studies,
languuage ans. creativity, and problem-solving
skills.
In order to allow children to realize what a
unique and precious place our Eanh is and to
understand their participation in it, we need to
step outside of our classrooms. Mother Eanh
can teach us about our home, but we need to
make provisions for being th.ere in direct contact
with her. Students need to be outdoors ·
observing, listening, sensing - when Mother
Eanh shares her synchronistic lessons with us.
Second grade .mlllem Quinn \Vardin andpre-kindergarrner Anna Srein cleaning a srream ne.ar rhe_r
1
scltool on Clean Streams Day, 1988.
Photo by Tun Reid
Biodegradable Diapers:
Not What They Say They Are!
It sounds like a dream come true disposable diapers that are environmentally ~fe.
"Degradable is a wann and fuzzy word, hke
organic and natural," said R.A. Denison, a
senior scientist at the Environmental Defcnst:
Fund.
Unfonunately, "These plasucs are being
sold as a way to reduce waste and that is a
hoax," says Jeanne Wirka of the Environmental
Action
Foundation.
A truly degradable material breaks down
into basic constituents like water and carbon
dioxide through natural pr~esses. The n~w
diapers do indeed break down 1mo...smaller b11s
of plastic. But in the dry, oxygen·~tarved
environment of modem landfills, they might not
break down much at all.
"Li11lc is known about what happens
during and after the degradation process to
chemical additives, toxic heavy metals. and
other plastic ingredients," said Ann Beaudry in
an anicle in Motlutring Magazine. And "even the
eventual breakdown inr.o small pieces of plastic
offers no solution to the landfill capacity crises
because the breakdown of throwaway diapers,
disposable or biodegradable, take up just as
much room in the landfill as the original."
Large amounts of human waste arc also
- Susan Schneider Gries~!# deposited in the landfills possibily b!'Ceding
virulent strains of pathogens such as poho virus
fr'
Suggested Rtadint:
which may find 1.heir wny to underground water
SltariJtg Nt111Ut with Children by Joseph Bh3tat Cornell
sources. Toxic chemicals also follow the snme
Keepers oftlu! Earth by M. Caduto
route to the water sources.
Streamwalkingfor Kids by Gwen D1ehn and Susan
There has been a large eco-marketing
Gricsmaict (NC Stn:am Watch Program, 1988)
campaign for single-use "biodegradable diapers"
C!IMtcling people ONl nlJIJVt, Lesson plans. (Great
targeted at natural food stores and environmental
Smoley Mll\S. !nstirute at Tremont, Gre:u Smoky
catalogs, aimed at reaching environmentally
MlnS. National Park. Townsend, 1N 37882)
conscious parents.
Xl••Unh 7ournnt PIUJ'- 111
For four and a half years our family has
"recycled" cloth diapers in the wnshing machine.
You can use 1.hem from one child to the next,
tum them into rags when they're worn out, and
let them truly biodegrade when they're no longer
usable.
Of course cotton production often uses
pesticides, but there is little comparison betw~n
that and the daily disposal of 5 to 15 plasuc yes, PLASTIC! · diapers.
Most kids are in diapers for 2-3 years.
The cost comparison is nbout $84 per month for
disposables, $26 per month for clor.h through a
diaper service, or a one time cost of about $50
for a few dozen cloth diapers if you buy and
wash your own.
"Each family that chooses natura l,
recyclable conon diapers for their child prevents
I ton of waste from entering the solid waste
stream each year," wrote Benudry.
I hope this makes you reconsider whether
f
you want to buy into this fal~e dream o_ the
disposable diapers or the reality of creaung a
healthy environment . Let's stop trying to take
the easy way out.
For more resources and infonnarion on
how and why to use cloth diapers, feel free to
call me at the Traditional Binh and .Natural
Family Health Colleccive; 36 l Sterling St.;
Atlanta GA 30302 (404) 880-9172.
'
- Aviva Jill Romm
"Doubts are Voices on Dcgracbblc Ptasuc: W3SJ.c." NY
Tim(S, 10/25~9
"B1odcgr11dablc Diapers: A Pseudo Soluuon." Ann E.
Beaudry. Molhtring Magam1t, Fall. 1989
•
"The Ethics or Diapering," R.W. Hollis, Motltering
MaglWM. Fall, 1989
~
Wi.nt..er , 1989- 90
�RESOURCES
Tips for
Gardening with Children
Parenting
from Tom You11gblood-Pe1erse11
.\lo1huU1J: \lag;vmc
P.O. Bo~ lo'IO; Santc Fe. NM 87'>0-l
Start i.mall - a 6' x 10' garden can be a perfect ·
size for a liule one.
N11n1inng Tf>d.1~
187 Cao;clh Ave.: San Fmnc1S1:0, C,\ Q-l 11-l
Have fun! I put this toward the top of the list
because remember, beauty b in the c:yc of the
beholdl.'r. This means no garden is perfect, and
it's as much the proceH as ii is the results, for
children.
Education
/'h(' C)t 11/The Chtld., Rulh \fueller
(!'le" Soc1c1y Publishers)
The best garden layout is narrow beds - no more
lhan three feet wide so the children can work
from the edges - and wide paths that can fit two
willing and eager workers.
Ch1ldhodd- l lu. l\'aldorf Pc·r.1{1('Cli>-c, by ~ancy Aldri.h
R1. ::?. Bo~ :!675; We>.iford, VT 05-19-l
Grc:en J~ic/Jcr
c/o Tim Grant: 95 Robcn Succt; Toronto, Onwrio
M5S 2K5, Canuda
What to plam? Whatever the children like toe.at
and nibble. lf that list 1s shon, you can
supplcmem wtth vegetables and flowers 1ha1 are
especially fun to grow. Like cherry tomatoes,
sunflowers, ever-bearing srrawbcrries and
nastuniums. All of 1hese can be nibbled
fresh ..... tmmedia1e gratification is one of the
easiest ways to keep children interested in the
garden.
National Dirtctory of Alttrnative SchocfJ, National
Coahuon of Al1crnauve Community Schooh
R.D. I. Bo~ 378: Glcnmoorc. Pa. 193-l 3
1lorne ~1wn Magaw11:
P.O.Box IOIB: Tona.tj{e\, WA 98855
\1t:rlyn s Pt!n
P.0.Box 1058: Ea~t Greenwich, RI 02818
Skipping Stones
80574 H:11.c1ton Road: Coungc Grove. OR 97424
Our Fwur<' al Stake: A lunugtr's Gwck 10 Stopping the
Nuclear Arntf Rare, Melinda Moore & Laurie
Ol'i<:n, ti tJ/ , (New Soe1e1y Puhfohcrs)
l.111/e Fritnds for Pt!aa
4405 29th Street; Ml. R.1n1cr, MD 20712
Kid'IArt Nt!WS
P.O.Box 27-l: Mt.Sh:lsm CA 96067
Nauonal Home School Assocwuon
P.O.Box 167; Rodeo, NM 88056
American Montcsson Sococty
ISO Sib Ave.: New York, NY 10011
Waldorf lnstilutc
260 Hungry Hollow Road
Spring Valley, NY 109n
Stop War Toys Campaign
C/o Wur Re''-'lCrs' Lcaguc - NE
Box 1093: Norv.•11:h. CT 06360
Who's Calling tilt Sho1.1: /lo" to Re~nd £f/wn·tly 10
Children's Fascina11on Kllh Illar Play and War toys
by N311ey Crls.<oon-Pa1ge and Diane Levin
(New Society Publishers)
Stopping Abuse
Nallonal Child Abuse HOl Linc, l-800-4AC-HILD
National Association for I.he
Educ111ion or Young Children
1834 Connccticul Ave. NW
Wa~ing1on, D.C. 20009
Children's Defense Fund
122 C St NW; Wa.'>hingion. DC 20001
The Nalionnl Association for Mediation 1n Educauon
425 Amity St.; Amhcrs1, MA 01002
Child Welfare League of Amcnca
440 First SL NW (Suue J 10)
Washington. DC 20001
Nnlional Coaliuon or Altcrnouvc Community Schoch
58 Schoolhouse Rd.: Summertown, Tn. 38483
End Violence Agamst lhe Next Gcncruuon, Inc.
977 Kcclc1 Ave.; Berkeley. CA 94708
Changing Schools
Teacher; College 918
Ball Struc l.inivcrsity
Mu11cie, IN 47306
ramily Violence Research Program
Family Rc=h UiboralOry
Univcr~11y of New Hampshire
Durham, NH 03824-3586
Peace and No n-viole11ce
An OutbrC'alc of fi:aci:. Sarah P1nlc.
A "fanual on Nonv1oltnci: and Childrtn.
compiled ancJ edited by SitphanicJudson
(New Society Publishers)
,,li..n t.er, 1989-90
Kidsrights
3700 Progi:c~ Blvd.: Mount Dora. FL 32757
N3UOnal Chtld's RighlS Alliance
P.O.Box 17005; Durham, NC 2no5
National Commiu.ce for the Prevention or Child Abuse
332 S. Michigan Ave.; Chicago, 0. 6060
Get real 1ools. (small ones), not toys for your
children. No matter how young, don'1 waste
your money on flimsy plastic 100ls in toy stores.
Purchase smaller-sized good quali1y tools for
$4-$5.00 from hardware or garden shops.
Have the children wear old clothes and shoes.
I telp the child clean and put away all tools when
finished.
Again, HAVE FUN!
Tom Youngblood-Perersen ls director of
the MAGIC Commu11iry Garden programs in
A!iheville. NC. fie and his wife Berh eat
11aswriw11 buds in their own garden with their
five year-old so11, Evan, and plan to imroduce
the1r newbofll. Campbell, w rhe fun of it, as
well
Childre11's Media
Four Arguments for tht Elimination of Television
by Jerry Mander
Action fat Children's Television
20 Unh·ersity Rd.; Cambridge, MA 02138
Council on lnitrracilll Books for Childn:n
1841 Bro:idway; New York, NY 10023
Lollipop 'PoWCJ Press
30S £.Chapel Hill St.; Durllam. NC 2no1
Much of I.he information for these resoiuces came from:
lloliftic Educa1ion Rt!'oli<"W,
P.O.Box 1476; Greenfield, MA 01302
'Ifuml;s to X/n.!JO'l 'Xlfl9for fufp in cmnpili119 tfiis
resourus listintJ.
/
X4ti4ah ) o'4rnat palJtl 19
�HOSTAGEPANTHERTOWN
FREED
ACTION FOR BEARS BRINGS
RESULTS
Nlllrll World News Savice
Nlllrll Worid News Service
With the aid of the Nature Conservancy and
national politicians, negotialions for a major hostage
release wcre compleled Monday, No~cmber 27 when
6.295 acres of the Panlhcnown Valley in the headwaters
of lhe Tuclcascgcc River WllletShcd were tnWfcrrcd IO the
US Forest Scrvke.
The valley has been the sub.)CCt of controversy
since 1988 when Duke Power Company bought Ille l.r1ICt
as part ol ilS land acquisition program for a high-voltage
11811Smission line IO go lhrough the hcan of Transylvania
and Jackson counties In North Carolina. Much
opposition IO the pawer line cenicrcd lllOWld lhc idea of
"Save Panlhcnown Valley."
Oulte bought the propeny suddenly in 1988.
Ownership of the whole property was a powerful
negotiation IOOI 10 help Duke secure 11S preferred route
for the power line. Once the route was established.
selling the propcsty to the Nature Conservancy was easy
for the ginnl energy corporauon, as 11 only required an
800 acre comer of the land for the tmnsm ission line
right-of-way. The sale softened some opposition 10 the
power line, which 11"ill cause ml1JOT habi1a1 disruption
along its route and spur damaging development in its
service area, nnd gave Duke ihe appearance of being
syrnpnthetic IO cnvironmcnial issues.
However, Panlhcnown is a unique and scenic area
and home IO several rare plant species. IL~ future appcnrs
10 be much more secure. The Forest Service will
temporarily manage the land under a 4-C land
management classification, which restricts use 10
non-motonzod recrcauon and favOlli black bear habil31,
and promised IO preserve its 'ICCnic beauty and unique
geological and biological features. The publrc attention
the valley has received will most likely be a strong
guarantee for lhn1 promise.
A demonstration on behalf of black beats cag
on the Cherokee lndioo Reservation for tourist auraction
bas apparently brought results. The September
demonst.ration, led by PETA (People for the Ethic
Treatment of Animals) and allCnded by 100 maJChers
including many Crom the rcserva1ion, wallccd from
Oconoluf1ce Visitors' Center 1n the Great Smok
Mountains National Park to the infamous Saunooke'
Bear Land, cited as providing some of the wors
conditions for animals among CAhibits tn this country.
Chief Ed Taylor mcl the group and told them no
ID meddle with internal affairs on the reservnlioo and
go home. The response to this was a chorus of shou IS
"We are home!" from many of the dcmonsi.nuors wh
were residents of the reservation. The Chief then told lh
group ihat Indians were tired of outsiders telling the
what lO do, app:ircruly forgetting lhal. the exhibit owners
on whose behalf he was speaking were all while pcopl
who hnd leased space on the rcscrvntion IO cash in on lhe
summer tourist now. Muuenng, Taylor then got into hi
car and retired from lhc scc.ne.
But Taylor was affected by the dcmon~tration.
The following month he brought a resolution into th
Tribal Council thnt wou Id hnve required that bears
kept in "natural habitat areas" on penalty of SI ,000 fo
''iolallon. The Council. however, replaced this rcsolu tio
with one that said the caging o( bears 1s "presenting
problem• and nuthorized the Council 10 invcs1ig:ue th
pol>~ibility of the habitat area.
BENTON MacKA YE TRAIL
After nine years 3 dedicated group of volunteers
has comptcu:d a 78.5 mile hiking trail from Springer
Mountain, Georgia Lo the COhuua Wilderness Arca on
the Tcnncs.'iCC "lllle hnc.
The hiking p:ith is called the Benton MacKaye
Trail after ihe founder of the Appalachum Trail system.
Pans of the trail follow an early fll3n for the Aflll3l3chian
Trail. which was later ch311ged IO ilS prcscn1 route.
The remarkable aspect of the Benton MacKaye
Troll is that it was constructed entirely by voluntcc~.
who have worlccd steadily over a nine-year period to
complete the uaJI through the Goorgia mounuuns. Much
work still needs Lo be done 10 bring the path 10 11s
proposed termination po101 in the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park, but trail votun1cers were
jubilant to have completed lhc first ~uge of the route.
Officials of the Southern Region of the US
Forest Service agreed early rn the llllil's hisiory Ihm they
would back the propo:;ed route if the Georglll segment
were completed.
A Tennc.'iSCC chapter of the trail volunlecrli has
been formed IO extend ihc trail nonhwan:t through the
Unicoi MounUlill.\ IO reach the Smokies.
• scurce: article by John llarmon (n 1hr Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, October 14. 1989.
FOREST PLAN REMANDED
Narlnl World News Service
The Chief of the US Forest Service, Date
Robenson, on September 28, 1989 sent back the
bclcllgucrcd Land and Resource f\.lanngemem Plan for the
Nantahala-Pisgah National Forests, saying in panicular
Ihm the plan places too much emphasis oo clC31CuWng
as the method of choice for lumbenng and 3Jso allows
projected umber sates that would fail 10 recover their
CO~ts.
While not spcc1ficnlly outlawing clcarcutting or
any limits on its use. Robcn.o;on dircctcd the N-P
National Forest staffs 10 research altcmauvcs w the
clcarcutting technique and to be more nex1b!e m their
thoi~ of logging methods. His denial Ytllidatcd yc:ITS of
work by conscrvation groups, parucul:irly the Western
North Carolina Allianc~. to convince the Forest Service
to stop 1ts smgle-minded reliance on the clcarcuumg
ux:hnique.
The Chiefs directive also said the rorcst rtan did
not adequately JUstify proposed timber sales Lha1 would
have resulted in the loss of additional tax money IO
subsidi1.e clcarcuts in the Southern Appalachians. In
1987 the Nantahala·Pisgah National Forests lost a total
of S2.5 million in bclow-<:ost limber sales. (l1lc For~l
Service accounung procedure was changed in 1988 lO
make it more d1fficull 10 dctcnmnc the economic swtus
of timber SJlcs 1n indl\·1duat rorc.sts. hut 11 Is csumated
that tosses held steady or rose slightly in that year.) A
rccelll study author11cd by the Forest Service, Tiie
Southern Appalachian Timber Study. documented a
decade-long price drop in hardwood lumber in the
Southern Appalachians. Robcnson's memo duected the
Nauonnl Forests ndm11ustrauve siaffs to incorporate these
more recent figures m their review of timber ~les
policies and umber qUOlaS.
Chief Robertson's remand order showed most
clearly the political nature of the US Forest Service. for
the issues of clcarcutung and below~t salcs that he
dealt with in his administrative order were drawing much
negauve publicity IO the agency. However, the Chief,
white urging caution in the construction of fore.~ roads,
did noc suggest any specific changes in road pohc1e.s in
the N3ntahala-Pisgah Na11onal Forc.,ts. Alw, white he
called for specific plans 10 provide hab11111 for 12
threatened and cnd:lngercd ~pccics, he did not cnll for a
forests-wide roadlcss areas survey IO determine the noed
for wildcmcss areas and undisturbed habnat. as called ror
m particular by the rcgion:ll office of ihe Wilderness
Society. Thc.sc 1s~~ arc as 1mponan1 as lhc clcarcumng
issue. but 11 ~med th31 ihcy were neglected m ihe
Chiefs repon because they had not aroused a vociferous
public outcry ag111ns1 the For~t Service as h3d the umber
policies.
The message is clear; 10 bring chnnge to the
nauonal forests, stir 11 up.
~uing
II
WE BRING GOOEY THINGS
TOLIFE II
Narunl World Ne"'• Service
South of Hendersonville Nonh Carolina, in th
below the East Flat Rock comm unit
where some I 50 peorle draw their drinking water
concentration~ of a canccr·causing mduslnal solvcn
exceed the siatc stnndard by at least 3.500 times
The General Electric lrghting fixtW'Cl> productio
plant in lfcndcr,on County has ~ixu:cn undergroun
Storage t.anks, two waste water trcaunent ponds, and
sludge 1mpoundmcn1 on land owned by the plant. Tw
landfills. a recently reported le:tlcing drain pipe, and
1983 chemical spill arc all contribuung factors to lh
!isling of this s11c by the Nonh Carolina Clean Wate
Fund as one of the 22 WOrsl groundwntcr contaminatio
site.~ in Nonh Carolina.
The Fund has also C!\llmaled ihat 35,000 peopt
in lhe stale arc drinking water w11h some degree 0
contamination. Nonh Carolina has the c;ccond highcs
number of household wells in the United States
(822,000) as there is a ready supply of gruund water
SOlllil of which is working 115 way to the sea from lh~
mountains of the Katuah region. It appears iha1 we Ill'
playmg a dcm11I game of "chemical do-or-dare" wnh
untamtcd war.er, esscnunl to our health and lhnt of lhc
groundwntc~
b~hcre.
A~ one of the "toxic 22" shes of sever
contamination in Nonh Carohnn, General Elcctri
contmucs to release poisons inio the underground wnters
which participate in lhe cyd1c now of water through Lhc
E:uth. It tna)· seem like these chemical ·sotu11ons' are
gone from 'sne', yet when they rc.•wface will G.E. really
be bnnging good things 10 life?
. To register comments concerning G.E.'s
you can ca.II the G.E. coMumer products
IOll·frcc number 1-800-626-2000.
praeucc~.
�PICKENS DISTRICT
FOREST WATCH
Nanni World News 5cr'1ice
WHAT'S H.A.A.P.-ENING??
Narural World News
ELA (Ecological Living Ahemativcs), a broad·
based eco-forum rccenlly ronned in East Tcnncs.'ICC, is
addressing some local problems lhal threaten the Holston
River 00..tjn and area rcsidcncs' heallh. One of the group·~
firs1 ac1ions was an 1nformnuonal demonslra1ion to
promoic press coverage of an upcoming pubhc bearing
concerning a permit rc-issunl for the was1e-wa1er
1tCalmen1 facility or 1he Hols1on Army Ammuniuoo
Plani (H.A.A.P.). located in Hawkins and Sullivan
counties. The plan1. managed by Easunan Kodak,
manufactures RDX, Composiqon B, HMX, HMX·TNT,
RDX-Plaslicv.cr and other spe(:1fteally ordered exple>sive
compounds used m the U.S. and sold on the in1cmational
weapons markc1. The action consis1ed or 15 ELA
members cxh1b111ng signs reading "National Dcfen~ al
Whose Expcn~?" and "Don'1 You Wish You Could Ea1
The Fish?" as well as posters promoung the lime and
d:llc or Ille publt<: hearing. Mcmbcts handed OUl lcallclS
to employees ond mo1ori~1S pa~smg through I.he busy
faciory inu:rsccuon.
!\.lost hearings m Ille o.rca receive small aucnd:ulCe
and liU!e or no public eommenL However. the heanng.
held Nov. 30. auracicd approx1ma1ely 30 people,
indicating the success of the group's action. Al the
beanng, comments were scheduled 10 be limi1cd to
subject maucr rclevan1 lO NPDES Permit #TN0003671
only, relating specifically to water polluuon control
guidelines. Activ1s1S speaking, though, insisted on
citing several problems at the plant which contribuLC 10
water pollution. even though they were not included 1n
the pcnniL
Among these problems is a huardous waste
landfill at the plant that has recently been re1llrflCd to
service. ft is feared that leaching from this area. as well
as other runoff from the 5800 acre plant, could cause
additional accumulauons of 1oxins in the river. Among
the elcmenis seeping from the munilion~ plant are vinyl
chloride, chromium, cyanide and nickel. Some IOxins Ind
heavy metals occur m the daily discharge crtlucn1 in
amounts grca1er than one pound per day; some occur in
ci1cess of 10 and 15 pounds per day. All discharge goes
inlO the HolslOn River which must absorb other wastes
as well. Eastman Kodak's PET plastic factory lie.:; just a
rew miles upstream. On Nov. 15 Easunan cxpcnenced a
"typical" spill loosing 36,000 pound., or acetic acid in10
the Holston. These accumulations, as well as ogncuhural
run-off, together contaminate the river which is the
source or lite Ci1y of Morrisiown's drinking waLCr
supply.
1f you would hke IO register comments on Ibis
and other problems concerning water pollu11on in
Tennessee, wri1e to: TN Dept. or Heallh and
Environment (Div. or Water Pollution Conttol); 150 9th
Ave. North: Nashville, TN 37219, or call (615)
741-7883.
If you would like IO know more about ELA and
upcoming activiues, write to: ELA; P.O. Box 851;
Jonesborough, 1N 37659.
k'i.nur, 1989-90
1
1l
'.'
While the "Up State" may be viewed as ju~t a
smllll comer or South Carolina. it holds a promineni
place along 1he cas1.em cscnrpment of the Soulhcm
Appl3chain Mountain Range. It is 31so home 10 a
growing number or bioreg1onal folks actively involved'"
the "public input" process of the Sumter National
Forest's Andrew Pickens Dislnct.
South Carolina Forest Wa1ch is presently
appealing two comparunen1 plans in the Chauga River
watershed. 1xlscd on the lack of a prcharvcst "hydrologic
survey•. which would have addressed the prot.cCtion or
two brook trout sucams and the conversion or the forest
IO a pine plantation. Additionally. the planned umber cut
was based on a study conducted in the piedmont and not
on steep mountain slopes.
"Those who arc only good with hammers sec
every problem as a ruul." Quoting Abraham Maslow.
Forest Wruch ttca..~urcr Richard Cam eqilamed that the
1985 Long Range Pinn for the district reveals a narrow·
minded approach to muluplc use. "The Plan relics
heavily on the conversion or milled hardwood and pine
forests to pllllltations or hybrid pines plan1ed on ten by
ten foot spacm~ Wildlife received very llUle auenuoo .•
"In order 1ha1 we might co1ribu1e to the
re-educa11ng of the Fores1 SCfVicc, we've done a 101 or
Sllldy on our own. Aside lrom our meetings with the
USFS and private timber interests. our bimonthly
mce1ings host a variety or speakers and lcanung
experiences. We also manage 10 gel out and cruise
management companrnenL~ in the Picltcns Oistr1c1."
For more information on the South Carolina
Forest Watch, wntc:
P. 0. Box 657
we.,tmmstcr, South Carolina 29693
CLEARCUTTING
HAS ABAD DAY
Natural World News S..,.jc.,
Research findings reported at a US Forest
Service-sponsored work.shop in September di.o;putcd the
notion that clcarc:utling provides crucial forage for cen.ain
species of wildlife. The audience at the "Wildlife
Considerations in lmplemcnung the Land and ReSOUtce
Managemcn1 Plan" mccung was addlCsscd by =hers
from various soulhcastcm universities.
Recent work Bl the Univen1ty or Georgia has
shown that deer appear IO be very adaptable 10 a wide
variety or forest types. Contrary to popular belief, deer
depend less on the type of browse found in clcarculS than
they do on a variety of hard mast (acorns and nuts)
provided l'y mature forests. Turkey research 11 Clemson
h:l.s also revealed tha.l 1urkeys make liulc use or clcarcuts,
needing a variety or hard and soft mast.
Similarly, Univcrsi1y of Tenncsscc reseateh ha~
shown that bears make very ligh1 and seasonal use of
forage in clcan:uts. depending more heavily on a good
selection or hard mast. Furthermore. the roads as.<;0eiBICd
with logging have proven IO have a severe impact on
bear populatlon.s. Bears have been found to use rough
woods roads and skid lnlib as they LrBvel in scarth or
forage, but they avoid ~ystcm roads, whether open or
closed to vehicle traffic. Thus, roads affect bear
populations by effectively reducing Ille size of their
range. as well as by providing easier access for hunLCr.>
and poachers.
Representatives from the NC Wildlife
Commission also spoke and indicated their concern
nbouc the effect of the Forest Servicc·s !'03d·building and
harvc.qing practices on wildlife population<.
THE CASE OF THE
DISAPPEARING TRJTIUM
Natural World News SetVice
The US Dcparuncnt of Energy (DOE) has again
suspended 311 commcrciai ~hipmcnts of 1ritium. the
radioacti"e ~ used in nuclear wlll1lc::lds, after significant
quantities of it turned up missing. Tritium is used in
biological and energy research and in making luminous
lights, signs. dials and w:u.ches as weU es being used to
increase the power or nuclear warllcads.
The halt in tritium shipments was 111nounccd in
July or 1989 after an inconclusive search for: five grams
or the element that laboraiory records said had been
shipped to commercial customers. bu1 which buyers said
had never arrived. ln August. the DOE said it would
resume mosi shipmcnis after bilS or the missing malerial
were found. The dcpartmcnt discounlcd the likclihood or
theft at that time. Only a few special shipmenis have
been made since then.
An in1emal lab rcpon said d~pancies in the
shipping records d:lted at least IO 1985. In some cases.
customers reportC<I they h3d received 40 percent ~
tritium lhan they had paid for.
A copy or the confidential July 20 report and
rclalcd Oak Ridge documcnis were obtained through a
legally enforceable request under the Freedom of
Information Act. lnvesLigators for Martin Marien.a Energy Systems, wtuch nms opcr311on:; at the Oalt Ridge
nuclear complex, said in the report that a significan1
amount of 1r11ium had been losL m a lest shipment
bc1 ween buildings. It appeared lhat Ille I~~ amounted to
abou1 two grams. approxima1ely half thc amoun1 used in
a smglc aiomic warhead.
According 10 the conliden1ial rcpon, workers
loaded the Lriuum into a container, which was sent to
another bu1ldmg. There pan of the contents of the
coniamer was unloaded for sampling, then repacked and
scn1 back 10 11.s ong1nal locauon. Thrcc-qW111CrS of the
tritium was lost in that round trip. Leakage and
procedural jXUblcms wcte ruled OUL
Reprcscniative Edward J. Markey (0) or
M3ss3chusctts swd, "You have IO \l/Olldct what kind of
Keystone KOJl!I operntion the Dcpanment or Energy ha!.
down at O:ik Ridge. when they lose more than 22,000
cunes or tntium in a I.Cl;! designed IO find out why DOE
keeps on losing l.nlClt or tritium."
DON'T CROSS
DA GREAT PUMPKIN
Nuunl WorldNcwsSavlcc
The WCSICnl North Carolina Alliance undcrsoc:ml
lhe gTOUp's opposjuon to wide.~ead clcarcu1ting in the
na1ional forests by staging a Halloween day
dcmonsLretion in front or the US Forest Service
headquaners m Asheville. The action specifically
protested a proposed clearcut near thc popular Craggy
Gardens area on thc Blue Ridge Parkway. The clcen:ut
would be in full view or tourisis at the visitor cerucr.
"Even the Great Pumpkin says, 'Don"1 cu1
Craggy.'" rc3d a sign held by young David Gilmour of
the group. The Alliance noted that lhis panicular cut.
which would be 12 acres in $tlC and less than a mile
away from the visitor center, is especially mappropriatc.
(Other acuvists were of the opinion. however, that the
Forest Service should be required 10 do oil their
clearcutting within sight of major IOW'i.\t auractions.)
As a result or the aucntion the Craggy clearcut
has received, the Forest Service is re-evaluating the
!ituauon. lrutcad of allowing the ll'BCt IO be clearcut, the
agency may n:quuc selective culling. which would lca.-e
~ or the trccs standing • or 11 may spare the enure 12
11CrtS. The decision is yet 10 be announced.
JC.at~
, l
Jo\&rnaL p1i9t1 21
...
'
�Natural World News
SPE C IAL REPOR T
ALARKA CREEK
CONTROVERSY
by David Wheeler
The headwaters of Alarka Creek rise high on the
Cowee Ridge, where !he North Carolina counllc.~ or
Swain, Jackson, and Macon comer. The creek\ origins
are on !he Alarka Laurel properly, l1lOtC than 2,000 :icre.~
of IJlnt.I which includes 35 :icre.~ of a unique red
spruce-bog association. The creek runs lhrough 2,000
acres or watershed uninhabited by human bemgs, along
!he way wmbting over the Alarka Falls. once a place for
fasting and p111ying held sacred by lhc native Chcrokcc
people. Until 11 reaches the Alarb Community in Swam
County. lhe wate.rs of lhc croelc are clear and support a
nallll'lllly-reproducing populntion or brook IJ'Oul
However, Alarka Creek is in clanger. The Alarlc.:J
LaW'Cl propcny, owned as an invcStmcnt by a panner.;hip
or land speculators, has been on the market for years.
Only now is a developer showing <iome interest in the
acreage. The identity of the developer is a catefully-kcpl
~ret. but it is known lh:lt plans for the Almb Laurel
propcny include a golf course and a luxury resort.
At the request of William Mcl.amey, an aqu:ttic
biologist living in Macoo County, biologists from the
NC Dcpruuneru of Envuoruncntal Management {DEM)
visited Al:uka Crcd: and ~led the wnu:r.;. Biological and
chemical tcsL:i confirmed that lhe wntershcd met the
stringent standards for qualirica1ion as a state
"OulSlanding Resource Water• (ORW). Streams 11ut
11\CCI ORV/ standards arc lamentably very few. and.
clearly, Alarka Crock is an lllca worlhy of protection.
But omcu1J efforts 10 preserve Alarka Creek have
run Into an ob!<lllCle. There is still resentment in Swain
County towards the insensitive acuons or big
government, which m the mid-1940\ condemned !;ind in
Swain, OSl.CllSibly for the citpans1on of !he Great Smoky
Mountains Nauonal Part, but which in ac1U3!11y lumcd
OUI IO be largely for lhe bencn1 of lhc Tcnnc.'--« Valley
Authority for lhc creation of Fontana Lake.
The focus for 1hc ire of 1his generation of Swam
County citi7.cns is a promise made by the govemmcm i.ll
the time of the land acquis1tOl1$ for a road that would p;is~
on the north side of 1hc lake. now within lhc Park
boundaries. That promi~ was never fulfilled, althoogh
lhc infamous North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms ha,
blocked a bill lhal would have finanC13lly compcnsalcd
the cow11y.
The uprc_o;s1on for 1h1s anger 1s a group called
"Citizens Against Wildemc.~~: which ha.~ a siorcrrom
office in Bryson Ci1y. lhc Swam county _,eat. The group
owes 1l1 existence and probably much of 1L~ crroc11vcncss
to the slrollg wppon of Senator Helms Alway' on the
lookout ror a political situation IO man1pulau: 10 has own
advantage. Helms took the "Ci111.cn~ Against Waldcmc.s"
under his ••mg and has fanned 1hc fires of their
rcscntmcnL The group's baule-<:ry 1s; "We are ltvmg
poorly because 85% of our county 1s under federal
control."
Abrka Creek lw been caughl rn the whirlwind
This ,.."a$ clc;arly revealed when a reprcscmauvc from the
Trust for Pubhc Land journeyed up tO lhe mountains to
look at the an:a at William Mcl..amcy's !QQUCSL
"He thought he was coming up to look at <1 pn:Uy
creek with a waterfall," said Mclarney. "Bui when he
51,.. the area. he said. ilus )!)ould be a national priority
fo •ur organi1.ation!' When he communicated h1~
lin1' "I'' IO the nntional office. they agreed w1lh hi$
II.\
<r.lcnt and gave cooseru 10 the project Bui to make
a lnJnsfcr, they needed sponsorship from some
appropriau: n:itional political figure. such as a senator or
a congressional reprcscn1J11Jve but none was to be found.
The reason: Jesse Helms. So efforts by the Trust for
Public Land to help A!arlca Creek have been stalled:
The Alarb Creek issue came to a head when lhe
DEM held a public hearing on lhe ORW classification 111
the Bryson City courthouse on the evening or November
2. 1989. The district couruoom was p3Ckod. Over 250
people aucndcd the hearing, mos1 of 1hem on short
notice, because the public announccmcn1 or the mceung
h:id nol been published in the county newspaper until the
week before the hearing dale. Mosl of lhe speakers
present were from Swam County, and m~l expressed
strong opposition to an ORW classilicauon for Alnrka
Creek. Regnrdless of the ickology behind 11. local power
is a fonnidablc force and noc to be underestimated.
The proposed development on Cowee Ridge
seemed to be synonymous with economic pro~rity m
lhe mind.~ or most or those who spoke agams1 the ORW
classific:iuon. Several dccned the opinions of "oul'idc~·
from ncighbonng M:lcon and Jackson counties when they
spoke in support or prou:cuon for Alarka. "You're JUst
saying that because !'.iacon alre.ady ha.' six malls." called
a woman from !he audience at one poim.
"!l's very ironic." eommcnlCd William Mct..amcy.
"They were calling people who laved 20 miles away
'outsiders.' while a California developer who ha..,n't even
revealed his name 11nd was rcprescnicd only by 1wo
Georgi.i lawyClS is considered one of lhcir own.
"PCISOllally. I would l\OI favor any ~lution to the
ultimaic fate of the Big Laurel lh:11 would lock Swain
County people out. and a big development would do lh;al
more effoctivcly than nnything else anyone could do. The
kind or people who would frequent that place don't want
locals around Swain County rcsidcnis couldn't afford to
buy a membership. and even If they were w gc1 m !here,
they wouldn'l find whnt they were lookmg for . 1 don't
think any or lhc.<;c people play golf.
"There would be short·lerm jobs building lhe
resort complex and a few permanent JObs taking care or
!he buildings and lhe grounds. Bul by all acounLs 1he
m3m access rood is more than likely going LO go down
!he Macon County side of the mounuun. Until 1t reaches
the Alarka Community. the road into Swnin Cou.nly is
cxuaort.11nari!y ~lcep. A four-wheel drive vehicle can
make ll prcuy casily...whcn lhc roat.l's dry . However, 11
would be a tremendous JOb to put a first-<:lass. paved
highway in lhcn: th:11 would be comrorublc anti snfc ror
expensive car;.
·1 feel SltOngly that lhe economic benefits ror
Swain Counly are being grcally exnggemte.d. Swain
Coumy would receive an addition to their tax base and a
few minimum wage jobs, bul lhen lhey would also gel
all the run-off and all the golf course pcsuc1dcs, and lhe
county would have a 101 of add1t1onal costs for
ma.inu:nance and county service.~.
• Anolher element of irony 1s lhal dcvclopmcnlS
arc rrcqucnlly ralionnlizcd wi1h lhe argumeni lhat
property values arc going to go up (which in lhis cnse I
am sure 1s true), as if that were a good thing. For a
l'C311or or person who has a piece or property and is
interested in selling ii, a rise in property value.~ is a good
lhmg. Bui for an)•onc else who is Uying 10 hold property
or 1s m the market to buy property. a rise m costs is an
unwelcome development These people may not be able
to alTord to buy land or may lose propeny they already
own v.hen the land values go up. The grca1 majority or
people from Swnin who spoke up in favor of
development arc acwally ca.~ing themselves out the door
by calhng for big monc) IO move mto thcll'county."
The hcanng in Bryson City did not tell the whole
story. When they heard of the Alarka Creek dilemma.
other local people, largely from Jackson and Macon
coumies, responded with a massive leuer-wnting
campaign to tho DEM c;ilhng for protection or 1hc
watcr,hcd. Apparently Alarka Creek is well·known and
:ipprcc1111ed as o spccanl place by many people in its
\·icinuy.
There was also $0me reaction 10 1he strong
pressure exercised in Swam County by the Ciuzens
Aga1ns1 Wilderness group. One local woman lOOk lhc
swnd a1 the publu: hC.lling and lCMfully told the audience
to pay aucn11on 10 what they value and be cautious about
what they would lhrow away. It was obviously a great
effort of will for her to male such a swtcmcnl, and she
wns the only speaker m support of the ORW mc:isure
who received applau:;c from the crowd.
111crc were othcn; who did not dare 10 lake 1h:11
courageous suind. Wilhom Mclarney said lhat he
received phone calls after 1hc mecung from Swai n
County nntives who had attended the h.:aring, but felt too
mumidated IO publicly voice support for Alark.a Creek.
"It's a complicated issue." s:iys Mcl.amcy. "The
people of Swain County have real grievances.
parti,ulatly in rcgnrd to Fonwl\3 Lake. Unfortuna1cly,
these gricvanres arc being man1pul3tcd.
"The wider issue to 'TIC. which gives me pause
when I lhmk about it, ts whnt has the greater soc1cly
done lO the...: people 10 create the situation 1hu1 c;cpn:.. \Cd
...
1lo;elf at th;it hcunng?"
~
Or1wmg by Junca Rhc•
�The synergy that 1s created when each family member take!)
responsibility for their own well-being and suppons the
well-being of others, is another resource that serves the process
of resolution when conflict docs arise. And of course, the greater
the level of well-1>¢ing in the household. the less obnoxiousness
and conflict there is!
Skillfulness/ Talking it Out
According 10 Dana and Nick, "talking it out"--and
sometimes over. under. around and through--is the main process
for conflict resolution. There are three aspects to that
communication process: lisrening, Expressing, and
The quality of family life is detennined
not by whether or not a family has conflict but
by what they do with it.
Problem-solving.
lisrening. Although the most powerful communication
skill, listening remains underused by us all. It is still much easier
to give advice, preach, argue, moralize, lecture, or change the
subject than it is to reaJly listen 10 what someone else is saying.
"We listen with our answers running," a colleague of mine said
recently. Reflective or ac1ive lis1ening, on the 01her hand. is
listening with your heart, listening for the unique essence of the
speaker's experience, and letting the other person know that they
have been heard by repeating back to 1hem their message as you
heard it.
It is particularly challenging to lis1en to another person's
point of view in the mids1 of a conflict situation; i1 is, however,
the cornerstone for resolution. Listening acknowledges and
validates (not necessarily agreeing with) the other person's
perspective and encourages important data in the conflict to
emerge.
Expressing. The other side of listerung is expression statements about perceptions, interpreta1ions, thoughts, feelings,
wams, and actions. In conflict situations, it is helpful to state
your experience in a way that gives specific information that can
be clearly understood by the other party. Such direct expressions
arc commonly called "I Statements," (as opposed to accusatory
"You Statements.")
Nick is the resident expert on "I Statements" in our house
these days. His fifth grade class is studying conflict and its
resolution in a Mediation Center program called "Fuss-Busters."
Through the guidance and modeling of a gifted and committed
teacher, the students are learning to express their anger and
frustrations in an "l feel
when, _ _ __
because
" format. The objective of the "I Statement" is
to communicate your feelings in a way that does not put down or
attack the other and engages their assistance in resolving the
conflict. Nick explains that if the other person does not respond
helpfully, then it's time to ask the teacher for help. As the year
progresses, trained student mediators m the classroom will be
available 10 help resolve those conflicts.
Dana reiterates that being assertive and letting your family
and friends le.now what you're feeling and what help you need
from them prevents conflict from building up. Communicating
immediately and specifically and in a non-blameful style opens
the door for positive resolution.
Problem-Solving & Conjlicr Resolurion. Frequently, the simple
expression of feelings or needs and a chance to vent or be heard
dissolve would-be conflicts. Just as often, however, living in
these bus~, high-stress, complicated times, family members need
to put their heads together to solve problems. We've noticed that
unsolved problems become conflicts to become resolved· if
Confl~CtS arc ~Ot fCSOlved, they re-emerge, often growing in
magrutude until .a blow-up occurs, or, worse, family members
separate and distance themselves from one another in an
avoidance pattern.
.
. Consider these typical modes of responding to conflict
snuanons:
I. Competition - "I win,• J get all rrry needs !Mt; you get 110thi11g.
2. Accommodation - "You win," I give ui; you get everything.
3 Avoidance - Neithu of ws geu a.ny1hing.
4 Compromiu - EtUh of ws gi11es a /i11/e fJJld gets a li11le.
.S CollDbor(JliJ)n - "Win - Win,• we wief111t IN probum aN.i
fwJ a crtasive sollllion that sat4fies both of our Mtds.
lollnter, J 989-90
~!though each o~ these a~proaches may be appropriate at
some umc, ~oU:iborauo~ provides the m~st longlasting and
mutually sausfyang soluuons. In collaborauon. the problem is
auackcd - not the people! And what would it be like if the
problem were embraced as an opportunity to fine-tune family
functioning, rather than attacked?
In the process of collaborative connict resolution, a critical
stel? is for ~II concerned to clearly define the problem in terms of
their own interests and needs. After carefully listening to each
person verbalize their side of the conflict. then all can come to an
agreement on the definirion of the problem.
In their book Gerring To Yes. Fisher and Ury recount che.
example of t~o sisters fighting over one orange. Finally, in an
effort to be farr, they compromise and cut the orange in half. One
sister takes her half, peels the orange and cats the orange. The
other sister takes her half, throws away the fruit and uses 1he peel
to bake a cake. Clearly, a far superior solution would have
emerged had they identified what each person's interesis were.
The more accurately the problem is defined in terms of basic
interests and needs, the more easily and quickly it can be solved.
The process of creatively managing conflict, stress and
change in families is a dynamic and continuous one. The more
enriching, supportive, compassionate and fun that process is. the
less resistance we feel coward it. When conflict is approached in a
"Spirit of Possibility" toward healthy change, when individual
differences and personal well-being are protected and honored,
and when families are committed to using the skills of open
communication and problem-solving, conflict becomes a resource
for growth rather than an clement of disintegration.
Ellie Kincade 1s assisrant director of 1he Counseling Cemer ar
UNC-Aslll!ville. She is also a consulranr in t/11! Aiki approach 10
creQlive corf/lier resolutwn. conducring workshops in the fields of
edµcarion and human services.
SUGGESTED BOOKS
Ct11ing 10 Y1.s Roger Fisher and William Ury
TllL Magic ofCofl/liCI Thomas Crum
Parent E/ftctiveness Traimng Thomas Gordon
Swttl D'eamsfo' Lillie Onts: Btdlimt! Fan/IJJks
10 Build Self Estum Michael G. Pappas
RESOURCE ORGANlZATJONS
Childrcn"s Ctcativc Response to Conflict
c/o Fclbwship ofRcconcili.11.IOn
Box 271, Nyack. NY 10960 (914) 358-4601
Na-th Carolina Ccn1e1 for Peace Education
214 Piusboro Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27514
(919)929·9821
The Eanh.stcwanis Network
cto The Holycatth Foundation, PO Beu 10697
Bainbridge Island, WA 98110 (206) 842-7986
The Mediation Cciucr
408 County Court House. Asheville, NC 28801
(704} 2S 1-6089
The Nauonal Association for Mediation in E.ducation
425 Amity Sueet. Amherst. MA 01002
Parents llld Teachas for Social Rcsponsib.ility
PO Box St7. MOtCIOwn, VT 05660
�From the Diary of a Modem Child
How can I find a moral sense
when falsehood lives
protcetcd in governments?
\\'hen playing false becomes the norm
kids begin 10 wonder what's the form?
Our role model> have been S10len
our culture hns been stolen,
corponue bored rooms determine
our feeding, our clo1hing,
tnmsp<>rting, and :;chooling style
A way of gathering in council
has been stolen by govcming images
or faces we never see
Menning ha:; been
~laced
by scllini;,
polling. and man ipulaung ...
Waste bas been accelerated
a~ we consume resources
and spil out the remains
on pi lcs of rock idols.
profiteering religions.
and streams of vidio Ulpc
Is then: any way we can reclaim our live.~
from corporate and industrial wastelands
or pictures that lie,
jobs that don't work, :ind 'inter uiinment'
tha1 teaches escapism a.~ a way of life
that rcsponsibilily is boring·
doesn't move fast enough •
requires too much undeNanding ...
Who is more immature
the grown or the growing?
At times it is in·sensing 10 think and feel hov. much and
how quickly some aspects of human ~ociety are vanishing. It is
as though the forces of our ungainly comple~ evolution arc
usurping our ability to Ulke the time 10 recognize 1he v.onder and
POCKET CULTURES
by Wtll Ashe Bason
When we look seven generations away we first sec ourselves
and our children and then the grandchildren that are on tne Way.
This is where our impact on the future is. I low arc we raising
ourselves and our children and prepanng for our children's children
Now? How can we restructure our lives so as to bener nunure
ourselve:. and our children and our children's children? What sort
of environmcm is best for growing whole and healthy humans?
How do we bring this environmem into reJlilV in Katuah?
Many of us "grew up" in the false commumries of modem
amcrican cities or suburbs. These were and arc cnvironmenL<; which
foster alienation. Almost everywhere is owned hy someone. People
are "at home" only at home! lllc streets arc the only common
ground around, and they belong 10 cars. There 1s relatively dense
population without the community spin1 which would make such
density bearable or even pleasurable. In reaction against this, some
of us have chosen to live in rurul areas. We have tned to isolate
and insulate ourselves from the dominant culture. Our children
don't really underswnd this but they do understand that they want
to be able 10 sec their friends more often then they do now, living at
lhe end of funky driveways at 1hc end of long din roads. Fulfilling
this need usually means school and spons and other activities
which are driving us to drive. But the driving is not the worst of it,
How can we build a new society, one without the faial dis eases of
the old, if we send our children during their fol'TTl.llive yC41l'S to
institutions whose very nature fosters competition, where
s:icredness of place and being arc not even on the graph. Modem
)C"I
uon Jo~r~
pn9~ 24
necessity of simple enduring cultural bonds. Child "forwaroing"
in the context of a dominating culture, or absence of culture, can
be a very unsettling, frustrating, and paradoxical experience. Do
we re-invent human cullurc again to satisfy the need to bring
rights and meaning through the symbols we put into practice? Do
we attempt some kind of symbiosis with a decaying power
structure that needs a dose of creative innovation? Or do we just
open the floodgates and let the grimy warer of predigested images
and infonnation come into our senses without any sense of
becoming in-sensed?
The ad-age of images and sounds coming across screens
and speakers 10 thousands of people each day may seem "cool"
and scintilating but what arc their effects on the long-range
accretion of mind, feeling, and decision for a child? Is it possible
10 create a suppon network that promotes family healing in the
face of squashing pressures from a society that apparently
doesn't represent or value many of the vital aspecb of its own
being? Some of these impon-ances are sustainability, care for
those less privileged. more extensive ecological well being,
relevant work. a sense of the biological region we inhabit as
home, and a healthy supponive extended family.
What is the c:ltect of poverty on families m the Katuah
region (and not just for us SCRUFFIES or Smanemng
C:1retakers, Rurally Urbane, Fueled For Impoverished Ecological
Survival)? What is the real effect of turbulence in 'broken
homes' and 'instant familes' full of conflicting and compromising
inrerests between close relatives and step-relatives on the gcner.il
patterns of society?
Perhaps 1hese questions arc 100 deep, yet these are the
kinds of far-reaching ques1ions often coming to awareness these
days. A major difficulty in trying 10 summon the context in
which our vitals can flourish, wilhou1 being continually
smothered in stress, manifests in the allure of electTOnic media,
and its exrensive computer manipulation of visual and acoustic
"space" that we all share. As this auruo/video gaming sucks in
more and more attention it is essential io realize that it is not a
clear expression of the whole mind of our species. The complex
whole fields of human life encompass far more than movies.
sit·coms, ads. and canoons could ever fuUillingly u:mslate.
Commercial media is IJ'Uely an aucmpt by the few to dominate or
falsify for the many. The right of choice in the means and content
of any particular kind of media hypnotism should be considered~
primarv to essential responsible hum:in freedom .
~•
Corporeally. Rob Messick
American public schools are lhe melting po1 lef1 on 100 long to boil.
They arc tee vec reali1y. At their best. they are only capabk of
teaching the parts. Meaning lcs> lhL~ of wurds and dead f~g.
organ:.. Our children only choose them because we haven t given
them an alternative. We have presumed and pretended that
providing an ahemative to school was mostly a mauer of legality
and academics. In fact tt means providing a commun11y in which
children can find friends as well as intellectual stimulation and
emotional security.
11 is no1 enough 10 m~ulute ourselves from the dominant
culture. We have 10 create new culture. Not another candidate for
dominam culture. but hundreds and thousands of pocket cultures.
Pocket cultures that anfully represent unique hum:in ad:ipiarion to
unique and sacred places. Cultures m harmony with their
environments and thus in harmony with each other. A iangihle
culture of l'C.'.11 relationships between people and animals and plants
and water and din and stone and architecture and real stuff hke that
there and not a culture of tapes and magazme.~ and books and
workshops and videos and seminars and full-Oedge~·n8J'$. etc. The
culrurc that we have built m each other's heads is beautiful and true
and meaningless unless it leads to way of life, which it will.
The world is changing rapidly. Humans arc very. very
numerous and on the move almost everywhere. Everyday we hear
about more refugees and more homeless people. Earth's cities are
overcrowded and choking on their own waste. It is a world of
villages that will emerge from this nigh1marc. A world in which
people once again know their neighbors.!'- ~orld ~ sobered by the
environmental con sequences of our unthmking acuons. that respect
for and worship of nature will once again be no1 the dommant bu1
lhe only religion.
(c:on11nucd on ncxc P•&•)
kllnter, l 989 - 90
�I know lll3Jly people of good ecological conscience who have
bought land and wish 10 have a comm~nir_y. yet insist on living
miles from each other. If a person ts wishing to move 10 one of
these communities. about the fauxcs1 pas one could make would be
t0 pick a house s!~t I~ near 10 a!1 ~i~ting home, ~nd 100 near
usually means vmhin sight of. This 1ns1s1ence on d1s1a~ce seems .
downright unfriendly when J_udged by '!ie Cherokee. T1beun. Thai.
Dogon, Greek. Zulu, or Zuni (to name 1us1 a very few) standards.
There is a very good book called A Pmtern Language by
Christopher Alexander and some ~f his friends: and this l?ook i~
very highly respected among arch11ecrs and designers for its radical
and coherent approach to archi1cc1ural planning. There is a paucrn
called "connected play space"' and the book goes on to cite
information to the effect that there is a direct corm;pondencc
between neurosis and the number of friends that a child has
growing up. Alexander and company used some statistics on family
size and average 11ges of children and came up with the figure of 64
families as the number needed 10 insure that all children would have
a good chance to find friends. They suggest that what children need
is a community of this size in which each home borders on a
continuous play area. In such a place, children would do much of
the work we now call childcare. This is a much more time-honored
and natural arrangement than the pauems we sec non-functioning
around us at present. Children learn responsibility in taking care of
other children. They also generally have a whole 101 more fun
tllnte.r, 1989-90
hanging ar&ind with other kids. Saner and happier kids could help
spread these virtues 10 the older folks.
Adolescents have a compelling need to be around their own
kind, which suits the rest of us just fine. This is sure easier 10 bring
about in a small community than in isolated fanns1eads. Young
people have a terrible SIJ'Uggle just trying to exist economically
IOday. In villages and small communities young people can get
good jobs and sec their friends regularly without the expense of a
car. The ttansition from child 10 adult can be more gradual and
na1ur.t.l 1han the current IJ"Cnd which is usually to move away from
parents and friends who can function as a suppon group. Perhaps a
101 of suicide and depression is related to fear.; of nor being able 10
"make it on one's own'.' In a village or small community \\C: make
it on our own 1oge1her, a much more reasswing and slllblc
arrangemem.
Perhaps future generations will look back at the dominant
culture's concept of land ownership with the same horror with
which we now view slavery. Up until fairly recently most of the
\\Orld's people lived an agricultural village communities in which
some or all of the land was owned or used in common. This
common usage certainly more clearly reflects the basic biological
reality of 1he planer we share. Children growing where some of the
land is ~hared have a bener chance of learning ro see land as an
en111y in it's own right.
�Dear KatUah,
Another excclltnt issue (Fall, 1989) ·But I mu't Like exception with
lhc statement m Pnmck Clark's otherwise Cine arucle on the Eastern
cougar/panther/paint.er. He wn1es: •Although it seems fitting and right for
panthers tO be inh:lbiung the southern mountains. not one official sighting
has been made. Until lhcn, panther ad"ocat~ have no basis for demanding
protection for cougar habita1.0 (p.18)
Wrong. The burden or proof is on the government to "prove" !here nr.:
no pamhcrs. Until then. we must err on the side or lhc cml:ingcrcd cnt1er :llld
manage as though lhcrc arc cougnrs.
Curr.mil)· wildlife managers go by the dictum, •Extine! until proven
ext.anL • We must rever<;e this: "Extant until pro"cn e~tincL • 01hcrwise,
unscrupulous and/or incompetent managers c:in ignore even the best
sightings. awruung the day someone brings in a cougar carcass to prove ther~
1ll'C (oops, wue) cougan here.
No compromise,
Jwmc Saycn
Prt.ltnJt Appoluchian IVildl!l'MSS
DRUMMING
LETTERS TO KATUAH
Yts, wt agru. f hanks. Jamie. ·eds.
Dear Kaui3h.
At first. thank you for sending me a copy of the Katlinh Journal and
the U.N. Charter for Na1Urc.
I agree wilh your "StatemenL or Purpose·'. I enjoyed about all lh.:
Joumal's articles, you're really on the right way; I wish every 81oregions
should have a journal like yours.
Herc in ltaly, the BiOregional Movement is ju.st starting. That's fine.
but I lhink. they're sull a bit humon-ccnu:rcd.
I. as member of lhe Italian Wilderness Association's D1rec11ve
Council. am trying hard to spread an ccoccnuic awarcncSl; among i~
members..
O.K. Happy llllils tO all of you.
Cioo,
Morcul Giuseppe
Mantova, Italy
Dear Folks,
Congratulations on your grc:it "For All Things Wild issue!
I, IOO. am deeply concerned nboul the "Norlh Carolina road binge."
The same insanity grips Virginlll. We need 10 form a coohuon ag:Unst the
most environment.ally dcslIUCtivc clement in technology. (I wrote an article
about it in lhc earth First' Jow-nal, Vol. IX, No. II. 1988).
The on-going and looming cnv1ronmcnuil destruction is truly
pl:inct-shalung and i~ the mojor clement in lhc "grccnhot1~ effect" when the
infrastructure is considered
Unfortunately there seems to be a strong block, e"cn among
cnvironmcntahSlS, r.t. the automobile. We need t0 overcome lhis nnd tach
individual mu.it act to reduce dependence drastically
Tunnies ngoin for a great issue.
Enrlh Firstl
Bob Mueller
Dear Kaltiah,
I have enclosed several pamphlets explaining lhc Na11onal Peace T3X
Fund Bill. This bill 1s designed to allow !hose persons consc1cn1iou.~ly
opposed IO war IO have thc military ponion Of their taxes dirccled toward
peace rclaled proJCCl.S. Over onc-lhird of our 1ru1 dollars arc going for current
military expenses, 10 say nothing or lhe add1tionnJ 19% t0 take Ct11e of past
military expenses.
Fof mon: inform:iuon aboul lhc Peace Tax Fund Bill, please write io:
National Campaign for 11 Peace Tax Fund
2121 Decatur Pt. NW
Wa-.hington. DC 20008
(202) 483-3751
Mrs. llarold Sir.Idler
Dear Ka.Wah People.
I think you JUSt keep geuing better and bcuer! Congrntula11on~ on
puumg t.ogethcr an cons-1stently fine JOUmal.
But I'm upset! I can't believe Kataah of all plaec.,. lhousht 11 wns ok
to pnnt a want ad for "Christions Only." J really gOt goosct>umps when I '1111\
that ad. I wonder why none among you removed 1t from pnnt Did you think
it would offend no one? (Why?)
l~s so out or your charnctcr 10 print something discnmin:itmg "'h1ch
could only be painful to members of our emerging community I'm sure you
won't do u ngain. bu1 I want to let you know how I feel.
Sincerely.
Randee Brenner GoodslJl<h
Thanh for )'011.r kind words for 1~ Kaulah Journal. l\'t fttl that
inc/1Uw11 of 1~ ad is not 11uusarily n11.1 of choracta for ·1\'eb,.·orl11111"
which fr 111tt.ntkd to h('/p connect people cf t~ rtgwn with rach mhu. Thll.S
ii rtfkcu the divusity ofpeople and 111tuc1.11111~ rtgio11.
To i11dicatt that a f1U1ctio11 is "for chrwians 011/y" dot.< not
necessarily co1Utit11.1t discrimlflaJiDn. bw rather Is 1ntt!ndtd to connut
"'.t:mbus cf a s~cijic interest group. • tds
JC.a• ah Journm ptu)e 26
l.ltnlcr, 1989-90
�Hau Kauiah,
I am wriung lh1s lcllcr to you m reference to our ncwslcucr called
'echoes of lhc drum'.
I am interested m pulling 11 m the wcbworkmg section of lhc Katllah
Journal. Bui I wlll explain a liulc about ii before I go any further.
'echoes of lhc drum' 1s no1 your onlinnry ncwslcucr. It is not hke the
of the ocwslcucr~ that only put news in 11. The news thnt we put in the
newsleucr revolves around und1tional teaching or the Ntui\'C American
Indians and lho1r Sacred Red Road. h eamo 11bou1 as a need to be able to get
1r.1du1onal tcachmgs m10 the iron houses (prisons) throughout Tunic hlJlnd.
rcs1
I was a member of the Thunderbml Pmon Alliance. but when I saw
that their goal was ne>I to tench but to become an acthl't sort of group. I
separated myself from thc organi1.a1ion. And followed the mcditmc teaching
thu1 I was brought up in. As a Lakot.a and descendent of several medicine
icachers and trad1uon;ll leaders of my people, I left the radical a' u vi st ways
behind and chose 10 seek a more aauvc involvement in gcmng the trnduional
tcoch1ngs ms1dc the 1ronhouscs. And since money wns a big factor 111 not
being able to buy books frQm publishers. I <;ought a \•isie>n "hlte I was
inside lhc solitary confinement MX"llon of the Staunton Corrccuonal Center.
As I fasted and prayed to Wnkan Tan~a. the vision came 10 me. And m the
vision l saw the Ancestors calling out 10 me 10 tca.:h the teachings of all
indigenous tribes. and not just only the Lakota way,. Because 111-.dc the iron
houses there were more than JUSt Lakol<ls and behind the iron doors. The
vision told me 10 remember bad. to when the drums sounded out with
messages 10 the different villages. To become one with th•· 'ound of lhosc
drums. And Ihm was the bcgmmng of the' ision or which I now follow. And
1hal 1s where the ncwslcucr got 1lS name from. II h called 'cch<X!s of 1hc
drums'.
The hardcM pan afterwards wa.~ to spc.ik to the Eld.: rs and TClKhcrs of
the different tribes, to help me in this end<'.a,·or. And they saw the sUlt'Cfll)' in
whal I wa.~ doing. And th.:y have all come 1ogcth.:r and pro' id~ me 11. ith
teachings I will cnclo'e a copy of the ncw,lcuer. The next part was 10
resolve the issue or nm to wruc each and every warden of the different iron
houses 1hroughout Turtle hland. So I went to the Lihrary of Congress m
request for an I S S.N permit. And u 11.as granted. and therefore clc;mng
another step m getung the teachings inside the iron houses by way or a
ncwslcucr
And from the initial 75 ncwslcncrs that were sent lo 1hc guys and
women 1hroughou1 Turtle hl:md, the ncwskncr has grown to a ma1l111g l"t
of over four-hundred and flfiy now. And 1hc 1mponan1 thing 1s thal 1hc
ocw~lc11er 1s free or chargc. This is in ;icc;ordancc wnh the traditional 1c:11;hcrs
that I have gi,cn my word to, that I would m no way ~II what 1~ given to us
by th.: Grl'lll Sp1nt. And therefore I have done so. And II will be the pohr~
thal th.: newsleucr will never be sold, nor will then> Ile a -.uhscripuon r.i1e ror
ll.
The one message " 1hu1 the ncwslcuer is nQI onl) for 1nmale<. bu1
for ull who wisll to lcum from the teaching th:u arc in the newsletter>,
We don't a.sk for any donation for the ocw~lcncr. we asi.. that 1f
anyone wishes IO receive the ncwslcuer, tha1 lhcy help with the postage of it
We give to all that Wl.'h 11, whether they can aHorJ to send postage or not. It
will not be denied to anyone that wants 11. And our mo1lm1t hst 1s growing
daily. So 1f an)·onc who wishes to rccc1\'C it. they c311 do so by writing the
following people and they will be pul on the mailing li\t.
I.) Thundcrhawk, 157372, Editor
Rt.2Box Ill BIWld, VA 24315-9616
2.) Moonyccn Scay, Publi:>hcr
P.0 Box 860; Vcron;i, VA 2441!2
3.) Zandc Griffith, AsM. Editor, 'echoe.~ of the drum'
R.R. 1; Box 11 l·B: Pamphn. VA 23951!
From v. hat I ha\'c 11. riucn you may lake anylhmg oul of 11 and put 11
the Wcbworkmg scc1ion. Or 1f you choose 10, you may me and wnt.:
nhou11hc ncwslcucr once you have read 11. I will do~e thi' lcuc-r for now.
lllld m clo~1ng I Jlf8Y that th.: Four Wm<;h do grant you the People of Kat~1
Jllany of beautiful 'iOngs of joy. \\'akan Tanl;a ntCI un wclo.
I rClld your wonderful papcr and was cxcucd by it. You arc really
doing a grea1 thing by pubhshmg the kind~ of things you prin1. One
cmicbm: 11.hy nOI prim on recycled p:ipcr'!
Sintetcly,
Lonna Richmond
Kno~villc, Tcnncs.~
Good question! Ont wt've often cn11sidertd. With all our local
pruittr.<, rtcycltd paper would nu:an tlrat 1<-e would havt to bu}' o full roll of
rtcyclt:d new.<print UI an enormous prirt wt cll!lnot anywhere near afford.
Rccytlahlc f'<ll'e.T u tht be.ft wt con dQ riRht now. ·eds.
Dl:ar KatU.lh,
I just had 10 write and express appreciation for your summer '89
issue. It 1s a very thorough message mspinng all who read 11: to act rather
than to ri:act. JOin wilh others for peace, listen mlhcr th.an shove. Welcome
messages to a world or people rc.idy to run if we ,,lightly scno;c a hmt of
bcm!l pushed. And lhcn ...as I looked for your address I saw a book review on
/hr Chaliu arid Tiit Bladt--an incredible book I'm currently rtadmg Some
things ju,1 fall in place, don'1 they!
My heartfelt th:inks,
Brcc1.e Bum.\
Quincy, Florida
in
Visual comments on tefc~·ision by Thom Preston (left)
and Rob Messick (above).
Muakyc Cya.,m.
Thunikrhawk
1t K.Ul®n • 1.1 nDI paqd 27
;r.
''
Jour r '~
ft
�New ELF In Town
For six years Franklin and Susan Sides
have been head gardeners at the Mother Eanh
News demonstration gardens in Hendersonville
in the upper reaches of the French Broad River.
Now they have taken the first steps to distill their
collective experience into a self-published
newsletter that, in their words, "chases the soul
of gardening."
Rather than emphasizing the "how-to"
aspects of gardening, their small publication will
concern itself more with the delights and fears,
the successes and mistakes, the small revelations
and moments of humor that gardening brings.
The Sides are asking for help for their
infant publication. Quotes, shon articles, humor,
poems, prayers, leuers, diaries are all eagerly
solicited.
And, of course, chan er subscribers are
also welcomed. The first issue of this infant
publication is scheduled for March, 1990.
To contact Franklin and Susan Sides with
submissions or inquiries, write them at: Rt. I ,
Box 57; Fairview, NC 28730.
continued from p. 14
The increasingly critical planetary
environmental situation has led many activists,
both young and old, to the conclusion that polite
protestations are not enough ro solve our present
ills and that means of direct action arc necessary
to save life on Earth in all its many
manifestations.
This holds true for the Ka1uah Province as
well. A core group of fifty activists has fonned a
Southern Appalachian chapter of Earth First!, a
continental group known for its srrong stands
and creative actions on behalf of the planet and
all its species. The local chapter has taken the
name Earth Liberation Front (ELF).
The new group is action-oriented. At its
first meeting the chapter decided to make its
initial focus the controversy over cleareutting in
the watershed from which the city of Asheville
draws its drinking water and took 11 field trip out
to the area the following week.
"This is only a beginning," said one
activist, identified only as Roadkill, "The
natfonal forests are being decimated by roading
and habitat destruction, and rampaging
development is taking over more and more
available habitat area. Our goals are to bring an
awareness of the ecological law of 'carrying
capacity' to the human population he~ and to
restore wild habitat hy creating a large biosphere
preserve in the Southern Appalachians that
would be linked by connecting corridors to other
preserve areas up and down the whole
Appalachian Range "
To jom ELF in its effons as pan of Eanh
Fu-st! or for more information ahout the group,
write them at Box 17 I: Alexander. l\C; Katuah
Province 28701.
'-''=
'I $
~~ BARE
.~
..=.,.;
11'
:J
ESSENTIALS
Natural Foods
.~
..
Wine Making
The Spirit of the Wild
James Rhea's artwork that was the logo
for the "Restoring Biodiversity in the Southern
Appalachians" conference and the cover of Issue
25 of the K011iali Jmmw/. is now available to ;ill
as conference posters and T-Shins.
The poster. are beautiful. four·color 11" x
17'' renditions of the native species portrJll with
conference information below and are available
for $2.00.
The T-shins arc heavy-duty, all-cotton.
silkscreencd by Ridgerunner Naturals. Only
large and extra-large sizes remain. They are
available for$ l 0.50.
Prices include postage. NC residents
please add 5% sales tax.
All proceeds from the sale of these items
will support rescue actions for native habitat in
the Southern Appalachian forest.
Order fmm· KALANU
Box 282; Sylva, 1\C
Katuah Province 28789
•: Bulk Herbs, Spices, & Grmns
Vicamins & Supplcmcnrs
Wheat, Salt,
& Yeast-Free Foods
Dairy Substitutes
•• Hair & Skin Care Produus
•
I11 200 west Kini! Street. Boone NC 28607
.. \....
~\)-=-
:c
:c
111
__)~
704-264-5220
~·
=4'..
1
124 broadway
ashevJlc. nc
28801
]04-252-8..(04
carolina costume
compa11y
Katuah: Approval - giving 100% approval so
there's no failing involved - that's what's
lacking in our schools and why there's so
much fear. It's incredible when you see how
receptjve kids are to approval • 'cause Lhey
have so much to give.
Bonnie: It's attitudes. As the teacher walks
through that door - how the children respond
as a group is directly related to her attitude.
Directly. I've seen it so many times that l feel
it's an absolute truth. If the teacher is
affirmative and listens to the children and
inspires creativity then the children are eager
to learn.
Teachers all have to take psychology but if it's
not their interest they may nor use it. But
everybody's interested in what's fun and
funny. They say people learn 80% mo~e
effectively when they're laughing! Ev~~ tf
you're not using puppets you l'lln be pos111ve
and have joy in th.: classroom more often than
not.
Katuah: Could you say what you love most
about your work?
Ilonnie: h 's fun' I have a great time. ll's
definitely not something I cho:,;e - the puppet:;
chose me.
/
~
Beer &
Supplies
you could get literature in there, 100. But
there's so much specializing in schools that
you don't get to put things together. And
puppetry puts it together.
I'd like to see the<ltre become a standard pan of
elementary education ... for teachers to have to
take puppetry in order to be educators. I've
created workshops where I teach teachers how
to use puppets in the classroom and Textend
that to counselors and therapists ... anybody
who works with people. I'd like to get rid of
some of the rules and standards and replace
them with imaginative, affirmative attitudes
and teaching methods... then you're right on
the crux of the whole problem in the
institution.
801111ie Blue ca11 he camacted a1
PO Bo.\ lo57.
Asltcville. NC 28802 (7()./) 6./5-9918.
l\10LNTAIN ARTS PROGRAM
C'rc.1w.I 1n I IJ1!3, lh~ Mouniam Mts Progr-dm
(\!AP) ha." 'J'O!Nm.'d hundred' of ani,t·m rc,11kncc
rrogram< for sd1ool • in wc,tcm 1'C. \' isu;il anisl< .
dr~mall\IS, Jugi:lcr'. clo" ns, rn1111~'· mu,1cians,
crafl<Jl<.'Of>l.: and wr111 ""orl. in >ehool\ r11r a wc.:I••11
;i umc, 1yricall> '11<.·nJmg al kasl l\\O week' In a
rnun1v. Rcs1Jcnc1c' i:"c -iudcms an opponuniL}' 10
r:it1ic,1patc m tfifktcnl an forms With \\Or~ing
profc""onJh who ha'c ll tugh lc,cl of energy :inJ
,111hu,,..1.,m for their a.t. An) one intcrcslCJ m ha•mg
.1n ar11s1 1n their .s<. hoot may coma< I a "chool
.1dm1ni,1talor :ind rcq11~,I a 'l.tAP rrogr.un C'urrcntl)·
\IAP 1s .;cr,·mg 14 coun11c' with 27 .ir1""· An"tlrom ;ill d1sc1pllnc\ arc cnrnuragcd 10 a[>f>I). For
inronnouon or to reqllr\l llll ap1•ha111.. n, ""tc \11\P.
no, 11611. Bumw1lk:, ;-;c 21!71.!, (7(>1) f.8~·721'
t.>rntlr . t 989-90
�FOREST RESCUE IN THE KAT UAH PROVINCE
(An Ecological Manifesto for the Southern Appalachian
Bioregion)
These are program ideas drawn from the discussion at the
forest rescue action workshop. "For All Things Wild," held on
Saturday, OcLOber 28 at Warren Wilson College. The workshop
was held on the day following the conference "Restoring
Biodiversily in the Southern Appalachians: A Strategy for
SwvivaJ" and drew heavily on the ideas and analysis presented at
the conference.
All human use wirhin the biosphere preserve area must
conform to the demands of old-growth habita1 10 maintain ample
numbers of all native species. A grassroots initiative will be
needed to bring this issue before the federal Congress.
2) There can be no funher road construction within the
regional biosphere preserve, and we must begin clo~ing exi~ting
roads that in1erferc with the needs of old-growth habuat species.
The context for these proposals is the Preserve
Appalachian Wilderness proposal envisioned by Jamie Sayco of
New Hampshire. Put simply, the PAW proposal calls for a
system of large evolutionary or biosphere preserve areas along
the AppaJachian Mountain Range connected by wide mignuion
corridors to enable the movement of individual species and
genetic information up and down the length of the mountain
range. The preserves would maimain a variety of viable habitat
areas and characteristic ecosystems in protected landscapes large
enough to suppon the largest native carnivorous predators and
diverse enough to maintain all representative native species. (For
a more detailed explanation of the PAW proposal, see Ka11iah
Jour1111/, Issue 20.)
The "Restoring Biodiversity in the Southern Appalachians"
conference clearly demonslTated the necessity for profound and
immediate change. The Appalachian hardwood forest is being
severely compromised by human activities It may soon be unable
to fulfill its integral role in local and planetary life support. We
arc already in a crisis situation, and we need to think .and act
boldly to meet the ecological demands of our time. The current
political and social realities are self-serving and irrelevant due 10 a
distorted world-view which values the continued dominance of
Lhe human species al any cost. To conform to these present
realilies would only lead us further along a suicidal course. A
bold new vision based on ecological reality is required instead.
To correct the imbalance beLWeen the human inhabitants of
these mountains and our natural habitat, and to preserve the
original inhabitants - the native species - we must act. These arc
necessary first steps toward ecological sanity in the Katuah
Province:
l} A// the 3.5 million acres of public lands in the Southern
Appalachian Mountains shall be mandated to be a regional
biosphere reserve. AU inholdings need to be incorporated a~d the
national forests shall be extended to the purchase boundanes to
complete the biosphere preserve area.
'lljaee, '1\!tllngl 'Na@raj,s
T-S HIRTS. SWEATSHIRTS
For ADULTS and CHILDREN
ORIGINAL HAND·PRINTED
NATURE DESIGNS
3) Commercial logging in the biosphere reserve area must
cease. This would not be an undue economic hardship for the
region, as only 10% of the wood cut in the Southern Appalachian
region comes from the areas presently in national forest.
Compared 10 the ecological and social value of a large preserve
area, the dollar value of logging in the national forests is
inconsequential!
4) The Southern Appalachian Biosphere Preserve must be
connected to other natural areas. To this end:
- create a wide, viable wildlife corridor between the
Cherokee National Fores1 in Tennessee and the Jefferson
National Fores1 in Virginia
- re-define all major waterways as aquatic habimt corridors
from the mountains to the sea
- and create a corridor connection between the Southem
Appalachian bioregion and the Florida Peninsula biorcgion.
5) Bring human population lo a level within the ecological
carrying capacity of the bioregion - a size which does not
interfere wi1h the integrity or functions of the natural life
community in the Southern Appalachians.
,
Rather than promote accelerated growth, we must work to
decrease human numbers and impact to bring our species to its
proper level of influence within the region.
6) T ake a leading role in efforts to end atmospheric
deposition/air pollurion that is destroying the Southern
Appalachian forest and contributing to global warming.
7) Change our individual and social consciousness and
lifestyles to harmonize more closely with the natural conditions:#
the Southern Appalachian bioregion.
p
..
- David Wheeler
t!lti11ue At11p1111t/11re
all
Jler/J111D111 t!li11it
CALL or WRITE for
FREE COLOR CATALOG
DE..5 1GNS
by Rob \lessic.k
Jllus1ra11011 & Design
in Pen & Ink and Colored Pencil
Natural Food Store
& Dell
160 Broedw9y
Ashevllle, NC 28801
Wher9 Broedw9y ~
Mmmnon Ave & ~40
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
Mond.)'·S.un:lay: lllim-8pm
Sund.y; f ptn-Spm
(704) 253-7656
Wl.ntcr, 1989- 90
~t.Uah )ournGt P'"Je 29
�RECYCLED PAPER! - Directory of products
sources for the sou~ Suggcsacd donation S 1.00
ao Western Norah Carolina Alliance, PO Box
18087. Asheville. NC 28814 (7~) 258-8737.
HOMESCHOOLING FAMILIES gaaher on a
weekly basis. weather permitting, at Lake Louise in
Weaverville, NC on Wednesdays from 11:30 am
until 1:30 • 2:30 pm. We arc a small group, very
mfonnal, and open to anyone who wanas to join us
to exchange energy, infonnauon, ideas. and
playume. For more information, call Alice
Coblcnu (7()4) 6S8-2676.
BIODYNAMICALLY GROWN Com seed.
Mini-pops to giant fillers. Varieue.~ for no-aill
wilhoua hclbicidcs • and fOf compos1 ralher lhan salt
rcnilization. For caaalog please send SASE 10 •
Union Agriculwral lnstituae, Ra. 4 Box 463S,
Blairsville. GA 30512.
MOUNTAIN DULCIMERS • m3de of black
walnua, red cherry. or maple. Tops available in
wormy chestnut. buuemut, swcctgum, o;o~fras.
western cedar, and other woods. ConlllCt: Mize
Dulcimer Company; RL 2. Box 288; Blounaville,
37617 (615) 323-8489.
GREENING CARDS· concspondencc and advocacy
cards for people who care. Onginal an reproduced m
color. (10% of proc;ccds don<lled ao proJCCLS ror peaoc
and jus11ce.) Wriae to Ginny Lentz. LovEanh
™
SEA KAYAKfNG ·Come enjoy peace and solitude
llllvehng wiah lhe rhylhms or lhe sea. Classes. day
trips, overnight aours, cusaom charters.
Kayal;/Sallboat tours 10 lhe Bllhamas. Knyak tours
to Cosaa Rica. For more informntion contaca:
Charlie Reeve:;; Sea Level Inc.: POB 478; Tybee
Island, GA 31328 (912)786-S8S3
Creations: Box 144S: Black MounaaJn, NC 28711.
MOON DANCE FARM HERBALS· habaJ salves,
tincaures. &: ojls for birthing cl family health. For
brochure, please wriac: Moon Dance Fann: RL I,
Bolt 726: Hampton.
37658.
™
SCffiNCE TEACHER, ecologically aware, dcsm:s
land in KatUah, preferably E. Tenn. or W. North
Carolina for evenaual il\Mbiaauon. Mu.~1 lie well
w/ road fronaage. Conaaca: B. Bicmullcr: Soulh
Brunswick H.S.: Mammoch JcL, NJ 08852.
AUTHOR SEEKING RECIPES for wild fOOds
10 comribuaors JR book
upon publication. Recipes needed for fi'lh. game,
wild plants. Thomas K. Squier, N.D.: Ra. I, Box
216; Abcrdc<:n NC 28315.
cookbook. Will give c.rcdia
CONSCIOUS COUPLE & infana, wish 10
learn/wort on organic farm for housing + slipcnd
OR carelake a residence on acreage. Very comm1aed
and sincere. Wana to leave ahc cuy and profcss10ns
to work IOW8rd scU sufficiency. Can rcloc:ue Cllrly
June '90. Open to Options. Please Con13c:1; Dan &
Barb Umbcrget: 347 Sinclair Ave. N.E.; Allanm.
GA 30307. (404) S21-2971
SKYLAND • log on to the computer bulletin board
or the Smokies. Networking. plus new~ on the
environment. natwc photography. giuncs. compuaer
utilities, much more. Conaiiet Michael Havelin.
sysop, (704) 254-7800.
NATIJRAL CHILDBIRTH CLASES 'PCCiali1mg
In Lile Bradley Method. Classes arc small and
include nutrition physiology. consumerism.
parenting skills, and rclaxaaion and labor SUJll'O'I
techniques. For more informaaiOn call or write
Maggie Sachs; 808 Florida Ave.: Bri~tol, TN
37620. (61S) ?M-2374.
"THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT" • a complete
report on our changing cmironmcna for lhc ncxa 60
years. $17.00 po~tpaid, or write for more
information. Lorien House; POB 1112; Blac~
Mountain, NC 28711-1112.
•
PURE SORGHUM - and sorghum based dcsscr~
toppings and chocolates. Handmade m the
Appalachian (OOthiUs. Free sorghum recipe bto.:hure
send SASE. Candy sampler (2-KY Buckeye~ &
2-Bourbon Balls) S2.00 J>Cl'\lpaid. Golden Kcntuc:ky
Products; POB 246: livmgslOO, KY 40445. (606)
453-9800.
X.Oti&ah Jo\4rno! p"'Jl' 30
WANTED: HOUSE TO RENT. Profo..
"S1onal ccllha
and arust with one child are IOOking for a country
house. m lhC SUITOUn<ling A1.hev1llc, NC area from
June I, 1990. Please conuact Ron & Rachel
ClearfielJ: 7800 Colhn.~ Avenue; Miami Beach Fl..
33141 (305) 86S-048 I.
CIRCLES RETURNING • a new cassette by Bob
Avery•Grul>cl' This JS music 10 touch lhc soul and
heal ahe heart. Lynes included. To order send SIO
per casscuc to: Bob Avcry·Grubcl; Rt l Box 735:
Floyd, VA 2400 I
St..~FOODS • fresh. hand-made herbal skin
prepwaaions at '="able onces. Send for price list~
106 E. Ma111 SL. Johnson City. TN 37601
REMEDY FOR rnE COMMON COLD?· I've
found one; it\ natural and 11 works Send S3 and
your SASE to: Heaven on Enrah; 482 Whue Oal.
Cle Rd.; Burnsvlllc, NC 28714.
RENEWAL PROGRAMS· I prov1Jc mdiv1dual and
corporate renewal programs for bus1ncsse~ &
organi1.ations interested m hcahng thcmsclvc~ and
providing cmpowcrmcna 10 oth.:~. Wrote· Kalh1c
Pieper c/o Pieper A~~oc1ntcs: Ra I, Box 238:
Waync.~v1llc, NC 28786.
CREATION SOAP- lund·crnfacd herbal soaps from
the Blue Ridge Mounwn.~. Rose and bvcndet soaps,
mo1>1uri1.mg bar, slumpoo/cond1t1oncr bar. Contnet
Anna: RL I, Box 278; Blowmg RoU, NC 28605
(7™) 262-2321.
YOGA FOR ALL AGES- Ongoint; cla.<;:;C.S m the
Asheville lllC;l, workshops for group~. aml rnvaac
sessions. Give your..clr the s1fa or wellness and
peace. For more 1nfonna11on .:all Bo~ Kelly
(704) 2.S4-8698.
ORGANIC HONEY· Tulip Poplar, Sourwood,and
Wildnowet. From Patrick Counay, Virginia. No
chemicals. no white sugar, no hC11t, ever. Strained
through cheesecloth and packed JR heavy glass
canning J31'S. For a 4-oz. sample of our premium
sourwood and our catalog, send S4 10: Wade
Buckholas & Megan Phillips; Route 2. Box 248:
Stuart, VA 2A 171. (703) 694-4571
STIL-LIGHT THEOSOPHICAL RETR EAT
CENTER • a quiet sp3Ce for personal mediaalion,
group inaerneaion through study, and community
won:. and ~p1titual '1Cm1rnir;. Conmca Leon Frankel;
RL I, Box 326; Waynesville, NC 287116.
MOCCASINS, bnndcruftcd of elkhide in ahc
trlld1lionnl Plains Indian style. W:ucr rc,~iswna,
resoluble, and rugged • gtC<lt for hiking! Children's
and infana sizes available. \'/rue: Blue Feather
Mocca~ms: Box 931: Asheville. NC 28802, or call
Pollick Clark Bl (7~) 2S3-5<};7.
NATURE LOVERS' COMMUNITY • Chrisainns
only. S1000 gives you hfctimc owncl'>h1p righlS on
.S acres. Whole propetty consists of -is acres of
wooded calm and privacy. Write: Gospel Ministry;
P.O. Box 6S4: Clinton, TN 37717.
RHYTHM .6LIVE • Handcrafacd African- Style
Drums, workshops. learning tapes, drumbng_~. and
aacssoncs. Please send SASE IO Rhythm Ahvc!;
SS Phaux Cove Rd.: Weaverville, NC 28787 {704)
645-3911.
NEW AGE · group forming. All mtcrc~aed m
\haring about spirit to spirit commun1cotion,
channchng. v1suah1auon, hc;ihng, chokrns, IMOI,
etc. Emphasis on spmt and our connccaion to
Mother Earth, v1suaH1mg po~11ivc growth and
nurturing Conaact· Thcrc"a Carlson; ?SOI Ruic
Rd .. Knoxville. TN 37920.
WJ:BWORKING 1s free. Send submLssioos to:
Kattlah Journal
P.O. Box 63R
Lc1.:.:,acr. NC
Katllah Province 211748
Wint.er, 1989- 90
�The Kan1ah Journal wanrs ro communicate your thoughts and
feelings to the other people in the bioregional province. Send them
to us as le11ers, poems, stories, articles. drawings. or pliowgraphs,
etc. Please send your comributions to us aJ: Kati/ah Journal; P. 0 .
Box 638; Leicester, NC; Kati/ah Province 28748.
The Spring 1990 issue of the Ka11foh Journal will be
focusing on "Wellness in the Mountains." We are looking for
information and aniclcs on !hose who contribu1e to the heahhful
quality of life in our southern mountains; especially through
activities which promote self-responsibility and a high level of
wellness as the normal living state.
Issue 28 of the KatUa11 Journal (Summer, '90) will take up
the topic of "Carrying Capacity" and the burgeoning impact of the
human presence and human teehnology in !he mounrains. The issue
will look beyond the last induscrial smoke-cloud and past the end of
real estate, when we apply !his imponant ecological principle to our
own selves.
BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH JOURNAL AVAILABLE
ISSUE THREE · SPRING 1984
Sustainable Agricuhure • SunJlowcn • HWTWI
Impact on Ille Fon:st • Cltlldrcns' Education
Veronica Nicholas:Wom1n m Poli11cs • Linle
People • Medicine Allies
ISSUE FOUR · SUMMER 1984
WateT Drum • WalCT Quality . Kudzu - Solu
Eclipse • Clc.vcuuing · Trout • Going IO Waler
Ram Pumps - MICIOhydro - Poems: Bennie
Lee Sinclair, nm Wayne Miller
ISSUE FIVE . FALL 1984
Hll'Vcst • Old Ways in Cherokee . Girucng ·
lofuclear Wu1e • Our Celtic Heritage ·
Bioregionalism: Past, Pre""t, and Future •
John Wilnoty • Healing DatlaiC$S • Politics of
Participation
ISSUE SIX · WINTER 1984-&s
Winier Solstice Eanh Ceremony • Horsepastur<
River • Coming of the Light • Log Cabin
Rooia • MO\llll&in Agiculture: The Right Crop
- William Taylor ·The Future of the Forest
ISSUE SEVEN · SPRING 198S
Sustainable Economics - Hoi Springs • Worker
Ownership - The Great Economy . Self Help
Credit Union - Wild Turkey • Responsible
Invuting • Woricing in lhc Web of Life
ISSUE ElGIIT - SUMMER 198S
Cclcbntion: A Way of Life · KauW. 18,000
Ye«n Ago • S-W Sites • Folk Arts in Ille
Schools • Sun Cyclr./Moon Cycle • Poems:
Hilda~ . Chuobe HaUa&e Cenll::r.
Who Owns Appilachia?
ISSUE NINE· FALL 198S
The Waldu Forest - The Trees Speak •
Mi&ratin& Forata • Hone Louina - Swtini a
TrecCrop • UtbanTrea -AQQQI Bn:.od . Myth
Tmo
ISSUE TEN · WINTER 198S-i6
Kate Rogers • Circles of Sionc • Internal
Mylllmaking • Holistic Healing on Trial •
Poems: Steve Kmulll • Mytltlc Places • The
Uktena's Tale • Crystal Magic
"OrcamspW.ina"
ISSUE TWENTY ..ONE • Fall, 1988
Chutnuts: A Natunl Hwory • Restoring the
Chc:AAut . "Poem or Preservation and Praise"
Continuing the Quest - Forests and Wildlife
Chestnuts in Regional Diet - Chestnut
Resources • Herb Note . Oood Medicine:
"Changes to Come" • Re•iew: Wliuc legmds
Live
ISSUE ELEVEN · SPRINO 1986
Community Pl1nning - Cities and the
Bioregional Vision - Recycling • Community
Gardening· Floyd County, VA - Gasohol •
Two Bioreglonal Views • Nuclear Supplement
Foxfire Games · Ooocl Medicine: Visau
ISSUE TWENTY-TWO · W°U11er, '88--89
Global Warm.ing • Fire This Tune - Thomu
Berry on "Bioregions" · Earth E.xcrc:is4' . Kort
Loy McWhiru:t - An Abundance or Emp<inea
LETS - Cllroniclea of Floyd • Darry Wood .•
TheBIOlltClm
ISSUE THIRTEEN . Fall 1986
c - For Awakening • Elizabelll Callari - A
Gentle Death • Hospice • Ernest Morgan Dealing Creatively with Death • Home Burial
Box • The Wake • The Raven Moc.ku •
Woodslorc and Wildwoods Wisdom • Oood
Medicine: The s.._ Lodge
ISSUE TWENTY-THREE - Spring, 1989
Pisgah Village • Pl111e1 An - Orcen City Poplar Appeal - "CllOllt Sky" · "A New Eulh"
Black Sw1n • Wild IAvcly Days - Reviclwa:
Socred Land Socr«d Sa; Ice "6«. Poem:
"Sudclcn Tc:ndrits"
ISSUE FOURTEEN . Winter 1986-87
lJoyd C.rt Owle • Boogers Ind Mummcn • All
Species Day • Cabin Fever Univonity •
Homeless in Kaulah • Homemade Hot Wat..Stovemalter's Narrative - Oood Medicine:
Interspecies Communic:alion
ISSUE EIOITTEEN. Winter 1987-88
Vamcular Archilecture • Dreams in Wood and
Sione • Mountain Home • Earth Energies •
Euth-She.llcred Uving • Membrane Houses •
Brush Shelter • Poems: Octobu DWJt. • Good
Medicine: "Shell.Cr"
ISSUE FlFTE.E.N • Spring 1987
CoverlelS • Wom1n Forester - Susie McMahan
Midwife • Alternative Contraception •
Bioscxuality • Bion:gionalism 1nd Women Oood Modicinc: MAlriudW Culture - Petarl
ISSUE NINETEEN · Spring. 1988
Perelmdra Cl~ · Spring Tonics • Blueberries
WildOower Gardens - Cranny Herbalist •
Flower Eucnces • "The Origin of lhc Animals:
Siory. Good Modlcinc: "Power" - Be AT"'°
ISSUE SIXTEEN · Summer 1987
Helen Waite • Poem: Visions in a Garden •
Vision Quest - First Flow • lnitillion •
Leaming in the WUclemess • Cherokee
OWJcnp - -Valuing Trees"
ISSUE TWENTY · Summer. 1988
l'luave AppaJacru.n Wildr:mw · HiaJ!landl
of Roan • Cclo Community - l.IDd Trust Anh11r MOf1111 School - Zonin1 luue • .,,,_
Ricl&e" • Farmers and \he Farm Bill • Good
Medicine: "lMld" - Acid Rain - Duke's Power
Play · Chaokee Miaohydro Projoc:t
ISSUE TWENTY ·FOUR - Summer. '89
Deep Listt:rting · Life in AIOmic C"lly - OiftlCt
Actlonl · Tree of Pe.ce • Commuruty Buildlftg
Pcaccmaltcrs - Ethnic Survival • Pairing
Project • "Ba.tllesong" • Growing Peace in
Cullurea · Review: Tltc Clta/iuOlld IN Blatk
ISSUI! TWENTY-FIVE· FALL. 1989
The Gn:at Forest • Resl.orina Old Orowtlt •
Regional Planning • Tunbcr • Forest Roada
Poem: Sparr- Hawk. · A Pl..:e f« Bun •
'7/uu FLU 1/tc RtWi HLaElfl" • l!utern
P1nthcr • Oak Decline • People md Habiw
Wtld S--n.s - Daner Fair
- - - ---- - - - - - -- - - - - -- - - - - - - - -- ---- - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - ~UAtt)OURNAL
P.O. Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
Formo~info:
Name
Regular Membership........ $10/yr.
Sponsor.........................$20/yr.
Contributor.....................$50/yr.
Address
City
call Mamie Muller (704)683-1414
State
Zip
Enclosed is $
to give
this ejfon an exua bOOst
I can be a local contaet
Area Code
loll.mer, 1989-90
Phone Number
person for my area
Back Issues
=
Issue# __@ $2.50 S_ _
Issue# _@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue# __@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue# __@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue#_@ $2.-59= $_ _
Complete Set (3-1 J, 13-16,
18-25)
@
S3s.oo =s__
1
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, Issue 26, Winter 1989-1990
Description
An account of the resource
The twenty-sixth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on children and parents: their roles in family and in the bioregion. Authors and artists in this issue include: Thomas Berry, Samala Hirst, Ellie Kincade, Linda Metzner, Lucinda Flodin, Martha Perkins, Jan Verhaeghe, Christina Morrison, Karen Watkins, Doug Woodward, Trish Severin, Susan Griesmaier, Aviva Jill Romm, Tom Youngblood-Petersen, Rob Messick, Will Ashe Bason, Jermain Mosely, Marnie Mikell, James Rhea, Martha Tree, and David Wheeler. This issue also features an interview with Bonnie Blue, puppeteer. <br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1989-1990
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
Coming of Age in the Ecozoic Era by Thomas Berry.......1<br /><br />Kids Saving Rainforests by Samala Hirst.......4<br /><br />Kids' Treecycling Company.......5<br /><br />Conflict Resolution and the Family by Ellie Kincade.......6<br /><br />Developing the Creative Spirit by Linda Metzner........8<br /><br />The Balloon is a Unicorn by Artspirit Studio.......9<br /><br />Birth Power by Lucinda Flodin and Martha Perkins.......10<br /><br />Birth Bonding by Jan Verhaeghe.......11<br /><br />The Magic of Puppertry: An Interview with Bonnie Blue by Christina Morrison and Karen Watkins.......12<br /><br />Home Schooling by Doug Woodward and Trish Severin.......15<br /><br />Ceremony: Traditional.......16<br /><br />Mother Earth: The Natural Classroom by Susan Griesmaier.......18<br /><br />Biodegradable Diapers by Aviva Jill Romm.......18<br /><br />Resources........19<br /><br />Gardening Tips for Children by Tom Youngblood-Petersen.......19<br /><br />Natural World News.......20<br /><br />"From the Diary of a Modern Child" by Rob Messick.......24<br /><br />Pocket Cultures by Will Ashe Bason.......24<br /><br />Drumming.......26<br /><br />Forest Rescue: An Ecological Manifesto.......29<br /><br />Webworking.......30<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
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<em>Katúah Journal</em>, printed by The <em>Waynesville</em> <em>Mountaineer</em> Press
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Puppeteers
Conflict management
Natural childbirth
Child rearing--Appalachian Region, Southern
Home schooling
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
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English
Type
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Text
Source
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<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
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<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
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Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
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<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Agriculture
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Definitions
Black Bears
Community
Education
Electric Power Companies
Folklore and Ceremony
Forest Issues
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Health
Katúah
Poems
Politics
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
Recycling
South PAW (Preserve Appalachian Wilderness)
Transportation Issues
Turtle Island
Villages
Western North Carolina Alliance
Wilderness
Women's Issues
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/9f2387ce382112b7b0a8bda018a48500.pdf
09fa3efa31f6a47dc90c3efbe5b45134
PDF Text
Text
ISSUE 28 SUMMER 1990
$1.50
�~UAH JOURNAL
PO Box 638 Leicester, NC Kaluah Province 28748
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
Postage Paid
Bulk Mail
Permit #18
Leicester, NC
28748
�Carrying Capacity ....................... 3
by David Wheeler
Setting Limits to Growth:
Interview with Dr. Gary Miller.......•.•.•. 5
Recorded by David Wheeler
What Is Overpopulation?................... 7
by Stephe11 Bartlett
The Road Gang ......................... 8
by Rob Barro11
The Highway to Nowhere ............ 9
Opening Pandora's Box:
The 1-26 Projec1 ......................... 10
by Rob Barron
"Caring Capacity" .................... 11
by Will Ashe Bason
People and Habitat. .................. 12
by Chip Smith and
Lee Kinnaird Fawcett
Designing the
Whole Life Communicy.............. 14
by Marnie Muller
Steady State ................... ........ 15
by .Tim llouser
Poems by Will Ashe Bason ............. 17
Good ~lcdicine........................ 20
Transportcrnativcs .................... 22
by Pmrick Clark
Imagining
the End of Real Estate ................ 23
hy Jlecrdire P. CotUic'Cllt
Naturnl World Ncws .................24
!\Jan and the Biosphcrc ...............27
Drumming ............................. 28
l.e11crs to Katuah Joum31
Review: Cohousing .................. 30
by Will Ashe Bason
Events .................................. 33
Wcbworking ...................... .... 34
----
,
A f': are blesL The Katuah Province
V V~f the bioregion of Appalachia is a
place of beauty with abundant rainfall,
verdant forests, rich bottomland soils
developed from the old rocks of the hills,
and a wide diversity of plant and animal
species. The highland forests have provided
well for a human population for 14,000
years. They have maintained sttong
populations of other animal species for eons
longer than 1hat. And they consistently
perform important life suppon services for
the entire planet.
Yet today the growth and
development of human culture in the
Southern Appalachians is threatening the
viability of the system as a whole. And we
do not seem 10 know how to conttol ii. We
cannot control it because the idea of physical
"growth" is enshrined on a cultural pedestal
and is considered to be among the ranks of
the holy - beyond question. Physica1
"growth" is the economic watchword of our
society, the one tactic that has never failed
us. It is the measure of our economic
success in the concept of our Gross
National ProducL It is seen as the panacea
for all our economic ills, local or national.
But now our concept of infinite
growth has collided headlong with the
physical Limits of our biosphere. We have
passed the point of diminishing returns, and
our response is to squeeze our environment
all the tighter, even as it becomes
increasingly apparent that our world can no
longer stand the strain. But we still seem
unable to give up our addiction to the:
concept of infinite increase. We mochfy the
word "growth" with the limiting adjectives
"quality" and "responsible," but vinu~lly no
one is willing to publicly bring up the idea
that here in the Katiiah Province we have
alreotly surpassed the ability of the l3nd to
suppon our great numbers and our grea1
enterprise.
This is because the idea of carrying
capacity is not widely known. Carrying
capadty means the extent of a habitat'~
ability to suppon a conunuously sustainable
population of a particular species. Any
aspect ofhabita1 can be the critical clement
that limits carrying capacity for a given
species, although food or water are usually
the determining factors.
Even 1hose human beings familiar
with the notion of carrying capacity are
reluctant to apply it to our own species,
feeling that it violates some unspoken
human ttusl to admit that we, too, are bound
by the inevitable laws of Oeation. The truth
be known, in the Karuah bioregional
province we need to work to lessen our
species' impact on the ecosystem that
sustains us. But instead our numbers and
impact continue to rise.
The two-headed bogey of growth
and development is going to be one of the
most crucial issues facing all of us in the
Karuah Province in the decade 10 come. In
the mountains, developmem is synonymous
with access. Access today means roads.
Where the roads go, habitat destruction
follows. In some ways, the futare of our
. region is as simple as that
"'for Cife. in t~ mountains
is fi'Tling in tfanger
Of too many people.,
too many macftine.s... •
S""8 {yriu 6y Jolin 'Dentler
To understand whaL is happening to
us and to our region we need to understand
the idea of carrying capacity. We need to be
able to wield that idea incisively in order to
communicate to others about what is
happening and to bring about change.
The solution is for us to redefine the
relationship between our species and our
mountain habitat We need to see that we are
the mountains, that we are the forest Our
model is the old-growth forest itself. When
a forest is in the early stages of succession,
i1 grows aggressively. using up great
amounl.'i of energy, producing great
amounts of biomass. This is known as a
young forest. In the study of anthropology,
a society such as ours that expands
aggressively into the world is also known as
a young culture.
A young forest is constantly
growing toward whaL is known as the
climax condilion. In the climax, or
old-growth. forest, the processes of growth
and decay are maintained in a precise
balance Lhat is sustainable indefinitely. A
forest in the climax stage is considered 10 be
a ma111re forest. Like a mature forest, a
mmure culture emphasizes conservation of
energy, makes less demands on the world
around it, and is capable of continuing
1ndefini1ely in a condition of sustained
equilibrium with its surrounding habitat.
We, at the height of our destructive
cultural adolescence. need to decide: are we
going to add yet another ecosy_stem to our
list of conquests, or are we going to grow
into maturity as a culture ~d come once .
again into balance with this beautiful land m
which we are blest to live?
Drawing by Rob Messick
-The Editors
�~LJAH JOURNAL
STAFF TI IJS ISSUE:
Susan Adam
Patrick CJark
Karen Lohr
Stephen Banlett
Jim llouser
Mamie Muller
James Rhea
Chip Smith
Tersh Palmer
David Wheeler
Manha Tree
Rob Messick
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE:
Will Ashe Bason
Jack Chaney
Michael Havelin
Scott Bird
John Creech
COVER: by Rob Messick © 1990
BACK COVER illus1ra1ion by Joaquin Wlu1e Oak. a na1fre o/1he
Chumash tribe of the west coast. The Chuma.sh cul/lue has all but bun
destroyed- there are fl() full-blooded tribal memben, and 1he language and
sp1ri1ua/ traditions hU\/t1 been lost. All 1Jra1 remains is o/ 1he old ways of the
uibe is in tlu! art tradilion, which Joaquin and a few others carry on.
Joaquin and his family are currently li1•ing ln Black /.fountain. NC.
PUBLISHED BY: Katt'talr Jo11ntal
PRTI\'TED BY: The WayneSVtlle Mo11nrai11eer Press
ED!ffiRIAl. OffJCE THIS ISSUE: The Globe Valley
WRITF US AT:
Kattial: Joumal
Box 638; Lcices1er, NC; Kaiuah l'rovincc 28748
TEI EPllOl'l:E: (70-i) 754-6097
Kaniah Jaurnal is on Skyland BBS, Asheville, NC.
For infonnation, call (70-i) 254-6700.
THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BIORECION
AND MAJOR EASTERN RIVER SYSTEMS
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
/Jere 1n the southern-most hear1/and of the Appalachian mou11tains, the
oldest mounUJin range on our continent, Turtle Island· a small but growing group
has begun to 1alte on a sense of responsibility for the implications of tha1
geographical and cultural heritage. This sense of rcsp0nsibility centers on the
concept of living wit/Jin the natural scale and balance of univer.ral systems and
principks.
Within this circle we begin by invoking tht Cherokee name " Ka11lah"
as the old/new name for this area of the mountain.fund for us journal a.swell. Thr.
pro»ince is indica1ed by 11s natural boundaries: the Roanolc.e Rn·u Valley to the
nnrtl1; tl1e foothills of thr pit'dmont area ro the east: Yona MouMain and thr
Georgia liill.t to the south; and the Tennessee Riw~r \'alley 10 the wcs1
Thc cthtoria/ priori tie.< for us are to colleet and dinemina1e informn11on
and cnerJ!Y wliich J'(rtain.1 ,Tpecifica/ly /fl this region. and to foster tltr.11...,wenr.ss
tlt111 the land is a living bdng dcsl'rving of our lo»c and respect. LMng in this
manner is a way 10 ins1ue the .mstainabiliry of the bio.fpht:re and a /a.wns: p/au
for aurstfrc.f in its continuing tva/111t0nary proctss.
We sum to luwe reached thi: fulcrum {'<Jint ofa· do or die si111at1on in
terms of a quality .ttandard of life for all living beings on this planet. As a \'CJ/CC
for the rautllUrs o/ tht1 sacred land, K111"'1h, we advocate a rrnttrcd approach 10
th.: conupt of dccen1raliza11on. !1 i.f our hope to become a suppc•rt sy.flem for
thou accepting the challenge o/ .fu.flainab1/iry and 1he crca11on <if lwrmony and
balance in a total scMe, hetc in this place.
\l'e we/rotrU! all correspondence, criticism. pertinent information,
a.rticlcs. artwork, tic. w11h hopes tlrat Kattlah will grow to scr1•e the best 111urem
of this rtgion and all ils li\•ing. breathing trU!mhers.
.~
• The Edi1ors p-'
H
D1vcrs1l) 1s an tm(IOl'l:lnl dcmcnl of l:>1oreg1onul ecology, both
natural and social. In line w11h lh1s prmcipk. tho: J.'atWih Journal tries to
serve as a forum for the discussion of regioml JSsucs. Signed nttic k~ ~xprc!>.~
only the ormion of the authors and arc no1 ncccssar1ly the opinions or the
KatWih Journal tditors or staft .
The Internal Revenue Service ha~ declared Kattlnh a non·prolit
organizauon under sccuon 501(<:)(3) of the Internal Revenue Cod.:. All
contributions to Kat"'1h are dedoc11blc from personal income uu.
'LNVOCA.T'LON
The Wonder of lhc World
Nature's Beauty and Power.
The shape of things
Their colors. lights. and shades.
111esc r saw.
Look ye also while life lasts.
- InscrlpUon on an old English gravestone
~
KATU~RlN·1Ht·YEf\~- 2022.?
Cart.oon b) Rob Messick
.. .
Summrr, 1990
�CARRYING CAPACITY
by David Wheeler
ln 1944 a small island in Alaska was
stocked with 24 reindeer. There had been no
reindeer previously on the island, and 1hc
animals had no natural predators. Lichens and
other na1ural foods were plentiful and 1he
reindeer prospered. They prospered ro the extent
that by r963 there were 6,000 of the animals
inhabi1ing the island. By then the island was
badly overgrazed, and the severe snowstonns
tha1 s1ruck the area that winier decimated the
herd. By the winter's end there were only 42
reindeer left, only one of them a male. all of
1hem probably sterile from nu1ri1ion deficiency,
living in a badly degraded environment.
This small tragedy was recorded by David
R. Klein in the Journal of Wildlife Managemem.
It is known today as a classic case of the
consequences of violating 1he carrying capacity
of a defined habitat area. The moral for 1he
wildlife managers reading the story was that the
reindeer herd should have been managed to stay
below a maximum density of five reindeer per
square kilometer, a level that 1he island could
have supported indefinitely.
In the natural world, when a species
exceeds the carrying capacity of 11s given
habitat, if it canno1 expand its niche, then 1ha1
species sufferi; a dicback, usually from
starvation, until its numbers once again drop
back wi1hin the limits or its habitat's carrying
capacity.
Although we recognize the
idea of carrying capacity, we are
reluctant to admit its relevance to
our own species. The concep1
arose from the observations of
ecologists. who apply i1 as a
mauer of course to any
popula1ion being "managed" to fit
into a particular human-dcfmed
habitaL But even though we have
reached the geographic and
resource limits of the globe and
human habitat is now limhed as
well, we still hcsi1ate 10 apply the
concept of carrying capacity 10
our own kind. There is a myopic
assump1ion that somehow our
own selves are exemp1 from this
natural law 1hat applies to every
species in Creation.
The na1ural area in which
to calculate carrying capacity is
the bioregion, as the bioregion is
the basic uni1 of habitation, for
the human as well as 01her
species. It is relatively
uncomplicated to estimate the
carrying capacity for plant and
animal species once their habiiat
needs are known. In nature all
creatures are closely linked 10
their habitat and when one crucial
clement of 1heir life support
system is ovenaxed, usually food
or water, the species begins to
experience dicback. It is
Summer, 1990
characteris1ic tha1 overpopulated animal species,
like the unfortuna1e reindeer herd on St.
Mauhcw Island, usually degrade 1heir local
environment 10 some extent, sometimes
irreversibly, as they anempt to scrape out the last
shreds of sustenance before the population is
pruned back 10 sustainable levels. The role of a
predator species is co srrenglhen lhe gene pool of
their prey and 10 keep the population of 1he prey
species within the limi1s of carrying capacity,
preventing this environmental degradation.
The classic equation for figuring the
impact of a human socie1y is: population size x
1mpac1 of technology =effect on the habitat.
These factors are modified by the spiritual and
ecological altitudes of 1he socie1y. This equa1ion
is no1 useful in arriving at specific number
values, but rather it illustrates relationships. II
tells us, for example, that a slight rise in
population among the people of Turtle Island
has a much greater impact on the planetary
environment than a large rise in population in
most Third World counties because of the
garganiuan appe1ite of our energy-iniensivc
technology.
Human industrial technology has
complica1ed the idea of carrying capacily as it
applies to our own species. A habi1a1's carrying
capaci1y can be s1ressed either by
over-occupation, by excessive resource
extraction, or by waste disposal overload.
Modem society, supported by our high-intensity
technology, can stress a regional habitat by the
sheer volume of resources i1 consumes, by
simply monopolizing much of the available
space, by turning out more waste than natural
systems can process, or by 1uming out wastes
so exo1ic or so toxic 1ha1 digesting organisms
cannot assimifate them.
Mos1 imponamly, however, we humans
have learned how to reach beyond our own
bioregions to import resources necessary for
life. Early human beings were dependent on
their immediate bioregion and the well-being of
the other species with which they shared iL
Today we can exhaust the resources of one
region and then put off the ecological
consequences of our ill-use by en1ering another
region and ex1racting from there the resources to
maintain, or even to expand, our bloa1ed levels
of consumption. Each time we reach beyond the
bounds of our own bioregions to find 1he
materials to suppon life or to dispose of our
waste products, we drain the vitality of the
victimized region and bring hardship 10 all its
inhabitants - plant, animal, nnd human.
We also are able 10 extend our reach
through rime. By drawing off fossil fuels
deposited in pas1 millennia, we have boosted our
numbers and our rares of resource consumption
to extravagant levels, c~ting an ecological debit
that will be lef1 for coming generations 10 pay.
For example, energy-intensive industrial
agricuhurc is "mining" soils, causing severe
long-tenn degradation by forcing them to feed
much greater numbers of people
and animals than their capabilities
allow. Another example is our
fossil fuel wastes, which for
centuries will remain toxic
momenioes of the brief flowering
of industrialism. While we have
all the fun, our dcscendents will
have to resolve all the long-term
problems crea1ed by our energy
bonanza.
It lends a sense of urgency
to 1he ques1ion of carrying
capacit)' when we realize that we
are driving 100 species per day
into extinction and habitats
world-wide are constantly being
degraded
by
our
Himprovcments." We seem quite
willing to sacrifice the existence
of any other species, even the
greatest and grandes1, rather than
relinquish even 1he slightest
aspect of our prodigal lifestyle.
When we drive other life forms to
extinction, clearly we have gone
too far. ln doing this we not only
diminish the present world; we
threaten the planet's evolutionary
future.
Carrying capacity is not the
only balance to which we have to
pay attention in this world, but
for the purposes of evaluating our
success as a species, it is a most
useful one. Predator species have
(continued on next page)
JGQtimh ) 01unm p1a9e 3
�Photo by Doug Woodward
CARRYING CAPACITY (conunucd from p. 3)
instinct~al popul~tion. controls that help them
keep t~e1r.~pulauons m ~ance ':""ith their prey
• temtonahty, no maung during lactation
periods, long gestarion times. In some cases
infant monality rates are helped by adult males
wh? will kill and eat young cubs in their
temtory. Predators "know" somewhere in their
make-up that il is to their advantage to keep their
populations Jean and spare.
Humans seem to have retained this sense
of survival while living as nomadic and
semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers. Tribal people
had a variety of contraceptive melhods: herbal
magical, and ritual. ln some tribes wome~
would nurse their children into their founh and
fifth year, thus decreasing fertility. In some
hunting societies when times were hard,
mothers would sometimes bury a child rather
than let it live to face possible slow starvation.
Even nomadic hunting societies had unspoken,
but clearly defined, boundaries to their
wandering. Primitive people bowed to the
nece~ities imposed by their role as a predator
species.
The development of agriculture is marked
as a turning point in our conception of
ourselves. Agriculture allowed much denser
le~els of population, and a large number of
children per family became a desirable goal in
most agricultural societies, as it meant help in
I.he fields and a buffer against the high infant
monality engendered in the more densely
populated, unsanitary agricultural villages. It is
accepted as a general rule that when peoples tum
to agriculture, their populations shoot up.
However,
on
Turtle
Island
agricultural/hunting societies contradicted that
rule. ~ere in the Southern Appalachian
Mountams che Cherokee Indians maintained
balanced numbers in chis region of abundant
resources for many generations. The Hopi, the
Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) tribes, and the
Man~an repf7sented other native people:> who
pracuc:ed agnculture yet kept their population
levels in tune with the ability of their regions to
provi~e. It ~s t><?ssible to have resources enough
and soll ma.mlalll a balance with the land.
Recent archaeological finds show that
Neolithic agricultural societies in Europe also
JGcitUah Jourt;'QL ~Cl~, 4
had achieved that balance. However, the
Inda-European nomads who conquered the
continent never learned that an. Europe was
already filled to overcrowding when Columbus
opened up the New World for exploration at the
end of the fifteenth century. The Black Plague
had diminished the population somewhat, but it
had quickly recovered. There was not land
enough for all, so under the primogeniture
system fathers gave their holdings to their oldest
son and the younger sons went viking , to the
Crusades, or to the monastery. They saw I.he
world as theirs to plunder.
Immigration to the New World vented the
building population pressure in Old Europe and
postponed the dire predictions of Malthus in the
late eighteenth century concerning the miseries
of a land overcrowded beyond its carrying
capacity. Conditioned by life in the Old World,
the white immigrants coming to Tunic lsland
saw the. cont~ent in terms of opponunity:
economic capual, untouched resources, and
productive land - opponunity, in other words
'
for exploitation.
Today, with world population at five and
one-quaner billion and the population on this
contin_ent.at 420.100.000, returning to Carrying
capac11y 1s, more than ever, a necessary goal.
Yet the etruc of today is "growth." Growth is
seen as being synonymous wilh prosperity. But
when cells grow without heed to the needs of
the greater organism, this is called "cancer."
And this is precisely the nature of industrial
society in the world today.
We need to regain the predator's sense.
As a species, panicularly here in I.he Southern
Appalachians. we need to reverse the growth
et~1c. and restore the balance. If we are not living
wnhin the bounds of sustainability for our own
bioregion. then we are leeching energy from
other people and other species in other
bioregions or from the non-human species of
our own reJ?;ion.
For 500 years on this continent the
dominant influence has been to direct our energy
outward. to change the world to meet our
perceived wants and needs. We are now
realizing that we are not greater than the world,
that we are part of the world. With that
realization comes responsibility. Now the wsk is
to change ourselves and our society to fit the
demands of the Greater Life, specifically life as
we find it in our respective bioregions.
For the sake of the Greater Life, we need
to set aside large areas where native species can
find a home and the narural processes prevail.
For the sake of the Greater Life, we need
to curb our appetites ("Live simply that others
may simply live."). It is imperative that we use
all appropriate methods to limit our numbers.
For the sake of the Greater Life, we need
to c:ease. the productio~ of all slowly-degrading
rad1oacuve and 01herw1se toxic materials. Once
pr<>?uced, they inevitably end up in the life
chain, and the destructive influence of their
poisons accumulates in the body of the Eanh.
For the sake of the Greater Life, we need
to honor and show respect for the process of
death as well as for 1he process of birth.
Although the fact is masked by the
of latter day civilization, we are
JUSt as dependent on our regions as our earliest
forebears. As stated above, bioregions are the
basic unitS of habitation. They are our sphere of
influence, o~r gift and our challenge. We may
venture out mto the world, but our bioregion is
always "home." When we are willing to
recognize our limits, we wilJ find them clearly
stated in the life offered by our biorcgion~
~omogeneity
~
JAJI. ADDITIOS
A EASURE OF PROGRESS
~~
Phow counesy or lhe N&1 Ri- Fru Prus
Su.m,mer, 1990
�SETTING LIMITS TO GROWTH:
ANINTERVIEWWITHDR.GARYMILLER
KaJ(talz Journal: How does carrying capacity work in
nature?
Gary Miller: The limits of a habitat's carrying capacity for
any given species come into play during what 1 call the "pinch
period," when one of the basic factors of that species' life
support - available food, proper conditions for reproduction,
growth space, water, etc. - becomes a limiting factor. A species
will reach carrying capacity when one of these limiung factors
stops population growth or causes population decline.
To carry that over to the human population, we are now
seeing clearly that certain areas - like Central Africa - are having a
very difficult time feeding themselves. Many pans of the United
States are now running out of water, so water availability is
becoming a critical limiting factor. There is no doubt that there is
a whole series of limiting factors that are going to affect human
carrying capacity, whether in terms of a region or in cenns of the
planet.
We don't know what the planet's ultimate carrying capacity
for human beings is. It's highly variable according to the
different parameters at work in different regions of the world.
Some ecologists are saying that the human population is double
the planet's long-tellll carrying capacity for our species. In other
words, the true biological, long-term, sustainable carrying
capacity for the people this planet can support is presumably
somewhere in the 2 1/2 billion range. We arc now approaching
five and one-quaner billion people.
KJ: Having fossil fuels available really complicates it.
GM: The fossil fuels that we are now extracting allow us to
exceed carrying capacity, because they offer an artificial way to
support great numbers of humans. However, that energy supply
is finite. Natural gas and oil will run out in the near future. Coal
will probably last some 200-400 years in the United States.
If we were 10 lose these fuel sources immediately, it \\'OU Id
cause all sorts of misery for the human population, because
vinually all the methods we in the West use to grow our food and
create our extrnvagant creature comfons arc based on fossil fuels.
Food production, one of the most important issues defining
carrying capacily for humans, is clearly now a function of fossil
fuel subsidies in the developed countries.
We live in a world agricultural economy based entirely
upon readily available and relatively cheap sources of fossil fuels.
The orange juice produced in Brazil, the apricots and strawbemes
produced in Spain. or the couon products grown in Egypt can be
shipped any place around the globe in a very shon period of time.
Water from the mountains of Nevada irrigates produce grown in
the San Joaquin VaUey of California. But try to accomplish that
when fossil fuel supplies are exhausted! That's when the real
issue of carrying capacity will be felt and understood by our
species.
KJ. Also for human beings. the qucsuons of values comes
into it, too. Right now we are continuing our own support at the
standard to which we are accustomed by sacrificing other
species' life suppon systems, thereby driving them to extinction.
GM: Based on our present population numbers and level of
resource consumption, we are basically incompatible. We have a
tendency to monoculture virtually everything, and once we take
out the native grasslands, the native upland forests, and wetlands
and replace them with monocultures, about the only thing that can
survive are the plants and the animals that are broad generalists
and a few parasites and predators that thrive off of those
monoculture species.
KJ: How about in the mountains? Arc there ways in which
it is evident that we are violating our region's carrying capacity?
GM: One thing 1 think of right away i~ the _rapi.d rat~ of
loss of flatlands the mosc suitable farmland 10 this b1oregton.
Those bouoml~nds are also prime areas for industrial and
Summe~,
t 990
•
Phoio by Rodney Webb
commercial s11e development, which means shopping malls and
all the things associated with malls and strip development.
Concentrated housing is also going up on relatively flat
land. The best farm lands available should be set aside for
farming so that we can support ourselves if and when we find
ourselves in a pinch period. If our supply lines are ever cut,
whether because of a war. or because we run out of fossil fuel
energy, or because of a natural disaster, we will have to rely on
our ability to produce food locally. But much of our prime farm
land is going under pavement and building structures, never to
be reclaimed. For all intents and purposes, that land is lost
forever, and with that land we have lost our ability lO cope should
any of these hypothetical disasters actually occur. Mu~h of the
bouomland habitat has disappeared, and as a result na11vc plant
and animal populations have declined. Very few mountain
wetlands exiSt today.
I question the quality of our present political leadership. It
seems like we need to call a moratorium on growth. There needs
to be time set aside to plan for the future. We need to plan now
how we are going to accommodate all species' survival. How
many people can we accommodate here before we do irreparable
harm t0 our support ecosystems and to the natural biota?
KJ What would be the most effective way to put a
moratorium on growth?
GM: One of lhe ways is for the citizenry to demand it. That
isn't likely to happen.
Another way would be for the lcad~hip of the community
to call for it, realizing, in their wisdom, that we live within finite
systems.
Another way is simply to not extend the ~ecessary
infrastructure services - such things as roads, electnc power,
water, and sewer.
KJ: Those items are presently thought of as services, but
they act in a much more aggressive way. Simply having those
layers of infrastructure in place guarantees growth.
GM: Absolutely. If you want an area to grow and dev~lop.
extend water lines, streets, power, and sewer. and ll 1s
guaranteed to develop.
There was an article in the Asheville Citizen on March 7,
1990 that told how the Asheville City Council approved a
subdivision by a 4-3 vote despite testimony from the fire
department stating that they would not be able to ~uarantee fire
protection to that development, be<:ause the slope 1s too steep to
get the fire trucks up under icy conditions.
What the city council said was. "We want to keep
growing."
�What the leadership should be saying is, "If we can't
protect the people who would be living there, then the developers
shouldn't be building there."
I think that in this case our leaders were shirking their
responsibility and cenainly not looking out for the general
public's best interestS.
KJ: But on the other hand, not having the infrastructure in
place effectively prohibits growth ...
GM: ...Or at least keeps it at a very low density, because
most developers are going to be wary of developing a large
project where they can't be guaranteed infrastructure.
Kl: So the infrastructure has a pivotal role as far as the
extent of development.
GM: Yes. One of the biggest problems we now have in
Asheville, NC where I hve, is is the controversy around
extending the water supply infrastructure. The first choice of the
city leadership was tapping the French Broad River. For various
reasons the public said no.
If the voters were to say forcefully, ''No, we don't want a
new water supply, let's make do with what we have," saying in
other words that conservation should be a first priority, that
would put a crimp in long-term growth here.
The same thing is true for the sewer system. The sewer
lines are continually being extended. We have hundreds of miles
of pipeline that arc in critical disrepair, with leaks showing in
different locations throughout the city and the county, and still the
only time the administration ever hesitates to extend the sewer
lines is when the state threatens them with a lawsuit saying, "You
already have too many leaks in that area and the manhole covers
are popping out whenever it rains. You can't possibly extend."
So the city calls an emergency meeting, and they give a
million-dollar contract, rush in and repair the immediate
problems, and then they can extend the line and add more houses
in that area. They repair the sewer system just enough so that
they can go further out, which stresses it all over again.
Kl: Then the new power lines that Duke Power Co. is
going to put through the counties south of here is not just a
neutral kind of thing.
GM: Any time you extend any major form of
infrastructure, it cannot be defined as neutral. Any time those
services are punched through, they definitely tend to promote
growth.
KJ: In the mountains one of the most imponant types of
infrastructure is roads, because in the mountains access is always
one of the major limiting factors. When access is gained to an
area, that means that the people come, and as the access improves
and becomes easier, that brings more people. It happens very
consistently Wt as soon as there is access, the maximum number
of people come in.
GM: Absolurely.
It's creeping incrementalism. Everyone assumes that this
linle road here or that little activity there really doesn't make any
difference. But this occurs hundreds or thousands of times every
single day in any given region, and when one translates it to a
world-wide scale, one can see that we are forcing lms of
organisms and the habitats that are required to suppon them into
siruations that are life-threatening. There are 5 1/4 billion humans
out there; each of them, every day, has some son of effect on the
environment.We all make decisions that are in our own best
interests. We rarely think in terms of the best in1eres1s of the
woodpecker, the salamander, 1he migrating songbird, or the oak
tree; yet all the creatures of the forests and of the waterways
perform critical activities that benefit us both directly and
indirectly.
Kl: In this region the major effects of roads would be to
ei1her increase the density of human beings in certain areas or to
bring human beings into areas that were previously uninhabited.
GM: An example is the proposed Route I-26, which is to
link Asheville with a Tennessee state highway to Johnson City.
AU of the areas through which this new route will pass are going
to experience a period of extremely rapid expansion, simply
because they are going to be accessible to an estimated 12,000
vehicles a day.
Any time a major interstate is put through a rural area
where there is relatively low-priced land available, there is a
likelihood that someone is going to buy up land for industrial and
commercial development. There will be a lot of strip development
and probably small mini-industrial parks will sprout up along the
route. As a result, an increase in air pollution will occur as
nicrogen oxide, a precursor for tropospheric (low altitude) ozone
formation, is formed by all the passing vehicles. We now know
that low-level ozone is a major toxicant to plant Life in the
Southern Appalachians.
But of course that is what the growth and development
people m this area are willing to settle for. They are willing to
sacrifice a high quality environment for a middle quality
environment
The wisdom of that approach is highly debatable. Someone
looking at the long-term sustainability of all species, not just the
human species, quickly comes to the conclusion wt we just can't
keep growing indefinitely in an area that has such very special
features. To my mind the Southern Appalachian Mountains need
to be recognized as the highest kind of bio-rescrve, as opposed to
just another location for industrial and commercial development.
The mountains have exceptional physical and biological
traits. Large sections of the moumain habitat should be set aside
as a major genetic reserve area. There should be guarantees that
this special bioregion is not subdivided into a thousand small
biological islands surrounded by human developments and the
resulting pollutants.
(continued on page 21)
GM: A big boom occurred here as a result of the opening
of the 1-40 interstate. It was a coast-to·coast route that brought
thousands of new people through this area each week. many of
whom found the Southern Appalachians to be delightful and
decided that in some form or other they were going to come back
here and spend more time. Many of them have returned to visit,
and many of them have in fact moved here as permanent
residents.
KJ: That principle works on all levels. l-40 meant that
more people came into the region. a road going up into a new
cove or hollow means that there will be an innux of people into
that hollow, and a road going out into 1he national forest, means
that more people use that pan of the forest.
G.\f: Any rime we humans can open up access, sooner or
later people are going to use it. and that leads to increased use of
the area where that road has been added.
KJ· So stopping roads and roadbuilding would be an
imponant pan of limiting human territorial expansion.
JGal.Uah JourrmL PR9& 6
Su.f!\ma-, 1990
�WHAT IS OVERPOPULATION?
Reflections on China and Karuah
by Stephen Bartlett
My Chinese friend had jus1 arrived m Madison, Wisconsin in order
to spend a year s1udying English. He was hom~ick and in culture shock.
If I had no1 spent two years wilh him in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province. the
People's Republic of China, 1he commen1 he made 1hat warm July
evening would have been completely incomprehensible 10 me. We were
sitting on a lakeside pier when a family of ducks came circling around
overhead in the pink dusk and splashed down into the wa1er nearby, a
stone's throw from the towering University waterfront
Chen broke the silence with this innocent question: "Whose ducks
are those?''
After a stunned silence, I managed to reply "Nobody owns them.
They are wild ducks."
My words plunged Chen into a deep contemplation. Finally, be
said, "How marvelous! Bui who will eat them?"
Behind this cross-culmral schism there lies both tragedy and hope.
For China is not only a land where humans have devastated Nature, but
also a place where people have learned some profound ecological lessons
~nd p_u_t them int? practice.. Ah.hough the 240 million human beings
mhabmn~ ~e United States 1s su_ll a s~all number compared to China's
1,080 m1 lhon, we have a per capita environmental impac1 somewhere in
the range of 40-60 times 1hat of a common Chinese person due to our
s1unningly "afnuent" culture. We have been on 1his inherently rich
conuncnt only a very short time in Chinese tenns, yet we have already
managed to lay waste ro a vast area of our land and deplete resources at
astonishing speed.
What then can the Chinese teach us to allow us to avoid the terrible
des01Jcoon they have experienced over the centuries? Can we live beuer
wii~ less, live more fully on a smaller scale, live more humbly in our
bodies and on our lands?
Jiangsu Provin~e is a sophisticated humanized landscape. There
where deer ~nc~ frohcked perhaps two thousand years ago, 77 million
people_ now live 1n a well-watered'. canal-irrigated alluvial plain the size of
Georgia, on the ba~ks of che Hum and Yangtse Rivers. Seventy-five per
cem of th~ pe~ple live on uny rural plots of less than one acre per family:
the rest hve m crowded, bicycle and coal-powered cities encircled by
dense seulcmentS of truck gardeners who supply nil lhe produce the city
will consume. Despite a dense population, the rural landscape is relatively
diverse ecologically, and almost entirely edible.
Rice grown by hand in paddies is irrigated by canals and ditches
swarming wich fish which in tum feed Oocks of domesticated ducks and
geese who supplement Lhe rice/tofu diet of the humans whose wastes arc
returned to the fields, which yield bountiful harvests of grains. beans,
oils and vegetables, whose leftovers go 10 the family pigs. Travelling bee
keepers migrate northward in spring as the flowering trees blossom.
reaping honey harvests and cross-fcnilizing the crops and fruits along the
way. Water buffalo wallow in canals in summer and huddle behind hay
stacks in winter and resolutely turn the soil the rest of the time. They
endure extremes of temperature and live on both water plants and dry land
foods, making their upkeep easier. Wild birds are sometimes trapped, and
the bountiful rivers are fished for the protein foods they can provide.
Sunflower seeds arc munched by the ton in movie theaters and the husks
arc used as mulch the next day. Occasional woodlots and windbreak trees
between fields and along roads improve the microclimate, reduce erosion,
and supply wood produc1s for tools and other uses. Almost nothing is
wasted, but almost everything is put to human use.
Where we lived in Yangzhou--a small city by Chinese standards
wi1h its 350,000 odd mhab11ants, life was made bearable and even frutiful
due to these charac1eristics of the Chinese lifes1yle:
1) Bicycles arc the main source of transport and local shipping. Air
pollurion and noise from vehicles is minimized. People are fit.
Stephen Ban.km in a field in China
2) All. of the myriad vcgetnbles. fish, eggs. tofu and meat arc
purchased directly from the farmers themselves who, hv10g within a 2
mile radius of street markets, make their way by pedal power. Thus, Lhc
food distribution system is extremely efficient and avoids Lhc use of
fossil-fuels.
3) Farmers rely mainly on human wastes for fertilizing (ir being the
most abundant source!). They double as sanitation workers by collecting
all the "night soil" in "honey buckets", caning it to their fields to sit in
holding pits, and using 11 on their crops, most of which will in tum be
consumed by the city folk. The quality and tas1e of the food was
cxcelleni, as was the variety. The only drawback is the danger of the
spread of diseases such as hepatitis, a danger avoided mainly with the
technique of quick and hot stir frying of foods in fuel-efficient woks.
4) Shoppers go out daily carrying their purchases in straw baskets.
There is very little plastic or paper waste generated. Produce sellers
appear at dawn at almost every street comer in the ci1y where staples such
as cabbage, noodles and tofu can be boughL
5) People maintain healthful routines. They ride or walk to their
jobs which arc invariably near their homes. They arise early and enjoy
afternoon naps during most of the year.
6) A sophisticated, human·shaped ecosystem has been evolved
lhroughouc the countryside where many ecological niches are filled with
edible creatures. Frogs and other beneficial creatures nre protected.
Female fish at binhing age are thrown back. Fanners use land
intensively. double cropping rice in summer and reaping a winter harvest
of wheat or barley as well. Yields are on Lhe average of 2 to 3 times those
of American farme~. per acre. Humans rely mainly on vegetable protein,
thus enabling every acre of land to suppon at least JO people with basic
grains and soybean products. Sophisticated crop rotations are standard
practise.
7) People do not bum fuels to keep warm in winter but tum to high
energy foods such as pork fat. and many layers of flannel underwe:ir.
Even goose down stuffed co:tts and pants are common in rur.il as well as
urban areas. Air pollution from burning diny coal is thus minimi~d.
(Note: in the bitter cold of nonh China, coal burning is common and is
cause for terrible air pollution.)
Lest we anempt to idealize the Chinese way of life, we must be
awttre that they have arrived at such an ecological and egalitarian lifestyle
only after laying waste to much of their land, especially in the vast Yellow
River Valley in nonhem China, the cradle of early Chinese civilization.
So ~at has the destruction been that the majestic Yellow River 1hreatcns
to change course yet again and is perched prccariouslv behind dikes at a
height of 9 meters above the arable plain of Shandong Province. It is kept
m check only through the continual effom of millions of man-days work
to constantly reinforce the dikes with soil dredged from the mouth of the
River!
(conunucd oo pace 30)
Summ£T, t9!JO
Xlituah Journal pa!JC 7
�THE ROAD GANG:
PORT RAIT OF A STATE TRANSPORT AT ION DEPARTMENT
by Rob Barron
During the Depression years, when local
governments were going bankrupt, and the
economic fabric of the state was coming
unravelled. the s1a1e government of North
Carolina, in order to keep the road system
solvent and functioning, took over all the counry
roads and all the major city roads in the state.
Since that time, vinually every major road in the
state has been under the domain of the Nonh
Carolina Depanment of Transportation (DOT), a
proud and arrogant bureaucracy that wields great
political and economic power.
The DOT is responsible for maintaining,
and expanding when necessary, North
Carolina's 76,000 mile road system. The DOT
executes the will of the state Board of
Transponation. The Board numbers 25 of the
most powerful people in the state. Board
member~ include pre~idems of trucking
companies, an execuuve of a billboard
company, construction executives, and one
woma~, the daughter of a family that develops
shopp10g centers. They are all politically
prominent and won their appointments to the
Board through their valuable contributions of
money. and influence to the governor's political
campaigns. These are the people who make the
transponation decisions for Nonh Carolina.
To have control over roads is to have
political leverage within the state government.
The DOT has an enormous budget. It has a
dedicated source of revenue and does not have
to come back to the legislature every year to
plead for a budget and submit its workings to
legislative scrutiny. And DOT funds are
discretionary, meaning that the Board has
complete control over how they arc spent. Thus
road funds also act as political capital.
Lobbyist Bill Holman, who works in
Raleigh on behalf o f the Nonh Carolina Chapter
of the Sierra Club and the Conservation Council
of North Carolina, says that, "Paving
somebody"s road, or widening somebody's
road, or opening up somebody's propeny with a
road ~s one of the wa>'.s tha_t a governor can help
out h1s supponers. It is a rune-honored practice
in North. Carolina politics, spanning both
Democrauc and Republican administrations. The
building of highways is the single biggest pot of
discretionary pork barrel in the state budget and
it is almost tota ll y under the control of the
governor and his appoin tees. ..
'They are into more Political wheeling and
dealing than any other agency J know. The
amount of money and the amount of discretion
they wield is truly incredible. It's an
unbelievable hassle for the Division of Parks
and Recreation to spend several hundred
thousand dollars renovating a park - and it
probably should be that way, so that there is
some accountability for how public funds are
spenL But go over to the Highway Dcparunent.
and there is an enormous amount of wheelin"
and dealing going on involving projects i~
which millions of dollars are at stake.
"I don't think that there is much
out-and-out, undcr·the-table, illegal corruption
involved. There is a 101 of what I call "legal
corrup1ion," which is not illegal, but ii sure
Xatunn Jotnnal'. pnlJi: 8
does stink. There is a lot of politics in the paving
of roads. The location of a road determines that
some people make moot. on land use
speculation and others don't. Paving
contractors, the people that mine 1he rock,
consulting engineers, all those people wire
themse.lves into the political process with
campaign contributions. There's a lot of
patronage in the DOT. So, although it's not
illegal, let me just say that I'm not convinced
that it's public money well spent."
"I've worked wi th the
Forest Service before. and the
DOT makes the Forest Service
look like warm, fuzzy teddy
bears."
- Bill Holman, Sierra Club lobbyist
The Board of Transportation's greatest
power is control over the future of development
m the state. In Nonh CnroJina, it is fairly easy to
get a septic tank permit, a well permit, and a
building pennit. The state is notorious for its
lack of zoning regulations. Thai means lha1 the
only barrier to development is siting a road.
Since the counties lost control of their local road
systems, virtually all road decisions go through
the B~ai:d of Transportation. Local county
comm1ss1oners may, however, request changes
in their county's priority roads list, and the DOT
almost always accepts their amendments.
It is easy 10 see why roads are almost the
exclusive focus of the Board of Transponation.
Roads are power. Roads are money. Roads are
influence. Rai I roads, public transportation
programs, and energy conservation programs do
not offer such personal enhancement and
charisma.
The DOT believes in roads. Roads make
changes happen. Roads produce results. The
agency takes pride in doing itS job, laying the
pavement so that people can drive their cars and
trucks to get there faster, wherever they want to
go. They are engineers. Their task is to find the
shonest distance between two points. But the
agency also sees itself as the the facilitator of
economic development. 11 is a strongly-held
myth that highways bring prosperity. Around
the State House m Raleigh it is almost axiomatic
that, "~o~ds mean jobs." This is a corollary of
the prm?1ple .that, 'Gro~tb is good" - growth
almost mvanably meanmg the conventional
model of industrial factories and shoppmg
malls.
Since "growth is good," the DOT sees no"
reason why local governments should have
plans m place before new highways are laid
~own. :ro the _DOT, urban sprawl isn't ugly and
inefficient, tt s growth. And if developers are
geui.n~ rich because the people's tax money
subs1d1zes the sewers. w:1ter, and roads for their
projects, why. the people should be grateful.
llley arc gettmg growth.
As an agency. the DOT seems to think of
the environment as something that has to be
moved aside to get a road through. The National
Environmental Policy Act and the North
Carolina Environmental Policy Act now require
environmental assessments and in some cases
more thorough environmental impact statements
for highway projects. ll still is a :;truggle,
however, to get the DOT to follow
environmental regulations.
Road construction has massive direct
~ffec1s on the land. ~t best,. a new highway
involve~ eart~·mo.v1ng, soil turning and
compacuon, obbterauon of trees and other native
vegetation, fragmentation of forest habitat, and
of course habitat displacement in favor of the
usual pavement and grass highway landscape.
At worst, rondbuilding involves all this plus
stream siltation, filling of wetlands, and
destruction of rare and endangered habitats.
But unquestionably the most destructive
aspect of highway construction is the increased
human use and inevitable permanent
devel.oement that moves in along every road
once 11 IS in place.
An interesting dichotomy occurs here. Jn
selling their road plans, politicians and DOT
of!icials trumpet the amount of development that
will follow once road construction is completed.
They wax eloquent about the new factories.
malls, homes, and additional people the new
road will bring.
Once the road plan is adopted, however,
and it is time to prepare the environmental
assessments and impact statements, that same
development becomes completely insignificant.
It is a "secondary impact," implying that it is not
at all of primary imponance, and the public is
assured that this project (whichever project is
under discussion) has been carefully planned to
have little effect on the local environment. Jn the
language of the DOT, that same developmen t
that will have such a tremendous ecomomic
impact on the community wiJl be only a speck
on t~e local landscape, hardly enough to
menuon.
Up Aga inst a D·9 'Dozer
Environmentally-concerned citizens have
found the DOT to be an obstinate agency to deal
with, especially as the Depanment considers real
estate developers and contractors to be their
special constituency.
Holman says, "I've worked with the
Forest Service before, and the DOT makes the
Forest Service look like warm, fuzzy teddy
bears. The DOT is a relatively arrogant agency.
It is an agency that is used to getting its way. It
is an agency that is convinced that it is right, and
it doesn't take kindly to environmentalists or
anyone else proposing alternatives or criticizing
a particular route. So far, we have had very little
success in working with the DOT. They have
had so much clout, they haven't needed to
negotiate."
I low the DOT comes to have such clout is
apparent in the story of the Highway Trust
Fund, the $8.8 billion highway construction bill
that the Nonh Carolina legislature passed nearly
unanimously in 1989.
Eugene Brown. a political activist from
(contmucd on ncit p>.gl')
Summer, I 990
�THE HIGHWAY TO NOWHERF.
1he Durham area, tells 1he s1ory of the
Highway Trust Fund legislation:
"Jt was an example of the old saying I.hat
there are two things thar you should not
watch being made: sausage and state
laws. It epitomized the pork-barrel
approach to enacting legislation.
"When the legislators arrived in Raleigh
last year, most of them knew I.hat there would be
some type of a highway bill. Governor Manin
h~d promised that there would be a highway
bill. (Speaker of the House} Mavretic wanted it,
along.with some other key legislators. So they
esrablished a Highway Study Commission. This
commission traveled throughout the state and
held a long series of public meetings, basically
with the Chamber of Commerce people, elected
officials, developers, and bankers. The
commission came and basically said, "Well, do
you need any new roads here?"
"What do you think the response is going
to be from folks who fi1 into any of those
categories? h's going to be, 'Sure, we need
some new roads!' The Highway Study
Commission turned into a "gimme" session. h
was almost like asking fraternities if they wanted
free beer or asking the Pentagon if it needed any
new weapons.
."During the course of this study, very few
questJons arose about economic priorities,
cost/benefit ratios, alternatives to automobiles,
or mass transit. The politicians wanted new
roads, and they used the Highway Study
Commission to instigate what they called
"grassroots suppon" - but basically it was big
money support.
"Once the Highway Study Commission
report was in, the leading politicians came back
10 their colleagues in the I louse and the Senate
and said, "We need this road bill." So someone
from Charlotte said. 'Well. 1 know that you
need a few roads down east. but what can you
do for me?' and someone else said, 'What can
you do for me up in Winston-Salem?'
"It was a mushroom effect. ft blossomed,
not like nowers, like weeds. The strategy that
""'.as used to pass this bill was a very simple one:
give everyone what they want. And that's
exactly what happened - everyone got promised
everything they wanted."
. Almost all of North Carolina's legisla1ors
capitulated to the power of the growth ethic, and
the $8.8 billion Highway Trus1 Fund was
adop1ed wi1hou1 any serious opposition on the
noor.
Stalling the Machine
Bill Holman secs some hope in legislative
slrategies 1hat can chip away at the roads
package. "Remember," he says, "that one
legislature cannot bind another, and legislators
often change their minds, especially when they
hear from their constituents."
Even if the DOT received all the $8.8
billion allotted for roads, it would still be
impossible LO build all the roads listed in the bill.
And getting all $8.8 billion may be a problem.
The state government is already $419 million
overdrawn on its budget. All the other
depanmcnts of the state government arc feeling
the pinch and may begin to hover around the
smell of pork fat coming from the Highway
Buildinl? in Raleigh.
ln i1s eagerness 10 build roads, the DOT is
itself falling behind in its own maintenance
program and may have 10 divert construction
funds to care for roods already built.
Ed Harrison. Transponation Chair for the
NC Conservation Council and the NC Sierra
Club chapter. says that one lesson 10 be learned
i~ vigilance. He emphasizes that transponation
planning is a long·term process, going in seven
steps from conccpl, to proposal, 10 planning, to
Traveling slowly along a winding
secondary road I 0 miles from the town of
Robbinsville, North Carolina, drivers are often
surprised when they come upon a major
highway development that leaves the small
county route and strikes off into the far
mountains.
They have stumbled onto the entrance to
The Highway to Nowhere.
h is also known as the Tellico
Plains-Robbinsville Road. It extends '>i7 mil"S
through the Nant;ihala l'\ational forest bet\\ ccn
the two towns, one in Monroe County,
Tennessee and the other in Graham Count\',
Nonh Carolina. The tWO•l:tnc highway runs on
a wide, graded ro:idbed that cuts through terrain
that is steep, wild, and dangerous, disruptini: n
remote habitat area I.hat was once a sanc:tuary-for
the most reclusive of native wildlife. It is a road
that should never have happened. From its very
beginning the project "as ill-advbt:d, and its
history is one of destruction that has become
more Wld more expensive each s1ep along its
route.
The road was begun in the nurry of public
works spending during the War on Poveny
years. Residents of the two towns requested the
road, dramatizing their appeal with a wagon
train from Tellico Plains 10 Murphy, Nonh
Carolina 10 show the distance they had to travel.
The projec1 was authorized in 1962 to be
cons.tr~cted by the F~der~I Highway
Adm1n1strauon (FHA) as n 'scenic highway to
spur economic development in the two towns."
Construction began on both ends of the
road in 1965. On the Nonh Carolina side 4.6
miles of pavement were laid up Santeetlah Gap
along what is now the boundary between the
Joree Kilmer.Memorial Forest and the adjoining
Shckrock Wilderness Area. Work s1opped in
1969, however, wilh the passage of the National
Environmental Policy Acr (NEPA), which
required environmental impact SU1temen1s for
major projects throu~h sensitive areas.
Environmental groups successfully protested the
route through an ar~a soon 10 be designated
"ildemess, and a new alignment was chosen.
The roadway already buih was abandoned and
still can be seen. a monument to the folly of The
Highway to Nowhere.
Construction was resumed until 1977
when excavation in I.he Hemlock Creek-McNabb
Creek drainage on the Tennessee side uncovered
a deposit of pyriric rock material, which
releases a highly acidic leachate that kills stream
life. The short-term response was to release a
20% solution of sodium hydroxide, a highly
caustic but shon-lived chemical, that raised the
pH at the mouth of the creeks to 5.8. Then the
pyritic rock deposits were buried under topsoil
which wa~ limed and reseeded as a permaneni
control measure.
. li?wevcr, continued wa1er quality
mon11onng revealed that, although the addition
of the sodium hydroxide solution had
temporarily raised pH to levels tolerable to fish
nnd other stream life, as soon as these ll1:atments
were stopped the rneams had become acidic
again. The permanent mitigation measures had
failed.
(ccntilwcd on page 27)
(continu<d on page 11)
S\lmmn, t 990
,........
...
�It is 3!' innocu~us-seeming Listing among
the many in the thick TIP (Transportation
lmproveme~t Plans) book published by the
Nonh Carolina D~P!1f_tment of Transportarion
(DOT): NC D1111s1on 13 .. ID number
A-10..•. .30.4 miles from 1-240 in Asheville,
NC to rite Ten11essee state line a1 Sam's Gap
fo11r-la11e freeway, part on new
/ocation ... $136,700,000 .... But these few
simple_ phra~es spell more change for the
mountain region.
A1 present Route 19-23 leaves Asheville
North Carolina as a four-lane highway on th~
way to the Tn-City area of Johnson Ci1y
Kingsport, and Bristol. Tennessee. Just north of
\1ars I lill the route divides. with Route 19
veering east to Burnsville, and Route 23
continuing as a two-lane road, improved with a
passing_ lane on some grades, over Murray
Mountain and up 10 the Tennessee state line at
Sam's Gap on the Appalachian crest. On the
01her side of the mountains, 1he road winds
dow!l through the Cherokee National Forest,
passing t~rough massive earth-moving and road
construcuon before reaching Erwin, Tennessee
and 1hen continui~g <?n 10 Johnson City,
Interstate 8 1, the Ohio River Valley, and points
north and west.
T~e 15 miles of road construction
proceeding on the Tennessee side will widen the
route to a four-lane all t11e way to the state line at
Sam's _Gap. The Sme of North Carolina is
prepanng to do the same, either by improving
Route 23 along its present route (Alternative A)
or by creatin g Route 1-26, a contr0lled-acces~
freeway that would rake a srraigh1ercourse from
Mars Hill 10 the state line (Alternative D). Just
for the sake of discussion the DOT also offers a
"n<? ~uild" alternative 1ha; would leave the route
as It IS.
. . "Alternative A" would cos1 the state $48
null_1<?n and would cause the relocation of 77
faauhes and five businesses. "Alternative D"
would _cost $64,850,000 and would require the
relocanon of 52 families and six businesses.
The DOT, lhe "Chambers." lhe bankers,
~e truc.kers, .. and the developers favor
Al~emauve D, of C?u~. They promise 5,400
vehicles per day bnng10g money, Jobs. and
goods for the backward and impoverished
people of th~ moumain region. They say that
Route 1-26 will open the door of opportunity for
the So~thern Appalachians, connccling them
more directly to the eastern population centers
and the midwestem industrial centers.
However, I-26 is more likely 10 open
Pand~ra's mythical box of troubles.
H1stor:call}'._. new roads bring increased auto
polluuon, increased land prices. increased
mfrns~cture taxes, and increased crime and
congestion wherever they go. Most of all.
however, they ~ring more people. "ow quiet
rural areas. Madison and Yancey Counties will
never be t~e same after the opening of 1-26
channels inter-state traffic throug h their
m?untains and the side roads are upgraded and
"'1dcned to ex1cnd !he development.
As Ed Harrison, Transponation Chair for
the NC Conservation Council and ~C Sierra
Club Chapter, tells us. highway projec1s are a
OPENING
PANDORA'S BOX:
THE I-26 PROJECT
TO COLUMBUS
TO CHARLESTON
long time in the making. The idea of upgrading
Route 23 was first proposed in 1973 in the
Appalachian !-lighway Development Program.
Study began m 1977 and the alternative route
now touted as the 1-26 corridor was
~ecommended in 1978. The concept was stalled
m the early 1980's, but interest was renewed
wh~n T~nnessee began widening the corridor on
~heir. s1d~ of the state line.. Preliminary
1den11ficauon of the alternative routes now being
c?mpleted. 1he .DOT is now analyzing the
different a!1em~11ves. An environmental impact
statement 1~ bemg prepared by the J.E. Greiner
Co. of Raleigh. The final environmental impac1
statement is schedule~ 10 be completed by
August, 1991. The design phase will continue
until the spring of 1994, when the DOT will
begin 10 acquire right of ways. Consrruction is
scheduled to begin in the spring of 1996.
The environmental impact of the new
highway corridor would be immense. Thc:re is
no such thing ru. an environmentally-sensitive
four-lane highway project, and the DOT is
notorious for causing sedimen1a1ion problems.
The proposed 1·26 route parallels or crosse:; 15
stream~. The road plan calls for an interchange
on Big Laurel Creek, known as one of the 1en
best trout streams on the the French Broad river
watershed. The four-lane ..., ill make a wide
break i~ the Appalachian Trail at S:im's Gap.
There 1s talk of a welcome center on the
ridgeline of the Appalachian crest.
But Appalachian Trail hikers are nor the
only ones walking the mountains. The widt:ned
1-26 highway clearing will be a significant
b~rrier l? migration, particularly for
wide-roaming black bears. It will eliminate
native forest habitat for one-half mile on either
side of 1he roadway and cause further opening
an~ frn~mentation of the Pisgah National Forest.
which is already patchy, ragged. and poorly
conncc1ed.
~Vhcn a forest is broken open by n road or
other 1mrusion, interior-dwelling species 1ha1
pr.:fcr shade and larger trees lose their habitat
and rerrem 10 poorer habi1at areas. They become
more vu!nerable 10 more aggressive
edge-dwelling creatures that take their territory
and .raid th.cir food s~pplics: The gene pool
declines as II becomes increasingly difficulr for
shy, backcountry species to find breeding
partners, because the once-extensive habital has
been cut into smaller and smaller islands from
which individuals find it harder and harder 10
escape.
Biolo~is'ts propose various mitigation
sch~mes:_ using European "bridge and tunnel"
engineenng, as opposed to the traditional
American "cut and fill" method. Bridges and
tunnels leave natural wildlife crossings 1ha1 are
safe fro~ l~e highway traffic. However, they
funn~I w1ldl. fe traffic_ into lhesc few designated
1
cro.s~mg pomts, making them easy targets for
wa1ung hunters. To avoid this unfair advantage
hunting would have to be banned for one-half
mile on either side of the roadway. Leaving
c~ver and thick underbrush 10 the edge of the
n!lht of way would help protect crossing
am ma ls.
Th~ primary problem in highwa>·
c?nstrucuon, however, is what is termed by the
h1ghw~y department as "secondary effects.''
Essenually, these are lhe results of human
access. Because of the highway, there will be
more people traveling through. More of these
p~ople will stop and stay. Because of the
highway, more people will move funher into !he
ru:al areas of t~e counry - it will be easier to
drive 1.nto the cuy 10 w~rk. Land prices will go
up. srnctly because of highway access.
Those who live along the 1-26 corridor
now may not be able to afford to do so ten years
in the future. The area may not look the same,
and they may not want to live there ten years in
the futu!.~· The proponents of the 1-26 plan talk
of 1hc 101crchange developments" that will
se.rve as_centers from which economic growth
w~ll radtate ~ut 1n10 the county. They will do
this; there will be convenience stores. used car
lots, fa~t food restaurants, and shopping centers
extending along the roads away from the
1~1erchanges in every direction. The
"mterch~nge developme!1ts" will sci the pace for
growth in the 1-26 comdor, and they will also
set the style for growth : fast. cheap. and
dependent on automotive transportation.
F~land will be traded in for parking lots. and
Madison and Yancey Counties will begin 10 look
like every other area "along the slab."
-RB~
NO BUILD®
XatUah Journaf '>IMJe lO
S\&mmer, 1990
�THE ROAD GANG continued rrom ~c 9
program, to final planning and design, followed
by land acquisition. and then cons1ruction.
He emphasizes that the first stages,
concept and proposal. are where it is easiest 10
block road cons1ruc1ion: 'The planning process
gets voted on by local officials, and having
liason with local elected officials is really the
best way to keep IJ'ack of what's going on. I
find that what works is to keep them in office
and tell them, 'Anything that ever happens with
a road, tell us .. .'
"Catch a new road early when it's just a
sketch line on a map."
The $8.8 billion road bill may be an
expensive lesson for environmental activists and taxpayers as well. Bill Holman renects on
the lesson that hopefully has been learned:
"The highway bill has served 10 wake up
Lhe environmentalists about the imponance of
these transportation plans. We have played a
very small role in the transportation debate, but
trnnsponation is behind the sprawling kind of
gTowth we have in North Carolina. Now the
DOT has woken us up."
Because the behavior patterns of deer or
bear arc not likely to change greatly. it is possible
10 come up with a number which represents the
carrying capacicy of of a panicular IJ'aCt of land
for these and other animal species. People have
much more complicated behavior and their
numbers matter much less than how they choose
to live. What do they eat and where does it come
from? What do they wear and where does it
come from? What type of buildings do they live
in? What type of fuel, if any. do they bum, and
what do they burn it in? Are they spread out or
focalizcd in their habitation pauem? Where do
they shit? What are their recreational activities?
What kind of shoes do they wear? What kind of
pets. if any, do they keep? Where, how, and
how much do they travel? What is their water
usage? What is their attitude towards wildlife?
The number of people in any given area is only
one ~f many variables in a carrying capacity
equation.
We can imagine a community of people
who ride to work on bulldozers, cut trees all day,
and keep a gun with them at all umes for
shooting anything that moves. At night they
retreat to a nuclear-powered castle and cat several
pounds of songbird tongueburgers. What 1s
Katuah's carrying capacity for this type of
rugged individual?
It is also easy to imagine tribes of people
wirh a religious reverence for nature and their
own place in it. Their homes and clothes are
modest. Their villages are powered by the Sun
and by the people themselves. Bicycles are the
means of transportation. Amaranth and com
Summer. 1990
"CARING CAPACITY"
grown in river bottoms are the main foods. They
tend huge oak and chestnut groves and share
their bounty with all creatures. Their waste is
recycled so that there is really no waste. What is
Katuah's carrying capacity for these people?
What right do we have to say?!
"What is our carrying capacity for love?"
is a much more relevant question.
There will be n srrong tendancy to rry 10
form some simple equation such a~ "number of
people x level of technology
=
carrying
capaciry." ff rhis could be divided by level of
conciousness. ic would be closer to the truth, but
it leaves out the factor of land suitability, and
leaves me wondering what we arc trying to prove
with this son of argument anyway? Anyone we
talked into leaving with this line of reasomng
would be the very person we wanted 10 stay•
Overdevelopment and the degradation of
our natural environment is a terrifying disaster
and we are so frustrated in coming up with
solutions that it is very tempting to point to
human numbers as the root of the problem. This
is a dangerous oversimplification. It takes away
our own culpability, which i~ a considerable
factor in the case of everyone I know. With very
few exceptions we still use cars and/or plug into
the main electrical network. Few of us recycle
everything possible or use recycled products in
all the places which we could. Few of us, at
present. use composting toilet~. Few of us grow
more than a symbolic amount of our own food.
Our clothes f114ly be made of cotton and wool. bur
where did these fibers come from? What is
sprayed on the couon? What happens to the
lambs? What mills knit the fibers into cloth? We
are a culture in transition. It is, in some respects.
a forced march into the future in which we are
panicipating. A trail of tears where our own
sorrow at the plighr of our people and our planet
moves us ever onward toward simpler and belier
ways of living. To sit down now and cast blame
on others is not a very honorable thing to do.
Most of the people who are most vocally
concerned with the environmental quaJity of
Kauiah arc themselves transplants 10 this region.
This makes it especially hypocritical for us to
blame newcomers or the simple gro~th of
numbers for the area's problems. We should
concenlnlte instead on developing a satisfying,
low impact life-style which is so atlnlCtive that it
is irresistible.
There is no percentage for us in ma.king
people feel guilty for their existence. There is
everything for us to gain in maintaining and
spreading a positive vision of humans living in
harmony with Earth and Spirit. As we work to
raise our level of conciousness. our lifestyle
becomes sustainable and our population growth
stabilizes, not as a burdensome discipline, but as
willing and joyous obedience to our own besr
interests.
,
• Will Asht! Bason
X.Otulih Jou~n4' pa9c l t
--
�PEOPLE AND HABITAT:
An Historical Overview
the entire region before white comacL
The native people manipulated their
environment with a technology based on fire and
stone tools. Even though they had developed a
sophisticated system of agriculture before the
arrival of the first white people, it is clear they
never exceeded the ability of the region to
support them. They did not interfere with the
capability of the habitat ro provide for other
fonns of life; quite to the contrary, the native
by Chip Smith and Lee Kinnaird Fawccu
This is a first. The Kan1ah Journal is
reprinting one of its own articles. This article
first appeared in a longer fom1 in Issue 25 (Fall,
1989) and was the seed rhar developed into the
current issue on carrying capaciry. lss11e 25 is
sold 0111 and no longer ll\lailable, and this article
provides valuable links in denumstrating how
carrying capacity works in our region, so
we are running this shortened and revised
version of the original piece to give a
complete treatment ofthe topic.
While many view the pastoral scenes
and remote majesty of the Southern
Appalachians as all-enduring, trends in
human population migration and unrelenting
resource extraction have had monumental
effects upon wildlife and the diverse flora of
their native habitat. Today little remains
unaltered by the effects of human activity.
The landscape we view today is a threatened
glimmer of what was once, but it srill exists
as one of the most diverse ecosystems on
the North American continent.
A historical perspective of human
manipulation of the Kauiah province will
help raise the question of the proper
carrying capacity for human beings in our
bioregion - the level that allows for the
preservation of wild habitat.
people relied on that capability for their
continued existence.
The arrival of the first Europeans,
however, changed conditions drastically. The
first immigrants represented the overflow from a
land already subject to conditions of dire
overpopulation. The Old World represented a
vinually inexhaustible well of humanity that
flooded over the new frontier. After the
Early Inhabitants and First lmmigrants
The Cherokee lndians and the indigenous
people before them lived in balance with their
world, utilizing the offerings of their Eden. Best
estimntes give the native population as anywhere
from 22,000 to 50,000 individuals throughout
mountain highlands were first penerrated by
DeSoto in 1540, the question of access was of
paramount importance in the development of the
Southern Appalachians.
The native culture, tied to the land and her
offerings, was rapidly overrun by the streams of
white-skinned senlers that moved m along the
major Indian trails through the Shenandoah
Valley and from the Atlantic Tidewater area,
widening the trails into roads as they went so
that others could more easily follow.
The first small communities sprang
up along the river valleys and larger coves
of the Watauga, French Broad, Little
Tennessee, and Hiwassee watersheds.
Although few and far between, their
presence was marki:d by the agrarian need
for cleared land. The bottomlands and
wetlands were cleared or drained first,
and then trees were felled on the side
slopes to make room for more fields and
pastures. As the first settlements became
towns, the clearings spread deeper into
the mountains following small and muddy
roads that wound along the river and
stream tributaries.
These first settlers lived largely off
the land, much in the manner of their
native predecessors. Like the Indians
'" before them, the white settlers annually
burned off the forest floor. However,
because of their greater numbers, this had a
much greater effect on the forest than it ever had
before. Even so, until the end of the 19th
century most of the mountain highlands
remained an impenetrable wilderness.
Daunted by the richness of the New
World, the Europeans regarded the productive
capacity of the land as limitless, leading them to
farm ard hunt carelessly and without regard for
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�also arrived on the rails, and sanitariums and
luxury hotels offered all !he comfons a ~ and
ailing flaLlandcr could desire.
Commerce was the primary reason for
pushing through the railroads, and in the
Soulhem Appalachian region, commcrce meant
timber. Large tracts of land, often
30,000-200,000 acres in size, were opened up
to exploitation and soon surrendered their
bounty. Temporary company towns were built
at the base of major watersheds and railroad
lines extended into the highest coves.
The early timber barons were
industrialists, not foresters, and !hey neither
knew nor cared about the ideals of sustained
timber yields and forest regeneration. Their
the future. Because they were completely
ignorant of ecological balances, they
exterminated game species of animals and birds
and slaughtered the native predators so that their
domestic livestock could free-range in the
woodlands. Hogs and turkeys were particularly
well-adapted to the forest environment and
thrived on the fall mast provided each yea.r.
Once fattened, these were gathered into large
"droves" and walked along the "drovers' roads"
to markets in the piedmont.
Mountaineers also traditionally foraged
for medicinal roots in the forest. As commercial
demand for these natural remedies began to
grow, medicinal roots became a prime baner
item in town and at the crossroad country stores.
As wagonloads of ginseng and other
potent roots and herbs began to roll
down the twisting mountain roads to the
eastern ciries, the rate of trade began to
threaten the survival of ginseng and
other herbaceous forest plants.
The Industrial Era
Grinding mills and small saw
mills were the height of industrial
production in the highlands until the
mid-1800's. The baner system was the
usual means of exchange. The US
Census estimated the population in the
18 western counties of North Carolina
at 200,000 in 1890. The lifestyle was
still based primarily on subsistence
agriculture, hunting, and foraging.
However. in 1880. the first train
into the mountains pulled into
Asheville, and the Southern Appalachians were
changed forever. The railroads represented a
new degree of access. and they brought
exponential population growth, absentee land
ownership, and industrial commerce.
The population of the city of Asheville
(which today is only somewhat greater than
65,000 people) mushroomed from 2,000 in
1880 to more than 10,000 by 1890. Tourism
rainfall. and severe flooding occum:d in J896.
1901, and 1909, and periodically into cbe
1940's.
A mountain native, the Reverend A.E.
Brown provided first-hand insight in an
interview in lheManufacruru's Record in 1910:
"•.. these mountains were full of sparkling
brooks and creeks which required a rwo or three
week rain to make them muddy; today a few
hours of rain will muddy them.... Many of the
mountain streams are dry throughout the
summer and fall, while in winter. the waters
descend in torrents and do vast damage
rendering wonhless the bottom lands... The
sides of mountains have been denuded of their
topsoil and bottom lands h~ve been overflowed
and swept away ...
Shonly after the end of World
War 1, most of the timber barons had
rom up their tracks and moved on to the
Pacific Northwest. By 1930 only a few
companies, such as Champion
Corporation, were left. In the wake of
the timber rush, and at the onset of the
nation's worst drought and the chestnut
blight, litLle was left for human or beast:
T he Present-day Forest
or
(What You See Is W hat ls Leh )
mastery of the new steam technology gave them
access to the most remote reaches of the
mountain forest, and the destruction they
wrought there was unprecedented. The damage
to the species composition of the forest was
irrevocable, as was the damage to the soil. By
the early I930's 80 percent of the mountain
landscape had been burned over. Lmle was left
to shield the soil from the area's high levels of
Between the 1940's and the
1960's the population growth of the
Kaufah province slowed. The mountain
binhrate remained high. as it had in the
past, but many young folks left the
mountains to find wage work in the
cities of the cast and the midwest. The bumpy
roads offered a way out of the mountains to seek
the American Dream.
During the l 960's and the l 970's,
however, a change took place. The isolation of
the "backward" Appalachians began to look
appealing to flatlanders sick of noise, crowds,
and pollution. and perhaps sick at hean at the
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�When we design our human systems, we need to
assure that we are not disrupting this flow of life,
which is integral to our own llie.
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,
Designing with the Whole Life Community in Mind
by Mamie Muller
The solely human<cntercd approach to design in which the
environment acts as in.1mmate baclcdrop lo human activity is n9 longcr
possible. It has resulted in disruption of the wider life community of the
planet and has begun threatening our entire biological life support systt>m.
We in this Euro-culture .ire finally beginning to realize that we al"t'
of the Earth. Advances in tht' scit'nccs are bringing to us the information
th;it we arc literally in the planet not on it and that our human activities
are intimately interwoven with the water cycle, tht' air cycle. the carbon
cycle. We al"t' beginning to rcahz.c that the way we form our :.culcmcnts,
our transportation routes, our commt'l're, and other hum.in functions not only
affect hu1rJ1n culture, but the whole ecological community of which we arc
a part.
At present. our contemporary capacity for accclerallon and
cxpont•ntiali1..:ition has brought the question of human impact on the
natural world out ol the rc:ilm of "a ni<e thing tu consid(·r· in dl'Slgn and
placed it squarely in front of u~. asa qul'Stlon 0f sur11h•al. Yet, our ability
to rL'-<.'Onstcllate our human systems m response to dirL'Ct fceclti.1ck falls
short o{ what is required.
One consideration In understanding this dih:mma ts to rcJlize that
wens n culture may not be fu/111 ugzstering the fccdb:lck wc arc n.'« 1vmg
as to the dcllllstation of the planC't. The mformatton coming in m.1y be
octually outpaang our oomprchtns1.0n of 11. It may also be th.it our
perimeter& of rcahty have become so limited that we arc not fully
"hearing" the natural world ~peak to us about this cruoal information.
Our insular patterning of urbamzat1on. including concrete pathways,
processed nutrihon, and televised m1lity m;iy bi! blocking us from this
information. We may simply be recording ~·hatcver is coming in a5 "noise"
or "static" and may not, in fact, be fully not1dng the drasllc d1m1rushmcnt
in quality of life.
What now-Those of us who arc catching ghmmcrs of the vibrant,
!unctioofng life communuy that surrounds us and co-exists with us need to
revive our capacities to sec, hear, taste, fccl ...beyond the "broadcast1xr
Kati'mh Jou!nnL PC19C 11
boundaries of the rontcmporary world. We need to discern what is
supcrfioal to our hfe support system and what is elemental We ncecl to
Ix-gin insisting on design models that describe to us the full reality of our
situation-both human as well as IX'Ological.
In our modclhng, we nl'cd to ac:knowlcdge natural boundarit'S, not ju5t
human-m.1dc boundancs, and to lillc.c into full account ecological systems
suc:h as watersheds, wind patterns, gcologiCll formations, etc. Our models
ncecl to incorporate ecological prindpf('!; such as entropy, renewal,
biological exch.1nge, canying cap.1dty, and appropriate scale in an
integral way We ncecl 10 be factonng m rra/ costs o( projects not just the
"set prices-. Rc.11 costs include environmental considerations, hc.ilth
considerations, as well as cumulahw affects and long·tenn conscqut'n<X?S.
A primary asp<>Ct of th<.> ecological modd is oni:? of orculatio11. The
cll'$1gn of hum11n routes needs to be done in the context of other kinds of
routes and patterns of orculation. The water cycle, the air currents. (even
the Eiirth m ll5 orbit, and the moon in us orb1t)".all circulate and h.wc a
tX'aring on each othl.'r. /II ignition routes or animals; routes of :5(.'(.<ds m the
wind, pathways or the sand-sharing dune s~k'ltl; animal route:, for Bl"CCSS
to water, tocxl, and for returrung to br<"Cdmg grounds; routes of bees
p(lllin.-iung flowers, etc. arc all ilspc<"ts of the ctmil:itory p.ittcm of thl'
\\id~ Life community. Human route~ arc ill tht context of thb symphony of
movement.
In this culture we tend to think ufthc farth nsa "noun·, but in
act1L1hty, a grt'at deal of Earth functions as "verb" And our models need to
reflect that. \\'hen we clcsign our human systtms, we need to as~mrc that we
arc not disrupting this flow oi hfe, v;hich is mtt'gt'al to our own life.
lntercstmgly, with our culture's sencral overall design promoting cxcc:;sivc
mobility. our chihzatlon is bl'\."Omlng "verb" as well, whether we like 11 or
not. Our nc:ccss to work, school, social ach\~tics, and so forth requires th.it
we "circubtc". The fact is that many of us arc conung to "dwdl" m our
automobiles as well as our homes. Poor or non-existent urban planning as
Summitr, t 99!1
�well as other physical and psychological factors have created forced
mobility and diminished the quality of life not only of humans but also the
rest of the Ufe community.
When conditions reach such proportlons as they have now, in tenns
of the welfare of the planet as well as that of humans and its other
inhabitants, what is required in our modelling and our problem-solving?
In order to develop comprehensive models, we need to be in touch with
what values we want to nurture as a culture. No culture is value-free. Form
informs. The forms that we craft to encompass and facilitate our human
activities inform and shape us at every tum. Form reflects values whether
we itttenlionally ascribe to them or nol IL is important that we bring into
consciousness the values we want to nurture and let them become an integral
aspect of our d1?Sign of human systems.
It is essential to understand what is elemental to the life support
system and what is superficial. We need in a public way to acknowledge
our community priorities and encourage policy-making and incentives to
support these priorities. We also need to develop comprehensive indicators
for ecological health.
In this culture we tend to think of the Earth
as a "noun"... but in actuality, a great deal of
Earth functions as "verb".
Also in our modelling. it is essential that we employ more than 1ust
linear logic. Linear logic gives us solutions such as "add a lane"' to deal
with population increase and the rise in motor vehicles on the highways.
Relying on this kind of logic, we end up with the solution of "44 lanes of
interstate traffic". Multi-dimensional logic is required. logic which
encompasses questions of scale, cumulative effects, appropriate use,
multi-level interplay of factors, etc.
And logic is only D7U! facet of our neurophysiological capacity for
perception and problem-solving. We have available to us whole ranges of
perception and creative interplay for interacting with the Life community
in which we live. We have the capacity for in-depth perception and
imaginative reflection as to how our human designs would interact with
and affect the whole...both spatiallyI physically, developmentally, and
psychically. We have the capacity to kinesthetically perceive rhythms
as well as the disruption of rhythms, and we have the imagination to
envision restoration.
Design can serve to obfuscate or reveal the natural world to us. It can
heighten or reduce our capacity to synchronize with other life rhythms
besides our own. A culture can actually design for symbiosis, CXH>peration,
mtegratton, and inclusion with the wider ecological Ufe community.
What is important in design is the reliance on fresh, attentive perception
regarding the nature of our multi-dimensional reality rooted in the natural
world.
This is a pivotal time in our planers history. We have the capacity
to witness whole ecological systems at work and to design our human
systems to comprehensively interlace with these wider processes. It is up to
us to renew our inherent capacity to "'listen" to the natural world...and to
act in concert with it. Only when we let its full reality be present to every
aspect of our senses are we capable of designing for our own well-being in'
relation to the rest of the Life community.
This paper was part of a presentation by Thomas Berry and
Marnie Muller at the Third Biennial International Linear P11rks
Conference held in Asheville, North Carolina, Katuah Prouinct, ~
~t~
~
Steady State
The Economics of 'Biophysical Equilibrium and Moral Growth
by Jim Houser
"Ecology means the study (-logy) of the home (eco-), while economics means the
management (-nomy) of the home. Accordingly, economics is merely a branch, or
discipline, of the larger study of ecology."
The coming of Spring makes me realize the KatUah region is quite
probably one of the last few paradises left on Earth. Perhaps, it is one of
the few places on Earth that have ever been paradise (or as close as we
on an earthly plane can get). Whatever the case may be, it is
undoubtedly a paradise now. The air feels clean to the lungs. It is crisp
and soothing. and fills one with a strength and a sen~ of well being. The
wat<.'r Is abundant and clean, making the soil rich and fruitful. The
flowers bloom everywhere in the Spring; a wild panorama of colors and
sublime beauty which I don"t quite understand why we deserve. But then
1 realize that we don't "deserve" it. It is just here, and so arc we. It ts
part of us, and we are part of ll There is no question of whether or not we
deserve it, we are simply here. The question 1s whether we can hve on
this land "'lthout ncccssanly destroying it. As Wendell Berry says in
the Gift of Co()J Land,
To live we must daily break the body and shed th!! blood of
creation. When we do this loVlngly, skillfully, reverently, it is
a sacrament. When we do it ignorantly, grccd.ily, clumsily,
destructively, ii is a desecrallon. ln such dcsccration we
condemn ourselv1:s to spintual and moral lon<?hness, and others
to want.
There is a new group of C<"onomists who decry the lack of moral and
c!thical judgements in modem economics and cite this ddicicncy as one of
the reasons for our current economic: and ecological d~tenoration. They
arc led by Herman E. Daly, an economics professor presently employed in
the envtronmcntaJ section of the World &nk.
S"'mmcr, 1990
Daly maintains that modem economic thoory docs not concern itself
with ultimate endS- The standard textbook definition of economics states
that it is "the study of the allocation of scarce means among competing
ends, where the object of the allocation 1s the maximization of those
ends." But modem economic scsence has taken on the guise of an exact
science, like physics, and has, accordingly, made itself devoid of ethical
questions, focusing all of their attention on what Daly refers to as
Intermediate Ends, hke food, warmth, and education. Jn current economic
thinking, success is attained by achieving these goats, regardless of the
means employed, whether they be a tolilhtarian state, environmental
degradation, or destruction of life.
Daly likes to point out, however, that economitS began as a branch
of moral philosophy. T.R. Malthus m htS classic work the Pnnriples of
Politiazl Economy wrote, "Political Economy bears a nearer resemblance
to the soence of morals and politics than to that of mathematics." For
the early economists like Adam Smith, who wrote Tht Thtory of Moml
Sentiments, the most important test of economic institutions was thcir
effect on moral character.
For economists to cut themselves off from knowlcdgt' obtainC'd
through introspc-chon 1s a perversion of their dlidpline. What has
happened as a result is that economists have li\'ed up to the observation
of Oscar Wilde who pointed out that "an economist i5 a man <sic> who
knows the pnce of everything and the value of nothing".
In h1> three books, Strady-State Economics; Economics, Ecology,
Ethics: Essnys on iz Sltady State Economy (which he edited); and For
tht Common Good, wnttcn with theologian John Cobb, Daty attempts to
bring economists, and everyone else, back to a realm where they can
(ClOllllnll<d on ncitt pegc)
Ju.u.\+nh Journ~ ptUJC IS
�(oonlinued &om page IS)
discern the true value of things. He calls this realm the "steady-state
economy;" an economy consciously directed according to the laws of
ecology, as all economies should be, since ecology 1s the basis for
understanding the conditions under which economics and humanity must
function. Ecology means the study (-logy) of the home Ceco-), while
economics means the management (-nomy) of the home. Accordingly,
economics is merely a branch, or discipline, of the h1rger study of ecology.
Orthodox economists do not realize this, says Daly. He cites the
futility of considering a rise in the Gross National Product (GNP) as an
indicator of a healthy society. Obviously, any theory which espouses
unlimited growth in a finite biosphere 1s absurd. Modem economists get
around this by claiming that GNP is a measure of value. while ignoring
the physical aspects of this value. As Daly points out, the fact that
wealth is measured in value units (dollars) docs not negate its physical
dimensions.
We could place a higher and higher value on anything for an
infinite length of time, but the actual supply of any material is clearly
finite. To give raw materials "value" we must use energy, and, according
to the second law of thermodynamics, that total pool of energy 1s always
decreasing. As Daly points out in Stcady-Stalt Eco1wmics,
Daly calls the flow of production and consumption "throughput."
"Steady-state" implies equilibrium, in which the rate of inflow is equal
to the rate of outflow. A balanced rate of throughput is the key to
maintaining the equilibrium or the "constant stock," (the life support
capability of the natural world).
Daly uses the analogy of a lake to make this point clear. In order to
maintain the level of a lake, the amount of water flowing into the lake
must be the same as the amount flowing out. Ir more water flows out than
nows in, the lake would eventually dry up.
A constant water level can be maintained with either a high or low
rate of flow. However, a high rate of flow runs a great amount of water
through very quickly. Daly points that at the present time our rate or
throughput should be as low as possible, so we at the same time conserve
our resoun:es and minimize the amount of refuse. M<?asuring our economy
by GNP encourages mmumization of the throughput flow.
'A'hile the human household has been rapidly grow;ng. the
environment of which it is a part has steadfastly remained
constant in its quantitative dimensions. Its size has not
increased, nor have the natural rates of circulation of the basic
biog<.'<X:hcmic;il cycles that man e>.ploits. As more people
transform more raw materials per person into rommodihcs, we
experience higher rates of depletion; as more people transform
more commodities into waste, we experience higher rates of
pollution. We devote more effort and resources to mining poorer
mineral deposits and to deaning up increased pollution, and
then we count many of these extra expenses as an increase in
GNP and congratulate ourselves on the exlTa growth!
Thus GNP can increase every year without ever indicating a decay
of the ecological u nderpinning of the production system. That
ultima tely, is the main point: by overproducing we destroy our
production capability.
Daly likens the steady-state economy to a mature ecosystem. A
young ecosystem, like a newly growing forest, emphasizes production,
growth, and quantity (high production efficiency). A mature ecosystem,
such as a climax rorest, emphasizes protection, stability, and quahty
(high maintenance efficiency).
Daly claims that we have reached the mature stage of our system
and we need to emphasize quality over quantity, maintenance over
production, or otherwise, as we see happening today, we will bury our
life-sustaining ecosystem under a pile or our own garbage. He insists that
the flows of production and consumption must be minimized instead of
maximized as they are in the infinite growth economy.
This docs not imply, however, that Daly is advocating stagnation or
regression of human society. It 1s a grave mistake to consider a constantly
rising GNP as the mark of an advancing culture. As John Stuart Mill
said,
It is scarcely necessary to remark that a stationary
condition of capital and population imphcs no stationary state
o f human improvement, there would be as much scope as ever for
all kinds of mental, cultural and moral and social progress, as
much room for improving the art or living and much more
likelihood of it being improved when minds cease to be
engrossed by the art of getting on.
ln the steady-state economy the central concept must be the stock of
wealth (people and capital, in its widest definition which includes
natural resources and processes), rather than the flow of income and
consumption, as wealth is defined at present.
rn reality, the entire concept of generating income is an illusion.
Humans cannot "generate income", we can only take what is here. The
key is to not use up the life energy a t a rate raster than nature can
regenerate it. Obviously, we are not following that principle. In the case
of fossil fo<?ls, as E.F. Schumacher points out in Small Is Beautiful, we
continue to treat an ever-scarcer resource as income rather than capital.
Ecologically, we a re burning our "business capital" even as we proclaim
the health or our "business."
I.
One of the bases of a low throughput economy is a greater durability
or goods, which applies not only to how long they last, but also to how
easy it is to put them to another use (recycle). Our current economic
system encourages planned obsolcsccnC!!, since we have to maintain a
constant market for our ever-increasing production (which led to the
downfall of Detroit).
A low rat<l of capital throughput also means that we would spend
less time on production and create more leisure time. Under our current
economic system, we rear decreased production and leisure lime, because
that would mean people are out or work. Timc-int<?nsive activities like
rricndship, care of the elderly and children, meditation and reO<?ction,
are sacrificed in favor of commodity-intensive activities. Hence, we
ha,•c the Shopping Mall as the social center of the 90's (have run, meet
people, L.lkc the kids, and CONSUME), rather than social centers
which promote and help strengthen community and family values.
The steady stat(! economy also implies a low throughput rate for
population (the other component of the total stock), which would me>an a
balanced birth and death rate, and a long life expectancy.
Our society docs not seem to recognize that an ever-growing rote> of
per capita consumption for an ever-growing population is impossible. A
steady population depleting resources and creating pollution at a slow
rate is the ideal. The limits regarding what rates of depiction and
pollution are tolerable would be derived from our understanding of
ecology.
These limits address the question of how many people can live in an
area and still maintain paradise. The question is: at which point or
human population does the desecration of creation become unavoidable?
This limit is the "carrying capacity" of an ecosystem. It has been
demonstrated that when a population significantly exceeds the carrying
potential or its ecosystem, there then results a sudden die-off within
that population. So we need to reach an optimum population based on
the carrying capacity of our biosphere.
My suggestion Is to do away with the GNP and substitute a CNP
{Qlrryi~ fotcntial) as the true measure of our economies success.
CNP reflects the needs which Daly says our economic indicators
need to monitor. Rather than measuring growth Ilk<! the GNP, the goal
for the CNP would would be to maintain the population;CNP ratio at
one. In other words, H the goal is to maximize our population while
preserving ecological integrity, t he ideal would be to keep the
population as close to the determined carrying potential as possible.
(connnucd on page 29)
..
.
)(.Qtuah Jourrml. J>"ge 16
..
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... ~
--
Summer, 1990
�Hoedad
I throw my hoedad
into sandy loam, thinking
of my children's children as I
bend to plant a tree.
I throw my hoedad
into a rock and experience
more fully the pain in the
swollen joints of my right hand.
I throw my hoedad again
and again and again and again and again
in the strange and savage
dancing of the mad treeplanter
leaving lines of pines across
the hills of Tennessee
Eagerly i press my taproot
firm into dark moist
slit
gumbo, sand, rock, and churt
duff or dust or just plain dirt
Slam Barn Cram and jam
I throw my hoedad, stomp and scram.
I grit my teeth and throw my hoedad and
place a wimpy little pine tree in what
was recently a hardwood forest.
Covering a little piece of grid and a
bureaucrats ass for him.
Making sure there will be cellulose
for adult pampers for aging
baby boomers.
I throw my hoedad, pull
back on the handle and
am brought to my senses by
the powerful brown smell of wild
ginger and Here i am
on this Sunlit mountain in the
early Spring
I throw my hoedad and pray
the people will re member Earth
I plant a tree and p ray that
We will all remember.
Will Ashe Bason
Slimmer-, 1990
Compost
I'm composting my past
empty rinds of just deserts
broken shells of old barriers
the coffee grind
I'm composting my passed
bullshit raps and
chickenshit fears
111 throw them to the microbes
let lhem bum a little quicker and
hotter in the flame of living and
dying. Fork it all, i'm chunking
funky pumpkin headed notions on the pile and
turning over a new
leaf mold. Leaving my leftovers.
I'm composting my past.
Free carbon now!
break down all cellulose walls.
I'm not for getting it
i 'm just for letting it
rot
and when it's cool and
dark and doesn't even
stink, i'll shovel it up and
use it in my garden. I'll
grow roses and rootabagas in
re memberance that Here
i come, back again.
Will Ashe Bason
�I
1).)1
I
D~gn IJltd calligraphy l1y Marnie Muller
�•
l
'
I
�(l'bcseare !he words ofa traditional Olerolcco medicine person.)
Archaeologists estimate that the Cherokees first migrared into the
Southern Appalachians 6,000 years ago. They figured this by carbon-dating
potrcry that they found at the Old Echota village. The poucry was tempered in
the southern way, but it was lroquoian in design. That showed that it was
Cherokee. The Cherokee have lived here for a very long time.
Our population was always expanding. but very slowly. It was told to
me that there were about 50,000 Cherokee when de Soto came through. If
the white people had waited 200 years to make it over here, they would have
had to deal with just two lribcs in the east, the Cherokee and the Iroquois.
I think the people's effons to limit their population were quite
conscious. We weren't troubled by plagues, and life expectancy was better
than that of the white people when they fLCSt came here. The Cherokee chief
Junaluska, for example, was way up in his nineties when he died. We were a
healthier people than we are now. If children got past their first three or four
years, they generally lived to an old age.
There were several methods of birth control. Dodder is a
commonly-seen fungus. It grows in long, yellow strings and wraps itself
around other plants, because it's parasitic. As a contraceptive, it was given to
men. When it worked. it worked; but it wasn't that dependable. I wouldn't
trust it. But they probably had more faith than I do.
There was another method. When a woman had .a baby and the man
took away the afterbinh, he would cross one ridge for every year he didn't
want to have another child before he buried it But l wouldn't trust that
either. Thar's why it wouldn't work for me. Magic comes when all doubt is
cleared from the mind.
They had no sex when the women were in the moon lodge (during
their menstrual period), and a man would always fast from sex before
hunting and war. Those things helped. Every time people were involved in a
spirirual ceremony, they would fast from sex for three days before.
Young people got married any time after puberty. Girls could get
married after their first menstrual period. And they didn't wait long. But I
think that attirude made a difference. The native people didn't have all the
sexual taboos that arc a part of the white culture: that sex is wrong, diny, evil
and bad, and that a person has to have a piece of paper and a preacher to do
it. The native people had a different attitude about sex. And I think that made
a difference in child-bearing as well
It seems that people who were closer to the Eanh had natural
population contr0ls. Their populations always seemed to hold steady. That
usually hinged on food availability, but a.round here food wasn't a very good
control. The people grew crops, and there was a lot of game and wild foods
in the woods, like berries and chestnuts.
OC course they still encountered hard times when their crops were
short and there was no game. There could be late floods lhat would wash out
the com, or a late frost would kill a lot of the acorns, or it would be dry
when the chestnuts were supposed to blossom. Such things would happen.
Times like that would trim off some of the marginal people, some of the old
people and some of the babies.
The people had a different attitude about death back then, too. They
accepted it when it came. They didn't cry to hang on to life or to people they
were close to. When it was your time to go, it was your time to go.
In our tradition it was said that the spirit wasn't fixed in a child until it
was three or four years old, and no one was surprised when a young child
died or an old person died.
The clan system was an important pan of our culture. There were
seven clans in the tribe, and there were strict sexual taboos about marrying
within the clan. I was told by my grandfather that the tribe had capital
punishment for two. n:asons, and incest was one of them. 1!1cest meant
marrying anybody within your clan. Clan members were your kin.
You could travel to a small village 300 miles away, and even if you'd
never been there and none of your people had ever been there, if there was
one family of your clan there, you would be taken care of. Tho~c peopl.e
would not be biologically related to you, but they would take you m ~ thell"
family and treat you like family. But you sure couldn't mess around with one
of the girls. That would be like fooling aroun~ with your cousin. ~d ~ou
had no desire to ... well, maybe you had a passing moment, bur you d think
about that capital punishment and said, "Naaah."
The clan system didn't slow anybody down from getting married, but
it did keep everybody's genes spread our, so thar people could live in small
groups without becoming inbred. It made possible a smaller gene pool.
The people had different ideas about technology, too. It's like my
grandfather said, "We knew about the wheel, but if you make a wheel, the n
you have to make a road. If you make a road, then you have to build bridges
and keep it all up. So why bother to put yourself to all that trouble?"
He would always make that remark to me when I would tell him Lha t
one of the white people's justifications was that "we never used the land."
He was amazed by that. He was always quite upset about that, because the
native people used the land as much as the white people did, but they used it
in a different way. They left much less of a mark on it. But the white people
thought that the land was not being used unless it was used with the attitude
that it was for the humans, instead of seeing the humans as being a part of it.
We did slash and burn agriculture. We would use a stretch of
bottomland until it was poor, and the com wouldn't grow big anymore, then
we would move down the river to another patch of river cane, bum it, and
live there. Meanwhile, the first cane patch would grow up, and in a few
years we'd move back to that fLCSt cane patch. This is how we used iL
Passenger pigeons were part of our diet, and we'd eat as many as we
wanted. Even so, when the white people came here flocks of passenge r
pigeons still blackened the sky. We had bufffalo and elk and large animals
like that in the mountains and they were plentiful, and we had what we
needed. But we don't have any of those now.
Today, if your com patch gives out, you can't just move dow_n the
s
river, because somebody else owns the land downstream. Now there 1 the
concept of private property and so many more people.
It's hard to explain about a culture with a "non-propeny attitude"
toward the world. Trying to explain our attitudes toward dying, birth control,
and population control is like crying to explain the fourth dimension in a three
dimensional language. It's the same with the attitudes behind the taboos
about not pissing, vomiting, shitting, or throwing your trash in the river.
When I was a kid, going down the mountain roads I could sec outhouses on
logs out over the branch.
I'm pessimistic about the fate of the human race. It's hard to be an
optimist when I sec that no one is willing to give up anything. Our future is
going to require sacrifice.
It used to be that people didn't sec themselves as creatures that were
superior to narurc; they saw themselves as part of nature. To move evenly
with everything was the ultimate goal of the Indian's personal growth
spiritual and physical, and to be out of harmony meant that you weren't
moving with everything.
If you killed a deer, you said prayers and apologized. There was no
hostility. It was no personal thing. If a bear killed you, it was the same way.
The idea was to move in hannony with the planet instead of seeing it only as
your personal resource or as an enemy that you had to conquer.
Keeping the ceremonies was important to maintaining that relationship
The ceremonies were a way to pull the community together, and they wer~
also a means of seeking hannony with the environment
Summer, 1990
�{continued from page 6)
KJ: Do you think zoning
could be significant?
GM: I! seems 10 have
worked everywhere else it's been
tried. Unfortunately the people
here are notorious for opposing
zoning as an option for limiting
grow1h. Their general reaction is,
"Don't tell me whal 10 do with
my land," and that's where the
argument ends. There is generally
never any extended debate, and
there is generally never any
opponuni1y 10 consider voling in
something like this.
In areas of the country
severely impacted by growth and
development, people now
recognize that ins1i1u1ing zoning
is the only way that they are
going 10 reduce growth to sane
levels. Without zoning,
everything is done in a hnphazard
way, and industrial and
commercial sites grow up next 10
housing. and so fonh.
Florida is now making
zoning mandatory in almost every
community. Other states that have
experienced large increases in population in the past now use
zoning as an effective way to control development and to protect
cnvironmencally sensitive areas.
KJ: Another factor in 1he whole equation is loco!
transportation. Being an essentially rural area, the mountains lead
to a lot of vehicle traffic.
GM: Yes, that is correct. This terrain does not lend itself to
car-pooling or mass transit. because 1he population 1ends 10 be
somewhat dispersed. There are rew easy-access, straight-line
transpona1ion corridors, which means that mass tronsit is difficult
tO SCI Up.
KJ: On the other hand, 1hough, the s1eep terrain has made
it difficult for industrial developmen1.
GM: There is always going 10 be limited industrial
development here, because the region just isn't favorable for thn1.
In that sense our steep terrain is a saving grace.
We might be ove~m by shopping malls or hamburger
stands - we might be "Pigeon Forged" · but I don't think that we
will be over-industrialized.
KJ: But in 1erms of habitat destruction ...
GM: ...Having second homes and malls is 1he same as
having an industry. There will be continually more strip
development, de-centralized shopping in all directions.
KJ: As far as reacting to out-of-control growth and
supporting maximum habitat in the mountains, what do you think
people can do?
GM: It is going 10 be dirticull to do anything abou1 it,
because usually all the people in power arc growth boosters. My
suggestion is, if people want 10 understand the dynamics of 1he
politics in their area, they should look into the backgrounds of 1he
Jl'Ople who hold public office. Check out the people on the water
boards, on the sewer boards, and see if there are corporate or real
es1a1e affiliations. Voters should look at the people on the town
councils, on the county board of commissioners, see who lhey
are, and ask about their environmental agendas before returning
14em to office.
Summer, 1990
a
The next thing people
should do is to encourage people
with views similar 10 their own 10
run for public office and then
work hard to have them elected.
lf people want to decrease the rate
at which growth is tal<lng place in
their area, they need to seat
candidates representing lha1
viewpoint on the governing
boards of the sewer districts or
the water authorities {or the
transportation depanment at the
state level), so that biodiversity is
a priority for those key agencies.
At present virtually all the
infrastruc1ure boards arc
controlled by pro-growth people.
Those people who want to
expand this area's role as a
sanctuary for biodiversity need 10
ge1 cracking politically a1 all
levels, because right now their
message isn't getting through.
KJ: One of the reasons the
message isn't gelling through
politically is because people are
thoroughly convinced that our
economy is based on growth, and
1ha1 the success of our sylilem is
Phoio by Rodney Webb
measured by the amount of
growth, rather than by water quality, clean air, and ample habitat
for all species.
What kind of opnons do we have in a situation like that?
How can we change people's consciousness about ii?
GM: In this coun1ry we do not have mnny good models of
communities or regions that have a long history of no-growth
development.
So l guess 1he thing to do is to point out examples where
communities - even entire regions - have ta.ken the "grow at all
costs" direction and have ruined what were fonnerly nice places
to live. Florida and Sou1hem Calirornia are examples of large
regions lha1 once had exceptional qualities which were lost in a
very short period of time. That is why Floriclians are now
moving here, and Californians arc moving to Oregon and
Washington.
Tl all goes back to 1he whole mind-set tha1 says we have 10
keep growing, growing, and growing. Somehow people believe
that growth is for everybody's good.
Yet in thiny years people look back and ask, "What did T
loser'
The answer is, "You lost everything."
"What did I gain?"
"You gained one problem arteranother."
Dr. Gary Miller has been director of the Environmental
Smdies Program at U11iversil)' of North Carolina Asheville since
the fall of 1983 Ar that rime the program had one majoring
smdent; now it has almost 100.
Miller holds a BS in biology. a masters degree in
botany/zoology, and he received a doctorate in plant ecology
from the Uni\'ersit)' ofNorth Carolina at Chapel Hill.
For 15 years he lfred in New York State where he was
primarily interested in research on vegetation in freshwater
bodies. lie still spends his summer months exploring rlwtfield of
research.
lie and Ids wife have a daughter, who gradumed with a BS
in biology from UNC-CJiapel Hill, and a son. who is majoring in
biology and chemisrry in his last year at Chapel Hill.
• lnttrvlew rtcordtd by Doi# \Vhttltr
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\
�TRANSPORTERNATIVES
By Patrick Clark
NaturaJists Henry David Thoreau, Ralph
Waldo Emerson, and John Muir all knew the
secre1 long ago. They saw the senselessness of
going around in motorized vehicles, when the
feet do just fine, thank you.
Why spend time cooped up in a box on
wheels when you could be our 1hcre gcuing
around by foot, with the birds and fresh air, and
getting good exercise? These words of Thoreau
from Walden arc as true today as they ever have
been: "We do not ride on the railroad, the
railroad rides on us ....If we stay at home and
mind our business who will want
railroads....Why should we live with such hurry
and wns1c in our life?"
Automobiles give the illusion of being a
fas1 means of cransporration, allowing users
more free time. Yet after considering the time
spent to finance, operate, and maintain an
aiu?m~b~e (nor to mention time for building and
mamtammg roads and traffic regulations), rhe
automobile doesn't seem to get us anywhere any
faster than our own two feet.
The auto has been and is a needless waste
of the environment and rhe human spirit, bur
we've gouen ourselves into a fix. Our entire
economical system is built upon fossil-powered
transponation. Roads have desecrated the "land
of the free". Noise. pollution. accidents, and
vi~ual decadence (i.e. America's transponarion
system) are woven into the fabric of American
society.
The need to get around will always exist,
but perhaps our society travels more 1han is
necessary. There arc ways to i;1ruc1ure our
communities and lifestyles to eliminate much of
the traveling we do. Where do we go? Work,
s~hool, rhe sto~. library, movie. pany, dance,
fnends house, Sierra Club meeting, conference.
the beach. What 1f mosc of these destinations
were closer in--lct's say biking di~tance. (The
conferences and the beach would require either
carpooling, public transponarion, or extended
time off for bicycle touring). Roads would be
narrow soips of concrete or gravel with flowers
JC.awQ(~
Journa( pca«Je 22
and 1rces on either side, raking us through
pleasant countryside and neighborhoods. No
cars or ttucks roaring by with fumes and smoke.
By slowing us down 10 a human-powered
speed, self-propelled uansponation connects us
to the Earth and 10 ourselves. It is a link to our
past and could be an integral pan of our present.
Grecnways (linear parks with hike/bike paths)
are catching on all over the country. Hiking and
biking paths arc being constructed to ger us all
around the continent
Today a person can walk the length of the
Appalachian Mountains and beyond on the
legendary Appalachian Trail. Throughout
Karoah arc numerous n:crc.ational trails built and
maintained by groups such as the Carolina
Mountain Club, including the new Mountains to
I.he Sea Trail (which has 260 continuous miles
already completed). While the tourism industry
is promoting aesthetic and recreational values in
this area, roads arc still more numerous than is
compatible with the forest Recreational walking
is fine, but it is not going to stop the acid rain,
noise poUution. and the habitat disruption/
destruction caused by the millions of vehicles
driving through the Kanlah province each day,
some of them 10 get to the hiking rrails.
The bicycle is Jess impacting than most
other forms of transportation on the
environment. With it, one can get to places
mostly unreachable without a car or a lot of
rime. And yet bicycling is still slow enough for
face to face human contact and cnjovmenr of
birds, flowers, and sky. Costs· to the
environment arc minimal and monetary expenses
are a fraction of those needed to own and
operate a car. So stress is lessened in more ways
than one.
Enlightened engineers are working on
solar-powered vehicles. These will be great, and
J'll be the first to invest in one, but the need will
still exist for walking and biking. What can a
person do 10 adopt a more self-propelled
lifestyle right now while in transition to our
bikeways/walkways society?
Getting to work is one of rhe most
imponant aspects of self-propelled rranspon·
0raWll1g by Rob Mcuick
ation, because this is a trip most people take
almost every day. There arc tricks to doing it
right such as dressing for the weather, carrying
items needed at work, and being presentable
once you get there. But once in the habit, this
commute is quite satisfying and relatively
stress-free.
I know bicycling works. ln metropolitan
areas. people commute many miles by bicycle,
contributing to clean air by reducing oil
consumption and lessening traffic congestion. I
joined them for awhile when t lived in
Washington, DC, and biked eighteen miles
round-trip through the Rock Creek Park
Greenway. There I met people who decided cars
were not for them. With sidebags and trailers,
even families were getting around without
difficulty. Some third world countries have
never had auto-caused problems because
bicycles have always been a necessity.
Herc, bicycling can be more challenging.
Bike paths haven't caught on much ye4 distances
arc greater, roads arc narrower, the terrain is
rugged. and !here are blind comers. Still, it can
be done. We need to keep pushing for bicycle
facilities and educate city planners and
motorists. (Join your local bicycle club.)
Recycling and organic vegetables and solar
energy arc fine, but wi1hou1 sustainable
transponation they will remain futile anempts a1
environmental restoration.
Resources:
Worldwatch Institute
P.O.Box 6991
Syracuse, NY 13217
For information on the Bikcways Task Force.
contaet Mary Helen Duke
(Transponation Coordinator)
Land of Sky Regional Council
25 Hentagc Drive
k;heville, NC 28806
(704) 254-8131
The Bikcways Task Force needs
volunteer help for a bike route mapping project
and bikeways legislation.
Summer, 1990
�IMAGINING THE END OF REAL ESTATE
by Hectfilre P. Condeau
There arc munncrs about, for those intuitive and sensitive enough to
hear them, that our relationship with Biosphere as in need or profound
reconsideration and even rc--invention. Many of our current attitudes about the
Earth and its capacity to sustain life arc reflected in the continuing musty
precepts or Feudal "tenants" and practices. By such methods land is to be
held as property by those in power. It can be bought only at a price by those
who h.:ive the means to pay olf others in power for the right to "own" the
land. Military service is required by the "lords" of thl:' kingdom in order to
protect its sovcreignty and to maintain obedience to the kingdom. If
Feudalism ended with the creation or a declaration that stated "all people
are created equal" why arc there still Landlords that relish in raising prices,
Corporate Castles in far-off lands, and Kings of Business that wear crowns of
excess profits on their heads while "vassals" must suffer through the best
they can· with little opportunity to get past class structures designed and
maintained by those unable 10 relinquish their grip or economic power over
other people in human society?
What is called for is the crcation of different value systems m
mediating the relations within human societies, and particularly in how
human societies rclate to the Biosphere. By maintaining systems of
lnduslrial Oass (ie; capitalist or socialist) where money and resources are
"bottlenecked" by the State, Corporations, or privileged classes, those who
arc not involved with such 'elites· are often lert out of the primary
decision-making or the society. Then a dangerous situation can develop in
which there is a lack of communication in the society, and it becomes
fragmented
This fragmentation is easily transferred onto our relations with
H~hit"'" •·thcr than our own, and the many forms or life that inhabit them;
from bears to bugs to bacteria. What would be the consequences or human
beings regarding the health or ecosystems other than their own as crucial to
the viability of all life including its own? I think ii would mean th.it
individual ownership of the land would come under intl'OSC scrutiny, and that
for human beings to be able to "settle·· or live in a particular area they would
have to be able to prove their worth as caretakers or 'friends' of the land.
This would have to be done in the context of the inhabited region, and also in
light of current awareness or lhe complex inter-relationships among many
fonns or biota that make a region of the Earth what it is.
Ultimately, It would mean that our basic models for economics,
business, industry, and even our own day-to-dny existence would change from
that of a rigid dominancc-<!ulogi%ing system of Real Estate, Development for
the? sake of bloating growth, and Factories dispersing contaminants into vital
air, water, soil, and biota or the planet. The models would change into
Ecosystems· With multiply mixing long, medium, and short duration
circulation patterns, or feedback luop~. 'These cycles moving through the
Biosphere int~atc the ingestion, absorbtion, and excretion or various forms
of chemical and radinnt energy from multiple Types or organisms and the
solar wind.
We exist in a complex array of feedback loops, within the region we
co-mhab1t. The C5SCntlal inter-rclahonsh1p between organisms and
l'nvironmcnts at various SCOJ'L'S of the Earth is the basis for a difforcnt kind ot
undcrst.lncling than thl! prevailing ''bch.lve as though machines arc the only
model of reality that matters" kind of athtude that we h.:ive been fed by the
bulk of modem science. The emphasis now shifts from co~ntrating on
lnch\;dual kinds or ~y~tcms thcmsch-~ to the energy or mrormatlon that is
moving between many kinds of s~tcms.
In this spirit let's focus on the relationship between human
communities, institutions. neighborhood,, hou~holds, ramih(.'S, and
indh'lduals in the context of the broader and more ecologically diwrsc
Bion.'t;10ns they inhabit. In this century our emph.1sis ha~ been on the
mtel\Slve "h.1rVC$ting" of energy in the forms of ruel, building materi.ils.
rrunc-rals, foods, water, and other n.'-sourccs from the greah'r hfc community
or the region. Our paras1uc tendencies as a spccics have ortC'n been
ewer· looked because of ingr.11ncd habits through which "profit" ramcd m
this way from ecological .1nd geological sources became 1 HE way to <'nsure
that our families or communiues would survive. This was p.uUally due to a
past of scarcity and harsh~s, and our relative 1Mbility to undcr:>tand and
change the basic patterns of susta1n.1bihty in the planet. Now thb has
changed, and so h.1s our rclallon with all other living beings.
The lndustnal era with all its far reaching efrccb or cont.lminahon
and 1labitat d~lruclion has paradoxically come around to face us with a
~ery mto our own values as a 'body" or humanity. The "power" put into
mdu~~ 1s now showing a potential or rar Jess scarcity than previously
c;xtsted m the ~lk'Cllve h_uman endeavor. Yet the "price" for being able to
bve m some kmd or rdnllvc harmony with non· human Pabilats and have a
Summer, 1990
''THE IMPACT OF liUMANS
IS NOW MATC\llMG 'fHAT Of ME.TEORS''
technology th.it is able to be efficient and does not drastically interfure with
the basic morphology or health or a given rcg:on 1s this... We need to
regulate our numbers because our impact is proving unsust.lmable not only for
ourselves, but also in regard to the diversity of habitats around us which are
the source or potential well bcmg for such complex creatures as mammals. The
main predators we now have to worry about are Ourselves, colliding
asteroids, volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, some micro-organisms and
viruses, and our own industtatcd excreta such as bombs, plutonium, dioxin, and
a plethora of other toxic chemistries cookcd from petroleum. Thus we ne«! to
create ways of internalizing, with our minds and hearts, some fonn of species
population limits.
One question that comes to mind when thinking about the potential
'carrying capacity' or human beings in this Mountain Bioregion of l<atUah is:
What arc we to do with thl! Feudal Legacy of economically unjust and
environmentally unsound concepts and pmcticcs that have bcC'n accepted as
the only way or "doing business" in the region? What if the "upper classes"
can afford to buy land or houses and arc unable to make sound decii;ions about
its destiny and the destiny of the people living there? Is there any real Sense
to be found In a rash of second homes being built in an area where wages are
low and there is homclcssne!.57 There will need to be some 50rt of sy~tcm of
mediation and justice m working through the relations within the hum.1n
community and th.lt o( the many communilic:. or lifo that su~tain the human
community. This appears 10 be one of the great challengl'S to the pol(!ntial
maturity of human beings Into a non-scl£ish role within the Biosphere.
To ch.:inge our attitudes about the land around us from treating ii as a
machine, deshned to be both our "raw fuel" and our scwl!r, to that of
<'ClllogiC'al or inter-recycling modes, would change both our thinking and our
everyday experience of how our hvcs can be organized. Ry slowing the
overall flow of energy through our community systems~ maybe nblc to
reduce some or the conlusro ambitiousness and ch.1os that 15 b«oming the
norm for many people on the North American continent. We exert stress on
biogrogr.:iph1cal cnvironmcntS around us by extracting too much from th('m
and sluughing off too much of the energy we can't recycle onto them. This
energy takc:; th•" forrn or i;asrous compounds :.uch as carbon dioxide, nitrous
oxide, and sul(cr dioxide exhau,;tmg from po\';L'f "plants" and automobiles. It
~1kcs the torrn of finite '\lrcams of once-US(' packaging around many
"products" from foods to motor oil. It also takes the forrn of fluids such ns
solvents. rCB's, dyes, and pcst1C1dcs..
Our 'work' now seems to be that of re-Inventing our technologies and
the effect~ of our tcchnologi~ on the greater ecologies or the Earth, so that
the rollccttve and personal force of our Impact can be reduced without
continuing lo use "props" as ever more l'fl\1l'Onmcntally expensive energy
slaves such n~ automobiles and coal burning power 'plants'. Who dcadcs
what is environmentally appropriate and what ls not? Would it go to a
Global type consensus, or would the people of each Biorcg1on be nblc to fine
tune their practices in .1 :>pcctrum of specific areas from Humanlcss Preserves
to concentrated human actil.-ity?
(continued on ~ell)
Cazto0n by Rob Messick
JGntimh )ournci( pcuJe 23
l
�REQUIEM FOR OAK RIDGE
Nanni World News Service
HOW BIG IS A LEGAL BEAR?
Nanni WC>rld News Service
More than 350 people jammed the bleachers 111
the Smoky Moun1111n High School in Sylva, NC in one
of two bC<lliogs called by the NC Wildlife Resources
Commission (NCWRC) io hear opinions on a proposal
lO raise the legal hunting limil for black bears 10 a
weight of 100 poun~. Many oC those m the gym wen:
bunters who wanted 10 keep the present 50 pound weight
limit. but approx11na1ely 50 people aucnded the hearing
In support of the higher limiL
Unifonncd wildlife offiCCIS were slBtiOllCd a1 the
enlr.lllCcs lO the hcanng. hnodtng out a s1:11emcnt by the
s1a1e chap1cr of lhe Wildlife Socic1y. a biologisis'
organiui1ion, lhat staled tha1 group's opposition 10 a
higher weight limit, and a program printed for the even1
by the NCWRC that also contained a statement saying
that such a change was incffcc1ivc, Biid lha1 habit.al was
Ille primary factor in block. bear survival Several of !he
speakers vehcmcn1ly sugges1ed 1hnt 1h1s acuon
compromised the impaniali1y of Ille NCWRC 111 the
hearing.
Discussion at. the hearing wa~ heated, fueled
mostly by dwigrcemcnt about the si1,c and statu~ of the
bbck bc3r population.
Proponent<; of 1hc higher weight lunit argued 1ha1
at the prcscm 1ime 1he black bc:it population was
reproducing cilher just a1 or below the minimum lc\•cl
ncces"'1ty for continued viabili1y. They s:iid that an
occurring o:ik dcxlinc, atmospheric polluuon, and the
advcn1 of Ille gypsy moll! "'ouJd put further pr~sure.~ on
the black bear popul:11ion, p~urc.s 111:11 the bears could
not ~usl3in . Raising the weight limi1, they said, would
ulklw female bears more years m which 10 breed nnd odd
lO the populauon
Humers defended 1hcar ethics and pracu~ ;,ind
S3id, "Besides, there'~ hclb of~ ou1 lhcrc.•
h wns no1 ~urpnsang to those who attended the
llC:ltlng tha1 one momh later the NCWRC voted ll-0 10
!'Clain the pound we1gh1 l11ni1 ror Ille black bear.
Paul Gallamore of the Sou1hcm Ap113lachian
Bl.lck Bear Federation. wh"h lud been a major force
behind lhc we1gh1 change proposal, said, "This as
d1scouragmg, however. considering 1hc runount or mpu1
1he commission rccch·cd. We know 1ha1 they go1 more
than 1,000 lcu.ers m favor of r.usmg Ille hm1L"
so
Xatuaf1 Journat
pn~
24
11 was a damp dawn 1uming slowly into a mis1
y
Sunday morning - Earth Day, 1990. Seventy mourners
gathered and held hands in a circle at the ga1es of the
Y-12 N11Clcar Weapons Componem Plllnt in Oak Ridge,
Tennessee. The sad strains of Moian's "Requiem•
played in Ille background.
"We begin Earth Day with a time of mourning
for the Enr1h in O:ik Ridge. Beyond this fence. in these
buildings, the brightest of human minds have overlooked
Ille most profound and obvious iruth • that our place in
creation is 10 be p3t1 of it. in rclntion.~hip 10 the Earth
and all crcatwcs, and to care for Iha! which susuins us."
the Rev. Ralph Huichison told the black-robed circle of
friends with foces p:ain1ed whiic.
"This morning we acknowledge that the
rclmionship be1wcen humankind and lhc Earth is broken.
Jn this pbce we have abused the Enrth from which all life
comes-· twisting the gift of life into forces of death. In
what was once the gentle f:itming communi1y of Whe:lt.
we have beaten ploughs.hares into swords. Md we have
lost our priorities.•
Following the brief ceremony, a young maple
tree was planted in front of the Y -12 sign. Ney Pinedo, a
Pcruvirul Indian in 1hc United SUllllS raising support for
the Amazon rain fores1, spoke "in Ille nnmc of 2,000
tribes" and gave a blessing 10 the sapling. "This is a
symbol of life away from death." Pinedo said.
REPRIEVE FOR ALARKA
Nanni World News Service
The NOrth Carolina Dcpar1mcn1 of Environmenllll
f\.13nagcment (DEM) made a political compromise :ind
decreed that the waters of Alarkn Creek arc no1
"Ouisl31\ding Resource Waters." as biological tesis show.
but •High Quality Waters." a sligh1ly inferior
classification. However. that ruling was still enough to
hold off developers inicrc.~tcd in turning the well-known
na1urnl area inio a golr resorL The developers decided not
to citercisc their option IO buy the propcny. and Alarka is
safe· temporarily.
Opinion in lhc three counties coniiguous lO Ille
property was mixed. At a public hcnrmg in Swam
County in November of 1989 the reaction was
overwhelmingly m favor of the dcvelopmenL Of the
lcuers received by the DEM, however, I IS were for
prolccting lhc crcclc, while 25 s1ood opposed. Two
hundred and eighty-seven people signed petitions
supponang proLCCtion and 195 signed agains1 ii. Most of
!he opposition was cenlCted an Swain Coun1y, •vherc Ille
Citizens Against Wilderness group has organized voters
io oppose any fedcrnl or suic land protecuon programs.
WHAT WOULD THE TREES SAY?
N11un.J World NcwJ 5.,.....,
Two hundred acuvists from the soulllcasl and
01hcr regions across the conuncnt came ioge1hcr f\.by
2S-27 10 131k aboul S3\ ing Ille 1hrcatencd l'orcsts or this
land.
Tiic fifth · Nnuon:il Reform lhc ForeM Service
Pow-wow" mc1 a1 Camp Green Co,·e an Tuxedo on 1he
Green River in North Carolina.
A maJOnl)' of 1he group agreed on a statcmcm
called "The Green Cove Pl;itform" lha1 outlined wa~s to
return native d1vers11y 10 1he fore.\! and create mccntivcs
for a more ecological rcla1ionsh1p wuh na1ural
forc.<llanch.
Ned Frit1. of Texas. 3 leading elder in the
movcmcni to resist clearcu1ting, :<p<>ke to 1hc conference
:ind led discus.<aons.
Jeff DcBonis, a founder of the Association of
Focesl Service Employees for Environmental Ethics,
which agiuuc.s for ecological forest practices from wilhin
the Forest Service ranks, spoke about the sllltus and
program of the AFSEEE organization.
Dr. Roben Zahner, professor emeritus or forestry
at Clemson University, outlined the steps necessary 1
0
restore the eastern old-growth forest; Walton Smilh , a
retired forester and membeT of the Western Norlh
Caroli na Alliance, spoke abou1 lhe system of
uneven-aged forest management he has developed al his
Waldce Forest in Macon County; and David Wheeler
urged auendccs to approach forest Issues from an
ecologically realistic rather than a politically •reatistic"
standpoinL Bun Kornegay, a wilderness expedition leader
lllld president or the Bartram Trail Socie1y. offered
valuoblc insighis as he considered what Henry David
Thoreau would think aboul today's environmental
movcmena.
Bill Oliver and Glen Waldeck rocked the house
with their songs of Ille movement that were al once
inspiring and emcrtaining.
FREE THE FOREST!
FREE THE BEARS!
NAnnt World New1 Service
In a daring daylighl raid, six nmja commandocs
from the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). lhe Kaulilb
chapicr of the group Enr1h Firs1!. rescued and released
Smokey the Bear from the Nantahala-Pisgab National
Forest hcadquan.c:rs in Asheville on April 17
The rescuer$ approached lhc building and rc1umcd
with the Conner hosuge, who, when asked about his
condi1ion, said, ·rn be alrigh1 when l get ou1 of these
damn panis. • before 1clling of the horrors of captivity and
Ille brainwaslung techniques used in a vain effort to erase
his innntc mcmoTics of hfe in Ille wild.
Not to leave the Forest Service wilhout 11 mascot,
I.he group inuoduced the prcn to Stumpy, lhe paper
mach€ stump. their cllJ'ldidatc to more accur.iicly rcprcscm
Forest Service policies 10 the public at latge.
As black-su11cd commandocs esconed Ille bear to
safety, Ran,gcr Fred and Rangercltc Fredericka came on
the scene, evidently io pacify the crowd and 10 1um the
unscttling event to the advanlllge or the govcrnmcnL
Ranger Fred fim gave a discourse on silvicultural
economics for those present: "We in the Farce Circus
manage the nauonal forests in a muUiphtudc of uses 10
maximize profiL Got a question? Keep 11 '1il Inter.·
He then regaled the nudiem:e with folksy, friendly
siones m the warm, caring manner of a Ir.lined publicisL
"Some day you here arc gomg to take your young
ones out inio the fonner forest slump communi1y, and
you will be able to impress lhcm wnh your knowledge
of woodslore. 'Now that over there; you can tell them,
'is a popl:ir siump. And over !here is a hemlock s1ump.'
And they will listen for hours to en1cr1nining and
educauonal stories abou1 our r1:11ional stumpland.•
Jeff Smllh then re;id the "Ecological Manifesto
for th~ Katliah Province" (5CC Kt11UJth Journal #26).
which "'as complcicly ignored by 1hc media, who focused
!hear coverage on the more frivolous pans of Ille action
and tttillatcd their public w11h occnsional mention.~ of
"trcc·~p1king" in relation to 1he ELF group.
One month la1cr, on May 21 , in ano1hcr vain
a1tempt to focus media aucntton on the ecological needs
of 1hc fores1 hab1ta1, 1he ELF group and members of n
new group, Rescue Rangers, returned 10 the Forest
Services. Two members of Rescue Rangers, Da,·id
Wheeler and Rodney Webb. posted copies of 1he
"f:eologacal M;imfc~IO for the Kaufah Province• and !hen
ch3incd themselves 10 the orricc doors, complc1cly
blocking them for onc·h:!lf hour unul taken into cus1ody
by federal marsh;ils. Dcmonslr:ltors on the sidewalk sang
3nd charalcd.
Swmmcr. l 990
�"Stop the logging! Close lhe roads!
The hardwood f~t has to grow!"
as lhc two resistors were lllken away.
"The US Forest Service has lost 11S mandate."
Wheeler told lhe press. "It has shown itself incap:ible of
caring for lhe forest lands entrusted IO 1L The ngcncy sees
iL~ mission as representing human interests in lhe
forests, rather lhan serving the ecological nctds of lhc
forest 11.SClf.•
The "Ecological Manifesto for lhc Ka1uah
Province" calls for lhe public lands in the Southern
Appalachians 10 be cons1i1u1ed as an evoluuonary
preserve IO keep nauvc species from exunclion as a result
of the present ecological crisis. All further logging and
roadbu1lding would be prohibited in the evolu11onary
preserve, and human use would have 10 confonn to 1he
nctds of habitaL
The program also calls on the people of the
province to stop atmospheric pollution. 10 adapt their
lifc.~1yles to fit within the carrying capacity of the rci;ion,
and 10 cultivate an ou11udc of respect for the natural
world.
For their act of civil disobedience, Wheeler and
Webb face 30 days in jail and a S50 line, and an
additional S5,000 fine under a special government law.
Cont.1CIS:
Rescue Rangers
Box 282
Sylva, NC 28779
Earth Liberation Front (ELF)
Boit 171
Alexander, NC 28701
For copies of the "Ecological Manifesto for the
Katunh Province," write 10:
KmUahJournoJ
Box 638
Leicester. NC 28748
CLEAR CUTTING:
WAY TO GO? OR GO A WAY?
RETURN OF THE RED WOLF
MIDDLE CREEK FALLS
Nanni World Ncwl SCl'licc
Natural World News Service
In March, I990 three pai~ or red wolves wen:
released on the Tennessee side or the Gre:u Smoky
MountaiM National Park. If this rein1todueuon IS
suecc.~sful. n permanent population of SO 10 100 woh·es
will roam this pan or the red wolf native hab1U11.
Just over ten years ago lhc red wolf 11.·as extinct
in the wild. Forty wolves along the Gulf coast were
captured by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and placed
ll1 captive breeding programs. Originally the program
was at Point Defiance Zoological Park m Tacoma
Washington, but it wa~ later expanded IO include six1ccn
other facilities. By 1989 the populauon had grown 10
105 animals. However, it is only through reintroduction
10 a free eitis1ence that they can regain the vigor as a
specie.~ that millcnia of evolution hnvc given them. The
Fish and Wildlife Service released a drnf1 Red Wolf
Recovery Plan in 1989. which aims al establishing a
tollll populauon of 550 animals, v.•ilh 200 animals living
m wild rar"s and other protceted areas. The Great Smoky
Mountains National Park 1s considered a pnme
inuoduclion site.
By reintroducing the wolves 10 the Smokies it is
hoped that the smaller coyote. which has migrated 10 the
Smokies since 1985. will be driven out. This logic is
somcwruu skewed, however, since the coyote, through
the process of interbreeding, was considered one or the
major thrcais 10 the small surviving population of red
wolves on the Gulf coast. Why this phenomenon would
not occur again is not uplained.
If the first release proves successful. a second
stage will be implemented in which twenty wolves will
be released in the more remote areas or the the s17.000
ocro part.
The last wild wolves in the Smokies were killed
m 1910. A shy animal, the loner red wolf, which docs not
hunt in packs. is absolutely no thrcal IO humans.
The Middle Creek Falls lie n0t far from lhc rood
between Scaly Mountain and the town of Otto in Mlcon
County, NC, but not many h:ivc seen them. However.
they arc well·known :ind wclf.Joved by those who ha"e
clambered down 10 visit them. Since 1916 they have
been public propc.ny as pan of the N:intahala National
ForesL
Now Dudley M:inning. a resourceful developer
who has acquired property around the falls, wants lhcm
for the crowning jewel and main selling poml for a
residential development he is planning for the site.
The US Forest Service h;is a practice called
land-swapping, in which they publish 11 list Of private
lands that they f.:el are stra1cg1cally important 10 the
completion of the national forest, and offer 10 swap for
these parcels with other Forest Service land of equal
value but less Slrotegic imponance.
Manning has bought 1wo parcels of land on the
Forest Service swap list, one a 1.252 tract along the
French Brood River m Madison County, and 1he other a
157 acre traet along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Jackson
County. He is offering IO trade both these properties for
the 665 acre~ comuinmg the Middle Creek Falls.
Local people are upset. Jonathan William~. a
writer and publisher from Highland~. t\C, says, "There
:ire sacred phlccs here and there on the Earth, where a
person can develop depth of feelings . and this is one of
lhcm ... I want ii left alons. Change around these pans too
often mcansrumation.· And Keith Day. a member or the
Bartram Trail Society, has begun an active grassroots
campaign on behalf of the falls.
These people and their neighbors arc asking
others lo write to Gary Benneu; lligblnnds Ranger
District; RL 2, Box 385; Highland~. NC 2874 1 asking
that the US Forest Service raise additional funds IO
acquire necessary lands and not uade off beautiful scenic
places like Middle Creek Falls.
NATURAL WORLD NEWS continued p.26
Nalllral World News Service
Three recent announcements by the US Forest
Service give a comment on lhe agency's forest
management policies.
On April 23. the day after Earth Day, Forest
Supervisor Bjorn Dahl announced 1ha1 as a part of the
revised forest management plan for the Nantahaln-Pi.~gnh
National Forcsis clearcutting would be dc-empllllsizcd as
the Forest Service method of choice for timber cutting.
He cited public opposiuon 10 the prac tice and
instructions from Forest Service Chief Dale RoberlSon in
his remand of the Nanlahala-Pisgoh I S-ycar management
plan.
"We can change, and we are changing." Dahl said.
There is good reason for skepticism. Less than
one month after this dcclaralion, 1he Forest Service
announced anol.her timber sale, called the Bee Tree Sale.
in the Pisgah National ForcsL E:o:ccp1 for a ~moll area
close 10 a creek, the entire sale tract is to be clearcut and
hauled out by cable-logging equipment, which L~ rc-.crved
for work on steep slopes.
Envtt0nmcnt.11is1S arc up in arms about the sale,
and the We.stem North Carolina Alliance, which has led
1hc oppos11ion 10 c:lcarcutung in the mountain province,
plans lO appeal the sale.
The Forest Service made ilS own comment on its
ctearcutting policies when it revealed that clcarcuuing 111
the Nation:il Forests in Nonh Carolina had cost lallpaycrs
S2.64 million in bclow-cos11imbcr sales in 1989. The
losses in the N:uuahala·Pisgah National ForcsL~ were
grc:ucr th:m that, bealuse the Uwharrie l\'a1ion:1l l"orc~t in
the piedmont area milk.cs a profit on its timber sales.
Summer, 1990
b
~Limh
Journm Pa1J"- 25
�(ocmlinucd &om pege 25)
on them the invisible stress and reductJon in lifcsp:in
continue to be a plague and consequence of our excessive
human over- depe:ndancc on fossil fuels. rubber, and
mined metals from far away places. From this we
structure our socicocs, from this they may also become
dcsUucl~
IT MUST HA VE BEEN THE
ROSES
Narural World News Sc"'ice
Orawmgs by James Rhea
EASTMAN CO.:
WORLD-CLASS POLLUTER
Nanni World News Savicc
The Tennessee Eastman plant, ~dqWlltcn; and
the largest production plant of the Eastman Chemical
Corporation has been r:mkcd as the l(>p air polluter in
Tennessee and 14th in the Uni1ed Swtes in a study
recently released by the Environment.al Protection
Agency and the cnvll'Onmental group Citizen Action.
The Eastman plant rtlC.'.lSCs 40 million pounds of
1oxic chemical~ into the air each ye.v. 1l1e chemical
ace1one makes up 80% of the annual COilie release. Kodak
reported tnfornuuon nbout its polluung ncliv1ues in
accordance wuh lcgist::uion en11llcd 1he Emergency
Planning and Communi1y Right 10 Know Act.
The Kodak plane employs 11,000 people and
makes fibers, chemicals, and plas1ics. II has been caJlcd
co cask bcf<>tt by cnvironmenlal groups who documented
tha1 plant emucn1.s were also polluting the Holston
River.
CAN WE SA VE THE DEVIL '?
NllUral World New. s~.,.,
On Marth 14th 1990, the TruSI for Public Lands
(fPL) decided to purchase 828 acre.~ in Macon Count)'
known locally as the Devil's Courthou;;e. which is
loca1ed on the upper wa~ed of the Chattooga River.
The Devil's Courthouse as composed of sheer granite
cliffs which drop from the height~ of Whiteside
Mounlain to the cove below. Al~o an this upper
watershed 3.l'Ca of the Chatcooga River are =kb und a
wnter fall named Silver Slapper.
This upper aru of the river (five miles west of
Cashiers, NC) ha.~ been thrcaccned by developcmem for
some ume. The lower pas..<:;iges of the ChaltOOjµ are well
known and tm1·elcd by river raftc~. who paddle and slosh
throug)I what is dc•ignaled by the federal government as a
"Wild and Scenic River."
The US Forest Service attempted 10 acquire the
lands 111 the upper water \hcd or the Ch:mooga earlier this
yenr for inclusion in the Nantahala NatJonal Forest.
Fund.~ for protecung this enllle wa1crshcd have not bocn
fonhcomrng from Congress. The area has now become
the cop priori1y land acqui~ition of the USFS. The Tru.<t
for Public Land~ is encouraging the public to support
Congressional fondrng necessary lO conscrvc thi5 viwl
11.-:ucrshod. By 5paring u from the ravages of the l'C$0rt
Xatiuih Journa( pll!JC 26
market. perhaps its bcau1y and integrity can still be
enjoyed by ooming generations.
LIFE IN THE OZONE (revisited)
Nanni World Ne~ Scrv""'
Most of us do it every day: get in the car and
drive to the store, or to work, or to drop off the kid~
somewhere. The effects or doing this are generally not
apparent to our senses, except for perhaps the smell of
exhaust or a p:lUl in the wallet when the car needs rcpall'.
Bui the foct is that every tJme we ignite those
flaming engines of au1omotive "progress" we create a
brew of gasoous cxhnust thm ha~ far more effcet on the
current atmosphere than we at first rcali1e. One of the
gases created in the "ake of the.~ comb1m1ve cauldrons
is ozone • a deep blue, explosive, poisonous, and
pungent gas th:l1 exists as three combined oxygen atoms
(OJ).
The existence of 01.one in the outer "1rnle>5phcrc
is essenual 10 screening excessive ultraviolet radintaon
from the surface or the Eanh. Yet iL~ cooccntmuon m the
inner atmosphere causes rcsparruory problems an
mammals, and mh1b1ts the growth or sortwood trees and
flowering plants. For human bcmg.s 11 is the elderly and
the young that are the mOlil adversely affcclCd by life in
the 01.one. 1lydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides, which are
emitted from puttering cars and trucks. come into
chemical rc~c:tion in the presence of sunlight and create
these insidious tt1unc molecules. Cnrs and truck~ arc the
primary source of o~one in these mountains.
Summcmme can find us with levels of this molecule
exceeding the 113tion.:il ~L:lndards of public health.
A nauonal study mto the sources and effects of
OlOne contam111a1ion wa.~ ordered ten year ago by the
Congress or the United States. As the study nears
completion, it has cost 5 million dollar~ and included
over 1,000 sdcntJsts and engineers. Final rcpons on the
01one in the air of the inner atmosphere over western
North Carolm3 are due later this year. What the rcpon
found 1hus far 1s tha1 ozone 1s the worst form of air
contammataon an the Katuah Province. Acid rain, a
related problem, affects higher clevauons primanly, and
according to James Mahoney 11 as the concentration of
acid~ m wa1cr..hcd soils and forcsL~ at these elcvauon~
thJt i~ currcnuy causing the gn:.-ucst concern, The lower
elevations have yet to show damage as seven:.
Our strCCts and highways appear as s=t trac:ks
of 1numstve chcm1cal conversion and d1Spcrsion. For the
pcclesu'iln moving across them, or the passenger passmg
A rcpon recently released by the Swte of Nonh
Carolina showed that the Champion paper mill in
Canton, NC is responsible for some of the dirtiest air in
the enure swte. From January 10 June of 1988 the
concentrations of particulate.'\ in the air of the area
exceeded state standards five times. These cases account
for all but one of the major violations of air QW1l11y in
1988. Suspended particul::ucs or this area were the hig)lest
of 74 site.~ studied statewide.
The state standard for these aerial molecules is
150 micrograms (mg) per cubic meter. The average at the
Canton site was 78 mg, but it reached heights of 216 mg
during that y<::Jr
A spokesman for Champion International
attributed the increase or partieulmcs to a new road built
for carrying lime thnl was not watered down tO keep ll1e
dust from nying off. A tack or rain that year also
incn:a.o;cd the potential for moving dusL They claimed
that the problem diminished when they increased effons
to keep the lime powder down. Since then the ambient
air conditions have cleared somewhat and the slate now
consider,; Champion to be an compliance with the Stllte
Slalldartl.
The dan:ctor or the Western North Carolina
Rcgioru:il Air Pollution Control Agency, which is an
independun1 group that monitors air quality for State
officiaJs, claims 1hat conunucd hii;h levcls of particulllte
would be a "nuisance· anJ did not ncceS!>arily indicJtc o
danger to anyone breathing it. However, the report they
produced also claimed that extreme exposures to
panaculate-fillcd rur c:ll1 cause aggmvation of heart and
lung dascru;c, and e<m increase the likelihood of cancer and
other respirn1ory problems.
A broken filler ma ltme kiln at the Champion
plant was also cited :is a concributing factor to the
increased concentrations of particulate. As complaints
"filtered' m from local residents the lime kiln was finally
rep:ured in 1989. How muc:h airborne pollution is IOO
much? Ask not for whom t.he smokestack fumes. n
fumes for thee.
TURNTI\G DOWN THE POWER
Nanni World News Smlicc
The board of directors or the NC Electrical
Membership Corporation (NCEMC) voled on May 29 to
drop all plans to construct a diesel-powered peak
generating system a1 Deep Gap in Watauga County. The
board also made it clear that it would not undertake any
further plans for building diesel-generated power
St:ltions.
The board cited licensing delays, public
opposauon to the project. and "respect for the wishes or
the BREMCO (Blue Ridge Electrical Membership
Cooperative) board." which in a face-saving gesture had
requested an end IO the prOJCCL
ln spite of a loud public outcry. NCEMC had
been aggressively pressing ahead with plans for the
generating stauon until the Rural Electrificauon
Adm1nastra1ion. which had yet to approve the proposal,
made a public announcement that it had questions as to
the Stalion's effect on the local environment
Oppo:;1llon to the Deep Gap swtion was led by
the group Mounutan People for Clean Mountain Atr and
the Blue Ridge Environmcnt.ll Dcfcno;e League.
Summer, 1990
�SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN
NlJl"f.7 Ai lD Tl..J:E B10SPFJEit.:E !PROGRJ11Vl
The Man (sic) and the Biosphere
Program is an international program started by
the United Nations Educational, Cultural. and
Scienrific Organization (UNESCO) in 1971 to
work in particular habitat areas "to build a
harmonious relationship between man (sic) and
the environment on a scientific basis." The
international MAB program has identified a
network of biosphere reserves in characteristic
biomes (natural regions) around the world.
Each biosphere reserve is based around a
core zone, a wild landscape which contains as
much of the representative diversity of the
region as possible. Outside the core zone are
various special use areas to promote
preservation and study of rraditional land use
techniques of indigenous people, in-depth
rcsean:h into the ecosystem, and demonsr.ration
and study of habitat restoration methods.
Surrounding these inner areas would be a
multiple-use zone, or what is called an "area of
cooperation," where sustainable human use
would be practiced.
The project is regional in scope. This is
shown in the Southern Appalachian Man and the
Biosphere (SAMAS) project, which has
outlined an area almost identical to the Katuah
Province as the Southern Appalachian Biosphere
Reserve.
SAMAB was created by the agreement of
~even government agencies in 1988. Southern
Appalachia was chosen by UNESCO as one of
the first biosphere reserve areas because of "the
region's unique and globally significant
ecosystem" and because "the Southern
Highlands, like many other regions of the
world, have been subjected to largely
uncontrolled growth in population and auendant
development, particularly in the past two
decades." UNESCO recognized the Southern
Appalachians as "one of two areas in the United
States which best exemplifies biosphere reserve
concepts."
The SAMAS organization already has
several projects already underway. Among these
are:
- developing a computerized ecosystem data
base for the region,
~ training specialists to inventory biological
diver.;ity (planned are links with Latin
America to monitor migratory bird
populations).
- detecting and chaning climatic changes and
ecosystem responses,
- developing environmental education programs
for elementary schools,
- encouraging an environmentally-compatible
tourism industry,
- and creating a coordinared resource managrnent
plan that could be offered to developing
countries.
The basis of SAMAB is cooperative
regional planning. While the regional model
being promoted by the organization is excellent,
and the project goals arc largely laudatory, the
project now consists only of the regional
divisions of six federal agencies - the National
Park Service, the USDA Forest Service, the
Southeastern Forest Experiment Srnrion. the US
Fish and Wildlife Service. the Economic
Development Administration, the Department or
Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency,
and the Tennessee Valley Authority - the same
federal agencies now watching over the rapid
degradation of Kattlah's natural habitat
The SAMAS concept is still in its infancy.
Optimistically, the organization could renect a
new outlook and a new commitment on the pan
of its member agencies and the organizations,
public and private, who join subsequently. The
possibility is there. But SAMAB could just as
easily be "business as usual" under another
guise, if operating policies and power
relationships remain unchanged throughout the
region.
~
The organization is also interested in
beginning a program to tally the botanical and
pharmaceutical values of Appalachian plant life.
lndrdefeinr lte / " bo
f
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-
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"Multlple Use ArH
(Alea of CooP41ratoon)
Human senlements, forests and
rangelands. and other us4s m11nagad
lo ach•ove greillost possiblq hnrmony
with tha porpose of th11 biosphere
"'
Rohabllllallon Ar11
Demonstration of m11tll0ds
lo restore degraded
landscapes
\. 18591119
,
......,;.;;.:.;....:__ _ _ _ _~--_..,1
"Core Zone
1
""
Conservation or natural
&eosyslams and biological
drvars•ty, baseR111>
,
9COlogical monrto11ng
,)
,
Tradlllonal Us. ArH
Experimental Auearch Area
Conservation Md study ol
Manipulative rese;irch
twmomous land uses,
Ion managed ecosyslems .
1y.p.,ally by 1nd9nnous
~
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HIGHWAY TO NOWHEREwnunucd from p. 9
FHA planners returned to the drawing
boards. After locating other deposits of pyrilic
rock ulong the proposed route, they reloca11:<l the
roadway 10 another alignment lhat avoided much
of the acidic rock deposits. They then let ne''
construction contracts for the revised route plan.
Smee the new contracts have been h:t, pyritic
deposits have been encountered in one of the
four segments built in Tennessee and three of
the six segments in "ionh Carolina.
Where pyritic deposits have been
uncovered, they have been "encapsulated" in an
effort to prevent :mv contact '' ith water. which
brings the acidic con1ponents into solution. The
rock is excavated, placed over constructed
drains, covered with agricultural lime, and then
capped with concrete. The success of this
method is being evaluated by a research te.1m
from the University of Tennessee. and .stream
monitoring is being done on a regular basis in
cooperation with the US Forest St:rvice.
St4mmet, 1Q90
The highway project has also suffered
slumps and slides that have added to the expense
of the work. David Govus is a grading
contractor in Ellijay, Georgia who goes
frequently to the wild country below I looper's
Bnld to hunt grouse. He says, "It's an
unbuildable site...They arc hanging the road on
a very steep ridge just above Santeetlah Creek.
It's getting close to a 45% gradt: along in there.
There are places you can hardly walk up.
"They're having to gouge out the ''hole
side of the mountain, and they've already had
several major slides. Pan of the road coming
from lhe Robbinsville side just slid off the
mountain. It came 300.400 feet down and
wiped out a Forest Service road that ran parallel
below.
"This was last December. even before \\.'C
had the big rains in February."
Repair work on lhe slides are currently in
progress. and one more contract for the final
eight miles of road is due to be let this year. The
section 10 be completed passes over Wright's
Creek, known locally as one or the finest native
trout streams. The road plans call for the
highway 10 cross over the creekbcd five times.
This threatens the stream's survi\'al. as the
headwaters area of Wright Creek contains some
of the steepest slopes and some of the largt:st
deposits of pyritic rock along the entire route of
the new roadv. ay.
Da\'id Govus says. ''If somebody could
go up there and look at it, it would make them
sick enough that they would understnnd how
stupid it is. Somebody who appreciates the
Southern Appalachian Mountains and who
undernands the pressure that's on them can see
that the Forest Service land is the last bit of the
landscape that's not being totally developed.
And here is a wild chunk of !:ind lhat ~hould be
a wilderness area, which instead is having this
useless highway pu1 through it."
,
)(.Qt~
)owncal pmJeo 27
�Dear Sirs.
Your spring number is a bi1 difficuh to accept as good Ecology.
I refer to Snowbird's illustration and write-up on edible wild
flowers! We need to protect them - as they are disappearing as
development and poor foresU')' practice ruin their habilllt and areas of
growth - Why eat wild flowers? • Better way to conserve.
•
Yours truly.
Miles L. Peelle
Brevard, NC
DRUMMING
LETTERS TO KATUAH
To Whom It Concerns:
Howdy there! I mec1 David Wheeler at the Environmental
Summit at UNC-A Saturday. He mentioned that Kat1u1h JC1urnal had
a write-up in your last issue on the black bear in regards to the White
Oak Communi1y and landfill.
This community is my home. I've been working real hard to
stop lhis siting. I gave David information regarding this. My concerns
are grnve as r feel the noise will ~isrupt the nesting pil~at~d
woodpecker and other birds ·the red-tailed hawks, etc. that reside m
my mantre hardwood forest that will never be disrupted.
I love the sounds of the birds. I really feel for the black bear,
the ones 1hat will be poached and the young who will learn an
un-natural way of being. The situation was o~e of politics. If th.e
bear could vote instead of people, they would wm. My community 1s
remote and small · only 90 households. The black bear will be
severely affected and the damage permanent. We need help from all
who love this wilderness species. I do know without help from the
outside, our politicians will win. They're determined. We do have
. .
people allying with us now, ~ut we need ~verybody. .
Enclosed is money, of which l would hke the last issue pertammg
to my concerns with the siting of a landfill in White Oak. I'm very
active in the light to stop it, your resource might should of sought me
out. The rest is for the cause. Thanks.
Editors' Note: People on th~ editorial staff had some questions abow
this initially, bm after smne discussion we decided to go ahead and
prillt tire article. Thank yo11. though.for voicing your concern.
WIU7t Snow Bear tells us is:
"\Ve certainly don't want to drive wildflowers to extinction.
Tire particular plants I chose co write abolll grow in large numbers
where. the\' occ1tr in this area.
"I also ga~·e specific instr11ctions for gathering the plants ill a
respectful ll'a)' The whole point about writing abo11t the wild plams
and their 11ses is to com·ey a respect/or those beings.
~1 think that people lfring their lil'e.1· i11 harmony with rite
mo11111ains. knowing rlre edible and medici11al uses ofthe native wild
plants. would be more inspired 10 preserve the plants and their wild
habirat. I don'1 tlii11k that the number of people who go inro wild
areas and pick a salad are going 10 mean the end of the wild native
plants. b1u if a species becomes rare, we certainly should not gather
it. The major threat is in the wholesale destruction oflzabitac."
?lie Sinners
"ITU sun gives tfie 'East a ji111J{ slupy norf
am{ slips away 6eliina a rosy fii[f.
'IHiife I, at peace for once, suting on my [1".rcft,
'lfien, 'Listen,· a cric~t sfui{(y calfs. 'Listen!'
.?l.na tfte evening gossips 6e9m.
Sincerely,
Carolyn Gann
Rt. 4. Box 191
Waynesville, NC 28786
'?(aty tfU{, • a malicious tattfttak si119s out.
·x..a1y aU!n 'tr a wyalf nemt replies.
'?(p.ty aitf.' '?(p.ty aitfn t.' '1(.aty tfit{.' ''])itf11't/'
Cfiarges am{ counter ones tftstur6 my soul
'Ofi, Lori{,' I 9roa11, 'ls tfrere no e111f to si11?'
Dear People.
.
I discovered your fine journal while staying at the Hot Spnngs
Inn last weekend.
T was so taken by your issue on "Children" that 1 intend. to
incorporate some of the ideas into the environmental educau<?n
curriculum of my school · The Montclair Coopcrauve School 1n
Montclair, NJ.
... Also (please send) a back issue on "Forests". I became
concerned with the clearcutting visible from our hike on the
Appalachian Trail and would like to get your views.
Thank you,
Lora Cooper
Berkeley Hts, NJ
'Stop it!" I sliout into tlie noisy crowtl
'/won 't liave s(anaer in my own 6ac~arti.'
Yet as I speak_! 6fusfi for ptrfuly
Jts my tfissem6lin9 mina ~eps wontfering too ·
'!JUI s(u.?
· Marie 'Woori
Dear Kauiah Folk,
I live in the New River Valley, which ha5 become grist for the
DEVELOP • DEVELOP • DEVELOP mill, indiscriminate and
insntiable. A green Conservancy has sprung up, but oh so tentatively.
unfueled by the real estate busine$$. I hope for ideas from Ka11lalt, as
well as good company. Many Thanks!
Sally Spangler
Rt. 2. Box 4
Christiansburg, VA 24073
Union Acres
An Alternative Community
-SrrwJr;y Mcnmtain living
Ulilh a focus on spiritual and te0logiC11/ 1JOluts•
Acreage for sale/ Beautiful lrnCIS of prh'lllC land available for
homeSICllding. Approxim:ucly eigh1y :ic~. surveyed into 24 lots
of ooe. two. or four acres each. ~vcn acres of common land
including cn:dc, meadow. playground, and scenic views.
Common property managed by communily conSCl\SllS.
Eartb sttwardsbip/ consensus democracy( organic gardening! noopoUuling
ttebnolocia/ atttrnalhe children's schoolf rttyclini: «Dier/ retrtalS and
.. orkshops/ aod other rooptrali"t tndtu·or~ 5uch as food co-op, etc.
For more infonnauon· C. Gmnt. RL I Box 61 J, \\'hittier. NC 18789 (704) 497-4964
•
The editorial staff would like to extend a special thank
you to Thomas "Breeze" Rums for his donation of a 10%
lit11e lo Ka11ialz Jownal.
P.Jd AdvcrtlSCmCDI
JCnltmh Jatnnul P"9C 28
Summer. 1990
�STEADY STATEcon11nucd from p.9
CNP also satisfies the missing ethical
component in modern economics which Daly
foments. The CNP of an ecosystem can be increased
depending on the amount of care, concern. and
respect the indinduals within tt m;imfcst for
their hfc community. Carelessness, dii.dain, and a
lack of respect lower CNP.
The Spirit of the Wild
James Rhea's artwork that was the logo
for the "Restoring Biodiversity in the Southern
Appalachians" conference and the cover of Issue
25 of the Kaulah Journal. is now available to all
as conference posters and T-Shins.
The posters are beautiful, four-color 11" x
1 renditions of the native species portrait with
7"
conference information below and are available
for $2.00.
The T-shirts are heavy-duty, all-couon,
silkscreened by Rldgerunncr Naturals. Only
large and extra-large sizes remain. They are
available for $10.50.
Prices include postage. NC residents
please add 5% sales tax.
All proceeds fror;n the sale o_f these .itcn:is
will support rescue acuons for nauve habitat in
the Southern Appalachian forest.
Order from: KfllflNU
Box 282; Sylva, NC
Ka111ah Province 28789
Ultimately. all of lids investigation and
discussion has to do with choosing a quality or life
in Katuilh. However, as Daly writes, "quality
involves difficult judgements. and imposes
self-definition and respons1b1ht;-•.. quantity (the
CNP measuring stick I involves merely count mg and
arithmetical operations that givt' everyone the
s.Jme answer and impose no responsibility". It is
easier, but not necessarily more accurate, to
measure progress by the quantity of concrete,
buildings, parking lots, people, and/or dollars in
an area.
But is this real progress? Cannot progress of
society occur without physical growth of structurus
and/or people? The building of a home, or of a
community, is more than just the erection of
structures.
It is the creation of a living
environment which will help meet, in a
sustainable way, the needs of those people who
live there. Arc not improvements in the quality of
food, air, water, justice, and community relations,
progress? Could not the successful maintenance of
ecological diversity, and the support systems
which are the foundation of this diversity, be
considered progress?
This is the supposition of the steady state
economy "Progress" is the maintenance of the
"best" conditions - in a word, quality. In the
growth economy, "progress" is the ever-increasing
growth in quantity of physical goods and services,
leading to the destruction of production capability
and life support potential.
(cost) $24 milhon in state and students money, and
promote the growth of the univer:>ily. An increase
in the quantity of dollars to an areil is by
ddinit1on .1 ~good" thing for that area.
But would the present supporters of lhe
construction project still be clamoring for the
government money if the dollars were being
offered to build a radioactive w.Jste storagc
facility? Of course not. In th.JI instance they could
easily see the difference between quantity and
quality.
John Stuart Mill put it \'cry simply and
clearly over 100 hundred years ago when he spoke
of a steady Stille economy:
If the earth must lose a great portion of
its pleas.1ntncss which 11 owes to things that
the unlimited increase of wealth and
population would extirpate from it for the
mere purpose of enabling it to support a larger
but not happier or better population, I
sincerely hope for the s.ike of posterity that
they will be content to the stationary long
before necessity compclls them to it.
,
RESOURCES
Berry, Wendell. 1987 Tht Gift of Good Lo11d. Nonh
Poinl Press, San Fransisco
Daly, Hcnnan E. 1977. Steady Stott Economics. W.H.
Freeman and Company, San Francisco.
Daly, Herman E., editor. 1980. Eco110mics, Ecology,
Ethics· Essays on a Steady Stott Eco110my. W.H.
Fn:cmnn, S::111 Francisco
Daly, Hcnnan E.. nnd John B. Cobb. Jr. 1989. For the
Common Good. Beacon Press, Bosion.
Schulll3chcr, E.F. 1973. Small is Bca111iful: Economics
os if Ptoplt /ltartertd. Perennial Library, New York.
MOO N
D ANC I NG
The proposed regional activities center at
Appalachian State University is a good example
of this conflict between quantity and quality. In
the minds of many, the proposed coliseum is
"good" because it will increase seating capacity for
events to 11,000 people, create a number of jobs
(mostly temporary) for local workers, bring in
Gift• of Cdebrauon
(EARTll WA\1 bOOKSTORE)
<!
Books • New Age MU$ic
Wildaafted Htrbal Product~
Gmutones • Unrqul' Card.i
Maga~mcs
• & Mort
(704) 264-7242
1 IOB Wc..>!>t King Street, Boone,
NC 28607
by Jomes Profitt
Down in Sylva
bear claws haunt the while clapboard town
~rung briefly between two mountains,
and the breathing or wild Appalachia moves
m and out of the mill's steam spirals
up into the sky.
A creek dribbles half-heartedly
through the edge of this pince.
Cherokee lies twenty miles west.
There, a hundred Indians ride the bed
or a red Chevy pickup with a cooler of beer,
lawn chairs, and ancient, laded Levis.
Al lhe trading post a small, stunted bl.Jck bear
p.1ces his days evenly.
Oh-God-am-l-immort.11-never-to·melt-my-bonesand-fur·a nd -hot-brca th-into-I he-stone-of· thisplacc?
cries a wee; disgruntled bear soul into quiet hillsides.
In the summds fading. men move into those hillside~
carrying nfll'S and trailing dogs
lhJrsting for blood in the ho.trsc,
secret l.mguilgc of hounds.
S\&mmcr, 1990
e1ti11ae ,At11p111ttl11re
WILDLIFE
"'
Jlerbp/gl/I e1i11it
T-SHIRTS. SWEATSHIRTS
'l\iage, 'JWfl~I 'Nat!Jraj_s
'''"
~~
~o'~ ~ C/~~ 130
ILC IAAJEBE. I.I. S, Ac..O
UC~T
v•~
0
,
vo'f.t,·,;p'>
~~:C,o·"
Dept. K
N Main Street
Waynesville. NC 28786
(704) 4~~3..Q03
,.~
........ ~·"
�Review:
Cohousint A Contemporary Approach I• Housing Ourselves
This is a book about bringing tile small community back to
modem society. The authors, Kathryn McCamant and Charles
Durrett, are a husband and wife design team who visited 46
cohousing communities in Denmark. the Netherlands and Sweden
before writing this book. They lived at many of these communities
for days or months and this gives their book depth and autnenticity.
This is a nuts and bolls guide to gathering a group of like-minded
folks :ind building a community.
The communities the authors studied in Europe were all quite
different from each other, but they also shared important features.
The groups were all democratic, and there was a refreshing absence
of charismatic leaders. They all had various amounts of resident
participa1ion in !he design process. AU of the communities provided
private dwellings for families as well as common space for group
activities. Some of the groups were cooperatives, some had owned
units, some rented units, some had both owners and renters, and
many had ownership similar to condominium arrangements.
The communities varied in size from 6 to 80 households.
There was a scrong consensus from both of these extremes as well
as from the middle ground that groups in the range of 15 to 30
households is optimum.
Some of the communities were buih entirely by hired help
while in others the residents did various amounts of the cons1J'Uction
work. Some of the communities were very poUlically-mindcd, some
very ecologically-minded, some didn't seem to mind at all.
lbe advantages of a small community are almost too
numerous to mention, but lower cost of housing, children's
playgroups, music ensembles, protection from crime, teenage
music rooms (Most of the communities had them!), greater energy
efficiency, laundry rooms, saunas, soccer fields (or baske1ball
courtS), workshops, walk-in freezers, darkrooms, and any other
resource one can imagine being shared profi1ably, make a good
beginning of a list. My own favorite advamage is enelly efficiency.
Through a cen1r.1l heating sys1em and co-generation, a small
community can have wannth and power at a small percentage of the
ecological and monetary cost 1hat a comparable number of
independent houses would use! Small communities can take
advanrage of the solar, wind, and water resources which would be
beyond lhc reach of one family and beneath lhe notice of a 1own or
city. Efficiently congregating humans in small communities leaves
much of the land for other species.
All of this makes basic good sense. The quesuon left is
"how do we get there from here?". Colw1ising is a very good guide
for this journey. It is a beautiful as well as a practical book with
plenty of color photographs and thoughtful architectural drawings.
It is published by Habitat/fen Speed Press and well wonh the
$19.95 it costs. If you are interested in living in community, you
~
should read this book.
·reviewed by Will Ashe Bason
Cl-ONA conlinucd !Jom p. 7
China's remaining 12% of forest cover is threatened by population
pressures and by the demands for wood of the industrialized areas of the
country. (One day I saw a 100 foot long log of Washing1on State
Douglas Fir being caned down 1he street by straining peasants!)
Modernization and rising expectations funher threaten this evolved system
by polluting the supplementary sources of protein foods found in the
waterways, by acid rain, and by the loss of prime arable lands to urban
sprawl, rural industry and private house building in the countryside. The
lure of modem lifestyle now projected on millions of TVs is a powerful
destabilizing force throughout China.
Dut the lessons of China seem unequivocal. If we are to avoid her
terrible mistakes and if we are to find harmony with the Nature of our
own continent, we can learn from intelligent observation what the Chinese
have had to learn by dire desperation. We can avoid China's plight by
applying the solutions the Chinese (far too late perhaps) have developed
to deal with the ecological challenges they face. We can ignore China (or
Ethiopia, Mesopotamia, India, Egypt, etc...} nt our peril.
Consider then for a moment what life in Kaniah would be like if we
could emulate the present resourcefulness and humility of the Chinese.
The intensively farmed prime lands of a few valleys around Asheville
could feed the entire population without strain. Thousands of acres of
pastures could be returned to forest/woodlot, since we would be eanng
soybeans and grains instead of beef and pork. These could provide fuel
for home heating and cooking (not to mention vigorous exercise for axe
wielders). Since we would be a low energy society, we would have to be
doing crafts, farming and domestic arts close to home. We could dispose
of our automobiles.
Noise, carbon emissions from fossil-fuel burning and the mental
stress of the modem lifestyle would deminish. Our communities would,
of necessity, be closer knit and less mobile and would thus be stronger
sources of social solidarity, so lacking in our ultramobile, treadmill
"American life". We would require less things to have as we begin to be
farmers, craflSpcople, musicians, artists, woodsmen, poets. Our forest
lands would become less accessible and therefore more wild. Old growth
forests would come into their own again, since our economy would be
one of sufficiency, not cancerous growth. Nature could move closer to
us, even as we become more natural people at home. The artificial
demarcation between the Wild and the Civilized would fade and the two
would intermingle and fuse. An economy of small farms, sm.111
businesses, and mutual interdependence would blossom.
People would look on their surroundmgs with a keener eye to the
deeper rhythms, functions and mystery. Like the Chinese. we would
11lways know at a given moment which way is nonh and which way is
south. We would be closer to the we;11her and be in tune with the seasons
at a deeper level.
XRtt".nh Journot pnl)G 30
Summer would last longer in our minds and be sweatier. Autumn
would be more poignant and festive with community harvests. Winte1
would be leaner, more intimate and contemplative. And Spring would
simply mean more.
When Spring came to Jiangsu Province! It meant an end 10 the wet
and cold with no cenrral heating. nn end to 9 layers of clothing, 1
0
jumping jacks and pushups at dawn, to sponge baths. to turnip soup, to
grim faces. Spring meant new life, hope and comtort. The first
cucumber never tasted so good as ii did in Jiangsu Province.
Let's try to avoid the kind of situation where someone will have to
ask this question, "Whose ducks are those?" Let the ducks remain wild in
a healthy wilderness. Let a lone hiker ask permission to kill it and give
thanks for eating it. Let the mystery of isolated bears return to our
psyche, as we tend our gardens of plenty gazing at the distant mountai ns.
The Way. the Tao, exists. Let us follow it.
Stephen Barrleu c1urefllly lives on the campttS of Warren Wilson College
in Swamwnoa, NC where Ire leaches and directs the International Smdent
Program lie and his family plan to move w land they have purchased in
the Dominican Republic, where they will farm and encourage rural
development.
~
-
....
· ~
:'litm 1r1
I
.,,. ,, , ,,,JCf'IU
704·264·!)210
200W. KlngSt. Boone. NC
3 Blocks Crom Campus
Sumn~cr.
1990
�END OF REAL ESTATE coru.inued l'rom p 23
CurTCntly, much human attention 1s put into designing ever more
effective ways of killing each other. In many governments this approach has
proven disastrous to the ecology o( their regions and to their own economies.
By diverting even a fracbon of the now of human 'money', attention, and
concern involved with 'destructo-tcchnol9gies' into those forms which work
with the timing and material energy cycles of the sun and livmg bJO'Phere it
is possible that we can d~1gn basic humAn scale systemS which fulfill the
needs of housing. food, he•lth care, travel, tcachtng. and rommunicauon
without thrusting our energy discard'! he; pollutants) onto the hfc sustaining
environments around us. It means our new "job~ will be to monitor the flow of
many fonns of energy •nd make sure 11 is ~cLlble or reusable "ithm the
human community, and that what 1s released into the habitat of other
animal, plant. and microbial communities is d1Scstabll' by thl'm. PCB's for
instance are vl'ry difficult for bacteria and fungi to decompose, while some
other chemicals such as organic 50aps are degradable. II would mc.1n
adopting a similar kind of energy respos1bihty as we would find in a forest, a
creek, pond, or meadow - not allowing a valuable form of energy "go to
waste". It would mean de5igning stores and industries with systems and
containers that are re-usable. Also worth considering arc food producers that
work directly in a villagl' or town in which foods arc made fresh and the
need for wrappers and containers would be minimized. Our
"ncw~mploymcnt" would also mc.1n finding and using 11\dteri.als that arc
more organically digestable by the rest of the biosphere, or at least
digestablc in a more reasonable time range.
The utterly ironic process of going away from the home or homestead
to earn money from someone else to be able to purchase land and housing that
some great day m the future you hope to live in and enjoy (perhaps with a
family) is a sad •nd telling story of the lack of clear prionhes in modem life.
ln a region where Real Estate was NOT long (or queen), there would be
encouragement in finding a "house and land" for people who are, or are to
become good stewards. One responsibility of the Village would be to keep
track of lhe turnover (le; births and deaths) of lhe population of the vlllage
and relay this informabon to young couples for example, who are awaiting
ho~. Within local Village agn.'Cmcnl!i about the canymg capacity of a
farm or pan:cl of land their payment would be in the eifort and skills they
applied "on sight". It may abo be appropriate In such contexts to have LETS
trading 5)'5tl'IT\S (sec Katllah Issue 22) far goods and services not e)!Changed
through cuh or precious metals..
Banks charge "intCl't$1" to thO!>e who 'have not' now for the chinc:e
that the)' may possibly 'h3ve' later. This *interest" has traditionally been
coming from the workings of the Sun and 81o~here through pLtnts, animals,
rung;, and bacteria Now we have replaced these renewing forms of Interest
with numbers and the Earth's storage of fossil fuels- which were placed
there inadvertantly by the death of living organisms - perhaps in order to
keep carbon atoms from contnbuting to the over-concentTation of greenhouse
gasses in lhe atmosphere.
Could a system be created through which land or a house would be
"worked" and taken are of by a person or a family and "paid for" by the
work they actually do while living at the residence? It would certainly
assist the effort in reducing the now of harmful and mundane molecules (such
as automobiles spitting out their weight in carbon-dioxidl' m one year) which
is creating an enVJronmcntal crisis for many of the larger multi-cellular
organisms like ouselves. The overarching context of the present economy
prescribes that there must be a middle person involved to retail, or scoop-off
some extra money m the transaction between a human family and the land.
Most of lhe "monitary profit" from someone actually living on the land they
are trying to acquire goes off to someone else wllO is free to walk off with it,
through the craft of law and Instituted customs. By giving value to what the
source of wealth is; the know-how, plants and animlls, materials, tools,
hulTWl and other than human relations, and the capacity of human bciilgs to
be adequate stewards in this process - we could possibly find ways to g;ve
back to the land the attenhon that is being taken away from ii l?.Y 'Working
Jobs' that •re often meaningl~ (or ha\•c htllc to do with actual hfe support)
and become nearly purpo$Clcss to the attempt of finding harmony in human
relations. and within the relations of the region they inhabit.
Mind you. there would h<l\'C to be some stnct prohibitlons to people
that would abuse such a woy of "eamfog a living". No ultimate guarantee
exists that ways of hum.ln fundamentalism. trickery, commcroahsm, and
"nus-m.11"1gcment• that have been C\idcnt In our past will not find l~ wny
into such a Re-'"ISiomng or the basic pnnciplcs of Real Estate. At the same
time, how could we prevent such regulation from becoming too rigid and
burcacratic7 One s11ggcs11on comes from Anthropological studies showing that
groups, or etrclcs, of "primitive" people numbering only as many as 40, were
able to communicall' about b.151c assumptions mtlsl clearly and clfoctivcly,
e\-en though the ways they organizl'CI their affairs were not always linear or
Summer, I 990
'rational'. Perhap; this kind of organizing in the context of non-lethal
technologies would aid in decision making more than large, overly
cumbersome 'bodies' of people haggling over agendas and policies for long
periods of ttmc, •nd insi5ting on rigid heirarchical fonns of order.
There would be hard work involved for those choosing to be a ~rt of
such an ecologically minded approach to human hre support in the greater
contCl<t of H•bitat rreservatlon. A justice syMem that involved inhabitants
other than human, along with the repo0$ib1lity or human caretakers And
the carrying capacity of the land would be one very different from the
primanly urban and l'llCdlJlmainy mdustnal slate as it exists now. Such a
system would involve biology as a cruelal aspect of such an intcr-spcoes
JUStire. The main problem With this would perhaps be find mg Agreements
about what such a fonn of justice v.ould ~n. and how offenders to it would
be dealt with. Would we samply rccapttulatc our CWTent shamefully
inadequate ways of "lmpnsoning" people an an Ecological State, or would
there be community service penances?
An l'COnomk system of accounting the direct work done on or from a
"peace" Of i.nd for housing. or the ability to hve ma given plare and obtam
life suppprt in a VJllage ronk'ltt, ls also quite foreign to our way of life now
(though II has rc-ci.1~ted many tim..'5 through the human past). Instead of
proving you are Worthy to an employer, perhaps you could prove 11 to a
council within a community or village <or group of villages). Would such
villages be patterned afkr collccllve socictil'S m which crucial lands, tools,
and foods arc distributed more l'Venly among the populace? Or would it be
fashioned after market l'COnom1cs 1n which what a person or fAmily is able to
create and sell on a market dl!tcrm1~ their wealth and status in lhe
community? The collective notion seems to prove too uniform in character with a sti!fiing of diversity and often of helpful innovations as well.
Capitalistic notions appear to be too diverse - the markets fill with multiple
products that require specialized means of repair and the pooling of capital
becomc?S paramount to overall ecological health. I thtnk there will be some of
both ol lhesc ways of cultural organizi!ll; involved 1n an ecological approach
to human commumhcs, much as in th~ practice of Land Trusts (see Ka!Uah
lsue 20). In a Land Trust the foundcn determine 'guidelines' whlcb
pcrchascrs of land in the rommunity must agrre to in order to '1nJy" anto IL
The land is removed from lhl' "frre market" of busmess. and IS open to the
decisions of loCal residents who are in rlttd of maintaining the land's
integrity ~or their own survival.
Our current lnduslrial Chaos in ~l contributes to the stiffHng of
human CMrgf cs and experiences in finding collective and perso~I ways of
M<lture (or climactically stabalizing> ecological relauol\lhips with the
many cycles of energy and form found in the ·nch" and rare environments of
this Uving Planet. To find an order now, that is not a throwback to a
supposed order of long ago, is our current challenge. An option for ecological
in~ty, an which industries would perhaps become Tnl '"plants", is not an
absolute proposition, however. An astcrlod rould collide with tliC Earth and
throw the Earth's living systems into a chaos far more inteMe than what we
are doing with our bombs and industries now. Can we retrieve from the
self-Initiated chaos and fear from whicli we have been building Into
"mlhtary industrial complexes" for hundreds of years? C..n we create a
polity that does not seek to manipulate and scavenge the lives of the
•common people" thay proport to support?
The expericnct' of human corruption. greed • .and power struggle5 for
social positiorung cannot be left out of consideration when. imagining
ecological villages. Yet if the bulk of Non-roal estate societies revesred
women, m1nontics, relative honesty and ea>logical health, apprenticeship.
•nd non-partici~hon in militarism more than It does the previou!lf
mcn11oncd "attributes", the chances or more JUSI social ~ems rould have a
greater potent1<1I of cof!Ung Into existence. In ~· there ili now a.c1oler
mutual ronsistcncy brtwecn our own ~II being .and that of the enVlronmcntal
context of the Earth
Unpredic;tabillty and tunnoU arc likely to percolate in human
societies. Even (r we can design villages that are ecologically sound there arc
no guaranl1?6 that OUT social and personal Ills "'ill be cured. Such secnunsly
"fmrretenal" concerns as conflicts of assumpuons. violent behavior, drug
addiction, croWding. lying and dcrual, romantic relatio~ gone sour, ~ge
rebellion, disfunctlONll famihcs, ond other maladies of the human coru:huon
are os mbmatcly ln\•ohro with these so called 'Green Technologies' as the
design of the systems themsclvcs.
It may be true that by Cl'l'attng a more healthy context between
oursdn.-s and the blola uf 1hc rq;lon we Inhabit :;ome or ou~ current social
malaise C'an find a plare to heal old wounds, yet it is too easy to think that
there Is some •fix" that we can put on our soctelli.'S that will heal this once
and for all. There must also be an nccompanying inner ab1hty of the
personality to become 1nll'g1'.tll'CI into a group larger than Itself, v:·h1le
.
rcuunmg the self-assertiveness nl'Cl'SSlry for identity and protc<:non. , .
JCatUah Journat pa9e 3l
�PEOPLE ANO KABITAT ccnlinued &om p.13
manner in which they earned !heir wealth. The
very isolation that bad protected the mountains
fro!11 induslrializatio~ for ~ long now proved
their strongest attracoon. City-dwellers realized
that they could "have" that isolation - all they
lacked was a way to get there. Thus began the
era of the four-lane. The Appalachian Regional
Council brought in federal money to help state
governments upgrade old roads and build
modem expressways.
. During th!s same period agriculture
dcclmed sharply m the mountains • and with it
declined the traditionally high birthrate that had
always characterized Appalachia in the minds of
outsiders. With the construction of new roads
in-migration became the driving force in th~
population growth of the Katuah province.
Today the rate of biological growth (the ratio of
the bmh rate to the death race) remains at flat
zero or in fractions of a percentage point (0.07
percent in 1984), while the rate of in-migration
continu~ to rise dramatically, putting the overall
populauon growth of the Southern Appalachians
we.11 above the national average. The number of
reurces tr3nslocaling to the mountains raises the
percentage of monality and skews the biological
growth rate somewhat, but a look at the figures
shows the dominant influence of migration on
the regional population.
Lack of access has always been the
limiting factor on growth - the growth of human
popul~tic:>ns'. ec<?nomic development, and
mdusmahumon • m Appalachia. Lack of access
protected the wild nature of the mountain
habitat. Now the cork is out of the bottle. The
sporadic stream of in-migration has turned into a
flO<?d. As ov~r-populatcd Europe once offered
an mexhausnble supply of humanity to fill up
the New World, the large eastern cities now do
the same for the mountains. as the interstate
highway system offers an easy means of travel.
Along with the increase in new residents,
there has been a tremendous increase in demand
for recreational opportunities in the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park and the
national forests. Today. human management and
hullllln use penetrates to the deepest reaches of
the forest on 4,900 miles of forest roads and
touches every aspect of life on vinually every
acre of the mountain forest habitat.
Meanwhile, wildlife has been pushed
back to the most remote areas of the forest in
search of food and safety due to the clearing
necessary for roads and development and the
associated noise.
The Norlh Carolina High~ay Bill
(or Come One, Come All! )
. l n 1989 the North Carolina state
legislature passed a $8.8 billion Highway Bill.
Go~emor.Jim Martin's plan is to place "every
resident m the state within 10 miles of a
four-lane road," build by-passes around seven
urban centers (including Asheville). pave
10,000 miles of ~e~ondary gravel roads by
1999, and the remaining gravel roads in the state
by 2006.
To hear the road boosters talk. the new
roa?s are g?ing to bring in all 1he good aspects
of 1 n~ust~al culture and none of the bad.
There s big bucks in it for everyone, we are
to!d, an~, because we live in 1he mountains,
thm~s will be as nice as they always were. The
Envaronment Committee assures us th:it all this
development can proceed with no impact
k:otMm ) 0 1.0 ·\iQL pJ9 e ~i
whatsoever on the "beautiful mountain scenery
that is so important to all of us" • in fact, it'll be
even better, because there will be m()re people
here to enjoy it with us.
THE FOURTH TURTLE ISLAND
BIOREGIONAL CONGRESS
(NABCIV)
In reality, the greatly increased volume of
traffic that will pass over the new highways will
h~ve a tremendously damaging effect. New
highways mean more use, more commerce
more in-migration, and more human demands
on the already over-stressed habitat.
Since the 1960's the word "access" has
taken on a new and more sinister meaning with
the widespread use of the television set. The TV
has had a rapid and unprecedented effect on
mountain culture. With a TV in almost every
home, the cultural isolation of the mountains is
at an end. The greater society comes right into
the living room almost every night of the week.
The cultural model is no longer local, but is
broadcast from New York and Los Angeles. and
the image now permeating the minds of the
mountain people is the same as that being
received by the rest of the population of the
continent, wherever they live.
There are no regional distinctions in this
model, it is bland and homogeneous. It is also
urban in nature. as most of the dominant culture
is urban-based, and it causes dissatisfaction in
the minds of rural viewers, who begin to feel
that they are being left out of the American
Dream when they see urban consumpuon
patterns and urban lifestyles on the flickering
screen. The TV has caused great changes and
great contradicrions in the Appalachian way of
life. With Lhe powerful weapons of the TV and
the automobile, the cultural conquest of the
mountains is nearly complete.
will be held August 19·26
at Lake Cobbosseecontee, near Augusta,
Gulf of Maine Bioregion
As access opened the mountains to the
ravages of unrestrained technology at the cum of
the century, so now is it bringing in an outside
culture and unrestrained numbers of human
beings. We are the greatest threat to habitat in
the Southern. Appalac hians. Rampaging
development will be our greaiest local concern in
the decade ahead.
We long ago overshot the capacity of this
region to support the weight of our population
and our induslrial technology. Now, rather than
manage the forest to meet our unending
demands, we need to manage ourselves, our
numbers and our way of life, that the forest may
continue. In the long run, this would be the best
for all the inhabitants of the mountain
forestlands. ourselves included.
This process requires values that arc at
once new and at the same time very, very old.
These values are the subsmnce of the bioregional
vision. We need to learn/remember them and
pass them on. Only then will we be able to
approach a reasonable carrying capacity of
human beings in the Katuah province of the
,,
Appalachian b1oregion.
S pecial thanks to Tersh Palmer a nd
Karen Lo hr for their contribulion.
The fourth continental Bioregional
Congress is convening to plan strategies and
share energy to meet the challenges of the
coming decade, which is shaping up to be a
crucial one in the development of the present
world culture.
The species of life on this planet are being
hard hit by the weight of human numbers and
human technology. The future of planetary
evolution is at stake, and we cannot waver or
hesitate in defending the other creatures of the
world and their habitats. They are disappearing
rapidly, and once gone, they are gone for good.
But our actions would be in vain if we did
not establish new and different cultural styles ways of living that are specific to the natural
regi?nS that support them ... ways of being that
tap m10 the deepest roots of their natural living
plaee...these are what will endure.
The potential of the next ten years is
tremendous. Let us come together for the sake
of the world and all that is wild.
If you arc interested in at!Mdiog NABC lV from
lhe Katuah Province, conl.3Ct the K a1uah Journal (Box
638: Leicester. NC; Kalu3h Province 28748) to
coordina1e transponation and consider how we will
represent our region at the Congress.
Rcgis1rn1ion for NABC IV is SJ75 for odults,
SIOO for children. Mrul Congress queries or rcglstrntions
to:
Turtle lsland Biorcgio113I Congress
Gulf of Mnillc Books
61 Mainc SL
New Brunswick, ME
Gutr or Maine Bioregion 04011
.r!!J'
,te:.-'
WNC ALLIANCE
HIGHLANDS-CASHIERS CHAPTER
A new chapter of the Western North
Carolina Alliance has been formed in the
Highlands-Cashiers dismct, the uplands of
southern Jackson and southeastern Macon
Counties on the Blue Ridge Divide.
This area comprises the headwaters of
some of the most important water sources in the
southeastern quarter of Turtle Island. The
Cullasaja, Cha11ooga, Tuckasegee, and
Whitewater Rivers rise here, as well as
Tessentee and Middle Creeks, important
tributaries of the Little Tennessee River system.
The new Alliance group states its purpose
as being an effective grassroots organization
promoting a sense of stewardship and caring for
the mountain environment. Their goal is to
protect and preserve the quality of the land,
water, forests, and air through education and
public participation in policy decisions at tll
levels of business and government.
For more information about the group,
ca!J the WNC Alliance office at (704) 2588737.
.,(4m'mU, 1990
j
�27-29
JULY
SWANNANOA, NC
Vision Ques1 wi1h Morgan E:igle Bear.
Offerings. Those wishing to paruc1pa1e, write Morgan
C/o The Earth Ccn1cr Sec 6123-24.
HOT SPRINGS, NC
~ Cherokee Law and Holy Land: Leaming
About Row to Live in Nonh America..• Woricshop with
Dr. Robert Thomas, raised in a traditional comunity m
the Eas1em Ozarks. Storytelling. fasting, discussions,
Sacrifice to the Fire, Salu1c to the Sun, Pipe Ceremony.
$95. Pn:-regis1cr. Southern Dhanna Reuca1 Center. sec
7/13-15.
4-8
12-15
Asheville Anisis' Markel & Fes1 on Lexington Ave
Downtown Asheville. NC. Thru 1he summer on Fri,
Sal, & Sun, 10 am • Sunset Exhibi1or.; will include
local anisL~. environmental, educational, & social
concern groups, food. Local musicians pcrfonning and an
open slllgc daily. For info. call (704) 251-2313.
in
Full Moon Sweat Lodge every Saturday closest
to the foll moon at the Eanh Center, Swnnnanoa. NC.
Call (704) 298-3935.
JUNE
21
SUMMER SOLSTICE CELEURA T ION
23-24
SWANNANOA, NC
Drum-Making Workshop with Pal Slark.
Building a medicine drum. S150. supplies included. The
Eanh Cemer; 302 Old Fellowship Rd.; Swannanoa, NC
28776. Call (704) 298-3935.
24·30
TOWNSEND,TN
"Teacher & Naturalist Weck.• "For classroom
tcachen, nar.uralists, and anyone intercs1cd in learning
3boul the natural world." With Doug Elliou. Eustace
Conway, music by Lfa and Lynn Shaw. Sl50. Contacl:
Great Smoky Moun1nins Ins1itu1c al Tremont;
Townsend, TN 37882 (615) 448-6709.
U..27
KNOXVILLE, TN
Economic Dcvelopmcn1 as ir Women Maucred
Conference. Co-sponsored by Levi Strnuss Foundation,
Tennessee Valley Authori1y, Episcopal Diocese of Eas1
1N. Info: Vicki Creed, Community Aff3ll'S; Levi Strnuss
& Co.: P.O. Box 15906; Knoxville, TN 37901.
27-7/1
tu GH LANDS, NC
"Landscape Photography in the Blue Ridge
Mountains" with Gil Leebrick and Dan Rohn.
Dcmonsuations, field trips, and darkroom session.~ S200
includes lodging. Appalachian Environmental Arts
Ccn1er; P.O. Box 580; Highlands, NC 28741 (704)
5264303.
30-July 8 CELO, NC
Rural Soutticm Voice for Peace Office Building
Workcamp. A specu1I week for volunteers. skilled and
ull$lt1llcd, 10 come help build RSVP's new orrice
building on the Celo Community Land Trusl Info:
RSVP: (704) 675-4626.
\I
LI NVILLE, NC
35th Annual Grandfather Mountain Highland
Games and Gathering of Sco1tish Clans. Pag3entry. pipe
bands, Scottish athletics ceilidh. For more informa1ion,
wruc Box 356: Banner Elk, l\C 28604 or call (704)
898-5286.
HOT SPRI,GS, NC
"Po1n1ing at the Sun; Holding Up the Moon:
The Five Ammal Frolics" w1rh Jay Dunbll' and Kathleen
Cusick. Workshop on ancient exercises from China used
to prepare mind for both martial arts and meditation. $70.
Pre-register: Southern Dharma Rctrea1 Center. RL I, Box
34-H; Ho1 Springs, NC 28743.
26-8/5 FOLKMOOT PERFORMANCES
Folk Performers from Austria, Bulgaria,
France, Greece. Hunmgary, Indonesia, Ireland,
the Ukraine, Phillipines. and possibly Haiti.
Performances in Haywood, Buncombe, Macon,
Henderson, and Madison Counties. Call the
Folkmoot office for schedule and prices: (704)
456- 3021.
13-15
14 15
SWANNANOA, NC
"Women's Ceremonial Mask-making"with
AniLD Maloney. teacher wuti the Bear Tribe. Free
per.;onal power through the use of ceremonial masks.
S 100. The Eanh Center, see 6123-24.
AUGUST
2
SWAfliNANOA, NC
Buck Ghost Horse at the Earth Center. Open
talk. Love offering. See 6{23-24.
2-4
HELEN, GA
"Mountains or Imagin:uion" Puppet
Fesllval Helen Festc Halle Pavilion For info.. call Pat
Minnaugh (305) 925-6833.
3-5
16-22
WILLIS, VA
WOMEN'S WELLNESS WEEK ·
Nurture and Heal Your Body, Mind and Spirit.
"Womerls Wellness Week gives us the time,
energy, and gifts of our sisters and the E.anh to
help us heal ourselves, our species, and our
planet home". Pre-register: $350. For more
information write or call: lndian Valley Retreat
Center; Rt. 2, Box 58; Willis, VA 24380
(703) 789-4295.
WEAVERV ILLE, NC
The Golden Rod Puppets perform! with
friend Hobey Ford. Weaverville Library 11 am.
SWANNANOA, NC
"Sacred Teachings of the People." Buck
Ghost Horse (uadluonal Sicangu-HunkpaJD Lakota). The
Coming or the Sacred Pipe, Pipeways. Arrival of the
Seven Sacred Ceremonies, HlstorY of the Sioux People.
SI 00. The Eanh Center. Sec ~3-24.
19-26 LAKE COBBOSSEECONTEE,
GULF OF MAINE
The Founh Nonh American Bioregional
Congress to be held this year in the Gulf of
Maine Bioregion. (sec facing page)
19
22-27
HI GHLANDS, NC
Workshop on "Sexism and Peacemaking"
featured as pan of "Mountain Great Escape" wcck a1 the
Mounlnin. Pre-rcg1stet in advance for wcrk.<hop or fer the
whole week. See 7/1·6.
26
WVTHE\'JLLE, VA
The Golden Rod Puppets pcrfonn! wilh
friend Hob<.:y Ford Wylhc·Grnyson Libraries. 11 om.
Drawings by Suwn ~
24-26
LOUISA, VA
"Celebrating Our Diversity• • Women's
Gathering. At Twin Oaks Community. Sliding scale
S35-S95. Info: Women's Gathering, Twin Oaks, Louisa.
VA 23093. (703) 89-1-5126.
SEPTEMBER
11-12
UlGHLANDS, NC
"The Political Landscape" with Roben
Dawson. An with a purpose - the photographic image in
the environmental movement. $200 includes lodging.
Appabchian Environmental An:; Cen1cr; sec 6127-7/1.
�wwrac~~.~O~
unused can,·as. 6 fL wide. Enough ror a full· size TIPI or
very large tenL Cost S380. Will sell for $220. 298-7639,
Asheville.
Living Wheel Herb Company.Ceremonial and culinary,
wildcrafted and organically grown herbs. Send for a fn:c
cat31og. P.O. Box 427 Tonasket. WA 98&55
WOODSCRAFT - Seeking to correspond with petSonS
mterestcd in primitive woodscraft skills such as.
bow/dlill fire-making, u-.ick.ing, snan:/dc:Utlfall uupp1ni;,
etc. Have attended Tom Brown's basic class. J.T.
Garrison, RL 4, Box 667. Spring Cuy, Tn 37381.
Wicker Worker. Wicker fomilure restored. Cane. spht.
and rush sealS woven, ba.~keL~ repaired Experienced SC3l
weaver. "If you can't, we cane." Andrea Clll!kc: 27 MaJt
SL, Asheville, NC 28801. (704)253-624 l.
MOCCASINS, h311dcrafled of clkh1de in the tnld1tionsl
Plains Indian Style. Waicr resiSlant, resalable, and rugged
• great ror ltilcing! Children's and infant si7.C.~ available.
Wntc: Earth Dance Moccasins; Bo-.. 931: Asheville. NC
28802, or call Patrick Clnrlc at 254-8116.
The Infinite Light Fellowship is opening a Meditation
Center which will offer mid-day medi11u.1ons, as well as
evening and Sat. worlcshops on spiritual growth, dreams,
healing. Open IO all. Ant Iron Bldg., 20 Bauery Parle
Ave., Asheville, NC. Info: Al Bouchard, (704}
254-2080.
CIRCLES RETURNING • a new cas~cttc by Bob
Avery-Grubel! This 1s music to touch the soul and heal
the hcalt. Lyrics included. To order send SIO per casseue
to: Bob Avery-Grubel: Rt. I Box 735: Aoyd, VA
24091.
Sl<lNFOODS • ftelih, hand-made hcrtxll skin prcpar.11.ion~
at n:a.o;onable pnces. Send for pncc hsc 106 E. Main St.;
Johnson C1ty, 11'1 3760
RSVP is building an ofllcc home of our own and asking
for your help. Half of the S25.000 cost already raised or
pledged. Solar design and help wnh appropriaic tcch :iJso
doll3tcd. Labor will be by Volunteers for Peace and
regional voluntccrs. Please join us in making big ~tcp
into future.
CREATION SOAP· hand-crafted h~rbal soops from II~
Blue Ridge Mountains. Rose and lavender soap$.
mob1ur1<.ing bat, •hampoo/condi1ioncr bar. Comact
Anna; RL I, Box 278: Blowing Rock, NC 28605 (704)
262-2321 .
Wanted: Home & Shop Space for Light Woodworking.
(400 sq. fL+). For rent or exchange: would prerer within
IS miles of A~hcv1llc. NC. Needed 9/90. We are
responsible and caring. Md would love C3J'lhconscious
neighbors. Brce1.c Bums, Janc1cc Ray &. Silas, Rte.l.
llo1188-J. Quincy, Fla 32351, (904) 442-6474
I AM LOOKING FOR A POSITION with an
cnvironmcnl.'ll awarcnc,s/acuon organi:i.alion m the
Katfuh region located m A~hcv1llc or nearby. Prerer
pan·llme, beginning 1n summer or fall 1990. A
writer/ncwslencc editor by trade, I have cxpenence in
lobbying, rccruttmg and tr.umng volunteers, leading and
organi7.mg cvcnis. Please contaet Janc1ce Ray, Rt. I,
Box 188-J, Quincy, FL 32351. (904)442-6474.
J(.Qt®h Jo,muaf. pa<]& 34
SPIRITIJAL PERSONAL ADVICE. Concspond with
your Nauvc Grandfather. All qucsuons addressed from
Medicine Perspective. No clurge ever. SASE with letter
to: Blue Sky, Box 5387, Largo. Fla. 34649.
ADVENTURES FOR EVERYONE • Backpacking,
canoeing, llama trekking m the NC mountains, SC
barrier islands, Congaree Swamp. Families with young
children and seniors welcome • llamas will airry your
gear. uam MINIMUM IMPACT
rr.chmque.~.
r.cology,
plant and animal identification, rockchmbmg, whitewater
C311oemg. etc ... Emphasis on perlOllal growth. For more
information write: Magik Trek~. P.O. Box 6876,
Columbia, SC 29260.
GRE.ENll'G CARDS • correspondence and advocacy
cards for people who care. Onginal an reproduced in
color. (I 091: of proceeds donated to proJCCIS for pc.ace wid
justice.) Write IO Ginny Lco12. LovEarth Creations; Box
1445: Black Mountain, NC 28711.
ENVTRONMEl\'TALLY SENSITIVE l..Ai"IDSCAPL'lG
SERVICE- Lawn maintenance, trees. shrubs, Oowcrs &.
edibles. Organic. Patrick Clark. 254-8116.
WORK FOR PEACE. STOP PA YING FOR WAR! For
informauon about conscientious resisl3occ to war Ulllcs,
including resources. local contaCts, phllosophy, how-1o·s.
and consequences, contact the National War Tax
Resistance Co-ordinaung Commill.CC, P.O. Box 858 IO,
Seattle, WA 98145. (206)522-4377.
MOON DANCE FARM HERBALS • herbal salves,
unctures, & oils for birthing &. family health. For
brochure, please write: Moon Dance Farm; Rt. I, Box
726; HWTlpLOn, TN 37658.
Spiritual Knowledge shared. advice given 10 those who
are seeking or m need. Always personal and strictly
confidential. Contnbutions acccptod, but never required.
Send SASE 10: Circle Communications, Boit 412,
Dillard. GA 30537·0412
NATURAL CH1LDBTR1ll CLASES speciallLlng in the
Bradley Method. Clas...cs are small and include nuDition
physiology, consumerism, parenting skills, and
rclaxauon and labor support techniques. For more
informa11on call or write Maggie Sa.ch~: 808 Florida
Ave.; Bristol, TN 37620. (615) 764-2374.
NEW AGE COMMUNITY FOR~IJNG on 57 acr~ of
land. Located on sacred Cherokee Stone Mountain.
Visions or hc.:iling the c.:inh & our chi ldren. Parcel~
avadable. All Southern Exposure, strong creek runs
through middle, with little creeks on either side. Many
springs. gentle land. Contact Sue Ann Rmcr, Rt. 2.
Box 314, Vila~ NC 28692.
SKYLANO • log on 10 the computer bullcun board of
the Smokies. Networking, plus news on the
cnv1ronmcn1, nature photography, games, computer
ullhtics, much mate. Contact M1ch.:Jel Ha,·chn, sysop.
(704) 254-6700.
ASTROLOGICAL CHART with a.~ct grid and key to
astrological symbols. Send SIO, SASE, and btnhda1e
(mo/day/yr), b1rthtirne (00:00 AM/PM), and birthplace
(cny, Sl.3.te) 10 Star Charts. P.O. Box 18205, Ashev11le,
NC 28814-0205.
HAWKWrND EARTH RENEWAL CO-OPERA11VE is
an 87 acre primitive retreat and working community
farm.. Located in the Northern Alabama mountains, just
115 miles northwest of Atlanta. Classes on altcmauve
tifcstyles and Nau"e American philosophies nre available
on a regular basis. A schedule or events is 0\'311.lblc upon
requCSL Healing Arts and Ean.h Renewal gatherings arc
planned on a quarterly basis and facitilJCS are available for
private organizational use. For infonnntion or catalog of
Native crafts & products. call (205)635-6304.
MOUNTAIN DULClMERS • made of black walnut, red
cherry, or maple. To~ available in wormy ches1nu1.
buttcmut, swcc1gum, sassafras, western cedar and olhcr
woods. Contact: MU.e Dulcimer Company; Rt. 2, Box
288; Bloumvillc, TN 37617 (615) 323-8489.
SPECTRE OF THE WITCH • Call for slides. Artists
within a 200 mile radius of Asheville, NC arc invited 10
submit work exploring images of the Witch, from
goddess power through feminism. Deadline for reception
of slides is September 10th. Send to: "Spectre of the
Wnch:" 37 Baltimore Avenue: Asheville, NC 2880 I.
ORGANIC BONEY • Tulip Poplar, Sourwood and
WildOower. From Patrick County, Virginia. No
chemicals, no white sugar, no heat, ever. Strained
through cheesecloth and p:ickcd in heavy glass ammng
jars. For a 4-ol. sample of our premium sourwood and
our catalog, send S4 10: Wade Buckholts & Meg311
Phillips; Rouie 2, Box 248: Stuan, VA 24171. (703)
69-i-4571
STIL·LIGllT THEOSOPlllCAL RETREAT CENTI:R •
a quiet ~cc for personal mcchtallon, group interaction
through study, and communuy work, and spintual
seminar.. Contact Leon Frankel: R1. I, Box 326;
Waynesville, NC 28786.
Let MEDICINE WIND blow through your mind! Exotic
handmade Bomboo FlutcS. rare scales. fine tuned. Free
hrocurcs. Wntc: Mcdicl!IC Wind Music: 86 NW 55 SL.
Gainesville, FL 32607.
RHYTHM ALIVE • Handcrafted African· Style Drums,
workshops, learning tapes, drumbags. 311d accessoncs.
PIC.1SC send SASE lo Rh)thm Ali\'c!: 85 Phenix Co\·c
Rd.: Wcavcrv1lle. NC 28787 {704) 645 3911.
V..'EBWORKl?l:G is frtt Send submL~sions to:
Ora"'1ng by Rob Mu..ck
Kat1illh Jour110/
P.O. Box 638
Lciccster, NC
Kattlah Province 28748
S"mmu. 1990
•
�Tire Katuah Journal wams ro comm1111icme your thoughts
and feelings to the other people in the bioregional pro,•ince Send
rlzem to us as /euers, poems, stories, articles, drawings, or
photographs. ere Please send your co11tribwio11s to 11S or: Katuah
Journal; P. 0. Box 638; Leicester, NC; Ka11iah Provillce 28748.
"Water is life" is a priflciple with which we are al/familiar.
Issue 29 of 11te Katuah Journal will concem i1self wil/1 wa1er and
watersheds in 1/ie Sowhern Appalachians - the blessing of water,
how it affects 1/ie lives of all of us who live here, and what we can
do to protect it. Ariicles deadline - July 20: Edi1orial meeting August 4; i.A)•oUJ - September 8 until...
"Jobs" IS a word tha1 is ust!d like a club to silt!nce dis.uni and beat dO\\n
tht! impulse for creutivl! living. In tht! .~ense of "right l1velilwod," worJ; ho~ on
important place in our lives, and we nud 10 acknowledge its role while
questioning how it is used as an instrument of oppre.rsion by the dominant
culture. The regional economy is the physicol /oundalion of the l:>ioregionol
vision. /low is it being realized?
BACK ISSUES OF KATVAH JOURNAL AVAILABLE
ISSUE THREE- SPRING 1984
Sustainable Agriculture • SunOowcrs Human
Impact on the Fo!C$1 · Cltildrcns' Educa1ion
Veronica N1cholas:Woman 1n Politics • Liulc
People - Medicine Allies
ISSUETEN-WINTER 1985-86
Kate Rogers - Circles of Stone • Internal
Mythmaking - Holistic Healing on Trial
Poems: Steve Knauth • Mythic Places · The
Uktcna"s Talc - Crystal Magic ·
'1)rcomspcalUng"
ISSUE FOUR SUMMER 1984
Water Drum • Water Qualily • Kudi.u • Sow
Edipse - Cliwcuning · Troul • Going 10 Watet
Ram PwnJll Microhydro Poentt: Bennie
Lee Sinclair. Jim Wayne. Miller
ISSUE FIVE - FALL 1984
Harvest - Old Way• in Cherokee Omscng
Nuclear Waste
Our Ce.Ilic Heritage
Bioregionali1m: Past. Prescn1, and Future
John Wilnoty - Hc.alutg Darkness - Poliuc:s of
Paniclpation
ISSUE SIX WINTER 1984·85
Wmtcr Sobticc Eanh Ceremony • Ilorsc!""'lutc
River • Corning of the Light • Log Cabin
R00te - Mountam AS""ul111"'; The R1i;ht Crop
• Willi= Tl)llnr . The Furur< or th~ Fore.-i
ISSUE SEVEN SPRING 198S
Swtamable EconomK• Hot Spnng• Woikcr
Owmmh1p • The Orcat Economy - Self llclp
C"rcdn Union • Wild 1 urkcy • Respo1U1ble
Investing • Working m the Web of life
ISSUE EIOIIT · SUMMER 1985
Celebration: A Way of Life - Katliah 18.000
Years Ago - Sacred S11A:S • Folk Alu. m the
Schools - Sun Cycle/Moon Cycle Poc1m:
Hilda Downer ·Cherokee Hcntagc Ccrucr
Who 0wm Appd111:hi11
ISSUE NINE· FALL. 1985
The Waldec Forut - The Treu Spe.ak
Migr&11ng Forests - HO<$C Logging SWhng a
Tree Crop - Urban Trees . Acom Brc.d • Myth
ISSUE El.EVEN SPRlNC 1986
Community Planning • Cities and the
Biorcgion.al Vision • Recycling - Community
Gardening· Aoyd County. VA - Oasobol Two Bion:gional Views • Nuclear Supplement
Foxfire Carnes - Oood Medicine: Visions
ISSUE THJRTEEN Fall 1986
Cent.er For Awakcnmg Eliu~th Callan - A
Oentlc Death - Hospice • Ernest Morgm
Dealing Ctcauvcly with Death Home Burial
Box • The Woke • The Raven Moeltu Woocblorc and Wildwoods W1..tom • Good
Med1cmc: 'Ilic Swc:.it l..udgc
ISSUE FOURTEEN · Wm1er 1986-87
Lloyd Carl Owlc • Boog= and Mummers • All
Species D•y • C•hm Fever Un1vcrS11y Homcleu in KatUAh - Homemade Hot Water
Stovemakct's Narrahve • Cood Medicine:
lntenpec;11!r. Communic:1tion
ISSUE FIFTEEN Sprmg 1987
Co•crleu • Wom1111 Forester - Susie McM""4n
Midwife
Ahcmauvc Conuaccpllon •
Bio..:xuali1y • Biorcg1onah•m and Women Good Medicine: Mattim-chal Culture · PCtJrl
ISSUE SIXTEEN - Summer 1987
Helen Wlitc • Poem: Visions in 1 Carden •
Vision Quut • First Flow - IJlitlalion •
l..caming in the Wildemcss
Cherokee.a
Challenge "Valuing Trus"
ISSUE EJCIITEEN Wintu 1987-88
Vernacular An:hitcc:ture Drums in Wood and
Stone . Mountain Home Elll'1h Encrgiu
Earth-Sheltered Living - Membrane Houses •
91U5h Shelter Poems: October Dw:s:k • Oood
Medicine: "Shelter"
ISSUETWENTY-TIIREE-Spnng, 1989
Pisgah Village • Planet Art Crccn City •
Poplar Appeal • "CIClll" Sky" •A New Earth"
Bio.ck Swm - Wild Lovely Day.t • Reviews:
Sacred Land Sacred Su. Ice /\g«' • Poem:
"Suddai Tendrils"
ISSUE NINETEEN - Spring, 1988
Perclandra Canlcn - Spnng TonK:S Bl114bcmcs
WildOowcr Gardens - Ormny Httbllis1 •
Flower Essences · "The Origin of the Animals:
Siory. Good Medicine: "Puwcr" - Be A Tree
ISSUE TWENTY-FOUR· Summer, '89
Deep l..is1cning - Life in Alorruc City • Direct
Action! Tree of Peace Communily Building
Peacemakers • Ethnic Survivll - Pairing
Project - "Baulcsong" • Orowing Pc111:c in
Clllllll'Cll Review: TM Chaliee and IN 8/4de
ISSUE TWENTY • Summer, 1988
Pr_..., Appabcli1.,., Wildcmcs:s Hight.nds
of Roan Colo Community 1..and Trust •
Arthur Morgan School · Zoning luue • 'The
Ridge' - Farmcrs md lhc Farm 8111 - Oood
Medie1nc: " l..md" • Acid Rain • Dukc"s Power
Play · Cherokee Microhydro ProJl.-.:1
ISSUE TWENTY ONE - Fill. 1988
ChcsUluts: A Natural Hmory - Rcstorin& the
Chestnut - .. Poem of Preservation and Pr.uc"
Continuing t11c Qu.:.st • Forc•ts and Wildlife
Chestnuts in Rcg1oruil Diet • Chestnut
Resource' • Hctb Note - Oood Med1c1ne:
"Ow>gc• to Corne" • Review: W}we vgpiJs
Uw1
-
- - - - - --- - -- --- - --- - -- -
Box 638; Leicester, NC: KatUah Province
For more info: call Rob Messick at (704) 754-6097
Nrune
Regular Membership ........ $10/yr.
Sponsor.........................$20/yr.
Contributor.....................$50/yr.
Address
City
Area Code
Summer, 1990
State
Phone Number
Zip
ISSUETWE.NTY.SEVEN • SPRIN0, 1990
Tr1U1Jformohon - llcahni; Po11.cr • rcxc to
Their A•hes • Hcalins in K111uah P~m:
''When left to Crow" • Poems: Stcphrn W'm&
Tl>< Belly • Food from the Ancient f'arcst
ISSUE TWEJIITY-TWO • WintcT, '88419
Global Warming • Fi"' ThiS Time • Thomu
Berry on "BiorcglOI\•" • EaJ1h Exctcuc • Kod
Loy McWhiru:r - An Abundllncc oCEmpttness
LETS Chronicles of Floyd - Oany Wood
Th<> Bear Clan
rune
~UAH JOURNAL
ISSUETWENTY.SIX WINTE.R, 1989.'90
Coming of Age in the Ecoro1c Era • Kids
Saving Rainforest · Kids Trcccycling Compau~
. ConOict Resolution - Dc•clnping tl1c Creative
Spirit - Birlh Power • Binh Bonding The
Magic or Pupp:uy H<>m< Sci-ling • NllllUllf
Ceremony Mother Earth's aassroom •
CardC'ning for Children
Enclosed is$
to give
this effort an extra boost
I can be a local con1ac1
person for my area
28748
Back Issues
Issue#_ .@ $2.50 = $ _ _
Issue # _.@ $2.50 = $_ _
rssue # _ @ $2.50 = $ _ _
Issue#
.@ $2.50 = $_ _
Issue# ~ _@ $2.50 = $_ _
Complete Set (3-11, 13-16,
18-26)
@ $40.00 =
s__
postage paid
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, Issue 28, Summer 1990
Description
An account of the resource
The twenty-eighth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on "carrying capacity:" growth, development, and population of human systems in relation to the environment. Authors and artists in this issue include: David Wheeler, Stephen Bartlett, Rob Barron, Will Ashe Bason, Chip Smith, Lee Kinnaird Faween, Marnie Muller, Jim Houser, Patrick Clark, Hectáire P. Condeau, D. Goode, James Rhea, Marie Wood, and Susan Adam. <br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1990
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
Carrying Capacity by David Wheeler.......3<br /><br />Setting Limits to Growth: Interview with Dr. Gary Miller | Recorded by David Wheeler.......5<br /><br />What Is Overpopulation? by Stephen Bartlett........7<br /><br />The Road Gang by Rob Barron.......8<br /><br />The Highway to Nowhere.......9<br /><br />Opening Pandora's Box: The I-26 Project by Rob Barron.......10<br /><br />"Caring Capacity" by Will Ashe Bason.......11<br /><br />People and Habitat by Chip Smith and Lee Kinnaird Fawcett.......12<br /><br />Designing the Whole Life Community by Marnie Muller.......14<br /><br />Steady State by Jim Houser.......15<br /><br />Poems by Will Ashe Bason.......17<br /><br />Good Medicine.......20<br /><br />Transporternatives by Patrick Clark.......22<br /><br />Imagining the End of Real Estate by Hectáire P. Condeau.......23<br /><br />Natural World News.......24<br /><br />Man and the Biosphere.......27<br /><br />Drumming: Letters to Katúah Journal.......28<br /><br />Review: Cohousing by Will Ashe Bason.......30<br /><br />Events.......33<br /><br />Webworking.......34<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, printed by The <em>Waynesville</em> <em>Mountaineer</em> Press
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Human ecology--Appalachian Region, Southern
Appalachian Region--Population
Regional planning--Appalachian Region, Southern
Transportation--Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Congress
Black Bears
Community
Economic Alternatives
Electric Power Companies
Forest Issues
Good Medicine
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Katúah
Pigeon River
Poems
Politics
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
South PAW (Preserve Appalachian Wilderness)
Transportation Issues
Turtle Island
Western North Carolina Alliance
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/-�
�UAWURNAL
P.O. Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
Postage Paid
Bulk Mall
Permit #18
Leicester, NC
28748
�FromMountains to the Sea
uy uafMyczack........................•....•
1
Profile of a Southern Appalachian Watershed:
The Little Tennessee River
(An Interview with Dr. William Md.amcy)
rtcortkd by David Whttlu.....................3
Freshwater Canaries: The Spotfin Chub
b y William Mclarney.........••.•.........•..5
Mudwatch and Fmoount: The Environmental
Survey of the Little Tennessee
6
by William McLarnq.......................••
Headwaters Ecology and Blgh Quality Habitat
by Mary Kelly.........................•.••....?
"It All Comes Down to Water Quality"
by Mitlit Buchanan............................8
Water Power: Ac.tion for Aquatic Habitats.... IO
Dawn Watchers
uySncw Bear ................................ 11
Adventures on the River
uy uaf Myaack.............................12
Accessory toMurder: Watts Bar Lake and the
Public Trust
uy LeafMyczadr........•.........•......••...14
Poem: "Country S10re"
by Witliam MU/u...••.......•........•......14
The Nonh Shore Road: Environment or
Development in the Great Smokies
by Pmrick Clark..............................15
The Long Branch Composting Toilet
by Paul Gallimore ..•...............•.....•... 11
GoodMedicine: The Long Human Being....18
Katuah Sells Out!!
by Bud Young and Rodney Webb............ 19
Watershed Map of the Kauiah Province......20
Namral World News. ...........................22
Green Spirits: Karuah Rains
by Lte Barnts................................26
Off the Grid
uy Jim lloustr ...............................21
Drumming (Letters (O Katuah) .................28
Early Warning: The Gypsy Moth ls Coming!
uy Ed lytwack..•......•....•............•...30
Poem: "Unbound"
by Gaston Siniard............•........••.....31
Events.............................................36
Webworking.....................................38
TaUMint.u, 1990
FROM MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
by LeafMyczack
It begins as dense, moist clouds riding
the prevailing winds 11p from the Gulf of
Mex.ico. Meeting the Corest updrafts from the
AppalachianMountains, the clouds release their
wet cargo over the rich forest below. The rain
drips to the ground through the leafy canopy,
seeps into the dark soil, gathers, and begins to
triclcJe down the mountain slopes. Ct is here
where the River is born. SmaJJ riwlets become
streams, splashing and tumbling down rock
strewn beds. When enough of these feeder
streams converge, creeks form, and Lhey in rum
•
receive additional aibutaries.
From the slopes of the old mountains of
Kanlah, the growing rivers bring their watery
gifis 10 the valley lands. But rivers do not lend
themselves to arbitrary beginnings. The health
of a river is the culmination of an ongoing,
cyclical process. The health of rivers depends
on atmospheric as well as ground conditions.
Sulfates, nitrates, and toxic gases are washed to
eanh in the form of acid rain. Here the
contaminated water combines with herbicide
residues used by forest abusers and with din
paniclcs from bulldozed land. The first stream
f ormed is already poisoned. Add industrial
chemicals, silt from road construction, salt
fertilizers, utility company herbicides, raw
sewage, and the result is a river much
diminished in itS capacity 10 suppon life. Even
before the rivers leave the Appalachian foothills,
their health is often severely compromised.
Most humans have forgouen that we arc
dependent on the interplay of all life. We think
we can clear the forest without harming the
river, or that we can diny the atmosphere
without harming the forest. Even when
confronted with historical evidence of
environmental impact, ecologically destructive
patterns continue unabated, especially when
there is money involved. Greed seems to be the
engine of destruction. Cut, rape, slash - "How
much money are we making?"
Rivers, in order to be healthy, must have
a healthy watershed. The atmosphere and the
ground must be clean in order to maintain the
aquatic environment. To protect the life of the
river, steep slopes musr be closed to logging
and development. The less roads, the better, for
roads only promote the migration of ecologically
abusive people and materials. Rivers are
intended to be pathways for rich organic
nutrients leached from the mountain slopes to
feed the diverse aquatic communities living in
the estuaries. Damming rivers inhibits this
cycle. In place of nutrients, rivers now carry
water-soluble toxins that are deposited in delta
and estuarine habitats.
This Katuah region, sacred in all its
biodiversity, is in great danger. The forest ones
and the river ones call out for help. The scream
of pain is almost constant among them. But their
voices are not going unheard. Joining these
voices are human voices - Lhe voices of
caretakers, poets, Earth defenders • aU
advocaLing a respect for all of'life.
Ycs, brothers and sisters, trees and rivers
do have rights Lo life and good health. Let us
sing and dance to life in aJJ its many forms. The
dance of life must supersede the chant of death,
for without our relatives we are diminished in
spirit, mind, and body. It is not a political
struggle we are engaged in, but a spiritual quest
to find the wellsprings of our soul. Listen
closely, and you will hear great wisdom from
Karuah. Be creative with your work and your
life. for these are your honor song.
- illustration by Cielo
(canlinucd p, 12)
XAtuah Journot � t
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
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The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
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journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, Issue 29, Fall/Winter 1990
Description
An account of the resource
The twenty-ninth issue of the<em> Katúah Journal</em> focuses on water quality: the Little Tennessee River watershed; Watts Bar Lake; development in the Great Smokies; and solar composting toilets. Authors and artists in this issue include: Leaf Myczack, David Wheeler, William McLarney, Mary Kelly, Millie Buchanan, Snow Bear, William Miller, Patrick Clark, Paul Gallimore, Buck Young, Rodney Webb, Lee Barnes, Jim Houser, Ed Lytwack, Gaston Siniard, Rob Messick, Bob Clark, Marnie Muller, Marlene Mountain, and Susan Adam. <br /><br /><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1990
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
From Mountains to the Sea by Leaf Myczack.......1<br /><br />Profile of a Southern Appalachian Watershed: The Little Tennessee River (An Interview with Dr. William McLarney), recorded by David Wheeler.......3<br /><br />Freshwater Canaries: The Spotfin Chub by William McLarney.......5<br /><br />Mudwatch and Fincount: The Environmental Survey of the Little Tennessee by William McLarney.......6<br /><br />Headwaters Ecology and High Quality Habitat by Mary Kelly.......7<br /><br />"It All Comes Down to Water Quality" by Millie Buchanan.......8<br /><br />Water Power: Action for Aquatic Habitats.......10<br /><br />Dawn Watchers by Snow Bear.......11<br /><br />Adventures on the River by Leaf Myczack.......12<br /><br />Accessor to Murder: Watts Bar Lake and the Public Trust by Leaf Myczack.......14<br /><br />Poem: "Country Store" by William Miller.......14<br /><br />The North Shore Road: Environment or Development in the Great Smokies by Patrick Clark........15<br /><br />The Long Branch Composting Toilet by Paul Gallimore.......17<br /><br />Good Medicine: The Long Human Being.......18<br /><br />Katúah Sells Out!! by Buck Young and Rodney Webb........19<br /><br />Watershed Map of the Katúah Province.......20<br /><br />Natural World News........22<br /><br />Green Spirits: Katúah Rains by Lee Barnes.......26<br /><br />Off the Grid by Jim Houser.......27<br /><br />Drumming (Letters to Katúah).......28<br /><br />Early Warning: The Gypsy Moth is Coming! by Ed Lytwack.......30<br /><br />Poem: "Unbound" by Gaston Siniard.......31<br /><br />Events.......36<br /><br />Webworking.......38<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, printed by The <em>Waynesville</em> <em>Mountaineer</em> Press
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Watersheds--Tennessee, East
Watersheds--North Carolina, Western
Watersheds--Virginia, Southwest
Human ecology--Appalachian Region, Southern
Water quality--Appalachian Region, Southern
Gypsy moth--Control--Environmental aspects
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
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Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
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<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Spatial Coverage
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https://www.geonames.org/4666185/watts-bar-lake.html
Coverage
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||||osm
Watts Bar Lake
||||osm
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Alternative Energy
Appalachian History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Definitions
Book Reviews
Community
Economic Alternatives
Education
Folklore and Ceremony
Forest Issues
Geography
Good Medicine
Habitat
Health
Katúah
Katúah Organization
Plants and Herbs
Poems
Politics
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
Recycling
South PAW (Preserve Appalachian Wilderness)
Stories
Transportation Issues
Turtle Island
Water Quality
Wilderness
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ISSUE 30 SPRING 1991
$1.50
�=·
- ·
=
•
Drawing by D.avid Opalccky
~UAt1 JOURNAL
P.O. Box 638
Leicesler, NC
Postage Paid
Bulk Mail
Permit #18
Leicester, NC
Katuah Province 28748
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
28748
�lONTENT5
Econorny/Ecology...................... " .............. l
by David Whulu
Avoiding Lhe Passive/Helpless Approach
to Economic Developmcnt.........................4
by TlwmllS Power
Ways 10 a Regener:uive Economy.............5
by Rob Messick
Sacred Oconomy........................................6
by Will ~c Bason
"Money Is 1he Lowest Form of Wealth":
lnt.crv1cw wilb lvo Bnllcn1ine Bnd Robin Capc.....7
by Rodm:y Webb and llcnry EcJJcr
The Clarksville
"Miracle".......... ........................................ ]O
by Gri.rcom Morgan
Self-Help Crt!dit Union............................ IO
The Village......................................." ...... 11
by Snow Bear
"1hrough dreams, through magic''............ 12
Poc,m by Gary l;awler.t
Food \-1overs.............................." .. .......... 13
b) DU!lul II hul.-r
Poems hy Jim CJark.. ..... " ........................14
Life\Vork .................................................. 15
by Ernr.rt Wom1c.l; and Mtlflt. Sundstrom
Green Spirit,;: "Kntuah Pl:inting
Calendor".................................................. 19
by I.Le Barnt.S
Good Medicine: "Villogc Economy".......20
On Eco-cconomics...................................21
by David llaellke
Thoughts on Work, Productivity,
and Development.....................................22
by Richard Lowenthal
Natural World News................................23
Shelton Laurel. .........................................25
byRodneyWeJx,
Off The Grid: ''Regional Fuels"...............26
by Jim Houser
LETS..........................................." ...........27
Rtsources................................................. 27
Drumming................................................28
Eanh Energies: 'The Great
Lover"...................................................... 31
by Cha.rlo11e llomsMr
Events.......................................................33
Webworking.............................................34
Sprtng, 1991
by David Wheeler
"Economy" means the basic, natural
processes lhaLsupport life in the world. This is
where we begin. The wind in the trees rain
dripping through the leaves, mounrain~ silen1and
tal.11 the moon sailing 1hrough the sky - these are
basic factors of life in Lhe mountains.
These elemental powers are refined and
individuali~ed int~ a~oms ~nd whirling poplor
seeds, lwmnous cnlhums, insect larva crawling
un?:r strea~ rocks, a .grouse thrumming in the
twilight - beings 1hat live and die, eat and are
eaten, closely bound to the web of existence.
Thi~ is the living economy of lhe Soulhem
Appalachian Mount.ains.
The human "economy" is how we live in 1he
W?rl~. It is simply an accounting of how we live
within the greater economy and utilize itS energies
to support our own existence.
Tn conversation, human economy is of1en
contraI?Osed to the natuml ecology, as if they
were dtfferent and antagonistic 10 each other. But
both words share a common root from the Greek
word oikos, ·•household." This is not a
coincidence; this is observation of a fundamenral
~ity. The two conceplS are simply clifferent
views of lhe same system seen from diffcren1
perspectives and on a differem scale. The first
principle of Lhe human economy is "preserve the
system that gives life to all."
The human economy. being a smaU
er
segment of the natural economy and working
through the same laws, mirrors the health of the
greater economy. Once human economies were
dependen1 on the health of the regional
ecosystems from which they grew. Then some
humans learned to expand their sphere of
infl_uence, so lhat by drawing energy from other
regions they were able to maintain artificially
healthy economies in the midst of failed
environments.
The Southern Appalachian Mountains know
this process well. The human economy we know
as the industrial growth system has not been
good ro the mountains. The relatlonship of the
~ rull? Province lo the central economy has
histo~cally been tha1of a colonized territory,
exploucd for raw materials and cheap labor;
always for the benefit of the same urban elites
who rule the economies of Uruguay and
Indonesia, Nigeria and the Philippines - and all
the other miliLarily weaker and technologically
less-developed countries.
1n the Soulhem Appalachians, the timber
boom of the early pan of the nineteeolh century is
the clearcs1example of the "rape and run"
mentality of resource extraction. And though lbe
tech niques nave been refined, there is little
difference between the mentali1 of the old-time
y
timber barons and the current-day land developer.
But the industrial growth society has
reached rhe end of ils rope - or, more aptly, the
bollom of the barrel. There are no new bioregions
to conquer, and any funher expansion and
growth only weakens lhe condition of the
already-stressed global ecology. The industrial
growth sysLem has taken a terrible toll on !he
world - !he ecologicnl collopse is underway, the
economic collapse follows.
The planetary economy of human hobitation
i~ once again a retlection of Lhe planet's natural
ll.fe suppon system. We are now going lO have to
give attention 10 the first principle of human
economy and make a rcaJ commitment 10
"preserve the system that gives life to all."
Change is happening. Ahhough waning
govemmenrs srill dominate the headline news
their struggles over the dregs of ao obsolete '
energy source are only the dea1h agonies of the
industrial grow1h system.
The recent war, recessions, and depressions
are ~e symptoms of change. Like continenLS in
moo?n, me forces actuaUy driving this change are
moving slowly, ponderously, deep beneath the
surface - jusl as powerful and jus1 as inexorable.
The planetary life system is moving lo preserve
iLSelf.
While we can see the shadow of the
approaching change, we cannot see i1s shape, and
we know only that the future will be like nothing
that has gone before. We need to prepare.
That we are aware this transition is coming
does noLmean that it will be easy or comfortable
for us; in fact just !he opposile appears more
likely to be the case. It will help to rell1CIIlber thai
we are in the midst of a monumental
transfonnacion, and although it will be diffi.cuJ1, it
offers an opponuni1y for us to supplant the old
ioduslrial growth system with one much more
suilable - one that is ecologically viable and more
spiritually fulfilling.
During the throes of tra.nsi rion we need 10
remember that the second principle of eoonomy is
"the survivaJ of species." This refers not only to
the human species, although our kind is included
as well, but the survival of all species - each
constantly growing, changing, making its own
conoibution to the continually creative process
we call evolution. "Survival of the species•· also
does not require the survival of every individual
of a species, for that would in fact be
counter-productive. It refers instead to the life
(conlinucd on ~
3)
:l(.Qtuah Jotu"nm pa'}&
�i<eLlAHjOURNAL
EDITORIAL STAFF THIS ISSUE:
Susan Adam
Patrick Clark
Oiarlotte Homsher
Lorraine Kaliher
Rob Messick
Jeff Smith
Rodney Webb
Lee Barnes
Andy Half-baker
Jim Houser
Richard Lowenthal
Mamie Muller
Manha Tree
David Wheeler
COVER: by Rob Messick © 1991
PUBLISHED BY: Ka1ualr Jo1unal
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
PRINTRD BY: The Waynesville Mountaineer Press
EDITORIAL OFFICE Il::0$ JSSUE: The Globe Valley
WRITE US AT:
Kat(I/Jh Journal
Box 638; Leicester, NC; Karuah Province 28748
TELEPHONE: (704) 754-6097
Katuah Joiu110I is on Skyland BBS, Asheville, NC.
For information, call (704) 254-6700.
Diversity is an important element or bioregional ecology, both
natural and social. In line wilh this principle, lhe Katuah Journal tries 10
serve os a forum for the discussion of regional issues. Signed articles express
only the opinion of lhc authors and are not necessarily the opinions of the
Kat~Jaurnal edil0!'$ or ~taff.
The lnlCmlll Revenue Serviu h:is declared Ka1dah Journal a non-profil
organization under section 50l(cX3) of the tn1emal Revenue Code. All
conliibutions 10 Katitah Journal are deductible from personal income tax.
Articles appearing in Katuah Journal may be reprinted ill olher
publications with permission from the Katuah Journal slaff. Contocl the
journal in writing or call (704) 154-f:,(1}1 or (704) 683-1414.
Here,
in the Karuah Province
of these ancient Appalachian mountains
where once the Cherokee Nation lived in freedom
between th.e Tennessee River Valley and the Eastern
Piedmont
between the Valley of the Roanoke and the Southern
Plain
on this Turtle Island continent of Mother Ela, the Earth
Here,
In this place we dedicate ourselves to remembering our
deep connection to the spirit of the land.
We bring this connection into the being and the doing of
our daily lives
When the land speaks, we listen and we act
We tune our lives to the changes, to the seasons
We respect the limits of the land
We preserve, defend, and restore the land
We give thanks for all that is good
Harmony with the land is no longer an ideal; it is an
imperative.
The land is a living being. She is sacred.
As the land lives, so do we.
As the spirit of the land is diminished,
our spirits are diminished as well.
'LNVOCA.T LON
In a house of bones we
call down the spirits.
and the plants grow.
and the animals move freely.
We light candles, calling for the return,
and the flame of life
burns through the buildings,
nothing but ash,
and the plants grow,
and the animals move freely.
The Katiwh Journal sends a voice...
with articles, stories, poems, and artwork
we speak to the spirit of all the living, breathing
inhabitants of these mountains
in hopes that we, the human beings,
may find our place in this Great Life.
- Gary Lawless
The Ka16ah Journal wants to communicate your thoughts
and feelings to the other people in the bioregional province. Send
them 10 us as le11ers, poems, stories, articles, drawings, or
photographs, etc. Please send your contributions to us at: Katuah
Journal; P. 0. Box 638; Leicester, NC; Kattuih Province 28748.
,.
,i
- The Editors
The summer issue of 1he Katuah Journal will feature
stories about the sub1le energies of the Appalachians and the
Eanh - those invisible forces that, whether we choose 10 be aware
of them or not, exert such a powerful influence on our lives.
Please send in .your stories, drawings, or poems of
dowsing, eanh changes, sacred sites and their legends, vonexes,
and other accounts of encounters with the pulsing heartbeat of the
world by April 30 to Ka11wh Jotunal; Box 638; Leicester, NC
28748.
Spr tmJ, 1991
�(COminued &om pqe I)
and health ot the species as an organism unto
itself.
Pictured as an individual organism, our own
species, at this point in time, is in deplorable
health. We an: gluuonous and grossly far,
physically soft and out of shape, ridden with
cancer and other degenerative diseases, subject 10
numerous natural resource addictions, beset by a
severe attitude problem. and (among the more
advanced sectors in panicular) badly neurotic.
One of the side effects of the transition now
underway appears to be that Mother Gain as drill
sergeant is about to shape us up. In order to
maintain its place in the world, the human species
and the human economy of the future will
necessarily be lighter, quicker on its feet, more
alert, and more aware of its surroundings.
Technology will not be able to effect this
change for us. In fact an increased dependence on
fancy technology would be n debilitating
influence at this point. This change is going to be
made inside our collective psyche - in our mental
condition and our spiritual values.
Because the third principle of economy is:
''Do it well."
Consequent to redefining our idea of
"economy" is redefining our criteria for the
success of that economy in maintafoing its place
in the biosphere.
For one example: the phrase "quality of life"
as used in these mountains at one rime referred to
the health of the streams, the health and number
of the animals, the health of the forest But today,
even as the world about us is being degraded and
destroyed, we are constantly told that our "quality
of life" is improving
For a second example: what is meant by
"living well?"
At one time "living wcll" meant the manner in
which a person carried himself or herself in the
world • what a person said, what a person did, in
other words, the quality of their actions. In these
days "living well" means what and how much a
person eats, drinks, and owns • in other words,
the quality of their consumption.
ln order to correctly judge the success of our
economy, we need to revise the standards by
which we detennine our basic needs - not in
terms of goods, services, and the medium of their
exchange, but in terms of the purpose of our
daily transactions: health, satisfaction,
fulfillment, and happiness.
Here m the Southern Appalachians we are
lucky: we have a model for change. For as long
as humans have inhabited these mountains, the
removed from a time when people lived by
hunting, gathering, and small-scale agriculture.
One hundred yCtlrS ago the majority of the people
here lived a pastoral, self-sufficient lifestyle.
The Appalachian culture of that time gave rise
to the image of the "independent mountaineer."
That stereotype is still cherished today. but it is a
joke in these rimes when we buy our food from
supermnrketS, borrow money from urban
banking canels 10 buy vehicles from Detroit or
Yokohama, are dependent on job wages, send
"It's a sad situation whe11 humans in a
society like ours find thnt they can
survive only by destroying the basis of
existence.
''The basic goal of our economy is to
take the greatest possible amount of
natural materials as quickly as possible
through the consumer economy to the
junk heap. The main idea is to mnke
junk. All our jobs are keyed to making
junk...
''I'd like to say just a word about jobs:
we don't need jobs! We need food, we
need clothing, we need housing, we need
education, we need health care, we need
all these things. Now my proposal for the
Southern A7JPD.laclriat1s is to get out of the
whole consumer economy and establish
014r own internal economy based in
bioregion.
"There's no reason why we can't build
an economy here and a culture here
independent of bringing all this
extravagant consumer economy and
technology and productivity into this
region. We don't need those! All we need
are food and clothing and fun and
celebration and necessities like that.
That's wl1at we need, and there's no
reasorr why Katuah Province can't
provide it."
- Thomas Berry,
tu the 1990 "Em·ironmtntal Summit
Confertntt," UNC Ashtvilfe
monthly insurance premiums to Hanford, power
our commerce on fuel that is carried halfway
around the world, and absorb our culture from
TV programs that come to us from big-city
broadcasting stations through giant satellite
receivers. Our regional economy presently is
flaccid, lame, and unsmble.
To be independent means t0 take
responsibility for one's self. We need to
re-examine our situation literally "from the
ground up." How are we going to provide the
clean air we need every minute, the pure water
and good food we need every day, shelter,
healing, education, nns and entertainment that are
enriching and fun, and a spirituality that
recognize:. our place in the Creation?
We will provide for these needs by getting
together with friends and community, doing for
ourselves, and trusting in the land. We will
restructure our economy by methods that will be
sustainable in the mountains for many
generations to come in a variety of different living
situations. And we will renegotiate our economic
contract with the land, the foundation of all our
existence. If our relations with the land are not in
order, then we will not survive to see what the
next era will bring.
In the rimes to come, although conditions
may seem hard and the shadow of oppression
may loom large, it is important that we keep our
spiritS up and do not give in to fear or
depression. We cannot wait for someone else to
give the orders or someone else to fund the
budget We have to worlc together for our
communities and for the life of our region.
There will be a strong temptation tO "simply
survive," "get by." or "muddle through." But we
have a responsibility 10 the future and to those
who will follow us to "do it well," for we are at a
· cusp in the planet's history, and the techniques
we use to bring ourselves through the maelstrom
of transition will be the foundation for the
regional economy to come.
We need to keep compassion - that our
knowledge might be used to better understand
this world and find our place in it. We need to be
guided by wisdom - that our technology more
closely mimic the biological than the mechanical.
We need 10 keep our spiritual center - that our
vital drive be directed to care for our community
(human and natural), rather than strive to place
the individual above all.
This is a rich land. lf we embody the real
values of the natural ecology in the economy of
today, Kauiah will provide well for the needs of a
lean and healthy human population.
r.8"
fact of Appalachia as a region has dominated the
local economy. We are not two hundred years
Rob Messic~
Sprttig, 1991
Xat.i«ih Jouma( Pa«Je 3
�Avoiding the Passive/Helpless Approach
to Economic Development
Advocates of extractive uses of the
national forests have defined an approach to
economic development that has become widely
accepted. In fact, advocates of preservation have
largely accepted the developers' view of the
mechanism of economic development.
The approach I am concerned about might
be called the "pass.ive-helpless" approach.
According to lhis view, we and our fellow
citizens follow passively and helplessly the
geographic pattern of job creation provided by
commercial businesses. The commercial
business community, in tum, is seen as an
outSide force over which we have linle control
and of which we are not a pan except as passive
employees or consumers.
This should all sound familiar: In this
widely held view of the economy, the business
community creates jobs for us and we
lhankfuUy, even gratefully, take them. Once this
view is accepted. the primary economic question
raised by the conflict between extractive
development and the preservation of
environmental quality on national forest lands is
simply one of figuring out which businesses
create the "most" and/or the "besl" jobs. The
advocates of ongoing extraction tell us that it is
the timber or mining industries, while advocates
of preserving environmental quality insist !hat it
is me tourisr/recreation industry.
1.r:11Howeven thit•oppmnclr.mi~\arleau .,,rr
half of the economic reality. Moreover, it may
miss more than half of the political and social
reality that we ought to be trying 10 create. To
explain lhis, let me present four basic principles
or facts about the economies we live in.
First, people care about where they live.
The quality of the natural and social environment
is a dominant force in determining where people
locate. The evidence for this is all around us.
Consider the move to the suburbs. to the deserts
of the Southwest, to the Sunbelt, or to the hill
country of the South. Initially these mass
movements of millions of people represented
movements away from both jobs and
commert;ial centers. They also represented
movements from high wage areas to relatively
low wage ar~ People took significant risks
and made :.ignificruit sacrifices to obtain the
living environments they wanted.
Second, most jobs involve "taking in each
others' wash" or "scratching each others'
backs". not scratching at the Earth to extract and
make valuable lhings which are then exponed 10
the rest of the world. In recent years, 70 to 80
pen:ent of American jobs are in locally-oriented
(as opposed to export-oriented) service jobi;, no1
manufacwring. There has been a long term,
ongoing trend which constantly increases the
dominance of this type of economic activity.
The third principle is tha1 people can and
do crea1e jobs for themselves and their
neighbors by engaging in small-scale
entrepreneurial activity. In fact, this has been
one of the primary so~ of job creation in
some of the states most heavily hit by the
recessions of the 1980's. In Montana. for
instance, during the first half of the l 980's wage
and salary jobs shrank by tens of thousands
Xotiulh )ournat pO<JC 4
by Thomas Power
while total employment increased. All net new
not be available. Passive communities of
jobs were self-employment jobs. In North
helpless people who do what large corporations
Dakota. small new businesses were also the
tell them to do don't survive the inevitable
dominant source of job creation.
decline that accompanies shifting business
The final principle is that 40 10 50 percent
winds. "Company towns" are never dynamic,
prosperous places.
of all personal income flowing into our
Finally, it must be kept in mind that a
communities doesn't come in the form of
growing number of residents are "foot-loose" in
wages, salaries, or profits. It comes from return
the sense that a substantial source of income
on past investments. including pension and
follows them no matter where they choose to
retirement plans, and from transfer payments
live. Retirees are the most obvious group. Their
from government programs such as social
residential choices can be guided almost entirely
~urity. This flow of income into our local
by their preferences for natural and social
~nomies is far larger than any single industry
or combination of industries, but is NOT caused
environments. They bring with them major
0ows of income that support the economic
by current employment.
activities of others. In dollar terms, a single
This is a dramatically different picture of
retiree who chooses a panicular community as
the local economy than the one we are usually
his or her new home is worth hundreds of
given. People choose to live in places they like,
tourists streaming lhrough the community. In
where they support themselves through jobs
addition, rather than disrupting the community
they, themselves, create. These jobs primarily
as tourists do, the new resident's productive
serve the needs of their neighbors, much of
activities are likely to make a contribution 10 the
whose incomes are not tied to local jobs. Taken
vitality of the community.
together, these factS have imponant implications
Based on these ideas. T would suggest a
for how we view local economic development.
few rules for those concerned about both
For instance, maintaining and creating an
attractive social and natural environment for
preserving environmental quality and enhancing
residents is critical to the future of our
the economic well-being of their communities.
"forest-dependent" communities. Butcher the
narural environment, and we lose the qualities
Firs1, don't give away the store to
~
that draw and hold people and economic activity
outsiders, whether those outsiders be extractive
here. This iuffltical poim: we-protect the
u
' industry or tourists. That will only destroy lh~
natural environment nor for 1ouris1s and outside
things we have going for us.
r1•
recrearionalists but for us. the people who live
here. We do it so that we and others will find
Second. siop talking about tourists.
lhis an attractive place to live, work, and do
Nobody loves a touris1, no1 even tourists, and
business. The natural environmem created by
no one looks forward to cleaning up after
our forested mountains contributes to our
1ourists. We do 001 impress our fellow citizens
ecomomic well-being first and foremost by
\\ith talk about putting them to work making
being available for us to enjoy directly.
motel beds, cleaning toilets, and washing
dishes. Talk instead about ourselves. why we
If we are interested in attracting more
are here, and what is imponant 10 us.
people, we have to ask what we have to offer
that sou them California or the eastern
megalopoli do not. We clearly are not going to
Finally, as we work co protect the nationaJ.
compete by providing stripped and rdvaged
forests, Ice's take back the economic argument
from those who see our forested landscape only
mountainsides. silted streams and polluted
as a source of raw material for shipment to the
rivers, and noisy, dirty plants belching
res1 of the world. In taking back the economic
foul-smelling gases into the air. It is the general
argument. we must be careful not to buy into the
ugliness and pollution of our largest population
centers from which people are seeking to
vision of ours~lves as passive. helpless folks
completely ckpcndent upon outside forces. That
escape. Our economic development stra1egy
position is dangerous to 1he spec1acular beauty
muse be built around asking what it is that we
of our region, as well as destructive of the
have that is special and attractive. Our forested
political and social fabric of our states and our
mountains and the environmental quality they
comrnunjties.
provide cenai.nly are central 10 answering that
Instead we should view ourselves as
question.
creative entrepreneurs, contributing 10 the
There are important implications here,
economic resources and the well-being of our
100, for what a good "business climate'' is.
communities. We all have co find a living, and
Since we largely create our own jobs rather than
forest protection rather 1han forest extraction
wrutirig passively for gifts from benevolent
outside corporations, the business climate that
may be the best way for many.
~
counts is that faced by local, small
Thomas Power is professor of eco11t>mics
entrepreneurs. A productive business climate is
and chaiml(lll of the Eco,wmics Department at
not one tha1 gives outside businesses anything
the Universiry ofMomona ill Missoulo. His
they ask of the community! Rather. it is one that
recent book, The Economic Pursujt of Quality
encourages and supporlS residents as they create
(ME. Sharpe,1988) develops ill more detail rlre
economic opportunities for themselves and their
ideas presented here.
neighbors by pursuing opportunities 10 provide
goods or services to their neighbors chat
This artu:/e is reprintedfrom the Ottober 1989
otherwise would have to be imponed or would
issUL of Forest Watch, which is available from Box
3479: Eugene, OR 97403.
Spr L119, 1991
J ,i"'-'i
�,
...
WAYS TOA
REGENERATIVE
REGIONAL
ECONOMY
Nature does not require that any of its
intercomplmrmting mmrbers ·ear-n a /it,ing·.
R Buckmlnstcr FullC!I'
We all eat from the Earth, brea th from the
Earth, drink from the Earth, and exchange energy on
the way to rclurning it in augmented molecular forms
to the Earth. The movements of energy through the
many organismic forms of the biosphere creates a
kind of metabolism, a kind of economy, that is both
ancient and alive as we participate in its elaborate
ways of clean-burning combustion. Micro-organisms
first found ways to perpetuate themselves on
compounds like methane and sulfur. As different
cellular forms engulfed and rejected each other the
pattern of using solar energy emerged as a strong and
usefu I means of tapping into the flows of energy
coming to the Earth from the Sun. This
photosynthesizing ability came about through
millions of years of evolution, and the oxygen it
produced eventuaUy led to the creation of a
protective ozone layer· enabling life to lnhabil the
continents. It also came as a great shock to the
ancient anaerobic bacteria, who cannot exist in the
A Region Regen • crativc Primer. Involved in each of these basic requirements are questions about
Values and Ufostyles, which tend to tran,ccnd the mere fulfillment of material needs (•.. In nonlinear order).
presence of gaseous oxygen.
As dynamic plant forms began concentrating
their energy in fruits from pollinating flowers, and
edible (and inedible) seeds, along with developing
cellulose to incre~ lhe strength of their cell walls,
they began to take on more of an energy harvesting
role on the continents. Converting radiant energy to
chemical energy, they also began to aid In regulating
the flows of water, the contents of air, and the
distribution of some minerals. Animal cells which
thrived on the energy flow created by the existence
of plants also began to flourish and diversify into
multicellular forms. Through millenia this ever
renewing. turbulent, and resilient cycle of energy,
being used and reused through the lives and deaths
of uncountable organisms and whole species of
organisms, has continued despite the catastrophic
impacts of asteroids hurlllng in from the solar
system. The visceral movements of volcanoes and
plate-shiftings have also been a major factor In lhe
ability of this planet to mend from such great events.
Until human beings came along, there seemed
to be no multicellular form or life that could
interrupt these magnificent biotically guided cycles
or radiant and molecular energy as drastically as
meteors, volcanoos, and plate tectonics have. When
our coordination of social activity began we had
neither the numbers nor the skill to drastically
interfere with the vital regenerative nature of the
Biosphere. We simply participated in the flows of
energy that were swarming around us and inside us.
Particularly since an ice age was coming to an end,
there were other regions and habitats we and
related primates could move into and explore if need
be, to find food, shelter, and waler. We burned wood,
ate the plants and animals that were herding,
mcadowing, and foresting around us, expressed
ourselves though various languages and spiritual
practices, and found cures for some infections. Many
of these infections are due largely to the great
ancestral microbes and viruses who arc still doing
much of the most basic work of the Biosphere. Our
immune systems exist as an attempt to maintain
identity in the "sea" of microbes and viruses we live
prlng, 199 1
in.
As our social systems became more complex, and
the basis for human technology and industry began to
be discovered, we eventually eame to a critical
phase. The control of major regional energy Aows
that human beings hlld contact with were being
maintained less and less by a naturally diverse
Biosphere, and were co-opted more and more into our
own growing tribal intellect and infrastructure. Much
has come from our early inluitive grasps for wisdom.
However, these were relatively inexperienced
guesses al how natural systems work. The fine
details of recording and mapping our experiences soon
began lo open our species into realms or knowledge
thllt were as unexpected as they were at times
frightening.
As the experiences of our species with natural
systems expanded, so did our methods of control. This
was true not only of energy flows outside the core of
human culture, but also with the basic internal
relationships of gender, spirituality, and the
introducing of children to the dynamics of a Universe
at large. Conflict among various cultures (or
infragroups) within our species. over the economic
Aows of food, know-how, tools, minerals, and power
etc, soon inflamed into t he existence of hostile
sovereign states. One form of human cul lure would
try to assert its dominance over another (due perhaps
to its mihtary rrught at a given time) and a process
of intimidation would spread like a dlscase.
Delusions of a different culture being viewed as a
completely "evil other· only added to the
turbulence. Unfortunately, this kind of projection
often fails to recognize the evil that exists in all
dominator societies.
There have been m.1ny human cultures that
have exhausted the biodi verstty of lh!! ecosystems
surrounding them. A$ the life-cycle of some of these
cultures came to an end they somctimc!S paid the
price for this exhaustion with their survival. Early
ht.UlW\ hunting and agricultural practices could
deplete the carrying capacity for human beings in a
given region. This is supported by evidence from a
number of early human cultures that turned forests
into meadows and croplands, w hich in him could
become infertile deserts in some areas of the world.
The effects of sucll. practices however; extracted far
less from the whole Biosphcric Context than do
relatively fast changing industrial societies. For
much of the span of human existence there was
abundant habitat for other large multicellular
organisms lilce ourselves to con tinue in the Great
Energy Cycles of the Earth. As we extracted some
seeds and animals, domesticating and breeding them
for greater yield, a process began that infringed
further into forest, prairie, and coastal ecosystems.
By the lime some human cultures began pushing their
way into a dominating posture toward other human
cultures, and toward the uncountable millions of
species that were continuing to evolve, we were not
only losing these habitats· we were also beginning to
lose contact with deeper mysteries within ourselves.
As we found ways to use lhe petrified remains
or life from eons gone by (le; coal, oil, and ear thly
Aatult?nce) as add itional sources of fuel, the
virtu.-illy clean-burning fuel cycles of microbes, fungi,
plants, and animals were infused with a differmt
kind of pervasive combustion. The eicplosive
introduction of fossil fuel burning engines which arc
inefficient relative to the organic (or more readily
recyclable) combustion of living systems meant that
human beings were developing a potential for
by-passing many of lhe limits that existed earlier in
the Biospheric Context. Such a context, of energy
exchange bet ween organismic and molecular fonns
that created fossil fuels from marshes over vast
spans of geolog,c time, 1s now able to be *burned" by
human beings in the span of centuries. The effects of
this wave of fossilized-.?nCrgy-dcpendence and the
consequent existence of elaborate technologies and
populabon increases. has created a new kind of
threat not only to our human cultures but also to the
very existence of larger multicellular organ
communities llke ourselves.
As we release more greenhouse and ozoneOraw111g by Rob M cmclt
(cominuod on aut p1ge)
xatuah Journot
~ 5
�(continlllOd &om page S)
depleting gases than the Great Energy Cycles of the
Earth can accommodate, produce myriad synthesized
chemistries derived primaril>· from "cooking" oil in
petrochemical refineries, interrupt the now of vital
habitats, and till away topsoil at an alarming rate,
we can sec the evidence or an economy that has
strayed from the roots of its existence. It could be
said that when a species of multicellular organisms
grows too fast, outpacing the rate of energy now
created by millions of years of conflict and conflict
resolutions between the needs of a species and the
needs of the overall integrity or ecosystems in a
bioregion, then some feedback in the whole system
might seep in to correct the flow.
Perhaps we as a species will recognize in time
that "fooling around" with systems this large and
complex can lead to a partial or contagious collapse
of many types of biosystcms. By using methods of
accounting that do not regard the subtle nature of
whole systems, and their inability to susla.in
themselves when 'broken down' into incommurucable
parts, we open ourselves further to such risks.
Ignorance of these kinds of feedback processes became
evident in Katuah when disastrous floods occured as
a result or excessive rainfall after large areas of
forest were felled. The qualities of soil structure that
could move and absorb water through the work of
vegetation, earthworm, and microbe scale organisms
was lost in this method of industrial extraction.
A Regenerative Economy for human beings
would involve a recognition of some of the ancient
patterns of microbial relationships that have been
worked out over eons of geologic time. Huge
consequences have come from some of those
relatively "small" decisions or adaptations. In
developing co-operative and predatory behaviors,
biosystems have come to live within limits of scale
and tolerance that are 1mplicit to being abve in the
context of the Great Energy Flows of the l3iosphere.
It has now become an essential aim of humnn beings
to hve within the population and resource limits of
such solar initiated regenerative flows.
SACRED 0CONOMY
.,
There's a huge old apple 1ree on the fann
we live on that gave over a dozen bushels of
apples this year. The apples made good
applesauce and we put up about a hundred
quans of iL Thick, yellow and brown, sticky
sweet summer in Mason jars on the pantry
shelves. When the apples fell faster than we
could handle them, we called up Ed and Randye
and their family came over and picked up four
bushel~ to make themselves some sauce 100.
This was what the land afforded us, it was what
was freely offered and though it was a busy time
of the year, it felt like something of a sacred
duty to see that the apples were put lO good use,
to accept the offering of this place and our place
in the magic transfonnation of Sun and Rain and
Soil into Tree and into growing Human
children. The tree was planted and probably
grafted by an African-American fanner a half
century ago or more in the fertile Little River
bottomland. Its apples have become a lot of
children over the years, and I feel like we honor
the fanner as well as the place when we use
these apples.
When we lived at Travianna there were a
lot of wild grapevines that grew next to the
creeks, using the alders and willows there for a
natural arbor. Most years there would be a
couple of bushels of fragrant wild grapes for the
easy picking. Going 10 pick the grapes really
XQti&afl Jourtiai pa9e 6
Efforts such as energy conservation through
more efficient technologies that require less of the
dreaded noxious belching of fossil fuel engines will
be of great service. However, the invention and
practice of human systems that tap into regenerative
energy flows - such as solar ovens, heaters, collectors
and batteries, along with hydrogen and possibly
alcohol fuels, bioshelters, composters, wind
generators, and microhydro - will aid more clearly in
healing our relationship wilh the Sacred Flows of
the Earth. Many primal skills of living in balance
with local habitats and being able to flll many
human needs from healthy forests and mrodows
will also be important to this effon. Reforestation,
good husbandry, and soil conservation could be seen
as a form of "currency" in allowmg these potentially
heallhy ecosystems to sustain themselves. Such a
renewing economy could also explore ways or
integrating sustainable agricultural sysll.'l'T\S into
homes, offices, ponds, gardens, villages, and counties
within the Biorcgional Ptovincc.
A rcgen1?rative economy would guide us into
concentrating more on the local qualities of supply,
demand, and re-use of provisions, and less on the
push to generate more and more products without
regard to the effects on children, landfills, and
overall costs to the environment. Instead of insisting
on "continual growth" (a.k.a. greed) for the human
economy, a regenerative perspective would manifest
as more of a Steady State Economy; one in which the
now of energy and provisions would be used and
regulated for the good of the whole society and local
environments by councils of members living within a
given Shire, or county, of a Bioregion. Qualities of
durability, thrift, and attention to the needs of
systems larger than the human economy would be a
major focus of this approach.
I
The just involvement of other life forms in the
human economy would also be encburagcd. An
example or this can be found in the process of
Biorcmediation, in which microbes and other
organisms are used in specific ways to digest and
disintegrate many forms of organic and metallic
activates the hunter/gather memory banks and it
is sometimes a very good thing to do with kids.
It is sometimes a very good thing to do alone.
The chinquapins ripen about the same rime as
the grapes and we would find these and gently
pry them from their prick Iy husks and eat them
on the spot, spitting out their thin shells and
swallowing the sweet mini-chestnuts. This land
is so generous.
In our present lifestyle, the gathering of
the offerings of the wild is mostly symbolic, but
I think we long for a return 10 a more basic level
of relationship with our local environment lt is
sad I think, for the offerings of so many
blackberry thickets, grapevines, and apple trees
to go disrespected. ft is sad for busy humanity
that can no longer find the time to enjoy the
natural fruits of the place we live. r think we
kick ourselves out of Eden every morning. I
think we can walk back in any time we will. r
thank this planet and these mountains, the Little
River and an apple tree for the life they
generously and patiently afford. This place is
sacred. This place is beautiful. This place is
home.... So, how do we get to this place and
stay there? We can look at the examples of
Native People everywhere for an answer. We
see that native people are a whole lot simpler in
their lifestyles. We have become a nation of the
needy, needing all sorts of things that we would
be better off without. We can also see that we
need to cooperate with each-other more fully.
Tribes, extended families, bands and villages are
much more stable and powerful than our nuclear
contaminants in water systems. A regenerative
economy would act In ways to stop the now of such
contamin:iting agents at their source. This could be
done by using non-toxic replacement chemistries, or
bioremcdiation, or dehydrating techniques to
de-toxify or prevent some specific compounds from
being released into water, soil, biotic, or atmospheric
systems. However, the best way to stop
contamination is lo not produce it in the first place.
Better sbll, embody less of a need to use toxic agenl5
in creating proviSiqns.
Monitoring flows such as those of minerals,
nutrients, and re-usable wastes through settlements,
forests, living soil, and life-giving waters would
become a basis for this circulatory economy.
Involvement in these geological movements can
engender a kind or respect through familiarity,
similar to that which potentially exists in the
qualities of our own customs, know-how, emotions,
and mediations. Both of these living patterns are
necessary for human culture to sur,tivc.
Hopefully it will become possible for us to
envision the material form of a complexedly
regenerative human society. Perhaps it would live
and grow as a squash plant: keeping information in
the seeds and feeding them with the "meat" of our
hearts and minds; creating structures on which to
extend energy collectors with the sun, soil, waters.
and winds; diversifying enough so that each cell
phlys a specific role in contributing to the survival of
the plant, yet working together enough that.these
cells are sustained by the s tructure of the whole
plant. One thing aboul squash plants, though, is that
they need ''rich" soil. The price to be paid is
providing a kind of compost - a compost that tends
not to equate well with the way most human beings
think about and account wealth. Wealth comes from
partidpaling in lhe sustenance of the Great Cycles of
Energy of the Earth. To maim this source is to maim
the source of our own economy. One has no life
without the other.
Rob Messick
families and much better in touch with location
than our governments and bureaucracies which
can't deal with blackberry picking or anything
near that level of real. Our families arc hard
pressed to "cover all the bases" in this game we
are playing now, driving kids around and
driving ourselves around trying to earn enough
dollars to keep driving kids around. We forget
the sacredness of the place we rush through.
We let our share of Eanh's sacred gifts go 10
brown rot and yellow jackets. A tribe is seldom
this wasteful, even an extended family has
members who are free to put up food and fuel
from the local environment. Real cooperation
on a local level brings the focus of the
community home 10 here and now and
reintegrates us into the web of life. Sacred
economy is local 8conomy. This is certainly
not to imply that there is anything wrong with
trade, just that we will profit by looking closer
to home for the basic elements of our
sustenance.
A collapse of the present world economic
"order" would necessitate a return to local
economy all over the planeL We can envision
a new world 8conomic order in which
communities trade directly with each other from
aJI pans of the Eanh, assisted by a UPS, a
global, reality based 1rading system without
money or middlemen ..... These are good things
a person can dream about while making
apple.~uce.
.,,.
~
fr
- Will'Asbe 811.~on
Sprlnq, 1991
�Robin Cape and lvo Ballentine are literally
buildir,g a life for themselves from the waste
generated by our society. Tire pair mah! a living
salvaging, recycling, and finding creative uses
for "refuse'' - literally, those things t/rarsociery
/ras refused. Using mostly salvaged materials.
they restored a small, mndown lwuse near the
end of a small street in the city of As/reville,
where they live with their infant son Django.
This family is nor just surviving - they are
living well. They /rave found a richness in the
goods t/rat others have discarded: a life filled with
love, well-being, and a sense of meaning and
purpose.
As a result of their unique perspective, tl,ey
have valuable insights on our society and a clear
sense ofpriorities t/rat most people overlook in
the /rustle and bustle of accumulation.
"Money is the Lowest Form of Wealth"
An Interview with lvo Ballentine and Robin Cap e
Kat(iah : How do you go about your work?
Robin: It's just keeping our eyes open and
finding a place to put lhe things lhat come. In a
sense, it's a matter of doing what you can with
what you have. We go out and see what we can
find, and then we think of the best uses for the
things we have found. With practice. we have
gotten better at it.
Ivo: It's awo.reness, and stepping out of our
way a little bit to ask, "Hey, is that thing gonna
get thrown away?" My route is my day, and what
I come up with is whatever I find along the way.
I just look in on my streets, and it's new every
day. Somebody else has thrown something else
away that we can find a use for. that somebody
would buy, or somebody somewhere else would
want. We think of ourselves as "re-routers,"
because recycle has gotten so overused.
Robin: And recycling isn't necessarily the
best use for an item. Re-using is the best use,
because that saves the most energy, and geis
away from the idea that 1f we just throw
something away, it's somebody ebe·s job to
recycle iL We have 10 be responsible for our own
stuff. We can't just throw it away.
When we re-use an item, or we re-route it to
a person who wiU re-use it, we are saving the
object iiself and also countering the whole
concept of this thing as "trash," That action says.
"This isn't LrnSh. This still has value."
lvo: [ think everyone should start a
relationship with "the mill": che paper processing
plant. the metal processing plant, or even giving
their cans to the fire depanment.
When you take stuff to the mill, you learn
about what's going on. You start 10 think about
the transmission of the goods.
Kat(llll1: 'The mill" being the existing
reclamation system. and "transmission" meaning
moving stuff 10 where it belongs.
lvo: Yeah.
Kar1iah: Your equipment is basically a
pickup truck and some trailers.
lvo: We pull the trailers w11h an old 1929
Model A Ford, but not with the pickup. l did this
with my Model A when I didn't have a Lr.tiler,
and the Model A did fine for me.
We don't have a junkyard, so
"IT3llsmission" to us means keeping things
organiLed and keeping things moving. We have
trailers for metal, aluminum, and glass, and we
,.
Spr,-n41 ,l99 I
have to be caretul about not ovenoawiit
ourselves. We don't gather any more than we can
put right back into the system.
We don't go out of our way. either. When
we are going to the grocery store. we're looking
out for things we might be able to pick up along
!he way. We wou!9,n't hav~ a warehol§e way~ut
m the county to sllish aU this stuff, because that
would just be a waste. Our warehouse is right in
the same liule central area.
Katua/r: And stuff always turns up?
Roblll: We teamed a lot gathering the
materials 10 build our house. first, you get the
idea and make the plans. Then you have to get
out and get started on the work. By actively
looking for the things, we've found that often
what you want comes to you.
Like windows. We knew we needed $Orne
windows, and just when we needed them. we
were asked to clean up n remodeling job at a
church, and they were throwing away all these
old-style, hand-le.-idcd windows that you now see
in the house. These and man}' more. A lot had
been broken before we could reach them, and a
101 more we have sold or given away. Now we
have more windows than we could ever want.
Robin: If you make a clear enough plan in
your mind, oftentimes you are going to
materialize it. Bue then you al~ have 10 be able to
build your house or complete your plan using
whnt comes, rather than having to have
everything custom-mndc.
Looking for this propeny, we looked and
looked and looked, and I kept having the feeling
that what we were looking for was out there. The
action of looking helped us 10 clarify in our
minds what we really v.antcd to find.
Kar1iali: So being flexible helps when you
are doing n:cydmg and salvage. You get an idea.
but tl1en when you get the stufT you change the
idea. too.
Rohin: Yes. ll's t.TI;alivc.
AWtlUII. l'\JIUUlel pan OJ tnat creativity is
being able to make stuff out of things that people
have already discarded.
Robin: We have such fun making our
"Compost Cards." They are postcards that we
make using pjctw-cs from mag\\7,ines we ij.uipl
the dumpsters backco v.ith cardboard from cereal
boxes. They're not production cards. They arc
each one-of-a-kind cards.
We don't make any money on them 10 spe3.k
of. We figured out that we might make $4.00 an
hour for the time spent.
Ivo: That's lhe whole thing, though: we find
other profits. There are so many profiis other
than money. Jreally think that money is one of
the lowest forms of wealth.
With the cards, there is the fun and there is
the togetherness of doing it. beyond any money
involved. And when people see them. the cards
get everybody talking.
Robin: And I make jewelry out of old
linoleum 0ooring. It looki. very nice after il's
been refinished and hung with beads, I buy some
beads at lhe nea market, but l also make long
beads out of the insulation on electrical wires.
The jewelry sells very well in the citie.s. l call
it "composite materials," because ritzy ladies
don't like 10 think about hanging old floors from
their ears.
I used to make an. I used 10 do ceramic:!' and
weaving, and I was always buying expensive
materials trying to make my an. A lot or my worli.
was about the Earth, but at the same time I was
using energy to keep an incredibly hot kiln going
for days at a nme to produce my l>tatcments about
the Earth.
For me, it's a bcucr statement to make :irt out
of smff that ii. already here. It's fun, .and people
go, ''Ohl You made thh is from that old stuff1 l
\\Ould never have seen that."
It rcqu~ looking a1 something th:11 may
seem to have no value and then changmg it to
make it into something of beauty and worth. I
Phoio by ltodncy \\ cbb
(. ontinued oq D<,\l 1'"4")
c
D ,Wt\lpfi J o \ t ~ 7
�(conunucd from page 7)
have more fun now making linoleum jewelry than
1 had creating my art before.
Kauwh: lt is interesting what you said earlier
about "materializing," bocause our society is very
materialistic. Even though they have so much,
people are always wanting something else and
putting aside what they already have in order to
get it. It feels like you are crearing the life you
want our of the discarded fragments of the
American Dream.
Robin: From time 10 time. of course, we
have to take a load 10 the dump. We always bring
recyclables along with the garbage. That saves us
the tipping fee, and we can get in for free. Once
we're in there. we can poke a.round. We find
aluminum, copper. batteries. antiques...it's
amazing how much valuable stuff is just being
tossed away. Lately it"s been slimmer pickings,
but for awhile we'd be coming out of there with
$50 worth of stuff almost every time.
I hope that the new dump is going 10 be more
efficient. They say that they are going 10 call it a
Robin: Last year 1 picked up a book by Alan
WattS. He made the point that although we
constantly talk about America as a materialist
society, that is not what America is at all. We are
a concepmal society.
Americans in general don't take care of their
material goods. They say, "Oh if I just could
have that, then everything would be great." But
it's not actually the thing they want, h's the
striving for something. As often as not, when
!hey actually obtain an object, it goes out in the
back yard until it rusts, and then they throw it
away.
Americans don't take care of material things,
and I've come to think that really being
materialistic may not be so bad. If we were really
materialistic, we would take care of our material
things better.
We're symbolistic. The symbol of good taste
is imitation cheese. It's not the good taste. IL's the
symbol of good taste.
Kattwh: When we buy stuff, we think "I'm
,uying mushrooms," not "I'm buying
nushrooms, and I'm buying a mushroom
.ontainer." Some things are garbage even before
ve buy them.
Ka11wh: So a lot of recycling has to do with
being able to tell when something is valuable.
Ivo: To my mind, everything has value.
There is not much that is nOt worth something in
some way. We just haven't figured it out yet. The
whole process is figuring it out.
For instance, our bathroom floor is made of
solid mahogany. A lumber company in town getS
plywood from Honduras. It is packed in crates
made of mahogany wood. They take the plywood
out and throw the crates away. We picked up the
crates, took all the nails out of them, and now we
have a mahogany floor.
All that tongue-and-groove siding on the
gazebo was given to us at the lumber yard - right
on the day we needed it. It's being in those
alleyways that puts you in touch with those
goodies. That wood was going to get wasted,
even though it was very valuable. Now look at it!
Robin: We have a small warehouse where we
store things, and we find after making the rounds
of the flea markets that then: is some stuff that we
cannot seem to put back into society. It may be
because the person out there who wantS it
probably lives in Colombia, and we can't get the
stuff to the places where people would take the
time 10 take the screws out and re-use them someplace where people would see these items as
goods rather than as waste.
Ivo: When there's something in our
warehouse that we don't know what 10 do with,
we just look at it in a different way. We sec it as
pans and strip it down. Maybe there's lots of
screws or nuts and bolts in it that are perfectly
useable, or maybe there's a piece of wood that
could be used for something else. A lot of what
we do is 10 strip things down. We don't have 10
go shopping for hard wan:, for one thing. We just
go down to our bins and boxes and find ii.
"4tiulh JoumaL rm9c 8
belong. One thing we c-0uld easily live without is
~e "throwa~ay society" concept that says. "I'll
JUSt throw this away and forger the other five and
one half billion people's opinion on it."
We all need a metal pile, a glass pile, and a
paper pile, and we all need to take care of them
be talking about them, and getting stuff to whe~
it belongs. One might not make much money
from it, bur it's a mauer of tucking it in, of taking
care of the future.
The best thing would be to change our
a1ticude about things from the instant we acquire
them. We need to think, "Now I'm the steward
of this. How am I going 10 take care of this?
What am I going to do with this?" And then
follow it through.
When we buy something, do we think about
where it came from? Do we think about what it
?Ontains? Do we think ~bout what it is packaged
tn? Maybe we shouldn t buy the mushrooms in a
,tyrofoam container, for instance, unless we have
1 specific use for that styrofoam container. Even
hough the styrofoam container of mushrooms is
mly 89¢ and unbagged mushrooms are 99¢, the
ost of the container · the living cost - has to be
dded in, even if it doesn't come directly out of
,ur pockets.
Photn by Rodney Webb
"Reclamation Center." 1 hope that means that
we're not going to throw away something like
$30,000 wonh of ready recyclables per day,
which is what they say is happening now. Thar's
why someone can go in there now and find $100
wonh of stuff in one visit - and that's just ready
recyclables: metals, glass, and paper. That's not
even mentioning antiques.
lvo: Some things are garbage, and some
llings are just difficult 10 use - like aluminum
;creen doors. We get 10 of them a month at least,
all different sizes, all custom-made for different
houses. There are no real Standards. Aluminum
windows are the same way. There's very little
chance that we'd find another space that would
exactly fit them. so we strip them down and
recycle them.
We wish that someone would Stan a small
forge that would take aluminum and make some
worthwhile thing out of it. We could make a little
money selling to them, and they could save a
whole lot of money.
Kar1lah: That's a good idea: spin-off
indusrnes.
100?
Robin: The Smith and Hawken Company
sells aluminum cast benches, very small benches.
for $795. They contain maybe 50. maybe 100,
pounds of aluminum. We sell 50 pounds of
aluminum for $14. rf we could provide their
stock, we could get maybe $20 out of it, and the
company would keep a lot more of tl1at $795.
lvo: I've hauled things to the dumpster for
people, and they've said "If you see any hinges
around, I'll buy them from you." Several times
I've stripped pans off items they have given me
and sold those parts back to the same people.
Once they see stuff as "tra.Sh," they're blind 10
what might be in there.
But if we're hauling aluminum and there's a
piece of steel in there. even though 1 may not
need that piece of steel, I take it anyway and
throw it on my steel pile. which is continually
going to the scmpyard. I call the steelyard the
"the no-pay mill," because they recycle it, but
they don't pay me anything for it. In the
meantime, though, I get to use it if 1need it.
This is an example of "dumpster karma." It's
not only a mauer of making a li\'ing. It's trying to
take care of things and putting them where they
Ivo: We've been doing building salvage and
demolition clean-up work. It's really helped us
while we were working on our house, but more
and more people doing building projects an:
calling us because they need these goods, 100.
Now thnc we're finishing up our own place. I
want 10 put together a crew that's made up of
people who want wood and other building
materials to take over these jobs.
And t want 10 learn more about wood thi~
year, because people who really know wood are
telling me that the wood being thrown away i$ a
thousand times better than the wood wl! are able
to buy today. We need to save that old wood.
We are completely into the practice of cutting
down more and more trees and driving the price
up. whereas what we really need to do is to go
back and have a new understancling of wood and
Kattlah: Do you sell things from your stash,
Spri.f\9, 1991
�figure out that this is really wonh something.
These old boards remind us of our
grandparents' lives. Our grandfather might have
cut this tree. This is the tree, the wood, wood
like this doesn't grow anymore. This is
something really, really imponant
Old joists can be new furniture. It doesn't
matter what we make out of iL It just matters that
the wood's not wasted, and that it is used over
and over. It's a renewable resource, but not in a
way that we can waste it
disrurbs me that some people look at re-routers
and recyclers as n-ash, like "Oh, you're in the
dumpster? You're trash."
There are several responses when people
come on us at work. One response is, "Alright!"
and the other is, "Uggghhhh." And it huns
sometimes when people look at me and go
"Ewww, you're trash." I have to keep reminding
myself, 'Tm not" It's easy 10 buy into that when
you're climbing in and out of dumpsters.
lvo: Once I was going from one litter barrel
Robin: Several times while doing salvage,
we've run into a situation that bothers us greatly.
That's when the person in charge of a building
demands a payment to allow us 10 retrieve stuff.
That's fine as long as those people are
willing to salvage what they can, because if they
set the value on it, then they are responsible for
getting it out. But it's not right for good materials
to be wasted.
It would be better for the people in charge ro
honestly embrace the idea that a building is
coming down, get out what they can, then let go
of the rest, and be joyous about other people
going in and getting what they could.
We have to be more honest about our
commitment to our own labor. If people are not
willing to do what needs to be done, then they
need 10 move out of the way and open those
opportunities for others.
Robin: Part of it is 10 release and
acknowledge and hope that there are other people
out there who arc doing the work, too, and that
people will pick up what they can use. For awhile
we were feeling like it wasn't getting picked up,
and maybe we'd beu.cr eick ilup, so that when
someone's ready for it. it's here. Well.'wc can·1
do that for everything. Everybody has to help.
Katuah: It is kind of underground. It's a
sub-culture.
Robin: I suppose it's inevitable, but it
Sprlnq, 1991
Ivo: Or that's going to break and they're
going to throw it away'!
But moving metal the way we do. and
thinking about everything in this way, that can
get real hlll'd, too. It's not easy work. Help
would be great. To know that more people are
doing it would be real good, because we could
feel like, "OK, maybe I can't get that particular
item. but it's going to get taken care of."
lvo: It drove us nuts, because there is so
much waste and it really hurt us, seeing it.
Robin: The flea market is one. It's a great
place • kind of like an underground marketplace,
except that it's not underground - where people
rrade stuff off: "Iley, rm not using this any
more, can you use this?" ''Yeah, I can use that"
lvo: The world slows down a bit, and you
make friends with it. It's a different way.
Robin: And who wants to worlc a job 10
hours a day to get this stuff that they don't know
what they are going to do with?
Robin: For awhile we did try 10 do
everything. But we can't do everyrlting. Like one
pc11ion can't save the world. You can try but
you'd blow out in the process. We're having to
learn that. Living in the city, it's pretty
mind-blowing how much gets thrown away, and
for awhile we were just all the ume husding,
hu.srling, lmstling!
Karuah: Precisely. That's another case when
the symbol of value has come into conflict with
real value. It comes down 10 the question of
where our commitments really are.
I'd like to know if there other options for
re-routi ng items.
Robin: lt is. And a lot of people our age
disdain the flea market and look down on that
class of people. That seems funny 10 me. because
the flea market is a place where people value this
old scuff and seek it out
The flea market, the mill - they are there. and
there are real people working those places. We've
become very good friends with the people at the
metal mill in town. They give us Christmas gifts,
and they gave us baby gift~. They're our friends.
We see each other regularly; we have a
relationship with those people. They're part of
our community.
Living in a community includes alt the people
we come in contact with, whether they are our
groovy friend~ or not Living in community
involves knowing the names of I.he people in the
stores or the lumber yard we go 10 and letting
those people know who we are. If we are
friendly to those people and accept them into our
community, then they're more open to sharing
with us the stuff that would otherwise get
wasted.
Ivo: We try to be non-consumers. We try to
offset the waste in this country. We're trying to
do more with less, and use what people throw
away, and a lot of times we find that those goods
arc better than what we can buy.
Phoio by Rodney Webb
to another with my bag, and a homeless person
came to me and asked to borrow money. I just
said, "Hey, it's laying everywhere!" And he said,
"I'm not going to pick up irash."
Where did he think my money came from?!
All l do is trade my trash for money, so my
money must be rrash too.
People never seem to think of money as
being dirty. We never even think about that We
play with our money, and then we sit down to
cat.
Robin: Someone asked me one day what we
do for a living. I said that what we do is try to
keep a low overhead. That's a big pan of being in
the salvage business: keeping a low overhead.
That's sometimes hard to believe when the bills
come due. Then l am reminded that I am still
tapped into this modem-day society. But for the
most pan we do pretty well at staying out of the
monetary now.
We don't garden as much as we want to, but
we've been working on our house and preparing
the gardens.
I saw a video recently about some tribal
people in Africa. All the women do most of the
day is pound millet 10 feed their families. They
don't have much, but their needs are very small.
lt made me wish I could discover the joy in such
a simple life.
lvo: We want to change the way we can
change. The way we can change is not stopping
and staning up again. It's working slowly and in
truth and in power with what we have and what
we know, in the spirit of trying to let it occur. All
we can do is work at it. We all need 10 suut by
asking what we can do.
We hear all the rime about what's bad and
what's killing us, but people need to know about
what we can do and what ideas are working what heals.
People tend to think that they are basically
helpless and that because the world's so big that
their little pan doesn't matter. This is death. We
want 10 teach people that the little pan that we
each play is what mancrs; that those little pieces
add up in a big way. and that is all there is. It
empowers us. That's life.
lnien,iew recorded by
Rodney Webb and llenry Eckler
Robin and /vo's "Compos, Cards" and
Robin's "Collaborations" jewelry are/or sale ar
1he "What Do You \Vant?" store on Luingu,n
A~·e. m Asheville. Tlae two also have a boo1h 01
the Asheville Antique Mall at the corner of
\Valnw Sr. and lexing1on Ave. where they sell
valuable pieces that 1hey J,avefound in their
salvaging.
�THE CLARKSVILLE "MIRACLE"
by Griscom Morgan
Once we undersl.'.llld the cause of the
decline of rural communities, many
opponunities and resources are at hand for
canying out corrective action. One example is
the story of William Bailey, who was the
president of the First National Bank of
Clarksville, Tennessee during the Great
Depression of the l 930's.
Bailey made a habit of visiting local
farmers to stay in touch and to check on the
condition of their operations. During one of
these visits a local fanner named Peter Barker
spoke frankly to the b:inker saying, "I am a
good fanner and have plenty of food in
production, but I can't sell the food, because
you have all the money, inste:id of it being the
hands of the people who need to buy what I can
grow.
"You won't lend the money, except at an
in1e~t rate which is higher than the people of
lhis county can afford. Since the local people
can't afford to borrow it, you're investing your
bank's money outside the county. Because of
this. the whole economy of our coun1y is at a
Sl.'.llldsrilJ!"
William Bailey saw the point. Agricultur>!,
labor, and enterprise were quite sufficient for a
successful economy in Mon1gomery County. lie
saw the county was suffering because it had
little money in circulation. He saw that he had
been acting on a banker's first impulse, which
was 10 follow the highest interest rates and
invest where they could be found.
Bailey cared about the people in his
community, and he saw that if the county's
economic woes were 10 be solved. there would
have to be a good supply of money in continual
circulation. He knew if he offered low-interest
loans, the local people would borrow the capital
and keep it circulating. He also knew that he
could guide lhe loans to see that they were
invested where they were needed in the
community. But it would be up to the people
themselves 10 mount a campaign 10 buy locally
10 keep that money from leaving the county.
Bailey began loaning the bank's available
capital as low interest loans to the people of the
county, and borrowed money from outside the
county 10 augment 1he available capital.
He analyzed the county economy and
suggested ways to shore up the weak points, as
well as responding 10 people who came 10 him
asking for loans. Always his main emphasis
was 10 keep money circulating in the county.
Money in an economy is like the blood
circulating in the body: if it bleeds out, then the
body dies. One reason Bailey was successful
was his ability to make the local people realize
that finance was like the crucial role of the
blood, and that everybody in the community.
nor just the bankers, must feel responsible for it.
!he morale of the community was very
tmportant.
But the crux of the whole mauer was that
William Bailey was not just looking out for his
institution and for his own individual profit. Ile
saw his firs1 responsibility as being 10 the
community. His policies met with success.
Mon1gomery County rose from being one of the
10 poorest counties in Tennessee to become one
of 1he IO most prosperous counties in the state.
What happened in Montgomery County
became widely known at the time. Some thought
Xotuah JoumaL pa!JC 10
that what happened in Clarksville was close to
the miraculous. Later, William Bailey was the
first small-town banker to be chosen president
of the American Banker.; Association. He
always said, however, that he was never able to
convince American bankers or American
businessmen to accept the basic perspective of
their social responsibility as bankers.
The Clarksville "miracle" was no miracle.
It was just common sense.
What happened in Clarksville, Tennessee
was very similar to wha1 happened in a small
town in Austria at about the same rime. Austna
was aJso suffering from the Depression of the
1930's. The small mountain town of Woergl
was in economic collapse. and its people were
starving. The mayor of the town remembered
that 100 years earlier, when the town had been
without roads and was isolated from the rest of
Europe, it had been prosperous. It therefore
seemed absurd that they should be starving
when they clearly possessed the conditions
necessary for full employmenc and prosperity.
Work needed 10 be done, and they had in the
local area aJI the resources necessary to feed and
clothe themselves.
The mayor persuaded the people of his
community to exchange their Austrian currency
for a local currency, which would be subject 10
an annual tax 10 discourage people from
hoarding it out of circulation. Three monihs after
the)'. began circulating the taxed money, lhey had
full employment in the community, in
comparison 10 the desperate unemployment they
had been suffering earlier.
By the end of the yeauhe town was once
again prosperous. and the mayors of other
Austrian towns began to follow suiL But the
Bank of Austria had the government prohibit the
practice because it was driving the national
currency out of circulation.
In both these cases, although the actions
taken wen: different, the end results were
similar. When money becomes the medium of
savings instead of the medium of exchange.
people suffer, and damage is done to the whole
economy. When money migra1es from an area,
then that area sinks into depression and the
economy stagnates. Communities can take steps
lo ensure the health of their local economies.
Self-Help Credit Union
In 1980, the Center ror Communi1y Stir· Help
was founded in Durham, NC m order IO help low-income
people in !.he area gain ownership of lheir jobs and their
homes. The CCSH provided tcehnical nssislance to
worker-owned nnd othcT cooperative businesses.
In 1984. the Cemer saw need t0 start !.he
SelC-Help Crcdu Union ( SHCU) in order 10 provide
loans to these businesses nnd IO encourage the building
or low-income housing. The SHCU is a bona fuk credit
union, a regulated, fcdcrally insured depo~tory
insti1ution. The Center also. in 1984, began 1hc
Self-Help Ventures Fund, a non-profit revolving loan
Cund (RLF).
In 1988, lhe SHCU opened an office in Asheville
IO scrvc the mounuin region. This past ye.ir, the WNC
office provided more than 5700,000 in l(Xllls, including
eight business loans. fi\'e home mortgages, six 103lls
from iL\ Working Women's Fund, and one loan through
iL~ Self-Help Ventures Fund It also made 13 loans worth
over $50,000 through the NC Rural Center's
Microcnl.Ctpri~ Loon Program. In lhis program, business
spccialiru; at WarTCII Wilson College's Black Swan
Center and at McDowell, Mayland, and Isothcnnal
Communily Colleges work wilh emerging cnireprcncurs
who need small loans nnd technical assistance in ordct 10
get their businesses going. The SHCU provides the loans
from a pool or runds set up by the NC Rural Center.
Unfortun:ucly, the interest r:ue is quite high.
In the WNC area, lhe SHCU has helped finance
Stone Soup ResL1uran1, Nnntahal:i Outdoor Center,
Asheville Monicssori School, YMJ Cuhural Center,
ABC Recycling, and other small business \'Cnturcs.
Self Help Credit Union
12 1/2-A Wall Street
P. O. Box 3192
Ashe~ille, r-.c 28802
(704) 253.5251
Mountain Microtnterprise Fund
do Chris Just
701 Warren WIison Rond
Swannano:i, NC 28778
(704) 298-3325
Working Women's Fund
do nVCA Women's Re.source Center
Asheville, NC 28801
(704) 254-7209
Griscom Morgan worked closely with his
father, Arthur Morgan. the visionary engineer
and rite first director ofthe Tennes.fee \'alley
Amltoriry. At his father's request Griscom
traveled 10 The S0111/iem Appalachians to find a
location for an in1en1io11al community. Griscom
found a beautiful spot in the meadows along the
Somlt Fork of the Toe River where the Celo
Comm1111iry still prospers today.
Bur Griscom could not .Hay in the
mountains. He fell there was work to be dnne ill
/tis native town of Yellow Springs, Ohio were
he rewrneti and with his wife, Jane.founded
Community Services, Inc., a "think tank" and
resource tenter for comnuu,iry living i11 ntral
area.r.
Commiuzin· Services can be contacted tlt
Box 243; Ye/lo"; Springs, OH 4538i.,
Drawinc by Rab Meuidl:
Sprtn<J, 1991
�The Village
by Snow Bear
Tlze village lzums witlz activity, all
cenJeri11g on providing for the basic luunan and
material needs of ics inhabitants ...
A circle ofartisans, including some
childreri. sit coiling. molding, and pressing wee
gray clay into fonns offunction and beauty that
wiff later be tempered in the open fire.
Others skin and butcher the carcass of a
you11g whitetail doe that han9s from a
chokecherry, using flakes offlint picked up by
the lodge where theflintknappers sit. The
rhythmic clacking ofthe toolmakers'
Juunmerstones striking theflilll cores is as
soothing as distant drums.
In the warmth of the spring sun, deer
hides are being scraped, rubbed with mashed
brains, stretched, pulled, and then smoked over
smoldering fires until ,heir traTLeformation imo a
soft, srrong fabric is complete. Skilled hands
thenfashio11 the buckskin into moccasins and
shirts. The remnants go into the making of
po11clzes and lacing. emphasizing the
preciousness of every scrap ofthe deer's skin
a11d every moment ofthe labor that cransfom1ed
it.
One man sits spinning a carrail stalk
between his pabns,pressing it downward into
the yucca stalkfireboard a11chored beneath /us
feet. Smoke curfs II{) in a thin plume. and in a
surprisingly slwrt time, he tenderly places a
small glowing coal 011to the cauail down and
cedarbark tinder. His breath brings the glow into
flame, and a group of young men begin working
with this gift offire, /,eating and s1raigl11e11ing
rivercane into bfowg1111s. Older, patient, steady
hands fletch yellow locust darr slzafcs with
thistledown.
Nearby, a wizened grandmother, with
uncanny deftness, peels and splits riverca11efor
her double-weave basket. She internvines splits
briglzcened with the orange juice ofbloodroot
with contrasting lengths dyed dark brown with
walnut bark.
looking up, the old woman smiles at the
children pounding dark red dent corn imo meal.
They use a hickory log that has been burned and
scraped inro a 11wrcar and a hickory sapling char
has been stripped and scrapt•d into a pestle.
At the cooking fire, a growrdlwg is
smjfcd with cornbread dough. wild ginger, and
peppcroot, wrapped in wet clay 011d covered
with hot coals to bake with cornbread ashcakes.
SpriWJ, 199 I
The cooks drop hot rocks into a rawhide pot
hanging from a tripod to bail a ve11iso11 stew
comaini11g wild leeks, choran greens, and
solomon seal tubers.
In the wooded coves above the
riverbonom village, a small, quiet scouri11g parry
lopes along at wolf-trot, sca11ning the
mo11nrai11sides for the gifts of namre 1h01 supply
their people with food, medicille, and row
mmerials that defi11e a cult11re. The J,erbman wlw
leads the scowing party scops, drops t0 the
ground, looks up to the sky, and makes a prayer
to ack11owledge with thanks the awesome forces
that have united to bring healing and sustenance
u, the people. He ties together a twist of tobacco
and a lock of his own hair 1h01 he mighr make a
gift ro the world, before his people gather
anything on this journey.
The scours res11me their wolf-trot, but
stop to examine every discernible sign. the
mushrooms that have bee11 nibbled by whitefoot
mouse and box wrrle; the core of a white pi,re
cone that has been neatly stripped ofits scales
and seeds by a gray squirrel; the greenbrier
shoocs browsed by a whitetail buck; rhe
meucufously picked a11d stacked crayfish shells
011 the rock next to the deep raccoon hind-tracks
in the creek.sand.
This is a world 10 be see11, heard,
u,uched, and smelled, a gift ofthe Earth Mother
and the Spirit-/11.-All-Things. To move through it
any other way seems 1mgratef11l. The scowing
parry remrns laden with the Mother's bo1mcy:
poplar bark to be twined imo cordoge; pitch
scraped from wounded pines/or a waterproof
glue made with powdered charcoal; resinous
pine/or starting fires in wet weather; cucwnber
root, solomon's seal, and bluff mustard,
sassafras, ginger, and sweet birch: a deer skull
and mrkey feathers - bur above all, kMwledge.
Knowledge of where to/ind the freshest spring
water, where the deer have been bedding down,
wlzere the turkeys have bee11 scratching and
roosting, where the large rro,u gather under
boulders in deep, shimmering pools.
Knowledge: that the people may live ...
This picture of village life is not, as it
might seem, ancient history. These were scenes
from the daily life of the Riverc;ine Rendezvous
held at Unicoi State Park in I lelen, Georgia in
April, 1990. This rendezvous was an outgrowth
Drawing b)- Manha Tree
of the Eanhskills Workshops held in
the same riverbonom meadow each
spring and fall for the last six years.
Darry Wood, Bob Slack, Jr., and
myself have had the privilege of hosting
and instructing these workshops with the help of
talented, accomplished guest insiructo!'1>. The
The 1990 Rendezvous, however, brought
together over 15 instructors and almost 50
participanis, many of whom we have i;r!!V.1l 10
know closely over the years.
One shared perception is that these
gatherings are much more than an educational
event. The skills shared there are of the eye and
hand, but just as imponantly, of the mind and
hean: knowledge and intuiriveness
complemented by patience and detennination, a
feeling of harmony with the things we shape,
and a vision of beauty, all blended into a
balanced whole. Some aspects of che sacred
work accomplished there can be described and
communicated; some of what happens there
must be felt and experienced. One becomes pan
of a small, temporary village, but in another
sense, we become part of a more pennanent
village of the ancients of all cultures, who lived
by these ways for thousands of years.
These skills can be used 10 create a
sustainable economy at iis purest - a wealth that
will last as long as the natural world lasts, as
long as the village is sensitive 10 the rhythm and
flow of the life of the land.
A nature-based economy knows both
bounty and shonage, but nature rarely produces
true poveny. Blue tongue disease may cause a
decline in the deer population, but the wild
turkey, also feeding on white oak acorns, will
probably increase. A decline in hard mast can
reduce the number of deer, bear, and turkey, bUl
the trout and beaver will probably be unaffected.
Of course, human beings arc capable of bringing
it all 10 an end; but there is a tremendous feeling
of security in knowing tha1 when the oil runs
om, when the money-ba.--ed economy collapses
of its own weight. one possesses Lhe knowledge
10 create and sustain a rich life, full of beauty
and bounty. The essence of this life, the element
that makes it fulfilling. is the village: people of
(IXll\linuod.., pai;e 12)
'.Kattmh Journal pn9c 11
�(cootinucd from page 11)
like mind gathering to pursue common
endeavors within the comforting
security of nature.
People return 10 the Eanhskills
gatherings as much for the village
experience as for the potential to
increase their knowledge. It is a basic
human need often denied by our
individualistic, companmentalized
society. In the village created by the
EanhskiUs gatherings. we Ullce
responsibility for creating our own
material culture, music, an, stories and
legends. rather than having i1 spoon-fed
10 us by an industrial society that
refuses 10 base itself on respect for the
One Great Life. In doing so, our minds,
hearts, and spirits grow stronger. I
know of no one who has not been
touched by the plaintive cry of the
Lakota flute in the pre-&.wn mist; no
one who is not deeply enriched by the
stories absorbed while gazing into the
hean of the campfire; no one whose
heart does not know a pure joy when
they have worked the magic of calling
fire from the bow and drill. As one
whose life is controlled by the pursuit
of money, my return to this (and other)
villages is always revivifying; it feels
like I reclaim, for a shon rime, my true
place in this world.
As h~mankind develops. this will
come: a life in which our "economic"
pursuits wi.11 not deny our need for
communal contact, spiritual growth.
cultural stimulation, and artistic
endeavor.
Snow Bear is an herbalist,
n.awralist, eanhskills instructor, and
storyrcller. He is a staffteam supervisor
at tlze 0111ckxJr Tlu:rapeutic Program i11
C/e-.,eland, Georgia and co-director with
his ll'ifc Khalisa of the Pepper/and
Fann Camp.
Snow Bear can be comacted by
writing c/o Pepper/and Farm Camp; Rt.
4, Box 255-8; Murphy, NC 28906 or
calling (7{},1)494-2353.
The 1991 RnvcOM Rentfewo11s will
rake pl&e on April 16-21121 Vnu:r)I Suue Parle,
/Iden. Georgia. Pre-rcgwr=n isSl.15 and
includes campzng, instrucrion. ond two meals
per day. Chew urt PtJy,able lQ "Earrhskills
ll'orJ:sl:op." For more informmion, call or
wriu:: Bob Sloe.Ir.. Jr.: Unicoi Sratc Par.Ir.: Box
1029; lfeltn, GA 30J45 (4()4) 878-220/
(£.rt , 282).
Insrructor Darry Wood with Eva Bigwirch
"through dreams,
through magic"
she says !ihe can fly. says she can fly
feathen; and wings. bones and Lhings,
says she can fly
she says lhe eanh feels like her body
sky feels like her home
she moves out over the water
but she always goes alone
says she can fly, yeah she says she can fly
feathers and wings, bones and things
lisLen to the songs that the spirits sing
she says she can fly
well once I knew a woman
now she's more than that
she flies up lo 1he scm at night
but she keeps on coming back
i;he says she can fly, says she can fly
bones and wings, feathers and lhingr.,
listen to the songs that the spirits sing
the ~now owl guides her journey
and the hawk knows where she goes
the eagle gives her life and light
but she travels with the crows
oh she says she can fly, says she can fly
feathers and wings, bones and things
listen to the song that the dark bird ~ings
feathers and wings. bones and things.
listen to the song that the spirit sings,
the spirit sings
"-atuals Journot J'"'J0 1:i
poems by Gary Lawless
drawing by Stephen Petroff
they read their stories in our bones,
heated by flame, cracks, sharp ridges,
fingers tracing futures etched by fire.
we carry your life in our blood, the p~se of
story begins in our marrow, a deep, nch red.
you read its traces in our bones.
hands in the fire:
"for the marrow is known to be
the dwelling place of souls"
when they wish to find us
they call to us in their dreams.
we answer them through bone, through fire.
(from "Ice Tattoo•)
When the animals come to us,
asking for our help.
.
will we know what they are saymg?
When the plants speak to us
in their delicate, beautiful language,
will we be able to answer them?
When the planet herself
sings to us in our dreams,
will we be able to wake ourselves, and act?
Por:ms and drawing from the book FITTI Sight of
Land by Gary Law/us, published /9')() by 8/aclt.btrr,
Boou. Aw1ilablefor $7.50 plus shippmgfrom the
publishtr at: RJl. I, Box 228; Nobleboro. ME; Gulfof
Maint Bioregion 04555
6prln(J: 1991
�FOOD MOVERS:
Ron Ainspan and Mountain Food Products
not show up in time. Theo, although a company
may be doing a great business, at the same time
it's bouncing checks all over the place or it's
running out of funds 10 do what needs to be
done. It's in trouble
I like being small. We've sacrificed some
of the closeness that we had. Personally I think
that it makes sense 10 grow slowly, so we can
maintain the kind or environment in which people
can keep a connection with each other. We hold
staff meetings every week to involve all the
employees in the operation of the business, 10
talk about personal relationships · whatever
comes up. It's like a family; we have our
quarrels, and we try to work stuff out, either at
staff meetings or in smaller personal talks in the
course of the day's work.
For years local food growers have said that
the lack of a developed market for organic and
locally-grown produce was holding back
alrerflQ/ive agricu/mrefrom raking itS riglefu/
place in our regional economy.
Ron Ainspan was one of those growers.
Seeing the problem clearly, he built a local food
distriblllion network thaJ now stands ready 10
meet the needs of those w/w produce and those
who wish to buy wlwlesome and m11ri1io11s
nwumain-grownfruit and vegetables.
The Mow11ain Foods plan is now nwving
into its second stage. With rite network secure,
Ron is now actively helping growers to organize
and to produce the food thaJ will fill the niche the
Mouruain Food Products Company has created.
Ron is an enabler. He is one who can bring
a vision inro physical manifestation. This calling
requires special skills.· patience, dedication, a
genius/or strategic maneuvering, and a clear
sense of purpose. And, as Ron re/ls us in the
following interview, those who set out to realize
their dream must walk the narrow tightrope of
inregril)' . keeping their principles while creating
a vessel that will stay a/u)OJ in the currents of
physical reality.
Katuah: Can workers participate financially
in the company?
Ron Ainspan: We started a profiL-sharing
plan that we made up ourselves. People get a
check every three months based on how the
company is doing, and on how much they work.
Full-time workers are eligible to receive a
half-share six months after they start and a full
share after a year. Part-time workers are eligible
for a half-share after their first year. It is an
incentive for people to stick around.
Kat(Ulh How did you get the idea that
being a food distributor was a meaningful avenue
for social change?
Ron Alnspan: I've been involved in
encouraging the local agricultural market for quite
awhile. During the early '80's 1 was growing
produce to sell 10 local markets, and during that
time, I helped to set up the Tailgate Market in
Asheville, which is a growers' market now
locared on Merrimon Avenue.
It was in 1984 when a small group of local
producer:; called some meetings, and we talked
about the idea of working toge1her to distribu1e
our producL\ • bakery goods, sprou1s, tofu, and
produce. l "as finishing my gardening for the
season. so I staned 10 coordinate the whole thing
and began deliveries. Mounta.in food Products
hns been doing it ever since, although now we
focus on produce almost exclusively.
After we had been going for two or three
months. I met a woman who was working in
produce at The Fresh Market, Debbie Thomas.
We became a pannership, and stancd LO contacr
restaurants and some grocery stores 10 notify
them that we were distributing produce. The
business really took off, and we have become a
good-:;ized purveyor of produce, selling
primarily 10 restaurants, but also to some retail
stores.
Karuah : How big is the company'!
Ron Ainspan: We have 16 or 17 people
and five trucks. We sell wholesale only, making
deliveries 10 Asheville, Hendersonville, and as
far west as Bryson City. Only one truck is
refrigerated; the rest are small delivery vehicles,
from Mandard cargo vans up 10 pa.reel-type
trucks.
We do a lot of shon routes. We shuttle
food in and out of here from 6 or 6:30 in the
morning to four o'clock in the afternoon. The
little intersection out~ide the office is a traffic jam
in the mornings · with people rushing back and
forth with pallet jacks and hand ltllCkli for several
Sptit1CJ, 19!.lt
Phoco by Rodney Webb
hours. It's a scene of half-organized
confusion ...trucks going out and coming
in ... people pulling food out of the coolers.
Panicularly during the summer season, it's a
constant hustle to get the food out to the people
the way they want it. when they wan, 11. But it's
fun.
Kattiali: How many coolers are there?
Ron Ainspan: We've got two walk-in
coolers. One is 12 feet by 30 feet. and the other is
a couple of feet longer, nnd then we have dry
storage space in the rooms. We're going 10 have
10 expand the smaller cooler. tx.-causc we've been
busring the scams out ofit this year. We have had
10 buy at least one vehicle every year and do
some kind of cooler e:,.pansion every other year
since we ~tarted. It doesn't seem 10 stop.
I would like ii if our rate of growth did
slow down. If a company grows too big 100 fast,
then it has 10 incorporate systematized
relationships 10 maintain standards of quality and
10 keep clear accountability for evcl)•body's
activities. It begins to involve very bureaucratic
systems, and everybody become:. subject 10 rules
that don't make sense to anybody except the
people at the lOp. everybody else becomes a
puppet 10 to the rules.
But if a company growl> slowly. and tries,
as we've tried 10 do, 10 involve everybody in a lot
of the aspects of the business, then people can
maintain a connection 10 the whole operation,
even as it changes.
Kau,ah : The finance~ change 100. don't
they?
Ron Ainspan: Yes. Under condi1ions of
fasL-paccd growth iL':. easy Lo run up large bills
for receivables, and the necessary cash just may
K01t'loli: How is all this helping 10 build
markets for locally-grown food?
Ron Ainspan: My concept. even as we
were growing, has been 10 provide a reliable
supply 10 the customers. Because l supply the
market all year round, we are keeping a market
open for the local produce when it comes in. That
gets us outside the regional economy 10 some
extent. because to keep up a consistent supply we
have 10 make runs 10 Atlanta. There we buy
produce that comes in from everywhere, but we
also take mountain-grown bibb lettuce, shiit.'.lke
mushrooms, sprouts, and produce in season to
be sold in the city. It'~ a two-way exchange, but
overall it works out well for the local growers,
because, locally or in the city, we are always
ttying 10 move local produce.
We've been able 10 be useful to local
growers as an outlet. There arc s1x or seven
people that we deal with all the time, some of
them year-round because more people: arc getting
into greenhouse production. Two regional
growers arc cultivating hydroponic bibb lenucc,
and Ed Mills of Sunshine Makers Sprouts in
Fairview is producing organically-grown alfalfa
and mung bean sprouts.
A basic operating principle of our company
is 10 buy our stock locally whenever we can. Our
original goals when we siarted Mountain Food
Products were to suppon the local economy, to
encourage small-scale production, and to keep
things on a pen;onal level. We still keep that
commiunent.
Kat1iah: Do you emphasize organically
produced food?
Ron Ainspan: We are just getting strong
enough 10 move into that. As I said, our first
priority was moving local produce. We learned
that in order to be effective in doing that, we hod
(eontinll<d on next 114ge)
Xntilnfi Jburnn(, r1QCJIS 1
3
�(c:auinu<:d fninl page 13)
to provide produce of top quality all year. As we
built that capability, helping the local growers
actually diminished in imponance, because we
were growing so fa~1 overall. Now we sell to
over 100 different accounts, and we have enough
rumover that we can mke the time and the energy
10 seek out local growers. Now we can
confidently say, "Grow food for us and we can
sell it." We can help people ge1 going.
It's puuing 1he two together: !hose who
need the food, and those who have it
Righi now we aze helping to organize a
cooperative of local organic growers. A group of
six to 1en local growers from the area around
Asheville is meeting every iwo weeks.
Mountain Food Products bas been able to
sell all the produce that has been offered to us by
the local growers we aze working with, but we
have not been able to sell ii as "organic produce."
We have often bad 10 mix it with conventionallygrown produce and sell u at the same price. So
we are banding together 10 promote the organic
concept and reach out more to the remil market.
We are offering supermarkets a package deal
~hereby, if we can get a small "organic" section
m the produce department, we will stock it and
promote it ourselves by pmting up signs and
making a lot of personal connections. We have
seen some interest in this among the local chain
stores.
Initially the co-op is going to work through
Mountain Food Products. I don't know what will
work best in the long run, but right now we can
offer !he trucks and the cooler space.
For the last two years - especially since the
Alar scare - more organic produce has become
available. More people are handling it, and more
people are asking for it, so we have been able to
carry it. We can get supplies reliably and we have
customers who want it
We can now support organics in the same
way that we suppon conventional local produce.
q,as.c; productio~ that-it'$ difficuh_ to compete as a ,...
small gro~er with most oflhe things that_ arc
grown: Its largely a qu~snon. of economies of
scale: if you can sys1em1ze th10gs, you can
produce them more cheaply. It's not as human a
syscem. because it forces people to do very
routine, monotonous jobs without much say-so
about what they're doing, and not much control
over their working conditions. And with
transportation being fairly cheap, a company C30
economically move a product great distances
from one place to another.
There's another reason, too. As the whole
system has gonen more centralized. it has become
harder 10 break into the distribution chain.
Kan1ah: What do you think needs to
happen to get the local market going?
Ron Ainspan: It's an on-going process of
making people aware of the importance of
keeping it close 10 home. Mass media advcnising
barrages and other market forces tend to make
people expect a product that is mass-marketed It
could be anything - from Big Macs 10 cars to
electronics.
I was talking to some people about the idea
of opening a "brew pub" here, a place that
actually brews its own beers. But a venture like
that would have 10 buck Michelob and Coors and
companies of that size.
Another of those market forces is access 10
capital - somethings take a lot of money to get
started. That's certainly another aspect that tends
to propel large-scale operations, operations that
make a product one place and distribute it
everywhere.
r think that the advantages of keeping
Kamah: It sounds like the whole time
you've been building the company, you've been
thinking of developing a regional agriculture.
Ron Ainspan: My guiding philosophy has
a lot 10 do with keeping things local and
maintaining personal relationships. I don't like
the coipOrate mentality and standardi7.ed ways of
doing things. Individual initiative is very
important, and that's something that in many
cases is threatened by the way the economy
functions.
The corporate mentality is lifeless. People
need to be alive and thinking. Then, even if they
screw up, at least they're trying and putting
themselves into what they arc doing. That has
always been important to me.
Ka11wh: Why do you think that there are
not more people growing food for sale?
Ron Ainspan: It's a lot of work and n fairly
low pay-off. So much of farming is large-scale
,c.aiuah Journal plUJc 14
Kar(tah: What are some of the reasons that
local production is advantageo\lS?
Ron Ainspan: To me the most important
thing is having a personal connection 10 what }'Ou
do jn your dnily life. Too many people just put in
their work hours so that they can play when they
are not working. Our work-life is the biggest pan
of our life, and we should do something that's
innately satisfying. We need 10 be able to give
our own personal input, to put our own personal
stamp on what we do. I think that's really the
thing.
There is also the whole question of some
geographic areas taking advantage of others, and
the dollars that are lost from a local area. If your
beer is coming from Colorado, 1hen your beer
dollars are going to Colorado. 1f your produce is
coming from western Nonh Carolina, then your
money is being kepi in the local economy.
That kind of concept is in contrast to the
prevailing "trickle-down" concept that says it's
efficient to produce on a large scale somewhere
far away and distribute over a wide area, and the
wealth that is created from doing that will
evenrually work its way down to everybody.
That kind of system creates an imbalance between
the people who are very wealthy and the people
who get just a triclcle.
Karualr: The reason we are able to dunk
and act that way is because of our tremendous
(continued Cll'I page 30)
POEMS
by Jim Clark
Katuah: Secure that market and then plug
in the local goods.
Ron Ainspan: However, the growth
potential for local production is still greater than
the growth potential of the local market There's
the possibility of growing more produce in
western North Carolina than the market could
handle, at least right now.
thing! focal, small, andpel'sonal nud"to bet''~._
continually put in front of the public. People tend
to go along with whatever the trend or the lates1
marketing campaign is.
LIGHTS
i
This is the body's land at home here
or nowhere.
Through deep-welled air
the magne1 moon
orients the singing
skin's cardinal points.
ii
In cedar hung silence,
through camp smoke and wave lap,
shards of stunned brighmess
speak
a language of light
iii
As from a great distance
patterns are seen
to shiver
suddenly into focus,
so these lights
flashing at the body's perimeter
connect
and in the vibmting darkness
chart our every step.
MOUNTAIN WALKING SONGS
i
Always the ancient air
finds its home in our lungs
and goes on
ii
AJways our feet
move lightly
over the charged ea.nh
iii
Always we are walking
in the mountains
singing
Spri.n9, 1991
�Going about the Business
of Building a Regional Economy
These are profiles. shorr sketches of what
some people are doing and how they are dcing it.
These are only aJew examples showing different
facets of a possible regional economy. Many
other enterprises and projects have appeared in
the pages ofKa1uah Journal, in both the ads and
the feature sections - parricular/y in issue #7, the
first time the jo1unal touched specifically on the
question of a regional eco,wmy
COUNTRY WORKSHOPS
(Drew Langsner)
90 Mill Creek Rd
Marshall, NC 28753
(704) 656-2280
When I.hey first bought their farm in the
nonheas1em c?mer of Madison County in 1974,
Drew and LoU1Se Langsner hope.cl 10 make their
living close to the land, doing the things I.hat they
loved. Foremost among these were farming and
woodworking.
The couple was already well-versed in
traditional woodworking and other folk skills
largely as a result of a trip to Europe taken during
the early 1970's. However, they spent "four lean
years" of minimum wage work interspersed with
some magazine writing and some craft projcccs as
they gradually figured out how to put their skills
10 work.
In 1978 Drew and Louise hi l on the idea of
a woodcrafts school called Country Workshops.
The school would offer students seven-day
courses on the Langsner fann to teach some of
the skills Drew and Louise had garnered in their
travels and studies. The Langsners saw the
school as a way 10 earn income by sharing skills
they knew well and loved 10 practice.
With $500 of their personal cash, Drew
and Louise set up the first session of Country
Workshops. Enough people attended 10
encourage them 10 continue the idea, and the
workshops have happened every summer since.
It was mostly love of the work and a belief in the
potential of the idea that kept the Langsners at it
for the first years. "Only recently," said Drew,
"have the ~eip½~ shown anything appro,dmating
even a pan-nme mcome."
To round out support for their famHy,
~rew farms, producing cows and hay, and sells
his excellent ladderback and Windsor chairs on
order. The fann emphasizes Red Devon cows an
historical breed that came over 10 Plymouth with
some of the first white seulers from England.
Sprl.ng, 1991
The businesses presented here must be
viewed from two perspectives: the economy as it
is now, and the economy as it could be.for tliese
are businesses that are working within borh of
these contextS simultaneously. They are working
enterprises within 01u present economic sen'{),
b111 they are also the inspiration and the
infrasrrucnue for a new, mtJre appropriate
economy - although in some cases the operators
miglu deny that as their intent.
To fwiction within 01u present economic
system requires compromise, and the businesses
presented are evaluated honestly in terms of
Louise grows excellent vegetables in her gardens
and prepares them for their guests during the
workshop season. They are also occasional
authors. Together they wrote a book on European
craftwork, and Drew has also written three
instructional books: A logbuilder's llandbook.
Country Woodcraft, and Green Woodworking,
all well-known and well- respected in their fields.
"We're not even close to middle class,"
sars D~w, "but we've moved away from being
poised nght on the edge. Our car died a few
months ago, and I was able 10 purchase a used
car without it being the major crisis it once would
have been."
At first the workshops taught only two
courses: Scandinavian woodcarving with old
hand tools, and log cabin building. Now the
curriculum also includes Swiss coopering,
Japanese woodworking, ladderback and Windsor
chair-mnking, and basketry. Drew at first spent
muc~ ?f th~ time teaching, but recently
~dm1m~trauve tasks have been occupying an
mcreasmg percentage of his time. "Wilh seven 10
twelve people here and the needs of the students
and teachers to attend 10. it wa,; difficult and
sometim~ impossibl<:; 10 see to everything while I
was teaching as well Drew also allows up to
two students to live with their family for extended
winter tutoriaV apprenriccship programs.
The students sleep in a building on the
property and Louise prepares meals for all. "The
food is excellent, but the sleeping arrangements
are still somewhat primitive," says Drew. "Still
only a few people have minded at all."
"While we don't teach saictly Appalachian
crafts per se, I think the surroundings here are
imponant to the people and contribute a lot to
their appreciation of the experience. Many of the
people who take the courses are folks who get a
two-week vacation each year and decide 10 spend
one _w~ek of it here at a workshop. That is very
gra11fy1ng to me.
"People get more out of the experience than
just 1he skills of woodworlcing. Students write
back to say that they have learned something here
ecological a11d economic impact and
s1istain.abiliry. Their collective experience is a
report card, indicating ro /IS as a region how we
are doing at this business ofb[tilding a
land-based economy. Admiuedly, we have a long
way1ogo
Bw rhe most impanant message rha1 these
people and these projects bring UJ u.r is that there
are things we can do, tlllll we can begin now,
even if conditio,rs are not perfect, even if rite deck
is stacked against 11s in the shon nm.
Profiles compl/i,d by
Ernest Womlck and Millie Sundstrom
about what is imponant to them."
The same might be said of Drew and
Louise, two talented people who are clear about
the life they wane and have found a way to live it
Their fann and their skills are important to them.
Rather tlJaP. move;c;>.the urban marj(!!IP!ace to.sci.~ ~
ineir ~k.ills foi: me higltest price, th~y Jiav• found>n.e:>
a way to balance their abilities to provide a
satisfying life in the countryside.
BRIGHT HORIZONS,
BRIGHT MOUNTAIN BOOKS
(Eric and Cynthia Bright)
138 Springside Rd
Fairview, NC 28730
Bright Mountain Books is a publishing
house specializing in Appalachio.n regional
material. Bright Horizons is a regional book
distributor. Boch companies arc the creations and
the present passion of Eric and Cynthia Bright
Says Eric Bright, "We wanted to strut a
publishing company. but to publish books you
have to sell them, so we first began distributing
books 10 make a marketing network."
Today their first ambition is still largely
unfulfilled. Most of I.heir business and most of
their income still comes from book distribution
sa!e~. Bri~ht Mountain Books has published four
onginal ntles, however: Keep 'Em loughing by
Bob Terrell, Disorder in the C()llrt by Bob Terrell
and Marcellus Buchanan, Two on the Square by
Bob Moore, and Poper Mansions by Bob
PadgeR They have also reprinted other works
that were out of print and would have been lost,
like Moun1ai11 SpiritS and More Mountain Spirils,
well-read books about the Appalachian
moonshining culture.
The couple has jusc invesccd in new
computer equipment and a laser printer that will
be reserved strictly for publishing work. They
hope that the new tools will launch them more
deeply into the publishing side of their business.
Or.win& by Rob Missick
(conlirwed on pege 16)
Xatl'.mh Journat PCMJC 15
�(CCII\UIIUOd &om page IS)
•
create our own markeL We've done that.
'There has been a ground swell in interest
Bright Horizons is highly successful. The
in herbaceous native plants. The interest
company sold one-third more books in 1990 than
continues t0 grow, and we arc optimistic, but I
it had any other year in the pasL !he o'Yncrs,
suppose I should have done a ~arket ~e)'. I
while feeling that their comp~y lS malcing a
would have sought outside capital and Just bitten
contribution to the understanding and
.
the bullcL
appreciation of the Appalac~s and. Appalachian
~we can see clearly in hind.sight that we
culture, see some weaknesses tn their sue~.
"We are very dependent on the tounst ll'ade should have been harder-nosed businesspeople
initially. If I could start over again, l would
righi now," says Eric. "That means that we have
educate myself to good business practices
to malce concessions to the demands of the
beforehand, because that end of the operation is
market and offer some books that we may not
not anractive to either Meredith or me, yet we
particuiarty like, but which are good sellers and
can't avoid iL I would say that we are right now
are important to our retail store customers. .
"I saw a book called White Trash Coobng, making the tranSition from be~g dedica~ed
hobbyists to becoming professional busmess
and my first reaction was that I didn't want t?
people."
carry that book at all, but customers kept calling
The two are confirmed plant-lovers, and
and asking for it. and so finally I gave in and put
they started their business from a desire tO spend
it in stock. We sold 2,000 copies in the firstfour
time doing what they love to.do the most ~oth
months it was available."
are knowledgeable about nanve plants. Ed ts a
Are they living well? "No," they say. "We
professor of botany at the University of
haven't had a family vacation in ten years. We
Tennessee at Knoxville. It is hard 10 imagine two
haven't made our material goals, but we feel we
people more qualified for this work, yet Ed says.
a.re following out our p!an, and we ar~ firmly
"if we were dependent on the business for our
committed to the direcuon we are taking.
livelihood, we would be in the poor house. . .
"When we get our daughters through
We're going 10 give it a few more years, and if ll
college, we will think more about our own
doesn't become more profitable, we probably
lifestyle."
will get om of it."
They see the greatest problem wi~ ~cir
Some of the plants growing in the Native
work being that they spend much of !hCU' nme .
doing mundane chores that they don ~ n~e~y Gardens have commercial uses as herbal
medicines or botanicals. Ed would like 10 develop
enjoy, but which are necessary to maintaining
that trade because botanicals are growing in
their business at this stage. They are, however!
popularity and commerc!al harvesting in the _
wild
satisfied with their present progress toward their
would put 100 much stra.tn on the plant spec1es,
goals.
many of which are endemic or rare.
"I don't subscribe to the idea that
"Producing botanicals probably has greater
companies have to necessarily grow and grow
potential than the straight production of , . .
and grow," says Eric. "When a company gets to
wildflowers for gardening,'' Ed figures. This lS
a manageable siz.e !hat fulfills the needs of the
already a big business in the Southern_
owners, then it is quite alright t0 ease off and
Appalachians, but it is not developed m the way
maintain it at that level."
that it could be. As it stands now, a few large
And the Brights agree c~mpletely ah?ut
companies pretty much control the market. They
one thing: "People have to rcaliz.c that i:unnmg a
contt0l the price, they control w~at_ they buy: and
business takes l 50% of your efforL It is a very
the guy out there on the mounl8lns1de doesn t
demanding task."
have any choice."
Ed and Meredith are conscientious in their
work. They started out with ~ highest stan~ds
of purity. Now they use pesuc1des and fungicides
"only if we have to, or if there are legal
requirementS for them." That was another le~on
learned. "If somebody is going to g~t into this
business and thinks that they are going 10 totally
avoid chemical pesticides, they're naive," says
NATIVE GARDENS
(Meredith Bradford-Clcbsch and Ed Clebsch)
Ed.
. d al.i.n
There are other issues of concern in e g
Rt. 1, Box 494
with native plants.
Greenback.TN 37742
"We ask questions about whether the
plants we buy have been propaga~ed in th~
Native Gardens, the creation of Ed and
nursery or if they have been du~ in the w)ld. For
Meredith Bradford-Qebsch, offers herbaceous
the first four years of our operauon, we simply
plantS almost entirely of native varieties and all
didn't deal in materials that were dug from the
propagated from seed and cunings, for wholesale wild. Lately we have bought rescued plants from
and retail sale. Most of the plants are sold m
situations where their destruction is absolutely
containers, although they sell some field pl~ntS 10 certain. But we are not yet at a point where we
landscape architects. Much ~f the company s
would tum around and sell those materials
business is mail orders obtamed through
directly. We use them for propagation pufJ>?SCS.
Meredith's tastefully-designed catalog. .
"I am also concerned that we are creanng a
Personnel consists of Ed and Mered1th an~ considerable mixing of genetic material, because
two part-rime helpers and another worker, who lS we often buy plants from other pl~es '.111d grow
full-time except for the winter months.
them out 10 maturity for sale. The dilunng of
Ed and Meredith started Native Gardens
genetic purity is something that ~onccrns 11s, and
with their own money.
we think it will become an issue m the next
"If we had paid for a pre-opening market
decade."
survey, we never would have opened," said Ed.
Ed urges people not to be idealistic when
"We inruitively knew that we were on the
staning a business.
, .
beginning of what we were confident was a
"We run into people who say, fd like to
rising trend, but we knew that we would have to
do that. It looks like so much fun.' It is, if you
Xatuah Journ.at pCMJe 16
..
are willing to work 16-18 hours per ~Y"The market is there. I wouldn t
discourage anyone from getting started, but I
would encourage them 10 go into it with their
eyes open. It is an enormous amount of work,
and it takes some knowledge up fronL The .
starry-eyed ideal of growing plants and having
them sell themselves automatically is not true. If a
person has that idea, then they would do better
not to get into the business at all."
FRENCH BROAD FOOD CO-OP
(Barb Acker)
90 Biltmore Ave.
Asheville, NC 28801
The French Broad Food Co-op. the
member-owned food co-op in Asheville, NC has
made a move - a big move. Not just from ~cold
cramped quaners in the Old Chesterfield Mill on
West Haywood Street to a new address on
Biltmore Avenue, but a shift in policy that
involved borrowing $100,000 to change their
location and to expand the store, so the co-op
could serve the general public as well as the
co-op membership.
The co-op is run by a 7-person board of
directors elected by the membership at an annual
membership meeting. The board hires the store
manager and it was the board that decided to
undenak~ the $100,000 debL To raise that
capital $42 000 was borrowed from individual
mem~rs a~d another $60,000 was obtained
through the Self-Help Credit Union.
Barb Acker is the co-op manager, in charge
of supervising the day~t<Hlay OJ?Cration o~ the
store and its four full-ume and CJght pan-tune
staff people. She is encouraged by the response
to the move and feels it has revitalized the co-op.
'We are in the mainstream financial market
right now, deeply in debt., but. we fel~ that it was
necessary in order to make this leap in growth.
We are finding it to be money well-spent, and we
arc starting to pay back the loans on schedule."
"For the five years prior to November,
1990 while we were at the Chesterfield Mill, we
had a'bout 800 people from 400 families who
sustained the business. In the two and one-half
months since we've moved, our membership
base has increased to 1200."
Co-ops are different than most o~cr •
economic instirutions in that their goal 1s SCMCC
mher than profiL Co-ops depend heavily on
volunteer help; they keep a small rnar&;in of
overhead with which to run the operanon, but
they are not in the business of accumulating
wealth or making anyone rich. Co-ops generally
define their goals in terms of filling basic needs,
rather than using people's needs to reap pe!Sonal
and material benefits. Some co-ops see their
purpose as simply providing a cenain product,
but there are others that see themselves as pan of
an oo-going, overall social change.
The French Broad Food Co-op sees itself
as having a role in the changes ~at are happening
in the Asheville area and the region. Barb,
speaking of the grour 's long-range goals,
pointed out that "a trade magazine caJJ;d
.
Cooperarive Grocer ran a quote back m the spnng
Sprt.nq, 1991
�i~) l._ 't ' Jlt) :i :11 '"\) I
~ O I
t \~ If "' ..•ll
of 1990 that impressed me. (t reads, 'Food
co-ops n~ to be quality, profitable groceries,
but also pan of a larger social transformation.•
"1 think that's the essence of the
cooperative movement and also of the French
Broad Food Co-:op. Socilll change is very much a
p:ut of the C(),,()p's n1essnge in that we arc trying
to bring something different to people that is
better for all of us, beuer for the whole."
The co-op's first task is providing quality
food, but living in this world means making
choices and finding a workable balance. Barb
says, "We are providing the best physical
nourishment that we can in the food products we
offer, and we try 10 make equitable choices on
everything we buy to make sure that they have
the least environmental impact possible.
However, 95% of the food lhat we sell comes in
from outside the region.
"Produce is one area where we might be
able to change that Produce is 16% of our total
stock. Most of that presently comes from outside
the region. But it is a high priority for the co-op
to suppon local farmers, and we are now talking
with farmers to help them plan whar they plant
for the next growing season, knowing that the
co-op now is a much bigger market for them.
"We definitely do encourage our buyers to
buy locally whenever they can, but the reality of
the situation is that very little of our food is
locally-produced at this point. You just can't get
cashews from the Appalachians. One of the
realities of food distribution is 1ha1 it is
world-wide, and we have to provide what people
are u$ed to getting if we are going to stay in
business. We realize that shipping food all across
the world has a major environmental impact. But
I suppose things have to be W(;ighed in the .,
balance, and we see oun;elvcs as trying to 1
educate more people as to how they can eat bener
for less money."
The emphasis on eduC.'.lcion is another
imponant way that co-op members see their
business taking pan in social change. According
to Barb, "the next step we have to take, now that
we are settled down in our new loca1ion, and the
dust is settling from the transition, is that we have
to stan education right away. Folks are coming in
and saying. 'I want to switch from eating so
much meat, but I don't know what to do with this
tofu sruff.'
"People are more interested in eating food
that hasn't been poisoned. Even chain
supermarkets arc s1aning to carry organic food,
and it's making an impact on the everyday
person's consciousne.~s. We arc staning co see
that what we eat makes a difference in how we
feel, and how that makes a difference in the
health of the community and the health of the
world as a result People are wanting to cat
bener, and realizing tha1 eating good food fuels
the body much better."
"If we can't help people make that
transition, we aren't going to be here very long.
But the co-op staff people are qui1e ready 10 help
with that. They have been doing this work for the
last 15 years, and now they have a better
opportunity lo help 1he public learn how to use
good food.
"People are catching on about doing things
cooperatively, too. Thal':; another thing that we
have to teach. Worker-members have doubled in
number since we have moved here. Members feel
a real sense of belonging and contributing 10
some1hing: supplying decent food that they want
10 buy and are proud to offer 10 01hers.''
The co-op members arc also aware their
Sprtn(J, l 991
I
,fj
O!J
-,.//
1,11,
fl f /.., •,.t.. r)
4
J,.
business is making c.onlributions on tither levels.
"It's a physical sus1enance that we offer," says
Barb, "but it's also a social sus1cnance as well.
We want to promote a feeling of community. We
have one room that has been designated as the
community room, and we have a bench made out
of a rree that is just inside the door where people
can sit around and visit. That essence of
community is very central to the reality of the
co-op.
"We have a.water cooler, one of the
old-fashioned ceramic ones, that is filled with
spring water from up in the mountains, so the
co-op is also the watering hole."
The co-op also took a concrete step to help
people get through the recession. In line with
their policy of providing oosic foodstuffs at the
cheapest possible prices, the co-op in January cut
the mark-up on all the beans and grains in the
store to just above cost. Again, It was a question
of finding a balance.
,
"Right now in this co-op and in many
n:llural food stores and co-ops around the country
there arc a lot of packaged. fluffy foods that none
of us really need. but which we have become
used to," said Barb. "It's the fluffy alternative to
the products the supcnnarkets have. We have 10
answer that, so we stock them.
"People can choose whether or not they
want those expensive items. But the things they
need to live on will be here, and they will be
affordable."
But the co-op has also made a commitment
to quality. "Most of our produce is organic. so it
is somewhat higher-priced than produce a, the
supermarket," Bnrb explained. "We are adamant
about maintaining our support of the organic
fanning industry, so that it can c90tinue 10 grow
and flourish. To Mthdrawoursllpport ts&ause
I
conventional food is cheaper would oo 10
compromise our commitment 10 pure food.''
The co-op is moving forward. The group
is excited about the changes enabling them to
better carry out their original purposes.
tl'ltS . .ts,-it
.
GREG OLSON
211 Stoney Knob Rd.
Weaverville, NC 28787
(704) 658-0834
"In designing environmental homes, I am
basicaUy looking at three levels of impact," says
Greg Olson. "I try 10 minimize impacts on the
environment by designing homes that are
energy-efficient and rely heavily on alternative
energy sources. I try to look out for the
environment by using materials that have as linle
negative impact as possible in their production
and use. And then I pay attention to the health
impacts, which include things like electricity,
water quality, and how different spaces wi1hm
the house nre going to be used."
· Greg is an al1em:uive home designer who
is presently doing a brisk business planning and
overseeing the construction of environmentallyconscious shelters in 1he Katuah Province.
"My sole criteria for taking on work is
whether the people want an energy-efficient
home." he says. ''l don't look at the size of 1he
project, the money involved, or the building
f
"!i
,
r
•
, .....
, ~le. Jt could be an exciting project, btlt if it
looks like its not geared toward energy efficiency
I refer them 10 someone else.
'rrhe work I've been doing has varied
widely depending on the conditions of the site,
and the budget and desires of the people who arc
building the house. I have done passive solar
homes with solar water heating lhat is backed up
by power from the grid. I have done a middleground system that utilizes a solar-and-wood
system for healing and cooling. Right now I'm
working on a large house now that is completely
off the grid. All the electticity is produced by
phocovoltaic panels.
"lam constantly looking for materials that
are environmentally benign. That type of question
is constantly coming up: in doing the plumbing
should we use polybutylene or copper?
Polybucylene is a plastics product; but making
metal; whether it's siccl, a.lumitium, or copper, is
also nn intenseprocess;, •
J
J;tf
"We've dealt some \\ith the effect of
electromagnetic fields created by house wiring.
Where people want it, we've staned using
shielded cable lo neutralize that effect.
"We have also gotten to the point that we
don't use any plywood or any materials with
urethane binders unless it's absolutely nece.~sary.
"Contradictions are always coming up
between the levels of impact Insulation, for
instnnce, fulfills a very important function in the
house. But for a long time the best foams were
extruded or impregnated with air by CFC's in the
manufacturing process. Now one company has a
foam that they say is not a CFC, but which is
probably something else equally bad.
"Right now we are investigating setting up
a d~ership io the .area for air-enttaine.d.coocn::1e,
Vthicti ~s concn:te thal is,ini.vlaced.b>'.h.lvioa air
forced through it. That will llCl as a Sll'Ucrural
material and an insulating material at the same
time.
''The solar products are another example.
They are extremely helpful in their operation, but
as far as their original materials, they all have
their setbacks. Photovoltaic panels or copper
collector plates have a ttcmendous manufacturing
impact While the copper in a solar collector is
never going to return all the energy lhat was put
into it during the manufacturing process, it's still
better than just burning the energy.
"We're pursuing it all the time, but there is
also the cost factor: how much can we do on the
owners' budget?"
Greg says that there seems to be an
increasing concern about energy-efficient
building, perhaps generated by the war in the
l\1iddle F.ast. "My business all comes by word of
mouth; I don't advertise. Thar helps, because
people that seek me out are already thinking in a
certain way. It helps to filter my work out,
Nevenheless, I've been extremely busy.
"It's really picked up in the last year. We
are a culture that responds 10 crisis, and I thinlc
recent evenlS have been staning people to wonder
where their energy is going to come from."
Greg also teaches n class at UNCA called
"Environment, Design, and Solar Energy."
His business (and the rock-reggae band he
played wilb) was originally called "One Straw."
He doesn't use the name anymore, but he says
that be is still drawn to the quo1e in the book by
Masanobu Fukuoka from which lhe name
originated:
"With this single straw, I, by myself, will
begin a revolution."
.
�wltich are often indistinguishable, all are closely
clustered around the Gorge.
It is a vigorous athletic and cultural life
they share. In the same week on the Nantahrua
aaasoBElB oooosa BB BBB BeooBooooo
0
River, after wearing one's self out rafting,
c
biking, hiking, or rock-climbing, one could
spend the everting at a poetry reading, a loud rock O
Of Success and the River
c
'n roll pnrty, a modern dance workshop, a lecture ~
o
by a prominent nature writer, dining at a fancy
o
g
restawant, or .auending a friendly get-t0gether in o
The river staned it all. When Horace
c
one of the Center's private cabins.
gHolden bought the isolated motel on the
c
ln Payson's view of that enlightened
o Nantahala Falls, it had no profits and no future, g
community, it would be unfair to the Staff and the o only a good location on the river. Holden and
c
company alike to have anytlting less than full
Payson Kennedy provided the vision the location c
participation - economic and political, as well as o needed; they turned the location into a thriving g
professional and social. He first proposed the
o business and the NOC into a recreation industry o
employee stock ownership plan at a staff meeting g legend.
c
in January, 1987. The plan was at first rejected o
The best tribute to success is imitation, and g
by the employees.
"'I now 15 rafting companies crowd the banks of the o
0
Why would workers initially cum down a g Nantnhala. There would be more if the Forest
share in the profits and policy management of
o Service bnd not stepped in to limit the burgeoning g
their company and a greater measure of control of o whitewater industry on the river.
~
their day-to-day lives? The answer lies to a great ~
Whereas a total of 1.200 people rode the g
extent in the nature of the NOC and its staff.
o river in the NOCs first season, now more than 0
The raft-guiding and recreational work in o 6,000 people run the Nantahala on one good
o
which the Outdoor Center specializes requires
Saturday. In the 1990 season over 200,000
great expertise that comes from rigorous training o people took the river trip. The Nantahala is
g
and long practice - especially at the NOC. which o known as the most crowded rafting river in the o
rakes great pride in the excellence of its
gcountry.
o
programs. Thus. many of the Outdoor Center
o
The river continues to now along,
g
employees are highly skilled athletes, who could o seemingly unpenurbcd by all this uproar. But the o
easily find a job in other pans of the country.
g high rate of traffic is affecting the river. John
and often do. Recreational work is seasonal and o Burton, the president of the Nanw.hala Ourdoor g
is traditionally low-paying. Those who are
c; Center, says, "Up until five or six years ago,
c
attracted to it are willing to accept the lower
g resource degradation wasn't a serious concern in
wages because of their love for the work and the o my mind, but now it is. Human traffic along the
free-wheeling lifestyle it affords. Although the
o banks has been degrading the banks and wearing o
Outdoor Center is fortunate in having a strong
them away. People are trampling vegetanon that
core group of more than 70 people who have
o is needed to st0p erosion and exposing the roots 0
been on the staff for more than JO of the
c of trees. And there is the inevitable liner from the o
crowd and the cars that pass by on the two-lane
company's 18-year history (an unusual
percentage in that demanding business), many of o road that runs alongside the river."
0
0
the NOC employees are young and transient,
And surely the constant disturbance caused c
coming for one summer or only during cenain
by the high rate of river traffic is affecting the
times of the year. Even of the employees wbo
o aquatic habitat
0
consider the Nantahala area t!ieir ho~. a good . g
. c
number rake several months m the winter to "ski O
Ten years ago the NOC, aware of their
g
bum" or cravel.
o effect on the river, tried unilaterally to limit their c
O company's growth.
As a result, many of the Nantahala staff did
o
not want to risk their small salaries on stock
"All we did," said John Burton, "was to
investment and were wary of the long-tellll
o put a couple of competitors in business real fast, o
commitment and responsibility to the company
and we didn't do anything to limit the growth of a
that ownership requires. They were completely O the rafting business. Therefore, we felt we were g
happy to do what they did best and leave the
o undermining our own purposes, and we haven't c
hassles of management to the businesspeople
g tried that again."
o
hired for that job.
Being such a mnjor player, the NOC
g
0
Company president John Bunoo said, ''To o cannot suggest overall limitations on river us~ it o
many of these people, 'commitment' meant doing ~ would seem as if they were trying to monopolize c
the best job possible while they were here. To
O their own strong position on the river. Control is
Payson, it meant a long-term commitment 10 the o left up to the Forest Service, which limits only o
company. That was essentially the gap I h:id to
g the number of companies that can operate on the o
bridge."
0 river each season and mruces no attempt to
Burton was fonnerly a securities analyst
o regulate the size of those companies.
o
for the Philadelphia National Bank, as well as a g
"It's not the number of people who use the o
dedicated canoeist and one-time member of the
O river," said Ranger Bill Lea, ''it's the kind of
US Olympic canoe team. He understood the
o people who use the river that makes the
o
g difference."
o
problem from both sides. The KSOP
compi:omise was ms ~rainchild. 1ne plan's mix O
But o~ summer Sarurdays, the rafts come g
!)f opt!onaJ membership, and the handsome
o down, one nght after the other. River rafts are o
mcennve offered, seems to have met the needs of g not as deadly as dioxin, but the "invisible hand" 0
the NOC staff; 70% of those eligible are now
g
O of free enterprise is slowly choking the
member stockholders.
o NantahaJa.
o
O
Because of the closeness of the
a
community, the Outdoor Center's KSOP plan is
necessarily a social experiment as well. The NOC au sos uo oeeaeeeonooo Bes noooooa
is more like a rambunctious tribe than a
corporation, but in practical tenns that means that
g
THENANTAHALAOUTDOOR
CENTER
41 US Highway 19 West
Bryson City, NC 28713
(704) 488-6737
Rural Swain County is an unlikely place
for a phenomenon. But it is here, beside a low
waterfall on the Nantahala River, that a wildly
diverse crew runs the Nantahala Outdoor Center
(NOC), purveyor of rafting and outing
adventures and the corporate headquarters for an
operation that grossed $8 million in 1990.
The NOC is well-known in business
circles as a recreation-business success story. In
1972 when Payson and Aurelia Kennedy first
started the operation, everyone was waslting
dishes, and Saturday's profitS were spent
Monday morning for new paddles or life
preservers. The Center now comprises a
sprawling complex of three restal!Illnts, cabins,
an outfitter's store, and a fleet of buses, plus
outposts on four other rivers in the region. The
NOC employs 350 staff people at the height of
the summer rafting season and even sends
voyagers to exotic places such as Nepal, the
Grand Canyon, and New 2.ealand on an
Adventure Travel tour program.
But one of the most outstanding features of
the NOC is not noticeable 10 visitors coming 10
ride the river: the company is in the process of
transferring ownership into t.he bands of an
association of its workers.
It is a difficult process, and NOC staff
people are candid in speaking of its benefits and
t~ drawbacks. On paper what is happening is
this: the employees of the company are carrying
out a gradual and friendly buy-out of the outside
investors' interest in the NOC. An Employee
Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) now owns 50%
of the shares of the company stock. Workers are
gradually buying into the plan through what is
called a "40l(k) provision," which gives them the
opuon of deferring 5 to 8% of their salary 10 buy
stock. Whatever they set aside, the company will
match at a rate of 50 ccntS on the dollar for stock
purchase. Because of the 40 I(k) provision, the
NOC employees cal1 their hybrid stock
ownership plan a "KSOP." According to the
plan, the KSOP will have vinually complete
control of the company by 1998.
The KSOP is a compromise plan, the result
of several years of often intense discussions. The
idea that the Outdoor Center should be
employee-owned came first from founder Payson
Kennedy. From the beginning, Payson conceived
the ~antahala Outdoor Center, not solely as a
~usme;,s venture, but as a community of
like-mmded people. That community is alive and
~ppeniog _in once-isolated Swain County.
River-running and the outdoor life are the
community's Stock in trade, but more
i!flponantly, they are the foundation of a way of
life that the Outdoor Center shares with its paying
guests.
The staff live closely together. More than
100 NOC employees consider the environs of the
NantahaJa River as home, and the Cen1cr
provides ~bin space for the summer employees,
so that durmg both working and leisure times,
xawah Journm J>CUJC 18
g
g
g
°
°
°
g
g
g
g
g
g
g
g
g
5
g
g
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g
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(continuod on psgc 19)
8pri.tUJ, 1991
�the KSOP member/staff have to hve with the
results of their decisions as a company day in and
day OUI.
The NOC executive officers worked hard
10 be sure that the decision for cooperative
ownership was made by consensus. But the idea
came from the top and the transition is being
managed by the company officers.
The plan is 10 gradually tum political as
well as financial control over 10 the KSOP
members.
"We want it to mean that the KSOP
members on the staff are actively involved in
policy decisions, big picture kinds of decisions,
directional decisions... " said John Bunon.
The KSOP's power to vote in board of
directors' elections is allocated democratically on
the basis of "one member. one vote" (rather than
on the economic basis of one vote per share). The
KSOP controls half of the company's 16,000
shares of stock. That block of 8,000 shares is
voted proportionally according to the wishes of
the people in the KSOP.
"We seek consensus at every tum, if we
can. We take it as far as possible in that
direction," said John. "What the people in the
KSOP are learning is that it is in their interest to
be unanimous. lf they act as a unit they can
control the board of directors. We have board
~ectio~s every year. The politics are getting very
interesnng."
But beyond participation in the election of
the Board of Direccors, the traditional function of
stockholders in any corporation, the KSOP is not
set up to participate in policy decisions. The
group has no structure and no independent
leadership. Meetings are still called by the
top-level management in the company hieran:hy.
With characteristic candor, John said, "It's
up to the leaders of the company to nunure the
leadership of the KSOP, whether that means
putting together a social council or actively calling
meetings that are run by different folks.
"The lesson we've learned this first year is
that it takes active effort to get this KSOP group
involvcd...lt takes someone 10 call the meeting. If
the meeting doesn'c get called, then the issue
doesn't get discussed. It's a demanding process,
and we have a lot 10 learn about how to do iL"
The Nantahala Outdoor Center is a
dynamic place, and the transition to worker
ownership is dynamic as well. It is closely
scrutinized and widely discussed in very practical
and non-idealistic terms, signs of a healthy
democracy. John Bunon thinks that the KSOP
will be able to develop its own identiry and rise to
the challenges of leadership.
"If for no other reason," he said, "the
employees are beginning to come around to it
beca~se they are wondering why they have been
working as hard as they have for someone else's
profit."
GREEN SPIRITS:
KATUAH PROVINCE VEGETABLE PLANTING CALENDAR
Developed by Lee Barnes (1/10/91)
Based on an a"crnge 160day frost-free period a~ adapled from Jeavons et aL 1983, NCAES 1978 and others.
For high elevation or shoner frost-free period, start two to three weeks later for spring planting
and two to three weeks earlier for late plantings.
START INDOORS
February I
Cool season plants - broccoli, cabbage,
cauliflower, kale
Wann season plants - tomato, pepper, eggplant
SEED IN GROUND
TRANSPLANT TO SOIL
Win~er Chores - Soil ccsc, lime, prune trees and berries, 1urn compost,
IUm in cover crops one month prior to planting.
March 1
Most annual herbs, spinach, annual flowers.
mosc perennial seeds
April 1
<or when ground tl'mpernturcs are greater than
40-45° F. at 4 inches in depth)
Cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, squash, leaf INtuce
Beets, chard, po1a1oes, peas, turnips, radishes,
lenuce, bare-root fruit trees and berries
Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, mustard,
spinach, onions
Beans, carrots, corn, potatoes, radishes, beets,
turnips, squash, Cucumbers, Swiss chard
(Best after soil temperature is 65° F. at four
inchesdup)
Cucumbers, eggplant, melons, okra, peppers,
squash, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkins
Beans, corn, field peas, potatoes, New Zealand
spinach, radishes, cucumbers
Cucumbers, melons, squash, tomatoes
Beans carrots, corn, potatoes. squash,
cucumbers, collard greens
Cucumbers, late t0ID3tocs
May 1
'(or when ground temperatures are greater than 60"
F. at 4 inches in depth)
(wail for soil lo warm, tra11splants require 2-6
weeks to grow to s11fficic11t siu)
June 1
July 1
Brussels sproutS
July 15
Broccoli, spinach, cabbage, cauliflower, kale,
Mustard
August IS
Fall greens, radishes, lenuce, turnips, rutabagas
Radishes, letruce
Fall cover crops - winier rye, clover, buckwheat
Broccoli. Brussels sprouts,
cauliflower, leuuce, kale, mustard
cabbage,
Fall _Chores - Soil 1es1, plant clover crops. remove and compost garden refuse, lime (if needed),
tum m phosphorous and rock phospha1e/granitc sands.
Spn!UJ, 1991
Jeatu(lf1 Journnt J>G9C 19
�(These nre the wolds oC n tt:ldition:il Cherokee medicine person.)
"Vll,LAGE ECONOMY"
It was like the whole tribe was the torso of
the body of the people, and the clans were like
the extremities. The extremities did everything
they could to suppon the torso. :That was their
purpose. If the Wolf Oan was like the right
hand, !he Twisted Hairs would be the left hand
But the purpose of each of them was to suppon. 1
the torso, and the torso's purpose as a collective
body was to suppon the Grea1 Life.
The old pe0ple saw themselves as
caretakers. They used to say that they were the
first people on the Earth, and they were plnced
here to be caretakers - to keep the spiritual,
natural balance. We have the abiliry with our
~onsciousness to hook into the Great One, which
1s...l don't know what it is, maybe it's the spirits
of _all living things put together...and 1hey felt that
being caretakers was pan of our purpose, Like a
bcar's purpose is one thing, a deer's purpose is
another, and an oak tree's purpose is another
~ch_ thing is put here for a purpose. The Gre~t
Llf~ IS made up of trillion.s of beings, great treesl
• tu,tmy oolls, fllld; the .function of encll of those
individual llves.isto suppontheUfe:\lach in its!
own way.
. . The human way of supporting the Great
Life JS through our spiritual consciousness. We
were spiritually conscious of other living spirits
Like ~imals_. birds, and trees. No1 all the people'
were lake this, of course, bu1 people in general
were, and the people who weren't, understood it.
We we~n't domestica1ed by individualism and all
those things that are pan of the dominant culture
today. '!bat's why this society has a problem. It's
so mulu-<:ultured, that people don't have the same
h~ and the same mind. Everybody's doing
thetr own damn thing.
I
During those times, life was village life and
everyone saw lhe people they lived with every
day. ~hen visitors came through, they would
stay tn the town-house, and there would be a big
pot of food out there. Everybody would
contnbute to ?1at pot of food, so that strangers or
anybody connng through could have something
to eat. That was the people's attitude: their culture
was an extended family.
Generally, anybody in the tribe could go
alone out in the woods and take care of
themselves. The younger ones might have some
tr0uble, bur most people could. The women were
exi><:n at gathering; they probably were beuer
survtvors than the men.
And then a family, an extended family
would also take care of itself. The old peopte'
who raised the children. The uncles taught the
children. And while the old ones and maybe
some of the n:iother's clan ~le were taking
cnre _of the _c~ildrert, th~ mamed couple would be
making a livmg, fanning and hunting.
They had individual gardens, also clan
Xatuah ,aurnaL pnge 20
gardens, and there was a community garden.
They had storage places in the village to keep
food for those who needed it. Some of the
storage bins were built up on poles. Another kind
~ a small pole log structure that was sealed
~th mud to keep the rodents out. Com was put
10 there, and people were assigned 10 check it
~m. time to time to see if the critters were getting
IOIO ll
The white man Henry Timberlake when
he first came into the village of Echota the early
1700's! estimated a population of close to 2,000,
and said there w_ere something like 6(). to 70,000
bushels of com 1n storage. That was his estimate.
That was western attitude. Even if it wasn't that
much, it obviously was considerable.
i;
Most o_f th~ time every pan of the tribe, as
well as the mbe ttself, was self-sufficient But if
a family got in trouble, if they had their crops
washed out by a flood or something, 1hey would
first appeal 10 their clan for help, and then other
clans would ju~t naturally volu~teer to help,
beca~se the philosophy at that ume, which has
drasnc/¾P.-.r,pb,qn'i¢. w~ ~U)~ 'YI;~, !,!le helpless.
1,1µ1d !he ~1a firsi.. -l3ack,qi.c11 spjlii11g e.ni:I .giviµg
sniff' away was well 1ooked upon. Those people
who were the most generous showed their
commi~ment to the tribe and were given power.
The chief was the poorest person in the tribe, but
the smanest. However, that doesn't exist any
more. In today's society hoarding sruff and
amassing wealth is well looked upon. The old
way was son of nice, but it doesn't deal very
well with capitalism.
Food wasn't bought or sold inside the
tribe. Food or hides may have been offered in
exchange to people who could make beautiful
craflS or weapon-makers who knew how to make
really good arrows or blow guns, but no one had
10 buy food to keep from going hungry.
~ei:i. someone ,creates something, they put
power mto ll. h doesn t mancr what ii is. At the
very lcas1, one puts in their life/time. U someone
makes a flu1e, their intent is for the flme to play
and to free you up inside. You may not get that
out of the flute, but at the very least you get six
hours of their life • they put that much of the11
power into t~t object. They have put their full
10tent, all their experience, everything. into that
flute. Thar flute has power, and we recogni:ze
that.
. . We put power into everything we do. If we
do _11 _10 a bad heart, then .ii has bad power If we
do 11 1~ a good hean and 1n a loving way. maybe
say a httl~ prayer, then the power is a good thing.
If~ are Just neutral, if we just do it without
pumng anything into it, then it's not a craft it's
not a skill, it's just a repetitive motion.
'
. . Bae¥ then people saw that giving a gift was
g1v10g their power, so they didn't wait around for
admiration. They'd drop off a flute at someone's
front door, and that would be it. It was obvious
when a gift was given.
Some people were more skilled than
others, and it was a fine thing to get a gift from
someone who was very skilled. But the gift that
was the best was one into which some person
~ad put all their ~can. It _di~'t have to be good,
tf they put all their heart 10to u, then it was a
highly prized gift and would probably miss the
gambling exchange.
Betting and gambling was a wonderful
way of exchange. The men would play the
chunky game. It was definitely a macho game
probably the only macho game we had. One '
person would roll a round chunky stone and two
other men would be standing on either side with
spears with little red marks on them. They would
throw the spears underhanded and sec who could
ger the red mark closest to the stone. It required a
Lot of skill.
They would play right in the village
~uarc, big old males strun.ing around downtown
in front of the court.house. It was kind of like the
pool haIJ where the men could get 10gether and
talk rough.
They wouldn't bet food, just possessions:
crafts, weapons, things that they had taken from
other Indians, or trade goods. They would stand
there and throw down their bows and arrows
their loincloths. They would stand there naked
betting, and then try to calk a guy into betting ~o
or three days work in the cornfield. They would
always pay off, 100, because back then a
person's word was everything.
In lhe tribe auention was most important.
~e. cullu:e was built that way. Our way of
ra.1smg children wasn't to hit them, but to praise
~em when ther did well, and lO ignore them or
give them nothmg when they did wrong. So if
you were good in the chunky game or were a
" w81l}ol'1and did ~ t deeds, tllen you we~
admiicd lf you were a good fanm:r then you
~ere admired. But if you messed up, you were
ignored. The worst punishment was to be thrown
out of the tribe. Many people committed suicide
when that happened to them, when they lost that
connection with the tribe.
Although the tribe was self-sufficient, the
Chero~ees loved 10 trade. Some people think of
the Indian tribes as being isolated. but that isn't
true. The Cherokees could trade with anybody
from New York all the way to Florida and all
along the Mississippi and all the way along the
coast Everybody spoke the same trade language.
h was ~I~ the Choctaw trade language, and it
was a p1dgm version of Choctaw. All tl1e Indians
spoke it instead of using a sign language.
The P,crokee never actually used a
~ncy, like money. Everything was done
stnctly by baner. They used to make a lot of trips
to the coast to get "black drink" (a decoction
made from the leaves of yaupon holly - ed.),
shells, feathers and items like that, but what they
really loved was the dried root of the Venus
fly-trap, because it was considered an incredible
fishing chann, and all the fishermen would use it.
And then maybe they'd bent up a few Tuscaroras
on the way back from the beach, because that's
just the way the Cherokees were.
We had good flint deposits over in
Tennessee. and we may have carried that for
trade. We might have done some business with
soapsrone. We had soapstone here to trade. We
would trade mica to ihe northern Indians.
The Cherokee might have gouen turquoise
and stuff like that from the Chociaws and the
Chickasaws to the west. We traded horses with
the Chickasaws, who lived along the Mississippi
Sprtm.,, I 991
�On Eco-economics
by David Haenke
Instead of endwing a meaningless job to gei the
money IO buy necessities, real work should involve our
efliciClll production or bllSIC needs, or our dilcct
involvement in their procurement - e.g., by J)311icipaling
as wor.ting members or cooperatives. In an ccocconomy, the formal "work weclc" wherein we labor for
money might drop IO 20 hours or less.
The ec:o-«onomy would run as much as possible
on solar energy, just IIS cco-sysu:ms run entirdy on solar
gain. Jt would mnke judicious use of "capital" ~ources.
such as fossil fuels, which are used according 10 lhcir
most efficient application as in Ille "soft energy path.•
Basic cco-«onomics means doing the following
10 the giealCSl extent possible:
River around Memphis, because the Chickasaws
were lhe great eastern horsepeople - like the
Sioux or the Plains Inruans. They were
absolutely incredible horsemen, and 11\~y w~re
great allies of the Cherokee. The two tnbes Just
loved each other, God knows why. A whole
village of Cherokees would move over and live
by a Chickasaw village for a year. Then 11\e
Cherokees would go back home, and the next
year the Chickasaws would show up and live by
the Olerokee village for a year.
ArchaeologistS have discovered things in
Cherokee mcdjcine bundles that were found only
in South America. That shows 1he extent of their
trade and their communication. They weren't
isolated from one anoilier.
When 11\e white people moved in and
m.fluenced the Cherokee, they staned trading for
productS. They would trade bushels of com,
He jusL didn't fit in.
The couple left for two weeks. While they
were gone, their house burned down, a.nd it was
rumored that someone had done it on purpose to
get nd of him. They came back, and his wife was
so sad 1ha1 they had lost their house, that the
community got together and built them a new one
nnd just put up with the man.
That's an old Labor Brigade story.
The tribe was self-sufficient in every way.
The tribe satisfied the basic needs of human
beings. One of those needs is community. We
have a need for community that comes from
tribalism. On the intimate level people filled that
need through the extended family; on another
level, it was fulfilled through communal
ecrcmony, which was one of the foundations of
their culture.
dried pumpkin, deerskins, probably chestnuts,
They had feast days or holy days at
and ginseng to the western people, and 11\ey got
important times during the year. The feast days
teehnology in return. The clan system gradually
were held to celebrate the blessing of the com or
turned into a capitalistic system, but they sill!
ceremonial occasions Like lighting the fire or
maintained the community gardens for a long
putting the fire out, bu1 they were also a
time, until (Chief John) Ross created an elaborate connection people made with each other. The
central government that could tell someone what
people would get together, there would be betting
to do, and the government started a tribal fund and gambling, the exchange of goods. and people
money, y'know. IL son of worked its way over
would undoubtedly share some genes around at
from the baner system to capitalism, but at the
those big gatherings, and at the same time they
same time the Cherokees have always felt loyal to shared the spirit around the tribe.
"the torso," the body of the tribe, although
It was the cement that held the culture
·occasionally it's been pretty sick. Today the
together. When that started crumbling, it was real
tribe's like everything else in the world tough. But remnan1s of it still exist. You can still
everything's got cancer.
see it here and there: the Labor Brigades, people
The Cherokee Labor Brigade, which was
helping each other out, or sometime you might
going strong up into this generation, was a
hear somebody talking ihe old way. things like
remnant of the time when everybody lived in the
that.
village, and the clans were like the extremities of
Today we have less ceremony in our lives.
the body supponing the torso. The people of the
We need certain kinds of ceremonies. If we don't
Labor Brigade would get together on Saturdays
have them. we create them, because ceremonies
and go to the house of somebody who needed
are very imponant to human beings.
help, like an old person who needed firewood
Everything's a fonnula. When you're
split or someone who needed their roof fixed.
making a little cake. you go by the formula. You
they would all pitch in nnd do the job and then
need some flour from the field, eggs from a
have a big pot-luck. Nowadays it's only some of
chicken, some honey, and then the last thing is
the older men who still do it, but it's a part of that' some heat, which makes it change from five
culture, maybe it'll come back.
different things into this one sweet little brown
J beard a story once. There was a
thing, a cake. It's no longer an egg and some
half-breed married to a full-blooded woman.
flour - but it is. h 's made up of a!J those partS.
They lived in Birdtown a long time ago, like in
Everything's formulistic. There is a
my grandfather's time. He was a drunk and lived
fonnula for our way of living. We need the com,
in this community where nobody drank. Whether
we need the honey, we need the ceremonies, they
they were Baptist or traditional or what, they
are all the raw materials. The fire is our
didn't believe in his drinking. They thought it
spirituality, which heats il and makes our cultuIC
was a bad thing. He was a rowdy person, too.
the way it is.
~
'
Sprtng, 1991
.....
Drawing by Rob Lcvcrcu
•Participate In, invest in, and support local,
ecologically responsible production by locally owned.
opcralCd, and con1.rol1ed entctprises.
•Buy, trade, and consume locally/ regionally
produced goods and services.
•Keep resources, capital, and energy at home;
plug leaks.
•Use solar energy and other •renewable" energies
and resources..
•Be radically efficient in the use or nonrenewable
resources.
•Practice intense cooscrvat.ion and efficiency in oil
sectors.
•Do full-scale -- 90 to 1ooi.. -- recycling,
utilitiog local/regional enlelpriscs.
•Pay true. CCQlogically audited costs: intemalizc
"externalities". It may hurt now. but it will pay off lalu.
•Wodt coward a fonnol or informal local/n:giona1
trading sy~tem o.r cumney.
•Support a humane and socially responsible
economy.
•Do not support businesses that pollute Ot destroy
the cnvironmcnl.
•Wherever humanly possible. do not buy from
national or multinational corporations or their
subsidiaries.
Each localily, region, biorcgion oc stnte should
have an up-to-daie dat.nbase on what is being sold and the
ownership of the company selling, within its bounds.
This infonnation should be furnished IO the public so
lhat people can choose a tocallrcgional allCmlllive where
possible. Development of economic altem:uivcs 10
national and l18nSrultional companies should be a focus oC
each regioru
Lee every economic act be ecologically conscious.
�THOUGHTS ON WORK, PRODUCTIVITY, AND
DEVELOPMENT:
UNRAYELLING THE MYTH OF 'THE FREE MARKET"
The refrain has become all too familiar.
environmental proiection means loss of jobs. we are told,
and if we would only let the corporate "£tee market"
[unction without interference. lhen everylhing would
magically work out for lite best. The "invistble band" of
lhe market •aulOJ'llatically" mainlllins economic balance,
we arc assured, and competition keeps prices low and
SWldards high, as well as providing mucb·occdcd "jobs."
Our economic difficulties :uc lhcrefore lhe result of lOO
much regulation, not 100 liu!c; we are simply not letting
the system function properly...
Of course, !hero is some trulh to lhese assertions but not very much. If "mnrlcet fon:es• are reaUy th:11
benevolent, lhen why are lhey (we) creating many
lecllnologics and coosumption pauems which are bolh
socially and ecologically destructive. Why is energy
conservation seen as somehow benealh us? Why is our
society fallmg apan at lhe seams? (Wasn·1 it largely lhe
DE-regulation of lhc 80's lhat led to outrageous financial
excesses of every description - !he • gxced is good"
memality which, we're now learning, we're going to be
P3ying for over seveml dcc:ldes?) Why do most peoples'
"jobs" consist of boring, unfulfiUing work which, more
often Lhan 1101, has a dctrirnenlal effect . ranging from
slight to tremendous - on our world and our lives? We
need onJr /l)Fk ~l.!!Jc,P.:_9Jl:l~.w01"Jna in ~Pll!l~
indUSlry, Or ~..
"!9rkiria \lfilh~Jhcu U~_.,_, JU\j I J
"military-industrial complex· and ilS off!hoots, or all !he
common household products - solvenlS, painis, delClgel\b,
aerosols, polishes, etc. - whose creation simulUlllcou.~ly
createS a multitude of toxic industrial by-products, and
which are oflCII luu:ardous or toxic themselves...
Oearly, theie is something very wrong with a
socio-economic system which rapidly undermines social
cohesiveness ond destroys the very resources upon which
our supposed "prospctity" depends! The manic. or
mMliacal - functioning of our present economy reminds
meofthoseold canoons III which lhc "hero" is silting on
a high tree branch nnd is vigorously sawing lhrough it on lhe side closer to the trceJ Or lhttc's the classic
comedy routine in which the "hero" is sawing a circle
wound hunsclf in the !loor and soon completes it - only to
fall through to the !loor below. In both c:iscs, lhc end
result of all that hard work is 1111 unforsocn disaster though anyone eV\:11 remotely aware of reality could !rive
forcsccn iL These comedy routines arc funny precisely
because !he coming dis:ister IS so complctcly obvious yet when we promoo:: an economy that is leading 10
immincm social ond ecological disasw. we seem
oblivious to !he danger. Laughably, not only is it NOT
obvious 10 us, but most of u.~ mightily defend our "right"
10continue on the same "prolil:lblc" palh! But here we
should learn something from lhe C3rl00ns • or we will
continue sawing away until we and our environment are
dcsu'Oyai.
9f
···········
All around our nation and !he world, the struggle
10 save our environment and our societies is moving into
high ge3r • and the issue of'jobi' and ·productivity'
occupies a central pl.ice m this S11Uggle. In the Pacific
Nonhwes1, environmentlllists rue desperately trying to
save 111e spoucd owl and its habitat, lhe rcmnantS of
once-huge old-growth foresb, while angry loggers cloim
lh:u TIIEY are now •an endangered species", and logging
Xatuan JoumaL page 22
I
II
comp:inies claim to be patriotically serving vital
socio-economic needs. And in Norlh Carolina and many
other stales, obsessive road-building and "development" are
Cervenlly supponed by businessmen, cconom,stS, and
politicians (and, of course. !he developers}, on the
assumption lhat economic prosperity and job availability
depend on more roads and more rapid "growlh.• This trend
continues unsb:ued despirestrong evidence that lhc
prosperity thus gained is very shon-lived, if tndced the
•standard of living' for the locals - the actual inhabitants
- ever DOES rise appreciably.
The reality behind the dream of qu,ck, bsung
prosperity 1s this: once lhe p~pcrity boom
accomp:1nying !he initial devel0pmcnt and eonsuuclion is
o~r. the local inhabitanlS IISUa.lly tl1ld up getting shafted.
Most of lhc big money - from mnnufoc1uriog, rCJuals,
chain depatunent sl.OreS and superm:irkcls, and lhe glut of
fast-food rcslllUl'8lllS - is funnelled out of lhe kx:aJ area and
into lhe bank accoun1S oC distant corporations and
developers, while "!he locals" are left to race the tong-term
prospect of menial "setVice jobs" and socially and
ocologicatly disrupted lives.
TREND #1: Dcspitc intensive "development" and
an influx of new tcehnologics and induslrics over lhc Jr.ISi
IS yc.ars, Lhe "standard of livmg" of lhc average American
has ran,n durin9 that,J,lmc pi:\iOd, and feal income has
been steadily faJliog. ~p.y.is iltis l)CCwril)g?
TRF.ND 112: During' th,s same period lhe richest
(and smallest) segment of the American populllcc has
go11C11 much richer, while lhe middle class and the poor
have goucn poorer. 11 ,swell.known lhat lhe reign of
"Frcc.-markct Rc:lg:inomics" (and its sequel,
"Bushonomics") has created more millionaires lhan any
previous "growlh decade.· The trouble is. II also created
mounlllins of debt. a horrendous banking crisis, many
more families and children living in povcny, and legions
or homeless and hopclc.ss pcoplc... lhc grim "dart. side" of
lhe supposedly unbiased, accessible. and
soctally-rcsponsive "free markcL •
QUESTION: Is the market rc3Uy "value- free." as
us proponents claim. and docs it really encourage
dcmocrauc paruc,pation and bcallhy socio-economic
divcr~i1y . or does its implicit value-prefcscnce for proli1 ;it
any price drhc the market (panicula.rly 111duj;Uy} to be
free of ethical considerations and compassion,
free to abusr the public lrUJ,I, and rree to
lgnort as many !IOCiRI and ecological
consequences :is po5.<>ible?
QUESTION: b it po:;s1ble I.hat the TRUTII
underlying lhe "free marke1" is I.hat it suppons a very
small. scff.3ppo1n1ed elite in ransacking our environment,
exploiting oilier people. and raking in vastly
disproportion:ue monetary rewaril'i? Docli our society
actually reward those who can most convincingly con
lite public 1010 bclieviog th!lt all lhi$ cxplo1tation :ind
"development" 15 for lheirown good and lhc good of lhe
country?
......•••.•.•....•••..•.......
The qucsuon or cnYIJ'Ollmenl:1.1 prcscrvauon vs.
"development" and jobs is without doubl a thorny one and it IS made even lhom,cr hy a multitude of dangCl'OU$
and unquc:suoned assumptions about the n31ure oC our
economic/ ecological re31ily. Such assumptions include:
I) lhc belief lhat environmellllll prot.ection IS the
prilll3J'}' factor behind job loss in industries such as lhc
by Richaro Lowenthal
wood produclS indllSlry, clcij>ite lhc fact that lhc true
culprits in MOST job loss are managerial greed and
callousness. industrial automation, corporate
"strcamliniog." and poor "resource managcmcnL •
2) !he belief th:lt endless extraction and
consumption of resoun:es is good for jobs and lhe local
economy, despite lhe fact th:lt when these resources are
dcple1ed !here me then NO rc1alCd jobs left m that area and the exuactors simply move on, leaving behind a
legacy or heightened monetaty ~tations and the
bitterness of a 'boom-tumcd-busL'
3} lhc belief lhat wori( and productivity must be
~ SOL.ELY hy amounts of Dlllterials e:ctraeted,
~ . and sold, and NEVER in terms of conscrvar.ion
or restoration of vital h:lbil:us. Due to lhis belief, we are
still reluctant to commit ourselves • and our money - to
ecologically-sound economic practices, and we stubbornly
refuse to fac10r into our economic accountmg lhe true
social and ecological cosu of our vaunted "free mar1ce1•
system.
4} lltebclieflhat pcoplearedcpendcnton the
"gcnerosil}'" of industry fa their jobs, :ind not on
themselves. the value of their own labor, or personal
involvement in lhcir communities.
S) the belief that del>-pite meaningless and
mcchanic:ll work. worker's "productivity" cnn be increased
solely by mtre3Slng 'll'agcs, WlTHOUT anyfac- in
workers' intete..u. involvcmcn1. or sntisfacuon.
......•.•................
The deeper problem th.at we a.re just beginning 10
confront is lhat we have crcrucd a 'cuhwc" based on mass
consumption and "!he consumer mentality.' When
maximum profit and consumption are our highest goals.
we of course seek only SHORT-TERM "efficiency" in our
extraction, production. and dlslribulion processes.. Under
lhe prime direcuvo or maximum profit and consumpuon,
·emcicm productivi1y• MUST mean producing the
grcaics1 amount of good.~ m lhe least possible time ot the
least possible cost • and lhen selling lhem al lhe gn:atcsl
price lhc market will bear, This kind of "productivity"
would more approprinlcly be called "dC5tructivity"; it
ignores long-term consequences. create.~ "needs" where
there were oonc, and trc.ats both naLUre and human beings
as objocL~ to be e:cptoilcd, u.,;cd up, and !hen forgo1tcn.
For most worlccrs, lhis ovat cxploillltion is 111en
·compensated" via insulllngly low monetary rewn.rds.
which nevcnheless enable~ to consume more goods·
which requires 111at we produce more, of course. The end
resuh • our REAL •gross 113lional product" - is a vic:ious
downw:ird spirnl of producc-scll-consume-lhrow away,
produce-sell-ronsumc-lhrow nway.• and n never-ending
"need" toc~ploit ond "develop" new areas once the old
ones :ue ei1haustcd or become "unproliwhle" in lhc eyes of
our Glorious God. the marketplace.
But now we have nowhere to move on 10, and our
113bnual ·rron1.1er· mcnlali1y no longer makes even
economic sense (ii NEVER mode sense ecologically).
The biosphere we live m is suddenly changmg - ,n our
human awareness - from a lim,tlc.s~ collection or
exploi1abte ·resources· 10 a fragile and endangered ecosystem w1lh limited "resource avnilabtlny." So now
something has 10 give, somclhing has to change in our
way of RELATING to lhe Earlh and all her divctSC
hfc.forms.
(conlinued on pegc 30)
Spr tng, 199 1
�..
• • t .
\ t
,!:\~
.
"
.. , &
••
... '
APPEAL HELPS BEE TREE
OUTSTANDING RESOURCE
WATERS
Nawn! World Ne..-. Service
Nanni World News Sc,vicc
The NC Division of Environmental
Management has reclassified 14 bodies of water
in the mountain region as OutStanding Resource
Waters (0RW). putting them under special
protection to maintain their high water quality.
The newly-listed 0RW's are:
South Toe River (Yancey County), Gipp
Creek (Cherokee County). Fires Creek (Clay
County), Cacaloochee Oeek (Haywood
County). Upper Nantahala River (Swain
County). Chattooga River (Macon County),
Henry Fork (Burke County). the Mitchell River
(Surrey County), Elk Creek (Watauga County),
the upper South Fork of lhe Mills River
(Henderson County). Wilson Creek (Avery and
Caldwell Counties). Jacob Fork (Burke
County). Upper Creek (Burke County), and
Steels Creek (Burke County).
Nominated for possible future 0RW
designation are Bearwallow Creek (Transylvania
County). the New River and its South Fork
(Waiauga and Ashe Counties), Panthertown
Creek (Jackson County), Garden Creek (Wilkes
County), and Bullhead Oeek (Wilkes County).
After a bitter fight, Alarka Creek (Swain
County) has been classified as a High Quality
Water (HQW), a body of water that is somewhat
protected. allhough not as stringently as the
0RW's (see KaJuah Journal #26). Toe Nonh
Fork of the Catawba River (McDowell County)
has been nominated for future inclusion as a
HQW.
Although 0RW status is supposed to be
strictly a matter of biological criteria, experience
has shown that designations are often swayed
by political considerations, so it would help
classification of creeks nominated for 0RW
status if interested people would write letters on
the behalf of the water bodies.
Any state resident can also request
reclassification of a water body as an 0RW or
HQW. The Division of Environmental
Management requires a detailed description of
the area suggested. an indication of the water's
quality, and a list of the special resources that
need prorection. The agency will send a list of
.the standards and regulations on request. Call or
write Suzanne Keene at the NC Division of
Environmental Management: Box 27687;
Raleigh, NC 276ll (919) 733-5083.
"SOMETHING STINKS"
N,nnl World New, Savice
Development is the first priority for the
town government of Highlands, NC. And if the
town government gets its way, Highlands will
spur development with a 500,000 gallon-pcrlU!Y sewage treatment plant along the Cullasaja
River.
Spri.n9, 1991
The Cullasaja is a Class B trout stream
and a spectacular scenic attraction. Toe river and
its unique attributes would be th.reatened by
presence of the plant. Presently a treatment plant
half the size of the proposed plant is dumping
effiuent into lakes below Highlands. Toe lakes
help somewhat to maintain the river, but the
quality of the Cullasaja is srill deteriorating,
according to aquatic biologist Dr. William
Mclarney. Toe new $5 million plant would
discharge below the lake druns and would
severely compromise the water quality
downstream.
The town of Highlands is cager to install
the plant - so cager that they were ready to begin
construction without an environmental
assessment or an environmental iropacr
statement. They publicized the project with
notices in the local Highlands paper and the
Asheville paper, but not in the Franklin Press
which might be read by county residents
downstream who would be affected by the
plant. Highlands Mayor John Cleaveland
explained their actions, saying that Highlands
has been paying more than its share of the
county taxes, and they should get to do what
they want with the river.
The NC Division of Environmental
Management (DEM) seemed to be abening the
move to rush construction of the plant: they
refused to hold a public hearing on the matter
until confronted by a petition bearing 2,082
signatures collected by county residents
organi7.cd by Peg Jones of CuJlasaja
Community.
Resident Lee Hollins summed up the
community's feelings about the way they had
been treated when he said, "Sewage stinks, but
in this case I smell something a lot worse, and
that's rotten politics."
The new treatment plant is much larger
than the present needs of the town of Highlands
require. Residents downstream know that a new
treatment plant would be an open door to more
development in the reson town. They arc not
willing to let the Cullasaja be polluted for the
sake of mon: condos, second homes, and golf
courses.
Those who want to speak out on behalf of
the Cullasaja River can write to the DEM at: Boit
27687; Raleigh, NC 27611.
To help the river preservation effon or
offer support, call Peg Jones of Save Our
Rivers, Inc. at: (704) 369-7877
In response to an administrative appeal by
the WeStcm Nonh Carolina Alliance (WNCA),
Regional Forester John Alcock of the US Forest
Service ruled that the proposed Bee Tree timber
sale in the Pisgah National Forest was in
violation of the Endangered Species Act and
ordered the Ranger district to make a complete
biological evaluation of the area.
The appeal victory will delay cutting on
Bee Tree and, the Alliance hopes. will compel
the Forest Service to gather complete
information about stands slated to be cut before
beginning logging.
The Regional Forester, however. denied
other arguments the Alliance tiad with the sale:
that the Forest Service was not considering a full
range of cutting alternatives, that they had not
made a complete analysis of the true cost of the
timber sale. that they were not ensuring safe use
of herbicides, and that the sale plan did not
follow the principles of sustainable
management
MAKING STUMPAGE
Nanni World News Savice
The US Forest Service National ForestS
in Nonh Carolina has announced that it is
raising its timber targets 18% for 1991 - from 63
million board feet to 75 million board feet for the
year.
This announcement came shortly after a
much-publicized declaration from the same
office to the effect that there would be less
clearcutting in the National Forests. When asked
how the Forest Service planned to cut back on
clcarcutting while simulatancously raising timber
targets, Forest Service environmental planner
Pat Cook said, "we will try to maintain our trend
towards less clcarcuning in proportion to the
total harvest."
Translated into ignorant (they hope) lay
people's terms, Cook's statement reads, "we're
not going to to do any less clca.rcutting, but we
are going to keep raising quotas so that it seems
like we'll be doing less clcarcutting."
Any other questions?
Onwlnc by Jim HOUS('r
A(atuah Journn! JXl9C 23
�SMOKEY EATS APPEAL
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Nawnl World News Se,,,icc
HEARINGS
1990 TIMBER LOSSES
REPORTED
Nanni World NcWJ Scrvlce
After a four year wait US Forest Service
Chief Dale Robenson finally responded to
objections lodged by the Wilderness Society to
the Land and Resource Management Plan
(LRMP} for the Cherokee National Forest. The
LRMP is supposed co guide agency management
practices for a 15 year period.
The objections were pr~ntcd as an.
administrative appeal. The Wtldemess Society
stated that the Forest Service was not fulfilling
its responsibility to maintain biological diversity
the Cherokee Nauonal Forest, was selling
timber below cost, and was not providing visual
beauty.
Under the National Forest Management
Act of 1976 the Forest Service is charged with
maintaining populations of native ~ies in .the
national forests. Many of these species reqUlre
old growth habitat. Forest Service plans to log
58 percent of the cove forest habitat in the
Cherokee would drastically reduce the amount
of old growth remaining and would also cut into
the supply of acorn mast that is vital to the
survival of many species of wildlife.
The Wilderness Society appeal also
pointed to the fact that below-cost timber sales
amounted to a public subsidy of the
deforestation of the Cherokee forestlands.
Tennessee senators Albert Gore and Jim Sasser
supported the point, saying in a Jetter to
Robertson that, "It makes little sense to
subsidize timber production on public lands in
the Southeast when the private lands provide far
and away the vast bulk of the timber used in the
region."
The Wilderness Society plans to pursue
its objections to the Cherokee Forest plan in
coun, as a civil lawsuit.
Narunl World News Service
What would you say if the government
asked you if you wanted nuclear weapons?
Well, for the first time in history, they're
asking...kind of.
The Department of Energy (DOE) is
sponsoring hearings to gather opinions on their
plans for building nuclear wenpons in the 21st
century. However. they are disguising the
hearings as "Programmntic Environmental Impact
Statement Scoping Hearings on the
Reconfiguration of the Nuclear Weapons
Complex." And, although the hearings are
supposed co be open to the public, the DOE is not
disclosing the dates.
But sometime between March 20 and July
31 hearings will be held in the 13 locations
where nuclear weapons are produced, including
Oak Ridge, TN. They will constitute the first
national referendum on nuclear weapons
production, and it is imponant that. despite the
obstacles, people make themselves heard.
For more infonnation and updates on the
times and locations of the hearings, write or call
Ralph Hutchison of the Oak Ridge
Environmental and Peace Alliance: Box l 101;
Knoxville, TN 37901 (615) 524-4771.
The US Forest Service (USFS) has
reponed the 1990 losses from its timber
extraction program in the Southern
Appalachians. As well as destr0ying the
old-growth forest habitat, the timber sales
accually cost the agency more money to set up
and carry out than they recoup from the price of
the stumpage. The difference is paid br t~e
taxpayers in what amounts to a roadbwlding and
habitat desttuction subsidy for the limber
industry.
In the national forests in North Carolina
the Forest SeTVice reponcd a loss of $2.0 I
million for the year. Georgia's national forests
came out slightly in the black, bringing in a total
profit of $233 thousand in the state, due to profit
made on the Ocoee National Forest. The
Chattahoochee National forest lost money.
However, in North Carolina and Georgia the
Forest Service keeps its tallies on a state-wide
basis and refuses to disclose totals for the
individual forests, so that the more profitable
national forests in the piedmont cancel out
somewhat the losses in the Appalachian national
forests.
In 1990 the USFS timber program in
Tennessee's Cherokee National Forest cost
taxpayers $654 thousand, and in Virginia's
Jefferson National Forest the timber program
lost $969 thousand last year.
"YOUR GOOSE IS COOKED"
...Then there are the hot geese of Oak
Ridge. According to the August (1990)
Scientific American, geese on the 35,000-acre
Oak Ridge Reservation have been detected wuh
up 103,950 picocuries of cesium-137 per gram
of breast meat. "In tenns of Christmas dinner,
just one pound would deliver almost 100
millircms, which is the generally accepted
standard for nnnual exposure."
Rrprinirdfrom IM Watrrn ,Vu.-tlt Carolina Alttatlt!c Acc:mt.
Foll.l9'm.
FI:'\E WITH ~lE
Nmir•I World Jl:ewi Sef\'1cc
Draw111g by Rodney Webb
The J.L. Todd Auction C.Ompany, a
Georgia-b;tSed lnnd developer, has nccn fined
S206.400 for violations of the NC
Scd1men1a1ion Pollution Control Act.
"lbi~ is a landmark penalty, the biggest
sedimentation pollution line in the history of
North Carolina, " said Don Follner of the :-;c
Depanmen1 of Environment, I lealth, and
Natural Resources (DEHNR).
The company was fined $103,200 for
violating the sedimentation act on a site in
Jackson County five miles north of the Qualia
Bound.iry on Route 19, and J.L. Todd, as
owner of the property and director of the
company was assessed an additional $103,200.
According lhe state DEHNR officials, the
violations occurred \\hen Todd built access
roads on a 10 acre tract (part of 1,000 acres he
owns in the area) that had been ;1uc1ioned off in
small parcels for residential development.
Richard Phillips of the DEi INR office in
Asheville said, "h's fairly serious due to the
large tract involved and the proximity Lo
!itrcams."
"I DON'T WANT TO SEE
NO ORV"
The US Forest Service (USFS) is
proposing a five-mile extension to an Off-R_oad
Vehicle (ORV) trail in the Nolichucky D1stnct of
the Cherokee National Forest near Greeneville,
TN. The extension would tie the area into an
"extensive net\,ork." of ORV trails, according to
a USFS spokesperson.
Other forest users feel that there is already
entirely too much ORV traffic in the area and
that the noisy vehicles are a grave thrc:u to
habitat. There have nlready been c.ornplaints
about the OR V's from hikers on the Appalachian
Trail and residents of the Shelton Laurel area
.
just over the Slate line.
As planned, the extension w~ld pas~
between two bear preserves, greatly increasing
access and rcsulting disturbance: in an atCfi .
where building up the black bear populauon is
supposedly a t0p priority. Bears ~hy away from
human intrusion.
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources
Agency has already voiced objections to the
proposed trail. ·,:·he more activity ~nd the more
access you have m there, the less likely you are
to have a good bear population," said Ron
Saunders, a biologist with the agency.
C.Omments on the potential threat of
ORV's 10 wild habitat in the Cherokee National
Forest can be addressed to the forest
headquarters at: Box 2010; Oeveland, TN
37320.
Contpil,:d 111por1frqm a rcp(JII III lhe A!hc•illc C,ti1en.
Spn119. 1991
�SHELTON LAUREL
Natural World News
SPECIAL REPORT
"The trees are so high so the legend goes
They grow all the way to the sky.
And they were here before you were born
And they'll be here the day that you die."
Waltzing with the Mountains
Shelton Laurel is situated in nonhem
Madison county, near the Nonh
Carolina-Tennessee state line. Shaped by the
high ridges and cascading slopes, gently
forested and filled with the sounds of rumbling
branches and streams, it is a beautiful and rich
land, special to the people of the community.
Things have come a long way since the
first white settler in the Shelton Laurel area lived
in a hollowed-out poplar for a season until he
got his cabin built. The forests have changed:
the people, the streami;, the wildlife, the way of
life have all undergone tremendous change. But
it is still evidem that there are people living here
who love these mountains and don't want to see
things change too fast or change for the worse.
There a.re recreational areas used for
fishing, and hunting as well as rugged wild
places in the portion of the Shelton Laurel
watershed that is overseen by the US Forest
Service (USPS). Although these areas seem
serene, they are the subject of controversy· a
controversy between two different interest
groups: those who want to extract the wealth of
the forest and those who a.re interested in having
it remain whole.
This difference of interests goes back
many years, and it currently centers on the
evolving role of the Forest Service. The Forest
Service once was seen as the protector of the
woods. Now it is now seen as an agency
protecting a financial invesanent A life-long
resident of Shelton Laurel, Haze Landers,
remembers a time when the Forest Service
wouldn't let anyone take so much as a single
tree for firewood . "I thought they were set up to
protect the forest.", Haze said. Now, after years
of poor logging pmctices and below-cost sales,
he sees the Forest Service in a different light:
"They don't love these mountains. If they did,
they wouldn't treat 'em this a'way."
The folks in Shelton Laurel have plenty of
other reasons besides poor timbering practices 10
dislke the Forc:.t Service. Back in the late
l 970's, when the RARE !I surveys were being
conducted, residents were told by Forest Service
employees that if the national forest in their area
were designated as "wilderness." they would no
longer be allowed 10 hunt, fish, or camp on the
land.
However, this is patently untrue. and
some of the folks in Shelton Laurel wish they
could have another opponunity to designate the
area as a wilderness, because now the forest
faces clearcuning. roadbuilding. and herbicide
poisoning - all the atroeities that accompany
timber harvesting.
-Sp ri.t,9·, t9 9 l
A CONSTITUENT'S LETTER
~anuary 24, 199·
Representative Charles Taylor Dear Mr. Taylor:
I hate roadbuilding on Federal Forest
Service land.
I hate clearcutting.
I hate below-cost timber sales.
I want all of these things to stop.
Yours truly,
Haze Landers
Marshall, NC
On January 24th the community held a
meeting in L'\urel School to discuss concerns
about preliminary plans for four timber sale
projects in Shelton Laurel. The meeting was
hosted by the French Broad Forest Walch
(FBFW). a citizens' group established two years
ago to panicipate in dialogue with the Forest
Service and make suggestions for the
management of the French Broad Ranger
District rn attendance that evening were about
50 people from the community, Forest Service
personnel, and Congressional aides.
Mary Kelly, Phd., ecologist, coordinator
for the Western Nonh Carolina Alliance, a
member of the FBFW, and a Shelton Laurel
resident. explained the four proposed timber
sales in Brigman Hollow, Little Prong,
Sugarloaf, and White Oak Flats in plaiin terms.
The Forest Service plans to cut 11 million board
feet of timber and build 6.8 miles of new road.
As the primary method of "harvest" would be
clcarcutting, that would translate into 805 acres
of cleared and roaded land in Shelton Laurel in
the course of the next three years.
The new District Ranger for the French
Broad District, Kimberly Brandel, said that she
is interested in listening to the concerns of the
people and is planning to do an "area analysis"
to look at the entire area as a whole instead of as
separate timber sales. She also stated that "no
decisions" had been made and thal the four sales
in question are "not even being considered at
this time." Meanwhile, the figures still reflect
the board feet quotas, the survey tape still flaps
in the breeze from the trees, and long-rime
residents remember, "We've been lied to by the
Forest Service before."
Pat Cook. a planner for the Forest
Service. tried for more than half an hour to
explain the need for management in the forest
and how the Forest Service is presently revising
and re-evaluating their views of timbering
methods such as clearcutting.
But Mary Kelly pointed out that the
projected ASQ (Allowable Sale Quantity for
timber) for the French Broad District for fiscal
year 1991 is expected to be 6.5 million board
feet (mbO. This is up from 5 mbf in 1990. And
now more recent infonnation indicates that lhe
ASQ for the French Broad could go as high as
8.5 mbf.
One local farmer spoke out saying, ''If
she's got to tum out six and a half million feet,
that seems to be it." But Ranger Brandel
answered that no matter what her ASQ, she was
first and foremost "committed 10 stewardship"
and that she W3S \'\1lling to "listen to what the
people want."
At that point, one member of the FBFW
called for a show of hands.
"How mnny people want to see Shelton
Laurel preserved the way it is?" The response
was almost unanimous.
"Well, that ought 10 tell you what we, the
people of this community, want."
Obviously the folks of Shelton Lautcl are
not interested in seeing the forest health
"restored" through resource management They
prefer seeing the land in its present healthy state.
As Haze Landers secs it, ''They say it'll grow
back to its original state in 250 years. So why
wait? It'll stay ihat way for the next 250 years if
they don't cut it down. We got generations of
kids between now and then who'll never know
what it was like if they cul it down."
The citizens making up the French
Broad Forest Watch can be proud of their effons
in staying ahead of the game with the Forest
SCIVice and infonning the community of what is
to come in their ranger district They are
definitely setting a precedent for what needs to
happen throughout the entire bioregion.
Their neighbors in the Cherokee National
Forest could learn much about the type of
recreation and forest activities that are
life-sustaining and non-desbllctive. Just over
the ridge, across the state line. in the Cherokee
National Forest, roads and ORV (off-road
vehicle) trails are being cxccnded deeper into the
bean of the forest. This is a matter of concern to
FBFW members, as they see the ecosystem as a
whole, and do not wish to see the habitat
disturbed.
When people in communities such as
Shelton Laurel take a stand and hold their
ground, it is like a breath of fresh mountain air
in the polluted wind.,; of change. Such effons
will take hard work. the kind of work that
people of the mountains know well. But the
effons to save these mountains do not go
unrewarded. As Haze put it, "There ain'
nothin', nothin' nowhei:c. that the Lord ever
created, I don't think, that can beat the looks of
these mountains...with the water in the streams
a'comin down betwixt 'em. I don't think He
built anything any better. Honestly, Tdon't
believe He cou1d'vc. I figure Ile thought we'd
be so poor, He'd have to give us somethin'."
- by Rodney Webb
�(H20). and carbon dioxide (CO2). This is why
t
OFF THE GRID
REGIONAL FUELS
by Jim Houser
- In Nownber and December I logged abo111 50 milts
driving my van around Boone on ethanol. -
Last issue, I said I would delve deeper into
the question of water power. Since !hat time,
however, there have been certain major tragic
events which pcnain directly to our dependence
on grid energy, in this case oil.
Seventy percent of all the oil used in this
country is used by the transportation sector, as
anyone, who has had the misfortune of driving a
car in downtown Boone on Friday afternoon, is
probably aware. We all depend a great deal on
our automobiles. They are essentially a necessity
if we want to get to and from work everyday,
especially in this region where mass transit is so
scarce.
The consequences of this dependence are
now painfully obvious. As a nation, a people, we
in the United States like to think we are in control
of our own destiny. But now, if you believe our
leaders. the actions of a single individual (and his
anny). left us with absolutely no alternative but
to fight an extremely costly and deadly war.
Docs this have 10 be so? Do we in lhc Katuah
region have recourse 10 other fuels besides
gasoline to drive our vehicles? Is it possible for
us to develop a regional supply of fuel which
would suengthen our regional economy while at
the same time free us from being economically
dependent on a bunch of countries many of us
would have been hard pre.~sed to find on a map
just a few monrhs ago?
The leader in the use of alternatives to
gasoline in this area is the Rural Public
Transponation Authority (otherwise known as
AppalCART}, headquancrcd in Boone, NC.
According to Chris Turner, director of
AppalCART,
In and of itself, public 1111nsponation, even when 11
uses gasoline. is a way to reduce our dependence on
foreign oil. A bus carrying 50 people uses a lot less gas
than 50 separate catS, as well as reducing traffic congestion
and air pollution, two problems which Boone i.~ beginning
to ex pcricncc.
AppalCART carries the conservative role of
public 1ranspona1ion one step funher by actively
experimenting with fuel aJtcma1ives. They have
eight vehicles which use propane as a fuel.
Being a fossil fuel like gasoline, propane is
also a grid fuel delivered to this area from Texas.
via a single pipeline. Nevenhclcss, it is a much
cleaner burning fuel than gasoline, due to 1he fact
lha1 it enters the engine as a true gas. ralher than
an atomii.ed liquid like gasoline. Liquids bum
(instead of exploding like gases), leaving behind
carbon deposits which foul oil and lead 10 the
deterioration of an engine. The complete
combustion of a hydrocarbon gas like propane
(C2H6) produces nothing more than water
Xntunfl Journot pmic 26
vehicles which must operate indoors. like
forklifts. use propane as a fuel.
Propane, however, is still a fossil fuel and,
clean as it may be, the carbon dioxide its
combustion produces adds to the Greenhouse
Effect, underscoring the reason why all fossil
fuel use must eventually be cunailed.
Propane would be a good vehicle fuel for the
coming transition period when we will have ro
switch to a non-fossil fuel trnnsponation system.
Its use would reduce smog, and it would
introduce society at large to the concept that
vehicles do run on something else besides
gasoline. In addition. a propane fuel system
could easily be modified 10 accept melhanc (since
they are both gases), and methane is a tested
vehicle fuel. The East Ohio Gas Company of
Nonh-East Ohio runs an of their company
vehicles on natural gas. The advamoge of
methane is that it can be of non-fossil fuel origin.
Methane (CH4), more commonly known as
natural gas, comes from oil wells, but it is also
found in swamps (swamp gas), septic tanks,
landfills, and biogas digesters (technology
specifically designed 10 harvest methane).
Actually, it is found anywhere organic matter has
been cut-off from oxygen. Bacteria which can
only live in the absence of oxygen (anaerobic),
consume the organic matter and "breath" Cll4,
instead of CO2 like oxygen (aerobic) organisms.
Non-fossil methane can be made in a few
weeks in a biogas digester or landfill. Biogas
digesters are very common in some countries.
China has an estimated 7 million diges1ers.
Communities are already required to vent
their landfills in order to prevent methane
explosions. Enlightened communities are
capturing and using that gas.
Bio-fuel, like non-fossil methane, is energy
harvested from a currently active and ongoing
biological process. Therefore, as long as there are
there are plants growing to replace the ones
harvested for fuel, the combustion of biofucls
does no1 add to the Greenhouse Effecr.
Another common biofuel is ethanol or ethyl
alcohol (com squeezens). Ethanol is harvested
from the fermentation cycle (yeast consuming
glucose and excreting alcohol). We can utilize lhe
energy in alcohol by completing the combustion
process begun by the yeast - turning alcohol into
carbon dioxide and water.
This process does not necessarily destroy the
food cycle, as many people contend The organic
remains left in the fermentation 1ank (stillagc) arc
a high protein foodstuff. Essentially all the com
grown in this nation's "com belt," goes through
the fermentation cycle at large industrial plants
(Archer Daniel Midland, and Staley). The alcohol
is sold to oil companies, the carbon dioxide to
soda companies, and the stillagc to livestoek
owners.
Dunng the 1980's AppalCART was actively
producing and using ethanol, thonks to a
Department of Energy grant from the Caner
administration's Alternative Energy Small Grants
program.
They have on-site a working still capable of
producing I0,000 gallons of ethanol fuel ( 180
proof) per year.
The program is not currently active for a
number of political reasons. and because they had
difficulty converting a vehicle to run satisfactorily
on their alcohol. 1l1is docs not mean that alcohol
is not a good fuel. Over half the vehicles in brazil
run on pure ethanol harvested from sugar cane,
and their vehicles are ma.de by the Ford Motor
Company and Volkswagen. In this country
manufacturl!rs are just beginning to introduce
flexible fuel vehicles which will run on a variety
of liquid fuels, including alcohol.
Since AppalCART experienced some
difficulties converting vehicles. I decided to srudy
up and do a conversion of my own. so that I
could beuer understand the difficulties they
encountered_
Fonunately, Talready had an old 1966 Ford
Econoline Supervan with a 240, in-line six
cylinder engine, which, luckily enough, was
essentially the same kind of engine AppalCART
had worked with.
l found that, as fuels, the essential difference
between alcohol and gasoline is that gasoline
requires a 15/1 air-to-fuel ratio for good
combustion while alcohol only requires a 9/1
air-to-fuel ratio. This ratio can be changed in the
carburetor by adding more fuel or decreasing the
air. For a number of reasons, the main one being
simplicity, I chose the air restriction method.
Appa!CART. and most conversions in the
literature. pursued the route of adding more fuel.
Mother Earth's 1979 Mother's Alcolwl Fu.el
Seminar is probably one of the best explanations
of this conversion scheme. However, a manual
from the State Fair Community College in
Sedalia, Missouri (816/826-7100 ext 220)
entitled Conversion of Gasoline Engines to Use
Ethanol as rhe Sole Fu.el points out that the liquid
systems in a carburetor arc precisely calibrat~
and independent of the operator. while the arr
flow, through the use of a manual choke. is
under the control of the driver and can be varied
for a wide range of speed and load requirements.
They install a metal sleeve in the carburetor
venturi to reduce the amount of air.
So I spliced a five gallon plastic gas can into
my fuel line before the fuel pump (plastic is
necessary because alcohol will rust metal). With
the simple rum of a valve r could switch from gas
to alcohol. This way l could start on gasoline (1he
way all Brazilian cars do). and then switch to
alcohol when 1he engine got hot. At the end of
my trip I would switch back to gasoline in
preparation for my next stan.
Even without the addition of a venturi sleeve
this system worked quite well. By simply closing
my choke a bit l was able to drive all over Boone.
My only real problem was speed on _lhe big hills,
which might be alleviated by advancmg the
timing and adding lhe venturi sleeve.
The best thing about the 50 miles J drove on
alcohol was they were relatively clean. With the
help of Bob Chandler who runs the power lab. r
checked my emmissions on an exhaust gas
analyzer at Watauga lligh School. On alcohol my
carbon monoxide emissions were reduced to
0.2% from the 6.5% of gasoline. Hydrocarbons
were reduced from 100 ppm 10 27 ppm. These
alcohol exhaust emissions are well within the
current guidelines.
The possibility or small farms generating .
their own fuel for on-fann purposes could easily
be a reality. This combined with the use of
subsidized energy crops for public transponation
could be the beginning of a truly regional energy
economy, helping 10 bring meaningful work and
economic security to our local communiti1/
A.nyoN 1nttrated"' a,,.,,,, "' <kpth look at the
A.ppalCA.RT a/£olwlf~I protram ~"" smd SS.00 to, OFF 11/E
GRID. Rt I , Bux J OO. 8/u,w,g Rod , NC 28605 f<>r a ror, of
my rrport A.ppalCART Alrohol ,..u~l l'rogrom
,hu~•mrnl Mis 20,0()() word rq,ort tlioroughly ro,·,rs tliL:
ph) ,u:aJ and admirustrotrw a.<per:u cf the program as "ell as the
baclrwnd rcwvdt I did an vehick ~on··~rstnrt Spn tUJ , I !l9 I
�LETS
What is LETS?
LETS Network 1s a Locru Economic Trading System
which helps people trade their goods and services so they
can get what they need without using cash. LETS is an
information exchange which through a computer or
bookkeeping keeps track of account holdcts' trading
ll1lllsactions.
The benefits of LETS arc:
I) Encourages sclf-confid;:ncc and initiative among its
u~. People who have previously valued themselves on
lhe employment market discover Ihm they ha,·e olher
skills and ways in which they earn money
2) Stimulates local trading activity, as the currency Clln
only circulate locally. In order to cam "emcmld dollars"
(the community currency), people must tr.we with local
p:ople
3) Transactions strengthen personal relationships and
goodwill w11hin a community, as trading always involves
a personru one.10-onc arrangement.
How did LETS begin?
LETS was established in 1983 by Michael Lin1on, who
was concerned about the high unemployment rat.e in
Vancouver, BC. He observed that while many local people
had ~kills and products to offer, their lack of money
prevcnt.ed them from trading with each other. By 1987, e
do,en LETSystems were opcr:uing in Canadn.
Who can join LETS?
AU members or the community can join. LETS docs not
discriminate on lhe basis of r.ice. sex, nationruity. age,
sexual preference, lilUlllcial staws, or political orientation.
RESOURCES
Books
•Berry. Thomas The Dream of the Earth (Sierra
Club Books, San Francisco, 1989)
•Berry, Wendell /Jome Economics (North Point
Press. San Francisco. 1987)
•Daly. Herman and John Cobb For lhe Common
Good. Redirecting the Economy Toward
Community, the Environmenl, and a Sustainable
Furure (Beacon Press, Boston. 1989)
How is LETS organized?
LETS Network has a Membership directory which lisLS
311 its members alphabetically. as well as their goods C1nd
services. Members needing goods or scr.·1ccs conLXt other
members who offer what they netd. Aftcr a tr.msac1ion has
been agreed upon and complcccd, :1 roccipt su11ing the
amount u-ansact.ed 1s scm 10 lhe LETS Network. The
network keeps track of lhe tmnsactions. Traansactions are
accounted for in ·emerald dolm" (the community
currency) which equals cash • dollar for dollat. Exchanges
can occur in a combination of emeralds or cash. Members
choose who they wish ID trnllsac1 with and for what
amounts.
How does LETS work?
The account holders of LETSysLCm lis1 what their wan&s
are and what they have 10 offer in a directory. for eimmple:
068-·StMPLE CAR MECHANIC
Rosie ~53773
069-·LA WN MOWINO
Dave 339-990S
07S··BUJLDING WORK
Andrew 442-9878
086-FRESH VEGETABLES
Jtll 776·2024
•Morrison, Roy Building the Road as We Travel:
Mondragon's CooperaJivt Society (New Society
Publishers, 1990)
•Power, Thomas The EcofllJmic Pursuit of Quality
(M.E. Shnrpc, 1988)
•de Romana. Alfredo, Tht Autonomous Economy:
An Emuging A/Juna1ive to Industrial Society
(Monchanin Cross-Cultural Centre, 4917. Rue St.
Urbain, Monucal. Quebec, C:tnada H2T 2\VI;
1989)
•Schumacher, E.F. Small is Beautiful: Economics
as if People Ma11ered (Harper and Row, New York,
1989)
•Eller, Ronald Mintrs. Mil/hands, and Mountaineers
(University of Tennessee Press. 1982)
•Elgm, Duane. Voluntary Simplicity: An
Ecological liftsryle tha1 Promotts Personal and
Social Renewal (Ban&am, 1982)
•Hacnke, David. Ecological Politics and
Bioregionalism. (The Biorcgional Projccr, New Life
Farm, Box 3, Brixey. MO 65618)
•Hau de no sau nee Nation, A Basic Call 10
Consciousness (Akwcsasnc Not.es. Mohawk Nation,
Periodicals
•Catalyst. Investing in Sot:ial Change P.O. Box
364; Worcest.er, VT 0S682
•In Busintss Box 323; Emmaus, PA 18049
•Katuah Journal (particularly Issue 7; Spring, 1985)
Audio Tape
Rooscvch., NY 13683; 1978)
•Philosophy and Economics in the Ecozoic Era
Conftrence with Al/rt.do dt Romana and Tlwmas
Berry, Tapes available from: Center for Reflection
•Hawken, Paul, Tht Nut EcofllJmy
on the Second Law: 8420 Camellia Dnvc; Raleigh.
NC 27612.
•Henderson, Hale! 11:e Policies of the Solar Agt'
•McRobic, Ocorgc, Small is Po.rsible
Projects & Organi,.ations
•Morgan, Oriscom I/ope for tht Future
(Community Setvicc, Box 243. Yellow Springs,
OH 4S387; 1987)
•Allernathe Economic Development Idea~,
MCED; University o( MO (628 Clark Hall);
Columbia, MO 6S21 I. Strategics. tools, case
studies for communily-ba.'iCd planning.
Spnm,J, 1991
++means "to offer" and - means "Wlllllcd.•
People get in touch with each other and negotiate a Lradt.
Rosie agr~ to pay Bob SO emerald dollar.; for five hours
of car mcchrulics, so Bob's emerald account goes up by
SSO and Rosie's account goes clown by SS0. No money is
exchanged. Bob sends a receipt to LETS which is
rcgi!;tcrcd in lhe books. The sum total or "acdits" in !he
system always balances ei,;actly lhe sum iolal of the
"debits." Account holders am take out "I0311S" simply by
spending cmemld dolllll'$ and running up a debit accounL If
a member leaves town. the sys1.em as a whole absorbs the
loss, ns shareholders and customers do with normal
banking losses. (This has never happened.) The more
account-holders there ore, the grcau:r the variety of tmde ts
possible. The LETSyst.em is a non-profit system. No
int.crest is charged on "ovcitlrafts.• and no interest given on
pos1 li vc account balances.
This inform111wn was exurptedfrom 1he "LE'fSNEWS~
article by Sarah F1111Sle.r itr News Crom Aprovocho.
Drawing by Rob M_,..jck
· Coalition for J obs and the F.m ironment
Working ror environmental quality and economic
ju.slice in NE Tennessee and SW Virginia.
• Bi-monthly newsleucr from CJE: 114 Court Street;
P.O. Box 64S; Abingdon, VA 24210 (703)
628-8996.
• E. F. Schumacher Society
Box 76, RD 3: Great Barrington. MA 01230
lnformauon on SHARE (Sclf·Hclp Association for
a Regional Economy) end "berksharcs•, an
alternative regionru currency.
•lnstilutl' ror Community Eco nomics
ISi Montague City Road; Greenfield, l\fA 01301 A
wealth of ideas and information including The
Community Loan Fund Manual and revolving loan
funds.
•Institu te ror Local SeJf.Reliance
242S l8lh Street NW: Washington, DC 20009;
(202) 232-4108. Provides ~ h , information, and
direct I.C(hnieal essisuince 10 citie.~ and towns.
V:iricty of pubbshcd papers available.
• LETS (Local Em p loyme n t Trad ing
System) Find out about lhis dynamic approach 10
regional currency. LETS; 37S Johnson Avenue;
Coutc03y, BC V9N 2Y2 Canada
•Rcgtneration Project
Rodalc Press; 33 E. Minor Street; Emmaw.. PA
18049, Promotes community regeneration,
particularly in the area of health, ctonomy. and
agriculture. Also publi.•,hes Regmeration magazine.
•School or LMng
RD I, Boit 1508 AA: Spring Orovc, PA 17362.
r-ocuscs on al1cma1ivc economic sy~1cms and
concepts: publi.~hcli Grun Revolution ncwslcucr.
Xaumr, Jo\&nmt
paqe z:,
�..
We must come to Ille understanding that the
amount of production possible is limited, llS the canh is
lim1ted in the amount of rcsowtes it is able to yield. We
should not treat Ille earth os a commodity, bul rather as a
community.
Adam Smith's concept oC the "Invisible Hand,•
which he claimed wiU guide our selftSh pursuiis of
supply and derrumd lO a 1111wral economic order, is (lawed.
As World Baok economist HetmM D31y says:
ShD11Td tltue IIO/ al lm1' be a mini"""" ,t~a,dsJ11p of
DRUMMI N G
To &he EditorS of KOJ@h Journal 1 read wilh inlCrCSt your Summer, 1990 number
oo "Canying Cap:lcity.• Very inlCrCSting matcrilll lhcrc,
and some very powerful ideas.
I was particularly intrigued by the graph oC
population coordinated wilh thc evcnJS or regional
history. Thal graph lod me into an interesting uain of
lhought.
Once iribal societies that lived off lhe land
regulated their populotions to what lhcir defined
ICl'ritories could provide. The economy of each group was
relaled to the available n:sowccs of !heir regioos. and
because lhe balance of population was aucial to survival,
it was a tnbal maucr, not a question of individual
preference. Things were very clear back lhen.
As was pointed out in lhe "Carrying Capacity•
issue, !he bioregion is sliU the n:uuml unil or human
hJbiution, however much we may au.empt to conceal
that by victimizing workers in other regions. importing
scarce resources, etc. tr we over-strcsS our bioregioru,
then that stress will only be passed on to other regions,
until lhe whole planet feels the suain. as is happening
now. Like those LribaJ people of yore, we once again
have to live within the economic limits of our
bioregion.~. The humM population still has to be
balanced to the re1,'10n's ability to provide,~ it was then,
which makc.s popufation conlli)I an ecological question
as well as a quc;;tion oS individual choice. It is up to lhe
people of each region to n:cognize how many people
!heir region could mainiain wuh external suppons, and
then accept !hat level as a goal to approach - gradually.
Bccnusc we over-consume so much, every
irutividual in this country counts for more in tenns of
rc,,()W'CCS, TI!en:fore, llS well as reducing our
consumption, wc must be very responsible about
keeping our number.. under control. Regional population
goots clccided by the people of the 111gion based on lhe
limiis of their regional economies seem like a necessary
ecological policy, b111 also one lhlll would grc:uly
11lCJ'C3Se the prosperity and wdl-bcing of the people or
each biorcgion. Thanks co Ka1uah Journal for the insight!
Sincerely,
Hoyt Wilhelm
N. Wilkesboro. NC
Dc.irKatUDh,
It is with sadness that l inform you that my
husband. Jack Combes, died of ()3llCre®C cancer in
Tampa, Florida on May 2 ISi, 1990. The world has lost n
long time dediaucd informed environmcnraliSI.
Jack supported your programs and your
publication, bu1 now you may n:move his name from
your mailing lisL
Wishing you continued WCCC.51;
Sancerely,
Nina C.Ombcs
De.Ir Ka1uah,
I read in the last issue that Ka1@h is going
lhrough difficult times. I wi.~h you all well - Ille jOurnal
is a bright $J)Ol in my life.
1M land. raJJiu tlian ltaving 1M •invisib/1/o«• nu, by theprofil
tJo, only t:onlrolling /1JC1or.
The invisible fooc in this case would be the
aftermath of poorly managed land. Daly poinlS out the
sukiJit "111vulbk liands", k
Dear Friends,
The Unil.Cd Swc.s oC America has a unique and
amazing culuue. It has provided a great many things 10
large numbers of ilS pOpublion. M:lss production has
produced not only large quMtiues of J¥0(lucts, but has
done so cheaply, due in pan 10 11 readily available soun:e
of cheap fuel, namely oil. What is our rcutionship 10
Ille production of oil? Clearly we are dcpcndem on ii,
but 10 what extcnt? With oil we run our ua111,-ponauon
sySICms, communications, heating and electricity. Oil
and its products enable us to produce linoleum tiles, latex
and acrylic paints, clothes, dyes, plnstic bottle.\ toys,
etc. Needless lO say, oil and ourculwre arc ine~tricably
in tenwined.
Problems arose when we bcgM 10 131c.e llus
resource for granlCd, conducting business as though there
were a constant and readily available supply. Oil is a
finite resource, and we arc using u at a ru1e fa.~tcr lhlln
natw-c is able to produce iL Evenwally we are going to
run out of it. and we are going to have to SUJ'l thinking
about 1C11ewablc fuels. Our society has become addicted
to instant gratification and Ille quiclc fut, plummeting
headlong into the fuaure wit.bout much forcthooght or
plnnning. Many of us have not truly considered Ille fact
1h31 the cycle of rcnewability with oil is hundreds of
millions of years. Oil dates back m time to a period 300
million 10 S00 million years ogo. As Jim Houser wri!Cl;
m l\fom~ntwn, I do not wnnt to sec our society, "Bum
as brightly as the sun
only 10 fmd lhat we "[grew)
while the growing was good, wid oow must die as Ille
dying is proved.· As Ille laws or lhetmodynamics Leach
us, "The star which burns twice as brightly only bums
half as long."
Due 10 our dependency on 011, wc have lost toUCh
with ourselves, our culture and the earth cycles which
ultimately suppon us. No longer have we an
understanding of the mechanisms, l.bcories and soences
which have produced our cultural anifaas, and we begin
to ta.kc !hem for grunted. We rely almost entirely on oil
to run our "Cree mnrkct" economy.
This "Cree mnrtct• ecooomy leads to an
overproduciton of goods. In ordct to com()CIC and still
mainiain a profit, priCC$ must drop and sales must
increase along with an maeasc Ill production.
C.Omp:inies are look.ing for low wage wortcers. which
help add lO their overall profits. A company may even
threaten 10 take ils business elsewhere (pcrtiaps to o lhinl
world country where the wages arc really low), unless
union concessions arc made. The employed worker must
worlc longer hours to make Lhe same amount of money
and maintain the same standard of living. Nevcrthelcs.~.
leisure ume and quality of life is sacrific:c:d, as wdl as an
understanding of the eanh S}'Slcrns which would
ultimately bring them security. We would be well
advised to listen 10 the word.~ of David Brandon in the
book Zt.ia in the Art of Helping, wherein ll is stal.Cd:
can:
COSl to our environment:
MUJtw•fortM .~ of1<nl11niudincreasuofwclJllll
and pop11/a,ion, atirpal, great """'1¥n ofsp«w ofrar, p/anls
and onimals and resources.
When wW our psychic incomes be satisfied?
Perhaps never. We an: IOO caught up in Ille economic
paradigm to be able to see past our.;clvcs.
Rachel Summas
Boone.NC
Fnends-
After reading more about tl1e matriarchal Ooddess
religions in The GrcOJ Cosmic Mothu of All, lltis sacred
symbol came lO me. I was thinldng how all the art and
symbols of pre-history were in honor of the
Mother-female-woman's body. While I am in reverence of
that, l also felt a lack of powerful male symbols in
reverence of lhnt aspect of mutu31 creation. C.Ombining
the spiral of life, often associated wilh women/birlh,
wilh the pointed arrow (obviously Phallic), lhis symbol
came to me and felt powerfully whole. When I showed it
to my lover, he immediately said, "Tum ii around."
Suddenly it was a sacred female symbol complete wilh
fallopian tube spiral, birth canal, and VI - a mirror image
• in balance - inner and outer - so different, yet so much
alike. It seemed appropriate, in this ca~. 1h31 the female
would see the male fertility in the symbol, and mnle
would see the female, honoring each other through o
unique humnlriarchlll symbol.
C.SacRcd
Only""""' who Is IIO/ itr.pr~d by IM Wbthl of his
po1.susions, and Jd not pcs~,sed wuli 1h• Med cQfllilwo,,sly 10
fwl.food and s~/1u ow, tu.l:oNJ live°"' vnporuw qlJtstibM
'11'1,o"'" 11 ll'Jiae""' I IOUlt? \\'hat u IM ll<JJIVC of life?'
Erika Schneider
Xatuafi JoumaC page 28
Spring, 1991
�Dc:itK01riah,
Enclosed is my check for S10.00 to renew my
subscription for anolhcr year.
I have debated and waited 10 renew wilh a reason.
For most of its publication lifetime, I have bought
Ka11ioh Journal over the counter. and subscribed when I
moved west a year and a hlllf ago.
It saddens me !hat Katuah Cor some 1.1me has
spoken wilh G voice increasingly shrill. I do not want
anolhcr cnvironmcntnl activist news organ-I have access
to many or lhese. What I want IO read more of in Katuah
Journal are aniclc..~ on the people, the h&Storie.~, !he
Native Ameriellns, spirituality (eitpecially NMive
Amenc:m and alternative), humor. poetry, music, nature,
self-sufficiency. rural living, cooking and n:cipcs, special
(and obscure) pl3ccs and events. the uniqueness. the
peculiarities, the gentleness, the quiet goodness, !he
sense of family and community so common 10 my kin in
Kauiah Province. To me, there's plenty of "diversity" in
!he abo\'C, both "natural and social" and intenclatcd.
Through !he years Kauiah has often l.OUChed my soul ,n
small ways, and to me !hat's the best kind of "education·_
Having lived in Kauiah Province for 47 years
before depaning, and with family "rOOIS" going b.1ck to
!he t 700's there in my Christian relations and even
longer in my ChocUlw relations, my heart remains in
K:miah as surely as my body will return 10 join it when
my Sedona sorjoum is completed- Now that I'm away
Crom "home." those words above speak of wh:ll I miss
most of all.
If Kauiah is headed toward a more angry.
confronUllional tone, or more "what's wrong• instead of
"what's right.• just send my check back, please.
Thanks for !cuing me have my say.
Judy Elizabeth Love
All of the elements /Ml you mention which rn.tJU
Ka1uah a bl'auliful and unique place, we all hold dear and
will conrinue 10 write about because they are a part of
our Ifft, bur so is the habitat which makes /his way of
life possible, and it is thrcattn.cd.
We live in the midst of the greatest evolurionary
catasrropl~ since the end of the Cretauou.t Period. 65
•million years ago. For those of u.s who liw: in and cart
Qbout Ka11ioh it would be irrespormble not to say
somcllWlg. Yt'/. we are aware tlwl when you livfl in the
midst of rhe .wciery largely resp0nsible/or the
catastrophe, whar you Junv: 10 say probably will ,wl
sound plcasa111 10 their cars.
• The Editors
Dc.itKatua/1,
Encl~ please find S40.00 for !he complete set
or b.xl.: issues. Also, please lind an addi1io113J S10.00 for
a foture subscription (after thi.~ one expucs).
We love you. The Kattiah Journal is a work or
spirit and artt I trust we'll answer your uppcal with
enough v!gor to give you new Ufe.
Warmly,
Ste\·e Qubcck
Or.wing by Rob Levcmt
Dear Ka1uah,
I love your journal and always look forward 10 it.
then treasure it until the neitL I really think it's
exceptional in many wayi;, but for me, thc spirituality or
!he Joumal 10uches my heart so deeply.
I hope you continue forever; and if you would
ever need assistance from someone outside !he Province
physically but lhcrc in spirit every day, I hope you will
let me know.
Bless each or yoo.
Nancy LignilZ
DcarKa1uah,
Thank you for sending issues of Katuah Journal
IO me, we've found them very interesting and informative
with beautiful art and open accessible layout. I'm so glad
we've discovered you! I'm including a check to cover a
subscription, but rn give you !he mailing information
'below so I do noc have to cut up the b.xlc: of one of my
issues.
David and Cindy Ort
To Katuah Journal:
Dear People.
I am a member of a Sydney-based group that until
recently was bioregional repn:sentative in an Australian
bio-rcgional network lcnown as Austtulian Association
for Sus1ainable Communities (AASC).
Though this network is no longer formally alive,
the groups of rural and urb.,n communities the
bio-regional mtsS11ge "stained" after cuuings Crom such
publications as Planet Drum Review and Akwas:isnc
Notes were circulated (via an AASC press cuuing
network) around thc countryside. are numerous and
mostly all locally active.
Recently in Sydney l met with Peter Berg and
friend Judy. Judy showed us many CJtamples or
bio-regionally inspired publications and pnnted creations,
one of which was your Mag37.inc Kotuah JourllOJ.
l was very unpressed wilh the breadlh in one
article or the Spring 1989 Edition by David Morris.
Could you please send me a copy of that edition or that
article if the.re arc none left? Or word of where I might
get a copy locally if my failure to enclose/forward any
money with this no1c discourages you? I would be
happy to send you wluucver the cost is in rc1um ma.ii if
you can get me a copy.
I look forward to hearing from your pan or the
plancL Over here il is (once again) mysteriously 100 hot,
and then just as mysteriously coo abruptly cold, then
again jUSt ~ radically windy without v.aming. Too
much change, 100 many extremes. all too often, to feel
comfonablc talking about !he wcalher - and the sun huns
your eyes and neck.
Right now it's I !pm night. and well away from
banks and money currency exchange venues, so I hope
you can bill me in the rewm mml.
Hope thi:. !cu.er finds Someone...
Regards,
Sieve Ward
.
Sprim.,, 190 I
'.J((lfuofl Journal J)O(JC 29
�(coruinued limn page 14)
fossil fuel draw. We may not be able to think that
way for tOO much longer. As the oil supplies
diminish, the gas is going to be getting more and
more expensive and it's going 10 be less and less
efficient to produce everything in one place and
ship it all over the world. Our assumption that the
fossil fuel supply is infinite dislons the price of
what is being made.
DW: What do you think the next step is for
local agrlouhlil'e? What's some of the stuff that
wt need to work on?
Ron Alnspan: We need to work together,
suppon each other, and promote the idea of the
regional economy. This involves on-going
education of the public. I don't think I have any
ideas that haven't been said before, but it's
imponam 10 raise the issue to the people, to make
the public conscious of the cosLS of gerring things
from far away. That way people can pull each
other up and build suppon for one another, so
they have the stamina 10 carry on.
My attitude about social change is summed
up in the idea that "you do what you can." I don't
know that ·we can ever expect to overcome all the
mon:: regressive or more reactionary forces, but
ic's imponant for everybody to live by their
principles and do what they can. Whenever we
win a battle, we can feel good about it, but then
we go_ on and continue the struggle. It's an
on-going proctl>s.
/
Ron Ainspan: If we were acting slI'ictly
from of our consciousness of global issues.
Mountain Food Products might not carry
products like Mexican tomatoes or O.ilcan
raspbenies in the wintertime because that
encourages the long-distance production and
disaibution system.
Kantah: That would definitely hurt your
business.
Ron Ainspan: Even though cantaloupes.
for instance. cost $30 a case in the wintertime,
whereas they go for $6 or $7 a case when they
are in season during the summer, people have
this seemingly insane need to be able to buy
anything they want whenever they want iL I
don't know what causes that, but it flies in the
face of efficient use of the world's resources.
For our pan, we push local produce and
try to raise the issues whenever we can, but we
try co be practical • I guess that would be the
word • and do what's necessary 10 be successful
and hope that we are getting some of our
principles across to our customers while
maintaining our own integrity.
(ca,linu':iS ~ 113i• 27}
lnttrvitw recorded and tdittd
by David Whulu
Photo by Rodney Webb
~
.
Growers or retailers who are interested in
?anicipating in the organic produce co-op can call
Wountain Food Producis at (704 J 255-7630, or
.1isit their location in rite Old Chesterfield Mill at
121 Wesr Haywood Street; Asheville, NC.
.
truer toilay. We do indeed need. despcrn1cly . to "step back
Yet our economic system is structured to pro1CC1 big
Md have a new look" at the world we are~ busily creating
business more than Individuals, so it's quilC likely that
• and the world we are destroying. But here's the rub: In
lllXJ)ayers will soon be asked - or ruther, told • 10 f00t the
order to ~,, cnvironmcntaVsocial preservation as
bill, as is already occurring wilh the mushrooming S&L
"productive work." we must stop relating producuvity
SC:lndal and other looming socio-economic disasters. If we,
only to shon-tcrm profits nnd mruumal consumption. The
the worl.crs, lllllpayers, and citizens wish to a"oid this fate,
ideA of "production for sale and con~umption" must be
we must rccogniz.e that a suong environmental sunax for
augmented by the vision of "productive prcscmumn for a
these nnd similar mdustrics is both necc.'IS.lry and jusL This
sUSUlinablc FUTURE."
nx:ognition must in tum be followed by social action, if 11
What will such a shift m emphasis mCM? In
is to have any effect • und then we'll face the long and
pr:ictical terms. it means that we mu.~l cre:itc new criteria
arduous UISk of bringing industry into line with ecological
for producuvity. and will have to pay people to preserve our and economic reality. Aficr all, the money to pay for
environment evtn though their work does not
long-term productivity and prc_~ervation hos 10 come from
create,, a "product" for imminent sate, and thus
some\\ h,re • :ind it should come from those who profit
brin~s in NO money In the short term. On this
the most from the rape of lhc Eartll. Equally imparuint,
most pracllcal level, it's obvious that the money needed to
our concept of ·work" simply HAS 10 shift into a more
IXIY these people will have to be justified by an cntin:ly
future-oriented and truly produclhe mode, a mode in
diflcrent rnuonale lhan that usually subscribed to by
which our finMci3J sul'\'i\'OI no longer depends on
industry ond by ~om1sts. This type of wort will have
personally, socially, and planet.1nly deadening "JObs." or on
to be e,•alumed and ,·ntued differently tlun work producing
incomes deriving directly or indirectly from ecological and
imrned1.1tc n:sults and profiis, and the woflcCl"S' P3Y will
social destruction.
ha,·e 10 come from olhcr public or private :,ource,-, since
their wurk involves on outlay of funds rJthcr 1h1111
producing immcduic income.
The logic:il source of such funds is the corporations
We now have the opportunity to refrnme our
and businesses which have been profiwng the most from
economy and our society so that they can be a
the cxploitntion and/or destruction of our environment •
source of pride and fulfillment ins1ead of shame
e,;pocmlly such COtJ)Ol'ate giants a, the trans-national 01I,
and despair... so that we can regain a sense of
banking, chemical, pla.5tics, beef, and wood products
identity beyond our roles as exploitive "consumindustries. THEY should be the ones 10 pay for
In I977, on the day before his de:uh, E.F
ers" and profiteers. There is so much more 10 the
cnv,ronmenUll prouXtion, not the beleaguered W<JXl)'Cl'S,
Schumacher h:ld this to :..iy ubow Wcstem lnduslrial
"American Dream" 1han we·ve been seeing, so
suicc nlOst of lhcse corporatioM have been allowed to •get
society: "Narurc canllOl Sl!lnd 1t, the resource cndowm~t or a11,-ay with (ecological) murder" for decades - in return r«
much we've apparently forgotten. The time has
the 11,orJd cannot stand it, and lhc human being c:innot sland the m30y ·benefits" they suPJX)Se(lly bring us. As
come to revi1alize that dream, 10 renew the vision
iL,.. lt 1, a kind of fruud. And so it c; necessary for us 10
Schumochcr put 11. we've boughL into •3 kind of fr.iud." and of a truly just and humane society... and to create a
step baclc and ha,e a new look_"
livable, sus1ainable future. Let's "seize the day"!
have been conned into supporting 3 fraudulent and
It is now 199 I, :ind Shunm,hcr'~ wool.~ nng even
disastrous economic systcm, This has got to stop; we
simply HA VE to redesign our economy if we wi~h to
~urvivc.
X.nti1ofi JounmC poqc30
n t '"- J1 ,1u, r ,1u. •nx
Oar response to this need for change has been
slow, but we arc sUll'ting to REDEFINE productivity to
Ulcludc lhe pr~rvation/ rtstoration of ecological
sysiems and "n:rourccs; since such prcser"auon alone c.in
guarnmoe a contmuing supply of valu:ible "products• (as
well as a functioning planet!). Eventu:llly, we will have
to recogniz.c lhat pro1CCting and n:smring nmurul
ecosySICms is ·productive work" wonhy of great financi:11
"COJnpcnsruion.• Thi~ essential mind-shift CIIII Blreooy be
o;cen in action in progr.ims such as the Federal
ConSCNntion Reserve Program, which pays furmen; to
NOT plant crops on eroded fields, and to pLlnt uces and
grow a forest iru.t.C3d. Th= farmers ·are paid to take the
land out of producuon fo,- IO years," and though the IJ'CCS
can be "han·ested" afier that time, "90% or the acres
planted m trees under the ooil bank programs of the SO's
and 60's have remained fore:;tcd • .Similar illCCllll, c
progrnmi nre being utiliz.cd m lhe SIJ"Usglc to save the nun
forests: for example, the SO<lllled "dcbt-for-ll3tUIC swap~· .
in which C011strvat.ion groups or governmental ugencies
·buy' pan of a trOpical ll3tion's debt food in exchange for
the preservation of a s«:tion of rmn forest.
These programs, and Olhcrs hke lhem, ~nainly
desctvc IO be viewed :is "productive." Indeed, lhe work.
they provide could be called the MOST producUvc work,
for u cn::itcs ecological health and economic
SU"'31nability, Md is NOT based on the economic.~ of
profit through ~pto,1a11on and destruction.
•••••••••••
···········
,
�EARTH ENERGIES
The Great Lover
by Charlotte Homsher
~
/~
' ~•
A t the deepest level we are all lovers of the
eanh and we are here on this planet to discover
this love relationship. It is like walking through
the woods, feeling the rhythm, feeling tuned in
'
~ and stepping lightly on the leaf cover, then
~
c:;
,J~
Drawing b)' Susan Adam
suddenly kneeling down and picking _up a leaf to
discover the marvelous, previously hidden world
underneath. The first time I recall feeling the eanh
energy as a distinct sensation, which literalJy
entered my body, was three years ago in the
Joyce Kilmer MemoriaJ Forest. I have aJways
loved big trees and I have attempted to
communicate with trees for years. Some of my
experiences with trees have included seeing
flashes of colored lightS and hearing sounds
within trees which I suppose to be the tree
elementals. Sometimes I received "messages"
from treeS. Any time interspecies con_imunication
is happening via words, thoughts or images,
there is translation going on. The tree doesn't use
words to experience life, therefore the energy of
the tree must be transformed into a cerebraJ
energy which we can understand.
At Joyce Kilmer, I chose the biggest, oldest
poplar I couJd find, grounded myself firmly and
put my paJms on the tree. 1did not expect
anything in particular except that I wanted 10
express affection and gratitude for the life of the
tree. I quickJy became aware of the tree as a very
powerful being. The energy came up the roots of
the tree from the eanh and emered my body just
as though I were attached to the tree as a sucker
root. The energy entered through the soles of my
feet. traveled up both legs, up my back on either
side of the spine and into my head. At the same
time it entered from where my paJms touched the
bark, traveling up my arms. The sensation was
pleasurable to say the least, and riveting. For that
quiet moment I was part of an ancient tree; I
knew cxactJy what it was like to be alive as a
poplar hundreds of years old. I stayed with the
experience as long as I could I noticed that the
energy which came form the canh into the roots
of the tree and into my rootS (my feet), came in
surges or waves of energy. Others have called
this energy pulses, or even feeling the rhythm of
the breath of the earth. In India, visceral energy,
when it travels up the spine, is called kundalini.
In any case, the knowledge of earth energy as
VJSCeral and real, a force to be reckoned with, is a
worldwide, if arcane, study. Witness the
worldwide distribution of sacred sites. Someone
or ones had co recognize the places of power and
then understand what effect these special energy
places would have on the people. One theory
now in vogue and mentioned in the book~
flaw by James A. Swan, is that the sacred sites
correlate to the chalaa system of man. For
instance, we go to a heart chalaa place and our
heart is heaJed or opened as our vibratory energy
harmonizes with the energy in that place.
I nearly always recognize vortexes as .
vibrations in visceral rushes of energy Wlthin my
own body. The intensity of energy might vary
with the power of the vortex or wilh my ability or
inability 10 be receptive at the time. For me. the
receiving of the energy, which of course is really
an energy exchange, is reason enough 10 pursue
the study of earth energy; it proves to me that our
relationship to the earth is not a static thing, but
creative and sensuaJ.
Many of the most powerfuJ vonexes in
Karuah are on public access. We flock en massc
to these places of pristine beauty ignorant of why
we feel so invigorated, why we wish to return
again and again. When you consider the
awesome power of the earth compared 10 the
puny life energy of a single human being. you
may wonder why the earth would bother to
respond to us at aJl The :t-nswer to t~is, in m_y_
opinion, is 1ha1 the earth 1s a lover with exqu1s11e
sensitivity.
~
GIRL'S SUMMER CAMP
'TURTLE ISLAND IS LOOKING
FOR A FEW TOUCH GIRLS"
NATIONAL
lNDlAN
FESTIVAL
JULY 7-13 1991
ACES 11-17
If you enjoy the challenge of
adventure then Turtle Island
ls the place for you,
100¾ Cotton Futons & Covers
No Rain Forest Wood Used
(615) 929-8622
Batik Clothing, Jewelry, Artwork ...
414 s . Roan St, Downtown Johnson City. TN 37601
For mon: infonnation write; Turtle 1'1.Jnd Pre..erve. Rt. I
Box 249-8 Deep Cap, NC 28618 (704) 265-2267
"CELEBRATING OUR
MOTI-IER EARTH"
MAY 17, 18, 19 1991
Highlights of Events:
• Native American Dancers
• Floyd Westerman ("Dances with Wolves")
• Thomas Banyacya - Hopi Elder
• Javier Alarcon - Aztec Fire Dancer
• Native American Flute Music Concert
• Demonstrations
• Native American Crafts & Skills
• Traditional Indian Foods
Thi$ cvl?J\t will be the l.lrg~ of its kind to date in
the Southeastern Unit-cd States! Camping is available
for the public al Chcllilw Parle Albany, ~rgla. $4.()() •
adults - S3.00 children. For More information call Velaric
Spratlin - Festival Coordinator, (704) 265- 1063.
Spri.ntJ, 1991
Union Acres
An Alternative
i
- - Acrtagt for Salt - Smoky Mounlmn Liuing
with o focus on spiritlllll 011d
ecologiall wluts
For more information:
Contact C. Grant at
Routt 1. Box 61]
WhiHitr, NC 28789
(704) 497-4964
Progrorrw to enco1.Xoge
sell aid Earth O\N0r808$$.
celetxol1on. klmhlp and hope.
• Yovfl Cempl • School ProgfWl!s
• Femily CemP* • Toachet Trumg
• Commurwty Progren,1
•~Stell Tr1lMQ
• Outdoot Prog111m Consulting
NATURAL MARKET
P0. 8al 1306
823 Blow,ng Roel<. Rd .
Gannwo. Teme- 3n3a
615-436-6203
265-2700
Boone. NC 28607
�----------------,
Floyd Co. Envitonmental Council
The Aoyd County Environmental Council
was formed out of a successful struggle to
prevent the county's participation in a potentially
expensive and dangerous regional landfill.
It is currently involved in trying to prcvent
massive clean:utting in an environmentallysensitive area of the county known as "The Free
State," where many people believe that cougars
survive.
People who want to get in touch with the
Floyd County Environmental Council or help in
their efforts can contact them via Donna
Whitmarsh at (703) 651-4747.
Staging a Bioregional Event:
The Piedmont's Haw River Festival
Beginning on April 19 and running for
four weeks, a volunteer crew of educa10rs,
performers, and river lovers will travel the
length of the Haw River, stopping 10 meet with
school children in each of the five counties the
river connects. At approximately seven different
riverfront sites, the festival crew will put on a
colorful learning celebration that will look at the
river from the perspectives of science, nature.
history, and fun.
A main goal for the Festival is to give
children a direct, hands-on experience that will
leave them with a greater awareness of the place
where they live, and how human choices affect
the natural world. Also along the way, the
festival will involve many other citizens within
the Haw River basin through scheduled events
in riverside towns. In all, approximately 3000
srudentS are expected to participate,
accompanied by 300 parents and teachers.
When children arrive at the site, they will
be clustered into small groups, which will rotate
among these teaching stations: Animals, People
Along the River, Good Allematives, Riverwalk,
Music & Stories, and Games. The Animals
Station, for example, will feature live animals
from the river and riverbanks and let the children
get to know these finned, furry, and scaly
neighbors - their relationship to each other
(food chains), to the place (habi1a1). and to us
(environmental issues).
To contact the Festival, write Haw River
Assembly; P.O. Box 187; Bynum, NC 27228
or call Louise Kessel at (919) 542-5599.
., '
RECEIVED
Elwiro~n1al Ad'IIOCacy: Concepis, Issues, and
Dilemmas by Bunyan Bryant (Caddo Gap Press, Ann
Arbor. MJ, 1990)
Communitits 1n Economic Crisis: Appalachia and tht
Sowh edilcd by John Gaventa, Barbara Ellen Smith, and
Alex Willingham (Temple University Press,
Philadelphia. 1990)
Audio Tape
Light ,n tht Wind a cappella chanis and circle songs by
Bob Avery.(irubel and lhe Celcbnuion Singers (Tribuia,y
Records, Aoyd. VA, 1990) - Spirited songs for holi<bys.
campfires, swcais. or whenever lho CltClc gathers.
REVIEW
From Walden Pond to Muir Woods:
Alternative Way.r Aero.rs America
Mary Dymond Davis (1990);
Foreword by Ernest Callenbach
Order from: ASPI Publications; Rt. 5, Box 423:
Livingston, KY 40445
For those who travel, Mary Davis' book
From \Vaiden Pond u, Muir Woods is an
ecological ttavel guide. For those who stay at
home, it is a local resource listing. Mary Davis
has compiled descriptions of a variety of
ecological loci throughout the continen1 that
would be worthwhile for a traveler to visit or for
a potential local activist to link up with.
Her descriptions cover a broad spectrum
of interests: groups and communities promoting
alternative and ecological ways of living, natural
areas, environmental education, recreation spots
and suppliers, and transponation help. Her
profiles are infonnative and her introductory
explanations show clearly the pan each caiegory
plays in the ongoing process of ecological
recovery on Tunle Island.
This is a book 10 have and to pass around,
a great resource for alternative folk or those who
want to find out "where it's at" on Turtle Island.
.ow
PLANTING CHESTNUTS
A very detennined woman, Dorothy
Dickson, has a vision of establishing an
American chestnut tree seed farm that could
supply viable seed to someday re-establish the
American chestnut in the wild. She is looking
for land and money to help with the idea.
Write her at: 113 Autumn Lane;
Harrisburg, NC 28075, or call (704) 455-1027.
Paul Gallimore of The Long Branch
Environmental F.ducation Center has initiated a
project to plant hybrid American-Oriental
chestnut seedlings in the wild to provide a
short-term hard mast source for black bears and
other creatures who will soon face mast
shonages from the oak tree decline and the
imminent depredations of the gypsy moth.
Membership in the project, including two hybrid
trees for planting, costS $25 to Paul Gallimo~;
RL 2, Box 132; Leicester, NC 28748
NATIVE FLUTES
Two styles made of cedar or walnut
woods in the traditional manner
Hawk Littlejohn
Sourwood Farm
RL 1, Box 172-L
Prospect Hill, NC 27314
(919) 562·3073
r/ r:rf.u
~ Saru}JMush
Htrb Nurse_y
,
WHOLE FOODS
VITAMINS
ORGANIC PRODUCE
160 Broadway
Asheville, North Carolina
Open 7 Days a Week
Monday - Friday 9 am - 8 pm
Saturday 9 am - 6:30 pm
Sunday 12 pm - 5 pm
WREATHS • POTPOURRI
• HERBS • TOPIARY
Complete Herb CataliJg - $4
Describes more tlum 800 plants from
Aloe to Yam,w
Rt 2, Surrett Cove Road
Leicester, North Carolina 28748
P1ione for appointment to visit
A.I.A., Resource Information Analysis
Neil Thomas and Andy Feinstein
(704) 683-2014
305 Westover, Asheville, NC
(704) 252-6816
Sprl.ng. 1991
�MARCH
20
"Oh, the May, the jolly, jolly May;
The leaves they spring so green."
SPRING EQUINOX
:8:ELT~:E
SWANNANOA, NC
Baba Olatunji Drum & Dance
Weekend. Spuitual teacher and cultural diplomat from
West Africa via the drum. Performance 8 pm, 3/22,
Kinn:dgc Auditorium, Wanen Wilson College, S 10.
Call 004) 645-391 I for mon: info. Sponsored by
Rhythm Alive!
22-24
and
APRIL
Katuah Spring Gathering
at Morningstar Fann on the Tanasi Ridge
5-7
AS II EVILLE, NC
Seminar on solar technology and a
tour of solar homes sponsored by the Buncombe
County Solar Communities Program. More info,
004) 255-5522.
30
FULL MOON - PASSOVER
30
WESSER, NC
"Cheoah Council" to talk
stm1.egies and tactics for the defense of the
Cheoah Bald area, the largest unprotected
roaclless area in the region, now threatened by
logging and roadbuilding. Bring food and
camping gear, be prepared to walk in along
the Appalachian Trail. For more info, write
SouthPAW; Box 3141; Asheville. NC 28802
or call (704) 586-3146.
April 26-28
5-7
22-23
Bring camping gear and food for yourselves and to share.
The site is at high clevnlion, so be prepared for changeable
weather. Bring colorful dress, musicm insuuments, toys,
mask matcn:ils, and other celcbl1\lory tools.
• .• t
11, I ,
NEW MARKET, TN
ST? (Stop the Poisoning! or Save the
Planet!) environmental acuon school at the Highlander
Center. Call or write for mfo: 1959 HighlMdcr Way:
New Market, 1N 37820 (615) 933-3443.
VALl,.Ef llEAD, AL
,
"Masculinity: Native Tcachmgs. Earth
consciousne.ss• workshop. Cieorgc Goodstrikcr
(Blackfoot elder), An Hom, Tarwater. Pn:-rcgisier.
S I75, includes 4 meals and camping. Hawkwind Earth
Renewal Cooperative: Box 11: Valleyhcad, AL 35989.
ASHEVILLE, NC
"Re-Thinking Democracy: Citizenship
in the Age of Mass Media," A Symposium for
Tcac.hcrs, PurcnlS, and Concerned CitiJ.cns. Speakers
include: Walter Trucu Anderson. Kathleen Hall
Jrunieson, Marie Crispin Miller. Free. University of
North Carolina at AsheV1Uc. For more mfonnation,
(704) 251-6526.
1 ••
,
n,
~
.(
•,
This is a bcnef4 celebration IO help ~ve sacri!d land:
SS d0113tion per pcison requesled
For 1r1vd din,clio115 and more info.rmJJlcm,
call (704)293-7013 or (70,1) SU-3146
11-13
28
FULL MOON
MAY
13
NEW MOON
NEW MARKET. TN
STP environmenl:ll action school for
young people! at the Highlander Center. See 4/5-7.
24-26
31
EASTER
13
SWANNANOA, NC
Dedication of the World ~ u n d
Oiamber ru. the Earth CcnlCI led by Beautiful Painl.Cd
Arrow (Josoph Rael). 30'1 Old Pdlo10sl11j, Rd.\• ,, •,110-x
24-27
14
NEW MOON
Spiritual Hcaltll." lnteyal yoga taught by Swami'
Vidynnanda. $145. Southern Dharmn Rcueat Center.
Sec 4/19-21.
28
Home! A Bioregional Reader
llome! A Bioregional Rt.adt.r, just published by
New Society Publishers, offers ·an CJtciting vision and
~tn11egy for creating ccologicmly suswinable
communities and cultures in h:umony with the limits and
regenerative powers of the Earth.· It has gathered articles,
stories. and poems of over forty writers and activists who
hnve comribuled both to defining bioregionalism as a
political philosophy and to lhc practice or "living in
place.• Contributor.. include: G4ry Snyder, Peter Berg.
Caroline Estes, Wendell Berry, as well as Mamie Muller
of the Kmuah Journal. Graphics in lhc book include the
worlt of Kmuah'.r Rob M~ick:.
The book Is a large-format paperback with 192
pages. including resources and a reading lisL Copies are
available by mail for $15.70 from: RM Designs: Box
UiOt: Boone, NC 28007. Pri~ of Rob Mcssick's
illustrations from the book are also available from the
same address.
Sprt ng, 1991
''"'.
jZ
16-21 HELEN, GA
Rive~ane Rendel.Yous with
Snow Bear, Darry Wood, and Bob Slack. Jr.
plus visiting instructors. "Ancient arts and
skills for the mind, hean, and hand..."
including fire by friction, making stone and
bone tools, tanning buckskin, plant
identification and use, basketry. blowguns,
and more. Pre-register: $135, includes
camping and two meals per day. For more
info, contact: Bob Slack. Jr.; Unicoi State
Parle; Box 1029; Helen. GA 30545 (404)
878-2201 (Ext. 282?· . \.,
HOT SllRINGS,rN<:'. h.'11~:Ktx·, am ~lri'I ,UI?.
........~~:M~~~.f9r ~1!,Yi;ic:il. Meot;i!J\~ •.., __
Sw:11\MnOa, NC .28nS.c31l.(704) 2!l8Tl!l3S. ~
FULL MOON
JUNE
11-15
JOHNSON CITY, TN
Changes, a play by The Road
Company at Down Home. Tickets 58.00 during week,
$10.00 weekend. For details call (615) 926-TI26.
19-21
HOT SPRrNGS, NC
"Hca\'en on the Mountain: Nine at !he
Top," divinauon with lhe I Ching taught by Jay
Dunbar. 'Through subtle movement and discussion we
will excn:isc the intuition and explore the language of
energy.• S75. Southern Dharma Re1Ica1 Center; RL I,
Box 34-H; Hot Springs. NC 28743 (7~) 622-7112.
21
25-26
EART H OAY CELfBRATIONS
II ENDERSONVlLLE, NC
Into the Heart of Healing" IC\'etsing hcan discas.c wilh vegetarian dict, cxe.tt:ise
and su-cs:; m.lllngement taught by Steven Oreer. MD
Md Lynn DcLuca. Shambala Institute. For more info,
write 118 Cumberland Ave: Asheville, NC 28801 or
call (704) 25.3-0509.
NATURAL
ALTERNATIVES
FOR HEALTHFUL
LIVING
p.o. box 1092 • winery square
gatlinburg, tenne.,sce 37738
615-436-6967
X.Otiw:lh Journot pa«Je a3
l ~ lQn,uor t Q.UnJl
�BUSINESS PAR1NER WANTED· Must have some
cspiLill IO help CSUlblish nn herb, orgnnic foods, and
0
possibly ecological and solar equipment business. Large
new building, half ac.re, in Ellijay Mt'ns. area. Please call
(~) 635-7009 or wri1e io: Wall Klimowiez; Rt. 5, Box
30-t: Ellijay. GA 30540.
omusu~ !:~ ~
challenge, of advenuue, lhe beauty and inspiration or
nature, the fellow~ip and sharing of lcindered spirilll, lhcn
Turtle Island is the pince for youl This one week camp is
open 10 gills 11-17, and runs from July 71h IO July 13th.
Tow cost iS $300.00. For information and application
call (704) 265-2267, or write: Valarie SpraUin c/o Tun le
lsl!lnd Pre:;ctve; RL I, Box 249-B: Deep Gap (near
Boone), NC 28618.
LAND FOR SALB • 32 acics, all or pan. 3 private coves;
2 large organic fields; sm311 solar ~lrUCture; 1906 rustic
fannhouse: barn. If interested, please wnic: Vicki Baker
and Tom Graves; Rt. 2, Box 108-A: Whittier, NC 28789
or call (704) 586-8221.
PIEDMONT BIOREGIONAL INSTITIJTE • For those
who live in the Piedmont ruca, lherc's a bioregional effon
well underway. Join us! We would appreciate any donation
or time or money to help mcel operating c:Jtpcnses. For a
gift of $2.5 or more. we will send you a copy of John
Lawson's joumru. A New Voyagt' 10 Carolina. Also, come
find out about the Lawson ProjecL PBI; 412 W.
Rosemary Strcci; Chapel Hill, NC 27516; Uwharria
Province. (919) 942-2581.
1WO FAMll.IES seeking neighborly folks 10 buy inco
130 acres of bcautlful mountru11S1de bnd near
Weavcsville, N.C. We are involved in org:inic gnnlening,
homeschooling, n:11.uml healing and spiritu:ility. 20 acre
share for $24,000. eau (704) 658-2676 or 645-7954.
LOO CABIN BUILDING CAMP· a three week.
hands-on, edueational retreat building a log house. Live as
an American pioneer and learn the ways of wood.
Magnificcnl involvement wilh hi.5tory and self· sufficiency
in na~ Towly hand-built Crom U'OCS cut on lhe sice in
the beautiful wilderness setting ofTunle Island Presesve.
A uniqueopp0nuni1y. June 23- July 13, 1991. For more
information call (704) 265-2267. or wrice Turtle Island
Prescrvo; RL I Box 249-B; Deep Gop (near Boone), NC
28618.
HAWKWIND EARTH RENEW AL CO-OPERATIVE is
an 87 acre primitive l'CU'Cal. and wocking community farm.
Located in the Northern Alabama mountruns, just 115
miles northwest of Allan ta. Classes on a!J.ernative
lifestyles and Native American philosophies rue available
on a regular basis. For inforrruuion or callllog of Native
crafts & products, call (1.0S)63S-6304.
MUSIC BY BOB AVERY.ORUBa available on lhrec
cassew:s. Treasures in the Stream and Circles Re1urni11g
a recent release of original chan1s
and songs. Ughl i11 the \Vind, is a cappella. Lyric sheets
included. Send $10 for each cape or S26 for o.ll lhlee co
Bob Avery-Grubel; RL I, Box 735; Floyd, VA 24091,
aie folk/roclt-jazz. and
GOOD STEW ARDS WAN"ffiD for rcmoce land. Approx.
IS acres for sale w/ house (2 bdrm., I bath). Organic3lly
fanned for 1.0 years, gravity feed spring water. High on
Tanasi Ridge, views. Raven and ~ Walker, Box 23:
Lake Toxaway, NC 28747 (704} 293-7013.
MOCCASINS, handcmfl.ed of clkhlde in the traditlonal
Plains Indian style. WaJet rcsisUlnt. rcsolable, and rugged great for hiking! Children's and infant sizes available.
Write: Eanh Dance Moccasins; RL 5. Box 341-B,
Burnsville, NC 28714 or call 675-594 I.
WICKER WORKER • Wicker fumitW"e reslortd. Cane.
rusb, lllld reed SC3IS woven - basJcets rcp:wcd. Expcricnced
scat weavu. "lf you ean'L we cane.· Andita Cwkc; 27
Mrut SL; Asheville, NC 28801 (704)2.53-6241.
SKYLAND • log on co the computer bulletin board of the
Smokies. Networking, plus news on lhe environment.
natwe phocography, games, computer utilities, much
more. Con1.aet Michael Havclin, sysop, (704} 2.54-6700.
HlGHLANDER CEN1eR • is a community-based
cducalional organization whose purpose is co provide space
for people co learn from each other, and co develop
solutions co environmcmal problems based on their own
values, experiences and aspirations. They also put OUl a
quarterly newslcucr, Hlghlandu Reporu. For more
infonnation contact Highlander Cci11er; 1959 Highbnder
Way; New Market.. 1N 37820 (615) 933-3443.
ADULT CAMP· a nawra1 living experience 1eJ1Cbing
primitive Eanh Skills and rughterung participants spirilU3l
awareness lllrough riwal This renewal rwe:11 olTers five
days of living in a teepee at Tunle Tsland Preserve wilh
master woodsman nnd &eaehu Eustace Conway. June 8 12. 1991 or Scpiember I • 5 arc the dates. For more
information call (704) 265-2267, or write TurUe Island
Preserve; RL I, Box 249-B: Deep Gap (near Boone). NC
28618.
EARTH SKILLS, NATURE AW ARE1''ESS
WORKSHOP • Reconoo:t wtlh the Earth • bow drill fire,
cordage, shelters, lOOlmaking. medicinal and edible plants.
nature observation, and much more. See and fed the Eanh
duough primal C)CS and primal :.kills Write: Dr. Guy
Jaconis; RL 4, Box 92: Beaufon. NC 28516 (9 I9)
728-2959.
BODY RIIYTJJMS from Pbnetary Molhcrs - a beautiful
and practical calendar for women 10 chart lhcir ·moonlhly"
cycles. Send S3.00 plus S 1.00 p0stagc 10: Planetary
Modicn Collective (c/oNancie Yonker): 5231 Riverwood
Ave.; Sarasot:i. A. 3423 I.
WISE WOMAN TRADmON APPRENTICE WEEKwith Whitewolf, near Asheville. July 25-31 (Weekend
opuon, 26-28). Foraging, wildcrafting, communicating
wilh plants, herb gardening. llllditional remedies,
Eanhkccping, woman's heallh care. women's wisdom
circles, Moonlodge, mllSSllgc, movement. and music.
Donation or work Exchange. Comfortable dorm, camping,
meals. Concacl Lcivan; Box 576; Asheville. NC 28802.
1990/91 DIRECTORY OF IN1'ENTIONAL
COMMUNfTIP.S • Just released, over 2 y~ in the
making. Names, addresses. phone nwnbets, and
descriptions of31.0 Norlh American communities, and
over 250 rcsourcc groups, plus 40 nniclcs. Maps,
cross-reference chruts, fully indexed. $13.50 postpaid from
Sandhill Fann; ROUIC I, Box 155-R: Rutledge. MO
63563. 40% discount available on orders o! 10 or more.
I am looking for land suitable for small scale farming
wilh a good source of war.er, preferably northwest
Rulherfocd or soulhW$ McDowell Counties. I am also
open to ocher areas within 45 min. of Asheville. Also
looking for people who would like IO develop a rural
community in lhc Kan1ah region wilh intereslS in org1111ic
gardening, environmental issues, lllld education. Contact
Frank Holzman: 537 Seminole Avenue; Atlanlll, GA
30307 (404} 688-4016.
RECYCLED PAPER! • Dll'CCtory of products sources for
the Southcas1. Suggested donation S 1.00
to Western Norlh Carolina Alliance; PO Box 18087:
Asheville, NC 28814 (704) 2.58-8737.
• 1Vebworkil1g hasclumgt>df There is nowafuof S2.50
per entry of50 words or less. Send 10: Rob Messick;
P.O. Boz 2601; BooM, NC 28f,/)7.
"The area's oldc,;t
and largest natural
food< grorery"
811fk Herbs, Spices, & Grains
Vitamins & Supplements
Wheat, Salt & Yeast-Free Foods
Dairy S11~titutes
Hair & Skin Care Products
Beer & Wi11e Mnki11g S11pplies
200 W. King St, Boone, ~C 28607
• PrCll'ulmg I fealll:y Food Sitree 1975 •
COMMITTED
To COMMUNITY AND Gooo Fooo
255-7650
~
90 Biltmore Avenue Asheville, :-.:c
2 Blocks South of Dov,mtown
(70,l) 26-t-5220
Sprlt19, 1991
�BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH JOURNAL AVAILABLE
ISSUE THIRTEEN • FALi.. 1986
Cenn:r FOT Awakening - Elizabclh Callari - A Gentle
Dcmh • Hospice - Emes1 Morgan • Dealing Creatively
wilh Death • Home Burial Box • The Wake • The Raven
Moelter. Woodslore and Wildwoods Wisdom· Good
Medicine: The Sweat Lodge
ISSUE THREE • SPRING 1984
Susminable Agriculture - Sunflowers - Human Impact on
lhe Foe-est - Childrcns· Edu01tion • Veronicn Nicholas:
Woman in Politics - Lillie People - Medicine Allies
ISSUE FOUR • SUMMER 1984
Walef Drum • Waier Quali1y • Kudzu - Solar Eclipse •
Oca.«:ulling - Trou1 - Going to Waier • Ram Pumps·
J\.1icrohydro - Poems: Bennie Lte Sinclair. Jim Wayne
Miller
ISSUE TWENTY-TWO -WINTER '88-89
Global Wanning. Fire This Time· Thomas Berry on
"Bioregions" • Earth Exercise - Kort Loy McWhirter - An
Abundance of Emptiness - LETS - Chronicles of Floyd Darry Wood • The Bear Clan
ISSUE FIVE • FAU.. 1984
Harvest. Old Ways in Cherokee. Ginseng - Nuclcor
Waste - Our Ccluc Hcrimgc • Biorcgionalism: Past.
Prcscn1, and Fu1ure - John WUno1y - Healing Darkness·
Politics of Participauon
ISSUE TWENTY-THREE - SPRING 1989
Pisgah Village - Plane1 An - Green City • Poplor Appeal •
"Clear Sky". "A New Earth" • Black Swan • Wild Lovely
Days • Reviews: Sacred Land Sacred Su, Ice Age • Poem:
"Sudden Tendrils"
ISSUE SIX • WINTER 1984-85
Winter Solstice Enrlh Ceremony • HorsepaslurC3 River Coming of the Ligh1 • Log Cabin Root • Mouniain
Agricuhure: The Righi Crop - William Taylor· The
Future of I.he Forest
ISSUE SEVEN • SPRING 1985
Susl3.i0llble Economics· Ho1 Springs - Worker Ownership
• The G~1 Economy - Self Help Credit Union - Wild
Turkey. Responsible Investing. Working in lhe Web of
Life
ISSUE EIGHT- SUMMER 1985
Celebrauon: A Way of Life - Katuah 18.000 Years AgoSacred Si1es - Folk Arts in the Schools - Sun Cycle/Moon
Cycle - Poems: Hild.:! Downer • Cherokee Heri1age Cemcr
• Who Owns Appalachia?
ISSUE NINE • PALI.. 1985
The Waldcc Foccs1 - The Trees Speak. Migraung Forests ·
Horse Logging • Slorting a Tree Crop - Urban Trees •
Acom Bread - Myth Time
ISSUE TEN • WINTER 1985-86
Ka1e Rogers - Circles of S1one - Internal Mylhmaking Holistic Healing on Trial - Poems: Steve Knauth • Mythic
Places • The Uktcna·s Tale - CrySUIJ Magic "Drcamspcaking•
ISSUE ELEVEN- SPRING 1986
Communi1y Planning - Cities and lhe Biorcgional Vision
- Recycling - Community Gardening- Floyd Coomy. VA·
Gasohol • Two Bioregionnl Views • Nuclear Supplcmenl •
Foxrll'C Games - Good Medicine: Visions
ISSUE 1WENTY-ONE • FALi.. 1988
Chestnuts: A Nalwal His10ry - Restoring !he Chestnut "Poem or Preservation and Praise" - COlllinuing lhe Qucs1
- Forests and Wildlife - ChCSllluts in Regional Diel •
Chestnu1 Resources • Herb N01e - Good Medicine:
"Changes lO Come•. Review: Where Ltgends Li-.e
ISSUE FOURTEEN • WINTER 1986-87
Lloyd Corl Owle - Boogcrs and Mummers - All Species
Day • Cabin Fever Universi1y • Homeless in Kaubh •
Romcmade Hot Water - Stovemaker's Narrative • Good
Medicine: Interspecies Communication
ISSUE FIFTEEN • SPRJNG 1987
Coverlets . Woman Forester· Susie McMahan: Midwife •
Alternative Contraception - Biosexuali1y - Bioregionalism
and Women - Good J\,tcdicine: Malriarchal Culture - Pearl
ISSUE SIXTEEN • SUMMER 1987
Hcfon Waiie. Poem: Visions in a Garden - Vision Quest·
F°l!SI Flow - µti1iation - Lc;iming in !he W i t ~ "Cherokee Challenge. "Valuing Trees"
ISSUE EIGHTEEN • WINTER 1987·88
Vernacular ArchilCCturc - D~s in Wood and Stone Mountrun Home - Eanh Energies - Eanh-Shellcred Living
• Membrane Houses - Brush Shcl1cr - Poems: October
Dusk - Good Medicine: "ShellCr"
ISSUE NINETEEN • SPRING 1988
Pcrclandra Garden • Spring Tonics - Blueberries Wildflower Gardens - Granny Herbalist • Flower Essences
- "The Origin or lhe Animals:" S1ory • Good Medicine:
"Power" - Be A Tree
ISSUE TWENTY • SUMMER 1988
Preserve Appalachian Wilderness - Highlands or Roan •
Cclo Communi1y - Land Trust· Arlhur Morgan School Z.Oning Issue - "The Ridge" - Farmers and !he Fann Btu·
Good Medicine: "Land" - Acid Rain - Ouke·s Power Play·
Cherokee Microhydro Projec1
ISSUE TWENTY·FOUR • SUMMER •39
Deep Listening • Ufc in AlOmic City - Direc1 Action! Tree of Peace - Communily Building· Peacemakers·
Elhnic Survival - Pairing Project - "Bnnlcsong• Growing Peace in Culwn:s - Review: The Chalice and the
Blode
fSSUE TWENTY-SIX • WINTER, 1989·'90
Coming of Age in lhe Ecozoic Era - Kids Saving
Rainfores1 - Kids Treecycling Company· ConOic1
Resolution. Developing lhe Creative Spirit - Birth Power
• Birth Bonding • The Magic of Puppetry - Home
Schooling - Naming Ceremony - Molher Eanh•s
Classroom - Gardening for Children
ISSUE TWENTY-SEVEN • SPRING. 1990
Transformation • Healing Power - Peace to Their Ashes Healing in Katuah • Poem: "When Left to Grow· - Poems:
Stephen Wing • The Belly • Food from lhe Ancient Forest
ISSUE 'TWENTY·EIGHT - SUMMER 1990
Carrying Capaci1y • Selling LimitS IO Growth - What is
Ovcrpopulntion? • The Road Gnng • The Highway to
Nowhere. The J.26 Project - "Curing Capacity" - Poople
and Habillll • Designing lhe Whole Life Community Steady Staie - Poems: Will Ashe Bason Ttansporte.rnativcs - Review: Cohausing
ISSUE TWENTY -NINE • FALL/WINTER 1990
From the Mounlains lO lhe Sea • Profile of The Lillie
Tennessee River - Headwaters Ecology and High Quali1y
Habitat - "l1 All Comes Down lO WBJN Quality· Wa1er
Power. Action for Aquatic HabilatS - Dawn Waichcrs •
Good Medicine: The Long Human Being • The North
Shore Road • Kalliah Sells Ou1 • W81erShed Map of lhe
Kalllah Province
- - -- - - - - - - - - -- - - --- - - - - - --- -- - - - ~UAt1 JOURNAL
Issue 30
Box 638; Leicester, NC; Katuah Province
For more info: call Rob Messick at (704) 754-6097
Name
Regular Membership........ $10/yr.
Sponsor.........................$20/yr.
Contributor.....................$50/yr.
Address
City
Area Code
Sprlnq, 1991
Stale
Phone Number
Zip
Enclosed is$_ __ to give
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
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The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, Issue 30, Spring 1991
Description
An account of the resource
The thirtieth issue of the<em> Katúah Journal</em> focuses on regional economics, development, and ecology. Authors and artists in this issue include: David Wheeler, Thomas Power, Rob Messick, Will Ashe Bason, Rodney Webb, Henry Eckler, Griscom Morgan, Snow Bear, Gary Lawless, Jim Clark, Ernest Womick, Millie Sundstrom, Lee Barnes, David Haenke, Richard Lowenthal, Rodney Web, Jim Houser, Charlotte Homsher, Martha Tree, Stephen Petroff, and Rob Leverett. <br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1991
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
Economy/Ecology by David Wheeler.......1<br /><br />Avoiding the Passive/Helpless Approach to Economic Development by Thomas Power.......4<br /><br />Ways to a Regenerative Economy by Rob Messick.......5<br /><br />Sacred Oconomy by Will Ashe Bason.......6<br /><br />"Money Is the Lowest Form of Wealth": Interview with Ivo Ballentine and Robin Cape by Rodney Webb and Henry Eckler.......7<br /><br />The Clarksville "Miracle" by Griscom Morgan.......10<br /><br />Self-Help Credit Union.......10<br /><br />The Village by Snow Bear.......11<br /><br />"through dreams, through magic": Poems by Gary Lawless.......12<br /><br />Food Movers by David Wheeler.......13<br /><br />Poems by Jim Clark.......14<br /><br />LifeWork by Ernest Womick and Millie Sandstrom.......15<br /><br />Green Spirits: "Katúah Planting Calendar" by Lee Barnes.......19<br /><br />Good Medicine: "Village Economy".......20<br /><br />On Eco-economics by David Haenke.......21<br /><br />Thoughts on Work, Productivity, and Development by Richard Lowenthal.......22<br /><br />Natural World News.......23<br /><br />Shelton Laurel by Rodney Webb.......25<br /><br />Off the Grid: "Regional Fuels" by Jim Houser.......26<br /><br />LETS........27<br /><br />Resources........27<br /><br />Drumming.......28<br /><br />Earth Energies: "The Great Lover" by Charlotte Homsher.......31<br /><br />Events.......33<br /><br />Webworking.......34<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
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<em>Katúah Journal</em>, printed by The <em>Waynesville Mountaineer</em> Press
Subject
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Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Economic development--Environmental aspects
Mixed economy--Appalachian Region, Southern
Regional economics
Ecology--Economic aspects--Appalachian Region, Southern
Salvage (Waste, etc.)--North Carolina--Asheville
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
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English
Type
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Text
Source
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<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
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<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
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Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
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<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
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PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Agriculture
Alternative Energy
Appalachian History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Definitions
Community
Earth Energies
Economic Alternatives
Education
Forest Issues
Good Medicine
Habitat
Katúah
Poems
Politics
Radioactive Waste
Reading Resources
Recycling
Stories
Turtle Island
Villages
Water Quality
Western North Carolina Alliance
Wilderness
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/501565e7337d54952a1f1a4f817e1d07.pdf
e2930310495291405c931b80c288e056
PDF Text
Text
$ 2.00
ISSUE 35 SUMMER 1992
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�Drawing by Rob Messick
~UAHJOURNAL
PO Box 638
Leicester, NC
Katuah Province 287 48
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ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
�eoNrENTs0
Consensus........................
1
by Caroline Estes
Decision-Making Process....... 4
by Joyce Johnson
Problems with Consensus...... 5
by Rob Messick
Tribal Council....................
6
by Bear With Runs
Elda................................
9
by Lucinda Flodin
The State of Franklin............
11
by David Wheeler
Where the Trees Outnumber
the People....................
14
by Stephen Wing
In Council with All Beings..... 16
by Lee Barnes
Steve Moon:
Shell Engravings............
17
Good Medicine...................
18
Natural World News............
20
A Look Back.....................
23
by caroline Estes
by Will Ashe Bason
Are Bioregions Too Big? ....... 24
by Rob Messick
Practices for Full Self- Rule... 25
by Clear Marks
Drumming........................
26
Jury Nullification................
28
by Karen Fletcher
Review:
Beyond the limits...............
29
by Rob Messick
Events.............................
32
Webworking.....................
34
Summer, 1992
Consensus is based on the belief that
each person has some pan of the truth and no
one has all of it (no matter how mui::h we
would like to believe so) and on a respect for
all persons involved in the decision that is
being considered. ln our present-day society
the governing idea is that we can trust no
one, and therefore we must protect ourselves
if we are to have any security in our
decisions. The most we will be willing to do
is compromise. This means we are willing to
settle for less than the very best - and !hat we
will always have a sense of dissatisfaction
with any of our decisions unless we can
somehow maneuver others involved in the
process. This leads to a skewing of honesty
and fonhrighmess in our relationships.
In the consensus process, we start from
a different basis. The assumption is that we
are all truscwollhy (or at least can become
so). The process allows each person
complete power over the group. The central
idea for the Quakers was the complete
elimination of majorities and minorities. If
there were differences of view at a Quaker
meeting, as there were likely to be in such a
body, the consideration of the question at
issue would proceed, with long periods of
solemn hush and meditation, until slowly the
lines of thought drew together toward a point
of unity. Then the clerk would frame a
minute of conclusion, expressing the "sense
of the meeting."
Built into the consensual process is the
belief that all persons have some part of the
truth, or what in spiritual terms might be
called "some part of God," in them. and that
we will reach a better decision by putting all
of the pieces of the truth together before
proceeding. There are indeed limes when it
appears that two pieces of the truth arc in ·
contradiction to each other, but with clear
thinking and auention. the whole may be
perceived which includes both pieces, or
many pieces. The either/or type of argument
does not advance this process. Instead, the
process is a search for the very best solution
to whatever is the problem. That does not
mean that there is never room for error - but
on the whole, in my experience, it is rare.
This process also makes a direct
application of the idea that all persons are
equal. If we do indeed trust one another and
do believe that we a!J have pans of the truth,
then ac any time one person may know more
or have access to more information • but at
another time, others may know more or have
more access or bett.cr understanding. Even
when we have all the facts before us, it may
be the spirit that is lacking and comes forth
from another who secs the whole better than
any of the persons who have some of the
pans. All of these contributions are
impo11ant.
Decisions which all have helped shape
and in which all can feel united make the
canying out of the necessary action go
Oraw111g by Rob Messick
(contirwed on page 3)
Xatimh Journat page 1
�~UAHJOURNAL
EDITORIAL STAPH TIHS
ISSUE:
Maria Abbruzzi
Lee Barnes
Heather Blair
Chris Davis
Judith Hallock
Charlotte Homsher
Willow Johnson, lheQuwcctor
Thanks to Jim
Rob Messick
Nancy Odell
Michael Red Fox
James Rhea
Rodney Webb
David Wheeler
Houser for inspiring the "Councils" theme for this issue.
COVER: by Rob Messick ©1992
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
PUBLISHED BY: Karuah Journal
Here,
in the Katuah Province
of these ancient Appalachian mountains
where once the Cherokee Nation lived in freedom
between the Tennessee River Valley and the Eastern Piedmont
between the Valley of the Roanoke and the Southern Plain
on this Tunle Island continent of Mother Ela, the Earth
PRTNTED BY: The Waynesville Moumaineer Press
EDITOR JAL OFFICE TI TTS ISSUE: Billy Home and Gardens,
Asheville, NC
WRITE US AT: Kattwh Journal
Box 638; Leicester, NC; Katuah Province 28748
Here,
In this place we dedicate ourselves to remembering our deep
connection to the spirit of the land.
We bring this connection into the being and the doing of
our daily lives
When the land spealcs, we listen and we act
We tune our lives 10 the changes, to the seasons
We respect the limits of the land
We preserve, defend, and restore lhe land
We give !hanks for all that is good
TELEPHONE: (704) 754-6097
Diversity is an important clement of bioreg,onnl ecology, both runuml
and social. In accord with this principle Karuah Journal irics to serve as a
forum for the discussion of regional isrucs. Signed articles express only the
opinion of the authors and arc not necessarily the opinions of the Katuah
Jounial ediun or staff.
The Internal Revenue Service has declared Katuah Journal a non-profit
organiuition under section 501 (c)(3) of the lntemnl Revenue Code. All
contributions to Katuah Journal arc deductible from personal income lllX.
Ham1ony with the land is no longer an ideal; it is an imperative.
The land is a living being. She is sacred.
As the land lives, so do we.
As the spirit of the land is diminished,
our spirits are diminished as well.
Articles appearing in KaJuahJournal may be reprinted in other
publications with pcnnission from lhc Katuah Journal struT. Contact the
journal in writing or call (704) 754-6097.
Kattwh Joturwl sends a voice...
with anicles, stories, poems, and artwork
we speak to the spirit of all the living, breathing
inhabitants of these mountains
in hopes that we, lhe human beings,
may find our place in this Great Life.
'LN VOCA.TLON
-
Empowering the Cowu:il Feather
Great Spirit,
Divine Mother,
we know this feather
came to us from you,
we know it's first purpose
in lhe Oeation is to fly empower it
so !hat each of us
who talces it in tum
may look down as the great eagle
circling over our Council,
empower us
so that each may speak
as the wind speaks
from our own comer of lhe Creation,
looking down over the long shoulder
of the horizon
The Editors
KATUAH JOURNAL wants to communicate your thoughts
andfeelings to other people in the bioregional province. Send
them to us as letters, poems, stories, articles, drawings. or
plwtographs, etc. Please send your comriburions 10 us a1: Katuah
Journal; P.O. Box 638; Leicester, NC; Kan,ah Province 28748.
OUR NEXT ISSUE will be about the role of wood in lhe
life of the mountains. Please send anicles evaluating the present
timber industry. logging stories. and visions of ecological and
sustainable ways to cut and use wood. Please also send pictures
and drawings of trees. wood, and woodworkers. Deadline is
August 8th 1992.
- Stephen Wing/
'\'"'
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THE WINTER ISSUE will be an assortment including
stories for good winter reading and possibly renewable energy
systems. Deadline is October, 30th 1992.
8
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�(continued from page I)
forward wiLh more efficiency, power, and
smoothness. This applies L persons,
o
communities, a.nd naLions. Given the
enonnous issues and problems before us, we
need LO use the ways thaL will best enable us
to move forward Logether.
The above is an ucerpt/rom an essay in
Home: A Bioregional Reader, tdittd by Van Andruss,
Christopher and Judith Plant, and Eleanor Wright
(New Society Publishers, 1990). (First printed in
The New Catalys1, 1tJ. Spring. 1986)
Speaking with
CAROLINE ESTES:
A Phone InLerview - May, 1992
Kanwh: When you are faciliLating, how
do you see yourself acting in the group?
CE: As a servant LO the group; to help
them come 10 the best decision they can make
wiLh those present.
Katlltlh: And 10 do that you have to be
assiduously neutral.
CE: That's right.
Katuah: But it also goes beyond that,
because when you are working at the
Bioregional Congress, I feel you are putting
out a lot of energy to...cemer yourself
spiritually, could you say that?
CE: Yes, you could say that. The way I
put it is that when I am doing consensusmaking facilitation r try to keep myself as a
clear stream. I am noL impeding; I have
nothing in me that is directing. and yet l am
there, in the spiritual sense, LO be as much
help as l can possibly be.
Ninety percent of facilitation is
knowing your group on that level. Only te n
percent of iL is knowing the subject matter
and understanding the words and all of Lhat.
MosL of what you are working wiLh is totally
subjective and understanding the "vibes." l
don't have all the new age tenninology
down, but it's definitely true that as a
facilitator of large groups. you have to be in
tune with the group. If you're not, don'L
facilitate.
Karuah: It's not a mechanistic thing at
all.
CE: Absolutely. That's the reason I get
slightly hysterical when people say anyone
can facilitate.
Katttal1: What is the most difficult job
you ever had LO facilitate?
CE: I can think of times when it didn't
work, bu1 the one thot strained the group the
most and we actually got the group Lhrough
it, was at the second Bioregional Congress at
Lake Leelanauw, Michigan when the group
tried LO pass a spirituality statement.
A resolution on spirituality was brought
before the group. Everyone was favorably
impressed and, I think, was preparing to
Sum mer, 1992
i\...)
.
adopt it, when two people who had been on
the fringe of the Congress all week moved
forward 10 say that they blocked it. That was
very hard 10 hear because they had not been
integral Lo the Congress, and yet they had
been there, and since the Congresses are
open groups they had the right 10 do this.
They were not articulate, so we could
not figure out easily what Lhey wanted or
why they were blocking it. I asked the .
patience of the group for two or three minutes
so I could dialogue with them directly, and in
doing so after a few minutes it started 10
emerge that the problem we were looking at
was the separation of church and state, which
no one up until that point had thought about.
Once that was articulated in a way that
people could understand it. a numbc!r of
people rose. including some who had been
on the commiuee, and said that they would
withdraw the statement. Others wanted 10
sign it in order to show support for it, but it
could not move forward in the group. It was
blocked.
That was one of the most di fficuh ones
in that we had a block from inarticulate
people who "'eren't integrally pan of the
group and were holding up a group decision
that until then looked like it had a "go."
l think that was the most lenmin& a
group has done on why we have blocking. h
also tested the paoence of the group the most.
It showed a lot of things. It showed that
sometimes Lhe facilitator needs 10 step in to
try to find ouL what is really going on. It also
tested the group in whether they re:illy
believed in the consensual process enough
that they allowed the time for it to happen
even when it was at the end of an incredibly
pushed day.
.
r,_
It got very emotional, but...the system
worked! We hadn't thought about that point.,
and we needed to think about it before
rushing into a decision that might have been
100 hasty.
Kattlah Whar do you think is the
imponnnce of the continental bioregional
congress doing its work by consensus?
CE: It's incredibly important. In a sense
we have been co-opted by the larger society.
Bioregionalism is now an accepted word. For
instance, California is now looking at
bioregionalism governmentally. They are
starting to look at how they could break
down the state into sub-regions, instead of
towns, cities, and counties. And part of it is,
1 think, the power that goes behind any
decision of any group that works
consensually. You just have a lot more power
behind what you say. Even if it doesn'L get
into the mass media, it intrinsically has more
power. when everybody in the group is
behind a decision.
Ka11tal1: That leads to the clincher
question: which is the most imponant., the
process or the result?
CE: (Pause) I'd say Lhe process...if
your process is flawed, your decision is
going to be flawed_
When people don't want to use
consensus it is usually because they are
attached to their position. And they are right:
if they are attached ro a position and unable to
see or allow a better position L be brought
o
Drawing by Rob Messick
(continued on next page)
Xat.uah )o"i-l'IQ[. P<J9C' ·3
�(ron11nuoo from p;,i;c 3)
resen·ations. Proposal is altered after
reservation:, are considered, or it is
accepted as is.
forth, then they can't work within a
consensus process. The resuhing position is
not going to have the ~ame power. bu! that\
what's going to happen. I understand It.
And I think that a second rea.~on that
people don't use consensus. and I really .
believe this, is that they don't understand n.
Every time I teach a course, I'm teaching it 10
people who have used consensus for years,
and they are just learning what it means.
So I think that lhose are two points that
people are blank about: they're attached 10 a
position and/or they don't know the process.
,1greement with reservation recorded -
Caroline Estes is a fo1utding member of
the i111entio11ai community Alpha Farm in the
Cascadia Bioregion of the Pacific Northwest.
She lwfacilitated al/jive Turtle Island
Bioregional Congresses held co date. People
watching her ac work are awed by her
strength and clarity. It has often been said
that the ability ofthe continental Bioregio11al
Congresses 10 operate on the basis of
consensus has been due to Caroline's ability
as a facilitator, a claim which Caroline
vigorously denies. This will soon be put 10
the test, however.for Caroline has said that
next year, when she 111rns 65 years old, she
plans to discontinue facilitating the
Bioregio,1111 Congresses and begin to actively ,,#
organize in her bioregion.
j7'
Disagreement or reservations arc
considered. Proposal is altered or is
accepted, and reservations arc recorded.
Unable 10 write - If one individual is unable to
unite with a proposal and is unwilling to
stand aside, then the chairperson must
decide whether to delay action on the
proposal or to ask the individual if he or
she would be willing to be recorded as
opposed. At the next meeting, very often.
agreement is possible after more time 10
reflect on the proposal.
Recorded by DW
CONSENSUS DECISION MAKING
PROCESS
by Joyce Johnson
Purpose: The group must have a unity of
purpose and must clarify the purpose 10 all
in the group. Everyone involved must have
a clear understanding of the group's
purpose.
Members of the Group: The group must
know and trust each other. That is essential
for trust-building.
Members must be willing to listen 10
each other with open minds.
Willingness to learn from each other;
participate in cooperative problem solving
and conflict resolution if necessary.
Members must believe in the consensus
process or be open 1 the process if
0
unfamiliar with it
Proposal: An individual or the chairperson
can phrase this for presentation co the .
group. Adequate time should be taken m
order to ensure thorough understanding of
the proposal. The proposal might not be
clear at the begiMing. It is the
responsibility of the chairperson to state the
proposal so that everyone understands it.
Responses to the proposal:
Agreement - Agreement without reservation;
consensus reached and proposal accepted.
Agreement with reservations - Proposal is
generally supported, but there are some
Xotuofl Journot page 4
\'· j
,I
f
1
I • 1
111/l,t
Possible Decisions on Proposal:
Accepted - Consensus with full agreement
reached.
Committee discussion - More information is
needed before a decision can be reached.
Those with strong opinions should attend
this discus:;ion. Sometimes a commi11ee can
be empowered 10 act. Usually it will then
bring the proposal back 10 the whole group.
Delay decision - Group not ready to make 1h1s
decision now. Discussion tabled to later
time.
Dropped - Not enough interest at this time by
the group 10 discuss this issue.
Chairpcr~on (or "facilitator" or
"clerk"): Good guidance is very
1mponan1 10 the consensus process. A good
chairperson is very often the difference
between a meeting working well or not
working at all. There are a lot of tools that a
chairperson can learn to use, but only
experience can tell a chairperson which tool
will work best in a given situation.
issue warr.ints, cspec1ally if making a major
policy change.
•
Discipline - Ask someone to cut shon 1hc1r
comments if they arc repeating themselves
or talking too long. Can also ask someone
who has spoken on an issue to wait until
others have had a chance 10 make
comments.
Diplomacy - Chairperson must be responsible
for dealing with a chronic objector. Deal
with this person considerately. This might
be the time to say that we are aware of your
disagreement, but it seems that the sense of
the meeting is 10 accept this proposal. Be
gracious but firm.
Dialogue - Members should speak 10 the clerk
and not dialogue with each other.
Silence - Allow time 10 pause after decision
before rushing on 10 the next agenda item.
Call for silence if there is need 10 pause
when there is conflict over an issue. This
gives members a chance to think of a way
to-.ephrase a statement or to cool off if
angry.
Clearness - It is sometimes important to ask
the recording clerk to read back the decision
to make sure it is clear to everyone what
has been decided.
Clearness Process - The clerk might
ask for individuals 10 meet outside the
meeting 10 resolve conflict or misunderstanding.
Judging What Is Important - Be careful not 10
be so goal-oriented that the decision
becomes more imponant than the process.
Some decisions might need more time.
After some discussion, the chairper~on
might say, "I feel that the group is ready 10
make a decision of this proposal." If some
feel that they arc not ready, this will give
them an opportunity to say so.
The Most lmporram Role of the Chairperson
or Clerk is 10 judge the sense of the
meeting. lt is the clerk's role 10 aniculatc
the unity that he or she discovers in the
community and to facilitate the formation of
that unity.
Consensus Does not Mean Unanimil):
Consensus means reaching unity or
concorda11ce. Tt has been described as a
pianist blending complemenrary notes into a
chord. It does not mean that everyone encl~
up on the same note, but 1ha1 complementary notes are blended into a chord.
Consensus is not reaching the "lowest
common denominator." It is instead the,_#
"highest collective consciousness." fr
Rt!.fources:
Judith Webb and John Olsson, A Consensus
Dccision-Makrng Model
Miduzel J. Sheeran. Beyond t\.1ajority Ruic: Vo1clcss
Decisions in the Religious Society of Friends
Responsibilities of Chairperson:
Agenda - Put issues in order; do not leave
imponant decisions until the end. Try lo set
time limits on each agenda item. Group can
aid this process.
Frame the question or proposal with
neurrality.
Elicit comments from silent members present.
Have show of hands so that those members
won't be intimidated by more vocal
members.
Poll participa111S - Go around the circle for
comments from each member present if the
Joyce Johnson is a ml!mbcr of the Ctlo
CommUJJity and the Ctlo Fritnds Mteting. She i.r
currtnily working a.rdevt!lopmtnt coordinator for tk
Arthw Morgan School. Slrt has/ocilitated many
meetings/or the Meeting and tilt! Arthur Morgan
School and help.r the students there practice the
consen.fu:r proce:rs 01 thtir sclu,o/ meetings.
Joyce conducts workslu,ps on the con.•tnsu.f
process/or inJtrt.fted groups She may be reached
through 1hr Arthur Morgan School: 1901 /JanMh
Branch Rd.; Burnsvillt, NC 28714 (7{},I) 675-4262.
Oraw.ng by Rob M~s,ck
Sum.mer, 1992
•
. • •. ' ,'J,
�Problems with Consensus
I have finally found the major beef I
have with the Consensus Process of group
decision making. Namely il revolves around
the fact that consensus can too easily boil
down to Minority Rule, and this has a
specific way of frustrating the proceedings
wilhin a group or council. When one person
or a minority can block consensus, or in
effect decide an issue for Lhe group, then that
is Minority Rule. How does this differ from
Realms, which in truth are not councils at all
but Monarchies? The struggle in human life
between inLegrity and the corruption of power
has raged for centuries, and we have yet 10
find means of reconciling the two into a
process 1hat is both just and livable for all
concerned.
Consensus is often touted as a solution
10 the many problems of Majority Rule voting
systems, such as Congresses or Parliaments,
yet it seems co me tha1 this emphasis merely
replaces one useless fonn of council with
another. It is clear 10 me now that both
Majority Rule and Minority Rule forms of
council usually result in splintered groups. Is
there any way to maintain unity among
people or various groups in the human
family? Perhaps noL
It makes sense lo me that an oppressed
individual or group would be attracted to a
consensus form of council. Such people have
surely been under-represented in the politics
of the United States of America and
elsewhere. Thus they seek compensatioR in
small groups where they can insist that their
position be adequately represented. or in
some cases OVERLY represented.
_l d<? not think that rigid Majority Rule
or Minonry Rule systems of council will
work in the long run in human group
dynamics. I say lhis because we as a species
have nasty hisLorical habiLS of not being able
to share the power of decision making when
people's opinions crystallize. There seems to
be a much_ stronger potential for many people
10 ge1 behmd a mob, and get lost in it, than
there is for individuals to think for
Lhemselves or act on their own conscience.
Majorities have a tendency to disregard the
righls of minorities, often feeling justified in
de~9!uing those who contradict the majority
opm1on.
How then can people participate in a
form of Council that can accommodate the
multiple concerns that modem human beings
have? Scale becomes important to the
accuracy of the decisions being made.
Geographical size is also an imponant factor.
A council 1hat is too small may nol have
enough influence, yet a council that is too
large may be irrelevant l0 local concerns. The
village, which is composed of a limited
number of households, is one of the best
examples of an appropriate or workable scale
of human council. When Lhese village groups
are slable then larger councils can evolve that
involve a limited cluster of villages, such as a
county or shire.
Consensus may have worked better in
eras where villages were primary to a given
cultural way of life. The consensus process
may also have worked beuer when times
were not as complicated, or when there were
fewer decisions to be made. The
Summer, 1992
consequences of decision making in the
dislant pasl also were no1 as far reaching as
they have become in the industrial era;
wilness the existence of plutonium and
television.
It seems lo me that many small or
medium sized groups of today could benefit
from having a formal Mediator lo help guide
the process of decision making; panicularly
when difficulties emerge or when a group
becomes deadlocked. This form of mediated
debate would differ greatly from an ingrown
strain of politics that has stagnated due to a
few dominant inclividuals. Instead of
bec_o~~g compl~tel~ i_mmersed in battling
maJonues and nunonues, a good mediator or
facilitator would remind participanLS of their
common interesLS and emphasize the an of
compromise where it is appropriate.
Compromise is a learned skill that individuals
in a small or medium sized group can develop
to auempl to work out solutions 10 problems
in a wa~ 1ha1 does noL leave out any
responsible adult who wants to participate in
the decision making process. In the case of
family disputes a facilitator could assist in
clarifying the rights of children as well as the
rights of parems.
Issues of fairness in a setting where no
weapons are allowed would naturally become
an ongoing concern. A valid council would
not allow weapons a1 their proceedings. It is
clear lo me now, Lhrough a beuer
understanding of human behavior, thal there
are some approaches 10 forming council that
work beuer than others. Finding ways that
panicipants can let go of the spirit of
conquest and still be a pan of the group is
primary to working toward a successful
approach. There are cenainly no guarantees
that this process would work over time, yet
adequate spans of time seem to be necessary
to forming councils that link people at least as
much as they divide them. Most of the
politics of today are 100 rushed and
inconsistent to even begin to consider
susLainability or future generations.
Good facilitators would have the skill
of being able to suspend their judgements
enough, or be sufficiently impartial, to
mediale lhe vested interests within a given
group. A good facilitator would also be
skilled in ways of building truSt among
members of a group or council. Once such an
atmosphere of trust has been created the
various secret and obvious agendas touted by
people within the group can be identified,
slowly brought out into the open, and
confronted.
Even though solutions or decisions may
not emerge spontaneously, at leasl a good
faci.litator can provide a forum in which all
posilions are aired. Members can go away
from a meeting and contemplate the meaning
of these positions. which become imponant
lo dialogues in future meetings. Those
individuals who are most auatched to their
own agendas would probably balk the
loudest at having a facilitator or "outSidcr"
come into their group process. But, as is
often the case in human psychology, it is
those who refuse good medicine or good _
,#
council the strongcsl who need it most!
J!7'
· Rob Mes.sick
Dnwing by Rob Messick
X.Otunft Jouniat PIUJe 5
�TRIBAL COUNCIL
•
I n the center of each of the larger
Cherokee villages were the square and the
town house. In the larger villages the 1own
house was buiJ1 in10 a large earthen mound.
Seating areas were dug into the mound, so
1hat if you looked at ii from the top, without
the roof on it, it looked Like a spiral coming
up out of the ground. AI the bottom and !he
center of the spiral was the sacred fire and !he
seven poles that supported the building.
The visible walls were only four feel
high, and !he whole building was covered by
an immense thatched roof. Some of the town
houses at the major villages were enormous.
The town house at Old Echota, for example,
had 900 poles. Many of !hem were 18"
through. A lot of them were locus1. They
used the seven-pole construction all the way
around and made 1he building very strong.
But not every village had a town house.
The smaller villages used the square for !heir
mee1ing place. There would be seven arbors,
traditionally called ''beds," arranged around
the square, one for each of the clans. Four of
!he beds were localed at the cardinal poinis,
and !he others were loca1ed around 1hem.
During meetings, all 1he members of the clan
sat in their clan bed.
In each village there were people who
spen1 a lot of lime at the town house, in the
square, or n1 1he chunky (a popular gambling
game - ed.) grounds, which were locaied just
to the side of 1he town house. The old men,
in particular, spent a good deal of 1heir time
there just talking. Thus, 1here was an
ongoing meeting around the town house that
was happening more or less all 1he 1ime.
Sometimes the meeting got mor..: intense
when everybody came to the 1own house to
talk about some mauer of importance to the
village, bu1 01her times ii was just the old
men continually discussing the village affairs.
When the whole council met, the
meetings became more fonnal. Twelve of the
elders sat around the sacred fire at the center
of the town house. (In the smaller villages
there was one representative from each clan.}
The rest of the people of the viJJ~ge sat in the
seats by clans.
One member of the council represented
"The Unborn Yet To Be," and spoke for their
poin1 of view. II was important 10 the council
tha1 in decision-making The Unborn Yet To
Be were always taken into account. They
don'1 do that any more. I wish 1hey would.
They would talk about problems the
village faced, like a bad com crop that year
or another village which was requesting theuhelp to make war on the Creeks.
Consensus was the way decisions were
made. The old people in the center spoke
first They did not give commands. They
would make suggestions based on their
wisdom. And oflen the people would follow
that wisdom Part of their wisdom was taking
into accoun1 the Unborn Yet To Be.
Anyone could speak in the council, but
it was done respectfully. The old people
spoke firsi, 1hen the 01her people could
speak. They had to wait until 1he conversation at the center was done, then they would
Xati1nh Jo;ucnnfriP'-90i•i111X
stand and wait to be recognized by one of the
elders in the middle. They didn't scream or
wave 1heir arms, they jus1 stood 10 be
recognized. Women could speak in the
council. Even a child could speak. Everyone
had a right to speak their heart.
Once I was privileged to sit at the
ceremonial grounds wilh a group of old
Cherokee men in Oklahoma while they talked
about a problem in their village. l saw an
example of how lhe old tribal councils made
decisions by consensus.
There were 12 or 15 old men in the
group. The younges1 one, besides myself,
was about 73. These were the people who
used the Council House. They 100k into
consideration The Unborn Yet To Be.
The problem ai 1he time was not really
clear to me, bu1 I remember tha1 everybody
spoke. They sinned off with the younges1
man and went around the circle, each man
speaking his piece and saying wha1 he had 10
say.
It wasn'1 a "meeting" the way whi1e
people run a meeting. They didn'1 hammer
out a decision. In fact, 1hey did not come to
any specific conclusion a1 all. If any white
people had been presen1, 1hey would not have
known tha1 a meeting was taking place at all.
To a white person ii would have appeared
1hat some old men were silting in a circle
talking casually about a mauer of common
concern.
They just talked aboul it. Each of them
spoke abou1 the problem from his own point
of view. The world tru1h among these people
was the same, so they already shared a broad
agreement By 1he time they went around the
circle the silua1ion was so clear from every
angle tha1 the answer was obvious. and the
old men just got up and lef1. There was a
consensus. It was all over. It was decided.
I fell very fonuna1e 10 ge1 a glimpse of
something that rarely happens anymore,
With 1he advice of the elders, the
council chose the chiefs, called uku's, for
the village. There were two chiefs: a peace
uku and a war uku. A person was chosen as
an uku because he had a lot of personal
integri1y and made good decisions. He was a
person the people chose to follow and also a
role model for the young people. A chief held
his position until he made l01s of mistakes,
and the people would choose 10 follow
someone else. But if he made wise decisions,
he could be chief for life.
The war chief was probably the mos1
popular person in 1he village, bu1 he was also
the mos1 vulnerable. ff he used bad
judgmen1, his mistakes could cost many
lives, and his career would be ended.
The chief was a leader, bu, he did not
tell people what to do. h was no1 like "OK,
we'll all go 10 war 1oday," or "Everybody go
pick com." Like the elders, a chief could
only make suggestions. White people do not
know anything about democracy and freedom
until they know 1he way tha1 the native
culture worked.
by Bear With Runs
Another important person chosen by the
council was 1he Beloved Woman. She was
chosen for the same reason as an uku: 1ha1
her character, as a woman, was highly
regarded by the men and women of the
village. Like an 11Jr.u, she would have to show
in1eg:ity and personal power. At one time
every village had a Beloved Woman, un1il
after a 101 of white influence there came 10 be
only one Beloved Woman for the whole
tribe.
The Beloved Woman could no1 start a
war, but she could stop one. She decided
what happened 10 captives. She spoke up
when !he village was lllinking about moving
i1s location, and she had a say on 1rea1ies.
Other women came to her frequently for
spiritual advice and help with everyday
mauers.
The Cherokee are called a nation, bu1
the word "nation," in the Western sense of
the word, does not explain how the people
saw rhemselves. They saw themselves as
"The Human Beings" or "The People." In the
early days of white contac1, the "nation" was
only a very loose federation of individual
villages. Each village was a power 10 i1self
and could follow i1s own hean to a great
extent.
The tnbe had red villages (war villages)
and while villages (peace villages}, and there
were also special sanctuary villages. A
person 'Yho committed a crime of passion in
his own village could find safety if he could
gel to a sanctuary village before being caught.
He could s1ay in the sanctuary village without
being molested by anybody until the
following Green Corn Ceremony, when
judgments were decided, and compensations
were paid. People would have to make
retribution for mistakes they had made. They
might pay in com, or sometimes a person
would indenture himself for a time of service
to make retribution.
The sanc1uary villages and the "cooling
off period" were probably good ideas,
because they allowed people's personal
passions to wane somewhat, and judgments
were made out of reason instead of hot anger.
The Katuah village was a sanctuary.
and also 1he Nikwasi village in Franklin,
North Carolina. I believe tha1 the seven
oldest, "mother" vilJages of the Cherokee
were sanc1uary villages, although I am not
sure of the status of Echota. There were a lot
of warriors based 1here in la1er times.
While the villages were self-determining political unilS, it was the shared
ceremonies, lifestyles, customs, and world
view that kept the tribe together. And there
was also the influence of 1he clans. There
were seven clans in the Cherokee tribe
(ahhough a long time ago there were 14).
PeOple were born in10 their mother's clan,
and tha1 was 1heir clan for life. The women
kepi crack of the lineages.
Each clan had its own rules and i1s own
taboos. The clans 100k care of 1heir own
(tonhnucd on P•&c 8)
Suni'ttttr, 11992 "" ,
�•
DnWllli by James Rhea
�(continued from p;,gc 6)
members. They specialized life within the
villages somewha1 and k:PI people ~rom
marrying too close 10 theLr own family. A
person could not marry within the same clan.
Incest of any sort, eilher biological incest or
clan incest, was lhe worst crime a person
could commit The clan system kept out
inbreeding. It also helped 10 govern lhings.
Besides lhe family cornfields and lhe
communal aibaJ cornfields, each clan would
also have large clan cornfields. Any excess
com from lhese fields would be given to the
old and the elderly of that clan, if their
families could nor provide for them.
The clans also had somewhat dlfferem
functions. The Wolf Clan was the warrior
clan - the military and the police if that
function was needed. The Wild Poiato Clan
was more into agriculture. The Paints were
interested in crafts. And the Bird Clan was
probably hunters - birds, deer. Each clan had
different rules and different taboos,
depending on their function in lhe
community.
While the clan system did serve to
sepanue things and provi_de some stru~rure
within the village, on a different level tt also
served 10 hold the tribe together as a whole.
Clan members were obligated to care
for each other. This was the basic rule of the
clans. A traveler could go 10 a small outpost
village up in Kcnrucky that he had never seen
before and could find clan relatives who
would take him in and care for him. lt held
the people together. Even though the dialect
they spoke might be different, they would
still be clan relatives. They would still be
Cherokee.
And 1hen there was clan justice. This is
often misunderstood. Any time the rights or
person of a clan member were viol~ted, then
everybody else in that clan was obligated to
make swe retribution was paid for the cnme.
For instance, if someone murdered a member
of another clan, all the other members of that
Xotimfl 1 ~ n l:1,.\ 'hll(Je 8 •
101m,nt ,f
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1,t I ~·1~,1...,
(I i,1111 'lnn:mol 1lrilll \
clan helped 10 hunt that perso~ down and take
his life in return. If the offending person ran
to a sanctuary village. he could stay there, but
if lhe clan members caught him first, it was
au over.
This was not revenge. This was the
clan being responsible for its members based on our reality. The clans kept a balance
between each other. That kept a balance
wilhin the whole aibe.
group - but at the same time they were ~iven
tremendous freedom. There were areas m
which an indjviduttl could get glory and
personal recognition. Someone who was a
great hunter was revered. and a gOO?
provider was sought af1er by the lad1~s.
There was glory for the young males 1n
warfare.
However, if someone did not conduct
him- or herself properly, they did not receive
any approval. People would just ignore them.
In most cases, their behavior would be
modified in a very short time. Native people
wanted at all cost 10 avoid losing face and
being shamed. Depriving someone of
attention or ridiculing him or her was a
powerful way 10 get a deviant person back
into accord with the group.
The ultimate threat of force was
banishment from the village. An action that
serious was carried out by the whole village
council, because it required the support of the
whole community. In that situation,
somebody was put 0111 of the circle instead of
into a jail or prison. The idea of cagin_ up
g
somebody's spirit was a totally alien idea.
The purpose of this village justice was
not 10 punish people, but tO change them.
The Cherokee did believe in vengeance, but
only against other aibes. fn the whi~e.
people's system, people who caus<: mJury are
punished. They are made to suffer m an equal
amount to the harm they have caused - either
by years of imprisonment or by ouaight
execution.
The dominant culture of today is
actually a lot of confused culrural biases
which share very little consensus as to what
is true culture. Within our culture it was
clear. There wasn't anything else. It was
either this or nothing. If you didn't belong. it
was terrible. The urge to belong was so
str0ng, it governed the people's actions.
Our consensus was based on a world
view that was shared throughout the whole
aibe. Because of that the Cherokee needed no
couns, lawyers, judges, or prisons.
We had very few laws. They were
mostly just rational, reasonable rules.based
on observation. There was a law agamst
urinating in the river. There was a Jaw against
defecating around the village. There was a
law against talcing 100 many deer, because
everybody knew thar if they killed too many
deer, there would not be any left the next
year. There were clear and obvious reasons
for laws like that They were based on
common sense rules that nature laid down in
front of us.
One of the biggest barriers between us
and the white people was that we did not
have any concept of privare property.
•
Possession meant that "when you were there
it was yours." But the white people did a
good job of teaching us differently.
The word "fndian-giver" came from the
fact that a white man would give some
Indians a load or goods for their piece of
land and the next day the Indians would be
back. The Indians had not realized they ~ad
sold their land. They had never had any idea
of owning it! They took the presents because
it would be rude to refuse gifts of friendship.
It is hard for white people to understand
our ways and how they worked, because
they do not understand how the old
Cherokees related 10 the aibe. The old culture
was holistic. The tribe was the whole, and
the loyalty toward the whole was very
strong. The desire to contribute to the whole
and to move evenly with the rest of the group
was ingrained by many generations of
cultural reinforcement ll was so much a part
of the culture that it was quite abnonnal to ~
an individual. Cooperation was t~e governing
force within the community, and m the old
days, before we were too muc~ influenced by
the whites. our personal integnty meant a lot
more 10 us.
People were rewnrcted for their
cooperation by approval and love from the
In the Cherokee aibe, spiritual life was
not split a pan from the political l!fe of the
village. It was always there. but It was not
recognized as something separate. Because of
the emphasis on character and personal
integrity, the elders tended to be te~chers and
spiritual leaders as well as leaders m the
council.
At one time there was a religion and a
priest society in the Cherokee aibe. I ~ave
heard stories about this from several different
sources. My own thinking is that in !he
tribe's early history when we first migrated
south, we encountered the late stages of the
deteriorating Mississippian culture. The
Mississippian culture "."as ~ on M_ayan
and Aztec beliefs. Tht1r pracoces, beliefs,
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•
(Continued on page 30)
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l )~UHI •
�O,.wing by Rob Messick
© 1992
by Lucinda Flodin
Maybe she's the reason I came to live
in the mountains. I know she's the reason I
swp when I'm near that panicular place.
Sometimes I stop nowhere near that place
because the feeling comes over me, and I
stop. After all this time I still fookfor Elda ...
In 1974 I spent the summer with
friends in Limestone, Tennessee, recovering
from a shattered romance. I would sit on the
porch watching the mountains, but more
often I would drive to the mountains and hike
through long afternoons. On one of these
hikes I became absorbed in following a liule
stream and lost track or time. When r stopped
to rest, I realized that it was getting late.
Night came quickly in the forest and I
found myself unable to negotiate the path, I
finally stopped in a small clearing only to
realize that r was now losr. Around me were
trees and darkness and ever-increasing fear.
A sound sent me into total panic. I had
visions of bears and mountain lions and
snakes and bugs! l tried 10 get a grip. I
smacked a mosquito who was definitely out
for blood. My hean started pounding wildly.
I'd probably have a heart auack before a bear
could even find me.
I was hungry ... so thirsty... but there
was no food anywhere... not a bite 10 be
found! I leaned over to drink from the
stream, but I had no idea where I was or
what the origin of the water was. I knew I
shouldn't drink any water in the wild unless I
was at a spring head. How thirsty I was and I
couldn't even drink the water!
1 sat and cried - no, yelled - at the trees
around me about the unfairness or it all.
Finally I ran out of energy and sat down. Just
then the.moon came shimmering through the
su-mmcr, 1992
ELDA
trees, and I rudn't feel so alone. As I looked
across the clearing, it seemed that if I just
walked around the big tree in front of me, I
could get a clear view of the moon's face. As
I pushed away the low branches to duck
around the tree, the Earth s11dde11/y fell away
beneath me.
There was nothing gradual about this
moment. One second I was on the ground,
the next I was in space - learning gravity as
I'd never learned it before - tumbling, falling,
rolling. It happened so quickly I had no time
10 fear as I bounced through bush and briar. I
tried 10 clutch the Earth, but I wasn't sure
where it was - sometimes above me,
sometimes below, pounding at me wherever
we met. Eternity was caught in a single
moment. Would it ever stop?
At last I became more of the eanh than
the sky, and I rolled into a resiing spot in a
patch or briars. Pain and eanh grJbbcd me
back from space. My last thought was
wondering if the spinning would ever
cease ...
Warm sunlight on my face, my bed felt
so good. The dream had been so real. I'd
never dreamt so vividly. I decided to grab the
journal at my bedstand and write it down .
before the memory faded. It was the reaching
for this journal that brought abrupt physical
pain.
I tried to open my eyes. How I hurt!
Oh, no! This wasn't my bed! This wasn't a
dream! Hope crashing, I opened my eyes to
the canopy of young tree growth above me. It
hun to look ouL lt hun to breathe. The
thought of moving hurt. Maybe I was dead.
lf not. I surely would be soon. A tear burned
down my face. I could feel my fingers. l
could feel my toes. Pain filled them all and
soon a strange sleep enveloped me.
A sense of not being alone brought me
back 10 consciousness. Was this the
mountain lion I'd feared? As l tried to move,
pain seared through my body. A voice like
music. or was it the wind through the trees,
said, "Don't move, young one, and don't be
afraid. I won't hurt you."
As I struggled tO tum toward the
sound, r felt movement around me until a
woman came into my sighL First I saw her
hands, veined like the gnarly roots of an oak,
yet wonderfuJJy supple. My eyes moved up
to a face which surprised me with itS
ancientness; somehow it didn't match those
capable hands. The face was an intricate mnzc
of lines and wrinkles - there were no flat
planes. Then our eyes met and I felt myself
falling int0 an ocean of blue clarity. Never
had I experienced eyes like those - clearer,
yet deeper, than a child's. Suddenly those
eyes and her whole incredible face broke into
a smile with more facets than a prism in
sunlighL And that music - no, it was her
voice. "You arc amazed, young one. Good,
that amazement will help you to heal
yourself."
"Are you an angel? Am I dead?"
Again that smile, followed by a laugh
that would have made me laugh, too, except
for how much it would have hun.
"No, young one. I walk an Eanh path.
Some call me Elda. I answered your
frightened call in the moonlighL"
I realiz.ed that I no longer was lying in
briars. Hadn't I landed in briars? My eye
caught a thiclcet of them a little way from
when: I lay.
(continued on ow page)
)(.Qtimh JoUf'tlat PQIJI'- 9
�(CQitinued f'rom pego 9)
"Briars don't make for sweet dreams;
soft pine needles and grass make for more
comfon. You'll rest easy in this baby forest,
and the Eanh will help your healing. You
have strong bones, none are broken. Your
muscles are strained. Only a few of your cuts
are deep. This gash is deep for it bleeds stil1,
but it has bled enough. Feel it closing and
healing in your thoughts, little one."
She reached into a pouch at her side and
took a pinch of some powder and blew it into
the CUI.
"What's that stuff?"
"A pinch of puffball to stop the blood.
It has bled enough now. You are curious?
That is good. I like curiosity. I will teJJ you
of the plants."
I grew anxious at all these answers to
unasked, sometimes uninfonned questions.
"And you are afraid. Are you always
afraid, little one? Breathe or hum a song. It
will help."
She took a bowl -1 think it was a bowl,
though it may have been a hollowed-out tree
gnarl - and with a feathery leaf began to wash
my cuts.
"This is yarrow, cooked in water in the
sunlight. It will numb your pain and let us
work on your injuries."
As she gently washed them. I could feel
the pain numbing, lessening.
"Th.is will allow us to bathe them
again."
With the numbness, I was able to move
to see myself. Everywhere I could see my
skin, it was covered like a roadmap with
scratches. The skin around the scratches was
deepening as bruises formed. I wanted to
throw up, but that would have required
movement.
"Skin mends, young one."
"I'm not that young, and my name is
Lucinda."
"To me you are very young, Lucinda."
As I looked at her ancientness, f felt
silly at having snapped at her.
Throughout the day as I moved in and
out of sleep. I felt her near me. Her words
wafted through my consciousness as she
washed my legs with chickweed, little star
woman, comfrey, burdock, more yarrow.
She helped me sip red clover from a bowl. It
all was like a confused dream. Sometimes r
would hear her talking. Actually, it seemed
that she was having two-way conversations
with the plants. / must be mad' And then I'd
doze again.
"Are you magic?" I asked in a moment
of lucidity.
"No, child... Lucinda. I am a child of
the Earth, like yourself. I've tended this
forest garden, and it has tended me, for
longer than 1 can even remember. We take
care of each other."
At dusk, a drink with a strong taste...
"Skullcap, 10 mke the pain for a deeper
sleep."
I did sleep - deeply - and without fear. I
could hear her voice as I drifted.
"You are safe under the trees, on the
Eanh, with the stars. Sleep sweetly. Dream
wellness."
I awoke to the twittering of birds. I stiU
hun, but I could move. Again I wondered a1
~~~ J?~~~. p~!Z ,10
~e.reality of Elda. then she stepped into my
v1s1on. Yes, she was really here. It was like
she was invisible one moment and there the
nexL Yet I knew she had really been there.
She was real. I was overcome by the wisdom
I sensed in her presence.
"Today you might feel hungry. I've
brought you food."
She opened a giant leaf which I later
learned was burdock filled with violets,
clover blossoms and sweet-tasting leaves and
berries. She would name them.
"It's so much. I'll never remember
them."
"You don't learn them all at once, dear
one. You learn one plant at a time. Each is
your teacher."
I contemed myself with the
nourishment I felt pervading my body. AU
that day Elda fed me and I told her of my
journey. She only laughed when 1 got to the
part of being so hungry and so far from food.
She found that delightfully funny, and I felt
foolish. But then r looked around, and I, too,
was struck with the humor of it. Somehow it
seemed that all the plants around us also
laughed, but I wouldn't swear to that.
Moving became easier as the day went
on and I was amazed at how much better all
my scratches were. Elda made a poultice (I
remember her using that word) of plantain
and elder for my bruises. I could feel the
soothing relief and the healing begin.
'Tomorrow you will be able 10 travel,"
she said as the sun was gold in the west. We
sat with a bowl of salve which tasted full and
thick as soup. "I will show you a shoner
route."
I didn't want 10 go, but suddenly I
thought of my friends, Dan and Ruby, and I
knew they must be panicking by now.
"I would like to know more about
plants, Elda."
"Well, talk to them, dear. They like to
be remembered."
I went to sleep imagining myself in
conversation with a fem and wondering
about my sani1y.
Walking down the mountain \l.ith Elda
in the morning was an adventure. It was a
completely different path, I think. I wasn't
really payiog much auention on the way. She
pointed out plants, talked to them as friends.
and treated them with re:;pect. Before I knew
it, we were at my car
She laughed, "Ah, just the friend you
need now." And she told me to pick the
sticky flowers growing around my car.
"Calendula. Make them into a tea to soothe
your wounds."
"How do I thank you, Elda?"
"You don't, dear one. You pick the
flowers and make yourself strong."
It seemed like just a moment later when
a state trOOper stanled me. I looked toward
Elda, but she was gone. My friends had
reported me missing. He had been looking
for me and had found my car.
"Did you see that woman?"
"No, miss. Just you here. No one Jives
up in these pans. I'll drive you."
I went home and healed up, though one
scar remained on my leg as a reminder of the
adventure. But 1 still thought about Elda and
wanted to see her again. Several times that
summer I returned to that area, but I could
never again find that exact spot where I had
met Elda. l asked campers and hikers, and I
stopped at every house in the area. No one
had heard of anyone sounding like Elda.
They sent me up 10 Granny Pierson
who was the oldest person around and who
reponedly became confused at rimes. We
talked. She drifted in and out of memory, a
sharp contrast to the clearity of Elda's mind.
She couldn't recollect much at first, but
finally she began, "There was this old
woman. What was here name? Something
like that, but, Lord, hooey, hit's bin since l
was a girl An old 'erb woman. She was old
when I was a child. Lord, she'd be in the
grave more'n seventy year now. J remember
her, though, but my mind's leavin' me."
My friends listened patiently, trying to
be supponive, but occasionally suggesting
that maybe I'd dreamed it. Maybe I'd made
her up to keep myself alive. I don't know.
Could I have made up the richness that
was Elda? Her wiseness? I couldn't have
made up her eyes!
Thar was sixteen years ago. I live in the
mountains now, in the same county tlwugh
miles from where I met Elda. I dan't ask
abolll her now, excepi when I meet old
people. But as I walk tliroughfields and
woods, gathering plants and learning abolll
them, Ida think of her. In fields where
flowers seem to be laughing, I sense her
presence. I feel tit.at if I could just turn more
qt~ickly, I'd see her there ware/ting me - her
wise face full oflife, giving nouris/unent. .
After all this time I still look for Elda.
#
P'
There are stories from cullurcs around the
world and from ns far back ns the Stone Ages about
lhc elderberry. UsWllly lhey involve o woman who
lives in the tree and ha~ powerful medicine 10 heal Iler
children. (I created the feminine fonn Elda for !hi.~
cho.roclCJ'.) But she con be dangerous at times when
she is not shown re,.c;pcct. Old supcn;lilions maimain
lhat cuumg elder without pennission or the plant
brings illnes,~ nnd/or death.
Lucinda Flodin lives with her family in Katuah
Province near Hampton, TN and is. among other
things, an herbalist and a Mory!Alllcr. The story "Elda"
is included oo a new audio tape cnlled Mountain
Spirits available for SI0.00 ppd. from: Lucincm
Flodin: Rt. I, Box 726; Hampton. TN 37658.
�THE STATE OF FRANKLIN
Land, Liberty... and Mastery
by David Wheeler
"A beautiful valley and the
almost boundless West lay before
them, beckoning all to adventure
themselves. The thing most worthy of
remark is the far reach and wide range
of the vision and the plans of the
people of Franklin, and the projective
power that gave them and their
descendants a very considerable
mastery of men and measures
througlwut the generations that /rave
followed."
- Samuel Cole Williams
in The Lost State of Franklin
they could hunt. They built their own log
homes, provided their own clothing, and
made their own whiskey. Work parties of
neighbors built and maintained what roads
!here were.
The presence of the tax collectors was
!he main evidence of the Norlh Carolina state
government. The settlers were poorly
represented in the state legislature. They had
to cross the mountains to find a court in
(1933)
In the years immediately following the
Revolutionary War the runnoil of the war
years continued almost unabated in the
former colonies. These were heady times the imperial power of England had been
defeated, new theories of government were
materializing, and a new continent lay open
for the taking. In !he new nation, talk of
politics was on everyone's lips, and "libeny"
was the watchword. But in the minds of
many people was the thought of land - land to
be the material basis for their hard-won right
to "the pursuit of happiness."
In spite of such lofty hopes and dreams
among the European settlers, however, the
new country was in a shambles. The
government of the State of North Carolina, in
particular, was pauperized. The war had
taken a heavy toll on !he personal resources
of the former colonists, and !here had been
much destruction and ill-feeling. The central
government was weak: and in debt for
promises made during the pressing struggle
for independence. By its original charter, the
jurisdiction of North Carolina extended west
10 the sea, but under the prevailing conditions
it was lit lie wonder that those closest to the
capital at Hillsborough received the most
attention.
The mountains of the Blue Ridge were
still a formidable barrier at that time. Settlers
following the Great Valley of !he Tennessee
River had established a bastion in what is
now the northeast comer of Tennessee.
During the war they had shown themselves to
be stalwan pattiotS, pro<ecting North
Carolina's rear from hostile attacks by the
Cherokee and Chiclcasaw tribes and turning
the tide of the war in the South by surging
over the mountains to play a decisive role in
the battle of Kings Mountain,
But now, not only were the wartime
claims of these soldiers being ignored, but
Nonh Carolina was levying heavy taxes on
au its citizens to rebuild itS shattered
infrastructure and restore its government. To
the settlers in the west, this was blatant
"taxation without representation" - just what
they had fought 10 end!
This feeling was justified. The lands
west of the mountains were self-supponing,
living off the crops they raised and the game
summer, 1092
which to setlle their differences. Although
constantly threatened by hostile natives, their
state government would send no ll'OOpS
across the mountains for their protection.
But the worst blow came in 1783. In
order to capitalize its recovery, the State of
North Carolina passed a law offering land
west of the mountains for sale to setllers and
speculators. The bill put up for sale the land
from 20 miles south of the town of
Jonesborough 10 the French Broad and the
Big Pigeon Rivers, conveniently ignoring the
fact that this land had been guaranteed to the
Cherokee in the Avery Treaty of 1777.
This made the natives understandably
restless, and in 1784, largely to avoid the
expense of sending a military force to defend
the western settlers from angry Cherokees,
North Carolina passed a bill giving up its
claim to the lands west of the mountains and
ceding !hem to the newly-formed national
Confederation Congress.
Congress was too weak and 100 far
away to protect the settlers over the
mountains. Nonh Carolina had reneged on
the task. The seulers were used to protecting
and providing for themselves. A decade
before, earlier settlers had even established
the Watauga Association, the first "free and
independent community on the continent," in
the words of Theodore Roosevelt On August
23, 1784 delegates from the counties west of
the Blue Ridge gathered and declared their
area a free and independent state.
Their declaration was immediately
challenged. Norlh Carolinians were surprised
and angered at this tum of events, and when
a new legislature convened that autumn,
North Carolina rescinded the C.ession Act and
restated itS cl.aim to the western lands.
It was a vain attempt. On December 14,
1784 a second convention at Jonesborough
decided to name the new state after Benjamin
Franklin and set about the work of drawing
up a constitution. The following March, that
work was continued, and John Sevier was
elected governor of the State of Franklin and
David Campbell was chosen as its chief
justice and given the task of setting up a court
system.
John Sevier (pronounced se-VEER)
had been at first reluctant 10 become involved
with the movement for independence, but
from 1784 he was a moving force in the
history of the State of Franklin. By all
accounts he was brave, charming, and
handsome · a charismatic leader. He was a
hero of the battle of Kings Mountain and was
a renowned "lndian fighter."
Instinctively, Sevier was a consummate
politician. He knew the value of diplomacy
and the power of force. In his dealings wilh
whites he could use a winning smile and
charming words to win his way; with the
native people he was rulhlessly violent
Although he was educated and
articulate, Sevier's strongest support was
always among the rough settlers on the
frontiers of the whites' territory. These were
his comrades in arms, the mythologized
pioneers. It was moslly from these people
that Sevier drew the militia for his campaigns
against the natives. The backwoods whites
loved and trusted Sevier. They counted on
him for their defense, and he never let them
down.
For three years Sevier led the State of
Franklin. In that turbulent era the exact
powers and role of a state was unclear.
Whether the states were to be
semi-autonomous republics or divisions of a
strong central government was as yet
undecided. One thing was certain: "Liberty,"
meaning self-government, was the overriding
ideal. During the three years that the State of
Franklin existed, it set up its own
govemrncntal scructure, electing delegates
and appointing commissioners. It established
a judiciary; minted coins; provided for
schools; and, of course, designed a "great
seal" and a flag. The frontiersmen were
already organized as a de/aero militia, but
that arrangement was officializcd. The State
also began collecting taxes - frontier Style.
"Be it enacted," decreed the state's first
General Assembly, "that it shall and may be
lawful for the aforesaid land tax, and all free
polls, to be paid in the following manner:
Good flax linen,... woolen and cotton
linsey,...good, clean beaver skins,...cased
otter sk.ins, ... rackoon (sic) and fox
skins, ... bacon, well curcd,...good, clean
tallow,...good, clean beeswax,... good
distilled rye whiskey,...good peach or apple
brandy,...good, country made (maple)
(eontinucd on nc:ll page)
Xati4af1 Journal: page 11
�(continued from page 11)
sugar,...deer skins, ...good, neat and well
managed tobacco, fit to be prized, that may
pass inspection,..."
In certain instances, Franklin also acted
like a national power. The state made treaties
wilh the native tribes, which in those times
with the central government so weak and ~
id~ of self-government so strong in the
mrnds of the people, was not unusual But in
1788, when the effort to maintain their
ind~~dcn~ was falling apart, Sevier began
a ~non wtth the government of Spain.
w~ch held the mouth of the Mississippi
River. To the Spanish representative
Oardoqui, Sevier hinted that the citiuns of
Frank.I.in might ally themselves with Spain in
exchange for protection, money, and
weapons. It was almost assuredly a bluff,
but. even in those times, it was a bold bluff
indeed.
•
The foundation of the "Liberty~ of the
white immigrants was the very material
~sidcration of land. From the beginning of
its history, the acquisition of land was the
other driving force in the remarkable story of
the State of Franklin. That the native
inhabitants had clear tide to their lands that
o~ten went back 1,000 years made no
~erence. The p~ure of the migration of
whit.e Europeans from over the mountains
was irresistible. Also, disagreements over the
authority of the different states, the
Confederation Congress, and the State of
Franklin to sign treaties and ma.kc agreements
added 10 the confusion (which was no doubt
exploited when convenient).
. Always ready 10 make agreements., the
whites did not prove so willing to keep them,
and the Cherokee in vain pointed to tteaty
)CQtuQn )oumQC PQ<Je 12
after broken treaty. On the Cherokee side the
Chickamauga villages, under the leadership
of the war chief Dragging Canoe, believed in
no treaties made with the whjtes and honored
none. Their disbelief was quite correct but
their actions gave the Europeans ample'
reasons for reprisals.
It was a war, 10 be sure, and each side
could point 10 outrages and depredations
committed by the other. But in this war the
treaties were meaningless; the real power was
in the superior numbers and weapons of the
European occupiers, and they would take
whatever their military strength could win.
A fine tract of land in the Great Bend of
the Tennessee (or "the Bent of the
Tennessee"), near the present-day city of
Muscle Shoals, Alabama was a lodestone to
white investors. In 1784, a company of
speculators, including John Sevier and
prominent men in Nonh Carolina, arranged a
"purchase" of the land from some of the
native residents, although the area was deep
in the territory guaranteed to the red people.
Fro~ then on Sevier's eyes were always
looking toward the south. It is felt that his
initial opposition 10 the establishment of the
State of Franklin stemmed from concern
about the future of his investment in the Great
Bend. When he came around 10 favor the
s~ssion, he began to think that the new
state could help his venture, and under his
leadership the policies of the State of Franklin
were always expansionist and pointed toward
the south.
Franklin encouraged immigration by
whites, even when the government knew that
the only available lands lay in Cherokee
country. ~igration meant profits, yes.
land speculanon was a booming industry in
the ne.wly-opened lands to the west. But,
more unportantly, immigration was crucial to
the very survival of the fledgling state across
the mountains. Cleared lands and dense
settlements were the best protections against
anacks by the natives.
The Nonh Carolina Act of 1783 had
violated the terms of the earlier Avery Treaty
by !f!OVing the boundary claimed by the
whnes down to the French Broad River.
However. the act strictly prohibited entry or
surveys by whites south of that line. But as
soon as the State of Franklin was formed,
settlers began 10 move south of the French
Broad. They were encouraged by the state
government. In fact, the State of Franklin had
a land office in Jonesborough that raised
revenue by taking purchase money for land
claims granted south of the French Broad.
Sevier felt that this siruation needed
formal recognition, so he called together a
meeting of Cherokee chiefs in May of 1785
and laid out the Treaty of Dumplin Creek,
~h~c~ moved .the ~undary south 10 the ridge
diVJd1ng the Little River and the Little
Tennessee River watersheds.
However, it was only six months later
that the United States' Confederation
Congress felt that the central government
should assert its authority and negotiated the
Treaty of Hopewell with the Cherokee. This
treaty moved the line back 10 the north . so
far nonh that the town of Greeneville, which
had just been named the capital of the State of
Franklin, was made pan of the native
territories! The treaty specifically repudiated
the Dumplin Creek agreement and the Great
Bend land purchase. It was intentionally
vague about the status of the settlers
occupying the lands north of the French
Broad River, but it clearly stated that all other
trespassers would have to leave in six months
or lose the protection of the central
government.
lt appears that the State of Franklin
simply ignored the Hopewell treaty. Certainly
their defense of the settlers south of the
French Broad was no less diligent. After
fruitless appeals to the national government,
the Cherokee took matters into their own
hands and in the spring of 1786 began attacks
on the settlements in ll)eir rightful territory.
The FrankJinites responded by burning the
Cherokee towns in the Hiwassee River
Valley. Later in July, Sevier and 250 men
revenged the killing of two other white men
by b.uming another town. They then camped
outs1de the central Cherokee village of P.chota
and called the peaceful chiefs Hanging Maw
and Tassel (Com Tassel) to make another
treaty.
Sevier minced no words. He told the
chiefs that the whole country nonh of the
Tennessee River as far west as the
Cumberland Mountains would be setded by
the whites who would take it "by the sword,
which is the best right to all countries."
Though the treaty contained ample references
to peace, love, and brotherly friendship, it
was obvious it was obtained under duress.
Wiuh such a large armed force outside their
gates, the chiefs had little choice but to sign.
The historian Williams says in his book: The
Los1 State of Franklin, "No act of the State of
Franklin is Jess creditable to her than this
Treaty ofCoyatee."
During this time, the Franklin
government was constantly pressing its case
Summu, 1992
�;
I I
for recognition as a s1a1e before the
Confederation Congress. Champion for the
cause was William Cocke, a backwoodsman,
marksman, and a fierce fighter, who had put
himself through law school and had found a
gift for inspired oratory. By all accountS he
gave brilliant. impassioned presentations on
behalf of 1he Sta1e of Franklin, bu1 it was no1
enough to shake the political support
mustered by North Carolina to block
Franklin's recognition.
By 1786 the strain of carrying on the
border wars single-handedly had begun to
tell, and the firm resolve of the Franklinites
began to waver. North Carolina cleverly
exploited this shif1 in sentimenL Under the
leadership of John Sevier's archrival, John
Tipton, North Carolina attempted to hold an
election 10 send representatives from "the
western counties" to the state legislature. The
Franklin government answered the move by
holding their own elections for the North
Carolina legislative seats. The Franklinites
won overwhelmingly, but this recognition of
North Carolina's authority proved 10 be the
first stroke of the wedge that split open the
Franklin government.
Tipton also sponsored North Carolina
couns, which operated parallel 10 Franklin
courts, often in the same county. Vigilantes
from both sides broke up court sessions and
took valuable papers. There were angry
public meetings, and some brawling took
place, involving Tipton and Sevier
themselves in one instance. The situation was
fast deteriorating into civil violence..
John Sevier made several valiant
attempts to save the faltering State of
Franklin. Knowing the unifying value of war
against the native people, he proposed one
idea that would hopefully save his
government, win the coveted Great Bend area
for the_whites (and his investment company),
and gain some respite for the settlers on the
southwest frontier.
At the time, the State of Georgia was
continually at war with the Creeks. Sevier
proposed 1ha1 in the spring of 1787 soldiers
from Georgia and Franklin join together in a
punitive campaign against th111 tribe, which
jus1 happened to control the Great Bend are-a.
Instead of cash payments, the soldiers who
undertook the expedition would be rewarded
with land grants in the Great Bend, which
they would afterward help 10 retain. The plan
never materialized, as Georgia made a
temporary peace with the natives.
Early in 1788 the sporadic hostilities
between the two factions in Franklin flared
up. John Tipton seized several of John
Sevier's slaves under a Stale of Nonh
Carolina court judgment and transported them
10 his home for safekeeping. Sevier was in
the las1 few days of his governorship and
was tired and discouraged, bu1 rhis was a
slap in 1he face that could not be ignored. The
separationists surrounded Tip1on's house in
force and, although Sevier urged restraint, a
melee erupted. Two men were killed and
Sevier's two sons were capiured. Tipton
wanted 10 hang the young men, but was
persuaded to release 1hem. Sevier
subsequently lef1 for the border wars on the
frontier, "where no writs ran and lhe rough
seulers were devoted to him," as John
summer, 1992
VIRGINIA
--------~.~~.r~ttf)lfWl~if1}r-------------..:::~-,.R-... 1-&KLiN·:·,::"' ..
NORTH
.-,::.\(}iY:.:\~f{/· CAROLINA
_, ~,-- - - - ·- -.,,
- - - - - - ------7,....
'
,
'------,...
'
',,
'
',
\
' ',
11SS Map
Preston Arthur commented. This is generally
marked as the end of the State of Franklin.
It was in 1790, with more wars with
the Cherokees looming, that North Carolina
finally gave up and ceded control of Franklin
to the United Srates Congress as part of the
"Southwest Territory." Franklin was finally
admitted to the Union as pan of the State of
Tennessee in 1796. The first elected governor
of the Staie of Tennessee was, no1
surprisingly, John Sevier, and he la1er served
as a congressman as well.
appeared as I.he stubborn independence so
admired in the Appalachian mountaineers. At
other times, however, it appeared as 1he will
for mastery, whether over the land, events,
or those who would oppose them. Even
today, we still see traces of this, the tangled
legacy left by the early while seulers of the
mountain region.
Special thanks to Barbara Wickersham
for the valuable research work she
contributed to this article.
Resources:
The wild Appalachian lands brought out
both the best and the worst in the firs1
Europeans to inhabit the Katuah Province.
They were fiercely devoted 10 ideals of
freedom and justice; they were at the same
1ime greedy and ruthless. A deep-seated
detennination drove them. Sometimes this
Gerson, Noel B.; Franklin: Atrurica·:r Lost
State: Crowell-Collier Press (New York, 1968)
Williams, Samuel Cole; Ilistory of the Lost
State of Franlclin; The Press of the PiollCCIS (New
York. 1933)
Cornstalk Dreams
Poverty is living in a shotgun house
with chimney bookends
Listening to rain tapping on a cheap tin roof
Huddling around the fireplace
like a dark medieval clan.
Poverty is running barefoot
through a maze of corn fields
Splitting open a watermelon just for its heart
Worrying until payday if we would be fed
at least with butter beans and cornbread
- Sandra McClinton
-
..
X.Otimh )ournnt page 13
�WHERE THE TREES OUTNUMBER THE PEOPLE:
I<atuah's Regional Rainbow Gatherings
In the Mtigical U1nd of the Rainbow, a neo-tribal culture is teacl1ing and learning the
arts of Cooperation and Commu,1ity
by Stephen Wing
"Welcome Home!"
The implications arc enormous.
Somewhere back in the mythical mists
of the Scvenries, a tribe of multicolored folJc
called the Rainbow Family began to hold a
"Gathering of the Tribes" every summer deep
in the wilderness, where the trees oumumber
the people. They were "Family" because they
considered all people brothers and sisters;
they were ''Rninbow" for the harmony of
their many colors; and they called out
"Welcome Home!" because wherever they
gathered on the Mother Earth they were home
again. Every Fourth of July lhey observed a
silence, praying for Peace and Healing, each
in their own way. They fasted and prayed
and danced and drummed, and many magical
stories have come down 10 us.
In the nco-Plcistocene Eighties, our
tribal ancestors founded the Katuah Rainbow
clan and began to bold a solstice gathering
every summer in the meadow below Sam's
Knob. Because pan of their inspiration was
lhe 1980 Rainbow Galhering in West
Virginia, it became one of the first of many
regional Rainbow gatherings. It carried on
the Family consensus to be free and
non-commen:ial, open to everyone, dedicated
to cooperative, ecological living, without
leaders or rules. It grew and flourished, and
Xatuah Journal Pac.Je 14
was known as one of the strongest and most
spiritual in the land of the Rainbow.
Now at age 21, the Rainbow Family
has grown into a large-scale, long-term,
worldwide experiment in living out the ideals
of the mythical Sixties: a full-fledged
al temative culture, woven of many different
spiritual, political, and philosophical strands.
Outwardly. perhaps it imitates the Nntive
American tribes; mwardly, it taps the
biological vestiges of one million years of
oi baJ ancestry.
Everyone involved in Rainbow has
their own vision of what it is and what it
could be. The vision that is crystallizing for
me lately is of a school.
Everyone has something 10 teach in the
magical land of Rainbow. And somcLhing to
learn. Many of us are teachers of something
already, perhaps, or know a special craft or
skill or even a livelihood worth passing on.
You learned your first rai chi step or
bcadworlcing stitch from someone. Why not
bring it 10 the gathering _and offer a free,.
informal workshop? Think of the gathenng
as a kindcrganen, not as a university. Even if
you feel you have nothing 10 learn there, each
of us has something 10 pass along to those
following in our footsteps.
But there's a deeper level of learning.
0..wUl&J by Rhea Ormond
Running away like a bunch of kids playing
hooky in the woods is like school turned
inside out - a space in which we can a.U enter
a kind of second childhood and re~ate
ourselves. We heal ourselves instinctively by
re-imagining society in a sane way, becoming
each other's long-lost extended family,
learning how to love and accept each other,
and feel loved and accepted in turn • some
for the first time our lives. It is incredibly
therapeutic just to be in a place where it is
okay to love.
But in order 10 maintain this magical
healing space, we have to work together 10
feed everyone, deal with sanitation, medical
needs, children, authorities, parking,
drinking water, and camp security. We have
10 make decisions that acknowledge
everyone's poinl of view, including the trees,
the streams, the wildlife, the genemtions 10
come. This is a yet deeper learning. We are
learning to come together as a community, a
circle, a tribe - rather than a collection of
self-centered individuals - and act for the best
interest of the whole instead of our little part.
Few of us had the benefit of a tribal
upbringing. Ninety percent or more of the
ordinary families out there arc dysfunctional,
studies now say, producing dysfunctional
people. Our tribe is made up of refugees from
that world; we cannot create World Peace
without some healing. Most of the problems
that plague the "national" Rainbow Gathering
are problems of scale. But a few stubbornly
show up al regionals, too. They are the
chronic dysfunctions of the dominant culture,
"Babylon": abuse of alcohol and drugs,
scamming, inflated egos, male-female
imbalance. These arc the things that we
cannot leave behind when we leave our cities
and cars.
l ust4 to worry about them. But then l
realized that it is okay. Rainbow is a school.
These are our assignmenrs. That is why we
leave all the civilized disu-actions behind: to
focus on what counts.
At the scale of a regional gathering we
can do that - but not without a conscious
commitmcnL I have seen miracles happen
when the wisdom and the will of the people
have been summoned to a serious council.
Through the magical ans of passing a feather
in a circle and listening, of communication
and compromise, I believe we can learn 10
resolve any conflicL But we have to practice.
And the presence nnd guidance of people
who have done some of the inner work
themselves is invaluable to those who might
otherwise stumble over the same mistakes.
Becoming a Tribe may not be an
idealistic fantasy from the mythical Sixties
forever. We are learning how to live without
money, lawyers, governments, police· even
gasoline - because it may soon be necessary.
We arc learning it, 1 believe, because the
future of our families down 10 the seventh
generation depends on our learning 10 live
together as a functional Family.
I hope we are learning it in time.
For dirtetioM to tM Ka11,ah Rainbows-,
Solstiu Ga1hviltg, JUM 12-22, son~p/ace where the
trees OUIIIUl1IMT IM people, coll the A1/a111a Rainbow
Ughllillc: (404) 662--6112 or write 10 /IOI. address
below.
To help out In adllOIICe, contact Katu.ah
Roillbow direc1/1 clo l.ulit Wagenheim: 996 Yellow
Breeches Rd.; Cosby, TN 3m2 (615) 428-4633.
Summu, l!IN
�warp ancl
"We Call It a Gathering..."
At first sight, it seems to be pure
magical anarchy in the woods. But there are
levels you learn to see.
Just under the swface is a layer of hard
wolk: people who are not immediately vi~ble
because they are in the kitchens, out hunnng
firewood, al the parking lot, on a supply run.
They carry lhe whole thing literally on their
shoulders, often to the point of straining. As
soon as we realize we are the tribe and
volunteer, the whole thing is easy.
Underlying everything we do is the
consensus of the council, a periodic circle to
pass a feather and listen 10 each person's
perspective in turn. Daily councils are a
chance to share what makes us different and
what we have in common. When something
comes up that requires a decision, we enter
that siate of unified undersianding called
consensus much more easily if we have been
practicing. (If ~ere is no co~~cil,just ~u.t up
a sign. "Main crrcle at noon 1s the tradit,ion.)
Invisible everywhere are the Shann
Sena - all of us who are conscious of health
and safety and alen for trouble, who have
learned to keep the peace in loving ways, deal
with emergencies, communicate with
authorities - and anyone willing to learn. You
can pretend the gathering is a free ride or a
carefree utopia; you can avoid the problems
and still have a wonderful time. But "sister"
and "brother" really begin to mean something
when you accept responsibility for the
well-being of the folks around you.
Then there are the people who are
praying. Our circles before meals, sweat
lodges and Sufi dances, ceremonies at
equinoxes and solstices, etc., carry the
natural sense of community one step higher.
Participating in the Divinity of each moment
helps focus the natural srate of awareness
called a tribe.
Underneath it all is the root-system of
our friendships. Slogans of peace and love
do not make us brothers and sisters; a Family
forms out of time spent together, real time.
Year after year we work, eat, council, and
celebrate together, between gatherings we live
and travel together. We gather in the parks
back home. Travelers come through. We
grow 10 know and to trust each other. The
Rainbow Family is a vast network of
relations. a fabric woven by the physical
s,unmcr , 1992
..
, 1 ,
~pfrhtlal ~efi-of our•~n& tOgethet.
.
ruo ~!1-nrr . .-.- {·n· ~ rr·,77-,v.z
We have over a generation of history
between us now. We are much more than just
a "counterculture.'' Traditions have
developed, a slow evolution of consensus
agreements, along with a tendency to keep
evolving. Naturally we have our elders of the
tribe - but in this tribe each one of us chooses
our elders. Listen for the voice of experience.
But don't take anybody's word for iL Look
under the swface, and watch who's doing the
work.
People will be noticing the same about
you. To some of us baby-boorners it's news,
but work is necessary to survive anywhere.
Babylon sacrifices the daily labor of millions
to feed a privileged few; a tribe shares the
work equally out of Jove for one another, so
no one has to do too much.
The people who created this magical
village in the woods are working hard,
making sure you will be safe, warm, and fed.
But many of us grew up in middle c~s
households where that much was a given we were the privileged few. Don't take it for
granted in the woods. Join the dinner circle,
pay attention to announcemenrs, spread the
word! Go to council; remember to listen
before you speak. Say your peace. And if
you want to join the tribe, just find a place 10
piteh in and help.
As for the panhandlers at our gate, the
ego-wrestling and ripoffs, the truckloads of
rrash, the bliss-ninnies and rainbozos - it's
helpful to remember that compared to most
tribes we're still in our awkward
adolescence. Most of us weren't born in the
Rainbow Family. We were,bom in Babylon.
A lot of us got pretty messed up out there
before we found our way Home. A lot of
Babylon's mess got tracked in on o~r heels.
Much of our effort to heal the Eanh 1s an
ongoing struggle to heal ourselves and our
relationships - to learn how to really be a
"Family" - and to raise truly.healthy ki~~Meanwhile for better or worse, Its our
Family. As Einst~in's mother put it,
"Everyone is a relative." Getting to know o n ~
another over twenty-one years of gatherings ,,:
has tended to substantiate the theory.
Council Fire
Pilgrimage to the old
power spot, our abandoned
council circle I meet all
the pilgrims packing out
their tents and trash-bags
I find
a giant fire-pit dug here
since we counciled
hard for three hours in the sun
to move the council closer
to the center of camp
Three pilgrims
rest here on a log:
they too casually join
the council of all vanished
tribes around the coals
of the original fire
- Stephen Wing
(E.xurp1ed. with "visions by the awhor.from
110!. a ~wsllove /mer to the Rainbow Tribes of the
Southeast, Spring 1992 iss~. Contact llO! at Box
5455; At/0/lla, GA 30307)
Sun, evening shadows, mist
that drifts to rain:
the food is ready and we join hands.
It's only the clear day's light
refracted through the wet nights
that makes this Rainbow on the
ground.
Our circle makes a hole in the
ground spirit rising like water in a well,
falling like the light on a po11d,
the round earth and the rolling sky
joined
in a circular kiss ...
The Circle makes us Whole.
Oraw,ng• b)I Ray Ramcs
Poems wriuen by Stephen Willg at tire
16th a111111ol Rainbow Garhering, Nanw/,a/a
National Forest, Kataoh Province, J11/y,
1987.
~ti1nfl )durnat pnqe IS
�In Council With All Beings
;,· , -,r,~ :: •. 3TE
by Lee Barnes
Human(un)kind's ability to council
with All Beings is limited by our human
egos, our historical fall from Oneness-WithAJJ. Several "en-Lighten-ments" have aided
my personal path towards council with All
Beings, including accumulated personal
experiences and insights from several books.
Council comes to me when I rest my
active brain and allow thoughts from All
Beings to enter my mind. (Term this as you
may - telepathy, insight, second-sight, etc.)
We humans have not evolved in limbo from
All Beings; rather, we have become
insensitive and unconnected from our
relations with the great Webs of Life which
sustain us.
From long experience, I realize that my
thoughts (and deeds) do not remain restricted
within my bony skull - we can and do touch
other Beings with our thoughts. managing to
interconnect, apparently without regard to
time or distance. Time, mauer, and space
appear to be complex illusions created by our
physical and spiritual perceptions, historical
and modem cultures, mammalian senses, and
personal experiences.
l totally accept the iraditional beliefs
that all things (All Beings) a.re alive and
interconnected. We can relate to the other
Beings of the world with either an expansive
or contractive "attitude." With an expansive
"attitude," we can expand our consciousness
and encompass All Beings within ourselves.
A series of physical and spiritual
experiences while hiking over 4000 miles in
Katuah forests (and in other regions) has
auuned my personal council with All Beings.
Usually after about three days in the forest,
away from modem "civilized" life, I find
myself more in tune with the "real" world. l
more closely follow changing day-lengths;
more carefully realize the moonlight's effect
on animals; better understand the words in
the wind; hear the many voices in falling
waters; feel the energy of metamorphic and
igneous boulders; and recognize the
individual tree within the con1ex1 of the
forest.
I am an unashamed tree-hugger, for
trees, especially the forest giants ("wooden
Grandfathers") do share energies, and focus
Earth energies (although l have felt
"indifference" from some trees... ).
I have (infrequently) attuned with
animal energies by watching hawks soar
above, and suddenly becoming "one" with
them, glicling over the valley. This was not
empathetic daydreaming, but rather I was
there in the sky, soaring on wings! I have
shared the scene of the land through the eyes
of another, equal Being!
A specific experience that occurred
within a guided group workshop influenced
my insight into council with All Beings.
During an early morning circle and council
based on guidelines from the book Thi11king
Like a Mountain: Towards a Cou,rcil of All
Befogs (by John Seed and Joanna Macy,
1988, New Society Publishers), I was
Xatuah Journnt pnge 16
greatly moved and led 10 a greater
appreciation and communication with All
Beings.
Tllillking Like a Mountain is an
inspiring collection of meditations, readings,
and most imponan1ly, a guide 10 interspecies
communications, which has led humans to
greater empathy and union with All Beings.
The workshop is usually led by a facili1a1or
who guides individual participants 10 "voice"
their (telepathic/etc.) thoughts from
whichever Beings enter their minds.
Typkally in these guided workshops,
specific Beings are allowed to voice their
cries and frusira1ions wilh human destrUction
of their environment and 1be lack of human
care about their council. In this particular
circle, a "Talking Stick" (brought by a
reacher and missionary from African cultures)
was passed and used 10 designate each
individual speaker. ln council, we heard from
several Beings · circling hawks, lowly slugs.
and even the voice of the Mountain bcnemh
us. 111ese Beings were in anguish, voicing
their ~uffcring at the hand of modem human
"civilizations" - spoiled waters, fouled air,
and their pained existence due 10
human(un)kind's actions.
This council would have aroused great
disgust towards our human selves, except for
the positive counsel offered as 10 how to
rcconnec1 with All Beings. While each
instance of this method is unique, depending
upon the specific seuing and the different
panicipants, it remains a powerful personal
experience.
We two-lcggcds muse seek better
council with the universe and with All
Beings. We must open our hearts to council,
reduce our wasteful over-consumption, and
halt the destruction of our fragile planet.
Live simply; use only what you need;
recycl~ and in all decisions think how the
next seven generations of All Beings will be
affected. Give thanks 10 the water spirit.~:
thanks to green spirits; thanks to the living
soil spirits! Give prayer and thanks to All!
And then you may learn through council witl1
AH Beings.
I encourage all of the two-leggeds,
especially the city-shocked brothers and
sisters, 10 go simply into the the depths of
your existence, leaving your egos (and every
restrictive training) behind. and 10 seek open
and unrestrictt.'<I council with All Beings. Be
open 10 new insights and experiences: be
rcspec1ful of all other Beings (whether,
stone, fire, water, air...); and offer thanks for
council with the rest of Creation.
Voice prayers, offer thanks, and
continue 10 seek council with All Beings.j - '
#
Drawing by Mich11CI Thompson
Ho.
Sum,ncr, J 992
�STEVE MOON
·1
,
"
SHELL ENGRAVINGS"
The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, a distinctive
culture of the native First People, flourished from the east
coast to Texas between 500 and 1600 AD. The culture was
marked by mound building and elaborate rituals and
ornamentation. Among the primary items produced were
carved ceremonial drinking vessels and gorgets (chest
ornaments hung around the neck) made of shell. Designs
were often engraved on the concave or inner side of the
shell, which is naturally smooth and glossy. They were
sometimes rose tinted. These anifacts are now highly
prized by collectors and many of the old mounds have
been looted by avaricious grave robbers.
Steve Moon is an artist and a defender of the native
grave siteS. Descended from a Cherokee-Shawnee
great-grandmother, he is proud of the native branch of his
bloodline and works in the spirit of the ancient native
artisans. He creates museum-quality reproductions of the
old shell engravings and also creates original designs
based on traditional motifs.
"I just sit around and things come to me sometimes,"
says Steve. "I don't know why, but things pop into my
mind, and 1 draw them on the shell and carve them.
"It's like closing your eyes and letting the tool do the
work. There's really no way to explain it. I just go down
into the shell until the color looks right, and r don't go any
further. Sometimes rcan control the color all the way
around.
"I may pick up a shell and it will look like an
ordinary mussel shell; another time I will be able to
acruaJly feel with my mind down into the shell.
The shell gorgets and drinking bowls found in old
grave sites were ceremonial objects carefully placed by the
body during burial.
'They are sacred objects,'' says Steve, "and it's
wrong for people to dig into graves to go after them. The
old people were put in their graves to rest. They were not
put there to be excavated.
"On my father's side, 1 had some ancestors who
served in the Civil War. I would be real mad if someone
went to Flat Shoals Baptist Church and staned digging
them up 10 get the buttons off their coats or something.
"In Spiro, Oklahoma during the l 930's, grave
robbers dug up a burial site. They were taking stuff out by
the wheelbarrow-load to sell to the private collectors.
When they found out that the State of Oklahoma was going
to stop them, they packed the central burial chamber full of
powder and blew it up. The chamber was made of cedar
logs, and it had preserved cane mauing, textiles, even
textiles made from woven rabbit fur. All of it was blown 10
smithereens.
"I've talked 10 looters who went in with burlap bags,
and I've talked to looters with doctor's degrees. What's
the difference? They arc doing the same thing.
'The bowls and ornaments from the ancient mounds
were grave goods. They were not lying around in a
plowed field. TI1ey were taken off a skeleton. I think they
should be left alone."
For Steve, this is a hean-felt commitment. Ile offers
10 donate his work 10 collec1ors who will acc~pt
reproductions in return for replacing shell artifacts in their
original burial silcs.
Steve Moon's reproductions and original carvings
arc things ofhl!auty. They shine with a luster and a depth
that photographs cannot convey. Their varying textures
satisfy the hand that touches them. They truly are
representations in tangible form of the spirit that moves
Steve Moon 10 his creative work. the spirit that inspires his
sense of mission.
Stev,· Moo11 can /,c co11tacte,J at
Rt. 1, Box 256; Cm,011, CA 30520.
-DWA'
~
Original from Moundville,
Alabama.
Carved in the shell of a lightning
whelk.
Originals with this design were
found in Tennessee, Missouri
Arkansas, and Oklahoma. Carved
in the shell of lightning whelk.
Original from Carthage, TN.
Carved in the shell of a lightning
whelk
Orig111al from Spiro, OK. (The
design y, as also found at sites
across Tennessee, Alabama. and
north Georgia ) Carved in Mankillcr
pearl shell.
�visiting my grandparents occasionally.
"MEDICINE TRAINING"
(PARTII)
These are the words of a traditional
Cherokee medicine person.
My gr.mdfather would direcl my
training by saying, "You need 10 go spend
some rime with this guy. You need to go see
him."
I would go sec that person. and he
wouldn't even know I was going 10 show
up. would have no idea at all why I was
supposed to be there. I would show up, and I
would jusl stay 1here for awhile. I would
learn just by being there. It w~n·l at all
structured, like lhis guy had Course Three for
me or something, but after awhile l could tell
when they were aclually going out of their
way to teach me something. Some people
were more theatrical than others, and they'd
make me do crazy things.
The strangest one was lhe chicken
house. J had gotten 10 where I thought I was
real special. I felt that I was really imponant,
thal everyone ought to bow and scrape and
just be honored lhat I was near them. J was
making an ass oul of myself, and. ahhough I
never recognized il, everyone else did. And
my grandpa 1old me il was time 10 go stay
with a man named George. He said that l
would have to stay there for awhile.
When I got to George's, I asked him,
"Where am I going 10 stay?" and headed
toward the house.
He said, "Hey! C'mere."
And I looked and said, "What d'ya
want?"
He said," You can't stay in the house.
We've got lots of guests, and lots of people
come by, and we need room for them. We
should give 'em the best we have. You stay
there."
Xatuah Journat page
to
And he pointed toward a funky old
sway-backed chicken house that had a
patched-up roof and was about to fall down.
r just looked on past it. All f could see was
lhc rhododendron thickel behind it, but I
thought maybe he had ano1her cabin or a
building back there.
He said, "Righi there. Goddamn
chicken house. Yeah,"
"Chicken house?"
He said. "Yeah. Lislen. that's all I can
do."
We walked over there. ll was about l5
feet long and about 10 feel wide, with big
cracks between lhe boards, and chickens
running all about
He said, "These chickens are renl
1mponant lo us, we get eggs and meat from
them, so I want you 10 use that pile of old
lumber out in back, put up a partition, and fix
up a room for yourself in the chicken house."
I just couldn't believe it. A person of
my caliber, my standing, in these conditions!
Then I thoughl to myself, "They're trying 10
teach me something," but it was nol until a
couple of months Inter that I actually realized
what it was.
Nobody lold me I was egotistical. I
found out myself that I was egotistical. r
found out after r had dug tons of chicken shit
out of there, put up a wall, split shingles,
fixed the roof, got lice. I was absolutely
inundated by lice. Sol made lye and covered
the whole chicken house with it to kill all the
lice. I fixed that chicken house up beuer than
it had ever been before. Heck, I didn't have
anything else to do.
In lhe process of fixing up the chicken
house, I became the world's greatest expert
on chicken conversation and habits. No one
knows chickens any beuer than I do. I spent
more than a year in that chicken house,
I did chores and helped out, and rhat
was the way I paid for my keep. Then people
started asking me 10 doctor - small things like
wounds and scrapes. After awhile, though,
they would ask me questions like, "Johnny,
he's off someplace, do you think he's okay?''
And I'd say, "Well, I need to think
about this.'' And J staned to give them
advice.
I had seen the other men do it. 1 had
seen Owl do it. I had seen how lhey lalked lO
people and consoled them.
I soon learned to separate true
knowledge from knowledge that you pick up
just by hearing things. True knowledge is
something that you intuitively know from
inside. My grandfather would call it "true
knowledge magic."
Knowledge that you hear on lhe side like you might have heard some other people
lalking about how Johnny was al some
whorehouse or in the county jail - thal klnd of
knowledge I call "side knowledge." And I
knew how Owl took that information and
used it to make himself more powerful. He
said that he only used medicine in one percent
of his work. He said information is much
easier to come by. He said that the more
knowledge, lhe more magic, and the more
power you have, lhe less you use it.
When the elden; who had been training
me thought I was prepared, they sem me out
10 spend time alone in lhe woods. When I
relurned, they beld another nnming ceremony
and gave me my true name, my medicine
name, my spiritual name, that l never have
told anybody.
It was done at a campfire way out in the
mountains, at sunrise on the new moon, a
beginning time.
We rook the black drink, vomited, and
then we plunged in the creek. They collecled
the woods and set the fire, smoked
everybody who was 1here, then they sang
songs and did different things.
Then my true name was whispered in
my ear, and I walked to each corner and the
elder called the relatives. They would come 10
me, and I uttered my new name in my mind.
It was hard lo remember, and I had to get
used 10 it.
These were men who had hand-raised
me. They were all of lhe same generation.
They were all old. I think the youngest
Sumrm:r, 1992
�pi:rson of th:it group was .50, and he was ai
I think that in anybody's hfe there is a
the bouom in the pecking order t)f age. I le
~en!ie that things arc se1 out for you. The
\\ns a fc1d1er and .i carrier.
people who raise you have cenain
They were very spiritual in the sense
expec1a1ions of you, and if you have a
that they followed the t.rndition. They lived
loving, caring. nurturing, mutual son of
everything that they believed. They had their
relationship. you want 10 do everything in
own son of reality, like they would leave
your power 10 meet their expcc1a1ions.
food for the Little People here and there, and
You might have long fingers, so mama
they talked 10 the spirits regularly. They
thinks you ought co be a piano player, so she
would all be holy people compared 10 the
drives you to the piano. If she goes about it
Cherokees of today, but they weren't like our
in a good way, you might end up to be a
Hollywood concept of a medicine man at au.
concen pianist. But you may have been belier
They were not what the anthropologists
suited 10 be a plumber than to be a pianist.
called "priests." They were a different group.
You could go on until you are 50 years old
The "priests" and famous medicine men lived
and srill playing in honky-tonks before you
closer 10 town. But these old people were all
realize that the piano is not your calling.
members of the Katuah Medicine Society. I
received a lot of my understandings about
Katuah from them, things that l am not ever
at liberty to talk about.
Because they were in the society, they
considered themselves better than most
people. They were actually arrogant about
tha1. They considered themselves the true
Ka1uahs, and there's probably pans of me
that still feel a lirtle smug, because I grew up
,-: - with that cenainty.
They had signs. Back then, everybody
~
wore a little feather in their hat. But the
\ \
~ )
Karoah people would take the marrow out of
1'
::,J\..... '•
the feather, so that when they walked, the
(
.r,,.,
feather would make a fluttering motion. That
-\.
was a sign.
\.,
\\~.
Another sign was a linle silver snake.
Owl said his snake was made by Sequoyah.
It could have been. Several 01hers had little
\.
silver snakes. They frequently wore old suit
coaLS, welfare clothes donated by white
people, and would carry the snake under the
lapel. When Karuah Society people from
Olclahoma would come, I would see old Owl
lift his lapel for the briefest second and let ii
fall back. And the other people would make
an acknowledgment with their eyes without
winking or doing anything obvious. I can't
tell you how they did it, it just was
I
acknowledged.
'
Then, without any other invitation, we
would go back to the creek. and soon four or
five of these people from Oklahoma would
just show up I.here. They'd talk and smoke
pipe and do Katuah ceremonies together.
This would go on all night. I would
usually fall asleep, because I was young
then. But l am amazed about how much I
learned by just hanging out.
"Be invisible," grandpa would say. "Be
invisible."
When I look back at the good and the
bad in my life, I always feel incredibly
fonunate and content. Despite the pains and
sufferings that everybody goes through in
Life, I have aJways believed that I have
affected my own destiny more than most
people do. Sometimes l interfered in the
process, and other times I just let the process
happen to me. 1 give credit for that to the fact
of my growing up experiences, all the things
I learned from that strong circle of elders.
If the spiriLS had not had another
intention for me, I probably would srill be
living near my childhood home among the
offspring of those old people who raised me.
I would either have been an alcoholic or
struggling inside the system.
'-I ·)
i''\,-,
~mmcr, 1992
Drawing:, by Troy Sc,ILlc:r
Jn my case, my grandfather saw ~omc
physic.11 signs and m:1de an interpretation
based on the sign5 and his knowledge. But it
was still someone else's in1erprc1.1rion.
Back when r was 10 years old, my
grandfather taught me how 10 carve little
animals out of soft basswood. I can
remember that l was fascinated with that for a
year or so. Then I went on to other things.
That was the extent of my early carving
career. The figures I made were crude, but a
seed was set for something 10 come.
The seed lay donnant until a few years
ago when ! saw a carving on a shelf in a
house I was visiting. I picked it up and held
it. It didn't feel right. It seemed
disproponionate and out of shape.
The man said. "Can you carve
anything?"
I said, "I used to fool with it when I
was a kid."
After I left the house, I said to myself,
"I can make something better than that."
And so I made a bear. It was 001 very
good, but it still was a little bener than the
figure I had seen. I fooled around making
different kinds of animals for a year,
experimenting with different styles and
expressions. The animals I made then aren't
anything like the animals I carve now. They
were somewhat similar in design, but not in
quality.
I went through the whole process. A lot
of the techniques I learned were already
known by people all over the world. I
probably reinvented the wheel several times
over. But I also developed a couple of ideas
that, as far as I know, no one else has
thought of.
And when J finally made an animal that
looked like it was alive, it just blew my mind.
I said, "Look at this!"
The next one I made came alive in my
hands, 100. ! said, "Look at this! 1 did this!
Mc! No one else! No one set me down and
taught me 10 do this. No one told me."
Now I am staning 10 get thunder from
my carving. Thunder is when other people
acknowledge your ability, and it's absolutely
wonderful.
But what has made all the difference is
that r feel an inward drive and detcnninarion
10 do this that I have never felt about doing
anything else. I have been detennined 10
accomplish other goals before, but this is
purely an expression of myself. II is a force
coming from inside of me. This was not/
preordained by anyone; this is the real
-:
person.
Xatuah Journat JIOIJC 19
�BAD NEWS AND GOOD NEWS
The j9b of t ~ government o(ficials is to
protect the health or citiuns and or the environmenL
At best. they have displayed an attitude or unconcern
about their responsibilities. Al worst, they have
wilfully misled lhe public about a matter of grave
danger. Such disregard or Ille lives lhey arc supposed
10 protccl is unconscionable. This 1s a Sillllltion thnt
needs to be thoroughly investigated at both the state
and county level. Such flagrant irresponsibility must
not be allowed to conunue.
Nanni World New, Service
The Burlington Industries CIIIJlCI plant at the
hClldwaa.ers of lhe Little Tennessee River in Rabun
County, GA is closing iis doors. That is bad news
and good news.
The plant employs about 425 people in Rabun
and Macon Counties. The plant closing is bad news
for~ people who will be summarily dismissed
and left wi 1h no means of li vclihood in an
increasingly competitive job marlccL
However, &ho Burlington pbnl has long been a
major polluter of lhe Liu.le Tennessee River, and Ille
factory's demise will mean beuer heallh foc lhe river's
aquatic ecosystem.
'"The plant has been a severe, but not an acute,
polluter," said aquatic biologist Dr. William
Mcl.amey. '"There have been no fish kills, foe
111s1811CC, but cit tensive sampling of both fish and
insect populations have shown that the plant has
definitely had a negative effect on the river."
If another company buys lhc Burlington plant,
it will be regulated by stricter environmental laws
than lhosc in effect when Burlingion staned
diacharging into the river. Also, a newly-initiated
citiun's monitoring group will be traclcing lhe wat.er
quality al lhe planL
"We will continue to lake samples above and
below lhe Burlington plam until there is no
noticeable difference between them.· said Mcl.amey.
As long as our industrial system operates
environmentally destructive means of production, Ille
closing of worlcplaces will be at once bad news and
good news.
RAPE PREVENTION
Natural World Newi Scrv,cc
For the first time in the Southern
Appalacluans, a federal lawsuit has been filed on
behalf of biological diversity, challenging the Land
and Resou= Manngerncnt Plan proposed for the
Cherokee National forest by lhc US Forest Service.
Representing a blood coalition of conservation
groups. the lawsuit nled by the Southern
Environmenl3l Legal Center (SELC) contcstS the
Forest Service practice of below-cost timber sales.
The suit also contends that Ille Jogging progrnm
outlined in the pbn would do urepruablc domagc to
native habitat and result an a corresponding loss of
biolog,ical diversity in the Cherokee.
D:ivid Carr or the SELC rcporis that the
CWTCnt plan opens up 60% of lhe national forest to
logging and ro:ld construction • much of it on steep
slopes and mac=iblc terrain. By FOfCSI Service
estimates, there arc presently 80,000 acres of
potential wilderness in the forest; more than half of
this vital lnnd b:lsc is open to desccr.mon under the
plnn.
By promoting rood building and cle:ucuumg,
the Forest Service 1s practicing t.hc ecooom1cs or
extinction. Peter Kub)', regional director of the
Wildcrnc!..s Society, note~ lhat the Chcrolcc Plan
threatens the extraO(dinary natur.il diversity or the
foreM. Kirby points out that tl1e Cherokee Nauonal
forest 1s home to 1,000 ~pccie., or flowering plants,
400 species or vcnebr-.uc,, and appl'oxm1atdy 13.S
sp<lC IC$ of (hh,
"[Ilic fore:,1 plan) calls for the logging of over
one-hair of the cove h:lrdwood forcsis. an ccol<'lg1cal
treasure trove in the Southern Appalachrnn,; he said.
The new Fore.,t Plan wuuld also va.,tly
mcn:..1~ rood density (which already exceeds lc(:111
guidelines) providing OC.CC.'i.~ for o greatly mclC:l.<cd
amount of commcrci.il and recn:;itional :ict1vi1y - not
to mention illegal poaching.
Th~ Asheville Citizen-Tunes and Green Line
- ~ r s provitkd ,nfor""11ion for this ortk~
USFS TO STOP APPEALS
Nanni World News Service
BUNCOMBE LANDFILL SCANDAL
Nanni World News
Environmental sleuihs from lhe Blue Ridge
Environmental Defense League blew the cover olT
what was apparently a conspiracy of silence among
Sl8tc and local governmental officials about leaking
contamination from the Buncombe County landfill.
In October. 1991, investiga10rs from the
Environmental Protection Agency sent a rcpon io
Buncombe County saying th:11 u:st results showed
"elevated coneentmtions or numerous volntile organic
compounds and metals" in lhe groundwater around the
Buncombe 1.nndflll.
TheAshcvll/c Citiun-Timu reponed that
monitoring wells showed six to 3S times Ille legal
limit of live indUStrial solvenis - tnchlorcthylcne,
benzene, dichlorelhane. methylene chloride, and
dichloropropane. Water quality cxpen Richard Maas
of the University of North Carolina Asheville told the
newspaper lhat the contamination levels were "higher
than several Supcrfund sites in the area. In my
experience the.~ levels are surprisingly high."
An estimated l,125 people living within four
miles of the landfill site drink wnter from wells. Yet
neither the State nor the county government made any
public announcement about lhe landfull lenk or
possible hazards to residents' drinking water.
At an April 10, 1992 press conference,
BREDL activistS dlSJ)layed papers they had dug out or
state liles 1n Raleigh that proved that the l:mdlill wns
leaking. This W$ the first word given to the public
that anything wa~ amiss.
Why did government officials not inform
residents about the groundwater conUlmination1
County Manager Steve Metcalf blamed 11 on
M.uvin Waddey, who w:is Director of County
Engineering Service:. al the time. MclCOlf srud that he
ju.~t pas.scd on Waddcy's assurance that there were no
problems at the l:andlill. W:lddey has conveniently
moved out or ~cue.
Stale hydrologc.t Bob Lufty said that the ,utc
h.id not informed anybody of lhc trouble< because of
undcNtnffing. He wW Grun Line ncwspapcr that 1hc
st.1tc hrul a two-person hydrology \taff to monitor 150
landlills, Half or thc.sc on: leaking wor;c than
Buncombe's. he said, and the re.,idcnts of those
commumues do not know nbout the danger.;. either.
Now the ch~rn1cals arc moving toward the
Fn:nch Broad R111i;r. 'The C,11:en-lim,•., stated lh:n
l.ulty s:ud lh:11 lhe subl,unccs would reach the nvcr,
· 1,c diluted and evcntually dcSU'oycd."
llle solvents 111110l11cd are deailly and per:;islCIIL
It may be hundreds of yc;tr.; before they nre
·eventually de.woyed."
The US Forest Service has chosen to sell more
and more of the last remaining virgin and old-growth
fOl'CSIS to the timber industry. But concerned citizens
have bad the right to challenge lhese sales through an
adminis11'8ti..e appeals process.
Many people have fe:irs that to continue
ovctCUlting our forests will mean irreparable
ecological harm. The appeols process has helped to
bring some measure of accountability to the
management policies and practices of the Forest
Service.
However. on Morch 20. 1992, Agriculture
Secretary Edwnrd Madigan announced that the Forest
Service was proposing to eliminate the appeals
process. In ltne with the Bush administration's
announced plruls to eliminate "unnc.cded" federal
regulations, these appeals were deemed too time
-cor.swning and costly, and it was decided that lhey
would be replaced wilh a toothless •30 day
pre-decisional notice and comment period.·
The Forest Service is trying to ignore the fact
that most of the appeals filed have resulted in
improved dccisons, better management or the fOtcSts.
and often citposc inodequat.e environmcnllll analyses.
TI1e agency seems to think that any decisions it
makes should go unchallenged, and the public should
have little or no voice in how Ille Mlional foresis arc
managed.
ForesL~ arc more than vettical logs. It is insane
to continue to cut our last few old-growth stands of
timber and destroy native habitat communitlcs to feed
the ever-hungry saw mills. The Forc.,;t Service often
needs IO be remanded or this.
PROTECTING
AQUATIC HABITATS
Nmural World News Service
April 23. 1992, the Nonh Carolina Wildlife
Resources Commission (NC WRC) held a public
hearing in Boone, NC to consider a proposal
origill3ting within the agency to dc.~ignatc 33
wawrshcds m IO of Nonh Carohnn's miuor river
ba.~in.~ as critical habitat for species of mollusks and
fish endangered m the Slate.
The plan would offer protection a.s "High
Quality Waters" 10 portions or the New. Watauga.
Little Tenncs,;ce, Johns. and Linville nvcrs and the
Warrior Forl; 111 the mounlaln area of the si;uc.
Env1ronmcnt:1I acti'lsts present at the hc:iring
IO support the mca~urc, commented that 11 was a
pl~surc IO appear at a hC'..mng to compbmcnt the
m1ua11vc of a ,1a1c ngcncy tn\lC.'ld or nJ1P(Xing iL
llic comment J);nod on tl11! WIIJhfe
Comm1ss1on's proposal extends until July I. Lener.;
of suppon may be sent m:
North CtJro/1fld ll'i/dlife RcJo:,ru; Commimon
512 N Salisbury .St.
Raleigh. NC 2760-I
..
.
S11111111cr, lll!IZ
a
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I
I
8
�.,. ..
• WOLF' FLUNKS PILOT TEST
Na.tural World News Service
One of the four led wolves (Canis rufus)
released in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park
in November, 1991 was recaptured and penned,
according to Park spokesperson Bob Miller.
Red wolf Male (#219) was recapwrcd in
JanWIJ')' because he showed undue tameness towards
humans, and because he caught and killed a chicken in
Cades Cove and several domestic turkeys just north of
the Park. The livestock owners were reimbursed for
their losses from an indemnity fund created
specifically for such contingencies.
Male #219 may have been a poor choic.e for
release s:inc.e he had spent seven years in zoos, where
he had become unnaturally tame. He was selected
because he was sterile 10 ensure that a bl'eeding
population was not established in the Park prior to
the completion of the iniual study. He w :J most
likely spend the rest of his life in captivi•y.
Two new adult wolf pairs arc cum:ntly being
acclimated to the area by being held in large pens for
the next six months, and may be released in the Park
in November.
Members of the IVesttr11 North Carolina Alfiance gagged by the US
Forest Service. The Alliance prot,:sted removal qJ the Forest Service's appeals
process at a press conference held outside the USFS Ashevitte offices on April
Phoio Laura Dcaton/WNCA
17.1992.
ONE H O NEST MAN
N.i1ural World Ncv,,s Sen ice
When Dr.William Reid signed on as
oncolog1st (cancer specialist) at tlic Mcthodi!il
Medical Center in Oak Ridge. 1N early in 1991, he
knew little about the production procc.-.scs al the
Department of Energy\ nuclear weapons plants and
less about the nuclear politics of Oak Ridge.
But he did know a sick p:iticm when he saw
one, and he saw four Cll'iC.'> of a rare kidney c:inccr, an
unusual concentration for such a small popul3tion
sampling. I le also saw a ~ignificant number of people
exhibiting auto-immune system disorders. Exh of the
p:mcnts wilh kidney disease h:id ~n exposed to
·major radiauon." Dr. Reid rcponcd. and the p:itients
with auto-immune deficiencies showed "n consistent
p.,ucm of blood irregularities."
In August, 1991 Reid approached Dr. Daniel
Conrad, the medical director for Martin-r-.1:uiCU3
Energy Systems, the priw1c conlJ'3clor for virtually
all the opcrauons at the Oak Ridge Rc.'iervauon,
1uking for access to c.lal.l about pos.~ible metal toxicity
al the Oak Ridge plants.
"Th<.,rc are no problems wuh Mattin-Marictl3
employee~." Reid was told 1111d 11,~1~ ahruptly shown
out of the olfice.
The young doctCII' wa~ surpnsed ut the
brush-ofr he n:cc1ved from Conrad, t>t11 he was more
surpnsc-d ,;everal months btcr m December, 1991
when he w1Ls called before a medical review board at
his 1nsu1uuon for "treuung pauent~ 100
aggressively," •spending too much money in the
treatment of cancer patients." and :illcgcd complaints
of incompetency.
A<; a rcsult of the review, Dr. Reid WIL~ served
ummcr, 1992
an ultimawm: either to pack up and leave Oak Ridge
or have his name entered on the national medical
black list known as the "National Pr'.icutioncr Data
Bank for Adverse Information of Physicians and Other
Health Pracutione11>."
Since the review hearing. the hospital has p:iid
to have another physician monuor all of Dr. Reid's
cancer ueatments.
Instead of caving in lO this blatant blackmail,
Dr. Reid filed a lawsuit challenging the allegations
agamst him and comc.~ting the consmutionaluy of
the National Pr'dctitioner Dalll Bank.
"Tilesc actions arc a ~ham," said Lewis Lcvm,
Reid's attorney, of the hospu.1J's measure.~. "The)'
were perpetrated again.,1 Dr. Reid only aft.er he refused
to be intimidated by threats."
And in the te.lt of I.he lawsuit, Levan st:ucd,
"He (Reid) opposes the prcvuilmg lct-them-d,e
attitude toward cancer puticnts. lie oppo5es dcni.31 of
treatment even when 11 1s nOt fully covered by
insurance payments. He oppose.~ those who refuse to
seek the c.auscs of bi7.arrc patterns in the quality and
quantity or cancer seen in Oak Ridge.•
The lawsull goc, on to say, "The physicians
and hospi111I who benefit from 1he generosity of tlJC
Martin-Marietw health c:irc pl.ln 11.ant him to lc:ivc.
1hs p31icnts want him to st:ly. •
Reid reports that he has nxc1ved many
fate-night pl1one tj1lh from anon>mous supporters.
Other caller.; have offered mfonn:iuon lo help llllCk
down people suffcnng from health problems clue to
radiation and heavy metals tox1C1l)·, His work· and
the late-night lips. have shown results. Dr. Reid has
found pockets of 1mmuno-supp,cs~ive disorders in the
Oak Ridge area and even downstream as far as
Kingston. TN.
A NOTHER ONE
FOR THE GOOD OL' BOYS
NawnJ World News Service
Yet another example of govcrnmenrav
bureaucratic arrogance and insensitivity: the North
Carolina Dcpanmem ofTranspocuuion (NC DOT)
decided in May to postpOne public hearings scbcdulcd
in May on the 1 Transponation Improvement
992
Program (TIP).
While this mecis the leuer of the law requiring
public hearings, it keeps citizens from having any
input on 1992 transponation priorities - in effect
canceling any value the hearings mighl have.
Without public hearings, citiuns arc
effectively blocked out of the decision-malcing
process. This becomes even more dist.urbing when
one realius that lhe Board ofTransponation iS
appointed by Governor Jim Martin on the basis of
political favors. It is the plum of state political
appointments. Noticeably missing from the Board of
Transpoltlltion arc tranSit advocateS, individuals with
rail background. environmentalists, and
reprc.senrativcs from communiLy groups,
neighborhood associauons, and minorities.
Perhaps the reason lhe DOT has decided to
dispense with public hearings is that the importanl
decisions have already been made. Journalist Barry
Yeoman has produced a thoroughly researched s1udy
publi.shed in the lndependem thal shows a close
relationship belween the sources of large political
contributions and where highway construction
projects are built in the Srate of North Carolina
Do you want the NC Department of
Transportation to hold public Juuuings? Write to:
Larry Goode: ChiefEngiuer (Programs); NC DOT;
Box 25201; Raleigh. NC 27611.
Reid ha.~ nlso received support from the 03k
Ridge Envll"Ollmcntal and Peace Alliance (OREPA),
which has accumulated experience in dealing with the
authorities and tmcl.ing tOxiC emissions nt the Oak 1
Ridge Rc...crvntion.
Stc,·e Smith ofOREPA and the Foundation
for Global Sustain1bili1y. said, "This is the first lime
a medical doctor within Oak Ridge ha.~ stepped
forward 311d begun to identify :idvcrsc h~th cffCC1S in
and around the Oak Ridge facilities.
"When Dr. Reid first saw these pntu:ms
emerging, he was acompletely di~inten:.stcd observer.
He had no axe to grind with the DOE. He had no
conccpuon of what he was getting mto when hc
~tarted work 111 Oak Ridge."
Under pressure from the St:ltc of Tennessee,
the DOE 113.S funded a panel of health e.\J)CttS to study
cxpo:;urc to radiation among people Ii ,·ing around the
Oak Ridge facilities. Dr. Reid has been appointed to
that P3ncl, and will reveal hi~ tull fi11ding.q in the
cour:.c of that invcsllgnti()n.
Hiscao;e i, also under scrutiny by Sen. John
Glenn's Government Affairs Commmcc and Rep.
John Dingle's lnvcsugauon Subcommlltcc m the US
I louse of Rcprc.'iCntJllvc.~. A rccC11t anicle in 1,me
magazme c•uvmg H11ppdy ~eat a NuclearTr.ish
Hc.ip," 5/l lfl2) ten1'ring on Dr. Reid nlso called
aucnt.ion to the situation al Oak Ridge.
Now thai the hd of secrecy 1s orr I.ht\ lode
history 01 the Oak Ridge Reservation, 11 seems likely
that dccJ)CI' probing will n:~ cal more c:uimplcs of
abu!iC of the health of hum:ins 11ml the envllQnmcnL II
L~ startling lO think that tl1is whole furor began
because one person v. 1th true compa..sion entered
unawwes mro the heart of the sordid nuclCJr we.1pons
industry. It shows the pov.er ol one honcsl man.
XGtuoh Jounmt pnqe 2 1
�REGION O'RAGIN' ,:
,. ..
•,
Nanni World News ServiClC
April 21st brought not only a healthy dose or
rain io 1.he region, but also a healthy dose of reality people in K:m1ah are outraged with the US Forest
Sc,vice! As p:in of a national Earth Firsll effort
honoring John Muir's birthday. protCStS organiz.cd by
the environmental grollP SoulhPAW and il.S cohorts
in Asheville, NC, Atlanlll. GA. and Oevel:md. TN
were among lhe more than 30 prou:sts held
ruitionwidc.
Activists at the Forest Service Regionnl
Hcadquaners m Allant.a mllied behind a 4S f00t banner
that read: "Environmenlol Assessment of the US
Forest Service- Finding of No Significant lnl.Cgrity."
Twenty-five dcmonstraoors gathered outside lhc
Cherokee National Forest HeadqumterS in Cleveland.
while in Asheville 50 people chanted and hollered
ouLSide the Pisgah/Nanlllhala National Forest offices.
In each city, the message rang ou1. loud and clear:
decision-making proc:essc$ which destroy thousands of
aaes of habitat come from little cubicles inside
concreie and Slecl office buildings.
//'you'd liu to wim your frusuaJions with IM
Fores, Service in a concerted effort, conJJJcl
SowhPAW: Box 3/4/; Asheville, NC 28802.
SENATOR WAFFLES
Nau,,al World News Scrvia
SenalOI' Terry Sanford is threatening lO give in
the mauer of
the Fontana road, the famous "Road IO Nowhere" in
the Great Smoky Mountains National Palk in Swain
County.NC.
Sanford bas ptOp0.5td legislation I.hat would
include aSl6 million payment to Swain County and
allow consuuction of the comrovcrslal road. The road
would destt0y the possibility of wilderness
design:11ion for the southern end of the Parle and open
the isolated area up IO possible (ulllrC developmenL
Sanford stalTer Alan Thornbwg said 1h31. the
Senat0r "just wanLS to pol lhis ITlllller behind us. He
is willing lO do w~ver lhe county commissioners
dcs1te in lh is local issue.•
Sanford apparently does llOl undel'Sland that it
is not jost a local issue any more. The s111tus of
several thousand acres of h3biw and an imp0Clllllt
wildlife migration routc are at stalce, and there are
many visilOrS co the Parle who each year apprcciatc
the qmet and rcl:ll.ive isolation of the north shore of
Lake Foruana.
Sanrord's move seems LO be an election year
ploy to brcalc Helms' enclave or powct in Swain
County. That he would scll out I.he future of a critical
habitat area for a palll}' handful of VOies shows a
skewed sense of values.
lO Senator Jesse Helms' inll'BllSigcnce in
To con1ac1 Stlllltor Ttrry SOft[ord abou, his
proposal, write him QI 716 llart Senate Office
Building: Washington. DC 20510.
WE PAY FOR CLEARCUTS!
Nlllnl World New• Serv~
Once again the U.S. Forest Servicc has issued
a report stating the amount trutpaycrs pay tO subsidize
timber sales on North Carolina na11onal foresLS. In
1991 U.S. citi7.ens paid $2.4 milhon ID order lO have
roads buih and plOIS of national forest land clcrucut to
the state. Even though less limber was harve.~ted in
1991 l.h:m m 1990 (there was a loss or S2 million in
1990), we paid even more to keep Congress nnd the
timber IDlcrestS happy.
Xnt(iari lournnt ,.,- r, l Z2
nmm lf ll
f •
If •r 6
t
=
• ~-WHEELERS ~AT POR&ST
Nanni World New, S<tvicc
All-terrain vehicles (ATV's) are a pcoblem in
lhe region's national forcsLS. In lhc view of the US
Forest Service. the desires of different human inteteSt
groups lake precedence over protcetion of the rorcs1
ecosysiem. Thus, ATV joyriding is seen as a
legitimate "mulitple use· of the forest, and the little
bull-bouncers are permitted whetc no mot0ri2cd
vehicles should be allowed co chum.
Case in point: lhe Wayehutta (locally
pronounced •worry-hut") Creek watershed or the
Nanlllhala National Forest in Jackson County, NC is
riddlcd witlt A TV irails. Sixtccn miles of old logging
roads have been given over t0 the mud-slingers for
their fun.
But that is not cnoogh for the wheel jockeys.
Now the Forest Service is considering a plan to add
20 more miles of ATV trails, pcneuating two more
water.iheds.
Internal combUSlion engines, especially
obno11iously loud ones over four knobby-treaded tires,
are incompatible witlt deep forest habiw needs. The
acres that woold be impacted by the noise, debris. and
massive erosion from ATV's are needed much IIIQle
desperalCly by wild animal and plant life as
homespace.
or
However, Uie ltanquillily lhis JX)rtion of
wild land is tltrca1encd. Adjnce.n1 lO the city uact is
the CliITs of Gla.\sie development, a 1,000 acre golf
rcson. The Cliffs wants to buy 134 acres of 1bcciLy's
propeny 10 expand their domain. The Greenville City
Council was agreeable to the sale. but when local
conservation groups he:lrd of the proposed transaction,
tltey unilCd in vehement opposition. The local
Bartram Group of the Sierra Club described the
property and revealed the details of the sale in a
televised press conference. The land had never been
inventoried, said the group, and lhey insisted 1h31. a
sludy of lhc area be done before any sale was
considerod to dcterminc if it was habilat for any rare
or endangered species.
The TV broadcast provoked a flood of letterS
from local citizens apposing the proposed sale. Under
I.hat pressure, the city council bacud off. TI1ey agreed
to inventory the 134 acres proposed for sale.
Moreover, they have decided to study the biology of
the whole watershed to consider a mnnagemcnt plan
for the entire traeL The city might still try to sell tho
area when the study is completed, but public pressure
has proved co be a powerful LOOI.
The Highlands Ranger District is scliciting
commurls on the proposed A7V trail expansion.
Write them 01: Rt. I, Box 247; Highlands. NC
28741.
BUYING BAD AIR
Namral World New. Scrvice
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is
baying 10,000 cons of coxic nitrate and sulfaie
compounds rrom the W l ~ Power and Li&hl
Company co release inlO lhe air over the Tennessee
Valley and the Soulhcrn Appalachians.
Docs that sound LOO bimrre to be true? Not at
all. Under a clause or the much-toulCd Clean Air Act
or 1990, companies that are in •over.compliance"
(companies that exceed the minimum smndnrds for air
cleanliness set forth in the act) can seU "pollution
credits" to polluting companies who don't want to
clean up their operations. This provision is a
safeguard bw11. into the law ID see that the air does
not get cleaned up beyond a minimal level apparently on the theory lhal if air geLS too clean iL is
bad for business.
Money can buy off the legal system, but it
cannot bring dead lJ'eeS back to life. nor can it make
polluted air any hcallhicr for those organisms who
have lO breathe u. "Pollution crcdiLS" may make TV A
think that it has license tO pollute, but 11 will only
worsen lite situation in the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park where 96 plant species ore already in
doclinc from niuogen•gcnerrucd owne and other
atmospheric pollutanl.S.
The grealeSl irony may be that rai.epaycrs
puchasing power from TV A will now know tltn.t,
instead of investing in air pollution controls, they ore
buying themselves an extra helping of air IO~ichy.
Comnu!nls may be stnt 10 the Ttnntssu
Valley Aulhoriry; Norris. TN 37818.
GOLF DESERT OR WILD WOODS?
Nanni World New. Service
The City of Greenville. SC own.~ 25,000 acre.\
of land in nonh Greenville County. The ll'3cl is a
rugged and beauuful alC.'.l at the foot or the Blue Ridge
CSClllplll(nL Bought bad ID lhe l 920·~. lhe land has
not~ a bulldo1,er or a chain saw in 60 years.
i4
D
ACTIVISTS RALLY FOR CLEAN
AIR
N11unl World News Service
A raucous crowd of about 50 people and one
coswmed bear demonstralCd beforc the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park's Suga.rlands VisilO( Center
in GatJjnburg, TN on May 18. 1992. This time the
activists or the group SolllhPA W were not protesting
government actions, but ~ galhcrcd IO support lhc
Dep:inmcnt of the Interior's policy of opposing any
new insl.allations within 120 miles of the Great
Smokies lluu would add lO air pollution -particularly
low-level ozone - in the Park.
Signs welcomed curious visitors lO the "Great
Smoggy Mouniains" and decl3rcd "We Support the
No-zone!• The dancing beat grophically demonslt3llld
what happens when wildlife take on overlo:ids of air
pollution. Atlanl.8 folksinger Robert Hoyt serenaded
the Monday morning crowd with copical songs about
the state of the environment and our society.
The Soul.hPAW ac11v1s1.S wcce JOined by 20
eighth grade s1udcn1.S in the KARE (Kids Agamst
'Recking lhe Environment) Club at Bridgepon School
m Newport, TN. The studcnl.S, who live in the
watcrShed of Ilic Pigeon River, knew lin;tband about
lite effects of waler pollution, but came 10 learn what
air pollution docs co C(()~i.tems. They m:ide tl1c
connections quickly and were soon parudpat mi;
cntltus1asucally in 1.hc dcmonst.111tion.
Su mm.er,
){192 uu
�The first building constructed at
Sycamore Branch was the community center.
It had a large kitchen and dining/meeting area
upstairs and ample bathing and laundry
facilities downstairs. The next project was a
complex that came to be called "the
apanments." These were twelve good-sized
rooms, each with a couple of sleeping lofts,
arranged in two tiers going up the hill above
the river. Many families lived for several
years in the apartmenrs while they worked on
their houses. Today the community rents
them out to young couples, the elderly, and
visitors.
The people decided that most of the
houses were to be built in a cluster near the
community center. These houses were built
by the homeowners who organized
themselves into a masonry crew and a
carpentry crew. Some homeowners hired
replacements for themselves because they had
jobs that would not allow for the necessary
rime off. These clustered homes were
connected by a common water, electrical, and
sewer system. They were arranged and
landscaped for maximum privacy, set into the
hillside, and turned a little this way or that so
that each home could have a small private
garden. There were many outdoor decks and
patios. Another eight homes were built in
various places around the property. These
homes were simple and designed to be
low-impact, most of them lacking in
conveniences.
There was widespread unemployment
as the old international economy collapsed.
Many families who lived at Sycamore Branch
lost their livelihood and the community
started businesses to help. Soon after
forming, the village started a cooperative that
owned and ran a sawmill, a woodworking
shop, and managed the community's garden
and kitchen. People could belong to the
cooperative that ran the garden and kitchen or
they could buy meal tickets. Many people
from outside the immediate community
bought tickets and some joined the
cooperative. Members of the cooperative are
currently required to work 14 hours each
week. In practice, about one fourth of the
people chose to work these hours
themselves, one fourth chose to pay, and half
chose a combination, doing farmwork during
the planting and harvest seasons. This
arrangement allowed some people to make a
liveli.hood almost entirely from farm or
kitchen work.
The Village Cooperative kept a small
herd of cows and ran a small dairy that also
A LOOK BACK
by Will Ashe Bason
processed milk from local farmers. A village
bakery supplied fresh bread that was sold
locally. Tofu and tempeh were made from
beans that were obtained in trade from a
community in a neighboring county that had a
better season because of lower elevation.
Twelve acres of blueberries were cultivated
and most of the berries were dried and sold.
There is a blueberry festival at harvest rime,
and the entire community helps with the
picking. One hundred fifty acres were planted
to a mixture Lhal included chestnuts, black
walnuts, black locust, and bramble fruits,
and this has proved to be a very valuable
asset over the years, with chestnut flour
becoming a major source of income. Many
local farmers and landowners planted blight
resistant chestnuts that were supplied by the
village and brought tons of dried chestnuts to
the sheller and mill.
Toe village woodworking shop
produces drums, harps, dulcimers, guitars,
and flutes. These products have gradually
gathered a fine reputation among musicians
far and wide, and the shop employs about
one third of the people in the village.
Sycamore Branch was of vital
imponance to Floyd County during the
economically unstable rimes of the late '90's
and the primary years of this century. It
helped formulate the plan for the
decentralization of the county's schools and
social services. The community has set up
four small band saw mills in various parts of
the county and organized a crafts collective
that markets area crafts on a mail order basis
through the satellite communication network.
The community has provided blueberry
plants, nut trees, shiitake mushroom spawn,
and vegetable StartS at low cost (and
sometimes free) to local farmers.
Sycamore Branch gave technical
assistance to many local communities that
were creating their own power systems after
the breakdowns of the late '90's. They
powered several other villages directly and
gave assistance 10 many more. There were
many economic refugees in the late '90's,
and Sycamore Branch offered a plan by
which these folks could mostly house and
feed themselves. They were influential in
Habitat for Humanity's decision to build
ecovillages with their own economics instead
of isolated homes. The community produced
a video series tilled "The Owner-Built
Village" which was used by thousands of
new cormnunities.
The goals of Sycamore Branch, as
stated in their by-laws, included not only
being of service to the larger community in
Floyd County but also reaching out on an
international scale. This was accomplished
through a sister community program that
linked the village to other small communities
around the world. Especially close tics were
made with the Mayan village of Yonin.
Young people from the communities were
exchanged every year and sometimes older
folk would go down for a year or so.
Sycamore Branch marketed xylophones,
weavings, and dried fruit from Yonin.
Sycamore Branch has cooperated from
the beginning with the UN's efforts lo set up
international community-to-community
trading and cultural contacts. The village has
for years sponsored a team ofteehnicians
who work to help upgrade poor communities
by providing better water sources, waste
treatment, and health care. Villagers from
these communities are trained to run the solar
satellite link and to access weather, health,
and technical information in their own
language. This gives them access to world
markets within the limitations of the
distribution system. There is an emphasis on
self-sufficiency and the development of a few
trade items that can be transponed to the
nearest world irading center for shipment to
irs ultimate destination through the UNPS
network of freight dirigibles, trains, vans,
and donkeys.
The village of Sycamore Branch was a
leader in the move by small communities to
take over the economic role of the
corporations. We now take it for granted thar
small communities work together
economically for their common betrermcnt.
and we forget that there was a rime when this
was an unusual pattern. The breakup of the
corporate economy in the '90's left a vacuum
that was naturally filled by small
communities. The pauems developed in
Sycamore Branch and similarcommuniti~#
were a vital part of this process.
fr
Reprinted/rem Tek:iah newsleuer,
which is available from the ln.sritwe for
Sustainable Living; Windswept Fann; Rt. 1,
Box 35; Check.VA 24072.
Will Ashe Bason is a farmer and
visionary who lives in the Floyd County,
Virginia community.
Mountain Counsel
Blackberry bushes, heavily leaved,
Bow as I approach;
Offer bounteous gifts
Deep black, soft and sweet.
Yet remind me of the need
To pick with gentle care
Or else be pricked by thorns
That spring from everywhere.
And so it is with friends.
- Taylor Reese
DnlWUl& by Rob Mcs11ck
Summa- , t 992
Xatoofl Journa!
JIQ9C 23
�BUlTERFLY
In a lazy larval state
I ate
Everything
Fresh and green
That lay before me
Until I could consume
No more
DRUMMING
Dear KaJuah,
This is the sound of Nonh Carolina. ll
is the voice of Kilmer Forest - it is the New
River Gorge - it is the Haw River - it is ML
Mitchell and the Black Range. Little
Santeetlah Creek and the French Broad River
also speak here.
I am Native Choctaw-Scot-Nonh
Carolinian and l dare speak in their names.
From the mountains to the coast, I see areas
rendered unrecognizable due to overdevelopment and misuse. It huns - the street
lightS that ruin night vision, the litter, the
washed out sides of previously pristine lakes
due LO motor-boating. This is not the state I
grew up in. What was attractive then is now
the money maker of the day.
Why do those who come here to "get
away from it all" need LO "bring it all" with
them?
Back LO Nature? My family raised me
that way - my grandfathers and greatgrandfathers fanned • a Choctaw greatgrandfather was a proud man in his
community here in the Piedmont I still have
the land he farmed.
At age 37, I still practice what my
ancestors left to me - a guardianship of
property and the knowledge or how to do it.
I love this state, but not what it is
becoming. It needs help, and l feel we are
losing.
Last year I was a volunteer for the
Kituwah Festival here in Asheville and will
be there agnin this year. I would also like to
work wherever possible for your staff on
representing Katuah Journal - it has a place!
Thank you,
Nancy Odell
Dear KaJuah,
While I have enjoyed the Journal more
than I can say, I have not sent in my
subscription renewal because J feel you could
help me a bit more than you have tried lO in
the past.
My Llfe's goal is to help re-establish
the American Chestnut in the mountains, and
to that end I've been trying to locate acreage
on which to do this. I wortc with devotion on
anything undertaken, but my problem is lack
of money for purehasing the size acreage or
farm needed to plant, nunurc, and monitor
these seedlings to maturity. I sincerely felt
there must be, among your readers, someone
intersted in seeing this tree again reclaim our
forests: some who may not have the time or
inclination to do the work needed, but who
may be financially more able and who would
be willing to help. I would gladly give full
accountability for any funding offered.
I looked at Land last Saturday near
Spruce Pine. Bui I would need some
$26,500 to acquire it. along with giving some
inherited fine jewelry 10 make up the
difference. I'm willing to give everything I
have, bu1 cash is something I don't have,
unfonunately, and tha1 is what sellers wanL
Truely. l felt your interest in this was as
deep as mine. l am not some scam artist,
simply a person with a limited amount of
assets that will gladly give for the finacial
help l need. Some of these assets are quite
exciting, for instance, r have an original
printing of the very first meeting of the
Continental Congress (authenticated by the
old books department of UNCC); an original
copy of Washington's Farwell Address and
many very old deeds, etc. l'm not wanting
something for nothing, you see. I have quite
endless energy and much determination. This
determination would go into the raising or the
chestnut If you do wish to help me get
started (I'm looking at land from the Spruce
Pine area west through Madison Counry),
you will be proud of what l'II accomplish.
Fat and sleepy
I slep1 deeply
Safe from a hungry world
Alone in my own
Silk cocoon bed
That trembled and twirled
Suspended by threads
From slender limbs
Overhead
Waiting
Until the warm suns
Of summer come
And I summon the courage
To emerge
Transformed and renewed
Wings brightly-hued
To carry me
Free
• Rebecca Wilson Hicks
Sincerely yours,
Dorothy Dickson
113 Autumn Lane
Harrisburg, NC 28075
!f\ "he. 5UMe Y-
-th e -fiowe.YS
b\,oOM f- he beo.Y"
w i 11 'rOMe
VJ ; f\
'f"'e 5qVi1TelS
1 e ()\ t WQ'f K
°'WO\ifi "~
Wi "t e r
Cold
+or
C\
T\d
We+her
l'llolobyR.-lyBall
tre r 5
P\ in re~ Of
Jee cl ".f'or
the bi ue
TS v\ nJ
--fo'( -r~e
crow
-t~erf
Cor Y\ Pl , n teu
0-f +1'.o.-1-·
J
(poem by Tiyo)
age 9
Dear Karuah,
I'd like to subscribe to your journal,
finally. We love it most abundantly cover to
cover. Couldn't bear to slash the graphics on
#34, so I send this sheel of paper wilh this
message.
Beyond the garden, consensus decision
making, and bioregionalism, my interest and
vocation arc renewable energy systems and
sheller. Our house is off the grid and soon
our income will be, tOO. Please conac1 me if
you ever do an issue on renewable energy in
Ka1uah.
Blessings 10 ya'II Star and Otter
Summer. 1992
�Dear Kanwli,
Thank you for the flood of pleasant
!Demories evoked by your Spring, 1992
issue. As I pored through your pages, I could
see my father pointing out things as we
walked through the woods. I learned of wild
onions, greens, mushrooms, persimmons,
and beechnutS. Berries grew abundantly
where I was raised - strawberries,
blackberries, raspberries, and gooseberries. I
was fortunate enough to live close to a small
wooded area, an ecosystem all its own. To
this day, I can tell an Oak from a Maple from
a Birch from a Willow, etc.
'
I'm still fascinated by the life forms in
even a small creek. The fish, crawdads,
leeches - I even learned to make suckers into
a very fine substitue for salmon/mackerel
patties.
Thank you for bringing it back when
I'm ready to see the deeper meanings of the
Earth's give-and-take relationship with man.
Keep up the good works, Mr. Messick.
Stay on the Path,
Jeff R. Zachary
Dear KaullJh,
This is still the best bioregional rag I've
seen! Thanks for keeping me in touch with all
the real news from home.
Gene Dilwonh
Dear Friends,
I send to you all my thoughts of peace
and well being... I hope that this Jen.er finds
you all enjoying happiness and good health!
I appreciate all your hard work in
producing Ka1uali Journal and including
Stil-Llght in your calendar of events. ll helps
to keep us before the public eye. Thank you!!
I am writing to comment on your
recycle logo on the Spring, 1992 issue:
"Recycle or Die." Recycling in and of itself
and one hundred percent population will not
solve our problems and create a sustainable
economy. Recycling is at best a stop gap
measure, something easily understood and
do-able by the masses. Until we stop
consuming and u111il we stop having so 1111Jny
babies (especially in the more afj111e111
countries) we will continue 011 our collision
course with exrinc1io11 as a species as we use
up all our nomral resources.
I agree that we should continue to
reri:ind people to n;cycle because it helps, but
crying wolf and usmg scare tactics hns never
wo~ked. people only do that which is in
their own selfish best interest. .. a sad
commentary on human nature, but the truth.
Just a few thoughts ...
Your Friend and Brolher,
Leon Frankel
Summcr, 1992
Dear Ka11W1,
Well, they've done it to us again! Praise
be to the "Gcxl Squad" for overiding the
couns and sentencing more forests out west
10 lhe saw? The sponed owl may be
protected, but only by the edict of loggers
and the Almighty Gospel of the U.S.
Congress. r thought there was supposed to
be a balance of power between the three (to
name but a few) branches of our government.
Where is the justice in taking a case to coun
and then have the "Gcxl Squat" (sic) come
and say "Praise the Lord. we gonna Lord it
over every forest we can"?
Constance Birch
From the Groun d Up
"You gotta start from the ground up ... "
- That's what they've always said
- and lhat's it in a nutshell
- where civilization's gone wrong
"If you don't have yo~ feet on the
ground...
Then where are you?
How do you get sustenance without roots?
"We're all going so fast we're gonna crash"
- where?
- on the ground?
The Ground?
We've put that in the hands of
MEGA CONGLOMERATE
ii-?tJ~~Wo.MILLIONAIRE,
20TH FLOOR HEADQUARTERED farmers
- Who probably won't touch the
ground
even when they die
But are buried up to lheir necks
in their financial statementS
- the only thing they care about
And speaking of lhe ground...
From the Earlh's point of view
it must think we're made of rubber
for that's all that touches it when we move.
We're Gods of power...
We have bulldozers to move
mountains.
A river can't flow
without our permission
We've gOL landfill expens
- like our mission is to fill the land
"Landfill"
- like a free lunch for the Eanh!
(ns if it liked the encrees)
Many of the Earth's peoples
worship Jesus, a man's
creation of the universe
(or Gcxl, if you will...)
Who gave unceasingly
of beauty and healing...
even as he died slowly and painfully
in the hands of the Earlh's people.
If such as he were still alive
would we try 10 save him?
Or, would we treat him
as we do her, lhe Earth?
Dear Karuah,
I read awhile back the article on the
!-,ETS sy~tem and sent for the preliminary
mformanon. lam real interested in seeing one
get sra.rted in the Karuah region in rural
mountain areas. At this time I have not the
time, energy, and resources 10 start one by
!11YSClf - l wonder if you know of other
interested persons you could put me in touch
~th who have the whole study course who
might let me borrow it.
In the meantime I am starting a simple
bancr networking newsletter in this local area
(Bryso~ City, Sylva, Franklin). Perhaps you
would like a ,~·rue:-up for the summer journal.
The Spnng issue of Kauiuh Journal is
by far the most interesting one to me in a long
time - great articles intended for the already
some~hat informed. Erbin Crow's pissing
poem 1s a real gem.
Airin Green
P.O. Box 382
Whittier, NC 28789
Dear Karuah,
I have enjoyed recieviog your paper,
but there is one matter of deep concern l
have. I have noticed several times in recent
years the theories of Buckminster Fuller have
been mentioned in a positive light, as if he
were a worthy mentor for ecology-minded
people (see John Ingress in Spring 1992).
I recently went back and looked a1
Fuller's opus Critical Path (St Martins,
N.Y., 1981), and was alanned to find it was
even worse than I had remembered. In the
preface he introduces lhe notion that human
beings are so smart we can easily provide
an "unprecedented higher standard of living
for all Eanhians," and claims that "four
billion billionaires" would be a worthwhile
and admirable goal. Can you imagine how
shredded to ribbons the Earth's ecosystems
would with "billions of billionaires," a
concept Fuller warmly endorses throughout
his book?!
The rest of Fuller's thesis is well
known. High technology is the savior we
have been waiting for. lo the future, humans
will live packed in floating cities, space
platforms, nnd so on, in fully automaied,
controlled environments. On page 297 he
claims "lhe power of the Amaz.on warershed
will be harnessed and considered by
designers as an integrated moving assembly
line."
On page 251 he gets so carried away
he proclaims that man has now taken on "lhe
competence of Gcxl."
I could go on with such examples, but
perhaps the point is made. I disagreed with
the late Ed Abbey on some things, but in his
evaluation of Buckminster Fuller, l lhink he
was right on lhe money. ln the meantime
there are lOLs of other writ tings on technology
out lhere worth reading, such as Lewis
Mumford, Jacques Ellul, or Jerry Mandcr's
new book.
Best Wishes.
Bill McConnick
• Breeze Burns
Xorunfi Jottn«i( p09c 27
�Jury Nullification:
Democracy at Work
M ost of us have noticed that our rights
arc being whittled and chopped away as
surely and relentlessly as our foresis. But
there is a little known right which can be a
defense against an offensive government.
II is a right we have because we are
entilled to a jury trial. The Fourth Circuit
Coun of Appeals in U.S. v. Moylan (1969)
put it this way: '1f the jury feels the law is
unjust, we recognize the undisputed power of
the jury to acquit, even if its verdict is
contrary co the law as given by a judge, and
contrary 10 the evidence."
People on a jury have the right to free
people from laws they wouldn't want
imposed on themselves. The right and the
responsibility.
Jury nullification, as this almost-secret
right is known, goes way back. Back to
ordinary men. Some of the ordinary men
were the 12 who served on William Penn's
jury in 1670. The British king proved beyond
a doubt that Penn was "guilty." He had
broken the law against preaching a religion
other than that of the Anglican church in a
public place.
But the jury didn't wane to punish
William Penn. They thought it would be a
beuer idea to punish the law itself.
The king's agent was furious and tried
co convince them that the law was more
imponant than their conscience. The judge
did his convincing by imprisoning the jurors
in the Tower of London until they agreed to
convict Penn.
But pubUc opinion - possibly related to
the expense of imprisoning the jurors - forced
the judge to let them go, and to admit that a
jury had the right to decide not only whether
someone has broken a law, but whether the
law is just.
The right of jury nullification bas
consistently been upheld in British and
American courts. According to Alan Sheflin
and Jon Van Dyke in law and Concempory
Problems 43, No. 4 (1980), 'The repeal of
(prohibition] laws is traceable 10 the refusal
of the juries 10 convict those accused of
alcohol traffic."
And Hagbard Celine points out in
Trajecl()ries newsletter that "the anti-pot law,
the silliest of all our drug laws, could not
survive in a nation with at least 70 million
pot-heads, if juries knew that they had the
right of nullification."
So what's happened?
Back in the 1890's, the U.S. Supreme
Court was about as freedom-loving as our
current robes. They upheld Lhe right of jury
nullification - but simultaneously ruled that
Lhe judge not only doesn't have to tell the jury
Lhey have this right - but can prevent the
defense attorney from telling them that they
have ii!
power.
Only Maryland has a state constitution
which requires a judge to inform the jury that
they may acquit if the facts prove a defendant
technically guilty but the jury believes the law
is wrong. (Lots of states, though, have
elected judges.)
There is a movement in many states to
pass Fully Informed Jury (FU) Amendments
to state constitutions. For more information,
you can write to FUA; Box 59; Helmsville,
MT 58843.
Jury nullification is a secret that needs
to be told. I asked my son if he knew his
rights as a citizen. He looked at me and
exclaimed, "Mom, I'm in school."
Isn't the power of juries a fundamental
part of how democratic government - of the
people - works?
I wonder what would happen even
without an amendment if people knew that
juries have the right to judge not only people,
but laws? If the people knew the power of
juries, and the power we would have a
grassrootS movement - towards democracy?
I am indebted to Robert Anton Wilson
and Trajectories newsleuer (Vol. /, No. 8;
Awwnn /990)/or m11cli of the infonnation in
1/iis article. Trajectories covers many spheres
of interest. Write to them clo The Pennanenc
Press; Box 700305; San Jose, CA 95170.
- by Karen F/etc71er
All juries have the power 10 nullify any
law, but any government judge can do
everything in her or his power to prevent
them from knowing that they have this
I:
Reprintulfrom IM AuJumn, 1991 ,ssue of /.
green light, Mwsleuer of the Cumberland-Grel!II
Bioregional Counril; 2513 Essex Place; Nashville
TN 37212.
The Story of the Man Who Wanted to Become Moss
He tried very hard
he wore himself like French lace
and went to the core of cells
where the green lives
and pulled out chlorophyll
trying to reinvent his structure
to take in the sun
When he kissed his mother
that lay in the moss
When he washed his belly
that lay in the moss
When he sat outside himself
that lay in the moss
lay in the moss
lay in the moss
in the moss
in the moss
the moss
moss
moss
- Jenny Bitner
Sumtm:r, 1992
�BOOK REVIEW
BEYOND THE LIMITS:
Confronting Global Collapse
Envisioning a Sustainable Future
In I971 , a book was published called
The Limits 10 Growth by Donella and Dennis
Meadows and J(lrgen Randers. It was a
landmark in ecological thinking in many
ways, causing many people 10 debate and
question the whole idea of unlimited growth
in industrialized societies. The notion of
growth as a cure for economic problems is
deeply ingrained in many people, and this
book questioned the very basis of such an
assumption al its root.
By using the Systems Approach to
problem solving and taking a long look at
trends in escalating human numbers and the
subsequent pressures put on the Earth's
resources, these three scientists proclaimed
that if present trends continued within the
next one hundred years there would be a
steep decline in lhe ability of human societies
to sustain themselves. This catastrophe could
be changed, they argued, by creating a kind
of steady-state where human populations and
material needs would level off and a new
balance achieved between binh and mortality
and between extremes of wealth.
It's twenty years later, and these same
three folks have been working on the
Systems Approach regarding the choices we
have in creating a future that does not depend
on growth as a means of propping up our
economies. Their new book, Beyond the
Limits, states clearly that human societies
have already moved beyond the limits of
what ecosystems of the Eanh can handle. Il
does not make excuses in order to go lightly
on industrialized countries. It radiates respect
for the diversity of life in the world and
offers some much-needed perspective about
the human place in it. The authors are deeply
moved by the severity of the problems we
face, and yet in many ways they offer hope
by providing paths we can follow to ease
away from the trend toward collapse and
simmer down into a mode of human
economy that actS within the limits of Eanh's
sustainability.
I find that it is much clearer to use a
Systems Approach with thorough
explainations of feedback, exponential
growth, overshoot and collapse, and
planetary sources, throughputs, and sinks
than the ambiguous notions surrounding
human carrying capacity (as seen for instance
in Issue #28 of Kat(wh Journal). Human
beings are not exempt from limitS to material
growth or the perils of overpopulation by any
means, yet it is high time we recognized that
we have exceeded many of the regulatory
limits 1hat exist for other mammals and that
we clearly have the capacity to overshoot this
carrying capacity at any time.
Cultural knowledge may not be enough
to restrain our frenzied pace, but it can offer
us some of the wisdom necessary co pull
back and keep from overstressing life support
systems. Whether we will paractice this
wisdom remains to be seen. yet Beyond The
limits offers some hard-earned distilled
knowledge and should be read by those
interested in learning how we can panem
human societies within limits. We humans do
have the potential to be effective problem
solvers. Unfortunately we rarely choose the
right problems to solve.
Beyond The Limits is pub/is~ by Ch,!lsea
Green Publishing Company: R1. I 13, Box 130: Posl
Mill.f. Vf 05058. Please ccn1ae11km aboui ~
,P"
informtUion on the book.
Rob Messick
B~byJll!OIITucllct
"I
told
the
Prograns to encourage
self and Earth awareness.
celeblollon. kinship ond hope.
• Youlh Camps • &;hool Programs
• Family Campa· Tead!o, Training
• Community Programs
• Camp StaIf Tra111lng
• Ouldoof Program Conwtt,ng
Look. Y1111 Ill ill l ltld ISklnQ mt ti help kAI
• Oonch ot Pffllll down tlltlt I don I k"°"
Md I"m 11n ~ I did kMw u..m 1-lclnt
wt/I ti ~1111 ti their dNIJII forgd l l
TIii
an,_ 11 no
F«av11 no•··
-'Naly~lbon ..,_
Don ·t Pay Taxes for War
Fo ntnrm11.1on ,if'ld o, ,1 c.;i,
PO. Bo• 1300
Gotti'lburg. T
e<Y'lessee 3n38
615-436-6203
National War Tax R
esistance
C
oordinating Committee
PO Bo~ 774 Munroe, ME 04951
1
2071525-7774
Summer , 1992
la'O!\: •nrr 1 ,t -
REGIONAL RADIO
Featuring Crossroads music, NPR news and music
programs, regional news and information
concerning health, education, government,
recreation, and the environment.
WNCW • FM P 0. Bo" 804 Spind.ik•, NC 28160
(704) 287-8000
�(cootinuo,d from P"&C SJ
and decorations were very sunilar. They
carried out the same kind of sun worship. I
think they were priest-ruled.
The Louisiana nibes showed that
influence strongly, and there is much
evidence of that among the Creeks and
Cherokees, probably more among the
Cherokees. Because of that influence, we had
a priest society for awhile. We became more
sophisticated and more warlike and gathered
up more territory and more people.
But the priest society among the
Cherokees became so arrogant and so
barbaric that the people rose up against them.
I think it must have been about the time
when the clans dwindled from 14 to seven.
The revolt centered in the Katuah village. The
priest society was ovenhrown.
After that episode, the spiritual
functions of the nibe became more
decentralir.cd. There were ceremonial
medicine people, song keepers, and the
chiefs of the ceremonial grounds. There was
a medicine man who could give hunting
formulas, and that's all he could do. Another
one who could give fishing formulas. And
women who lcoew how ro deliver babies, and
soon.
The medicine people still had influence.
but they were not almighty. There were
,
definitely people who shone among those
groups, and they gathered some degree of
power, but that was because of ability, not
because of their office.
The people also gave more power 10 the
village councils and balanced the influence of
the clans within the villages. so that no one
clan became dominant. Thus, it came about
that when the white people came, they found
us to be a loose federation of villages, more
lroquoian in our government than most of the
tribes around us. But our power was
growing. I think that if the white people had
waited 100 or 200 years they would have
dealt with one or two governments in the
Southeast. We were definitely influenced by
the Iroquois.
As it was, we were eventually forced
by bitter expenence to adopt the white man's
system of choosing one civil leader who had
ultimate power. Then we got chiefs like John
Ross, who passed a law saying no Cherokee
could sell land. Until that time. each village
acted on its own, and we were overwhelmed.
/
In spite of his droll pen 11ame. Bear
Wirh Runs is a full-blooded member of the
Cherokee cribe. He Jives in quiet a,umymity
offthe Cherokee Indian ReservaJion.
FREE CHEROKEE
from Ahwi Brown
What is a Free Cherokee? That's an
honest question, and ru try ro give an honest
answer. Most often a Free Cherokee is a
person with a family legend about an
"Indian" grandmother or grandfather. While
these legends persist in famiUes throughout
the land, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
has made it virtually impossible to enroll
these Free Cherokees on federal rolls. The
Free Cherokees are seen by many of these
Xotuah JPurnat page ao
people as a way to go "home." We do not
seek BIA recognition or any other benefit not
available to other citizens. We do appeal to
our BIA "approved" cousins to join with us
in keeping our heritage strong and in
resurrecting Tsalagi as a spoken language.
It is the hope of this Free Cherokee that
the more affluent of the Free Cherokee people
talce advantage of the current recession and
low interest rates to acquire land parcels in
the Cherokee homeland, Katuah, with the
intention of establishing Tsalagi kibb1uzim
within the borders of the homeland.
To explain the meaning of the liebrew
word kibbwzim: the Jewish people used this
same method to reacquire their ancestral
homeland. It took them about 100 years to do
it. I hope we can beat that!
. . This idea may sound crazy, but so did
Z1on1Sm 100 years ago. J reel that this is an
idea whose time has come. I release it to the
Ancient Red.
Allw18rown
Chic.kamaugan Band of Fru C~ro/cus
19/SBudleySt
Clialtunoogo. TN 37404
Summer, l 992
�:BUN M-OU'.NTA.'L'.N
(b. 1979 • d. l 992)
It was over a dozen years ago that a
man named Jerry staned cooking small
batches of tofu in the back of a food co-op in
downtown Boone, NC and distributing it
around town. This effort was passed on to
others who tried to expand the tofu, tempeh,
and sprout market to the rest of the state. The
soy dairy was small, but it had a wide
distribution within North Carolina. A series
of owners found it difficult to manage, and it
was passed along until John Swan bought the
business in 1987. He sought to make Bean
Mountain into a viable business by moving it
from the slowly dilapidating building it had
been housed in for years to a new building in
Weaverville, NC.
The hope was that with bcner access to
distribution routes and better facilities, larger
contracts could be gained and the business
would nourish. We have recently learned,
however, that Bean Mountain could not
make enough money to survive in today's
market.
Bean Mountain tofu and tempeh have
been legendary not only in the southern
mountains but also in many towns in the
piedmont. h will be sorely missed by many
people.
Hats off 10 you, John Swan, for your
gal/am effons to revive this most useful of
services to the community. Thanks also to the
men and women who put in their sweat and
blood 10 keep it going. May the memory of
all that good food linger in our hearts forever.
- Rob Messick
SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN
BLACK BEAR
REHABILITATION AND
RELEASE CENTER
Or. Michael Pelton, a wildlife biologist
from the University of Tennessee who
specializes in black bear research, frequently
receives calls from people who have found
orphaned bear cubs. Panicularly in the spring
when cubs are young and inexperienced, they
are at risk if they are separated from their
mother by poachers, free-ranging dogs, a
flood in their den, or any of a number of
other causes.
Until now, there have not been
adequate solutions for this situation. But a
dream long held by Dr. Pelton seems about 10
mnterial ize.
Under the auspices of the Dragonette
Society for the Preservation of Endangered
Animals, work is proceeding on the Southern
Appalachian Black Bear Rehabilitation and
Release Center. a facility specifically
designed to renccustom and relocate
orphaned, injured, or starving black bears
into the wild. The Center is certified as a
non-profit organization and has established a
board of directors. Backers have donated a
site for the project in Townsend, TN near the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Architect Tom Caldwell volunteered his skills
to draw up a plan for the facility, and the
Oragoneue Society is now preparing for a
fund-raising effon toward a $350,000
construction budget.
The institution's primary focus would
be 10 temporarily house and r.reat bears in
order to re-establish 1hem in the wild as
quickly as possible. "We want to do what we
can in a confined situation to enhance the
possibility of survival in the wild," said Dr.
Pellon.
Bears would be held for their protection
only with as little contact with humans as
possible. When they become strong, healthy,
and acclimated enough to function in their
natural habitat (a maximum of six to eight
months), they would then be released 10
remote areas of the mountains or possibly in
black bear reintroduction projects, like the
one proposed for the Big South Fork area in
Kentucky.
The Dragonettt: Society
for the Preservation ofEndangered Animals
Box669606
Mariella, GA 30066
to"'°'ifka. IOO'U
~t\~S
\ I
,-o &c>~ , a04
by Rob M,
..
0$.icl;
v
( 7041 69~1
Q.8"118"
An Alternative
NATURAL MARKET
WHOLE rooos • OULK
FOODS • VITAMINF..S • Hf:R!lS
• FAT FREE FOODS • TAKE
OUT FOODS• SNACKS• NO
SALT, NO CHOLESTEROL
265-2700
823 Blowing Rock Ad
Boone NC 28607
~
»
speaking fpr fhe earfh.
--,
Union Acres
Rob Messick
Rt. 8, Box 323
Lenoir, NC 28645
't
lllll • &.234
t1<nc1enonw,..,..c;ie1)!1
C~t\b~~, M.C.
Get a set of 10 assorted
folding cards with
artwork as seen in
Katuah Journal.
Send $11.25 ppd to:
/•j
i
- - Acreage for Sale - Smol.y Mountain Living
with a focus on spiritual and
ecologie11I values
For more informalio11:
Contad C. Grant at
Route 1. Box 61/
Whittier, NC 28789
(704) 497-4964
whole earth
gro~ery
.
·.
.;·,:
..
,,
r,..
~
NATURAL
ALTERNATIVES
FOR HEALTHFUL
LIVING
146 !.'.parkway craft .:<'ntcr • suit<' 11
gatlinburg, tcnncss"<' 37'738
615-436-6967
�JUNE
12-22
AMONG THE TREES
Katuah Rainbow Tribe Solstice
Gathering. Somewhere in the national forest.
sisters and brothers will gather 10 create a
magical village of love and light. Location to
be announced. For information, write to HO!
Newsletter; Box 5455; Atlanta, GA 30307; or
call Atlanta Rainbow Light Linc at (404)
662-6112.
€V€0t'S
BLACKSBURG, VA
Soc1e1y for Conservation Biology Annual
Meeting. Symposia on biodiversity issues. Contact
DepL or Fisheries and Wildlife: VPI & SU;
Blacksburg, VA 2A061
27-7/1
HOT SPRII-.GS, NC
"Jndcpcndcncc Week 7.en Holiday." wilh
Genlci Snndy Stewart. Medi1ation rcU'C3t held in
s1lcnce, culminating ma walk up lhe moum.am.
Pre-register: S225 includes lodging and vegan meals.
For info on lhi.~ and other rctreais, contact Soulhcm
Dharma Retreat Center: RL I. Box 34-H; Hot
Springs, NC28743. (704) 622-7112.
27,7/4
IS
FULL MOON/
STRAWBERRY MOON
19
ASHEVILLE, NC
• AFSEEE's Vision for N:lllon:il Foresis in
the Southeast," a public meeting with Jeff DeBonis,
founder of the Associalion or Fo~, Service
Employees for EnvironmcnU!I Ethics.
7 pm at Humanities Lccwre Hall, Univers11y of
North Cnrolinll • Asheville. For info, C31I Dr. Gary
Miller, UNCA. (704) 221-6441.
28
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC
"Sunday m the Park," a moveable reast of
emenninmcnl, will be at Lake Tomahawk today at 2
p.m. Performers will include Jerry Read Smith, Lisa
Smilh, and Bonnie Blue's puppcis. For info on this
and other Sunday evcnis, call Quali1y f-orward. (704)
254-1776.
JULY
(INTER)NATIONAL
Day of Action for the 07.one layer. Don a
"radiation suit" and demand a ban on CFC's and
HCFC's NOW! Picket your nearest EPA office.
Local eoniacc John Johnson (615) 26S-67t3
ContincnUII comacc Rhys Roth (206) 943-7259
l
3.9
19-21
WILLIS, VA
"The New Dance." an exploration of
changing sexual identities with Dan Chesbro. Friday •
workshop for men and women IO hcal old wounds,
restore Ille balance of power and shnre our spiritwll
oneness. SaL, Sun.• a l'CIICal for men wilh music,
bodywon:, ceremony. Indian Val~y Rctrcat: RL 2.
Box 58; Willis, VA 24380. (704) 789-4295.
ASHEVILLE, NC
·wise Woman Tradition: Apprentice
W~." will explore herbal knowledge and women's
wisdom. For info, contact WhHewolf; Box 576:
Asheville, NC 28802.
LINVILLE, NC
371h Annual Highland Games and
Galhering or the Sc«lish Clans 01 MacRae Field
beneath Ornndfalher Mo11ntain. Scottish games,
dancing, uilidh, bagpipes, more. For information.
call Orandfalher Mountain Highland Carnes 01 (704)
898-5286 or write to Box 356; Banner Elk, NC
WASHINGTON, DC
First National Carrying Capacity
Issues Conference. Discuss the basic issues
underlying the CWTCnt environmental crisis
with leading thinkers such as Gaylord
Nelson, Herman Daly, Anne Ehrlich, Garrett
Hardin, Hazel Henderson, and others. $100.
Carrying Capacity Network; 1325 G St. NW
(Suite 1003); Washington, DC 20005 (202)
879-3044.
20
SUMMER SOLSTICE
GREAT SMOKIES PARK
Naturali51. nnd Educa1or Week is for
anyone who wanis 10 team more abou1 lhc outdoors
nnd pass lhc knowledge along. Hiking, natural
h1~tory, music, swunming... and Free Tune! Spce111I
gucs1 will be Doug ElboU, storyu:ller/ naturalisL
Prc-rcgisu:r: S200 includes lodging and meals. For
more info about this and other programs, contact
On::11 Smoky Mounlllins lns111111e at Tremont; R1. t,
Box 700; Townsend, TN 37882. (615) 448-6709.
22,27
"'1tt'1afi JournnC. pa9(" 32
18-19
GREAT SMOKIES PARK
"Great Pandas in Chma and Wildlife in the
Smokies" wilt use field lrips in lhc Park lllld group
discussions to mnlcc ecological, cultural and
conservation comparisons be1wccn Chinn and lhc
Smokies. For info about lh1s nnd olher courses,
con13e1 Smoky Mounlllin Field School: 600 Henley
Su-eel, Suite 105; Knoxville, Tn 37902.
1-800.284-8885.
18-19
SWANNANOA, 1'C
Anciem Sw Walke.rs" class led by Page
BryanL Included will be 1hc m:iking or a stnr bundle,
a Stnr Dance, 111lditional Native American siories nnd
sky watching. Pre-register. $85. For info about lhis
and other programs, eon1.1c1 The Earth Center. See
7/11.
19-25
SWANNANOA, NC
"Old-Time Music nnd Dance Week" of the
Swannnnoa Onlhcring 01 Wnrrcn Wilson College.
Weck-tong instructional workshops on old-time liddle
and guitnr, clogging and conu:i dancing, siorytelling,
and more. Ralph BliZ7..ard and lhc New Solllhem
Ramblers, David Holt, Don Pedi, and others. S220 +
Sl40 meals 311d lodging. Sec 7/12-18.
20
ASHEVILLE, NC
"Planetary Acupuncture: Power
Points and Sacred Sites and the Healing of
the Earth." Breath-taking sUdes and spirirual
insights by anthropologist/photographer
Martin Gray. 7 pm at Laurel Auditorium,
Asheville-Buncombe Technical College. $10.
9-12
28604.
19-21
W-ESSER, 11.C
ACA Open Canoe Nolionnl
Championsb.ips will feature racers from nll over the
U.S. in slnlom and wildwau:r courses on the
Nanlllh3!3 River. For info on these and other
whitewater evcnis. eoniact Nam.ahala Ou1door Cenu:r;
41 Hwy 19 West; Bryson City, NC 28713. (704)
488-2175.
15-17
10
BLACK MOUNTAJN, NC
Robert Hoyt, a radical voice for a New
Soulh, and The Billies, rhythmic harbingers or
post-mdusuial living, play 31 McDibbs; I 19 ChClT)'.
For more info, call (704) 669-2456.
MARSUALL, NC
"Toolmaking for Woodwoiters" is a class
for lhosc intuesled in u-aditional woodwor1cing
lechniques requiring IOOls no longer commercially
available. SIUdcnts will team IO mnke and modify
IOOls, including forge work, uiught by blacksmith
Frank Turley. Pre-register. S390 includes meals and
camping. with donn aceomodalion available. For info
on lhis and olhcr woodworking workshops, conU1c1
Counuy Workshops; 90 Mlll Cree.le Road: Marshall,
NC 28753. (704) 656-2280.
20-24
SWANNANOA, NC
Full Moon Lodge is a monlhly eveni;
begins 111 noon. Fo, info abou1 panic1pa1ing m
the sweat. conU1C1 The Earth Cenier. 302 Old
Fellowship Rood: Swannanoa, NC 2377g_
(704) 298-3935.
11
12-18
SWANNANOA,NC
"Scouish/Bluegrass Week" oflhc
Swannanoa Orubcring 01 Warren Wilson College.
Week-long instructional workshop on Scottish and
bluegrass music styles with Brian McNcill, Z;in
McLocd, the Lynn Moms Band, olhcrs. $220 + $140
meals and lodging. Wnu: The Swannano:i Gntbcring;
WWC: Box 5299: Swannanoa, NC 28778.
14
PULL MOON/UUCK MOON
Summer, t!l92
�.:!0-:!6 WILLIS, VA
Seventh Annual Women's Wellness
Weck. Sacred spat:c and mual, movement.
sound, storytelling. more with Jane
20
Avery-Grubel, Katherine Chantal, Louise
Kessel, Ise Williams. and mhcrs. Conmct
Indian Valley Retreat; Rt. 2, Box 58; Willis,
VA 24380_ (703) 789-4295.
-pericarp
--seedcoal
UUNCO\IBE COU:O,.TY. NC
Organic SmaU Farm Tour w1fl provulc an
orponunity to soc orgnnic producuon technique,,
green m.murcs and pc$! control~ on working farm, m
the al'l!a. Sponsored by Carolina Farm S1t:w:udship
Ass«ia11on. For info, call Allison Arnold :it (704)
255-5522.
FRANKLIN, NC
Cnmping. canoeing. rafting. hiking. first
aid instruction with a small group of bomcscboolcrs
in the Nnntaha13 Mountains wilh the Hcadwntcrs
Homcschoolcrs Outdoor Camp. S275. For more info.
contact He.id waters at (704)369-6491 or write lO 68
Lakey Creek Rd.; Franklin. NC 28734.
23-29
ASU1'; \'ILLE, NC
Broom Making Workshop. Go tic one
on with instructor Cnrt~n Tuule. For info on this
and other craft workshops, contact Folk An Center:
Box' 9545; Asheville, NC 28815. (704) 298-7928.
21-23
CULLOWII EE, NC
•1..nndscaping with Nauve Plants"
conference will offer lcc1urcs Md worbhops by
landscapers and horticulturists. Pre-register: S50
+ meals and lodging; rcgislCt separately for optional
field trips on 7(22. For info, call Sue DcBord at
West.em Carolina University. (704) 227-7397.
23-2S
23-8/2
SEPTEMBER
Fmuru: 2. -Cn•lot1rn dc11tato, Amoricnn ch•olnul: lonld·
ludinol ~ectlnn throu~h " nut, I.H x.
WF,STERN NC
Folkmoo1 USA brings folk dancers and
mus,cinns from Hungary, Jamaica, Belgium. MCllico.
Moldova, Panama. Sardinia. Ponugnl, Taiwan and
Uzbcldst:111 to perform m various locauons in Kauiah.
For schedule and price information, contact Folkmoot
USA; Box 523: Waynesville, NC 28786. (704)
457-2997.
CELO COMMUNITY, NC
RSVP Summer Celebration. Picnics,
tubing, hiking, dancing with Katuah's homegrown
pc:icc networking journal. For trove! directions or
more info, call Joseph Heflin a1 Rural Southern
Voice for Peace. (704) 675-5933.
7-8
ELIZABETHTON, TN
Appalachian Folk Medicine Symposium
will include lcc1urcs held al Sycamore Shoals Staie
Historic Sile in Elizabethton, lllld demonsr.rations and
hikes at Roan Mounlllin Siate Parle. For info. contact
Jeff Wardeska. Roan Mountain Society;
4 Bingham Court; Johnson City. TN 37604.
(615) 929-4453.
FULL MOON/HARVFSf MOON
12-20
AUGUST
12
WESTERN NC
River Week celebrates the French
Broad River in four WNC counties.
Community events will include a canoe trip,
raft race, hotdog kayaking, river safety
course, and riverside concert. To avoid- being
left high and dry, get a schedule from the
French Broad River Foundation. (704)
252-1097.
25-26
13
FULL MOON/
GREEN CORN MOON
The nrc.1'5 oldest
and targc..t natural
foods grocery "
Kalmia Center, Inc.
FRENCH BROAD Fooo Co,op
Sylva, NC
(704) 293-3015
Custom tilling, organic fertilizers, kelp meal,
colloidal phosphate & many more products
and services for abundant gardening and
healthful living.
(JOI)
.........
..
255-7650
your comnru1'1ly
groury,1ou
._.,., ...,.,., ......... .... .. ,,,...
,... ,...,
"'-
811/k Herl>s, Spices, & Grains
Vitamins & Supphwents
W11eat, Salt & Yeast-Fn•e Foods
Dairy S11bstit11ti:s
Hair & Skin Care Products
Beer (.-f Wine Making S11J1plies
200 W. King St, Boone, NC 28607
(7(») 26-1-5220
r;f diu
W
WHOLE FOODS
VITAMINS
ORGANIC PRODUCE
160 Broadway
Asheville, North Carolina
Open 7 Days a Week
Monday - Friday 9 am - 8 pm
Saturday 9 am - 6:30 pm
Sunday 12 pm - 5 pm
Summer, 1992
t
·,.
~
NATIVE FLUTES
Two styles mode of cedar or walnut
woods in the traditional manner
Hawk Littlejohn
Sourwood Farm
Rt. 1, Box 172-L
Prospect Hill, NC 27314
(919) 562-3073
Sam!JMush
Herb Nurse.~
WREATHS •POTPOURRJ
• HERBS • TOPIARY
Complete Herb Catalog - $4
Describes more than 800 plm1ts from
Aloe to Yarraw
Rt 2, Surrett Cove Road
Leicester, North Carolina 28748
Phone for appointment to visit
(704) 683-2014
�HJGHLANDER CENTER is a communily-bascd
educational orgnnization whose purpose is 10
provide space for people 10 learn from each olher,
and lO develop solutions 10 environmenllll
problems based on lhcir values, experiences, and
aspirations. They also pul oul a quarterly newsletter
called Highlantkr RtportS. For more info contacl
Highlander Center. 1959 Highlnnder Way; New
Mankct, TN 37820 (615) 933-3443.
FAMll.IES LEARNING TOGETHER exisls in
North Carolina as a ne1work or homeschooling
families who offer infonn:n.ion, experience, and
encouragemcnl 10 each olher. &nelilS of FLT
membership include a quarterly newslcllCI, fumily
di.roclory, fnmily galhcrings twice a year, media
resource file, and much more. If you would like 10
learn more about Ibis o~n group please contacl
Tnsh Sc11Cnn or Doug Woodward :ll (704)
369-6491 or write 10 68 Wey Creek Rd.;
Frank Im, NC 28734.
PIEDMONT BIOREGIONAL INSTITUTE· For
those who live m lhe Piedmonl area, there's a
b10reg1onal cffOfl well underway. Join Us! We
would appreciate any donation or time or money 10
help mee1 opera1ing expenses. For a gift or S25.00
or more, we will send )'OU a copy or John Lawson's
journal, A New \foyage to Carolina. Also come
fmd out about the Lnwson ProjccL PBl; 412 W
Rosemary S=t: Chapel Hill, NC 27516;
Uwha.nia Province. (919) 942-2581
THE ALTERNATIVE READING ROOM is an
unconventional library; free and open 10 lhc public.
Our coltecuon intereslS include the environment,
social :ind political issues, the media ond peace. We
have.over 200 mag3.1.ine substripiioos. The book
and video collccuo~ also emphasii.e the
cnvlltlllment and political concems. Books and
videos can be checked OUL A video player i~
available for watching films in the ~ng room.
Localed UJ 2 Wall SL (#114): Asheville, NC
28801 (704) 252-2501. MoQ/Wed/Fri 6-Spm.
Tuesffhur I-Rpm · Sal/Sun 1-6pm
A VIDEO ABOUT LAND TRUSTS has been
produced by lhe umd Trus1 Alliance 10 explain in
lay 1erms whal a land lfUSI is. 2.7 million acres of
land have been saved by non-profit land 1rus1
organi7.ntions in America This video docurnenlS
lb.is movemcm's successes. Cost is 521.00 for
individual and Sl4.50 for LTA members (include
S4.50 for posmgc). Con!3CI: The Land Trust
Alliance: 900 171h SL NW (Suite410);
Washing10n, DC 20006 (202) 785-1410.
~Jli,~ J~~'[.'IOL P0:9.': ~
HAWKWlND EARTH Rl:.NEW AL COOPERATIVE
is a 77 acre wilderness retreat located on Loolcou1
Mounmin Parkway in northern Alabama. Easy
access. safe family camping, year round weclc:end
programs featuring Native American cldc:G and
Eanh teachers from around lhe world. S1r0ng
spiritual foundation wilh Earth Renewal emphasis,
membership discount co-op. There is no chnrge for
Native American ceremonies; reservations required
for all vis11S, please. Childcnre o(lell avnilllble.
Write: P.O. Box 11: Valley Head, AL 35989 (205)
635-6304. For qU3flerly newsleuer and program
updates send S 10.00.
NATIVE AMERICAN CEREMONlALS - including
handcrafted Native American ceremonial supplies.
Drums, cuslOm pipes, medicine bags, swee1grass,
sage, fcalhcrs. rawhide raules, IObnccos. pipe ~ .
native flutes, and more! For free calalog send 10:
Box 1062-K; Cherokee, NC 28719.
GOOD EARTH ORGANICS in Asheville has a
network-mruketing plan which can provide a
substantial prut·time income. (Full time in 18-24
months). This is needed in any area, no !raining
required. We provide !raining and all assistance
needed to get you slllrted in your own business.
Contact Good Earth at (704) 252-7169.
UFETIMES .re AGES· a new release from Bob
Avery-Grubel, full of new age vocal music
exploring I.he mystery of life . lyrics included. On
casseue only: send SI0.00 plus Sl.00 for shipping
and handling 10: Bob Avery Grubel; RI. I, Box
735; Floyd. VA 24091.
BEGINNING CHEROKEE LANGUAGE BOOK·
supplemcnuxl wilh 1wo casscues. Sll'CSSCS alphabet
& proper pronunciation. The first textbook written
for use in teaching and learning 1he Cherokee
language. (346 pages). S39.95 plus $5.00
shipping. analog also available wilh mpes, books,
pipes, dance slicks. drums. feathers. furs, buffalo
products and more. Crafl supplies also available
(please specify). Send S2.00 10 the Muskrat Trader,
Box 20033; Roanoke, VA 24018.
COHOUSING COMMUNlTY being formed in lhe
Asheville area. ResideoJS organu.e, plan, and design
a coopc:rntive community where individual homes
cluster around n common house wilh shnred
facilities-· laundry, workshops. children's room,
dining room, etc. Opportunities ror energy
efficient, ecologically sound land use. Inquiries
inviled. Coouict: John Senechal: P.O. Box 1176:
Weaverville, NC 28787 (704) 658-3740.
LAND SURVEYOR seeks land conscrvW1Cy,
community land trust. and other alternative
community and green proJccts. Licensed in LA,
ME, NC, NH, TN. Contact Rantbll Orr. RI . 3,
Boit 345; Sneedville, TN 37869 (615) 2n-0416.
HEADWATERS helps both individu:ils ond families
dcvcl0p their outdoor ~kills wilh an awurcness of
lhc value or our nmural world. We offer a diver.ily
of experiences, rncluding family advcnwrcs,
Homc!ilChoolcrs Outdoor Camp, mstruclion m
kayaking, canoeing, backpacking. bicycle touring,
nmwc ph01ogrophy, and wilderness rafung. For
program mformalion, COlllllCt Trish Severin and
Doug Woodward nt (704) 369~91 or wntc 10 68
Lakey Creek Rd.; Franklin, NC 28734.
ETHER IC ANALYSIS • most complete rcpon on
chak.ras and emouons as Ibey an:: effecung your
being. Include.~ pcrsooalii:cd Gem Elixer 10 balance
Auric Body. Mail five hai~ (plucked from your
head), name, address, and S55.00 10: Dawn: Rt. 3.
Box 9; Llncsvillc, PA 16424.
MAGICAL HERBS • planlS, books, and fTCC
newsletter. Send 10 Wi7.ard's Way; 75 Broadway;
Asheville, NC 28801.
Alternatives ...
The Dir«1 of ln1enrional Communities is lhc prodory
uct or two years of intenS"ive research, and is lhe most
comJ]fdlensive and accura1e dircc10ry available. fl documenlS lhc vision and lhc daily life of more lhan 350
communities in Nonh America, and more lhan 50 on
olher continents. Each community's listing includes
name, address, phone, ond a description of the group.
Extensive cross-rercrencmg and indexing male.es themfonnation easy 10 access for a wide variety or users. Includes maps. over 250 additional Resource listings. and
40 related aruclcs.
328 pages
8-1/2xl I
Perfcclbound
October 1990
ISBN Number:
0-9602714- 1-4
$16.00
Add $2.00 postage
& hnndling for first
book, $.50 for each
additionnl; 40%
discount on orders
of 10 or more.
Alpha Fann. Deadwood. OR
(503) 964-6102
RSVP SUMMER CELEBRATION - July 25-26th at
I.he home of Rum! Southern Voice for Peace in lhe
Cclo Comrnuruty. Picnics, 1ubmg, fishing, hilang,
dancing, fine food and music! Fnmily Cun for
childn:n or all ages. Mark lhe date on your calendar
now! Call Joseph Heflin at RSVP ror information
and schedule or weekend even is (704) 675-5933.
• Webworking costs: There is a
charge of $2.50 (pre-paid) for each
Webworking entry of 50 words or
less. Submit entries for Issue #36 by
August, 15th 1992 to: Rob Messick;
Rt. 8, Box 323; Lenoir, NC 28645.
(704) 754-6097.
.
Summer, 1992
�BACK ISSUES OF KATUAH JOURNAL AVAILABLE
t
ISSUE FOUR-SUMMER 1984
Water Orum • Water Quality· Kudzu - Solar Eclipse
- Clearcu1ting - Trout - Going 10 Water - Ram
Pumps - Microhydro - Poems: Bennie lee Sinclair,
Jim Wayne Miller
ISSUE FIVE· FALL 1984
Harvest· Old Ways in Cherokee- Ginseng· Nuclear
Waste - Our Celtic Heritage - Bioregion:ilism: Past,
Present. and Future - John Wilnoty - Healing
Darkness - Politics or Parucipa1ion
ISSUE SIX· WINTER 1984·85
Winter Solstice Earth Ceremony - Horsepasture
River - Coming or lhe Light - Log Cabin Roots·
Mountain Agriculture: The Right Crop - Willirun
Taylor - The Future or lhe Forest
ISSUE SEVEN - SPRlNG 1985
Susia.inable Economics - Hot Springs - Worker
Ownership - The Great Economy - Self Help Credit
Union • Wild Turkey - Responsible Investing Working m Ille Web of Life
ISSUE EIGHT· SUMMER 1985
Celebration: A Way of Life- Ko1uah 18.000 Years
Ago - Sacred Sites - f'olk Arts m lhc Schools· Sun
Cycle/Moon Cycle - Poems: Hilda Downer •
Cherokee Heritage Center - Who Owns Appalochia?
lSSUE NINE· PALL 1985
The Waldcc Forest - The Trees Speak • Migrating
Forests - Horse Logging - Starting a Tree Crop Urban Trees - Acom Bread • Mylll Time
ISSUE TEN - WlNTER 1985·86
Ka1e Rogers· Circles of S10ne • Internal
Mylhmaking - Holistic Healing on Trial • Poems:
Steve Knauth - Mythic Places · 111e Ukterui's Talc Crystal Magic - "Dreamspcuking"
ISSUE THIRTEEN· FALL 1986
Center For Awakening· Elizabeth Callari - A
Gentle Death - Hospice - Ernest Morgan· Ocaling
Creatively with Death· Home Burial Box - The
Wake. The Raven Mocker - Woodslore & Wild·
woods Wisdom· Good Medicine: The Sweat Lodge
ISSUE FOURTEEN· WlNTER 1986-87
Lloyd Carl Owle • Boogers and Mummers - All
Species Day - Cabin Fever UniVCISi1y • Homeless
in Katuah - Homemade Hot Waw • S1
ovemaker's
Narmtive - Good Medicine: Jnu:rspecies Communication
The Chalice and the Blade
ISSUE TWENTY-SIX· WINTER, 1989-90
The Ecozoic Era - Kids S:iving Rainforest - Kids
Treccycling Company· Connict Resolution -
,
~UA~OURNAL
35
PO Box 638 Leicester, NC Katuah Province 28748
For more info: call Rob Messick at (704) 754-6097
Name
Regular Membership........$] 0/yr.
Sponsor.........................$20/yr.
Contnbutor .....................$50/yr.
Address
State
City
Summer, 1992
If
ISSUE FIFTEEN· SPRING 1987
Coverlets· Woman Forester - Susie McMahan:
Midwife - Alternative Contraception - Biosexuality •
Biorcgionalism and Women • Good Medicine:
Malrinrchal Cul111re - Ptarl
ISSUE SIXTEEN· SUMMER 1987
Helen Waite - Poem: Visions in a Garden - Vision
Qucsl - First Flow - lni1iaLion - Leaming in the
Wilderness - Cherokee Challenge - "Valuing Trees"
ISSUE EIGHTEEN· WINTER 1987-88
Vemncular Architccture - Dreams in Wood and S10ne
- Mountain Hoene • Earth Energies • Earlll-Shehcred
Livmg • Membrane Houses - Brush Shcltcr.
Poems: October Dusi,; • Good Medicine: "Shell.Cr"
ISSUE NINETEEN - SPRING 1988
Pcrelandra Garden· Spring Tonics· Blueberries·
Wildflower Gardens - Granny I lcrbalist . Flower
Essences - "The Origin of lhe Animals:• Story •
Good Medicine: "Poww-" - Be A Tree
ISSUE TWENTY· SUMMER 1988
Prc.c;crvc AppamchiAII Wilderness. Highlands of
Roan - Celo Community - L'llld Trust • Arthur
Morgan School - ZOning Issue - "The Ridge· •
Farmers and lhe Farm Bill - Good Medicine: "Land"
• Acid Rain - Duke's Power Play - Cherokee
Microhydro Project
ISSUE TWENTY-TWO· WINTER 1988·89
Global Warming - Fire This Time. Thomas Berry
on "Bioregions" - Earlll Exercise - Kor~ Loy
McWhirtcr. An Abundance or Empuness - LETS·
Chronicles or Floyd. Darry Wood - The Bear Clan
ISSUE TWENTY-THREE· SPRING 1989
Pisgah Village. Planet An. Green City. Poplar
Appeal· "Clear Sky"·" A New Earlll" - Black Swnn
- Wild lovely Days· Reviews: Sacred lond Sacred
Sex. Ice Age - Poem: "Sudden Tendrils"
ISSUE TWENTY-FOUR· SUMMER 1989
Deep Listening - Life in A10mic City - Direct
Action! - Tree of Peace - Community Building Peacemakers - Ethnic Survival· Pairing Project·
"Baulesong" - Growing Pc:icc in Cultures - Review:
I
Phone Number
Zip
Enclosed is$._ _ _ _ 10 give
this effort an extra boost
Developing Creative Spirit - Birth Power - Magic of
Puppetry - Home Schooling· Naming Ceremony.
Mother Earth's Classroom - Gardening for Children
ISSUE TWENTY-SEVEN - SPRING. 1990
Transformation. Healing Power - Peace to Their
Ashes - Healing in Kauiah - Poem: "When Left to
Grow" - Poems: Stephen Wing • The Belly • Food
from the Ancient Forest
ISSUE TWENTY-NINE - FALl./WlNTER 1990
From !he Mountains 10 the Sea - Profile of The
L1ule Tennessee River - Headwaters Ecology· "II
All Comes Down Lo Water Quality" • Water Power.
Action for Aquatic Habitats· Dawn Watche:s • Good
Medicine: The Long Humnn Being - The North
Shore Road - Katu:lh Sells Ou1 • WatcrShcd Mop or
Ille KlllWlh Province
ISSUE THIRTY - SPRING 1991
Economy/Ecology - Ways 10 a Rcgencrauve
Economy - "Money is the Lowest Form of Weallll"
• Clarksville Miracle - TI1c Village • Food Movers Lifework - Good Medicine: "Village Economy"·
Shellon Laurel • LETS
ISSUE THIRTY-ONE - SUMMER 1991
Dowsing - Responsibilities of Dowsing· Electrical
Life or the Earth • Kaluah and the Earlll Grid - Call
of 1he Ancient Ones - Good Medicine: "On
Aggression" - Time 10 Take the Time to Take the
Time. Whole Science. Tuning Tn
ISSUE THIRTY-TWO - FALL 1991
Bringing back the Fire - A Bi1 or Mountain Levity Climax Never Came - "Talking Leaves": Sequoyah·
Walking Disianec - Good Mc.dicinc: "Serving lhe
Great Life" · The Granola Journal • Paintings:
"Mountain Stories" - Songs of the Wilderness
ISSUE THIRTY-TiiREE- WINTER 1991-92
Fire's Power - What Is Natural • Fire and Forge The First Fire • Hearth and Fire in Ille Mountains ·
Good Medicine: "The Ancient Red" - Midwinter
Fires: poems by Jeffery Beam - Litmus Lichens
ISSUE TI-URTY-FOUR • SPRlNG 1992
Pnradisc Gardening - CommuniLy Sponsoccd
Agricut111rc • Eluting Close to Home· Native Foods
• Cover Crops· Kou1ah Cultivars • The Web of
Life: A Kaniah Almanx - Good Medicine "Med_icinc
Training" • Poems by Allison Sutherland
Back Issues:
Issue# _ _@ $2.50 = $._ __
Issue# _ _@ $2.50 = $._ __
Issue# _ _@ $2.50 = $,_ __
Issue # _ _@ $2.50 = $,_ __
Issue # _ _@ $2.50 = $._ __
postage paid $_ __
,
Complete Set:
(3- 10, 13-16, 18-20, 22-24, 26-27, 29-34)
postage paid @ $50.00 = $._ __
Xntuoh )otimitt
page'35
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1983-1993
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
journals (periodicals)
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, Issue 35, Summer 1992
Description
An account of the resource
The thirty-fifth issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on councils and consensus in governance and making decisions for the future. Authors and artists in this issue include: Caroline Estes, Joyce Johnson, Rob Messick, Bear With Runs, Lucinda Flodin, David Wheeler, Stephen Wing, Lee Barnes, Will Ashe Bason, Clear Marks, Karen Fletcher, James Rhea, Rhea Ormond, Ray Barnes, Michael Thompson, Troy Setzler, Taylor Reese, Rebecca Wilson Hicks, Jenny Bitner, and Ahwi Brown. <br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1992
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
Consensus by Caroline Estes.......1<br /><br />Decision-Making Process by Joyce Johnson.......4<br /><br />Problems with Consensus by Rob Messick.......5<br /><br />Tribal Council by Bear With Runs........6<br /><br />Elda by Lucinda Flodin.......9<br /><br />The State of Franklin by David Wheeler.......11<br /><br />Where the Trees Outnumber the People by Stephen Wing.......14<br /><br />In Council with All Beings by Lee Barnes.......16<br /><br />Steve Moon: Shell Engravings.......17<br /><br />Good Medicine.......18<br /><br />Natural World News.......20<br /><br />A Look Back by Will Ashe Bason.......23<br /><br />Are Bioregions Too Big? by Rob Messick.......24<br /><br />Practices for Full Self-Rule by Clear Marks.......25<br /><br />Drumming.......26<br /><br />Jury Nullification by Karen Fletcher.......28<br /><br />Review: Beyond the Limits by Rob Messick.......29<br /><br />Events........32<br /><br />Webworking.......34<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
<em>Katúah Journal</em>, printed by The <em>Waynesville Mountaineer</em> Press
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Cherokee Indians--Social life and customs--History
Consensus (Social Sciences)
Tennessee, East--History
Folklore--Appalachian Region, Southern
Cooperation--Virginia--Floyd County--History
Human ecology--Religious aspects
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Acid Deposition
Appalachian History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Definitions
Black Bears
Book Reviews
Cherokees
Community
Earth Energies
Economic Alternatives
Folklore and Ceremony
Forest Issues
Geography
Good Medicine
Habitat
Hazardous Chemicals
Katúah
Plants and Herbs
Poems
Politics
Radioactive Waste
South PAW (Preserve Appalachian Wilderness)
Stories
Transportation Issues
Turtle Island
Villages
Water Quality
Western North Carolina Alliance
Wilderness
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/8b28bad70c563af988d313aa9367f9f6.pdf
8097a88c117a588a76a65bf9c99a6059
PDF Text
Text
URNAL
ISSUE 38 SPRING 1993
SUSTAINABLE TOURING
$2.00
�������TOURISM DEVELOPMENT:
Mountain Culture, Mountain Lives
by Michal Smith
I am Michal Smith, a writer, editor and
researcher. I presently live and work in the
state of Kentucky. Since the mid- 1980's I
have specialized in workplace studies,
including case studi~ of employee
involvement processes in the manufacturing
sector for the U.S. Department of Labor and
the United Nations, a study of the safety
implications of the petrochemical industry's
growing reliance upon contract workers for
the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration, a regional economic
development study for the state of Texas, and
a study of the impact of tourism
development. which I am here today t0
discuss.
Specifically, my testimony is based
upon a study, conducted from 1988 to 1989,
of the impact of t0urism development on local
people, particularly rural women, who
routinely form the backbone of this industry.
The study focused on rural counties in 12
southeastern StalCS, including North
Carolina. h concluded that the presumed
"opportunities" associated with tourism
development are marginal and minimal.
In fact, people who live and work in
JCot.uah ~naL JX!9e 6
1\1 1 u nuoc ,, w,:,Ju
1
tourism economies suffer the ultimate irony,
contributing tax dollars to help promote and
support an industry that has done litde,
possibly nothing to improve their quality of
life. They have watched hotels, restaurants,
highways, shops and amusement parks
consume their communities while "human
infrastructure" -- meaningful jobs, training,
health care and child care - has suffered the
consequences of government neglect and
indifference.
Funded by the Ford Foundation, its
Aspen Institute Rural Economic Policy
Program and the Economic Development
Administration of the U.S. Department of
Commerce, my study included a selected
county-level comparative analysis of Census
data from 1970 and 1980 and a case study of
Sevier County, Tennessee, home of
Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, perhaps the
most successful rural tourism development in
the southeastern United States.
The 84 rural counties examined in the
study were selected based upon 1970 and
1984 employment data reponcd in Colllll)'
Business Patterns as compiled by the U.S.
Bureau of Census. These counties were
identified as having experienced high
employment growth in the hotel indusay,
which is clearly associated with the
expansion of a tourism or travel industry.
Twenty-three of the "high-growth" counties
identified experienced hotel industry
employment growth in excess of 500 perccnL
Broadly, I found that beyond the small
pool of management and short-term,
male-dominated construction industry jobs,
tourism economics are sustained by food
servers, maids and retail clerks. Traditionally
held by women, these jobs almost invariably
offer minimum wages, no benefits and
virtually no opportunity for advancemenL
Among the study's findings about these
84 booming rural tourism developments
were:
• Uncmploymentcontinued to rise
steadily from 1970 to 1984 in virtually every
county identified by the study.
- Women continued to experience
higher unemployment rates than men in rural
tourism counties in spite of the indusay's
heavy reliance upon a female labor force.
- While overall poverty rates declined
for families in general in the counties studied.
poor families headed by women increased
������������������������������
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. <br /><br /><span>The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, </span><em>Katúah</em><span>, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant. </span><br /><span><br />The <em>Katúah Journal</em> was co-founded by Marnie Muller, David Wheeler, Thomas Rain Crowe, Martha Tree and others who served as co-publishers and co-editors. Other key team members included Chip Smith, David Reed, Jay Mackey, Rob Messick and many others.</span><br /><br />This digital collection is only a portion of the <em>Katúah</em>-related materials in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection in Special Collections at Appalachian State University. The items in AC.870 Katúah Journal records cover the production history of the <em>Katúah Journal</em>. Contained within the records are correspondence, publication information, article submissions, and financial information. The editorial layouts for issues 12 through 39 are included as are a full run of the Journal spanning nearly a decade. Also included are photographs of events related to the Journal and a film on the publication.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
This resource is part of the <em>Katúah Journal Records </em>collection. For a description of the entire collection, see <a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katúah Journal Records (AC. 870)</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
The images and information in this collection are protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. C.) and are intended only for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes, provided proper citation is used – i.e., Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians Records, 1980-2013 (AC.870), W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. Researchers are responsible for securing permissions from the copyright holder for any reproduction, publication, or commercial use of these materials.
Date
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1983-1993
Format
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journals (periodicals)
Language
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English
Type
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Text
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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<em>Katúah Journal</em>, Issue 38, Spring 1993
Description
An account of the resource
The thirty-eighth, and final, issue of the <em>Katúah Journal</em> focuses on sustainable tourism and transportation that is environmentally and culturally responsible. Authors and artists in this issue include: Marcus L. Endicott, Michal Smith, Lee Barnes, Patrick Clark, Mark Schimmoeller, Billy Jonas, Renee Binder, Charlotte Homsher, Douglas A. Rossman, Robert H. Rufa, David Cohen, Brownie Newman, Jasper Carlton, Danielle Droitsch, Stephen Wing, Jan Adkins, Elizabeth Howard, Denise K. Simon, EarthStar, Wade Buckholts, and Rob Messick. <br><br><em>Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians</em>, later simplified to <em>Katúah Journal</em>, was published from 1983 to 1993. A quarterly publication, it was focused on the bioregion of former Cherokee land in Appalachia. The early issues of the journal explain the meaning of the Cherokee name, Katúah, and why the editors wanted to view the world through a bioregional lens, rather than political boundaries. A volunteer production, the editors took a holistic view in tackling social, environmental, mental, spiritual, and emotional topics of the day, many of which are still relevant.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1993
Table Of Contents
A list of subunits of the resource.
Toward Sustainable Tourism in Southern Appalachia by Marcus L. Endicott.......1<br /><br />A History of Tourism to Southern Appalachia by Marcus L. Endicott.......4<br /><br />Tourism Development: Mountain Culture, Mountain Lives by Michal Smith.......6<br /><br />Camping & Touring Through Katúah Forests by Lee Barnes.......8<br /><br />Bicycle Touring in Katúah by Patrick Clark.......10<br /><br />Unicycle Revolutions by Mark Schimmoeller.......12<br /><br />The Bicycle Band: Appropriate Road Mode by Billy Jonas.......12<br /><br />Poems by Elizabeth Howard and Denise K. Simon.......13<br /><br />Sustainability of Whitewater Recreation by Renee Binder.......14<br /><br />Sacred Lands by Charlotte Homsher.......16<br /><br />Cherokee Mythic Sites by Douglas A. Rossman.......17<br /><br />Napping by Rob Messick.......18<br /><br />Why Travel? by Robert H. Rufa.......20<br /><br />Natural World News.......22<br /><br />Drumming.......24<br /><br />Events.......32<br /><br />Webworking.......33<br /><br /><em>Note: This table of contents corresponds to the original document, not the Document Viewer.</em>
Publisher
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<em>Katúah Journal</em>, printed by The <em>Waynesville Mountaineer</em> Press
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bioregionalism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable living--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sustainable tourism--Appalachian Region, Southern
Outdoor recreation industry--Appalachian Region, Southern
Bicycle touring--Appalachian Region, Southern
Sacred space--Appalachian Region, Southern
Tourism--North Carolina, Western--History
North Carolina, Western
Blue Ridge Mountains
Appalachian Region, Southern
North Carolina--Periodicals
Language
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English
Type
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Text
Source
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<a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/937"> AC.870 Katúah Journal records</a>
Rights
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<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Appalachian Region, Southern
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a title="Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/79" target="_blank"> Katúah: Bioregional Journal of the Southern Appalachians </a>
Format
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PDF
Journals (Periodicals)
Appalachian History
Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Studies
Bioregional Definitions
Book Reviews
Cherokees
Community
Economic Alternatives
Folklore and Ceremony
Forest Issues
Geography
Habitat
Katúah
Katúah Organization
Pigeon River
Poems
Politics
Reading Resources
Sacred Sites
South PAW (Preserve Appalachian Wilderness)
Stories
Transportation Issues
Turtle Island
Water Quality
Western North Carolina Alliance
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/25703df14bd97d3a4cd29b66032e5478.pdf
6899b96465f8f327548fa2bd23f871fe
PDF Text
Text
This is an interview with Loura Edmisten for the Appalachian Oral History
Project by Karen Ward at Boone on June 9, 1973. Mrs. Edmisten is my grandmother and the Papa referred to in the interview is my grandfather.
Q: Where were you born?
A: Beech Creek.
Q: Okay, what year were you born in?
A: 1894.
Q: Have you lived in Watauga County all your life?
A: No.
Q: Where else have you lived?
A: Avery.
Q: Avery County.
A: I don't know.
What part of Avery County?
I guess it would be called the Western.
Q: When did you move to Boone?
A: '45.
Q: Have you lived here since '45?
A: Yes.
Q: Okay, what were your parent's names?
I don't know.
�2.
A: Isaac Valentine Reese.
Q: What was your mother's name?
A: Mary.
X
Q: How many children were in your family?
A: Thirteen in all.
Q: Thirteen? Do you remember all of their names?
A: Yeah, Sarah, Mary, John, Grant, Lizzy, Thomas, Elminey, Hugh, Jim or
James, half brothers and sisters.
Q: Those are half brothers and sisters?
A: Roscoe, Victoria, Julia and myself.
Q: Okay, how many of them are living right now?
A: Three.
Q: Three, counting you? Is that counting yourself?
A: Yes.
Q: What did your father do for a living?
A: Well, he was a merchant and postmaster, union pensioner, farmer and I
guess that's all I can think of.
�3.
Q: Well, did your family own any land?
A: Yes.
Q: Where about?
A: Oh, in Watauga and Avery County.
Q: About how much land did he own all together?
A: Oh, I guess at one time, four or five or six hundred acres.
Q: Where did you attend school?
What was the name of your school?
A: Well, we went to Mt. Gilead, that was the name of the church and the school
that I attended was in the church buildings.
We didn't have no school buildings
at that time.
Q: So you went in a church?
A: Yeah.
Had two different churches.
were taught in.
Q: How long did you go to school?
A: Seventh.
Q: Through the seventh grade?
A: Through the seventh.
Q: Were your teachers strict on you?
Baptist and Christian that the schools
�4.
A: Yes, very.
Q: Tell me how.
A: Well, you just had to come with lessons or you had 'em to get over, and
if you got rude, you sometimes stood in the corner. And sometimes you got a
good lashing if it was bad enough.
Q: Did you ever get a whipping?
A: No.
Q: So you were good. What type of subjects were you taught in school?
A: Oh, reading, arithmetic, spelling, history, geography, grammar, which
would be called English now I guess.
Oh, I can't think. I guess that's all.
Q: Did all of your brothers and sisters go to school at some time?
A: Yes, every one of them.
Q: Do you think the schools have changed very much over the years?
A: Yes indeed.
Q: How?
A: Well, that'd be hard, sixty-four dollar question.
Q: Have you ever worked anywhere?
A: No.
They've changed a lot.
�5.
Q: Nowhere?
A: Outside of home, garden, and farm.
Q: Did women when you were growing up, work very much outside of the house
of just within the house and garden?
A: Yes, quite a bit.
Q: What did they do?
A: They helped with the farm work.
Q: What kind of crops did you all grow?
A: Oh, corn, wheat, rye, oats and all kinds of garden varieties.
Q: What types of churches were in your area when you were growing up?
A: Baptist and one Christian Church.
Q: That was all?
A: Yes.
Q: What religion were most people in your community?
A: Baptist, I'd say.
Q: What church did you go to?
A: Christian and I went to the Baptist.
�Q: So you went to both •
A: I went to Baptist I guess more than I did the other.
Q: Do you think religion has played an important part in your life?
A: Of course.
Q: How?
A: Oh, I guess it probablymade me see things in a different light than what it
would if I had never gone and probably caused my conversion.
Q: Have churches changed much over the years?
A: Well, I think so.
Q: Do you think the preachers are different from what they use to be like?
Do they preach the same?
A: Yes, they are.
Q: Back when you were growing up, what were politics like?
A: Well, I'll tell you, women didn't mess in politics then at that time when I
was growing up.
They did later, but not to the extent they do today, they were
just like they are now, everybody for his own side.
Q: How did most people tend to vote back then, more Republicans or. . ?
A: Yeah, I think they were at that time, I don't know how about nationwide but
�we had more Republican Presidents.
Q: How did people get around for transportation?
A: Horseback and buggy, surry and what they call a hack.
Q: What's a hack?
A: Well, it's a bigger vehicle where maybe nine or ten can ride in it.
Q: Can you remember seeing your first car?
A: Yes.
Q: What year was that? Do you remember that?
A: Oh, I don't remember what year it was.
Q: What did you think when you saw it?
A: Well, I just thought it was a car, because I knew they were being manufactured.
Q: Did you ever make soap or quilt or anything like that?
A: Soap and quilts.
Q: You did both of those?
A: Yes.
Q: Do you still quilt any?
A: No.
�Q: When you were a young girl, can you remember any bad men or know people
that were outlaws and stuff like that?
A: Yes.
Q: Who were they? Do you remember?
A: Oh no, I don't talk and tell who people was. That's not my business.
But
there were murders went on and some stealing and robbing, and I know their
names of some, but that's for someone else to answer.
Q: Are they dead now?
A:
Yeah, I guess they are, most of them.
Q: What did young people do for entertainment?
A: Oh, they dated and danced and had singings.
Oh several different things.
Q: Was dating back then different from what dating is now?
A: Yes.
Q: How.?
A: Well, they stayed at home and dated.
Q: Stayed at home? Did the depression affect you and your family very much?
A: No.
Q: It didn't? Were you married then?
�A: Yes.
Q: What was Papa's job during the depression?
A: Oh, he was a farmer and a produce man, hauled produce to market.
Q: So he raised crops?
A: Yeah, and then he bought and sold.
Q: How many children did you have during the depression?
A: Two.
Q: Did any of your children have to leave home?
A: No.
Q: Did your family always have enough to eat?
A: Yeah.
Q: You never went hungry because of it?
A: No.
Q: What do you think you should do to be a good mother?
A: Oh, Law, that's another question I couldn't answer. Do the best you can and
forget about it I guess.
Q: Do you know if you raised your children right?
�10.
A: No, I don't.
Q: Do you think you did? Do you think you raised them right?
A: No, I don't. I don't know whether I did or not, but some of 'em didn't do
exactly as I wanted 'em to, but some did, so there it was.
Q: Is it the father's place to help in raising children?
A: It certainly is.
Q: Did Papa help you with the children?
A: Not too much.
Q: But some?
A: ^ah. Oh, he helped support 'em.
Q: Yeah. What do you think children should do around the house when they're
growing up, you know in helping?
A: Whatever they are told to do.
Q: You tell them what to do and they do it.
A: They should, but they don't always.
Q: If .you could change anything about the way things are, what would you change?
A: Well, graft for one thing. I'd tried to have people not to be so greedy, that
they'd do anything for money.
That would be about the biggest thing I'd change,
'cause its about the cause of all evil. People wanting money, doing anything to get it.
�
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
In 1973, representatives from Appalachian State University (ASU) began the process of collecting interviews from Watauga, Avery, Ashe, and Caldwell county citizens to learn about their respective lives and gather stories. From the outset of the project, the interviewers knew that they were reaching out to the “last generation of Appalachian residents to reach maturity before the advent of radio, the last generation to maintain an oral tradition.” The goal was to create a wealth of data for historians, folklorists, musicians, sociologists, and anthropologists interested in the Appalachian Region.
The project was known as the “Appalachian Oral History Project” (AOHP), and developed in a consortium with Alice Lloyd College and Lees Junior College (now Hazard County Community College) both in Kentucky, Emory and Henry College in Virginia, and ASU. Predominately funded through the National Endowment for the Humanities, the four schools by 1977 had amassed approximately 3,000 interviews. Each institution had its own director and staff. Most of the interviewers were students.
Outgrowths of the project included the Mountain Memories newsletter that shared the stories collected, an advisory council, a Union Catalog, photographs collected, transcripts on microfilm, and the book Our Appalachia. Out of the 3,000 interviews between the three schools, only 663 transcripts were selected to be microfilmed. In 1978, two reels of microfilm were made available with 96 transcripts contributed by ASU.
An annotated index referred to as The Appalachian Oral History Project Union Catalog was created to accompany the microfilm. The catalog is broken down into five sections starting with a subject topic index such as Civilian Conservation Corps, Coal Camps, Churches, etc. The next four sections introduced the interviewees by respective school. There was an attempt to include basic biographic information such as date of birth, location, interviewer name, length of interview, and subjects discussed. However, this information was not always consistent per school.
This online project features clips from the interviews, complete transcripts, and photographs. The quality and consistency of the interviews vary due to the fact that they were done largely by students. Most of the photos are missing dates and identifying information.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1965-1989
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Scanned by
Wetmore, Dana
Equipment
Hp Scanjet 8200
Scan date
2014-02-26
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Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Loura Edmisten, June 9, 1973
Description
An account of the resource
Loura Edminstin was born in Beech Creek, NC in 1894 and had 13 siblings in her family. She lived in Watauga and Avery County throughout her life.
Ms. Edminstin discusses her childhood including the topics of politics, school, and church. She also discusses the traditions in raising a family.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Ward, Karen
Edminsten, Loura
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a title="Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/195" target="_blank">Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989</a>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
6/9/1973
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Copyright for the interviews on the Appalachian State University Oral History Collection site is held by Appalachian State University. The interviews are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Appalachian State Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989, W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC). Any commercial use of the materials, without the written permission of the Appalachian State University, is strictly prohibited.
Extent
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10 pages
Language
A language of the resource
English
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
document
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
111_tape82_LouraEdmisten_1973_06_09M001
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Boone, NC
Subject
The topic of the resource
Edminsten, Loura--Interviews
Watauga County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century
Avery County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century
Christian life--North Carolina--Watauga County
Christian life--North Carolina--Avery County
Avery County
Baptist Church
Beech Creek
buggy
church
hack
Loura Edmisten
Mt Gilead
Politics
schoolhouse
Watauga County N.C.
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/3452c0315f054b3e81d01edac3cda72c.pdf
4c7fcd0af7786bcaa3d72357db39392f
PDF Text
Text
AOHP #66
Page 1
This is an interview with Mr. and Mrs. Lee Greene
for the Appalachian Oral History Project, by Donna
Clawson, at Route 2, Boone, on June 11, 1973.
QUESTION:
Mrs. Greene, I'll start with you.
ANSWER:
Where were you born?
(Mrs. G) You mean the county?
Q:
Yes, the county or the area.
A":
(Ms. G) I was born in Watauga County, or Meat Camp.
Q:
What was the year?
A:
(Ms. G) 1908.
Q:
What about you, Mr. Greene?
A:
(Mr. G) Well, I was born in 1904.
Q:
Were you born in this county?
A:
(Mr. G) Watauga County, yes.
this house.
Just a little ways right here from
That little house that used to stand out here where that other
house was.
Q:
Who were your parents?
A:
(Mr. G) Henry Greene and Lura.
Q:
Who were your parents, Mrs. Greene?
A:
(Ms. G) Pink Jones and Laura Jones.
Q:
Had your parents always lived in this county?
A:
(Mr. G) Yes.
Q:
They were born in this county?
A:
(Mr. G) Yeah, Watauga County.
Q:
What about your parents?
A:
(Ms. G) They were too.
Q:
Mrs. Greene, I'll talk to you a while then.
did you have?
Both of them.
How many years did you go?
A:
(Ms. G) I just went to the seventh grade.
Q:
How many months out of the year did you go?
What kind of schooling
�AOHP #66 Page 2
A:
(Ms. G) Six.
Q:
Was it a one-room schoolhouse?
A:
(Ms. G) Yes.
Q:
How many teachers did you have?
A:
(Ms. G) Just one teacher, every year.
Q:
The same teacher the whole time?
A:
(Ms. G) No, a different one each year.
Q:
What kind of thing did you study in school?
A:
(Ms. G) Let's see.
Arithmetic, that's what they called it back then.
English, spelling, history, geography, sanitation, and, one other thing.
I can't think of the name of the book. (Mr. G) Grammar? (Ms. G) No.
Q:
That's about the same thing they teach now.
and sisters?
What about brothers
How many did you have?
A:
(Ms. G) I had one brother and four sisters.
Q:
What were their n^^es?
A:
(Ms. G) Well, Docia's my oldest sister.
And Allie Barnes.
You want
their full names?
Q:
Yes, that'll be fine.
A:
(Ms. G) Docia Suddreth, Allie Brown, Bessie Greene, Verlee Brown,
and Stanford Jones.
Q:
Were they all older than you, or were you in the middle?
A:
(Ms. G) I was next to the youngest.
Q:
Mr. Greene, how much schooling did you have?
A:
(Mr. G) I guess I got through maybe what they call the fifth grade.
Q:
How many months out of the year did you go?
A:
(Mr. G) When first I went it was just three months.
There were four older than me.
up to six months.
Q:
Did you study about the same things Mrs. Greene did?
A:
(Mr. G) About the same things.
Then they got
(
�AOHP #66 Page 3
Q:
A:
What about teachers, did you have one each year?
(Mr. G) They teached all the grades that was teached, they didn't
grade them like they do now.
went along.
Passed them through their books as they
Didn't grade them like they do now.
(Ms. G) We never had a
report card or anything like that.
Q:
You just went through?
A:
(Ms. G) Yeah, they just passed you.
Q:
Do you remember the name of the school you went to?
A:
(Mr. G) Huh?
Q:
What was the name of the school?
A:
(Mr. G) Uh, Sands.
Q:
What was yours?
A:
(Ms. G) I went to three different schools.
I guess you know where that is, up Meat Camp.
Springs.
I went to Chestnut Grove.
And then went to Maple
It was only two schools, yeah.
Q:
Well, what year did y'all get married?
A:
(Ms. G) 1927.
Q:
Did you live around here then?
A:
(Ms. G) We lived in PErkinsville.
Q:
How long did you live there?
A:
(Ms. G) Three years.
Q:
Then did you move back up here?
A:
(Ms. G) Yeah, we moved down here where Herbert Foster lives.
And
then we moved from there, down there on the creek, you know where J. D.
Greene owns that little house below the creek.
And then we moved from
there to here.
Q:
How many children do you have?
A:
(Ms.G) Two.
Q:
Mr. Greene, what kind of occupations have you had, what kind of jobs?
A:
(Mr. G) Farming the most of the time, up till the last twenty-two
years.
Two sons.
Then I been working in produce ever since.
�AOHP #66 Page 4
Q:
Can you remember a time when you had hard time getting a job?
A:
(Mr. G) Yeah, they wasn't no jobs, back then 'cept only farming.
I never had no hard time gettin' a job.
I could get work to do.
body wanted any work done, if I had time to do it.
/
then, you didnjt get too much done away from home.
If any-
If you tried to farm
(Ms. G) They weren't
no plants you know, or anything like that to work at.
Q:
They've not been around here too long.
A:
(Ms. G) No, they haven't.
Q:
What kind of crops did you raise?
A:
(Mr. G) Raised corn, potatoes, rye, wheat, buckwheat.
Q:
Did you sell any of them or did you just use them?
A:
(Mr. G) Yeah, sold some fo 'em.
his tax.
A fellow had to sell enough to pay
That's the only way we had of paying the tax.
Q:
Is that all you ever had to pay?
A:
(Mr. G) Yeah, that's about all.
Had to buy a little sugar and
coffee once in while.
Q:
Goodness, that's not like it is today.
What about livestock, did
you have livestock?
A:
(Mr. G) Yeah, kept one cow most of the time.
two.
(Ms. G) Three, we had three cows.
Part of the time I had
(Mr. G) Three here one time,
didn't we.
Q:
What about churches in this area, what kinds of churches have been
around here?
A:
The denominations and all.
(Mr. G) Well, the Methodist and the Baptist have been around the
longest, I guess.
Q:
Which church did the most people belong to?
A:
(Mr. G) I'm not sure I could tell you about that.
Baptist, most of 'em.
Q:
I suppose the
Right through this area, anyway.
Were the churches a lot different then from what they are now?
�AOHP #66 Page 5
A:
(Mr. G) Yeah, they's a whole lot different.
People didn't try to
dress up so fine like they do anymore, when they went to church.
Q:
I guess not.
A:
(Ms. G) Didn't have it to dress in.
Q:
What other ways have the churches changed?
A:
(Ms. G) You answer that. (Mr. G) What?
Q:
What other ways have the churches changed?
A:
(Mr. G) Well, these trends. . . trying to build bigger churches.
And having less attendance, I think, than they used to have.
Q:
That's right.
A:
(Mr. G) That's the way I think they've changed.
Q:
That's true.
A:
(Mr. G) From an old feller by the name of Sands, I guess what give
it the Sands name.
Q:
How did this community get its name?
(ms. G) That's what I've heard.
Can you remember any of the decision makers in this community in
the past years?
A:
(Mr. G) I can't think of any of them.
Q:
I guess its mostly just been involved in the county, iL-/ rather than
so much of a separate community.
A:
(Mr. G) Yeah.
Q:
Has the community changed a lot?
A:
(Mr. G) Yeah, right smart.
Q:
What about the population of the community?
A:
(Mr. G) Yeah, more.
Q:
Are either of you interested in politics?
A:
(Mr. G) Interested in politics?
Q:
Yes.
A:
(Mr. G) Yeah, I've always been interested.
Q:
Can you remember any special elections?
A:
(Mr. G) Yeah, all of 'em.
People don't visit nigh like they used to.
Is it more?
�AOHP #66 Page 6
Q:
Oh, really?
A:
Yeah!
Q:
Did you get out and politic?
A:
(Mr. G) No, I didn't politic but I always tried to get over there
and cast my vote.
Q:
Just kept up with 'em, huh?
A:
(Mr. G) Yeah.
to go vote.
(Ms. G) We've always just been interested enough
(Mr. G) No, I ain't never took no part in the local affairs
much.
Q:
Well, voting shows a big interest.
How did most of the people
around here vote?
A:
(Mr. G) Well, I guess 'at most of 'em, biggest majority of 'em
was Republicans —
Q:
A:
in this county.
How do you think politics have changed over the
years?
, (Mr. G) I think its got rotten, that's how. (Ms. G) You shouldn't
'a said that.
Q:
No, that's fine.
I've heard a lot 'a people say that.
just about agree with you, too.
A:
I think I
How have the politics changed?
(Mr. G) Used to, the candidates would debate, ya know, at some certain
place and speak against one another, but they don't do that no more.
It's
all on television, or not no speaking a 'tall, or maybe have a few gettogethers somewhere, where the parties met.
An' when they debated aginst
one another, an' face to face in politics it 'uz even more interesting
than it is now.
Q:
I bet it was.
A:
(Mr. G) They'd get so mad they could kill one another when they get
up to speak at one another.
(Ms. G) I can remember going to hear people
speak with my daddy when I was just litt^g,
An ' he'd want to go hear
somebody speak that was on his side, ya know.
night and he'd take us children and go.
They'd usually speak at
�AOHP #66
Page
7
Q:
Well, did they ever get in real heated arguments?
A:
(Mr. G) Yeah, they'd get in some purty hot 'uns, sometimes.
Q:
What about the crowd, did they get mad, too?
A:
(Mr. G) No, the crowd didn't seem to worry much.
think so.
I can't remember anybody getting too mad.
probably riled up on a few of 'em in the crowd.
that 'ud give us any trouble.
(Mrs. G) I don't
(Mr. G) Course it
(Ms. G) Wasn't nothing
(Mr. G) No trouble, whatever.
I never did
hear of ..having no trouble
Q:
That's unusual.
At least now it seems unusual.
How did people get
around, back when you were growing up?
A:
(Mr. G) We walked, wherever we went.
or a wagon.
We went in a horse and buggy,
My father bought an old steer wagon.
(Ms. G) My daddy had
a steer, yoke 'a steers that I remember we rode to church in.
You know what
a steer is.
Q:
Yeah.
Did you ever walk pretty long distances?
A:
(Mr. G) Yeah.
Q:
How long did it take ya to do that?
A:
(Mr. G) Not too long.
We'd go five or six miles.
Back then when I'se young I could walk
purty good.
Q:
Where did you have to walk to ?
A:
Yeah, ya had to walk to town when ya went to town.
three miles, ya know.
Did you, like walk to town much?
That 'uz about
That 'uz just a short distance, back then. (Ms.G)
Nobody didn't mind walking to town, back then. (Mr. G) Never thought nothing
about it.
(Ms. G) When my daddy moved down here, ya know, where Wilson
Brown lives, we moved down there, and I'se eleven years old when he moved
from Meat Camp down there.
And all of us walked back up to Meat Camp to
church.
Q:
Well, that seems like a long way now.
I guess people have gotten lazy.
A:
(Ms. G) And they'd be running a revival meeting, ya know, at night,
and we'd all fall in, ya know, and get ready in time to go to church at
night.
�AOHP #66
Page 8
(Mr. G) People back then when they had produce to sell they hauled
it to Lenoir and sold it.
On a wagon, and team.
Q:
How long did that take ya?
A:
(Mr. G) Take 'em three or four days to go from thefeto Lenoir and
back.
(ms. G) My brother used to run a steer wagon for hauling produce.
Took a long time to go with a yoke 'a steers down there.
Q:
I guess it did.
A:
(Mr. G) Back then nobody 'uz in no big hurry.
They'j^meet up with
somebody, they'd stand and talk for an hour or two an1 now they won't
hardly speak howdy to ya.
Q:
That's the way it goes.
It does seem to be that way. You'd
\k with people having it easier getti
to spend with people.
A:
(Mr. G) It looks like it.
But they hain't, they've got to go.
(Ms. G) Looks like when you can go so much quicker that you'd have more
time.
(Mr. G) Everythings speeded up the past few years.
Q:
Yeah, I've seen it speed up just as long as I've been alive.
A:
(Mr. G) Yeah, you've seen it speeding up, all the way up. (Ms.G) I
know we lived on Meat Camp one time.
They'uz a having a revival meeting,
ya know, an' they had it in the afternoons and the evenings.
An 1 I can
remember walking and going with Momma, and we went across the
where Mr. Ira Brown used to live, the Dr. Harmon place, ya know, and come
on across that way.
And I can remember, as we went back, ya know in the
fall of the year it began to get dark so early.
And we got down to where
Aunt Mary Jones used to live and it was agettin dark there, and we had to
go through the dark from there on home.
Q:
That'd be something today, wouldn't it.
Where did most of the roads
and the railroads run around here?
A:
(Mr. G) Well, there wasn't no railroads here, till Tweetsie come into
Boone and I don't remember what year that was.
it never did come back in.
It washed it out in "40 and
�AOHP #66
Q:
Where were most of the i(a:ojds and things?
A:
(Mr. G)
Page 9
Only railroad was Todd, I guess.
gauge running into Boone.
place.
And that little narrow
(Ms. G) But the roads now aren't in the same
(Mr. G) And then they built a road that goes up here to Rich Mountair
to get logs out.
And then went on that narrow gauge over to Shulls Mills.
See, they had a sawmill over there.
up Howard's Creek, was there.
(Ms. G) There wasn't much of a road
(Mr. G) No, not much of one at that time.
(Ms. G) Then they built a good road up there.
We can remember it but I
don't remember what year it was.
Q:
What about some of the other roads, like Meat Camp Read?
Was it a
pretty good road?
A:
(Mr. G) No, rough road, and trees so low you couldn't get around them.
(Ms. G) They wasn't many roads that was even just gravelled, much that
you could travel.
Q:
Of course, I guess, without having cars it didn't make much difference
what the roads were like, did it?
A:
(Mr. G) No, they got to improving roads when cars begun to come into
this country.
Got to hard-surfacing 'em then.
(Ms. G) This road that
goes around down here, ya know, this old road, I can remember when they's
a-building that, before I was married.
And then out there at Sands, right
below, or about even with that house there of
( ? Mr.) Cook's, there's a
big mud hole there, ya know, and couldn't nobody get through it.
car had tried to get through there.
And one
There wasn't but a very few, ya know.
They would get stuc^r And they's always somebody coming out to my Dad's
to get Stanford and Daddy to take their yoke of steer and they'd have to
go pull those cars out of the mudhole.
Q:
When did the first cars come in?
saw your first car?
Can you remember the year you
�AOHP #66 Page 10
A:
(Mr.G)
(Ms.G)
(Mr.G)
(Ms.G)
seeing.
then?
I don't remember the exact year.
I don't believe I do remember the year.
It would 'a been about '15, I guess.
But I remember who was driving the first one that I remember
And I was scared of it.
Do you know I was scared of a car back
We lived on Meat Camp, that was before we moved doen here where
Daddy lived.
And we had come to Mr. Dan Cook's to the store, when he had
an old storehouse - - -out ttere.
Well, where was it that stood?
(Mr.G) Right down this side of where J. B."s got# his store.
(Ms.G) No, that first one that was doen here beside- - - (Mr.G) That first one stood right down this side right below the old
Ingram house down there.
Alongside of the road.
(Ms.G) Oh, I thought you said below the road.
(Mr.G) Well, 'tis, down this-a-way.
(Ms.G) Well, it was on the other side of the road.
be, you're right.
Yeah, it would
That one down there. . . .
(Mr.G) He moved out right down and went up by George Hayes', you
know.
When that storehouse stood there.
(Ms.G) You know where Oscar Hayes lives, don't you?
the George Hayes place.
left on around there.
can you remember it?
Well that was
And the road went way around that hill, to the
And right there below where that old Ingram house,
It's not been tore down long.
Q:
Yeah, I think I remember it.
A:
(Ms.G) It's right there below where Charles Hodges, uh,. . .
(Mr.G) . . .slaughter - place is at...
(Ms.G) Well, I don't know what I was going to tell you before that.
Q:
You were talking about the car, the first one you saw.
A:
(Ms.G) Yeah, that car.
We'd been over there to that store, and we
went back around that road, ya know, and we went, walking up around up
through that bottom above where Oscar Hayes lives.
And went on up the road
there a little piece,...we got over in Tommy Hayes' field and walked on
�AOHP # 66
that hill to where the Howard Foster house is.
Page 11
You know, where Howard
Foster used to live, you know, over near Meat Camp.
Who is it lives
there now, Mr. Shook?
(Mr.G) Yeah.
(Ms.G) We'd go right across that hill, ya know.
We heard this car
a-coming before we got to where we always crawled under this wire fence,
ya know, where we'd come up there above Oscar Hayes1.
And I can remember
how scared we was and we run ourselves near to death because we's so afraid
of that car.
And we wanted to get there and crawl under that fence and
get in that field before that car passed us.
it.
And Henry Miller was driving
Henry Miller had bought him a car back then.
And that's the first
car I can remember seeing.
Q:
I bet that would have been scary.
A:
(Ms.G) We was so afraid of that car. . . . because we had never seen
one.
And we's afraid to be out in the road for it to pass us.
Q:
Can you remember the first car you saw?
A:
(Mr.G) Yeah, I believe it was along back about '14 or '15.
Around
that year.
(Ms.G) It was . . . now we moved from over there in 1918.
And it
was just a few years before that becuase I was a purty goog-sized Qirl.
And I was eleven years old when we moved there.
I guess he's about right.
About 1914 or '15.
Q:
What did you think of the first car you saw?
A:
(Mr.G) Well I thought it was a kinda funny looking outfit.
Q:
I guess they did look strange at first.
A:
(Mr.G) Yeah, but I soon got used to 'em.
Q:
What was the first car you ever had?
A:
(Mr.G) Ah, the first 'un I ever owned was a '21 Ford, I believe.
Q:
You remember when you got that?
A:
(Mr.G) I got it off 'a Larry Lane.
�AOHP #66
Page 12
(Ms.G) She said when.
(Mr.G) Oh, no, I don't remember exactly when.
It musta' been
about 1920, something along that.
Q:
Did you enjoy riding around in the car?
A:
(Mr.G) Yeah, I liked to drive it.
T-Model Ford's what it was.
One seat.
Q:
Did you like it better than walking, and horse 'n buggy 'n all that?
A:
(Mr.G) Yeah, Yeah I liked it better 'n that.
where quicker and back.
Q:
any-
Go further.
What about some of the crafts in the area?
the curing, and the weaving.
A:
You could
Like the soapmaking,
Have you done much of that?
(Ms.G) I never did do any weaving.
to make all the soap that I used.
I've made a lot of Soap.
I used
Me and my mother used to make soap.
She
done a lot 'a spinning and carding, but she never did any weaving.
Q:
Did you ever learn to do any of the spinning?
A:
(Ms.G) No, I never did any spinning.
Q:
I've heard it's pretty hard to do.
A:
(Ms.G) It was for me.
I never did try, though, very much.
put us to doing other things since she did all that.
Mother
She never did teach
us.
(Mr.G) Yeah, people used to save all their ashes where they burnt the
wood to make lye to make soap out of.
Set off a hollow tree, make gums,
pour the ashes in 'em.
(Ms.G) Set 'em up on a big rock, let the rock be a little slant.
They'd pour water down in those ashes and set a crock down under there, my
mother did, to catch the drippings.
(Mr.G) They'd chisel 'em out a little channel, you know, that'd run
into the vessel.
Set 'em up there, pour water in 'em to get the lye.
(Ms.G) She never did buy canned lye.
(Mr.G) Why back then, people was the lyingest things you ever seen.
LAUGHTER.
�AOHP #66
Page
13
Q:
I guess they had to be.
A:
(Ms.G) My mother made her own vinegar and all that she used in the
pickles.
She never bought any.
Q:
Well, I didn't know you could make vinegar.
A:
(Ms.G) Well, she'd take a bunch of apple peelings.
exactly how she made it.
How do you do that?
I don't know
But she'd pour water over that, and let it set
'til it would work, ya know, and then she'd strain it.
Just have the
liquid part, ya know, and let it sit so much and she skim it.
know exactly how she did make it.
And, ooh, it was strong, too.
Q:
I don't
But she'd make some of the best vinegar.
It'd really pickle things.
What about mountain cures, like when somebody got sick, did you have
cures for different things?
A:
(Ms.G) Yes, we had some.
Q:
What were some of the cures you can remember?
A:
(Ms.G) Well, back then children had worms and you know they say now
they don't have 'em.
And Momma would always give garlic, ya know the heads
of garlic, or the bulbs, ya know, out of the ground.
And she'd beat that
up, andy put it on, . . . between a cloth, ya know, and put that on your
stomach.
And that would cure worms.
And then they was an herb that she
growed in the garden, she called rue.
that was good for worms.
I think it was spelled r-u-e.
And
And she would get that, and beat it up and put
it in a cloth, and tie it on the wrist.
Q:
My goodness, did it work?
A:
(Ms.G) Yes, it sure did.
It helped.
a sore throat she made onion poultice.
she do?
And then she made . . . . for
And, let's see now, what else did
She took wheat bran, I forget what else she put with it.
remember how they fixed that for something?
Do you
What was that for?
(Mr.G) I don't know.
(Ms.G) I remember she she used to take wheat bran and make some kind
of cure.
She did all kinds of things like that.
�AOHP #66
Page 14
We ' s never ever took to a doctor, or sent for a doctor or anything.
Anytime, except when the flu WcvS around so bad, in 1918.
That was the
only we ever had a doctor at my house that I remember.
Q:
Who was your doctor?
A:
(Ms.G) Uh, yes, Stanford did freeze his feet one time in the winter-
time.
They come big old holes in his heels, ya know.
in there.
Big old holes, back
And, old Dr. J. B. Hagaman lived at Todd at that time.
he come on horseback.
And we'd send for him and he'd come over nearly
every night. . . ride his horse over there to Meat Camp.
doctored Stanford's feet.
when we had the flu.
And
And then Dr. Bingham come.
He come and
Dr. Bob Bingham,
And Bessie had pneumonia when we had the flu.
Dr. Jones, J. W. Jones, I believe.
And
He was at Boone, and he come to see
her a time or two when she had pneumonia.
(Mr.G) And they all traveled on horseback then.
(Ms.G) Yeah, they had to ride horse back that far.
make all kinds of tea/ in the wintertime.
whether we's sick or not.
And Momma would
She made us drink it all along
She'd made boneset tea, and oh how bitter it was.
And when we had whooping cough she made chestnut leaf tea and I've drunk
quarts and quarts
of that.
Shti. made peneroil tea out of this big red. .
. .no, that's horseleaf that has big red top, but they was a kind of stuff
called peneroil, wasn't they?
(Mr.G) Uhmm - uh.
(Ms.G) She gathered that and dried it to make tea out of.
she made tea out of that.
And catnip,
All kinds of different things.
Q:
Well what was all that for?
A:
(Mr.G) Spicewood, sassafras
(Ms.G) Well now they said the spice wood was to thin your blood.
How they knew that it was too thick, I don't know that.
But they'd make
us drink it and I guess it didn't hurt us.
(Mr.G) They give you spicewood tea to break you out with the measles.
�AOHP #66
Page 15
And they used a lot of these hot teas, now, for measles.
they had to do for measles, back then, ya know.
tea to get you broke out.
Just use some of the hot
They used spicewood tea for measles and they used
the boneset tea for measles, too.
things.
That was all
And it was good for coughs and different
And they used polecat oil and groundhog oil for croupe.
Just
think of them terrible, horrible things you had to take back then.
And
Momma would get
(Mr.G) How'd you like to be greased with polecat oil?
Q:
I don't think I'd like that at all.
A:
(Ms.G) If you take the croupe, or a real deep cold, ya know, ooh,
that stinking stuff, they'd grease your chest with that, and take a real
flannel cloth, ya know.
They'd heat it, ya know, and put that thing on
your chest right here, ya know.
It'd break up pneumonia.
(Mr.G) People'd take a fit now if they had to be greased with it,
wouldn't they?
(Ms.G) I heard Ern Brown one time, tell about breaking up pneumonia
with those things.
(Ms.G). . . . she'd get a great big bottle, it'd hold about a quart
I guess.
And she would put sulfur in that, and fill it full of water, and
she'd shake that up, and make us drink that for something.
terrible.
Ooh, it was
And then she would get horseradish roots and cut that up and
put it in water, and make us drink the liquid off of that.
Something to
keep us from being sick, I don't know.
Q:
Did it keep you pretty healthy?
A:
(Ms.G) Yeah, we's never sick much.
(Mr.G) Yeah, they's never sick.
Healthiest set of Joneses I ever seen.
Q:
I guess they musta' worked, then.
A:
(Ms.G) You know, them old remedies was good.
an awful bad sore throat, I'se nearly grown.
I can remember having
And she put that onion poultice
on my throat, I couldn't hardly talk and it cured me.
...
�AOHP #66
Page 16
Oh, that old soggy-wet, nasty thing on my throat, it felt terrible.
them onions, shooool
And these old hen-an-chickens, ya know, like grows
out in the yard, hens an things, ya know.
them or not.
And
I'll show them to ya.
I don't know if you've ever seen
But they would get that, and would
get a cloth and beat 'em up, and then they'd squeeze that out in a spoon,
and put a drop or two of that in your ears for earache.
cure the earache.
And that'd sure
See, all this stuff grew for a purpose.
Back then people
knew what it was for and they used it for things like that.
(Mr.G) Nobody knows what it's fer anymore.
All folks knows now is
when a youngun gets sick, take it to the doctor.
(Ms.G) Now, what was that sassafras tea for?
That was just as red.
It made the purtiest little tea you've ever looked at.
Now we buy our tea
at the store.
Q:
I guess everybody does.
What does sassafras tea taste like?
A;
(Ms.G) I don't know hardly how to tell ya.
(Mr.G) You've eat sassafras candy, hadn't you?
Well it tastes
a bit like that.
(Ms.G) It was good-tasting.
wood tea wasn't too bad, either.
No, it wadn't a bad taste.
This spice-
But they'd make it for supper and drink
it at the table for supper of the nights.
(Mr.G) Ole boneset was the worst tea that 'uz ever made.
(Ms.G) Oh, it was bitter.
(Mr.G) I've a mind itis.
That must be what quinine's made out of.
I know it tastes a lot like quinine.
(Ms.G) But that's the way they doctored back then.
Never bought
no medicines
Q:
Well, they were making do with what they had?
A:
(Ms.G) And there was only one phone in the community as I know of.
That was Mr. Dan COok and Miss Bertha.
They had a phone, back then.
of these old-timey wall kinds, up on the wall.
a doctor always had to go there and call.
One
Anybody wanted to send for
�AOHP #66
(Mr.G)
Page 17
Andrew Cole used to run a store down there below where
Tabernacle was.
(Ms.G) Did he have a phone?
(Mr.G) No, he didn't have no phone.
(Ms.G) Well, I'se talking about the phone.
that had a phone.
Mr. Cook's the only one
Now us a-livin1 plum over on Meat Camp, if we wanted a
doctor that was the only way. . .
than walking all the way to Boone.
course that was quicker
But we had to walk plumb out here and
back, and Mr. Cook's was a pretty long way.
Greene's and Mr. Walter's that goes up to
Henry Miller and Etta used to live?
lived a way on up in a holler.
Ya know that road at John
the left there?
You know where
Well, it 'uz up that road.
Now we
Turn out into another road, right there you,
the road, you went a way on up in the holler, about a mile, . . .
(Mr.G) Yeah, a mile, I guess.
(Ms.G) From up in there, that was a long ways to walk.
Q:
Can either of you remember anything about any outlaws or badmen
around here?
A:
(Mr.G) Ah, they wasn't many of them.
boys that was out through here.
I've heard about them Allen
Shot up the court that time.
(Ms.G) I've heard older people than I am talk about the Allen boys
that
up the court.
(Mr.G) I've heard it said that old man Ed Miller brought 'em through
this country,
Q:
helping 'em get away.
I don't believe I've heard anything about that.
Do you know what
year that was?
A:
(Mr.G) Uh-uh, I don't know.
(Ms.G) No, see we just heard talk of that and didn't ask about the
year.
�AOHP #66
Q:
Page 18
Can you remember any folktales that you heard your parents or
grandparents tell?
Or legends?
A:
(Ms.G) I don't know.
I can't remember none.
Q:
What about things like planting in a certain sign?
Do you believe
in that?
A:
(Mr.G) Old people, all of 'em used that.
(Ms.G) Kinda go bit it yet, some.
(Mr.G) I believe in it myself, but I didn't plant in them signs.
..
.
I agree that the moon has a whole lot to do with it.
need to talk to Raleigh Williams.
You
He'd give ya something on this sign
business.
Q:
Can y'all remember much about the Depression?
Did it affect you
much?
A:
(Mr.G) Well, about all it was about that Depression was just big
men and all got their money outa the banks and let 'em go broke and nobody
could get no money to do nothing with and there wadn't nothing to do.
And stuff got so cheap ya could just buy a whole lot of stuff for nothing,
about it.
(Ms.G) But you couldn't get that little bit of money that it took
to buy it with as cheap as it was.
You just couldn't get that money.
(Mr.G) You couldn't pay a debt.
Q:
Prices were real low then, but you just couldn't get the money?
A:
(Mr.G) Yeah, back then you could buy a pair of overalls for seventy-
five cents.
(Ms.G) Now you spend five.
(Mr.G) Six.
Q:
Where were you living at the start of the Drpression?
A:
(Ms.G) We lived at P rkinsville, didn't we?
(Mr.G) Yeah.
Q:
Were you living on a farm?
�AOHP #66
Page 19
A:
(Mr.G) Un-uh.
Rented farm.
Q:
Did you raise everything you needed?
A:
(Mr.G) Yeah, raised plenty of grain, stuff like that.
And managed
to get hold of enough money to buy what we had to outa' the store.
But
we didn't have much.
(Ms.G) We didn't raise wheat, and make out own flour.
We had to
buy flour.
(Mr.G) Yes, we did raise some wheat when I lived at Perkinses,
Raised wheat 'n rye.
Buckwheat.
(Ms.G) Yeah, but we didn't make all our bread out of it.
I remember us buying some flour.
with that Truck, you
'Cause
Don't you remember when you hauled off
bought some flour?
But he could get a hundred
pounds for a dollar seventy-five, wasn't it?
(Mr.G) Yeah, a hundred pounds of flour fer a dollar and seventy-five
cents.
(Ms.G) And now, ten pounds cost almost that.
Not quite that much,
but it costs a dollar thirty-five, I think for just ten pounds.
And he'd
get a hundred pounds of flour for a dollar seventy-five.
Q:
How old were your children during the Depression?
A:
(Mr.G) We just had one.
(Ms.G) G. L. was born in '28.
Q:
How did the Depression change working conditions and getting a job?
Was it hard to find a job?
A:
(Mr.G) Yeah, I'd say it was.
Wadn't no jobs to get much.
(Ms.G) Well, everybody just farmed, you know.
Just weren't any jobs
much to get.
(Mr.G) And it hurt the people
that Depression year hurt the people
like Cleveland and places like that hurt worse than it did around here.
Cause the people there ya know had jobs.
jobs.
And it got hard for them to get
�AOHP #66
Page
20
(Ms.G) And we've heard a little talk about in Detroit, Michigan,
having an effect on the people up there.
and had nothing much to live on.
got out
can
And I heard one man say that this man
and sold, uh, can something
what was it?
They got out of work, ya know,
what was it?
Can openers or
You heard him tell it.
(Mr.G) I don't know if I did.
I forgot about it.
(Ms.G) Seem^like it was just can-openers.
Just any little thing.
He'd get out on the street and try to sell that to make a little money,
after he got out of a job, ya know, his work shut do^/n.
(Mr.G) Yeah, get anything ya could, and get out and sell it.
any way in the world to make a penny.
Just
Course there wasn't as much stealing
and bank-robbing and rogueing a going on today as there is.
Q:
Did you ever hear of any of the government projects, like WPA & CCC?
A:
(Mr.G) Yeah, they had some projects like that back then.
They didn't
amount to much, I don't think.
Q:
Do you remember when the banks closed?
A:
(Mr.G) Yeah, they closed when, uh, Roosevelt took office.
'em in the next day or two after he took office.
He closed
Ordered all banks closed.
(Ms.G) I remember hearing Mr. Charlie Hodge say that he acted the
quickest of any president we'd ever had.
(Mr.G) Then he got 'em a foothold or something some way, and everything began to pick up a little again.
a whole lot too.
The^he got us in war and that helped
And then we've stayed in war ever since.
since that day, since war was declared in '40.
Still a fightin' some of 'em now.
Never been out
Never been out of war yet.
Over there in Laos, they're fightin1, I
reckon some of the Americans is bombing yet.
Q:
Did the community change very much during the Depression?
businesses, and the churches, and the schools?
Like the
�AOHP #66
A:
Page 21
(Mr.G) No, un-uh.
(Ms.G) I don't think they's any difference in the schools and
the churches.
(Mr.G) They've changed a lot more since the Depression than they
had before.
(Ms.G) Than they did during the Depression, I'd say.
Q:
Who was hurt worst by the Depression?
A:
(Ms.G) I don't really know, do you?
(Mr.G) Well, I guess the businessman was hurt the worst.
they did get all the money
Even if
. What caused the Depression
was everybody drawing their money out of the bank.
go broke 'n they started drawing their money out.
This fellows was gonna
That's what caused it.
And then they wouldn't pass no bills or nothing that Hoover wanted to pass
so they couldn't do any better.
lican president.
It was a Democrat congress agin a Repub-
They held him down.
(MS.G) If a poor man was in debt, he was really hurt.
you couldn't get money enough to pay it.
Because
There just wasn't any money.
(Mr.G) Yeah, if a man owed anything
A man that didn't
owe nothing boys he 'uz in the best shape he'd ever been.
Everything 'uz
more on equalization then than it's ever been in my lifetime.
(Ms.G) But you just could not get any money.
Q:
Was there anything that was good about the Depression days?
A:
(Ms.G) Well, I guess there was some.
(Mr.G) What 'cha sold brought just as much according as what 'cha
had to buy.
It don't do it anymore.
What 'cha buy is more than what 'cha
sell.
Now they're fussing about such high prices of beef 'n stuff like
that.
And now's the only time the farmers have had a chance 'at raise
cattle to make a penny 'o money.
�AOHP #66
Q:
That's right.
It's unfair to them.
Page 22
I've heard a lot of people say
that families were closer during the Depression, and the communities were
closer.
A:
Do you think that's true.
(Mr,G) They was.
A whole lot closer than they 'air today.
(Ms.G) Yeah, that's true.
They'd work ten whole hours for a dollar
back then and get a dollar a day.
buy much with or to pay.
They just wouldn't get enough money to
Just didn't get much money.
Q:
What do you like best about the way life is today?
A:
(Mr.G) Eatin' 'n sleepin'.
Q:
Well you've been able to do that all along, haven't you?
A:
(Mr.G) Ah, yeah, I've done more sleepin' before.
I can't sleep
good no more.
Q:
Is there any thing you like about what life is like now?
A:
(Mr.G) Well, we didn't have no electric lights, or no power, or
electricity of no kine.
to pay.
Course now we got plenty of it hooked up and have
Nose agin the grindstone to pay our bills.
(Ms.G) Well, I know that still we enjoy the lights.
(Mr.G) We enjoy the little things we have now.
(Ms.G) And now we have a lot more conveniences than we used to have.
We have a electric stove, and refrigerator.
used to have.
We have all that that we didn't
That saves a lot of time, and it's nice.
(Mr.G) Used to have to do the washin; boil the clothes out in a ole
pot and bring 'em up on a rock 'n beat the dirt out of 'em with a stick.
Scrub it out with ya fists.
Lot more conveniences now.
(Ms.G) All the modern conveniences.
I like that part about it.
I have an automatic washer and that's easier.
Now
Used to have to scrub 'em
by hand.
(Mr.G) They's a awful sight o' lazy women, though.
Q:
Do you think it's because of all the conveniences?
A:
(Mr.G) Yeah, that's what caused a whole lot of it.
�AOHP #66
(Ms.G) That's what he says.
Q:
Page23
I guess that's the truth.
You'd think they'd have more time to visit their neighbors then,
wouldn't you?
A:
(Mr.G) Yeah, but they don't.
visit their neighbors.
They have to watch TV I reckon, can't
Some ole story on TV they want to see.
(Ms.G) Well, that's another convenience that we use.
Q:
What did you do before you had a television?
I guess you got to
visit your neighbors a lot more then, didn't you?
A:
(Ms.G) Well, I don't know that we did.
(Mr.G) All that time she has now to watch television she had to
work than and get her work all done.
(Ms.G) It took longer to get "cha work done.
And you had to work
so much harder you were so tired at night that we always went to bed at
nine o'clock.
tired.
Never stayed up later than that, cause everybody was so
You'd go to bed at nine o'clock 'n have to get up "n get a lot
done ready to start on a day's work.the next morning.
You just didn't
have too much time.
(Mr.G) You go anywhere to work, you had to be at work seven o'clock.
Work till six then of the evenin'. Get in ten hours.
(Ms.G) We had to get up earlier then than we do now.
And had to work
a lot harder.
(Mr.G) Boy, I think today, take it all the way around, is a lot better
time than it used to be.
Q:
It sure has changed a lot.
A:
(Mr.G) Well, I think people's got less care for one another, got
twice, three times as little care for one another as they had back then.
(Ms.G) Well, seems like we did get our work done more back then in
time to visit some durin' the day or through the week or somethin1.
anymore we hardly ever go off the place.
And
�AOHP #66
Page
24
(Mr,G) If I go a-fishin anymore I just have to leave something
undone 'n go on.
Cause there's always somethin' to do.
Back then I'd
have plenty o 1 time to go a-fishin' a day out of a week if I wanted to.
Course I wadn't trying to work on the job then.
I'se working the farm.
(Ms.G) Well, if you work at home you can quit anytime you want to and
go some place if you want to ro go a-fishin1.
ya just don't have the time.
But when you work on a job
Ya come in late, and its time to milk, and
time you eat supper, it's eight o'clock time we eat supper a lot o' nights.
�
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
In 1973, representatives from Appalachian State University (ASU) began the process of collecting interviews from Watauga, Avery, Ashe, and Caldwell county citizens to learn about their respective lives and gather stories. From the outset of the project, the interviewers knew that they were reaching out to the “last generation of Appalachian residents to reach maturity before the advent of radio, the last generation to maintain an oral tradition.” The goal was to create a wealth of data for historians, folklorists, musicians, sociologists, and anthropologists interested in the Appalachian Region.
The project was known as the “Appalachian Oral History Project” (AOHP), and developed in a consortium with Alice Lloyd College and Lees Junior College (now Hazard County Community College) both in Kentucky, Emory and Henry College in Virginia, and ASU. Predominately funded through the National Endowment for the Humanities, the four schools by 1977 had amassed approximately 3,000 interviews. Each institution had its own director and staff. Most of the interviewers were students.
Outgrowths of the project included the Mountain Memories newsletter that shared the stories collected, an advisory council, a Union Catalog, photographs collected, transcripts on microfilm, and the book Our Appalachia. Out of the 3,000 interviews between the three schools, only 663 transcripts were selected to be microfilmed. In 1978, two reels of microfilm were made available with 96 transcripts contributed by ASU.
An annotated index referred to as The Appalachian Oral History Project Union Catalog was created to accompany the microfilm. The catalog is broken down into five sections starting with a subject topic index such as Civilian Conservation Corps, Coal Camps, Churches, etc. The next four sections introduced the interviewees by respective school. There was an attempt to include basic biographic information such as date of birth, location, interviewer name, length of interview, and subjects discussed. However, this information was not always consistent per school.
This online project features clips from the interviews, complete transcripts, and photographs. The quality and consistency of the interviews vary due to the fact that they were done largely by students. Most of the photos are missing dates and identifying information.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1965-1989
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Scanned by
Wetmore, Dana
Equipment
Hp Scanjet 8200
Scan date
2014-02-25
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Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Mr. & Mrs. Lee Greene, June 11, 1973
Description
An account of the resource
Lee Greene was born in Watauga County, North Carolina in 1904 and farmed all his life. Mrs. Greene was born in Meat Camp, North Carolina.
Mr. and Mrs. Greene talk about their education in a one-room schoolhouse. Mr. Greene talks about farming and the changes he has seen in the community, specifically in politics. Mrs. Greene explains how to make soap and homemade remedies. Both recall their methods of transportation as children and the transition of using cars. Mr. and Mrs. Greene also recollect memories of the Great Depression.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Clawson, Donna
Lee, Mr. and Mrs. Greene
Source
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<a title="Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/195" target="_blank">Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989</a>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
6/11/1973
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Copyright for the interviews on the Appalachian State University Oral History Collection site is held by Appalachian State University. The interviews are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Appalachian State Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989, W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC). Any commercial use of the materials, without the written permission of the Appalachian State University, is strictly prohibited.
Extent
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24 pages
Language
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English
English
Type
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document
Identifier
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111_tape66_Mr&MrsLeeGreene_1973_06_11M001
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Boone, NC
Subject
The topic of the resource
Farm life--North Carolina--Watauga County--20th century
Watauga County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century
Depression--1929--North Carolina--Watauga County
Mountain life--North Carolina--Watauga County--History--20th century
Boone
cars
Chestnut Grove
Great Depression
homemade remedies
Lee Greene
Lenoir
Maple Springs
Meat Camp
Perkinsville
Politics
railroad
Sassafras Tea
schoolhouse
soap
Watauga County N.C.
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/ff152edd4a927d0087a1a8a20281098e.pdf
7b1713a24c85f18fb4f3b9b6449b88ac
PDF Text
Text
This is an interview with Mr. Walter South for the Appalachian
Oral History Project by Karen Wards at Mr. South's house, on
June 12, 1973.
Q:
Where were you born Mr. South?
A:
I was born in Watauga County.
Q:
Have you lived here all of your life?
A:
All my life, yes.
Q:
Uhm...so you've lived in Tamarack.
A:
Yes.
Q:
How did TamalCack get started?
A: Uh, it was named after the timber, the Tamaracks.
Tamarack timber and it got its name from there.
The
Q: Do you remember some of the first families that lived
here?
A: Well my Grandpa was about one, and then my daddy.
Watson used to live in this county.
Q:
Eric
Uhm...what year were you born in?
A: 18 and 99.
Q:
What were your parents names?
A:
Jim South and Liddy South.
Q:
Where were they born?
A: Uh, my daddy was born here and uh my mother was born in
Beaver Dams.
Q:
How many children were in your family?
A:
8.
Q:
Do you know all their names and ages?
My daddy's family?
8.
A: Well, I know the names, but I don't know whether I can get
the ages right or not.
Q: OK, you can try.
A: Well. Jenny was the oldest girl and
mother had 6 girls and 2 boys. And the
Jenny. And she's dead, but I don't know
to her age or not. Uh, you mean now how
now, or when they passed away?
my daddy and my
oldest one was named
whether I get close
old they would be
�Q:
A:
Just whatever you can remember to tell me.
Then Lizzie, was the second girl, and she died about 3 years ago.
was 86 when she died.
And Jenny was the oldest but she died younger.
Florie was the third girl and she died at the age of about 55.
was the fourth and she died at the age of about 30.
She
And
Then Rosie
And uh Josie is next.
She lives in Tenn., she's 78 and Flory, lives over here at Track,; she's
about 60 I guess.
And then there comes on to Sam, my brother, and he died
at the age of 70-
And I guess I'm next.
I'm 74.
That's a long story.
Q:
That is.
What did your father do for a living?
A:
He farmed.
Q:
What kind of crops did he farm?
A:
Well, he didn't do very much farming, he put up a lot of hay, but he
didn't raise no big amount of crops; corn, wheat, and rye.
cattle and sheep.
He mostly raised
He always kept a big bunch of cattle and sheep.
made his livin off them.
Marty
But he did work on the farm oh, all of his life.
Q:
How much land did your family own?
A:
Well at one time my daddy owned, I believe it was 300 acres, and he
give it all to the children and myself.
He bought property out at that
Wilson, what's his name?
Q:
Curtis Wilson?
A:
No, it was another.
Anyhow, he bought a farm out there and he give it to
�Flory. And he bought a farm up here of Eric Wilson, and give it to Sam.
And then he utilizes so much land over here.
I bought a lot of land that he
had off in them and said Josie down $1000 dollars, and paid Jenny Reece,
my bony sister $1000.
0:
So you have a lot of land?
A:
Well, I did have, I've done like my daddy, I've divided it up among the
children. I once had 270 some acres.
at home.
It's all divided up and all living
Well, they all grown, the children is all makin their own way. All
of/them got more than I ever had. Money used to be hard to get. But you
can get money
now whenever, why it ain't nothin' now.
0:
Where did you attend school?
A:
Tamarack.
0:
How long did you go to school?
A:
I was in the seven grade when I quit.
Q:
What were the teachers like, back then?
A:
Well, they wasn't nothin' like they are now.
Down here, schoolhouse is torn down now.
I quit at 15 years old.
They wanted you to study
and wanted you to learn and if you didn't they'Id use the hickory and send
you home.
They, that's how come I quit, they uh Charles Hobson was the teacher.
He got toOhard on me and I wouldn't take it. Why I'd just ___
0:
Really?
A:
Thats right.
.
But is was my fault you know, he was a good teacher.
went to school with my sister, Rosie.
First school I ever went to.
I
�Q:
What subjects were taught?
A: Well, I can't hardly explain that, uh, geography, history, and, uh, I
can't think of the rest of 'em.
Q:
Did- your whole family attend school at one time or the other?
A:
My brother and sister.
Q:
How many went out of your family?
A: Well - uh- there was 7 years between me "n Sam.
with any of 'em but Floy.
Q:
What was the first job you ever held?
A:
Puttin' up hay and workin1 on a farm.
Q:
Have you held any other jobs beside that?
A:
No.
Q:
Just workin' on the farm.
A:
No, worked on it all my life.
Q:
What church did you attend?
A:
Elk Knob Baptist Church.
Q:
Never did go to school
Are there any other churches in this area?
A: Yeah, they's a church of Christ. I guess there's another church down
the road, but a that about fell through .
Q: Wher did most people, in this community go to church when you were
growing up?
A:
Elk Knob Baptist Church.
Q:
Has religion played an improtant part in your life, do you think?
A:
Yeah.
Q:
Can you tell me how?
A: Well, its a pretty hard to explain, but it's a better life if your
dependin' on the Lord and all. It's wonderful to think bein' saved we'll
have a better life here after. I would say been the most fullest thing here
in life. It's bein' a Christian. That's the way I've found it.
Q:
When you were growing up, were politics very important to the people?
A:
Not at all.
Q:
Can you remember any elections or any thing like that?
�A: Yeah, I can remember elections way back when I was just a boy.
They took it more like, just to have a good time, and gettin'
together is some of 'em would get drunk. Just , they didn't care
much who was elected.
Q:
What party did most people belong to around here?
A:
You mean uh...
Q:
Democrate or Republican.
A: Well the majority of this, well this township is Republican.
But ,uh, ain't no Democrats hardly in the township. I'Id say
8 or 10. There's a 100 and some Republicans. Yeah, the Demacrats
is hard to come by.
Q: What different kinds of transportation were used when you
were younger?
A:
Well, it was horseback and buggy.
Q:
Covered wagons, did they ever have that?
A:
Yeah.
Q:
Can you remember the first car that you saw?
A:
Yea.
Q: Do you remember when, what year, or how old you, were or anything?
A: No, don't. I just...I, just don't remember where it was at
or how long ago it was.
Q:
Can you remember how you felt about it when you first waw it?
A:
Well, it was kind of a surprixe, uh, kind of a wonder.
Q: Did they have bad men or outlaws when you were younger,growing
up?
A:
Yea.
Same as today.
Q:
Can you tell me anything about them?
A: Ueah- they was a family lived down a mile and a half up the
road here, sold liquor- they used to get in to drink, shoot, and
kill and then they'd get out and be enemies to each other and
go off and shoot one another. Some of them drive around the corner
of the house and shoot- they'd shoot and the others would shootsome of them got killed.
Q:
All because they were drunk?
A: Yup. I could tell you quite a bit about it- but itwouldn't
be necessary.
�Q:
If you want to tell me...
A: Well this family sold liquor from Kentucky in kegs and sold
liquor down here. And people would go over there to get their
liquor, ya know. There's a fella that come from Kentucky, well,
there was two of 'em. And they took up in this country and one
of them married here. This family was pretty rough and there was
something agoing on that they didn't like between his daddy and his
son and they shot one of 'em. And one of them got well and the
other one died. So outside of that, that was cleared up when
I was fifteen, ten or fifteen years old and they all had vanished
away and they got out of this country and died out. It's been a
very good country since outside of a few spats and little falling
outs, there's been a few kills but as of for now, it's, it's
an average country.
Q: Can you think of any legends that have been passed down to
you?
A:
Q:
Well, I don't know...
How did the deression affect you and your family?
A.
Boy, it got the best of us.
Q:
Was it really bad?
A: Yea. Like to went broke and my neighbors did, they went
lum broke, it was an awful time. I bought cattle, calves at
17.00 a head just before the depression and kept them two years
and sold them for $17.00 a head. Ted and them andgrazed them for
two years and when they got when they got fat my neighbor bought
some from some old man in South Carolina that fed cattle in
the winter on straw, that's what they told me, and he brought
'em up here and I sold him a bunch of cattle at $17.00 a head,
that weighed 900 pounds. And so when you don't make anything for
two years you get down and out, and that's the way it was.
?
Q:
Urn, you were workin' on the farm during the depression?
A: Yeah. See, I raised my wheat and bread and taters, about
everything I lived off of in the depression. I had a few things
you know, ate with groceries. It really scared us all bad. I
hired a man in here to come to work for me to cut briars and
bushes and told him I didn't have no money to pay him. I couldn't
hire him and said he, I had to, I had to, I told him I'd pay
him coin in corn and they worked for a half a bushel of corn a
day, cuttin' bushes righr in back of the hollar here, it was
Frank Andrews and Bud Johnson, and Wes
, and everyone and I
paid 'em off in corn that did already had made, but I didn't pay
no money for them to have it. It was a good while that it went
that away.
Q:
Did you always have enough food?
A: Yea, never have been
of food, milk, butter, meat, eggs,
always lived good but you know, it takes a little money along
�with it and we couldn't get it.
Q:
Do you remember any programs such as the WPA or CCC?
A:
Back in mu young days?
Q:
Yea.
A:
I didn't hear tell of anything like that.
Q:
Did you hear of it later.
A: Yea, I heard of it for several years, but there wasn't anything like that when I was young.
Q:
Can you tell me anything about it?
A:
No, I can't.
Q: During the depression were families closer to each other or
did the conditions couse hard feelings between them?
A: Well, I don't know htat it made very much difference. We
got along about the same. Of course when people's down and out
they wouldn't yodel and all like they would.
Q: Did people go to church as much, more, or less during the
depression?
A:
About the same.
Q: It didn't affect the attendance?
the schools?
How did the depression affect
A: Well, I don't know outside of our own community schools.
It would run just about the same. That is the schools out here.
I know if they were affedted any other way or not.
Q: Who was the most affected by the depression in your community,
like farmers, people like that?
A:
It affected the farmers more in this part of the country.
Q: I want to ask you about when you were raising your family.
Did you think it was the father's place in helping raising children?
A: Yea, sure did and she helped me. We didn't have, there wasn't
much doctoring going on only the herbs and stuff that we made at
home. The doctors was far and wide at home and don't know whether
there was such a thing as penicillin or anything like that, they
just give you a few drugs to ease you and the suffering or you
just had to buck it out yourself, mostly.
Q: Did you have doctors, around.'.in here and you know doctors
that would come to see you or anything?
A:
Yea, there's doctors around here, most doctors we depend on
�were Dr. Robinson and Dr. Long.
Q: I heard that Dr. Robinson was a real rough doctor.
him to treat you.?
A:
Yea.
Q:
Did you ever have
Was he pretty rough?
A: Well, not too rough- the roughest one I ever had was Dr.
^ He
come in this country when I was about twenty or twenty one years old, and
he had his office over here at Zionville. And I had,ssee this scar there and
one there? I had my throuat swelled up - knots under each side here. And
they festered up and uh needed to be opened and I went over there to him
and he took an old dull knife and went through 'em and opened 'em up and I
told him, I said, "Doc I can't stand that, that knife's too dull. Ain't
so;anuch dangerous otherwise. Never knowed it from another.
Q:
What kind of home remedies did they have?
A:
I didn't understand...
Q:
What kind of home remedies did they have when you were a boy?
A: Our parents? Well, they had catnip tea for babies when they was first
born. Fed on catnip tea, sweeten it, and uh fed on that about day, couple
of days, then put on their breast. And penny royal tea; it was
it
was good for colds and we used that and cherry bark, they get it and boil
it down to a syrup and it was good for sore throats. Care a sore throat
or a cough. That was about the most remedies that we used.
A: Did they ever have anything that you wore all winter long to keep from
getting colds that you wore around your neck?
Q: Seems like I remember somebody wearin' the nome was Fitity, don't know,
something like bees was or something. I've heard of people wearin' that
round their neck way back then.
A:
Were people very superstitious over here back then?
A: Yeah, right quite a bit.
cats across the road.
Q:
They went by signs in winter and
black
What other kinds of signs did they go by?
A: They went altogether by signs of moon, sign on the calendar to plant
stuff and do a lot of thins.
Q:
Well, did it seem to work?
A: Well, they thought it did but, since I got grown and on my own I didn't
pay no attention to it.
Q:
Well what kind of farmin' utensils did y'all use?
�A: Well, it was an old horse drawn plow and home-made shovel plow and a
hoe, pitchfork and a mowin' scythe. That was our tools. Rough.
Q: What about houses? Y'know some of them have got real intricate little
markins' and stuff on them. What kind of tools would the carpenters use on
them to make them so pretty?
A: Well they had home-made tools and my brother, when he was young then he
made a toung and groove thing to match hardwood together, y'know, a tool
that could do that, press together. And Erick Wilson, he had tools like that
and they could take and cut figures and fix 'em up pretty, y'know. But it
took a long time to do it, it was a. slow process but they got it done.
Q:
When did electricity first come in to this area?
A:
Oh, let me see, 35 years ago.
Q:
What was the first electrical appliance you got?
A:
Uh, washing machine.
Q:
Really?
Bet you liked that didn't you?
A:
to ask her about electricity. Things like the refrigerator, deep freeze and uh televisions come in. I don't know when so it was
awful handy but, gettin' awful expensive now.
Q:
What company was it?
The same one as now?
A:
Yeah.
Q:
Which one was that? RCA?
A:
Uh-huh.
Q: Well, who were some of the most outstanding people in this community
when you were a young boy? Most influencial families?
A: When I was a boy? Well, I'd say, uh, my daddy and my uncle, Frank
South, lives up here, Eric Wilson, that was my daddy's brother-in-law, and
Alaway Maines, was my wifes friend for a
.
Q: Well, do you know where most of these people come from that moved in here?
What if they were Scotch-Irish or English or anything?
A: Well I don't know, just where all they came from the first settlers
in here was my grandaddy.
Q:
So they didn't have any strays around in here?
A:
No, not that I can remember.
Q:
You said you knew, the hashing, what is that?
A:
It's a peak.
Q:
Is it a mountain?
9
No, in this part of the country.
�A: Yeah, I know but its called by Raskins, it's at the foot of Peak Mountain.
Q: Who named that do you know?
A: A Peak? No I don't.
Q: Did anybody from your family?
A: No. Now they could have but a family of niggers lived up there a year,
raised a great family young.
0: Well then how did people around here feel about that, then?
A: Well they, I guess societies together worked together and my daddy hired
him to work for him. Frank South, my uncle, he hired 'em to work for him.
But they wasn't considered as blackes, they paid 'em money and they had a home.
They's a nigger graveyard up there.
0: What if just that family, they were just there? Or are there more in the
county?
A: Well, they uh, this family was a-co-livin' kinda with me. And the older
one was, he was the daddy of
and he lived up there 'till he died.
dreg's family. Ouite a few niggers buried up there.
Q: Eo you know what their names are? Their last name.?
A: Greg, (sp.?)
Q: Did you know where they come from to settle here?
A: No I don't.
0: Are any of them still livin'?
A: I, believe they all dead. They left up here, this last family that was
raised up here, only got up to, some of 'em about 50. Anywhere from 35 to 50
and 60 years old, they left, in this country up here. And just strode off
from town. Yeah they's one of 'em named Walt Red and Tom Red and Jim Red and
Phip Red. I don't believe they had any girls. So, uh, they was just considered
in this country, in my growin1 up, until they left here. They wasn't any
difference from them and a white person, just all'sociated together, the best
family of niggers you ever want to, uh, they didn't bother nobody, they wouldn't
get drunk, they wouldn't, uh, just nice people, I know of Phip Red, he attended
church down here and got baptized.
Q: Wo they went to the whiter-church down here?
A: Yeah.
0: Is their old home place still up there or is it rotted down?
A: No it's gone.
40 years.
Buildings all gone.
I guess it's been gone here 'round
0: Well, do you know if there's any markers up there for the grave site?
10
�A: I wouldn't say, I ain't been there in uh, ever since I was a boy. They
got it fenced off near
. They tell me
. Jim ran one
of the oldest one. He went west and he come back in that boat was in "50.
And they call it the Reeny (sp.?) graveyard. That was his mother's name,
Reeny. And Wesley then cause
. 1 know old man Anderson, he was a
nigger. All I know 'bout him was he "was called "Old Man Anderson" or
He lived, in California, and he'd come in this country and hunt for gold".
Hunt for a mine up and down the creeks. And he was a fine old nigger he,
he's been here and doing well. He was an old man when I was a young one.
And he'd bring 'em grapes, great big boxes of grapes and uh, California grapes,
And he'd stay with 'em up here, uh 2, 3 weeks and he'd go back to California.
0: Did he ever find any gold?
A: Nope.
Q: Has there ever been any gold found around in here?
A: Not that I know of.
0: No precious minerals here, huh?
A:
(laughing) No.
11
�
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Title
A name given to the resource
Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
In 1973, representatives from Appalachian State University (ASU) began the process of collecting interviews from Watauga, Avery, Ashe, and Caldwell county citizens to learn about their respective lives and gather stories. From the outset of the project, the interviewers knew that they were reaching out to the “last generation of Appalachian residents to reach maturity before the advent of radio, the last generation to maintain an oral tradition.” The goal was to create a wealth of data for historians, folklorists, musicians, sociologists, and anthropologists interested in the Appalachian Region.
The project was known as the “Appalachian Oral History Project” (AOHP), and developed in a consortium with Alice Lloyd College and Lees Junior College (now Hazard County Community College) both in Kentucky, Emory and Henry College in Virginia, and ASU. Predominately funded through the National Endowment for the Humanities, the four schools by 1977 had amassed approximately 3,000 interviews. Each institution had its own director and staff. Most of the interviewers were students.
Outgrowths of the project included the Mountain Memories newsletter that shared the stories collected, an advisory council, a Union Catalog, photographs collected, transcripts on microfilm, and the book Our Appalachia. Out of the 3,000 interviews between the three schools, only 663 transcripts were selected to be microfilmed. In 1978, two reels of microfilm were made available with 96 transcripts contributed by ASU.
An annotated index referred to as The Appalachian Oral History Project Union Catalog was created to accompany the microfilm. The catalog is broken down into five sections starting with a subject topic index such as Civilian Conservation Corps, Coal Camps, Churches, etc. The next four sections introduced the interviewees by respective school. There was an attempt to include basic biographic information such as date of birth, location, interviewer name, length of interview, and subjects discussed. However, this information was not always consistent per school.
This online project features clips from the interviews, complete transcripts, and photographs. The quality and consistency of the interviews vary due to the fact that they were done largely by students. Most of the photos are missing dates and identifying information.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1965-1989
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Scanned by
Wetmore, Dana
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Hp Scanjet 8200
Scan date
2014-02-24
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Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Walter South, June 12, 1973
Description
An account of the resource
Walter South was born in Watauga County, North Carolina in 1899 on a small farm.
Mr. South's interview is mostly about his childhood and his memories from when he was younger.He talks briefly about Tamarack's history and his grandfather being one of the first people to settle there. Some topics he mentions while talking about his childhood include church, politics, the Great Depression, and home remedies. He also recalls memories of the only minority family he can remember growing up.
Creator
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Ward, Karen
South, Walter
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a title="Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/195" target="_blank">Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989</a>
Date
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6/12/1973
Rights
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Copyright for the interviews on the Appalachian State University Oral History Collection site is held by Appalachian State University. The interviews are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Appalachian State Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989, W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC). Any commercial use of the materials, without the written permission of the Appalachian State University, is strictly prohibited.
Extent
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11 pages
Language
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English
English
Type
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document
Identifier
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111_tape78_WalterSouth_1973_06_12M001
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Todd, NC
Subject
The topic of the resource
Watauga County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century
Mountain life--North Carolina--Watauga County--History--20th century--Anecdotes
Depression--1929--North Carolina--Watauga County
church
Great Depression
home remedies
Politics
Tamarack
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/74f1927f4e7baa04fde1ffc3c674d110.pdf
2cee9b841fba1c3ba7b9ee2453db9121
PDF Text
Text
Tape # 46
Outline
I.
Name and birthplace of parents.
II.
Parents schooling.
III.
Occupation.
IV.
Churches in the area.
V.
Community
A. Formation.
B. Change.
C. Decision makers.
D. Minority groups
E. Population.
VI.
Politics
A. Change.
VII.
Transportation
A. Layout of roads and railroads
B. Building of railroads.
C. First cars.
VIII.
Mountain crafts and customs.
A. Courting.
IX.
Outlaws
X.
Legends, folktales, supersitions
XI.
Depression
XII.
Shull's Mill
XIII.
Honorary degree of Kentucky Colonel.
�This is an interview with Mr. N.D. Shull for the Appalachian Oral
History Project by Bill Brinkley on March 27, 1973.
Q: Could you give me the name and birthplace of your parents?
A: Well, my father was born here at Shull's Mill. My mother was born
over on Cove Creek.
Q:
What were their names?
A: R. L. was my father's name; Mamie D. Graybeal was my mother's name.
Q: Did you have any brothers and sisters?
A: None alive.
Q: But you did have some?
A: Two.
Q: What were their names?
A: They died when they was small. William, and I forget the other one's name.
Q: How much schooling did your parents have?
A: I have no idea.
Q: What is your occupation?
A: Engineer.
�3.
Q: When you lived in this area, what sorts of churches were here? Have
you lived here all your life?
A: Well, I was born here and stayed here until I was about 18.
Q: What sorts of churches were in this area when you came back, or in
the earlier days?
A: Well, in the early days the same churches were here except Hebron
bought out the Presbyterian Church.
The other churches were the same.
Q: To which of these churches did most of the people belong?
A: Well, they were divided.
There was no particular preference.
Q: How do you think that they have changed over the years, if any?
A: I can't see any change.
They still have the same beliefs they had earlier.
Q: HOT# did this community get its name?
A: Four brothers came over, one of them settled here, had a mill out here
on the river, and it was called Shull's Mill.
Q: How was it formed in the first place, just because of this mill?
that reason?
A: That's where it got its name.
Q: How do you think the community has changed over the years?
For
�4.
A: It was strictly a rural farming area, and now it's gone into a summer
resort area.
Q: Who have been the community decision makers? Mainly the Shulls
or other people involved also?
A: I don't see that there was any one person that was the community
decision maker. It was all handled through the individuals that owned the
property.
They made their own decisions.
Q: Are there any minority groups in the community?
A: None.
Q: Has the population changed greatly in the community?
A: Well, since Hound Ears and some of the other resorts being here, of
course the population has increased. But if you discount that, the population
is about the same as it was when I was growing up.
Q: On politics*
do you have any memoires of specific elections, local
or state?
A: When I was growing up, they always had a big fight, and everybody got
about half drunk, that's about all I remember. Republicans wouldn't vote
a Democrat ticket, or vice versa.
Q: How do you think the politics have changed over the years?
�5.
A: I don't think it's as clean now as it was; it's a dirty bunch of politics,
a dirty bunch of politicians.
Q: How did the people get around in the community? What sort of
transportation did they use?
A: Horse, buggy, foot.
Q: Where did the roads and the railroads run?
A; Well, the railroads ran from Johnson City to Boone, that was Tweetsie.
With the exception of this new 105 they built in here a few years ago, the old
roads were essentially in the same location, but they weren't hard surface.
They were just dirt roads, the first ones, maintained by county labor.
Q: When were the railroads built?
A: About 1914.
Q: Do you remember the first cars in the community?
A: Well, my father had about the first car that was right in this community.
It was, I believe, a 1914 Ford. That's somewhere around '20 I guess, '18 or
'20 when he got it.
Q: Do you know very much about the mountain crafts and customs?
Soapmaking, curing, weaving, anything like that?
A: No.
�6.
Q: Are there any mountain cures that you are familiar with?
A: Well, there's an awful lot of them that people use and talk about, but
I'm not familiar with any of them.
I believe in a good ol' doctor.
Q: How would you compare the courting then and now? Dating back then?
A: Well, back then you either walked or rode a horse. You usually stayed
at the girl's home, didn't wander around much. Now, I don't do any
courting now. Looks to me like they're all over the country.
Q: It was more back then, you traveled in groups didn't you? If you went
to the girl's house, weren't you more with a group than like now it seems
that they're alone so much?
A: No, I'd say you were more by yourself back then.
Q: I was thinking that maybe a group of them got toether in a horse and
buggy, went somewhere, picnicking or something like that?
A: Oh, well. When you got together, that's right, on an outing or something,
you traveled in groups.
When you went courting, you went by yourself. You
had no competition or interference.
Q: Bedtime was pretty early back then wasn't it?
A: They sure was, but getting-up time was a lot earlier.
Q: Were there any badmen back in the area during that time?
�7.
A: Oh, sure. We had a few that were considered a little wild, but I don't
imagine they would be considered bad now.
Q: No outlaws ?
A: Not in this particular section that I know of.
Q: Are there any folktales and legends associated with this community, or
any superstitions that were maybe passed down from your father or mother?
A: There's a lot of tales about how tought living was back then, as far as
legends, I don't know .
DEPRESSION
Q: When did it start as best you can remember?
A: Started in the early '30's, maybe '29.
Q: How many years did it last?
A: Well, I believe you could feel it up until the war started in,the '40's,
'41.
Course, it wasn't as bad in the latter part of the 30's as it was in the
early part.
Q: Were you living here at the start of the Depression?
A: No.
Q: Where were you living then?
A: Tennessee.
�Q: How many were in your family?
A: There was just my mother, my father, and myself.
Q: Did anyone else live with you? Any boarders?
A: No.
Q: What was the effect of the Depression on your family?
A: Well, you just didn't have the money t o spend, didn't buy the clothes
and food that you normally would. You made do with what you had.
Q: How did it effect the working conditions?
A: There was no work to be found.
Q: Were you working during the Depression?
A: No, I was in school when it started. I got out in '32.
Q: Did you ever hear of any government projects, WPA, CCC?
A: Yes, had WPA here, and CCC camp was not too far from here. It wasn't
in Watauga County.
Q: What did they do exactly?
A: Most of the WPA workers worked on the roads, including the roads,
highways; and the CCC Boys were brought in and taught how to survive in the
wilderness. They built trails, and I think they grew some timber.
�9.
Q: When did the welfare program, start?
A: Are you still speaking of WPA, CCC. . . ?
Q: Yes, something like that.
A.
Best I recall, it was in the early '30's.
Q: Was any of your family affected by those projects?
A: No.
Q: Was there a scarcity of food?
A: Not in this particular section, because as I said before, this was strictly
a rural area and all the local families raised their own food.
Q: What crops did you raise?
A: Oh, outside the gardens which we raised everything we ate, main crops
were cabbage and potatoes.
Q: Did you have any animals?
A: Well, we always kept a cow. I had a pony when I was growing up.
dogs, normal animals on a farm.
Q: Were prices higher or lower during the Depression.?
A: Prices were lower.
Cats,
�10.
Q: Were there any new ways of making money that arose, such as maybe people
took up making moonshine, gathering ginseng?
A: Well, I don't know if people took it up or not, but that's been going on in
this section of the country as far back as I can remember. And it's still
going on.
Q: Do you remember any of the banks closing?
A: I remember when the President closed the banks in order to get them
reorganized back then.
Q: Do you remember any in this area particularly that closed?
A: Well, they were all closed for a few days.
Q: What was the community reaction to the banks closing?
A: Oh, I guess, it was pretty evenly divided. Some thought it would never
open again, and others agreed with the President's idea.
Q: What date was it that the banks closed?
A: '31, 1931, I'm sure.
Q: How was the community affected?
Was there any profound effect, or
did things stay pretty much the same?
A: Things stayed pretty much the same.
�11.
Q: Was there anyone that you blamed for the collapse of the banks?
A: The bank's didn't collapse here. The banks were financially in good
shape. And as for other sections of the country, I have no idea, poor
management, I guess.
Q: Did the schools change during the Depression?
A: Yes, they did. We had better buildings, we built some new buildings.
Course, I believe we had better schools.
Q: How about the churches and businesses, the country stores?
A: They was about the same.
Q: What do you think caused the Depression?
A: Well, looked like the stock market was in pretty bad shape; too many
people over bought, caught up with them and from that it snowballed into
a very uncomfortable situation.
Q: Who was hurt worst by the Depression?
A: Small investors.
Q: Do you think there was anything particularly good about the Depression days?
A: Well, at least during the Depression days a dollar was worth a dollar,
and if you wanted somebody to work for you or if you wanted to work for
somebody else, you could put out a day's work.
All in all, I think our economy
�12.
was healthier than it is now.
Q: How is life different today than from the Depression, such as the family
life, education, etc. ?
A: Back then, all you had was a newspaper and a radio, and the newspaper
got here when the mailman rode his horse. Now, you got television, good
automobiles to travel, and naturally you have a little more interest in what
is going on.
Q: What do you like best about today's way of living?
A: Retirement.
Q: If you could change anything about the way they are now, what would
that be?
A: I'm not too fond of these subsidies that the government hands out for not
growing some crops.
I believe that the old law of supply and demand would
help us a lot.
Q: What I want to get you to do now is to tell me all about Shull's Mill if
you would? The founding.
It's effect on the community. The history of it.
A: Well, the founding and the effect of the community, I don't know anything
about that. My grandfather was the postmaster back in 1879. That's a grant
that was given to him.
The fact that the railroad came in here, and then
Whiting Lumber Co. moved in here, and cut out all the timber on Grandfather.
�13.
Had a little narrow gauge railroad that went up to Boone's Fork, hauled logs
in on that.
Plants were just across the river from here. They had quite an
operation here. At one time they were here. We had a hospital, summer
drug store, a big commissary, theatre, I think it was 500 families.
large, or larger than Boone at that particular time.
It was
Course, after the
timber supply was depleted on Grandfather Mountain, they all moved to
Butler. Families, of course, migrated out of here. There's very few of
them left, in this section now. The older families that were here before the
mill, their descendants are here.
Q: What was the mill exactly?
A: Just a lumber mill. They made lathes, you know wooden lathes, that they
used in place of metal lathes. They were strictly a lumber mill. They cut
timber in the woods, hauled it in, ran it through the mill. Then they dried
it and sized it and shipped it out.
Q: Did they ship it all over the United States, or just to North Carolina?
A: It was shipped out of here on Tweetsie.
After it got to Johnson City, I
don't know where it went.
Q: What is the Kentucky Colonel over there? I noticed that last time I was
in here.
A: My wife and I both were appointed Kentucky Colonels a few years ago.
�14.
Q: What is that exactly?
A: It's an honorary appointment that you get from the Governor of Kentucky.
Q: What is that for?
A: It's just one of those honorary commissions that they give you.
Q: You got it from the Governor of Kentucky? How did you manage that?
A: Well, it was managed through my sister-in-law. She's the one who had
the influence.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
In 1973, representatives from Appalachian State University (ASU) began the process of collecting interviews from Watauga, Avery, Ashe, and Caldwell county citizens to learn about their respective lives and gather stories. From the outset of the project, the interviewers knew that they were reaching out to the “last generation of Appalachian residents to reach maturity before the advent of radio, the last generation to maintain an oral tradition.” The goal was to create a wealth of data for historians, folklorists, musicians, sociologists, and anthropologists interested in the Appalachian Region.
The project was known as the “Appalachian Oral History Project” (AOHP), and developed in a consortium with Alice Lloyd College and Lees Junior College (now Hazard County Community College) both in Kentucky, Emory and Henry College in Virginia, and ASU. Predominately funded through the National Endowment for the Humanities, the four schools by 1977 had amassed approximately 3,000 interviews. Each institution had its own director and staff. Most of the interviewers were students.
Outgrowths of the project included the Mountain Memories newsletter that shared the stories collected, an advisory council, a Union Catalog, photographs collected, transcripts on microfilm, and the book Our Appalachia. Out of the 3,000 interviews between the three schools, only 663 transcripts were selected to be microfilmed. In 1978, two reels of microfilm were made available with 96 transcripts contributed by ASU.
An annotated index referred to as The Appalachian Oral History Project Union Catalog was created to accompany the microfilm. The catalog is broken down into five sections starting with a subject topic index such as Civilian Conservation Corps, Coal Camps, Churches, etc. The next four sections introduced the interviewees by respective school. There was an attempt to include basic biographic information such as date of birth, location, interviewer name, length of interview, and subjects discussed. However, this information was not always consistent per school.
This online project features clips from the interviews, complete transcripts, and photographs. The quality and consistency of the interviews vary due to the fact that they were done largely by students. Most of the photos are missing dates and identifying information.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1965-1989
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Scanned by
Wetmore, Dana
Equipment
Hp Scanjet 8200
Scan date
2014-02-19
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with N.D. Shull, March 27, 1973
Description
An account of the resource
N.D. Shull was born in Shull's Mills, North Carolina and worked as an engineer throughout his life. Mr. Shull and his wife were appointed Kentucky Colonels through the Kentucky governor.
Mr. Shull describes his childhood including topics such as church, politics, and transportation, specifically cars and the railroad. Mr. Shull lived in Tennessee with his parents during the Great Depression, and describes what that was like. He also explains the background of Shull's Mill.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Brinkley, Bill
Shull, N.D.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a title="Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/195" target="_blank">Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989</a>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
3/27/1973
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Copyright for the interviews on the Appalachian State University Oral History Collection site is held by Appalachian State University. The interviews are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Appalachian State Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989, W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC). Any commercial use of the materials, without the written permission of the Appalachian State University, is strictly prohibited.
Extent
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14 pages
Language
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English
English
Type
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document
Identifier
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111_tape46_NDShull_1973_03_27M001
Spatial Coverage
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Boone, NC
Subject
The topic of the resource
Watauga County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century
Watauga County (N.C.)--History
automobiles
cars
Great Depression
Kentucky Colonels
Politics
railroad
religion
Shull's Mill
transportation
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https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/ab8686b5fb4497ba70bd4c6b5182c071.pdf
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Text
This is an interview with Ruby Trivette for tLe Appalachian
Oral History Project by Bill Bullock on February 17, 1973.
A:
As far back as I can remember when I was a child and lived
—
I was born in Ashe County, about 20 miles, no, about 15 miles
from here; and the family moved to the present location when I
was 5 years old.
My grandparents lived within sight and I can
remember going to my grandparents' home as a child and being
homesick.
I wanted to go home, and being unable to say "home"
or to make that distinction known, I was told I always said,
I!I
want to ;go walking."
Somebody usually pacified me before
the time to go home.
My memory of life before that time is rather sketchy and varied;
I'm not sure what I remember and what I've been told that I was,
has become a part of my early memories.
Whether this is something
I remember or have been told about, it has become a part of my
so-called memory.
When I was very small, before we moved to this
particular area, I can remember riding on the old workhorse
(I believe the
old horse's name was Kate.).
From the barn, I
can remember riding the horse with my Father holding me on the
horse down to the watering trough in the old spring-place to
get —
to water the
old horse.
My Father had some sheep and
on this particular Spring, I possibly was four or maybe five,
I'm not sure.
But among the little lambs there was one black
one which became mine by divine right of having my own way; and
�I can remember being so proud of that little lamb, and how
heartbroken I was when one morning the little lamb did not
turn up with the rest of the sheep.
When daddy got out to
hunting it, why, he found it had died from what reason I
have no idea whatsoever.
When we first moved to this particular setting, these whole
meadows here were covered in mostly laurel, some maple, and
other hardwoods of that sort.
The creek at that time had many
deep holes and my brothers and I found it quite an enticing
place to play.
There was rather a mythological, scary figure
that, we were told, would get us if we went out to the creek.
That particular thing we called ol'Bloodybones.
I never knew
exactly what Bloodybones looked like but it sufficed to keep
us away from the creek at a time when we might have been
drowned.
In fact, I remember one time my younger brother, I
recall, was just a small toddler, and he had fallen
that crossed the creek.
off a footlog
At that time we carried water from
across the creek from the spring and brought it up the house.
He had fallen off into a rather deep hole and fortunately my
Mother saw him and was able to yank him out of the hole.
And again in those days, toys, such as children have such a
number of today, did not exist.
For jumpropes, we went over on
the hill and cut green briars and very carefully got rid of the
briars.
But we had some good jumpropes.
There was also some
sort of a vine and we called it "jackvine". I'm not sure just
what the correct name was, but we made ropes and jumpropes and
�tied all sorts of things with that.
Many times we'd go up onto
the mountain into the woods and we'd find wild grapevines.
Of course, (at) that age we were not trusted with a knife, but
we didn't need a knife many times.
We'd find a sharp rock and
keep beating and banging and bruising on an old grapevine down
at the ground to the point we were able to just get hold of the
grapevine and swing out - way out into the woods - it made no
difference to us if down underneath us, forty or fifty feet, was
a big rock cliff.
That didn't bother at all.
Q:
What was Christmas like?
A:
What was Christmas like?
Christmas for us in the early days
was; well, it was a time when we looked forward to it a great deal.
It was not commercialized to the extent it is today, and since
children didn't have a great deal of toys.
If we got one toy,
the boys got a jackknife from a Jay Lynn catalog, or a juice harp
or French harp.
That, maybe one toy, and most of the time we
needed shoes or clothing, so maybe we got some clothing, and
maybe an orange or nuts, and a little bit of candy - most stick
candy than any other kind.
I recall one time I got what I
thought was the most beautiful doll that I'd ever seen; the first
store-bought doll I ever had.
or six at the time.
Q:
What was it like?
I must not have been more than five
�A:
I tell you, I had a rugged life trying to keep up with that
bunch of boys; and I didn't think it was fair that they should
be able to do anything that I couldn't do.
I gave them a
hard run for their money - all of them.
Q:
What was family life like, doing chores?
A:
Every child had its own particular bit of chores to do, work
around the house.
In those days there was wood to cut, wood
to haul into the woodyard, wood to split for stovewood, and
of course, the fireplace wood to be taken care of.
There were
cattle, cows to milk, and calves to look after, and sheep to be
looked after, and horses to be fed and watered, and everybody. .
oh, chickens to be looked after.
had our own eggs.
We raised our own chickens,
I remember, possibly when I was five years
old, I took a pint cup with my Mother to milk and found out
that I could squeeze a little milk out of the old cow.
Q:
What was the main source of income?
A:
Farming.
That was about all.
In those early days people just
about raised on the farm what they existed on.
Now for sugar
and other staples that you couldn't raise, you had maybe some
extra chickens and eggs and butter and things like that.
It was mostly a barter economy in those days.
You would
�go to the store with a little jaggard of money and buy a sack
of flour or something like that.
You traded for it.
Particularly in this area, most people just about raised what
they lived on.
I can remember when we raised our own wheat
and had it ground.
those days.
Buckwheat, we used a lot of buckwheat in
We always had that buckwheat.
Raised our own,
had it thrashed and carried it up to Meatcamp to the
Winebarger watermill and had our own flour ground.
And all
transportation was by horse and wagon, buggy or sled.
Q:
What about the development of Todd?
A:
My earliest remembrance of Todd goes back to a time when Todd
was quite a prosperous and thriving little metropolis.
We had a bank.
depot.
We had a drugstore. We had, of course, the
The train, of course, ran in at that time.
The main
source of transportation and commerce at that time that
brought the railroad in here was the chestnuts, especially the
tanbark from the chestnut wood, and cross-ties and things like
that.
Much of the lumber in the area was sawed up into cross-
ties and lumber.
It left here by train.
Q:
Do you remember the train being put in?
A:
No.
I don't remember exactly.
I can't recall that, I can just
—
�I know when the train was here.
remember when it came.
That probably, no. . .1 don't
I couldn't tell you that I knew that.
The train was here as far back as I can recall.
Q:
What about the depression?
Do you remember the depression?
Can you tell me something about what happened?
A:
Well, as far as the depression was actually concerned in this
area, we had no soup lines, nor did we have anybody on
starvation.
But again, people who owned their own property
or who lived on the land, so to speak, made out with just
about what they could raise.
Grown men worked many a day for
a quarter a day, sometimes fifty cents.
But then you could
take what you earned (now that was a 10-hour day, not an 8hour day) and go to the local grocery store and carry enough
home to feed a huge family on for some time.
was just about non-existent.
time.
Money, as such,
Especially at this particular
Many people in this area began to raise cabbage for the
market, the kro,ut factory at Boone.
maybe a quarter of a cent a pound.
I believe cabbage was
I'm not sure.
It finally
got to the point that I believe we had a field above the road
over here at one time (and) I believe part of it just stood
there.
Q:
There was no sale for it at all.
Do you think people were better off out here than they were in
the city?
�A:
In that regard, yes. Because (in) rural life in those days,
as well as now, rural people tend to look after each other.
If somebody needed help, everybody shared to the last goround.
While possibly in towns or in the cities at this
particular time, maybe one didn't know what his neighbor
needed or maybe there was a different philosophical attitude.
Q:
Do you think that today that still exists?
A:
To some extent.
However, in this particular area, as far as
helping one's neighbor (or it doesn't have to be one who lives
nearby, someone in the community who has suffered some misfortune in some way), everybody tends to assist in any way
they can.
However, the time had come until "my business is
not everybody else's business."
There is beginning to be a
little more of the metropolitan attitude.
engrossed in everyone's private affairs.
We're not so
Now there was a time
when practically everyone in any area was somehow related or
inter-related and it was just about like one big family in a
sense.
And today, young people in the rural area have moved
out, and as we say, foreigners have come in; and it isn't quite
the same.
But there's still maybe a sense of a deeper
fellowship camaraderie prevalent in many areas.
Q:
What about the people that are moving in now, the tourists
that are at Beech Mountain, Sugar Mountain?
�A:
Well now, I have little connection with Beech Mountain, Sugar
Grove, or anything of that sort.
Of course, they have moved
in here primarily for summer-home and winter recreational
facilities.
Most of the people who have come into this
particular area who have purchased homes, or even have
summer homes, they are —
let's say —
they own the property,
maybe they pay taxes, but as for adding much to the general
cultural level of the community, there's not much interchange or relationship in that sense.
Q:
Do you particularly like it?
A:
Well, I have no objection to anyone getting rid of his
property wherever he wants to.
But I'll have to get down
to dire need before I'd sell any property to anybody of that
sort.
I have no, no reason for that except that from what
we have been able to see from experience.
They, maybe, the
general cultural level and educational level have not increased
any as a result.
Q:
I should say that.
Do you think these people are kind of destroying the mountains
as they were?
A:
Well, there has been a great deal of change throughout this
whole area.
Much of it has, in the ecological sense, destroyed
the native beauty and attractiveness of the landscape.
�10
Q:
So you could do without them?
A:
Well, I could.
My livelihood and my economy doesn't depend
on them in any way.
Q:
What about your education?
I want you to kind of tell me
about your early elementary school and on up until you got
your degree to be a teacher.
A:
Well, when I started to school, there was no laws, no law
giving a specific age for entry in school.
You went when
Mom and Dad decided you was big enough to get there, I guess.
I started to school in a little frame schoolhouse about a
quarter of a mile from here when I was five.
However, before
I went to school, I have no recollection at all of when or how
I learned to read; but before I ever saw the inside of a
schoolhouse, I was reading Zane Grey books and things of that
sort.
It was just a great deal of that, I'm sure, came
through my Grandmother who lived with us for years.
us all, I guess, in a sense.
boxes and so on.
and so on.
She taught
We read, oh, sugar bags and soda
We associated words with what she'd tell us
One of the earliest teachers I can remember was
Graham - D. W. Graham and his wife.
Mr. Graham is now dead and
Mrs. Graham is the mother of Dr. James Graham in Boone.
They taught at the local school.
Wilson Norris of Boone and
Mrs. Edith Norris, his wife, also were among my early teachers.
�11
Mr. Wade Norris, who died a year or two ago, was an early
teacher.
Mr. Elic Tugman, the father of the Tugman boys in
Boone, and then that just about brings it down to the time
that Mr. Ron Davis hit us all broadsided as an elementary
teacher.
Q:
I reckon everyone remembers him?
A:
Everybody remembers Ron, Mr. Ron Davis.
He was an excellent
teacher, but we thought he was awfully hard.
However, if I
was every inspired to aspire to becoming a teacher, I think
perhaps he gave me the little leverage I needed to send me on
the way.
He was very hard.
He was quite a stern taskmaster.
We soon learned when he said something, he didn't beat about the
bush about it, we knew it had to be just as he said it was.
Then that just about took me up to the time when we went into
highschool, and highschool began at the eighth grade.
Mr.
Davis continued his education along as he taught, and we thought
once we had left the elementary grades that we'd get rid of him;
but he came right along up the line, and most of us had him for
at least a few classes in highschool.
Q:
When did you go to college?
A:
I started college in 1936 and went three years, and completed
my B.S. degree in 1940.
�12
Q:
When did you start teaching?
A:
I started teaching in the fall of the same year at a school
in Wilkes County that is now no longer in existence as such.
It was Mount Pleasant High School in Wilkes County at that time.
Q:
What grade did you teach?
A:
Well, I'm an English teacher.
I taught English.
in English, French, and History.
I was certified
My first year I taught some
English, some French, and some History to the various levels.
Q:
That was 1937 you started teaching?
A:
I started teaching in 1940.
Q:
You've been teaching ever since?
A:
I've been teaching continuously ever since.
The first year,
or when I applied for a job, jobs were pretty scarce in those
days and there was no vacancy in either my own home county of
Watauga or Ashe.
I had a friend who taught, in fact, he was
the principal at this particular school.
In communication with
him, he told me there was a vacancy in my field and I applied
at this school and had the fortune to get a school.
My salary was $96 a month.
in my life —
$96 —
The biggest money I've ever earned
and 8 months school.
�13
Q:
What would you do in the summer?
A:
In the summer months when I was not in school and after I got
my B.S. degree, I did not return to school for 3 or 4 years,
I'm not sure.
Most of my summers I spent at home because the
first year I taught, I taught in Wilkes County and the illness
of my Mother made it necessary that I stay home.
I did apply
and was fortunate enough to get a job at the local school just
across the hill, almost in sight.
years.
I taught over here about 7
(As for) my summers up until when the war began, my
brothers were all in the service except for one, who was 4-F
because of high blood pressure and a heart condition.
He
hadn't been well for years.
Q:
What war was that?
A:
World War II.
Mother had a heart condition.
Eventually it
became necessary that she go to the hospital and remain there
for, oh, continuously, for the last six months of her life.
And again, that was in the time of World War II when gas
rationing and tire rationing and sugar rationing and everything
was in effect.
and back.
I just about had to make a trip a day to Boone
With a little understanding on the part of the
rationing board, I managed to get enough gas to do the necessary
running.
A.
I believe a C rationing gave you a little more than an
An ordinary passenger car, I think, got so many A stamps
�14
for a month or so and so. You couldn't get anywhere on that.
Q:
You remember the flood of '40, don't you?
A:
The flood of '40, yes.
begin in Wilkes County.
It was just about time for school to
It was to be my first school.
Before
time for school to start, the flood came and, of course, the
road washed out over the top of the mountain out in Deep Gap.
Many of the roads to Wilkes County were destroyed and schools
were delayed.
I'm not sure how long . . . several weeks until
the road could be repaired before we could start school.
Right here in this valley I well remember it rained for, I
don't know, 3 or 4 days almost continuously.
afternoon it just continued to pour.
about have saturated the whole earth.
On this particular
The rain seemed to just
This particular afternoon
it got darker than usual along about 3 or 4 o'clock.
continued to pour down.
Rain
The creek out back of my house in
ordinary times was nothing more than a little stream you could
almost jump over, and there was a footblock, I guess about 15
or 20 feet above the water that we crossed over going over on the
hill.
Some of my brothers decided they'd better get out and see
about the cattle. We had some milk cows and calves, and they
were grazing back on the other side of the creek up on the
mountain.
So a couple of them took the milk bucket over to the
cow and maybe milked; I believe they milked.
Before they could
get back, I had stepped out on the back porch and saw a veritable
wall of water coming down to the house over Balm of Gilead trees,
�15
some 30 feet high, I guess.
That wall of water, it didn't
go over the top of them, it just swayed them over and covered
the whole thing.
By that time, not only was the wall of
water between us and the hill on this side, but the water
had cut a new channel and spread out all over those meadows
out here.
The house here was on the highest ground and it did
split going on either side.
So part of the family was on that
side of the creek and part of it was over here.
The boys who
were on the mountain side just followed the trail on down to the
next neighbor's house and there was no way for them to get
across, so they spent the night there.
When we realized that
it was going to be rather dangerous to stay here, we made
arrangements to get out.
We chained the car to an apple tree
and a couple of my brothers veritably carried our mother out—
the water striking the boys (and a couple of them were about
grown at that time) above the waist.
who lived just across the road.
We went over to the people
Before we got out, we had 3 or
4 hogs in the hogpen where the water was swirling around.
My brother, Tom, took a big old hammer, we called it a rock
hammer or a go-devil or something of the sort.
He knocked the
door down to the hogpen and let the hogs out so they swam out
and got around the barn.
Even before they could get to safety
around the barn, the water was so swift that when the hogs
came out of the pen, it just swept them off their feet.
Some of them were swept down, oh, between the barn and the
house and managed to get out and get back up to the barn.
�16
One of the calves that couldn't be satisfied without trying
to cross the creek and get back upon the hill where its mother
was, washed away.
down the river.
It managed to get to land about 3 miles
Somehow or another there was a little island
back there and along with other neighbors''
animals (many of
them were washed into the mountain side of the river), managed
to get out and survive.
Q:
So did the hogs drown?
A:
No, the hogs survived.
We lost nothing except an awful lot
of topsoil, all the fences we had, and that one calf, I believe,
the extent ot it.
Q:
So most of the people took care of each other?
A:
Absolutely.
Q:
What was the feeling?
A:
Well, we'd never experienced anyting like that before.
always had rain.
Were you really scared?
We'd
We..had always been accustomed to the old
creek out back of the house.
It would get up pretty angry
at times and maybe get out of its bank, but nobody ever had
any conception of what it would be like for just a veritable
downpour such as that, and just sweep houses and cattle and
fences and everything away.
We had some young fryers.
�17
We raised our own at that time, and we had a bunch of young
fryers.
They got drabbled and somehow or other they'd made
their way toward the house and had gotten on the back porch.
I grabbed up a chicken coop and slammed some of them inside
and took it out to set it in the woodhouse.
Just as I set
foot in the woodhouse, I felt the whole thing give away.
It was gone, chicken coop and all, within the space of five
minutes.
Q:
I just did get out in time.
What did most of the people think about the flood afterwards?
What was the feeling?
A:
Well, I guess if you are wondering if the people through this
area thought it was a judgement of God or something, I didn't
hear anything of that sort.
It was a natural phenomenon and
most people were so grateful in comparison with the horrors
that had been reported from the Wilkes County side and down
Elk where the landslide was.
So many people had lost their
lives, a week or two later they were still finding bodies in
brush piles on so on.
It was a feeling of gratitude and thank-
fulness that it was no worse in this area than it was.
So as
far as I know, no one in our particular area right here lost
anything more than . . . (tape ends).
Q:
What about church life?
A:
Well, we are certainly in a strict Bible belt.
Within this
little community there, up the highway 194 towards Boone, is
�18
a little Episcopal church that is no longer being pastored,
but in those days it was certainly a vital part of it.
And again, in those early days, through Mrs. W. S. Miller
(who sort of saw to it that the Episcopal church did continue
to live) in many instances, books, printed material and
sometimes clothing, through her effort were sent outside this
little area to help many of the people who had large families.
Not many of them had much reading material.
Of course there
are a lot of these churches in our community.
There's the
Baptist church, of which I am a member, and all my forefathers
before me.
The next largest was Methodist and then Holiness
church, the Holiness Tabernacle Church.
was the pastor.
Mr. Ed Blackburn
Have you talked with Ed?
You must.
Q:
Ed kind of helps out everybody, right?
A:
Ed"s mother and my grandmother were sisters, and not only does
Ed sort of look after the spiritual welfare of all the people,
it doesn't make any difference, rich or poor, stranger or a
next-door neighbor, anyone who needs help, Ed's right there.
Q:
How had the church changed from when you were a little girl to now?
A:
Well, the biggest change that I see - when I was a little girl
the church that I attended was located about a half a mile up
South Fork river from Todd.
It was just an old frame building.
We had the old pot-bellied stove in the middle of the church.
�19
The church was just one big room.
Of course it was curtained
off eventually for Sunday School rooms and then we'd draw the
curtains for the auditorium for the preaching and so on.
Other than the style, of course, of the so-called ministry,
the
attitude
of the people, I guess you could say, have
changed more than anything else.
Right now we have a rather
comfortable brick building down in the little village itself.
We have a beautiful auditorium; and we have, I couldn't tell
you, a dozen or more Sunday School rooms, and all the space in
the world we need.
In those old days, and I can remember back
then, we didn't have a regular preacher right here for this
particular church, but I don't know, maybe once or twice a
month these preachers (one of them a Preacher Roberts) would
ride the train in from Abingdon or Bristol or somewhere, I'm
not sure just where. And if they came on a Saturday now, we
had Saturday services.
There were two services, maybe in those
days maybe two services a month.
There would be a Saturday
service and then a Sunday service.
The minister who came in to
pastor the church would spend the night among some of
his
parishioners and on Sunday, would preach and, I guess, I don't
recall definitely, but I assume that he had to stay over til
Monday to take the train back.
Transportation, I can remember,
we walked to church or if we didn't walk, we rode in a wagon
or a buggy or something like that.
weather everybody walked.
Most of the time in pretty
�20
Q:
Was Sunday a real exciting time, something to look forward to?
A:
Well yes, everybody was just . . . church about the only place
you went during the week in those days.
It was not only the
spiritual center, but the recreational center.
Friends,
relatives, and neighbors seldom saw each other more than on
Sunday, you know, and so everybody found out everybody else's
affairs and how everybody was doing.
It was not only a worship
service and Sunday School, but it was just a general get-together.
Q:
Do you think now that churches have lost that get-together sort
of thing?
A:
Well, not in our rural area.
Most people still have that.
Taking myself as an example, I certainly would have to say it's
different because I'm usually about the first one out of church
and I zoom home to get me something to eat.
But generally
speaking, everybody stands around, especially in pretty weather,
and talks, you know, and nobody is in any hurry to get home —
except me.
I guess perhaps one reason for that —
have very few ties with many of the people in that
right now I
community
except church attendance and the little rural store down here.
I see more of the people in the West Jefferson area where I
teach than I do around here.
Perhaps the attitude of people
towards spiritual things has changed a little bit in some areas,
but we're pretty narrow-minded here.
Right's right and wrong's
wrong, and there's no gray shades in between.
�21
Now I didn't quite finish awhile ago about my education after
I got my B.S. degree and went to teaching.
Of course, there
was a regulation at that particular time that within five years
you must renew.
So when I started back to renew, I also started
work on my Masters degree which I finished in '53, while I
taught school 9 months of the year and went to school 12 months,
Saturday and extension classes and so forth.
Q:
You said your mother lived to be 104 years old?
A:
My grandmother.
Q:
Could you tell me a little bit about her?
A:
Well, my grandmother was a Tatun and that is one of the old
families of the county.
She came from a large family.
I don't
recall now the names of her brothers, but they were all a longlived people.
Q:
How many were there?
A:
I just don't remember.
Now when you talk to Mrs. Miller down
here (of course, we are related through the Tatun side), she can
fill you in on a great deal of this that I do not know a thing
about or have forgotten.
�22
Q:
Remarkable.
A:
Oh yes. One thing I remember about her was that she was of
the old school that believed in many of the superstitions as
we would call them now.
She thought that when the master of
the house died, if you had bees, and you didn't go out and tell
the bees that the head of the house was gone that . . .(phone
rings).
Q:
You were talking about the bees.
A:
Well when my father died I remember distinctly we had I don't
know how many hives of bees out here in the yard, about where
the pear tree is now.
She tied a black arm band or ribbon or
something around her arm, and she took her cane
her way out there from hive to hive.
and she made
She was saying to each
hive, "The master of the house is dead.
The master of the house
is dead".
Q:
I've never heard of that before,
A:
You haven't.
Well, that's an old New England custom at least.
But I remember distinctly she believing it.
Q:
What other folktales?
A:
Grandmother believed in witches.
There was, I'm not sure,
�23
I don't recall enough of the details to be specific about it,
but among her acquaintances as a young woman, there was someone
who had the name of being a witch.
And if this particular woman
had any grievance against you, she would cast a spell on your
milk cow and it would give bloody milk or completely go dry, or
cast a spell on a child and it would get sick.
There was some
tale that she told about this particular woman planting a little
handful of some sort of bean that she did some incantation over,
and over this little handful of beans when they were planted,
when she harvested, she had a bushel.
I'm not sure of the
amount, 1 just remember some fantastic amount like that.
She believed in witches now, she knew from first hand, you know.
At least in the cultural society in which she grew up, that
was true.
I don't remember so much about, oh, many of the older
sayings about the weather and, of course, people in an earlier
time didn't have the weather report to depend on.
all the signs and importance of the weather.
Grandma knew
I don't recall
that she knew any more than just the regular old things, red
clouds at night, and an east wind and the things like that, the
weather that would naturally follow, so to speak.
Q:
What does a red cloud mean?
A:
Well, red clouds in the morning, sailors take warning; red clouds
at night, sailors' delight.
Of course, atmospheric conditions,
it produced the different things.
An east wind which would
�24
make the smoke from the chimneys settle pretty close to the
ground, that was a pretty good sign that it was going to rain
or weather because, again, atmospheric conditions being what
they were, it would be natural, but that was the way they more
or less examined it. Owls, over the hills and hooting around,
why, in about 3 days you'd have bad weather.
Q:
Groundhogs?
A:
Oh, you'd better believe it.
Grandmother was also a devout
believer in the phases of the moon.
You planted in the moon,
you put a new roof on a building in the moon, you killed briars
and bushes by cutting them on some phase of the moon.
You
planted beans at one time, potatoes at another, and cucumbers,
the sign just had to be just right.
I believe maybe the Twins,
I'm not sure, to have a good crop of cucumbers.
Q:
And she lived this?
A:
Yes, as much as she could.
own sheep.
I have seen her take wool from our
I have helped wash the wool, clean it, and I remember
seeing her spin thread from that wool.
Q:
What about her crafts?
A:
Well, Grandmother could do just about most anything, as far as
I know.
What talent did she have?
She would card and spin and knit and do general sewing.
�25
I don't recall that she did much cooking after I can remember.
I'm sure she did.
She had an idiosyncracy about her food:
bread, especially her cornbread, was unsalted.
her
When mother
baked cornbread there was always a little tiny cake put in the
pan that had no salt in it.
Q:
Why?
A:
I don't remember.
I just don't remember.
I'v e often
wondered if that wasn't one reason she did live to be so old,
that maybe no salt to have any effect on blood pressure or
anything of that sort.
Now I do remember, not only she, but
my mother, and my mother's mother, who lived right up above
us here, saved ashes from the fireplace. Especially if a certain
kind of wood had been burned, the ashes were always saved and
put into an ash hopper, or an old hollow log that was sitting
upon a board.
They kept the good ashes —
wood ashes, I'm not sure —
I guess it was hard-
through the wintertime, and come
spring after having saved up all the meat scraps and grease and
so on through the winter, on a nice warm spring day, an old big
wash pot, big old iron pot fixed up on a tripod, you could make
a fire underneath it, was filled with water.
morning the water was heated.
Very early that
You kept pouring water up in the
ash hopper and gradually it made its way down through —
through —
and came out as pure lye, old brown lye.
seeped
After you got
I don't know how much, but however large the amount was or what
they wanted, then that was put into a wash pot, or wash tub, and
the meat scraps and grease, and so on, and mixed in.
It came out
�26
and made soap.
soap.
I couldn't tell you how, but it made soap—soft
Or cook it a little longer and maybe add a little borax
or something, maybe make hard soap.
That was about the kind of
soap you used for general cleaning and washing.
Q:
About taking a bath —
A:
Oh heavens no!
you didn't have a bathtub?
We had an outdoor "johnnie" winter and summer.
You would go out to the "johnnie" in the wintertime and the
wind blew through the cracks and sift snow all over you.
you got a bath —
it was in a washtub —
And
and you got an all-
over bath about once a week, I'd say.
Q:
You would just wash off?
A:
You just "swiped"
off otherwise.
In the springtime, about the
first day of May was time to go barefoot.
Any child that wasn't
allowed to pull off their shoes and go barefoot from then to a
frost, was a sissy!
The biggest job our mother had was to try to
get our feet washed before we went to bed, because we'd always
have a stubbed toe or scratched foot or something; and it dirty,
it hurt so bad to wash it off.
If possible, we liked to sneak
off to bed without washing our feet.
with that very few times.
Q:
Did you all have feather beds?
A:
Oh yes, I reckon so!
But I tell you, we got by
�27
Q:
What about the politics, the first election that you voted in?
A:
The first election I voted in, uh, let me go back a little bit
and tell you about the elections long before I voted.
In fact,
some of my earliest recollections and especially before
Presidential elections in this area, there were about two things
you'd get into arguments about, politics and religion.
Before
Presidential elections, people's emotions ran pretty high.
Parents didn't even let their children go down to the little
village much on Saturday evenings, when the local gentry gathered
together assisted by a little moonshine.
high
and fights were pretty common.
Emotions got pretty
Again, I don't remember
this, but I do remember hearing that my grandfather was an avid
politician.
More than once he just about climbed some of his
friends, you know —
good friends any other time.
election time, they differed in their politics.
But come
Now, they sort of
lost track of friendship till after the election.
Now I can't
tell you what my reaction was to the first election I voted in.
I suppose I looked forward to it with a great deal of anticipation
because I guess it was a milestone in my life.
I have attained my majority, I can vote.
Well after all,
The first time I voted
was just a regular state and local election.
I had to wait
another 4 years for my first Presidential election.
Q:
You remember who was running?
A:
No, I don't remember too much.
Let's see.
Probably the one
that made the greatest impression on me might've been about the
�28
first time I voted for a President, was Franklin D.
Q:
Was he real popular in this area?
A:
Well, not in the beginning.
But he started activities that
he brought out in programs that he espoused that did tend to
make finances and economic conditions a little more stable.
Yes, he was.
He was a popular person.
Q:
What about Mr. Truman?
A:
Well, everybody through this section that I had any contact
with, was a little bit skeptical of Harry S., but were quite
pleased when he did show enough initiative to take over and do.
He was a peppery little man with his sometime obscenities.
He was a popular man.
Q:
Well, what about Eisenhower?
A:
Everybody liked "Ike" pretty well.
"splash" in this area.
He didn't make a great
Franklin D. was the flamboyant President.
Of course, the President during war times.
From Franklin D. to
John F. Kennedy, I guess those were the two that made the biggest
impression on people or made the biggest impression on me.
Q:
Do you like Kennedy?
�29
A:
Well, he presented a different aspect.
I think young people
had a tendency to identify with him more than any of the
others.
Q:
What about Johnson?
A:
Well, again, personnally, I'm talking from my own ideas now,
my own attitude toward Johnson.
I thought when Johnson came
in as President under the conditions that he had to become
President under, I thought that he conducted himself very
well.
I'd always been a little bit leary of him because he
was such a "wheeler-dealer" all during his earlier political
life, and I guess throughout his presidency.
Frankly, I was
little bit sorry for Johnson during the latter days of his
administration.
Things had just gotten out of hand, and it
looked as if nobody could do anything about it.
He was bearing
the brunt of something that had started years earlier.
Q:
And what about Mr. Nixon?
A:
Well, I guess Mr. Nixon has had to make his mark on the world.
I'm not sure just what my attitude toward Mr. Nixon is.
Sometimes I think he has, and is doing, a remarkable job.
Then again, I begin to think we have a dictator instead of a
President.
Before I pass judgment on Mr. Nixon, I think maybe
I'll have to wait until his term of office is out and do that
in retrospecti'\ action rather
than perspective.
I really don't
�30
know.
I am glad that he has been able to bring things to
a wind-down in Vietnam.
wind down much.
However, I don't think it's going to
All I'm hoping is that we get our POW's out.
And then let them have it!
Q:
What about Vietnam in this area, how did people feel about it?
A:
Well, it was a useless war.
of it.
Most people could see little use
Just as we take our religion seriously - we still believe
in "Mom, God, and apple pie" country and so on.
Most people
through this area, they weren't in favor of going to fight in
Vietnam, or anything of the sort.
But I don't recall anyone who
deliberately left the country, or anything of the sort to keep
out of it.
Q:
So as far as overall policies are concerned, you think Mr.
Roosevelt was good?
A:
Well, he made a bigger impression on me perhaps at that
particular time.
colorful.
He was the most flamboyant, picturesque,
And in that time, when he would come on the radio,
"My fellow Americans" —
why, it would just about make chills
chase up and down your spine!
Q:
What about the law, police officers, etc?
A:
Well, when I was a child, about the only police officer we
ever saw or heard tell of was maybe the County Sheriff or Deputy,
�31
who had a bunch of bloodhounds trying to chase down somebody
who had broken in and stolen something.
knew.
That was about all I
The idea of a bloodhound was enough to make my blood
curdle.'
I don't suppose that other than that, I had much idea
of what law was about, because I just didn't come in contact
with it.
Q:
Do you think that the people, when you were small, were the law?
Like they said "This is right, this is wrong."
A:
I'm not sure, I could not answer that.
I just don't know.
This particular little area through here was pretty law- abiding.
We had an individual or two who was known to be what we called
just a veritable rogue, and everything that got gone was blamed
on one or two individuals, whether they were responsible or not.
I remember very well that we had some hams to disappear from the
old spring house.
We knew where they went.
We didn't have
any proof or anything, but we knew where they went.
Someone broke
in the little service station that was in operation right across
the road and everybody knew pretty well where the things went.
Nobody had any proof, but everybody knew.
Q:
If you could change something back to the way it was, what would
you change?
A:
I have no idea.
�32
Q:
As far as the community is concerned?
A:
Perhaps, if it had been possible or if it were possible
to
bring our little village back to the status and standards it
once had here, it
today would have been a private metropolis.
If we could go back to that time and continue to grow, I've
always wondered what would have happened had our bank and drugstore and all our facilities continued to expand instead become
sort of a ghost town, as it did become.
The chestnuts sort of
all died of blight and the timber supply cut off.
Q:
Looking at Boone, don't you think the people out here have a little
something that they don't find in Boone?
A:
We have a little something that Boone is missing now,
earlier times
in
when Boone was more provincial, long before we
had all the growth.
Even the industry —
I think industry is
the backbone of the county and of the economy.
But yes,
some
of the provincial attitudes and the neighborliness, general
neighborliness, has disappeared.
life.
It was one time a part of
I suppose we still have that to an extent out in most of
the rural areas.
Q:
How do you feel about women's lib?
A:
1 guess I would have to say that I'm in favor of equal rights
�33
for women.
A lot of this so-called stuff I read in here, it
has little interest for me,
except that 1 think a woman
should be paid on the same basis as a man for a job she does just
as well, and sometimes better.
And I have yet to find that.
But there are very few men who I would regard to be my intellectual
superior.
Q:
How would your grandmother feel?
A:
Well, my grandmother on my mother's side was rather conservative.
My grandmother on my father's side was quite conservative.
However, she lived through the Civil War, when she found that she
had to take the old mules or whatever they used, and go out in
the fields and plow.
than you would expect.
She was a little more independent maybe
And, of course, that sense of independence
came because mostly through that she had to sort of take over and
be the head of the house.
Q:
So, you don't think that a woman's place is at the home?
A:
For a woman who wants to make the home and family her life, that's
fine.
For those who want to combine them and have both, that's
fine.
But as far as carrying it to the extent that some of our
women "libbers" are, I think it's mostly to get attention rather
than action.
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
In 1973, representatives from Appalachian State University (ASU) began the process of collecting interviews from Watauga, Avery, Ashe, and Caldwell county citizens to learn about their respective lives and gather stories. From the outset of the project, the interviewers knew that they were reaching out to the “last generation of Appalachian residents to reach maturity before the advent of radio, the last generation to maintain an oral tradition.” The goal was to create a wealth of data for historians, folklorists, musicians, sociologists, and anthropologists interested in the Appalachian Region.
The project was known as the “Appalachian Oral History Project” (AOHP), and developed in a consortium with Alice Lloyd College and Lees Junior College (now Hazard County Community College) both in Kentucky, Emory and Henry College in Virginia, and ASU. Predominately funded through the National Endowment for the Humanities, the four schools by 1977 had amassed approximately 3,000 interviews. Each institution had its own director and staff. Most of the interviewers were students.
Outgrowths of the project included the Mountain Memories newsletter that shared the stories collected, an advisory council, a Union Catalog, photographs collected, transcripts on microfilm, and the book Our Appalachia. Out of the 3,000 interviews between the three schools, only 663 transcripts were selected to be microfilmed. In 1978, two reels of microfilm were made available with 96 transcripts contributed by ASU.
An annotated index referred to as The Appalachian Oral History Project Union Catalog was created to accompany the microfilm. The catalog is broken down into five sections starting with a subject topic index such as Civilian Conservation Corps, Coal Camps, Churches, etc. The next four sections introduced the interviewees by respective school. There was an attempt to include basic biographic information such as date of birth, location, interviewer name, length of interview, and subjects discussed. However, this information was not always consistent per school.
This online project features clips from the interviews, complete transcripts, and photographs. The quality and consistency of the interviews vary due to the fact that they were done largely by students. Most of the photos are missing dates and identifying information.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1965-1989
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Scanned by
Wetmore, Dana
Equipment
Hp Scanjet 8200
Scan date
2014-02-11
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Title
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Interview with Ruby Trivette, February 17, 1973
Description
An account of the resource
Ms. Trivette's interview consists of many memories from her childhood including growing up on a farm, what the town of Todd was like, and her experiences in the schoolhouse setting. She then goes further talking about her memories of her education leading up to her teaching career. Although she mentions little on World War II, she talks more in detail about the Great Depression and what its effects were like on the neighborhood. Ms. Trivette also recollects her personal experience with the flood of 1940. She explains what local church was like when she was younger compared to her current experiences with church. Ms. Trivette also speaks of the folktales her grandmother believed in. By the end of the interview, Ms.Trivette discusses politics from her childhood to the present including elections and presidents. While speaking of politics, she mentions past laws and offers her opinion on women's equality.
Creator
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Bullock, Bill
Trivette, Ruby
Source
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<a title="Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/195" target="_blank">Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989</a>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2/17/1973
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Copyright for the interviews on the Appalachian State University Oral History Collection site is held by Appalachian State University. The interviews are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Appalachian State Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989, W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC). Any commercial use of the materials, without the written permission of the Appalachian State University, is strictly prohibited.
Extent
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33 pages
Language
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English
English
Type
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document
Identifier
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111_tape33_RubyTrivette_1973_02_17M001
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Todd, NC
Subject
The topic of the resource
Country life--North Carolina--Todd
Todd (N.C.)--History--20th century
Todd (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century
Ashe County
bartering
Bible Belt
Bloodybones
buckwheat
Christmas
D.W. Graham
Deep Gap
farming
flood of 1940
jackvine
Politics
red cloud
sheep
superstition
Tatun
teacher
Todd
Wilkes
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/3aa89d226e50a5923edb3341e792c054.pdf
f456f6c59754557fdc6ee4a0589d00c1
PDF Text
Text
WEATHER
and mild. Map and details on Page 7.
THE ASHEVILL----..olll!
Dedicated to the U pbuilding of Western North
Year • No. 292
1Oc Daily
Ashevi lle, N. C. 28802, Friday Morning, October
Julie Nixon Of The GOP
The younger daughter of Richard M. Nixon, Republican prres1candidate, held a microphone in one hand and a red rose
' othe~r Thursday as she spoke in the rain on Pack Square
a GOP :mlly and camP'ai.gn headquarters opening. The red
julie Nixon and other GOP dignitaries and candidates stnod
l
upon covered the bed of a traile~· owned by a house-wrecking firm.
Among tJhose with her wer~e {L·R): Stuart Harvey, Sen. Bruce B ~~
Briggs, Mrs. Robert A. Griffin, David Eisenhower, W. Scott Harve' ~..~'
Buf,ord Neal, Eddie English, Jesse Ledbetter, GroveT Redmon il
1
1
David Sentell. (Staff Photo by Ewart Ball III)
4
--~~--~~ 1· ~
·----~--------------------~------------------------------~--J
�
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Title
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Leo Finkelstein Papers
Description
An account of the resource
This collection contains materials relating to Leo Finkelstein, resident of Asheville, North Carolina, the Asheville Lions Club, and the Beth Ha-Tephila Cemetery in Asheville. It contains computer discs, notes, scrapbooks, book drafts, correspondence, photographs, programs, fliers, and other materials related Leo Finkelstein, his wife Sylvia, and the Lions Club, Elks Club, and Jewish Community in Asheville, North Carolina.
Contributor
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Finkelstein, Leo, 1905-1998
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Language
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English
Identifier
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107_cd1_08_nixon
Description
An account of the resource
A clipping from the Asheville Citizen Times showing Julie Nixon standing in front of the Finkelstein loan office.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Eisenhower, Julie Nixon
Republican Party (U.S. : 1854- )
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<a title=" In Copyright - Rights-holder(s) Unlocatable or Unidentifiable" href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-RUU/1.0//" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> In Copyright - Rights-holder(s) Unlocatable or Unidentifiable </a>
Format
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JPG
Photographs
Title
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Julie Nixon in front of Finkelstein Pawnshop, Asheville Citizen-Times
Source
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<a title="AC.107 Leo Finkelstein Papers" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/192" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> AC.107 Leo Finkelstein Papers </a>
Is Part Of
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<a title=" Leo Finkelstein Papers" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/27" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Leo Finkelstein Papers </a>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
circa 1970
Spatial Coverage
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https://www.geonames.org/4453066/asheville.html
Type
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Image
Text
1970
Asheville
Citizen Times
Finkelstein
Julie Nixon
loan
newspaper
office
Politics
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/203f74f0ea6d41a8eab7e527503d6fc2.mp3
1c998210a0b5526f765401646bc1cdb0
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/1714511bac8d266cb5e9c627f4c9c225.pdf
f5770297cdfcbdadea8d6d5aad348621
PDF Text
Text
Oral History Transcript
Appalachian State University • Collection 111, Tape 48
Interviewee: Ralph Hayes
Interviewer: Bill Brinkley
1973, March 28
BB: Bill Brinkley
RH: Ralph Hayes
BB: This is an interview with Mr. Ralph Hayes for the Appalachian Oral History Project by Bill
Brinkley in Boone, NC on March 28, 1973. Mr. Hayes, I understand that you’re co-director of the
wagon train that comes up through here. Could you tell us how that got started?
RH: A Mr. Moore, I understand, from Wilkes County, probably about 12 years ago got the idea.
He got a few people interested and it got under way. The first year was the smallest train they
had, maybe 25 wagons. He just got some people from Yadkin County, Wilkes County, and a few
from Watauga County to do this thing, and that year they roughed it.
They roughed it just like you would in the old days; they did their cooking, hauled their own
feed in the wagons and slept in the wagons and the outside, what you have, like they would
have done in the Daniel Boone days. And of course they all dressed in their authentic clothing
of that day, which made a very nice train. And since then it has just continued to grow year
after year, and its grown to the point to where they’re having to cut it off to keep from getting
more people than they can handle.
BB: Did you say they were dressed in the authentic clothes of the olden days? Long dresses?
RH: Right. A majority of people that are connected with the train still dress that way.
BB: How were the men dressed?
RH: They would dress in coonskin caps, leather jackets, and boots; near about what they wore
in those days.
BB: Where does the wagon train start?
RH: It originates in Wilkesboro. They assemble at the fairgrounds in North Wilkesboro and on
one day, and then they have a parade through both towns – North Wilkesboro and Wilkesboro.
The next morning they leave on their journey up the old Daniel Boone Trail, coming up the
Yadkin River and the first stop is Ferguson.
1
�They spend the first night at Ferguson, and there the Ferguson Community Club prepares the
meal for them, and of course the public is invite. They have for their entertainment about the
same thing at all four stops: string music, string bands, and square dancing. People that
participate in the square dances, most of them, especially the ladies – they’ll have the long
dresses and bonnets on.
BB: Did you say the first stop was in Ferguson?
RH: Right.
BB: What were the others?
RH: Then their next stop is Darby, its in Wilkes County. They have about the same thing in
Darby as they would have in Ferguson: entertainment of course. The Darby Community Club
feeds the Wagon Trail and also visitors, and you have about the same thing there. Then when
they leave Darby, their next stop is Triplett and so our club, the Community Club of Triplett, we
always have a country ham supper and it draws a lot of people.
I believe last year we fried 850 pounds of ham, about 60 gallons of green beans, 300 pounds of
coleslaw, 250 pounds of sliced tomatoes, 500 pounds of potato salad, 225 pounds of pound
cake. We have a pretty good feed around there.
BB: Did you say the public is invited?
RH: Right.
BB: Just anybody can come?
RH: Anybody can come that wants to. The price of the plate last year, I don’t expect it to
increase this year, was $2 and nobody leaves hungry. We just don’t let anybody leave hungry.
BB: Do the string music groups travel with the train or does each community sponsor that?
RH: No, I wouldn’t say they travel with the train, but there will be about two or three different
bands will show up at each one of these places.
BB: Could you give us an idea of the amount of money that you put into these meals?
RH: Yes, our grocery bill will run about $1,600 and of course, we make a little profit, but not a
big amount, because we want people to have as much as they want to eat. We rather people
would come to our community and we feed them good, and they can leave and have something
nice to say about us than to have their money.
2
�BB: How do you go about acquiring all this food for preparation?
RH: We get together, two or three of us, probably me and Stewart Simmons you might say and
we set down and make up our menu of what we’re going to feed this year and try to estimate
about how many people that we will have, which is sometimes hard to do.
We have run out of food. He’s in the grocery business there in the community, and he buys all
this stuff for us, wholesale, and thanks to him at no extra charge. He just charges us what it
costs him. We also buy the hams from him, and old good-natured Stewart, he gives us a little
cut on the hams and so it’s a community project and the community’s cooperation is 100%.
We’ll sometimes have more workers than we can use, but they’re standing in the wings just
waiting for somebody to holler. It’s just a community effort, and that’s why its been so
successful for us.
BB: Everybody in the community comes in and does all the cooking?
RH: Yes.
BB: Could you give us an idea of how many you fed last year?
RH: We fed 1,120 plates, and of course I don’t remember just how much the stands did. We
have a stand that sells country ham sandwiches, hot dogs, and hamburgers. Then we have two
drink trucks that come to serve the drinks for the people, and also cotton candy. We get 25% of
their gross take.
BB: Do you have the same think year after year, or do you vary any?
RH: No, we vary from year to year in the vegetables. Now, I don’t know what we’ll try to feed
this year, but last year it was green beans, potato salad, coleslaw, sliced tomato, and cream
corn. So we try to give the people a choice. If they don’t want a choice, we give them some of
all of it.
BB: Is the square dance like the old-time square dances?
RH: Oh yes, we always have somebody to call the dances.
BB: Do you ever have any wagons breakdown?
RH: Right. There will be from the trip from North Wilkesboro to Boone, there will be two or
three wagons that will break an axle or lose a wheel, or something will happen. But there are
always some good blacksmiths in the train. So three or four will jump in and help the guy, and
get him right back on the road in a few minutes.
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�BB: The blacksmiths travel in the train?
RH: There’ll be three or our blacksmiths riding that train, and horses will lose shoes and when
they come into, say Triplett, you can look around and see people all over the parking area
putting new shoes on the horses where they had thrown the shoe on the rocks and gravel.
BB: How far do people come for this?
RH: We’ve had them on the trail from Hawaii. They come from Ohio. Well, practically every
state. I believe that there were 25 states represented in the wagon train last year.
BB: Is there a place like maybe “Rent-a-Wagon?”
RH: Yes, there are some people around North Wilkesboro, or Ferguson that will rent a wagon.
They will do a taxi service I understand. There’s a Scout troop from Cleveland, Ohio that’s been
on the train for the last two years and two or three wagons, they have hired these wagons from
around North Wilkesboro, just a taxi service you might say.
BB: Do you have any idea of what the price for one of these wagons might be?
RH: No, I sure don’t. I don’t think I’ve ever heard what the price would be. It wouldn’t be
excessive, I’m sure.
BB: When you get to Boone, this is where you break up? Is that correct?
RH: Right. When they leave Triplett, usually at 8 o’clock in the morning, they get into Boone at 2
o’clock in the afternoon. So they have the same thing here. Now, I believe it’s the fire
departments in the county that have catered food for the last several years. I believe it was the
Deep Gap Fire Department last year.
They spend the night. They get into Boone usually on Friday night or Friday afternoon. They
spend Friday night with about the same thing that you would find at the other ones as far as
entertainment is concerned. Most of the people that you will have out at night will be looking
at the livestock, the wagons, and what you have, and it’s quite a show.
It’s a real show for people that have never seen something like that, and then, to end the
wagon train, and then they have a parade through Boone. Then after the parade, they break up
and head for the different parts of the country.
BB: Like a big celebration at the end of it?
RH: Right.
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�BB: How long does this last, about how many days?
RH: Leaves Wilkesboro, North Wilkesboro, comes to Ferguson on the first stop, Darby on the
second, and Triplett on the third, and Boone on the fourth. It involves about six days; it’s a
week of travel.
BB: Is there a cost to enter into the wagon train?
RH: I believe it’s a $1 registration fee.
BB: And that’s all it cost other than food, etc.?
RH: Right. That’s all, just the registration fee, and you do have to be registered before you can
enter.
BB: What is the reason for that?
RH: The way they can keep check on how many wagons and horseback riders that they’re
having, because if they didn’t have some way of registering these people and keeping check on
them, then you wouldn’t know how many that you’re doing to have to start your train.
BB: How many wagons do you have in the train?
RH: Ordinarily about 85, and probably 150 horseback riders.
BB: Is all the travel on dirt roads?
RH: No, they have some paved roads from North Wilkesboro to within four or five miles of
Darby. I wouldn’t know how many miles it was, not an excessive amount of paved roads, and
then the rest is dirt roads. When they leave Triplett, they come up the old trail that is know now
as “Jakes Mountain Road” and they come out at the (Blue Ridge) Parkway out here in the
Bamboo section, and then cross the river into town.
BB: You’re not on any major roads?
RH: No, nothing on primary roads.
BB: Do they take water along in old-timey barrels?
RH: Yes, each wagon will have an old wooden barrel on the side of the wagon with the wooden
spigot. Of course they wouldn’t necessarily have to do that in order to have a water supply. To
make it look like a wagon train, and what you have, its good, and they can chunk a little ice in
the water so they can have a cup of ice water any time on the way they wanted to, but there’s
spring practically bursting out of every holler that they’re passing by, so water’s not problem.
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�BB: How are the bathing facilities?
RH: They do that in the stream. Now this road that they come up is Elk Creek to Darby, and then
it’s changed its name to the Yadkin. Really it’s the head of the Yadkin River, starts in our
community in Triplett. So they use the streams to do their bathing just like they always did.
BB: Do you have a time what the men go in and then a time that the women go in?
RH: Right. Maybe the men will be way down, 400 to 500 yards around the curve of the creek.
BB: Can you think of anything else to add about the wagon train?
RH: No, I don’t think of anything else that I could add.
BB: What county offices have you held?
RH: Just tax collector. I was appointed in 1968, starting my fifth year.
6
�
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/cfa024fef377ede5bbfb8a6488b7ba99.pdf
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Text
Oral History Transcript
Appalachian State University • Collection 111, Tape 51
Interviewee: Ralph Hayes
Interviewer: Bill Brinkley
1973, March 29
BB: Bill Brinkley
RH: Ralph Hayes
BB: This is an interview with Mr. Ralph Hayes for the Appalachian Oral History Project by Bill
Brinkley on March 29, 1973. When did you first become interested in politics?
RH: Well, when I became interested in politics was when I was 21 years old, when I first
registered then after my first election. Politics fascinated me, it looked like it was something
that was interesting and would be a lot of fun, which I found out down through the years there
has been a great deal of fun, a lot of pleasure, and you also hit some rough spots that is
expected in politics.
I was elected precinct chairman in my township when, I might be telling my age here, 35 years
ago. I was elected precinct chairman. I have been active in politics ever since. I’ve been on all
the various committees in the county, have been selected on a number of state committees
which I’ve enjoyed attending very much.
I have been a delegate to the state convention and haven’t missed one yet. Incidentally, to
show…to tell you how far politics in this state have some since 1940, I was at a Republican state
convention in Durham. There were less than 300 people from over the state at this convention.
You couldn’t get anyone to accept the state chairman’s place; you couldn’t get a candidate to
run for any statewide office, but the few that were there, they just kept working, kept hanging
on, and eventually I think that we have arrived as a strong two-party system in the state.
Far as the county politics are concerned, we are extremely fortunate in having a strong twoparty system in the county. We’re, I would say, pretty evenly divided; the two parties are in the
county. It makes a good ballgame at each election. I have seen elections won in this county by a
majority of three.
I can remember one county commissioner being elected by a majority of one, and his brother
and wife forgot to go to the polls that day. That beat him by one vote, and the guy that
defeated him by one vote, so we had a margin of two votes.
BB: Is it a little personal to ask you when you first registered?
RH: No. When did I register?
1
�BB: Yes sir, the date.
RH: I can’t recall the date that I registered, I sure can’t.
BB: Like the year?
RH: I’m 56, figure it out.
BB: 1917?
RH: It was in the 1930s.
BB: You were born in 1917?
RH: Right.
BB: You registered when you were 21, so you registered in 1938?
RH: Right. It would have been during the fall of 1938.
BB: What campaigns have you been active in?
RH: I have been active in all campaigns of course, since I have been eligible to vote. I’ve handled
a number of candidate’s campaigns in the county, as county manager. Recently I handled
Donald Kincaid’s successful bid for the state senate in Caldwell County from the district, and I’m
also proud to say I handled Jim Holshouser’s campaign here in the county this past election, so
was actually involved in three elections there with the him: the primary, the runoff, and the
election. So it was a year’s pretty hard work for him. I’ve just been active in general in the
Republican Party.
BB: Are there any specific, maybe colorful instances, you remember in the Holshouser
campaign?
RH: If I could select one, it would have been the one between the primary and the runoff. I
guess that we got, or I got more pleasure and thrills and excitement in the runoff election
between he and Jim Gardner than I did in the general election.
I’m real happy you know, that we won the election, but I guess that the runoff between the two
is about the biggest thrill that I’ve had in a long time because we had kind of a dragged our feet,
the Republicans had, here in the county. Might say this, that both parties in the county take a
primary too lightly and as far as I’m concerned, it is the most important election that you have
is the primary, but it’s the hardest election to get voters interested in and so we dragged our
feet a little bit in the primary, but after the primary, then the big job ahead was to get more
voters out which we got out with a month of real hard work, and we picked up about 600 or
2
�700 votes. Extra votes in the runoff over the primary, and I believe it’s about a 2,025 majority
we got that nominated Jim Holshouser for Governor of North Carolina.
BB: Was there any specific thing that you did to get people out for the primary?
RH: No, the only thing that we did, we went into the precincts and made a door-to-door canvas
asking people to be sure that they got out and voted, and up to that point they saw that Jim
had a chance.
So one of the reasons for the light vote in the primary was that nobody felt like he had a chance
against a multimillionaire, and then if he got over that one, he was going against another
millionaire. So politics have changed to a noticeable change here in the county. The voting
habits are changing; they started this trend five or six years ago.
You can’t predict an election in this county, and now you can’ predict it in the state by voter
registration. Now, it used to be that here in Watauga County you could almost predict the
outcome of an election as to how many each party has registered, but it isn’t that way any
more. The young voters are studying their candidates. They’re better education and they make
up their own minds, and they’re not voting Democrat or Republican just because dad, mother,
grandma, and grandma was…which is good. I’m proud to see that happen and I think it is going
to increase more and it’s going to continue. The voting trend is going to continue I think on the
same patter its in.
BB: Is there anything you do to get people out for the election?
RH: Yes. What we try to do is, we like to get our candidates into each precinct in the county,
and if we can do that and get them to the people, before the people, they can answer the
questions of the voters, and what have you. There is not substitute now, for that, but if you
can’t get to all of them, then what we try to do is then have one big countywide rally just before
the election, and get as many people as we can to visit with the candidates, for the last ten
years.
We have had a caravan that we take over the county. We’ll organize a caravan, as many cars
from each precinct that we can get all precincts represented. Then we have the candidates. In
prior years, we have called it the “Broyhill caravan,” and so we go into every precinct in the
county and we have people to meet us at these certain points in the precinct, and the
candidates of course then can do some handshaking and some politicking, and then it
generates an interest.
You see a caravan coming through, of course we hauled an elephant that led the parade which
is the symbol of the Republican party, and you see a caravan coming through your community,
out here on a little dirt road with about 75 or 100 cars and all your candidates with their names
and what have you on it. It creates an interest and gets the vote out. We feel like that is one of
the better ways of getting the vote out.
3
�BB: Approximately how many miles to you travel in this caravan?
RH: This trip probably takes us 150 miles.
BB: You say that Broyhill always is in this caravan?
RH: Yes, he and most of the time his wife Louise.
BB: Do you have any big plans now, like for the governor being in it?
RH: Yes, I think that on our next caravan, we would hope to have the governor in the caravan. I
think it is something probably that the people would expect.
BB: Do you feel that politics are dirtier today than they used to be?
RH: No, politics are not, are not as dirty today as they were 20 years ago. People take their
politics serious now, of course, but in a different way. Twenty or twenty-five year ago, it was
very easily to have a dozen good fist fights, and some knives being used and guns and what
have you, but people have grown out of that. They’re better educated and they’re taking their
politics more serious. In fact, they’re looking now for good candidates, good men, to run their
government, which is good.
I’m really glad to see that, 20 or 25 years ago, it didn’t matter how well qualified a man was.
They didn’t look for quality in a candidate like they do now. If he was a pretty “well liver” out
here in the community with not too much business experience that didn’t matter wither. If he
had a little money, he’s our man. But it isn’t the best. I like the way the voting trends have
changed and the way the candidates are being picked, and the primary I think is one of the
finest things that has happened to any government is to let the people pick their candidates
they are going to vote on in the fall. Now if you got some candidates in there that are not
qualified and you don’t think they can do the job, then we can get them out in the primary.
BB: What do you think has caused people to deviate from the old custom of Democrat voting
for Democrat, Republican voting for Republican, and not changing over any at all?
RH: State that questions again.
BB: What do you think has caused the people, instead of Democrats voting a straight ticket,
Republicans voting a straight Republican ticket, why do you think maybe they have started
changing their ideas about the candidates?
RH: I think that one of the main things that has helped to change that is the news media,
television, and radio. They’ve got their candidates on the air; they’ve got them on television
where they can see them. They can listen, look, and study the candidates, but before that we
4
�had a wide coverage, news like we got today, and then it was either just a Democrat or a
Republican. It was just one or the other.
BB: You were talking about the convention you went to in Durham where you had the small
amount of people and nobody wanted the Republican chairmanship. Do you feel that this is
because of maybe people were ashamed of being Republicans?
RH: Yes. At that time, in some parts of this state, the word “Republican,” well – you just didn’t
hear it. Nobody would stand up and say, “I’m Republican.” I can remember 20 years ago a
certain fine attorney from down in the eastern part of the state was running for governor on
the Republican ticket, and I had the opportunity to be at one of his meetings in the eastern part
of the state.
You could see that there was people that would have liked to come out and listened and hear
what he had to say, but they were for some reason, they acted like scared people, or
something. Maybe they had worked for politicians and they didn’t dare to even come out and
listen.
BB: What state committees have you served on?
RH: The state executive committee, and I have been a member of the county executive
committee for 30 years.
BB: Do you attend all the state things, like the Governor’s Ball, etc.?
RH: Yes.
BB: Were you down there?
RH: Yes, I made the Governor’s Ball, the inauguration, and had a good time. There were lots of
people there, they more or less rolled out the red carpet, and all that was in my party, we had a
wonderful time.
BB: I was there for the ball, but I didn’t get to stay for the inauguration. I had to come back to
classes.
RH: And all the state conventions, I attend all those, district conventions, and what have you. So
if you like politics and enjoy it, you’re going to have to sacrifice, you’re going to have to sacrifice
some things and you also, it gets expensive, such as these Lincoln Day dinners and what have
you. But if you love politics, you’re going to be there.
BB: Recently, I’ve been going to a lot of Republican dinners, the meetings, and things like that,
and it seems like the party is so much closer together than like when I was growing up. What do
you feel has caused this burgeoning of party unity just all at once it seems?
5
�RH: Well, I think that the people have seen where that a two-party system would be beneficial
to our government. That is, and you can go back to the young people, your college students,
and what have you. They’ve studied the records of both parties back through the years, and
they’re making up their own minds, and seemingly now we do have a trend of the young people
toward the Republicans.
BB: Do you have any big aspirations, and big hopes for our Governor now? What will the basic
changes be?
RH: His basic changes are going to be administrative; it will be his biggest changes. Of course,
there’s going to be some changes made on down to the county level. You take any party, if it
was the Republican Party, I’m not critical of the Democratic Party, but any one party that stays
in power over a period of 50, 70 years, they get stale.
You have to have this corruption. I don’t think that either party could avoid this by being in
power that long, and so it’s almost mandatory that neither party be left in power too long.
BB: Do you feel that there is a great deal of corruption in the administration, or was?
RH: Yes, I do. I feel like that there was a lot of corruption in the administration. The Highway
Department was getting very corrupt and the Penal System was getting bad. He’s now working
on that, he’s appointed new people to the Penal Division and it looks like they’re going to get it
back when its supposed to be.
Our mental health institutions were getting bad, real bad. He’s started to work on those; he’s
reforming those. I understand that three or four directors have already been replaced with new
men. So I think that within his four-year term, he’s have most of the corruption, he’ll never get
it all. Don’t get me wrong; no party will ever get it. You’re going to have some in every party.
But I feel like he’ll be working to keep this to a minimum.
BB: I heard recently on the news they’re trying to get it so the governor can hold two terms in
office. What are your feelings on that, and do you think it will go through?
RH: I think that it will go through and that it should. It would be real hard for a governor to get
his program set up and get the machinery in action and get this thing through completely to see
what it’s going to do in a four-year term, but you can always if you think he’s not the man for
the job, you can get him out at the end of the first term, but I think that a governor should be
able to succeed himself and I think very strongly that he should have veto power. Maybe North
Carolina is the only state in the Union probably that doesn’t, the governor doesn’t have the
veto power.
BB: Do you feel that this legislation will pass?
RH: If they don’t pass it this term, I feel sure that they will next, the next term. There’s a lot on
6
�interest in…I noticed on the news the other night where former Governor Luther Hodges was
advocating this. So I think that they can build up enough support to get that through, and I
sincerely hope that they do. But of course it wouldn’t affect our present governor; it would be
the ones that follow him, and it should be that way.
BB: Do you feel that our present governor is looking at things very open-mindedly, or trying to
take everything into consideration?
RH: I feel sure that he is, he sure is. He’s looking at everything with an open mind. He will not go
into partisan politics at the expense of the people of North Carolina. If he does, I’m going to be
very much disappointed.
7
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
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Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
In 1973, representatives from Appalachian State University (ASU) began the process of collecting interviews from Watauga, Avery, Ashe, and Caldwell county citizens to learn about their respective lives and gather stories. From the outset of the project, the interviewers knew that they were reaching out to the “last generation of Appalachian residents to reach maturity before the advent of radio, the last generation to maintain an oral tradition.” The goal was to create a wealth of data for historians, folklorists, musicians, sociologists, and anthropologists interested in the Appalachian Region.
The project was known as the “Appalachian Oral History Project” (AOHP), and developed in a consortium with Alice Lloyd College and Lees Junior College (now Hazard County Community College) both in Kentucky, Emory and Henry College in Virginia, and ASU. Predominately funded through the National Endowment for the Humanities, the four schools by 1977 had amassed approximately 3,000 interviews. Each institution had its own director and staff. Most of the interviewers were students.
Outgrowths of the project included the Mountain Memories newsletter that shared the stories collected, an advisory council, a Union Catalog, photographs collected, transcripts on microfilm, and the book Our Appalachia. Out of the 3,000 interviews between the three schools, only 663 transcripts were selected to be microfilmed. In 1978, two reels of microfilm were made available with 96 transcripts contributed by ASU.
An annotated index referred to as The Appalachian Oral History Project Union Catalog was created to accompany the microfilm. The catalog is broken down into five sections starting with a subject topic index such as Civilian Conservation Corps, Coal Camps, Churches, etc. The next four sections introduced the interviewees by respective school. There was an attempt to include basic biographic information such as date of birth, location, interviewer name, length of interview, and subjects discussed. However, this information was not always consistent per school.
This online project features clips from the interviews, complete transcripts, and photographs. The quality and consistency of the interviews vary due to the fact that they were done largely by students. Most of the photos are missing dates and identifying information.
Contributor
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Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989
Date
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1965-1989
Sound
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Artist
Hayes, Ralph (interviewee)
Brinkley, Bill (interviewer)
Dublin Core
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Title
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Interview with Ralph Hayes [March 28 & 29, 1978]
Subject
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Historical reenactments--North Carolina
Daniel Boone Wagon Train (N.C.)
Republican Pary (N.C.)--History--20th century
Hayes, Ralph--Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
During the first of two interviews Mr. Hayes discusses in detail the Daniel Boone Wagon Train (years) that followed a route from Wilkes County to Boone using horse drawn wagons with people wearing 19th Century clothing and camping along the way.
In the second interview Mr. Hayes discusses his involvement in local politics. He was elected as a precinct chairman about 1938, was active on several state committees and was a delegate to the state convention starting in 1940. He recalls how how he ran a local rally and campaign and attended several governor inaugurations.
Creator
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Hayes, Ralph
Source
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<a title="Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/195" target="_blank">Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989</a>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
3/28/1978
Rights
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Copyright for the interviews on the Appalachian State University Oral History Collection site is held by Appalachian State University. The interviews are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Appalachian State Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989, W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC). Any commercial use of the materials, without the written permission of the Appalachian State University, is strictly prohibited.
Format
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MP3
Extent
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7 pages
Language
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English
English
Type
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Sound document
Coverage
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Watauga County (N.C.)
government
Politics
Republican
Republican Party
tax collector
Watauga County N.C.