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Fire!
Asheville, NC July 25, 1923—Fire down at the Emporium Department Store just outside of Pack Square. Photo looking towards Biltmore Avenue (south). Ashville+NC firefighting appalachia...
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He’d seek out the sheriff and get him on a chase
During the July 27, 1941 race at the Daytona Beach-Road Course he suffered a crushed chest, broken pelvis, head and back injuries, and severe shock. He raced his two brothers and his sister in the July...
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Blennerhassett Island – staging ground for high treason
The July 29, 1806 letter was the thing that undid the Burr Conspiracy. Harman Blennerhassett had been a moderately well off Anglo-Irish aristocrat prior to his becoming involved with Irish...
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Apple butter thick enough to slice
“Cider for apple butter must be perfectly new from the press, and the sweeter and mellower the apples are of which it is made, the better will the apple butter be. Boil the cider till reduced to one...
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You were likely to encounter everybody you ever met
“[My father] started one trend that horrified all the old friends. He put the kitchen on the front of the house. This was a thing unknown, inconceivable to the local populous. You didn’t put the...
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Why not Skyland?
She was the only woman to take part in the negotiations that brought about the creation of Shenandoah National Park in 1935. Addie Nairn Hunter, an accomplished, independent divorcee from Washington,...
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The Sunday Lady of Possum Trot
Her schools earned plaudits from Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, and Franklin Roosevelt. The Boys Industrial School motivated communities throughout the South to begin...
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The Lost Provinces
North Carolinians for many decades thought of them as the Lost Provinces. Prior to the early 20th century, Ashe, Alleghany, and Watauga counties were hemmed in and separated from the rest of the state...
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Oh brother I am dying now
Listen to Buell Kazee play “The Dying Soldier” Oh brother Green, oh come to me, For I am shot and bleeding, Now I must die, no more to see, My wife and my dear children. The southern () has layed me...
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The Red Neck Army marches to Blair Mountain
The Battle of Blair Mountain marked a turning point in the national movement to better the conditions of working people by demanding the legalization of unions. It was the largest armed labor...
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Irradiated dimes: tourist item or health threat?
The American Museum of Science & Energy is today’s No. 1 Oak Ridge, TN tourist destination. But from 1941 to 1949 Oak Ridge was a town that did not exist. It was one of the top secret facilities...
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Squirrel hunting season gets under way
Squirrel hunting was and is a passion, necessity (that may be more of a was), and a sport in the hills of Virginia and Kentucky. You see it reflected in the place names: Dickenson County, VA has...
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Gravely and his motor plow
Dear Sir: During the past year, I have had occasion to discuss the business situation with practically every business man in the City of Charleston and suburbs. Our very limited number of productive...
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The Laurel Creek Murders, part 1
On the night of September 21st, 1909, Howard Little allegedly came to visit Elizabeth E. Baker Justus and her extended family in Laurel Creek, VA and asked if he could spend the night. The family knew...
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The Laurel Creek Murders, part 2
When the fire had died, the neighbors and relatives who went through the smoking ruins of the cabin were met with a most gruesome sight: the charred bodies of Betty and Lydia and two of the children....
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Judaculla Rock
No other rocks in the area have similar markings, although there are many other boulders in the vicinity. Some of the pictographs on it appear to be animals and animal tracks, while others appear to be...
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Home Sweet Home. For 9,000 years.
Alabama has 3,400 documented caves. The most famous of these is Russell Cave (now a national monument), the oldest rock shelter used regularly for a home in the eastern United States. Named for Thomas...
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Benton MacKaye proposes the Appalachian Trail
“Extensive national playgrounds have been reserved in various parts of the country for use by the people for camping and various kindred purposes. Most of these are in the West where Uncle Sam’s public...
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When my stories are true, why, I don’t yodel to the end of the story
“I’ve been a guide now for quite a few years, and I was borned and rared in the Great Smoky Mountains, at the foot of Mount Leconte, and when I was a boy, I didn’t do anything but hunt. One day I went...
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Haints and Hags on Halloween
Halloween’s around the corner. Here’s a little haint tale for the occasion from Putnam County, Tennessee. About one mile and a half east of Cookeville the Buck Mountain Road is crossed by the old...
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