Appalachian History

Old Fort: the name says it. It is indeed one of the oldest towns in western North Carolina, and it was originally a fort, built by the colonial militia before the Declaration of Independence. Once called “Gateway to the West,” the settlement served as the westernmost outpost of the early Thirteen Colonies. Frequent skirmishes between [...]

“The administration of justice in the isolated areas still surprises the visitor with its differences from the ways of the town. Despite a few modern touches, a cuspidor or two missing, or the presence of some young lawyers fresh from the state university, a mountain trial is in spirit much the same as when I [...]

Small marble quarries had been active in north Georgia since the discovery in the 1830’s of the rare, bright pink marble that the area is famous for. But under the 3-generation dynasty of the Tate family, the Georgia Marble Company, begun in 1884, rose to monopoly status. Georgia Marble Company stone can be found in [...]

Her provocative pin-up images violated all manner of the era’s sexual taboos, finally invoking a United States Senate Committee investigation into pornography. In 1955, Bettie Page was summoned from New York City to Capitol Hill by Sen. Estes Kefauver, a moral crusader known for wearing coonskin caps. Kefauver, a Madisonville, TN native, was at the [...]

Please welcome guest writer Lisa King.  King was born and educated in Southwest Virginia, traveled with her job all over America in her twenties and early thirties, then came back to the mountains to raise her daughter.  ”I’ve been employed as everything from a quality control technician in industrial construction, to a mail processing plant [...]