For dairy and beef cattle farm families, late summer and early fall is corn chopping time, filled with noise from tractors and choppers, the sweet smell of corn, wisps of corn leaves and stalks swirling in the air. Read more

The second in a series of videos relating the history of diseases that had catastrophic effects on the residents of Haywood County has been completed. Read more

How many people realize what was lost with demolition of the white frame house behind Chick Fil-A this summer? Read more

It was a great blessing each summer, when my family traveled from our home and the hot weather in South Carolina to the cool mountains of North Carolina. Read more

Thinking about the Cataloochee Reunion brings back many childhood memories of cousins’ visits corresponding with the reunion, time spent on my grandparent’s farm in Iron Duff preparing for the reunion and the excitement of the day itself. Read more

For the first time since World War II, Cataloochee natives and descendants will not gather at Palmer’s Chapel for their annual reunion this weekend, a cancellation due to the worldwide COVID-19 virus, and something they could hardly have imag… Read more

The Canton Area Historical Museum and Haywood County Public Library have partnered to produce a video recalling two of the most horrific disease epidemics to ever plague the area. Read more

As dates go, Aug. 6 is especially important in the 75th anniversary commemoration of the end of World War II. On that day in 1945, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, thus setting in motion the steps that… Read more

A local group has launched a project to identify all veterans buried in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Read more

Sometimes the mysteries of history are big ones, but sometimes they are not so intense. History is also in the details, and sometimes, the mysteries are small ones. Read more

Mountaintop picnics, baseball games, wolf-whistling, bean-picking, fireworks, twice-round parades and sermons: Haywood County people have celebrated July Fourth in a multitude of ways. Read more

Farming is key to Haywood County’s culture and heritage, but that doesn’t mean it is stagnant. What strikes me when looking at hundreds of old farm pictures in The Mountaineer’s archives or in Haywood County history collections is how much ch… Read more

For a brief time, less than two months, Charles Prince brought services involving snake handling to Haywood County in 1985, an effort cut short by his death from a rattlesnake bite. His effort focused attention on a practice centered in Appal… Read more

In July 1985, Charles Prince, owner of a fish-bait store in Canton, posted a sign announcing a type of event closely tied to Appalachia but almost unheard of in Haywood County. He would worship the Lord while handling snakes. Read more

Haywood County has been home to two men who, thanks to their longevity and the timing of their births, lived across three centuries. Read more

Sometimes a person’s fame has to do with circumstances not of their own making, such as the timing of their birth and death. But sometimes a person can take those unusual circumstances and make the most of them, as seemed to be the case with … Read more

The man who titled Federick Messer the “Old Man of the Mountains” in a 1901 Charlotte Observer story was himself a colorful character who became one of the state’s best-known journalists, writing newspaper articles up until the week of his de… Read more

(Last in a series on Appalachian self-sufficiency.) Read more

Third in a series on the self-sufficiency of Appalachian culture. Read more