Smoky Mountain News | November 26, 2025

HOLIDAYGUIDEinside

CONTENTS

On the Cover:

Making a vision a reality, Rhiannon Skye Tafoya has spent years honing her craft of basketmaking, a labor closely tied to her Cherokee roots. Art is central to Tafoya’s earliest memories, her artistic development continually encouraged and inspired by her family and the land that birthed them all. Artistry ran in the family; her grandmother, father, brother and cousins all had their own artistic endeavors, ranging from painting and drawing to woodcarving and pottery. (Page 14) Donated photos

News

Franklin fire substation opens........................................................................................11

As Border Patrol generates fear, neighbors and organizations step up..........12 Fontana library trustees get bogged down on small changes............................16 Community briefs..............................................................................................................19

Opinion

Cherishing memories of the old ways........................................................................20 Social connection is a lifesaver......................................................................................20

A&E

It’s a great day to be alive: A conversation with Darrell Scott............................22 Dillsboro hosts ‘Lights & Luminaries’..........................................................................25

Outdoors

Retired professor brings forest therapy to Jackson County Greenway............30 Waynesville hosts holiday markets..............................................................................34

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Invest in this place we call home — shop local

It’s an annual ritual for me, worrying that too many people in Western North Carolina will forgo our local businesses as they choose how to spend their dollars over the holiday season. Black Friday and Cyber Monday seem to get all the attention, but don’t forget about the smaller businesses that mean so much to the local economy.

It’s gratifying that the shop local push has — over time — turned into a kind of movement, but I totally understand it. From the Shop Small Saturday (that’s this Saturday, Nov. 29) that started just over a decade ago to the “buy local” campaigns that have become commonplace, by now most Americans realize the value of spending their money with the small business owners they see around town every day.

There’s a new player in the online shopping game that’s having a huge influence on our spending patterns — artificial intelligence. According to Adobe for Business, in October “traffic from generative AI sources increased by a 1,200% year over year. And once these consumers landed on a retail site, they were 16% more likely to convert.” So even if AI hasn’t taken your job, it’s influencing spending decisions for you based on your search and purchase history.

I like to rage against the machine that is the internet, so I’m even more fired up to make my purchases in one of our locally owned retailers. Shopping local has benefits that go far beyond the simple exchange of money for goods. It strengthens communities, boosts local economies, and offers a more personal experience. For those of us who cares about the character of our communities, shopping local is one of the most

meaningful choices one can make.

Studies consistently show that for every dollar spent at a locally owned business, a significantly larger percentage of that dollar stays in the local economy compared with spending at national chains or online. Local businesses hire local employees, work with

Great Christmas stories for children

December is filled with opportunities to make magical memories, particularly for families with young children. Christmas commands a lot of thought and attention, and parents know such efforts are worth it to see smiles on children’s faces. Stories help set the holiday scene and enable children to hold tight to all of the magic. Whether they are read together as a family or children read them on their own, these literary works can enhance special holiday moments.

• “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry: This story tells the tale of a young married couple who have to sacrifice in order to buy

Christmas presents for one another.

nearby suppliers and invest in community initiatives. This creates a multiplier effect: the more residents support local stores, the stronger the overall economic health of the community. Local businesses also pay taxes that supports schools, greenways, parks, emergency services and infrastructure—

• “A Christmas Carol,” by Charles Dickens: No Christmas season would be complete without reading (or watching) “A Christmas Carol.” When three ghosts visit Ebenezer Scrooge, he learns an important lesson about charity, friends and family.

• “The Berenstain Bears Meet Santa Bear: A Christmas Book for Kids” by Stan and Jan Berenstain: Kids of all generations have grown up reading Berenstain Bears books. This volume has Mama and Papa showing Sister and Brother that the true meaning of the holiday is about giving.

• “Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree” by Robert Barry: When Mr. Willowby’s tree arrives for Christmas, it is too tall for his parlor. He must cut off the top so it will fit, and that top is passed along again and again to spread holiday cheer.

amenities we all depend on.

Our small businesses are the heartbeats of our communities. Ever hear anyone say, “Wow, what a cool town, I love the big box stores that are all over the place.” Choosing local businesses helps maintain the cultural fabric that makes communities livable.

Shopping locally is also environmentally friendly. Buying from local stores reduces the need for long-distance shipping, excessive packaging and the carbon footprint associated with online shopping. Walking or driving short distances to local shops also lowers emissions compared with the constant stream of delivery trucks required by online retailers.

Choosing to shop local is a simple yet powerful act. It supports neighbors, strengthens communities, preserves local character and ensures that the places we call home continue to thrive.

My holiday shopping has fallen into a comforting routine, one I look forward to each year. At some point — usually just few days before Dec. 25 — I’ll visit Blue Ridge Books, Hazelwood Soap, wander down Main Street in Waynesville and buy jewelry, pottery or clothes, maybe more. I’ll run into friends and professional acquaintances — including proprietors — catch up on small talk, perhaps grab some coffee or a beer. Sometime in that runup to Christmas, I might join my wife or one of my grown children who are visiting and hit a few stores together as we finish up our list. Simple, easy, no pressure. It feels like an investment in the place I call home.

Enjoy the season and support the locals. Cheers.

• “The Greatest Gift” by Philip Van Doren Stern: Written in 1943, this story is about a man named George who is contemplating his life while standing on a bridge on Christmas Eve. This tale became the basis for the classic film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

• “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” by Dr. Seuss: Famed children’s writer Dr. Seuss was a master of imbuing life lessons in his stories and this book is no different. Isolated and angry, the Grinch learns to appreciate his neighbors in Whoville and comes to realize that Christmas is about being with loved ones and not material gifts.

• Gospels of Matthew (1 and 2) and Luke (1 and 2): Families can read about the birth of Jesus Christ, whose birth is primarily narrated in these passages. Matthew focuses on the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, while Luke speaks to the angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary, Christ’s birth and visits from shepherds.

A holday dessert to satisfy your sweet tooth

Baking is a popular activity come the holiday season. Families may designate entire weekend afternoons to baking holiday goodies, and those efforts are much appreciated by the beneficiaries of all that time spent in the kitchen, elbows deep in flour and confectioners’ sugar.

Cookies tend to be a go-to holiday treat, particularly in households with young children who want to leave out something homemade for the jolly old elf on Christmas Eve. But there’s also plenty of room to expand your horizons during holiday baking sessions with the family. A finished product like these “Toffee Cheesecake Bars” from “Taste of Home Healthy Cooking Cookbook” (RDA Enthusiast Brands) by the Taste of Home/Reader’s Digest Kitchens can delight guests and might even compel the man in the red suit to smile even wider come the night before Christmas.

TOFFEE CHEESECAKE BARS

Makes 28

1 cup all-purpose flour

3⁄4 cup confectioners’ sugar

1⁄3 cup baking cocoa

1⁄2 cup cold butter

1 8-ounce package reduced-fat cream cheese

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

11⁄4 cups milk chocolate English toffee bits, divided

1. In a small bowl, combine the flour, confectioners’ sugar, cocoa and baking soda. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press in the bottom of an ungreased 13-inch x 9-inch baking dish. Bake at 350 F for 12 to 15 minutes or until set.

2. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add the milk, eggs and vanilla; beat until smooth. Stir in 3⁄4 cup toffee bits. Pour over crust. Bake 18 to 22 minutes longer or until center is almost set.

3. Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining toffee bits; cool completely. Cover and refrigerate for eight hours overnight.

12 gifts for crafty people

Craft enthusiasts can be easy people to shop for come the holiday season.

Shoppers can simply fuel their loved one’s passion for crafts by keeping their supplies fully stocked or introduce them to new crafting techniques.

There are roughly 85 million active creatives and 30 million sewists in the United States and Canada, according to Customcy, a custom product manufacturer.

Millennials account for 41 percent of consumers in the craft market, according to the Center for Generational Kinetics. These 12 gift ideas will be perfect for creatives who want to enjoy their passion for crafting to the fullest.

1. Organizers: Craft supply organizers can keep people’s gear neat and tidy in bins or compartmentalized boxes.

2. Gift cards: A spending spree at a nearby craft retailer can help crafters get everything they need.

3. Rotary cutters: While quality scissors are a necessity, a rotary cutter can make fast work of slicing through materials.

4. Cutting mat: A self-healing cutting mat is ideal for model-making, sewing and paper crafts.

5. Cutting machine: A cutting machine, like those offered from Cricut® or Silhouette®, can help people complete a vast number of projects. These machines can cut vinyl, paper, labels, and even fabrics and foam for

A brief history of Christmas trees

Towering evergreens decked in lights and ornaments have long been a centerpiece of holiday décor, often displayed prominently in homes.

The Christmas tree tradition is believed to have begun in sixteenth-century Germany, though earlier references appear elsewhere. The first written record dates to 1510 in Riga, Latvia, where a merchant guild decorated a tree with roses and

certain models.

6. Pattern books: Those who enjoy needlework, crocheting or knitting can benefit from books that offer patterns or digital sewing ideas.

7. Yarn and thread: High quality yarns and threads can elevate completed projects.

8. Paper or canvases: Fine artists and painters will need places to display their creative visions. A stock of mixed media paper and canvases means art can be made whenever inspiration strikes.

9. Resin supplies: Resin products have become more popular and crafters who enjoy such projects will benefit from epoxy resin and molds or acrylic pouring kits.

10. Clay: Those who enjoy making claybased creations can always use more clay in a variety of colors and new clay sculpting tools.

11. Floral supplies: Whether live flowers or artificial, foam, tape, stem snips, and ribbons can help people create beautiful designs.

12. Home improvement: Many crafters can benefit from having a dedicated space to engage in their projects. A gift of minor home renovations to create a crafting room or area in an existing spot can make a crafter very happy.

Crafting is a popular hobby with scores of enthusiasts. Catering to their hobbies with special gifts will keep crafters busy and happy throughout the year.

then burned it. By the 1500s in Alsace, France, small undecorated trees were sold in markets, while early German trees featured apples, echoing older religious plays using evergreen boughs. Evergreens have symbolized life through winter across many cultures, including during early Christian solstice celebrations. Some historians credit Martin Luther with adding the first lighted candles. German settlers introduced the Christmas tree to the United States in the 1800s, and President Franklin Pierce later displayed the first White House tree.

Let charitable gifts spread joy this holiday season

Charitable giving increases significantly in the months surrounding the holidays. Approximately one-third of annual giving happens in December, and 10% of all giving occurs in the last three days of the year, according to Charities Aid Foundation America. The surge in donations typically occurs with people’s desire to spread holiday cheer, enjoy tax advantages and help people in the community, says Nonprofit Source.

Some people are compelled to donate in the name of another person. Here are some ideas for charitable holiday gifts that benefit many.

DONATE IN SOMEONE’S NAME

To honor a loved one who may be living or deceased or who fought an illness and won, you can donate to a nonprofit in the name of that loved one. Many charities offer printable or physical cards to let the recipient know a donation has been made in his or her name.

GIVING BACK THROUGH GIFTS

Certain products purchased feature proceeds that go toward a charitable cause. For example, every purchase of TOMS shoes helps fund mental health access and commu-

nity development, while the body care products from Thistle Farms are made by women survivors of trafficking, prostitution and addiction. Other products may help feed the hungry or support cancer patients.

SUPPORTING ANIMALS

A symbolic animal adoption can support conservation efforts around the world. Making a donation to the World Wildlife Fund in someone’s name, for example, enables you to get a plushie, certificate and information on the animal the contribution will be helping.

FAIR TRADE GIFTS

Making a purchase of fair trade items means you’re often buying handmade and ethically sourced goods. These gifts support artisans in developing countries and help fund community projects. Gift recipients can feel pride in ownership of an item that was designed and purchased with the greater good in mind.

CHARITY GIFT CARDS

SUPPORT SPECIAL BUSINESSES

Charitable gift cards, like those available from TisBest Charity and CharityChoice, let the gift recipient choose which nonprofit will receive the funds.

Offer gift cards or take people to dine or shop at businesses that support those with special needs. For example, No Limits Cafe in New Jersey is a full-service restaurant that trains and employs adults with intellectual

disabilities. Dining there will help to continue to support these important efforts to give every employee a sense of pride and purpose.

Charitable gifts make a recipient feel special and can make many additional people feel good as well.

Franklin fire substation opens

BY KYLE P ERROTTI

N EWS E DITOR

Anew fire substation in Franklin years in the making is now operational.

After lingering in limbo following initial construction, the state came through with funding to complete the project after Sen. Kevin Corbin and Rep. Karl Gillespie, both Macon County natives, were able to procure what was needed.

Last week, the opening was made official during a ribbon cutting. At the short event, Mayor Jack Horton offered some words before snipping the ribbon. Horton, who did not run for reelection in November and will finish his eight years as mayor in less than a week, recalled that when he was first elected and sworn in December 2019, there were three hot topics that became priorities — the Women’s History Trail and the skatepark, both already completed, and the substation.

“Our fire department, our town board, and especially our legislative delegation, Senator Corbin and Representative Gillespie, have done yeomen’s work getting the funds to help us build this building and furnish it,” Horton said.

Beyond having a substation out of which firefighters will be able to respond to serious casualties, Horton pointed out that this will also lower Franklin Fire Department’s ISO rating, meaning residents will see a decrease in the homeowner insurance bills.

“We thank you, chief and the firemen, all the paid and all the volunteer firemen and all the support that the community has given to our fire department. We thank you, and we dedicate this today, not to ourselves, but to the people that we serve,” Horton said. “Public service in the public interest has always been my theme, and this is a good example. This is a good example of how that meets that goal today.”

The stationhouse, still sporting that new building aroma, features a large living area, full kitchen and several sleeping quarters which are set up like dorm rooms. Speaking with The Smoky Mountain News, Franklin Fire Chief Ben Ormond said that the station won’t be manned now, but it will be useful for larger events that play out over a longer

period like a structure fire since it’s another place volunteers can arrive and gear up.

“One of the volunteers that lives on this side of town can just swing by here and grab the truck instead of having to drive all the way to Maple Street to get a fire apparatus,” he said.

that,” Ormond said. “This is a big step toward the future for us.”

In addition, Ormond said there’s a plan in the works for which he’s already written a policy proposal that would create a “livein program,” which would allow a few volunteers to live in the bunk rooms under

Greenville, first came into his current role in January 2021, the paperwork for the substation was done, the land located and a contractor to complete the job. A couple of months later, town leaders broke ground on the building. On March 14, 2023, there was a grand opening for the building itself, but at that point it was really just a shell of what one day would be an operational substation. Now it’s ready for full use.

“We had the three bays and this firewall, and all this was just open, and we

While there is a large bay capable of housing multiple vehicles, at this point, there is only a pump truck at the substation. The goal is to get more trucks and, at some point, man the station so it can be used for immediate response.

“Now we’ll have room to grow into

certain rules and restrictions. The upside for the town is that the station will be staffed, the upside for the people participating in the live-in program is that they don’t have to pay rent and will enjoy stable housing.

When Ormond, originally from

weren’t really sure when or how we were going to get the funds to finish this,” Ormond said. “And then fortunately, our legislators, Rep. Gillespie and Sen. Corbin, were able to help us obtain a grant so that we could finish it. And now here we are.”

As Border Patrol generates fear, neighbors and organizations step up

BY LILY LEVIN STAFF W RITER

Last Friday, the Department of Homeland Security announced the suspension of statewide Border Patrol enforcement activity, though it claimed ICE operations would continue.

DHS officials first announced the initial Queen City action, dubbed “Operation Charlotte’s Web,” on Nov. 15. Border Patrol claimed it completed 370 arrests throughout the subsequent week. Detentions spanned from Raleigh to Lenoir, avoiding much of Western North Carolina.

However, ICE and CBP generated a climate of fear statewide, regardless of region targeted.

even being questioned.”

And fear can be a powerful contagion.

“We have folks in … places where we have no reason to believe that ICE is going to show up. People are already not leaving their homes. Children are not going to school,” said Iliana Santillan, founder of Nahual Media and advocacy organization Brava NC and executive director at the latter. Santillan told The Smoky Mountain News that Brava NC had received an influx of requests for mental health support.

“Parents are having a really hard time talking to their children about what’s going on, especially after seeing images of people being abducted at churches, walking outside, doing their work,” she said.

enrolled members who may need updated identification” because “we cannot ignore the reality that Indigenous people across the United States have, at times, been questioned or detained by federal immigration authorities.”

Though ICE and CBP claim arrestees are undocumented, foreign-born and criminal offenders, a September 2025 NPR article stated that “in some cases immigration officers are executing major dragnets and arresting large groups of people and then determining if each person is in the U.S. illegally by interrogating them after they’ve been stopped.”

In the original DHS press release, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said agents had arrived to ensure “Americans are safe and public safety threats are removed.” But according to the Migration Policy Institute, “a growing volume of research demonstrates that not only do immigrants commit fewer crimes, but they also do not raise crime rates in the U.S. communities where they settle.”

Consequently, local immigration advocates saw last week’s operations as terror at the hands of the federal government.

“This is not about public safety. This is about destroying [Charlotte],” said Stefania Arteaga, co-executive director of Carolina Migrant network, the only organization in the state providing pro bono defense for those facing detention or deportation. Artega added that a friend witnessed a man picked up by CBP at Food Lion “without

CLIMATE IN WNC

Marianne Martinez is the CEO of Vecinos, a Franklin-based nonprofit providing free English- and Spanish-language medical care to low-income individuals, many of whom are Latino. Martinez said among her clients, she had witnessed “fear and anxiety and panic for themselves. For their family members. For the community in general.”

Apprehension surrounding Border Patrol enforcement even reached the Qualla Boundary, home to a small minority of those in the United States not descended from immigrants.

Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Principal Chief Michell Hicks released a Nov. 20 statement announcing that the Cherokee Indian Police Department was “offering free copies of enrollment cards to

One incident of such behavior was challenged by the ACLU of Southern California, and a federal court ruled that agents cannot rely on considerations such as someone’s skin color, place of work, Spanish-speaking ability or vehicle when evaluating reasonable suspicion of threat. In September, the Supreme Court reversed that decision. Though the SCOTUS ruling is not final, the American Immigration Council alleged it “clears the way for racial profiling.”

“I think that people are seeing what’s happening in Charlotte — that your citizenship status has really nothing to do with whether ICE breaks into your vehicle while you’re trapped in it and removes you forcibly from your vehicle and beats you … Well, it’s all on video, right?” Martinez said, referring to a Charlotte arrest that went viral.

Martinez said following CBP’s Charlotte announcement, the clinic worked through logistics of conducting widespread telehealth appointments in anticipation of many staying home.

“People vote with their feet, right? And so if they’re not comfortable with leaving their homes, they’re going to just not come into the clinic,” she told SMN on Nov. 17.

Unfortunately, Vecinos faced a false alarm soon after opening its doors last week to patients.

“It was a very direct, ‘Immigration is on site,’ and people got really freaked out, and it went on social media, and it was not true,” she recounted.

By last Thursday, Martinez reported that the clinic wasn’t experiencing any major issues,

although it had weathered “some no-shows and several folks who opted for telehealth” to minimize potential risk.

Healthcare is only one affected industry when it comes to missing appointments and services. On Nov. 18, 30,000 CharlotteMecklenburg students were absent from school. Santillan said similarly, significant numbers of Latino children statewide had not been attending class.

“If [students] miss more than 10 days, the school system has to take legal action. So, we’re really concerned about the repercussions,” she said.

Arteaga, who “lived under the largest workplace raid under the Bush administration in the in New Bedford, Massachusetts,” has a unique perspective on immigration enforcement fallout. Multiple families lost their homes, she said, and the raid forced residents out of town “because nobody wanted to work there.” Even still, Arteaga believes Bush-era immigration tactics paled in comparison to the recent CBP presence in North Carolina.

they got out of their vehicles. They were doing what they could to protect our community,” she said.

Outside of Charlotte, Santillan emphasized that it’s important to support local networks, so folks are prepared ahead of time. Her organization is striving to “make sure that communities get some tangible, concrete resources, such as food, school supplies, toys — whatever. Just that we don’t have to wait until ICE is in our backyards.”

She added, “we can start showing care and concern for our community right now.”

The work doesn’t necessitate developing new systems — it requires collaborating with existing ones. Santillan said Brava will tap organizations that have “been [in the community] for a while and have them guide us to where we can deliver these types of resources.”

Martinez agreed that community food distribution could be a way for individuals to assist one another during such uncertain and chaotic moments. She also encouraged donations to organizations funding affected

“We have folks in … places where we have no reason to believe that ICE is going to show up. People are already not leaving their homes. Children are not going to school.

Iliana

Santillan, founder of Nahual Media & Brava NC

“Never have I ever seen the militarization of law enforcement turned against this people, because that’s what it’s doing,” the Carolina Migrant Network co-executive director said.

According to Arteaga, last week’s operations manufactured an unsettling political landscape at the municipal level.

“At the end of the day, we’re under siege by the federal government,” she said.

NEIGHBORS HELPING NEIGHBORS

Siembra NC, a statewide immigrant rights organization tracking ICE/CBP incidents and organizing patrols and watches noted in a Nov. 18 press release that countless community members had stepped up for their targeted neighbors.

“The number of people turning out, volunteering, and speaking out helps us know that North Carolinians do want safety and security. Safety is created by community members looking out for each other and standing up for each other, not by masked federal agents who are here to create chaos and bring fear,” said Nikki Marín Baena, Siembra co-director.

Arteaga recalled an incident in which a street vendor was targeted by border enforcement officials — and everyday passersby stepped in to help. This individual is “well known as the guy who sells flowers in that corner for years, and CBP rolled up on him, and he ended up running into the woods. And when people on that major intersection saw him getting attacked by CBP, people pulled over, honked their horns,

families, “because people, if they’re staying home, they’re not getting paid. But the power companies will expect to get paid, you know what I mean?”

The Vecinos CEO explained that, unlike groups such as Siembra, her nonprofit can’t “mobilize protests” or “put the word out that ICE is in town,” because “if we stop doing health care to do these other things, then who’s going to do health care?”

Still, Martinez said that this moment calls for “responding to the needs of the community.” Professional advocacy, she told SMN, involves “pushing to our patients that, ‘Your healthcare is still important. And if you’re not comfortable leaving your home, don’t just not show up. Call us and turn your appointment into telehealth.’”

“Our mission is health and wellness services, and right now that that means something different than it did even six months ago” such as distributing food resources, she said.

But at the end of the day, Martinez admitted she didn’t have all — or many — of the answers.

“I think everybody in my circle, at least, we’re all just kind of looking at each other, going, ‘What the hell do we do?’”

(To report suspected ICE/CBP activity, call the CIMA hotline at 1.888.839.2839. Visit 4thworkplace.org to learn more about designating your business a Fourth Amendment workplace. Visit ojonc.org for information about ICE/CBP sightings in your area. Visit siembranc.org for opportunities to help protect your neighbors.)

Cherokee artist weaves strands of place and culture

Word from the Smokies

BY HOLLY KAYS FOR S MOKIES LIFE

In October 2019, Rhiannon Skye Tafoya was a year out of her master’s program and excited to begin an art residency at the Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, New York. Tafoya, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and Santa Clara Pueblo, planned to use her time there to create an artist book.

Her vision would mimic a basket design and honor her maternal grandmother, Martha Reed-Bark, who was an EBCI member and accomplished basketmaker. But shortly after she arrived in Rosendale, Tafoya discovered she was pregnant — and that changed everything.

“I started making it differently,” she said. The book’s design shifted, and so did the poetry that sits inside the basket it forms.

“The writing was very heavy toward line-

2019,” she said.

Art is central to Tafoya’s earliest memories, her artistic development continually encouraged and inspired by her family and the land that birthed them all. Artistry ran in the family; her grandmother, father, brother and cousins all had their own artistic endeavors, ranging from painting and drawing to woodcarving and pottery.

But when she was young, Tafoya never saw art as her future. A runner on her high school’s cross-country team, she planned on a career in sports medicine. However, shortly after starting college, she discovered that science was not her strong suit. She failed out of the program and changed schools, and that’s when she got interested in painting. Tafoya took her newfound passion to the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she found a discipline that enthralls her still — printmaking.

order to do it, and that’s what’s beautiful about it. There’s always that connection of learning from someone and then teaching someone else, and the same with basketry. That’s how you make baskets. You have to know your materials before you can actually make something.”

Basketmaking is intrinsic to Cherokee culture and to many other Native cultures throughout North America. Each tribe has its own traditions, its own process, its own materials. And the basket — the artistry of it, the usefulness of it, the heritage of it — represents something special to Tafoya.

“I like that there’s a history that’s within it, the way that cutting a tree isn’t just to cut a tree,” she said. “There’s so much knowledge in understanding why that tree is going to make a good basket.”

In this way, Tafoya sees parallels between the basketmaking process in her work as a printmaker and paper weaver.

age and seeing my granny and figuring out, ‘How do I pass on her values to my kid to make sure that they’re a Cherokee-strong person too?’” Tafoya said. “That book almost felt like it was gifted to me from my granny.”

It was a gift that transformed Tafoya’s career. Tafoya, 36, had been printmaking for years before she created Ul’nigid’ — Cherokee for “strength” — but “nothing was sticking.” Every month, she struggled to keep making art while still covering her basic needs. Ul’nigid’ didn’t sell well at first, but once the initial panic of COVID-19 subsided, “everyone just started buying it,” including, in 2022, the Museum of the Cherokee People on the EBCI’s Qualla Boundary. For the first time in a long time, Tafoya’s finances felt stable.

“It’s been a really good journey since

“There’s so much to investigate,” she said. “There’s always layers. There’s always textures. There’s colors. There’s just a vast amount of ways to make a print.”

But for several years after graduating from art school, Tafoya wasn’t making art at all. She was “just trying to figure out how to make a living.” She began working retail for Nike and later moved to Portland, Oregon, hoping to embark on a design career with the company.

“It didn’t work out, and thankfully it didn’t,” she said.

Instead, she enrolled in the master of fine arts program at Pacific Northwest College of Art, earning a print media degree in 2018. In addition to honing her printmaking and book-art skills, the program introduced her to letterpress printing. She’d never known about that medium before, but now it’s the biggest part of her practice.

“Everything is so intricate in the whole process,” she said. “You have to learn it in

“I’ve been thinking about paper weaving as an analogy for the past couple years,” she said, pondering how the process of working in different print shops and using the unique metal ornaments available at each is similar to the way a basketmaker must visit a specific landscape to gather materials for weaving or dyeing. The selection of paper and ink is akin to dyeing. Then, like a basketmaker does, she takes all her materials home and begins to process them, cutting them to size and weaving them together.

In every piece Tafoya creates, her Cherokee culture — and the Great Smoky Mountains region where it flourishes — shines through. But it’s a fine line, she says, between expressing her cultural identity and exploiting it. She works hard to stay on the right side of that divide. Tafoya has been learning about basketry for more than three years now, and last fall she embarked on a formal apprenticeship funded by a North Carolina Arts Council

grant. Though the grant has been completed, the mentorship will continue for as long as possible.

Tafoya’s prints and weavings are so heavily influenced by basket motifs that she would “feel like a fraud” if she wasn’t making baskets at the same time. But unlike her contemporary art, the baskets are not for sale. Her grandmother earned her living through basketry, and few of her pieces remain with the family — a point of sadness for Tafoya.

“My baskets are only going to be gifts,” she said. “They’re only going to be within my family, so that no one’s looking for my baskets later on in life and cannot find them.”

These days, Tafoya is staying busy with a bevy of contemporary art projects. In June, she completed her second artist book for Women’s Studio Workshop, Relational Sentience, about her relationship to four specific natural dyes. A LIFT award from Native Arts + Cultures Foundation will fund creation of a third book, to be completed by August 2026.

Forge Project in New York and taught a weeklong class at Shakerag Workshops in Sewanee, Tennessee.

Between her apprenticeship and her flourishing contemporary art career, Tafoya stays busy. But perhaps her most important role, she said, is as a wife and mother. Her son, Otis, now five, fueled the creative muse that made her first book so successful, and in a way, she’s indebted to him for the career she now has. But with success comes sacrifice. She completed nine different artist residencies in 2022 and 2023 in locations ranging from Marshall, North Carolina, to Halden, Norway. All that travel was “really, really hard” for the entire family, and she made a commitment to stay home much more in 2024 and 2025.

“Staying relevant in your field and prioritizing your family and your career is such a hard thing to balance, and I understand that there’s not really a balance,” she said. Instead, there are just choices, and she believes it’s important to talk about those challenges.

“There’s a lot of different things that you have to figure out for yourself, and no one is telling you how to do them.”

But that independence is also what Tafoya loves about life as an artist. She cherishes “having the freedom to do what I want, when I want, not having to answer to anybody,” and she does her best work in her home studio, up a little-traveled road in Cherokee’s Wolftown community, nestled at the foot of the Plott Balsam Mountains.

“I’m always looking for the next opportunity,” she said. Learn more about Tafoya and how to purchase her work at skyetafoya.com. An earlier version of this story was originally published in the spring 2025 issue of Smokies Life Journal, a twice-yearly magazine that is the primary benefit of joining Smokies Life. To read more stories like this while supporting Great Smoky Mountains National Park, visit smokieslife.org/membership and become a Park Keeper.

Tennessee, where she also curated a show. Over the summer, she completed an artist fellowship and residency at

(Holly Kays is the lead writer for the 29,000-member Smokies Life, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the scientific, historical and interpretive activities of Great Smoky Mountains National Park by providing educational products and services such as this column. Reach her at hollyk@smokieslife.org.)

Fontana library trustees get bogged down on small changes

BY KYLE P ERROTTI N EWS E DITOR

The Fontana Regional Library Board of Trustees is again struggling to implement changes as it trudges forward without legal representation.

At the Nov. 12 meeting, held in Jackson County, Cynthia Womble, who in September resigned her position as board chair but remains on the board, again expressed concern that Rady Large, an attorney who worked with the board on a pro bono basis, took a new job and couldn’t continue that service. Now, as Jackson County prepares to withdraw from the library system, there are important policy, personnel and financial decisions that must be made, and there is still no one analyzing crucial decisions that could potentially lead to litigation.

“It is worth it to find the right firm, not just someone who’s willing to do it [even though] it’s outside the scope of what they usually practice,” Womble said.

There were two relatively small issues where board members struggled to agree and fell into circular discussions.

First, Trustee Deborah Smith offered a brief speech ahead of a motion — a speech that created a feeling that something of substance was about to be discussed. Smith made her point as informed by both her position on the board and her career as a mental health professional. She said she has counseled numerous couples where each person thinks they’re the “injured party.”

“This seems much like the divide in our nation and community,” she said.

FRL trustees have been caught up in numerous debates that focus little on services or finances but are more so a reflection of national culture wars. In that debate, Smith claimed that both sides seem to have lost their willingness to listen to the other side, and now the debate has become disrespectful on a personal level. She was even more concerned by what she considers a lack of desire among those who criticize her and other members of the board to even hear what they stand for.

said, noting specific disappointment with local leadership and media.

Smith clarified that she doesn’t want to ban or remove books; she wants to move certain books “where the main theme is human sexuality” to “an adult section.” While such a move isn’t tantamount to banning materials, it is a form of soft censorship that has come under increasingly intense debate. Smith denied that moving certain books would be a veiled attempt to marginalize the LGBTQ or any other community.

tioning whether the Fontana Regional Library system should “affiliate” with certain community organizations, from those that support marginalized members’ groups to entirely noncontroversial entities like county Rotary clubs. Her main concern regarded Sylva’s Cornbread and Roses. According to CBR’s website, it is a “2SLBTQIA+ led and focused nonprofit dedicated to creating an inclusive and affirming space for individuals from marginalized communities in rural Western

While Smith said she doesn’t consider efforts by libraries to promote such books “grooming,” a term commonly used by those with most extreme arguments against LGBTQ content, she considers what may be a noble purpose to promote inclusivity as potentially dangerous for impressionable minds not yet able to grasp mature content.

“Not one single person in the last 10 months has asked me that question,” she

“My position is that children under the age of puberty are not mature sexually, emotionally or psychologically,” she said.

Smith pivoted to her main point, ques-

North Carolina.”

“Our mission is to foster community, celebrate diversity, and provide holistic therapeutic support to empower personal growth, resilience, and healing,” CBR’s mission statement reads. “We exist to fill vital gaps in service and to create community in the tradition of our Appalachian heritage with love, joy, pride, solidarity and good food.”

On its website, the nonprofit maintains a “Rainbow F

Directory,” a list of organizations and businesses in Sylva that are “LGBTQ-affirming.”

On that list, Jackson County Public Library is included among the likes of MANNA Food Bank, NC Harm Reduction Coalition, Pisgah Legal Services and The Community Table. Smith took issue with the library’s inclusion on that page. She noted with palpable concern that she’d seen that CBR had hosted a workshop for “queer witches and spiritualists” that encouraged participants to bring “an item of significance” to be placed on a community altar.

She was further worried that she’d seen a photo of FRL Director Tracy Fitzmaurice — an increasingly frequent target of scrutiny for some newer board members — in a photo with CBR members.

“Should the FRL be doing that?” she asked, adding that the workshop had a “religious vibe.”

“But the FRL won’t offer anything as an acknowledgement that Christmas is a Christian celebration,” she said. “That would be proselytizing, we’re told.”

Smith didn’t suggest trading one worldview for another; rather, she advocated against promoting any world view whatsoever at any facility. She moved to no longer affiliate with CBR or “any other community organization unless [the library system] affiliates with all, thereby being nondiscriminatory.” It was seconded by Marva Jennings, a board member from Jackson County who also thanked Smith for her words, calling them “very enlightened and very bold.”

There was some disagreement over whether the move would need an official policy, and ultimately a committee was formed to explore the issue, something that is becoming commonplace at each meeting for issues — big or small — that crop up.

Fitzmaurice noted that FRL doesn’t put any money or resources toward any of those organizations, although it had paid one former staffer’s rotary dues at one point, and any organization is free to rent library facilities. But support can come in many forms like the Rainbow Directory, for example.

“We didn’t put ourselves there. They build their directory and put us on there,” Fitzmaurice told trustees.

The concern shifted to a sticker showing support for CBR that is on a window near the front door of the Jackson County S EE LIBRARY, PAGE 18

Get

Together for

Holidays!

Library. Fitzmaurice noted that the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce also has a sticker in the same area as CBR’s. Smith said she thought that chambers of commerce aren’t usually protested for their politics.

“There aren’t going to be groups picketing the chamber of commerce because they don’t like their social, political or cultural perspective,” she said.

Womble challenged that claim, saying that chambers of commerce in some areas have come under scrutiny for promoting certain ideologies or groups over others. There’s one “in our area” that “had to think long and hard about what the theme was going to be for their Christmas parade because they were afraid that certain groups in the community would misinterpret it as backing something religious or cultural,” Womble said.

Jennings opined that there could be a “one-for-one” situation where a sticker from one kind of group can be paired with a sticker representing a group that believes the opposite.

“So if there was a pro-LGBTQ group, you’d want to endorse an antiLGBTQ group to balance it?” Womble asked.

At this point, Board Chair Bill McGaha broke into the conversation in an attempt to direct traffic and refocus the board. However, as the dialogue continued, it became clear that little was actually understood about the issue or what ramifications Smith’s proposal may have. Jennings recommended digging deeper, including into whether someone from the library ever filled out any kind of paperwork stating their support for CBR.

the choice is made.”

“This is about trying to create an environment in our libraries, all of them, so that any person with any worldview, ideology, can walk in and not be triggered by something that they see that looks like the library is aligned with this group or that group with which I do not agree,” Smith said.

Trustee Tony Monnat took this logic to a possible conclusion.

“I worry that we’re going to end up having a blank library,” he said. “We’re wanting to be neutral, which means zero. I think the library needs to be for all. That could mean the [fraternal order of police], this cornbread organization, Mainspring. All of these worldviews can come to the library, which is the opposite of zero.”

There was some disagreement over whether the move would need an official policy, and ultimately a committee was formed to explore the issue, something that is becoming commonplace at each meeting for issues — big or small — that crop up. Getting rid of professional dues, which has been brought up at the last few meetings, was also discussed. These dues pay for staffers’ or libraries’ memberships in organizations that enhance their development in the field, provide resources and come with discounts on materials like books.

“I worry that we’re going to end up having a blank library. We’re wanting to be neutral, which means zero. I think the library needs to be for all. That could mean the [fraternal order of police], this cornbread organization, Mainspring. All of these worldviews can come to the library, which is the opposite of zero.”

Tony Monnat, FRL trustee

Trustee Lori Richards proposed a budget amendment that would move money from each library’s professional dues into books, an idea she said was catalyzed by her interest in the board’s fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers. The move would total $1,440, or 0.03% of the library system’s total budget.

“If an application was made, we need to know it,” she said. “If an application was not made and they are putting us on their website or anywhere else that we are endorsing them, we need to know.”

“We are not endorsing. We are linked on many websites. I don’t know how many websites link to the library. I have no control over what websites do,” Fitzmaurice said, adding that the photo Smith was concerned about that included her was taken at an “afterhours event downtown,” that wasn’t specific to CBR.

Either way, most on the board seemed to agree that the prudent thing to do would be to seek removal from the list, something Womble again challenged.

“You are removing us as a community resource for people,” she said. “Just wanted to make sure that’s in the equation when

Womble asked whether some of these funds were from restricted donations and not taxpayers, making them untouchable. She also questioned whether moving those funds would impact any upcoming membership renewals with any professional organizations that may affect library staff or operations.

“What are we really trying to do here?” Womble, who appeared more exasperated as the meeting wore on, asked.

Fitzmaurice noted that it would eliminate her membership in the North Carolina Public Library Directors Association, which is up for repayment in December.

Despite outstanding concerns and unanswered questions, the board voted 5-3 in favor of Richards’ motion with Womble, Monnat and Trustee Marsha Moxley voting against the measure.

“So we just voted on something we don’t understand,” Womble said, to no response.

Community Almanac

UWHC Receives $300k Grant from Local Benefactor

United Way of Haywood County announced that it received a generous grant of $300,000. This donation was gifted by the George Elmore Fund for United Way of Haywood County of the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties based in Palm Beach, Florida.

The grant will be used to form an endowment to fund a large part of UWHC’s work over the next five years. Specifically, the donation will be used to improve administrative constraints and boost marketing and fundraising efforts.

“My hope is that this gift not only says thank you, but also inspires others to keep it going,” said Elmore. “If we all do a little more good for more people, the ripple effect will be immeasurable.”

Earlier this year, the CFPBMC reached out to Executive Director Celesa Willett through email. In March, Willett travelled to Palm Beach and met, along with several other non-profits, the foundation staff of CFPBMC and the benefactor, George Elmore.

Elmore, a part-time resident of Haywood County, expressed a particular interest in supporting UWHC’s immediate needs and long-term sustainability.

Enjoy Grace Episcopal Christmas Cookie Walk

Get ready to satisfy your sweet tooth at Grace Episcopal Church’s Annual Christmas Cookie Walk, at 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, in Waynesville.

Guests are invited to pick out a festive Christmas tin and fill it with their favorite homemade cookies from a delicious variety of holiday treats baked by members and friends of the church.

In addition to the cookies, enjoy a festive holiday atmosphere filled with Christmas music, crafts and activities for all ages — making this event a joyful outing for families and friends alike.

All proceeds will benefit Haywood Pathways Center, helping support our community during this special season of giving.

Waynesville Historic Mural Completed

In honor of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Town of Waynesville was awarded a $27,000 grant from the state of North Carolina to create a mural celebrating the town’s history and its namesake, General “Mad” Anthony Wayne.

Over the past three weeks, internationally renowned artist, Rafael Blanco, worked diligently to complete the mural. The piece, which is painted on the back of the Strand Theater (also known as the Keller Williams office), brings to life the legacies of one of the nation’s most iconic Revolutionary War figures, General “Mad” Anthony Wayne, and Waynesville’s founder, Robert Love.

Swain hospital to host seniors holiday event

Swain Community Hospital’s Senior Life Solutions program will host a special holiday gathering, “Cookies, Carols and Cocoa,” at noon Tuesday, Dec. 2. The event will take place at 45 Plateau Street, Suite 250, Bryson City, and is open to community members.

The afternoon will include holiday music, festive treats and information about local mental health resources. Designed to bring people together during a time that can be especially challenging for many, the event encourages connection, awareness and support.

Prioritizing mental health can help strengthen relationships, reduce stress and restore a sense of purpose and joy. By hosting events like this, Senior Life Solutions continues its commitment to promoting emotional well-being and increasing access to care across Swain County.

Those interested in attending are encouraged to RSVP by emailing rachel.vining@lifepointhealth.net or calling 828.488.4044.

Jackson TDA Launches Holiday Gift Card Guide

The Jackson County Tourism Development Authority, in partnership with the chambers of commerce in Sylva and Cashiers, has launched its first-ever Jackson County Holiday Gift Card Guide. The guide is designed to inspire residents and visitors to shop local and support the independently owned businesses within this charming region of Western North Carolina.

holiday season approaches, a time when food insecurity often peaks. United Community Bank invites all customers and community members to participate by donating nonperishable food items, such as canned goods, pasta, rice and cereals. Together, we can replenish the vital supplies needed by Haywood Christian Ministries to ensure that no family in our community goes hungry.

The collected donations will be delivered to Haywood Christian Ministries for distribution to local families facing food insecurity. The partnership between United Community Bank and Haywood Christian Ministries exemplifies the spirit of community and compassion that is at the heart of our bank’s mission.

For more information about the food drive or to donate, please visit the bank’s branch at 165 N. Main St., Waynesville. Donations can be made in the lobby or the drive through.

Swain Genealogy hosts holiday potluck

The Swain County Genealogical Society is hosting a holiday potluck that is open to the public.

Curtis Blanton will present an original Christmas story set in the times of our ancestors.

The potluck will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 4, at the Swain County Business Ed Center in Bryson City.

“Our small businesses are the heart of Jackson County, and the Holiday Gift Card Guide makes it easy to support them during the busiest shopping season,” said Nick Breedlove, Executive Director of Jackson County TDA. “Whether someone is looking for a handcrafted gift, a memorable meal or an outdoor adventure, this guide offers inspiration to shop small and share the spirit of Jackson County.”

The new guide brings together online and instore gift card offerings from local shops, restaurants, outfitters and service providers across the county. Featuring over two dozen participating businesses, the guide highlights the wide variety of ways shoppers can give meaningful, experience-driven gifts this holiday season while directly supporting the local economy. From chocolatiers to bookstores and restaurants, there’s a gift waiting for everyone.

To view the full list of participating businesses, visit discoverjacksonnc.com.

Bring your favorite covered dish of your favorite holiday food to share.

Christmas at Lake Junaluska

Experience the joy and wonder of the holiday season during Christmas at Lake Junaluska, Dec. 12-14.

Ride the Holly Jolly Trolley at 5:30, 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 12, and Sunday Dec. 14, as it takes passengers along North Lakeshore Drive to see the festive light displays. It’s a great event for family members of all ages. Purchase tickets at bit.ly/hollyjollytrolley2025.

UCB food drive to support

Haywood

Christian Ministries

United Community Bank announced the launch of a food drive aimed at supporting Haywood Christian Ministries, a local organization dedicated to providing food assistance to those in need. From Nov. 13 through Dec. 15, donation boxes will be placed in the lobby and drivethrough areas of the United Community Bank or Waynesville to encourage community contributions.

This initiative comes at a crucial time as the

Enjoy a spirited and fun day of Christmas shopping at the Holiday Craft Market. Family activities are from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, at Harrell Center. Bring the whole family to shop for unique, handcrafted and one-of-a-kind gifts. Kids of all ages can enjoy sensory bins, make holiday crafts and receive a special keepsake ornament. Enjoy free cider samples at Junaluska Gifts & Grounds.

Enjoy quiet and reflective time during the Festival of Lessons and Carols at 6:45 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, at historic Memorial Chapel. This beautiful one-hour traditional English service features Scripture readings and corresponding music sung by the congregation or soloists, accompanied by harp and flute. This event is free and open to the public. Afterward, enjoy the glow of holiday lights, greenery and ribbon which decorate the grounds. For more information about Lake Junaluska, visit lakejunaluska.com or to learn how to become a part of the community, subscribe to Lake Junaluska’s enewsletters at bit.ly/LJstayconnected.

Cherishing memories of the old ways

It was a Friday afternoon a few weeks ago, and I was chafing. Perhaps you saw me. I was that 65-ish guy with sunglasses and a ball cap standing outside the REACH secondhand store in downtown Hazelwood. My lovely wife, my beautiful daughter and my spectacular three-month-old grandson are inside, browsing. These are my people, my tribe, those I’d do anything for, literally cut off my arm or yank out my eyeballs if that’s what they needed, but shopping on a fall afternoon is not my idea of fun, not with a light breeze gently twisting the leaves back and forth as they try to hang on to the tree limb, the glinting sun making orange sparklers of those leaves right in front of me.

The anxiety eases a bit as a I continue to ponder the trees and the leaves and the sky. So I stand and wait, not patiently, but I wait, my shoulder against the building, considering that I may be bad for REACH’s business, elderly ladies with pockets full of money choosing to pass by rather than get too close to this man standing right beside the entryway. Hands thrust in my pockets, I eye the bench across the street, thinking it a more appropriate perch.

Then I see familiar faces departing from Blue Ridge Books. Lori and I had just listened to Ron Rash and his daughter talk and read. I think there were 12 of us listening to a writer many consider the most accomplished Appalachian scribe of our time. The banter between Ron and his daughter, Caroline, was light, heartfelt, even funny. She’s a poet with her first book just published. Her poems were serious and contemplative. She wore a shirt proclaiming her support for public

schools. My wife, the retired ESL teacher, complimented her afterward as we hung around and chatted with them.

I connected with the fact that Caroline Rash is a writer. And she’s a teacher. And she’s navigating life in this very strange time this country is going through. If your vocation is to write relevant and meaningful poetry, welcome to 2025, a time when there’s plenty of material.

Ron, though he didn’t try to steal the show, was the star. He’s a master who is getting his due. And he’s also quite the raconteur. His genuine Southern accent is something that’s not as common as it once was, and my ear is tickled by accents and dialects. When I hear a person with a strong mountain or Southern accent, I can’t help but comment on it and ask questions about their upbringing.

I connected with Ron’s stories and also his upbringing, his description of spending each summer in the mountains with his grandparents from the time he was 10 until he graduated high school. He told the group that their drinking water came from a spring, and a fresh trout living in the trough proved the water’s purity. I think I read that in one of his stories.

I never spent entire summers there, but my father made sure my brothers and I often visited his brothers and sisters who worked in the textile mills and lived in and around

Social connection is a lifesaver

What’s the point of human existence if we’re not part of something bigger than ourselves?

Our need for connection is rooted deep within our biology — as important as food, water and shelter. In fact, a 2023 report by the U.S. Surgeon General stated that the mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to smoking 15 cigarettes a day and supersedes the negative impacts of obesity and physical inactivity.

During my days as a teacher, I attended a training on bullying. I learned that when kids have even one good friend, it serves as a significant buffer against bullies. Being a loner is not only hard enough on its own, but it’s also a magnet for cruel people who thrive on belittling others. What some don’t understand is that bullies themselves are struggling with something too, and to combat their own pain, they project their rage onto others.

I’ve written about the Blue Zones before — a handful of regions around the world where individuals live exceptionally long and healthy lives, often reaching 100 years old. These zones have a number of characteristics in common, and one of them is strong social connections. They make it a priority to gather together and enjoy the company of friends and family. This bonding experience is inte-

gral to a joyful and lengthy lifespan.

In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a sense of social connection comes before self-esteem and self-actualization. It’s hard to love oneself and become who you’re truly meant to be without a sense of community. Barber shops, beauty salons, front porches and church potlucks once served as meeting grounds for the type of social connection we crave. To a degree, we still have a lot of these cornerstone communal groups, especially in small towns, and for that, I’m grateful.

Consider the magnetic chemistry among a successful sports team — how they not only need each other to achieve a collective goal, but the support of teammates and coaches helps the individual grow and evolve into a better athlete and person. My older son is part of a nationally-ranked cross country team, and while they’re all talented runners in their own regard, something magical happens when they come together as a team. I like this example because running is often viewed as a

Rockingham, N.C., and Cheraw, S.C., and the Great Pee Dee River. In the 1970s that was like taking a few steps back in time. Everything in that world revolved around food and hunting, or so it seemed to me. Or maybe that’s just what my uncles and cousins wanted me and my brothers — straightup suburban teens — to taste. Feeding the dogs in the evening, getting up before sunrise for a huge breakfast that consisted almost entirely of food they had grown or raised or killed, my aunt never leaving the stove, a cigarette hanging from her mouth as she piled plates high and handed them to us. These folks still had a hog pen and chickens, pear and peach trees, a huge garden, and hundreds of jars of beans and pickled tomatoes and peach preserves lined shelves that wrapped around two sides of the cool basement.

After hunting we’d often stop by some country store, sit on the porch or around the trucks eating boiled peanuts or Vienna sausage and nabs, chugging Pepsi and Mountain Dews from bottles, telling stories about our hunt and reliving what had just taken place. My Uncle Skeet, the prankster and the patriarch, ribbing us about our bad shooting while he snuck some morsel to his favorite dog, Belle.

The technological world we live in today dehumanizes us and breaks connections to nature. As we celebrate this holiday that’s all about family, my mind sends me back to that time and those places. Here’s to hoping the old ways remain with me for all my days.

(Scott McLeod is the publisher and editor of The Smoky Mountain News. info@smokymountainnews.com.)

solitary sport, but cross country reminds us that the sum is always greater than its parts.

There is a correlation between the rise of technology and the decline of social connection. The more and more we move into our phones and computers, the less we move outward into the world and into the lives of our friends, families and neighbors. In addition to that, the isolation we experienced during the pandemic didn’t help matters. We became entirely too comfortable sheltering in place and distancing ourselves from others.

Personally speaking, I feel enlivened and energized when I’m in a social setting. Sometimes it’s hard to take the initiative to dive into a social situation, but every time I do, I feel so much better afterward. I recently received a phone call from an extended family member I’d not spoken to in years. We talked for a while, and hearing the cadence and tone of our voices, as opposed to texting or emailing, was powerful. Similarly, I’m part of a group chat with several women from across the country and every now and then, we spontaneously hop on a group FaceTime call, and it is beyond fun. Sure, we’re all busy, and it’s hard to carve out 20 minutes to completely stop what we’re doing to get on FaceTime and talk, but every time we do it, we say, “We should do this more often.”

Something similar happens after church on Sundays. At first thought, it may seem more rewarding to ease into the day, drink that extra cup of coffee and skip church, but when I make the other choice — to get dressed, get out the door and get to church — I’m always proud of myself. It’s not simply the message from the pastor that is fueling, but it’s also the fellowship of being among friends and community members.

We’ve entered the holiday season, and during this time, I encourage all of us to remember the importance of social ties. If you’re lucky enough to already have a network, make the effort to reach out to friends even more than usual, and do this in person or over a phone call. Even more importantly, if you know someone who may be alone or struggling, please reach out to them and offer your light. It’s never easy to be alone, but it’s especially challenging during the holidays when happier memories can feel haunting or the longing to be in a different situation can be suffocating. Sometimes we forget what matters most. It’s not the money in our pocket, the accolades on our shelves or the gifts under the tree — it’s one another.

(Susanna Shetley is a writer and editor who lives in Haywood County. susanna.b@mokymountainnews.com.)

A conversation with Darrell Scott

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD

ARTS & E NTERTAINMENT E DITOR

At age 66, legendary singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott is having a career rebirth of sorts.

Though he’s always been known as a prolific and productive artist — whether in Nashville musical circles as a performer and producer or through endless touring from coast-to-coast and beyond — this current chapter of his storied life has evolved into a full-circle kind of thing, one where Scott is reevaluating just what it means to create and cultivate in your autumn years.

Scott caught up with The Smoky Mountain News and spoke at-length about this current juncture of his life, the trajectory of his whirlwind career and what it means to be a songwriter in the modern era.

Smoky Mountain News: As a songwriter and musician, what’s been your thought process as you’ve approached this age?

Darrell Scott: Well, oddly enough, I think I spent a couple of years wondering if I should just turn all this down and just stay out at my farm. But, in fact, I’m more energized than I’ve been in decades about music, projects, playing music and new ideas. So, when I was very much considering toning it all down, I’m doing the opposite. I’m working on [all kinds of] records right now. For whatever reason, I’m more energized than ever.

SMN: Well, it’s a whole other chapter that is unwritten.

DS: Yeah. And that’s the way I feel. But you know, for a while, I didn’t know if I was just old and in the way. But, it’s just not the truth. I have a lot more to say. I have a lot more music to put out and for some reason I’ve got the energy. It seems like I’ve got the green light on all of that. I’m just going with all that stuff and then putting out more music and videos. We’re kind of going after it just because the energy seems to be there.

SMN: It comes down to such a simple

thing — this is what you do and what you love, so why not?

DS: Yeah. I finally turned that corner. I’m working on more things than any other period of my life. I can’t even think of anything that comes close and, very specifically, to it also being me putting out my own records. I’ve never done so much for myself than what I’m doing right now.

SMN: Do you think that was the inevitable, as in that’s just how things roll out?

DS: It is that. And the other thing, it’s like Sherlock Holmes, where he was about the “science of deduction.” So, I deduced the things I don’t want to do. I get them out of the way and then all that’s left is the stuff I want to do. And right now, it’s about working on my own stuff and not really kind of watering it down by playing with other folks or being in their bands or being a studio musician in Nashville. Putting out a working on my own music — it’s really detoxifying.

Alongside two nights of performances by

For more information, a full schedule of events or to purchase tickets, click on balsamrangeartof-

SMN: And there has to be intrinsic value

There is. And I think that’s where this energy of working harder on this stuff than I ever have is coming from. It’s because I don’t really have the other stuff to be working on. I mean, it’s not that I’m sitting around, but I have to do away with the things I’m not going to spend my time on. And that leaves me with the things that I’m going to monkey with.

SMN: But, then what does that also reveal to you as your purpose as not only a musi-

Well, I would say it’s about time on one level, and then on the other hand, you could say, “Why didn’t I do this when I was 20 or 30?” [Back then], I always sort of had four or five irons in the fire — a session life, a songwriting life or road life, a family life. I get to work on what I want to work on. Something has basically given me full permission to just do this and, silently, I’m listening.

SMN: What is the role of the songwriter in the 21st century, in the digital age?

I think it moves around. I think for some it’s to write to have hits. For others, it’s to talk and comment about what’s going on in our world — the social, the political, the environmental, the emotional side of humanity.

So, the good news is it’s a bunch of things, there’s no one thing that it is. Some people will be chasing the hits and others will be trying to write about their mother that they lost when they were six years old.

Of course, my leaning is toward the latter. They’re writing about something that means something to you. That’s a very important expression to make. I’m way more interested in the expression than the hit climbing style.

SMN: It’s about making a connection about the human condition with another human being.

DS: Yeah. And that’d be great. I mean, sometimes hits do that, too. But, it’s about the intention. I don’t think there’s one answer to it, but I’m really trying to answer that as to what I want to say and do as a songwriter — a maker of albums and makers of shows, of travel and all that stuff. It’s becoming more personal to me. It always was, but now I’m not confused at all about that.

This must be the place

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD

‘Believe that the world is an ethereal flower, and ye live’

While I’m sitting and looking out the window of the local laundromat here in West Waynesville, I notice how dirty my rusty, musty, trusty pickup truck has become since I last washed it, which, I think, may have been last winter or so. One year’s worth of dirt along endless miles of unforgiving roads, both geographically and spiritually.

To that, I just spent $609 on it yesterday getting new cooling lines for my leaky transmission (which also needed four quarts of fresh fluid). That was one hell of a bill to swallow for this minimalist journalist who calls a tiny apartment home. But, it had to be done. My truck is my livelihood, the ways and means by which I get around to and from assignments, the method by which I wander and ponder. Hand over the credit card and sigh deeply.

HOT PICKS

1

“Stecoah Arts & Crafts DriveAbout Tour” will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 28-29 at featured studios in Bryson City, Stecoah and Robbinsville.

rolled down and eager to witness just what natural beauty may linger around the bend, over the next hill and beyond the scope of my current comprehension.

Then, there’s the dust all over the back of the tailgate, a result of constant cruising down lonely forest service roads throughout Western North Carolina and greater southern Appalachia. To note, one of my favorite things to do in life is find remote forest service roads that intersect the Appalachian Trail, the idea being that I can hop on and off the trail and explore random sections.

And as I momentarily stare at my truck, it also dawns on me I’m overdue for oil change, need to put on those new brakes, and finally get an alignment that I’ve been saying I would since May, right before I hit the road for the West and points elsewhere until sometime around Labor Day Weekend. But, no matter. It is what it is. Got to have the truck up to snuff to take on the road, to destinations known and unknown, either nearby or somewhere beyond the horizon, beyond what I’ve seen, heard, smelled and felt before. If the truck doesn’t function, I don’t, either. It’s that simple. And she’s become a companion of sorts along this continued whirlwind journey of self-discovery.

She, as in “Black Betty,” which is what I call the ol’ 2013 Toyota Tacoma. She just crossed over 202,000 miles the other day. That’s a lot of oil changes, new tires and tire rotations and whatever else I’ve had to fix on her since I obtained her those many years ago. Quite the road. Onward into the night, eh?

With that said, I really don’t feel like washing her, not yet at least. I like the dust and mud speckles all over the vehicle. That grime was well-earned. The dust coating my dashboard is from the backroads of South Dakota and Montana, where I meandered down happily this past summer, windows

Opening the tailgate and placing my laundry basket in the back, I noticed small piles of sand in the bed of the truck, a result of taking my pickup onto the beach in St. Augustine, Florida, last March. And I don’t want to vacuum out the sand, for it reminds me of when I was visiting my parents down there, the three of us hopping into my truck and hitting the nearby beach, later on packing up to leave, tossing the sandy chairs and cooler into the truck bed.

Then, there’s the faded and wrinkled stickers on the inside of my windshield. They’re parking passes from the last few installments of FloydFest, one of my all-time favorite musical gatherings, happening each July in the depths of the Blue Ridge Mountains in southwestern Virginia. Those old stickers conjure such incredible moments, either onstage or late-night the camping area.

Just above the FloydFest decals is one from the Under the Big Sky festival this summer up in Whitefish, Montana. Tens of thousands of music freaks descending upon a 400-acre working ranch in the heart of Big Sky Country. This was third year heading up there and capturing the melodic madness for Rolling Stone. Mountains. Mischief. Music. Memories. And this goround, I decided to drive the entire way out and back from Haywood County. That UTBS decal also represents faces

2

Waynesville Christmas Parade will be held at 6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 1, on Main Street.

3

Christmas Tree Lighting will be at 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 29, in downtown Bryson City.

4

Franklin Christmas Parade will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 30, in downtown.

5

“Hard Candy Christmas” arts/crafts show will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 28-29 inside the Ramsey Center at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee.

and places around Whitefish that have become near and dear to my heart and soul. Faces from Laramie, Wyoming and Los Angeles, California. Faces that jumped into my truck every day of the gathering (they flew in, no rental car) and wandered around the backcountry of Montana, wandered around the backstage of this massive event.

Places like evenings at the Remington Bar or Abruzzo Italian Kitchen, wild times and delicious meals. Or early mornings at Murray Lake. Head west out of Whitefish on U.S. 93 towards Beaver Lake Road, turn off to the left down the narrow dirt path towards Murray. Sapphire waters amid genuine silence and glorious solitude that comes at a premium in this modern world of white noise and distraction.

The mind starts to drift to all the former trucks that meant so much to the timeline of my existence: 1998 Isuzu Hombre, 2001 GMC Sonoma, 2005 Dodge Dakota, 2008 Toyota Tacoma. I wonder if any of them are still currently on the road and hopefully not in some junkyard. I recall each fondly, the hundreds of thousands of miles traveled, hands steady on the wheel of not only the vehicle, but also of my intent.

Snap back into reality at the laundromat. Enough daydreaming for the time being. The washer finished at least 10 minutes ago. Time to switch the load of clothes over into the dryer, only to sit back at the window and start typing away at whatever it was that overtook my mind just now in the haze of Thursday afternoon, the hustle and bustle of household chores and deadlines.

It’s a splendid day outside. Oddly warm for mid-November. Thoughts of what to do and where to go for Thanksgiving dinner exactly one week away. Thoughts of what to do and where to go later today for a sweaty jog around somewhere, anywhere, most likely the River Arts District in Asheville. Clock in some miles, then perhaps meet up with friends at a local brewery, sunshine and gratitude radiating in abundance.

Life is beautiful, grasp for it, y’all.

On the tree

• Sylva Christmas Tree Lighting and “Holiday Concert” will be held from 6-8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 5, in front of the Historic Jackson County Courthouse on West Main Street. Free and open to the public. discoverjacksonnc.com.

• Franklin Christmas Parade will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 30, in downtown. The parade floats will line up on Church Street entering Main Street through the Franklin Town Hall parking lot. The parade will continue down Main Street, turning left onto Porter Street at Lazy Hiker Brewing. Turning left again onto Palmer Street at the red light, the parade will end at the Highlands Road intersection. Free and open to the public. franklin-chamber.com/events.

• Sylva Christmas Parade will be held from 3-4:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7, on Main Street. The parade takes place along Historic Main Street for celebration, cheer and a chance to see Santa. The floats start and end at

On the street

Mark Watson Park after a loop through town. Free and open to the public. discoverjacksonnc.com.

• Christmas Tree Lighting

• 51st annual Bryson City Christmas Parade will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, in downtown. Free and open to the public. greatsmokies.com/events.

• Highlands Christmas Parade will be held 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Dec. 6, on Main

Saturday, Nov. 29, in downtown Bryson City. Christmas caroling and a live nativity scene, with the lighting at 6 p.m. Free cookies and hot cocoa, letters to Santa and more. Free and open to the public. greatsmokies.com/events.

Dillsboro’s ‘Lights & Luminaries’

The 42nd annual “Lights & Luminaries” will return from 5-9 p.m. Dec. 5-6 and 12-13 in the streets of downtown Dillsboro.

Experience the magic as the entire town is transformed into a winter wonderland of lights, candles, laughter and song. Over 2,500 luminaries light your way to shops and studios.

Each night, shops will stay open way into the night, providing free refreshments, with musicians and singers performing in individual shops. The sound of hooves will echo through the night with old-fashioned horse and buggy rides. With retail shops offering a variety of quality arts and crafts, unique gifts, clothing, gourmet foods/wines and specialty Christmas items, the festival provides a unique holiday shopping experience.

Shopkeepers and restaurants are open late. See Santa and Mrs. Claus as they ride through town in their pickup truck. Write a letter to Santa and drop it off at his special mailbox. Live music will also be held on Front Street.

landschamber.org.

• Canton Christmas Parade will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 4, in downtown. This year’s theme is “Santa’s Workshop in

Motion.” The parade features area school groups, high school bands, Christmas music, dance teams, churches and many local businesses, as well as horses, dogs, tractors, vintage cars and the flashing lights of our local emergency services. Santa and Mrs. Claus will also be making a special appearance. Free and open to the public. cantonnc.com.

• Waynesville Christmas Parade will be held at 6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 1, on Main Street. Parade starts at First Presbyterian Church and proceeds down Main Street to Bogart’s Restaurant. Free and open to the public. downtownwaynesville.com.

• “Light Up The Park” and Santa will be held from 6-8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 29, at KelseyHutchinson Park. Christmas songs, hot chocolate and more. highlandschamber.org.

• Cherokee Christmas Parade will be held Saturday, Dec. 13. For more information, visit visitcherokeenc.com/event/2025-winterfest.

Stecoah Drive-About Tour

The annual “Stecoah Arts & Crafts DriveAbout Tour” will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 28-29 at featured studios in Bryson City, Stecoah and Robbinsville.

Free and open to the public. For more information, visit dillsboronc.info.

• “Celtic Christmas” will be held from 6-8:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 5, at the Otto Community Center. Celebrate the holidays in a traditional Celtic way with fiddles, whistles, drums, singers, Irish dancers, storytelling and more. Admission by donation ($20 suggested). All are welcome. For more information, visit go2ottonc.com.

• “Winter Wonderland Nights” will be held Nov. 29 and Dec. 6 in Franklin. Downtown will feature living window displays of the holidays, live sounds of the season outdoors at the gazebo and inside stores, free holiday attractions (weather permitting), refreshments, hot cider, great sales from local merchants and more. franklin-chamber.com/events.

• “Polar Express” train ride will roll down the tracks on select dates from the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad

depot in downtown Bryson City. For a complete listing of departure dates and times, 800.872.4681 or gsmr.com.

ALSO:

• “Christmas Light Show Drive-Thru” is running everyday through the holidays at the Great Smoky Mountains Event Park in Bryson City, except Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Admission is $20 for cars and family vans, $40 for activity vans and limousines. Tour buses and school buses are not allowed due to the tight turns at the entrance. For more information, visit explorebrysoncity.com/events/christmasholiday/christmas-lights.

• “Christmas Wonderland” hayrides will be held at Darnell Farms through Dec. 28 in Bryson City. Closed Christmas

With studios open to the public, the selfguided driving tour highlights artisans who have built a livelihood with their creative talents. Media include pottery, beeswax lanterns and pillar candles, original paintings/drawings, fiber, quilts, photography, honey, mead and more.

The tour includes Doodad Mosaics & Gift, Wehrloom Honey & Meadery, Marie’s Lavender Farm, The Shed Gallery, Junk N’ Style, Stecoah Artisans Gallery, The Village Merchant, Sharla Kauffman Pottery and Gallery Zella. For more information, visit stecoahvalleycenter.com.

Eve and Christmas Day. Limited seating available. For a full schedule and/or to purchase tickets, visit on darnellfarms.com.

• “Festival of Trees” will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 28-29 at the Summit Charter School in Cashiers. Admission is $5 per person, free for ages 18 and under. “Mistletoe Market” (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.), “Santa on the Green” (1-4 p.m.) and Cashiers Christmas Tree Lighting (5-7 p.m.) will be held Friday, Nov. 28, on The Village Green. Free and open to the public. discoverjacksonnc.com.

• “Winterfest” ice skating and food truck rodeo every Friday and Saturday through Dec. 27 at the Cherokee Welcome Center. visitcherokeenc.com/event/2025-winterfest.

On the beat

• Balsam Falls Brewing (Sylva) will host “Open Mic” 8-10 p.m. Thursdays. Free and open to the public. 828.631.1987 / balsamfallsbrewing.com.

• Balsam Mountain Inn (Balsam) will host “Picking on the Porch” (open community jam) 6 p.m. Tuesdays, “Trivia Night” 7 p.m. Wednesdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.283.0145 / thebalsammountaininn.com.

• Bevel Bar (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.246.0996 / bevelbar.com.

month and semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.307.2160 / breadheadstikishak.com.

• Farm At Old Edwards (Highlands) will host the “Orchard Sessions” on select dates. All shows begin at 6 p.m. Admission is $50 per person, with discounts rates available for hotel guests and members. 866.526.8008 / oldedwardshospitality.com/orchardsessions.

• First Presbyterian Church (Franklin) will host “CareNet Benefit Concert” 3 p.m. Dec. 7. Admission is free, with love offerings

Salty Dog’s welcomes McAfee

Haywood County singersongwriter Ginny McAfee will hit the stage at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 29 at Salty Dog’s Seafood & Grill in Maggie Valley.

For McAfee, the stage is not just a place to showcase her talent, it’s a platform to share her own unique musical expression with attentive audiences who appreciate originality. The loss of her father to cancer last year profoundly altered her perspective on life, rekindling her sense of purpose and igniting her spirit.

McAfee believes there’s a hunger in the

Lazy Hiker to rock out

world for genuine messages — messages of virtue, truth and the celebration of the simple yet beautiful aspects of life. And she’s determined to deliver these messages through the universal language of music. McAfee’s musical prowess knows no boundaries, transcending traditional genres to create a captivating blend of diverse musical styles. Her voice effortlessly embodies the vulnerability of Stevie Nicks, the angelic innocence of Alison Krauss and the unbridled confidence of Dolly Parton. Free and open to the public. 828.926.9105 or facebook.com/saltydogs2005.

Jam-rock ensemble Prophets of Time will hit the stage at 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 28, at Lazy Hiker Brewing in Sylva. A multi-genre blending rock band hailing from the mountains of Western North Carolina, the Prophets of Time are composed of six freewheeling spirits, the culmination of which being an energetic live show built around danceable rock-n-roll music. The show is free and open to the public. For more information, call 828.349.2337 or visit lazyhikerbrewing.com.

• Blue Ridge Beer Hub (Waynesville) will host Blue Mountaineers (Americana/bluegrass)

5-7 p.m. Thursdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 5 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.246.9320 / facebook.com/brbeerhub.

• Boojum Brewing (Waynesville) will host “Karaoke Night” 9 p.m. Wednesdays, “Trivia” 7 p.m. Thursdays, “Open Jam” 10 p.m. Thursdays and Trusty Hucksters Nov. 29. All shows are located in The Gem downstairs taproom and begin at 9 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.246.0350 / boojumbrewing.com.

• Breadheads Tiki Shak (Sylva) will host “Tiki Trivia” at 7 p.m. every other Thursday of the

• Happ’s Place (Glenville) will host Charles Walker Nov. 28, Dillon & Company Nov. 29 and Rock Holler Dec. 6. All shows begin at 6 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.742.5700 / happsplace.com.

• Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort (Cherokee) will host Cirque Musica Holiday Wonderland 7:30 p.m. Dec. 6. For tickets, visit caesars.com/harrahs-cherokee.

• High Dive (Highlands) will host “Trivia” 7 p.m. on Thursdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.526.2200 / highlandsdive.com.

• Highlander Mountain House (Highlands) will host “Blues & Brews” with Scott Low 6-9 p.m. Thursdays ($5 cover), Zorki (singersongwriter) 1-3 p.m. Saturdays, “Bluegrass Brunch” 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sundays (free) and the “Salon Series” on select dates. 828.526.2590 / highlandermountainhouse.com.

• Highlands Performing Arts Center will host Nashville Noel 7:30 p.m. Nov. 28. 828.526.9047 / highlandsperformingarts.com.

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host “Music Bingo” 7 p.m. Tuesdays, “Trivia Night” 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, “Open Mic Night” 6:30 p.m. Thursdays, “Friendsgiving Potluck” 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Nov. 27, “Karaoke” Nov. 28, The V8s (oldies/rock) Nov. 29 and Sweet & Sourwood Honey (Americana) Dec. 6. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 / lazyhikerbrewing.com.

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Sylva) will host “Music Bingo” 7 p.m. Mondays, “Trivia Night” 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays, “Old Time Jam” 6:30 p.m. Thursdays, Prophets Of Time (rock/jam) Nov. 28 and Ray Ferrara (country/folk) Dec. 5. All shows begin at 8 p.m. Free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. 828.349.2337 / lazyhikerbrewing.com.

• Mountain Layers Brewing (Bryson City) will host “Open Mic Night” with Frank Lee every Thursday, Somebody’s Child (Americana) Nov. 28, Mountain Gypsy (Americana) Nov. 29, Frank Lee (Americana/old-time) 5 p.m. Nov. 30, Shane Meade (indie/soul) Dec. 5, Aly Jordan (singer-songwriter) Dec. 6 and Frank Lee (Americana/old-time) 5 p.m. Dec. 7. All shows begin at 6 p.m unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.538.0115 / mountainlayersbrewingcompany.com.

• Otto Community Center (Otto) will host “Music Nights” with James Thompson from 4-6 p.m. first and third Friday of the month. Free and open to the public. go2ottonc.com.

• Peacock Performing Arts Center (Hayesville) will host “Christmas With The King” (Elvis Presley tribute) Dec. 5. All shows begin at 7:30 p.m. For tickets, 828.389.ARTS / thepeacocknc.org.

• Rathskeller Coffee Haus & Pub (Franklin) will host “Karaoke” 7 p.m. Wednesdays, “Trivia Night” 6:30 p.m. Thursdays, “Open Mic” 6:30 p.m. Fridays and Carlos Wilson (singer-songwriter) Nov 29. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.369.6796 / facebook.com/rathskellercoffeebarandpub.

• Salty Dog’s Seafood & Grill (Maggie Valley) will host “Karaoke with Russell” on Mondays, Rene Russell (singer-songwriter) 6 p.m. Nov. 28, Ginny McAfee (singer-songwriter) Nov. 29, Bridget Gossett (Americana) Dec. 6 and Lance Turner (singer-songwriter) Dec. 6. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.926.9105 / facebook.com/saltydogs2005.

accepted. The church will match the first $1,500 of donations. 828.524.3119.

• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host “Jazz On The Level” 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Myron Hyman 5 p.m. Nov. 26, Tricia Ann Acoustic Duo Nov. 28, Mayhem City Blues (Americana) Nov. 29 and George Trouble & The Zealots 3 p.m. Nov. 30. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.454.5664 / froglevelbrewing.com.

• Frog Quarters (Franklin) will host live music from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays. Free and open to the public. 828.369.8488 / littletennessee.org.

• Legends Sports Bar & Grill (Maggie Valley) will host Blue Mountaineers (Americana/bluegrass) 5-7 p.m. Mondays, “Open Mic Night” 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Karaoke Thursdays (6 p.m.) and Saturdays (7 p.m.), with live music each Friday (8 p.m.). Free and open to the public. 828.944.0403 / facebook.com/legendssportsgrillmaggievalley.

• Macon County Public Library (Franklin) will host The Vagabonds (Americana) at 2 p.m. the first and third Monday and a “Song Circle” open jam from 3-6 p.m. the first Tuesday each month. Free and open to the public. 828.524.3600 or fontanalib.org/franklin.

• Meadowlark Motel (Maggie Valley) will host a “Bluegrass Jam” 5-7 p.m. Sundays and Blended Hemp Nov. 29. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.926.1717 / meadowlarkmotel.com.

• Scotsman (Waynesville) will host “Open Mic” first Wednesday of every month, Celtic Road Jam (Celtic/world) 4 p.m. Nov. 29, Bridget Gossett Trio (Americana) Nov. 29, Bratfolk (Celtic/world) 2 p.m. Nov. 30, Kate Leigh Bryant (singer-songwriter) Dec. 4, Celtic Road Jam (Celtic/world) 4 p.m. Dec. 6 and Smashing Mouths (1990s/2000s rock tribute) Dec. 6. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.246.6292 / scotsmanpublic.com.

• Slanted Window Tasting Station (Franklin) will host Harvest String Duo 5 p.m. Nov. 26, Tim Austin (singer-songwriter) 6 p.m. Nov. 28, David Potter (singer-songwriter) 5 p.m. Nov. 29 and Ray Ferrara (singer-songwriter) 4 p.m. Nov. 30. 828.276.9463 / slantedwindow.com.

• Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will host “Christmas With The Isaacs” (Christian/gospel) 7 p.m. Dec. 19. Tickets start at $22, with seating upgrades available. 866.273.4615 / smokymountainarts.com.

• Trailborn (Highlands) will host its “Carolina Concert Series” with David Cheatham (singer-

Americana, indie at Mountain Layers

Regional Americana act Somebody’s Child will perform at 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 28, at Mountain Layers Brewing Company in Bryson City.

For more than a decade, Ashley Claxton and Cola Williamson have been filling the venues of Western North Carolina with their intrepid sounds. While minimalistic, these Smoky Mountain troubadours seamlessly blend both acoustic and electric melodies with renowned vocal harmonies. By melding a variety of sounds, which are often described as “alternative folk” or “Americana,” the duo offers dynamic, high-energy performances that are calculated, organic and compelling.

The show is free and open to the public. 828.538.0115 or mountainlayersbrewingcompany.com.

Somebody’s Child will play Bryson City Nov. 28.

songwriter) Dec. 4 and Remedy 58 (blues/soul) Dec. 11. All shows begin at 6 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.482.1581 or trailborn.com/highlands.

• Twisted Spoke Food & Tap (Maggie Valley) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.926.1730 / facebook.com/twistedspokerestaurant.

• Ugly Dog Pub (Cashiers) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.743.3000 / theuglydogpub.com.

• Ugly Dog Pub (Highlands) will host “Bluegrass Wednesday” at 6 p.m. each week and semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.526.8364 / theuglydogpub.com.

• Valley Tavern (Maggie Valley) will host “Karaoke with Jason” Tuesdays, “Tom’s Trivia Night” Wednesdays, Biscuits & Gravy Nov. 28 and Crimson Moon Dec. 5. All shows and events begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.926.7440 / valley-tavern.com.

• Vineyard At High Holly (Scaly Mountain) will host Jordan Denton (singer-songwriter) 6 p.m. Nov. 28, Breeze Cable (singer-songwriter) 2 p.m. Nov. 29, Rail Town 2 p.m. Nov. 30, Breeze Cable (singer-songwriter) 2 p.m. Dec. 6 and Monica Spears (singer-song-

On the table

• “Breakfast With Santa” from 9-11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, at the Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center in Robbinsville. Pancake breakfast, cookie decoration, ornament craft and more. Bring your own camera for Santa. Cost is $8 per person. stecoahvalleycenter.com.

• “Letters to Santa, Hot Cocoa & Cookies” from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. through the holidays at the Bryson City Visitors Center in downtown. Free and open to the public. greatsmokies.com/events.

writer) 2 p.m. Dec. 7. Free and open to the public. 828.482.5573 / thevineyardathighholly.com.

• Water’n Hole Bar & Grill (Waynesville) will host “Open Mic Night” 8 p.m. Mondays, Bridget Gossett & Caleb Hensley (Americana) Nov. 26 and DJ Kountry Nov. 28. All shows begin at 9 p.m. 828.456.4750 / facebook.com/waternhole.bar.

• Wells Events & Reception Center (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.476.5070 / wellseventcenter.simpletix.com.

• Western Carolina Brew & Wine (Highlands) will host live music 4-6 p.m. Saturdays, Woolybooger (blues/folk) 5 p.m. Dec. 5 and Mick Mayer (singer-songwriter) 5 p.m. Dec. 12. Free and open to the public. 828.342.6707 / wcbrewandwine.com.

• Whiteside Brewing (Cashiers) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.743.6000 / whitesidebrewing.com.

• Yonder Community Market (Franklin) will host “Country Thursdays” (Americana/country) 6 p.m. Thursdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. Family/dog friendly. 828.200.2169 / eatrealfoodinc.com.

• “Breakfast with Santa” from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, Dec. 6, at the Rivers End Restaurant in Bryson City. noc.com/events/breakfast-with-santa.

• “Cookie Walk & Christmas Bazaar” from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, at the Bryson City United Methodist Church on Main Street. greatsmokies.com/events.

ALSO:

Cherokee pottery exhibition

A special showcase, “Didanisisgi Gadagwatli: A Showcase of Pottery from the Mud Dauber Community Workshop,” is now on display at the Museum of the Cherokee People in Cherokee.

On view through May 2026, the exhibition features works by students of Tara McCoy (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians) handcrafted during an intensive threemonth workshop.

Renowned for her pottery, McCoy began making crafts at 12 years old. She honed her skills while taking arts and crafts classes with Alyne Stamper (EBCI) and has won numerous awards at the Cherokee Fall Festival and at Southwestern Association of Indian Arts Santa Fe Indian Market.

ancestral techniques and methods.

“The Didanisisgi Gadagwatli pottery workshop is an example of how museums can support and uplift great work already happening in the community,” said MotCP Director of Education Dakota Brown (EBCI). “Tara’s dedication to gadugi [community working together for the common good] and intensive approach to teaching has been hugely successful and is a powerful example of reconnections and resurgence. Connection and practice to our material culture is a continuation of our shared Cherokee identity and perpetuates Cherokee pride.”

HCAC ‘Small Works’ exhibit

The Haywood County Arts Council’s “Small Works” exhibit will run through Dec. 31 at the HCAC Gallery & Gifts showroom in downtown Waynesville.

The annual exhibit that expands the types of work for sale in the downtown Waynesville gallery, as well as who can display their work. Other than specially curated exhibits, which occur a couple times annually, this exhibit is the only one that allows any artist within the western mountain region to participate for a small fee.

With dozens of artists participating, the exhibit promises to be eclectic. Although the only requirement is that the pieces be 12 inches in any dimension or smaller, HCAC challenged participants who are making holiday themed works to consider artistic expressions that are multicultural in nature and celebrate the many different holidays — ways of celebrating and ways of experiencing holidays.

For more information, visit haywoodarts.org.

Waynesville art walk, live music

A cherished gathering of locals and visitors alike, “Art After Dark” will continue its 2025 season from 6-9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 5, in downtown Waynesville.

Each first Friday of the month (MayDecember), Main Street transforms into an evening of art, live music, finger foods, beverages and shopping as artisan studios and galleries keep their doors open later for residents and visitors alike.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, visit downtownwaynesville.com.

Today, she shares her knowledge with others. Designed to increase and uplift potterymaking among members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, McCoy’s workshop uses a hands-on approach, empowering first-time potters to bring their own personal style to

The artists exhibited include Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle (EBCI), Barbara Jones (EBCI), Paula Wojtkowski (EBCI), Marisa “Sis” Cabe (EBCI), Lisa Howell (EBCI, Pawnee Nation) Malia Crowe Skulski (EBCI), Samantha Cole-Daniels (EBCI), Elvia Walkingstick (EBCI), Maggie Jackson (EBCI), Michelle Lynn Long (EBCI, Mvskoke Creek Nation) and Tara McCoy (EBCI).

For more information, visit motcp.org.

ALSO:

• “Hard Candy Christmas” arts/crafts show will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 28-29 inside the Ramsey Center at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. This mountain tradition started in 1987 and has grown to over 100 regional artisans. Admission is $5 for a two-day pass. Children under 12 are free. Parking is also free. mountainartisans.net.

• “Holiday Market” will run through Dec. 27 at The Bascom Center for the Visual Arts in Highlands. Discover unique, handcrafted gifts by local and regional artists, including members of The Bascom Clay Studio. Celebrate the season with holidaythemed workshops for children and adults. For more information, call 828.526.4949 or visit thebascom.org.

On the stage

ALSO:

• “Holiday Inn” will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 20-23 at the Bardo Arts Center Performance Hall at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. Admission is $10 for non-WCU students, $12 for seniors and $17 for adults. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, visit arts.wcu.edu/tickets.

• “The Nutcracker,” featuring the Ballet Conservatory of Asheville, will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 5, in the Bardo Arts Center Performance Hall at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. Admission is $5 for WCU students, $15 for non-WCU students, $20 for seniors and WCU faculty/staff and $25 for adults. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, visit arts.wcu.edu/tickets.

• Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts

• “Kris Kringle Holiday Market” will be held from 3-7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 5, at Sorrells Street Park in downtown Canton. Over 30 vendors will be in attendance. Photos also available with Santa Claus. Free and open to the public. milltownfarmersmarket.com/kringlemarket.

• “Merry Market” from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, at the Nantahala Outdoor Center in Bryson City. Enjoy a day of local shopping featuring over a dozen artisans offering handmade gifts and festive treats. Free and open to the public. greatsmokies.com/events.

• “Christmas in the Mountains” arts and crafts show from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, at the Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center in Robbinsville. stecoahvalleycenter.com.

(Franklin) will host semi-regular stage productions on the weekends. smokymountainarts.com / 866.273.4615.

• Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort (Cherokee) will host semi-regular stage productions on the weekends. For tickets, click on caesars.com/harrahs-cherokee.

• Highlands Performing Arts Center (Highlands) will host a special production of “Home for the Holidays” on select dates and times from Dec. 5-21. mountaintheatre.com / 828.526.9047.

• Peacock Performing Arts Center (Hayesville) will host “Mrs. Robbie’s Winter Showcase” 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7. thepeacocknc.org / 828.389.ARTS.

• Swain Arts Center (Bryson City) will host semi-regular stage productions on the weekends. 828.488.7843 / swainartscenter.com.

The founding of ‘The Farm’ in Tennessee

Georgia poet and author Rupert Fike and I lived in the San Francisco Bay area during the 1970s in a time of social renaissance and spiritual awakening. He was with a core group community of some 300 young activists and idealists. The earliest beginnings of this community go back to San Francisco and a weekly meeting called Monday Night Class. Young people of the counterculture movement would gather weekly to discuss spiritual values and the vision of a new society. The focal point and facilitator for these meetings was Stephen Gaskin, a creative writing teacher from San Francisco State University who left his position to play an active role in the changing times. Gaskin was invited by a group of ministers to hold a series of talks in churches throughout the United States.

profit and somehow come off as ‘down home.’/ Budding capitalists living Marxist ideals, that was us.”

Fike goes on with his lighthearted description of the early life of The Farm. “We

Over 200 others came along, forming a line of 60 school buses on a transcontinental odyssey that became known as “The Caravan.” The Caravan ended in San Francisco, leaving its participants with the question, “What next?”

The obvious answer was to acquire land and build the community of their ideals. And this is just what they did, acquiring land in Tennessee and creating a makeshift utopia that they named “The Farm.”

Fike tells his personal history of creating The Farm in his new book “All Things in Common” (Red Hen Press, 2025), in personable prose-like poems that read like a lively conversation among friends. I was immediately drawn into the book in the first poem “Convergence, 1968,” which is a poetic three-page history of both of our experiences in San Francisco, beginning with a quote from Jim Morrison (lead singer for the Doors), “The West is the best ...Get here, we’ll do the rest,” and with mention of Dharma Bums, the Beats (Snyder, Ginsberg) and “gurus, dancing Sufis and hash-huffing fakirs.”

From here, Fike and friends set out to the east coincidentally around the same time I did — with me, landing in Western North Carolina and them landing in eastern Tennessee, only a few miles apart. At this point, the poems go into detail about the everyday business of creating a large commune literally from scratch with little or no experience in off-the-grid, self-sufficient living, which I was doing at the same time in a similar way just over the Appalachian Mountains in Polk County. In poems such as “Maggie May” (after an old Rod Stewart song), Fike writes: “in fallow fields for our/sorghum crop — Old Beatnik syrup both a cash-flow hope/and PR strategy — we would raise cane, cook molasses,/turn a

were full of ourselves, full of caffeinated sodas,/ buzzed on weed, always trying to ‘straighten’ each other, /each of us a participant in this game of altruistic chicken.” In the poem “Ode to the Land” Fike gives credit where credit is due: “We casually said we’d ‘bought’ these acres when really/ they’d forever been part of the Chickasaw nation/ before they got sent on their long walk and who named/ these ridges for their habit of pulling lightning from the sky.” In “Slab Shack,” Fike describes the living quarters in those early years: “... in the house/that wasn’t much of a house at all, /just some salvaged tin nailed over walls/built from vertical planks of bark, slab wood,/the first cuts off logs at our neighbor’s sawmill.” Fike describes their living quarters kitchen as “a hippie kitchen where grain was stored in bags.” And then there is one of my favorite poems in the book, “VW Bug Pumps Water,” a poem whose title speaks for itself.

As for the social scene, I like Fike’s honesty in articulating about situations and the people. In describing one of the young peo-

ple wanting to join the commune, he writes: “She was too college-snobby for hippie-chick Jill. For this place.” As The Farm grew in functionality and in notoriety, it became known nationally as a place where pregnant girls and young women could come for free birthing procedures that included adoption by the commune if a young would-be parent didn’t want to or couldn’t keep their newborns. Then there are poems about their conservatively political evangelical Tennessee neighbors and “Repent, The End is Near” road signs along the highways and the kinds of confrontations that ensued. And then, stories like “the 14-yearold from Chicago, pretty much dumped here by his mother, a speed-loving lap-dancer who read about us, drove here and left him at the Gate with slurred promises to return.”

With all their social offerings as they progressed there at The Farm and in papers like the Wall Street Journal, headlines would appear such as “In Trouble? Call a Hippie!” in reference to programs The Farm was offering, such as psychological counseling, a free ambulance service and eventually to worldwide relief for countries and communities in need of help. As Fike describes himself and the young members of his community: “we who had volunteered to be modern-day serfs,/fashion-forward peasants with a vision.” The Farm still exists today, and in “All Things in Common,” Rupert Fike takes us back and forward at the same time, showing us how the past can also create the future.

(Thomas Rain Crowe is an internationally published and recognized author of more than 30 books, including the multi-award winning nonfiction nature memoir Zoro’s Field: My Life in

Time with nature

meditative reflections, integrating self-guided therapeutic programming with an extensive network of paths, shelters and river access points.

This fall, the Jackson County Greenway, a mile-long paved track following the course of the Tuckasegee River, became the first fully accessible certified forest therapy trail in the

for people to put their phones away and disconnect from the swirling chaos that we live in right now is so beneficial on so many levels. Research has shown that when we as humans connect with nature, our overall well-being benefits.”

Singleton taught parks and recreation management as well as health and physical

“With forest bathing, it’s just all about slowing down, slowing your heart rate down, taking time to notice and observe. And as a guide, I provide these prompts or invitations to help the participants do that.”

Outdoors

In her course, “Nature Rx” (PRM 365), for example, Singleton took WCU students on micro-adventures to local hiking and recreation areas to explore their apprehensions and improve their physical and mental health. Her findings from that class ignited conversation with the county.

“Spending time in nature and allowing ourselves to slow down, notice, connect, provides a chance for our blood pressure to decrease. [Our] resting heart rate decreases, we are less anxious, have less fatigue and confusion. We are less likely to ruminate. We are more likely to become stewards of these special places,” Singleton said.

Inspired by these findings, Singleton and her peers hope to encourage more individuals to spend time in nature more intentionally, with enough thought and reflection that the act becomes something more like a ceremony.

This philosophy underpins her personal work as a guide and aligns with the larger interests of her nonprofit partners and collaborators at the county level.

“A lot of times I think when we go into nature outside by ourselves, we always have an agenda, like we wanna get from point A to point B, or we got 20 minutes so we wanna get this hike in, or we wanna try and get to the summit of this mountain. Or there’s always like a time commitment to it or a goal,” Singleton said.

“With forest bathing, it’s just all about slowing down, slowing your heart rate down, taking time to notice and observe. And as a guide, I provide these prompts or invitations to help the participants do that.”

fellow educators’ curricula.

— Debby Singleton

She also studied and incorporated academic texts into her coursework from international colleagues encouraging similar practices, from the Scandinavian wilderness to the forests of Japan and South Korea.

To allow the many regular visitors of the greenway to participate in this practice with their friends and families, county officials will provide new materials outlining the sensory experience’s different invitations.

“The self-guided brochures provide information on what forest therapy is, how to practice ‘forest bathing,’ the wellness benefits which are rooted in science and then open-ended invitations (guided prompts) to help individuals slow down, be present, use their senses, and connect with nature,” Singleton said.

“It is my hope that having a self-guided forest therapy brochure available at each trailhead will provide participants with another opportunity to focus on their health/wellness, relax, and connect with nature. It also demonstrates that Jackson County wants to provide accessible wellness opportunities for all residents.”

A celebration at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 6 at the Locust Creek Trailhead will mark its official opening.

With the full support of the Jackson County Parks and Recreation Department and the area’s nonprofit conservation groups, Singleton has high hopes for the future of education and accessible recreation in Jackson County.

“The greenway offers a safe, level, yearround space where anyone — families, seniors, students, people with mobility needs — can experience the healing benefits of nature,” Singleton said.

Officials warn of horse herpes outbreaks

State veterinary officials are asking horse owners in North Carolina to watch for symptoms of a highly contagious equine disease following diagnoses of multiple horses with Equine Herpes Myeloencephalopathy, the neurologic disease associated with Equine Herpes Virus.

after the last known exposure. Fever greater than 101.5 degrees may be the first indicator of disease.

• Clean and disinfect tack, boots, equipment and grooming supplies. Wash hands.

• If fever or other signs consistent with EHM develop, contact your veterinarian.

spread of this disease.

All affected horses attended the 2025 WPRA World Finals and Elite Barrel Race event in Waco, Texas Nov. 5-9. The two confirmed cases in Oklahoma also attended the BFA World Championship at Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Okla., that was scheduled for Nov. 17-22. Due to the confirmed positive cases, this event was canceled, and remaining participants were sent home.

Protocols for infected horses include:

• Isolating the horses that attended the event for at least three weeks

• Having the temperature of returning horses monitored twice daily for at least 14 days

Free pesticide disposal in Haywood

Farmers, homeowners and small businesses in the region are invited to safely and responsibly dispose of unwanted pesticides at a Free Pesticide Disposal Collection Day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 2, at the Mountain Research Station, located at 265 Test Farm Road in Waynesville.

This important service is specifically for individuals, farmers and small businesses— no dealers, large businesses or retailers are eligible. The collection day is sponsored by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services and N.C. Cooperative Extension.

The collection will only accept pesticides — including insecticides, fungicides and herbicides — provided they are in their original containers and clearly labeled. It is crucial that participants do not mix or co-

• When feeding and doing chores or work with the returning horses last, wear boots and coveralls, and remove them before working with your other horses. EHV-1 primarily affects the respiratory system of horses but can also cause severe neurological disease and death. Symptoms include fever, coughing, nasal discharge and loss of balance. The virus is transmitted through body fluids. It is highly contagious among horses but does not affect humans. If anyone suspects their horse has been exposed, they should contact their veterinarian. The state is asking that confirmed cases be reported by calling 919.707.3250.

mingle materials; please keep solids, liquids and fertilizers separated to avoid hazardous compatibility issues that could cause loads to be rejected. “Unknowns" will not be accepted, though staff will make every effort to identify materials. Pesticides from any North Carolina county are welcome at this event.

For safety and planning, participants with quantities larger than five gallons are encouraged to pre-register by calling the Haywood County Extension Office. Any amounts between 30-55 gallons will require approval prior to the disposal event. Please note that the event cannot accept liquids in bulk containers (drums, totes, tanks or greater than 55 gallons) or pressurized pesticide cylinders. Please also note that no household hazardous waste such as paints, oil or gas will be accepted at this event.

For any questions or to pre-register large quantities, please contact the Haywood County Center at 828.456.3575.

Preparing property for bear denning season

Slumber time for black bears is quickly approaching, and in some cases, already happening. Now is the time to start bearproofing residential and commercial properties to discourage winter denning.

Black bears have been known to den in surprising places: under decks and storage sheds, crawl spaces, vacant homes and the brush or debris pile in the yard. The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission advises the public to follow proven BearWise methods to discourage bears from choosing a location to den for the winter around your home or commercial property:

• Close and lock pet doors, sheds, root cellars and outbuildings.

• Check under porches and decks for areas and openings where bears might curl up. Barricade openings as best as you can, such as by installing plywood or fencing.

• Don’t leave garbage, bird seed or feeders, or food meant for deer or squirrels where bears can access it.

• Have a vacant home or cabin? Make sure to lock all ground level windows and doors and remove all foods and odors that could attract bears.

• Black bears in North Carolina can start denning as early as October or as late as February, with some bears not denning at all. There are several factors that contribute to when bears start denning. The main fac-

tor is food availability, which can be both natural foods and human-provided foods.

NCWRC staff have experienced an increase in bears denning under houses and decks because of increasing development, as well as increases in human and bear populations. If a bear den is discovered in a populated area, people can co-exist through the denning season, which runs from October through April.

“Homeowners can safely coexist with denning bears until they leave in the spring,” said Malzahn. “Bears are only interested in getting their winter rest or, if it’s a female, caring for her cubs. Denning bears are not interested in engaging with people. Disturbances by people or pets, however, may cause a female to abandon her cubs. So that needs to be considered before making the decision to address a denning bear.”

If a resident discovers a den, NCWRC advises to call the N.C. Wildlife Helpline at 866.318.2401, or contact their local district wildlife biologist for further guidance.

In spring, once bears have left their den and become more active, home and business owners should evaluate their property, as bears search for potential den sites from spring through fall.

(bearwise.org offers instructions for removing or securing potential den sites on your property.)

Waynesville hosts holiday markets

Waynesville’s farmers market is getting into the holiday spirit by hosting holiday markets. The markets will run from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Nov. 29, and Dec. 6.

In addition, there will be a “Season’s End Indoor Holiday Market” at Frog Level Brewing’s Lineside Event Space in Waynesville. The indoor market will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13.

Experience a C

Casuall, , Relaxing Atmosp ilies to golf groups to ladies who lunc gardens and supporting local farmers.

Market PLACE WNC

MarketPlace information:

The Smoky Mountain News Marketplace has a distribution of 16,000 copies across 500 locations in Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties, including the Qualla Boundary and west Buncombe County. Visit www.wncmarketplace.com to place your ad!

Rates:

• $15 — Classified ads that are 25 words, 25¢ per word after.

• Free — Lost or found pet ads.

• $6 — Residential yard sale ads.*

• $1 — Yard Sale Rain Insurance Yard sale rained out? Call us by 10a.m. Monday for your ad to run again FREE

• $375 — Statewide classifieds run in 170 participating newspapers with 1.1+ million circulation. (Limit 25 words or less)

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Note: Highlighted ads automatically generate a border so if you’re placing an ad online and select a highlight color, the “add border” feature will not be available on the screen.

Note: Yard sale ads require an address. This location will be displayed on a map on www.wncmarketplace.com

p: 828.452.4251 · f:828.452.3585 classads@smokymountainnews.com www.wncmarketplace.com

Legals

NOTICE OF SERVICE OF PROCESS BY PUBLICATION STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA LEE COUNTY IN THE DISTRICT COURT FILE NO. 25CV001788520

TIMOTHY LAYNE, JR., Plaintiff, vs. SHANNON RAE LAYNE, Defendant. )

TO : Shannon Rae Layne, the above-named Defendant:

TAKE NOTICE that a pleading seeking relief against you has been action. The nature of the relief being sought is as follows: ABSOLUTE DIVORCE

You are required to make defense to such pleading not later than December 29, 2025, said date being publication of this Notice, and upon your failure to do so, the party seeking service against you will apply to the Court for the relief sought. This the 19th day of November, 2025

WINSTEAD & FEINDEL, PA

Susan M. Feindel

Attorney for Plaintiff 1094 Wilkins Drive/P.O. Box 37

Sanford, North Carolina 27330

Telephone: (919) 2920526

TO BE PUBLISHED: November 19, 26 and December 3, 2025

NOTICE OF ADMINISTRATION

Case No.25E000640-430

Keitha Lyn Barrett,

Executor of the Estate of Gary Steve Barrett of Haywood County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate to present them to the undersigned on or before Feb 05 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate, please make immediate payment.

Executor 130 Maple St. Waynesville, NC 28786

NOTICE OF ADMINISTRATION

Case No.25E000357-490

Brandy Elizabeth Allison,

Executor of the Estate of Raymond Lee Farmer of Jackson County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate to present them to the undersigned on or before Feb 05 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate, please make immediate payment.

Executor

Attn: Brandy Allison 705 W Main Street Sylva, NC 28779

NOTICE OF ADMINISTRATION

Case No.25E000358-490

Teneile Kathryn Pickett,

Executor of the Estate of Sharon Ann Myers of Jackson County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate to present them to the undersigned on or before Feb 05 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery

All persons indebted to said Estate, please make immediate payment.

Executor

c/o Coward, Hicks & Siler 705 W Main Street Sylva, NC 28779

NOTICE OF ADMINISTRATION

Case No.25E000368-490

Mary N. Bigwitch, havingistrator of the Estate of Charles William Bigwitch of Jackson County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate to present them to the undersigned on or before Feb 12 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate, please make immediate payment.

Administrator c/o Mary Bigwitch 705 W Main Street Sylva, NC 28779

NOTICE OF ADMINISTRATION

Case No.25E000638-430

Alicia Camacho, havingistrator of the Estate of Paula P. Mathews of Haywood County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate to present them to the undersigned on or before Feb 05 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate, please make immediate payment.

Administrator c/o Rick Queen, P.A. 48 S. Main St Waynesville, NC 28786

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