guide to the 58th annual mt. mitchell crafts fair

The 58th Annual Mt. Mitchell Crafts Fair

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2014 MT. MITCHELL CRAFTS FAIR GUIDE • PAGE 3

The Yancey County / Burnsville Chamber of Commerce

welcomes you to the 58th Annual Mt. Mitchell Crafts Fair!

With approximately 200 juried crafters, this event more than qualifies as a shopper’s paradise, as evidenced by the over 25,000 people who attend this event each year searching for those special, one-of-a-kind items created by artisans from across the Blue Ridge.

Come browse a wide selection of items, including handmade quilts, jewelry, hand-turned wooden household items, various types of pottery, art fabrics, rustic furniture, traditional mountain musical instruments, blacksmith creations, candles, soaps and lotions, and artwork of all mediums.

Have a seat and watch as the artisans produce their craft throughout the day. Enjoy a lunch of southern favorites such as barbeque and sweet tea on the square as you listen to the live music and entertainment, or perhaps try to keep up with the cloggers and other dancers as they kick up their heels on the stage. Step back into the past as you enjoy an old-fashioned Town Square event that exhibits Southern hospitality at its best.

Again, welcome to Burnsville and Yancey County, home of Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Rockies at an elevation of 6,684 feet. Enjoy your visit, and if you need assistance, directions or advice, just ask! We love to have visitors, and we hope you not only come back but that you might consider Yancey as the home you’ve been looking for.

On behalf of Yancey County Government, I would like

to extend a warm welcome to all of the crafters and visitors to the 58th Annual Mt. Mitchell Crafts Fair. The mountains of Western North Carolina are a wonderful place to be all year long but especially in the summer time. The crown jewel of the mountains is Yancey County. Come and enjoy all that the area has to offer, from hiking trails, golfing, shopping, and antiquing to some of the best fishing waters in the United States. Life takes on a slower pace here in Yancey County, where folks are always friendly and happy to see you. Just th i s year, Burnsville’s T o w n Square was h o n o r e d w i t h t h e “ F a v o r i t e P u b l i c P l ace” i n North Carolina Award by the North Carolina Chapter of the American Planning Association. While on the Square don’t forget your mobile devices as Wi-Fi service is brought to you by Country Cablevision and Yancey County Government. Whatever you chose to do, we welcome you and we are glad that you are here! Enjoy!!

Johnny Riddle, Chairman Yancey County Commission

Welcome to the 58thMt. Mitchell Crafts Fair!

4 • 2014 MT. MITCHELL CRAFTS FAIR GUIDE

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What are the nuts and bolts for enjoying the fair? Who is doing what, and when? Where are the bathrooms?Where is there parking? And what to do to keep the kids en-tertained while mom and dad – or grandma and grandpa – ooooh and aaaaahover a vast collection of crafts?

Park and take the shuttleThere’s really no need to search for

a parking place, as shuttle vans run a continuous route from outlying park-ing areas to the downtown square.

Shuttles will be running every 10 to 15 minutes from three designated parking areas on the U.S. 19 bypass at Ingles Grocery, Fred’s Shopping Center, and Roses parking lot. Handi-capped parking is available near Town Square.

Rest RoomsPublic/handicapped restrooms are

located on West Main Street beside the Chamber of Commerce/Visitor’s Center and also in the Town Center, along with temporary restrooms along Court Street. In addition, there is a baby nursing/changing station at the Burnsville Town Center, located on South Main Street. There’s a special place for pets!

Pets are not allowed in the fair area, but of course, service animals are wel-come. Dog sitting is available just feet from the square during fair hours at the courthouse lawn for a nominal fee.

Signs will be posted to designate the location of the dog sitting area.

We’re here. Now what?

A small town celebration of fall and the glory of the mountains! Crafts, food,

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Where to rest your feet?The Town Center will also be open to

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No matter where you look at the Mt. Mitchell Crafts Fair, you can rest as-sured Eloise Renfro has seen it all.

Eloise, a Tipton Hill-area doll and quilt maker, has been a vendor at 57 years of craft fairs in Burnsville. “She’s been there practically every year it’s been held,” said her husband, Bernie.

Her ‘topsy-turvy’ dolls have been popular for decades, as have her Rag-gedy Ann (and Andy.) But her quilts and smaller quilted projects are sub-lime, featuring a complicated and seemingly three-dimensional ‘Cathe-dral’ pattern. “I do a little bit of all of it,” she said with a laugh as she sat on her back porch recently. “I guess I’ve made thousands and thousands of dolls.”

The topsy turvy doll most often features a female character - Doro-thy from Oz, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White - with a flowing skirt. But turn the doll over and the skirt flops down (or is it up?) to reveal another character instead of legs - for Doro-thy, perhaps it’s the Cowardly Lion, Tin Man or Scarecrow. For Little Red Riding Hood, of course it is the wolf. Snow White has an added twist: sewn to her skirt are the seven dwarfs, but she and they disappear when turned

over to reveal the evil queen.Mrs. Renfro says she and many girls

in the community learned to make dolls when they were young, sharing in a tradition handed down over the generation by the older women in the

community. “We had classes over at Tip-ton Hill School,” she recalled. “Our gang would meet and learn how to make a new doll.” There were also smaller gatherings, and often older women shared

tips, or brought new designs to see if the local girls could improve on them.

“A lot of girls my age made dolls,” she said, “but something about Eloise’s works had popular appeal. “Mine had a different face,” she said. “I draw on the face then I needlework around” to bring out the personality of the figure. She says customers always comment on her face designs.

Eloise and Bernie have three chil-dren, and she says she made them toys when they were young. When the chil-dren were small Bernie was gone re-pairing railroads for a week at a time

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She’s been at the fair forever

See next pageFrom


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From Page 5and Eloise ran the household. “I stayed busy with a big garden and canning; raising the children and sewing,” she said.

Bernie is the first to say that the money she made selling dolls, quilts and baby blankets helped support the family.

Eloise said she always looks forward to the Mt.Mitchell Crafts Fair. “I meet my friends. People are always coming by. They say, ’We found you again!’” Daughter Loretta took to doll making early, and she now sets up the booth and handles the transactions. “I like to do it, but this will probably be my last year to be at the fair,” Eloise said. But she hasn’t yet shared all of her patterns and ideas with her child. There’s

time still, she seems to say, for the se-crets.

Eloise didn’t think she will have any full quilts for sale this year, but the booth will be packed with dolls and baby blankets, daisy chains of charac-ters for nursery mobiles and quilted aprons. “She makes them just like she’s doing it for herself,” Bernie said. “Peo-ple come from everywhere.”

She’s kept some doll secrets to herself


The Toe River Arts Council (TRAC) is a non-profit organization founded in 1976 to promote the arts in Mitchell and Yancey Counties. By buying lo-cally, you are not only supporting the Arts Council but the community in which the artists live and work.

For almost two decades, the Toe Riv-er Studio Tour has brought arts aficio-nados to the colorful communities and country roads of Mitchell and Yancey counties in western North Carolina — learn about this tour below and find more open studio tours in the list that follows.

More than 145 studios and galleries are featured on the Toe River Studio Tour, held in June and December and sponsored by the Toe River Arts Coun-cil in Spruce Pine. This extensive tour covers Mitchell and Yancey counties in the N.C. mountains, including the towns of Bakersville, Penland, Spruce Pine, Burnsville, Micaville, Newdale, Estatoe and Little Switzerland.

“What I enjoy most about the studio tour is that people actually see where and how things are made,” says Clau-dia Dunaway, whose wheel-thrown stoneware and porcelain can be seen at Yummy Mud Puddle Gallery near Burnsville. “Visitors come away with a better understanding of how we live and how we work. Our exchanges are mostly around techniques and how things are done.”

Celo area artist Rob Levin, a 1981 and 1997 N.C. Arts Council Fellowship re-cipient who makes hand-blown vessels out of glass, says the studio tour’s edu-cational component makes it appeal-ing to children and families. “When people walk into a studio, especially a glass studio, they may have seen fin-ished pieces in the past, but they may not be familiar with the process,” Levin says. “I’ll end up explaining and dem-onstrating the process of making the work, and people can see the studio fa-cilities where the work is being made. People will say they had no idea that so much went into it. I think that helps to demystify the process and makes it

all a little more accessible. Chil-dren especially are often very taken with the whole process.”

S e l e n a Glass’ Deana Blanchard, who lives and works in the Burnsville area, says that

traveling the side roads to get to the studios is part of the adventure. “You get to explore a lot more of the moun-tains. Then when you come to the per-son’s studio you get a glimpse into the artist’s life.

Because most craftspeople have an aesthetic sense, the place where they live is pretty, too. It might not be big

See page 8

TRAC anchors the local arts community


From page 7and fancy, but usually it will have a charm to it, and you can tell it’s a place that’s been managed lovingly.”

Blanchard says she enjoys the fel-lowship encouraged by the tour. “We do have people who come back every year, and it’s kind of like a homecom-ing,” she says. “There’s a couple of sisters who come back to our studio every year from Charleston, S.C. Last time, one sister made each of us a little cap, and the other sister made ceramic pins. So we do establish a relationship with people that come every year, and it’s so sweet. We love it when people buy things, but part of the tour is just the chance to get to know people.”

“There’s a lot of repeat people,” Du-naway agrees. “We have a group of women that comes in and takes over a bed and breakfast, or they’ll rent a

house for the weekend, and they’ll go off and pick a different area each time. Sometimes they’ll focus on Bak-ersville, sometimes they’ll focus on Burnsville. It’s really fun.”

In addition to people from the lo-cal community, Blanchard welcomes visitors from the New England states, Wisconsin, Iowa and cities includ-ing Charleston, Atlanta, Charlotte, Chattanooga and Knoxville. She also credits the nearby Penland School of Crafts, with its well-known and well-established craftspeople, as a draw for collectors.

“Everybody brings a different per-spective to looking at artwork,” Levin says. “When someone voices their own response to a piece, it’s eye-open-ing because there’s always another per-spective beyond what I might have had

See page 27

TRAC Tour encourages artistic fellowship

Yancey County is dark, and that’s what amateur astronomers like about it.

The county’s distance from urban lights, and the fact that its tall moun-tain peaks block ambient light from the surrounding area, means some of the best night-sky viewing on the East Coast is available right here. Amateur astronomers are flocking here from the piedmont, and at least a few have bought property to build their own observatories with top-of-the-line telescopes.

They say areas in Pennsylvania or Virginia have officially ‘darker’ ratings than Yancey, but the pollution in those places makes night-time viewing more difficult. Two local astronomers com-pared photographs taken at the same moment in Yancey and in the darker locations to the north, and they say the Yancey images are sharper and show more of the cosmos.

The county is about to secure its spot as a top stargazing destination with the installation of the state’s largest telescope, which will be housed at the Blue Ridge Observatory and Star Park, locaetd off N.C. 80 North.

“This is going to be the largest tele-scope in North Carolina, and the largest ‘dark sky’ telescope in the southeast,” said Bob Hampton, a local astronomer. “There is one larger tele-scope (in the southeast) in Atlanta, but with the (urban) light pollution they are limited to the moon and the plan-ets.”

The telescope in Yancey will mea-sure 34 inches in diameter, Hampton said. “The dimmer things; the galaxies, the nebulas, we’ll have a front row seat for those.”

In honor of notable local efforts to preserve the natural nighttime land-scape of Western North Carolina, the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) has designated the Blue Ridge Observatory and Star Park as the first International Dark Sky Park in the southeastern United States.

The Yancey telescope will be a one-

of-a-kind, cus-tom made Dob-s o n i a n - t y p e , computer-con-trolled observa-tory telescope. In addition to direct viewing at the eyepiece, astronomers will have the ability to show live vid-eo from an ultra-sensitive camera system attached to the telescope.

“This telescope will collect more

than 16,000 times as much light as a dark-adapted human eye, and is guar-anteed to give crisp, sharp images all the way up to 1700x,” Hampton said.

A star park area will be built adjacent to the observatory for hosting star par-ties – a place where visiting astrono-mers can set up their own telescopes and enjoy our night sky.

Star parties attract crowds, whether locally or internationally. They can last just one night or for a week or lon-ger, and many amateur astronomers schedule their vacations to coincide with the gatherings. Nationally, star parties attract hundreds of thousands of people, but the key is the availability of a dark night sky.

Many here have voiced support to promote Yancey County as a star party tourism destination, and the construc-tion of the new telescope is key to the proposal.

“I think we’re in a fine spot” for star-gazing tourism, said Hampton. “As as-tronomers, it’s just wonderful, and the community has been very supportive.

“My understanding is that the mir-ror is complete,” said Jon Wilmesherr, director of Learning Resources Center and Distance Education at Mayland Community College, which is build-ing the observatory. “The telescope will be built and the mirror installed

See next page


Mayland’s Jon Wil-mesherr

Region’s largest telescope coming to county


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Mount Mitchell State Park was the first state park of North Carolina.

Located off of NC 128 and the Blue Ridge Parkway in south Yancey County, it includes the peak of Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Rocky Mountains.

US 19E, portions of Main Street in Burnsville, and NC 80 South are part of the Mt. Mitchell Scenic Bypass.

From the parking lot you can take a short hike to the summit which in-cludes an observation tower and the grave of Elisha Mitchell, the professor who first documented the mountain’s height. The old observation tower was torn down in Early October 2006. The trail leading to the summit has been paved, and a new observation plat-form was constructed and opened to the public in January 2009.

The summit also features an exhibit hall with information about the moun-tain’s natural, cultural and historical heritage.

In addition to Mount Mitchell, the park encompasses several other peaks which top out at over 6,000 feet in el-evation, including Mount Hallback, Mount Craig (just 37 feet shy of Mount Mitchell in elevation and the second

highest peak east of the Mississippi River), Big Tom and Balsam Cone.

About 8 miles of trails exist within the park in all.

‘The Highest Peak East of the Rockies’

From page 9in it when there is an observatory build-ing to house them. The telescope comes installed in the facility.”

Wilmesherr said the Mayland Foun-dation has “started a building campaign for the observatory,” and information is available at www.energyxchange.org/starpark/future-observatory-building.

“When people have inquired I have told them we are in an awkward phase right now - think adolescence.” said Wilmesherr. “We have the mirror and the Dark Sky designation, but we are missing the final piece of the puzzle that connects the two. Hopefully, soon one or more donors will step forth and make all of our dreams come true.”

Telescope being built


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If you enjoy hiking, you’ve come to the right place: Yancey County offers some of the region’s most spectac-ular trails. Home to the tall-est mountain in the Eastern United States, Mt. Mitchell (6,684 feet), the county’s ter-rain varies from deep woods tracts to picturesque water-falls and craggy peaks top-ping 6,000 feet, where the weather, plants and animal life are more like what you’d find in Canada than in the Southern U.S.

Leading the way on adven-tures into this natural para-dise is the N.C. High Peaks Trail As-sociation, Yancey’s hiking club. The group typically sponsors two hikes each month, along with an easier stroll, plus a day of trail maintenance work. Hikes vary from short and lei-surely to long and hard, sometimes with climbs or descents of several thousand feet.

Founded by several avid local hik-ers, High Peaks also represents out-door enthusiasts at public meetings with U.S. Forest Service and National Park officials, making sure that plan-ners respect the interests of those who want to protect our natural resources for recreational enjoyment.

The group’s website, www.nchigh-peaks.org, has a list of upcoming hikes and other events, along with an interactive trail map. Just click on the trail you are thinking of hiking and a pop-up window will give you all the details, from directions to the trailhead to the length of the section, the elevation change, overall difficulty and the availability of water.

High Peaks works with federal agencies to maintain local hiking trails. With most government agen-cies facing deep budget cuts and per-sonnel losses, High Peaks volunteers are often the only ones willing and able to weed-eat, clear downed trees and repair tread on local hiking paths.

Club hikes are open to the public, and leashed pets are welcome on most of the outings. For more information, visit the High Peaks website or the club’s Face-book page. Join the club or simply join us for a hike!

Hiking club leads local explorations


Spruce Street MarketAsheville’s Saturday Art Market

10 a.m. - 7 p.m.July 5th - September 20th

Spruce Street is adjacent to City County Plaza in the heart

of Downtown AshevilleVending Spaces Still Availablewww.SpruceStreetMarket.com

By Robin Warden Artists of the Toe River Valley of

Western North Carolina embody the national story of the American Studio Glass movement. The lives and work of these individuals tell a story of two generations of glass artists who have created a rich history and culture of art, education, mentorship, and com-merce.

In 2012, an exihibition titled His-tory of Glass in the Toe River Valley offered a 50-year timeline highlighting the careers of approximately 50 glass artists interwoven with the significant events in the region that provided the impetus for the movement and helped it flourish.

In 1962 Harvey Littleton, known as the father of the movement - with the assistance of Norm Schulman - offered two glass workshops at the Toledo Museum of Art. Bill Brown’s vision, as

the director of the Pen land School of Craft in the mid 60s, further captured artists’ excitement to learn the new glass medium. Penland built a glass studio, along with residency programs that followed — marking the arrival of early students, colleagues and other glass pioneers to the Toe River Valley. Biographical information and archival photos shared in the exhibition illus-trated events and accom plishments that influenced their careers from the early days of experimenting with vari-ous glass processes to the 1990s and the development of sophisticated glass studios. The second generation of glass artists in the region represent many of the Who’s Who in the American Stu-dio Glass Movement — four among them have been named “North Caroli-na Living Treasures.” Their works have been shown in prominent galleries and museums around the globe and become part of many private collec-tions, including in the White House. Their international influ ence affects a wide array of collaborative ventures with European and Asian glass art-ists, reflected in exhibitions in world-wide. At home in the Toe River Valley, they continue to foster the evolution and growth of their craft as residents and instructors at the Penland School, developers and leaders of the Glass Arts Society and other professional organiza tions and conferences, and mentors to the next generation of glass artists who continue to move to the re-gion to study, live, and work. Like their predecessors, they find themselves captured by the magical beauty of the Toe River Valley and the supportive community that continues to embrace and sustain them.

History of Glass in the Toe River Valley was organized by the Toe Riv-er Arts Council and was part of sev-eral events in the “Glass in Mountains Celebration” honoring the 50th anni-versary of the Studio Glass Movement across the nation.

Home of the Studio Glass movement


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Mount Mitchell Crafts FairVender Booth Locations

Yancey County Chamber of Commerce

1-2 Martins Wooden Crafts

3-4 Quality Leather5-6 Rawls Pottery7 Nanike Originals8 Turnings by Bob9 Rustic Remakes10 Gurley Creations11 Sonrise Pottery12 Jt’s Wooden Toys13 Caroline Sandlin14 The Nut House15 Wildlife Plastics16 Glass Designs by Lori King1718 Deborah Bryant Handwoven19 Kika’s Fine Jewelry20 Studio Earth21 Olde Time Chimes22 The Glass Menagerie23 Robin Roberts

Baskets24 Firefly Glass25 Stamps by Impres-

sions26

27 Wood N Antler Art28 C and R Rockers29 Met-Art3031 Element Tree Es-

sentials32333435 Black Black Moon36 Sister Act Two37 Adoughables38 Soulfully Salvaged Paper Arts39 Parnell Family

Weavers40 Sharpe’s Wooden Neckties41 S and G Designs42 Handwoven Cre-

ations43 In Blue Handmade44-45 Bodins Tropicalls46 Crafty Creations47 B. Cool48 Those Kooky

Chickens49

5051 Lovejoy Pottery52 Bristow Pottery53 Brooms and Boxes54 Appalachian Hard-

wood55 Barn Country

Furniture56 J Mann Studio57 Paiche Eco Jewelry58 Crispin Kettle Corn59 Indian Creek Cre-

ations60 Tammy Rudd Handmade61 Wendells Bowls62 Sally’s Famous Gour-

met Foods63 Southerland Farms6465 Silver Eagle Design666768 PW Pottery69 Natures Grace70 Visions in Stained

Glass 71 Swan Shadow

72 Jim Leather Craft73 Rotary Club747576 Down Top Earth

Pottery77 She Collection78 Memory Scrapboxes.

com79 Small Town Candle

Creations80 Little Blackberry

Creek Pottery81 Cotton Patch8283-84 DAV85 NC High Peaks Trail

Assoc.86 American Cancer

Society87 Young life Burnsville88 Dig In! Yancey Community Garden89 Whitworth Proper-

ties90 PNC Bank91 Burnsville Chevrolet92 US Cellular

B Yancey Baptist Assoc.93 Trillivision94 Shear Perfection95 The African Hut96-97 Beelite Candles9899 Unique Gifts100101102 Sodas and Stalks103 GlamHam Pork

Rinds104 Sierra Terra Cotta105 Artistic Bottle Art106 Painting Delightfuls107 Owassart108 Miguela Creations109 M.R. Manufacturing

/Metal Works110 Asparagus Soap111112 Hip Remix113 Nate Barton Works114115 Andre Art Glass116117 Morningside Books118 Volunteer Laser

Mount Mitchell Crafts Fair


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West Main St. East Main St.

South Main St.North Main St.

Mount Mitchell Crafts FairVender Booth Locations

Yancey County Chamber of Commerce

81 Cotton Patch8283-84 DAV85 NC High Peaks Trail Assoc.86 American Cancer Society87 Young life Burnsville88 Dig In! Yancey Community Garden89 Whitworth Properties90 PNC Bank91 Burnsville Chevrolet92 US CellularB Yancey Baptist Assoc.93 Trillivision94 Shear Perfection95 The African Hut96-97 Beelite Candles9899 Unique Gifts100101102 Sodas and Stalks103 GlamHam Pork Rinds104 Sierra Terra Cotta105 Artistic Bottle Art106 Painting Delightfuls

107 Owassart108 Miguela Creations109 M.R. Manufacturing /Metal Works110 Asparagus Soap111112 Hip Remix113 Nate Barton Works114115 Andre Art Glass116117 Morningside Books118 Volunteer Laser Engraving119 Designs by Lynell120 Sal Gal designs121 Tiedyeclothing122 County Argyle123 Carolina Custom Corner Paddles124 Hudgins Design125126 Mosaic Goddess Studio127 Bluebird Design128 TJ Crafters129-130 Blended Treasures131132

133-134 Garden Treasures135 Britts Leather136137138139 Musket Ridge Flowers140141 Designs by Nancy Roth142 Pursonally Yours143 Celitic Pottery Studios144 The Copper Goddess145146 Don’s Ice Cream 147 Brian Vasilik Design148 McWhirter Pottery149150 Sunflower Fibers151 ART Island152 Unbowlievable Designs153154155 Deb’s D’apples156 Hand Crocheted Designs157 Mimzart158-159 Karen’s Kreations160 Artography by Bob161 Ginny the Bead Lady162 Mckenzie-Jones

163 PJ’s Crochets164 WoodArt165 Yancey Center for Ceramic Arts166 Walnut hill Crafts167 Paper Gifts & Décor168 Ole Fish House Pottery169170171 Arm Chair Crafts172173174 Midnight Sun Pottery175 Whitsons Crafts176 Ariel Studios177 Sophisticated Junkie178 Rita’s Italian Ice179-180 Covenant Crafts181 Smitty’s Homemade Ice Cream182 Fran’s Baskets183 Ran-dee Designs184 Toe Cane Beekeepers185 Mountain Wood Design186 Blue Frog Designs187

188-189 Four Corners Framing & Gifts190-191 The Lazy Scroll192 North Cole Pottery193194 Suwannee Song Designs195196197 Wall’s Walking Sticks198199 Corner Crafts200 Buffalo Creek Handcrafts300 Overcreek Pottery

Vendor list does not in-

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Mountain bike excursions are fast be-coming the exercise and adventure of choice for some. In Yancey you can find several established trails:

Briar Bottom Bicycle Trail: Length 1.2 miles; Rating - Easy. The trail joins a loop road which goes around Briar Bottom Group Campground. Follow this road right back to the point where you began. Directions: From Burnsville go east on US 19E for about 4.3 miles and turn right on NC 80S. Follow 80S for 11.6 miles to Mt. Mitchell Golf Course and turn right on FR 472. After the road changes to gravel, arrive at an intersection where you take a right. Go to parking lot on the left with a bulletin board with trail maps and infor-mation.

Shinbone Trail: Length 8.5 miles; Rat-ing - Moderate. The trail is quite rocky and not currently blazed. Directions: From Burnsville go east 1.1 miles on US 19E and take a left on NC 197. Stay on this road for 6.6 miles and watch for a sign pointing to the left that says “Green Mountain.” Turn

left here and go 1.5 miles. Cross a nar-row bridge and go right on Jacks Creek Road. Follow this road for 3.4 miles and take a right on NC 197. At 1.4 miles, take a right to stay on this road. Keep going for 7.9 miles and watch for a pull off to the right. You can park here and begin biking on Forest Service Road 5583 to the left, or drive up FR 5583 to the lock gate on the left and start there.

Buncombe Horse Range Trail: Length 16 miles; Rating - Strenuous. Advanced riders can test their skills on this physi-cally challenging trail. It has high eleva-tions with some steep sections. Direc-tions: From Burnsville go east on US 19E for about 4.3 miles and turn right on NC 80S. Follow 80S for 11.6 miles to Mt. Mitchell Golf Course and turn right on FR 472. Follow this road past Black Mountain Campground, where parking is available in pull offs along the road. Parking for the Buncombe Horse Range Trail is on FR 472, about four miles past the camp-ground.

Area attracts mountain bikers with trails


There’s something alluring about a ghost town in the middle of the for-est, where stone chimneys and build-ing remnants hearken back to more vibrant days. You can almost imagine that the stones in fallen walls whisper stories about the families who lived there.

In December 2012, the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy purchased a 95-acre portion of historic “Lost Cove” in the remote and rug-ged Nolichucky Gorge, an in-holding in the Pisgah National Forest. Nestled near the border between North Caro-lina and Tennessee, the secluded Lost Cove is a ghost town with a colorful history of self-sufficient families, rail-road crews, timber, and moonshine.

“The opportunity to save this signifi-cant part of Lost Cove was very impor-tant and welcome to those of us who live in its vicinity, who know person-ally of its special natural and histori-cal significance and have long hoped it would one day be protected,” said SAHC Trustee David Ramsey.

Lost Cove is one of the most legend-ary ghost towns in the Eastern United States. The community was most likely founded during the Civil War era, al-though a few accounts hint that two families from a Daniel Boone expedi-tion originally settled the area. Lost Cove grew into a self-sustaining, thriv-ing agricultural community until the railroad brought timber and railroad jobs around 1910.

Located on the boundary of Yancey and Mitchell counties, Lost Cove was notorious for moonshining as early as 1898. Its remoteness and location along the state boundary made it dif-ficult for tax collectors to penetrate. However, the cove’s isolation, as well as economic necessity, eventually led to the community’s demise. The last fam-ily moved out in 1957.

“It has long fired our imaginations, made us curious about our mountain surroundings and our history and in

Jamie Ervin, Americorps Land Protec-tion Associate with SAHC, visits the site of Lost Cove.

spired many of us to dig deeper into - and ultimately care more about - our Appalachian heritage,” said Ramsey. “To me, this effort is one more example of the amazing and extremely impor-tant conservation work of the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy.”

“The offering of this property for sale presented a unique opportunity to protect an incredible recreational, environmental, and historical asset,” said SAHC Executive Director Carl Silverstein. SAHC purchased the tract with the intent that it will eventually be added to the Pisgah National Forest.

The mission of the Southern Appala-chian Highlands Conservancy (a land trust) is to conserve the unique plant and animal habitat, clean water, lo-cal farmland and scenic beauty of the mountains of North Carolina and east Tennessee for the benefit of present and future generations.

Trust saves the ‘Lost Cove’


Mayland Community Col-lege - serving Mitchell, Av-ery and Yancey counties - is ranked among the top 1 per-cent of community colleges nationwide.

Mayland was ranked in the Top 50 Community Colleges by TheBestSchools.org. In fact, Mayland ranked 10th in the nation on the list. Soon after that Washington Monthly ranked Mayland 32nd in the nation on its list of the Top 50 Community Colleges in the nation.

Then Bankrate.com ranked two-year community colleges and technical centers around the country to see where stu-dents could get the best, most affordable start in their college careers. Mayland ranked 9th in the nation in the top com-munity colleges.

Bankrate.com officials say the rating was inspired by President Barack Obama’s incentive to develop a col-lege ratings system to help students make informed de-cisions about where they can get the best deal on a college education.

With the Bankrate.com rat-ing, Mayland Community College solidified its position

in the top 1 percent of community colleges nationwide.

“I think it is won-derful and somewhat incredible that in this small rural mountain community, a top 1 percent community college is here to serve our residents,” said Mayland Commu-nity College President John C. Boyd.

“Mayland’s high na-tional rankings make me proud to say that I am a student at the college,” said past Student Government Association Presi-dent Corey Robinson. “Mayland has pro-vided me with a gift

of success through the supportive faculty and staff (and a) pleas-ant learning environ-ment. The college has given me the opportu-nity to follow my ca-reer dreams.”

With more than 10,500 credit and noncredit students, Mayland supports 27 academic and technical programs spread across its main Mitchell campus in Spruce Pine and sat-ellite learning centers in Avery and Yancey counties.

For information on the national rankings visit www.mayland.edu.

Local college ranked among the best

291 E US Hwy 19E, Burnsville, North Carolina • 828.682.9992


Penland School of Crafts, located on Penland Road in Mitchell County, was founded by Lucy Morgan, a teacher at an Episcopalian school that once oc-cupied several buildings which are still in use by the school. In 1923, she or-ganized the Penland Weavers, which provided looms and materials to local women and marketed their handwo-ven goods. She invited noted weaving expert Edward F. Worst to teach, and when requests for instruction came from other parts of the country, Pen-land School was born. Soon after the first students arrived in 1929, other crafts were added, and the school be-gan to raise funds, acquire property, and construct buildings. By the time Morgan re-tired in 1962, Penland had acquired an international r e p u t a t i o n as a center for experien-tial, hands-on learning.

Lucy Mor-gan was suc-ceeded by Bill Brown, a sculptor, de-signer, and teacher who had spent 11 summers working at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine. Originally modeled on Penland School, Haystack attracted as faculty many prominent studio craft artists as well as teachers from univer-sity art departments. Brown brought with him a formidable network of friends and contacts in the emerging studio craft movement. During his 21-year tenure, new media, such as iron and glass, were added to the program and the school began offering eight-week sessions in the spring and fall. Brown also started the resident art-ist program, which provides low-cost housing and studio to craft artists who work at Penland for several years, and

he began a work-study scholarship program to make Penland accessible to a broader range of students.

Today the school encompasses 47 buildings located on 400 acres of land. Each year approximately 1,200 peo-ple come to Penland for instruction and another 14,000 pass through as visitors. A gallery and visitors center showcases work by Penland-affiliated artists. The community education program brings first-hand craft ex-perience to hundreds of local school children. The unique core fellowship program provides nine emerging art-ists who do part-time work for the school, with room, board, and access to classes throughout the year.

Penland has no standing fac-ulty; all classes are taught by guest instructors who, along with their students, live at Penland for the duration of their class. Students take only one class at a time, allowing them to learn by total immer-sion - the ideas

and information gained in a two-week session might take a year to absorb and process. Workshops are offered in books and paper, clay, drawing and painting, glass, iron, metals, photogra-phy, printmaking, textiles, wood, and other media.

The school has also become the fo-cal point of a lively community of craft artists, thanks in part to the resident artist program which has encouraged many artists to settle in the area. Today there are more than 200 studios in the vicinity of the school. The presence of so many working studios greatly en-hances the quality of the student expe-rience, and has had a strong impact on

See next page

‘The joy of creative occupation’

A student at work at Penland School.

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From previous page

the local economy.Students at Penland come from all

walks of life. They range from 19 to 90 and from absolute beginners to pro-fessional artists. Some see Penland as a productive retreat, some as a source of inspiration for their personal creative lives, and others as a network for the exchange of useful information. What brings them together is a love of mate-rials and making, and the often trans-formative experience of working with intensity and focus in a supportive community atmosphere.

Penland School began out of a strong belief in a few simple values. Lucy Morgan summarized these as “the joy of creative occupation and a certain togetherness - working with

one another in creating the good and the beautiful.” For 75 years, these prin-ciples have guided a remarkable insti-tution which has had a pervasive influ-ence on American craft and touched the lives of thousands of individuals.

For information about visiting Pen-land, call the Penland Gallery and Visi-tors Center, 828-765-6211. The gallery sells work in many different media and offers tours of the Penland campus. Visitors are welcome to walk through the campus, although Penland’s teach-ing studios are not open to the public. The studios of the Penland resident artists are open, and the gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p,m,; Sundays, Noon to 5 p.m.; closed Mondays. Penland School is located on Conley Ridge Road, just off Penland Road in Mitchell County.


Penland: A pervasive influence on American craft

Dig In! Yancey Commu-nity Garden has been serving Yancey County for five years, building and maintain a vol-unteer-operated vegetable garden to feed the hungry.

Since 2009, the community garden has given away 12,000 pounds of fresh produce grown on the x acre garden in Pensacola.

Through partnerships with local hunger relief agencies, Dig In provides fresh fruits and vegetables to people within the community who are in need of food assistance.

Volunteers handle almost everything, “From tilling the soil to planting the plants to weeding and harvesting. That goes on non-stop throughout the summer,” said Linn Dow-ell of Dig In! “In the summer there’s always something go-ing in, something coming out.”

The garden provides veg-etables to Reconciliation House, soup kitchens and community kitchens. Some of the agencies come and har-vest the vegetables they use.

“We will be at the Mt. Mitchell Crafts Fair! Our booth will be located on South Main Street, near the Town Center. Please drop by to say hello.”

The garden will be selling tickets for its te Empty Bowls Dinner fundraiser, which will be held Friday, Sept. 26 at Higgins United Methodist Church.


Dig In! means feeding those in need


Pete McWhirter may have grown up the child of artists, but he says he had no intention of becoming a potter himself.

Funny how things turned out.His parents, the late Jim and Kore

McWhirter, established McWhirter Pottery in 1963 “on White Oak Road in a milking barn,” he said. “Mom did turning on the wheel. Dad did oil painting, sign lettering, and mixed glazes. He had a few designs” for pot-tery, Pete said, and “Mom had de-signs she would do.” They loved their art, and built their lives around it, establishing what is now the longest operating pottery in Yancey County.

But Pete knew toss-ing clay wasn’t for him. “I didn’t know what I would do, but not this,” he said. As he spoke his hands never stopped moving, sculpting one of a series of decora-tive jugs that start out normal at the base but explode into a three-dimensional rooster at the top.

Yes, it’s pottery. Pete’s pottery.“This is what I grew up thinking I

would never do.”His mother is the one who talked

him into a career in ceramics. He had grown a career in steak houses, opening Western Sizzlin restaurants throughout Western North Carolina. He and his wife, Kim, lived in Celo, and “while I was still working in Asheville, Kim was working with mom, learning to throw. She threw pots before I did.”

Kore hoped one of her four children would learn the craft and take over the pottery, which in 1970 had moved to its current location on N.C. 80, across the road from South Toe Elementary School. But though the children were all artistic, no one wanted to oper-ate the pottery. In the early 90s, Kore turned to Pete. “When my mom said

I was the last option of the four kids, that’s when I thought I’d give it a try.”

He’d grown up around the pottery, and “even when I wasn’t thinking about pottery I was artistic; drawing and making music,” Pete said. “I grew up in a creative family.”

So when his mom asked, he says he replied, “Sure, Mom.”

Soon he discovered that the art was engaging. “You find out the different facets of it, and you find something about it that you enjoy.” It helped that he’d been meeting artists since age

eight, when he began going to craft shows with his parents. “I was meeting craftspeople; people working in wood, leather and clay. I liked them.”

But he and Kim keep busy doing music, per-forming across the re-gion doing what Pete called “kind of an Ap-palachian folk thing. It can’t really be defined as bluegrass; we do more twists and turns than bluegrass. It has the mountain flavor of

simplicity,” he said.Kim, who trained in dance and oper-

ated a studio in downtown Burnsville, said they “both enjoy the performance aspect” of music. Asked which is more important - music or pottery - she stopped and pondered. “That’s a hard question,” she said, but within a mo-ment she found the answer. “The pot-tery is more important. The music is an emotional and spiritual release, like therapy,” but not something on which they would want to base their lives.

Pete acknowledged that pottery took control years ago. “I’ve already made that decision, he said, based on what he calls his “love of creating clay.”

McWhirter Pottery is at the crafts fair and the gallery is located on N.C. 80 in Celo. Pete and Kim can be reached at at [email protected].

No repeat; he’s a second-generation potter


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From page 8about the work when I was creating it.”

Dunaway, who exhibits and sells at the two Southern Highland Craft Guild fairs as well as the Potter’s Mar-ket in Spruce Pine, says that their par-ticipation in the Open Studio Tour has a cumulative effect. “We market year-round,” she says. “The studio tour helps build the business.”

All of the artists credited the local arts community and, in particular, the Toe River Arts Council, as major fac-tors in the tour’s continuing success as well as their enthusiasm about partici-pating.

“When we were looking for a place to live in the area, one of the first things we did was to go on the studio tour — twice,” Dunaway recalls. “We found that the quality of work here and the welcoming artists were just hard to beat. So was the Toe River Arts Coun-

cil. That’s why we ended up here.” “Many artists have been in the area

for so long, it makes it a wonderful place to live,” she adds. “I grew up in North Carolina, and I used to come over here 30 years ago with my par-ents. The artists have really built a wonderful relationship with the local community, and the studio tour really keeps that going. Local folks come and do the tour to see what’s going on and what their neighbors are up to.”

Levin says that when visitors spend the night or enjoy a local restaurant, they benefit the counties and sur-rounding towns. “Places like Yancey and Mitchell counties are kind of tucked out of the way,” he says. “A lot of people don’t know about them be-cause they’re not really ‘on the way’ to anyplace. The studio tour opens up a nice window on what these places are all about.”

Artists attracted by quality of work here

guide to the 58th annual mt. mitchell crafts fair

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