The strong crafts tradition in the Smokies produced many fine handcrafted items. Long after most people along the Eastern Seaboard lived in a cash economy, the mountain people still spun thread from sheep shearings, built furniture from forest hardwoods and made baskets styled after those made by the Cherokee ...

According to local lore, the Smokies were so steep that the only way to sow them was to stand on an opposite hill and shoot the seeds across with a ...

While there were a few skirmishes, no Civil War battles were fought in the Smokies..  Mountain families sent many soldiers to fight for both the Union and Confederate armies. Meanwhile, some men, called "scouts," hid out in the hills to avoid ...

John Walker holds some cherries from his orchard. He, his wife Margaret Jane, and their 11 children lived in Little Greenbrier Cove and prided themselves on their self-sufficiency. He boasted that he had only spent 50 cents on healthcare for his family. Margaret Jane was an "herb doctor" and ...

The Great Smoky Mountains are among the highest peaks in the Appalachian mountain range, yet they are rounder and lower in elevation than younger mountain chains such as the Rocky Mountains. How they came to be this way is a story that began almost one billion years ago.  The Great ...

Mountain families typically sat down to a meal of "cat heads" (biscuits) drenched in 'lasses (sorghum molasses) or red-eye gravy, string beans with "side meat" and, of course, good, strong ...