Blue Waters Mountain Lodge

John Sevier, on the leading spirits in the King’s mountain affairs and commander of the transmontane militia, was a brilliant, daring, dashing character; the idol and leader of bold frontiersman, who nicknamed him “Nollichucky Jack”.  The whole of Tennessee then...

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has been a major factor in these mountains for eighty years.  It is a federally owned company that was created by a congressional charter in 1933.  The TVA provided flood control and electricity to an area that was particularly...

The rattle of musketry is heard in front.  Skirmishers must have made contact with enemy pickets.  All are alert.  A signal gun is fired and the artillery joins in with accumulating fury.  At last the command – “Forward!” – and an overpowering urge to make contact...

The popular beliefs about mountain people contain many misconceptions. According to fiction, the Hillman is a seven foot combination of malnutrition and bad breeding, asleep on his front porch with the dogs.  His great bare feet, dangling off the porch, flap from time...

Even in the written word Southern folklore and Southern folk-say succeed in catching the color, flavor, and excitement of a culture in the making and in communicating something of the same glow of discovery that the first settlers felt on going into a new country. ...

Once upon a time there was a man who had three boys, Jack, Will and Tom.  Will and Tom were the two oldest sons.  Jack was just a little bit of a fellow, not hardly able to take care of himself – the old father thought. So the old man just divided all of his land,...

Quite a number of places and people have laid claim to this story but they say it did take place here in Graham County, where a man who was out with his yoke of oxen and one of his oxen got sullen and laid down and wouldn’t pull.   The man was in a rough place and the...

Back of the old fiddle tune, “The Belled Buzzard”, is a tradition which had its origins in the mountains.  The story concerns a settlement along a river bottom.  One bank of the river was bordered for miles by high un-scalable bluffs crowned with scrub timber, the...

A revenue officer called at a mountain cabin and found no one there but a boy.  The following conversation ensued: “Where’s your father?” “Pappy’s at the still.” “Where’s your mother?” “Maw’s at the still.” “Where’s your brothers and sisters?” “They’re at the still.”...