The Year of Appalachia celebrated the history of the settlers of the Blue Ridge.  Today's mountain folks are very proud of the sturdy, adventuresome stock that are their forebearers.

The first European settlers of the Blue Ridge mountains of western North Carolina were immigrants from the rocky soils of Scotland, Ireland and England.  They were people who treasured their rural independence and raised their families by the labors of their bare hands and strong backs.  They were drawn to the new land of America where a king did not decide their religion and vast wildernesses gave them hope for real freedom. Boston was too much like London, and Pennsylvania and Virginia were too settled, so these pioneers headed south and west into the hazy blue mountains of the Appalachian hill country. 

The spectacularly beautiful mountains gave these hardy farmers and adventurers a sanctuary apart from the hustle of the developing cities along the coast of the new country. Because of the rugged terrain and limited roads, the settlers themselves did not often venture far from their own families and homesteads.   Their communities were like different parts of the world.  Let us introduce you to some of the amazing, resourceful folks whose roots are deep in the mountains and valleys known as Appalachia.

See the Mitchell Country Overmountain Man Web Site to see how the heroic march to Kings Mountain is honored today.

The Year of Appalachia celebrated fun-loving people with  old fashion traditional values who share their good nature with anyone willing to take the time to enjoy their company and their unique lives. 

To discover Appalachia a visitor can look forward to personal experiences visiting with folks who love to pick a tune on a banjo, tell a knee-slappin' story, share dinner (the noon meal) or supper (the evening meal), or offer a glass of cool sweet ice tea while you wander with them through the garden.  Mountain folks are not fancy, but they love to share their "easy living" ways with people who stop by. Hop on the spectacular Blue Ridge Parkway that brings visitors right into mountain villages from the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in western North Carolina.  How do you get here? 

Try this link to the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Also, take a look at this web site about mountain storytelling: National Storytelling Convention

The Year of Appalachia celebrated front-porch music, which touches the life of people in every Appalachian mountain community.

     Mountain folks gather every chance they get to pick their guitars far into the night. Its a way of life that came straight down the family line.  Everybody gets into the act, with a yarn, a song, or a dance. Mountain festivals, weekends at local businesses, picnics on the church grounds, holiday covered dish dinners, or any ol' weekend is music time.  So when the band leader invites audience members to come up and help with a gospel tune, jump right up and join in. The most important thing is to be a part of the good times.  Mountain folks want visitors to go away happy and to look forward to coming back soon.

  Follow this link to  Blue Ridge Music. Don't miss the pages called"About Music" and "Map Page."  This fine site will lead you to the best of Mountain Opreys in the Blue Ridge. Also, enjoy a site called Birth Place of Country Music with information about the very historic Bristol Sessions.

The Year of Appalachia celebrated hands-on work that recalls the satisfaction of traditional mountain ways.

    Work in the mountains is a showcase of skills passed down through families.  Farmers pick old time mountain apples, prune fraser fir trees, pick corn and break beans.  Friends help one another make sorghum with mule power, peel apples and stir apple butter for winter's use, bury cabbage and taters for cold storage, quilt new coverlets from scraps of old clothes. The mountains' beauty and uncomplicated life style encourages artists to settle in the hills and fashion handmade crafts of functional pottery, beautiful glass pieces, fine handmade wooden bowls and spoons.  Authors, naturalists, scientists, musicians and song writers are all part of today's Appalachian world.  But the setting is so different from theme parks.  It is so very real.

For a look at beautiful work being done in the Appalachian Mountains, see  national award winning  Handmade in America. To visit the mountains of western North Carolina and to find these treasures,  see information for the Craft Heritage Trails and Garden Trails.

The Year of Appalachia was a celebration of a very unique way of life.

This is a special year for the Appalachian people to celebrate who they are, their proud ancestral line, the work they do, the music they love, and the stories they tell.  The time has come for them to showcase their talents and their traditional values that add generously to the great fabric of our nation. Come to the mountains and see for yourselves what the mountain people have been and where they are going.  We welcome you to "set a spell" and be our friends.

Planning of the Blue Ridge Heritage Initiative began in 1997 as mountain communities, plus state, federal and tribal partners in North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia studied ways to promote the unique cultural, natural and historical resources of the southern Appalachians.  In 2002 Sen. John Edwards, D-NC and Rep. Charles Taylor, R-Brevard, introduced a bill to Congress to get the Blue Ridge Mountains designated a national heritage site.  The measures sought to provide local officials $10 million during the next decade to better promote in 25 counties the regions arts, crafts, music, and Appalachian and American Indian cultures.

See this link to the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area. At the bottom of the page, find informative links to other heritage resource sites.