While the Southern Appalachian Mountains abound in flora traditionally known for their medicinal properties, few equal the sassafras tree in its historical economic impact. The tree triggered a health craze in Europe upon its discovery in North America, when it…
Monthly Archives: November 2003
An Appalachian Earthship: Reinventing the Wheel
Ken and Etta Lebensold reside in a house made of garbage. If their walls could talk, they would tell of traveling cross-country thousands of times. They are well-traveled walls, insulated with 700 used tires, which have been rammed with soil…
The Ubiquitous Coyote
images/voice_uploads/ContentsCoyote.gif To paraphrase William Faulkner, the highly adaptable coyote has not just survived, it has prevailed. “It has defied every effort to defeat it—hundreds of thousands are deliberately and legally killed every year—and has literally taken over North America,” wrote…
Altapass Orchards combine Stewardship, Enterprise and Cultural Preservation
images/voice_uploads/ContentsApples.gif When Robert Young marched through what is now known as McKinney Gap in 1780, he never imagined his descendants would grow heirloom apples and preserve Appalachian heritage literally on the ground he trod. Young, an east Tenneseean, was a…
Region’s Businesses Pitch In for the Mountains
This fall, dozens of homegrown businesses from across Appalachia pitched in for an autumn Appalachian Voices benefit. From a mountain bike to raft trips, from a fine bottle of wine to bed and breakfast getaways, these businesses donated over 75…
Mountaintop Removal by any Other Name
Ask any Tennessean to sing the chorus of “Rocky Top,” an official state song and the fight song of the University of Tennessee, and you’re sure to hear a rousing refrain of “Rocky Top, you’ll always be home sweet home…
Festivals Provide Fun and Funds in the High Country
Late in the summer of 1996, the checkered flag fell frantically at the North Wilkesboro Speedway as 25-year-old Jeff Gordon finished first in the NASCAR Tyson Holly Farms 400. A desperate Dale Earnhardt then zoomed by — a scant 1.73…
Highway 81 Revisited
images/voice_uploads/ContentsHighway.gif The American Automobile Association has called it one of the nation’s most scenic stretches of interstate. As it winds through the rolling farmland of the Shenandoah Valley and around the mountain ridges of southwest Virginia, Interstate 81 allows tourists…
Is Your Dog a Trail Dog?
As the trail finally leveled off at the valley bottom, Kane trotted further in front of me, his swaying gait interrupted by ever more frequent investigations of sounds and smells. Finally, with his inner-wolf awakened – and unaware of the…
Urban Wilderness: Birding in a National Airport’s Shadow
images/voice_uploads/ContentsHeron.gif You may not think of the booming Washington, D.C. metro area, with its population of 5 million, as part of the Appalachian wilderness experience. Think again. If business or political activity takes you to the capital, be sure to…
