2003 – Issue 3 (November)
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 member of the Overmountain Men, a group of backwoodsmen who defeated the British at the…
Read MoreThe 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 William K. Stevens in a New York Times article in 1999. For a species that…
Read MoreAn 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 from the home site to create large rubber-rimmed bricks. The Lebensold house is an earthship,…
Read MoreSassafras in America
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 gained a reputation for curing everything from wounds to rheumatism. Sassafras became a major commodity…
Read MoreLetters
Dear Appalachian Voice, I like to get your paper even if our government will not stop [mountaintop removal mining]. I received my first copy through a friend. I was born and raised in SW Virginia in the beautiful mountains. Now it’s terribly dirty. The mountains in Pardu, VA, north of Appalachia are nothing but one…
Read MoreA Tennessee Fairy Tale
In the Elk Valley region of East Tennessee, coal companies are telling a tale of a new type of mountaintop strip-mining that they say will not destroy homes, rivers, mountains and economies (see story on p.12). This new mining technique is called cross-ridge mining and it differs only slightly from the highly controversial mountaintop removal…
Read MoreCarolina Business Owners Meet with Senator Dole’s Staff to Promote Clean Air
On October 27, two North Carolina business owners, Renea Reed, owner of Snow Toys Ski and Snowboard Shop in Banner Elk, and Amy Vermillion, owner of the Dripolator Coffeehouse in Black Mountain, spoke to Senator Dole’s staff on behalf of the 350 North Carolina members of the Appalachian Voices Business League. They were asking the…
Read MoreUrban 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 seek out one of the most satisfying wildlife experiences possible: observing hundreds of bird species,…
Read MoreIs 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 incongruity of being wolfish while wearing a bright red doggy pack – Kane dove into…
Read MoreHighway 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 in the Old Dominion a rare treat — the opportunity to enjoy breathtaking scenery at…
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