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Mountain Passages: Natural and Cultural History of Western North Carolina and the Great Smoky Mountains
This intriguing collection of essays results from writer George Ellison's thirty-year fascination with Western North Carolina and its Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains.
These essays offer a window onto the rich heritage of this stunning and oft-misunderstood region. Hear stories in a distinctly Appalachian tone and glimpse into the mountain life and lore through a diverse cast of characters. Develop a new language fit for mountain life, and begin to understand the roots of the names Crooked Arm, Deeplow Gap and the Boogerman Trail. See the world through the eyes of the ancient Cherokees, for whom the Nantahala Gorge, was a "chasm of horrors" associated with the "uktena," a mythic serpent from the dreaded Under World.
These essays offer a window onto the rich heritage of this stunning and oft-misunderstood region. Hear stories in a distinctly Appalachian tone and glimpse into the mountain life and lore through a diverse cast of characters. Develop a new language fit for mountain life, and begin to understand the roots of the names Crooked Arm, Deeplow Gap and the Boogerman Trail. See the world through the eyes of the ancient Cherokees, for whom the Nantahala Gorge, was a "chasm of horrors" associated with the "uktena," a mythic serpent from the dreaded Under World.
- GenresHistoryNonfictionNature
164 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 9, 2022
Quick reading and rather well researched collection of essays on the human and natural history of western North Carolina (and a little bit of eastern Tennessee). The book is 151 pages of text and is divided into three sections, Natural History, Cherokees, and Mountaineers, each section a collection of essays of about 2-8 pages, essays that originally appeared as a weekly column called “Back Then” by author George Ellison that appeared in _Smoky Mountain News_. There are no illustrations, but there is a helpful map at the beginning of the book and several pages of sources.
The first section is Natural History and covers geology, plants, animals, and famous people associated with natural history. Topics covered included waterfall geology (the reader learning about such things as plunge pools), different topographic terms used in the region (such as knobs – mountain tops, leads – long ridges usually extending from a higher ridge, and deadenings – areas where the trees were killed by girdling so as to make the area suitable for farming), foliar fruit flagging, bison (which once existed in the area, that essay including the particulars of the last one killed, shot in 1799 by settler Joseph Rice), the introduction of European wild boar to the area, the botanical explorations of John Fraser (who named several species of plants in the area, notably the endemic Fraser fir, Abies fraseri), and the foremost bird expert of western North Carolina, John S. Cairns (who did lots of important early work in the region and who has according to the author a subspecies of black-throated blue warbler named for him, Cairns warbler, Dendroica caerulescens cairnsi).
The second section is Cherokees. Topics covered included the particulars of Cherokee fishing (whether using poisons derived from native plants or giant rock weirs or fish traps), some of the wild plants they harvested and ate, many also eaten by later settlers and even today (such as Poke – Phytolacca americana – which has to be parboiled in three separate changes of water, and Ramps – Allium tricoccum – also called wild leeks, that though popular has a “a powerful taste and lingering odor that has discouraged the fainthearted”), the 1761 war against the Cherokee, the story of one particular Cherokee, Tsali (“his name rightfully endures as a symbol representing all those who lost their lives on the Trail of Tears”), the groundbreaking ethnographic studies of James Mooney in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the role played in his research by the Cherokee medicine man named Swimmer, and how close Geronimo and his followers came to being settled with the Cherokees in western North Carolina.
The third section, Mountaineers, covers among other topics the last boardinghouse in the region, the use of springhouses to preserve food (“Sausage, wrapped in corn shucks, placed in a crock and sealed with fat, would keep through the summer in the springhouse”), the medicinal importance of goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis), how weather sharps predict the weather, the saga of moonshiner and storyteller Quill Rose, the story of various interesting and colorful locals like Turkey George Palmer and Ironfoot Clarke, an account of the life of Pearly Kirkland (a fire tower dispatcher), whether or not the stone angel that inspired Thomas Wolfe to write _Look Homeward, Angel_ is in a cemetery in Bryson City in western North Carolina (he doesn’t think it is, or at least, there isn’t one particular angel that was the source of inspiration), and the story of Horace Kephart, “Outdoorsman, Writer and Park Advocate” who wrote _Our Southern Highlanders_, first published in 1913, “considered by many to be one of the cornerstones of Southern Appalachian literature” and a key advocate for the formation of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Nicely researched, my only complaints were some essays were just so brief the author barely got into the topic and some topics I would have liked to have seen covered weren’t. I would have loved to have read about red wolves, elk, more on the Trail of Tears, the Civil War history of the region, more on the founding of the national park, but I appreciate what I got.
The first section is Natural History and covers geology, plants, animals, and famous people associated with natural history. Topics covered included waterfall geology (the reader learning about such things as plunge pools), different topographic terms used in the region (such as knobs – mountain tops, leads – long ridges usually extending from a higher ridge, and deadenings – areas where the trees were killed by girdling so as to make the area suitable for farming), foliar fruit flagging, bison (which once existed in the area, that essay including the particulars of the last one killed, shot in 1799 by settler Joseph Rice), the introduction of European wild boar to the area, the botanical explorations of John Fraser (who named several species of plants in the area, notably the endemic Fraser fir, Abies fraseri), and the foremost bird expert of western North Carolina, John S. Cairns (who did lots of important early work in the region and who has according to the author a subspecies of black-throated blue warbler named for him, Cairns warbler, Dendroica caerulescens cairnsi).
The second section is Cherokees. Topics covered included the particulars of Cherokee fishing (whether using poisons derived from native plants or giant rock weirs or fish traps), some of the wild plants they harvested and ate, many also eaten by later settlers and even today (such as Poke – Phytolacca americana – which has to be parboiled in three separate changes of water, and Ramps – Allium tricoccum – also called wild leeks, that though popular has a “a powerful taste and lingering odor that has discouraged the fainthearted”), the 1761 war against the Cherokee, the story of one particular Cherokee, Tsali (“his name rightfully endures as a symbol representing all those who lost their lives on the Trail of Tears”), the groundbreaking ethnographic studies of James Mooney in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the role played in his research by the Cherokee medicine man named Swimmer, and how close Geronimo and his followers came to being settled with the Cherokees in western North Carolina.
The third section, Mountaineers, covers among other topics the last boardinghouse in the region, the use of springhouses to preserve food (“Sausage, wrapped in corn shucks, placed in a crock and sealed with fat, would keep through the summer in the springhouse”), the medicinal importance of goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis), how weather sharps predict the weather, the saga of moonshiner and storyteller Quill Rose, the story of various interesting and colorful locals like Turkey George Palmer and Ironfoot Clarke, an account of the life of Pearly Kirkland (a fire tower dispatcher), whether or not the stone angel that inspired Thomas Wolfe to write _Look Homeward, Angel_ is in a cemetery in Bryson City in western North Carolina (he doesn’t think it is, or at least, there isn’t one particular angel that was the source of inspiration), and the story of Horace Kephart, “Outdoorsman, Writer and Park Advocate” who wrote _Our Southern Highlanders_, first published in 1913, “considered by many to be one of the cornerstones of Southern Appalachian literature” and a key advocate for the formation of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Nicely researched, my only complaints were some essays were just so brief the author barely got into the topic and some topics I would have liked to have seen covered weren’t. I would have loved to have read about red wolves, elk, more on the Trail of Tears, the Civil War history of the region, more on the founding of the national park, but I appreciate what I got.
February 27, 2020
GREAT BOOK.
January 19, 2022
Great Read
An in depth look at an amazing area. Many details lovingly described and explained like no-one else has.
Makes me want to visit the sight for myself.
An in depth look at an amazing area. Many details lovingly described and explained like no-one else has.
Makes me want to visit the sight for myself.
October 21, 2015
A witty and erudite collection of essays about a part of the States I've always been interested in knowing more about. Mr. Ellison provides a fine guide to the cultural history of this area.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews