Mitchell County’s Keepers of the Peace 1960

Mitchell County’s Keepers of the Peace 1960

This photograph shows the Mitchell County Law Enforcement team about 1960.  Pictured, left to right, are James Edwards and Joe Stewart, Mitchell County deputies; Sam Gouge, Mitchell County Sheriff; Jim Burleson, Spruce Pine Chief of Police; Ray Gunter and Landon...
March 1993 – The Storm of the Century

March 1993 – The Storm of the Century

On March 12, 1993 snow began falling on a Friday afternoon. By Monday, March 15th, the Storm of the Century had dumped upwards of between 3 and 5 feet of snow on the region. The storm formed in the Gulf of Mexico and at its height, the storm stretched from Honduras to...
Joshua of the Mountains

Joshua of the Mountains

When Stephen Morgan Collis came to what is now Mitchell County is uncertain. However, we can speculate fairly accurately using a family Bible entry which says he married Mary “Polly” Sparks in 1839 along with the 1840 census showing that he and a female were living in...
School Days on Beaver Creek

School Days on Beaver Creek

One-room schools, with many grades in that one room, were once the norm in this nation; they lingered a long while in the mountain South, which struggled economically in the decades following the Civil War.  Even after the move to tax-supported high schools was made...