History
1955 – The Museum of North Carolina Minerals is Opened With Great Fanfare at Gillespie Gap
On June 17, 1955, the Museum of NC Minerals was officially opened at Gillespie Gap with North Carolina Governor Luther Hodges presenting the museum to United States National Park Service Director Conrad L. Wirth. The museum was a joint project between the state of...
David Baker ~ Soldier of the Revolution and Founder of Bakersville
Historical records indicate that the area around what today is called Bakersville was known at one time as Baker’s Place and/or Baker’s Plantation. To date, the first confirmed use of the name Bakersville is as a designated post office—1827, in newspapers as...
North Carolina Rhododendron Festival: Roots and Twigs
The beautiful Rhododendron flower is celebrated worldwide. These celebrations include festivals in Port Logan, England; Edinburgh, Scotland; Muroji, Japan; Taranaki, a bit south of New Plymouth, New Zealand: Florence, OR; Me, CA; Plymouth, MA; and tad closer to home,...
The Civil War – A Series of Three Stories
Off To War, 1861 A series of three Civil War Stories published in the Mitchell News-Journal in 2011 By Pat Turner Mitchell Most of us have heard of an ancestor who fought in the War Between the States. Farther south people call it the War of Great Unpleasantness. Most...
Mitchell County’s Reverend Stephen Morgan Greene
Stephen Morgan Greene was born March 22, 1838, to Joseph S. and Mary “Polly” Collis Greene in the Greene Cove area on Cane Creek, Yancey County at the time and now Mitchell. He was named Stephen Morgan after his uncle Rev. Stephen Morgan Collis, his mother’s brother....
Mitchell County and the May Fresh of 1901
David Crockett described the flood of the Nolichucky in 1791 as “the second epistle to Noah’s fresh.” Most likely, since the Toe River feeds the Nolichucky and Cane Creek feeds the Toe River, the folks in what’s now Mitchell County also had to deal with high water....
Church of the Brethren Conference at Brummetts Creek 1913
The Church of the Brethren traces its roots back over 300 years to 1708 in Germany. The first congregation in America was at Germantown, PA, in 1723, but the denomination’s missionaries soon spread its beliefs elsewhere. The Brethren “mother church” on Lower...
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...
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...
Mitchell County for Me
As Americans, we show our patriotism through the singing of the national anthem of the United States called the Star Spangled Banner. As North Carolinians we also want to show our state pride in the state song named The Old North State. However, most Mitchell County...