Farming Traditions
Waynesville
Read more about WaynesvilleClay County History and Arts Museum
Read more about Clay County History and Arts MuseumOrchard at Altapass Saved by Carson Family
Master storyteller Bill Carson tells how his family saved a century-old apple orchard from development and turned it into a heritage attraction on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Read more about Orchard at Altapass Saved by Carson FamilyMountain Gateway Museum Part One
Museum Director Terrell Finley tells about the Mountain Gateway Museum, which is located in Old Fort, NC, and is a State Historic Site.
Read more about Mountain Gateway Museum Part OneWomens Work at Carson House
What the women of the house used to do.
Read more about Womens Work at Carson HouseAppalachian Homestead Farm and Preserve
Read more about Appalachian Homestead Farm and PreserveRandy Vess
Read more about Randy VessFloyd Sims
Read more about Floyd SimsRandy Vess
Farm machinery demonstrator
Old Fort, NC (McDowell County)
Randy Vess grew up in McDowell County, in a family that kept alive many traditional occupational skills that were common in the mountains in previous generations. Vess' grandfather and great-grandfather were both millers, running a water-powered mill. His mother's parents, who lived on the land where Vess lives today, didn't have their home electrified until the mid-1960s.
Read more about Randy VessFloyd Sims
Heritage agriculture demonstrator
Old Fort, NC (McDowell County)
Growing up in the Mountain Creek section of Rutherford County, Floyd Sims worked hard as a child. He remembers that at the age of ten he would get up early to plow the family's cotton and corn fields until it was time to go to school, and then after school would come home and plow again until dark. He also sawmilled as a child. As a young man he worked in the cotton mill in Spindale, before embarking on what would be a forty-five-year career driving trucks.
Read more about Floyd Sims
