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Like many professors, I look forward to Spring Break with as much euphoria and anticipation as my students. I envision a leisurely week allowing me to sleep in late, catch up on grading, and complete two or three novels of pure escapism. Recently, however, I decided to forgo those days of solitude and instead accompany 10 Frostburg State University students on a jaunt across Appalachia. Though our seven days and six nights in the field were anything but restful, I wouldn't trade the experience for a full month of vacation.
With one exception, the students who attended the trip have been working on designing Mountain City Traditional Arts (MCTA), an educational and sales venue featuring regional handcrafted materials slated to open on Frostburg's Main Street later this spring. Their work has been part of the requirements for two courses: Sociology 350: Folklore in Appalachia, offered in the fall and Honors 492: Imagining Appalachia offered this semester. We used that project as the pretense for our adventure.
Our plan was two fold. The first aim was research and reconnaissance. We planned to visit venues similar to MCTA, such as the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway the Qualla Artists Guild in Cherokee, North Carolina, and Tamarack, West Virginia. Our second was experiential. I wanted to provide my students with the opportunity to participate in the traditions and physically explore the Appalachian terrain we'd been studying.
We met all of our objectives. And, in the process, I discovered a new appreciation for the energy, enthusiasm and creativity of my students.
Too often, Frostburg State University students bear the burden of negative descriptors. College parties and concern about student drinking that capture the media's attention too often lead to generalizations about FSU's student body. The majority of my own experiences with FSU students counter such notions.
Though at least four of the students who joined this field-trip were 21, none of my company became inebriated or exhibited irresponsible behavior. In fact, even on those evenings when they had opportunities to stay out late, all were content to head back to our lodging to joke and play games around the campfire or introduce their fellow students to Snipe hunting. Much to my surprise, their preferred pasttime was dancing the Cotton Eyed Joe or teaching each other line dancing from an internet tutorial. Imagine the stares we received when, at every stop for food, gas, facilities, the entire regime, minus their professor, gathered together for such communal dances.
Funding from the FSU Gira Campus to Community Fund, the FSU Honors Program, and the FSU Department of Sociology enabled me to provide my students a rich learning experience. In the process, I discovered that my own education never ceases.
Our itinerary:
- Saturday, March 14- depart Frostburg, MD for Asheville, NC
- Sunday, March 15- visit the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Grovewood Gallery, Mountain Made in Asheville, NC
- Monday, March 16 - attend a program in the Cataloochee area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, visit Gatlinburg, Tennessee
- Tuesday, March 17 - attend a full day of programming hosted by the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in Cherokee, NC.
- Wednesday, March 18- spend day in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
- Thursday, March 19 - visit Tamarack in Beckley, West Virginia
- Friday, March 20 - see impact of Mountain Top Removal Mining Practices first hand via a visit with Larry Gibson, a former coal miner and activist. -return to Frostburg
What follows is a photographic essay of our trip.
Wild Turkeys in Asheville, North Carolina. Since the early 2000s, a flock of wild turkeys has called North Asheville home. Though some residents consider them pests, others have taken to leaving food out for them. In the neighborhoods surrounding the Grove Park Inn, these well fed birds have become a common sight.
FSU students visited a number of spaces featuring the sales and exhibition of locally handcrafted products.
They noted space design, color, product placement, and product contextualization.
This site, a former Woolworths Department Store, hosts hundreds of local artists while preserving its historic soda fountain & counter.
Elk were reintroduced in the GSMNP in 2001. Once common to the region, over hunting and habitat loss contributed to their disappearance in the nineteenth century. Unlike other species, such as the Red Wolf, that were introduced to the area a decade earlier, the Elk now thrive in the Park's boundaries. The isolated Cataloochee valley is now a popular destinations for the brave of heart eager to catch a sight of an Elk herd.
The class witnessed this group of Elk move in from forest. Curious about our lunch, they moved incredibly close to our party.
Students cram into the desks of the Schoolhouse in Cataloochee Valley of the GSMNP where NPS Employee Laura Rich Acosta provided a brief history of the area.
Laura's family lived in the Cataloochee Valley until the area's designation as a National Park in 1934. The Valley was home to hundreds of families. And thousands inhabited the area designated as the Park.
Although the NPS did allow some residents a lifetime lease to dwell within the National Park, the loss of community combined with severe restrictions on land use led most residents to leave the park by the early 1940s, when it was formally dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The Qualla Arts & Crafts Coop located in Cherokee, North Carolina celebrates the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indian's most skilled artists.
The space boasts a large sales area as well as an exhibition space celebrating some of the Eastern Boundary's most renowned artists of the twentieth century.
This display showcases the basket making tradition. The river cane used in the construction of these functional baskets was once prominent in Southern Appalachia.
FSU student and Cumberland native Aaron Stroup works diligently to craft a pottery turtle.
Students were taught traditional stamped pottery techniques of the Cherokee people. This traditional form was lost for a generation when tourism interests dictated an interests in alternative forms.
The craft was revived in recent decades through the interest of the Museum of the Cherokee Indian and the dedication of a Cherokee tradition bearers.
Cherokee artist and storyteller Davy Arch shows students how traditional
Cherokee artwork reflects their people's strong storytelling tradition.
FSU student Patrick Abrams learns the Grasshopper Dance from Cherokee Tradition Bearer Bo Taylor.
Deeply attached to his culture, Taylor has become an ambassador for Cherokee traditions. In addition to being a prize winning dancer, he has worked hard to learn the Cherokee language and offers full immersion language classes to others.
The View from Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Students take on the role of a mule as they learn about Sorghum Molasses making in the GSMNP.
Students explore vernacular architecture in the GSMNP. They were surprised to learn that the brick chimney on this structure was original to the home.
Students were also fascinated by the piled stone foundations on which most of the historic structures in the Park sat.
While some of the buildings in Cades Cove are original to that area, others were moved from different locations in the Park.
In the early days of the GSMNP, many such dwellings were destroyed by Park officials.
After exploring so many visually beautiful Appalachian scenes, it was difficult for FSU students to stand witness to Mountain Top Removal- a form of coal mining that takes anywhere from 500 to 1000 feet from the top of the mountain. This operation is located about 40 miles southeast of Charleston, WV. According to local activist, Larry Gibson, more than 900 feet of elevation have been removed from this mountaintop to extract coal.
Shortly after our return to Frostburg, those fighting Mountain Top Removal (MTR) got some good news. After years of hearing from activists requesting government intervention, the Environmental Protection Agency put a halt to a number of MTR permits claiming that time was needed to review the impact of MTR and its resultant valley fills on the region's water supply. In a typical MTR process, "waste" from the mountain tops is shoveled into adjacent valleys--filling local streams and waterways. Activists argue that the best way to fight against MTR is to lobby for stricter enforcement of the Clean Water Act.
FSU students stand with MTR activist Larry Gibson in front of his West Virginia home. His cabin, once seated on one of the mountain's lower elevations, is today near the terrain's highest point.
An inspirational figure, Gibson, a former coal miner and lifelong WV resident, has had dogs killed, solar panels destroyed, and his truck run off the road by those seeking to intimidate him into stopping his activism.
Currently, Gibson keeps a full calendar of speaking engagements. He has been featured in several documentaries, worked with Robert Kennedy, Jr., and addressed the United Nations to discuss the cultural and environmental impact of MTR.
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