• Features
• Table of Contents
• NETTA Features
• Marquee Blog
• Writers
• Photographers
• Past Issue Features
• Back Issues
•  

Past Issue Features

Making Tracks: Alternative Winter Sports Offer Peaceful Solitude, Thrilling Adventure

Snow advisory: Get off the beaten path.

For those who want to escape the crowds and revel in the winter-white freshness of snow and ice, the invitation to go beyond the slopes is irresistible. Locally, there are several tempting options available-cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and ice climbing-all of which provide an unparalleled experience for thrill-seekers, regardless of age or skill level.

These “alternative” winter sports require a spur-of-the-moment attitude to capitalize on snowstorms and literally seize the day. They also require some specialized skis, snowshoes, or climbing gear. Troy Clark at High Country is a PSIA (Professional Ski Instructors of America) instructor in the Nordic Division who advises skiers. “The best place to go is at the Moses Cone Memorial Park on the Blue Ridge Parkway,” Clark says. “The old carriage roads there are great for cross-country trekking. And, you can go anywhere on the Parkway as long as it’s behind the gated areas, such as the Linn Cove Viaduct.”

 Snowshoeing is an old-fashioned winter activity that is enjoying a comeback, and Sugar Mountain Resort invites newcomers to try it out on guided tours along scenic trails. “It’s something all ages can do,” says Kim Jochl, director of marketing at Sugar. “Our guided tours are geared to the ability and exertion level of the group. It’s really great for people who are uncomfortable getting onto skis but want to get out in the snow.”

Ice climbing is growing in popularity as an “extreme” sport, with a growing number of aficionados who come for the starkly beautiful environment. To try ice climbing, a participant needs only to bring warm clothing; outfitters usually provide the helmets, harnesses, boots, crampons and ice axes. Jeremiah Haas, a climbing guide with Fox Mountain Guides out of Brevard, N.C., says that ice climbing offers a great cardiovascular workout. “You’re so focused on the features of the formations,” says Haas. “People think it’s so delicate, but it’s as strong as rock.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

High Country Ski Shop-Pineola, N.C.
pineolainn.com

1st Tracks Ski Shop-Boone, N.C.
1sttracks.com

Sugar Mountain Ski Resort-Banner Elk, N.C.
skisugar.com

Granite Arches-Asheville, N.C., Johnson City, Tenn., Chattanooga, Tenn.
granitearches.com

Fox Mountain Guides-Brevard, N.C.
foxmountainguides.com

Nancy C. Williams is a freelance writer and snow-lover in Johnson City, Tenn.

For the complete story please read the winter issue of Marquee Mountain
South.

Post a Comment »

Back to Top

---

Mast Farm Inn: A Family Affair

Tucked on 12 acres in the serene historic district of Valle Crucis, N.C.,
surrounded by mountains, rivers and streams, is the Mast Farm Inn.

Originally the homestead of the infamous Mast family who settled the valley,
the inn has a history of welcoming guests for over 100 years. It’s not your
ordinary bed-and-breakfast.The Mast Farm Inn is one of only 408 B & Bs in the country listed in the
Select Registry, a national association that rates inns on quality. Mast
Farm is also on the National Register of Historic Places as “One of the most
complete and best preserved groups of 19th century farm buildings in Western
North Carolina.”

After living in Paris, London, Switzerland, Manhattan and Coconut Grove,
the new owners-eight members of the Deschamps and Siano families-made a
major lifestyle change. After many years vacationing in the area, they
decided that a B & B the whole family could be involved with was a good
change of pace. In 2006 they purchased the operating inn.

The list of things that make the Mast Farm Inn unique is long. Papa Henri
Deschamps oversees Club Ferdinand, the first fleet-sharing car club in the
world, consisting of a million-dollar fleet of Porsches. For a yearly fee,
guests have access to 10 different cars for a day or a week-but you don’t
have to be a member to enjoy the ride. The cars can be rented daily or
weekly by registered guests for $60 to $90 a day.

The best buys are always in winter, so call January through March for
unadvertised discounts, and visit the website for clever, creative and
affordable packages. But no matter what time of year you visit, a stay at
the Mast Farm Inn will be truly memorable.

 New websites devoted to gift baskets:  

mastfarm.net/basketgallery/index.html

mastfarminn.com/giftcertificates/index.html

 
Linda Kramer is a freelance writer who lives in Valle Crucis, N.C.

For the complete story please read the winter issue of Marquee Mountain
South.

Post a Comment »

Back to Top

---

The Pleasures of Local Produce: Fantastic Flavor at Harvest Table

Two brightly painted buildings on the tiny town square of Meadowview, Va.,
signal that new life is taking hold in the rural community north of
Abingdon. The renovated buildings house the Meadowview Farmers’ Guild-a
project that includes a country store and restaurant, called the Harvest
Table, featuring food from local farms. Fresh, homegrown and creative best
describe the new establishment as well as the restaurant cuisine.

Meadowview Farmers’ Guild was the culmination of several community members’
efforts to revive the local economy and provide an outlet for local farm
produce. The man behind the venture is Steven Hopp, a farmer and professor
at nearby Emory & Henry College. Having farmed in the community for many
years, Hopp was familiar with the variety of foods being produced in the
area. With many farmers replacing tobacco with produce, “I came upon the
idea to have a restaurant offering local foods with a seasonal menu,” Hopp
says.

The philosophy at Harvest Table reflects some of the thinking that Hopp
brings to light in the recently released book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle,
which he co-wrote with his wife, author Barbara Kingsolver, and daughter
Camille Kingsolver.

With the stated goal “to serve the best locally produced foods available,”
the Harvest Table seeks farmers who care about the quality of the food they
produce and sustainability of their land. The restaurant serves meats that
have been raised responsibly without hormones or antibiotics and avoids
serving foods that have been genetically modified, factory packaged or
require long distance transport and excessive fuel consumption.

Ann N. Yungmeyer is a freelance writer who lives in Kingsport, Tenn.

For the complete story please read the Winter issue of Marquee Mountain
South.

Post a Comment »

Back to Top

---

Keeping Time with the Music. A Thriving Appalachian Tradition

It’s only fitting that our Southern Appalachian mountains, with a strong heritage in old-time music, are also home to the mountain folk dance, clogging.

The exuberant, percussive dance-characterized by foot tapping, stomping and shuffling to the rhythm of jamming music-inspired team competitions in the late 1920s at the first Mountain Dance and Folk Festival in Asheville, N.C. “This was the birthplace of clogging,” says Jeff Atkins, member of Asheville’s Folk Heritage Committee.

Clog dancing was partly influenced by English, Scottish and Irish step dance traditions brought by early settlers to Southern Appalachia. Historians say it was the Queen of England who actually spurred the name “clogging” in 1939, when she visited the White House and watched a Waynesville, N.C., group performing, which reminded her of clogging in England. “English clogging goes back to the Industrial Revolution,” says Atkins, “when the mill workers would unwind after work in their wood-soled shoes.”

For many cloggers in the Mountain South region, a tradition which started with barn jamborees has extended beyond festivals and fairgrounds to major competitions and worldwide performances. Plenty of recreational cloggers just enjoy it for the fun and exercise (it burns about 400 calories an hour). The common thread among cloggers-they all love to dance.

Different Styles
Traditional cloggers often describe clogging as a combination of square dancing and buck dancing. (Buck dancing, like flat footin’, is a solo freestyle dance featuring fancy footwork that involves brushing and clicking the floor to make rhythmic sounds.) With a mix of cultures, clogging in the United States has adopted many styles, but two distinctions are often made: traditional Southern Appalachian, and precision.

“Southern Appalachian cloggers typically dance traditional [square dance] figures with freestyle footwork to live music-banjo, fiddle, guitar,” says Rodney Sutton, member of long-standing North Carolina group the Green Grass Cloggers. “Couples will feature footwork in moves like the Kings Highway and the Queens Highway. Precision clogging is more like line dancing-they got out of the big circles.”

Precision (or modern) clogging evolved in the 1950s with a variety of music, elaborate costumes, jingle tap shoes and choreography. Contemporary precision teams often incorporate hands-on-the-hip routines, higher kicks and greater emphasis on heel tapping.

Ann N. Yungmeyer is a freelance writer who lives in Kingsport.

For the complete story please read the November/December issue of Marquee.

4 Comments »

Back to Top

---

Influential People of the Mountain South

Editor’s Note: The following is a brief excerpt from the work of two Marquee writers who profiled three of the region’s most influential people: Pat Summit, Brian Ferguson and Scott Niswonger.

Pat Summit
By Allen Gregory. Photo by Patrick Racey-Murphy

For Pat Summitt, the road to icon status began on a tractor. The setting was the family dairy farm in rural Henrietta, Tenn. The hours were long and the chores were endless, yet Summitt learned some lasting lessons.

“No question, my childhood greatly influenced my work ethic and value system,” Summitt says. “No task was too big or too small. It just had to get done.”

Summitt has accomplished plenty of tasks during her 33-year reign as the stern, yet charming, queen of women’s college basketball. Even casual sports fans are aware of the Summitt résumé. En route to seven NCAA Division I championships and a NCAA record of 947 wins, Summitt has elevated women’s athletics and embraced the lofty title of role model. “I feel very blessed to be a basketball coach at Tennessee and to have the support of so many wonderful fans,” Summitt says. “I love this state and university.”

Brian Ferguson
By Mary Alice Basconi. Photo by Murray Lee

J. Brian Ferguson’s reputation as a low-profile CEO became an office joke a few years ago after Kingsport’s AFG Industries, in a team-building exercise, asked some employees to get their pictures taken with community leaders. Those who went to Eastman Chemical Co. hoping to find Ferguson came back empty-handed.

“I was sort of a phantom in the area,” he admits. “They didn’t succeed. They didn’t get it.”

Ferguson was a shadowy figure at a time when his company was, as he puts it, “self-consumed.” Not that he minds. Executives he admires aren’t seeking the limelight, but keeping their heads down, getting the job done. Still, the incident made him think.

“I had to re-examine,” he says, laughing. “I said, ‘Maybe I need a little higher profile than that.’”

As the only person in the Tri-Cities running a Fortune 500 company, 53-year-old Ferguson is visible—but not always on the home front. He might travel two to three days a week, so office hours are carefully allocated. A meeting with a visitor might be planned down to the minute.

Scott Niswonger
By Mary Alice Basconi. Photo By Murray Lee

Greeneville, Tenn., philanthropist Scott Niswonger was driving to lunch when he heard Paul Harvey say students in school bands are more likely to be successful, earn good grades and shun drugs and alcohol.

Niswonger—who says he played so poorly that he got his plastic horn taken away as a kid—listened to the radio in amazement. After lunch he sought out the director of the Niswonger Foundation, Oliver “Buzz” Thomas, who had just read the same study. Before long, the men hatched a plan to bring instrumental music to Greene County, Tenn., schools. And when Mosheim Elementary/Middle School held its first Christmas concert three years ago, Niswonger was there. He loved it: One hundred-plus kids in yellow band T-shirts playing songs like “Rocky Top” and “Jingle Bells.” Later on, parents—some of whom never graduated from high school—became band boosters. Niswonger’s son E.J., the school’s physical education teacher, reported a decline in disciplinary actions.

“E.J. tells me, ‘You will not believe the problems that have gone away for me,’” Niswonger recalls.

Allen Gregory and Mary Alice Basconi are both seasoned journalists who live and work in the Mountain South.

For the complete story please read the November/December issue of Marquee.

Post a Comment »

Back to Top

---