PEOPLE & PLACES

Last spring, we invited amateur and professional photographers alike to enter our inaugural Images of Western North Carolina Photo Contest, and with so much here to inspire a shutterbug’s focus, more than 600 submissions flooded in. Check out the finalists’ photos as well as the winners of the Amateur and Professional categories on these pages, then visit wncmagazine.com to view other honorable mentions and vote for your overall favorite by January 31. The Readers’ Choice winner will be announced in our March/April issue.

Boone professor Ray Russell’s amateur interest in meteorology sparked the region’s top forecasting service

Sometimes, smaller is better.

It’s gone to the birds at Duck Dance Farm, a waterfowl conservation venture in Burnsville

For decades, Boone was the capitol of North Carolina-made sauerkraut

A new series of signs highlights the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area’s cultural cornerstones

A Morganton couple aims to spread monuments to the country’s founding documents far and wide

At Hart Square in Catawba County, a man with a passion for historic structures keeps the past alive

Get to know local history through new exhibits at area heritage museums

A Madison County program brings advanced literacy skills to rural girls

Throughout Western North Carolina sit dozens of public schools abandoned by time, consolidation, and changing demographics. In their heyday, they were community epicenters and veritable second homes for thousands of students. Today, some are boarded up, while others await imminent demolition and replacement by new state-of-the-art facilities. But there are also a handful of old schoolhouses tucked away in various corners of the mountains that have found new purpose as community centers, concert venues, historical beacons, and artists’ studios. Here’s a look at the past and present of eight of them.

Hugging the banks of the North Toe River, surrounded by blue-tinged mountains, the rural Mitchell County town of Spruce Pine holds a rich history, one with tales of trains and commerce, a hoard of minerals, and a nationally recognized theater. After falling in love with the community and learning of its heritage, Boone-based events planner Elizabeth Hempfling decided to pay homage. “I wanted to do something that portrayed love, but wanted it to be unique and to mean something,” she says. Hempfling staged a photo project that offers period recreations of Spruce Pine’s past, from the early 1900s to the 1950s, as well as snapshots of the thriving community today. In all, some 30 local residents pooled resources and time to stage, style, and snap pictures over four days. The result is a nostalgic portrayal of the town’s story, told with passion and reverence.

Forty years after Elvis rocked Asheville, the city’s still all shook up about it

The first full documentary on Nina Simone shows how she carried her talent, and rage, from Tryon to the world stage

Potter Reiko Miyagi brings deep meaning to her ceramics

A historic photo collection in Hendersonville springs to life with community input

A Polk County entrepreneur’s soap business is making waves in biofuels research

Make a difference in community health