WNCHA Outdoor Experiences: Big Ivy Historical Park
Big Ivy Historical Park 550 Dillingham Rd, Barnardsville, NCJoin the Western North Carolina Historical Association Saturday, September 25 at 11am as we tour the Big Ivy Historical Park. NOTE: The planned hiking portion of this outing to Little Snowball Mountain is suspended unless road access and trail conditions improve. As of 9/1/21, we plan to offer only the tour of the historical park […]
WNCHA Presents: Dr. David Moore on Native American Resistance to the16th-Century Spanish Invasion of Western North Carolina
ZoomJoin the Western North Carolina Historical Association Thursday, September 30 at 6:30PM for this special virtual event. We will explore the history and the modern archaeology behind the travelling exhibit Unearthing Our Forgotten Past: Fort San Juan, now on display at the Smith-McDowell House Museum. Dr. David Moore will describe excavations of the Berry site, […]
WNCHA Lectures: The Marion Mill Massacre in Memory
ZoomJoin the Western NC Historical Association Thursday, October 14 at 6PM via Zoom as we kick off a month of programming centered on labor and mill history in WNC. On October 2, 1929, deputies killed six textile workers at the Marion Manufacturing Company mill, marking one of the deadliest labor strikes in the South. This […]
WNCHA Experiences: Henry River Mill Village Tour
Henry River Mill Village 4255 Henry River Rd, Hickory, NCJoin us Saturday, Oct 16 as WNCHA takes a private tour of the Henry River Mill Village outside of Morganton, North Carolina. From 1905 until the 1960s, the Henry River Manufacturing Company relied on hundreds of individuals and families manufacturing yarn in this mill and living in its constructed village. The main mill burned in […]
RAIL Monument Dedication Ceremony
Andrew's Geyser 2111 Mill Creek Rd, Old Fort, NCOn Sunday, October 17 at 3:30pm, the Railroad and Incarcerated Laborer Memorial (RAIL) project will unveil a new monument at Andrew's Geyser in Old Fort. This granite marker memorializes the incarcerated African American laborers who toiled and died constructing the Mountain Division of the Western North Carolina Railroad in the late 1800s. The unveiling ceremony […]
WNCHA Lectures: Beacon Blanket Mill
ZoomThe Western North Carolina Historical Association concludes our month of labor history programming Thursday, October 21 at 6PM. Join us (virtually via Zoom) for a presentation on the history of Swannanoa's Beacon Blanket mill from writer and director Rebecca Williams. The Beacon Blanket mill was once billed as the "largest blanket manufacturer in the world." […]
WNCHA Presents: 1874 Illustrations for “The Land of the Sky”
ZoomA virtual event exploring the illustrations of the famous Land of the Sky novel by Frances Tiernan Join the Western North Carolina Historical Association Thursday, November 4 at 6pm as we bring you this special event via Zoom. History shouldn’t be boring. W.L. Sheppard’s illustrations for Frances Tiernan’s notable novel are not — illustrating her blockbuster […]
WNCHA Presents: Narrow Gauge Logging Railroads of the Champion Fibre Company
ZoomJoin the Western North Carolina Historical Association on Zoom Thursday, November 23 at 6PM as we bring you this virtual event featuring guest Gerald (Jerry) Ledford. In 1905, paper manufacturer Peter Gibson Thomson came to western North Carolina in search of pulpwood and a suitable location for a mammoth pulp mill that would provide pulp […]