Agriculture Next Celebration for Clay County’s 150th
The Sesquicentennial Committee has designated September as the month to celebrate the importance of agriculture to Clay County’s history and future.
The Committee has joined the Tractor Club and Chamber of Commerce to sponsor a day of activities on Saturday, September 24th at the Square. Families can enjoy the Tractor [...]

CLINE MCCLURE MADE MUSIC AT SINGING CONVENTIONS
By
Brenda Kay Ledford
Cline McClure loved old-time gospel music.  He had volume and didn’t need a microphone when he led songs at the singing conventions held in our old courthouse in Hayesville.
As a child, Carroll McClure attended the singing conventions with his parents.  Cline and Pearl parked him on the [...]

5K, Heart Walk this weekend
Hospital fundraiser benefits local students
Murphy, NC – ‘Two Hours from Anywhere’, Murphy Medical Center’s annual fundraiser for the non-profit hospital will take place this Saturday morning.   It features a 5K run, a two-mile heart walk and a kids’ fun run, and historically attracts about 350 participants.
“I walked in the race last [...]

Clay County Deputies now armed with Tasers
Clay County Deputies will now be armed with Tasers which will give them another level of force before having to resort to deadly force. Sheriff Davis said that Tasers are a great tool for officers to have available as a non-lethal weapon to affect an arrest on a suspect [...]

Dear Editor:
Regarding those who consider solar panels ugly, I would invite them to go to Appalachia and view REAL ugliness. Having ministered in Southwest Virginia for fourteen years.I have seen ugliness such as follows:
- miles and miles of stripped mountains to obtain coal who provides electricity for our convenience,
-homes devalued due to explosives cracking walls [...]

Remembering the Old Courthouse: Part X

Things you may not know about Hayesville
By: Betty Benedict Thompson
I have tried to give everyone a picture of Hayesville of my childhood during the Depression and WWII. It is all in my book, “Winding Round the Square”. The sleepy little town was not always this way. In [...]

Tusquittee Chronicles Part X
More recollections
SAN FRANCISCO–1953–When Bill HIggings, a traveling dentist came to our house and pulled several of dad’s teeth, one after the other, he would first cut loose the gums and then  yank out the teeth. Dad sat in a chair in the front yard of the old house. The work was done [...]

A Taste of the Thames
By: Willis P. Whichard
Special to the Smoky Mountain Sentinel
Part III: Blenheim Palace, Saint Martin’s Church, Clivedon Estate & Churchill’s Burial Location.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Following breakfast at our hotel, we walked to the bus stop and took the bus to Paddington Station, where we were to meet our walking group. Ken and [...]

Leaning Left
Jim Fitzgerald
The GOP Presidential debate and President Obama’s address is over and there is nothing new to report on that front, except that Obama does have a strong jobs bill on the table. Unfortunately, the GOP will do anything to obstruct Obama’s path to getting Americans back to work and in their zeal to [...]

“If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging,” suggested Will Rogers. President Obama keeps digging.
To be fair, he inherited a recession caused by programs he had voted for while Senator; for example, the bank bailout.  Also an overheated housing boom was caused largely by a combination of the Federal Reserve’s keeping interest rates so [...]