Carolinas Urban-Rural Connection

This story is one of seven vignettes in the series Rural by Choice: Navigating Identity in the Uwharries. Chappell Russell and Justin Foley were living the millennial dream. They met at Appalachian State. He worked for a large CPA firm in uptown Charlotte. She helped run a small dog-training business. They had an apartment in […]

This story is one of seven vignettes in the series Rural by Choice: Navigating Identity in the Uwharries. The land at this particular crossroads in southern Randolph County has a storied history. It once belonged to Miles and Healy Lassiter, and some of it still belongs to their descendants, including Jerry Laughlin. Miles was born […]

This story is one of seven vignettes in the series Rural by Choice: Navigating Identity in the Uwharries. Newsom’s Jewelers was a fixture on Main Street in Troy for almost 50 years. Tracy Newsom Garner’s grandfather moved from High Point to start the business in 1952, following in the footsteps of his brothers, who’d opened […]

“A bus ticket and a bologna sandwich.” That’s a colloquial interpretation of the solution many economists suggest for addressing economic challenges in rural areas – move to a city where there’s more opportunity. While this school of thought acknowledges barriers that can make it difficult to relocate – education levels, job skills, housing costs – […]

Nestled off a quiet street of attractive suburban homes in Waxhaw, there’s a quarter-mile trail in the woods along the Twelve Mile Creek. Near the end of a stone stairway is a striking sight: A 160-foot suspension bridge connecting Waxhaw, North Carolina, and Indian Trail, South Carolina. You can embrace the bridge’s wobbles during the […]

This is the first part in a three-part series. Read Part 2: ‘We needed to do something bold’ and Part 3: ‘A 38-year overnight success story’ for the next parts of the story. Thirteen years later, Brownie Plaster is still bemused by the chorus of laughs that rose one May afternoon in 2006. At the […]

This is the second part in a three-part series. Read Part 1: Turning to musical heritage to fuel the future to catch up on the story. You can find Part 3: ‘A 38-year overnight success story’ online as well. What happened in Shelby played out across the Carolinas, where textiles were once the driver of […]

This is the third part in a three-part series. Read Part 1: Turning to musical heritage to fuel the future and Part 2: Looking for one ‘unique asset’ to catch up on the story. The revivalists in Shelby focused on “Uncle Earl” Scruggs and Don Gibson, approaching the county, the courthouse’s owner, about a first-rate […]

Earl Scruggs (1924-2012) Earl Scruggs in 2005. Photo used under Creative Commons license. He was 10 years old on the family farm in Flint Hill ⁠— about eight miles from the former county courthouse in Shelby that now bears his name ⁠— when Earl Scruggs and older brother Horace got into a “fuss.” After it […]

The South Fork of the Catawba is not the river Ted Reece remembers from his youth. Reece, 91, can still picture the South Fork backed up to form a massive pool serving the Mays and Mayflower mills’ dyeing and finishing operations. It was wide and flat enough to land a seaplane — a spectacle he […]