Appalachia Outpost

05/11/2026

This isn’t a regular post for us, but we felt compelled to let you know why PBS is so very important in our area. Thank you, Chad!

05/01/2026

Congratulations on surviving an entire year with Charlotte. Fans, if you find yourself in Savannah, be sure to check out the Savannah Paranormal Museum. 💀🤍🩶🖤

03/06/2026

Slowly, but surely Black Mountain Campground and trails around Mount Mitchell are opening back up after Hurricane Helene. There’s still a lot of debris, log jams, undercut banks, trail closures, and construction along Forest Service roadways so be sure to check before planning a hike in the area.

The flood sent giant boulders tumbling down the mountain, scoured the riverbed down to bedrock, and unearthed beautiful stones like the ones in this video. While it’s fine to look, please don’t stack rocks.

Also, remember to LEAVE NO TRACE by carrying out trash and p**p. There are no working restrooms in the area so go while you’re in town! Our ecosystem is damaged and fragile, so help us keep it clean. We appreciate tourists, but we don’t want your trash. If you pack it in or p**p it out, take it with you when you leave. Thanks!

03/05/2026

💀🤍🩶🖤 The Howdy Doody doll, a surviver of the Hurricane Helene flood that destroyed Micaville, North Carolina now haunts the Savannah Paranormal Museum, and is featured in the New York Times! We are so proud that this extraordinary museum keeps several notoriously diabolical items from our collection on display.

02/27/2026

We’ve always been resilient.

In the rocky creek beds and mountain hollows around Asheville, North Carolina during the summer of 1935, Cherokee and Scots-Irish mountain families revived clay-pot making to survive the lingering Depression. Timber camps and small farms had failed; families ate wild greens and traded labor for cornmeal.
Women and older girls dug red and gray clay from creek banks, mixed it with sand and water, and shaped pots by hand—no wheel, just coil and pinch. They built open fires in cleared spots, stacking wood and dung to slow-bake the pots overnight. Men gathered fuel; children smoothed surfaces or carried water.
The Creek-Bed Clay Potters traded finished pots—bean pots, pitchers, storage jars—for flour, salt, or cloth at crossroads or with passing peddlers. They shared patterns across families: Cherokee river-cane impressions, Scots-Irish simple bands. No one kept score; a pot was payment enough.
When a family lost a child to fever, the potters made a small memorial jar and placed it on the grave with wildflowers. The pots didn’t cure poverty, but they kept hands busy and traditions alive when the mountains gave little else.

01/03/2026

Recently, my wife had several of her favorite Facebook pictures printed at Walmart, and while looking through them, we noticed something very strange in the reflection of my glasses. I took the selfie for my profile picture in September 2023, parked below the BRP ramp on Highway 80 South in Yancey County, NC. I wasn’t at a beach, lake, waterfall or naturists park, and I didn’t see anything weird at the time. In fact, I was surrounded by woods. I can’t believe we didn’t notice sooner. What do you see reflected in the lenses?

11/08/2025

Charlotte is still causing disturbances in Savannah. 🖤

10/29/2025

💀🧡💀 One of the best annual Halloween displays in Appalachia is in Unicoi, Tennessee. Don’t forget to stop by Scott’s Farm Market for an ice cream if you plan to visit the area before Halloween. There’s still a little color left on the trees. 🍂🍁

10/29/2025

🧡💀🏁 There’s a garage at the intersection of Unicoi Drive and Highway 107, directly across from the Town of Unicoi Police Department, where a theatrical Halloween tableau mysteriously appears every October. As a tribute to these creepy displays, we offer a silly, short animation created with photos from previous years. If anyone knows who builds them, please share!

10/16/2025

Dogs are the best. Halloween is a close second.
🐕💨🖤