The Statesville Historical Collection, the work of Dr. Steve Hill and the numerous local residents who have donated to it through the years is now open in it’s new location. A much better building, more space, with new displays for all the incredible things the collection houses. I highly recommend if you are local or ..read more

These pictures are over a year old as of my posting them. I have held onto them for that long seeing what might become of the property, but it appears it’s slated for development and some work has started now. I don’t know how much longer these structures will survive.Be that as it may, I’m ..read more

“Back in the day,” if you were a mountain or foothills family, one of those “hillbilly” clans that were looked down upon in the 1920’s and 30’s, life was very much a hand-to-mouth affair. A bad season, a bad illness, a financial setback, a death in the family, any of these things might upset the ..read more

I have something fun for you today I turned up digging through old shoeboxes.I think everyone remembers how much hype there was when Charlotte finally got it’s own basketball team. By 1992 it was probably at a fever pitch, especially after the Hornets picked up Alonzo Mourning and Tony Bennet at numbers 1 and 2 ..read more

In the Sandy Springs community of northern Iredell county stands a reminder of the importance those who came before us placed on education.Originally, the land this building is on was part of the Dalton’s plantation, “Daltonia”, with the main house sitting just shy of 3 miles down the road. It cannot be understated just how ..read more

I try to catalogue interesting things I find and this is one that recently made it’s way into my hands from Pennsylvania. This is a CD, which is odd first of all because the original recordings from the Fiddle Festival were released on vinyl. And while there have been modern pressings of those albums on ..read more

In researching Mozelle Beam, I came across a mention of an article she had published in a “Profitable Hobbies” magazine. I was curious about this article so I tracked down a physical copy of the January, 1948 issue. The article in question was about a young man whose name I had never come across, a ..read more

History is full of close calls that you never hear about. Days or events that could have completely changed the course of our lives and our communities but for some twist of fate. We don’t tend to remember these because of what didn’t happen, and so acts of heroism can quickly be forgotten. Henry Oscar Montgomery is one of those forgotten heroes. Just a working class 54 year old father, driving a fuel truck for Myers Oil out of Statesville to make ends meet and provide for his family. Montgomery and his truck. Iredell County Library On May 12th, 1948, Montgomery was making a scheduled delivery ..read more

Mount Airy, North Carolina is known for a lot of things. Foremost in my mind, it’s been the site of a massive granite quarry for over 160 years. A quarry that is actually the largest open-faced granite quarry on the planet, even being visible from space. Stone from there has found its way into cities, memorials, and structures all over the world. It also gained Mount Airy the nickname “Granite City”. Griffith in 1955. More recently, Mount Airy has embraced its legacy as the probable inspiration for the town of Mayberry as seen in The Andy Griffith Show. Mount Airy’s most famous son might not h ..read more

On the north end of the little community of Osbornville in Wilkes county, between Somers Road and Dugger Creek stands a modest little mountain. Despite rising to only 1400 feet above sea level, it appears on even the oldest maps of the area I can find. For untold years it has remained a tree covered sentinel, watching over the area and it’s peoples. There’s no telling the stories it’s seen or participated in during that life, but recently I have discovered a few I that want to share with you. Before white people took hold of the land around what is now called Hunting Creek, the native people ..read more