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Showing posts from August, 2023

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park: A Journey Through History and Nature

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The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States. Located in the Appalachian Mountains along the Tennessee and North Carolina state border, this national park is known for its breathtaking natural beauty and rich cultural history. One of the most notable features of the park is the Rockefeller Monument, also known as the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial. The Rockefeller Monument is a massive two-tiered stone structure located at Newfound Gap along the North Carolina and Tennessee state border. The walls and platforms are constructed of stone masonry and feature a curving stairway leading to the viewing area. The monument was completed in September 1939 and was the site of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s dedication of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in September 1940. A plaque celebrating the park’s 50th anniversary was added in 1984, and the park was rededicated in 2009 for its 75th anniversary. The monument offers

Stepping Back in Time: A Visit to the Historic Village of Bethabara

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Bethabara Village was a Moravian settlement established in 1753 in what is now Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The Moravians were a religious group that had fled persecution in their native Bohemia (in present-day Czech Republic) and settled in various parts of Europe and the Americas. The settlement at Bethabara was intended to be a hub for missionary work among the Native American tribes in the region. The village had a central square, a church, a gristmill, and a variety of other buildings, and was home to around 100 residents at its peak. The village was abandoned in 1788 when the Moravians moved their settlement to the nearby town of Salem. Today, the Bethabara Historic District, which includes several reconstructed buildings from the original village, is open to the public as a museum and historic site. Bethabara Village was one of the first Moravian settlements in North Carolina and played an important role in the history of the region. The Moravians who settled at Bethabara were

Preserving American History Through Art: The Reynolda Museum of Art

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Residents of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, will surely recognize the name Reynolda. After all, you can see it adorning numerous places around the city from buildings at Wake Forest University to the name of a beautiful public garden. Another place you will find it is at the Reynolda House Museum of American Art, which has deep roots in the Winston-Salem community. To understand the history of the Reynolda Museum of Art, we need to first explore that of its founders, RJ and Katharine Smith Reynolds. R.J. Reynolds was born in 1850 in Virginia. The son of a tobacco farmer, he immersed himself in the family business before ultimately deciding to strike out on his own. Seeing the need for a railroad hub that wasn’t present in his family’s county, he moved to Winston-Salem to create his own tobacco company, which would grow into the nation’s second largest. Katharine Smith Reynolds worked as a secretary for the R.J. Reynolds tobacco company after graduating from Sullins College. She and R.J