The High Country Host Blog

Archive for June, 2009

On April the 11th, 2001, Dr. Kermit Hunter passed away in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Hunter wrote the script for “Horn in the West” as well as forty other historical productions. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he wrote “Unto These Hills” as his Master’s Thesis under Dr. Paul Greene.

He had been working on a script titled “Wilderness Road” and when asked to write a script for the Boone area, adapted that one into “Horn in the West.”

Dr. Hunter was an eloquent spokesman for the outdoor drama art form. He was an accomplished musician who attended the Julliard School of Music and often composed the scores for his shows. He was also an accomplished indoor theatre playwright and poet. His voice and support of the uniquely American art form that is outdoor drama will be missed dearly. Over 1.4 million people have seen Horn in the West since it opened in 1952. We now have the privilege of keeping Dr. Hunter’s words alive for generations to come.

Don’t miss this amazing outdoor theatre! An establishment and tradition in The High Country!

To learn more, visit: http://www.horninthewest.com/

For lodging and other travel information, contact North Carolina High Country Host at 800-438-7500 or visit: www.mountainsofnc.com.

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Source: VirtualBlueRidge.com

GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN, NC – The 54th Annual Grandfather Mountain Highland Games and Gathering of Scottish Clans kicks off Thursday July 9. This event, which runs through Sunday, July 12, brings the color of hundreds of tartan plaids and the clamor of half a dozen bagpipe bands to the North Carolina Highlands.

Because of the spectacular mountain setting that is so reminiscent of Scotland; The Grandfather Games are considered America’s grandest Games. The deep blue peaks of 6,000-foot Grandfather Mountain tower above a grassy green meadow lined with 167 red, blue, yellow and green striped tents. The color is augmented by thousands of Scots luxuriously costumed in tartan plaids, and the energy is amplified by the sounds of bagpipes and kettle drums echoing across the moor.

The Highland Games will begin in the afternoon of Thursday July 9. Events that day will include opening ceremonies, a piping concert, sheep herding exhibition, the running of “The Bear”. Many people choose to bring a picnic dinner or buy concessions at the Meadows to enjoy during the evening events.

The official opening ceremonies begin at dusk with a torchlight ceremony where representatives of each of the 92 clans announce their families’ participation in the gathering. This “raising of the clans” proclaims that they have once again come together to celebrate their heritage.
Prior to the torchlight ceremony, over 900 runners will participate in a 5-mile footrace called “The Bear”. The course climbs 1,568 feet in elevation from the town of Linville to the summit of Grandfather Mountain.

Returning this year on Friday, July 10 is “The Grizzly” bike ride, a challenging route with 7,000 feet of climbing completed over 65 miles. The ride begins at Grandfather Mountain with cyclists traveling throughout Avery County, including a two mile dirt road up the backside of Beech Mountain.

Completing the trio of extreme physical challenges is the 42nd running of the Grandfather Mountain Marathon on Saturday, July 11. A special prize will be awarded to athletes who complete all three grueling events.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are filled with competition. There will be events in heavy-weight Scottish athletics, highland dancing, bagpipe band parades, piping, drumming and harp competitions. Also enjoy sheep herding demonstrations by Scottish border collies and concerts featuring a wide variety of Celtic music.

At the center of the weekend’s activities are the athletic competitions. The nation’s top Scottish athletes clash in traditional heavyweight events such as “Turning the Caber” and “Tossing the Sheaf.” The first requires an athlete to flip a telephone-pole-sized tree trunk end-over-end. The second event challenges athletes to loft a 16-pound sack of hay over a cross bar more than 20 feet above the ground. Other ancient tests of strength awaiting the brawny professionals are highland wrestling, putting the stone, the hammer throw and various weight throws.
On Friday night, the Celtic Jam highlights traditional and contemporary Celtic music at MacRae Meadows. Music continues on Saturday night as the Celtic Rock Concert serves up encore performances from some of the higher energy bands.

Among the performers at this year’s Celtic Jam and Celtic Rock Concert is a percussion group named Albannach who delivers a heart-pounding tribal rhythm that makes people get up and dance. Other Celtic groups include The Killdares, Mother Grove, Barleyjuice, Coyote Run, Teribus, Clandestine and Scythian. A variety of these musicians will also be performing in the Celtic Groves each day.

More traditional Appalachian and Celtic folk musicians will be appearing at the Games. The playlist includes Alex Beaton, Ed Miller, Jim Malcolm, Colin Grant Adams, Blessed Blend, R.G. Absher & Celtic Connection and George Hamilton IV.

More evening activities include a concert of Scottish folk music and dance called a Ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee), held both Friday and Saturday nights at Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk. A Friday night Scottish Country Dance Gala will be held at Lees-McRae College and a piping concert is on the schedule for Saturday night at the Broyhill Inn in Boone. Also at the Broyhill on Saturday night is a concert by Alex Beaton and Friends.

One of the most popular attractions at the Games is the traditional Scottish bazaar which is set up adjacent to the parade grounds at MacRae Meadows. The bazaar is a gathering of Merchants to sell Gaelic and tartan gift items .Concessionaires will be set up to sell Scottish meat pies and give visitors a taste of the highlands. There is also a tent set up to help guests trace their Scottish roots and learn more about their heritage. The bazaar is open throughout the weekend.
Adult tickets are $15 Thursday, $20 Friday, $30 Saturday and $15 Sunday and cover all activities in the meadows, which on Friday and Saturday last from early morning to midnight. Tickets are $5 dollars each day for children ages 5-12 with children under five free. Tickets are available at the field on the day of the event.

Parking is available on site at the Games field Thursday and Friday on a first-come, first-serve basis with overflow parking at shuttle lots in Linville, but public parking is not available at the field on Saturday and Sunday. Shuttle service is provided between MacRae Meadows and satellite parking areas in Linville, Newland and Boone. Shuttle fees vary depending on the distance between the lots and MacRae Meadows.

Tickets to the off-mountain evening events vary by event. For more information call 828-733-1333 or visit online at www.gmhg.org.

For lodging and other travel information, contact North Carolina High Country Host at 800-438-7500 or www.mountainsofnc.com.

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GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN, NC — The Board of Directors of Grandfather Mountain announced today that Marion, NC native Penn Dameron will become the first Executive Director of the new non-profit Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation effective August 1, 2009. Dameron currently serves as Executive Director of the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, an organization created in 2003 by the U.S. Congress to protect, preserve, interpret and develop the unique natural, historical and cultural resources of Western North Carolina.www.grandfather.com.

To insure the permanent protection of the wild character of Grandfather Mountain, the heirs of the late Hugh Morton recently sold almost 2,500 acres of the Mountain’s wilderness backcountry to the State of North Carolina for a state park. This transaction also included the sale of a permanent conservation easement on the attraction area. The Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation will operate the attraction and engage in research, education, and conservation activities. Dameron’s hiring occurs as the organization is pursuing 501(c)(3) status.

“Grandfather Mountain is just about the only thing that would tempt me to leave the job I am doing now at the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area,” said Dameron. “Since the first time I worked at Grandfather in 1970 I have always felt somewhere in my mind that I’d like to come back and work there again. The chance to help insure the future of this ecological treasure is more than I would ever have hoped for.”

Dameron had a summer job at Grandfather Mountain when he was in college. Although he sold tickets and pumped gas at the attraction entrance gate, the most memorable part of his job was assisting with the “Mildred the Bear Shows” which took place twice a day back in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

When Mildred the Bear came to Grandfather Mountain, jars of honey and cans of grape soda were used to lead Mildred and her cubs out to an amphitheater so guests could see the bears and laugh at their antics while they posed for pictures. Dameron was one of the first of those “bar” tenders and spent many a summer afternoon putting honey on the ‘Welcome to Grandfather Mountain’ sign before jumping out of the photographs.

But in, 1973 when North Carolina first began discussing the establishment of the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro, Hugh Morton was introduced to the ‘environmental habitat’ concept of zoo keeping. He immediately commissioned the Mildred the Bear Environmental Habitat and the focus at Grandfather Mountain began to shift from conventional 1950s-style entertainment to quality environmental education.

Today the Grandfather Mountain nature park is known for its famous Mile-High Swinging Bridge and 360 degree vistas of the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains. The attraction has a dozen environmental educators on staff who are there to help guests learn more about nature while enjoying up-close interaction with bears, otters, cougars, eagles and deer.

“I am attracted by the place,” Dameron said. “By a desire to make sure that not only is it preserved, and if possible even enhanced, but also by a broader vision that there is an opportunity to translate the things done at Grandfather into ideas people can put into practice in other special places around the world.”

After spending the summer of 1970 at Grandfather Mountain, Dameron went on to devote a combined 30 years to a career as a trial lawyer and Superior Court Judge. Over the years he worked closely with Hugh Morton when he served as Chairman of the Board of Western North Carolina Tomorrow and as a member of the Year of the Mountains Commission.

An accomplished musician, Dameron started playing in garage bands when he was 14 and has recorded or performed in venues as varied as The Mountain Stage in Charleston, West Virginia, The Radio Café in Nashville, Tennessee, and The Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC.

Between his devotion to mountain music and his years spent preserving mountain culture through the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, Dameron said he is eager to become involved with the ‘Singing on the Mountain’ and is excited that the attraction’s close association with the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games will allow him to participate in the preservation of the Scottish heritage of the North Carolina highlands.

“I am excited about having a chance to work in a place that has always been special and magical to me,” he said. “I am excited to have the chance to work with people whose company I enjoy and whose values I admire.

“It is exciting to commit myself to a purpose that is bigger and more important than I am,” continued Dameron. “I am extremely humbled to have been asked to do this.”

Grandfather Mountain is located on US Highway 221, two miles north of Linville, NC, and one mile south of the Blue Ridge Parkway at milepost 305. For more information phone 800-468-7325 or visit on the web at

To request a free High Country vacation guide, call (800) 438-7500 or go online to: www.MountainsofNC.com.

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Blue Ridge Learning Centers, Inc. is a leader in experiential education. We develop, deliver, train, facilitate exciting team building events and retreats.

Using new and innovate tools, such as ropes courses (challenge course) we offer programs that help individuals and organizations develop leadership abilities, communication processes, and teamwork skills.

Blue Ridge Learning Centers, Inc. is much more than our average team building company. We can offer our clients a range of services including, but not limited to, outdoor adventures, team building retreats, environmental programs, Earth Education, outdoor living skills, challenge course (ropes course).

Along with offering programming we construct a variety of fun and exciting learning activities.

To Learn More, Visit: www.brlc.org

To request a free High Country vacation guide, call (800) 438-7500 or go online to: www.MountainsofNC.com.

Find us on the following: