Media Room
Stories to Tell
In Lake Lure and the Blue Ridge Foothills, we have so many stories to tell. Some have been heard in places before, many are just waiting to be discovered. Check back -- story ideas to be added.
If you are interested in any of these stories, media should contact Michelle Whitaker here or by phone at 800-849-5998.
The Forest City Owls and Its Town of Dreams
Abraham Lincoln Was Illegitimate – And Born Here
On the Cusp: The Next Diners’ Haven
Shaped Note Singings: A Traditional Music Form Lives
Is Your Dog Stuck Indoors?
Washburn’s General Store
It’s not like this in other places: a sampling of unique events we hold here
The Forest City Owls and Its Town of Dreams
Rutherford ranks as the North Carolina county hardest-hit by the recession. It’s the 13th hardest-hit in the U.S. Now it is also home to the #1 collegiate baseball summer team in the nation.
How the Forest City Owls reflect the spirit of a town and mirror its struggles….and, by the way, count an NFL team owner as one of its dedicated fans.
If you look on the back of Forest City Owls President Ken Silver’s four seats (you can) you will see plaques quoting Field of Dreams’ Terrance Mann. Sure, there is the ubiquitous “if you build it, they will come.” But like so much else about this franchise, look on other seats and you will see quotes which seem to exemplify the team’s hometown.
You would think that in an year-old field, “this field, this game is part of the past” would be out of place. But it’s not. Every day, this small town in the muggy south struggles and is sometimes succeeding to reinvent itself – but as it does, it’s also trying to carry with it the best of our collective past into the present and an only-imagined future.
September 2006, when talks started to bring the team to the Rutherford County town from Spartanburg, SC – about an hour away -- it was already an area economically ravaged by the demise of the local textile industry. At the time, there was some concern that the county’s population of a 64,161 -- as well as the relatively small number of community businesses which could be tapped for support – wouldn’t give a strong enough base of support for a baseball team, even for a summer league team where players are unpaid college athletes with their hopes set on the far-off star of playing in the pros one day. Larger, more economically advantaged towns less than 30 minutes away were vying for the franchise.
And yet, less than a year later, Forest City had promised they would build the first stadium constructed exclusively for one of the league’s teams. The five million needed to build was pooled together from the town, area businesses, and Houston Texans owner Robert McNair.
Robert McNair has lived in Texas since 1960 but grew up in Forest City and never severed his connections to the town. McNair gave more than $1 million for the new stadium, and was on hand to throw the first pitch the first time the Owls took the field on May 29, 2008. As a young boy, McNair had thrown a ball many times from the same spot– his former school yard ballfield had been razed and transformed into the field that now bears his name.
McNair is one of Forest City’s favorite success stories. There are others. Early in the 1900’s its downtown was named one of the most beautiful in the nation, and thousands come in the summer for the car show and then return in the winter for the ½ million “hometown holiday” Christmas lights which wrap around the tree-lined streets. There’s hopes for redeveloping the old mills.
News Article: Season of the Owl: The Sequel
REVISIONS AND MORE TO COME – Including how the team reflects the town’s spirit of hope and vision for the future…and is believing the hopes into reality. All while Forest City takes the best Main Street Americana has to offer.
Abraham Lincoln Was Illegitimate – And Born Here
Or so believe the folks of The Bostic Lincoln Center – a place exploring the persistent theory that Abraham Lincoln was born the illegitimate son of Nancy Hanks. The power of oral stories. The people who hold them true – and are trying to prove it – in this case, by DNA. Go to their site: http://www.bosticlincolncenter.com/
On the Cusp: The Next Diners’ Haven
With pharmacy soda shops still serving up shakes and burgers on Main Street, new restaurants delivering fresh local food from innovative menus, the overnight sensation of music and ribs known as the Rowdy Rib, and scenic dining found all over the area, Rutherford County is poised to be where anyone who wants to eat, wants to be.
Shaped Note Singings: A Traditional Music Form Lives
Every year, hundreds of singers are welcomed for “shaped-note singings” in Rutherford County. Like the name suggests, singers know their note by its shape – not by what most of us think of as music. In shaped-note singing there is no audience, only participants who sit, facing each other, in a hollow square formation. This so each part can hear the other in this a cappela southern music tradition.
One such singing occurs each October in historic St. John’s Church, which opens just for the occasion. Called the Amy Golightly Walker Memorial Singing, it is powerful, haunting, and surprisingly alive. To view a sample, go to: this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6wXwo1pVJA&feature=related
Is Your Dog Stuck Indoors? There’s a place for him – and for you
Then you can head for the nation’s only campground – rather—kingdom dedicated to the outdoors vacation of dogs and their owners. All sorts of activities and facilities for four-leggeds and their owners. Go to their site: http://www.4pawskingdom.com/
Washburn’s General Store
It wasn’t designed for tourists – it’s where your great-grandparents could have shopped, and many of our locals’ elders did. Step onto the wooden floors and step back into time. But it’s not a museum – it is still the local place to buy seed and overalls, cider mills and a bologna sandwich. Go to: http://www.rutherfordtourism.com/links/index.php?LID=29&CID=29&LS=CList
It’s not like this in other places: a sampling of unique events we hold here
The Olympiad – the biggest sports festival happening in Western North Carolina.
The Lure of the Dragons – an annual dragon boat race, fundraiser, and festival -- run at a fire-breathing pace.
Hometown Holidays - half a million holiday lights glowing around carriage rides in a picturesque downtown.
The New Years’ Polar Plunge – the only one in North Carolina
