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National Geographic picks local spots for Appalachia map
By Carey King
Most kids grow up learning that there’s one magazine you don’t cut up, no matter how important the school project. The photos are tempting and the pull-out maps tantalizing, but parents worldwide have laid down the law: Don’t go near a National Geographic with scissors.
Packed away in countless attics, an investment for generations to come, the encyclopedia of magazines is famous for its photos of leaping gazelles and snow-capped mountains. Now, with the April edition of the National Geographic Society’s Traveler magazine, it’ll be known for four spots right here in Jackson County.
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Finding themselves on the Appalachia geotourism map featured in National Geographic Traveler’s April 2005 edition are, clockwise from upper left, Kim Lyons of Great Smoky Mountains Railroad; Kim Shailer and Sharon White of the Balsam Mountain Inn; Sharon, Jim, Jean and Buzz Hartbarger of the Jarrett House; and Susan Leveille and Ruth McConnell of Riverwood Shops. The two-sided, full-color map is inserted as a bonus in the magazine and is also an interactive feature on the National Geographic Web site, located at www.nationalgeographic.com/appalachia. The four historic places were picked from among 1,000 sites submitted by state and local tourism agencies to the Appalachian Regional Commission as representative of “authentic Appalachia.” The ARC is a partnership created in 1965 to help the people of Appalachia reach socioeconomic parity with the rest of the nation. Defined by Congress, the Appalachian region includes 21 million people in 410 counties spread across parts of North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and all of West Virginia. – Herald photos by Carey King
Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, the Jarrett House, Balsam Mountain Inn and Riverwood Shops have been chosen from a list of more than 1,000 sites to be featured in the magazine’s Geotourism Map/Guide to Appalachia. The two-sided, full-color map is inserted as a bonus in National Geographic Traveler magazine and is also an interactive feature on the magazine’s Web site at www.nationalgeographic.com/appalachia.
More than 4 million people nationwide read the publication each month, and between 5 and 7 million visit the National Geographic site. An additional 300,000 copies of the map will be distributed by Appalachian state tourism offices to welcome centers and targeted traveler mailing lists, and even more will be sent to schools, libraries and civic groups – a sure-fire boon to Jackson County tourism.
“I got a big, white envelope, and inside it said ‘You are now on the map,” said Riverwood’s Ruth McConnell.
“I thought it was one of those ‘you have won a million dollars’ kind of things,” said Balsam innkeeper Sharon White.
“It was a nice surprise,” said Jarrett House owner Jean Hartbarger.
The Appalachian Regional Commission worked with National Geographic on the project, asking state and local tourism agencies to nominate destinations they thought represented “authentic Appalachia.” The ARC – a partnership between the federal government and the 13 Appalachian states created in 1965 to help boost Appalachian economies – then had National Geographic pick 365 sites to be featured on the map and rotated daily on the Web site.
Links to 130 destinations are currently available on the site, though more will be added quarterly.
“I thought about organizations long-standing in the county, places possibly on the National Register of Historic Places, places which I think in general represent a good collage of the heritage we have in Jackson County,” said Julie Spiro, the Jackson County Travel and Tourism Authority director who submitted a total of 12 nominations.
Forty-five of the 365 destinations and events selected are in North Carolina, and include the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Biltmore Estate, Grandfather Mountain, Old Salem, Mast General Store, MerleFest, the John C. Campbell Folk School, Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, Fontana Dam and the Deep Creek waterfalls.
The Museum of the Cherokee Indian also made it to the list after being nominated by the Cherokee Travel and Tourism Authority, Spiro said.
While unrelated to Western North Carolina’s designation by Congress last year as the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, both recognitions are intended to help Appalachia cash in on “cultural heritage” tourists – the type of folks who want to learn about everything an area has to offer.
Travelers from this group tend to stay longer and spend more than average on their trips, reports the Travel Industry Association of America, and it’s a tourism sector that’s growing twice as fast as the overall travel market.
“They’re very busy,” said White of her guests, who she said on average stay three or four days. “The main thing they like to do is shop.”
Six of the 10 states that cultural heritage tourists visit most are in Appalachia, and the ARC plans to track that number in the future with help from each of the sites on the map. GSMR, the Jarrett House, Balsam Inn and Riverwood will all be asked to submit data on whether visits increase in coming months.
“Daddy said he started the (Riverwood) pewter shop for two reasons. One, he didn’t want the craft to die,” McConnell said. “Two, he wanted to create jobs for Jackson County.”
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