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Events centered around education may include a program on WCU founder R.L. Madison, a tour of the university, which marked its 100th year in 1989, and panel discussions where longtime residents reminisce about their days in a one-room school, Rhinehart said.
Churches also have been central to community life in Jackson County, Rhinehart said. Planning programs that spotlight the role of religion will be Village of Forest Hills Mayor Irene Hooper.
Though plans are far from definite, Rhinehart anticipates that sesquicentennial religious events will include a daylong tour of historic county churches, complete with dinner on the grounds. Another possibility is an "all-night" singing. Though he doesn't expect it to really last all night, Rhinehart said such events were common during the county's early days.
Rhinehart will team with Sara Madison to plan programs on Jackson County's arts and culture, he said. Heading that agenda will be a scholarly discourse by a leading historian on the significance of Andrew Jackson and Daniel Webster in American history. Jackson County is named for Andrew Jackson, a Democrat war hero who won an important victory over the British at New Orleans in 1815 and was twice elected president of the United States. Webster, the original county seat, is named for Daniel Webster, a prominent Whig orator and statesman who died a year before the 1853 formation of Jackson County's government.
Another planned cultural program is an outdoor concert that will demonstrate the relationship between native American and classical music, Rhinehart said.
Glover Bedford of Webster will head up a series of programs on early industry in Jackson County. Plans are to include information about tourism, logging, the tannery, paper mills and mining, Rhinehart said, with some excursions planned to early industrial sites.
In addition, a second paperback in the local history series published by the Jackson County Historical Association should be available by midsummer, Rhinehart said. Written by octogenarian Vernon Hoyle of Fairview community, the book will contain his memories of early logging in Jackson County as well as war reminiscences. The first volume in the series, "Knowing Jackson County," published in December, is a collection of columns by former Sylva Herald News Editor J.D. McRorie.
Also planned for midsummer is the opening of the Jackson County Museum in the Hooper House on Sylva's Main Street, said Rhinehart. Also a joint project of the two historical associations, the museum will establish a permanent collection in rooms that formerly served as the offices of Dr. D.D. Hooper.
Downtown celebrations have been held for at least three centennial celebrations. This year's sesquicentennial will be the second countywide celebration in which Rhinehart has participated. As a 13-year-old in 1951, he had a role in the historical pageant that culminated that year's Jackson County Centennial.
The 1951 centennial was a weeklong series of events and parades that marked Jackson County's 100th year. It took place during the first week of September in downtown Sylva, Rhinehart said, and the opening of school was delayed until the festivities were completed.
The main parade featured replicas of both the old Bryson homestead, where the county's first court session was held in 1853, and of the original courthouse in Webster, which was the county seat from the time of the county's founding until 1913, when it was moved to Sylva at the instigation of early industrialist C.J. Harris.
Another weeklong celebration was held in 1989 to mark the joint 100-year anniversaries of Sylva, Dillsboro and WCU. In 1999, the Sylva Fire Department invited firefighters across the state to Sylva to join in celebrating the fire department's centennial year.
Historical society members expect to begin finalizing plans for sesquicentennial programs later this month, Rhinehart said.
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