The Year in Pictures
The much anticipated Y2K saw a variety of news and events. History played a part with the unveiling of a marker commemorating the county's first court session; continuing renovation at Main Street's historic Hooper House; and the publishing of a selection of columns about the county's early days by former Sylva Herald News Editor J.D. McRorie. The future was present with the planned Harrah's high rise hotel in Cherokee; the new Scotts Creek school; and the ground-breaking for a multi-purpose recreation facility in Cullowhee. Downtown events, which drew their largest crowds in 2000, are here as well. The bright flowers of April's Greening Up the Mountains festival gave way to the fireworks of the Fourth of July celebration as both were termed "the best ever" by their organizers. Accidents included a tractor-trailer that overturned onto two cars in February and a helicopter crash in September, leading some 200 Jackson County volunteers on a 36-hour search before both occupants were found dead at the scene. Sign controversies continued as a Webster church found itself in violation of zoning law. New faces appeared as Brad Letts became the first member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee and the first from Sylva to be sworn in as a judge, and Richard McHargue was named SPIR director. Law enforcement officers were busy with marijuana harvests, nabbing suspected bank robbers just minutes after the crime and with the tragedy of a young woman charged with murdering her infant daughter. And the SMHS Class of 2000, clad in bright blue, marched across the stage and into the new century.
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