70 years ago - Dec. 21, 1950
• Employees at the Mead Corporation’s Sylva plant received $17,900 in Christmas bonus checks.
• Sylva swept a boys/girls basketball doubleheader against Webster.
• State officials said Western Carolina Teachers College would receive the go-ahead for a new men’s dormitory, despite the low bid being $200,000 over budget.
60 years ago - Dec. 22, 1960
• 700 people applied for jobs at the new Wear-A-Blanket manufacturing plant.
• The Herald reported highway deaths in North Carolina stood at 1,116 through Dec. 12, up from the 1959 tally of 1,102.
• A Soco man received slight burns from ball lightning during an electrical storm on Dec. 11 that blew out the window in his kitchen.
50 years ago - Dec. 23, 1970
• Nine people from Jackson County were in attendance for the lighting of the National Christmas Tree at the White House.
• Sylva-Webster’s men’s basketball squad had five players in double digits in a 77-68 win over the Glenville Lakers.
• The organizational meeting for the State of Franklin Regional Council on Aging, which would serve Jackson County, was held in Bryson City.
40 years ago - Dec. 25, 1980
• Sylva planned a public hearing for a HUD application the town hoped to land to extend water and sewer lines in the Tannery Flats and Hospital Road areas.
• Low temperatures in Sylva fell to 18 or below for five out of six days.
• In an editorial the Herald decried the addition of four digits to U.S. Postal Service zip codes.
30 years ago - Dec. 20, 1990
• Plans for a new Justice Center were put on hold due to concerns over the proposed location of the facility.
• Asheville’s Cougars blocked a shot as time wound down to escape with a 84-83 win over Smoky Mountain.
• A controlled burn was used to dispense with the remains of the demolished old Sylva School.
20 years ago - Dec. 21, 2000
• About 20 elected officials and numerous agencies gathered to hear from the group planning to develop 4,000 acres near Balsam.
• Great Smoky Mountain National Park officials were planning for the arrival of the first group of elk it hoped would repopulate their former habitat.
• Smoky Mountain defeated Blue Ridge by a 95-23 count; Blue Ridge was missing 40 points and 20 rebounds per game as their star players, Jeremy and Karl Stewart, were out following a car wreck.
10 years ago - Dec. 23, 2010
• County officials unanimously named then-Western Carolina University Vice Chancellor of Administration and Finance Chuck Wooten, who was set to retire from that post, as interim county manager.
• Jackson Simmons scored 22 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead Smoky Mountain past West Henderson, 67-52.
• The Western Carolina University Pride of the Mountains Marching Band hit the highway – N.C. 107 – near campus as part of a rehearsal for the 2011 Rose Parade.
