Asheville rock group The Andrew Thelston Band will hit the stage at 5 p.m. Thursday, July 4, at the Nantahala Outdoor Center in the Nantahala Gorge. 

It’s not lost on Colin McBeath how unique and cherished the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) is to locals and visitors alike. 

Start off the year with an early-season slalom race Saturday, Feb. 17, on the Nantahala River at the Nantahala Outdoor Center. 

A weekend of riverside games, whitewater rafting, adventure films and gear deals will liven up the fall Sept. 22-24 at Nantahala Outdoor Center in Swain County.

In 1971, Payson and Aurelia Kennedy were living a successful, stable life in Atlanta. Payson was a librarian at Georgia Tech, Aurelia a schoolteacher. They had four kids, retirement funds, and the deed to their house.

In retrospect, it’s no surprise Ken Howle ended up at a place where lives are transformed through renewal of soul, mind and body — because that’s exactly where he started.

Wayne “Wayner” Dickert may not have started paddling until he was 18 years old, but that didn’t stop him from competing at the sport’s highest level when he made it to the 1996 Olympics. For Dickert, NOC was an important part of that success.

In celebration of its 50th anniversary year in 2022, the Nantahala Outdoor Center has announced a schedule of international travel tours beginning in the spring.

It’s no secret that Western North Carolina has long been a haven for outdoor recreational enthusiasts, but as that particular segment of North Carolina’s economy continues to expand, Gov. Roy Cooper is doing all he can to foster further growth. 

It was 1972, and the world of whitewater paddling was changing. Americans were just about a decade into experimenting with kayaks and it had been only three years since the first whitewater race in the South and the passage of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. That year’s Summer Olympic Games in Munich would be the first to include whitewater paddling among its events.

Amid all of this, Horace Holden, Payson Kennedy and Aurelia Kennedy decided to start a new rafting business in Swain County, to be called the Nantahala Outdoor Center.