Stories abound in these here mountains, almost as countless as the towering trees that cloak those familiar slopes. But beneath the canopy, if you look close enough and listen hard, there’s a whole other crop of them that rarely see the light of day. 

Haywood County Recreation will host a series of spring hikes throughout April. Here’s a look at what’s coming up. 

The Haywood County Farm Bureau’s legislative breakfast is an annual tradition where the usual topics of conversation include crop prices, ever-escalating expenses, fuel and fertilizer costs, migrant labor policies, subsidies and what is — and isn’t — in the federal government’s current or proposed Farm Bill.

Haywood Waterways will host the county’s first fishing tournament. 

It’s been a little under a year since Corrina Ruffieux took over for longtime Haywood County Tourism Development Authority Executive Director Lynn Collins, but Ruffieux’s wasted little time bolstering the TDA’s destination marketing strategy with robust and insightful data meant to show the county’s relative strengths and weaknesses while also hedging against uncertainty with new initiatives designed to keep the money flowing into Western North Carolina’s tourism-based economy — especially in post-mill Canton. 

The annual native perennial plant sale sponsored by the NC State Extension Master Gardener volunteers has been extended. 

To the Editor:

The primary voting has ended in North Carolina, and because of those registered voters who chose to do their patriotic duty and turn out to vote, the people of North Carolina now know who the state nominees for each party will be and most importantly which presidential candidates North Carolina has chosen to place their support behind in the upcoming November 2024 elections. 

After an extensive, yearslong process featuring dozens of public hearings, presentations and private meetings, Haywood County will finally get its badly-needed jail expansion, even though the final step was marred by threats and misinformation from a familiar face. 

Haywood County commissioners have taken the final financial step in the long process toward approving a jail expansion, all but assuring the project will move forward after years of delay and doubt. 

Not a lot of people remember the date the whistle last blew or the date the last workers put their well-worn tools down and took their shiny plastic helmets off for the final time, but everyone seems to remember the date of Pactiv Evergreen’s shocking announcement — the date that marked the end of one era, and the beginning of another.