Todd, West Jefferson, Jefferson, Crumpler, Sparta, Roaring Gap
From an international publishing house to an international retreat for writers, from summer people to Christmas trees, the towns of Todd, West Jefferson, Jefferson, Crumpler, Sparta and Roaring Gap are home to tall tales, a tall mountain and a new river.
Writers with a connection to this area: Noah Adams, Leland Cooper, Mary Lee Cooper, Chris Cox, Hal Crowther, Clyde Edgerton, Zetta Barker Hamby, Frank Borden Hanes, Tim Peeler, Lee Smith, Tom Wolfe and T.J. Worthington.
IN ASHE COUNTY, NC
Hills are still paved by pasture grass
and the hiss and roar of travel
has not yet blundered the beauty.
Narrow blue roads twist through
ancient valleys; unlike neighbors
to the west, no writer has imagined
a place that it has never been
to thrust this country out to
those who view people as an experience
and land like a butcher handling
fresh meat. For now, the history resides
in the small down towns and
in the shapes of old churches, in the
way a park can fold out from a hill
between two pristine streams.
A photographer leaves, wanting
to be a fish or a bird here; the poet
leaves in fear that somewhere
a baron with a face like a brick
brings his push pins to this map.
— From Amarillo Bay Literary Magazine 6, no. 4 (November 2004).
Hickory poet Tim Peeler captures the feelings of many longtime and newer residents who zealously want to preserve the pastoral beauty of Ashe County. Ashe is the northwestern-most county in N.C., and perhaps best known as home to the New River, which is one of the three oldest rivers on the planet. The others are the French Broad River, farther west in the state, and the Nile. Unlike other rivers in the state, the New flows north.
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