Appalachian History

Back in nineteen and thirteen me and my brother coon hunted lots [in the] Smokies. We had a dog named Track. He was a good one. We went to Flat Creek one evening, built up a camp fire, and stayed till two o'clock the next morning. We left and went in on Stillwell, and old Track, he struck. Right up Stillwell he went, and us right after him. About ten o'clock in the day it begin to snowing.

We followed old Track about a hour, and the snow was about twenty-two inches deep. We turned back to the camp. About two o'clock in the evening old Track come back, and we had a big campfire. Chunks had rolled down, and old Track come in and set down by the fire, and directly he retched down and got a chunk of fire in his mouth, and right out the door he went.

We was right out after him, went back in on Stillwell, and we was a-trackin' him. He'd run off and left us. Right up Stillwell he went and us right after him, and about a mile above where we'd turned back, why, we found old Track at a big cliff. He took this chunk of fire, and he treed the coons in the cliff and stuck the fire under it and set the leaves afire, smoked the coons out, and had them, three big ones a-lyin' there dead. I give them to my brother and told him to come back the nigh way, and I'd go up to Balsam Corner, see if I could locate some bear sign.

Frank Mehaffey
b. 1894
Maggie Valley, Haywood County, NC
CCC blacksmith, farmer, and Baptist preacher
1939 interview

source: www.cas.sc.edu/engl/dictionary/transcripts/mehaffey_frank.html


coon+hunting Great+Smoky+Mountains+National+Park Haywood+County+NC appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history

“One of boyhood’s traditional toys has come of age. Jim Gasque, North Carolina sportsman, has proved that the ordinary slingshot, when properly made and used, can be an adult weapon of deadly accuracy at distances up to 30’ --- a range sufficient for stalking small game. He shoots regular No. 0 buckshot.

"His slingshots are made as shown, the dogwood forks being dried in a slow oven overnight after tying. Instead of inner-tube strips, he uses two rubber bands 1/16” thick, 5/8” wide, and 7½” or 8” long.

"When shooting, he takes a stance similar to that in archery, body at right angles to the target, feet apart, and weight balanced on both feet. Holding the shot cup at the right eye, he stretches the rubber by extending his left arm fully while aligning the target in the sights."

---Rubber Band Sharpshooter; How a North Carolina Sportsman Makes and Shoots His Slingshots, by Tom Cushing, Modern Mechanix, Aug 1946

Jim Gasque, an outdoor writer from Asheville, NC, authored Hunting and Fishing in the Great Smokies, a classic 1948 work that offers a period portrait of outdoor life in those mountains.

The book, re-released last month by the University of North Carolina, was the first nationally distributed book on fishing in and around the Smokies, although Horace Kephart, who also was a great fan of angling in the region, often wrote about it as well.

Filled with anecdotes, fishing and hunting stories, and recollections of legendary local sportsmen and guides, the book presents a social history of these activities before the founding of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1934.

Gasque's guide covers trout fishing on well-known creeks like Cataloochee, Deep, and Hazel; smallmouth bass fishing on rivers like Oconaluftee, Tuckasegee, and others; and lake fishing on Fontana, Nantahala, Chatuge, and Santeetlah. Thanks to careful preservation by the park, the streams Gasque describes still draw sportsmen today.

"The techniques and few flies noted in the book are as deadly on trout today as when the information was penned half a century ago," says Don Kirk, author of Fly-Fishing Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains. "Gasque’s chapters on Cataloochee and Deep creeks are extremely insightful." The book offers a nuanced glimpse of the region just prior to an era of significant development and growth.

Gasque is best known for his only other book---Bass Fishing: Techniques, Tactics, and Tales.


sources: http://uncpress.unc.edu/browse/book_detail?title_id=1566
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2007/08/05/rubber-band-sharpshooter/?Qwd=./PopularScience/8-1946/sling_shot&Qif=sling_shot_0.jpg&Qiv=thumbs&Qis=XL#qdig



Jim+Gasque fly+fishing coon+hunting +trout+fishing Great+Smoky+Mountains+National+Park appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history