Smoky Mountain Roots

Mountain Moods series: In western North Carolina, there's a place for everyone: artists and epicures, locals and visitors, explorers and kick-back-and-relaxers. Down in the valleys, high on the peaks, around every bend in the road, communities with identities all their own remind us that our mountains contain multitudes. On June 3 of this year, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians rededicated the $20 million Jacob Cornsilk Complex in Snowbird, just a few miles outside of Robbinsville. I drove the roughly 48 miles past Bryson City, past the pontoons bobbing on Fontana Lake, and around the lush mountain dips and dives of Stecoah to witness an emblem of what far-western North Carolina is, was, and, I hope, will be.