More issues of the Highlands High School student newspaper, The Mountain Trail, are now online, adding issues from 1947, 1976, 1979 and 1982.  These additions help fill in gaps in our already online coverage from 1938 to 1982.  Three of the issues are specifically the graduation issues of the paper and focus on the senior graduating class.  The June 1, 1976 issue devoted a full page to each senior.  

Songs that fit each graduating senior from the June 1976 issue

The lower grades had news in the paper too. This is from the September 1979 issue.

To learn more about our partner Highlands Historical Society, visit their partner page.  You can read previous posts on the Mountain Trail here and visit our North Carolina Newspapers page to view more papers from across the state.

A 1952 article about NC Governor W. Kerr Scott and Dr. Clyde Erwin, state superintendent of public instruction, visiting Macon County schools

Seventeen more years and over 10,000 more issues of The Franklin Press and Highlands Maconian newspaper have been newly digitized and put online on DigitalNC, with the help of our partner, the Fontana Regional Library. The Highlands Historical Society has also helped us with making these issues available for the public. While our collection previously only contained 1924-1942, we have nearly doubled the collection, with 1943-1960 now digitized online. Based out of Franklin in Macon County, the Franklin Press and Highlands Maconian was published weekly from 1932-1968.

A full issue in January 1944 wished servicemen victory in the coming year

Many of the newly digitized articles naturally deal with World War II, such as the snippet on the left of a January 1944 paper, which was wholly dedicated to wishing servicemen and soldiers victory in the coming year. After the war ended, the paper went back to its regular local and national coverage. For example, an article in 1955 detailed how excited the townspeople were of the forthcoming 1956 film The Great Locomotive Chase was being filmed in Franklin, Clayton, and Tallulah Falls.

With this new increase in pages from The Franklin Press and Highlands Maconian, DigitalNC becomes much closer to having the entire publication of the newspaper in our collection. To browse other materials from the Fontana Regional Library or the Highlands Historical Society, click on their partner pages, or visit their websites Fontana Regional Library and Highlands Historical Society here.

Thanks to funding from the State Library of North Carolina’s LSTA Grant and our partners, Highlands Historical Society and Fontana Regional Library, a batch containing 283 issues of The Highlander are now available on our website. The paper was published weekly beginning August 6, 1937 in Highlands, North Carolina and continues to be published today under the same title in Highlands, North Carolina.

Stately pines and hemlocks covered in snow

The paper’s original aim was to “give unstintingly to the best interested of the community and city. To publicize Highlands as much as possible. To make our city [Highlands, N.C.] more attractive to our many and pleasant summer visitors.” Following their aim, these issues of The Highlander cover general community news topics such as fun events, big announcements for community members, town meetings, construction information, vaccine reminders, and more.

Rhododendron bloom

A prominent feature in The Highlander is photographs and articles highlighting the beauty of the region. Many of the photographs included in the newspaper focus on the waterfalls, mountain scenes, and native flowers such as the rhododendron. An article from the January 20, 1966 issue of The Highlander discusses the North Carolina mountain’s infamous “peak week” which occurs every autumn. During this week, the mountains are transformed from their summer green to a beautiful array of reds, oranges, and yellows as the leaves of the trees change as a result of the cooler weather. As the article notes, many people from all over come to experience peak week, resulting in bumper to bumper traffic and increased business for local merchants.

To learn more about the Highlands Historical Society, please visit their website.

To learn more about the Fontana Regional Library, please visit their website.

To view more newspapers from across North Carolina, please click here.

August 27, 1936 issue of The Franklin Press and Highlands Maconian, page 1

Earlier this year, the Highlands Historical Society approached us and asked us if we’d like to help “fill in” a year of The Franklin Press and Highlands Maconian newspaper. Most of this paper is available on microfilm that was created by one of our favorite partners, the State Archives of North Carolina; in fact, we had digitized 1924-1942 (excepting 1936) with the help of the Fontana Regional Library. The Highlands Historical Society came to us with a bound volume of the missing year, a volume full of print copies they’d never seen elsewhere. These have been added to DigitalNC.

In 1936, the U.S. waited to see the fate of the man who had kidnapped and murdered Charles Lindbergh’s child. Franklin Roosevelt was reelected. The summer Olympics were held in Berlin, under the eye of then Chancellor Adolf Hitler. All of these were covered by the Press, right next to local news of Macon County. We especially like “Interesting Places in Macon County,” a regular column by Mrs. T. C. Harbison that talks about local landmarks. An issue with this column is shown at right, talking about Whiteside Mountain.

You can browse all issues of The Franklin Press and Highlands Maconian in our Newspapers collection. We’ve also helped the Highlands Historical Society share a number of yearbooks and local newspapers online, which you can see and search through their contributor page.