Thanks to the Western Regional Archives, we’ve added more issues of Black Mountain News from Black Mountain, N.C., to our North Carolina Newspapers collection. This title was originally suggested for digitization by the Swannanoa Valley Museum. This batch includes issues from 1977-78 and 1981-83 and features some of the local happenings from the area.
One exciting piece of news from May 19, 1983, is the announcement of a folk music festival at the site of the historic Black Mountain College. The festival, which lasted two days, featured Norman and Nancy Blake, Trapezoid, Kevin Burke and Michael O’Domhnaill, the Red Clay Ramblers, and Touchstone. Festivalgoers came from all over; the paper reports that out-of-state ticket sales outnumbered local sales three to one, with Pennsylvania attendees leading the charge. There were also crafters and dancers at the festival—and if you’d like to learn how to clog dance, here’s a tutorial from the Apple Chill Cloggers (starting around 3:50).
You can see all issues of the Black Mountain News here or browse our North Carolina Newspapers collection by location, type, and date. To see all materials from the Western Regional Archives, you can visit their partner page and their website.
