This week, we’re in North Carolina, where you can ride the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad through the Southern Appalachians, explore a lost village near Brevard, and attend the state fair in Raleigh.
A Journey Through Time and Terrain, Part 2
Take the scenic Smoky Mountains Railroad through a gorge, over a river, and across a trestle
The Great Smoky Mountains Railroad offers two classic round trips into some of the Southern Appalachians’ most bucolic lands.
The Nantahala Gorge Excursion starts at the depot in Bryson City, North Carolina, and covers 44 miles in just over four hours, rolling beside the Nantahala and Little Tennessee rivers, across the long Fontana Trestle over Fontana Lake, and into the deep Nantahala Gorge for a layover.
The Tuckasegee River Excursion runs 32 miles round trip in about four hours, following the river through quiet countryside and the 836-foot Cowee Tunnel, and into the little mountain town of Dillsboro.
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A Lost Village
Brevard, North Carolina
The lost Cherokee village of Conestee near modern-day Brevard in Transylvania County, also known as Kanasta or Kana’sta, thrived along the French Broad River and trade routes in the early 18th century. British troops visited the settlement in 1725, but sometime between the 1750s and 1770s, it mysteriously vanished.
Cherokee oral tradition suggests supernatural spirit people, known as the Nunnehi, warned the villagers of impending danger. After a seven-day fast, the Conestee villagers followed them into a mountain and were never seen again, escaping the wars and displacement that followed European settlement. Today, a 1958 roadside marker and oral history commemorate the lost settlement.
