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Highlands Christmas Parade

The annual Highlands Olde Mountain Christmas Parade – a celebration winding its way down Main Street, with virtually every Highlander either

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Winter Wonderland

The Village Green and surrounding shops and businesses in Cashiers will be a Glittering Wonderland throughout the grey days and dark, dark nights

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There are so many great articles in the pages of The Laurel Magazine, sometimes you want to read them again. You won’t miss a thing. Use these helpful search parameters and find just what you’re looking for about Highlands, NC and Cashiers, NC.

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Gracious Guides

Imagine you’ve just battled the mountain road up to Highlands.  It’s your first trip here and you’re stumped.   Yes, it’s beautiful.  Yes, there is hiking to be done, but where?  If you’re smart, you’ll stop by the Highlands Visitor Center.  They have everything you need for a well-informed visit – maps, brochures, magazines, and gracious volunteers to answer your …

Rotary, Keeps Us Rolling

For over 70 years the Rotary Club of Highlands has brought people together from all walks of life who want to use their expertise for the general good; people whose sense of responsibility inspires them to give back to the community.  This flagship community organization was chartered May 2, 1945, and has been active and growing ever since.   Highlands School …

A Look Into the Heart

Abandoned and left to die. Starving, lost and alone. Crippled by blindness.  How many obstacles must be placed in the path of a soul before they finally give up on humanity, and give up on themselves? But Paisley did neither. This amazing three-year-old Labrador mix was dumped on the side of the road in Glenville last August and forced to fend …


Better Health is a Choice

We often take health for granted until we hit a bump in the road, becoming ill or developing a problem.   The body innately wants to be healthy and does a great job keeping itself in homeostasis or balance but we still abuse our systems just by modern, everyday living.  There are many obstacles today that we didn’t face 30 to 50 …

A Tapestry of Green and Sun

The Village Green is a 12.5 acre park in the heart of Cashiers, attracting thousands of visitors each year.  The park is designed to be a free, public space to enhance the community’s mountain lifestyle. People come to enjoy the large lawns, gardens, amazing public art, woodland and wetland trails and the large children’s playground. Dogs and their owners especially …

Eat Breakfast, Lose weight

If you’re like most Americans, you eat a high-carb breakfast packed with cereals, bagels, muffins, and fruit smoothies, or you don’t eat breakfast at all either because you’re too busy or you want to lose weight.  You are sabotaging your weight loss goals by destabilizing blood glucose and insulin after the night’s fast. Breakfast is exactly what it sounds like …


Kaboom Boy

I had an English Bulldog named Bentley.   And like his automobile namesake, he passed gas from intake to exhaust.  Once he was soundly snoring at my feet and expelled a methane cloud that nearly set my hair and the curtains on fire.  It was so loud it woke him.  He jumped up, stared at his butt, and then barked at …

Oh, the Stories CHS Can Tell

2016 marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Cashiers Historical Society.  It was kicked off with a $100-a-plate brunch held at the historic Hanks House with about 40 guests in attendance.  Since that time, so much new information has been learned about the early days in Cashiers Valley and so much valuable historic preservation has been accomplished.  Alan …

Botanical Explorers & Early Settlers

This is the second in a series of three articles saluting the Botanical History of the Highlands Plateau, based upon research of the Laurel Garden Club’s Land Stewards and Ran Shaffner. The pamphlet and video accompanying the research were winners of the N. C. Society of Historians’ Paul Green Multimedia Award in 2015. In the 18th century, botanical explorers introduced …


Getting Our Bearings

Bears are beautiful and fascinating creatures.  While many people are frustrated with bears getting into their birdfeeders, trash or even homes, most feel a sense of awe and respect for them.  Leaving aside the challenges of living in bear country for a moment, here are some interesting facts: • Black bears are found only in North America: Canada, 42 of …

Black and White Warbler

This migrant from Mexico and the Gulf states summers widely in eastern North America. It feeds on insects in tree bark and has a song described by Sibley as a high-pitched series of two-syllable phrases with 5 to 10 repetitions: weesa weesa weesa, weesa, weesa, weetee weetee weetee weetee weet weet weet. Its call is a rattling, hissing fssss.   …

About Trout

While Powell Wheeler’s job with the North Carolina Wildlife Commission focuses on anything that relates to fishing in public rivers, ponds, lakes, and streams, he has a special place in his heart for the out-of-the-way places where native brook trout dwell.     Sometimes these populations are very isolated, which plays havoc with genetic diversity.  These isolated streams are frequently …