It’s that time of year again, when short days and colder temperatures may hinder your ability to get outside and enjoy the natural bounty of our area. What better time to start planning 2026 outings that highlight our incredible geography, biodiversity, and rich cultural heritage?
Our third annual Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust Book Recommendations can provide some intriguing sparks to get you started.
Exploring North Carolina’s Lookout Towers (2021) is a gorgeous, glossy tome full of striking photographs by Kevin Adams. Authored by Peter Barr, Trails Specialist for Conserving Carolina, it offers all the information needed to explore these fascinating relics of a bygone era, enriched with historical perspective. If you’ve hiked up—or even just looked at—Satulah, Yellow, Little Scaly, or other mountains covered in this 377-page guide, you’ll find it captivating.
Bearwallow: A Personal History of a Mountain Homeland, the 2014 Appalachian Book of the Year, is “a memoir, not only about my life, but also the life of a place,” explains author Jeremy Jones, a Western Carolina University English professor. Jones and his wife moved into a small house above the creek where his family had settled 200 years earlier. What follows is a thought-provoking analysis of the dynamics shaping much of Western North Carolina.
Full disclosure: these next two books are out of print but worth seeking out at local libraries or used-book sites.
Random Thoughts and the Musings of a Mountaineer (1941) by Judge Felix E. Alley—born in 1873 at the base of Whiteside Mountain—is a wide-ranging reflection of life in Whiteside Cove. Alongside tales of writing The Ballad of Kidder Cole and putting himself through law school, Alley offers insights on Whiteside Mountain, Highlands’ “Moccasin War,” and other regional lore. (To read his “proof” that Abraham Lincoln hailed from the Carolina mountains, you’ll need to find the book!)
Finally, retired engineer T.W. Reynolds, who split time between Riviera Beach, Fla., and Mirror Lake in Highlands, chronicles his explorations in High Lands (1964). Reynolds interviewed many residents with personal histories dating to the 1800s and organized his volume around “tours” from Highlands. The book is full of quirky and fascinating stories, because as Reynolds explains, sometimes you “would like to be told enough to find the spot, and not just read about it.”
HCLT is committed to highlighting and protecting the natural resources and cultural histories that define our region. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for fun and educational events in 2026!
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