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Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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WCU - Picturing Appalachia

Looking east on NC 10

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  • Looking east on NC 10, later US 19, east of Bryson City. People are sitting on the porch of a home that still stands today, although modified. The ridge seen in the intermediate background on the left ends at the Tuckasegee River across from the mouth of Kirkland Creek. The ridgeline descending from the right in the far background is the divide between Shepherds Creek and Conleys Creek. It terminates east of the Hyatt Creek exchange on Highway 74. B 373 is written on the negative. The photographer, “Doc” Kelly Bennett (1890-1974), was a prominent pharmacist in Swain County, NC. Owner of the Bryson City Drug Company, Bennett served as alderman and mayor of Bryson City, on the Swain County Board of Education, as well as several terms as NC State Senator and NC State Representative. He participated in numerous other initiatives and organizations. Known as the “Apostle of the Smokies,” Bennett was an instrumental figure in the movement to create the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He was also an avid photographer, skillfully documenting a wide variety of people, places, and events in Swain County and the surrounding area.

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Picturing Appalachia

This digital collection brings together several notable photographic collections that depict the landscape and people of western North Carolina in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Notable...

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