December Issue 1999
Blue Ridge Heritage Trail Named North Carolina's Millennium Legacy Trail
The Blue Ridge Heritage Trail in western NC has been designated the state's Millennium Legacy Trail by the US Department of Transportation in partnership with the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy and the White House Millennium Council.
The Blue Ridge Heritage Trail is a system of heritage tourism destinations where visitors can experience artistic and cultural traditions significant to the region.
The Blue Ridge mountain region is home to some of the nation's richest and most distinctive music: stringband music, bluegrass, ballad singing, blues and religious music such as gospel music and unaccompanied hymn and shape-note singing. While some visitors already find their way to fiddlers' conventions and festivals, most have no way of knowing about events offered in mountain communities at venues such as community centers, general stores and VFW halls. A guidebook will lead visitors to music venues that communities would like to share with the traveling public.
Cherokee arts and culture still thrive in the Qualla Boundary area where the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians have maintained rich traditions over generations. Destinations featuring Cherokee heritage include exhibits, historic sites and venues where tribal members tell their own stories, demonstrate their artistry and interact with visitors.
"We are designating 50 Millennium Legacy Trails that reflect the unique spirit of their states and the collective history of our nation," said Hillary Rodham Clinton, as she named the trails. "Each of them stitches a design in our landscape and together help to create a picture of America."
Earlier this year, 16 National Millennium Trails were chosen as "visionary projects of national significance." At that time, the Unicoi Turnpike in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee was designated a National Millennium Trail. A main thoroughfare through Cherokee tribal territory, the Unicoi Turnpike served as the first leg of the Trail of Tears journey to Oklahoma when the Cherokee were forcibly removed from their homeland in 1838-39.
Further plans for the Millennium Trail initiative include a $520,000 project funded by the National Endowment for the Arts to bring high quality, community-centered public art to the 50 Millennium Legacy Trails and an additional 2,000 Community Millennium Trails to be chosen next year.
The NC Arts Council, along with the Tennessee Arts Commission, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the National Park Service and other state and federal agencies, developed the Heritage Trail as a cultural tourism project through the Blue Ridge Heritage Initiative. Cultural tourism, travel motivated entirely or in part by cultural offerings, is a powerful tool for cultural conservation as well as economic development, and is the fastest growing trend in the tourism industry.
The NC Arts Council is a division of the NC Department of Cultural Resources. Its mission is to enrich the cultural life of the state by nurturing and supporting excellence in the arts and by providing opportunities for every North Carolinian to experience the arts. The Council has been a catalyst for the development of arts organizations and facilities throughout the state by making grants and offering technical assistance for more than 30 years.
For more information about resources at the
Council, contact Miriam Sauls at 919/733-2111, ext. 33 or email
at (miriam.sauls@ncmail.net).
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