Museum battles stereotypes of mountain folk

By: Joe Tennis/Bristol Herald Courier | TriCities.com
Published: November 04, 2007

BOONE, N.C. – Chuck Watkins isn’t calling this downsizing.

Rather, relocating to a multi-booth crafts market in downtown Boone, N.C., is more like the start of a new beginning for the Appalachian Cultural Museum.

“Having been through the worst,” Watkins said, “this is part of the coming back.”

Once noted as one of the prime tourist attractions in this northwestern North Carolina town, the Appalachian Cultural Museum opened in 1989 and once boasted more than 15,000 square feet on the campus of Appalachian State University.

Then came the growing pains.

ASU needed more space; the museum was subsequently forced to close shop in 2006 and move its multi-faceted displays into storage.

The eclectic museum once showcased all kinds of displays.

Some relics came from the nearly-lost Land of Oz, once a tiny theme park atop nearby Beech Mountain, N.C., that closed in 1980.

“We own all of the ‘Land of Oz’ material,” said Watkins, the executive director of the Appalachian Cultural Museum. “Had we not gotten that material when we did, it would been bulldozed down.”

Still, don’t count on seeing any of it.

Well, not for a while.

All of that Oz stuff sits in storage – and awaiting the new beginning.

Watkins, for one, hopes that a new museum will be built at the “Horn In the West” outdoor drama complex, not far from the ASU campus.

For now, though, about 1,000 square feet of space is dedicated to giving the museum a presence at the Wilcox Emporium, just off Boone’s Howard Street.

“The (Wilcox) Emporium and the Appalachian Cultural Museum are also supporters of the local writers’ organization – and vice-versa,” said Judith Geary, the author of “Getorix: The Eagle and The Bull.”

Books by local authors, Geary said, are available for browsing and buying in the museum’s space at the Wilcox Emporium.

For the next several months, also, you’ll find a storyboard display on ginseng.

“It was, and still is, a museum that battled stereotypes of mountain folk – that their own background is somehow inferior, their accents are strange and they grow up feeling second-rate,” Watkins said.

“We try to create a place that for children, at any rate, would validate their culture – a place where they could come and learn about the depth and breadth of their own background,” Watkins added. “To me, that may be the most important mission that we could fill.”

Truly, Watkins said, the museum reached out to the community.

And, someday, if enough donations come their way, Watkins hopes to do that again.

“We wanted this to be not the kind of place where there were university professors looking at the culture under a microscope,” Watkins said. “But, this is where people could come and see themselves.”

jtennis@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0704

YOU SHOULD KNOW

What: Appalachian Cultural Museum

Where: Located inside Wilcox Emporium, Howard Street, Boone, N.C.

Info: 828-262-3117

Donations: Appalachian Cultural Museum, ASU, Box 32046, Boone, N.C., 28608-2046

Web: www.museum.appstate.edu

Museum battles stereotypes of mountain folk

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