Charlotte Region
‘A wilderness experience’: Do rivers hold the key to rebirth for these towns?
Where the hard rock of the Piedmont gives way to the sandy Coastal Plain, two company towns that lost their companies are looking for economic revival to the rivers that put them on the map. Great Falls in South Carolina and Badin in North Carolina grew up along the geologic fall line beside wild, majestic […]
Connecting our region through local food systems
In any conversation about strengthening urban and rural connections, local food systems are usually suggested as the prime example. Images of farmers’ markets come to mind, where urban consumers have the opportunity not only to buy fresh fruits and vegetables but to get to know the growers and producers. The food system in reality is […]
A ‘crisis that’s brewing’: How this program plans to help NC farmers
On weekday mornings, Davon Goodwin drops off his son at elementary school and heads to the Sandhills AGInnovation Center in Ellerbe to see what the day will bring. Some days he plants vegetables or fruit at the center, occasionally with the help of volunteers. When farmers show up needing a tractor, tillers or mobile refrigerated […]
Chris Cagle: Bringing urban cash into a rural economy
Hard-earned paychecks in the Uwharries are all too often spent at chain stores with headquarters in far-flung locations, or at restaurants and shops in large cities, sending cash from rural to urban areas instead of keeping it in the local economy. The Eldorado Outpost has helped reverse that flow. The Outpost was the brainchild of […]
Chappell Russell and Justin Foley: Trying to recreate the South End lifestyle in a rural town
This story is one of seven vignettes in the series Rural by Choice: Navigating Identity in the Uwharries. Chappell Russell and Justin Foley were living the millennial dream. They met at Appalachian State. He worked for a large CPA firm in uptown Charlotte. She helped run a small dog-training business. They had an apartment in […]
Irma and Ernesto Robledo: Creating a rural brain gain
This story is one of seven vignettes in the series Rural by Choice: Navigating Identity in the Uwharries. Education is often seen as the ticket out of a rural area. But the Robledo family has sought higher education – often in urban areas – to provide them with job opportunities so they can make their […]
Ron and Nancy Bryant: From activism to stewardship
This story is one of seven vignettes in the series Rural by Choice: Navigating Identity in the Uwharries. Ron and Nancy Bryant met at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Charlotte in the 1980s. “I was sitting in the second pew and noticed this man in the row behind me,” Nancy said. A Winston-Salem native, Ron […]
Danny Alderman: Beyond the bedroom community
This story is one of seven vignettes in the series Rural by Choice: Navigating Identity in the Uwharries. Danny Alderman puts 1,200 to 1,400 miles on his truck each week. As the general superintendent of North Carolina projects for Branch Builds, he oversees about $250 million worth of work across the state, including schools in […]
Jerry and Jackcine Laughlin: Maintaining family ties to the land
This story is one of seven vignettes in the series Rural by Choice: Navigating Identity in the Uwharries. The land at this particular crossroads in southern Randolph County has a storied history. It once belonged to Miles and Healy Lassiter, and some of it still belongs to their descendants, including Jerry Laughlin. Miles was born […]
Tracy Newsom Garner: Love and loss (of a small, local business)
This story is one of seven vignettes in the series Rural by Choice: Navigating Identity in the Uwharries. Newsom’s Jewelers was a fixture on Main Street in Troy for almost 50 years. Tracy Newsom Garner’s grandfather moved from High Point to start the business in 1952, following in the footsteps of his brothers, who’d opened […]