Yet another busy past couple of days. On Friday, I had the honor to take my son to Linville Caverns with his homeschool group. Linville Caverns is located in Burke County. During the War, the Caverns were used by deserters as one of the many hideouts in the area. As the story goes, one of the men in the cave, a cobbler, started making shoes and traveling to town (Morganton?) to trade the shoes for supplies. We have the bench that he supposedly used in the museum in Newland. Inside the caverns there was a small area covered with sand, one of the only dry areas in the entire complex. This is where the men camped and built a fire. The smoke from the fire filtered out of the top of the caverns, disclosing their whereabouts to the local home guard, and the men were captured. The photograph on the right is the area where the men built their fires.

On Saturday, I had the privilege of helping install several gravestones and one iron cross on graves in cemeteries in Mitchell and Avery Counties. Pictured on the right is the marker we placed on the grave of Lt. Col. John Keener of the 58th NCT. The group went on to place more markers in Yancey County, and I came home to get ready to go to Boone for a reception for the Watauga County Historical Society. That group is 30 years old this month.

Tonight, I am off to Lenior for a book signing. Tomorrow night, I’ll be in Gardner, just below Raleigh. I’m hoping to get some research done over the next couple of days at Chapel Hill and Duke.