News and Events

Lost Cove, North Carolina: A Portrait of a Vanished Appalachian Community, 1864-1957
In-person, book talk with the author, Christy Smith and moderator, Dr. Kevin O’Donnell

 

Wednesday, October 20, 2021, from 4:30-6 p.m.
Archives of Appalachia, Charles C. Sherrod Library, room 422

Christy A. Smith (ETSU alum, Instructor of Appalachian Studies at King University in Bristol, TN, and Director of the Unicoi County Prevention Coalition) will give a lecture on the history of Lost Cove, NC. Located just seconds from the winding Tennessee border, this remote mountain settlement was once described as where the “moonshiner frolics unmolested.” Today, Lost Cove is a ghost town accessible mainly to hikers hoping to catch a glimpse of the desolate settlement.

In this first historically comprehensive book on Lost Cove, the author paints a portrait of an isolated yet thriving settlement that survived for almost one hundred years. From its founding before the Civil War to the town’s ultimate decline, Lost Cove’s history is an in-depth account of family life and kinship in isolation. The author explores historically relevant interviews and genealogical findings from railroad documents, old newspaper articles, church records, and deeds, along with oral histories that provide first-person accounts from families in the cove. 

The lecture is free and open to the public.