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- This Week in Mars Hill History
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Lesson Plans
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North Carolina History Lesson Plans from the Southern Appalachian Archives
- North Carolina History Lesson Plans: Precolonial
- North Carolina Era 2 – Colonial 1600 - 1763: Migration Push/Pull Lesson
- North Carolina Era 3 – Revolution 1763 - 1789: Regulator Songs Lesson Plan
- North Carolina Era 4: Early National – 1789-1836: Family Histories Lesson Plan
- North Carolina Era 5: Antebellum - 1836 - 1860: Rip Van Winkle in contemporary writing lesson plan
- North Carolina Era 6: Civil War and Reconstruction - 1860 - 1876: Views of the Civil War Lesson Plan
- North Carolina Era 7: New South – 1876 - 1900: Subscription Schools in Western North Carolina Lesson Plan
- North Carolina Era 8: Early 20th Century – 1900 - 1929 Lesson Plans
- North Carolina Era 9: Depression and War (1929-1945)
- North Carolina Era 10: Postwar (1945-1975): Post-War Political Cartoons Lesson Plan
- North Carolina Era 11: Recent (1975-2010) Lesson Plans
- Land Use in Western North Carolina Lesson Plans from the Southern Appalachian Archives
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North Carolina History Lesson Plans from the Southern Appalachian Archives
- "Feast and Farmin': A Celebration of Western North Carolina Agricultural History"
Water
Water seems to be everywhere in the mountains of western North Carolina--indeed, so much rain falls that parts of the region are classified as temperate rain forests.
The many springs, creeks, and rivers help define the landscape and many areas still bear a name that relates to some local body of water.
Water is also an important feature of any farm or homestead. Farmers have always needed water for their own households as well as for their livestock.
Read on or return to the Virtual Tour Map.
Springs and Wells
It is difficult to overstate the importance of water to a home and a farm. Especially in the era before electricity reached rural areas, someone often needed to pump or carry all the water required for everyone and everything on the farm. This led early settlers to think carefully about where to build their homes and place their farms. Proximity to a bold spring could save a tremendous amount of labor. Farmers could also deliver water to their homes and livestock using other methods, two of which are outlined in the article to the right.
Eventually, many wells were outfitted with pumps that could deliver "running" water to a home or a barn. As the Farmers Federation News cover below suggests, this was far more convenient than drawing buckets out of the well and then carrying them to the house.
Ponds
Farmers could also create ponds that stored large amounts of water. As the articles below discuss, ponds also helped control erosion and could be stocked with fish.
