Mountain Gateway Museum and Heritage Center

06/20/2026

We’re at the West Marion Community Park from 4-8pm for the Juneteenth Festival! Come try out our Wheel of History and win a prize!

06/19/2026

The Mountain Gateway Museum joins in the celebration of Juneteenth, a national holiday that commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans throughout the former Confederacy. Happy Juneteenth!

Reminder that we will have our "Wheel of History" booth with prizes at the West Marion Inc. 5th Annual Juneteenth Celebration Festival in the Park tomorrow from 4-8pm!

06/18/2026

Join us as we continue to explore McDowell's Communities! This Friday we will visiting the Southern portion of McDowell, with the communities of Glenwood, Dysartsville, Brackettown, Montford Cove, and more.

📅 Friday, June 19th
⏰ 3:30 - 4:30
📌 McDowell County Public Library

06/16/2026

2026 Old Fort 250th 4th of July Parade Route Update 🇺🇸🎆

Due to ongoing construction in Old Fort, this year’s parade will follow a new route.

📍 Line-up: 3:00 PM at the Old Fort Finishing Plant (using Water St.)
🚩 Parade begins: 4:00 PM

The parade will depart the Old Fort Finishing Plant parking lot, cross the railroad tracks on Spring St, then continue:

➡️ Right on N Railroad St
⬅️ Left on Cemetery St
⬅️ Left on E Main St
⬅️ Left on Catawba Ave
⬅️ Left on S Railroad St
🏁 Ending back at the Old Fort Finishing Plant parking lot

Thank you for your patience and support as we celebrate Old Fort’s 250th Independence Day celebration! 🎇

06/16/2026

❓❔ Museum Mystery Monday Answer!

Any guesses what the woven basket was? The mystery artifact is a cheese basket, used as a strainer, with holes allowing cheese curds to drain through the open weave. Cheese strainers can be made with various materials, like the ceramic one pictured here (courtesy of Historic Jamestown collections). Today, it's more common to use a cheesecloth or fine mesh strainer bag to drain and shape cheese curds.

06/16/2026

We are hiring for a Regional History Museum Administrator. The application window closes at 11:59pm on June 29. See here for the application:

Agency Dept of Natural and Cultural Resources Division Museum of History Job Classification Title Regional History Museum Administrator (NS) Position Number 60083987 Grade NC15 About Us The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (DNCR) takes care of the things that people love a...

06/16/2026

Our exploration of great ways to spend a weekend during Great Outdoors Month continues on this Travel Tuesday in Old Fort, a mountain town offering a chance to escape, whether it’s deep into the woods on a trail or into the past in a museum.

Check out our weekend itinerary to discover Old Fort: https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2026/06/12/weekend-itinerary-escape-old-fort

Photo: Trailhead of the Gateway Trail in Old Fort, NC, courtesy of Joe Miller.

Mountain Gateway Museum and Heritage Center

North Carolina State Parks and Recreation

06/15/2026

❔❓ Museum Mystery Monday ❓❔

What is this artifact? Hint: it's not a laundry basket!

Stay tuned tomorrow for the answer.

06/12/2026

Juneteenth marks June 19 each year as a celebration of the end of slavery in the United States. The word itself blends “June” and “nineteenth,” the date when news of emancipation finally reached the last enslaved people in Texas in 1865. Often called Emancipation Day or Freedom Day, it stands as the oldest nationally recognized observance honoring the liberation of enslaved African Americans.

We encourage you to explore these curated resources designed to deepen awareness of and excitement for the Juneteenth holiday: https://aahc.nc.gov/juneteenth.

Next Saturday, June 20, from 4-8pm the Mountain Gateway Museum will be at the West Marion Community Park for the West Marion Inc. 5th Annual Juneteenth Celebration. Come see us and other great vendors!

06/10/2026

Although the breweries sprouting up around western North Carolina are a fairly new phenomenon, people have been making alcohol in these mountains for hundreds of years. In the 18th century, the British government, which tried to tax everything including closets, imposed an excise on manufacturing whiskey. The Scots and Scots-Irish in particular opposed paying this tax, one major incentive for many to emigrate to the New World.

Once in the hills of Pennsylvania, colonial farmers found it easier to transport grain to market in the form of alcohol. It kept longer that way, and barrels of whiskey were far less cumbersome to move than bushels of grain over the rough roads. Even George Washington distilled whiskey. That didn’t stop him from trying to tax it once the newly established United States needed the funds. The Pennsylvania distillers didn’t appreciate this tax any more than their parents had appreciated the British excise. When their Whiskey Rebellion failed, many moved to the southern Appalachians, at that time the wilderness frontier.

In the remote coves, settlers found a wealth of hiding places for their stills. Then Thomas Jefferson repealed the whiskey excise in 1801, rendering the clandestine manufacture of alcohol obsolete for the time being. However, the distillers’ established penchant for secrecy would come in handy a century later for a far different reason.

In the North Carolina mountains, the first alcohol denouncers arrived on the heels of the moonshine makers. Famous circuit preacher Francis Asbury rode through Madison County in 1800, observing “My company was not agreeable here—there were too many subjects of the great potentates of this Western world, whiskey (and) brandy. My mind was greatly distressed.”

Asbury wasn’t the only one distressed by whiskey. By the late 1800s, sensationalized news stories of intoxicated murderers and other perils of strong drink had convinced many that alcohol should be banned. In 1908, North Carolina voted to outlaw alcohol, preceding national prohibition by a decade. In response, many Appalachian distillers simply resumed their habit of secrecy leftover from the excise days, perpetuating an entire mythology around moonshine that remains potent to this day.