Swannanoa Valley Museum 2014 Season Opening

Photo Credit: Swannanoa Valley Museum

If you’re a history geek like your Inn on Mill Creek innkeepers, we have news for you: The Swannanoa Valley Museum in the town of Black Mountain opens for the season on Saturday, April 12, 2014. Buncombe County and Western North Carolina have a diverse and interesting history, with early settlement by Native Americans followed by American colonists around the time of the Revolutionary War, the growth of farming and agriculture that influences our foodtopian society today, the significant impact of the railroad’s construction through the mountains, the area’s beauty inspiring the arrival of many religious and spiritual retreats, manufacturing and development, important historical figures being born, having lived in, and having relocated to the area shaping history, and so on. And the Swannanoa Valley Museum is a terrific place to learn all about it.

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East of Asheville Studio Tour Returns in October

The East of Asheville Studio Tour (EAST) is an event where artists based in East Asheville, Fairview, Swannanoa and Black Mountain invite you to their studios to see where they create their art, and where you can browse and buy several different types of art and craft, ranging from painting to sculpture, woodworking to jewelry, glass to pottery and everything in between.

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Springtime Geocaching in Swannanoa

Ahhhhh, springtime in the mountains. The vibrant green leaves unfurling from tree branches, songbirds in the mornings and tree frogs in the evenings, beautiful blooms of rhododendron, azaleas and other bright, colorful native flowers. It’s just utterly fantastic to be outdoors in the spring. And one way to explore the outdoors in Western North Carolina is through geocaching — the search for containers hidden by others, using GPS navigation.

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East of Asheville Studio Tour Expands to Old Fort

The beautiful work of EAST artist Rebecca King

The East of Asheville Studio Tour is a great way to meet local artists as they invite you to the studios where their art is created. The free self-guided studio tour takes place twice a year, in Spring and Fall. You can visit as many of the studios as you like over a two-day period.

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