One of the most successful and the area's own hometown music festivals -- the Earl Scruggs Music Festival -- begins Friday, Aug. 29 at the Tryon International Equestrian Center (TIEC) in Mill Spring and continues through Sunday evening, Aug. 31. General admission tickets are still available, as some of the country's finest musicians will entertain thousands and celebrate the legacy of Earl Scruggs, the world's most influential banjo picker.

The Lake Lure Flowering Bridge is being demolished this week due to its crumbling state caused by Hurricane Helene on Sept. 27, 2024. But while the volunteers who literally spent thousands of hours creating the bridge of flowers are heartbroken, they are regrouping and focusing their best efforts on the mission of making gardens of flowers in the areas of the bridge. Many of the volunteers have been involved since the beginning of the vision in 2010.

Passers-by in the areas of Illinois and Elm streets and Pennsylvania Avenue in Spindale, who haven't been in that area for a while, will immediately notice radical changes in housing.

New homes are being constructed, older homes are being repaired and some properties have been cleared to make property available for even more affordable housing.

On a crisp fall day, October 13, 1955, a baby girl named Molly at birth was adopted by Charles and Margie Andrews of Rutherfordton when her name was changed to Karen. She was born January 31, 1955, to a 20-year-old single mother. Just eighteen days later, on October 31, 1955 another baby girl named Polly at birth, born January 31, 1955, to that same 20-year-old single mother was adopted by Gaither and Mary Lou Beam of Louisburg, NC, when her name was changed to Barbara. Molly/Karen and Polly/Barbara were fraternal twins, spending their first eight months together in a children's home outside Greensboro. Because of the attending pediatrician's recommendation, they were separated and adopted by different families, who didn't know their daughters were twins. Seven decades later those two girls were able to find each other thanks to Ancestry.