Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

|| High Country Press Newswire

November 20, 2008 Issue

BREAKING NEWS 11/21/08: ASU Team Wins Regional Heat of Creativity Competition Inventive Students Created a Bike Out of Plastic Bottles

NEWS update 11/20/08: weigh in with YOUr thoughts on how best to brand the High Country AT www.highcountrypress.com/tourism

Boone Council Deliberates ASU, Hwy. 105 Zoning Requests Thursday—Approval Means New Looks for Depot Street and Highway 105

Two rezoning cases were on the agenda for Boone’s Quarterly Public Hearing on November 13. ASU requested a change in the zoning of the rock building on the corner of Rivers and Depot streets from B-1, Central Business District, to U-1, University District. Boone Five, LLC requested rezoning a tract on Highway 105 from a split B-3, General Business, and R-1, Single-Family Residential, to CDB-3, Conditional District General Business. Read More »

Grab Your Gear! All Area Ski Slopes Open By This Weekend

Not once, but twice before Thanksgiving the High Country has woken up to a blanket of fresh snow on the ground, including this week when Sugar Mountain Resort took the cue from Old Man Winter and opened for the season on Monday, November 17. For all the people who are in denial about the start of winter, there’s no weather report left to dispute—it’s cold, it has been snowing, and if the opening of all four of the High Country’s ski slopes tells us anything, winter is definitely here. Read More »

The View Stories

It’s Time To Choose & Cut! Thousands of Christmas Trees Available in High Country

With literally thousands to choose from, you and your family can find the perfect Christmas tree this year. Families from across the state and Southeast travel hundreds of miles to our mountains for their tannenbaums, but High Country residents enjoy the privilege of living right in the center of North Carolina’s Choose and Cut Capital. Read More »

Shelter Stories

Tough Talk On Tourism—What Are Regional Christmas Tree Growers Doing To Boost Sales During the Economic Downturn?

For the past four weeks, High Country Press has reported on the various reactions and initiatives produced from the High Country Tourism Summit. The mission of the High Country Tourism Summit was to collaborate marketing efforts to sustain tourism in the High Country during the country’s economic downturn, so this week we asked what the Watauga County Christmas Tree Association and the North Carolina Christmas Tree Association are doing differently in 2008 to boost or maintain sales. Read More »