News

SMT photo/Sara Eisinger. Gail Dellinger (left, front to back), Jeanette Frady, Linda Vaughn; (right, front to back) Margaret McCurry, Richard Schaddelee, Judy Stroup and Sandy Estep congregate for lunch at Swain Senior Center Monday, Sept. 15.

Center connects seniors, services

Sara Eisinger

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Swain Senior Center is thriving with active participants, guest speakers, Bible study, public transportation and highly sought after programs such as Meals on Wheels.

SMT photo/Sara Eisinger. Swain County seniors dress in blue to represent their county’s senior center at the 7th running Senior Celebration in Bryson City Saturday, Sept. 13

Senior Celebration

Sara Eisinger

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

A weekend sock hop with Bobby socks, poodle skirts and leather jackets drew 15 classic cars, 28 vendors and 800 seniors from Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and seven counties to Great Smoky Mountains Event Park over the weekend.

Photo/Nick Nichols. Volunteers cleanup around David Monteith County Park boat launch after Hurricane Helene last year.

Swain Clean’s Hurricane Helene cleanup mission

News Staff

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Nick Nichols Contributor I remember watching the weather maps as we endured several days of nonstop rain. On the afternoon of Friday, Sept. 29, 2024, maybe a dozen people watched from the Everett Street bridge as the Tuckaseegee waters rose.

Mike Clapsaddle (left to right), Janet Clapsaddle, Lynn James, Duane James, Bill Watson, Sherry Jenkins Brown, Beth Pedersen, Nick Lambert and Dottie Nelson on the Maroon Devils football field 50-yard-line Sept. 5.

Class of 1970 begins a new giving trend

Sara Eisinger

Wednesday, September 10, 2025

The Swain County High School Class of 1970 made a surprise appearance at the hometown football game Friday evening. Since the class was prevented from holding a 50-year reunion, due to the surge of the COVID pandemic in 2020, they reconnected on Facebook.

Photo/Marty Pressley. Bryson City Church of God delivers its message of salvation and love to an upward 40 children at Casa Hogar Alfa y Omega, an orphanage in Poza Rica, Veracruz, Mexico, in Oct. 2025.

Church blessings for orphaned children

Sara Eisinger

Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Bryson City Church of God held a fundraiser over the weekend to buy Christmas presents, school supplies and essential items for children at Casa Hogar Alfa y Omega, an orphanage in Poza Rica, Veracruz, Mexico. Donations will be accepted through December for the 40-plus children at the orphanage.

SMT photo/Sara Eisinger. Swain County EMS first responders Steve Pack, Brandon Wiggins, Jon Waldroup, Ian McCauley and Earlene Leonard remember 9/11 outside the EMS building Sept. 5.

Courage and sacrifices made by EMS, rescue squad members

Sara Eisinger

Wednesday, September 10, 2025

The great courage and sacrifice made by first responders on Sept. 11, 2001, meant the loss of 343 firefighters, 72 law enforcement officers, 55 military personnel at the Pentagon at least eight EMTs and paramedics … never forgotten.

Submitted photo. Swain County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Jason Ashe with a Polish flight crew at Baghdad International Airport circa 2004-2005.

Sheriff’s Office remembers 9/11

Sara Eisinger

Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Swain County Sheriff’s Office deputies remember the nation’s fallen heroes 24 years later. Lt. Det. Dennis Elliott cited a quote from the late General George S. Patton: “It is foolish for us to mourn the men and women who died but rather thank God that such men and women lived.

Mike Colcord

Why I volunteer at Bryson City Fire Department

News Staff

Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Mike Colcord I was in Atlanta when I saw the first airplane hit the World Trade Center on TV. Believe it or not, my brother, David “Roddy” Colcord, May 19, 1953 — October 6, 2015, worked for Kemper Insurance, located in the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

SMT photo/Sara Eisinger. Bryson City Police Department Chief Charlie Robinson opens up about his 9/11 experience and community support Sept. 5.

Police chief answers call to Bryson

News Staff

Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger airliners and crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Arlington and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, leaving a total of 72 law enforcement officers among the dead during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

SMT photo/Sara Eisinger. Deanna Crew, 911 manager, and Misty Tabor, 911 director, walking into the Swain County Administration Building together Sept. 5.

How 9/11 shaped dispatch

Sara Eisinger

Wednesday, September 10, 2025

New York dispatchers handled calls under one of the most extreme events imaginable on September 11. Misty Tabor, director at Swain County Emergency Management/911, was serving as a dispatcher that morning.