Category: bookstores

Do you associate volcanoes with North Carolina?

Now that I have your attention… today’s blog post is about ancient history. This is one of the topics I wrote about in Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2.

Photo of a volcano by Guille Pozzi on Unsplash.com.
Photo by guille pozzi on Unsplash

Harrisburg, North Carolina sits inside a 22-mile syenite or ring dike. One can get a feel for it from several high points in the area, such as when traveling south from Concord on US-29 near the intersection with Union Cemetery Road. It’s like looking across a gigantic bowl.

Another possible place from which to catch a glimpse of the “bowl” is on NC-49 southbound after you pass Old Charlotte Road. The Charlotte downtown skyline is visible briefly from that location as well as the one referenced above on US-29.

Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2, by Janet Morrison

What, you may ask, is a syenite or ring dike? I’m no expert on volcanology, but my understanding is that it is a circular dike around a volcano.

According to 2001 Encyclopedia of Earthquakes and Volcanoes, by David Ritchie and Alexander E. Gates, Ph.D.:

“If magma is removed from the magma chamber beneath a volcano, it can undergo caldera collapse. The volcano and the area around it collapse because they are no longer being held up by the liquid. A series of concentric faults and cracks develop around the collapsing volcano. As they do, magma will squeeze up around the cracks and faults forming ring dikes.”

I’ll take their word for it.

In 1966, U.S. Geological Survey geologist Harry E. LeGrand and Henry Bell III led a scientific excursion in Cabarrus County to study our ring dike and other interesting rock and mineral deposits in the county.

You might be able to access a pdf of “Guidebook of Excursion in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, October 22-23,1966” by going to https://www.carolinageologicalsociety.org. Search for “1960s Field Trip Guidebooks” and then scroll down to find that particular guidebook.

The Harrisburg area has experienced a population explosion since 1966. The landmarks noted in the 1966 guidebook are either gone or more difficult to locate today. The concentric rings that were reportedly visible from the air in 1960 by R.G. Ray might not still be intact.

If you’d like to know more about this topic, the 1849 meteorite; Harrisburg’s first organized housing and business development of 100 years ago; the Morrison-Sims Store and Old Post Office; the flood of 1886, the Piedmont Area Development Association (P.A.D.A) of the 1960s; earthquakes that have been felt here; McCachren’s Store; Rocky River bridges in the 1870s; the Sauline Players; a tribute to George L. Govan; Rocky River Academy; the Rocky River Presbyterian Church’s fourth sanctuary which was completed in 1861; a 1777 estate sale; Hugh Smith Pharr and his mill; a 1907 attempted train robbery; 1816 – the year without a summer;

Also: items such as milk, apples, and dry cleaning that were all delivered to homes in the mid-1900s; Blume’s Store; high-speed trains; the boundaries of Township 1; early Harrisburg education; Pharr Grist Mill on Back Creek; how electricity came to Harrisburg; a 1912 church homecoming; Pioneer Mills Gold Mine and Community; a fellow named Collett Leventhorpe; a 1911-1912 debating society; and the tenth anniversary of the Harrisburg Branch of the Cabarrus County Public Library system… please purchase Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2.

The book also contains nearly 150 pages of my research notes on subjects I didn’t get to write about when I wrote a local history newspaper column from 2006-2012.

Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1 and Book 2 are available in paperback at Second Look Books, 4519 School House Commons in Harrisburg, NC.

Second Look Books, 4519 School House Commons, Harrisburg, NC

They are also available in paperback and e-Book from Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BW2QMLHC/.

An infographic ad for Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Books 1 and 2

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read.

I hope you get to spend quality time with friends and family.

Remember the people of Ukraine.

Janet

P.S. Please visit https://www.janetmorrisonbooks.com and subscribe to my e-Newsletter. Next issue due out the first week of January!

Meet & Greet at Second Look Books, April 15th

What?        Author Meet & Greet

Where?      Second Look Books, 4519 School House Commons in Harrisburg

When?       Saturday, April 15, 2023

What Time?         2:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Second Look Books, 4519 School House Commons, Harrisburg, NC

Copies of Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1 and Book 2 have arrived and been autographed.

Photocopies of my 11×14-inch “Harrisburg in the 1900s” two-map sets have been made.

Business cards and bookmarks are printed.

Saturday, April 15 is the big day for my Meet & Greet at Second Look Books in Harrisburg, North Carolina! I’ll be there from 2:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m.

Please drop by, even if you’ve already purchased both books.

The bookmarks and Harrisburg maps are free while supplies last.

What maps?

I drew the maps based on detailed memories that Mr. Ira Lee Taylor shared with me while I was writing the “Did You Know? local history column for Harrisburg Horizons newspaper (2006-2012.)

One map covers from along NC-49 to Back Creek. The other map covers from Back Creek to Reedy Creek and where McKee Creek flows into Reedy Creek.

Mr. Taylor told me where such things as the telephone switchboard, spoke factory, two cotton gins, railroad houses, corn fields, cotton fields, and livery stable were in the early 1900s.

He told me where the various stores and post offices were. Being the town’s only mail carrier for several decades, he knew where everybody lived, so I included much of that information The map show where the roads were (and were not) before the coming of the high-speed rail.

In case you arrived in Harrisburg after the two-story red brick old Harrisburg School was torn down, this set of maps will show you the layout of the school grounds. The school property is where School House Commons Shopping Center is now.

The maps also show the locations of the Oak Grove Rosenwald School and the Bellefonte Rosenwald School that you read about in Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1.

Some things you’ll learn about in my two books

There are stories of local heroism from 1771 and the detailed memories of a World War II US Army veteran who told me about his training for D-Day through to the end of the war.

There are stories about the original Hickory Ridge School, which was a one-room school on Hickory Ridge Road.

There are stories about the Rosenwald Schools that served the black students in the early 1900s.

There are stories about the man from Russia (actually, Ukraine) who settled in Harrisburg in the 1920s to practice medicine until his death in 1960. He was a country doctor who made house calls

There are stories about the construction of the Charlotte Motor Speedway and the first World 600 Race when the track was in such bad shape that chunks of asphalt broke the windshields out of some of the race cars.

There is information about the 22-mile syenite ring-dike that Harrisburg sits in. It’s what remains of an ancient volcano.

Until my next blog post

Remember the people of Ukraine – where Dr. Nicholas E. Lubchenko was born and lived until young adulthood.

I hope to see you on Saturday!

In case you don’t have a good book to read, please consider purchasing my local history books. They’re available in paperback at Second Look Books. They’re also available in paperback and for Kindle from Amazon.

Even if you don’t live or have never lived in Harrisburg, North Carolina, I think you’ll find some interesting stories that you can probably relate to if you are of a certain age. And if you a child, teen, or young adult I think you’ll find it interesting to read about how life used to be in our sleepy little farm village of a couple hundred people in the early 1900s that has grown to nearly 20,000 people in 2023.

What?        Author Meet & Greet

Where?      Second Look Books, 4519 School House Commons in Harrisburg

When?       Saturday, April 15, 2023

What Time?         2:00 – 4:00 p.m.

I hope to see you there!

Janet

Support an Independent Bookstore. Please!

This isn’t what I had planned to blog about today, but after receiving an email from an independent bookstore in the small western North Carolina town of Sylva last week, I decided it was time for me to put in a plug for independent bookstores.

Some of us (including myself!) are guilty of ordering books from big online stores. By doing so, we might save a little money, but during this time of pandemic it just might be more important for us to order our books online from an independent bookstore.

If you’ve followed my blog for long, you know I’m a supporter of public libraries. I still am and always will be; however, the public libraries are closed now for an indefinite length of time. I still borrow e-books and some downloadable audiobooks from the public library, but many books are not available in those formats.

City Lights Bookstore & Cafe, Sylva, NC
City Lights Bookstore & Café, Sylva, North Carolina, in December 2014

Today I’m highlighting City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, North Carolina. Chris Wilcox and his staff there would really appreciate your ordering a book or two (or more!) from his shop,   https://www.citylightsnc.com/.

The website states: “Selling new and used books, cards, gifts, journals, maps, and more since 1985.“

Nestled in the Appalachian Mountains in western North Carolina, Sylva is a fairly small town. Although the county seat of sparsely-populated Jackson County, the downtown business district in only a few blocks long.

The town heavily depends on the summer tourist season and the faculty and students of nearby Western Carolina University. But classes are online now and the students have gone home until further notice.  With the summer tourist season looking doubtful this year, the independent businesses in places like Sylva need our support.

Chris is trying to stay in business, but he really needs our help. He and his shop hold a special place in my heart because City Lights was one of the first bookstores to carry my vintage postcard book when it was published in 2014. When I visited the shop, Chris invited me to autograph the copies he had in stock. That made me feel so good!

If you live in the Sylva area, Chris is offering curbside service on Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. (except for siesta time from 3:30 until 4:00.) The store is closed for browsing to help curb the spread of Coronavirus-19, but you can browse on the shop’s website:  https://www.citylightsnc.com/ and place your order for delivery via the United States Postal Service.

I love the stated goal of City Lights Bookstore:  “Our goal is to share the literature of the region with the world, and the world of books with our community.”

https://www.citylightsnc.com/

In addition to the books other independent bookstores carry, City Lights Bookstore has a wonderful selection of regional books, fiction and nonfiction, from the Appalachians, including books about The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

Fighting this pandemic is a marathon, not a sprint. If you are able, please support City Lights Bookstore this week and every week or two. It would be a shame if City Lights Bookstore or any other independent bookstore went out-of-business due to the pandemic.

Chris has made it easy for you. If you want to order a book from his shop or set up a private wishlist, all you have to do is submit your email address through his website and verify that you’re a human being. He’ll then send you an email with a special link for you to use to set up an account. Easy peasy!

Chris has no idea I’m blogging about his shop today. I bet he’ll wonder what’s going on when he starts to receive book, journal, and map orders from my blog readers! His shop is closed on Mondays, but I imagine you can go ahead and create an account online and place your order.

If you’re ever in Sylva, drop by City Lights Bookstore and tell Chris that Janet Morrison sent you even though he probably doesn’t remember my name. It’s not like my vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina was a bestseller! City Lights Café is located downstairs and is a good place to grab lunch.

Since my last blog post

I’ve been somewhat at loose ends. There are numerous books I could have read and just as many writing projects I could have worked on. It took most of the week, but I finally settled on concentrating on reading books about the craft of writing. Those books held my interest longer than any novels I picked up.

I reworked my “editorial calendar” for my blog for the next 12 months. More than a few topics in my #FixYourNovel series needed to be rescheduled for later this year and even into 2021.

Until my next blog post

If you’re fortunate enough to have an independent bookstore in your town, do what you can to keep it in business. If you don’t, I invite you to visit Sylva, North Carolina’s City Lights Bookstore online: https://www.citylightsnc.com/. I know you’ll find something you want to order.

I hope you have a good book to read. Who knows? Maybe I’ll get my mind back on reading fiction. Or maybe I’ll put some of the writing techniques I learned last week into practice and make some progress on my novel or the short stories I’m writing.

I hope you have creative time.

I hope you stay safe and well. Please stay at home if your job allows that during this pandemic. Follow the rules, if not for yourself, do it for the rest of us. You can do this.

Let’s continue the conversation

If you know of an independent bookstore that’s struggling during this pandemic, please give us the name and location along with website details, if possible, in the comments below or in the comments when I post this on my Facebook page, Janet Morrison, Writer. That way, my readers and I will discover some independent bookstores all over the world!

Janet