[piano intro] - Next on North Carolina Weekend, join us from Old Fort as we celebrate summertime fun in the mountains.

We'll ride trains, roller coasters, try gem mining and even go underground.

Coming up next.

- [Announcer] Funding for North Carolina Weekend is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[lively music] [lively music] [lively music] - Welcome to North Carolina Weekend everyone.

I'm Deborah Holt Noel, and this week we are getting into some summertime fun in the mountains.

Right now we're in Old Fort, a historic mountain town that was hit heavy by Hurricane Helene, but is now reopening to visitors.

In fact, this weekend they are celebrating their Trails to Trains festival.

Old Fort was once the last point on the frontier.

Beyond here there was nothing but wilderness.

And now this wilderness is what makes Old Fort so fun to explore for hikers, bikers, and mountain culture enthusiasts.

We'll explore Old Fort more throughout the show, but first, all aboard for a fun-filled train ride on the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad.

[lively music] - The Great Smoky Mountain Railroad is a chance to experience history.

Located in Bryson City, North Carolina, we're about 55 miles west of Asheville, North Carolina.

We run excursion trains on about 52 miles of track.

This is an actual chance to be a part of history to ride on old railroad equipment and railroading was one of the only means of transportation.

- So guests throughout the entire year can experience a Nantahala Gorge excursion or a Tuckasegee River excursion.

They go opposite ends on our track line.

The Nantahala Gorge Excursion takes you a 44-mile round trip through the Nantahala Gorge and the Tuckasegee River Excursion goes on a 32-mile round trip to Dillsboro, North Carolina.

You are experiencing everything from rivers to bridges to a big long trestle that we have.

It's about 750 feet long.

It's got four tresses across Fontana Lake, and then after that you go up about six miles through the Nantahala Gorge and you're surrounded by the Nantahala River and beautiful mountain sights on either side of the track.

- The museum's been here 22 years.

It's a model train museum.

Specifically Lionel model trains.

Tim Cooper, the guy who created all of this many years ago, had started collecting when he was a kid and he never stopped.

And when he retired he had 3,000 plus model trains.

You can just learn about railroading and interacting with the people they, people come here from all over the world to ride the big train and it's just a lot of fun.

- Polar Express, yes.

Our biggest event that we have, if you've seen the movie, the Polar Express movie has been around for about 20 years this year.

It is an amazing movie.

We bring the movie to life on board our train from scripts to dancing.

I love seeing the passengers faces.

You understand that you're making a positive impact on their life and that they're going to remember forever and you're bringing the magic to life for them.

[lively music] - Train travel is special because you get an opportunity to go back to the early days when it took several days to go from Bryson City to Asheville.

And when you get on a train ride, you kind of step back in time.

You will start experiencing more time together with family and friends.

You're enjoying the clickety-clack of the rail, the romancing of the rail and the scenery.

And just thinking back in time about the early days when our grandparents and our parents were out moving around.

- It's really nice to see how they preserve the history where it's not like, you know, completely changed.

When that little guy saw the steam locomotive come in, he was just like enthralled, couldn't take his eyes off of it.

Choo choo, choo choo.

- It's very easy, easy to park, easy to find where you need to go.

Everybody's been really friendly.

It was just a really simple, relaxing day.

So we enjoyed it very much.

- We don't take trains anymore and they're becoming a historical aspect.

It's really how it was in the olden days.

You just hop on a train and you don't know anyone else and you just start conversations and you enjoy.

And that's really what we try to aim for and what we try to set.

[lively music] - You'll find the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad at 45 Mitchell Street in Bryson City and they're open from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM daily.

Call 800-872-4681 or visit their website gsmr.com to learn more or book your tickets.

I'm standing the Pisgah National Forest at Curtis Creek just a few miles outside of Old Fort.

It's a great place for hiking, biking, and just to get back to nature.

Now let's go underground to a subterranean world called Linville Caverns that is sure to leave unforgettable memories.

[bright music] - In 1822 there were some fishermen fishing in the stream just outside the entrance there and they noticed fish swimming in and out under the rocks.

So they decided to see where those fish were going and they crawled through a small opening where the caverns door is located now or very close to it, and popped up inside the caverns.

- So around 1937, John Quincy Gilkey Corporation opened it up to the public for tours.

Then we had the major flood that happened in 1940, took roughly a year or so after the '40 flood to reopen it in which the ownership that now owns it took over, it opened it back up in '41 for tours again.

- What's it look like?

Well, it's fairly colorful.

There's four or five unique colors just from different mineral deposits in the water.

There's some fish that swim in there, these basic cave formations stalactites, stalagmites.

Sometimes there's bats in the wintertime.

It's limestone, so it's easily dissolved by water.

There's a underground spring that flows out of the cave and just over time, it's just slowly eating its way through the rock that is inside of the cave.

As it makes its way out of the stream.

- When you go in, it's going to be chilly.

It's 52 degrees year round.

It's short, a short tour, so it, it doesn't overwhelm most people.

There's a lot of history here, a lot of natural beauty here and it's a wonderful place to be, I think.

[bright music] They're going to talk about how the caverns was formed, how it was discovered, show you different formations that nature has formed inside and have been named different things.

Our tour guides try to make it a fun and informative tour and try to get people involved in what they're doing as well.

- This is mostly Pisgah National Forest that's further up the road.

It's about 500 acres that they own out here.

So once you get around the curve up the mountain there, that's when the Pisgah National Forest starts.

Up the road you have the Linville Falls, you have the Gorge area, Wiseman's View.

Yeah, the Linville Gorge area is another nice spot to go and see after caverns.

The tour guys, they have great information.

They also put their personal information they have with the Cavern Society and it makes it very fun in there.

When you come out of there, you feel very educated and very informed.

- I was very surprised by the shady dolomite that Steven was telling us about and how old it was and the fossilized material inside the rock.

I thought that was really cool.

You know, you're so enthralled inside with the formations and just the intricate history and the people that work there are so friendly.

- We have a relatively small gift shop, but we have a lot of unique items.

There is a stone in the caverns known as onyx or pink onyx, and we carry onyx in the caverns because of this.

So you can view it as a souvenir from Linville Caverns that represents us to a point.

- The cave is federally protected, it's a natural heritage area so we can take rock out of the cave to make things in the gift shop.

A lot of people ask that.

We have to get the rocks brought in just because of that.

If you've never been to a cave at all, this is a very good one to start because it's not a very large cave.

You're in there about 35 or 40 minutes.

So if you think you may be claustrophobic or want maybe a new experience with some small children, it's a very good cave to do that with.

It's a good beginner cave, I would say.

- This is our first visit.

Anna wanted to come see a cave for her birthday, so that's why we're here.

- I didn't know if that, if you touched it, the oil in your hands would stop making it grow.

- Yeah, yeah, I didn't know that either.

It was just beautiful to see, you know, you forget about being closed in and it's just amazing to see how old everything is and all the different formations that are there.

- What I feel is special about it, it is one of the most unique places in North Carolina when we see that you are enjoying yourself, that makes our time there more enjoyable.

[light music] - You'll find Linville Caverns at 19929 U.S. Highway 221 in Marion.

They're open for tours from March through November.

Give them a call at [828] 756-4171 or visit their website at linvillecaverns.com to learn more.

[bright music] I'm here with Shannon Odom, executive director of Destination McDowell.

Shannon, this is such a cute downtown.

What brings travelers and families to Old Fort?

- Well, we're really known a lot for our history, but we also have 42 miles of mountain biking and hiking trails.

We have wonderful shops here and there's just a great museum as well.

- Can you tell me some more about the Mountain Gateway Museum and its availability to visitors?

- Right now it's open in a temporary location across the street from its original spot.

The temporary location has a rotating exhibit and it still has its normal exhibits, which focus on history, mining, the manufacturing and all of the railroad history that went on here.

And then we also have two historic cabins here.

These were located elsewhere in the county and were replaced here to show people what pioneering life was like.

- Shannon, how can people support Old Fort in its recovery?

- Well, I think the main thing to know is that we are open for business.

That the businesses have returned from Hurricane Helene.

As traumatic as it was, the rebuilding process has started, the community is stronger, we really bonded together and we want people and the visitors to know that we're back open.

Our trails are open and just come spend your time here.

- To plan your visit to Old Fort, go to destinationmcdowell.com.

Whaley Farm Brewery is another business that's reopening here in Old Fort.

You know, some places in the mountains have a little bit of everything.

Let's head to Highlands Outpost, where you'll find tubing, trout fishing, even a hair-raising mountain coaster called the Scaly Mountain Screamer.

[Deborah screams] [lively music] - So Highlands Outpost is in Scaly Mountain, North Carolina.

We're about 15 minutes from downtown Highlands or about 30 minutes from Clayton, Georgia or Franklin, North Carolina.

We began as the Scaly Mountain Ski Area back in 1980.

So we've been here for quite a while.

It was ski slopes for over 30 years and then we transitioned over to tubing whenever the winters got a little warmer and it became harder to make snow.

So we've been doing tubing since 2008.

We've added the coaster in the place of where one of the ski slopes used to be and we've added the trout pond and changed added summer tubing so people could still tube all year long.

So we've just kind of adapted to, tried to make the place a little bit better every year.

- So for the tubing, you ride our magic carpet up to the top.

You just kind of get to chill and you know, relax and enjoy the weather on the ride up.

And when you get to the top, we have somebody up there that's just going to give you a nice push down the mountain.

And as you get to ride down the hill, you're going down through some misters and you kinda get cooled off after that hot walk up, up towards the top.

And it's a great time.

You can go by yourself, you can go two at a time, three at a time, just a whatever you'd prefer there.

And it's a real fun experience.

[lively music] - In the winter we have four lanes of really fast, really fun snow tubing that go on from beginning around Halloween and then we go all the way through the end of March.

So our alpine coaster is right around a mile long, just about three and a half years old.

It's one of the longest in the southeast, the longest in North Carolina.

A lot of times you'll find folks that are maybe a little nervous or scared until they do it the first time and then they're hooked and just want to keep coming back.

- It's a lot of fun.

And we went on the alpine coaster.

You get to go, you get to choose how fast you go.

So we all went like super fast on it and had a good time.

- Well, you got to stop here and you got to try the coaster.

So after that it's any other thing that you want to do.

But the coaster's have got to.

It's a lot of fun.

Kids loved it, a lot of smiles from the kids.

- So we have trout fishing, rainbow trout that are locally raised and delivered here.

You can come fish for free as far as the actual fishing part.

And then once you catch the fish, you just pay by the pound and we'll clean them for you.

There's no charge for the actual fishing, we'll supply the rods and the bait and the tackle and everything.

This area's kind of the ruby capital of the whole southeast and lots of beautiful gems.

You come, you grab your bucket, you go down and just do it yourself.

It's kind of a hands-on family fun for everybody to do and everybody can walk away with some pretty cool looking gems that are natural to the area.

- You know, our big logo is elevate your family fun and that, you know, that is something you truly do do here.

We have plenty of different activities to try out.

We have a great staff here that's always, you know, try to be very warm and welcoming to everybody.

We're right in the mid stop on your way up to the beautiful town of Highlands.

If you're just trying to go up there and just go up there and do some shopping and explore, I mean you, you got to stop here and check us out on the way.

Have a little bit of fun.

Get a little wet in the summertime.

You're going to have a great time here.

- Highlands Outpost is at 7420 Dillard Road in Scaly Mountain and they're open from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM daily.

Give them a call at [828] 526-3737 or visit them online at highlandsoutpost.com.

I just love the jewelry and crafts here at Arrowhead Gallery.

You know, North Carolina has some of the most diverse geology in all of the world and a byproduct of all that diversity is gems and minerals.

Let's join Teresa Litschke as she follows a family from the Midwest having a great time at Sugar Creek Gem Mining.

[lively music] - Y'all looking at doing some gem mining?

- Yes sir.

- Absolutely.

So all of our bucket sizing and pricing's behind us here.

So the bigger buckets obviously are going to have more stones and larger stones in them.

You know, of course you can share buckets or you can do individuals.

If you have a large group, you'll definitely want to go with a larger bucket.

That way everybody gets a little bit more.

- [Deborah Holt Noel] On this day, a family from Kansas is trying their hand at mining.

- All right, so I'll give you guys a couple copies of those ID sheets.

So that's kinda what you're going to be looking for out there.

- Move them outside, we'll get them set up on the flume line, show them how to sort through the stones, show them which stones to keep, which stones they don't want to keep.

- You're going to want to set the sand down into these sifters, they'll turn and set down the water and you're just going to shake them back and forth until all the sand's been washed away.

You're looking for anything with color, like what's on those two papers I gave you guys?

- [Deborah Holt Noel] No pressure, take as much time as you like.

- We typically say 15 minutes a gallon.

So that would be about, you know, half an hour for that small one, but it really depends on the group.

Everybody's different.

- Oh my God.

- I've had groups spend a day here, especially if you get like the big wagon, that one's an hour, you know, multi-hour activity, especially if there's not many of you.

So you know, you could spend all day with us or you could spend 30 minutes with us.

However long you feel like it.

- And you hold it up to the light.

- Some people want all the little pieces to make their own jewelry.

Some people, if it's a lot more kids, they just care about the big shiny stones.

- Gah, look at it, it's green.

- [Deborah Holt Noel] Location is everything when mining for gems and Sugar Creek is sitting pretty.

- Majority of what's in the gem buckets comes from right down the road in Spruce Pine, which is one of the most geological diverse regions in the world.

- You know, mining is very common in Appalachia in general, from coal to gold, we had it all.

The quarts, the emeralds, the rubies, the felt spar.

- We're looking for garnet, peridot, ruby.

- Love getting crystals, finding crystals.

So this was a very fun activity.

I've been waiting all week to do this.

- And we have a lot more in the seven gallon bucket.

- I have four.

- [Deborah Holt Noel] You expect kids to love looking for buried treasure.

- But a lot of adults too, I would say almost more adults than kids really.

- We're looking online for things to do in the area.

And it's like, well shoot, this is what, this is something that will be fun.

Let's go, let's go do it.

- You know, it's hard to be playing in the water, playing in the dirt.

A lot of the kids just love that aspect of it.

But even the adults, you know, I think it's pretty relaxing if you've ever done it, you know, you're just sitting outside on a nice day like this, you got a bucket of sand, no time limit and you can just sit there and dig through it and just kind of wa you know, you wash the sand wash away, you find these gems.

It's very calming, very relaxing.

- [Deborah Holt Noel] And can be very worthwhile.

- That's a little piece of quartz.

- [Deborah Holt Noel] When you receive confirmation of the stones you've found.

- The people here just have a lot of knowledge on this.

- Nice little amethyst there.

- And then definitely coming inside to be able to have like those ideas clarified and like the walkthrough of what everything is and you know how they're formed and everything.

- So you've got like your clear quartzes, your citrines and your amethysts and your rose quartz up there.

- Is this.

- If I'm able to, I'm going to make a lot of them into earrings.

- [Deborah Holt Noel] That's not a problem at Sugar Creek.

- And we can cut those into a faceted stone for a piece of jewelry or something like that.

- Or they'll take it home and maybe they will display them in fish tanks, mason jars, full terrariums, anything like that.

The possibilities are endless.

- [Deborah Holt Noel] From gems you mine yourself to those on sale in the store and other great gift ideas, Sugar Creek Mining Company offers something you can't find just anywhere.

- Do we have this type of stuff in Kansas?

- No.

- No.

- You know, this kind of thing is a once in a lifetime type of deal.

- You will find Sugar Creek Gem Mine at 3045 Tynecastle Highway in Banner Elk.

They're open from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM daily.

To plan your trip, give them a call at [828] 898-4367 or visit them online at sugarcreekgemmine.com.

This iced coffee from Seeker Coffee in Old Fort it's just right on a hot summer day.

You know, one of the highlights of a trip to Asheville is going on a LaZoom comedy bus tour.

But did you know there's a kids version as well?

Let's check it out.

[bright music] - LaZoom is an opportunity for connection through laughter with their friends and family, sometimes with strangers and definitely with the city that they're visiting.

Asheville and Charlotte are two magical cities and we're proud to bring people around and make them feel more of a sense of connection with them while they're visiting.

So Asheville is a city with a lot of buried history.

So we like to get you on the bus, drive you around, show you where things happen, take you into neighborhoods you might not discover on your own.

It's heart, it's a sightseeing tour, but we tell our stories with lots of jokes.

- It brings the people out on the streets into the bus.

Yeah, we used to pick up street performers along the way.

And yeah, just different ways of playing with why are people coming to Asheville and how can we share some of our secret sauce with them so that they can go home and spread that into their communities too.

And it's through comedy, homemade costumes, poking fun at life.

- What we do is we do a whole bunch of research in the beginning.

If it's a ghost tour, then we're researching all of the ghost stories in town and then we're adding jokes and little by little they get more and more and more jokes because all of our different comedians will put their own input into it.

We're kind of coming from a different, a lot of different angles, so hopefully appealing to all kinds of different sense of humor.

And it's just to have fun.

And we really see people that are from totally different walks of life at some point during the tour, making eye contact, they don't know each other and laughing together.

- Our flagship tour is our city sightseeing tour.

We have one in Asheville called the Hey Asheville and in Charlotte, the Hey Charlotte tour.

It's a 90-minute city sightseeing tour and you'll be visited by several characters throughout the tour in Asheville.

One that we're really known for are our nuns.

Just a variety of other characters that have a little bit to do with the history or current culture of the city that we're in.

The same goes for our adult only ghosted comedy tour.

It's one hour long.

In Nashville we have our Little Boogers Kids comedy tour and a lot of costume characters coming and going.

That comedy on that one is geared towards kids between the ages of five to 12 really.

But it's such a fun one.

It typically runs on Saturday mornings.

- It's for little kids, but it's also for everyone that little kids decide to bring with them.

I think there's a lot of surprises on the kids' tour that are really fun, but there are some that you just know if you know LaZoom at all.

We have a nun on the outside of our building, so they're all very, very big.

They're all larger than life, they're colorful.

A lot of these you're seeing on the street before they come onto the bus to interact with you, which is own sense of funny in itself.

They're going to be interacting, especially with the kids.

Any of the characters that you see are definitely going to be talking to you and interacting with you.

It's tons of fun.

- I think the best parts of LaZoom is that it's an opportunity to learn about Asheville while having a really good time.

There's a lot of tours that'll go around and you know, different types of Asheville activities where you get to learn about things, but nothing where your cheeks hurt at the end because you're laughing so hard.

- Thank you.

[audience laughs] - With LaZoom being around for almost two decades in Asheville, they're part of the community in so many ways.

If anyone comes to town, of course they need to experience LaZoom because it's part of who Asheville is.

It's part of our fabric.

[lively music] - LaZoom Tours is located at 76 Biltmore Avenue in Asheville with tours scheduled throughout the week.

Call [828] 225-6932 or head to lazoomtours.com to get tickets for their Asheville Kids comedy tour.

When you come to Old Fort, don't forget to stop by Hillman Brewing.

It's a really popular spot among locals and visitors.

We have had such a fun time here in Old Fort.

It's a charming mountain town with plenty to do for the entire family.

And if you've missed anything in tonight's show, remember you can always watch us again online at pbsnc.org or you can find any of our stories on our YouTube channel.

Have a great North Carolina Weekend everyone.

[lively music] [lively music] - [Announcer] Funding for North Carolina Weekend is provided in part by Visit NC dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.