ABSTRACT
BLUE RIDGE REGION Encompassing parts of northern Georgia, the northernmost tip of South Carolina, western North Carolina, northeast Tennessee, western Virginia, the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, western Maryland, and south-central Pennsylvania, the Blue Ridge region incorporates the main crest of the Blue Ridge in western Virginia and western North Carolina and includes parallel mountain ranges on the North Carolina-Tennessee border (including the Great Smokies and the Unakas) as well as perpendicular ranges (such as the Black Mountains). The Blue Ridge region is bordered on the east by the Blue Ridge foothills and, further east, the piedmont of Virginia and the Carolinas, and on the west by the Valley and Ridge Province (featuring a grid of larger rivers separated by low ridges). Blue Ridge folklife developed historically through the intermingling of several cultures-Native American, European, and African American-in one of the major cultural subregions and physiographic provinces within the larger region known as Appalachia. The Blue Ridge has captured the American imagination and attracted tourist who, travelling along the Blue Ridge Parkway, have observed mountain traditions from America’s pioneer era in music, dance, tale, and architecture.
