A+Sense+of+Place

**//I Am One Of You Forever//: A Sense of Place . . . and Literary Connections**
The Kirkland family farm in //I Am One Of You Forever// is located in the mountains of western North Carolina in the vicinity of a town called Tipton, home to a big paper mill owned by the Challenger company. Tipton and Challenger are stand-in names for Canton and Champion Paper and Fiber, a real town and a real company.

Here's a [|map] to locate Canton in relation to Atlanta.

Here's a picture of the mill:



Here's a picture of the town (looking away from the mill) and the surrounding mountains:



I don't know exactly where the "real" Trivet Creek or Ember Mountain might be, but the West Fork Pigeon River (where Johnson and Jess go fishing) is most certainly a real place, a real gem.



For what it's worth, I am NOT the boater in this picture. This drop looks easy enough, but notice how the rock on the left is undercut and much of the water on the slide seems to flow into (and maybe under) it. The rapid has earned the name Haywood County Jail and is one of MANY on this stretch which I would have no business running. Presumably Jess and Johnson fished this stream when the water level was //far// lower and //much// safer.

Fed by streams flowing out of the Shining Rock and Middle Prong Wilderness Areas, the West Fork is one of the cleanest and prettiest mountain rivers anywhere. Hwy 215 runs up the West Fork Valley and provides relatively easy access to a number of beautiful [|waterfalls] before meeting up with the Blue Ridge Parkway at Beech Gap at the crest of the Balsam Mountains. This is probably my favorite part of the Southern Appalachians.

It should also be noted that the immediate area around Canton has another prominent literary connection. Towering above the town to the south is Cold Mountain, part of the Shining Rock Wilderness and setting for the National Book Award-winning novel of the same name.





You may also be familar with the movie adaptation of Charles Frazier's novel, starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and Renee Zellweger. The movie is pretty good, but the book is terrific (and has much in common with //another// literary work you are familiar with, being something of an American retelling of //The Odyssey//).