Traveling Through Books - Appalachia

About four years ago, my husband and I went on a close-to-home adventure. We drove the two-hour road trip from Asheville, NC to the real location of Catherine Marshall’s Christy. In the novel, Christy shows up in Cutter Gap, but the place where the real story took place is called Chapel Hollow/Ebenezer Mission and the real Christy gets off the train in Del Rio, TN.

If you’ve never heard of this New York Times bestselling historical novel, here’s a little blurb about it:

The train taking nineteen-year-old teacher Christy Huddleston from her home in Asheville, North Carolina, might as well be transporting her to another world. The Smoky Mountain community of Cutter Gap feels suspended in time, trapped by poverty, superstitions, and century-old traditions.

But as Christy struggles to find acceptance in her new home, some see her--and her one-room school--as a threat to their way of life. Her faith is challenged, and her heart is torn between two strong men with conflicting views about how to care for the families of the Cove.

Yearning to make a difference, will Christy's determination and devotion be enough?

The audiobook read by Kellie Martin (who plays the heroine in the T.V. adaptation of the book) is FABULOUS! (here’s a little article about fact vs fiction in Christy. Also to see some photos of the REAL Christy and mission house, checkthis out.)

The first few photos are from the film site of the t.v. series, which wasn't super far from the actual site, but I see why they didn't choose to film at the actual site because it took my husband's 4-wheel drive to get up the narrow road to the real spot of Chapel Hollow. 

The white church is the actual church in which "David Grantland" preached. The entire building was moved from it's original spot to a little lower down the mountain, I think, some time in the mid 19th century. 

What I love best about Christy is how true-to-life it is to the culture of Appalachia, and as my husband and I took the narrow, rain-washed, gravel/mud road up the hillside to a place we ‘hoped’ would bring us to ‘Cutter Gap’, the reality of just how isolated most communities in Appalachia were rang true. To give you a clue, we were out of any phone reception for over two hours. I mean…NONE. (And this is the 21st century!)

Another interesting discovery on this trip were the miscellaneous gravestones at the church (which is the same church the real David Grantland held service). Hand carved names, poor grammar, words misspelled, and dates etched with simple tools showed a culture who valued their people in death in the best way they could.

Visiting this site on which one of the most-loved stories of Appalachia  was written really spurred a deeper appreciation for the culture I call my own and (paired with family history) influenced the creation of my historical romance novels that are set in the early 1900s Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. 

Have you ever read a book that really captured YOUR culture? Or a book that drew you into a culture with such vibrancy you felt like you were a part of a world very different than your own?

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Pepper Basham is an award-winning author who writes romance “peppered” with grace and humor. Writing both historical and contemporary novels, she loves to incorporate her native Appalachian culture and/or her unabashed adoration of the UK into her stories. Her 20^th book came out in February 2023. She currently resides in the lovely mountains of Asheville, NC where she is a wife, mom to five great kids, a speech-language pathologist, and a lover of chocolate, jazz, hats, and Jesus. Her dual timeline novel, Hope Between the Pages, was a 2022 finalist for the prestigious Christy awards. Pepper loves connecting with readers and other authors through social media outlets like Facebook & Instagram.

You can learn more about Pepper and her books on her website at www.pepperdbasham.com