Skip To Main Content
Holly Kays on Muck Rack

Holly Kays

Verified
West Asheville
As seen in: Smokies Life, Yahoo Life, The Guardian, Yahoo, Knoxville News Sentinel, NewsBreak, Asheville Citizen Times, BlueRidgeNow, Smoky Mountain News, Blue Ridge Public Radio, Blue Ridge Outdoors and
Writer. Wanderer. Wonderer. Micah 6:8. Lead writer at @Smokies_Life telling Smokies stories. Former outdoors editor/staff writer @SmokyMtnNews.

Get in touch with Holly

Contact Holly, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.

Learn more about Muck Rack

Actions

Share this page

Holly Kays’s Journalist Portfolio

See all →
Shattered residents pick up the pieces after Hurricane Helene's devastation

Shattered residents pick up the pieces after Hurricane Helene's devastation

A week after the storm hit, the scale of the damage is still unknown - and many towns face a long road to rec…

View article →
The Search For The Still Missing After Helene

The Search For The Still Missing After Helene

Nearly three months after Hurricane Helene, Yancey County musician Lenny Widawski remains one of the few whos…

View article →
Smokies LIVE: Rediscovering the park's apple harvest heritage

Smokies LIVE: Rediscovering the park's apple harvest heritage

Apples have been closely connected with Appalachian culture since their arrival with European settlers. Great…

View article →
Thin Blue Line

Thin Blue Line

The police shooting of Jason Kloepfer led to a federal civil suit and a state criminal investigation that que…

View article →
Asheville Residents Describe Escape From Flooded Apartments

Asheville Residents Describe Escape From Flooded Apartments

Neighbors gathered on the second floor as the Swannanoa River flooded the first floor of their building durin…

View article →
Creating Safe Passage

Creating Safe Passage

Extensive efforts to add highway wildlife crossings near the Smokies aim to protect animals and people.

View article →

Articles

Word from the Smokies: Managing invasive hogs is a never-ending job

|
By Holly Kays Verified
| Smoky Mountain News Verified
When George Gordon Moore imported the first European wild boars to Graham County, North Carolina, in April 1912, neither he nor anyone else who would later attempt to hunt them fully understood how formidable a quarry these animals would prove to be. Moore kept his boars in a 500-acre split-rail enclosure built nine rails high — but even this impressive structure was insufficient to contain them.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Word from the Smokies: Quilting stitched Appalachian communities together

|
By Holly Kays Verified
| Smoky Mountain News Verified
On a May Saturday more than 100 years ago, friends and family gathered at the home of Willis Willocks of Friendsville, Tennessee, to celebrate his 35th birthday. After enjoying a three-course noon meal and presenting Willocks with his gifts, the guests spent the afternoon sewing quilt squares, “making him [Willocks] a real nice quilt, each square bearing the name of the giver,” The Maryville Times reported in its May 12, 1920, edition.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Author Archives: Holly Kays

|
By Holly Kays Verified
| Smoky Mountain News Verified
On a May Saturday more than 100 years ago, friends and family gathered at the home of Willis Willocks of Friendsville, Tennessee, to celebrate his 35th birthday. After enjoying a three-course noon meal and presenting Willocks with his gifts, the guests spent the afternoon sewing quilt squares, “making him [Willocks] a real nice quilt, each square bearing the name of the giver,” The Maryville Times reported in its May 12, 1920, edition.
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?
See all 1,598 licensed articles (1,605 Total)