For those who visit and those who make the region their home, there is something captivating about the mountains of Western North Carolina. These ancient hills have cradled a culture that encompasses Cherokee heritage, pioneer legacies and urban visions. With a warm, accessible style, longtime Asheville Citizen-Times writer Rob Neufeld offers an exploration of Western North Carolina's history through the stories of its people. We meet Lillian Exum Clement, the first female legislator in the South; and Nina Simone, the African American prodigy from Tryon. We get to view controversial elements of the Civil War inWestern North Carolina from multiple points of view and draw our own conclusions.