Marshall is the county seat of Madison County, right in the middle of southern Appalachia. Poverty, isolation, and lack of formal education and worldly experiences are harsh realities in sections of this and other North Carolina mountain counties. Television, movies, and cartoons have stereotyped residents of these mountains as “hillbillies,” projecting images that often are derogatory. They expect that audiences and readers will laugh at Lil’ Abner, Snuffy Smith, and the Beverly Hillbillies. Some characteristics of mountain people touch close to the image: independent, isolated, poor. Yet on closer observation the reality is broader and multidimensional. The richness of the history, culture, landscape, and people creates a distinctive warp and woof of social fabric. There is wisdom, pride, sensibility, self-sufficiency, ingenuity, artistry, music, and story here.