July 24, 1986
* Moose Branch resident Olen Dee "Cotton" Burrell was killed when a logging skidder overturned and struck him as it tumbled down a mountainside. The 41-year-old Burrell was in the Cable Cove area of Graham County with a pair of logging workers when the operator of the machine parked on a landing for a lunch break. However, the skidder began to roll toward one of the workers and Burrell was said to have jumped onto the machine in an attempt to stop the potential fatality, but was unable to get back off before the skidder went off an embankment.
* The last of four individuals who were involved in a plane crash onto Sweetwater Road almost a month earlier was discharged from Murphy Medical Center. Patricia Hoffman, 40 of Berea, Calif., was reportedly on her way home to join her husband Richard after he was discharged from Georgia Baptist Hospital in Atlanta on July 18. Richard's 37-year-old brother Dennis and his 34-year-old wife Sandra were both sent home from Mountain Park Medical Center in Andrews the previous week. Richard was piloting a plane that was sightseeing in Cherokee County when he reportedly got lost and ran low on fuel. Believing he was in Andrews, he attempted to land twice on N.C. 143, but aborted both attempts to avoid colliding with vehicles. After the second try, the plane veered into a tree and crashed.
July 24, 1980
* A total of 88 North Carolina counties received funding to assist sick and/or elderly individuals, with Graham County's cut totaling $2,264. Gov. James B. Hunt, Jr., had requested a $5 million appopriation from the state General Assembly. The funds would not be sent directly to any of the 88 counties; instead, the money would be deducted from upcoming Medicaid bills.
* Graham County Manager Darrell Crisp disputed the results of the census, which recorded an increase in Robbinsville's population to 1,470 from the 1970 tally of 777 (a growth of 89%). Crisp reviewed the report and shared his belief that communities such as Fort Hill, Milltown and Tallulah – which lie outside the city limits – were lumped into the municipality's total. Crisp had alerted the District Census Bureau about the potential error.
July 24, 1970
* A public hearing was held at the Graham County Courthouse, concerning the construction of the Robbinsville/Tellico Plains Road. Nicknamed the "Wagon Train Road," around 35 individuals attended the forum. Those who spoke each voiced opposition to its construction through the upper portion of the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest and the nearby Slickrock Watershed. Update: The road later came to fruition in 1996, opening as the Cherohala Skyway that links Graham County and Monroe County, Tenn., on N.C. 143 and TN 165.
* Twenty-five teams were set to begin the Far West District Slow Pitch Softball Tournament, which was being hosted in Robbinsville. A whopping 46 games were scheduled to be played over 13 nights. Hayesville's Bell Creek squad won it all in 1969, but had since disbanded – guaranteeing a new district champion would be crowned in Graham County. The tournament was sponsored by the Robbinsville Lions Club.
-Compiled by publisher/editor Kevin Hensley.