Nearly 100 years ago, Horace Kephart, in his classic study, Our Southern Highlanders, called our mountain region “the land of do without,” admiringly describing the resilience of mountain people coping with poverty.

This tradition of making do continues to be a part of the popular image of the region even as it undergoes rapid change. Making do involves simple living and self-reliance. It values gardening, hunting, sewing, auto repair, and other hands-on skills. Frequently, “making do” reinforced a negative image of mountain backwardness. As Americans became aware of the excesses of consumer society and the need to conserve and recycle to live green, making do has served as a model for simple living and ingenuity celebrated in the popular Foxfire books. To learn more, visit digitalheritage.org.

Digital Heritage Moments are produced at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee.
(In Photo: A mountain woman tends to her laundry in the 1930s. Photo courtesy of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Archive)