As a young photojournalist in 1984, I began driving across the rugged hills and dales of western North Carolina to explore and take pictures. These images were taken in the northern foothills of Caldwell County over a nine-year-period.
Murph, 77, peers out the front door of his license-plated sided home near Globe, North Carolina. Murph chops wood for a local hunting lodge in return for good food and an "envelope" at Christmas. 1988
Joe cleans a headlamp on his beloved 1937 Plymouth, which his father bought new for $625 and never sold. The car is now stored in the back of his machine shop in Valmead, North Carolina. 1985
Corinna keeps her baby sister warm in the back of the family's pick-up truck while her father moonlights in the evening mowing lawns at Cedar Rock Country Club in Lenoir, North Carolina. During the day, he works at a local sawmill. 1988
Ralph, 88, and Ally, sit outside his bungalow near Mulberry Creek, North Carolina while telling his favorite story – hitching a ride to Cleveland in 1929, then sneaking into an Indians game at League Park where he watched Babe Ruth hit his 500th home run. 1986
Grover, a former bare-fisted prizefighter, enjoys an afternoon smoke while glaring from a stand of trees at the Hilltop Home for Men in Lenoir, North Carolina. 1988
Two men return to Castle Bridge, North Carolina after an early morning of fishing on the Catawba River. 1988
Epsey, 80, cradles two bottles of her regionally famous dark molasses produced on the family's sugar cane farm in Yadkin Valley, North Carolina. Epsey allowed this photograph to be taken only after many visits to her farm during the caning season. 1986
Linda, with the help of her husband, Wayne, opened a roadside stand near Bailey Camp, North Carolina to sell second-hand clothes, shoes and a variety of rats. When asked how much she charges for the rats, Linda said "it depends on their size." 1987
Rev. Terry Beasley, Grand Dragon of the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, speaks to a crowd gathered in Lenoir, North Carolina after delivering a sermon at his church hours earlier in Charlotte. 1990
Mike, who was convicted of robbery, stands behind 75-year-old bars at Hudson Prison in Caldwell County, North Carolina. He was hoping to get a photo of himself sent to his family. 1986
Carl, whose only bills are for electricity and property tax, remains self-sufficient on his Dudley Shoals, North Carolina farm growing onions for the local markets. After many visits, he allowed a photograph to be taken "if my firewood is in the picture." 1987
Troy Lingle raises his Bible for a photo in the rear holding area behind the Caldwell County, North Carolina Courthouse after being sentenced to 87 years for kidnapping his wife and seven other women at gunpoint inside the Lenoir Women's Shelter. 1990
Jim stands in front of his property on U.S. Highway 321 in Lenoir, North Carolina with a sign inviting a woman to come live with him for companionship. 1989
A woman, who was unhurt, sits in a Hardee's Restaurant booth in Lenoir, North Carolina after accidentally driving her car through a window before ordering breakfast. 1986
Bernhardt Furniture factory workers exit a plant on a rainy day in Lenoir, North Carolina. The facility pictured along Harper Avenue is one of the company's "sanding rooms" used to manufacture hardwood furniture. 1990
Walter, 78, needed help from a Hospice care worker to lift a glass of water to his mouth during the final days of his life at home in Gamewell, North Carolina. 1986
With little water pressure, two volunteers stretch a hose across a ridge at sunset to battle a woods fire near Dudley Shoals, North Carolina. 1989
Melanie spotted a stranger while wandering through her father's small orchard in Mulberry Creek, North Carolina. 1989
Kenneth comforts his daughter moments after they escaped an early morning fire that destroyed the family's home and general store in Collettsville, North Carolina. 1989
Evelyn, 79, had to take care of the family farm in Blue Creek, North Carolina after her husband died in 1970. On a cold day, she saws wood for the kitchen stove. 1987
Truit Haas dumps a bucket of milk on his Lick Mountain, North Carolina dairy farm after Carnation Milk cancelled its long-term contract. Haas eventually sold his family farm to Caldwell County after the Environmental Protection Agency determined that CSI Inc., operating a hazardous waste incinerator adjacent to his property, had contaminated his land with toxic chemicals. 1992
Charles sent his granddaughter home to put on her Sunday dress before agreeing to a photograph in front of his salvage yard on Creekway Drive in Lenoir, North Carolina.
Arnold uses a water hose to douse a fire that consumed his home near Kings Creek, North Carolina. He said his dog knocked over the kerosene heater in the kitchen, igniting an area rug.
A fast-moving chicken passes a motorist at sunset near Greasy Creek, North Carolina. The Blue Ridge Mountains are pictured in ther background. 1985
The prolific kudzu vine, capable of growing six-to-twelve inches a day during the warm summer months, engulfs an old farmhouse near Draco, North Carolina.
Pop cleans his windshield on laundry day at his home near Gamewell, North Carolina. 1988
Sgt. Terry Holsclaw, a member of the Air National Guard Transportation unit in Lenoir, North Carolina, says an emotional goodbye to his wife before leaving for the Middle East during Operation Desert Storm. 1990
Finn waits for the 4th of July parade to begin in Lenoir, North Carolina after making the trip down the mountain from his home in Gragg. 1984
Betty holds her two grandchildren near Sawmills, North Carolina while camping on a friend's property after losing her home in a trailer fire.
An elephant with the Carson & Barnes Circus breaths through an air vent built into the side of a tractor-trailer after arriving at the Caldwell County Fairgrounds in Hudson, North Carolina.
Families and friends wait for local National Guard troops to return to Lenoir, North Carolina after supporting Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf. 1991