Cullowhee is an unincoporated community located in the Tuckaseigee Valley of Jackson County, North Carolina where Cullowhee Creek joins the Tuckaseigee River. Originally a Cherokee town of ancient origins, its name is derived from a Cherokee phrase meaning “Judacullah’s Place.” Judacullah is a mythic warrior the Cherokee believe lives in the area. A small farming community of settlers of Scots-Irish, German, English and African origins displaced the Cherokee after 1820. Since 1889, Cullowhee has been the home of what began as a small teacher-training academy. This once remote mountain community has grown over the last 125 years to become Western Carolina University, a state university with an enrollment of over 10,000 students.
Cars, carriages, and wagons , along with horses, oxen, and chickens join men, women, and at least one child on the streets of Cullowhee in the 1920s.
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This short documentary, “Whee,” was created as a Senior Project by students in Western Carolina University’s Motion Picture and Television Production Program. Arledge Armenaki on Vimeo.
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