Mountain Laurel

The mountain laurel is Pennsylvania’s state flower. However, the plant thrives in the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia as well. There is an interesting website that celebrates the mountain laurel in a different way. The site represents the mountain life in nearly every aspect. After consideration, the organization chose to call the site The Mountain Laurel for the term’s interesting double meaning.

The Mountain Laurel is named after the beautiful flowers that grace the landscape of the high hills. The term also means “honor and distinction” according to the Webster’s Dictionary. This double meaning is perfect for this great website that has so much information about mountain life.

Part of the information comes from heart felt stories written by the natives of the Blue Ridge Mountain region. Many of the contributors are in their twilight years and the stories span years and years of memories and experiences. The goal of the stories section of this publication is to help develop a sense of history that goes beyond the textbook. We learn so much about the big events in history that we lose the day to day events that really illustrate what life is really like.

The Mountain Laurel has been in publication since 1983 and has brought many interesting perspectives about the history of the Blue Ridge region through the eyes of the people who lived and experienced life in the highlands. The editors welcome any writers, especially those who are elderly, to send stories about their experiences in the Blue Ridge region. The site claims that some of their best stories were written by elderly people who send their stories on scraps of note paper with no margins and no spell-check.

This informality makes the publication unique. The Mountain Laurel does not focus on proper grammar and spelling. They are not particularly concerned with what does and does not sell on the market. The publication is concerned with the stories and the people who lived those stories in the Blue Ridge of yesterday.

The editors of the Mountain Laurel are looking for more stories about the region and their guidelines are quite simple. Send a story from the heart that you have experienced or send a story that has been passed down through your family generation after generation. The beauty of this process is creating a little place in history through your words. You can even scribble it down on regular paper. Some stories are best written away from the computer.