Sequoyah Central

To bypass the intro pages, bookmark (Ctrl-D) this page.
To return to Sequoyah Central from any page, click on the logo.
If your link spawned a new window, close window to return to Sequoyah Central.
Internet Explorer and Firefox users, for a "cleaned up" window, hit F11.

Sequoyah Anthem
Stouthearted Men

Come to Sequoyah

Latest News

"It's a beautiful day at Sequoyah!"

Christmas is coming. the geese are getting fat,
Please put a penny in the old man's hat;
If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do,
If you haven't got a ha'penny, God bless you.

Update from Pop!

There have been a number of enquiries about how Sequoyah's living legend James "Pop" Hollandsworth has been faring. Here's an update:

Pop spent his 93rd birthday in Quebec City, Canada, at the 2008 congress of the International Camping Fellowship, where he received an award, stating: "Your contributions have enriched the International Camping Fellowship and advanced the cause of camping across the world".

Pop said, "I guess that suggests that I'm still active and involved...with some mobility help on a 'flame red' four-wheel walker."

As of November 19, Pop and his wife Marjie had just returned from a two-week stay in their mountain home near Black Mountain, "about 15 mile due south across the Craggy Range from Sequoyah."

New, from the
Council Ring

Now that we've had a chance to digest Thanksgiving and the aftermath, here's Sarah Vowell, the delightful raconteur who brought us her account of her travels along the Trail of Tears, talking about her book, Wordy Shipmates, about the Pilgrim Fathers.

"Membership has its rewards."

Every kid's big brother, he saw camping as part of the solution.

(Click photo for a video treat.)

The Era of the Hero

What makes a hero? Here's a fascinating essay from The New Yorker, which examines three men, Fridtjof Nansen, Roald Amundsen and Robert Scott. There seems to be no debate about Nansen as hero, but what about Amundsen and Scott, contenders for First to the South Pole? Along the way, you'll encounter a cliffhanger on a mountain in Ethiopia and a list of more good reads.
Cold Comfort

A Death in the Forest?

Does that sound familiar? It should, for it's the title (sans "?") of the story, featured below, about the hemlock blight. This "death in the forest" is a Sequoyah mystery, as related by Justin Coleman, Tsali '75, in his Guestbook entry.
Check it out.

Sequoyah in the 1970s

"The Screaming Wheels"
Tuscaroras, 1974

Walt Kuentzel has updated his Sequoyah Website
with hundreds of new photos and a cool new look.

Check it out!

Sequoyah update:

The Camp Sequoyah property has been sold.
Although details cannot be disclosed at this time,
work is in progress which will preserve the Sequoyah legacy.
Meanwhile, here is a glimpse of what is in store:

Campsequoyah.net

Mike Miller gives us a look
inside the workings of a summer camp.

A Camp with a Purpose

and

Sequoyah as a Model for Today's Summer Camp

More Sequoyah Memories

by Jon Cooner

Sequoyah Memories

Hans Clausen's photo memoir,
with rare shots of Junior Camp

Sequoyah Elegy

by Jim Bonds

Letter from North Carolina
A Death in the Forest

We remember the hulks of American chestnuts we encountered on our hikes. Now, the eastern hemlock is about to join them, thanks to a new blight called the hemlock woolly adelgid. The New Yorker has an excellent article about the battle against this pest. The setting is the Great Smokey Mountains. Click the title above to view the PDF, exclusively for Sequoyans. You might find the reading easier if you print out the article.

Bill Johnson
1928-2007

Lest there be any doubt about the continuing relevance of the
Spirit of Sequoyah . . .

Sequoyan Frank Tindall's Camp Falling Creek
is featured in a recent cover story of
TIME Magazine.
Until recently Falling Creek was owned by fellow Sequoyan Chuck McGrady.
Don't miss the photo essay.

Can there be any doubt that
C. Walton Johnson read these verses,
as his idea for Sequoyah took shapo?

"The Coming American"
by Sam Walter Foss (1858-1911)

Bring me men to match my mountains;
   Bring me men to match my plains, --
Men with empires in their purpose,
   And new eras in their brains.
Bring me men to match my prairies,
   Men to match my inland seas,
Men whose thought shall pave a highway
   Up to ampler destinies;
Pioneers to clear Thought's marshlands,
   And to cleanse old Error's fen;
Bring me men to match my mountains ---
   Bring me men!

Bring me men to match my forests,
   Strong to fight the storm and blast,
Branching toward the skyey future,
   Rooted in the fertile past.
Bring me men to match my valleys,
   Tolerant of sun and snow,
Men within whose fruitful purpose
   Time's consummate blooms shall grow.
Men to tame the tigerish instincts
   Of the lair and cave and den,
Cleans the dragon slime of Nature --
   Bring me men!

Bring me men to match my rivers,
   Continent cleavers, flowing free,
Drawn by the eternal madness
   To be mingled with the sea;
Men of oceanic impulse,
   Men whose moral currents sweep
Toward the wide-enfolding ocean
   Of an undiscovered deep;
Men who feel the strong pulsation
   Of the Central Sea, and then
Time their currents to its earth throb --
   Bring me men!

2007 Spring Reunion

From a recent message from an old Sequoyan . . .

I was so pleased and pleasantly surprised to find the Sequoyah web site today. Sequoyah was such a unique and special place, the most fantastic setting, and the finest staff and campers there could have been. Thank you so much for your efforts on behalf of all of us who were touched by this special place. I remember the camp nurse saying to me that "Our trails will cross again", and with this web site, that has come true.

Revere "Brud" Harbourt, 65, 67

One circumstance that helped our character development: we were needed. I often think today of what an impact could be made if children believed they were contributing to a family's essential survival and happiness. In the transformation from a rural to an urban society, children are—though they might not agree—robbed of the opportunity to do genuinely responsible work.

— Dwight D. Eisenhower

Nature Alert!

Are cell phones wiping out our bees?

New feature

Add a photo to your guestbook entry!

When you sign the guestbook, send a tribal or cabin photo, or just you at Sequoyah,
along with your info, and we'll make it a part of your entry.
If you've slready signed the guestbook, send a favorite photo, and we'll add it to your entry.
Don't worry about the condition. We'll fix it.
Sample

In the Council Ring

AWOL
It's about service

A moving Guestbook comment

Hello Sequoyans! I found the site a while back when I met David Brown on one of the tours I operate.

Since Sequoyah, I have not stopped paddling. I have made my living and supported my family doing what I love, and I owe that to Sequoyah. If it were still open, I have no doubt that I would still be there and in many ways I still am. Seqouyah's influence has been very meaningful to me. My kids are eager to hear stories as we look at this website together. I have had the good fortune to run into old Sequoyans. Their memories are usually as fond as mine. I have dreamed of creating a Seqouyah-type experience here in Costa Rica where I live.

On numerous occasions as I paddled Smokey Mountain streams I made the opportunity to walk through camp. To see my name still on the cabin plaques—to remember mud soccer, tying the bowline under the waterfall, Randolfs Route, and the people who influenced me—was a great thrill.

I owe my first paid paddling job to being on a list of honor campers from Sequoyah that was picked up after the closing. I only hope I can create the experience I had at Sequoyah for my kids. Thanks for the site, a real treasure.

Neil Kahn, '74-76

Kendall Bryan's

Songs of Sequoyah

Sequoyah campers, singing Sequoyah favorites,
From the original vinyl LPs recorded in 1961

A Summer Afternoon Beneath the Spreading Oak
Why aren't you there?
No, you're not too busy!

Take a short walk around Sequoyah Main Camp, as it was during its active years and as it is today.

Thanks to Walt Kuentzel's Website we have an extensive archive from the Capps years, 1971-1978, as well as a splendid collection of Sequoyah brochures and pamphlets.

We should like to build a comprehensive album of photos and printed matter, going all the way back to the beginning. Do you have any of your camp pix? Please contact Jack Rice. If you don't have a scanner, we'll be happy to scan them for you.

Sequoyah is undergoing an extensive restoration.
During this period, due to liability issues, no outside visitors are allowed.
This is not a permanent situation. Stay tuned.

Michael Hoffman