@shuffard
historian, author, train song connoisseur, and college prof posting dispatches from deep in the blue ridge mountains (Beech Mountain, NC). Currently working on a book about Casey Jones. Also into skiing, cycling, folklore, and fiddling w/the banjo
teaching Civil War in a highly visible library classroom w/glass windows = shocking random students with my lecture slide feat. a pile of amputated limbs (it was civil war medicine day)
Excited to share that “Casey Jones: America’s Engineer” (tentative title) now has final @uncpress.bsky.social board approval and is heading to publication (in early 2027). Thanks especially to @lucaschurch.bsky.social for working with me to get this over the line. Stay tuned for more details…🚂
Today I learned that I was born in the same hospital as Pat McAfee, Curt Cignetti, and Mark Cuban? (Magee women’s hospital in Pittsburgh)
So glad I got to see this live last night in AVL - one of the best shows I’ve been to: stereogum.com/2482906/watc...
me rn (mentally broken penn state fan)
Check out this piece on a train song I wrote, which touches on a series of tragedies along the Western NC RR and bridges my 1st and 2nd (forthcoming) @uncpress.bsky.social books. All part of a band w/friends that really cohered in the aftermath of Helene: uncpressblog.com/2025/10/30/o...
How does one recover from and process a generational storm like Helene? For UNC Press author @shuffard.bsky.social and his friends, the answer was through music.
Learn about the making of their band Spell of Leaves and their new single Old Fort Loops ⤵️
uncpressblog.com/2025/10/30/o...
today in Appalachian history: discussing a reading (War Trails of the Blue Ridge) from the guy whose historic marker I almost hit every time I back up my car
a student missed class today because they “fell in the river” which to be fair, is something that’s possible to do in this campus
thank you Victoria 3 for reminding me about my book project (and also thanks for having this event appropriately boost the labor movement)
troubling that octoberfest beers are hitting the shelves before I’ve even started working on my fall syllabi
Fust = a perfect soundtrack to a summertime post-thunderstorm cruise through the NC Piedmont on I-40
talking trains (specifically the Western NC Railroad and what its history tells us about the complicated cultural history of southern railroads) over in Johnson City today: 6 pm at the Johnson City Railroad Experience!
@shuffard.bsky.social wrote about striking workers and their relationship with railroads and capitalism in the late 19th century and beyond.
today in history of southern Appalachia I think I irrevocably damaged YouTube’s auto-closed captioning function by using it on an Alan Lomax interview with Ray Hicks
today a student told me she’s listened to a song I played in class - Steeleye Span’s Blackleg Miner - 30 times so yea I feel like I’ve done my job here
lecturing on TVA dams in the morning and 1920s/30s southern textile strikes in the afternoon - not a bad day of class at all (even if students were not impressed when I told them I wanted to make a playlist of songs about dams)
not my sweet summer child students walking to class in t-shirts and shorts when we're about to get whacked by a cold front (and get 1-3 inches of snow this afternoon)
I showed my students the NWS forecasted rainfall map the Wednesday before Helene destroyed my school/town and some later thanked me for preparing them for the nightmare to come. Why slash and cut an extremely effective government service at the behest of a billionaire?
don’t even bother inviting me to the hangout if the vibes aren’t in the realm of Dwight Yoakam’s video for A Thousand Miles To Nowhere (1993)
trying to get work done while my car is being serviced and I severely underestimated the amount of chatty old men at the car dealership in Boone (I really should be used to this by now)
I’d like to thank whoever drew a large-breasted mothman on my class’s whiteboard for reminding us of the always-flexible nature of Appalachian folklore traditions
today in history of southern appalachia - lecturing on the construction of railroads that Helene destroyed :(
tourists currently leaning over Helene-smashed fences to feed bojangles biscuits to some mangy looking deer = not exactly a healthy ecosystem here on beech mtn
hard to have more depressing weather in a ski town than a February full of rain, thunderstorms, warmth, and mud
covering the whiskey rebellion in Appalachian history (w/heavy inspiration from Ramp Hollow) today. Not only do I get to ramble on about rye whiskey, I also get to ruin Alexander Hamilton for all the theater kids
what do exploding oil trains, the Las Vegas sphere, teenage mutant ninja turtles, Billy Strings, precision scheduled railroading, Gillian Welch, and a tornado outbreak in western Kentucky have in common? All are making appearances in the epilogue of my Casey Jones book...
after I said I was a history prof, the guy next to me on the ski lift asked for fun facts about Daniel Boone...just out here doing my part to engage with the public
the good news is crews are (finally) clearing Helene debris from my mountain town…the bad news is the trucks hauling debris keep crashing on the road down the mountain
as evidence that the Irish menace has long threatened the peace and prosperity of the good people in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, I’d remind you all that the state had to occupy the anthracite coal fields during the Civil War due to restive Irish miners
