Mythic Place
Mythic Place: the topic for this biweekly Ecotone writing. The idea brings to mind stories-- grand, old stories-- that become associated with people and places and things that may or may not have existed in fact. Paul Bunyan and John Henry are mythic. BigFoot and maybe the mysterious but real Brown Mountain Lights in Burke County where we used to live-- are myths, or mythic realities-- associated with particular places.
While it not mythic, the story of Mary Draper Ingles is epic-- a larger-than-life heroic drama that pervades this region. This woman's experience in these very hills enters my thoughts often and comes to me as I contemplate "mythic place". In our comings and goings through Montgomery County each week, we unknowingly cross Mary Ingles footsteps with our humming wheels. It is a story that deserves a wider audience, and so I will simply offer her tale to you here. And another account here.