The Most Popular Posts of 2014

From the rise and fall of the Land of Oz theme park in Avery County to the “South’s Woodstock” in the small Iredell County community of Love Valley to the origins of the “Lost Colony” mystery on Roanoke Island at the coast, we’ve told you some pretty cool stories from the Tar Heel State’s past last year (if we don’t say ourselves!).

To celebrate the New Year, we took a look at the numbers and wanted to share the 14 most popular posts of 2014 with you:

1. Legendary Percy Flowers, “King of the Moonshiners”

A 1951 moonshine bust in Johnston County. Image from the State Archives.

2. The Trail of Tears and the Roundup of N.C. Cherokees

A Cherokee chief with his wife and daughter, circa 1920-1940. Image from the N.C. Museum of History

3. Festival Rocked Iredell County Community, 1970

The crowd looking toward the stage at the Love Valley Music Festival. Image courtesy of Ed Buzzell Photography.

4. The Mixed Fortunes of the Land of Oz

The Land of Oz

5. Popcorn Sutton, Moonshiner and Colorful “Character”

6. North Carolina’s “Year Without a Summer,” 1816

Mountain waterfalls in ice and snow, circa 1910. Image from the State Archives.

7. The Flood of 1916 and Unprecedented Destruction in Western North Carolina

Asheville’s railroad yard after the 1916 flood. Image from the State Archives

8. The Lumbees and the Road to Recognition

Lumbee Family Homestead

9. Civil War Origins of “Tar Heel”

An 1851 issue of the North Carolina Standard. Image from the State Archives

10. Swain County’s “Road to Nowhere”

11. Mystery of the Dare Stones

12. Origins of the “Lost Colony” Mystery

A sketch of John White discovering “CROATOAN” on a Roanoke Island tree

13. Secret Basketball Game of 1944

14. Carnival Worker Preserved, Abandoned in Laurinburg

Canetto Farmica headstone