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Scott Huffard

@shuffard.bsky.social
1.7K followers 949 following 78 posts

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

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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
last night had a dream that I was trying to explain my dissertation to the anthropic CEO, which is especially ironic given that anthropic has already stolen my book for training data
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
last time I taught cholera in my history of epidemics course I said that in modern times this would only spread in the context of a disaster that destroyed a town's water/sewer systems...then days later Helene hit and did precisely that to banner elk
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
really disappointed I have to teach on what should be a western NC holiday (release day for a new billy strings record)
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
I told my Appalachian history students I wore my Mothman t-shirt to their final exam for good luck and one was like isn’t seeing the mothman actually bad luck and….yeah I didn’t really think that one through
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
maintenance is here at the humanities offices now bc it smells like something died in here. I mean c'mon isn't this metaphor just a little too on the nose
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
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)
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
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…🚂
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
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)
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 13/12/2025
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...
stereogum.com
Watch MJ Lenderman Cover Jason Molina With Magnolia & Johnson Electric Co.
Earlier this year MJ Lenderman covered Songs: Ohia’s “Just Be Simple” for I Will Swim To You: A Tribute To Jason Molina. Last night, he joined Magnolia & Johnson Electric Co. at their Asheville show f...
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
me rn (mentally broken penn state fan)
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
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...
uncpressblog.com
Old Fort Loops: A Soundtrack of Resilience After Hurricane Helene - UNC Press Blog
How does one recover from and process a generational storm like Helene? For UNC Press author Scott Huffard and his friends, the answer was through music. When Helene swept through the Banner Elk area ...
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Reposted by Scott Huffard
UNC Press @uncpress.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
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...
uncpressblog.com
Old Fort Loops: A Soundtrack of Resilience After Hurricane Helene - UNC Press Blog
How does one recover from and process a generational storm like Helene? For UNC Press author Scott Huffard and his friends, the answer was through music. When Helene swept through the Banner Elk area ...
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
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
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
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
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
thank you Victoria 3 for reminding me about my book project (and also thanks for having this event appropriately boost the labor movement)
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
troubling that octoberfest beers are hitting the shelves before I’ve even started working on my fall syllabi
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
Fust = a perfect soundtrack to a summertime post-thunderstorm cruise through the NC Piedmont on I-40
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
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!
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Reposted by Scott Huffard
Clio and the Contemporary @cliocontemporary.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
@shuffard.bsky.social wrote about striking workers and their relationship with railroads and capitalism in the late 19th century and beyond.
clioandthecontemporary.com
Strikers, Octopi, and Visible Hands: The Railroad and American Capitalism
In popular culture and American historiography, the railroad corporation has long been a site where Americans have grappled with larger questions of political economy.
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
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
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 26/04/2025
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
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
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)
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
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)
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
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?
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
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)
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
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)
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
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
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
today in history of southern appalachia - lecturing on the construction of railroads that Helene destroyed :(
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
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
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
hard to have more depressing weather in a ski town than a February full of rain, thunderstorms, warmth, and mud
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
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
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
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...
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
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
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
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
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
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
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
today I’m thinking about my catholic-schooled, freshman year roommate at Penn State, whose deep-seated loathing of Notre Dame taught me what true sports hatred looks like
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Steelers vs eagles…finally a chance for Pittsburgh to avenge the abuses committed by Philadelphia militiamen during the Great Strikes of 1877
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
horror movie inclined historians out there need to watch The Devil’s Bath. One of the darkest films I’ve ever seen and a bleak reminder that sometimes real history (in this case gender norms in small 18th century Austrian villages) can be more horrific than the supernatural
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
talked to a former student who’s spending all winter in a cabin snowed in at a California ghost town so yea I guess assigning Edward Abbey worked as intended
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
dense fog on the drive in and a largely abandoned pre-thanksgiving campus has me feeling like I'm teaching at Silent Hill College this am
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
working on final exam study guides and reviewing what all we've been able to cover in my classes...and it turns out having a hurricane destroy your school/moving all classes to asynchronous online formats for 5 weeks mid-semester isn't exactly conducive to student learning
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
teaching the monday and tuesday of Thanksgiving break...always the most rigorous and well-attended of my classes 🙃
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
got a decent dump of light powdery snow here at 4500 ft
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UNC Press @uncpress.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
To make it easier to find new and existing members of Bluesky, we're compiling a list of UNC Press authors for easy findability 🦋 Comment to let us know you're here ↙️📚
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
looking at these projected CFB playoff matchups…and Georgia at Penn State has the potential to be the biggest north - south sectional clash in PA since Gettysburg
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
yeah, I imagine there will be a push to get the route fixed, especially as other more pressing needs get resolved. Damascus gets so much tourism from trail visits and it’s down so much to revitalize the area
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
compounding the trauma is the thought of what's happened to any trace of the convict laborers who built the line originally. I've read histories of the construction that mention worker graves right along the route. The work of historical recovery of these stories has gotten that much harder
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
so much to mourn re: Helene, though I've been particularly bummed by the destruction on the Virginia Creeper Trail. I've always loved biking up and down the Damascus to Whitetop section. 18 out of 31 trestles wiped out and a huge blow to communities reliant on trail tourism: vacreepertrail.us/2024/
vacreepertrail.us
In late September of 2024 Hurricane Helene came ashore in Florida but was not confined to the Gulf Coast. Severe damage was caused across six states resulting in a tragic loss of over 200 lives and the destruction of entire communities. The storm included 140 mph winds and was one of the largest wind fields to ever hit the southeast. There were also record rainfalls which flooded valleys all across Appalachia. One of the casualties was the loss of half of Virginia's beloved Virginia Creeper Trail. This page, which is being created by local people and is a work in progress, will attempt to document the loss and reconstruction of the 18 trestles or bridges (out of a total of 31 between Whitetop and Damascus) which were washed away by Helene. "After" photos were taken in October-November 2024 and will be updated when reconstruction starts. This will not be a comprehensive overview but is intended to serve as a memory and source of information for those of us who love the Virginia Creeper Trail and who will work in the rebuilding. Click on the "after" photo for a separate page and additional photos. For questions concerning this website contact admin. For questions concerning the status of the trail go to the Virginia Creeper Trail Conservancy
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
I don’t think it’s that bad around here but still a big mess. Some of the videos I’ve seen from around Asheville are staggering! There does seem to be a correlation btw heavy damage and Eastern facing slopes too
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Scott Huffard @shuffard.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
drove up a nearby ridge (btw Banner Elk and Newland) today on an errand and it’s quite stunning how much worse the Helene tree damage is on eastern facing slopes (as opposed to the western facing slope I’m on, which was still quite a mess)
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