What is Murphy like? (Asheville, Graham: for sale, attorney, house)
Western North CarolinaThe Mountain Region including Asheville
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I have lived in Murphy for 7 years now,it is a beautiful area but not a great place to live if you need a job to make a living.My husband has to work out of town to make any money.My kids never adjusted well at the schools here they have always been treated as outsiders by the other kids and Teachers as well.I finally wound up taking them out of the school system and they are now taking GED classes.There are some nice little shops in the down town area but however the locals don't shop with them they support Walmart. Murphy may be a good place to retire to if you have some money saved but if you are looking to make a living here I don't think this is the place to be.We are planning to move this year some time.They have closed a lot of the places that people used to go to enjoy nature and are now cutting out all of the trees.It seems to be all about the politics here and not about the people.Hope I have been of some help.
Murphy is far from progressive. There have been some people try and change things a little, but that is very slow going. There are doctors / dentists, etc in Murphy, but if you need anything our of the ordinary or a specialist you will most likely be sent to Asheville/ Chattanooga/ Atlanta. It's a beautiful area, and the lakes - Lake Chatuge in Clay County especially are fantastic, but if you haven't been born and raised there, you may not make a lot of friends. People are very nice, but that doesn't mean they are friendly or willing to invite you into their homes, etc. for parties or whatever. And sadly, as someone stated a lot of the teachers are related to the students they teach, so while your child may not be discriminated against, they almost certainly will not get as much attention / playing time as "locals".
Murphy: Been there, done that. As a rule, the further west you go, the less progressive things are.
Eric Rudolph hid from the FBI for years in the forested mountains of the Murphy-Andrews area. They believe he had a little local help. When he was finally caught and Murphy was overrun with FBI people in black SUVs, some locals told the media that they were sympathetic to him and would have helped "their own" if he came to them.
While I was living there, a local man who was a severe diabetic, died during a stint at the Murphy jail. His mother visited him several times and saw that he was slipping away. She tried and tried to get them to take him to the hospital or allow her to give him insulin, to no avail. She finally got so frustrated that she began shouting for help and they threatened to put her in jail too. She called 911 four times! The jail administrator, Ms. Mason, refused to call an ambulance. By the time she finally called an ambulance it was too late. He died. A lawsuit followed.
Incidents like these tend to color my attitude about the town. I never found the locals there unfriendly, but I never found them progressive either.
Unlike Asheville and the surrounding towns, the towns on the western edge of the state are still run entirely by locals. They are the only ones who can get elected so far.
As for jobs, forget about it. As for animal welfare, double forget about it.
Some things are slowly getting better in Murphy. There are more services available than before. But small towns closer to Asheville are further ahead.
Last edited by Shooting Stars; 04-12-2011 at 04:00 PM..
If I recall, "downtown" had an Ingles grocery and a few other shops, gas n gos, etc. Very small, even by "western NC" standards.
Ingles is located on the highway that runs through town. The real downtown is located just west of the highway. It's a downtown of a few walkable blocks. There is the historic blue marble courthouse, which is still very much in operation, and some shops, services, and restaurants.
I've noticed a lot ofyoung professional types and an overall progressive movement. I'm only offering an opinion from a visitor's point of view though, so a local who has lived there longer may do better.
It all depends on what you're looking for .... if you're looking for traffic jams, big department stores, mega-malls, numerous strip malls, (we do have a Wal-Mart), rampant crime, sirens, people living on top of one another etc. then Murphy would not be your cup of tea.
We don't live in the town of Murphy but we live in Cherokee County NC (Murphy is the county seat of Cherokee County) and we absolutely love it here. Many retirees from other areas, especially Florida, have built vacation, summer and permanent homes in Cherokee County.
We have traveled all over the USA and while on vacation several years ago we traveled hwy 64 from Cleveland TN across to the Ocoee River (very popular white water rafting river) and it was during fall leaf season. We had a problem keeping our attention on the road since we were eyeing the beautiful fall colors and the hundreds of white water rafters.
If you're an outdoor enthusiast, love nature, trees, animals (deer, turkey, possum, sometimes a bear) and mountains you'll love it here.
After heading east on hwy 64 and going though Cherokee County we made up our minds right there to put our house on the market and move here. It took us a while but we finally made it and we had a cabin built in a beautiful park-like development.
There's no words to express how much we love it here .... if you're looking for peace and tranquility and a laid back atmosphere then you've found it in Cherokee County.
As far as the town of Murphy goes, it's a small town but growing (we're getting a new Krystal and a Big Lots) and we have all the namebrand hamburger, sandwich (Subway) and Pizza shops and we have several other discount stores such as Family Dollar and Dollar General.
There are several eateries but no really fine restaurants (unless you consider Doyles or Chop House fine restaurants). If you like downhome southern cooking then Main Street is it .... it's where the locals eat.
We have a very nice Ingles Supermarket and a couple of discount food stores including the Wal-Mart supermarket.
BTW, when the Cherokee Indian Gaming Facility is finally built between Murphy and Andrews it will change this area forever economically and bring in many much needed jobs.
Last edited by bubbabubba; 10-03-2011 at 11:49 AM..
What's the deal with that? Do they hate pets, or what?
Also, I don't see why they should be "progressive", depending on what that means to you. I moved out of Asheville because it was too "progressive". "Friendly" and "progressive" are two extremely different things. I have met some extremely, um, unpleasant folks who were VERY "progressive". But we tend to get along, SS, and I'm not shooting daggers at you here, I'm really wondering what you mean. Is it just bass-ackwards out there because of the fact that locals run the place? Because Asheville may be "progressive" and "hip", but I don't like it nearly as much as the surrounding areas. Sure some of the old men give me funny looks. But I'm a young guy with a big beard, and they've never seen me until recently. In a town of 1400, that registers with people. Some folks are extremely nice and friendly though, and one lady (my favorite) actually helped me track down some "Big Ivy" bumper stickers I had been trying to find (with no luck). I asked her if she could help me find one; she came back with five! And it was like a month after I asked too, and she remembered. I love that lady.
Also, a chiropractor? Do people really believe in that stuff as medicine? Hmmm, I wonder, am I revealing myself as a good ole boy right now?
DISCLAIMER: I am not a good ole boy. I promise. I'm friends with some though, and they're nice people. Still though.
What's the deal with that? Do they hate pets, or what?
I've written about this before.
Many of them view animals as so far beneath humans that they don't think they deserve decent treatment. This means that pets are not spayed or neutered. It means that puppies and kittens and grown unwanted pets get dumped in the wilderness to die of slow starvation. Or if they're feeling charitable that day, it means the puppies/kittens are dumped in someone's yard and it becomes their problem.
It means that you might see a couple of horses in a field with their ribs showing because the owner refuses to feed them and doesn't see anything wrong with that.
It means that the Humane Society often can't take in any new animals because they can't deal with the amount they are already caring for.
Is this all locals? Of course not. But when I lived there 2001-2005, there was no ignoring the prevailing mindset because the tragedies were right in your face. Besides the animals dumped in our yard, we used to routinely see starving homeless dogs on the roads looking dazed and confused. We've witnessed a pickup truck in the act of dumping a dog off at a public park on Lake Chatuge and driving away. We've run into people buying pet food at Wal-Mart because they needed to feed the animals dumped on their lawn and who were at their wits end trying to deal with an apathetic animal control.
This is not unique to Murphy because this whole area is like this, but this thread is about Murphy and it was one of the worst. I do think there has been some improvement in animal welfare since then, but there is still a long way to go before they arrive in this century.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ShipOfFools42
Also, I don't see why they should be "progressive", depending on what that means to you. I moved out of Asheville because it was too "progressive". "Friendly" and "progressive" are two extremely different things. I have met some extremely, um, unpleasant folks who were VERY "progressive". But we tend to get along, SS, and I'm not shooting daggers at you here, I'm really wondering what you mean. Is it just bass-ackwards out there because of the fact that locals run the place?
The community refused to even partly fund the Humane Society and had a long history of being downright hostile to the organization. Even with the animal problems, they didn't see the need for a full-time animal control officer, so they made some maintenance guy a part-time animal control person. They advised us to shoot the strays.
Their thug of a jailer REFUSED to give medical care to a severely diabetic prisoner (Lee Wood) even though he was slipping away and his parents begged for medical attention. He died.
There were no building codes which was reflected in some of the housing, plus there is a whole ugly stretch of metal buildings just south of downtown that are true eyesores.
But as long as you're not a prisoner or an animal, yes, they're friendly.
Murphy was as you say too "bass-ackwards" for me. You can find some very nice people, and peace and quiet there as long as you don't get depressed by bass-ackwardness as much as I do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ShipOfFools42
Also, a chiropractor? Do people really believe in that stuff as medicine? Hmmm, I wonder, am I revealing myself as a good ole boy right now?
I've had a couple of very bad shoulder conditions that were greatly helped by chiropractors. Without them, I would have no range of motion in my left arm.
Murphy was as you say too "bass-ackwards" for me. You can find some very nice people, and peace and quiet there as long as you don't get depressed by bass-ackwardness as much as I do.
Well, regular bass-ackwardness doesn't bother me really, but the animal thing is f'ed up. And so is the thing about the diabetic prisoner. That kind of stuff REALLY REALLY bothers me. I don't get it, you know, it's like, I love Appalachia so very much, but there is just this dark, seedy underbelly that most of the starry-eyed tourists completely miss or gloss over. I guess they're just not around long enough to witness it. But what I ultimately look for is peace and quiet (that's why I'm hoping to move to Alaska), and you'll only find it out in those type of places. I guess some towns are better than others though, because Murphy doesn't sound like my bag, but I love little ole Barnardsville, which is a town that some of my Madison friends think is complete garbage. As one of my buddies said, "Yeah, I pretty much can't stand anyone I know from Barnardsville." LOL. I can see what he means, but it ain't gonna make me want to move. Plus I live in a little pocket of non-locals, a little cluster of 5 houses up a dirt road, but far enough apart from each other to where you don't really have any neighbors. It's perfect; I couldn't have been more lucky. I love the locals too, but sometimes I am VERY aware of how much of an outsider I am.
And about the chiropractor thing... I've heard stories like yours and then I've heard horror stories where people went in for some simple treatment and came out with a crooked back. The problem with it, I think, is that they're not required to be MD's, so they aren't as qualified (IMO) to treat people. The so-called "straights" who believe entirely in innate intelligence and subluxation and all that, I would NOT trust one of those folks with my spine. The "mixers", well, I would have to have a bunch of damn good references. But that's just me.
So yeah, Murphy. Doesn't sound so good to me.
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What is Murphy like ????
