Introduction to Durhamby FROMMER'SNovember 20, 2006 In the late 1860s, Washington Duke left the Confederate army and walked 137 miles back to his farm in Durham, where he took up life again as a tobacco farmer. That first year, he started grinding and packaging the crop to sell in small packets. In 1880, he decided that there was a future in cigarettes -- then a new idea -- and, along with his three sons, set to work to manufacture them on a small scale. By 1890, the family had formed the American Tobacco Company, and a legendary American manufacturing empire was under way. Durham, a small village when Duke returned, blossomed into an industrial city, taking its commercial life from the "golden weed." And it still does. From September until the end of December, tobacco warehouses ring with the chants of auctioneers moving from one batch of the cured tobacco to the next, followed by buyers who indicate their bids with nods or hand signals. (read article)
A Triangle Equal to the Sum of Its Hoopsby DAVE CALDWELLJanuary 26, 2007Bounded by the cities of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, the Triangle region of North Carolina is where March Madness begins in January. (read article)