Warner Williams arrowhead show to return to Asheboro library March 5

Warner Williams will bring his famous arrowhead collection back to the Asheboro Public Library on Saturday, March 5.

On display will be Williams’ 64-year collection of Indian arrowheads, considered to be one of the finest on the east coast.

The popular annual event, which is free, has drawn almost 9,000 attendees over the past 14 years. The show will be open 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and Williams will be on hand to talk with attendees.

Most of the arrowheads in the collection are from the Randolph County area. The collection has been featured on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Now, in Our State Magazine and in Prehistoric American, the official publication of the Genuine Indian Relic Society.

The Overstreet Indian Arrowheads Identification and Price Guide contains over 200 exemplars from Williams’ collection.

The library is located at 201 Worth Street in Asheboro. Call 318-6801 for more information.

Asheboro library to screen Eat, Pray, Love on Valentine’s Day

A woman’s journey of to find her true self is the focus of Eat, Pray Love, the Asheboro library’s Movie Monday at 2 p.m. February 14.

Newly divorced and at a crossroads, Liz Gilbert steps out of her comfort zone, risking everything to change her life, embarking on a journey around the world that becomes a quest for self-discovery. In her travels, she discovers the true pleasure of nourishment by eating in Italy; the power of prayer in India and finally and unexpectedly, the inner peace and balance of true love in Bali.

The film stars Julia Roberts, James Franco and Billy Crudup.

The movie is free and the public is invited; refreshments will be served. Find our more here, at or call 318-6824.

Friends to celebrate Asheboro library birthday with cupcake party

The Friends of the Library will say “Happy 75^th Birthday” to the Asheboro Public Library with a cupcake party from 3-6 p.m. Thursday, February 10, in the library lobby and meeting room.

The Friends will offer free cupcakes and refreshments to all library visitors while supplies last.

The Asheboro library opened its doors on February 10, 1936, in two rooms above the Standard Drug Store in downtown Asheboro after a year-long effort by a group of local women to organize, fund and collect books for it. Although eight inches of snow had fallen four days previously, a huge crowd turned out and almost all the 384 titles were checked out on the first day.

The library later moved to the Asheboro Armory, then to the new Municipal Building, and to the Randolph County Courthouse before establishing its current location on the corner of Worth and Cox streets in 1964.

In January, the Asheboro Public Library Foundation, which traces its origins to the group that founded the library, hosted the UNC Clef Hangers at the Sunset Theatre to celebrate the anniversary; the Friends party will recognize the actual birth date.

Ivey to debut longrifle book at Asheboro library

Asheboro attorney and antique collector William Ivey will debut his new book North Carolina Schools of Longrifles 1765-1865 with a talk, slide show and signing at 7 p.m. Monday, February 21, at the Asheboro library.

The event, sponsored by the Friends of the Library, is free and the public is invited.

Ivey collects North Carolina furniture, pottery and textiles, but his favorite art object is the longrifle. “I am interested in the North Carolina longrifle as an art form with its added historical significance that should be studied, collected and preserved,” he says.

The authoritative, 392-page book – a 27-year labor of love for Ivey – depicts 213 rifles in over 1,200 photographs by Trinity photographer Kenneth Orr. It differentiates the rifles by schools, or characteristics that place them in a common location.

For example, Ivey notes that most rifles made in the Salem area are decorated with an engraved eagle on the patch box, an ornamental compartment on the stock where oil and tallow were stored.

Ivey approaches the guns from their artistic aspect, but he says his book also will appeal to anyone interested in history, long guns or decorative arts of the mid-18th to mid-19th centuries. For more information about the book, visit www.northcarolinalongrifles.com.

Friends of the Library to host author Susan S. Kelly

Novelist Susan S. Kelly will speak at a Friends of the Library luncheon, Noon Thursday, February 24, at Pinewood Country Club.

Tickets cost $15 and can be reserved at the Asheboro library Circulation Desk until February 17.

Kelly, a native of Rutherfordton, is the author of the novels By Accident, Now You Know, The Last of Something, Even Now and How Close We Come, which won the Carolina Novel Award and was a Book-of-the-Month Club alternate selection.

After a career doing legal research and summarizing depositions, Kelly took up the pen as a creative writer at age 40, and earned a master of fine arts degree from Warren Wilson College.

How Close We Come, her first novel, explores a lifelong friendship between two women. Her most recent, By Accident, looks at a suburban mother’s grief at the loss of her teenage son.

Kelly, also a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, lives in Greensboro.

For further information, call 318-6801