Aiden McCoy Williams/Staff Correspondent The Operation Blanketing Asheville donation box set up at Murphy Health & Fitness.

Photos by Anngee Quinones-Belian/Staff Correspondent  SARa is a search and rescue canine brought by owner Shannon Vetter to the Ranger Volunteer Fire Department’s 50-year anniversary celebration Saturday. Also a part of the celebration was Life Force, a medical transport helicopter. Tours of the aircraft were available for anyone who was interested.

This is the front page of the Oct. 2, 1969, edition of the Cherokee Scout, which was 55 years ago last week.

Photos by Anngee Quinones-Belian/Staff Correspondent Bill Belian of Ranger, a contributing photographer to the Cherokee Scout, won fourth- and fifth-place ribbons for his wildlife photography as well as a monetary prize at the Georgia Mountain Fair.

Randy Foster/editor@cherokeescout.com Wreckage remains from flooding along Little Crabtree Creek a few miles west of Spruce Pine on Friday afternoon.