Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019 - 61

TAL GALTON'S 3
FAVORITE THINGS
TO SHOW TOUR
GUESTS:
WILD ORCHIDS. "Many people will
just walk along and never notice them
because most of them are not very
showy. The showiest ones are kind of
the rarest ones, like the lady slippers,
whereas we do have all these other little
orchids like twayblades and green wood
orchids that are not uncommon but
really hard to see unless you know what
you're looking for."
NEWTS. Efts-adolescent Eastern redspotted newts-are probably the most
"charismatic animals we're likely to see
on the trail. They come out when it's
wet, especially. It's actually really nice to
be out in the rain sometimes because
certain things like these efts come out
onto the trail."
BIRD SONGS. "People
don't pay attention to
them unless they know
what to listen for. I knew
very few bird songs up
until a few years ago, and
I've actually learned them
mostly from clients of
mine who have come on
my flower walks. My ears
are being opened to a
whole world out there."
-NH

ABOVE: The spectacular
yellow fringed orchid blooms in
August. It and other orchids of
the Blue Ridge depend on fungi
for a range of plant functions,
including germination.
LEFT: There is a theory that
the Eastern Newt evolved its
adolescent terrestrial phase (red
eft) due to the transient nature of
beaver ponds. (The eft is the star
of Tal Galton's company logo.)

SPENCER BLACK (BLACKVISUAL.COM)

teaching career, not in history but in
hands-on life sciences, starting as youth
programs manager at the Museum of Life
and Science in Durham, North Carolina,
where he and his wife, Jessica, moved in
1996 to be near her family and raise their
own.
In the summers, Galton oversaw crews
of teenagers doing trail work in the Yosemite Youth Conservation Corps and
did a stint as a naturalist in a state park
in South Dakota. Later, he led students on
trips to Cumberland Island and the Everglades.
Despite his generally introverted nature and a need to recharge alone, he says,

"I really like working with teenagers, junior high all the way up to college. At that
age, they still have lots of energy and lots
of curiosity. I think that we, as a society,
don't give kids of that age enough responsibilities. They really are capable of doing
a lot more than what we ask of them a lot
of times as far as taking care of themselves
and doing the real work to give back to
their communities."
In 1999, Galton and his family moved
to the Burnsville, North Carolina, area for
his new job as a trip leader, teacher, farm
manager and administrator at the private
Arthur Morgan School, named after the
man who founded Celo on the South Toe

River in 1937.
A self-described "modern-day homesteader," Galton and wife Jessica designed
their own timber-frame home from the
wood of local trees. After sawing the logs
and chiseling the edges to fit together,
they hosted a community house-raising.
"As a big group of people, we sort of
lifted it all up into place," he recalls. "After that followed three years of hard work
finishing it all up."
Often referred to as a commune-Galton begs to differ because the residents are
autonomous, with individual dwellings
and jobs-Celo is home to about 50 families and a handful of businesses, as well

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019

61
Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2019

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