05/20/2026
📜 WOOLLY WORM LORE 📜
Legend says the Woolly Worm Festival began because one man saw two worms… and realized somebody was lying.
Back in the 1970s, Banner Elk local Jim Morton learned about the old mountain folklore that woolly worms could predict the severity of winter based on the color of their stripes. Brown bands? Mild winter. More black? Better stock up on firewood.
Simple enough… until Jim found TWO completely different worms predicting TWO completely different winters.
Naturally, there was only one logical solution: make them race.
What started as a tiny community event with 63 worms, a few vendors, and one very cold October day somehow turned into one of the largest festivals in North Carolina.
Fun fact: the worms race up string because Jim originally thought they might sting him, so he used a blade of grass to move one. The worm climbed it… and the rest is history.
More than 50 years later, we’re still gathering in Banner Elk every fall to cheer for tiny fuzzy weather forecasters climbing three feet of string like their lives depend on it.
And we wouldn’t have it any other way🐛
(The first ever Woolly Worm Festival pictured)
