North Carolina Inside Out

This blog discusses NC history, geography, people, food, culture and oddities. Whether you are a native or a visitor (and all those with a curiosity about the Old North State) here are things you may not know about!

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Snake Mountain - Worth the Hurt to Get Bit Bad!

The more I read about this mountain and the people who had climbed it, the more I knew I needed to climb it myself. The very end of November is not the best time to be on top of a 5500 foot peak, but the weather looked good, so I set to planning. Snake Mountain sits across from Elk Knob State Park as the less popular twin of two of the highest Amphibolite Mountains in NC.  But, as it turns out, looks aren’t everything.  And I saw no snakes....

The trailhead is a longer-than-it-seems 2 hour drive from my house even in the chilly hours before sunrise.  At 6:45 am, I pulled into an inconspicuous parking lot across from a grassy road that appears benign at first. After clambering over the tall fence to bar car traffic, you start to get the idea that this is going to be not an easy hike. Not at all. Definitely worth it, but it turned out to be one of the most challenging 1.25 mile climbs to the Northeast Peak of the Mountain that I have ever done. Haven’t checked the stats, but I think it was about 1400 feet feet gained in that amount of mileage. Most of the 1400 is in the first 8/10 of a mile. As you ascend higher, you notice the massive rock outcroppings descending from the spine of the Mountain. 

The road continues on for a while and then enters a forest where it begins to switch back (thank goodness). Ordinarily this would mean that the pitch of the climb would be moderate with switchbacks, but my GPS showed a 38% pitch. The road ends at a rock Memorial. 

From that point it is a hold on to anything and everything rock scramble through a barely traceable trail straight up the spine of the mountain. At times you are hiking on a nice dirt or grass trail, and other times you are simply pulling yourself up most knobby cliff faces. The key is to make sure you’re still on track. On a number of occasions both going up and coming down, I thought I was headed in the right direction, only to find myself staring at a 500 or 600 foot abyss in front of me. 

The other unique thing about Snake Mountain is that once you reach the top the ridge, the trail is at most 2 to 3 feet wide and on either side (or drop off of anywhere from a couple hundred feet to 2000 feet). Not much room for error.  When I started the hike it was just getting light and the sun had just peeked over Elk Knob to the east.  I had to be extra careful since much of what I was climbing in was in the shadow of darkness.  Although it had not snowed recently, there was a thin layer of frost on the rocks and the ground. This made good footing essential to making it to the top.  I took my time and made sure that I was following the topo correctly. 

Along the ridge the track zigzagged around all the way to the top of the Northeast Peak/Summit. At that point you arrive out of the forest on a rock outcropping with 360° views of everything from the Amphibolites to mountains in the counties to the east and Cherokee National Forest to the west. This mountain straddles The North Carolina/Tennessee border.  At the Northeast Summit, you also can see west and south, providing wonderful views of Grandfather Mountain, Hope Mountain, Roan Mountain, Sugar Mountain, Beech Mountain, and far off in the distance, the Black Mountains. It was breathtaking.

 After downing some Gatorade and a pop tart along with some water, I continued on to the main summit of Snake Mountain. This consisted of again zigzagging across the ridge line through the forest, in between rocks, over boulders and generally stepping on every root and loose rock you can find. 

This hike definitely wins the knee breaker award as well. Both going up and coming down, my knees were about to bust. Also tripped at one point and fell on a rock on my left knee.  Jumped up and went on. 

The summit proper of Snake Mountain is not much to brag about as it is surrounded by small trees and brush. There is a good view of Elk Knob to the east in Winter. Continuing on 2/10 of a mile, I came to where the trail would suddenly descend steeply to Rich Mountain Gap. This is an area that has been exclusively designated as NC Gameland . As I knew it was the end of wild turkey season and the beginning of deer hunting season, I quietly turned around and came back from where I started. I have had enough chance encounters with hunters to maintain a healthy sense of humility in these areas.

All said and done, I am glad I hiked that extra mileage though because the views of Rich Mountain and the other mountains to the south and the west were amazing.  On the way back, I was able to get some good photos of the mountains that we’re not as visible in the semi-darkness when I was ascending Snake Mountain 

3/4 of the way back down, I got off trail badly and ended up walking down a cliff face that ended up a campfire area. When I turned around and looked at what I’d climbed down, I couldn’t believe I didn’t fall!  From that point, it was a first gear, hold yourself back walk down to the car.   

All told, 4 hours and 10 minutes of hiking and some muscle bending moves  to get there and back.

I would recommend this Mountain anybody who wants to have the experience of seeing many of the great peaks in Northwestern NC in all directions.  I did not see one person the entire time. The only other animals up there were a somewhat startled buck and a grouse who flew up in front of me.

SUMMARY: climbing over jagged rocks, walking on uneven ground, slipping in mud, getting tangled up in underbrush, coming close to walking off the side of the mountain, and even some pretty stiff bushwhacking to get to a few vistas. 

Most people would run from a hike like this, but it is exactly what I needed. Hope to come again to initiate somebody else.

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Washington & Lee - not the College but the Company

In 1763, George Washington visited the area, and he and others founded the Dismal Swamp Company in a venture to drain the swamp and clear it for settlement.  The company later turned to the more profitable goal of timber harvesting.

Colonel William Byrd II was a member of the commission that surveyed the North Carolina/Virginia state line through the Swamp in 1728 and provided the first extensive description of it. In May 1763, George Washington made his first visit to the Swamp and suggested draining it and digging a north-south canal through it to connect the waters of Chesapeake Bay in Virginia and Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. Joining with several other prominent Virginians and North Carolinians, he formed two syndicates known as the Dismal Swamp Land Company and the Adventurers for Draining the Great Dismal Swamp. This group hoped to drain the Swamp, harvest the trees, and use the land for farming.

The company purchased 40,000 acres of Swamp land for $20,000 in 1763. Washington directed the surveying and digging of the 5-mile long ditch from the western edge of the Swamp to Lake Drummond, known today as Washington Ditch. In the late 1700’s, Riddick Ditch was completed. Together these ditches provided a way to transport logs out of the Swamp and drain it as well. The Adventurers soon realized, however, that the task of draining the Swamp was enormous and gave up that part of their plan to concentrate on lumbering. They cut much of the cypress trees for use in shipbuilding and the cedars for shingles and other products.

By 1796, Washington had become disappointed in the management of the Dismal Swamp lumber business and contracted to sell his 1/12th share to “Lighthorse” Harry Lee, father of Robert E. Lee, who never was able to come up with the purchase price. So Washington’s share passed on to his heirs upon his death in 1799.

     Originally owned by the Dismal Swamp Canal Company, the canal was sold to the Lake Drummond Canal and Water Company. On March 30, 1929, the federal government acquired the canal for $500,000. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers now supervises it. Today, the Dismal Swamp Canal is nineteen miles long, sixty feet wide, and at a controlling depth of nine feet. The canal is part of the Intracoastal Waterway that stretches along the Atlantic and Gulf Coast states.

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Boone NC - Site of the World’s (first) Largest Wind Turbine - A tale of first time failure leading to an international success

Did you know that for a short time in the 1970′s, Boone was the site of the largest wind turbine in the world?

Per environmental history.org and and the NC Government Heritage Library, in the summer of 1979, engineers from US aerospace and energy agencies assembled a $50 million utility-scale wind turbine on an alpine meadow overlooking the college town of Boone, North Carolina.  The 100 foot blades on the Mod-1 turbine poured two megawatts of electricity into the grid – enough to power about 800 homes. 

The windmill, perched atop Howard’s Knob, had been installed as part of a program by NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy to develop wind power as a renewable energy source.

Hopeful politicians hailed wind energy as a new way to fight dependence on foreign petroleum, and the message resonated with a public still suffering from the insecurities of the Arab oil embargo and resulting gasoline shortages. 

Yet as the blades began turning in the Appalachian wind, engineers from NASA, the Department of Energy, and General Electric had already realized that the optimism was misplaced.  They knew the Mod1 had serious design flaws, such as its strong low-frequency sounds and easily cracked aluminum blades. The wind turbine was dismantled within two years, and most of the subsequent experiments in the MOD series were similar failures. By the turn of the 21st century, the hope of creating an American wind turbine manufacturing industry had all but collapsed.

The project was an experiment in megawatt power wind turbine design. And the Boone test site was selected, among more than 60 sites, for the promise of steady winds at around 25 miles per hour to generate upwards of 2000 kilowatts of electricity, reportedly enough to power 500 homes. The mammoth steel structure, with its propellers supplied by Boeing and generator by General Electric, stood at 140 feet tall with an open tower, spanned 200 feet wide across the blades and weighed in at around 350 tons. Costing approximately $6 million, the project was administered by NASA under the recently created Federal Wind Energy Program and operated locally by BREMCO (the Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation) to return the power to the energy grid. The Boone windmill was part of NASA's Mod-1 series, built during the 1970s.

July 11 was celebrated as “Windmill Day,” with a downtown street festival that included craft vendors, music and performers. According to news accounts, tourists jammed the downtown streets and, unfortunately, winds were only at about 6 miles per hour that day, requiring manual rotation of the propeller blades. 

The lack of wind on the dedication day was a harbinger of the fate of the project. The structure was plagued with significant structural issues within the first two years of operation and winds were inconsistent for optimal energy generation.  At times winds never consistently reached or maintained optimal speeds, and at other times they were too strong for the structure.

And although the site atop the 4,396 foot Howard’s Knob would become a Watauga County public park built around the tower, the windmill was plagued by negative public perception. This came from complaints from nearby residents about the wooshing and thumping sounds it made to complaints of disrupted television reception.  NASA responded to the complaints by removing the original engine and replacing it with a 1.5 megawatt generator. Administrators also suspended activity during primetime television viewing. 

In January 1981, numerous bolts in the engine’s drive train failed, beginning the project’s rapid descent into closure. With costly repairs reportedly beyond NASA’s reach and federal dollars for wind energy research drying up during the Reagan Administration, the federal government auctioned the windmill in 1983.  It was purchased by McBess Industries in Lincoln County for $51,600. The company used the generator for a power plant and reportedly donated the tower to Georgia Tech. McBess donated the propeller blades to the Forsyth County Nature Science Center (later renamed SciWorks). They were displayed outside the entrance for several years until they were damaged and reportedly sold for scrap.

The windmill also came to be somewhat affectionately called for the sound it produced, also became the centerpiece of a tongue-in-cheek cult at Appalachian State University.  One story reports that students hearing of the presence of a TV crew dressed up in sheets, calling themselves "Wooshies" who worshipped the god "Nay-zuh" (i.e. NASA).  Another story recounts students who created a “mockumentary” video for a class with a fictitious group called the Pangalactic Unification Church and Restaurant – the “Cult of the Wooshies.”

(Sorry this is sideways..)

Although the project was regarded by many as a failure and waste of public dollars, scientists learned valuable lessons about design for wind power.  

Today industrial windmills can be found along the Appalachian Mountains from New York into the South.

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The Last True Shell Station Standing

Yes we all pull into Shell gas stations frequently to fuel up. But what about this one that lingers in Winston Salem?

According to Roadside America: “Eight were originally built in the late 1930s by the Quality Oil Company, a Winston-based marketer of Shell Oil. The station, modeled on the brand logo of Royal Dutch-Shell Oil, was constructed of concrete stucco over a bent wood and wire framework.

The clamshell stations serviced gas guzzlers for decades, but were gradually pumped into oblivion by the twin engines of Development and Progress.

The station on Sprague Street survived through the 1970s and ‘80s as a lawn mower repair place. It slid into disrepair towards the end of the 20th century. A state historic society, Preservation North Carolina, stepped in and restored the faded highway icon in the late 1990s. 

Today it’s used by the organization as a regional office and info center about the station and other preservation projects.

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North Carolina Born: Davy Crockett and NC Toll Roads

David Crockett was born August 17, 1786. His parents named him after his grandfather. David (”Davy”) was born in what is now Greene County, Tennessee (at the time part of North Carolina), close to the Nolichucky River and near the community of Limestone Tennessee. 

This was rugged country and his father John continually struggled to make ends meet, and the Crocketts moved to a tract of land on Lick Creek in 1792.

This area was contained in what came to be known as the ill fated State of Franklin. It did not survive a fight at the Congressional level in Washington and was never designated as a State.

Later in life, he traveled and hunted the Blue Ridge mountain area. He married Polly Finley in 1806 and she bore him three children before she died in 1815. Crockett then married the widow Elizabeth Patton of  the town of Swannanoa in Buncombe County, North Carolina. She was the daughter of Robert and Rebecca Patton. She brought two children to the marriage and then gave Crockett three more.

At that time, North Carolina had instituted a toll road in the area. In an effort to avoid the tolls between Asheville and Old Fort, Crockett established a trail that still exists and follows the headwaters of the Catawba River in Western McDowell County.

According to the Old Buncombe Genealogical Society:

Elizabeth Patton was born in Swannanoa, Buncombe County, NC, on May 22, 1788, one of the younger children of Robert and Rebecca (..) Patton. She married her first cousin, James Patton, son of her father’s brother Elijah. Elizabeth and James Patton moved to West Tennessee, probably Gibson County and were living there when James became involved in fighting in the Creek Indian War during which he served under General Andrew Jackson. He was wounded at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814, and as he lay dying he asked his friend and fellow Indian fighter, David Crockett, to take his personal effects back to his wife. David honored his friend’s dying request and in the process of returning the personal belongings, met Elizabeth Patton.

A short time later, David’s own wife Polly (Finley) Crockett died. He then thought of the pretty widow Patton, and upon inquire, he found that she had moved back to her father’s home in Swannanoa in Buncombe County, NC. He followed her there. Robert Patton’s home was located on the exact site of the present Laura Shuford’s house which is near the new Swannanoa Elementary School. Although Elizabeth Patton was pleased by David Crockett’s attention, she was not “bowled over,” and it took Crockett a considerable length of time to persuade Elizabeth to marry him. Some say they were married here in Swannanoa. Others say they went back to Tennessee to be married, but either way, they were living in West Tennessee shortly after their marriage in 1815.

Elizabeth did not find David Crockett to be a steady husband/farmer who stayed at home to till the land and care for his family and stock. Instead, it was mostly left to Elizabeth to run the home and garden and raise their three children as best she could while David made a precarious living as a hunter, and taking frequent long trips as a guide and trailblazer, helping other people travel or locate places to settle.

In the course of this activity David Crockett was a frequent visitor to Buncombe County. David and his companions frequently travelled the road from Asheville to Old Fort by way of Black Mountain. As a result of some local “political shenanigans” a toll charge was put on this road. Crockett and others were furious, and decided to find another way to get from Asheville to Old Fort. Crockett went up the old Asheville-Charlotte Road (now U.S. 74) to Fairview. 

There, about a mile and a half past Mine Hole Gap, they started clearing a bridle trail east to Old Fort. 

Elizabeth followed Davy through his many adventures in Tennessee and finally into Texas where she was later laid to rest.

The present “Old Fort Road” in Fairview, and for a time after Crockett cleared it, was known as “David Crockett’s Bridle Trail.” This was in 1816. Sarah Whitaker Jenkins who lived from 1801 to 1896, recalled the event. She said that when she was about 15 years old, Crockett and his friends stopped at her father’s house, her father being William Whitaker Sr. (1772-1806). They asked for water first, and then for something to eat. Fifteen-year old “Sallie” helped her mother Mary Canady Whitaker (1772-1848) prepare supper for the men. Crockett spent the night with the Whitaker family.

The McBrayer family tell a story about their ancestor’s encounter with David Crockett during one of his trips through here. They believe it was Samuel McBrayer (1771-1846) who was out hunting one day near his home on the present Old Fort Road in Fairview. He saw a wild turkey, raised his gun and fired, but just as he fired, he heard another shot. David Crockett had also spotted the same turkey at the same time. Since the men could not determine whose shot had brought the bird down, they decided to split it.

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That Damned Hornet’s Nest - How 13 Patriots defeated Cornwallis and His 450 Troops

Also known as the Battle of the Bees, the Battle of McIntyre’s Farm was a Revolutionary War skirmish fought on October 3,1780 in Mecklenburg County. When British commander Lord Charles Cornwallis left Charlotte on October 12, 1780 after a 16-day occupation, he was heard to say that the defiant and rebellious town was a “damned hornet’s nest.” Although the British were figuratively stung by unrelenting hostility and violent ambushes, one foraging party was stung both literally and figuratively (by Patriots and by bees) in the skirmish at McIntyre’s Farm.

According to NCPedia: Cornwallis’s supplies at Charlotte were running low, so he ordered Major John Doyle to lead a foraging expedition into the surrounding countryside. The British were prepared for trouble.  To wit: their 40 wagons were accompanied by 450 foot soldiers and a cavalry detachment. As Doyle’s force marched up Beattie’s Ford Road, they were trailed by 13 Patriots under the command of Captain James Thompson. 

Thompson’s men kept out of sight as the British halted seven miles from town at McIntyre’s farm. There, some of the British remained behind to plunder the farm while Doyle and the rest of the party began to march on.

As some Redcoats loaded wagons with farm produce, other soldiers and their dogs made a great commotion chasing chickens. A British captain in the doorway of the farm’s log cabin laughed loudly at the lively scene as his men accidentally turned over a beehive and ran from the enraged bees. As the disorganized British tried to elude the bees, the Patriots fired into them. The laughing British captain, nine men, and two horses were said to have been shot down by the first volley. Because the Patriots fired from cover with great accuracy and constantly shifted their positions, it seemed to the startled Redcoats that they were under attack from a much larger force.

Believing that they were outnumbered, Doyle ordered his men to retreat. Rebel fire killed some of the horses drawing the supply wagons, which blocked the road and added to the confusion. Some British soldiers cut loose uninjured animals and escaped on them. Patriots from the neighborhood sniped at the retreating troops. It seemed to the survivors that “every bush along the road concealed a rebel." 

The Battle of McIntyre’s Farm was only one of several sharp clashes fought between Cornwallis and local Patriots around Charlotte. The McIntyre Farm House, one of the oldest buildings in Mecklenburg County, still bore bullet holes from the battle when it was demolished in the 1960′s. A county historical site, opened in 1976, commemorates the spot. 

And according to the Charlotte Mecklenburg Historical Landmarks Commission:

On August 16, 1780 the British army commanded by Lord Charles Cornwallis routed an American Army under the command of Horatio Gates at the Battle of Camden in South Carolina. For all practical purposes the American Army ceased to exist in the South. 

Despite harassment, Cornwallis decided to move into North Carolina. His first stop would be Charlotte, then a small community which was attractive to the British primarily because of its relatively large number of mills. 

Cornwallis moved into Charlotte on September 26 (some accounts say the 27th, even the 28th). A militia contingent under the command of Davie fought a vigorous rearguard action in the streets of the village before being forced to retire. Although Cornwallis knew the area was not completely loyal he had every expectation that his presence would intimidate opponents while attracting supporters. He overestimated both Loyalist numbers and initiative, a common British mistake during the war. We have plenty of contemporary evidence that the British found Charlotte most inhospitable. On October 3 Cornwallis wrote a correspondent that "Charlotte is an agreeable village but in a damned rebellious country.” His subordinate, the controversial Banastre (Bloody) Tarleton, recalled the next year: “The town and environs abounded with inveterate enemies… . It was evident, and it had been frequently mentioned to the King’s Officers, that the counties of Mecklenburg and Rowan were more hostile to England than any others in America. The vigilance and animosity of the surrounding districts checked the exertions of the well affected and totally destroyed all communication between the King’s troops and the loyalists in the other parts of the province." 

Charles Stedman, a British historian who served with Cornwallis as a surgeon and wrote a detailed history of the southern campaign, said of the Mecklenburgers: "So inveterate was their rancour that the messengers with expresses for the commander in chief were frequently murdered, and the inhabitants, instead of remaining quietly at home to receive payment for the produce of their plantations, made it a practice to way-lay the British foraging parties, fire their rifles from concealed places, and then fly into the woods.” Patriot Davie concurred with this assessment: “… .no party of the enemy ventured out without being attacked, and often retired with considerable loss; the people of the neighboring country were strongly attached to the American cause, and gave his Lordship no assistance, and all information was cut off by the vigilance and activity of the militia cavalry.”

The point of all this that the skirmish at McIntyre’s Farm was not an isolated incident. Tarleton, Stedman, and Davie all agree that during Cornwallis’ stay in Charlotte, the British were subject to attack in the countryside virtually every time they showed themselves outside the village. Unfortunately, none of the these men discuss the particular skirmish in question. The one contemporary account I have been able to find comes from a newspaper, the Pennsylvania Packet of January 9, 1781: "Captains Thompson and Knox, with fourteen men, attacked above 300 of a foraging party, who were entering Mr. Bradley’s plantation (eight miles from Charlotte) with near 60 waggons [sic], and drove them back with such precipitation that, as I am well informed, many of their horses fell dead in the streets on their return."  General William Davidson, overall militia commander in the area, made a brief reference to the action in a letter to Jethro Sumner but gave no particulars. 

None of this is to suggest that the fight or the site are unimportant. Clearly the skirmish as McIntyre’s Farm has strong local significance. The hostility of Mecklenburg County’s populace towards Cornwallis and the British is well documented and has long been a source of pride to Charlotteans. 

In more general terms the failure of the British to attract and utilize Loyalists elements has been cited as a contributing cause in their defeat by virtually every historian of the Revolution. During their two plus weeks in Charlotte (they left on October 14) and the difficult withdrawal back to South Carolina, the British faced unremitting and implacable opposition to their cause at virtually every step. McIntyre’s Farm is highly symbolic of that opposition.

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Sweet Potatoes - NC’s biggest crop ?

Believe it or not, NC leads the nation in Sweet Potato production; far above tobacco, corn, soybeans and furniture and textiles. The latest statistics show that sweet potato production in this State has increased dramatically over the last 50 years, such as to put the Tar Heel State in 1st Place for providing these spuds to consumers worldwide.

Sweet Potatoes come in many types and colors.

Each has its own flavor and signature taste. The fields of NC produce record amounts of this crop every year.

According to the NC Sweet Potato Commission, since 1971, North Carolina has ranked as the No. 1 sweet potato producing state in the U.S. Its hot, moist climate and rich, fertile soil are ideal for cultivating sweet potatoes, averaging at nearly 60% of the U.S. supply. According to the USDA, North Carolina harvested nearly 95,000 acres of sweet potatoes in 2016, nearly 30,000 more acres than California, Louisiana and Mississippi combined – also top producing states. The graphic shows the top sweet potato producing North Carolina counties, with Sampson, Johnston, Wilson and  Nash accounting for about half of the state’s supply.

Given the demand for sweet potatoes this means that production of the the plants and harvesting has created a economic incentive to the counties who produce the spuds and NC in general.

Sweet Potato Nutrition

A medium sweet potato provides over 300% of the recommended daily intake of vitamin A, which plays a role in eye, bone and immune health. Vitamin A is a fat soluble vitamin, so be sure to eat your sweet potatoes with a little fat, like a pat of butter, for maximum vitamin absorption.

So says the USDA. Nonetheless, the NC Sweet Potato Festival is held every year in of all places the town of Dobson in Western NC and Snow Hill in eastern NC.  Just goes to show we are all in for sweet taters!

But lest we think this happened in a vacuum, remember this:

North Carolina’s own “Mr. Sweet Potato”, Henry Matteaux Covington, was born August 2, 1915 in Bennettsville, South Carolina. Henry attended Bennettsville High School and received his Bachelor of Science degree in Horticulture from Clemson College in 1939. Henry received his Master of Science degree in Horticulture from Louisiana State University in 1941.

After serving in the United States Army from 1942 until 1946 in both the infantry and quartermaster corps, Henry was released from the service at the rank of Captain. He later retired from the United States Army Reserves at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

In 1946, Henry was hired by the North Carolina State University Horticultural Science Department as an Extension Specialist. He was tasked with working with sweet potatoes and seventeen other vegetable crops as well as some fruit crops.

Henry was very much responsible for the incredible growth and success of the early sweet potato industry in North Carolina. The average yield per acre of sweet potatoes in North Carolina increased from 60 cwt/A in 1948 to 135 cwt/A in 1965 while the national average went from 52 cwt/A to 91 cwt/A in that time frame. Henry’s extension programming and on-farm trials were largely responsible for this phenomenal increase in productivity by North Carolina growers. Henry motivated North Carolina sweet potato growers to further improve their production practices by establishing a “300 Bushel Sweet Potato Club” in 1959. The first year resulted in 22 growers achieving this goal. He sought and found sponsors to furnish awards to these top producers. By 1962 the sights were raised to a “400 Bushel Sweet Potato Club”which resulted in 12 growers achieving that level. In 1962 a grower achieved a remarkable yield of 794 bushels of marketable sweet potatoes per acre and Henry quickly initiated a “700 Bushel Sweet Potato Club”.

Henry was very instrumental in encouraging the North Carolina sweet potato industry to establish the North Carolina Yam Commission, Inc. He was also a prime mover in getting the United States Sweet Potato Council formed in 1961. The first organizational meeting was held at North Carolina State University with Henry coordinating that meeting for the industry.

Henry has been recognized by several organizations for his contributions in the field of horticulture. He was selected as Tarheel Ambassador by the NC Sweet Potato Association, Inc.; was the first recipient of the Carl S. Bittner Extension Award presented by the American Society for Horticultural Science for outstanding leadership in Extension education, 1970; received the first Distinguished Service Award from the NC Yam Commission in 1973 for outstanding leadership to the Sweet Potato Industry; and was named a Fellow in the American Society for Horticultural Science(ASHS) in 1974. Henry established the Henry Covington Extension Award which is given annually at the Southern Region ASHS meeting.

Henry retired from North Carolina State University in 1974 but remained active in the sweet potato industry as a consultant and friend of the industry until his passing in October of 2004.

During the 2005 Annual Membership Meeting of the North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission, members of the industry celebrated the life of Henry M. Covington. Henry was recognized as a true visionary, a leader, and a friend of the industry. He was later honored by the Sweet Potato Breeding program at North Carolina State University by having its newly released variety named after him. Known simply as the “Covington” variety, it is befitting that this variety has become the sweet potato of choice for many of the growers in North Carolina.

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Born in North Carolina PART 4: Headache Powders - BC, Goody’s, Stanback and Bromo-Seltzer

Why headache powders? It was very common for druggists in the early 1900′s to buy raw materials and make their own prescriptions. Pills were harder for the local druggist to make, so pain-relief powders developed as a regional heritage. In addition, to “take a powder” meant to leave the scene and thereby to shirk responsibility in most of the Country during the 1940′s. However in North Carolina the expression meant something entirely different. Headache powders, usually mixtures of aspirin and caffeine, proved to be remarkably popular in the Tar Heel State.

BC was the invention of pharmacists Germain Bernard 

and Commodore Council.

 The production of BC Powders began in 1906 at the Five Points Drug Company in Durham.

Combining their surname initials, Council and Bernard named their headache medicine “B.C. Powder” in 1910. The introduction of B.C. Powders coincided with Durham’s tobacco boom, and factory workers became loyal customers. In 1917, Council and Bernard hired their first salesman to distribute their product beyond the Southern region.  He did more than that by carrying BC Powders out of the South and around the World during World War I. 

In 1928 the growing company opened a production facility to meet increasing demand.   Bernard and Council, hired a traveling salesman to sell the product in other parts of NC and the Southeast.

Block Drug Company of Jersey City, New Jersey purchased B.C. Powders in 1967.  By 1972, production had moved to Memphis, Tennessee.

Meanwhile in Winston-Salem, pharmacist Martin “Goody” Goodman created his headache powder in 1932.   A. Thad Lewallen Sr. bought the formula and trademark a few years later.  His marketing strategy was based on sampling introduced Goody’s Headache Powder to the Southeast and beyond. Samples were handed out to factory workers at shift changes. 

This promotional method created a dedicated following. In 1941, a growing customer base demanded larger production facilities and Lewallen moved the company to Salt Street in Old Salem, NC, while maintaining a shop in Durham. 

 Demand soon outstripped production. In 1941 a modern production facility and an increased sales force furthered boosted Goody’s.  Shortly before acquiring Stanback Medicine Company, the Block Drug Company purchased Goody’s in December of 1995. The Goody’s manufacturing plant in Winston-Salem was closed soon after the Lewallen family sold the company.

Thomas Stanback, of Salisbury, created his headache powder in 1911, as a young pharmacist in a Thomasville drugstore. He moved to Spencer to work at the Rowan Drug Store while its pharmacist vacationed. There he gave samples of his new headache power containing aspirin to railroaders, who carried it up and down the Southern line. Stanback persuaded his younger brother Fred to try selling the powders to area stores. Thomas prepared the product by night, and Fred sold it by day. 

Thomas used a flour sifter, then a sifter with a hand crank to speed production. The brothers began renting a building in Spencer in 1927 and sold their powders from Richmond, Virginia, to Columbus, Georgia. In 1932 a new Italian-made folding machine was purchased, and production moved to Salisbury. Full-scale national advertising began.

Bromo-Seltzer: 

Isaac Edward Emerson, a native of Chapel Hill and 1879 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, moved to Maryland in 1881. In 1888, working behind the prescription counter of a modest drugstore, he created a remedy for headaches and indigestion. 

His background in chemistry and pharmacy led to the granular effervescent salt he named Bromo-Seltzer and packaged in cobalt blue glass bottles.

The product took its name from a component of the original formula, sodium bromide. Each dose contained 3.2 mq/teaspoon of this active ingredient. Bromides are a class of tranquilizers that were withdrawn from the U.S. market in 1975 due to their toxicity. Their sedative effect probably accounted for Bromo-Seltzer's popularity as a remedy for hangovers. Early formulas also used, as the analgesic ingredient, acetanilide, now known as a poisonous substance.[2]

Bromo-Seltzer was discontinued in 1975 after the discovery that the sedative ingredient, bromide, was slightly psychoactive and a little bit toxic. 

So now we have Alka-Seltzer (no relation)!  

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The First Gold Rush - not in California!

In the mid-1700s, the western portion of the southern Piedmont was a scarcely populated back country. Governor Arthur Dobbs visited the area in 1755 to survey land located in present-day Mecklenburg and Cabarrus counties that he had purchased 10 years earlier. He found seventy-five Scots-Irish and twenty-two German families living there. He described these pioneers as “industrious people,” with most families having five to ten children. They raised livestock and crops such as corn, wheat, barley, rye, and indigo, and traded primarily with Charleston, South Carolina, some two hundred miles to the south. Charlotte, the state’s largest city today, was merely a dusty little village.

John Reed (Johannes Reith) was a Hessian soldier who left the British army near the conclusion of the Revolutionary War and came to settle near fellow Germans living in the lower Piedmont of North Carolina. Most of the people dwelt on modest family-run farms in rural areas, where they raised small grain crops such as corn and wheat.

The life of farmer John Reed would have been long forgotten had it not been for a chance event one Sunday in 1799. On that day Reed’s son Conrad found a large yellow rock in Little Meadow Creek on the Reed farm in Cabarrus County. 

This rock reportedly weighed seventeen pounds and for three years was used as a doorstop at the Reed house. In 1802 a Fayetteville jeweler identified the gold nugget. He purchased it from Reed for the asked-for price of $3.50.

The following year John Reed began his mining operation by forming a partnership with three local men. The partners supplied equipment and workers to dig for gold in the creek bed, while Reed provided the land. The returns were to be divided equally. The men mined mainly in the off-season from farming, giving first priority to raising their crops. Before the end of the first year, a slave named Peter had unearthed a twenty-eight-pound nugget. Using only pans and rockers to wash the creek gravel, the part-time miners recovered an estimated yield of one hundred thousand dollars by 1824.

Hearing of Reed’s good fortune, other Piedmont farmers began exploring their creeks and finding gold. Men and women, both young and old, worked in the gold fields. Outsiders joined them, including the skilled Cornishmen from England.

Placer gold mining led to underground mining when it was learned in 1825 that the metal also existed in the veins of white quartz rock. The search for underground gold required much more money, labor, and machinery. 

Underground work at Reed was not begun until 1831. Four years later a family squabble resulted in a court injunction that closed the mine for a decade.

John Reed was a wealthy man when he died in 1845. Soon the Reed mine was sold at public auction. The mine changed hands many times through the years until 1911, when the last underground work took place there.

Placer miners found the last large nugget at Reed in 1896. That nugget weighed approximately twenty-three pounds.

Around 1805, only a few years after Conrad’s discovery, newspapers began reporting on gold-mining activities and people coming into the area to search for gold. William Thornton, of Baltimore, Maryland, designer of the United States Capitol, was one of these seekers. After learning of the gold, he purchased thirty-five thousand acres of land in Montgomery (now Stanly) County and formed the North Carolina Gold Mine Company. By 1806, investors in this company included a former governor of Maryland and the treasurer of the United States.

An 1849 children’s book included this illustration of gold miners, with the caution, “Some persons have gone from New England to dig for gold in this state. I suppose they hope to get suddenly rich; but they had better stay at home; for where one man becomes wealthy by digging for gold, a thousand get rich by staying at home, and quietly cultivating their farms.” 

Most of the people coming to North Carolina to find gold were not as notable as Thornton and company. There is not much detailed information about those who first came seeking gold. Of course, initially, local landowners did most of the mining. The first newcomers to arrive were probably from neighboring states and somewhat resembled the people already living in western North Carolina. But then, as luck would have it, another event occurred that would greatly increase the numbers, and diversity, of people migrating to the state’s gold fields.

In 1825 Matthias Barringer discovered that gold could be found in veins of white quartz, and by following these veins of quartz into the ground, one could recover more gold. Prior to this discovery, all of the mining conducted in North Carolina had been above ground, or “placer,” mining. With Barringer’s discovery of “lode,” or underground, mining, the rush to North Carolina was on. People came from far and wide to make their fortunes. Many of the most important lode mines were located in or around Charlotte. In 1828 J. Humphrey Bissell, of Charleston, bought part of the McComb Mine and brought with him not only new technology but also “men experienced in South American mining.” At one Charlotte mine that employed almost a thousand workers, thirteen different languages were spoken. Count Vincent de Rivafinoli, an Italian aristocrat and experienced mining engineer, was one of the most cultured and flamboyant foreigners in Charlotte. As head of the Mecklenburg Gold Mining Company, he brought in as many as eighty expert miners from England, Germany, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Switzerland, Italy, and France.

Among the European workers, miners from Cornwall, England, had the greatest influence on North Carolina mining culture. The Cornish miners had developed techniques for lode mining over several centuries, extracting tin and copper from their native land. They shared their knowledge and expertise in North Carolina. These miners taught proper and safe techniques for lode mining and were also experts in the process of milling gold ore and the use of steam technology. The use of steam engines soon spread from gold mining to other North Carolina industries, such as textile mills. 

Many of the immigrants who came to North Carolina during the gold rush were single men — young or middle-aged, ambitious, and hardworking. Unaccompanied by women or children, they were able to move freely from one mining area to another. When gold was found in other southern states and then in California in 1848, many moved out of the area. The Cornish miners, however, had often moved with their families. They were known to be “skilled, superstitious, clannish,” and strongly Methodist. Unlike the single prospectors who followed the gold to California, the Yukon, and beyond, many of these Cornish miners and their families stayed in North Carolina, in the lode mining centers of Charlotte and especially Gold Hill in Rowan County.

The Cornish culture is a unique culture within Great Britain, much like the Welsh or Scottish, with its own dialect and customs. But because the Cornish also spoke English, they and their descendants quickly melded into American life, and their cultural influence is not easy to pinpoint. 

The influence that they had on North Carolina’s emerging industries, however, is unmistakable. In the early 1800s, North Carolina acquired the nickname “The Rip Van Winkle State,” because so little progress was made that the state appeared to be asleep like that character from literature. The gold industry that the Cornish helped build influenced other developments in industry, commerce, and infrastructure that helped North Carolina lose this reputation. Today’s leaders in industry, research, and banking have indirectly benefited from the foreign miners and investors of the nation’s first gold rush.

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Born in North Carolina: PART 3 - Neese’s Sausage

The Neese history begins with family members immigrating to America in the early 1700s. In 1769, George Neese (born 1744) moved to what is now Guilford County, North Carolina, traveling the great wagon road through the Shenandoah Valley from Berks County Pennsylvania.

The Neeses were farmers, blacksmiths, horse and cattle traders. They harvested almost everything they ate, and prior to 1900 were making sausage for home consumption.

By 1917 J.T. Neese was selling sausage and delivering it in a “prairie schooner” covered wagon like the ones used in the country’s great western movement. J.T. (Mr. Thede) began making sausage with a hand grinder and gradually built a trade in town.

By 1925 a Dodge screen-sided truck had been acquired. Sausage was made and packaged at night and by day break, Mr. Thede was delivering sausage in Greensboro and High Point, North Carolina.

The “special recipe” for Neese’s Sausage was created by J.T. Neese in the early 1900’s. He developed just the right proportions of ham and other pork cuts, and added just the right seasonings of salt, sage, pepper and a few secret ones that only family members know about.

In the 1920’s, J.T.’s wife Annie Smith Neese stirred up another famous Neese recipe for Liver Pudding.  “Miss Annie” ground pork livers and other choice pork cuts and seasoned them with herbs and spices. She added just enough corn meal to hold it together.

Just like we do it today, she never added chemicals or preservatives to either sausage or liver pudding.

In 1925 Mr. Thede’s son, Tom, graduated from high school and went into sausage making full-time. In a few years, Mr. Thede turned the business over to Tom, since he was already an experienced sausage maker. Tom and his brother, Homer, became partners about 1930.

Today we are still located in Guilford County in Greensboro, NC. The business is run by the fourth generation of Neese’s with plenty of kids coming along to continue the family tradition of making products that are simply the best tasting and highest quality people can buy.

 By 1925, a Dodge screen-sided truck had been obtained. Sausage was made and packaged at night and by day break, Mr. Thede was delivering sausage in Greensboro and High Point.

Those green trucks that deliver the goods remain a standard of Neese to this day.

“We have an internal goal here: Each year, typically what we try to do is give 10 percent back to the outside community,” said Tommy Neese, president of Neese Sausage Company, who also serves as past president of the North Carolina Meat Processors Association in addition to a dedicated involvement in the NCPC board.

“I will tell you this, honestly, in the last several years we have gone and surpassed that by a lot. There are a lot of things we try to do that I know I personally walk up and say, ‘Here’s the check, and let me tell you something, if this gets out that I handed you this check, you will never hear from me again. I don’t want any notoriety; I don’t want any publicity. This is because I believe in what you are doing….’”

The company has raised funds and donated to scholarships. It donated trucks to the Pork Chop Shop, and food to various functions. Both Tommy and Mr. Tom have served more than two decades combined on the NCPC Board of Directors representing the Meat Processors.

A couple of old friends came up with the idea of a golf tournament to pay for scholarships. Tommy Neese got a phone call and agreed to get involved. They came up with the structure to help pay for scholarships, one for a student at each school. The first year sold out. When they couldn’t find a title sponsor, Tommy Neese agreed to step up. Today the company is paying for four scholarships – two for each school, $1,000 each annually.

Neese is still sponsoring the scholarships 14 years after the event started. Dozens of kids from each school have been helped with their college costs. Donald Moore and the Greensboro Grasshoppers Minor League Club, about three years ago, became the title sponsor but Neese Sausage remains the scholarship sponsor.

“Tom, Tommy and Andrea Neese supported NCPC through their service on committees such as the conference and tradeshow, fundraising, promotions and marketing and budget committees,” Johnson said. “In addition to all of that, they have generously supported our promotions through the donation of product and resources.’’

Today Neese Sausage remains in Greensboro, run with the help of the family’s fourth generation. And they still listen when the phone rings and someone needs their help. They are the local company not too big to care. With about 100 employees, Neese Sausage is not about just providing jobs – it’s about providing the heart and soul of a community.

Those who have never heard of Neese Sausage in the Greensboro area?

“The transplants and people who are just moving into town,” chuckles Tommy.

It’s because of good food and because of being good citizens that the product has been sold in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia for so many years; likewise, its involvement in the area remains strong.

The company doesn’t just care about making a good product with a family of employees they love, Neese can also look back now at all the good things the company has done for others.

“Our father has always kept us within our box, making sausage,” Tommy said. “We’re not in the rental business, we’re not in some extra peripheral business, we’re in the sausage-making business.”

With 2017 making it 100 years for the business – you guessed it, Tommy doesn’t want to brag – he has to have a lot of pride for what Neese Sausage means to the area and the state. The Neese family did it right, and they’re still doing everything they can to make this world better.

Success in a business, in most cases, is judged by the bottom line. Neese Sausage is wealthy but not just in the bank book, helping in various charities and NCPC events eagerly.

“We’re trying to do things right,” Tommy Neese said. “We really are.”

Tommy Neese’s favorite recipe

Ingredients 1 lb. Neese Sausage (hot or mild) 1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese 1 can Ro*tel tomatoes and chilies

Tommy Neese didn’t hesitate when asked to name his favorite recipe using his family’s Neese sausage – the sausage dip.

There are numerous recipes that have grown to be fan favorites over the years. But Neese offers us what he enjoys most. You won’t be disappointed because even a cook who burns water can follow the simple instructions.

“A pound of sausage, a packet of cream cheese (eight ounces) and a can of Ro*Tel tomatoes is all it takes,” Neese said.

Simple but shockingly delicious to the taste buds.

“Fry the sausage, crumbling it while you fry it,” Neese offers. “When you get done cooking the sausage completely, drain what grease is in there. Put it all back in the frying pan, the cream cheese and the Ro-tel tomatoes. Let everything come to a boil, heat it back up.”

The smell itself will torture you until the recipe all melts together as you stir.

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Born in North Carolina - PART 2: Mt. Olive Pickles

For most folks from the Southeast and elsewhere in the US, Mt. Olive pickled cucumbers, peppers, relishes and associated vinegar-ed products have been in back of many a fridge. Whether you like them sour, hot, sweet or in between, the Mt. Olive Pickle factory has been a satisfying side to many lunches, snacks and dinners. 

The Company had its humble beginnings in the Eastern NC name bearing the same name, at the corner of you guessed it:

It is now the largest independent pickle company in the US.

In 1926, Shickrey Baddour, a Lebanese immigrant, founded Mt. Olive Pickle Company for the sole purpose of brining cucumbers that would later be sold to pickling plants.  Baddour enlisted George Moore, who worked in the Castle Hayne pickle plant, as his business partner. However, Mt. Olive failed to generate sufficient profits to be sustainable.  So, the company focused exclusively on pickling.

The company started with 3,600 square feet and $19,500 in capital and only thirty seven shareholders.  Moore was the acting factory superintendent and Baddour the salesman. The company had four operational guidelines: 1) provide customers with quality products, good value, and superior service, 2) earn shareholders a fair return on investment, 3) be an enterprising employer and 4) remain a valued corporate citizen.

Headley Morris Cox formally established the Mt. Olive Pickle Company to pack and sell its own pickles. Thirty-seven original shareholders put forward $19,000 in capital to get the company started in what all viewed as a "community proposition." Many of today's stockholders are grandchildren and great grandchildren of the charter stockholders. The board of directors hired H.M. Cox as President, Moore as factory superintendent and Baddour as salesman and gave them each shares of stock for their initial investments. The board also purchased 1-acre of land from farmer J.A. Westbrook for $1,000. The land is part of the current manufacturing site today. 

Westbrook's home still stands across from the plant. Mt. Olive surpassed $500,000 in sales in 1942. The company initiated a profit-sharing plan in 1943 and by 1947 its sales reached more than $1 million a year.

Mt. Olive Company remains on the original property but now has 675,000 square feet of production, warehouse, and office space. Each year, the company uses over 130 million pounds of cucumbers and peppers and packs approximately 100 million jars a year of pickles, relishes, and peppers. Mt. Olive pickles can be found in their distinct yellow and green jars in all fifty states and has become the largest privately held pickle company and the best selling pickle brand in the country.

Year round, the company maintains about 500 employees and just over 800 employees during the summer, when their intake season is at its peak.  Mt. Olive, is the #1 pickle brand in the U.S. Its facilities have grown from that first acre to 150, with just over 1 million square feet of manufacturing and warehouse space. The company has a tank yard with about 1,100 fiberglass tanks with storage capacity for over 40 million pounds of cucumbers.

 On New Year’s Eve residents of Mt. Olive, attend the annual Pickle Drop.

 In the spring the community celebrates the N.C. Pickle Festival, where all the proceeds go to local charities.

  In 2016, Mt. Olive Pickle Company celebrated 90 years of successful business.

And yes, it is still OK to drink the pickle juice from the jar!

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Born In North Carolina - PART 1:  Texas Pete Hot Sauce

So it is called “Texas Pete” and has a Cowboy logo. Must be from Texas, right? 

Nope.....

Texas Pete hot sauce was introduced in 1929 by Sam Garner, operator of the Dixie Pig barbecue stand in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Customers asked for a spicier sauce, and the Garners concocted one with cayenne peppers. Developing a product name, a marketing adviser suggested "Mexican Joe" to connote the spicy cuisine of Mexico. However, Thad's father Sam Garner opposed this, saying that the name should be American. Texas is known for its spicy food; this was combined with Pete, the nickname of Thad's brother Harold Garner.  

In 1929, the onset of the Great Depression, Sam Garner and his wife, Ila Jane, affectionately known as ”Mother Jane”, were struggling to make ends meet for themselves and their seven children. The oldest of the clan, Paul, had gone off to school at Duke University. The next in line, Thad, decided to use his college money to buy a nearby barbecue restaurant. Along with the restaurant came a special secret recipe for a delicious, so everybody told them, barbecue sauce.

The restaurant did not survive, but the barbecue sauce, made in the family kitchen, survived and prospered. People loved it! Soon the entire family was helping out to make the sauce and keep the family afloat in the hard times. Sam, who never met a stranger, traveled the back roads of North Carolina peddling their sauce. Thad, along with younger brothers Ralph and Harold, as well as Mother Jane and sisters Virginia, Elizabeth, and even young Margaret, were helping in the kitchen. Eventually the three sisters went off to college themselves, all graduating and moving on in their careers and/or marriage. 

Sam, Thad, Ralph and Harold continued in the food business, forming a partnership and, in 1946, incorporating into T.W. Garner Food Company, as it is known today. Over the years the ”four Garners”, as they were known, produced a number of food products, including a complete line of jams and jellies, horse radish and other items. They came up with a number of products under the Texas Pete brand name to complement their popular hot sauce. 

These include hot dog chili, honey mustard, seafood cocktail, green pepper sauce, Worcestershire sauce and Buffalo wing sauce. Today the company is prospering as it celebrates its eighty ninth (89th) year in business.

And other products too!

 Members of the third and fourth generations of the Garner family have followed in their elders’ footsteps. The current factory, built in 1942 and added onto too many times to count, sits on the original Garner family home site in northwest Winston-Salem. And the legendary Texas Pete, proud of his cowboy heritage but also a proud North Carolinian, continues to thrive!

Texas Pete Hot Sauces are the 3rd best selling hot sauce in the USA and by one ranking number 8 in the hottest and best!

8.  TEXAS PETE

Sodium: 100 mg Ingredients: Peppers, vinegar, salt, xanthum gum, benzoate of soda; ZERO CALORIES!

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Mountain Island Lake - Stuck in the Middle Again

Charlotte’s main water source was once just a part of the Catawba River, crammed between Lake Wylie to the South (dammed originally in 1904 and again near Fort Mill Mill in 1923 to power the nearby towns), and Lake Norman to the North (created between 1959 and 1964 as part of the construction of the Cowans Ford Dam). It is not the oldest Lake on the Catawba nor the biggest.

The shoreline of Mountain Island Lake, the woodlands, forests, and shores of the Catawba River are littered with volcanic rocks. If you are fortunate and resolute, there are several very special rocks that bear proof that they were not alone. These rocks are as old as the eons, and they were used by Paleolithic Indians to grind nuts. For centuries and decades, grandmothers and daughters wore smooth bowls into these rocks.

The earliest inhabitants of the Catawba River and the land were the Catawba Indians who called themselves the “people of the river.” The forests were home to the wild beasts, panther, cougar, bear, buffalo and moose. The Catawba River was home to poisonous snakes, and all manner of fish and fowl. Even today, at dawn and at eventide, the raptors, eagles, hawks dive as swift as arrows shot from a bow, deep into the water spearing fish for supper.

The original German and Scots-Irish settlers began to cross the Catawba River into Carolina back-country around 1745 to 1750. Around the same time, Robert Alexander built the Red-House in Woodlawn (Mt. Holly), overlooking the Catawba River. Alexander was married to Martha Jack, the sister of Captain Jack who carried the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence to Philadelphia.

In the early years, the Catawba River was the dividing line at the edge of the world between civilization and the wilderness. Beyond the shores of Mountain Island Lake lay the land of the Cherokee. At that time, Mountain Island Lake/Catawba River was the furthest edge of civilization.

The settlers who came to the wilderness of the Catawba River came because they had been driven from the coastal cultures of civilization. They came to settle on land they owned. It was the first time peasants were allowed to own property. As plow people, the Ulstermen, the Scoti, and the Palatines were farmer-peasants. Because of their natural knowledge of the earth and the moon…they understood the treasures they had been given by Good King George. The back-country settlers spoke a universal language, the understanding of the rhythms of the seasons, and the names of the full-moons. For these farmers, day began at sunset.

There are some mighty big fish in the Lake, which supports a number localized eco-systems. Raptors are frequently sighted there living among the other bird population.

Unlike Lake Norman or Lake Wylie, much of the shore is protected by State or County Parks and Refuges. This cuts down on the lake traffic so it is a favorite for fisherman, canoeists, kayakers and paddle boarders.  On a quiet early morning the Lake is calm, serene and full of sounds of nature.

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Tale of the Tail of the Dragon - hold on!

If you happen to be near Robbinsville NC in the Great Smokey Mountains, you might see an unusually high number of cars and motorcycles headed Northwest on US Highway 129. 

There is a reason for this.

The Tail of the Dragon, also known as Deals Gap or just the Dragon, is considered by many as one of the world’s best motorcycling and sports car roads. Anyone looking for an exciting piece of asphalt will enjoy this stretch of US 129 at the Tennessee/North Carolina State line, per by Ronald E. Johnson, who has chronicled this stretch of highway from the beginning to the end.  But the Tail has a longer history than motorcycles and fast cars of the last 40 years. 

  The earliest known photo on the Tail of the Dragon. This is the Toll Booth that was located at mile marker 3 circa 1890′s. The road had been known at various times as Parsons, Madisonville/Franklin and the Tallahassee Turnpike. George Davis was the Toll-keeper.

The Dragon has a notorious past. Much of the route was originally just an animal track worn down by large herds of buffalo and then used by native American Cherokee Indians for centuries. The first Europeans to use the trail were hunters and trappers moving into dangerous territory in the early 1700′s.  In 1756, British soldiers struggled through the mountain gaps to establish Fort Loudon, one of the first outposts west of the Appalachian mountains.

  The Dragon is only 11 miles long.

It has over 318 curves!

At some point there was a small outpost/store located near the North Carolina/Tennessee State Line. The Deal family owned and operated it, hence the map designation of Deals Gap. The family later moved west to a more hospitable location.

As more settlers moved into the area, landowners began collecting tolls for use of the road. Toll Booth Corner, located at mile 3.0, was a place to pay for the right to cross private property. There were corrals to keep the livestock in transit and meager sleeping quarters for guests to spend the night. Some who tried to cross without paying the toll were caught and supposedly hanged on the spot.

Circa 1913, a town was actually born on the Dragon. Calderwood, formerly the Howard farm property, was created as living quarters for employees constructing Cheoah Dam in 1917, Calderwood Dam in 1930, and those workers who later maintained the entire system. A railway ran from Knoxville, through Calderwood, and followed the Little Tennessee River all the way to Tapoco in North Carolina. Equipment, supplies and workers were transported on this line. Calderwood was also used by Alcoa Aluminum, aka Tapoco, Inc. as a corporate retreat for their executives. There was even a golf course accessed by ferry across the Little Tennessee River. 

Today’s Tapoco Lodge was also built by Alcoa for their executives. The entire dam and reservoir system provided electric power to Alcoa’s large aluminum processing plant north of Maryville, Tennessee.

The new road was only lightly traveled for decades, primarily by locals, hunters and lost tourists. The small motel and diner went through many different owners from the 1950′s to the 1990′s. It was owned by the Moodys, the Craftons and was known after that as Mac’s Motel and later The Crossroads of Time. Today it is Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort.

In 1992 Doug Snavely, hearing about a great ride in the Smokies, came up from Road Atlanta to ride US129 for himself. The ride proved even more exciting than he had ever imagined. He met Pete, owner of the Crossroads of Time, a small café/motel located at the junction of US129 and NC28. At the time Pete catered to fishermen, hunters, and the few lost vacationers. Doug sold Pete on promoting the road to motorcyclists and got a job as manager at the Crossroads.

Snavely also created the Deals Gap Riding Society. There were some 350 members from all over the United States. The organization more or less folded when Snavely left the Crossroads of Times after a few years. He lived in Knoxville and later moved to Virginia. He occasionally returns to ride the Gap.

In the next few years motorcycle riding increased dramatically at the Dragon. Each year since then the number of motorcycles and sports cars has seemingly doubled. Today riders and drivers from across the US, Canada, and many foreign countries come to test their riding skills on the Dragon. There are shows on the weekends from April through October.

Deals Gap, the name that many riders know the Dragon by, is actually the gap in the mountains that the road follows. Deals Gap, located at the North Carolina and Tennessee State Line, is the highest point on the Dragon at 1962 feet above sea level. It was likely named for one of the early families who settled here.

The road is still desolate today and can be a real adventure in the winter months. It is not a road for the squeamish, but if you’re looking for a little excitement don’t miss this one.

In addition to the The Fugitive (1993), 

three other movies have been filmed along this road. The first feature film made on US 129 was Thunder Road. This 1958 Robert Mitchum film about backwoods moonshining 

had scenes at the power line easement at about mile 4.5 on the Dragon map and you can see the old wooden “safety” posts on the corner. A few of the posts still remain.

Part of the 1971 classic movie Two-Lane Blacktop was filmed on the Dragon. There are scenes of the state line sign, some of the curves, the old Esso Gas Station, Crafton’s Motel and Café, along the Little Tennessee River and the original single lane bridge at Tapoco Dam. 

The Tail of the Dragon may have a checkered history, but today it has become “the destination” for hundreds of thousands of riders, drivers, and even bicyclists looking to tame the beast.

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Amazing Jazz Pioneers Came from NC. Yes Sir they did!

Who would have thought that the regular band at Minton’s in Manhattan in the mid 1940′s would have their roots in the Great North State and SC as well?

Minton’s was THE place to see the new Jazz or “be-bop” near the during and after the close of WWII. The Players were young and aggressive and experimental and regularly played extravagant solos on the trumpet:

Dizzie Gillespie (Born October 21, 1917, Cheraw, SC); Drums

Max Roach (Born  in January 10, 1924 , Pasquotank County, NC); Piano

Thelonious Monk (born October 10, 1917 in Rocky Mount NC); and sax

and later John Coltrane (born in Hamlet NC on September 23, 1926).

But the Jazz train did not end there. Also sharing North Carolina roots are:  guitarist Tal Farlow (b. Greensboro, NC, 6/7/21), considered one of the top players during the 1950s, Hard-Bop saxophonists Lou Donaldson (b. Badin, NC, 11/1/26) and Tina Brooks (b. Fayetteville, NC, 6/7/32), Hard-Bop trumpeter Woody Shaw (b. Laurinburg, NC, 12/24/44), pianist Billy Taylor (b. Greenville, NC, 7/24/21), saxophonist and flautist Harold Vick (b. Rocky Mount, NC, April 3, 1936).

Also hailing from NC was Percy Heath one of the founding members of The Modern Jazz Quartet, which blended jazz with classical and other forms of music.

Born in Tryon, NC in 1933, was the pianist and singer dubbed the “High Priestess of Soul”.

#NCBorn  #Jazz  #BeBop 

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Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church - Gold and The Irish

Just outside of Mount Holly on N.C. 273 lies a demur yet fascinating Church that is the oldest standing Catholic Church in NC.

During the 1830s, Catholic immigrants moved into what would become Gaston County at the encouragement of Chevalier Riva de Fionla. Fionla persuaded the newcomers to move to the area to work for him in newly discovered gold mines. The immigrants were recent arrivals to North Carolina from Ireland and, as soon as they were settled in their new homes, they sought to continue worship as Catholics. The first services were held in Fionla’s home and in 1838 Father T. J. Cronin was appointed pastor for the region. 

The men were miners and they came to work the gold mines on the banks of the Catawba River near what is now the town of Mt. Holly in Gaston County. The families, four headed by the Lonergan brothers, the other two being the Cahills and the Duffeys, came from Cork, Dublin and Tipperary in 1831 to work for Chevalier Riva de Fionla, who owned one of the more successful mining excavations. On Sundays, de Fionla, a devout Catholic of French and Italian ancestry, invited the families into his home to worship in his specially built chapel.   In 1832 a court-ordered injunction closed de Fionla’s operation, possibly due to the use of mercury in the processing which polluted the river. He left the area and the Irish were without a place of worship.

 Timothy J. Cronin, a Cork man, was ordained in Charleston, South Carolina. He was a circuit priest, traveling on horseback to serve the Catholics of North and South Carolina. With the aid of this good priest, money was raised throughout North and South Carolina and Georgia to build a church for the Catawba River community. One of the largest donations came from William Gaston, a judge on the North Carolina Supreme Court for whom Gaston County is named. 

One of Cronin’s goals was the building of a church in the region but he died before construction could begin on land donated to the church by one of the first immigrants into the area. Reverend John Guifford followed Father Cronin’s example and began construction of a church in 1843. Father Cronin’s remains were moved to the new church’s cemetery shortly after its completion. 

In 1841, enough money had been raised and work began on the structure. William Lonergan had purchased land from de Fionla before he left, and using lumber that they cut and milled themselves, the church soon started to take shape.  The building was finished in 1843, only the second Catholic church built in North Carolina. (St. Patrick’s Catholic church in Fayetteville, built in 1824, was the first.)

The Irish families were so thrilled with the new worship center that they engraved the words “Habemus Altare” (we have an altar) above the altar. The parish that had started with six families now included the Phelan, Coxe, Miller, Mulligan, Meyers, Rafter, Ryan, Kerns and Hawkins families. Sadly, the four Lonergan brothers sailed home toward Ireland and were lost at sea, and Father Cronin died of yellow fever before the church was finished. He was laid to rest in the cemetery. Father Jeremiah P. O’Connell was the last pastor of St Joseph’s. He served during the Civil War. The war took its toll on the small parish. Only one of the founding members of the church, Pierce Cahill, survived the war. 

In 1876, Father O’Connell bought the Caldwell Plantation and sold it to the Benedictine monks to found a monastery in Belmont, North Carolina. As the years passed, the area Catholics began to attend Mass at Belmont Abbey and St. Joseph’s fell into disrepair. 

Although the church was not used for close to a century, it was not torn down and in 1970, Bishop Michael Begley of the Charlotte diocese had the exterior, altar and pews restored to their former “simple” grandeur. 

St. Joseph’s has been designated a National Historical Site by the U.S. Department of Interior and by the State of North Carolina.

St. Joseph’s began to prosper as a new church with an active congregation which helped to establish other Catholic churches in the area as well as providing the basis for the foundation of Belmont Abbey College. The building is still maintained by the Catholic Church and the local community; however, services in its chapel are held only on special occasions. 

 Today, Mass is celebrated just three times a year in the church, once by a diocesan priest on the date of his ordination into the priesthood, once on March 19, the feast of St. Joseph, and on St. Patrick’s Day.  The two divisions of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in the Charlotte area not only have a Mass celebrated, but they also have a ceremony at the grave of Father Cronin in his honor and to honor the Irish immigrants that are buried in the cemetery.

[feelix99]

Jimi Hendrix and Charlotte meet in 1967, and uh....

In the Summer of 1967, Jimi Hendrix (although already a US Army Veteran and raised in Seattle) was still new to music audiences that had not caught him with King Curtis, Little Richard and others he backed in the early 1960′s. Notice the style and moves are already there.

By 1967, Jimi had been signed to a management contract with Chas Chandler, late of the Animals (bass). Consigned to the UK and placed with the “Experience” including veteran players Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding, Jimi abided. Needless to say things had changed in reality, but maybe not in the eyes of America.

In the same year, the Experience was signed on to the popular Monkees Tour of the USA. The Monkees were at their height and attracted an an amazingly large audience of mostly teens and pre-teens. Psychedelia and anything resembling “hard rock” was a faint whisper.

Actually the Monkees got on famously through the beginning of the Tour.

The tour eventually led to the “old” Charlotte Coliseum. Jimi opened the show mostly to boos and crowd noise. Most were not ready for his sound, musicality, originality and wild attitude. (not described in Mike Nesmith’s original notes.)

Jimi eventually left the tour after an intense argument with Chas Chandler and his business manager Mike Jeffery. The two were often at odds which led to some controversial events involving Jimi’s later career...

But that’s another story....