#backroad adventures

[whereifindsanity]

Victor Aerden

[thecrimsonarcher]

This one thought it was being clever by hiding behind the overgrown bushes in the front yard. It was most certainly not fooling anybody, including me. Most of the abandoned houses in Ballplay share the same trait.

(Dear porn blogs,

I better not see any one of you follow me after posting this. Ballplay is the name of an actual community in my neck of the woods and it name has absolutely nothing to do with sex. The name stems from the fact that the Cherokee once played stickball in this area. They would “play ball” in the sprawling fields that were outside of Tellico Plains. A certain geological formation acted as a natural amphitheater, where most of the games were held. Get your minds out of the damn gutter, you hear?

–Archer)

[whereifindsanity]

McKenna Hulslander

[whereifindsanity]

[whereifindsanity]

[thecrimsonarcher]

(Dear porn blogs, I better not see any one of you follow me after posting this. Ballplay is the name of an actual community in my neck of the woods and its name has absolutely nothing to do with sex. The name stems from the fact that the Cherokee once played stickball in this area. They would “play ball” in the sprawling fields that were outside of Tellico Plains. A certain geological formation acted as a natural amphitheater, where most of the games were held. Get your damn minds out of the gutter, you hear?

--Archer)

We came across this solemn home while driving on the back roads of Ballplay, Tennessee the other day. It was a rather yucky day. The sun simply did not want to come out to join the rest of the world and opted to spend the day hidden by a dark curtain of rain clouds.

I had done some asking around and discovered that this house and the gas station next door once belonged to the Sloan family. Several years ago, they sold the house and gas station to an unspecified family. The house caught on fire not too long after that and for unknown reasons, the new owners never came back to rebuild it. As a result, the gas station was closed down and ultimately, abandoned.

 The back door was wide open, revealing the horrible truth behind this solemn, overgrown house in the middle of nowhere--the interior was completely destroyed by the fire, along with everything else within it, leaving a blackened shell behind. The windows still had curtains in them. The light fixtures had been long stripped away by vandals looking to score copper to sell for a bit of cash.

[thecrimsonarcher]

According to local folklore, as told by storyteller Bert Vincent, this Maggie’s Mill was the site of a romance between a Canadian gold prospector named George Johnson, who became smitten by the daughter of Zeb Harris, who had owned the mill. The daughter’s name was Maggie and she was allegedly 16 years old at the time that Johnson had visited the mill. George had decided to stay in the area and spent a lot of time with Maggie, going to family gatherings and of course, dating her. Over time, the two of them were wed.

Now, the story never says if Maggie went to Canada with George, but according to Bert Vincent, Maggie would often come to visit the family grist mill. Eventually, however, Maggie stopped coming. It is unknown how she died or even when. It isn’t even stated where Maggie Harris was even buried, if she is even buried in Tennessee at all. Her parents, Zeb and a Mrs. Harris, ran the old mill until they died. It is never spoken anymore on how they had reacted to their daughter’s death or why this mill was even called “Maggie’s Mill”. Had it always been called Maggie’s Mill or was it simply called “Harris Mill”? Had a Maggie actually lived in this area who fell in love with a Canadian gold prospector? Did the Maggie who lived in Springtown, Tennessee even exist at all? No one really knows the answer.

The story of Maggie’s Mill remains controversial in local folklore due to the existence of another Maggie’s Mill, which stands in ruins outside of Hamilton, Ontario. It is said that the George Johnson that had written this poem actually lived in Canada and was a schoolteacher. Maggie Clark was one of his students. For some time, the two dated and were eventually married in 1864. It is said that George Johnson wrote this poem after falling ill and walking out near the Niagara escarpment and looking down at what is now present day downtown Hamilton, Ontario. This poem was very well received and was published in a book of poetry that Johnson had written called “Maple Leaves”.

His beloved Maggie died on May 12, 1865 after falling ill. It is said that the schoolhouse where they had first met still stands in Hamilton, with a plaque which mentions that this was the actual site that “When You and I Were Young, Maggie” was written about.

So, why did local residents of Springtown lay claim to this mill being the focus of such a melancholy love song? What events transpired here so long ago for people to have believed this?

[thecrimsonarcher]

I know this isn't the best picture I've ever taken, but it'll do for the sake of historic documentation. I might return to the area in the near future to get better shots of it.

Located in the Brown Hill community right off Mecca Pike is a rather unusual and even unnerving sight--a solitary, ruined mausoleum that stands on its own in a cow pasture. According to my research, the mausoleum acted as the final resting place for an area physician and his wife. The doctor's name was John R. Leonard(1834-1907) and he served the Tellico Plains area for many, many years. An article from the Monroe County Observer describes an act of vandalism that had taken place at the mausoleum on August 24, 1976. A band of grave robbers came to the grave in search of jewels and other valuables that may have been buried with them. The tomb's front door was made of 3 inch thick marble and it had been forced open. A marble slab that had been placed on top of the doctor's casket was pried off.

When the doctor died in 1907, he was placed in the mausoleum. Several years later, his wife died, but because the building had settled over time, her casket could not be placed on a shelf. Her casket was left on the floor and the top half was covered in glass. In their frustration with not being able to find anything of value, the grave robbers took the wife's corpse out of her casket and tossed her remains into the Hiwassee River.