A promise is a promise, after all.įast forward to 2000 - the road still isn’t built and negotiations aren’t going anywhere. They wanted the entire road built to make it easier for them to stay connected to their family roots and heritage. Now the park service is more involved in helping the groups by providing transportation across the lake and offering a park trail crew to assist people to some of the harder to reach cemeteries using ATVs.Ī four-mile road with a visitors center wasn’t going to make the descendants’ annual pilgrimages any easier.
In the beginning, the association was on its own - using their own boats to get across the lake and then walking for up to an hour and a half to reach cemeteries with all the supplies they needed in hand. Getting to the cemeteries has been a struggle through the years, especially as the descendants get older. “It’s a traditional Appalachian decoration - we designate a day to go and clean the cemetery off and put fresh flowers on the graves and hold a small service,” Chambers said. Descendants formed the North Shore Cemeteries Association in 1978 and began organizing decoration days for more than 20 family cemeteries along the North Shore of Fontana Lake. While the argument over the right path forward continued, the families of those driven from the land continued to go to great lengths to visit their homesteads and cemeteries. The TVA - the fourth party to sign the original agreement - remained neutral on the issue but most assumed the quasi-federal corporation would side with the NPS if pressed to take sides. Mike Easley on behalf of the state - had formally thrown their support behind the cash settlement. However, two of the parties that signed off on the 1943 agreement to rebuild the road - Swain County Board of Commissioners and Gov. He had already gotten $16 million into the 2000 budget toward the project. As the chairman of the Department of Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, people were sure he could get the funding needed to rebuild the road. The “Build the Road” coalition was strengthened with support from U.S. The park offered to build a four-mile road with a cultural heritage center, picnic area, boat dock and visitor center facilities for $93 million, but Swain County people made it clear they weren’t interested in a compromise. Meanwhile the National Park Service was still spending a lot of time and money analysing other options to appease Swain County while minimizing the potential environmental impacts on park land and wildlife. Other congressmen introduced bills for a cash settlement but the legislation never made it out of one chamber or the other. Andrus proposed a $9.8 million settlement based on the value of the road in 1940.
to appoint a committee to explore the controversial agreement. Thanks to a visit to Swain County in 1978, Secretary of the Department of the Interior Cecil Andrus returned to D.C. During a visit to Washington, D.C., a Swain County attorney threw out a starting figure of $25 million, but a NPS representative refused to negotiate. It appeared more plausible to get a cash settlement, which is what then Gov. The $8 million was quickly eaten up and the chance of securing additional funding was slim with so many environmental concerns surrounding the project.ĭuring the early 1970s, Swain County leaders continued to lobby state and congressional representatives to honor the 1943 agreement, but efforts weren’t going anywhere. However, by 1962 the NPS issued a report stating “it appears to be in the public interest to seriously reconsider the plan” to build the road.Ĭonstruction completely stopped in 1968 after only seven miles of the road had been completed - thus the Road to Nowhere was born. Taylor secured $8 million for construction of the North Shore Road a year later and then NPS picked up where the state left off with the road construction. The State of North Carolina constructed a road from Bryson City to the national park boundary in 1959, laying the groundwork for the park to pick up construction.Ĭongressman Roy A. The new route was supposed to be a 26-mile route from Bryson City to Tennessee following Fontana Lake’s shore through the national park. The creation of Fontana Lake made those old homesteads and family cemeteries inaccessible to the people that were pushed closer into Bryson City, but the federal government did promise folks that a new road would be built that would connect residents to their heritage and ancestors’ gravesites. Following last Tuesday’s Primary Election, two Swain County Republicans will advance to…
0 kommentar(er)
