Some pioneer stories

As we are walking along the Tennessee - North Carolina border between Hot Springs and Erwin, we have come across some poignant stories and reminders of the past - remants in the hickory and hemlock forests, as the trail winds through.

The first is a grave stone - the name is forgotten but the birth and death dates stand out in my mind - a woman born april 1865, died may 1965. There are plastic flowers next to the head stone. One hundred years old and her remains are buried on a small knoll several hundred feet above Recor Laurle Rd. We climb past the grave another hundred feet and come to a small level campsite which on closer inspection shows that it is the site of an old homestead. The fireplace is tumbled into a pile of stones. The timber log cabin walls are still jointed but pushed over on to their side. There is an old slow combustion stove and a rusted water tank. I imagine the old woman living here until she was 100, bringing up her family, deep in the forest, miles from anywhere. She refuses to leave her home, and when she dies it is demolished into a pile of rubble, and the headstone is the only reminder.

The other site is marked on the map as the Shelford Graves - a site where an uncle and nephew who were in the Union army were shot dead in 1863 as they returned home to their family in confederate territory. This site is marked by artificial flowers too. It seems so long ago, but what we have learned, is that the war is still being fought in the south, and that the confederacy is alive and well. At Hot Springs, we see an advertisment for the coming civil war re-enactment weekend. They replay the battles and wear the uniforms. Even in the current newspapers you can pick up the 'them and us' as the southern states try and work out how to fight Obama's health reforms which are seen as the greatest attack on personal liberties, and local politicians are trying to rally the masses to the cause.