•, G-^ PU3LIC nSLATIOMG BOX 912 BOiLina s?2iNc,3,n.c. 2a; iFnntlyiUa Him A Community Newsweekly Vol. 7 Number 42, July 2, 1981 Second Class Postage Paid In Boiling Springs, N. C. 29017 him Natural Gas May Be Found In North Carolina INDEPENDENCE ★DAY^ chapel hill. . .Hidden in the hills of western North Carolina - far below the black bears, the moonshine stills and the towering pine trees — may be significant reserves of natural gas, according to a geologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. John M. Dennison said the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky mountains sit atop a layer of sedimentary rock of a type known to trap methane gas. Dennison is spending his summer compiling information ■ that will enable him to predict the nature and extent of sedimentary rock that may be encountered during deep drilling. In October, he will submit a public report on his study to the North Carolina Energy Institute which is supporting him with a $30,000 grant. In October, he will submit a public report on his study to the North Carolina Energy Institute which is supporting him with a $30,000 grant. “We’re quite confident that the geology of western North Carolina is similar to western Virginia and Tenn essee which are now being very actively explored for oil and gas,” Dennison said. “We think it’s unlidely that any oil will be found in our state, but we’re fairly optimistic about the possibility of finding natural gas.” Twenty-Four Students Participate BOILING SPRINGS, N.C...Twenty four high school students from the Shelby area were among the 54 students who participated in a “Learn About Business” week held on the Gardner-Webb campus last week. The workshop, for rising seniors from a five county area, was to help students better understand and appreciate the free enterprise system. Students roomed in the dormitories. During the day, the students attended classes and were trained in com puter operation. Field trips to Broyhill Furniture, Lowe’s Builders, Hamrick Farms, Heafner Tire Company and Spindale Mills were part of the week’s activities. Morn ing lectures were given by Vicki Woy, “Merchandising”; Hubert niomas and James Lawing, “Furniture”; Frank Beam, “Retailing”; Max Hamrick, “Food Production”; James Apple, “Banking”; Ann Gaither, “Wholesale Dis tribution”; Jack Vincent, “Free Market”;SteveMcBrayer, “Textile Manufacturing”; Christie Blanton, “Public Utilit ies”; J.W. “Josh” Green, “Free Enterprise”; Pete Daniel, “Reading the Market Page”; and Jack Marsh, “Free Enterprise.” Area students included; Esther Perrin, Paul Huggins, Rusty Washburn, Judy Lutz, Ann Schenck, Pam Hartis, Sharon Denise Bell, Sandy Bltoton, James Gibson Nolen, Amy Harris, Patricia Peterson, Sue Kelly, Lisa Piercy, Mary Leith Raney, Kimberly Lail, Lisa Lovelace, Tim Vinesett, Catherine Childrez, Lydia Von Poston, Scott Eastman, Laura McWhirter, April Denise Carr, Eric Blankenship, Phillip Keith Larsen, and Tamara Vanderford. The week-long workshop was sponsored by Gardner- Webb College’s Broyhill Academy. Director of the Broyhill Academy and coordinator of the “Learn About Business” week was Dan Moore. Wiles Announces Seven Recruits For 198F82 Season BOIUNG SPRINGS,N.C... Ga;^iiier-Webb head basketball coach, Jim Wiles, has officially announced the singing of seven recruits for the 1981-82 season. With ispecial help from assoicate coach Tommy Gaither, the Bulldog head coach continues to bring in very talented players into the Bulldog program. Two years ago he recruited 6-7 Frank Streater and Streater has made the North Carolina District 26 First fmm standing in front of the Lutz-Yelton Convocation Center building site are three new Gardner-Webb Bulldog basket ball recruits. They are (1-r), head coach Jim Wiles, John Spencer, Rick Einney and Eddie Jordan. The new building in the background will be the new home of the Bulldog basketball team and completion date is expected in January of 1982. Team in both his freshman and sophomore years. Last yeai' Wiles brought in point guard Buck Lanham, wing Don Cox and post Eddie Wilkins. These three players along with Streater were the nucleus that led the Bulldog basketball team to a NAlA District 26 Championship last season. Now lets take a look at what the Bulldog coaching staff is bringing into the Gardner-Webb program this year. David Creech, a 6-4, 180 pounder from Caribou Maine will be used at a wing position. This young man averaged 22 points and 11 rebounds a game during his senior season. Eddie Jordan, 6-81/2 and 210 pounds, averaged 10 points and 7 rebounds a game for North Forsyth High School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Ron Hargrave, 6-6 1/2 and 205 pounds, averaged 10 points and 13 rebounds a game for Central Davidson High School in Lexington, North Carolina. Rick Kinney, a 6-6, 180 pounder, is an All-State per former from Smyrna, Georgia. Kinney averaged 23 points and 12 rebounds per game in high school last season. Richey McKinney, 6-7, 210 pounds, is from Marietta, Georgia and he averaged 11 points and 8 rebounds per game in his senior season. John Spencer, a 6-6, 185 pounder, is from Reading, Pennsylvania. He averaged 12 points and 12 rebounds in his senior season two years ago. That was when he was only 6 foot 3 inches tall. Spencer sat out a year after high school and now he is ready to attend college and play basketball. Terry Camp, a 6-1, 160 pounder, from Rutherfordson, N.C., is the final signee. He comes to Gardner-Webb from Isothermal Junior College where he averaged scoring 33 points per game. Camp led all scorers in the nation among junior colleges with his 33 points per game average. i ■ About his seven recruits,' Wiles stated, “We have good young talent and I really look forward to getting to work with this group of ftien. Add these seven players with Frank, Don, Buck and Eddie and I get real excited about thinking of the potential this group can have.” The geologist and his graduate student assistants won’t be drilling the 15,000 - 20,000 feet required to reach the gas, but instead will take samples of sedimentary rock where it’s exposed on the surface. They’ll also review past geologic studies of the region and attempt to con struct maps of where the potentially gas —rick rock lies, Dennison said the geologic formation he is studying is known as the Appalachian overthrust belt. It was created between 250 and 450 million years ago when Africa, which was connected to North an South America pushed the Appalachians westward. ' ' Africa moved east 190 million years ago, and the Atlantic Ocean formed in the gap that resulted,” he said. ‘‘The push it had given the mountains left them at least 40 miles and perhaps as many as 400 miles west of where they had been originally.” In effect, the mountains were thrust on top of the sedimentary rock and have sat there ever since. “Until about three years ago, there wasn’t much evidence that the sedimentary rock extended under the mountians,” he said. “It had been assumed that the metamorphic rocks that make up the mountains just continued down to great depths, but now we believe that’s not ture.” Dennison said it’s premature to fry to estimate how much methane may be trapped in cracks beneath the Blue Ridge and Smokies. There could be “important amounts,” however, because the sedimentary rock is estimated to be between 3,000 and 8,000 feet thick. Any oil that was once present was probably cooked off millions of years ago by extreme heat, he said. Since the mountains have cooled and are not porous, there is practically no potential for geothermal energy! “The East hasn’t been extremely productive of oil or gas even though the oil industry began in Pennsy lvania more than 100 years ago,” the geologist said. “Now, however, the eastern overthrust belt, which ex tends from Alabama to New York, is considered one of this country’s real frontiers for gas exploration.” He said the gas resulted from the decomposition of organic matter. Boiling Springs Civic Leader Sue combs Saturday James Landrum “Jim” Beason, 55, died Sunday at 10:30 a.m. at Cleveland Memorial Hospital. An active civic leader in the town of Boiling Springs, Beason was owner and operator of Cleveland Sandwich Co. which was founded in 1926 by his father, Belton Gibson Beason. The elder Beason made sandwiches in a building on Main Street in Boiling Springs and then sold them to concessions around the Carolinas, part icularly in textile mills. That same year he opened The Snack Shop, an outlet for the sandwich company’s product. Beason grew up in the family business and, product. Beason gres up in the family business and eventually took over. Beason was a Boiling Springs Town Commissioner from 1947 until 1975. He was an active member of the Cleveland County Democratic Party serving as president of the Boiling Springs precinct for 25 years. Beason was also former board chairman at Crawley Memorial Hospital and served on the board at Cleveland Memorial Hospital. He also chaired the fund raising committee at Crawley Memorial. A former trustee of Gardner-Webb College, Beason was a director of the Bulldog Club and was named Bulldog of the Year 1974-75. He was on the board of directors at Independence National Bank. A Mason and Woodman of the World, Beason was former president of the Boiling Springs Lions Club. He was a Scout committeeman and member of the Boiling Springs Baptist Church where he was a former R.A. leader, a former deacon, and a member of Dr. Larry Sale’s Sunday school class. mi ‘I if* m3^t-t^'****i>*****f*i* JsStiaaS iiii Jim Beason

Page Text

This is the computer-generated OCR text representation of this newspaper page. It may be empty, if no text could be automatically recognized. This data is also available in Plain Text and XML formats.

Return to page view